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What a 24-team College Football Playoff bracket would look like this season

A bigger playoff field is coming and a few powerhouse programs would probably love if it was starting a year early.
ByDominick Petrillo
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Ohio State Buckeyes cornerback Jay Timmons
Ohio State Buckeyes cornerback Jay Timmons | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

We have all heard by now that there will be a 24-team playoff format starting in the 2027 college football season and beyond.

Don’t worry folks, I have heard through my sources at FOX, Disney and the CFP that this is all being done strictly for student athlete benefit and it is in no way tied to the finances wanted by any individual school, conference or programming platform. And it absolutely has nothing to do with athletic department administrators wanting more money before they retire. So do not worry about the authorities doing this for all the wrong reasons.

However you feel about this impending structure, it's worth wondering what the seeding would look like this year in a projected 24-team format.

Projected 24-team seeding for the 2026 College Football Playoffs

First round bye teams:

  1. Georgia Bulldogs
  2. Indiana Hoosiers
  3. Utah Utes
  4. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
  5. Miami Hurricanes
  6. Tennessee Volunteers
  7. Texas Longhorns
  8. UCLA Bruins
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First round matchups:

  • No. 9 Alabama Crimson Tide vs. No. 24 New Mexico Lobos
  • No. 10 Kentucky Wildcats vs. No. 23 Arizona Wildcats
  • No. 11 BYU Cougars vs. No. 22 USC Trojans
  • No. 12 Iowa Hawkeyes vs. No. 21 Texas Tech Red Raiders
  • No. 13 South Carolina Gamecocks vs. No. 20 Oklahoma State Cowboys
  • No. 14 Oregon Ducks vs. No. 19 Missouri Tigers
  • No. 15 Ole Miss Rebels vs. No. 16 Ohio State Buckeyes
  • No. 17 Houston Cougars vs. No. 18 Boise State Broncos

There are obviously a lot of liberties taken with these rankings. I tried to avoid any conference matchups. Hence why some teams like Missouri and Oklahoma State were swapped as well as USC and Arizona.

In the end, this is a complete guess, and we will never find out the truth anyway. We can look at the final ranks and see who the top 24 are, but we all know if it came down to ranking 24 rather than 12, that 13 through 24 would look a lot different and the big conferences would get more representation.

So, here is to the final year of a great playoff format and the start of more erosion to the importance of the regular season. Enjoy what we have while it lasts!

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