The College Football Playoff will undergo its first major renovation for the first time since its 2014 inception.
In 2024, 12 teams will have the chance to compete for the national title this season. Because of this, the criteria will allow for teams such as last year’s snub Florida State the opportunity to prove themselves while also being more lenient towards teams with one, maybe two, losses to quality opponents.
Ahead of the 2024 season, Heather Dinich of ESPN analyzed 30 teams with the best chances of earning a College Football Playoff bid. Auburn checks in at No. 26 with a 13.5% chance to make its first-ever College Football Playoff appearance in 2024. Dinich is looking forward to seeing how much Auburn will improve after the hiring of [autotag]Derick Nix[/autotag] and [autotag]DJ Durkin[/autotag] as offensive and defensive coordinators respectively.
Auburn’s greatest quality will be its resume according to Dinich.
The strength of schedule. Auburn enters the season with the fifth-hardest schedule in the FBS, according to ESPN Analytics. If Auburn exceeds expectations and finishes 10-2 or better, there’s little doubt the Tigers will earn an at-large spot. They will have to win some difficult road games along the way. Auburn travels to Georgia, Missouri and Kentucky in October, and ends the season at Alabama. The selection committee has rewarded SEC teams with less challenging schedules.
Auburn’s October schedule will feature three road games against teams ranked higher than them in CBS Sports’ preseason 134 rankings. If Auburn is out of contention for a College Football Playoff slot, their October performance could be seen as a factor.
After facing Georgia on Oct. 5, Auburn has a bye week to prepare for the Oct. 19 trip to Missouri before ending the month at Kentucky. Auburn can’t lose all three of those games and expect the selection committee to reward it with a CFP bid — even if the Tigers find a way to beat Oklahoma and win the Iron Bowl. The nonconference schedule — Alabama A&M, Cal, New Mexico and Louisiana-Monroe — won’t win the Tigers any debates on Selection Day. In that particular scenario, the committee would have a hard time justifying a CFP bid for a team that had one road win.
Auburn’s hunt for a College Football Playoff bid begins later this month when it hosts Alabama A&M for the season-opener on Aug. 31 at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
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