College Football's Bottom 25 Poll, Final Poll of 2024

Dix Stadium, home of Kent State University football

This final poll brought many quandaries as to where to rank certain teams. There are two general rules I apply when ranking teams with the same record: First, teams that won and teams with a BYE the previous week are ranked closer to #25 than teams that lost the previous week and second, teams that played each other are almost always ranked on the basis of the outcome of that game.

That said, there were 13 teams in this final poll with identical 3-9 records. To add to the complications, only 3 of those teams, Ball State, Georgia State and Stanford, had not played a single one of the other 3-9 teams. And complicating even further, 7 of the remaining 10 teams were in one of two conferences, 4 in the AAC and 3 in Conference USA. Those 3 Conference USA teams, UTEP, New Mexico State and Middle Tennessee State each played the other two and all three ended up with identical 1-1 records against the other two. So...what to do? Some of the teams who won last week had also previously lost to a team that lost last week. 

I just muddled together a combo of ratings, including the head-to-head matchups, points differentials, conference records and the previous weekend's results. The previously mentioned three schools who hadn't played any of the others were easy to deal with, as well as Tulsa, who managed to play 4 other 3-9 teams over the season and lost to ALL of them! Oklahoma State only played one other school (Tulsa, naturally) and beat them, so that was easy, too. So that sorts 5 of the 13 teams. 

As for the troubles...San Diego State lost last week and Wyoming won, but the Aztecs beat the Cowboys earlier in the season. It was only a 3-point game, so I just put the two of them in as a tie for 20th. Temple beat FAU and Tulsa earlier in the season, but lost last week while FAU won. Therefore, the only fair thing to do was put Temple one rank closer to #25, despite the results of last weekend. And lastly were the CUSA trio. Middle Tennessee State was clearly the weaker of the trio, finishing with a 2-6 conference record and a minus 8-point differential against the other two. New Mexico State was also 2-6 in conference play AND lost to UTEP in the season finale, so I put them in the middle of the three, despite them having a plus 8-point differential. UTEP's point differential was a wash (+/- 0 points) but they were 3-5 in conference play and had that last weekend win, too.

Okay, whew...Conference Championship week, where NO 25er teams will be deployed. As always, enjoy the games!

1) Kent State (0-12) The Golden Flashless lost their finale, a Tuesday night MAC special at Buffalo, 43-7. That makes 21 straight losses leading back to 2023’s lone victory, 38-10 over Central Connecticut of the FCS on 9/16/23.

2) Southern Mississippi (1-11) 2024 ends with 10 straight losses for the Golden Favres after a 52-20 beating at Troy in a Sun Belt Bummer Bowl.

3) Purdue (1-11) The Shotandabeers losing streak is now up to 11 after being clubbed at nationally ranked Indiana, 66-0, in what was not much of an Old Oaken Bucket Rivalry game. Head Coach Ryan Walters was fired following the game.

4) Massachusetts (2-10) The Minute-men played well but still fell at home to UConn, 47-42. Interim HC Shane Montgomery was 0-2 after replacing former Head Coach Don Brown.

5) Kennesaw State (2-10) The Fowls #1 did get blanked 33-0 at Louisiana Tech, but did get the coaching win by hiring former Jacksonville Jags running backs coach Jerry Mack as their new head coach.

6) Florida State (2-10) The Semi–gnomes were short-armed at home by Florida, 31-11. Then another flag planting melee ensued. That is NOT on FSU, however. I get it with Michigan, who was a big underdog, but Florida? Act like you were supposed to win the game.

7) Mississippi State (2-10) The Dulldogs did the “throw out the records” rivalry game thing, keeping close in The Egg Bowl at Ole Miss before finally falling 26-14.

8) Nevada (3-10) At one point, the Wolfcack were 3-4 after beating Oregon State at home. Since then it has been 6 straight losses to close out the “we played Hawai’i, so we got 13 games” season, the finale being a 38-14 blowout in the rivalry Fremont Cannon game at nationally ranked UNLV.

9) Ball State (3-9) The Marginals finished 0-2 under interim HC Colin Johnson, dropping their finale at Ohio, 42-21.

10) Tulsa (3-9) The Golden Bore-icane had only two FBS wins this season, by an aggregate total of 4 points and spent the season’s final 4 weeks largely getting kicked around, so losing a conference Bummer Bowl at home 63-16 to FAU in the finale is kind of a fitting end to a 2024 which also saw them lose game 3 by 35 points to current B25 #19 Oklahoma State.

11) Georgia State (3-9) The Panters #1 crashed back to earth, getting pecked by the Chanticleers of Coastal Carolina, 48-27 in Atlanta, with starting QB Christian Veillieux doing his Kirk Cousins impression a day early by throwing 4 INTs. As a GSU grad, I watched this game and if the box score states that there were more than 3500 people in Centre Parc Stadium, it is a lie. The crowd couldn’t even be called a crowd, in fact. (the box score says 12,600…BULLSHIT!!!!)

12) Stanford (3-9) The Marginal beat Syracuse early this season and 19^th ranked Louisville 3 weeks ago, but dropped their finale at San Jose State 34-31 in the Bill Walsh Legacy Game.

13)  Oklahoma State (3-9) The Cowboils #1 finished an imperfect Big 12 (16) season 0-9 in conference play after getting the stampede at Colorado, 52-0. Nine straight losses, all of them in conference to close out the year after a 3-0 start. Oddly enough, their two closest conference games were against teams who were ranked in the top 15 when the Cowboils played them!

14) UAB (3-9) The Lazy-ers dropped back down to earth, beaten at Charlotte 29-27 in a conference (almost) Bummer Bowl to close out 2024.

15) Middle Tennessee State (3-9) The Blue Faiders lost another Conference USA Bummer Bowl this week, as well, falling at FIU 35-24 to finish their moribund 2024 campaign with an FCS win and a 2-2 record against current 25ers.

16) New Mexico State (3-9) The (What’s an?) Aggies lost 42-35 in their finale, a home CUSA Bummer Bowl, against UTEP.

17) UTEP (3-9) The Miners bounced back and won their season finale CUSA Bummer Bowl at New Mexico State, 42-35. After starting 0-6, the Miners finished relatively strong at 3-3 in their last six games, although all 3 wins (and one loss) in that stretch were in Bummer Bowls.

18) FAU (3-9) The Owls #2 broke their 6-game losing streak with a 63-16 road Bummer Bowl pounding of Tulsa. After firing former Head Coach Tom Herman in mid-November, Zach Kittley, the former Texas Tech offensive coordinator, was announced as the new Head Coach, becoming the youngest person to hold that position in the FBS.

19) Temple (3-9) The Fowls #3 lost their finale at home against North Texas, 24-17. However, they won off the field, hiring away Sam Houston head coach K.C. Keeler to lead them into next year.

20) tie San Diego State (3-9) The Azwrecs lost their last 6 in a row after a 3-3 start, on the opposite tack of Air Force, who won their 4^th straight after a 1-7 start and beat the Azwrecs at home in the finale, 31-20.

20) tie Wyoming (3-9) The Cowboys #2 punched in a last minute, 18 yard TD pass to upset Washington State 15-14 on the road to put a positive cap on 2024. Yes, they did lose early in the year to Idaho of the FCS, but after getting win #1 in their fifth game against Air Force, the ‘Boys won 3 of their last 8 games and, more importantly, were competitive in all of those games.

22) Maryland (4-8) The Terriblepins join the poll for the first time this season in the last week. At one point, Maryland was 4-3 after beating USC by one at home in week 7. That was followed by 5 straight losses to close out 2024, the last being a 44-7 mauling at Penn State.

23) Wake Forest (4-8) The Lemon Demons also managed to crash the party at the last second, losing their final 4 after a 4-4 start, including last week’s finale, falling 23-17 at home against Duke in a portion of the four university Tobacco Road Rivalry.

24) Kentucky (4-8) The Mildcats have been in the poll previously this season and rejoin for the final poll after getting housed at home by Louisville, 41-14, in their Governor’s Cup Rivalry game. After a 3-2 start, they finished 1-6 over the last 7 games, with the only win being over Murray State of the FCS.

25) tie FIU (4-8) The Panthers #2 did win their finale, 35-24 in a home CUSA Bummer Bowl over the MTSU Blue Faiders, but that didn’t save Head Coach Mike MacIntyre’s job, as he was terminated following the game. Defensive Coordinator Jovan Dewitt will be the interim during the offseason search for a new Head Coach.

25) tie Rice (4-8) The Owls #4 made a nice recovery after last week’s blowout loss by taking down South (really West) Florida at home, 35-28.

 

DISHONORABLE MENTION: Arizona (4-8), Houston (4-8), UCF (4-8), Utah (4-7), Northwestern (4-8), Utah State (4-8), Central Michigan (4-8), Akron (4-8) and Troy (4-8)

Dropped Out:  Hawai’i, Old Dominion and Charlotte