Every summer since 2007 I have created an intricate set of college football predictions for each upcoming season.  This year is no exception, as I will be using my blog over the next few hours to publish my 18th annual college football preview guide which will contain 19 entries in all.  Below, you will see my full ranking of every team 1-134. The column to the left of each team is my ranking of each squad, and the column to the right of each team is the experts ranking (average of Athlon, Lindy’s, Phil Stele, and CFN and USA Today) for that program. You will soon see that the teams in which I have the biggest disparities with the experts will be featured in my surprise/disappointment lists that will be posted within the hour.   One other thing you will notice is that twelve teams at or near the top of the rankings have parentheses next to their names.  Those 12 teams make up my projected College Football Playoff field for 2024-25, and the number in parentheses represents each team’s seeding in this year’s playoff.  These rankings intend to encapsulate the entire college football season, so I felt it necessary to differentiate between a team’s regular season finish/playoff seeding and their final ranking.

Yes, I do realize that I incorrectly called for the Buckeyes to win the national title last season when they fell just short of the CFP, but Ohio State and their title hopes have even more going for them in 2024 than they did last year. First off, the only reason OSU failed to make it to the College Football Playoff last year is that they lost to Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan Wolverines in the Big Game for the third straight season. Now, Ohio State’s “Michigan problem” has seemingly gone by the wayside, as Jim Harbaugh has departed the Wolverine program along with 18 of the 22 players who started for the UM last season. Michigan will be still be decent in 2024, but OSU should be heavily favored to exact revenge on the Wolverines this season, especially with that game being played in Columbus this November. Meanwhile, Ohio State returns 16 starters from 2023 (up from last year’s number of 14) including stud running back Treveyon Henderson and 5 of the top 7 tacklers from a defense that ranked third nationally. The Buckeyes will be breaking in a new quarterback in Kansas State transfer Will Howard, but he will have plenty of time to build chemistry and cohesion with his new offense, as Ohio State starts the season with five matchups that they should be favored to win by more than 20 points apiece. In fact, the only game in which Ohio State will likely be favored by less than a touchdown all season is their October 12th matchup in Eugene against the Ducks. I am predicting that OSU actually takes a loss in that one, but if they do, they should still have a great opportunity to get revenge on Oregon in the conference title game and subsequently clinch a first round bye in the College Football Playoff. Convention wisdom says Georgia should be preseason # 1 in 2024, but I am one that doesn’t like to follow the sheep in my preseason predictions. Instead, give me the Buckeyes to win their first national title in a decade this season.