The “Adopted School” Index for the 2024 College Football Playoff

We’re embarking on the first year of the 12-team College Football Playoff.

The bracket has been revealed, and it feels like there was minimal drama in the drawn-out selection show, aside from Alabama, Ole Miss, South Carolina, and maybe Miami fans who insisted they earned the right to the last spot despite their resume flaws.

PHOTO: NCAA/Facebook

College football and the NCAA as a whole will never get out of its own way of being a political argument-based reality show where everyone has their own beliefs on who is best, from who they beat and how, from the value of a win or loss, or strengths of schedules and conference. Still, it’s proven that it isn’t afraid to change formatting at the drop of a dime for entertainment and money. This may be year one, and we’re already exploring changing it somehow.

However, we’re here anyway! We have a field of 12 schools that made it to determine an undisputed champion for the first time, with the first round taking place on campuses that will be unlike anything we’ve ever seen (sorry, lifeless corporate-sponsored neutral sites in domes). Chances are, you’re going to watch regardless of your allegiances and alma maters, and you may “adopt a school” to root on to be the champion if your own is playing in a ridiculous bowl game elsewhere or didn’t meet those quantifiers.

For the neutral observer, let’s examine the Adopted School Index ahead of the College Football Playoff, or what school you should adopt and what would be the most compelling story from worst to best.

12) Clemson Tigers

Clemson won the ACC Championship on a last-second field goal over SMU to make the playoff with an automatic bid, but they’re the lowest-ranked seed in the field with 3 losses and have a program that we’ve seen time after time in the 4-team field era with Dabo Swinney.

Chances are you’re not only tired of them but also think they didn’t deserve to get in with no other ranked wins otherwise. Dabo Swinney’s shtick of being the only coach in the nation aside from the service academies who refuses to use the transfer portal or pay the players is completely backward and ridiculous.

11) Georgia Bulldogs

The undisputed SEC Champions overcame the odds, according to head coach Kirby Smart, who blatantly criticized the commissioner in front of their celebration for making them travel despite only playing 4 road games and having the conference championship in their state. Little ol’ Georgia did it again!

The Bulldogs did it again- they’re the Chiefs of the season in that they keep winning in “they can’t keep getting away with it” fashion because of their loaded NFL talent outweighing QB Carson Beck’s underperformance (although Beck will be out and the backup Gunner Stockton led them to a win over Texas simply by… not making mistakes). They’ve got recurring dominance with two national championships since 2022 already, they have recurring legal issues off the field, they’re not exactly an underdog story with how many NFL players they have on the team, and the fans bark at children. Uga is a good boy, though.

10) Ohio State Buckeyes

After losing to rival Michigan again, it could be argued that even Ohio State fans aren’t even exactly on board with the Buckeyes making a run if it means that Ryan Day will be back as head coach despite success against literally every other program. They’re another behemoth that reportedly spent $20 million in NIL this offseason on their roster and be all-in on a championship or else only to have two conference losses to Oregon and Michigan and be in the market for a new coach.

They’re exciting to watch in that they have the best receiving development powerhouse in football—maybe the best one they’ve ever had. Jeremiah Smith is still only a freshman who does something you’ve never seen before, but the program’s meltdown, with the backdrop of the Michigan storyline, may have been the worst-prepared loss in football history, and there’s something kind of comically fun about rooting against that.

9) Texas Longhorns

Another massive program that finally became “back” last year by making the four-team playoff, they had every chance to win the SEC Championship against Georgia but couldn’t overcome their talent. It feels like Texas has been “searching” all year after coming to the SEC and getting maybe the easiest schedule, with their biggest win arguably being Vanderbilt, but they have a stifling defense and a stout run game despite injuries, and other than that haven’t done much to impress you in the eye test.

Quinn Ewers has been kept around as the starter out of seniority and loyalty from head coach Steve Sarkisian, but it’s certainly frustrating watching them play a boring brand of football, knowing that a man with Manning genes is sitting behind him waiting to get in the game. Matthew McConaughey, Minister of Culture, needs to make the call.

8) Penn State Nittany Lions

The expanded playoff was arguably made for schools like Penn State: the “always the bridesmaid, never the bride” of the B1G in the 4-team era, where they would have all the talent and falter in the big games to Ohio State or Michigan. James Franklin is seen as one of the coaches in college football and has no signature wins to show for it, but he’ll have that opportunity to host a home playoff game against SMU in the first round. Drew Allar looked like he could absolutely sling it again as they bought back in the conference championship against Oregon.

They don’t have much aside from either running the ball with Nic Singleton or having him throw the ball to do-it-all tight end Tyler Warren, who has been an absolute beast, but we’ve all been waiting for them to do something special on offense for what it feels like a decade. If they can’t get it done in a home whiteout at Happy Valley, will it ever happen?

7) Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Usually, there are only those who are Notre Dame fans and those who despise the program that is forced upon your viewership every Saturday. The high and mighty Catholic school is too good to join a conference. The Fighting Irish went 11-1 but had the most egregious and inexcusable early loss of the season at home to 7-5 Northern Illinois, who got paid for playing the game at all. Many thought that should’ve been an inexcusable nail in the coffin- if you lose to a MAC school at home, you have no business playing against the best, but that had to be the most “Notre Dame” loss of all-time if you know Notre Dame football. Instead, they rattled off 9 straight wins and have looked better each time, with a defense that could potentially stifle the offenses in the field. That progression was enough for the committee to remove themselves from the team, which they saw lose 16-14 in week two.

It would be much easier to root against this team if Brian Kelly were coaching it before their playoff shortcomings, but it feels as if everyone is rooting for young, handsome Marcus Freeman on the sidelines to figure it out (before possibly taking the Bears job?).

6) Tennessee Volunteers

The Volunteers simply checked off all the boxes for the majority of their season, aside from losses on the road to Georgia and an inexcusable one early in the season at Arkansas, but that comes with playing in the SEC. We keep waiting for the Heupel system to vault Nico Iamaleava, the athletic super freak with a rocket arm as a freshman, to transcend him into superstar status. He’s made freshman mistakes, and many times, it feels as if Heupel prefers to minimize him in favor of Dylan Sampson and the run game and win it ugly with James Pearce Jr. and the pass rush on defense. Still, in the moments where he throws a laser across the seam to a guy named SQUIRREL WHITE (the most SEC name possible), it’s one of the prettiest things in football.

Seeing the Vols, who had heaters on the players during a chilly night game in Athens early in the year, have to travel to Columbus in the first round is going to be a sight. You just have to wonder if the fan who threw the mustard bottle is going to attempt to plant a flag if they pull off the upset.

5) Oregon Ducks

Oregon is the #1 seed and the only undefeated team left in the nation. They’re the team that was notorious for having the “1,000,000 uniform combinations, 0 national titles” sign every time they would fail to win the big one as a soft school that likes to play dress up.

Dan Lanning, however, has taken over the program as a former SEC guy and made them anything but. They won the B1G title, they play an exciting brand of football where Dillion Gabriel, who has the most starts by a quarterback ever, is able to throw on the run to electric receivers they picked up from the portal, and a loaded defensive front. Despite being possibly the only “great” team, it feels like many are rooting for Lanning to be the “next guy up” as a forward-thinking motivator and for the Ducks to finally get where Phil Knight has tried to get them for what feels like forever.

4) SMU Mustangs

In their first season in a major conference, SMU came out and went 11-1 before their ACC Championship loss to Clemson. The loss was early in the season to a BYU team that we look at a lot more favorably now, but after giving the starting job to electrifying dual-threat QB Kevin Jennings, the Mustangs settled in and scored over 28 points in every game since then. They showed enough fight in the ACC title game to mount a comeback and not be penalized for playing in a game that was “extra” on their schedule for an auto bid, but they DID get in at the expanse of Alabama’s, the South Carolina’s, the and the Ole Miss’s crying that they never played anyone in a weak ACC.

All eyes will be on them to prove that they made the right decision to be included as the Pony darlings that went from the American Conference losing to Boston College in a bowl game at a baseball stadium to preventing the behemoths from making the postseason. They’re still the rich quarter-zip-wearing private school in Dallas that George W. sends his children to, but their admittance at the expense of the villains has to make the casuals ponying up a little bit.

3) Indiana Hoosiers

Indiana. Whereas in 49 other states, it’s just basketball.

EXCEPT FOR THIS YEAR! The Hoosiers are indeed a football school! Indiana hadn’t won a B1G title since 1967 and never won 10 games in a single season, EVER. 9 Win-Diana was once considered a dream season, but in the first season of coach Frank Cignetti coming over from the James Madison Duke darling season last year and Maple Montana Canadian Kurtis Rourke slinging the ball, the Hoosiers are in the playoff.

It didn’t come without somehow being the subject of the most divisive college football debates in recent memory regarding whether or not they’re what the record says they are; the Hoosiers are 11-1 with that one 23-point loss coming at Ohio State, the only opponent worth anything at all. Cignetti’s grizzled chip on his shoulder in year one, fighting an uphill battle for reputation, may rub people the wrong way after he came out and said the Hoosiers were deserving of a home game. Still, they’re an unbelievably unlikely success in what’s going to be an incredible battle for the Hoosier state at Notre Dame in the first round.

2) Boise State Broncos

We fell in love with them when they were just the team in the middle of nowhere with the blue field that pulled off the most David Slays Goliath moment of this century with the Statue of Liberty play against Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. Now, we fell for them as the Group of 5 Conference Champion that has a Heisman candidate and somehow got the #3 overall seed.

They answered every question thus far despite playing and representing the “little guys” of the college football world. Their one loss was to Oregon, where they still OUTGAINED them in yardage but lost at the expense of special teams returns. Runningback Ashton Jeanty is the great divider in that you’re either finding ways to root against him if you’re in the Travis Hunter for Heisman camp, where he plays both sides of the ball exceptionally and should be rewarded for doing something we’ve never seen before, or you’re rooting for Jeanty for carrying this team to where it is in a traditional sense as a bell-cow, workhorse runningback that plows through everyone and lifts the entire roster to an unquantifiable value. His lowest rushing output was 127 yards, the highest being 267, and his season total comes to 2,497 yards and 29 touchdowns. There are already conversations about whether or not the automatic inclusion of a Group of 5 schools should be eliminated. Still, Boise State should have gotten in not because of the auto-bid but because Jeanty and the team are just that good, and we’re rooting for them to prove that on the big stage.

1) Arizona State Sun Devils

The Arizona State Sun Devils were picked to finish dead last in the conference before the season started. This was a program that was left in absolute shambles after Herm Edwards was a disaster, was fired, and received recruiting violations. Jayden Daniels, Heisman Trophy winner and possible NFL Rookie of the Year was being made fun of by former teammates before he transferred from the school.

In steps Kenny Dillingham, the youngest head coach in FBS and Arizona State alumni. To say he has an aura is an understatement—he’s the cause of the historic turnaround because he coaches like he’s still a competitive psychopath suiting up for the team. You see him animated with wide eyes and recruiting players by evaluating their ping-pong skills to see if they have what it takes to compete with them.

The Sun Devils play LIKE Kenny Dillingham, stepping on the throats with no mercy. It starts with Cam Skattebo, the runningback who runs with the strength of a Norse God, seeking contact with a hammer, making the extra block, and craving the most gritted-out bowling ball runs possible.

They rolled Iowa State in the Big 12 Championship, one of the most chaotic conferences, and now the “party school” picked to finish last gets a first-round bye. It’s a party in Tempe, and we all want to be a part of it.

PHOTO: NCAA/Facebook