BATON ROUGE — Year 3 has been a consequential year for Brian Kelly and his football teams.

Everywhere he's been on the FBS level, Kelly-coached squads have smashed the gas pedal down in their head coach's third season, accelerating a couple of teams to never-before-seen heights, and brought a traditional power back to the summit.

LSU football is getting ready to enter Year 3 of the Kelly tenure as it opens the season in Las Vegas against USC at the Vegas Kickoff Classic Sunday, Sept. 1 (6:30 p.m., CT, ABC).

And there's yet another seismic change in college football as the College Football Playoff has expanded to 12 teams, opening up more avenues for more teams and fan bases, late in the season, to remain engaged in the playoff picture.

For storied programs like LSU, who play in arguably the toughest conference in the SEC, some would argue the path to playoffs has become wider. Aside from that, 2024 being Kelly's third season at the helm and his typical trajectory at his previous suggest big things should be in store in Baton Rouge this season.

REQUIRED READING 3 LSU football projected starters missed practice Wednesday. What Brian Kelly said about their injuries

REQUIRED READING How CB Ashton Stamps became a bright spot for LSU football's defense this preseason

This is why making the CFP field this year is the only option and anything else will be considered a bust for the Tigers. Here's why.

How Brian Kelly fares in Year 3s

Kelly guided Central Michigan to an 8-4 record, and its first Mid-American Conference championship and bowl game appearance in 2006 since Herb Deromedi did it in 1994. The Chippewas won their first bowl game this season, defeating Middle Tennessee State, 31-14, in the Motor City Bowl.

Cincinnati hired Kelly following Central Michigan's historic season in 2006 and again, by Year 3, Kelly had the Bearcats undefeated at 12-0, the Big East champions, and playing in their second straight New Year's Six Bowl in the Sugar Bowl, where they lost to Florida in 2009.

After 2009, Notre Dame hired Kelly away. You guessed it, in three years, Kelly had the Fighting Irish in the national championship game in 2012 against Alabama. Kelly coached Notre Dame to a 12-0 record during the regular season before losing to the Crimson Tide.

Kelly himself has said that Year 3 is when he believes teams under his guidance realistically make noticeable leaps towards the CFP and possible national championships.

LSU football has won 10 games each of the last two seasons. Players say they expect more in 2024

"My focus is to win a national championship here," star LSU junior left tackle Will Campbell said earlier during preseason practice.

The leadership contingency among the LSU football team has talked about their expectations in the leadup to the 2024 season kicking off. In short, they've agreed that winning double-digit games isn't enough anymore.

"We don't believe that's the standard anymore," LSU starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier said during spring practice. "We hold ourselves to the standard that 10 games is not good enough anymore.

"The expectation has been raised. We all know that we're not OK with just winning 10 (games). It's not a result-based thought process, it's an expectation of how we plan to go about our daily processes. It's about how we want to act in the meetings rooms during fall camp, how we want to process what happened on the field, how do we transfer it over."

Despite the loss of Heisman Trophy winning signal caller Jayden Daniels, and two first-round draft picks at receiver in Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr., LSU players have been adamant about they're going after this season.

Brian Kelly hopes player accountability leads LSU to College Football Playoff, maybe beyond

One of Kelly's main talking points this offseason and preseason has involved the level of player-led accountability within this team. The coach has said it's the most he's had during his tenure at LSU.

He's mentioned how that's been a theme among most all of his Year 3 teams in his programs.

The hope is that the ownership the leaders have taken of this LSU team will pay off in the end. And that pay off being in the form of, at minimum, at spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff.

Anything less than that won't be good enough.

LSU FOOTBALL PRESEASON PRACTICE These position groups have stood out most during LSU football preseason practice

LSU SHUFFLES OFFENSIVE LINE Stomach 'bug' forces LSU football to shuffle up offensive line during Saturday practice

Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz atbdiaz@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: If LSU football misses CFP, 2024 will be a bust. Here's why.