Here’s how the College Football Playoff bracket would look under a 12-team format

What would the current College Football Playoff field for 2022 look like with the 12-team format that is coming down the line?

The College Football Playoff in 2022 will feature four teams and we’re going to spend the next few weeks figuring out what teams those will be.

However, in the coming years the CFP field will change dramatically when a 12-team playoff is implemented as soon as 2024.

What would this year’s current field look like if we applied the same rules for the 12-team playoff today?

Current College Football Playoff with a 12-team format

1. Tennessee (BYE)
2. Ohio State (BYE)
3. Clemson (BYE)
4. TCU (BYE)
5. Georgia vs. No. 12 Tulane
6. Michigan vs. No. 11 Ole Miss
7. Alabama vs. No. 10 LSU
8. Oregon vs. No. 9 USC

Obviously, the current lineup is incomplete. The first CFP committee rankings set the stage but there are still numerous highly-ranked matchups to sort out. Conference championships also need to get sorted out.

For now, we can work with what we’ve got in the standings to set a 12-team field.

It all starts with the top four conference champions, who will receive a bye under the new rules.

For this experiment, since no conference champions have been crowned, we’ll default to the teams that currently sit at the top of their conference standings with CFP ranking breaking ties.

That results in top seeds of Tennessee, Ohio State, Clemson and TCU. All of those teams are currently undefeated. The Volunteers and the Buckeyes outrank fellow undefeated conference rivals Georgia and Michigan.

The next eight teams to make it in punched their tickets via conference championship or an at-large bid. In the case of Oregon, they are currently atop the Pac-12. In the case of Tulane, they’re the highest-ranked G5 team.

The first round would feature matchups between Georgia and Tulane, Michigan and Ole Miss, Alabama and LSU and Oregon and USC. The winner of each of those games would move on to face the

Those last two matchups are proof that this exercise has its limits so early in the season. The Crimson Tide and Tigers are playing in Week 10 and only one of them can go to the SEC title game. The Ducks and Trojans may be on a collision course in the Pac-12 title game themselves.

We’ll have a much better sense of what a 12-team playoff would look like in the coming weeks as teams face off and shake up the standings. Stay tuned!