Michigan, Florida State tabbed as major regression candidates for 2024 college season

Who doesn't like living in the past? From time to time, it can be great to reminisce about the good, ole glory days. More often than, not it is actually kind of a sad exercise. While plenty of college football teams are slated to have promising campaigns this season, there are a handful of teams expected to pul back considerably in 2024. There are reasons for this when it comes to these Power Five teams.

Whether it be changing leagues, losing coaches, seeing players go to the NFL Draft or some combination of all three, I would be utterly shocked if any of the following teams are playing for a national championship this season. Most aren't even going to sniff the College Football Playoff. Honestly, there are even a few that I don't think we win enough games to get to a holiday season bowl.

Here are eight college football teams Carter Bahns outlined as regression candidates for 247Sports.

• Florida State Seminoles
• Louisville Cardinals
• Michigan Wolverines
• North Carolina Tar Heels
• Northwestern Wildcats
• Oregon State Beavers
• UCLA Bruins
• Washington Huskies

Of the eight teams Bahns listed as major regression candidates, I agree whole-heartedly with at least five of them. Those would be Louisville, Michigan, North Carolina, Oregon State and Washington. Louisville arrived a year earlier. Michigan suffered too much attrition. North Carolina needs to move on from Mack Brown. Oregon State is so unbelievably screwed. Washington is a stepping stone job.

As far as Florida State, Northwestern and UCLA are concerned, I am not as sure of them pulling back.

Let's unpack all eight of these teams in question a bit more to get to the real crux of this sort of thing.

Michigan, Florida State headline possible massive regression candidates

In the ACC, Louisville and North Carolina are obvious pullback candidates. Louisville had a tremendous first year under new head coach and former Cardinals quarterback Jeff Brohm. They took advantage of a soft schedule in a down ACC to get to Charlotte. Louisville was still no match for Florida State, a team that lost its star starting quarterback Jordan Travis for the rest of the season.

North Carolina is also pulling back considerably because Drake Maye now plays for the New England Patriots and Brown needs to retire. While Louisville is still good enough to go bowling, the same can't be said for North Carolina. This may be a 4-8 season for my FanSided.com colleague and False Start co-host Cody Williams' beloved Tar Heels. It is why he is riding high with the USC Trojans this season.

In the Big Ten, I would say that last year's national finalists of Michigan and Washington are pulling back massively. Michigan has a brutal slate for this fall. The Wolverines have to play Ohio State, Oregon and Texas, arguably three of the four best teams in football. While the defense is outstanding, the offense will pull back with Alex Orji at quarterback. Plus, Sherrone Moore replaces Jim Harbaugh.

Washington also lost a ton of talent to the NFL. Michael Penix Jr. and Rome Odunze headline the Huskies' NFL entrants. Keep in mind that Kalen DeBoer left for Alabama and Ryan Grubb left to go be the Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator. I may like what Jedd Fisch is about, but Will Rogers is not going to do enough to keep him interested for very long. His alma mater of Florida will be opening up.

As for Pac-12 holdover Oregon State, it lost its league and its head coach. Good luck with Trent Bray!

Now for the three regression candidates that needs some I am not entirely on board with but could be in due time: Florida State, Northwestern and UCLA. With the Seminoles, yes, they are going to pull back a bit because they went 13-1 and won the ACC. That was a national championship contender before Travis got hurt. I mean, they still could be, but do you really trust D.J. Uiagalelei this season?

Northwestern massively overachieved under David Braun once the formerly iconic Pat Fitzgerald was fired from his alma mater due to scandal. The Wildcats were left for dead after Fitzgeralds' exodus following an 0-for-America 2022 campaign. Braun had Northwestern bowling. My concern is they will be playing on a practice field this season. Unfortunately, I think that it will wear on the players a ton.

And for UCLA, I know that DeShaun Foster cares deeply about his alma mater. If the Bruins want to establish a new Big Ten identity of being the Southern California version of Wisconsin of ground-and-pound-and-defense, I would be in favor of that. Last year's Bruins team was good, but not great. With relatively low expectations, UCLA could be only slightly worse than just they were under Chip Kelly.

Overall, only Florida State and Michigan of this group have any realistic chance of making the expanded College Football Playoff. I like Florida State's chances more than Michigan's, but keep in mind that the ACC may not get in an at-large team, whereas the Big Ten could have as many as four or five teams making the 12-team playoff. Regardless, neither will be as good as they were last year.

I would love to be proven wrong, but there are many other college teams to be more optimistic about.