Stop Pretending G5 Teams Don’t Deserve A CFP Spot — History Says Otherwise

The College Football Playoff is supposed to be a tournament of the "best" teams in college football, and finding those teams is a highly debatable topic.

Are those "best" teams the ones with the fewest losses or the best wins? Does strength of schedule or strength of record matter?  Should the tournament be limited to SEC teams, or are there actually playoff-worthy teams outside the conference?

But among those debates is another worth paying attention to: whether the best Group of 5 champion deserves a seat at the table with the big boys.

Currently, the best non-Power 4 team gets an automatic spot in the field (this year, likely James Madison or Tulane). The argument against this system is that whoever gets that spot would be easily beaten by any team from a power conference and that they’re "stealing" a bid from a more deserving P4 team.

I understand the argument to an extent — a hypothetical one, as SEC fans love to use. Yes, you want every game to feel like an all-out war, and matchups between elite teams often accomplish that.

However, the argument is incredibly faulty, shortsighted, and dismisses the essence of what makes college football great.

A G5 Team Belongs In The CFP As Much As The Blue Bloods

The implication in anti–G5 arguments is that blue blood programs are automatically better than smaller schools. In some cases, that’s true — nobody is claiming North Texas is better on paper than Ohio State.

But football isn’t played on paper.

On the field, sometimes David slays Goliath.

Appalachian State beat Michigan in 2007.

James Madison (then FCS) beat Virginia Tech in 2010.

Boise State beat Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl.

Upsets happen. The team that isn’t supposed to win sometimes does — and when a team like JMU or Tulane takes care of business by winning their league, while a P4 team like Texas loses three games, the G5 program should get the spot.

Alonza Barnett III #14 of James Madison Dukes in action in the second quarter during a game against Washington State Cougars at Bridgeforth Stadium on Nov. 22, 2025 in Harrisonburg, Virginia. (Photo by Brien Aho/Getty Images)

This might shock some fans, but good teams don’t exist solely in the Big Ten or SEC.

Tulane, James Madison, and North Texas can all specialize in one or two elite areas — maybe a lethal run game, maybe elite secondary play — that create real matchup nightmares.

Just last year, Boise State gave Penn State all it could handle in the CFP. The game was far closer than the final score, thanks to a physical run game and a tough defense.

Smaller programs are a key ingredient to the appeal of college football — not a nuisance to be removed. They deserve the chance to prove they can hang with the giants.

And history tells us they absolutely can.