Changes to the College Football Playoff are incoming

The College Football Playoff will be re-evaluating its 12 team format this coming January. 2024 will be the first year in which the playoff expands from four teams to 12. But as with anything, there is always room for improvement. And with conference realignment, NIL and the transfer portal in full swing over the last few years since the 12 team format was first agreed upon, it is good that the College Football Playoff Committee will be going back to the drawing board.

What will the College Football Playoff Committee be evaluating?

New College Football Playoff Committee Executive Director, Rich Clark who takes over for Bill Hancock told On3, “at the end of the season, after it’s all said and done after the championship game, we’re going to look back…Not just at how many teams were in it, but every aspect of the 12-team plan because it’s the first time…we need to look back and evaluate and see what changes we might make.”

What is a positive here is that the committee does not seem to only be looking at the overall number of teams, but how teams are selected as well. A school of thought from many is that there should be no automatic bids. Right now, the Big 12, ACC, Big Ten and SEC which are known as the “power four” all receive automatic bids for their conference champions.

With four automatic bids, what we could run into is a second or third place SEC team for instance being better than the Big 12’s top team, but getting left out because of the Big 12 team being a conference champion. So hopefully automatic bids will be done away with, and the best 12 teams or whatever the future total number of bids are will be voted in, and call it a day.

The other aspect that will hopefully be looked into is the group of five schools receiving an automatic bid for the highest ranked team at the end of the regular season. There is becoming a more distinct separation with the NIL era of college sports that sees less and less blue chip recruits going to group of five schools. Therefore, the distinction in talent is more and more transparent.

We can look at this past year’s VRBO Fiesta Bowl between Liberty and Oregon for example. Oregon won the game 45-6. Liberty had come into the game with a perfect 12-0 record. Despite being the top ranked team in the group of five heading in, they did not look at all like they belonged on the same field as the Ducks who finished the regular season 10-2 and second in the Pac 12.

What is the future right now of the College Football Playoff format?

At present, the College Football Playoff format is set for 12 teams through the 2025 season, but the contract with ESPN expires after the 2025 season. Beyond that, the College Football Playoff is not obligated to continue a 12 team format in its current structure and has the right to expand or contract in the best ways they see fit.