A new era of college football has arrived with the inaugural 12-team playoff season. Who will hoist the trophy in January? (Credit: Amy Monks/Yahoo Sports)
The 2024 college football season is upon us.
After a tumultuous Week 0 that saw last-minute upsets, a 17-point comeback and plenty of other crazy moments, Week 1 promises to be an action-packed affair.
After years of waiting for a bigger, better College Football Playoff system, the time has finally come. A new expanded 12-team postseason awaits at the end of the 2024 regular season. The top four teams in each conference will receive a bye week, and the next four highest-ranked teams will play home games on campus. The top-ranked champion from the Group of Five will also be a member of the field and have a chance to win the title.
So which teams will be in the College Football Playoff? Which teams will compete for the National Championship and who will hoist the trophy on January 20th? Our experts predict the conference champions, the Heisman Trophy winner, the biggest surprises, disappointments and more.
College football predictions from Yahoo Sports experts. (Amy Monks/Yahoo Sports)
Ross Dellenger
In what is shaping up to be the most anticipated season in college football history, with a new conference structure, expanded playoffs and all, I think the Buckeyes will win it. Ryan Day and company capped off the offseason with some of the best (and highest-paid) transfer portal acquisitions in the country, acquiring Quinshon Judkins from Mississippi, quarterback Will Howard from Kansas State and DB Caleb Downs from Alabama. It’s time for athletic salaries to help Ohio State win, but this time Michigan won’t get in the way.
Dan Wetzel
New postseason, new teams, new locations. This should be a wild and exciting season. If QB Will Howard is what Ryan Day expects, the Buckeyes are good enough to beat evenly matched Georgia in the end. Miami has the talent to make a run, and Kansas State will make it through the Big 12. And I think Tennessee, with a great QB and great defense, will host a playoff game. It’ll be a fun one.
Nick Bromberg
Georgia and Ohio State look like the two most talented teams in the country and should play for the national title. I expect it to be a thrilling game with Ohio State wrapping up the first-ever 12-team playoff. Carson Beck seems like the player most likely to win the Heisman Trophy, which is a guaranteed award for a quarterback. With the Big Ten doing away with divisional play, I think Indiana is a sleeper to win eight games. I also think Colorado will have a hard time becoming bowl eligible with a tough Big 12 schedule.
Caroline Fenton
Florida State is a favorite to win the ACC or qualify for the College Football Playoff, but I don’t think the roster is good enough to compete for a championship. The Seminoles lost quarterback Jordan Travis, leading runner Trey Benson and three top receivers. Defensively, they’ll need to replace three leading runners. That’s … a lot. Mike Norvell entered the portal and proved he’s a good coach. But why should we believe things will be different in Tallahassee when quarterback DJ Uiagalelei didn’t live up to expectations at Clemson and Oregon State? There are too many holes to fill and too many questions to be optimistic about a playoff berth. (Editor’s note: This was written before FSU lost its season opener to Georgia Tech.)
It’s pretty obvious that Georgia is going to win the National Championship this season, and it’s pretty nasty. But there’s a lot to love about this roster, starting with quarterback Carson Beck. Kudos to offensive coordinator Mike Bobo for encouraging Beck to develop the way he did last year. Beck wasn’t asked to do much early in the season, but as the season went on, the playbook opened up and we saw Beck take more calculated risks. Now he has a year of experience and a more intricate understanding of the offense. Plus, he has a myriad of weapons around him, including former Florida running back Trevor Etienne. Also, keep an eye on Oscar Delp, who will take over TE1 duties after Brock Bowers left for the NFL. Overall, Georgia has one of the deepest and most talented rosters in college football. It’s not going to be an easy road for the Bulldogs, as they have a very tough schedule, but this team has the talent and experience to be key to winning a championship again.
Jay Busby
Will this be the most important and meaningful season in college football history? Probably! For the first time in the history of the sport, more than a dozen programs will have a legitimate path to a championship.
While the Final Four seems all but guaranteed, there’s still at least one major upset in the first round of the playoffs. (Alabama loses in Tuscaloosa? Ohio State loses in Columbus? It’s going to happen sooner or later.) With the transfer portal, NIL commitments and an expanded playoff, this is the most chaotic situation in college football history. Fasten your seatbelts.
Jason Fitz
The expansion of the playoffs has forever changed college football for the better. But it also means we need to prepare for a chaotic year and change how we predict what will happen in sports. Of course, being the most talented team deserves respect, but it’s not everything to me when it comes to what we expect. In a world where everything is decided by playoff games, I want teams with experienced quarterbacks. That’s why Dillon Gabriel and Jackson Dart are the quarterbacks I expect to see in the playoffs. Sure, Ohio State and Georgia are strong, but the sample size of one game with everything on the line will somewhat normalize that advantage and create opportunities.
The SEC is obviously a powerhouse, but I think Tennessee has all the talent and a quarterback who will be a household name this fall. We’ll be crazy about the Vols, but we’ll lose love for Clemson and the ACC as a whole. At the end of the day, no team in that conference is worthy of a top seed.
Ian Casselberry
I didn’t expect to get this far with Oregon State, given that they’re another powerhouse in the Big Ten Conference, but Ohio State is under a lot of pressure to succeed and has a lot of new players integrating into their team. I think the same can be said about Miami in the ACC, but if the Hurricanes can beat Florida in the opener, the rest of their schedule looks pretty good.
