2024 Post-Week 1 12-team College Football Playoff prediction and seeding

Week 1 has come and gone; here is an updated College Football Playoff prediction and seeding.
The College Football Playoff will be a 12-team affair for the first time at the end of this season
The College Football Playoff will be a 12-team affair for the first time at the end of this season / Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports
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College football barely has been back for a week, but the outlook for the College Football Playoff feels much different than it did during the preseason.

In just the first two weekends, college football fans witnessed 3 of the 4 favorites in the ACC look bad, National Championship media darling Oregon beat Idaho by just 10 points, and several fringe CFP contenders lose in ugly fashion.

No team has played more than two games, and most of them have played just once, so virtually every strong opinion offered by college football analysts is an overreaction at this point, but

For the first time, the 2024 college football season will see 12 teams make the College Football Playoff instead of the 4-team invitation that fans have seen in the last decade.

The new 12-team format will require the four conference champions ranked the highest to be the CFP's top-4 seeds (getting a 1st-round bye), a 5th conference champion to make the field (seeded wherever), and a Group of 5 representative to be included (likely the very same 5th conference champion). The rest of the College Football Playoff field will be comprised of at-large invitees.

Here is the updated College Football Playoff prediction from Garnet and Cocky, Week 1 edition:

Rank

Team

Why they are here

Previous Rank

1

Georgia Bulldogs

SEC Champions

1

2

Ohio State Buckeyes

BIG Ten Champions

2

3

Utah Utes

Big 12 Champions

3

4

Miami Hurricanes

ACC Champions

4

5

Texas Longhorns

At-Large

6

6

Oregon Ducks

At-Large

5

7

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

At-Large

7

8

Alabama Crimson Tide

At-Large

9

9

Kansas State Wildcats

At-Large

8

10

Ole Miss Rebels

At-Large

10

11

Missouri Tigers

At-Large

11

12

Liberty Flames

Conference USA Champions

12

Teams Falling Out of Rankings: Clemson Tigers (Previously 4th)
Teams New to Rankings: Miami Hurricanes (Previously Unranked)
Biggest Movers in Rankings: Clemson Tigers (from 4th to unranked), Miami Hurricanes (from unranked to 4th)

Other than the musical chairs being played by the ACC, there wasn't much movement between the week 0 prediction and this one for week 1.

The back-to-back ugly losses from Florida State and Clemson, coupled with a Miami Hurricanes beatdown of the rival Florida Gators, resulted in the third ACC Championship prediction of the young season. And NC State's poor showing against Western Carolina kept them from being able to sneak into the conversation...for now.

Georgia looked mighty impressive as they had Clemson coach Dabo Swinney arguing pregame that "It's not about the scoreboard today. It's about how you play." as if he knew what was coming for his team in Atlanta. Fellow SEC playoff hopefuls Texas, Alabama, Ole Miss, Missouri, and Tennessee looked really strong against outmatched opponents, too.

The BIG Ten still has Ohio State and Oregon at the top (even though the Ducks did NOT look very good this weekend), but the Iowa Hawkeyes scored some points this weekend, causing some to think they could spoil the CFP party. (And did Southern Cal learn to play defense?!) The Big 12 is still wide open, but Utah looked really good on Thursday. The Liberty Flames beat FCS Campbell and appear poised for an undefeated record (with a horrible schedule), but unless they lose, it is hard to move them out of the picture for now because of their clear path to 13-0.

With multiple games between College Football Playoff hopeful squads coming in week 2, this prediction could look much different a week from now.

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