The 2024 season will bring about major changes to the sport. Most notable, of course, is the College Football Playoff tripling in size from four to 12 teams. The format will reward the four highest-ranked conference champions with the top four seeds and byes to the quarterfinals.
Because the byes will be handed to conference champions, it's possible the teams that earn byes will not actually be the four highest-rated teams in the final CFP Rankings. In our CBS Sports preseason projection, only two of the top four teams, No. 1 Georgia and No. 2 Ohio State, receive byes to the quarterfinals. The other teams skipping the first round are No. 7 Utah and No. 8 Florida State, projected champions of the Big 12 and ACC, respectively.
That means No. 3 Texas and No. 4 Oregon would host first-round games as the respective fifth and sixth seeds. No. 5 Alabama and No. 6 Texas A&M are the seventh and eighth seeds, respectively. Yes, that is four SEC teams among the top six teams in the rankings. The Crimson Tide and Aggies do not play each other in the regular season, which helps to make this possible.
The Big Ten is the only other conference with more than two teams in the projected playoff. Penn State would play at Texas A&M in the first round. The fifth conference champion in the playoff will be the highest-rated Group of Five league winner; Boise State holds that projection, but as it is not projected high in the final CFP Rankings, would take the 12th and final seed.
Let's take a look at how this shakes out.
College Football Playoff
Quarterfinals
| Date | Game / Location | Projection |
|---|---|---|
Jan. 1 | Sugar Bowl | (1) Georgia vs. (8/9) Winner |
Jan. 1 | Rose Bowl | (2) Ohio State vs. (7/10) Winner |
Jan. 1 | Peach Bowl | (3) Florida State vs. (6/11) Winner |
Dec. 31 | Fiesta Bowl | (4) Utah vs. (5/12) Winner |
First round
| Date | Location | Projection | Winner faces |
|---|---|---|---|
Dec. 20 or 21 | Texas Memorial Stadium | (5) Texas vs. (12) Boise State | (4) Florida State |
Dec. 20 or 21 | Kyle Field | (8) Texas A&M vs. (9) Penn State | (1) Georgia |
Dec. 20 or 21 | Autzen Stadium | (6) Oregon vs. (11) Kansas State | (3) Utah |
Dec. 20 or 21 | Bryant-Denny Stadium | (7) Alabama vs. (10) Miami (FL) | (2) Ohio State |
If you are wondering why top-seeded Georgia is projected for the Sugar Bowl instead of the Peach Bowl, the CFP Selection Committee has decided to slot the top four seeds in bowl games where their conference has a historic relationship. The SEC champion has traditionally played in the Sugar Bowl, so the Bulldogs get that spot as the top seed. No. 2 Ohio State is in the Rose Bowl, the Big Ten's longtime home. When a traditional spot is not available, geography takes priority.
The traditional New Year's Six bowls will rotate as semifinal hosts. Participants in the Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl this year will be determined starting with highest remaining seed getting preferential site placement.
Non-CFP bowl games will be interspersed around the playoff. Four bowl games are currently schedule to be played after New Year's Day. The Camellia Bowl opens the calendar on Dec. 14, just a week after the conference championship games and the same day as the Army-Navy Game.
Most exciting about the new format are the first-round games being at home sites of the higher seeds. The home team has an option to designate a nearby site other than its home stadium if it chooses. For example, if Purdue earned a home game in the CFP, it could choose to play at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis instead of on campus. (A guy can dream, can't he?!)
The other significant change to this season is that we enter it having said goodbye to the Pac-12 -- at least as a competitive entity. Oregon State and Washington State are keeping the conference name alive for now, but they will be playing as independents holding a scheduling agreement with the Mountain West this season. Neither team will be eligible for the MWC title.
Despite not being a competitive entity, the Pac-12 still has contracts with six bowls, which will obviously be tough to fill with only two remaining teams, though the Beavers and Cougars will be eligible for bids. Those six bowls have made arrangements with the new conference homes of the old Pac-12 teams to fill the other slots. The Holiday Bowl, one of those Pac-12 bowls, has yet to schedule a date for this season's game.
There is one new team joining the FBS this season as Kennesaw State is moving up from FCS to Conference USA. Unlike James Madison and Jacksonville State in prior seasons, the Owls are postseason-eligible in their first FBS campaign because they spent their transition time playing in FCS. The Dukes and Gamecocks are now fully eligible for the postseason, too.
Despite having more teams involved in the CFP, we still need the same number of teams to fill the bowl games as we have in the recent past: 82. Like the two previous seasons, I expect there will be a need for at least one 5-7 team to fill a bowl spot. Last year was the first time since 2016 that, in a non-pandemic season, there was a need for more than one otherwise ineligible team. CBS Sports' initial bowl projections have a would-be-record five such teams taking those bids this season.
Don't see your team? Check out Jerry Palm's complete preseason bowl projections.
