Photo: Nick Saban Reveals Bracket Prediction for 12-Team 2024 CFP; Georgia No. 1 Seed

Nick Saban revealed his predictions for this season's College Football Playoff on Saturday's College Gameday, with Georgia, Ohio State, Florida State and Utah earning the first four seeds, respectively, as the projected conference champions in the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12.

Texas, Oregon, Alabama (Saban's former school before his retirement), Ole Miss, Penn State, Notre Dame, LSU and Liberty rounded out the remaining seeds, in that order. That meant Saban projected five SEC schools to reach the CFB, while the Big Ten had three schools.

There were a few surprises in those predictions, most notably defending champion Michigan being absent from them altogether, though Saban generally fell in line with the Associated Press' preseason rankings.

The top 12 in those rankings were Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon, Texas, Alabama, Ole Miss, Notre Dame, Penn State, Michigan, Florida State, Missouri and Utah, in that order.

Saban preferred LSU to either Michigan or Missouri, while he projected Liberty to be the highest-ranked conference champion outside of the top four conferences (the top-five ranked conference champions all get automatic bids, while the top four of those schools receive a first-round bye).

One of the advantages to being the top-ranked team to not with a conference championship is a potential first-round matchup against a non-Power Four team, like Liberty. In Saban's projections, Texas would have such a matchup, and ostensibly would be huge favorites.

The 5-seed also would then get the easiest quarterfinals matchup as well. In Saban's predictions, that would be Utah. So all is certainly not lost for for teams who fail to win their conference, especially if they nab the No. 5 seed.

As for Saban, the retired former Alabama coach is entering his first season with ESPN's College GameDay. He surely ruffled a few feathers on his first day at the job with those playoff predictions.