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College football SP+ rankings after CFP championship game

Kirby Lee/Imagn Images

Despite losing to Michigan at the end of the regular season, Ohio State headed into the postseason ranked first in SP+. The Buckeyes gave no reason for that to change in the weeks that followed. Following the Buckeyes' 34-23 win over Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff National Championship -- their fourth straight playoff win by double digits -- they have officially finished the season atop the pile. Notre Dame's ranking slipped slightly, due primarily to a logjam of tightly packed teams ranked between fourth and eighth, but there's no question who the best team of the 2024 season was.