College Football

What the college football landscape will look like in 2024

Published Jan. 11, 2024 10:32 a.m. ET

With the 2023 college football season in the books, we can officially turn our attention toward the 2024 campaign, which will have a different look to it.

There are several groundbreaking changes across the college football landscape in 2024, including huge shakeups in conference realignment and the expansion of the College Football Playoff from four teams to a new-look 12-team format.

Here is a look at what the season will look like at first glance and what to expect in 2024.

Conference Alignment:

There will be a total of 134 schools in the FBS in 2024, with Kennesaw State officially joining the FBS from the FCS ranks next season.

As far as membership, there will be a seismic change in the college football landscape in 2024, with programs moving to new conferences. Here's a look at what changes will be made.

Power Conferences:

ACC:

(17) Members in 2024: Boston College, California, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami (FL), North Carolina, NC State, Pittsburgh, SMU, Stanford, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest
Who was added: California (Pac-12), SMU (AAC) and Stanford (Pac-12) were added for the 2024 season.
Who was subtracted: No teams are leaving the ACC for the 2024 season.
Scheduling: The ACC has eliminated divisions and each team will play eight conference games. The top-two teams in the conference will play in the ACC Championship Game.

Big 12:

(16) Members in 2024: Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, BYU, Colorado, Cincinnati, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech, UCF, Utah and West Virginia.
Who was added: Arizona (Pac-12), Arizona State (Pac-12), Colorado (Pac-12) and Utah (Pac-12) were added for the 2024 season.
Who was subtracted: Oklahoma (SEC) and Texas (SEC)
Scheduling: Similar to last year, there will be no divisions. Each team will play nine conference games. The top-two teams in the conference will play in the Big 12 Championship Game.

Big Ten:

(18) Members in 2024: Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, UCLA, USC, Wisconsin and Washington.
Who was added: Oregon (Pac-12), UCLA (Pac-12), USC (Pac-12) and Washington (Pac-12) were added for the 2024 season.
Who was subtracted: No teams are leaving the Big Ten for the 2024 season.
Scheduling: The Big Ten has eliminated divisions for the season and each team will once again play nine conference games. The top-two teams in the conference will play in the Big Ten Championship Game.

Pac-12:

(2) Members in 2024: Oregon State and Washington State
Who was added: No schools were added to the Pac-12.
Who was subtracted: Arizona (Big 12), Arizona State (Big 12), California (ACC), Colorado (Big 12), Oregon (Big Ten), Stanford (ACC), UCLA (Big Ten), USC (Big Ten), Utah (Big 12) and Washington (Big Ten).
Scheduling: The Pac-12 now has just two members. Oregon State and Washington State will each play five games against Power 5 teams, six games (three home and three away) against teams from the Mountain West Conference and one game against an FCS school. The Pac-12 will no longer have an automatic qualifier status for the winner of the conference, but Oregon State and Washington State will still be able to qualify for the CFP as at-large teams.

SEC:

(16) Members in 2024: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt.
Who was added: Oklahoma (Big 12) and Texas (Big 12) are being added for the 2024 season.
Who was subtracted: No schools are leaving the SEC for the 2024 season.
Scheduling: The SEC has eliminated divisions for the season and each team will once again play eight conference games. The top-two teams in the conference will play in the SEC Championship Game.

Group of 5 Conferences:

AAC:

(14) Members in 2024: Army, Charlotte, East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Memphis, Navy, North Texas, Rice, South Florida, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa, UAB and UTSA.
Who was added: Army (Independent) is the only school being added to the AAC for the 2024 season.
Who was subtracted: SMU (ACC) is the only school leaving the AAC for the 2024 season.
Scheduling: The AAC has no divisions. The teams will all play eight conference games and the top-two teams will play in the AAC Championship Game.

C-USA:

(10) Members in 2024: Florida International, Jacksonville State, Kennesaw State, Liberty, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee State, New Mexico State, Sam Houston State, UTEP and Western Kentucky.
Who was added: Kennesaw State (FCS) is the only school being added to Conference USA for the 2024 season.
Who was subtracted: No schools are leaving Conference USA for the 2024 season.
Scheduling: C-USA has no divisions. The teams will all play eight conference games and the top-two teams will play in the C-USA Championship Game.

MAC:

(12) Members in 2024: EAST: Akron, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Kent State, Miami (OH), Ohio. WEST: Ball State, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Toledo and Western Michigan.
Who was added: No schools are being added to the MAC for the 2024 season.
Who was subtracted: No are leaving the MAC for the 2024 season.
Scheduling: The MAC will have an East and West division. Each team will play eight conference games with the winners of each division playing in the MAC Championship Game.

Mountain West:

(12) Members in 2024: Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, San Jose State, UNLV, Utah State and Wyoming.
Who was added: No schools are being added to the Mountain West Conference for the 2024 season.
Who was subtracted: No schools are leaving the Mountain West Conference for the 2024 season.
Scheduling: The Mountain West has no divisions and each conference will play eight conference games in 2024. The top-two teams will play in the Mountain West Championship Game.

Sun Belt:

(14) Members in 2024: EAST: Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, James Madison, Marshall, Old Dominion. WEST: Arkansas State, Louisiana, UL-Monroe, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Texas State and Troy.
Who was added: No schools are being added to the Sun Belt for the 2024 season.
Who was subtracted: No schools are leaving the Sun Belt for the 2024 season.
Scheduling changes: The Sun Belt has an East and West division. Each team will play eight conference games with the winners playing in the Sun Belt Championship Game.

Independents:

(3) Teams in 2024: Notre Dame, UConn, UMass
Who was added: No other schools are independent in 2024.
Who was subtracted: Army (AAC) is losing its independent status in 2024.
Scheduling changes: Each team plays a different schedule. Notre Dame has an agreement with the ACC to play five games per year against teams in the conference.

CFP changes for the 2024 season:

Starting with the 2024 season, the CFP will expand its playoff to 12 teams with the six highest-ranked conference champions each earning a spot, while there will also be six at-large bids handed to the six highest-ranked teams remaining.

In this format, the four highest-ranked conference champions will receive a first-round bye to the quarterfinals. The higher-seeded teams in the first round will either have home-field advantage or play at another site designated by the higher-seeded institution.

The seed matchups would be No. 12 at No. 5, No. 11 at No. 6, No. 10 at No. 7, and No. 9 at No. 8 for the first round.

[2024-25 College Football title odds: Georgia, Alabama open as favorites]

This is how the 12-team field would have looked had it been instituted this season after the final CFP rankings were released.

How does this change scheduling?

With the expanded playoffs, there is a chance some teams could end up playing 17 games in the 2024 season, which would be the most a team has played in a single season.

This will also impact timing. Next season, the CFP games will begin on Friday, Dec. 20th and will continue well into January with the CFP Championship Game scheduled for Jan. 20th, 2025. The schedule is broken down like this:

First Round (games played on-campus or at place of choice for the higher seed) Friday, Dec. 20 (one game) Saturday, Dec. 21 (three games)
Friday, Dec. 20 (one game)
Saturday, Dec. 21 (three games)
Quarterfinals Tuesday, Dec. 31 (Fiesta Bowl) Wednesday, Jan. 1 (Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl)
Tuesday, Dec. 31 (Fiesta Bowl)
Wednesday, Jan. 1 (Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl)
Semifinals Thursday, Jan. 9 (Orange Bowl) Friday, Jan. 10 (Cotton Bowl)
Thursday, Jan. 9 (Orange Bowl)
Friday, Jan. 10 (Cotton Bowl)
Championship GameMonday, Jan. 20 (Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta)
Monday, Jan. 20 (Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta)

The bowl games will begin in the quarterfinals and will be rotating each year.

Changes to 2024 scheduling

For the first time next year, college football will have a 14-week regular season rather than a 13-week regular season. That is due in part to an early Labor Day creating an additional Saturday between September’s first weekend and Thanksgiving weekend. Because of that, each team will now have two byes built into their schedule instead of the usual one.