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The College Football Playoff (CFP) has undergone significant changes for the 2024-2025 season, expanding from the previous four-team format to a 12-team structure. This expansion aims to create more opportunities for teams and increase the excitement and competitiveness of the postseason. Let’s delve into the history of the CFP, the details of the new format and how the playoffs work under these changes.
There’s no doubt the NFL remains king in the major sports leagues in America, but college football isn’t far behind. The two go hand-in-hand, but what separates them is their postseason. While the NFL has always had a bracketed format, albeit one with changes, college football’s postseason has changed far more significantly lately.
It took a while for college football to have oversight by the NCAA, but in the 1970s, they officially established divisions, commonly known as the FBS and FCS today. As far as the postseason is concerned, it was always about bowl season. It consisted of a wide variety of bowl games spread throughout December and January.
The series concluded with four major bowl games: the Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl, and Sugar Bowl. These games rotated in hosting the championship match between the nation’s top two teams, as determined by the BCS system.
Over time, debates grew louder over the validity of the BCS, which led to the creation of the CFP in 2014. Four teams were selected by a committee of 13 members that would play in a semifinal round followed by a College Football Playoff Championship Game. The new system was welcomed, but like all things, there was still plenty to debate.
The CFP didn’t just bring a new format for the playoff college football schedule; it changed how the teams, programs and schools approached their season. Now that a human element was involved with voters, the criteria were different from the computer-based BCS.
While the criteria are structured in terms of importance, such as conference championships and strength of schedule, the human element can also bring bias, whether conscious or not. This is often referred to as style points, with teams needing to blow out opponents to impress the committee. Of course, it has also impacted how teams plan their schedule, as they want to balance strong opponents and the best chance of success.
The CFP uses a selection committee to rank the top 25 teams in the country, choose the 12 teams that will compete in the playoffs and assign the teams to the playoff sites. The committee consists of 13 members, including six former coaches and players, six current athletic directors across seven conferences and a former sports writer. They meet weekly to discuss and rank teams based on various factors, including performance, strength of schedule, head-to-head results and more. The first set of rankings will be released on Tuesday, November 5 (Week 11), and will come out each following Tuesday.
Growing from four teams to 12 in fall 2024, this change introduces automatic bids, at-large spots, seeding and a more comprehensive playoff schedule. During the regular season college football schedules are often made years in advance, certainly when it comes to playing out of conference games. However, the teams taking part in the 12-team college playoffs are only confirmed a couple of weeks in advance of the first games taking place.
The six highest-ranked conference champions receive automatic qualifying spots in the playoff. There is no minimum ranking requirement for these conference champions, allowing even lower-ranked champions to earn a spot in the playoffs. Generally five of these spots will go to the winners of the Power Five Conferences, which consist of:
At least one automatic qualifying place goes to the winner of one of the Group of Five Conferences, namely:
Only the winners of these ten conferences qualify to get an automatic place in the play-offs, although a route to qualification is still open to teams who don’t play in these conferences.
In addition to the automatic bids, the next six highest-ranked teams receive at-large qualifying spots. This ensures that deserving teams, regardless of conference affiliation, have a chance to compete for the national title.
This section will often include non-conference winners from the Power Five, but if teams from the other 5 FBS conferences rank highly enough then they can nab one of these spots too. Only 10 conferences play in the FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision), and only they are eligible to make the playoffs. The next division in college football is the FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) but even a dominant FCS team like North Dakota State University cannot qualify for the CFP.
In reality, usually 4 or 5 of the six At-Large places are taken up by non-winners in the Power Five Conference, although teams from the Group of Five can make it to playoff rounds if they have a good enough season. Independent teams like Notre Dame and Navy – who don’t play in any conference – are also eligible to make the playoffs.
To give you an illustration, here’s how the 2024 College Football Playoff bracket looks:
The top four conference champions are given the top four seeds in the playoff and receive a first-round bye. This seeding system rewards the best-performing teams with a strategic advantage, allowing them to skip the first round of games. However, it does mean that Independent teams can never claim a bye as they aren’t playing in a conference.
The remaining eight teams, seeded 5 through 12, compete in the first round. These games are hosted by the higher-seeded teams, adding an exciting home-field advantage element to the playoff structure. The first-round matchups create additional excitement and opportunities for upsets and dramatic finishes.
The quarterfinal and semifinal games rotate among six major bowl games: Cotton, Fiesta, Orange, Peach, Rose and Sugar Bowl. The quarterfinals are scheduled for December 31 and January 1, while the semifinals are played on January 9 and 10. These games continue to be marquee events, drawing large audiences and significant media attention.
The CFP culminates in the national championship game, played on a Monday night at least a week after the semifinals. In 2025, this game will be held at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on January 20. This grand finale determines the national champion and caps off the college football season with a high-stakes, highly anticipated matchup.
ESPN holds exclusive rights to broadcast the 12-team playoff through the 2031 season. This includes not only the games themselves but also other CFP programming, such as the selection show and weekly ranking shows.
In terms of ratings, the CFP National Championship is one of the most viewed sporting events on the US calendar. While it can’t compete with the Super Bowl in terms of viewing figures, it usually gets numbers equivalent to other major showpiece events like the MLB World Series, NBA Finals and March Madness. The 2024 CFP National Championship averaged around 25 million viewers, comparing favorably with NBA Final numbers of 10-15 million and March Madness Championship Game with around 15-20 million.
Any major change to this coveted sport results in polarizing views:
In the gray area is the potential for a team to play a 17-game schedule if they lose their conference championship and play four straight playoff games. While fans may love the extended season, it could pose significant health risks for the players.
The College Football Playoff’s expansion to 12 teams marks a new era in college football. As the new format is implemented, stakeholders will need to monitor its impact closely and make adjustments to ensure the continued success and integrity of college football.
Will the format expand in future years to allow for more teams to make the playoffs? Back in March 2024 ESPN reported that the CFP have discussed expanding to 14 teams for 2026 and beyond. More recent comments suggest that this is on hold for now, but assuming the current format is successful, we can surely expect the CFP to get even bigger in the years to come.
Zach has been a published sports writer since 2018 specializing in college football & basketball, MLB and NFL content for multiple publications.