If the 2024 season is any indication, the College Football Playoff will be unpredictable again this season.
The College Football Playoff likely will be dominated by Big Ten and SEC teams.
Three teams received more than 10 first-place votes in the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll for the first time since 2012.
Forecasting the future can be intimidating when the world is chaotic and uncertain. Thankfully, making successful college football bowl predictions aren’t as important as some of the biggest issues in the world.
But that doesn’t make the exercise any easier.
This season shapes up to be one of the more balanced in recent history. Three teams received more than 10 first-place votes in the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll for the first time since 2012. Many of the top contenders are still sorting out their quarterback situations and will have unproven starters. There’s also the matter of imbalanced schedules among the top contenders.
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Most importantly, however, is the unpredictability of a 12-team playoff. We learned a lot about that in the first one last season. The four top seeds were all eliminated in the quarterfinals. Ohio State entered as the No. 8 seed and were clearly the best team. The change to seeding without preference to conference champions this season is another wrinkle to sort out.
One thing that seems likely is that the field will be dominated by SEC and Big Ten teams. But which ones? Georgia, Alabama and LSU from the SEC all start in the top 10. But there’s probably 10 or so teams capable of emerging. From the Big Ten, there’s Ohio State, Penn State and Oregon near the top with Illinois and Michigan in the mix. Could a surprise team from the league emerge as Indiana did last season?
The answers to these questions and more will revealed in December. For now, here’s our best guesses.
Note: Legacy Pac-12 schools in other conferences will fulfill existing Pac-12 bowl agreements through the 2025 season.