2024 College Football Playoff Projections: Ohio State, Georgia, FSU, Utah top seeds | CBS Sports

The college Football Playoff expanding from 4 to 12 teams this season. Looking at some bold projections here. Now, the four highest ranked conference champions will receive a first round bye. Seeds five through 12. They will play in a first round on home field or better ranked team. The field will include five highest ranked conference champions, plus the next seven highest ranked by the college Football Playoff selection committee. You got all of that? I'm taking notes. That's good. That was a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot of information. Don't worry. We have guys to break it down Brad Crawford Chip Patterson joining us now on HQ. So looking at the bowl predictions and thinking about who will make the cut for this new 12 team playoff. Now Brad you are making pretty bold statements here. Having both Michigan and LSU missing the college football playoffs. Explain yourself please. Yeah. Michigan's offensive personnel just is not what it used to be. J.J. McCarthy, first round pick of the Vikings Blake Corum. All time leader in touchdowns at the running back position in Ann Arbor. Those two guys are gone. I know Michigan will be very good on defense, but this schedule gets to the meet early in September. They play Texas in Week two. Southern Cal a little bit after that. Michigan's not one of my playoff teams right now. I think Missouri and Michigan will be the two teams that are sort of on that cut line. And no surprise, the Big Ten and SEC are going to be the two leagues that have the most playoff teams and Missouri and Michigan as those first two teams out. But you see, their Michigan schedule is difficult. Texas in week two, as I mentioned, Southern Cal in week four to open Big Ten play. So Sharon Moore's first season may not go as planned. After winning the national championship last fall. Yeah, with the College Football Playoff selection committee, one thing we've seen time and time again is that you need like a few number of losses to get in the conversation, but you got to put some wins on the table. And I think Michigan is going to be able to overwhelm so many of the opponents that it plays. But does it have enough, as Brad mentioned offensively, to go toe to toe with Texas, to go toe to toe with Oregon or at the end of the season to be able to beat Ohio State for a fourth straight year? You know, if Michigan is sitting nine and three at the end of the season, they're probably in the conversation. But if they don't have a win against another playoff team, well, then that could end up being a big problem for the Wolverines. And Jenny, you mentioned LSU projecting LSU to be on the outside looking in is almost the inverse of Michigan, where we've got offensive questions for Michigan. I have huge defensive questions for LSU because they were incredibly porous last yea. They go and they hire a Blake backer. The defensive coordinator from Missouri. But they didn't change enough on that personnel for me to think that they are going to be able to take big steps forward now, I think they're going to be able to score with almost anybody. But can they get stops against USC? Can they get stops against Ole Miss? Can they get stops in the biggest games of the season? That is going to be a massive question for the Tigers and their playoff hopes, because offensively, I know they just lost the Heisman Trophy winner. I know they just lost two first round wide receivers, but I think the Tigers are going to be able to put up some points. It's can they get any stops? I like the little swag you had when you said tigers got those tigers out there. And I mean, you look at their week one game against USC, you mentioned that September first. That's no easy task to start off the season. Right now. As I mentioned, the field will include the five highest ranked conference champions plus the next seven highest ranked teams according to the College Football Playoff selection committee. Now, Brad, your final three at large teams, we have Bama at nine, Miami at ten and Notre Dame at 11. How did you come to these selections? For me, the schedule for Notre Dame is so favorable this season, I'm not sure how the Irish finished worse than ten and two, unless the injuries start piling up. We did see a left tackle out for the year. Quarterback Ryan Leonard may not be the impact transfer that we think he is, but Texas A and M, Florida State and Southern Cal those are the only three teams on Notre Dame schedule that are ranked inside the preseason top 25. I could see Notre Dame losing that opener here in a couple of weeks in College Station and still getting that at large bid at ten and two overall, Notre Dame is a team that I think in this expanded playoff era, being an independent and not in one of these power conference leagues, they're going to always be in the playoff as long as they can get to ten wins. And at Notre Dame, they recruit at a high enough level where that should be the standard. Every year. Of these three teams that Brad's identified, the one that I am just totally in agreement with is the Alabama Crimson Tide. And I understand that people are trying to sell stock because they've got the guy after the guy. Well, the guy they hired to be the guy after the guy is a really good ball coach. And what Kalen DeBoer has done in terms of winning at every single stop along the way is going to mean a lot for Jalen Milroe. I think Jalen Milroe has better coaching right now than he did last year when it comes to playing the quarterback position, I think Alabama has a stellar offensive line and they're going to build things out from there. Their running game with Jan Miller, Justice Haynes, what a fantastic way to allow everything else to come from the line of scrimmage. Now they do have questions at cornerback where they might have to trust a true freshman at edge rusher. And those questions need to be answered. But I think Alabama is such a safe play with a high floor proposition, thanks to the talent that is still there. The way that talent lines up with the strength being the line of scrimmage and then the coaching that they're going to get out of. Kalen DeBoer I am not picking the Crimson Tide to win the SEC or be in the mix for a top four seed, but I think they're still going to hold serve against almost everybody else in the SEC and wind up in the College Football Playoff high on Bama. Love to see it. Now I just want to conclude what we were talking about with Notre Dame. We mentioned obviously they are an independent. So they would be a five through 12 seed if they make the college football playoffs. Those top four seeds reserved for conference champions. Looking at the four highest ranked conference champions according to Brad and these guys, he is saying, will receive a first round bye. So we have Ohio State, Georgia, Florida State and Utah and those slots. I like this list. Just Chip, what do you think? Yeah, I think Utah is the real question. Utah Kansas State Oklahoma State. The big 12 is incredibly competitive. And thinking what's going to happen in that conference championship game is going to be the real dice roll of all of this, because Utah and Kansas State don't play each other in the regular season. And so if they were to meet there and that was their only meeting, you just don't know which way that one's going to go. Ohio State shows up to the Big Ten title game. They are going to be the favorite, likely against whoever they play Georgia as well if they make it to Atlanta. But of those conference championships, the big 12 is the most interesting to me because the cannibalism, the cannibalization that I expect to happen in the big 12, where there's just not much separation between the best teams. I think it's going to make winning that conference to get a four seed so, so important. All right. This is a little bit of a hot take from Brad. He has Ole Miss making a run to the College Football Playoff semifinal. He's really high on them. Chip what do you like about the rebels this year. I like the attitude that of realism and the attitude of realism in Oxford is understanding that with this schedule that with Jaxson Dart back, they have an opportunity to do something that frankly does not happen when it comes to Ole Miss football, we've already got the highest preseason ranking since 1970. Lane Kiffin tells us it's the highest expectations for Ole Miss football since the Kennedy administration. They have zero count. Them zero SEC Championship game appearances. So if you're going to all of a sudden make a run in the College Football Playoff all the way to the semifinals, clearly everything that you've invested invested in trying to be able to build out the talent on this roster through the transfer portal has paid off because they've got a lot of rentals on this team. Players that are going to be playing one year, they're in Oxford trying to capitalize on this opportunity and this schedule. If they get all the way to the semifinals, I'd say it's worth it. If they fall short of the College Football Playoff, well, then you're going to be really, really disappointed if you're an Ole Miss fan checking out Brad Crawford's list. Chip Patterson, thanks so much for joining us. Getting us ready for this 12 team playoff this season. We appreciate you and can't wait to see how this all folds, unfolds, folding and unfolding. That's what we're doing college football this year. Any kind of folds we like to fold. All righ. You can stay up to date with all college football and college sports news, recruiting, transfers and