College Football Playoff could undergo seeding changes in 2025

When the College Football Playoff expanded to 12 teams, we knew it would be equally controversial as it was exciting. It not only brought up two national championship runs by teams that had to play in the opening weekend of the playoffs, but it also showed us the flaws the current seeding has. That’s something the FBS commissioners acknowledged and plan on discussing more this winter, per ESPN. 

A change could happen as early as next year, even though the current playoff is under contract until 2026. It will take a unanimous decision to make any changes. 

It's hard to imagine the 10 conference commissioners — plus Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bavacqua — agreeing on things unanimously. Here’s what’s on the table on how the seeding could change for next year’s 12-team playoff. 

The current seeding format for the CFP is flawed, but that could change as early as 2025 

It was clear to see the biggest flaw in the current College Football Playoff format was the seeding. The most significant changes from the former CFP format was adding eight teams, granting the five highest-ranked conference champions automatic bids, and giving the four highest-ranked conference champions a first-round bye. 

On paper, that sounds like a great idea, but in practice, it wasn’t the best execution. Arizona State, for example, was one of the lowest-seeded teams but had a first-round bye as it was higher ranked than Clemson. 

Because of that, the domino effect gave teams like Texas and Penn State, which were runners-up in their respective conference title games, an easier path than the conference champions. Texas had to play Clemson and Arizona State before seeing Ohio State. Penn State faced off agaisnt SMU and Boise State. 

Oregon’s reward for being the No. 1 overall seed was a quarterfinal game against Ohio State, who was one of the best teams in the whole playoff. Georgia, which was the No. 2 seed and SEC champion, had to play Notre Dame in its quarterfinal game. 

See the imbalance? Per an ESPN+ story, seeding is going to be a major discussion when the commissioners meet in February. Part of that discussion will include talking about changing which teams get the first round byes. 

It’s an important discussion that shouldn’t have any problem getting passed. In fact, you almost don’t want the first round bye. The top four seeds had basically a month in between games. That’s a lot of time off, and rust was evident as every team with a first-round bye lost in the Playoff. 

The teams that had to play first games in the CFP all came in hot and they all won convincingly in their games, except for Texas and Arizona State, which went to 2OT. 

The 12-team format is a great concept and gets closer to what the CFP was supposed to decide this whole time. As they iron out the kinks and polish the format, it will validate that it was the right move to go to 12 teams.