The Extra Point: Expanded College Football Playoff Field with First Coaches Poll

What would a 12-team College Football Playoff look like with the new Coaches Poll rankings?

Jul 24, 2024; Indianapolis, IN, USA; College Football Playoff executive director Richard M. Clark speaks to the media during the Big 10 football media day at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Goddin-USA TODAY Sports / Robert Goddin-USA TODAY Sports

The first official top 25 rankings of the 2024 college football season are here. The inaugural edition of the USA Today Coaches Poll made landfall on Monday, featuring nine SEC teams, including Georgia in the top spot.

Also new for the upcoming season is the 12-team College Football Playoff format, a drastic change to how the national championship has been decided in the past, including a stark deviation from the previous four-team format. That includes automatic bids for the five highest-ranked conference champions and a first-round bye for the top four.

Alabama was ranked fifth overall in Monday's poll, the first time since before the 2009 season that the Crimson Tide is not ranked in the top three of the preseason Coaches Poll, and the team was not one of the three to get a first-place vote. It is the third-highest ranked team from the SEC, meaning if these rankings were identical to the ones that will eventually take shape on Selection Day, Alabama would not get a bye.

The teams seeded fifth through 12th will play against one another in the postseason extravaganza's opening round. Alabama would be seeded seventh, hosting 10th-ranked Michigan at Bryant-Dennt Stadium in a Rose Bowl rematch. Texas, new to the SEC as well, would get the No. 6 ranking as it finished one spot ahead of the Crimson Tide in the poll.

While no mid-major team was ranked in the poll, Memphis (not Boise State, as many have predicted) would get the No. 12 seed after having received the most votes (44) in the poll. The Broncos were in second in that category, with 30.