No longer will champions be determined by polls, bowl coalitions or alliances or the BCS. Nor will the College Football Playoff be available to only four teams in a given season (considered a much-needed improvement by some, and a detriment to the game by others).
The Playoff will join the vast majority of the organized sports world by providing more inclusive entry into the college football postseason, tripling the number of current teams from four to 12 and providing four rounds of play as opposed to two.
A broader Playoff naturally lends itself to change the current system, however. How will the current New Year’s Day 6 bowls fit into the new 12-team format? Which teams are granted entry into the Playoff, and how are they ranked? Perhaps most importantly, when will those changes go into effect?
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The Sporting News has the answers to those questions and more as the Playoff begins its expansion from four teams to 12:
12-team College Football Playoff start date
The new College Football Playoff format will officially begin in the 2024 and 2025 seasons, amending the end of the Playoff’s existing contract with ESPN as the exclusive broadcaster of the college football postseason, following an agreement from the Rose Bowl, according to ESPN.
The expansion was originally going to start in 2026 after the current deal with the College Football Playoff, but with the Rose Bowl’s agreement, it can now happen earlier. The College Football Playoff officially confirmed the 2024-25 timeline for the expansion on Thursday.
“We’re delighted to be moving forward,” Bill Hancock, Executive Director of the College Football Playoff, said per the release. “When the board expanded the playoff beginning in 2026 and asked the CFP Management Committee to examine the feasibility of starting the new format earlier, the Management Committee went right to work. More teams and more access mean more excitement for fans, alumni, students and student-athletes. We appreciate the leaders of the six bowl games and the two future national championship game host cities for their cooperation. Everyone realized that this change is in the best interest of college football and pulled together to make it happen.”
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How will a 12-team College Football Playoff work?
The 12-team format will feature, in order, the top four conference champions, followed by some combination of the top six at-large bids and two highest-ranked remaining conference champions. Teams will be ordered based on the College Football Playoff rankings.
That guarantees at least one “Group of 5” team will make the Playoff each year and, while it’s unlikely, allows the possibility of more than one G5 team making the Playoff in lieu of a “Power 5” team.
Of note: The approved format means independent FBS teams such as Notre Dame — and, less likely, Army, UConn and UMass — will never be among the top four teams, as they are not affiliated with any conference. Hence, they cannot win a conference championship. This also means no independent team will ever have a bye in the Playoff.
The top four teams will have a bye as seeds 5-8 host home playoff games vs. seeds 9-12. Following those games, the remaining eight teams will play each other in the current New Year’s Day 6 bowls (Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, Cotton and Peach). Those bowls will rotate among the quarterfinal and semifinal games on an annual basis.
The No. 1 team will then choose where it wants to play its opponent in the quarterfinals. Following that, the No. 2 team will pick its venue, followed by the No. 3 team. The No. 4 team will play in the final bowl available in the quarterfinals by default.
Following the quarterfinals, the highest-ranked team heading into the semifinals will pick its bowl of choice; the other two teams will play in the last remaining bowl of the Playoff by default.
The CFP championship game will continue to be played at a neutral site.
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12-team College Football Playoff bracket
Below is what the first and quarterfinal rounds of the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket will look like:
First round
No. 1 team (bye) No. 2 team (bye) No. 3 team (bye) No. 4 team (bye) No. 12 team at No. 5 team No. 11 team at No. 6 team No. 10 team at No. 7 team No. 9 team at No. 8 team
Quarterfinals
No. 1 team vs. No. 8/9 team No. 2 team vs. No. 7/10 team No. 3 team vs. No. 6/11 team No. 4 team vs. No. 5/12 team
Following that, the remaining four teams will play in the semifinal games, with the highest-ranked team picking its preferred bowl venue. The winners of the semifinal games will advance to the College Football Playoff championship game to determine that season’s national title winner.
What would a 12-team College Football Playoff look like?
Playoff based off most recent College Football Playoff rankings; champion teams are based off conferences’ highest-ranking teams.
The top four seeds would consist of:
No. 1 Georgia No. 2 Michigan No. 3 TCU No. 4 USC
The first round would consist of the following games:
No. 12 Tulane at No. 5 Ohio State No. 11 Utah at No. 6 Alabama No. 10 Kansas State at No. 7 Tennessee No. 9 Clemson at No. 8 Penn State
The quarterfinals would consist of the following games before the Playoff advanced to the semifinals and national championship game:
No. 1 Georgia vs. Penn State/Clemson No. 2 Michigan vs. Tennessee/Kansas State No. 3 TCU vs. Alabama/Utah No. 4 USC vs. Ohio State/Tulane
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