Football is back in just a few short weeks and 2024 will look a bit different than past years. The playoffs are now expanded to 12 teams, where the four power conference winners will receive guaranteed spots along with one non-power conference winner. The other seven slots will be at-large bids from any conference.
Let's see how the seeding shakes out in our first playoff prediction of the year.
Rank | Team | How They Made It | Previous Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
1. | Georgia | SEC Champion | N/A |
2. | Ohio State | Big Ten Champion | N/A |
3. | Florida State | ACC Champion | N/A |
4. | Utah | Big 12 Champion | N/A |
5. | Oregon | At-Large | N/A |
6. | Texas | At-Large | N/A |
7. | Oklahoma State | At-Large | N/A |
8. | Alabama | At-Large | N/A |
9. | Notre Dame | At-Large | N/A |
10. | UTSA | AAC Champion | N/A |
11. | Ole Miss | At-Large | N/A |
12. | Missouri | At-Large | N/A |
As power four champions, Georgia, Ohio State, Florida State and Utah will make up the top seeds. Georgia will be the team to beat until proven otherwise. Ohio State will have to fend off Oregon and Michigan, but the Buckeyes have elite talent on both sides of the ball. Florida State over Clemson and Utah over Oklahoma State may be a surprise to some, but don't sleep on the Utes as quarterback Cam Rising is an absolute stud. Florida State makes more headlines regarding their future conference, but the Seminoles might surprise on the field as well.
The last automatic bid goes to UTSA in our predictions, beating out other favorites like Liberty and Tulane.
The best of the rest features teams like Oregon, Oklahoma State and Texas. But really any one of the at-large teams could make some magic happen and win their conference, it's that tight.
Teams to not make it into the playoff in our preseason seeding include some powerhouses like Michigan, Penn State and Clemson. The Big Ten will be brutal this season and any of these programs could easily lose three games, putting their playoff chances in jeopardy. Clemson and head man Dabo Swinney have still have some things to figure out after the last few seasons failed to live up to expectations.