As predicted, within hours of Michigan's win over Washington in the College Playoff national championship game on Monday, the way-too-early top-25 projections for the 2024 season began rolling out as in the bell ring of a pinball machine.
One after the other, the early projections of several major national media outlets lit up internet search engines overnight and into the early morning hours on Tuesday with their best guess at the rank and order of college football's top 25 eight months in advance of the 2024 season kickoff.
Like the Oklahoma land rush in the late 1800s, no major sports media outlet wants to be left out of the chance cast its ballot on what the new landscape of college football will look like in 2024 after another major wave of conference realignment takes effect.
Oklahoma and Texas officially become part of the SEC this summer. The Longhorns 2024 schedule doesn't appear quite as daunting as the Sooners schedule, which includes games with six teams that ended the 2023 season among the top-12 teams. Texas' 2024 schedule, though, does include games with the past two national champions: Michigan and Georgia plus the annual rivalry game with OU.
The #Sooners will face six Top 25 teams in the 2024 season, OU's first in the Southeastern Conference.
— Eric Bailey (@EricBaileyTW) January 9, 2024
Five of those finished in the top 12.
3. Texas
5. Alabama
8. Missouri
9. Ole Miss
12. LSU
17. Tennessee pic.twitter.com/Mr330t5OoM
The Big 12 expands by four teams, with UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington joining that conference ahead of the next college football season. Similarly, the Big 12 will add Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado next season.
Yesterday, we revealed the way-too-early top-25 projections for 2024 by Athlon Sports and Sporting News. Those outlets had the Sooners No. 12 and No. 18, respectively.
Today, we have the early top-25 picks from ESPN's Mark Schlabach, Stewart Mandel of The Athletic, Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports, USA Today, Pro Football Focus and 247Sports. All have Oklahoma projected as a top-25 team again next season, although all are quick to point out their early projections are just that, based on the information we have in hand at this snapshot in time.
We will continue to follow the way-too-early top-25 forecast silly season and provide periodic updates as new projections become available.
Sporting News: 1. Georgia, 2. Alabama, 3. Texas, 4. Michigan, 5. Oregon....18. Oklahoma.
Athlon Sports: 1. Georgia, 2. Alabama, 3. Texas, 4. Michigan, 5. Ohio State...12. Oklahoma.
ESPN: 1. Georgia, 2. Texas, 3. Oregon, 4. Alabama, 5. Ohio State...15. Oklahoma.
The Athletic: Georgia, 2. Alabama, 3. Oregon, 4. Ohio State, 5. Texas...15. Oklahoma.
CBS Sports: 1. Georgia, 2. Alabama, 3. Michigan, 4. Oregon, 5. Ole Miss...11. Oklahoma.
USA Today: 1. Georgia, 2. Alabama, 3. Michigan, 4. Texas, 5. Ole Miss...8. Oklahoma.
Pro Football Focus: 1. Goergia, 2. Alabama, 3. Texas, 4. Michigan, 5. Ole Miss...18. Oklahoma.
247Sports: 1. Georgia, 2. Texas, 3. Alabama, 4. Oregon, 5. Ohio State...12. Oklahoma.