6 days Ago By Erik Beaston
The College Football Playoff expands to 12 teams in 2024, giving more schools an opportunity to battle for a National Championship and fans the opportunity to invest themselves in a larger, more exciting, potentially dramatic playoff bracket. It also creates more opportunities for schools who had one or two slip-ups in the regular season an opportunity to play for the all-important New Year's Six bowls, which bring more exposure and financial gain to their programs. While this season's very best teams are fairly evident, with Oregon, Ohio State, and Texas standing out from the pack, there is more parody than ever in the sport, making it extremely difficult to predict who will play in that New Year's Six and which two teams will ultimately clash for the title.
Dive into the bowl setup and find out who might hoist the trophy at the end of the season with these way-too-early predictions. The expansion of the College Football Playoff to a 12-team bracket means a change to the schedule of bowl games. With the introduction of more teams to the tournament, the festivities will kick off a week earlier, with the first round taking place on December 20 and 21.
The New Year's Six Bowls will kick off with the quarterfinals 10 days later on New Year's Eve, with the Fiesta Bowl and continue New Year's Day with the Peach, Rose, and Sugar Bowls. The semifinals continue January 9 and 10 with the Orange and Cotton Bowls, leading to the culmination of the college football season on January 20 with the national championship game in Atlanta. The predictions for those New Year's Six bowl games are as follows: New Year's Six 1 Oregon Ducks vs.
8 Ole Miss Rebels (Quarterfinals, Rose Bowl) 2 Texas Longhorns vs. 7 Miami Hurricanes (Quarterfinals, Sugar Bowl) 3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. 6 BYU (Quarterfinals, Peach Bowl) 4 Penn State Nittany Lions vs.
5 Georgia Bulldogs (Quarterfinals, Fiesta Bowl) 1 Oregon Ducks vs. 4 Penn State Nittany Lions (Semifinals, Orange Bowl) 2 Texas Longhorns vs. 3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (Semifinals, Cotton Bowl) It has not been the dominant season for the Georgia Bulldogs that the team has experienced in recent years but after a long, arduous road, they make it back to the semifinals of the College Football Playoff.
That is the good news. The bad? Waiting for them is the No. 1 team in the nation, an unbeaten Oregon Ducks squad that survived its first trip into the Big Ten conference to make it to the National Championship's doorstep.
Of course, to do so, they will likely have to defeat Ohio State for a second time in one season, something that is no easy feat, even for the best teams in the game. Still, the Ducks have been the country's most consistently great team, surviving tough tests against those Buckeyes earlier in the season and Nebraska Saturday night to advance. The Bulldogs rank outside the Top 50 in offense and while they have the 13th-ranked defense in the country, the Ducks are a more well-rounded team, with an offense ranked 11th and a defense that currently sits ninth.
A sub-par offense versus a stout Ducks defense makes for a tough-match up for the former champs. Oregon advances and plays for its first national title in a decade. The Texas Longhorns have looked the part of one of the nation's best teams all season, opening the season at No.
4 and staying in the upper echelon of the game's elite throughout. Their defense has been outstanding, ranked No. 2 in the nation and allowing just barely 251 yards per game.
Like Oregon, they are a well-balanced team, with an electric offense capable of scoring on any play and ranked ninth in the country. Even against a Notre Dame team that has rebounded from a humiliating defeat at the hands of Northern Illinois to establish itself as a Top 10 team, with a smothering defense of their own, the Longhorns would likely (and rightfully) be favored. And potentially, big.
While they do have one loss to their name, an October 19 loss to Georgia, they feel like the surest thing to challenge Oregon for the National Championship and actually beat the Ducks for the most coveted prize in the sport. They do just that, bringing the university its first title since Vince Young guided the Longhorns past Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, and USC in 2005..
