Ranking of 134 college football teams after the 2024 season: Ohio State No. 1, Arizona State’s great progress

The 2024 college football season is over. With Ohio State’s 34-23 win against Notre Dame, the longest streak in history is in the books, from the weekend before Labor Day to MLK Day.

I have been doing this exercise since 2017 and last year was the toughest final placement I faced due to bowling opt outs. Well, the 12-team CFP makes it even more difficult. Some teams have played four games since the pre-bowl edition of these rankings. Others haven’t played any. Many others are in between.

Bowl games count, although opt-outs are generally taken into account. CFP runs matter, but they are not the only factor in change. The rankings are meant to represent a resume from the entire season.

For the third year in a row, I’ve included the preseason rankings to see how the teams fared against my expectations. The biggest overachievers were Arizona State, Indiana, Illinois and Navy. The biggest underachievers were Florida State, Appalachian State, Utah and Liberty. I got one team just right – Ohio State – but many very close to the original. For the record, I put the preseason standings first in the table after the final standings. Aside from the obvious surprises, I thought I did pretty well here.

This will be the last ever Athletic 134, just like last year was the last 133, and 2022 was the last 131. Delaware and Missouri State join the Football Bowl Subdivision next season, growing those rankings to 136 teams.

Here is the finale Athletic 134 for the 2024-25 season.

1-10

I immediately realized how difficult this exercise would be as I concluded that Oregon should be the No. 2. I had Notre Dame here at first, as the last AP Top 25 did. But going back, the Oregon case was pretty simple on paper. Oregon has a win over Ohio State, unlike Notre Dame. It has four top-15 wins overall and has the 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, at least to me.

Notre Dame’s run to the finals was exciting, impressive and deserved. But the rest of the Irish CV was missing. Oregon did not win a CFP game, but had three wins over CFP teams (Ohio State, Penn State and Boise State), the same as Notre Dame. Against regular opponents (Ohio State and Penn State), Oregon looked better, and the Rose Bowl loss to Ohio State is still better than the home loss to Northern Illinois, in my opinion. The new CFP bracket could make this part tough every year, but that’s my explanation.

No. 4 Penn State finished with a top-10 win here, but had the same number of top-15 wins as Georgia, nearly beat Notre Dame in the semifinals and only lost to top-three teams. The Bulldogs stay ahead of Texas because they beat the Longhorns twice. Tennessee falls behind Arizona State to No. 8 because its resume depended solely on the Alabama win that got worse over time. No. 7 ASU finished with wins against BYU, Iowa State and Kansas State.

Boise State slides to No. 9 after a competitive loss to Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl. It turns out that no. 10 Indiana’s only losses came to the two participants in the national championship, although neither game was that competitive. The Hoosiers deserved their playoff spot and still deserve an apology from Kirk Herbstreit and others. The win over Michigan looks better now and counts as a top 25 win here.

11-25

BYU jumps up to No. 11. Why? The Cougars beat SMU earlier in the season, whipped Kansas State and destroyed Colorado — featuring Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter — 36-14 in the Alamo Bowl. While SEC teams ranked No. 13 Ole Miss received much of the attention surrounding the CFP snubs, perhaps BYU should have been in the same conversation.

Illinois climbs to No. 14 thanks to its bowl win over South Carolina. The Illini also beat Michigan earlier in the year. Alabama drops to No. 15 after the stunning ReliaQuest Bowl loss to Michigan, capping the Tide’s first four-loss season since 2007. For the strength of schedule argument, wins against Georgia, South Carolina, Missouri and LSU are why the Tide is even so high.

No. 18 Iowa State and No. 19 Syracuse moves up after bowl wins, while Miami falls to no. 20 because it lost to both of them. Yes, Cam Ward didn’t play the second half of the Pop-Tarts Bowl, but the Canes only led by three when he left the game.

Michigan, 6-5 two games ago, finishes at No. 21 after finishing with wins against Ohio State and Alabama. Not a bad rebuilding year after all. Four of the Wolverines’ five losses came to eventual top-15 teams.

Navy also climbs back into the top 25 thanks to wins against Army and Oklahoma since the last edition of these rankings. The Midshipmen also beat Memphis by 11 wins, which fell right out of the top 25 as a result, even with the bowl win against West Virginia.

26-50

This is where the nature of other teams’ results affects the rankings. Memphis, Louisville, LSU and Kansas State did not “move down” after bowl wins. It was simply because Michigan and Navy moved up above them.

Florida, which finished No. 32 after the Billy Napier hot seat talk was quite the finish, finishing with four straight wins, including against LSU, Ole Miss and a (very run down) Tulane. Vanderbilt jumps to No. 36 after beating Georgia Tech. Iowa lost to Missouri in its bowl game, but remains ahead of No. 39 in Minnesota due to the head-to-head win.

Texas Tech drops to No. 42 after losing to Arkansas, while USC moves up to no. 43 after beating Texas A&M. Nebraska climbs to No. 46 after beating Boston College. MAC champion Ohio jumps to No. 47 after beating Jacksonville State to finish 11-3. Pitt started 7-0 and finished 7-6, due in part to major injuries, to finish as the No. 50.

51-75

Oklahoma drops to No. 53 after losing to Navy (with a depleted roster). UConn’s nine wins were its most since 2007, and the Huskies finish as the No. 58. East Carolina’s “rivalry” win over NC State moves the Pirates up to finish at No. 61, one spot ahead of the Wolfpack and one spot ahead of North Carolina.

Bowl winner of no. 71 Miami (Ohio), no. 72 Buffalo, no. 73 Texas State, no. 74 Toledo and no. 75 Northern Illinois, see all five finish in the top 75. While NIU beat Notre Dame in the upset of the season, the Huskies lost to Miami, Buffalo and Toledo, hence their position here.

76-100

Bowl losses mean Western Kentucky and Georgia Southern fall out of the top 75. UTSA closed with four wins in its last five games to finish No. 80. But previous losses to Rice and Tulsa are what keep the Roadrunners from being higher. South Florida beat San Jose State in five overtimes to finish No. 88, while Arkansas State’s win against Bowling Green moved the Red Wolves up to no. 91 and Falcons down to no. 92. The lowest ranked team to win a bowl game was no. 98 at South Alabama, which beat Western Michigan.

101-134

Western Michigan and Louisiana Tech were the only teams in this final group to reach a bowl game, but LA Tech’s bid and Independence Bowl loss to Army came because Marshall opted out of the game.

Neither team ranked 103rd or lower changed, having ended their seasons long ago, but Florida State ultimately fell from an undefeated regular season in 2023 to a No. 105 ranking in 2024. The drop from preseason no. 9 is the longest drop of any team in the last three years I’ve checked (the biggest jump was 2022 Tulane, from No. 112 to No. 10). Purdue closes as the lowest-ranked Power 4 team at no. 112.

Kennesaw State won two games in its first FBS season and finished No. 132, while Kent State became the first 0-12 team in FBS since 2019. The Golden Flashes had just two games finished within three scores — losses to FCS St. Francis (Pa.) and Ball State, which fired its coach. I had Kent State as the preseason no. 133, and the Flashes still fell short of expectations.

(Photo: Erick W. Rasco / Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)