Popular CFB Analyst Claims Five SEC Teams Will Make 2024 College Football Playoffs

The new college athletics calendar year is here. Within the past week, the college athletics calendar turned for the 2024-25 academic year, which means conference realignment finally took place. Oklahoma — accompanied by Texas — is officially a member of the SEC.

While the new league is a huge opportunity for the Oklahoma Sooners’ football program, it comes with some challenges, too. In their first year in the SEC, Oklahoma will be facing a gauntlet of a schedule as they look to find their way into the expanded 12-team playoff field.

Different pundits and analysts have differing opinions on how the Sooners will fare in their first SEC football schedule, but one thing remains true — it’s the best conference in the sport and they’ll be favored when looking for a College Football Playoff bid in December.

On3 analyst could see SEC having five teams in College Football Playoffs

With an expanded 12-team playoff field coming in the 2024 college football season, things are certain to look a bit different. Eight additional teams will make the postseason with an opportunity to compete for a national title, and automatic bids will come for each of the Power Four conferences and one group of five team is guaranteed a bid, too.

The four highest-ranked conference champions (likely the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12) will be slotted with first-round byes as the No. 1 through No. 4 seed. The remaining slots, No. 5 through No. 12 seed, will come from the fifth-highest-ranked conference championship team and seven at-large teams in order of the highest-ranked teams.

Oklahoma’s Jackson Arnold (11) takes the field with teammates before a University of Oklahoma (OU) Sooners spring football game at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, April 20, 2024.

On3’s Andy Staples made ten predictions for the 2024 college football season, which includes the SEC having five teams in the playoffs. This would mean the champion would more than likely earn a first-round bye, with four additional teams finding their way in with an at-large bid.

“It’s not apples to apples because you can’t just port Texas or Oklahoma playoff appearances to the SEC because of how the automatic bids work and because we don’t know if those teams would have had a different record playing in a different league, but seven teams that will be in the SEC in 2024 (Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss, Missouri, LSU, Oklahoma) finished in the top 13 last season,” Staples said. “The No. 12 team is likely getting kicked for the highest-ranked Group of Five champ, but the power conferences are so big now that the champions of all four likely will finish in the top 11. That would keep anyone else from getting punted.”

The Sooners with a 9-3 record in the SEC are arguably a better team than, say, a 10-2 Clemson team that faced a light ACC schedule. This goes for the eight aforementioned SEC programs who will be on the bubble of getting a playoff bid.

The voting won’t show favoritism for the SEC because of its popularity but rather for the sheer talent and competition in the league. It’s, by far, the best league in college football when rounding out the top programs, and that’ll show when a handful of teams get playoff bids next season.

“The SEC’s schedule draw is the biggest reason for this prediction,” Staples said. “Alabama and Georgia got tougher conference schedules, but they’re also talented enough to handle them. Texas and Ole Miss appear to have CFP-caliber rosters and fairly manageable schedules. Missouri and Tennessee may not be perfect, but they’re going to be good and they fared well in the schedule draw. Oklahoma and LSU are Oklahoma and LSU; they’re almost always a threat to win double-digit games. That’s a lot of legitimate contenders, and it’s entirely reasonable that five-eighths of that group could finish in the top 11.”

Heading into the new conference behind sophomore quarterback Jackson Arnold and a new-look coaching staff put together by Brent Venables, the Sooners are one of the most intriguing programs to keep an eye on.

READ MORE: Oklahoma Football ‘Defines Excellence’ Heading Into SEC

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Follow Kade Kimble on Twitter.