What’s New for 2024?
Well, plenty. A total of 15 FBS teams changed conferences, plus one new team (Kennesaw State) joined the Football Bowl Subdivision. I’ve outlined all this before, but suffice to say the new alignment will take some getting used to – Washington traveling to Rutgers and Syracuse traveling to Cal for conference games will probably look every bit as absurd as it sounds. But that’s where college sports sits in the midst of a massive transition of its business model and ethos.
Of course there is also the lure/specter of the 12-team playoff coming at the end of this season. We will finally see in practice what we have only been able to theorize up to now. The expectation is that battles between unbeaten or 1-loss teams that had immense postseason ramifications will diminish in their importance, but those critical matchups will be replaced by 2-loss teams clinging to playoff hopes. We’ll see how it plays out, but keep in mind the 12-team model is only set for the next two seasons. What happens after 2025-26 is still to be determined, but there is already talk of expanding the field from 12 to 14 or even 16 teams.
One thing that hasn’t gotten as much attention is some of the rule changes for this season, so I’ll take a moment to outline those here. We are definitely seeing college football starting to mimic the NFL in ways that go beyond just realignment into what is starting to look like an NFL-lite league.
In a shout-out to Connor Stalions, college football has finally rolled out in-helmet communications. It was tested during several bowl games last season to great acclaim (duh), and now all teams will be permitted to use it. Similar to the NFL, only one player for each team on the field at any given time may have electronic communications in their helmet. Just like the NFL, that player will have the ubiquitous green dot sticker on the back of the helmet. In the interest of keeping the playing field level, if one team’s electronic communications goes down, the other team’s will be shut off until both systems are operational. So yeah, if you watch NFL football this all sounds old hat, but it’s all brand new in college.
Additionally college football will now feature its own version of the NFL’s two minute warning – but to be different they will refer to it as the “two minute timeout” (which in name actually makes a lot more sense than being given a warning). At the two minute mark of each half the game will stop for a timeout. If the game clock reaches 2 minutes while a play is still live, the play will continue and the timeout will be taken as soon as the play is blown dead. Again, if you watch any NFL, none of this is new. There will be a commercial break at the two minute timeout. Everyone from CFB administrators to TV executives wants to assure fans this isn’t being done to add more commercials to a game. The two-minute breaks will simply replace a commercial break that would have occurred at some other point in the game. So there you go.
Finally, teams will be able to use tablet PCs on the sidelines – once more, just like the NFL has done for years. What tablets are used will vary by conference. Unlike the NFL, which has an exclusive deal with Microsoft to use Surface tablets, Apple seems to be the partner of choice, as they will be used by the ACC, Big Ten and SEC (worth noting is that Apple CEO Tim Cook is an Auburn grad). Only the Big 12 will use Microsoft Surface tablets among the power conferences.
Here are some other random thoughts on the upcoming season…
Week Zero: With the 12-team playoff in play, by no means has Florida State seen its postseason hopes dashed with the 24-21 loss to Georgia Tech in Ireland. Still, Seminoles fans have to be a little bit concerned with what they saw. The defensive front got pushed around way too much by the Jackets, and while I think it’s going too far to put the “game manager” label on DJ Uiagalelei, for someone of his physical talents he struggles too much to attack defenses downfield for big plays. That was the knock on him at Clemson and Oregon State, and it was still the case last Saturday. It was one game, and season openers tend to generate the most overreaction, but FSU needs work.
Oh the Irony: The four new West Coast members of the Big Ten (Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington), left the Pac-12 in part because they were unhappy with the exposure that they received as part of the Pac-12’s television package, and they felt it was not likely to improve with what had been negotiated for a new deal that would have gone into effect this year. So they left for a Midwest-based conference that has a TV deal featuring games on three OTA networks (FOX, CBS and NBC) and whose conference cable network (Big Ten Network) is available via almost every pay TV provider.
But wait, now comes word that Comcast will be blacking out games on the Big Ten Network in local markets for each of the West Coast schools. That means Comcast customers in Seattle won’t be able to watch Washington take on Weber State Saturday, while those in Portland won’t get Oregon hosting Idaho. UCLA and USC will be on CBS and ABC, respectively, so Los Angeles is in luck, for now. But with USC set to host Utah State on BTN in Week 2, Angelinos’ turn is coming if this isn’t ironed out.
Meanwhile the two Pac-12 schools that got left out in the cold, Oregon State and Washington State, made a deal for all their home games to be shown on over-the-air networks FOX and The CW. Take this Oregonian’s word for it when I say there has been a lot of schadenfreude from Beaver fans directed the Ducks’ way over this.
My Playoff Field Prediction (not to be confused with my Top 12):
- Georgia
- Ohio State
- Clemson
- Utah
- Alabama
- Oregon
- Penn State
- Ole Miss
- LSU
- Notre Dame
- Missouri
- Memphis
NBC’s Nicole Auerbach recently appeared on an Oregon-based radio show and made an interesting observation…the atmosphere at the first round CFP games will be unique that they will be played on the campus of the higher-seeded team. After that all games will be played at neutral sites, with the quarter and semifinals incorporated with the traditional New Years Six bowl games. Auerbach pondered whether the four highest-seeded teams, who will each have a bye in the first round, might watch those games and be a little envious by what is sure to be an immense amount of energy in the stadium for the home team.
Personally, while I’m sure they’d like to play their CFP games at home, the 1-4 seeds will happily take the free ticket to the quarters over the risks of playing in the first round, even at home.
Week 1 Picks: I’ll keep it brief this week
Georgia vs Clemson (at Atlanta), Noon ET, ABC, (Georgia -13.5) – I think the Dawgs can cover 2 TDs
Penn State at West Virginia, Noon ET, FOX, (Penn State -8.5) – The Mountaineers are an interesting team, and Morgantown is never an easy place to go, but the Nittany Lions should be too much to keep this a 1-score game
Miami at Florida, 3:30pm ET, ABC, (Florida +2.5) – Until I see reason to believe otherwise, I still can’t trust Mario Cristobal to win a game like this, no matter how much talent he has.
Notre Dame at Texas A&M, 7:30pm ET, ABC (Notre Dame +2.5) – Two of the most consistently overrated programs square off. The Irish are the more proven commodity, so I’ll take them as a slight dog in hostile territory.
USC vs LSU (at Las Vegas), Sunday 7:30pm ET, ABC, (LSU -4.5) – Two teams replacing Heisman QBs and trying to turn around suspect defenses. I trust LSU to do the better job on the latter.
College Football Analyst
Mike is a Baltimore native living in Portland, OR since 2007. He currently runs his own business specializing in video production and online marketing. Prior to that he was a legal technology consultant, worked for 9 years at Johns Hopkins University and served 6 years in the Air Force. He also enjoys travel, food, beer, and is a volunteer at the Oregon Humane Society.