With one year of the 12-team College Football Playoff in the books, there has been a push to make some changes to it once again. In some cases, it comes down to further expansion. Others, however, want to see the smaller issues in the Playoff get ironed out.
For Michigan athletic director and one-time College Football Playoff selection committee chair, Warde Manuel, there were issues with the 12-team format. In particular, he wants to see an adjustment to how the seeding of teams works, as he explained in an appearance on The Triple Option.
“Greg Sankey and Tony Petitti came out and said they would like to see the seeding change to seeing the teams ranked and seeded as they are,” Warde Manuel said. “I would 100 percent agree with that. I think what threw it off.”
In the 12-team format, the top-five ranked conference champions made the Playoff. The other seven slots went to at-large teams based on the selection committee’s rankings. Four teams received bye weeks, based on the top-four ranked conference champions. That meant that the teams ranked one through 12 didn’t necessarily make the Playoff or in that order.
“I battled that with friends and people who would say, ‘Well, the number three team lost in the Playoff. The number four team lost in the Playoff.’ And I’m like, ‘No, the number four team was ranked 12th, the number three team was ranked eight.’ Now, one and two lost because they were the same, but you have these shifts and you have these teams that,” Manuel said. “To me, it makes it unfair.”
Among the issues some pundits had with the seeding in the 12-team Playoff came down to how the matchups worked. Oregon, for instance, despite being the top overall seed and earning a bye, had a more difficult challenge on paper than Penn State, who they beat to win the Big Ten. That first game for Oregon ended up being against eventual national champion Ohio State. The Nittany Lions played SMU and Boise State in their first two games.
“When teams are ranked one and two, and because of the way they’re seeded, that people can come into those positions and back stronger teams up into positions where they’re playing you earlier than they normally would. So, I think it puts those teams that bounce out of the top four because other teams come in,” Manuel said. “I think it puts them at a disadvantage because you’re either playing tougher teams earlier or as the number one and two teams did this year, they’re playing a higher-ranked team earlier in the Playoff than they would have if they had just seeded them.”
For Warde Manuel, the solution is simple. You seed teams based on their Playoff selection committee rankings. In the case that a team wins their conference and is outside the top 12 they’d then be moved into the top 12, replacing the team at the bottom of those rankings, but not jumping all the way to the top four.
“So, in my opinion, you add the five conference champions, and you leave them ranked where they are unless they’re outside. This year everybody would have been ranked one through 10,” Manuel said. “Arizona State would have moved from 12 to 11 and Clemson would have moved to 12. Then you set the Playoff from there.”
The debate regarding the College Football Playoff will continue and it will be interesting to see if the 2025-26 Playoff could impact anyone’s minds about the format and seeding.
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