At this point last year, the very idea that TCU would go unbeaten until the Big 12 championship game and reach the College Football Playoff would've been laughed away as an offseason fever dream.
About nine months later, the Horned Frogs would beat Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl before getting swamped by Georgia for the national championship.
This goes to show: Almost anything can happen in any given year.
While the odds of another Power Five program surging from nowhere to the top of the Bowl Subdivision remains extremely low, there are a few teams capable of climbing out of relative obscurity to contend for the playoff.