Yahoo Sports Top 25: Which teams will make the cut in the first season of the new College Football Playoff?

Welcome to the first part of the Yahoo Sports 2024 preseason college football Top 25.

With the College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams this season, we figured we’d reveal our top 25 a little differently than usual. Below are previews for the teams that are ranked Nos. 13-25 in our top 25 and we’ll roll out previews for the 12 teams we think will make the playoff in the coming days.

It’s important to note that we believe the teams ranked at Nos. 13 and 14 in our top 25 will finish higher than that in the final College Football Playoff rankings. The CFP format includes the top five conference champions and seven at-large bids. Since five conference champs are automatically included, it’s very possible — and maybe even likely — that a team in the top 10 of the final rankings misses the playoff since it didn’t win its conference.

Let’s get to the rankings. (Last year’s record in parentheses.)

Miller Moss and Jayden Maiava are competing to replace Caleb Williams at quarterback in an offense that needs to replace a lot of talent. The Trojans don’t bring back Williams, the last year’s top two rushers in MarShawn Lloyd and Austin Jones, and the top two receivers in Tahj Washington and Brendan Rice.

We’re confident Lincoln Riley will get the offense rolling and Moss appears to be the favorite to start at QB. The bigger question is on defense. D’Anton Lynn comes over from UCLA and inherits a defense that brings back nine starters … and allowed nearly 35 points and over six yards a play in 2023. We’ll find out about USC’s defense in September. The Trojans’ first four games include matchups with LSU, Michigan and Wisconsin.

The Aggies bring back 18 starters and hope to get a full season out of QB Conner Weigman. He started the season well but played in just…


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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-08-12 13:00:04

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