The College Football Playoff logo is shown on the field at AT&T Stadium before the Rose Bowl NCAA college football game between Notre Dame and Alabama in Arlington, Texas, Jan. 1, 2021.
Roger Steinman, Associated Press
The College Football Playoff format is finally growing.
The CFP Board of Managers voted Tuesday morning in favor of expanding the playoff to 12 teams each postseason, with the motion passing unanimously.
The Board of Managers is comprised of 11 chancellors and presidents from each FBS conference, along with representation from independent power Notre Dame.
OFFICIAL: The CFP Board of Managers unanimously revised the qualifying criteria for the 12-team event to include the five highest-ranked conference champions plus the next seven highest-ranked teams determined by the CFP Selection Committee.https://t.co/gUSXtwr39G#CFBPlayoff pic.twitter.com/QQRVQPFJJB
— College Football Playoff (@CFBPlayoff) February 20, 2024
The new 12-team, “5+7” format will grant automatic bids to the five highest-ranked conference champions, with the CFP Selection Committee then determining the seven remaining at-large participants through its rankings.
The 12-team playoff was originally set to involve six automatic conference champion bids, but the demise of the Pac-12 made such a format impossible, resulting in the 5+7 solution.
“This is a very logical adjustment for the College Football Playoff based on the evolution of our conference structures since the board first adopted this new format in September 2022,” Mississippi State president and CFP Board of Managers chair Mark Keenum said in a statement. “I know this change will also be well received by student-athletes, coaches and fans. We all will be pleased to see this new format come to life on the field this postseason.”
The four top-ranked conference champions will each receive first-round byes in the new format, while the No. 5 through No. 12 seeds will play each other on the home field of the highest-seeded school.
The quarterfinal and semifinal contests will take place in the New Year’s Six bowl games, while the championship match will be held in a neutral site as per usual.
“The New Year’s Six bowls (Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Fiesta Bowl) would host the quarterfinals and semifinals on a rotation, similar to how the six bowls took turns hosting the semifinals under the four-team format,” The Athletic reported.
While the increase of participants from four to 12 should up the playoff’s parity, there will be no limit on the number of included teams from each conference.
Research from Yahoo! Sports indicated that if the newly implemented format had been in place over the past decade, the playoff would have still been dominated by the SEC and Big Ten, with 38 SEC squads and 35 more from the Big Ten earning retroactive playoff berths.