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Commissioners Vote to Change Seeding for CFP

College Football Playoff alters seeding format, ending automatic byes for top conference champions

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Jan 20
Jan 20

By Patrick Weider 

The 12-team College Football Playoff will change its seeding for next year after it was approved by the 10 FBS conference commissioners and the Notre Dame athletic director. 

The 12-team playoff will no longer give automatic byes to the top 4 conference champions. This will allow the playoff committee to give any of the qualifying teams the first four sees and earn byes for the first round of the playoff, rather than the top 4 ranked conference champions. 

Under the previous format the committee awarded byes to the four most highly-ranked conference champions (Big Ten: Oregon, SEC: Georgia, MWC: Boise State, Big 12: Arizona State.

New CFP Format

Under the new format, conference commissioners voted for a straight-seeding model with five spots reserved for conference champions. 

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Here’s what the 2024 CFP bracket would’ve look like under the new format: 

No. 8 Indiana vs. No. 9 Boise State: Winner plays No. 1 Oregon

No. 7 Tennessee vs. No. 10 SMU: Winner plays No. 2 Georgia

No. 6 Ohio State vs. No. 11 Arizona State: Winner plays No. 3 Texas

No. 5 Notre Dame vs. No. 12 Clemson: Winner plays No. 4 Penn State 

This changes every match up from last year’s format. Now you have Arizona State and Boise State both playing away games without the byes. Texas and Penn State now move up to No. 3 and No. 4, respectively, and each of them have byes. 

Ducks Tough Road

Almost every pundit who saw the initial rankings knew Oregon, with the top seed, had the toughest pathway to winning a national championship. They were likely going to face Ohio State—a team they had defeated by one point at home earlier in the year—and were considered to be the most talented teams in the 12-team playoff. 

Then, if they win that game, they would have had to face a good Texas team. Meanwhile, Penn State, as the No. 6 seed, had the easier path. They would have to play SMU at home in the first round and then play Boise State. The new format would have given an easier pathway for Oregon as they got the bye and then played the winner of Indiana vs. Boise State.

Biggest Losers?

This change surely will not make the Big 12, ACC and Group of 5 conferences happy because it leads to a more likely scenario that the Big Ten and the SEC have the possibility of getting the top four byes. 

Even looking at the new format for last year’s playoff, the four byes would have gone to two Big Ten schools (Oregon and Penn State) and two SEC Schools (Texas and Georgia). Those were also the matchups in the Big Ten and the SEC Championship games. The losers in the Big Ten and SEC Championships might just automatically get those two byes, which would be infuriating for the ACC and the Big 12 members. 

Notre Dame Included

With the change Notre Dame can now gain a top four bye after being excluded last season because it went to the the Fighting Irish did not qualify as a conference champion because of its independent classification. This is a huge win for Notre Dame as they still do not need to join a conference. Plus, they will still get the benefit of not playing the week of the conference championship games. 

More Changes to Come

This is just a one-year fix, as the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director are discussing adding as many as 16 teams to the CFP format. 

We should know in the next few months what direction the new CFP will head towards. 

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