Oregon is #1 plus my Final Rankings for all 134 FBS teams!

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Can you believe it’s already December 10? It seems like yesterday when this 2024 college football season began.

Before revealing the full 134 team SwampSwamiSports.com College Football rankings, let’s review a few of the biggest stories of this college football season.

Big Story #1 – What happened to Florida State this year?

In late August, everyone expected Florida State (13-1 in 2023) to be a top contender again in 2024. Absolutely no one would have predicted the Seminoles to fall to a woeful 2-10 this season.

Last year’s “Coach of the Year” Mike Norvell’s fame proved to be fleeting as FSU supporters contemplate a way to buy-out his expensive contract.

Big Story #2 – The Indiana Hoosiers are now a football school!

Likewise, August predictions featured lowly Indiana near the bottom of the newly-expanded Big Ten field. Former James Madison turnaround artist Curt Cignetti led the Hoosiers to a school record 11 wins this fall and a place in the College Football Playoffs.

The likely national 2024 “Coach of the Year”, the 63-year old Cignetti just snagged an eight-year contract extension. The new deal doubled his $4 million annual salary, too.

Merry Christmas, Coach!

Big Story #3 – SMU buys a spot in the ACC and gets into the playoffs

SMU’s wish was granted on Sunday as the 11-2 ACC runners-up were included in the new 12-team playoff field. The Mustangs rallied to tie Clemson with less than 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s ACC title game.

Though Clemson miraculously rallied to kick a game-winning 57 yard field goal, the College Football Playoff committee (meeting in SMU’s home city of Dallas, by the way) selected SMU over 9-3 Alabama.

A year ago, many of us were shocked to see that SMU’s uber-wealthy alumni “ponied” (get it?) up millions of dollars to move their team from the American Athletic Conference and into the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The SMU Mustangs won the ACC regular season title in their first season in the predominantly East Coast league.

Big Story #4 – The Army Black Knights became America’s Team!

If Indiana’s Curt Cignetti doesn’t win the national “Coach of the Year” award, Army’s Jeff Monken will. Army won the AAC in its first season in the league and finished with an 11-1 record.

The Black Knights from West Point have been ranked nationally for much of the final weeks of this season. The only blemish on Army’s resume has been a 49-14 loss to highly rated Notre Dame before Thanksgiving.

Army plays arch-rival Navy (9-3) this Saturday (2PM CST on CBS). It is must-see TV.

Congratulations to Shreveport’s Independence Bowl for securing Army for their December 28 bowl game!

The I-Bowl will feature two 10-win conference champions (11-1 Army of the AAC vs. 10-3 Marshall of the Sunbelt) for the first time since the bowl debuted in the bicentennial year of 1976.

SwampSwami’s CFP mea culpa

Yours truly boasted last week that 9-3 Alabama would get the final College Football Playoff spot over an 11-2 SMU team (if they lost Saturday – and they did). My logic was based on the CFP committee put Bama into last year’s playoffs, in large part, due to their national television following.

I was wrong on that prediction and congratulate SMU for proving me wrong. Now, go win your playoff game at Penn State in another week!

Check out the FINAL 2024 SwampSwamiSports.com rankings for all 134 FBS teams!

As a final reminder about my ranking system, I give the most credit to teams with the fewest losses. Within each group, the ties are broken by each team’s “best win” (defined as a win over the team which has the best record through that week). In addition, a victory over a good team on the road is given priority over a big win at home.

BONUS – Check out my holiday special “SwampSwami Presents the 12 Teams of Playoffs” at the bottom of the rankings list this week.

With the exception of one team (look carefully), the results are fairly close!