ESPN's College GameDay Leaves OSU Football Out Of College Football Playoff Prediction
College football is officially here as Florida State and Georgia Tech will soon kick off in Dublin, Ireland. The ACC battle will be taking place overseas in front of ~49,000 fans. ESPN's College GameDay will be in attendance, too.
The Week 0 contest will be an intriguing one, but, more importantly, the mark of college football's return is here. The College GameDay panel is making their selections of the lighter slate of games while giving a preview to the 2024 season.
One segment College GameDay did was predicting the College Football Playoffs as the postseason is ushering in a 12-team format.
Desmond Howard didn't include Oklahoma State in his prediction of the playoffs, citing Utah as the Big 12 Champion. Nick Saban followed suit, as he joins the show in the first season since his retirement from being a head coach. Kirk Herstreit did the same, as Utah seems to be an overwhelming favorite to win the conference among the College GameDay panel.
Herbstreit did, however, label Oklahoma State as one of his first two teams out of the playoffs. Pat McAfee, similar to the others, put the Cowboys as the first team out, though he had Utah making an at-large big with West Virginia winning the conference title.
The panel is a big believer in Utah in their first year in the conference, with Oklahoma State being considered an "on the bubble" team, narrowly missing the first year of the expanded playoff field.
Oklahoma State wasn't a popular pick to actually make the field, but them being on the bubble means a Big 12 title would ensure a bid and first-round bye in the College Football Playoffs. The Cowboys, led by the nation's leading rusher in 2023 Ollie Gordon, could surprise the college football world and push for a conference championship and playoff appearance with so much returning talent.
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KADE KIMBLE
Kade is a strategic communications student at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, where he also minors in Sports Management. He has been covering the Oklahoma City Thunder with InsidetheThunder.com since the 2022 season after having followed the team since its early days.