2024 Bold Predictions: Conference champs, Heisman Trophy, who wins College Football Playoff?
With Week 0 in the books, we’re officially done with ‘Talkin’ SZN’. Now, we get games galore for the next four months, setting the stage for the longest college football season of all time with the introduction of the 12-team playoff.
So it’s time for some final prognostications. Earlier this month, I released my preseason playoff picks and I’ve made one slight edit — although not the one you probably think! — but the rest of the bracket remains the same.
So here are my official picks for the 2024 season — conference champions, some Heisman Trophy thoughts and the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff bracket.
In Part II tomorrow, I dole out a random collection of 10 bold preseason predictions for the 2024 season, too.
Here are the receipts. Debate away.
Florida State wins the ACC
Yes, you read that correctly. I’m not going to whitewash my preseason pick after the Seminoles no-showed in Ireland against Georgia Tech in Week 0. That would be cheating.
I do have real concerns about DJ Uiagalelei and FSU’s offense, but I believe the ‘Noles defense will be stingy enough to still get to Charlotte. I think they lose at Miami during the regular season but avenge the loss to clinch a CFP berth (ironically with multiple losses this year).
Ohio State gets revenge on Oregon to win the Big Ten
I have the Ducks beating the Buckeyes in Eugene in mid-October, but ultimately, Ryan Day’s team is not only able to exact revenge against the Team Up North but also topple Oregon in the Big Ten title game to win the league. The victory likely cements Ohio State as a Top 2 team in the CFP, and positions Day to make a run at the program’s first national title since 2014.
The same SEC Championship … only with a reversed result
The 2024 SEC Championship will be a rewind of last year’s matchup — only with a reverse result. The Georgia Bulldogs, which plays at Alabama, Texas and Ole Miss in the regular season, might lose a marquee road game, but they’ll get revenge against the Tide in Atlanta to secure a top CFP berth.
Utah topples Iowa State to earn its first playoff spot
I had the Cyclones leapfrogging the field in the Big 12 to make the title game as one of my preseason bold predictions, but their Cinderella season ends in Texas as Kyle Whittingham wins a championship in a third difference conference.
This could be a swan song season for the veteran head coach, especially if Utah makes the CFP for the first time and wins a home game in the quarterfinals. The Utes bring back seventh-year senior quarterback Cam Rising, as well as tight end Brant Kuithe and tailback Micah Bernard. As has been the case for the last decade or so, they should also feature a Top 25 defense nationally.
Liberty goes undefeated, but Boise State claims the coveted Group of 5 automatic berth
Outside of a September showdown with Appalachian State, the Flames have another cupcake schedule in 2024. Jamey Chadwell’s team went 13-0 en route to a C-USA Championship last season before getting smoked by Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl. Because of that residual memory, the CFP committee members might not be so kind to Liberty — even if they go undefeated again — if say the AAC (Memphis), Sun Belt Champs (App. State or Tulane) or Mountain West Champs (Hello, Boise State) have just a single loss against a tougher schedule.
The 2024 Heisman Trophy winner will be a non-transfer quarterback
Is this as bit of a cop-out prediction? Kinda. But the Heisman Trophy race is as wide-open as ever! Also, outside of a pair of Alabama studs (Bryce Young and DeVonta Smith), four of the last six winners have been transfers. So I’m betting against that recent trend.
Dillon Gabriel is the frontrunner, but don’t foresee the preseason favorite winning the award outright for the second straight year. I’m also eliminating the likes of Will Howard, Cam Ward, Jaxson Dart and even Travis Hunter Jr.
I get a nice pool of potential top candidates (Carson Beck, Quinn Ewers and Jalen Milroe) plus some sneaky darkhorse contenders like Jalon Daniels and Noah Fifita.
The inaugural 12-team playoff field will feature five SEC teams
- Georgia (SEC champ)
- Ohio State (Big Ten champ)
- Florida State (ACC champ)
- Utah (Big 12 champ)
- Texas (at-large)
- Oregon (at-large)
- Alabama (at-large)
- Ole Miss (at-large)
- Michigan (at-large)
- Notre Dame (at-large)
- Tennessee (at-large)
- Boise State (Mountain West champ, G5 representative)
I released my full preseason College Football Playoff bracket and prediction piece a couple weeks ago, and my only change today is switching Tennessee in for Missouri. Everything else stayed the same, and played out accordingly.
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College Football Playoff Semifinals
Orange Bowl (Jan. 9)
Projection: No. 1 Georgia vs. No. 5 Texas
Winner: Georgia
Cotton Bowl (Jan. 10)
Projection: No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 6 Oregon
Winner: Ohio State
A bit chalky? A little. And this could be the third time that Ohio State and Oregon square off in the 2024-25 season, too. Still, these four programs project as the most talented teams in the sport this fall, and in a season that will be the longest of all time, having the deepest rosters has never been more important. If this is how the season shakes out, I project a pair of rubber-match showdowns for a spot in the national championship.
National Championship
Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta (Jan. 20)
Projection: No. 1 Georgia vs. No. 2 Ohio State
Winner: Georgia
A third national title in four years for Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs? It just might be in the cards. These two teams played an epic Sugar Bowl in 2022, so how we run it back again?