NCAA College Football Power Rankings - 2024 Week 14

Mike's NCAA college football power rankings for the top 25 NCAA college football teams before Week 14 of the 2024 season. Which teams are the best contenders for the expanded playoff?

Oklahoma, Auburn, and Florida nuked the SEC. Indiana falls to Ohio State. The Kansas Jayhawks quest for a bowl claims another victim. It was just another day in the college football universe, but it could shake up these rankings a bit.

These rankings will vary from the AP ones because I don't go off speculation. I only go by what happened on the field. They have stabilized as the season goes on. We are even seeing some four-loss teams try to wiggle their way back in.

The SEC is hard to rank because of everyone beating up on each other during conference play. The Big Ten (18)? That remains to be seen. None of the four current (in my rankings) playoff teams in that conference have a difficult game this week.

(25) Tulane (9-2) (NR)

Last week: Bye

Shutting out Navy lands the Wave here after Army and Washington State lost. They played K-State and Oklahoma but didn't win either of those. Does that count more than UNLV's win over Kansas? Not right now, it doesn't.

(24) Illinois (8-3) (NR)

Last week: W 38-31 at Rutgers

The Rutgers win is solid enough to get the Illini back in the rankings. Can they hold it this time?

(23) UNLV (9-2) ⇑2

Last week: W 27-16 at San Jose State

UNLV won in a deluge in Silicon Valley. That overtime loss to Syracuse is looming very large to the Rebels right now.

(22) Missouri (8-3) ⇑1

Last week: W 39-20 at Mississippi State

All three Missouri losses are to ranked teams and they beat Vanderbilt and Boston College. Those aren't great wins, but they are better than anything UNLV, Memphis, or Tulane can put out there.

(21) Colorado (8-3) ⇓5

Last week: L 21-37 at Kansas (City)

The Jayhawks will always wonder about this season. What if the Jayhawks had this fire earlier in the season? The Big 12 (16) was very winnable for Kansas this year and it's showing recently.

Was Deion Sanders right? Did everyone talking about Colorado get to their heads? The Ralphies still have an outside shot at the Big 12 (16) title game, but they need a lot of help now.

(20) Kansas State (8-3) ⇑2

Last week: W 41-15 vs. Cincinnati

The win in Boulder is the only thing keeping the Wildcats ranked, but they look little like the team that won in the Rockies six weeks ago.

(19) Iowa State (9-2) ⇑2

Last week: W 31-28 at Utah

Iowa State will have a hard time getting in over Arizona State if the Sun Devils win the Territorial Cup. Even Colorado has better wins than the Cyclones. Should the Cyclones be left out of the Big 12 (16) Championship, they won't make the playoff. The committee would put at least one three-loss SEC team in first.

(18) Texas A&M (8-3) ⇓3

Last week: L 41-43 (4 OT) at Auburn

Yes, college football took the best overtime in the world and watered it down. It's still not as bad as the NFL, but come on. Two-point conversion plays to win feels like such a rip-off after a game like this. Let them try to move the ball 25 yards again. Take a 5-minute break every two overtimes if you have to. Don't resort to this!

All the Aggies can do now is play spoiler. It would take a miracle to get them into the playoff now.

(17) BYU (9-2) ⇓9

Last week: L 23-28 at Arizona State

This BYU ranking is really a byproduct of having both losses happen consecutively. All in all, BYU's losses are better than Arizona State's and they beat SMU.

(16) Arizona State (9-2) ⇑4

Last week: W 28-23 vs. (8) BYU

A quarterback running the wrong way, a premature goal-post teardown and a Hail Mary attempt: the final minute of ASU-BYU had it all ? https://t.co/rPfTCGOj3N

(via @_JakeSeymour) pic.twitter.com/fWjiGYgGti

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) November 24, 2024

Yes, they had to clear the field AND put the goalposts back up to officially storm the field again. No players, students, coaches, goalposts, or referees were hurt. The only thing that hurt was the pride of BYU fans.

Are wins over Utah and BYU any less impressive than wins over LSU and South Carolina? Maybe, but the Aggies do have an extra loss.

(15) Clemson (9-2) ⇑2

Last week: W 51-14 vs. The Citadel

Where's the big win? Pitt is the only one that comes close. They failed the Georgia and Louisville tests.

(14) South Carolina (8-3) ⇑5

Last week: W 56-12 vs. Wofford

You may not want to talk about good losses, but I do. LSU needed help from the officials to beat the Gamecocks. Alabama should have lost to them in Tuscaloosa. Mississippi was the only loss in which they weren't close.

This is a team that throttled A&M and destroyed a Kentucky team that beat Ole Miss. Carolina is very close to the best three-loss team in the country. If they win this week, they will be.

(13) Boise State (10-1) ⇑1

Last week: W 17-13 at Wyoming

If Boise wouldn't have struggled with the Cowboys, I would have moved them up more.

(12) Mississippi (8-3) ⇓5

Last week: L 17-24 at Florida

I'm not going to get after Mississippi too much for this one. Who really wants to play Florida right now? It was at the Swamp, it was a one-score game, these things happen. You know what doesn't usually happen? Jaxson Dart doesn't usually throw interceptions on back-to-back drives to lose the game.

(11) Alabama (8-3) ⇓6

Last week: L 3-24 at Oklahoma

Tonight’s game marked the first time Alabama did not score a touchdown since the 2011 season. pic.twitter.com/QKwT9eWvsH

— Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) November 24, 2024

It's hard to say that it's the schedule for Bama when they have two losses to five-loss teams. Those are the games that Alabama won under Nick Saban. This is the first time in 14 years that Alabama has lost three games in a season.

(10) Miami (FL) (10-1) ⇑3

Last week: W 42-14 vs. Wake Forest

Miami's cake ACC schedule is going to hurt them this year. Both SMU and Clemson have faced tougher conference schedules. The bright side for the Hurricanes is that they currently hold the ACC Championship tiebreaker over Clemson.

(9) SMU (10-1) ⇑3

Last week: W 33-7 at Virginia

The win over Pitt is better than any of Miami's wins and the loss to BYU is better than Miami's loss. You can't skate by just being a name in these rankings.

(8) Indiana (10-1) ⇑2

Last week: L 15-38 at (3) Ohio State

Yes, Indiana failed upward. They lost to a top team. Alabama, Mississippi, and BYU did not. All of those losses came to teams with at least five losses.

(7) Notre Dame (10-1) ⇑4

Last week: W 49-14 vs. (18) Army

I have trashed Notre Dame's schedule as much as anyone, but I will admit that wins over Army and Texas A&M are good wins. Better than any win Indiana has had. Better than BYU's win over SMU. The Irish played their way into the playoff with this destruction of Army.

Ok...it's trivia time. Which team has the most wins over bowl-eligible teams? It's not Alabama even with their four wins against top 25 teams. It's not Georgia with that top-heavy schedule. It's Notre Dame.

Nobody is talking about Notre Dame as the hottest team in the country ☘️

49-14 #19 Army
35-14 UVA
52-3 FSU
51-14 #24 Navy
31-13 Georgia Tech

Watch out for the Irish in The Playoff ? pic.twitter.com/717Qm08l68

— 229 Sports (@229Sports_) November 26, 2024

(6) Texas (10-1) ⇑3

Last week: W 31-14 vs. Kentucky

There is no letdown here. Texas handled business and looks ready for the Aggies this week. All three of these SEC teams are likely in the playoff. So far, Texas hasn't played -- or beaten -- the quality of opponents of Georgia or Tennessee. Of course, If Texas had beaten Georgia in Austin, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

(5) Tennessee (9-2) ⇑1

Last week: W 56-0 vs UTEP

Georgia, this is how you handle a cupcake.

(4) Georgia (9-2) ⇔

Last week: W 59-21 vs. Massachusetts

The Minutemen led a couple of times in this game before Georgia realized that style points still count. The Bulldogs have big wins over Texas and Tennessee (not to mention Clemson). Both losses are to highly ranked teams. Yeah, I'm keeping them here.

(3) Penn State (10-1) ⇔

Last week: W 26-25 at Minnesota

The Gophers had every chance to win this game. Penn State escapes again!

(2) Ohio State (10-1) ⇔

Last week: W 38-15 vs. (10) Indiana

It was a very efficient game for Will Howard and a triumphant victory for Ohio State's special teams.

A few things:

1. Ten years and a day between them
2. Both came against Indiana
3. Last one sparked Ohio State's 2014 CFP title run#B1GFootball pic.twitter.com/5aEu4fQpFp

— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) November 23, 2024

Just some food for thought. Many believe if Ohio State played Oregon on a neutral field that the results would be different. Of course, many thought that with Washington and Oregon last year too...

(1) Oregon (11-0) ⇔

Last week: Bye

Oregon getting pumped during Wisconsin’s “Jump Around” celebration is the moment this game changed. Lanning making sure the kids still have fun is so underrated to their success ?pic.twitter.com/IIU4TvBER6

— B1G Duck Energy ? (5 ⭐️ Fan) (@BigGreenDuck) November 17, 2024

The Ducks missed out on all of the Week 13 carnage. Lucky them!

Others Receiving Votes

• Army
• Navy
• Syracuse
• LSU
• Memphis

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