College Football Playoff bracket could look much different in 2025-26

The new 12-team College Football Playoff has provided a lot more drama off the field than on it so far this season. The status of non-blue bloods like Indiana and SMU caused consternation — some justified, some very much not — for weeks ahead of the final bracket reveal earlier this month, and the skeptics only grew louder after all four first-round games were decided by at least two scores. Everyone seemed to agree that something had to change, even if no one could agree on just exactly what that change should be.

We have some good news on that front: Change does indeed appear to be coming to the CFP this offseason, and while the SEC will continue to stamp its feet, it proves that the sport's powers-that-be have learned the right lessons from how this process has played out in year one.

College Football Playoff could shuffle seeding rules for 2025-26

No matter how hard folks like Lane Kiffin or Paul Finebaum may protest to the contrary, it was always untenable to have a College Football Playoff that didn't guarantee access to every major conference — and provide a path for every conference champion in the country, if their resume is impressive enough. Despite all of the consolidation we've seen in recent years, college football remains an unwieldy, regional sport, one that makes it virtually impossible to determine who the 12 "best" teams are over a 12-game schedule.

So the five autobids for conference champions were never going anywhere. But what this year's first round did show was that perhaps the way those conference champions are seeded needs to be rethought: While teams like Arizona State and Boise State — 12th and 9th, respectively, in the final CFP rankings — received byes to the quarterfinals, Penn State and Notre Dame turned their opening matchups into laughers. The current seeding rules swapped out two of the bracket's weaker conference champions for two of its strongest at-large teams, and the result was a bunch of non-competitive games.

Luckily, conference commissioners and the schools themselves were watching the same thing we were last weekend, and it appears they agree that changes need to be made. According to a report from Brett McMurphy, there will be "in-depth discussions" about removing automatic byes and determining seeding based on overall ranking.

McMurphy cautions that this would need "unanimous approval" from all of the stakeholders involved, and we know just how badly college football's bureaucracy can botch even the smallest of attempted improvements. But the fact that this is already under consideration is a good sign. It was always unrealistic to expect the sport to nail its expanded playoff format on the first try; some trial and error was inevitable, it's heartening to know that potential changes ahead of next year's version appear to be prioritizing competitive games without further tilting the balance of power toward the likes of the SEC and Big Ten.