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Bill Connelly, ESPN staff writer
Welcome to the 2024 college football season, where the playoffs are big, the (rest of) power conferences are, Nick Saban is working for ESPN, and almost everyone needs a new receiver (and maybe defensive backs and defensive linemen, too).
After years of epic transitions off the field, we’ll see some of the results of those transitions on the field this fall, but the initial list of national title favorites looks very familiar. Ohio State, Oregon and last year’s semifinalists – Texas and Alabama – lead the Georgia Dawgs’ main competitors according to both Metrics and ESPN BET. What stands in the way of this team and the ultimate prize? What questions do they have to answer between now and January?
According to SportsOddsHistory.com, no national champion in the past 23 seasons has started the season with a title worse than +5000. Could the expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams change that trend? Probably. But while the underdogs can skip the bracket, the best teams can still win the title by winning three to four games. So let’s stick with the +5000 barrier: here are 16 teams that meet that standard, per ESPN BET. They are sorted by the number of “ifs” they have to break their way to the champ. (As always, we won’t worry about obstacles like injuries to stars, which can hit any team at any time. Those concerns are obvious and universal.)
Go to an ‘if’ level:
2 | 3 | 4 | 5
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