Coast-to-coast conferences and expanded playoff mark a season of change in college football

Updated Aug. 18, 2024 10:10 a.m. ET

Associated Press

A new era has arrived in college football, with some of the most recognizable programs in history now playing in different leagues.

The postseason is different, too. The College Football Playoff expands from four to 12 teams, changing the calculus of the championship chase.

There's also change for some of the game's biggest names.

Jim Harbaugh won a national championship at Michigan, his alma mater, and returned to the NFL. Nick Saban retired from coaching with a record seven national titles and becomes an analyst on ESPN's “College GameDay” show. The prolific Dillon Gabriel takes his big arm to his third school, Oregon, for his sixth and final season.

Fans' biggest challenge will be remembering which teams are in which conferences. Save for the SEC, the era of coast-to-coast conferences is upon us.

What's sure to be a wild ride takes off Aug. 24 with four Week Zero games headlined by No. 10 Florida State against Georgia Tech in Dublin, Ireland.

Conference realignment

The fall of the Pac-12 caused the conference map to be revamped.

First, Southern California and UCLA decided to defect to the Big Ten and then Oregon and Washington bolted to make it an 18-team conference.

Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah are now in a 16-team Big 12.Stanford and California and former American Athletic Conference member SMU are in now in a 17-team Atlantic Coast Conference.

Pac-12 holdovers Oregon State and Washington State have a scheduling agreement with the Mountain West. All MWC teams will play a game against one or the other.

Texas and Oklahoma begin their long-awaited first year in the Southeastern Conference.

Army goes from being an independent to a football-only member of the AAC, replacing SMU, and Kennesaw State is in Conference USA after moving up from the Football Championship Subdivision.

College Football Playoff

The expanded playoff will be spread over a month beginning Dec. 20-21 and could require the last two teams standing to play an unprecedented 17 games.

The 12 playoff teams will be the five conference champions ranked highest by the CFP selection committee, plus the next seven highest-ranked teams.

The four highest-ranked conference champions will be seeded one through four and receive first-round byes. The fifth conference champion will be seeded where it was ranked or at No. 12 if it is outside the top 12.

Seeds 5 through 12 will play first-round games at the higher-seeded team's stadium or venue it designates. Winners advance to quarterfinals played at bowl sites against the four highest-ranked conference champions. The highest seed will receive preferential placement for the semifinals, which will be hosted by the Orange and Cotton Bowl.

The championship game is Jan. 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, easily the latest it has ever been held.

Georgia is preseason No. 1

Georgia is No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 preseason poll for the second straight year. The Bulldogs return a Heisman Trophy candidate in quarterback Carson Beck and, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, are the favorites to win the national title, at 3-1.

No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Oregon are the top two teams from the Big Ten in the preseason Top 25, and the SEC's Texas and Alabama are Nos. 4 and 5.

Coach is in your ear

Football Bowl Subdivision teams will have the option to use coach-to-player communication through the helmet of one player on the field. That player will be identified by having a green dot on the back midline of his helmet. Communication will be turned off with 15 seconds left on the play clock or when the ball is snapped, whichever comes first.

For all three NCAA divisions, teams have the option of using tablets to view in-game video only. The video can include the broadcast feed and camera angles from the coach’s sideline and coach’s end zone.

A question for each FBS conference

ACC: Can Clemson, coming off its first four-loss season since 2011, ride the momentum of a 5-0 finish in 2023 and challenge Florida State?

Big Ten: Where does Michigan fit in? The Wolverines, at No. 9, have the lowest preseason ranking for a defending national champion since 2011.

Big 12: Can Deion Sanders, after losing eight of nine to end his first season, get Colorado to a bowl in its first year back in the conference?

SEC: Will Texas, with its highest preseason ranking since 2009, really challenge for a conference title in its first year in a much more rugged league?

AAC: Will Seth Henigan-led Memphis hold off UTSA and Tulane for its first league title since 2019?

Conference USA: Is Liberty, which went 13-1 with its prodigious offense and just-OK defense, the real deal?

Mid-American: Can Miami stop Toledo from winning a third straight league title?

Mountain West: Does preseason favorite Boise State earn the Group of Five's automatic playoff bid?

Sun Belt: How will James Madison, 11-2 last season, fare without Curt Cignetti and a number of top players who joined him at Indiana?

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