Georgia did not make the College Football Playoff this past season. The Bulldogs dropped from No. 1 to No. 6 following the 27-24 loss to Alabama in the SEC championship game.

But the College Football Playoff will be expanding to 12 teams for the 2024 season. And many of ESPN’s college football analysts don’t see the Bulldogs having much trouble making it next season.

Even with a more difficult schedule, ESPN’s David Hale, Chris Low, Bill Connelly, Andrea Adelson, Harry Lyles Jr., and Heather Dinich all had Georgia not only making the College Football Playoff, but doing so as the No. 1 overall seed.

One of the changes for the 2024 season is that the four highest-ranked conference champions will earn first-round byes. Teams ranked fifth through 12th will play first-round games on campus, with the higher-ranked seeds hosting.

Georgia went 13-1 this past season, with the lone loss coming in the SEC championship game.

“To take a loss and walk off the field and try to process that is really hard, especially in a big game and a competitive game to where, you know, like, we missed opportunities,” quarterback Carson Beck said. “There’s a lot of different things that we could have done better, but that’s part of the game. And, you know, I think the whole team is really, you know, kind of had a chip on our shoulder ever since we lost that game and really came to work.”

The Bulldogs would’ve made a 12-team College Football Playoff in each of the last seven seasons. Instead, Georgia has only three College Football Playoff appearances in that time.

Georgia does have several key pieces to replace several key pieces, such as Brock Bowers, Sedrick Van Pran and Kamari Lassiter.

The Bulldogs though do bring back quarterback Carson Beck, who is looking to improve off his first season as a starter. Beck threw for 3,941 yards and 24 touchdown passes while also setting Georgia’s single-season completion record.

And he’s looking to have an even better season in 2024.

“There’s so many things that I can improve on and just continue to get better at,” Beck said. “Even the confidence piece of just going out there and believing in this team, believing in myself, and understanding exactly what defenses are trying to do. But I think that there can be a huge improvement from year to year.”

Georgia will bring in the No. 1 ranked signing class for the 2024 recruiting cycle and also landed six players out of the transfer portal.

The Bulldogs do face a more difficult schedule, as they have road trips to Kentucky, Alabama, Texas and Ole Miss.

Yet even with a challenging schedule, expectations are still high for the Bulldogs. This team knows they’ll have to meet them and will get their first chance to do so on Aug. 31 against the Clemson Tigers.