The fourth College Football Playoff Rankings of the 2024 season have been released by the selection committee, which features a shakeup in the bottom half of the top ten.
Oregon leads the rankings again this week, and is followed by (2) Ohio State, (3) Texas, (4) and Penn State. Notre Dame has moved up to No. 5 following Indiana’s loss to Ohio State over the weekend, which dropped the Hoosiers down to the No. 10 spot.
Also moving up the rankings this week is Miami to No. 6, Georgia to No. 7, Tennessee to No. 8, and SMU to No. 9.
No. 11 Boise State, No. 17 Tulane, and No. 22 UNLV are currently the only ranked teams outside the power conferences. Check out the full CFP Top 25 rankings below.
College Football Playoff Rankings
* Released Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024
1. Oregon
2. Ohio State
3. Texas
4. Penn State
5. Notre Dame
6. Miami
7. Georgia
8. Tennessee
9. SMU
10. Indiana
11. Boise State
12. Clemson
13. Alabama
14. Ole Miss
15. South Carolina
16. Arizona State
17. Tulane
18. Iowa State
19. BYU
20. Texas A&M
21. Missouri
22. UNLV
23. Illinois
24. Kansas State
25. Colorado
Here is a look at what the 12-team College Football Playoff Bracket would look like based on tonight’s rankings:
Projected College Football Playoff Bracket based on Nov. 26 rankings. pic.twitter.com/NTVqmKs2Oz
— FBSchedules.com (@FBSchedules) November 27, 2024
The College Football Playoff Selection Committee will release its penultimate Top 25 rankings next week on Tuesday, Dec. 3. On Sunday, Dec. 8 at noon ET, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee will announce the 12-team playoff bracket pairings and game sites via the Selection Day show on ESPN.
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Using the Mason-Dixon format:
South:
Byes: Texas, Miami
First round: Clemson at Georgia, SMU at Tennessee
Rest of the nation:
Byes: Oregon, Ohio State
First round: Boise State at Penn State, Indiana at Notre Dame
While it is important that a G5 champion be included, there will be seasons where one of the P4 conferences just doesn’t have any CFP-worthy teams under my format, like the Big 12 this year.
I pointed this out to you last time, top 4 ranked conference champions get a first-round a bye and all Power-4 conference champions are included. Therefore, it is Oregon and Boise State with the first-round bye and Ohio State Penn State, Indiana and Notre Dame without it. In addition, Arizona State (the assumed Big 12 champion) must be included and not SMU. This geographic insistence of yours is bizzarro but independently – the rules are the rules.
I am A Fan of
Conference Games
Choices of games on airwaves
Fair system for CFP
Conferences decide on games to be played
on Thanksgiving weekend
I am not a fan of
Decrease conference games in favor
of more stupid rivalry games
CFP in Mason-Dixon line format
Disqualifying Big Ten teams like Michigan & Ohio State
from FOX Big Noon Saturday they do not play on Friday evening
CFB games being played on actual Thanksgiving
& making the NFL run for it’s money
What do you think of that Z-Man!!!
And I pointed out to you Spencer that my format allows non-conference champions to have byes. I can’t support a format that punishes ND for not being in a conference.
Z-Man Forget about Notre Dame Punishment & concentrate cheering on your Fighting Irish.
Have a safe & happy Thanksgiving buddy.
…and most of us, Z-man, cannot support a construct that would put a non-conference champion participant in a bye position ahead of a Power-4 conference champion.
Spencer, my format is more fair than the one being used, other than the possibility of a P4 conference being left out if it is weak enough. I mean if Notre Dame is ranked high enough, then by all means they should get a first-round bye – especially if they are #1 in the final CFP rankings. Forcing a #1 ND team to play in the first round is just asking for all kinds of controversy.
When one discusses the competitors of an invitational using qualitative terms such as ‘weak’ or ‘more fair’ (properly here you should have used the word ‘fairer’), one is ingraining bias into the conclusion. You literally use these terms in your introductory sentence to justify your format.
Conference champions are formulated through the competitive interaction of on-field play. They are immune from discretionary review – but not so rankings (in point of fact a ranking is a discretionary review). First round byes (as conceived by the CFP committee) are rewarded to teams that win a conference championship. Discretion may rear its head in a bias surrounding the selected order of the champions, but not the condition of conference champion – that is irrevocable, not controversial and egalitarian. An undefeated Notre Dame would have won nothing – not so the 3-loss champion of a Power-4 conference. Hence a conference champions receive the preference of a byes, not a gaudy record after the name of a particular team.
To Z-Man & Spencer please stop this debate & have a safe & happy Thanksgiving.
Giving conference champions the first round bye is just as bad as the possibility of a team with a losing record hosting a wild card playoff game in the NFL if they win their division. Seeding priority for first-placers comes with too many problems to be a legitimate way of seeding playoff teams. The NBA realized that a long time ago. Also in March Madness automatic bids don’t get seeding priority. So conference champions shouldn’t get seeding priority in the CFP.
Z-Man Just let it go & move on to enjoy Football buddy.
Obscured, Obscured, Obscured
If you want to celebrate Thanksgiving Z-Man this have got to STOP right now.
The punditry is spending a lot of time talking about whether teams who lose conference title games will be punished in the committee’s final evaluation.
One nuance I feel they’re missing is that there could be a conference or two or three that goes well down the list of tiebreakers to determine who will play in the title game. A clear-cut qualifier for a conference title game who then loses has a much stronger case for not being penalized than a qualifier from among a logjam who waded through a series of tiebreakers and might as well have been pulled out of a hat.
That latter situation produces a “top two” team in a given conference that is really a kinda, sorta, maybe type of top-two team.
Based on the teams currently projected to participate in the 2024-25 College Football Playoffs and how they have done so far this season, here is how the tournament could potentially play out:
– Tennessee beats Georgia in the First Round, 27 to 24
– Ohio State beats Arizona State in the First Round, 34 to 18
– Indiana (barely) beats Penn State in the First Round, 26 to 25
– Notre Dame beats SMU in the First Round, 32 to 23
– Tennessee beats Oregon in the Quarterfinals, 26 to 24
– Ohio State beats Boise State in the Quarterfinals, 35 to 22
– Miami beats Indiana in the Quarterfinals, 31 to 23
– Notre Dame beats Texas in the Quarterfinals, 26 to 24
– Ohio State beats Tennessee in the Semifinals, 27 to 22
– Notre Dame beats Miami in the Semifinals, 33 to 26
– Ohio State (barely) beats Notre Dame in the CFP National Championship, 25 to 24
These results are simply productions of a prediction formula that I originally created during the 2021-22 season taking average points scored and allowed per team into account and modified during the 2023-24 season to take power ratings into account. It’s been wrong before, especially when it comes to Week 0, Week 1 and Bowl Season games, so who knows!