After an active winter and spring of coach and player movement, rosters are more or less set for the 2024 season. The Future Power Rankings series wraps up with the team rundown, designed to provide the most complete forecast for both the short term and the seasons that will follow.
As a reminder, FPR is not a one-year projection, but sets out to predict the best in college football during the next three seasons (2024, 2025 and 2026). The personnel picture will continue to fluctuate, but FPR must take into account what is known at the moment, both with current players and committed recruits, while also noting track records for coaches, units and overall teams.
The 2024 season will be historic for its realignment entries, as the SEC (Texas, Oklahoma), Big Ten (USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington), Big 12 (Utah, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado) and ACC (SMU, Cal, Stanford) all add new members. Teams moving leagues typically struggle in Year 1, but a three-year projection looks beyond the immediate.
There’s also significant change in college football’s upper crust, as Nick Saban, considered the greatest coach in the sport’s history, retired in January after winning seven national titles, six at Alabama. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh left for the NFL after leading the Wolverines to their first national title since 1997. Of the teams in the final four-team College Football Playoff, three (Alabama, Michigan and Washington) had coaching changes and the other (Texas) is set to move conferences.
The previous FPR rankings for quarterbacks, defenses and offenses inform the comprehensive team rankings, but so do other factors such as coaching continuity and recent record. Oklahoma State didn’t appear in any of the first three top 25s but made the team rundown. Finally, here’s a look at the most recent FPR team rankings.
Let’s get to the new top 25.
2024 Future QB ranking: 4
2024 Future defense ranking: 1
2024 Future offense ranking: 3
2023 Future team ranking: 1
