The college football landscape is ever changing, and its postseason is no different.
Over the past few days, the College Football Playoff has officially changed its format for next season. Beginning in 2025, the top four ranked conference champions will no longer get automatic byes.
While the top five conference champions will still earn an automatic bid into the College Football Playoff, those teams will simply be seeded solely according to their final rankings without any special treatment. Last season, the College Football Playoff’s first year with 12 teams received immense scrutiny.
While many were unhappy with how the rankings played out and were upset with the 12-team field in general, there were more legitimate concerns with how the 12 teams were placed in the bracket. The four highest-ranked conference champions each earned a bye and were automatically advanced to the quarterfinals.
That crop featured Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State. While Oregon and Georgia’s spots wouldn’t change in this new format, given that they were the top two teams in the final rankings, Boise State and Arizona State would have had much different fates.
Considering where those two teams finished in the final rankings at Nos. 9 and 12, respectively, they each would have played a first-round game on the road in this new format. Although the original thought was to give an extra reward to teams that won their conference, it seems there might have been too much of a reward last season.
It makes more sense to guarantee a spot in the field for the five highest-ranked conference champions solely, instead of also giving the four highest-ranked champions an automatic spot in the quarterfinals.
That also spells doom for the Big 12. As a second-tier conference in college football, the Big 12 needs any sort of advantage it can get in this era.
Considering the conference is incredibly unlikely to ever have a team finish in the top four, Arizona State last season could be the only Big 12 team to ever earn a first-round bye in the 12-team playoff.
That also means that the Big 12 might struggle to get to the quarterfinals any time soon. Getting one team in with an automatic bid seems doable, but getting any at-large teams could be a tall task for the conference.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
