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Projected 2024 12-team College Football Playoff bracket with 5+7 model adopted

A 12-team College Football Playoff in a recently approved 5+7 format will get your friends talking.

By John Buhler

Daijun Edwards, Georgia Bulldogs, Ohio State Buckeyes
Daijun Edwards, Georgia Bulldogs, Ohio State Buckeyes / Todd Kirkland/GettyImages
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And here we go! The College Football Playoff has a newfangled 12-team format beginning this season. It will be a 5+7 setup, meaning the five highest-ranked conference champions will make the 12-team field, as well as seven other at-large teams. The four highest-ranked conference champions will also get a first-round bye to a national quarterfinals neutral-site location of mostly their choosing.

This is the dawn of a new era in college football. While the four-team playoff format always accomplished what it set out to do, which was to give us the four best teams, that is not actually what the general public wanted. What it wanted was a nationwide spectacle with plenty of conference champions, juggernauts and even the little guy getting a seat at the table. It is about to be bananas!

So what we are going to do today is play out a scenario of my way-too-early projected 12-team bracket. I have the right to change my 12 teams at any given point this offseason, but since the adoption of the new 5+7 format, this is kind of where my head is at. Is that a good thing? Depends, because you know me. Let's take a deep dive into this 12-team bracket and how it could all play out.

All of this will work itself out in the end, but let's see how a 12-team playoff bracket could shake out.

College Football Playoff: Projected 12-team bracket

Where things stand right now, I have five, maybe six teams, that are locks to make the playoff. Those would be Ohio State and Oregon out of the Big Ten, Georgia and Texas out of the SEC, and quite possibly both Penn State out of the Big Ten and Ole Miss out of the SEC. It is hard for me to see the Nittany Lions being any worse than 10-2, so that may be good enough to be the No. 3 Big Ten team.

Right this instant, here is who I have making the playoff. All 12 teams have designations for getting in.

  1. Georgia Bulldogs (SEC Champion)
  2. Ohio State Buckeyes (Big Ten Champion)
  3. Clemson Tigers (ACC Champion)
  4. Oklahoma State Cowboys (Big 12 Champion)
  5. Texas Longhorns (SEC At-Large)
  6. Oregon Ducks (Big Ten At-Large)
  7. Ole Miss Rebels (SEC At-Large)
  8. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (National Independent At-Large)
  9. Penn State Nittany Lions (Big Ten At-Large)
  10. Missouri Tigers (SEC At-Large)
  11. Alabama Crimson Tide (SEC At-Large)
  12. Liberty Flames (Conference USA/Group of Five Champion)

I have Georgia winning the SEC and Ohio State winning the Big Ten as fairly obvious No. 1 and No. 2 seeds. The Clemson Tigers are the third-best conference champion, eking out the likes of Florida State, Louisville, Miami and NC State in the ACC. Winning the Big 12 would be the Oklahoma State Cowboys. I like the Ollie Gordon and Mike Gundy combo more than Kansas, Kansas State or Utah.

The Texas Longhorns are probably the third-best team in the country, but they slot in at No. 5. A similar principle applies for Oregon, which is the fourth-best team slotted in at No. 6. I then have Ole Miss, Notre Dame, Penn State, Missouri and Alabama getting in as at-large teams. The Group of Five winner could go in a lot of ways, but I really like Jamey Chadwell and Kaidon Salter over at Liberty.

Liberty edges out Boise State, JMU and Tulane, while Alabama gets in over Florida State and Utah.

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