NCAA
College football playoff expansion to 12 teams: How will it work and when will it start?
The National Collegiate College Football Championship Playoffs will expand from four teams to twelve, adding two extra rounds of competition.
Polls, bowl coalitions/alliances, and the BCS can no longer be used to pick the champions. Nor will just four teams every season be eligible for the College Football Playoff. So, at least, college football is beginning a new phase for now.
The Playoff will expand college football’s playoff tournament from four teams to twelve, adding two extra rounds of competition.
Nonetheless, expanding the Playoff inevitably necessitates reevaluating the present setup. Where do the existing six bowl games play on New Year’s Day fit into the new 12-team system? Which clubs qualify for the Playoff, and what criteria determine their placement? The most pressing question is when to expect such changes to be implemented.
Following a Rose Bowl deal, the new College Football Playoff model will begin in 2024 and 2025, eliminating ESPN’s exclusive broadcasting of the college football playoffs.
With the Rose Bowl’s agreement, the expansion may begin sooner than 2026, when the College Football Playoff’s agreement expires. The College Football Playoff announced the 2024-25 expansion timetable on Thursday.
How will a 12-team College Football Playoff work?
The top four conference champions will be followed by the top six at-large bids and the two highest-ranked remaining conference champions in the 12-team format and ordered by College Football Playoff rankings.
That assures at least one “Group of 5″ club will reach the Playoff each year and, although rare, provides more than one G5 team to replace a “Power 5″ team.
Remember that Notre Dame, Army, UConn, and UMass are not conference members and will never be in the top four under the authorized system. They cannot win a conference title. No independent club will ever get a Playoff bye.
Seeds 5-8 host playoff games against seeds 9-12, giving the top four a bye. After that, the remaining eight teams will play in the New Year’s Day 6 bowls (Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, Cotton, and Peach). After that, the quarterfinal and semifinal bowls will be swapped annually.
The top team will then pick its quarterfinal opponent and location. Next, the No. 2 and No. 3 teams will choose their venues. Finally, the No. 4 team automatically plays in the quarterfinals’ final bowl.
The highest-ranked team entering the semifinals will choose its bowl, while the other two will play in the Playoff’s last bowl by default.