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CFP executive director Bill Hancock once said, "If it can happen, it will happen." The question is when. When will we see a two-loss conference champion in the top four? When will Notre Dame knock two Power 5 conference champs out of the top four? When will two teams from the same conference get in? It's still early, which means all of the above -- and more -- bizarre scenarios are still in play for 2017. Don't believe it? Consider these possibilities, sure to make the selection committee sweat -- ranked in order of most to least chaotic: 1. Three Power 5 champions are left out Are you sitting down? What if the SEC gets two teams in -- and Notre Dame is in. Then you're talking about three -- three! -- Power 5 champions left out. If No. 1 Alabama and No. 3 Georgia are undefeated heading into the SEC title game, and Georgia loses a nail-biter, it's plausible the SEC's two best teams both finish in the top four. Then, consider Notre Dame -- a team that lost by one point to Georgia -- running the table. Notre Dame has the seventh-toughest remaining schedule, according to FPI, tailor-made to impress the committee. If the Irish knock off No. 11 USC, No. 16 NC State, No. 8 Miami and No. 22 Stanford to finish 11-1 -- with their lone loss to a CFP top-four team -- how does the committee leave them out?  
2. Wisconsin becomes the first undefeated conference champion left out of the CFP A dubious distinction, no doubt. This one would be even more controversial if No. 1 on this list were to come to fruition. It's hard to imagine an undefeated Power 5 conference champion being left out. So why would the committee do it? Because there is another champ with a tougher schedule. So far, Wisconsin has beaten zero opponents with records above .500. No nonconference wins against Power 5 teams. Opponents are a combined 16-23. The Badgers are like the mirror image of 2015 Iowa. The Hawkeyes lost to Michigan State in the Big Ten title game that year, though, so the committee has never had to consider the possibility of leaving an undefeated league champ out -- at least not yet, anyway. One thing is for sure: With a schedule like Wisconsin's, there's no margin for error.  3. TCU drops from No. 2 to No. 5 because of the Big 12 championship game Could you imagine the look on coach Gary Patterson's face? It couldn't possibly happen again, could it? It could. In 2014, TCU dropped from No. 3 to No. 6 in the committee's final ranking, prompting much agony and debate over whether the league needed a conference championship game. So it got one. Now, what if the Big 12's ideal scenario is also its worst nightmare: Undefeated TCU loses to Oklahoma State -- a team it already beat during the regular season -- in the resurrected Big 12 championship game and drops out of the top four. Again.  4. Penn State finishes with one loss but is snubbed again The Nittany Lions won the Big Ten last year but were left out because they had two losses. What if this year, Penn State's only loss is on the road to Ohio State? That's exactly what ESPN's FPI forecasts. If that happens, PSU probably wouldn't win the Big Ten because it would need Ohio State to lose twice, which is unlikely. The Buckeyes are favored by FPI to win out, but they face Michigan in Ann Arbor to end the regular season. It's very possible PSU has a better season but ends with the same CFP result. 5. Auburn wins out, but the committee still chooses one-loss Alabama Auburn has already lost to Clemson and LSU, but the Tigers could run the table -- knocking off Georgia and Alabama along the way -- and win the SEC. So then you have a one-loss Alabama team that has likely been ranked in the top four all season just sitting there. There's precedent for this. Last year, the committee put Ohio State in at the expense of Penn State, which won the Big Ten and beat the Buckeyes head to head. Didn't matter. The committee thought Ohio State was still the better team. Would the committee really leave the Tide out in favor of a two-loss SEC champ? Or would we see the CFP's first two-loss conference champ in the top four at Nick Saban's expense?  6. NC State loses to Notre Dame but beats Clemson and wins the ACC NC State would be undefeated in league play -- but have two nonconference losses to South Carolina and Notre Dame. That's why, if the Wolfpack have bigger goals than winning the ACC, they need to worry about their road trip to Notre Dame on Oct. 28 and not look ahead to the Nov. 4 home game against Clemson. Right now, NC State is the only team in the ACC's Atlantic Division that still controls its own destiny. The Clemson game will likely end up determining the division winner. Winning the ACC is great for NC State, but if the Wolfpack lose to Notre Dame along the way, the ACC loses big time, too.  7. USC loses to Notre Dame but wins the Pac-12 It's a similar scenario to the ACC's nightmare -- a two-loss conference champion. The only difference would be that USC had a league loss, to Washington State. Saturday's game between USC and Notre Dame is a CFP elimination game, which means if the Trojans lose, it's unlikely even a Pac-12 title will be enough to get them in.
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