College football insider assesses LSU's chances of making the Playoff with two losses

It might seem like a long shot, but ESPN’s Heather Dinich believes there is still a path for LSU to make the College Football Playoff. The Tigers already have a pair of losses this season, and no two-loss team has ever made the Playoff since its inception in 2014.

However, LSU finds itself in a unique situation after a victory against Ole Miss in Week 8. If the Tigers can also beat Alabama this coming Saturday, they would be in the driver’s seat to represent the SEC West in the conference championship.

If that happens and LSU also wins the SEC title game, Dinich sees no way it doesn’t get in.

“Yes (the Tigers would make the Playoff), because they would have defeated Alabama along the way and they would have defeated Tennessee or Georgia in the SEC championship,” Dinich said on the Paul Finebaum Show on Wednesday. “That Florida State loss seemed like an eternity ago, but if you’re a two-loss SEC champ, I think that they would still be in.

“The only other two-loss team I would even throw in the mix is Utah, because they still have a chance to win the Pac-12 and their season-opening loss was to Florida. But beyond that, I don’t think there are two-loss teams that are really considered. In Utah’s case, they would need absolute chaos in the other Power 5 conference championships to get serious consideration.”

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With that assessment, it’s clear that if LSU wins out it will have a very good chance to make history as the first two-loss team in the College Football Playoff. However, actually doing so will be easier said than done. The Tigers have beaten Alabama just once in the past 11 meetings, and they enter Saturday as 13-point underdogs.

Even if LSU manages to win against the Crimson Tide, it still has SEC matchups against Arkansas and Texas A&M to close out the regular season. Then there is the task of winning the SEC championship, where they would likely get either a rematch with Tennessee or run into Georgia. Winning either of those games would be a tall task.

However, to even still have a chance for the Playoff at this point in the season is a testament to the job Brian Kelly has done in his inaugural season in Baton Rouge. LSU will hope it can keep that chance alive when it kicks off against Alabama at 6 p.m. CT on Saturday at home.