baylor-bottom-25-1.jpg
USATSI

There will be no postseason for the Power Five teams represented in the Bottom 25 this week. The hopes of bowl eligibility have long departed for Indiana, Arizona State, Stanford, Baylor and Vanderbilt. So while the rest of the college football world fixates on the cloudy College Football Playoff picture, we invite those five to treat this week as a Bottom 25 Playout.

All five could theoretically escape the final Bottom 25 rankings next week if they pull off victories in their last games of the season. Thus, it's a "playout" game with dignity and pride on the line. Even Vanderbilt, which is all the way down at No. 10 this week, would likely escape the final rankings if it pulled off an upset at Tennessee as a 27-point underdog.

While the prospects of that result are far-fetched, the outlook is somewhat more practical for Indiana and Baylor. The Hoosiers are only a three-point underdog at Purdue, and the Bears are just nine-point underdogs at home against West Virginia. Stanford faces long odds as a 26-point underdog against Notre Dame, and Arizona State is an 11-point dog against Arizona.

For all of them, it's time to put the ridicule and shame of poor 2023 seasons in the past, buck up one more time and go prove to the nation that they aren't among the 25 worst teams.

Bottom 25 rankings

After years as the QB1 of the Bottom 25, Tom Fornelli has passed the baton to David Cobb this season. We're still using Fornelli's power rankings to determine the order -- with the No. 1 ranking belonging to the worst FBS team -- but the written jabs are from Cobb. 

No longer ranked: UAB, Eastern Michigan, Pitt, Virginia, New Mexico