Greg McElroy always breaks down the weekend of college football on his Monday edition of Always College Football. After a wild rivalry weekend, McElroy broke down how he sees the College Football Playoff race playing out.
Rivalry weekend cleared up a lot, and McElroy now sees just 1 available spot ahead of conference championship week.
“I think there are 11 spots that are accounted for,” declared McElroy. “Oregon, Texas, Penn State, Notre Dame, and Indiana are in. Then you have three 10-2 teams that I think in regardless of what happens this weekend: Ohio State, Tennessee, and Georgia.”
So the QB-turned-analyst has the 5 1-loss teams as locks and 3 2-loss teams also as locks.
“So that’s eight spots that are accounted for right now, and then you have 3 conference champions,” said McElroy. “I think there’s really only 1 spot up for grabs.”
SMU is playing Clemson in the ACC Championship Game with the winner getting an automatic bid. The same goes for the Big 12 and Mountain West, with Arizona State playing Iowa State and Boise State playing UNLV respectively.
As for the last spot, McElroy thinks 4 teams will battle it out: Miami, Alabama, Ole Miss, and South Carolina.
“Miami, are they going to be in front of the SEC trio?” McElroy asked. “Or will they be behind at least one of the three from the SEC? That will be fascinating, it’s going to be measuring resumes.”
McElroy added that Miami could be hurt by their best win being over an unranked Louisville team. South Carolina is the hottest of the teams right now, but the Gamecocks lost to both Alabama and Ole Miss.
Selection Sunday will be on Dec. 8 and we will finally know for sure which teams are included.
.@GregMcElroy says there is just ONE College Football Playoff spot up for grabs @CFBPlayoff | #CFBPlayoff | #CFP2024 pic.twitter.com/0IZfJMzkX7
— Always College Football (@AlwaysCFB) December 2, 2024
Bryce Lazenby covers college football for Saturday Down South. A Nashville native, his previous stops include FanSided, Dimers, and The Leaf-Chronicle.
