2024 Week 2 12-team College Football Playoff prediction
By Josh Yourish
Penn State wasn’t the only top-10 team to struggle against a Group of Five opponent in Week 2 of the college football season. James Franklin’s Nittany Lions eventually figured out how to slow down Bowling Green’s offense and escaped with a 34-27 win at Beaver Stadium. If Penn State wants to host a first-round College Football Playoff game at Beaver Stadium, however, Franklin’s group will have a to play lot better.
Even with a rough performance, Penn State jumped ahead of Michigan, after the Wolverines lost to Texas at home, and Oregon in the AP Top 25. The team picked to finish second in the Big Ten needed a last-second field goal to get to 2-0 with a win over Boise State. Ohio State still looks like the conference favorite and if the Ducks and Nittany Lions don’t improve, the Buckeyes could waltz to the Big Ten crown.
While Penn State and Oregon escaped, Notre Dame could not. After a big Week 1 win in College Station, the Fighting Irish fell to Northern Illinois at home in South Bend. Yet, Marcus Freeman’s team still finds its way into my Week 2 12-team College Football Playoff predictions.
Rank | Team | Bid | Previous Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Georgia | SEC Champion | 1 |
2 | Ohio State | Big Ten Champion | 2 |
3 | Miami (FL) | ACC Champion | 3 |
4 | Kansas State | Big 12 Champion | 3 |
5 | Texas | At-Large | 10 |
6 | Ole Miss | At-Large | 8 |
7 | Oregon | At-Large | 7 |
8 | Notre Dame | At-Large | 5 |
9 | Penn State | At-Large | 9 |
10 | Tennessee | At-Large | Unranked |
11 | USC | At-Large | 11 |
12 | Memphis | AAC Champion | 12 |
Georgia, Miami, and Ohio State both took care of business against FCS and G5 opponents in Week 2. Kansas State struggled with Tulane, but Avery Johnson led a comeback and for now I’ll keep K-State in as the Big 12 champs over Utah.
Beyond the top 4, Texas has to jump to No. 5 with a convincing victory over Michigan. Quinn Ewers was excellent in the first half and looks like a quarterback who could lead the Longhorns to a national championship. I’ll still pick Georgia to win their head-to-head matchup in Austin, but Steve Sarkisian’s team won’t mind a first-round home game if they end up as the second-highest-ranked team in the SEC.
On the scoreboard, it looked like Alabama cruised at home against USF, but the Crimson Tide scored 28 of their 42 points in the fourth quarter and a 26-point win was not indicative of how poorly Kalen DeBoer’s team played. Meanwhile, Tennessee rolled to a 51-10 win over a ranked NC State team and held the Wolfpack to under 150 total yards.
As for Notre Dame, the Irish struggled and Riley Leonard gave the game away with a late interception, but I can’t take them out of the top 12. Notre Dame will still be favored in every game the rest of the way and it’ll likely come down to a trip to LA in the final week of the season. If the Irish can beat USC, presumably an undefeated or one-loss team, they can both get in.
feed