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Today, we’ll officially close the 2024 season with a look at our final rankings. And then … let’s take a closer look at the way-too-early Top 25 for the 2025 season.
All 134
Risers, fallers and the winless FBS team
Chris Vannini’s end-of-season ranking of all 134 college football teams came out this week. It will go down as the last-ever Athletic 134 — with Delaware and Missouri State joining FBS next season, that list will extend to 136!
Obviously, national champion Ohio State finished at No. 1. But the most interesting wrinkle at the top of Chris’ ranking was his placement of Oregon at No. 2 and CFP runner-up Notre Dame at No. 3. Here was his reasoning:
Unlike Notre Dame, Oregon has a win over Ohio State. The Ducks have four top-15 wins in total and have FBS’ fewest losses, none of which came against Northern Illinois. The 41-21 Rose Bowl loss to Ohio State may ultimately be how people remember this Oregon team, but the regular season still matters, to me at least.
Notre Dame’s run to the final was thrilling, impressive and earned. But the rest of the Irish resume was lacking. Oregon didn’t win a CFP game, but had three wins over CFP teams (Ohio State, Penn State and Boise State), same as Notre Dame.
Here’s a look at Chris’ biggest overachievers and underachievers. Plus, which team ended in the gutter?
📈 Risers: Arizona State (from preseason No. 89 to final No. 9), Indiana (No. 81 to No. 10), Illinois (No. 82 to No. 14) and Navy (No. 114 to No. 25)
📉 Fallers: Florida State (No. 9 to No. 105, the second-lowest finish among Power 4 teams, because … Purdue), Appalachian State (No. 38 to No. 96), Utah (No. 11 to No. 70) and Liberty (No. 30 to No. 85)
😕 Ending at No. 134 is Kent State, which went 0-12 to become the first winless FBS team since 2019. The Golden Flashes are moving forward with head coach Kenni Burns, who has just one win in his two seasons.
Way Too Early
No pressure, Penn State
After the longest college football season ever, it’s finally time to talk about 2025. As we quickly noted on Tuesday, Stewart Mandel published his annual way-too-early Top 25 this week. Here are his top five:
Appearances by conference:
- SEC: Nine
- Big Ten: Six
- Big 12: Four
- ACC: Three
- American, Mountain West, independents: One each
And here are my biggest takeaways:
No. 1 is up for grabs. Stewart gave the Nittany Lions the top honor. On paper, James Franklin’s team is returning more key pieces than anyone else.
But Penn State is far from a unanimous pick. In other way-too-early rankings, CBS and Sports Illustrated picked Texas as No. 1, while Yahoo chose Georgia, and ESPN chose Ohio State.
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Throughout the 2024 season, there were five changes atop the AP poll. No team steamrolled every opponent. At least for now, it looks like next season might be similar.
Is Illinois a dark horse? The Fighting Illini are ranked 12th by Stewart. They are his fourth-highest-ranked team from the Big Ten, ahead of No. 18 Michigan (whose rebuilding year ended with wins against the eventual national champion and Alabama) and No. 20 Indiana (whose miracle season ended with a Playoff trip).
The Illini are coming off a 10-win season that ended with a Citrus Bowl victory against South Carolina, the program’s first-ever W against an SEC team (previously 0-6). Eighteen starters return. If this were the AP poll, this would be the Illini’s highest ranking since 2001, when they went 10-2.
Nobody knows where to put Iowa State. Stewart has the Cyclones in his “just missed” category, but opinions vary. ESPN has Iowa State at No. 11.
Coach Matt Campbell is a proven winner, and QB Rocco Becht is returning after throwing for over 3,000 yards for the second consecutive season, but he’ll lose his top targets in wide receivers Jaylin Noel and Jayden Higgins (both to the NFL).
Either way, it might not take long to figure out where the Cyclones belong. They open the season against Kansas State in Dublin, and will later host BYU and Arizona State in conference play.
Read Stewart’s full ranking here.
Quick Snaps
Who were the biggest winners (Ryan Day, SMU) and losers (the SEC, Oregon) of the 12-team CFP?
National champion Ohio State has 10 representatives on The Athletic’s All-CFP team, the most of any team (including offensive MVP Will Howard and defensive MVP J.T. Tuimoloau). Read about the rest of the tournament’s best players.
The national championship game averaged 22.1 million viewers, a dip from last season’s Michigan-Washington matchup and the third-lowest viewership figure in the CFP era. It seems like a missed opportunity for a game between Ohio State and Notre Dame — two of the sport’s biggest brands — but change is coming.
For your college basketball fix today, Grace Raynor spoke to Jaylen and Mikayla Blakes, siblings who both hit game winners at the buzzer for their respective teams over the weekend. “What are the odds that brother and sister would do (that) back-to-back?” their dad Monroe Blakes said later.
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(Top photo: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)
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