Arizona missed a chance at competing for a College Football Playoff berth in 2023 with the field not expanding to 12 teams until 2023. The Wildcats would have been a major contender for a CFP berth during the 2023 season. Arizona won its last seven games during the 2023 season after starting 3-3.
Arizona played one of the toughest schedules nationally in 2024 with six ranked opponents during the regular season. Losses at number seven Washington and ninth-ranked USC began a streak of five consecutive games versus ranked opponents. Those were the only 2023 losses for Arizona to ranked teams.
A week after losing at USC, Arizona had their biggest win of the Jedd Fisch era with a 44-6 victory at number 19 Washington State. Arizona returned home to beat number 11 Oregon State and 20th-ranked UCLA. Arizona debuted in the 2023 CFP rankings at 21st following the win over UCLA.
After winning with a walk-off field goal at unranked Colorado, Arizona moved up to 17th in the CFP rankings. After a 42-18 win over number 16 Utah, Arizona moved up to 15th in the CFP rankings. Arizona finished the season with a 59-23 win over Arizona State and remained 15th.
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Arizona moved up one spot passing Louisville to move up to 14th nationally in the final 2024 CFP poll. Louisville dropped from 15th to 14th following the conference championship games. Based on the final 2023 CFP Polls Arizona would have been the second team left off the bracket.
The top four and 2023 College Football Playoff participants were number one Michigan, second-ranked Washington, number three Texas and fourth-ranked Alabama. All four of those teams were conference championships and would have been the top four seeds using the 12-team playoff model.
The fifth seed in a 12-team CFP field would have been Florida State who won the 2023 ACC Championship. Florida State would have hosted 12th seed Oklahoma who Arizona wound up beating in the 2023 Alamo Bowl. The other seven at-large teams in order would have been Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon, Mississippi and Penn State.
Georgia would have hosted Mississippi, Penn State would have played at Ohio State and Missouri would have been at Oregon in a 2023 CFP. Arizona would have had a completely different opponent in the Alamo Bowl if there had been a 12-team playoff in 2023. The season could have ended differently depending on the Alamo Bowl opponent.