The opening month of the 2022 season has hardly changed the expected outlook of the College Football Playoff race. Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State entered as clear favorites to reach the CFP, and consensus opinion hasn't moved on them.

The notable storyline, however, is that nobody else has joined the trio.

By no means is this a shocking non-development. Sample sizes are obviously small, considering we're simply four weeks into the campaign and early schedules are often favorable because of nonconference play. But we haven't seen a program that has flat-out wrecked every opponent and has played a convincing level of competition.

Week 4's action only added to this magnificent mess behind reigning-champ UGA and annual powers Bama and OSU.

Michigan didn't put away Maryland until late in the fourth quarter. It was the first competitive matchup of the season for the nation's No. 4 team, and Jim Harbaugh's squad wasn't exactly convincing.

Clemson, meanwhile, had few answers for Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman, who picked apart any blitz the fifth-ranked Tigers sent at him. Clemson squeezed out a double-overtime win, but the strength of its roster granted Hartman six touchdown passes. Not great!

No. 6 Oklahoma could not navigate an upset bid, though. Kansas State knocked off the Sooners for the third time in four seasons. Additionally, 10th-ranked Arkansas coughed up a 14-point lead against Texas A&M and lost on a heart-breaking missed field goal.

For good measure, No. 8 Kentucky entered halftime tied with Northern Illinois before pulling away.

Add them all to a growing list of question marks.

Preseason Top 10 teams Notre Dame, Texas A&M and Utah dropped a game within two weeks. Georgia hammered then-No. 11 Oregon, which beat then-No. 12 BYU after the Cougs toppled then-No. 9 Baylor.

Week after week, a reshuffled second-tier group in the Top 25 has continually shown its blemishes.

Now, sure, this is a subjective view. Perhaps one program has rapidly convinced you.

Tennessee, for example, has a dynamic offense and pair of victories over ranked opponents, including on Saturday opposite nemesis Florida. Still, the Vols—impressive as they've been to date—certainly aren't a favorite since Alabama and Georgia both remain on the regular-season schedule.

Although the USC offense looked terrifying in the best way for three weeks, the Trojans were challenged at Oregon State. None of Oklahoma State, North Carolina State, Ole Miss and Penn State have yet played a truly marquee game.

Minnesota has absolutely dominated early en route to 4-0, but anything less than 3-1 would've been disappointing anyway. We need to see more from the Gophers, along with the surprise teams—Kansas, Syracuse and Washington, among them—that merit a mention for being undefeated. Florida State, TCU and UCLA are unbeaten, too.

Feel free to jump on the bandwagons, but you're not about to see them widely considered a CFP front-runner.

This impression may be changing in the near future, yes. Schedules will soon get tougher, and marquee wins are destined to impact our perceptions. Just look at 2021: Cincinnati opened October with a victory at Notre Dame and solidified itself as a CFP threat.

Naturally, we'll spend every weekend carefully looking for that fourth team to separate itself from a pack of successful teams and join the Bulldogs, the Crimson Tide and the Buckeyes in the narrative hierarchy.

If the opening month of the season was any indication, though, we might be waiting until November for the answer.