It's no shock the SEC and Big Ten are going to have the most representation in the 12-team College Football Playoff. With eight squads combined, exactly two thirds of the field will be from those conferences alone.
Last season, only three SEC teams were admitted entrance, compared to four from the Big Ten. Only Oregon got a first-round bye as that year's format gave a bye to the top four conference champions. This year it's straight seeding and that could benefit the Big Ten in a huge way.
TEXAS TECH INTO THE CFP BRACKET TOP 4 🔥 pic.twitter.com/9mCJ4G2D0F
— ESPN (@espn) December 3, 2025
Heading into conference championships, the makeup of the two conferences' representation is reversed. The committee has five SEC teams and three from the Big Ten slated to participate this year. However, because of the aforementioned format change, the latter would automatically have more teams going deep.
The new CFP format is benefitting the Big Ten more than the SEC
Ohio State and Indiana will face one another in the Big Ten title game but as they are both ranked No. 1 and No. 2 respectively, it seems incredibly unlikely whichever is the loser on Saturday will get dropped below No. 4 once the final rankings are released. That means two of the Big Ten's representatives will get a first-round bye compared to just the SEC and Big 12 champions.
Based on the Week 14 rankings, two SEC teams (Alabama and Oklahoma) will have to face one another in the first round and therefore automatically eliminate one of them off the bat. Only the conference champion (projected to be Georgia) is currently automatically in the quarterfinals.
The other two SEC teams (Ole Miss and Texas A&M) would play non-conference opponents in the first round and risk elimination in the old-fashioned sense. If all were to go well for both conferences, the SEC could have four teams in the quarterfinal and the Big Ten three.
The way the seeding works out currently, another all-SEC matchup is nearly guaranteed in the second round which would automatically cut out another contender. Then it's anybody's guess as to who advances.
That being said, the extra rest could be enough for teams like Indiana and Ohio State to advance to the semifinals and potentially outnumber the SEC at that point. All that's certain is there will be some massive must-watch matchups in this year's bracket.