Greg McElroy names college football program in a 'league of its own'

Joe Vitale

Greg McElroy names college football program in a 'league of its own' image

As the 2024 college football season inches closer, there's two clear leaders no matter where you look. 

Those would be the Georgia Bulldogs and the Ohio State Buckeyes, who are widely viewed as the top two programs in America heading into next season. 

While on Monday's episode of the Always College Football podcast, ESPN's Greg McElroy almost declared the Buckeyes as the best team in the nation next season, but quickly corrected himself by placing Georgia into a 'league of their own.'

"It's hard for me to look at Ohio State and not to think to myself 'they're probably the best team on paper,'" McElroy said. 

Following the Michigan Wolverines winning it all, the Buckeyes had a massive offseason. They landed some of the top players in the transfer portal like Quinshon Judkins, Caleb Downs and Will Howard. The nation's top recruit, wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, chose Ohio State. Chip Kelly left his head coaching position at UCLA to join OSU as an offensive coordinator. And maybe best of all for Ohio State, Jim Harbaugh left Michigan for the NFL. 

As good as all that is, they're still not Georgia - winners of two out of the last three titles and 46 of its last 48 games. 

"If you want to put Georgia in a league of their own, fine," McElroy said. "Ohio State would at worst be 1B in my eyes to Georgia's 1A."

Georgia's loaded. Carson Beck returns as quarterback to go along with a stacked group of receivers and running backs. Defensively, there's difference makers, including Mykell Williams on the defensive line and Malaki Starks in the secondary. 

Joe Vitale

Joe Vitale Photo

Joe Vitale is the founder of UGA Football Live, the largest independent social brand covering UGA football. Previously, he served as the editor at USA TODAY Sports Media Group's UGAWire.com, launching it as the network's inaugural College Wire site. He was also the college football editor at Athlon Sports, which was part of the ISports Illustrated Media Group at the time. He currently resides in Manhattan.