Rece Davis explains how Boise State can earn a bye in College Football Playoff

The more and more the 2024 seasons wears on, the more and more the Week 2 thriller between Oregon and Boise State feels like a College Football Playoff game.

Both the top-ranked Ducks and the No. 12 Broncos are currently on track to be part of the first-ever 12-team CFP.

Oregon still hasn’t lost. It handed Boise State its only defeat, a 37-34 setback in Eugene. Since, the Broncos have won six games in a row, all but one in convincing fashion. They have a Heisman Trophy candidate in running back Ashton Jeanty and the third-ranked scoring offense in the country.

And they have a path to a top-four seed and a first-round bye in the playoff.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel asked colleague and “College GameDay” host Rece Davis how much chaos would have to happen for Boise State to pull off that feat.

“Not a lot,” Davis said Wednesday on the “College GameDay Podcast.” “I think that Boise is in the situation — people hate this, but they probably need to make sure they stay strong on the eye test and the style points. And then probably what you need is BYU to lose. I think it will be pretty clear if there were to, say, be a two-loss Big 12 champion.

Davis added: “If a two-loss team were to win the championship game, and Boise State sits there with only one loss to Oregon, I think the path is pretty clear.”

Davis pointed out that, in the initial CFP rankings, Boise State is ahead of every Big 12 team but BYU. The Big 12 has only one team that’s undefeated in league play, and that’s BYU. Davis conceded that maybe if a Big 12 team like Iowa State runs the table, the Cyclones could leapfrog the Broncos because they also have only one loss on the year.

“The other kind of interesting thing here with them at 12,” Thamel said of Boise State, “if they roll through, they could conceivably end up at 8 and get a home game. Like that’s not wild. Imagine the blue turf hosting a college football playoff game. That is mind-bending.”

Davis responded by explaining that he believes it’s actually more difficult for Boise State to climb to the 8 seed than it would be for the Broncos to snatch the 4 seed. Remember, the top-four seeds are given to the four-highest ranking conference champions.

“I think it might be because of the seeding versus the ranking,” Davis explained. “I think the path is easier, or more likely, for them to get to 4 than it is to get to 8. They might.

“I mean, this kind of season that we’ve had: People knocking each other rear end over tea kettle has become the norm each week. So it wouldn’t stun me, but I do think it would be easier for them to get seeded as one of the four-highest ranked conference champions than it might be to get all the way to 8 in the midst of all of those SEC and Big Ten teams who are going to get the benefit of the doubt, and earned benefit of the doubt, for all of them will play much more difficult schedules over the course of the season than Boise State will.”

Boise State has games against Nevada, San José State, Wyoming and Oregon State left on its regular season schedule. The 7-1 Broncos are in the driver’s seat in the Mountain West, and they’re a legitimate candidate for a top-four seed in this year’s playoff.