ESPN's Computer Releases National Title Pick After The First Round
12/22/2024 02:26 PM
The first round of the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff is in the books.
The on-campus environments around the country were awesome, but unfortunately, none of the four games this weekend were close. Notre Dame beat Indiana 27-17 on Friday night, followed by Penn State routing SMU 38-10, Texas beating Clemson 38-24 and Ohio State blasting Tennessee 42-17 on Saturday. Hopefully, the quarterfinals on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are better.
ESPN's Football Power Index (FPI) has updated its projections following the first round. If you're unfamiliar with the FPI, it's considered to be "a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team's performance going forward for the rest of the season."
One of the metrics in the FPI is a team's odds of winning the national championship. Texas currently has the best odds at 27.2%, followed by Notre Dame at 20%.
Ohio State (17.3%), Georgia (12.9%) and Penn State (12.1%) are the only other teams with a better than 10% chance of winning it all, according to the calculations.
Interestingly, Oregon has just a 7.7% chance of winning it all, per the FPI, despite being undefeated and the No. 1 seed in the bracket.
Eight teams remain, with the quarterfinals getting underway on Dec. 31, when Boise State meets Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl. On Jan. 1, Texas and Arizona State will face off in the Peach Bowl, followed by Ohio State-Oregon in the Rose Bowl and Notre Dame-Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.
The College Football Playoff semifinals will be played Jan. 9 (Orange Bowl) and Jan. 10 (Cotton Bowl) with the national championship game set for Jan. 20 in Atlanta.
It should be an awesome few weeks of football. In the meantime, you can check out all of the FPI projections right here.
Related: Longtime Ohio State Football Reporter Blasts ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit
