In years past if a college football team won their conference, they were assured of a prime spot in a bowl game and perhaps if the record was good enough, a shot at the championship. But over the past few years, there have been a great many changes in the layout of conferences, bowl games, playoffs, and championships
The conference map has drastically changed with some conferences becoming mega-conferences; while others have nearly disappeared as athletic directors try to position themselves for bigger payouts and a better shot at stardom.
Next year the college football playoffs will seed 12 teams…but this time it’s different.
In a unanimous decision from the 10 conference directors and independent Notre Dame, there will be no more automatic bids for positions; instead the teams will be seeded in their brackets strictly by ranking.
The automatic bye weeks is gone for the league champions, but will be reserved for the top four ranking teams.
Last season 12th ranked Arizona State and ninth ranked Boise State earned a bye simply because they won the Big 12 and Mountain West championships. This year the byes will go to the teams ranked 1-2-3-4.
Executive director of the College Football Playoffs Rich Clark spoke on the changes saying, “after evaluating the first year of the 12-team Playoff, the CFP Management Committee felt it was in the best interest of the game to make this adjustment.”
The conference champions will still earn a spot in the playoffs but will be seeded according to their ranking; however, if a championship team is ranked lower than a non-championship team, there could still be some “shuffling” of the brackets.
While the brackets may change, the conference champions will still receive the $4 million for making the playoffs and the $4 million for advancing to the quarterfinals. The $8 million goes to the leagues to be divided among the teams.
Clark noted, “that was the commissioners’ way of — at least for this year — holding to the commitment that they have made financially to those teams, those conference champions in particular, that would have been paid those amounts under the former system that we used last year.”
This marks the third changes in three years for the College Football playoffs. Last year was the first time the playoffs expanded to 12 teams from four in the 10 previous years.
The 2025 CFP begins on December 19 with ESPN carrying all of the games after signing a $7.8 billion deal for the television rights. The games involving the bottom eight teams will be played on the campuses of the teams ranked five through eight. The remaining games will all be played on neutral sites with the playoffs culminating on January 19 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida the home of the Miami Dolphins.