2024 College Football Top 25
It's early February, but never too early to rank the teams and predict some results
While the death of the print magazine Sports Illustrated seems imminent, the website, SI.Com, and its content lives on—we think—through interesting journalism by stars such as Pat Forde and his not-so-much-in-depth and recent story: Re-Ranking the 2024 Way-Too-Early Top 25 After Coaching Changes and Portal Additions
While it’s early February—Forde’s attempt was published on-line January 29th—taking a look this early is one of many attempts to select the teams that will make the top 12 in the College Football Playoff.
Here’s Pat Forde’s look way-ahead at the 2024 football pre-season top 25 with each school’s conference affiliation for 2024. The ACC four are in bold italics.
Georgia Bulldogs (Southeastern Conference)
Ohio State Buckeyes (Big Ten Conference)
Texas Longhorns (Southeastern Conference)
Oregon Ducks (Big Ten Conference)
Mississippi Rebels (Southeastern Conference)
Notre Dame Fighting Irish (Independent)
Missouri Tigers (Southeastern Conference)
Alabama Crimson Tide (Southeastern Conference)
Penn State Nittany Lions (Big Ten Conference)
Florida State Seminoles (Atlantic Coast Conference)
Arizona Wildcats (Big 12 Conference)
Michigan Wolverines (Big Ten Conference)
Tennessee Volunteers (Southeastern Conference)
Utah Utes (Big 12 Conference)
Clemson Tigers (Atlantic Coast Conference)
LSU Tigers (Southeastern Conference)
Oklahoma Sooners (Southeastern Conference)
Kansas Jayhawks (Big 12 Conference)
Oklahoma State Cowboys (Big 12 Conference)
NC State Wolfpack (Atlantic Coast Conference)
Kansas State Wildcats (Big 12 Conference)
Louisville Cardinals (Atlantic Coast Conference)
Southern Cal Trojans (Big Ten Conference)
Boise State Broncos (Mountain West Conference)
Washington Huskies (Big Ten Conference)
Here are Forde’s thoughts about the NC State Wolfpack as the 20th ranked team: Coming off a nine-win season, the Wolfpack have seen the portal turnstile spinning quickly. They’ve lost 20 players to the portal but added some big ones in QB Grayson McCall (Coastal Carolina), RB Jordan Waters (Duke) and OL Zeke Correll (Notre Dame). NC State loses a defensive star in linebacker Payton Wilson but returns most other key players on that side of the ball. An early game in Charlotte against Tennessee could be a bellwether.
Here’s the 2024 NC State schedule and my quick-look predicted results:
Thursday, August 29: Western Carolina (home): WIN
Saturday, September 7: Tennessee (Charlotte): LOSS
Saturday, September 14: Louisiana Tech (home): WIN
Saturday, September 21: Clemson (away): LOSS
Saturday, September 28: Northern Illinois (home): WIN
Saturday, October 5: Wake Forest (home): WIN
Saturday, October 12: Syracuse (home): WIN
Saturday, October 19: California-Berkley (away): WIN
OPEN DATE: October 26
Saturday, November 2: Stanford (home): WIN
Saturday, November 9: Duke (home): WIN
OPEN DATE: November 16
Thursday, November 21: Georgia Tech (away): LOSS
Saturday, November 30: North Carolina (away): WIN
NC STATE PREDICTED RECORD: 9-3 overall; 6-2 ACC; 7-0 Home; 3-2 Not Home. A 6-2 ACC record will not qualify NC State for the ACC title game, December 7. With 17 football-playing conference teams, there’s a chance a couple of schools could be undefeated in the league, so a 6-2 record will not be the second best conference record. And, there could be several teams with 7-1 records.
Debating football wins and losses is much more fun than predicting Wolfpack men’s basketball wins and losses for the remainder of the season. Basketball is too unpredictable. Sometimes I get the feeling that as much as Wolfpack administrators, coaches, players, and fans—including this one—want to win basketball games, losing is also an option and reality. Too bad.
Read more about Wolfpack football prospects for 2024 and Name, Image, and Likeness straight from the horse’s mouth in this article published recently on The News & Observer website: NC State football coach Dave Doeren on NIL, the NCAA, and the Wolfpack’s 2024 season
To read about Forde’s early reasoning for each team, click on Re-Ranking the 2024 Way-Too-Early Top 25 After Coaching Changes and Portal Additions
Based on Forde’s list here’s the conference breakdown for the top 25:
Eight from the Southeastern Conference
Six from the Big Ten Conference
Five from the Big 12 Conference
Four from the Atlantic Coast Conference
One from the Mountain West Conference
One independent.
What does this mean for the selection of 12 teams for the 2024-25 College Football Playoff? You’re guess is as good as mine but expect the champs from the top four conferences (No PAC-12) and at least two more each from the SEC and Big Ten. Then there’s Notre Dame which accounts for nine teams, and one from the minor five conferences to get to 10. Hopefully there will be two from the ACC and maybe two from the Big XII to round-out the 12.
But, two from the ACC relies on two teams with undefeated conference records and a close game in the conference championship and the make-up of the CFP Committee. There are biases and stupid reasons among thieves (CFP Committee) so don’t be surprised to find four from each of the SEC and the Big Ten, Notre Dame, one from the ACC, one from the Big XII, and one from a minor conference.
Your thoughts?
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