Before Week 1 of the college football season, there are 50 things to know

expansion of the College Football Playoffs.

fifty. The path to a national championship in bowl games now includes 12 teams, as determined by the selection committee’s seeds, for the first time. Along with seven at-large selections, conference champions from the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, and Group of Five will award five automatic bids. In the first expanded playoff, we anticipate that two leagues will rule.

49. Former executive director Richard Clark declared in July that although the committee will be “open-minded” regarding future expansion and will evaluate what worked and what didn’t work very soon after the 12-team format’s first year is over, the revenue distribution plan for the expanded playoff is set through the 2026 season.

49. Liberty, Boise State, or Memphis should contend for a postseason spot in the Group of Five. This time of year, Liberty and Boise State are the most popular choices to make the playoffs, especially considering the Flames’ undefeated campaign from the previous fall.

47. ESPN confirmed in March that it would retain media rights to the College Football Playoff event through the 2031–2032 season as part of a new six-year, $7.8 billion contract.

RELATED: According to Team Talent Composite, Georgia and Alabama lead college football’s top 25 rosters for the 2024 campaign.

Aspiring Heisman winners.

46. Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel: After spending the last few years at Oklahoma after starting his career at UCF, Gabriel is now the co-favorite to win college football’s top individual award this season. Gabriel will help the Ducks run a tempo-based spread.

45. Georgia’s Carson Beck, a quarterback, was a former Top247 recruit who led the Bulldogs to an undefeated regular season in 2023 by throwing for 3,941 yards, 24 touchdowns, and six interceptions in his first year of play.

43. Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers, who won the Big 12 the previous year, managed to hold off quarterback Arch Manning in the spring to keep his position as the starting quarterback and team captain.

43. Possibly more than any other player in the country is Ohio State quarterback Will Howard. An Ohio State program like this would be disappointed with anything less than a national championship, and the Buckeyes have not won a championship since Ryan Day took over.

41. Quarterback Nico Iamaleava of Tennessee drew attention last season with a dominant bowl performance against a formidable Iowa defense despite throwing just 45 passes as a true freshman.

Related: Prior to college football’s 2024 season, order all quarterbacks in the Power Four starting at No. 1 through 68.

41. Jalen Milroe, quarterback, Alabama: Milroe showed growth as a passer after being benched briefly after the team’s autumn defeat to Texas, and he went on to win ten straight starts before the Rose Bowl. In addition to 531 yards of rushing and 12 touchdowns, he finished with 2,834 yards passing and 23 touchdowns.

forty. Ole Miss’s Jaxson Dart, a quarterback, has never led the team to a Heisman Trophy. Eli Manning, the program legend, came the closest in 2003, placing third. As a junior, Dart had an impressive season, finishing 65.1% of his passes for 3,364 yards, 23 touchdowns, and five interceptions.

NCAA football rules are subject to change.

37. After speaking with coaches and players, we have learned that in-helmet communication and sideline tablets are a huge hit. Coach-to-player communication within the helmet, which has been long overdue in college football, should further strengthen offensive teams, whose mainstay is pre-snap reading and adjustments.

38. This autumn, college football will use a two-minute warning at the conclusion of the second and fourth quarters. College football aims to replicate the NFL game as much as possible, according to remarks made this summer by the SEC’s Coordinator of Officials.

38. On gamedays, the role of analysts has grown. Staff analysts are now unrestricted and able to participate in coaching during practices and gamedays. Greater programs provide funding for a wider range of analysts.

37. It’s also forbidden to take consecutive timeouts. It is no longer legal for teams to “ice the kicker” prior to a field goal attempt, and head coaches are not permitted to call a timeout prior to an offensive or defensive snap if their team has just finished one.

What’s new with the Power conference reorganization.

33. In a way, every major conference in the country is entering a new era with the 2024 season. Texas and Oklahoma have joined the most competitive league in the nation, the SEC, and both are considered as possible contenders in the preseason AP Poll.

34. The ACC now has 17 teams overall after the addition of Cal, Stanford, and SMU. Whereas Stanford travels three times to play Syracuse, Clemson, and NC State, Cal travels to the East Coast twice for road games against Florida State and Wake Forest.

33. . Greener pastures—and a considerably less predictable conference championship picture in the Midwest—have lured Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona State from the Pac-12 to the Big 12.

33. By including USC, Oregon, Washington, and UCLA, the Big Ten enhanced its reputation. Two of those teams, the Ducks and Trojans, are ranked in a number of preseason polls.

31. . As the only programs in the now-defunct Pac-12, Washington State and Oregon State are eligible for the bowl game agreements that the conference currently has, which will last until the 2025 season even after the league’s dissolution. Although nothing had been confirmed as of the start of the season, it is said that the Mountain West is interested in adding the Cougars and Beavers.

A spectacular transfer portal.

30. Ole Miss recruited 25 players in the 2024 recruiting cycle, including several elite immediate starters from Power conference rivals, and signed the greatest transfer haul in the country.

29. Colorado was the program that signed more transfers and lost more players. At the beginning of the season, Coach Deion Sanders and the Buffaloes had 43 transfers, which is the eighth-highest transfer class in the country.

28. Quarterback DJ Uiagalelei, who played in the ACC at Clemson and last fall with Oregon State, has signed with Florida State and will make his third start in three years. With Mike Norvell in charge, the Seminoles recently won a conference title.

26. Although projections are approximate, Miami spent more NIL funds per player on average this portal cycle than any other program. In order to play another season of college football, the Hurricanes persuaded Cam Ward, a former standout player at Washington State, to forego the 2024 NFL Draft. In the spring window, they also acquired Oregon State running back Damien Martinez.

26th. The highest number of transfers signed by Texas A&M’s first-year coach Mike Elko was 28. 31 players were released by the Aggies during the previous coaching carousel, which coincided with their recruiting cycle.

25. Raheim Sanders, a former Arkansas standout, was one of the three running backs that South Carolina signed this transfer cycle. With the extra punch, the Gamecocks’ running game should significantly improve.

24. Speaking of transfers, the quarterbacks at the top of the ACC’s positional rankings at the start of the season were all top additions from the transfer market. The most underappreciated players are Haynes King of Georgia Tech and Grayson McCall of NC State, who both shone for the Yellow Jackets last fall.

Number 23. The only program in the preseason rankings that did not sign a transfer this cycle is Clemson. That makes sense, as the Tigers have always prioritized player development over portal-centered recruiting practices.

22. There’s pressure on Duke transfer quarterback Riley Leonard to be a difference-maker at quarterback and surpass the production numbers set by former Wake Forest signal-caller Sam Hartman last season. Is Notre Dame set to benefit from the expanded playoff as an independent?

schedules that are the hardest and best.

22. This season, Florida has an unprecedentedly tough schedule. After two losing seasons in a row, Billy Napier’s contract season is almost upon him, and the Gators are one of just three college football teams assigned to play 11 Power-conference teams this autumn.

Twenty. Remaining in the hot seat, Sam Pittman’s schedule at Arkansas has been hazardous ever since he arrived, and it will continue to be so in 2024. In Week 2, the Razorbacks will make their first trip to Stillwater in decades to play the Big 12 runner-up from the previous season. Two weeks later, they will have to travel to Auburn. Ole Miss and Texas are two of the three preseason top-10 teams that Arkansas still has on its schedule after that.

19. As long as quarterback Jalon Daniels stays healthy and the Jayhawks can capitalize on a favorable schedule, Kansas has a clear path to a Big 12 Championship appearance.

coaching information of all kinds.

18. . If Mack Brown of UNC is the only other active coach with a championship, and the Tar Heels are not in contention to challenge for a crown, it is highly likely that college football will produce a first-time national champion head coach this season, barring a championship run by Kirby Smart of Georgia or Dabo Swinney of Clemson.

17. Following the program’s third consecutive loss to Michigan, the Buckeyes’ coach Ryan Day unleashed a three-point stinker on college footballers. The loss occurred in the Buckeyes’ bowl game against Missouri. After joining a portal group that includes the No. 1 player, Day went full Hulk mode in terms of talent acquisition. The top quarterback this cycle (former Alabama signee Julian Sayin), former Ole Miss standout Quinshon Judkins, and safety Caleb Downs of Alabama are the No. 1 overall player, No. one back for running.

sixteen. Dan Lanning, Oregon: Lanning keeps bolstering Oregon’s championship chances at a program that has already experienced increased success in the contemporary era on a top level. The Ducks are coached by a player who is rising fast in the industry, and they have been in the AP Top 25 for 26 straight seasons, which is the fourth-longest streak in the country.

In 15. Kalen DeBoer, Alabama: How would you like to be the guy in Tuscaloosa after Nick Saban? Here’s a preseason statistic to keep in mind regarding the Crimson Tide: the last four times that Alabama was not selected by the horde of reporters and analysts to win the SEC, this team won the conference.

14. . Steve Sarkisian, Texas — At this point in the summer, Sarkisian’s stock price has increased significantly compared to the previous year, when Texas advanced to the College Football Playoff following its Big 12 championship. The Longhorns are happy to have Ewers back. They also signed a number of talented players who can make a difference in the portal. Their defense will be focused on stopping the pass rush and will include a few future first-round picks.

13. Only ten of the thirty new FBS head coaches who will take the field in 2024 have projections that are rated as “A.”.

Soon to make their debut, rookie sensations.

Twelve. During fall camp, a number of first-year players have made an impression, including a few five-star wide receivers who are expected to start for their respective programs this fall.

11. The two five-star edge rushers we’re most excited to watch are Dylan Stewart of South Carolina and Colin Simmons of Texas. Dylan Raiola, the quarterback for Nebraska, is another. Jordan Seaton, an offensive tackle from Colorado, is another rookie who will see a lot of playing time this year.

Watchable games of note.

10. Will Michigan vs Ohio State be the most watched college football game? Last season, ‘The Game’ topped the list of 50 most watched college football games, with 46 of those games involving SEC or Big Ten teams. It is expected that history will repeat itself.

9.
In 2024, the first month of the season will host a number of the biggest college football games, such as North Dakota State vs. Colorado, Clemson vs. Georgia, Alabama vs. Wisconsin, and USC vs. Michigan. This presents a number of unexpected outcomes options. If the favorites in any of those matchups faltered, it would be extremely surprising, and it will happen eventually.

8. This autumn, Nick Saban will watch every game for the first time in his football career. As a member of the revamped College GameDay team, the former Alabama coach has already demonstrated exceptional performance in his first exam following his stellar performance at the 2024 NFL Draft earlier this spring. We can’t wait to see Saban every weekend on the set and hear his wisdom and criticism.