Every team and every season is a journey. There is a peak and a nadir. The teams that have the shortest dip, perhaps even win with their worst performance, are the best teams.
Your peak in CFB has to come in November and a high level of play sustained until you don't have any more games to play.
My daughter's senior year of HS basketball, they peaked in the summer - not good. They played in all of these big summer tournaments, won them, beat nationally ranked teams, etc. They got into the season and lost 7 games to very good teams by 4 points or less. They got it back together and peaked again in the tournament and went to state. HS BB is different than major CFB, but the concept of journey, peaks, and valleys applies.
It's hard for young people to maintain a winning focus and attitude. They are susceptible to being distracted and swallowing the rat poison. Coaches who know how to motivate and focus their players for a dozen games or so can mitigate this problem. Sometimes just raw talent can carry a team through a dip in performance. Many teams have needed a lucky bounce. The 2002 Buckeyes needed 2 dozen doses of luck. Good team discipline and leadership is a mitigating factor. My point is that there are too many variables to know in Sept what a team is and what it will be in Dec/Jan.
That said, there are probably only 6-8 teams that are truly going to have a chance to win the national championship by the time Nov rolls around. We know who they are right now and there wouldn't be that much disagreement about who they are.
Georgia definitely looks the best right now - but they have 9 more games to play. If this is their peak, they won't be very happy late in the season and playoff time. If they haven't peaked, the rest of CFB won't be happy. But I like where Bama, Ohio State, and Clemson are in the sense of they all have obvious flaws and plenty of room to raise their ceiling. Their flaws have the psychological advantage of keeping them focused, motivated, and working. Georgia might think they have it figured out - and then some SEC OC's and DC's find the flaws they don't know about and hang a painful L on them. Or, the Bulldogs are an exceptionally strong team mentally and they just kill everyone in their path. I don't know, but history tells us that they are probably not going to be hoisting the big trophy in January. FWIW
