Another ESPN metric to measure the upcoming college football season, another No. 1 ranking for the Georgia Bulldogs.
ESPN’s FPI released its preseason projections for the 2024 season and the Georgia Bulldogs came in at No. 1 with a 26.8 rating.
“The FPI is a power rating that tracks each team’s strength relative to an average FBS squad,” ESPN’s Neil Paine wrote. “Teams are rated on offense, defense and special teams, with the values representing points per game. (So that means Georgia is rated as nearly 27 points per game better than the average team, which is pretty good!)”
The FPI gives Georgia a rating of 15.2 on offense, 11.1 on defense and 0.5 on special teams entering the 2024 season. Interestingly enough, Oregon came in at No. 2 in the rankings, followed by Texas, Ohio State and Alabama.
The metric did break down Georgia’s playoff chances, giving the Bulldogs a 78 percent chance of making the College Football Playoff and a 20 percent of winning it all. Those are the highest odds in both respective categories.
Georgia brings back a number of key pieces from last year’s 13-1 team. Georgia just missed the College Football Playoff last season but that was a four-team playoff.
This season, the playoff expands to 12 teams, with the four highest-rated conference champions earning a first-round bye. Even with games against Texas, Alabama and Ole Miss all on the road, head coach Kirby Smart knows there will be no excuses this fall.
“I can’t control what a committee or what someone thinks should be in,” Kirby Smart said at SEC Spring Meetings. “And we’ve had that with the 4-team playoff. There was probably three times where we were one of the four best teams but we didn’t earn it on the field. And so the same opportunity is going to present itself, it’s just going to be 13, 14, 15. You guys are going to debate a lot about it and I’m going to try and make my team better so they’re not 13, 14, 15.”
Georgia opens the 2024 season against the Clemson Tigers on Aug. 31. The FPI ranks Clemson as the No. 15 overall program, one of six top 20 teams Georgia will face during the 2024 season.
