The NCAA has utilized a four-team playoff format since the 2014 season after it went away from the traditional 1-seed versus 2-seed national championship game. Now the NCAA has decided to further alter the College Football Playoff format for the future, with a 12-team playoff format that will be introduced during the 2024-2025 NCAA Football season.
The 12 teams included in the playoffs will consist of the conference champions of the 6 best conferences that season, which is determined by the College Football Playoff Committee, and the 6 best non-conference champion teams. Currently, the best six conferences in college football are the SEC, the Big Ten, the ACC, the Big Twelve, the Pac Twelve, and the American Athletic Conference.
The top four seeds will be decided by the College Football Playoff Committee and will be chosen from the six conference champions. The four teams selected will receive a week one bye. The remaining 8 teams will be reseeded by the College Football Playoff Committee and will play games according to seed.
With these changes to the playoff format impending, there have been mixed reviews towards the switch. Many are excited to see how the new format will play out, while others remain skeptical. Below I will list just a few reasons why I believe the College Football Playoff format expansion is not just a good thing for the fans, but for college football itself.
More Universities Will Have the Chance to Make the Playoffs
In the nine year history of the College Football Playoff, there have only been 14 different universities that have competed in it. Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio States have all enjoyed 5 or more trips to the playoffs, while schools with talent but weaker programs unsuccessfully vie for a spot every year.
Under the new format, universities and their fans are given hope for their football programs. College Football is filled with Cinderella stories, and the 12-team format opens the chance for one of these underdogs to shock the world and proclaim themselves as champions.
Multiple Teams From Strong Conferences Will Qualify for the Playoffs
One of the issues of the current College Football Playoff format is deciding the merit of a conference championship. In the SEC and Big Ten there have been instances in the past where a less worthy conference champion makes the playoff over a more worthy non-conference champion and vice versa. These decisions are difficult and often leave a few parties with a bad taste in their mouth.
The new 12-team format makes decisions like these much easier and vastly expands the College Football Playoff Committee’s room for error when it comes to choosing the participating universities. No longer will Alabama and Georgia rain havoc on the rest of college football!
Increased Revenue for Universities
The College Football Playoff are the most watched college football games of the season and, in result, generate a large influx in revenue. The expanded format leads to additional games being played and revenue being generated.
The Universities whose football programs made the College Football Playoff will receive a large share in the revenue generated from these games. This will result in immense benefits for the universities as a whole.
Team Retention for Conferences
A rising trend in college football is the realignment of universities into new conferences. Numerous colleges have made plans or are making plans to switch their conferences. While there are many reasons why this change is being made, money is the most influential.
The Big 12 are gaining BYU, Cincinnati, and Houston in 2023, but are losing Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC in 2025. Additionally, the Pac-12 are losing USC and UCLA to the Big Ten in 2024.
With each of the power 5 conferences guaranteeing a spot in the playoffs under the new format, the attractiveness of switching conferences is hindered quite a bit. Each conference now has a dog in the fight, so to say.
