With college football nearing the end of its regular season we are close to what will be a new playoff format to decide an FBS National Champion. In its debut year, the new playoff format calls for a 12-team bracket as opposed to the four teams we’ve seen the past 10 years.
The 12 team college football playoff is meant to be a new, more fair way to let more teams have a shot at winning a national championship, but could there be problems?
The playoff is set by the selection committee and has some set in stone rules. The rules for establishing the playoff teams and seeding are:
- The five conference champions ranked highest by the selection committee are automatically in the playoffs.
- The highest ranked four of the five conference champions receive first round byes.
- The fifth place conference champion is guaranteed a 5 -12 seed even if they are ranked lower than 12.
- FBS independent teams aren’t eligible for a bye regardless of how high they are ranked
As of Friday, December 6, the current playoff seedings are already showing cracks in the plan of choosing the top automatic qualifiers from the conference champions as the broad talent gap between conferences is clearly apparent. In this week’s seedings, it is clear that the Big Ten (four teams in playoff at the 1, 3, 7 & 9 seeds) and SEC (three top 10 – #s 2, 5, & 6 ) are dominant conferences when compared to the ACC (one top 10 – # 8) and Mountain West (one top 10 – # 10).
In the Big Ten, Oregon (#1), Penn State (#3), Ohio State (#7), and Indiana (#9) are all currently ranked in the top 10 of the AP Top 25. Texas (#2), Georgia (#5), and Tennessee (#6) of the SEC are also highly ranked. That means there’s a good chance that the loser of the Big 10 championship game between Oregon and Penn St could still be ranked in the top four but will have to play a first round game, while a win by Boise State (#10) in the Mountain West Championship game against UNLV(#20) means they would get a bye.
Another major issue is that independent teams can’t receive a bye according to the rules of the committee. So, no matter how high Notre Dame is ranked (currently #4), they will have to play a first round game. With this happening, it seems like it would have been better to just have the Top 12 teams make the playoffs, although there would still be disagreements over who should be 12, 13, or 14 as teams, players, and fans will always try to make their case for their team being ranked higher.
While this new system may not be every fan’s favorite, it will only be this way for the next two years. In 2026, college football will likely go to a 14-team format, and maybe they will rethink the automatic qualifiers so that at least the top four teams are guaranteed a bye regardless of conference or affiliation. For now, having an elimination style playoff is a lot better than random bowl games.
No matter how this new playoff system works out, there will always be critics because there will never be a perfect system, especially since several small conferences have turned into a few super conferences. But this 12 team playoff will offer a fun end to the season.
