Predicting each auto bid for the College Football Playoff in 2024

As the 2024 college football season gets underway, let's make our predictions for what teams will receive their respective conferences' automatic bids in the newly-expanded playoff.

These college football teams have the best chance to earn automatic bids in the newly-expanded playoff in 2024. / Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

College football will see plenty of history as the 2024 season gets underway, thanks to a major conference realignment shift and has re-written the sport's map, and the expansion of the College Football Playoff from four to 12 teams starting this postseason.

In the new format, the selection committee will automatically give every Power Four conference champion a place in the top-four, followed by the highest-ranked Group of Five champion, with the other seven bids awarded to the remaining best at-large teams in the nation.

Group of Five

Boise State. In a surprisingly crowded field, the Broncos are in position to edge out their competition thanks to the return of most of a defense that allowed less than 20 points in its final four games a year ago, and the presence of tailback Ashton Jeanty, one of college football's best rushers, who ran for 1,347 yards and 14 touchdowns a year ago.

More: Group of Five teams with best CFP chances in 2024

Big 12

Utah. The expanded Big 12 is also more wide open after the departure of Texas and Oklahoma, and the Utes have rivals in the title race including Oklahoma State and Kansas State, but the composition of this defense, combined with the return of veteran quarterback Cameron Rising and tight end Brant Kuithe, and the addition of transfer wideout Dorian Singer, puts Utah in the early lead.

ACC

Clemson. With there still being big questions around Miami and the punch in the gut Florida State got in Week 0, there is plenty of room for the Tigers to make a move this season. Defensively, the front seven figures to be dominant once again, but there is still the apparent lack of a big-play receiver on offense, a deficit that has played a role in Clemson's absence from the playoff.

Big Ten

Ohio State. Honestly, Oregon could easily take this spot owing to its overall roster talent, especially at wide receiver, but the Buckeyes added such blue-chip, immediate-impact transfers at key positions, and retained enough starting skill elsewhere on the field, that anything less than a Big Ten title would be an indictment of Ryan Day's tenure.

SEC

Georgia. This may be the conventional pick right now, and Texas is in a position to make a run thanks to its marginally-easier schedule, but the Longhorns have to make replacements on defense that the Bulldogs don't, a principal advantage this team enjoys despite playing a far-tougher schedule that includes road dates at Texas, Alabama, and Ole Miss. This is still the class of the SEC.

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