College Football Rankings 2024: Way-too-early Top 25 projections for next season
- Michigan not in the Top 5 after national championship
- Trio of SEC powers vie for Top 3 in the rankings
- Oregon, Ole Miss look to crash the party in Top 10
College football rankings 2024, Early Top 25 projections: No. 10-9
10. LSU Tigers (2023 Record: 10-3)
It probably comes off as pretty wild to say that a team that lost three games and is now losing its Heisman-winning quarterback, Jayden Daniels, along with his top two receivers, Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr., is still going to enter the 2024 season ranked as a Top 10 team. But I believe in what Brian Kelly has done thus far and Baton Rouge and think we start to see it materialize even more next year.
Garrett Nussmeier is a far different player than Daniels, but he has a ton of talent and is a purer passer than his predecessor. On that note, LSU is still deep at receiver and should have more studs ready to take on bigger roles. The biggest key could be a defensive improvement, though, as Blake Baker comes in to try and remedy one of the worst units in the country from this past season. He has talent at his disposal, and there’s almost nowhere to go but up.
9. Missouri Tigers (2023 Record: 11-2)
Losing running back Cody Schrader will be something that Eli Drinkwitz and the Missouri Tigers will have to combat going into next season. But outside of that, it’s hard to not be high on what Drink has brewing in Columbia right now. Quarterback Brady Cook returns after making a nice leap and he has his top target, former 5-star Luther Burden, coming back with him.
Mizzou has also been working hard in the portal, landing Oklahoma starting offensive tackle Cayden Green, productive Georgia State running back Marcus Carroll, and more in the portal to fill some holes. This program leveled up quite clearly in the 2023 season and, while it might not be a full level up again in 2024, even an incremental and totally possible improvement could have the Tigers as one of the Top 4-6 teams in the expanded SEC, which says quite a bit.