It’s not where you start, but where you finish.
That has been the mantra for plenty of college football teams over the years, as they eyed the improvements needed to finish on top.
Still, starting on top — or at least near the top — can be pretty important, too. In the College Football Playoff era —aka, the previous nine seasons — no team that started outside the top six in the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll has won the CFP title. (For that matter, only three teams — Ohio State in 2014, LSU in 2019 and Georgia in 2021 — have been crowned after starting outside the top three in the coaches poll.