College football’s decision makers will meet in Dallas today, and they could take an important step towards changing how playoff teams are seeded in the near future.
There is “strong support” to move to a straight seeding model in the College Football Playoff as the sport’s leaders meet to discuss the change, according to ESPN’s Heather Dinich.
The change could come as soon as the 2025 season, but there are some voices in the room that want to move the conversation towards the 2026 football season instead.
That feeling comes as it’s expected the College Football Playoff will address more comprehensive changes to its format for 2026 and beyond, including another possible expansion to either 14 or 16 teams, in addition to a change in how teams are seeded.
Currently, the four highest-ranked conference champions earn the top four seeds and a first-round bye, but consensus is building to change the system.
That change revolves around simply using the selection committee’s rankings for the seeding and avoiding any confusing discrepancies between rankings and seedings going forward.
For example, this past season saw No. 9 ranked Boise State earn the No. 3 seed as Mountain West champion and for No. 12 ranked Arizona State to play as the No. 4 seed as Big 12 champion.
No. 3 ranked Texas and No. 4 ranked Penn State were both runners-up in the SEC and Big Ten, respectively, so could not be seeded higher than 5 and 6 because of the top four places being reserved for conference champion teams.
Any changes for the 2025 season will have to be passed by a unanimous vote from the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua.
But the requirement for unanimity goes away in 2026, and it is expected the SEC and Big Ten will use their newfound influence over the sport to sway the vote in their favor to introduce straight seeding.
“I’m prepared to vote for seeding change,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in February.
“We’re in favor of going to a straight seeding, where there’s no difference between rankings and seeing like we had this year,” Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said. “We’re in support of that for next year.”
–
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
