RADIO
The college football season is over, but college football never really stops. With the portal, recruiting, realignment, and everything else, college football is a year-round sport.
That means it's never too soon to look ahead to the future, so let's try to make sense of what the 2024 college football season is going to look like with an early power ranking of the top 25 teams next year.
Below is our way-too-early look at next season's college football top 25. Be aware that the transfer portal could shake any of this up at any time.
(26) NC State
Note: I did a top-26 because, well...I wrote this whole thing and forgot to include an important team. I won't reveal which one I spaced on, but I didn't want to just kick NC State out.
After going 9-4 last season and finishing 21st in the AP poll, the Wolfpack enter 2024 with a lot of question marks. However, the addition of quarterback Grayson McCall out of the transfer portal should make this one of the ACC's best offenses. Defensively, there's a lot of questions.
(25) Iowa
This is the opposite of NC State. We know the defense is going to be great because it's Iowa, but we'll have huge question marks around the offense. It can't get worse than last year though, right? The team was second-to-last in the FBS in scoring offense, so there's nowhere to go but up, especially if QB Cade McNamara is able to come back strong from his 2023 knee injury.
(24) West Virginia
I love what the Mountaineers did last season and they'll return a good chunk of their offense this season, including quarterback Garrett Greene. Maybe putting them in the top 25 is a hot take, but WVU did win five of its final six games last season.
(23) Kansas
Most of the outlook for Kansas relies on the health of quarterback Jalon Daniels, who played just three games last season. Kansas still managed to go 9-4 with Jason Bean starting most games, but losses along the offensive line mean that they probably need Daniels under center to really make things work in Lawrence.
(22) Oklahoma State
The Big 12 is wide open with Texas and OU gone and the Cowboys have a great shot to take the conference next year. A big part of that is the team has Ollie Gordon II, the best running back in the country. He was the leading rusher in the country despite not starting for OSU at the beginning of the year. We could be looking at a 2,000-yard season for Gordon this year.
(21) USC
The end of the 2023 season was a disaster for USC. After a 6-0 start, the Trojans went 2-5 the rest of the way. QB Caleb Williams is off for the NFL, where he's presumably the No. 1 overall pick. There's a huge number of questions for this program and the expectation is they turn to a largely untested Miller Moss at QB, but can you really count a Lincoln Riley team out?
(20) Miami
The Hurricanes added one of the top QBs in the country out of the portal, grabbing Washington State's Cam Ward. Miami went just 7-6 last season, but Ward's addition should help improve an offense that was 39th in the country in points per game. Lot of projection here based on Ward, but I think this team can be really good in 2024.
(19) Washington
Washington lost its head coach to Alabama. It lost its quarterback and best receiver to the NFL. This team played for a national title this season, but a move to the Big Ten with a very tough schedule and a load of uncertainty really complicates the outlook here. At least they managed to add a good QB in the portal, grabbing Will Rogers.
(18) Arizona
What do we do with the Wildcats? This was a borderline top-10 team before Nick Saban retired, which began a string of events that led Wildcats head coach Jedd Fisch to the Washington job. Arizona's outlook depends entirely on QB Noah Fifita at this point. He's expected to stay at Arizona, which would make this a top-15 team, but there's still a lot of time left for things to change. I'm baking a little of that uncertainty into this ranking.
(17) Florida State
After an undefeated regular season, Florida State was left out of the playoffs because of an injury to QB Jordan Travis. A 63-3 Orange Bowl loss to Georgia showed just how important Travis was. Adding D.J. Uiagalelei to the roster should keep the offense from cratering without Travis in 2024, but the ACC looks a lot tougher next season.
(16) Clemson
After a rocky start to 2023, Clemson won five in a row to end the season, including a pair of wins over ranked teams. If QB Cade Klubnik continues to improve, the Tigers should be ACC contenders, even if the days of competing for national titles might be over for Dabo Swinney's program.
(15) Oklahoma
After a poor first season for head coach Brent Venables, OU went 10-3 last season. They have to replace Dillon Gabriel at QB this year, but Jackson Arnold is one of the most exciting young quarterbacks in the country. The Sooners could be a top-10 team this year, but things could also fall apart and they could fall out of the top 25. We'll see what happens.
(14) Kansas State
Kansas State lost Will Howard to Ohio State, but it shouldn't really matter because it just means that Avery Johnson will take over the position full-time. Johnson's an exciting player, a dual-threat QB who just needs to improve his accuracy a bit in order to put the Wildcats in Big 12 contention. The Wildcats were 9-4 last year, but all four losses were close.
(13) Utah
The Utes never really got to showcase how good they could be last year as QB Cam Rising missed the entire season, with the team going 8-5 without Rising in the lineup. His return in 2024 should have Utah set to bounce back, with the team likely the favorite in the Big 12.
(12) LSU
On one hand, LSU lost Jayden Daniels this offseason, as the Heisman winner left for the NFL. They also lose their top-two receivers, Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr. On the other hand, I've long been a fan of Garrett Nussmeier and Brian Kelly's too good of a coach for this Tigers team to not be contenders.
(11) Notre Dame
Notre Dame scored a big get this offseason, poaching Mike Denbrock from LSU to come be the OC for the Irish. The offense will have a lot of new faces, but they're good pieces, like Duke transfer QB Riley Leonard and FIU transfer wide receiver Kris Mitchell. Defensively, the team returns a lot of talent.
(10) Tennessee
Tennessee is a team that enters 2024 with a situation that's ready-made for new QB Nico Iamaleava, as long as he is up to the task. There's a ton of talent around him offensively and a really strong offensive line, plus the Volunteers have some good talent up front on defense, though there are concerns with the secondary.
(9) Penn State
The Nittany Lions return a lot of talent from last year's team, including starting QB Drew Allar. There's plenty this team needs to do to replace departing players plus Allar needs to take the next step as a quarterback, but this should be a very good team in 2024.
(8) Missouri
Mizzou has to find a way to replace running back Cody Schrader, which normally might seem impossible because of how good he was last year. However, the Tigers grabbed Marcus Carroll from Georgia State, who just happens to be one of the country's best running backs as well. Add in the return of QB Brady Cook plus some really good additions on defense and Missouri could be a real threat to win the SEC.
(7) Ole Miss
In an upcoming season where there's a lot of turnover at quarterback across the college football landscape, simply having Jaxson Dart back for another year is enough to make Ole Miss a top-10 team. Add in some great weapons returning like wide receiver Tre Harris and a whole host of talented defensive portal additions and you get a team that should contend for a playoff spot.
(6) Ohio State
Ohio State brought in former Kansas State quarterback Will Howard, but the team lost most of its wide receivers. They'll have to find talent there quickly to be title contenders. If they don't, adding former Ole Miss running back Quinshon Judkins adds another dimension to the offense. The Buckeyes get Michigan at home this season, which is another plus for the program.
(5) Michigan
The defending champions lost QB J.J. McCarthy to the NFL while head coach Jim Harbaugh has interviewed for NFL jobs as well. There's just a lot of talent gone from this team, especially on the offensive side. Luckily, the Wolverines return a good bit of defensive talent, so as long as they figure out the QB position, Michigan should be contenders in the Big Ten.
(4) Oregon
The Ducks landed Dillon Gabriel in the portal. He's probably no Bo Nix, but he has some good weapons to throw to like Tez Johnson. The defense is full of talent as well. This Oregon offense should still have some explosiveness to it. This is my pick to win the Big Ten this season.
(3) Alabama
With Nick Saban gone, things at Alabama could go one of two ways: business as usual, or a complete rebuild. With Jalen Milroe set to return, the former is probably the bet to make in the short term. Kalen DeBoer is a great coach who has won everywhere he's been, so there's no reason to expect that to be any different at Alabama. Consider the Tide a top-five team until we see otherwise.
(2) Texas
The path for Texas to make the CFP as a high seed is a lot more complicated in 2024 by the team's move to the SEC, but this should still be a really good team, especially on offense. QB Quinn Ewers is back and the team added Houston wide receiver Matthew Golden out of the portal. If you didn't watch much of Houston last year, you missed out on seeing just how explosive Golden is. He's going to eat with Ewers throwing him the football. Beyond that, Texas is top-10 in 247's transfer portal ranking.
(1) Georgia
Georgia might have been the best team in the country last year, but an unfortunately timed loss to Alabama kept them out of the playoffs. The Bulldogs will look to get back to title contention in 2024 behind quarterback Carson Beck and a roster that's filled with talent on both sides of the football. They'll miss Brock Bowers, but the Bulldogs should be viewed as the favorites going into next season.
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