College football strength of schedule rankings for 2024 season
Playing a high-quality schedule is more important now than ever before as the College Football Playoff puts more weight onto teams' opponents before deciding to include them in the rankings.
Which leaves the question: How do you determine a quality schedule? One way is to simply count up the wins and losses of your opponents from the season before.
That method is far from perfect, though: the transfer portal, changes in recruiting results, and the regular loss ot players owing to their exhausting eligibility or by graduating all mean that schools are doing major surgery to their rosters just about every offseason.
Plus, there are just the changes that teams organically go through every year as their fortunes improve or worsen from year to year.
Also, not all wins are created equally, meaning that a team can play an opponent with fewer overall wins but against quality opposition, while another team can play a school with more wins but against substandard competition.
All that said, at this stage of the preseason with no actual tape to watch of teams in their current form, adding up the Ws and Ls for each team on the schedule is simply the best we can do with the information we actually have.
College Football Strength of Schedule Rankings for 2024 Season
134. FAU — 54-91 (37.2%)
133. UConn — 61-87 (41.2%)
132. Tulsa — 59-84 (41.3%)
131. Western Michigan — 62-87 (41.6%)
T-129. Liberty — 63-84 (42.9%)
T-129. Army — 63-84 (42.9%)
128. FIU — 64-82 (43.8%)
127. Missouri — 66-83 (44.3%)
126. Ohio — 67-83 (44.7%)
125. Kansas — 66-81 (44.9%)
124. James Madison — 69-83 (45.4%)
123. Air Force — 67-80 (45.6%)
122. Texas St. — 69-82 (45.7%)
121. La. Tech — 67-79 (45.9%)
T-119. UAB — 68-80 (45.9%)
T-119. UAB — 68-80 (45.9%)
118. NIU — 69-81 (46%)
117. UNLV — 70-82 (46.1%)
116. UCF — 68-79 (46.3%)
115. Utah — 69-80 (46.3%)
114. Hawai'i — 64-74 (46.4%)
113. Virginia Tech — 71-82 (46.4%)
T-111. Arizona — 69-79 (46.6%)
T-111. Texas Tech — 69-79 (46.6%)
110. Wyoming — 70-80 (46.7%)
T-108. ECU — 70-79 (47%)
T-108. SMU — 70-79 (47%)
107. UTSA — 68-76 (47.2%)
106. Buffalo — 71-79 (47.3%)
T-104. New Mexico St. — 71-78 (47.7%)
T-104. Tulane — 71-78 (47.7%)
103. Utah St. — 72-79 (47.7%)
T-101. Ball St. — 72-78 (48%)
T-101. USF — 72-79 (48%)
100. Colorado St. — 73-78 (48.3%)
T-98. Temple —73-77 (48.7%)
T-98. Cincinnati — 73-77 (48.7%)
97. Oregon St. — 74-78 (48.7%)
96. Kent St. — 73-76 (49%)
T-92. Toledo — 74-77 (49%)
T-92. Marshall — 74-77 (49%)
T-92. Bowling Green — 74-77 (49%)
T-92. Wake Forest — 74-77 (49%)
T-90. San Diego St. — 75-77 (49.3%)
T-90. Miami (OH) — 75-77 (49.3%)
89. UTEP — 73-74 (49.7%)
88. Jacksonville St. — 75-76 (49.7%)
T-86. North Texas — 75-75 (50%)
T-86. Navy — 75-75 (50%)
T-84. Central Michigan — 76-75 (50.3%)
T-84. Oklahoma St. — 76-75 (50.3%)
83. Nebraska — 76-74 (50.7%)
82. Boise St. — 78-75 (51%)
T-80. Eastern Michigan — 77-74 (51%)
T-80. NC State — 77-74 (51%)
T-77. Syracuse — 78-74 (51.3%)
T-77. TCU — 78-74 (51.3%)
T-75. Louisiana — 77-73 (51.3%)
T-75. Kennesaw St. — 77-73 (51.3%)
74. South Alabama — 76-72 (51.4%)
73. Georgia St. — 80-75 (51.6%)
72. Clemson — 79-74 (51.6%)
T-70. Charlotte — 78-73 (51.7%)
T-70. Akron — 78-73 (51.7%)
69. Troy — 80-74 (51.9%(
68. Tennessee — 79-73 (52%)
67. San Jose St. — 78-72 (52%)
66. Pittsburgh — 81-74 (52.3%)
65. Rutgers — 80-73 (52.3%)
64. Old Dominion — 82-73 (52.9%)
63. Iowa State — 81-72 (52.9%)
T-61. Memphis — 81-71 (53.3%)
T-61. Cal — 81-71 (53.3%)
T-57. Coastal Carolina — 83-71 (53.9%)
T-57. Arkansas St. — 83-71 (53.9%)
T-57. Ohio State — 83-71 (53.9%)
T-54. Notre Dame — 84-70 (54.5%)
T-54. App St. — 84-70 (54.5%)
T-54. Maryland — 84-70 (54.5%)
T-52. North Carolina — 83-69 (54.6%)
T-52. Auburn — 83-69 (54.6%)
T-49. Texas — 84-69 (54.9%)
T-49. Indiana — 84-69 (54.9%)
T-49. Houston — 84-69 (54.9%)
T-46. WKU — 83-68 (55%)
T-46. Ole Miss — 83-68 (55%)
T-46. Kansas State — 83-68 (55%)
45. Fresno State — 87-70 (55.4%)
T-43. Washington St. — 86-69 (55.5%)
T-43. Colorado — 86-69 (55.5%)
42. Louisville — 85-68 (55.6%)
41. Purdue — 84-67 (55.6%)
40. New Mexico — 86-68 (55.8%)
39. Texas A&M — 85-67 (55.9%)
T-37. Baylor — 85-66 (56.3%)
T-37. LSU — 85-66 (56.3%)
36. West Virginia — 88-68 (56.4%)
T-34. UL Monroe — 87-67 (56.5%)
T-34. Stanford — 87-67 (56.5%)
33. Penn State — 88-67 (56.8%)
32. Duke — 87-66 (56.9%)
31. MTSU — 86-64 (57.3%)
30. Miami (FL) — 89-66 (57.4%)
29. Kentucky — 88-65 (57.5%)
28. Nevada — 88-72 (57.6%)
27. Arizona State — 89-65 (57.8%)
26. BYU — 90-65 (58.1%)
25. South Carolina — 89-64 (58.2%)
24. Ga. Southern — 91-65 (58.3%)
23. Boston College — 91-64 (58.7%)
T-20. UMass — 90-63 (58.8%)
T-20. Georgia — 90-63 (58.8%)
T-20. Arkansas — 90-63 (58.8%)
19. Michigan State — 92-63 (59.4%)
18. Florida State — 92-62 (59.7%)
17. Virginia — 94-62 (60.3%)
16. Minnesota — 94-61 (60.6%)
15. Illinois — 93-60 (60.8%)
14. Iowa — 95-60 (61.3%)
13. Mississippi State — 94-59 (61.4%)
12. Wisconsin — 96-60 (61.5%)
11. Oklahoma — 96-58 (62.3%)
10. Michigan — 98-59 (62.4%)
9. Alabama — 97-58 (62.6%)
8. UCLA — 99-59 (62.7%)
7. Washington — 98-58 (62.8%)
6. Vanderbilt — 97-57 (63%)
5. Oregon — 101-57 (63.9%)
4. Georgia Tech — 103-54 (65.6%)
3. Northwestern — 104-53 (66.2%)
2. USC — 106-53 (66.7%)
1. Florida — 106-50 (67.9%)
-
More college football from SI: Top 25 Rankings | Schedule | Teams
JAMES PARKS
James Parks is the founder and publisher of College Football HQ. He previously covered football for 247Sports and CBS Interactive. College Football HQ joined the Sports Illustrated Fannation Network in 2022.