RJ Young
FOX Sports National University Football Analyst
Welcome to the 2024 college football season. Last weekend proved that anything is possible.
Texas – Earns a bye and has one win in the rankings, but that opponent also happens to be a Michigan team ranked 24th in the latest AP Top 25 Poll – College football has moved it to No. 1 in the AP Poll. axion has been officially activated. Anyone can get their *** kicked at any time, any time.
Arkansas could turn the Vols into a Red Solo Cup for the Volunteers. Texas A&M catches the Mizzou Tiger on his toes and puts him in a figure four as he screams. Bama is sometimes beaten, knocked down, and abandoned by the Commodores.
Call them Vander-BUILTs, or brick houses.
Standing over Alabama, you call them the home team and ask, is this your king?
“You were born of a woman, but the sword smiles, the weapon sneers, and a man born of a woman wields it.”
It is Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth”.
Vanderbilt may suffer from Macbeth’s ultimate fate. But tell me, I’ll sing the song of the dreams I won on that October 5th day.
Alabama is ranked No. 7 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, which is outrageous. This team lost to Cornelius. Not Sark. It’s not Kirby. Not Dan. No one can beat Cornelius.
Alabama’s loss to Vanderbilt appears to have made Georgia’s Bama loss even worse. Remember this: Vanderbilt lost to Mizzou and Georgia State. Mizzou lost to Texas A&M. Texas A&M lost to Notre Dame. Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois.
Please keep this in mind as well. Until last weekend, Vanderbilt had never beaten a No. 1 or even a No. 5 team. As a result, Tennessee vs. Alabama on October 19th became a CFP play-in game. The same goes for Alabama’s matchups against Mizzou, LSU and Oklahoma.
Superconference bias remains strong
There were nine SEC teams in last week’s AP Top 25 poll. The top 10 included five teams. There were seven Big Ten teams in last week’s AP Top 25, four of which finished in the top 10. That’s a total of 16 teams from just two conferences in the AP Top 25 last week.
After a week of college football’s unparalleled gladiatorial battles, nine teams from the SEC and six from the Big Ten still make up the top 25 teams in the nation.
The Big 12 and ACC may have a hard time getting a second team into the 12-team field when selection committees decide to rank teams.
CFP is wide open
A 10-2 SEC team is likely to make the playoffs, considering Texas is the last undefeated team in the SEC and there are still nine SEC teams in the top 25 in the sport.
Notre Dame is back in the CFP race as Texas A&M’s win over Missouri made their win over the Aggies even better and A&M is also in the CFP race.
Now let’s move on to the second set of CFP predictions for the 2024 college football season.
1. Ohio
Conference: Big Ten
Record: 5-0
2. Texas
Conference: SEC
Record: 5-0
3. Miami (Florida)
Conference: ACC
Record: 6-0
4. Iowa
Conference: Big 12
Record: 5-0
5. Oregon
Conference: Big 10
Record: 5-0
6. Georgia
Conference: SEC
Record: 4-1
7. Pennsylvania State University
Conference: Big Ten
Record: 5-0
8. Clemson
Conference: ACC
Record: 4-1
9.BYU
Conference: Big 12
Record: 5-0
10. Tennessee
Conference: SEC
Record: 4-1
11. Oklahoma
Conference: SEC
Record: 4-1
12. Boise State
Conference: Mountain West
Record: 4-1
Now that we have our seeding predictions, let’s take a look at what the first round matchups will look like.
1. Ohio State: Bye (plays the winner of 8. Clemson vs. 9. BYU)
2. Texas: Bye (then plays the winner of 7. Penn State vs. 10. Tennessee)
3. Miami: Bye (then plays the winner of 6. Georgia vs. 11. Oklahoma)
4. Iowa State: Bye (then plays the winner of 5. Oregon State vs. 12. Boise State)
5. Oregon State (Big Ten Championship Runner-Up) vs. 12. Boise State (Highest Group of 5 Champions)
A rematch of the thrilling Week 2 matchup? Yes, please. Boise State running back Ashton Giunty burst through the Ducks’ defense like a blue spiny shell in a highly competitive Mario Kart race. He blue-bombed Oregon State, rushing for 192 yards. broncos They fell just short on the scoreboard, losing 37-34 to the Ducks. Janti is like blueberry dynamite, disorienting and can’t wait to explode and explode.
Boise State’s Ashton Giunty led all FBS running backs with 1,031 yards through the first six weeks of the season. (Photo by Lauren Orr/Getty Images)
6. Georgia (SEC Championship runner-up) vs. 11. Oklahoma (one of the top 12 teams)
It’s a rematch of the 2018 Rose Bowl with a twist. Oklahoma has the better defense. The intense offense of the Lincoln Riley era is over. Enter Brent Venables and his dogmatic defense. OU might find enough offensive power to challenge the Dawgs, as Georgia looks more like a level 2 henchman than a supervillain.
Oklahoma’s defense has held opponents to 16 points per game through the first six weeks of the season. (Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images)
7. Penn State (one of the top 12 teams) vs. 10. Tennessee (one of the top 12 teams)
The two programs that are always most likely to benefit from extended playoffs happen to be facing each other in this scenario, which is nice. Add to that the fact that this matchup is essentially going to be a bold statement about which conference is better until midway through (SEC vs. Big Ten), and this game only advances to the quarterfinal round. It will be a game with the pride of the league at stake.
Penn State has had the No. 3 rushing offense in the Big Ten for six weeks, averaging 217.8 yards per game. (Photo by Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire, Getty Images)
8. BYU (Big 12 Championship runner-up) vs. 9. Clemson (ACC Championship runner-up)
Historically, this is a game that Clemson wins. But given the Cougars’ hot start to the season, the Tigers may have their hands full. But ever since the season-opening loss to Georgia, Clemson has started to resemble the program Dabo Swinney led to two national titles over the past decade.
Clemson QB Cade Klubnik led the Tigers to a 4-1 record and ranked No. 10 in the latest AP Top 25 poll. (Photo by Chris Leduc/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and host of the podcast “The Number One College Football Show.” please follow him @RJ_Young Subscribe to “The RJ Young Show” on YouTube.
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