New Projections: Oregon Ducks vs. Ohio State Buckeyes for Big Ten, vs. Georgia Bulldogs for CFP
Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA all being thrown into the Big Ten Conference mix now has ESPN's analytics computer working overtime to predict what the conference standings will look like.
It's officially called ESPN's Football Power Index, a computer prediction model. It was developed back in 2013 and the ultimate goal of FPI is not to rank teams No. 1 through No. 128, but to correctly predict games and season outcomes.
Preseason ratings historically have their flaws, but it's determined by four components: prior performance, returning starters, recruiting rankings, and coaching tenure.
Once the computer put together all of this information heading into the 2024 season, it came up with the Oregon Ducks winning the Big Ten over the Ohio State Buckeyes in Indianapolis. Along with that, the Ducks are projected to win a total 10.8 games before the start of the College Football Playoffs, which Oregon has a strong 76% chance of making.
The Ducks also have a 24.4% chance of making the national championship and a 12.8% chance of winning the national championship. Only one team in the entire country has better odds, and that's Georgia. The Bulldogs have a 31.6% chance of making the national championship and a 21.0% chance of winning it all.
The rest of the Big Ten projections, according to ESPN's Football Power Index, stack up like this: No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Penn State, No. 4 Michigan, No. 5 USC, No. 6 Washington, No. 7 Iowa, No. 8 Wisconsin, No. 9 UCLA, No. 10 Nebraska, No. 11 Rutgers, No. 12 Maryland, No. 13 Northwestern, No. 14 Purdue, No. 15 Minnesota, No. 16 Illinois, No. 17 Michigan State, and No. 18 Indiana.