Georgia-Texas! Oregon-Ohio State! UCLA-Rutgers? Breaking down the new truth of

The 2024 college football season will be full of changes, consisting of brand-new coaches, prominent transfers who have switched schools and the expanded, 12-team playoff.Perhaps the most sweeping changes of all will remain in the makeup of the staying power conferences: the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC. To review, Texas and Oklahoma will be in the SEC; USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington will remain in the Big Ten; Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State will remain in the Huge 12, and Stanford, Cal and SMU will remain in the ACC.We asked our college football press reporters to share their ideas on the new-look conferences: what new matchups they’re most delighted to see, which ones they’re having a hard time to come to grips with, and which teams will be most impacted by the realignments.Other roundtables: Many thrilled to see |
. 12-team playoff What new conference match are you most excited to see? Georgia-Texas

After falling short of a 3rd consecutive nationwide title, Georgia will go into the season preferred to declare a 3rd championship in four seasons. But the team’s schedule away from Athens isn’t simple, and includes Clemson (neutral), Alabama (road) and Ole Miss (roadway), in addition to its first see to Texas given that 1958. Texas seems as gotten ready for entry into the SEC as a team might potentially be, after reaching its first CFP, beating Alabama on the roadway last year and taking the Tide to the brink in 2022 at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium. The Carson Beck-Quinn Ewers quarterback matchup might bring Heisman Trophy ramifications.– Adam Rittenberg

Ohio State-Oregon Both Ohio State and Oregon could be in the preseason leading 10 and both will come into the season extremely motivated after falling short of the College Football Playoff in 2023. A pair of new quarterbacks– Will Howard from Kansas State to the Buckeyes and Dillon Gabriel from Oklahoma to the Ducks– should have the offenses humming when they satisfy for the very first time as Huge Ten foes Oct. 12 in Eugene. As the playoff expands to 12 teams, recall these programs fulfilled for the very first CFP crown in 2014 and likely aren’t leaving the national phase anytime quickly.– Blake Baumgartner

Tennessee-Oklahoma Oklahoma makes its SEC debut in the house Sept. 21 against Tennessee, and much of the storyline will revolve around Josh Heupel, who brings the Vols back to his old stomping premises. Heupel quarterbacked the Sooners to a championship game in 2000 and was runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. He was later on the offending coordinator at OU, however was fired by Bob Stoops following the 2014 season. So there aren’t a lot of warm and fuzzy sensations surrounding Heupel’s exit from his alma mater. A great deal of eyes will also be on both quarterbacks. This will be Nico Iamaleava’s very first real roadway game as Tennessee’s starter and the very first marquee game for Oklahoma’s Jackson Arnold as he takes control of for Dillon Gabriel. And in a great deal of methods, this could be a playoff removal game. The loser would have a big mountain to climb to claw its method back into the playoff image with a loss so early in the season therefore lots of challenging games ahead.– Chris Low

Oklahoma-LSU I’ll stay away from old-turned-new rivalries for this– Texas-Texas A&M, Texas-Arkansas, Oklahoma-Missouri– and explain that it’s noteworthy that Oklahoma’s first SEC campaign ends in Baton Rouge. Playing in Death Valley is the ultimate” You remain in the SEC now!”minute, and the stakes might be quite high too. While neither OU nor LSU will be the SEC favorite in 2024, both might be within reach of a CFP at-large bid heading into the season’s home stretch. In reality, there’s a nonzero chance this one’s a removal game of sorts. Playing in Death Valley in a must-win situation? Invite to the SEC, undoubtedly.– Costs Connelly

Texas-Texas A&M OK, this isn’t precisely a”new “matchup, but if you’re college-aged or younger, it’s probably new to you. The overarching complaint about adjustment for the better part of the previous 20 years is that it has actually destroyed old competitions, and this latest round appears to have at least briefly upended some excellent ones (RIP Bedlam). However it also reunites Texas and A&M in the same league, providing a head-to-head match for the very first time considering that the Aggies left for the SEC after the 2011 season. There were numerous efforts over the past 12 years to get the game going once again, however none came to fruition, leaving the state– and the college football world– without among its most intense rivalry games. Well, thanks to realignment, Aggies-Longhorns is back for 2024, and we could not be more fired up. That the game might also have authentic playoff and SEC championship ramifications just contributes to the appeal. And with this year’s game played in College Station, that interest needs to lead to enormous ticket sales, which will help A&M pay some little part of all the cash it owes Jimbo Fisher. Win-win.– David Hale

Which new match will be the hardest for you to cover your brain around?

Ohio State-USC With the 4 Pac-12 schools entering into the Big Ten, I might have gone a few directions with this. However the pull of having Ohio State and USC– two conventional college football powerhouses– contending inside the very same conference is too appealing to miss. The Buckeyes travel to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 2026 before the Trojans go to Columbus in 2027. Two programs with a combined 14 Heisman Trophy winners and 19 national championships locking horns for the very first time as Big Ten compatriots will take a minute or more to digest.– Baumgartner

Editor’s Picks

2 Associated

Stanford-Syracuse and Cal-Wake Forest

The recent adjustment will make a great deal of matchups feel odd, however it will truly hit home when Cal and Stanford travel across the country to play Friday night games within the league. Stanford makes its ACC launching Sept. 20, as it goes all the method to Syracuse for its first-ever game with the Orange. Seven weeks later on, Cal makes its cross-country trip to deal with Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The new-look ACC has a lots of bizarre games– Florida State at SMU, Miami at Cal, Stanford at Clemson– provided its brand-new coast-to-coast footprint.– Rittenberg

Colorado-UCF Colorado and Coach Prime travel to UCF on Sept. 28 in the Buffaloes ‘very first road game in the new-look Big 12. It’s just under 1,900 miles to get from Stone, Colorado, to Orlando, Florida, and the concept of Colorado and UCF playing in a Huge 12 game (in the shadow of Disney World, no less) is going to take some getting utilized to. However for Buffs coach Deion Sanders, it might have the feel of a home game. He played at Florida State and matured in Fort Myers, Florida.– Low

UCLA-Rutgers UCLA is 2,800 miles far from Rutgers. The Bruins are just 2,700 miles away from Guatemala!.?.!! I’m not exactly sure I will ever get used to this.– Connelly All of the regionally challenged matches Let’s be genuine. A lot of them have actually been noted above, whether it’s one of the previous Pac-12 schools competing in the ACC, or something as plain as UCLA-Rutgers. The rivalries and tradition of college football, a huge part of the sport’s appeal, were built in big part on regionality. We will always take our college football nevertheless it is served to us, however that doesn’t imply these matches aren’t odd.– Harry Lyles Jr.Which group’s fortunes will change the most under the brand-new alignment?