2024 preseason 12-team College Football Playoff rankings prediction
By Josh Yourish
The start of the 2024 college football season is fast approaching, and it will officially usher in a brand new era for the sport. Not just the massive conference realignment that brought the Pac-12 to its unfortunate end, but also the massive expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams. Now, it feels like everyone has a shot of playing for a national title at the end of the year, even the Group of 5 which has a guaranteed spot in the playoff for the fifth highest-ranked conference champion.
In both the coaches and AP poll Georgia checked in at No. 1 followed by Ohio State, and the two favorites in the two super conferences, the SEC and Big Ten, could be on a collision course for the national championship. Meanwhile, Michigan, without Jim Harbaugh, JJ McCarthy, or Blake Corum, fell to No. 9 in the AP Poll, behind the Penn State Nittany Lions, who are favored to make the CFP for the first time.
If the CFP had included 12 teams from its inception, Penn State would have qualified six times over the past 10 years under James Franklin, so the pressure is on the Nittany Lion’s head coach going into his 11th year at the helm in Happy Valley.
Without Michigan or Oregon on Penn State’s schedule this year, the Nittany Lions have a great chance of finishing within the top 12, and that’s where I have them in my preseason 12-team CFP rankings prediction.
Rank | Team | Why are they here | Previous rank |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Georgia | SEC Champion | N/A |
2 | Ohio State | Big Ten Champion | N/A |
3 | Kansas State | Big 12 Champion | N/A |
4 | Miami (FL) | ACC Champion | N/A |
5 | Oregon | At-large | N/A |
6 | Alabama | At-large | N/A |
7 | Ole Miss | At-large | N/A |
8 | Notre Dame | At-large | N/A |
9 | Texas | At-large | N/A |
10 | Penn State | At-large | N/A |
11 | Virginia Tech | At-large | N/A |
12 | Memphis | AAC Champion | N/A |
While the new CFP gives automatic bids to the five highest-ranked conference champions, the four top-ranked teams with conference titles on their resumes will earn the top four seed and a bye through the first round of the CFP. Those four byes are likely but not certain to come from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, and SEC.
Would it be great if Penn State knocked off Ohio State and won the Big Ten title? Of course, but realistically the Buckeyes and the Ducks are the superior teams in the conference. Still, Ohio State and USC as the only ranked opponents on the Nittany Lion's schedule, 11-1 should be a very realistic possibility and that record would certainly land Franklin in his first-ever CFP.
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