College Football Playoff Simplifies Format For 2025 But Questions Abound For 2026

FILE – Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith (4) scores a touchdown ahead of Oregon defensive back Kobe Savage (5) during the first half in the quarterfinals of the Rose Bowl College Football Playoff, Jan. 1, 2025, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Oregon finished the 2024 college football regular season as the nation’s only undefeated team, culminating with a 45-37 victory over Penn State in the Big Ten championship game. The reward? A matchup with Ohio State, a talented team that ended up defeating Oregon in the Rose Bowl and winning the College Football Playoff national title.

This year, the CFP has modified its format, making it simpler for fans to understand the bracket. But there could be changes again next year as conferences and administrators haggle over the size of the field and other considerations.

After having a four-team field for the first 10 years, the CFP last year expanded it to 12 programs. Although the CFP had weekly rankings throughout the season, the rules mandated that the four highest-ranked conference champions received the top four seeds and first round byes. As such, even though Texas and Penn State were ranked No. 3 and No. 4, respectively, in the final CFP regular season rankings, they were seeded No. 5 and No. 6 because they lost in their conference championship games. No. 9 ranked Boise State and No. 12 ranked Arizona State received the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds because they were the third- and fourth-highest ranked conference champions.

Confused? You’re not alone.

CFP officials listened to the complaints and made things more straightforward this year. The five highest-ranked conference champions are guaranteed a spot in the playoff. But the CFP will no longer reserve the top four seeds for conference champions. Instead, the playoff seeds will be based on the final rankings, meaning a league can have more than one team in the top four.

If the same format was in place last year, Oregon would have still received a bye but would have faced the winner of an Indiana-Boise State first round game instead of the Ohio State-Tennessee game. And the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference would have had two teams apiece in the top four.

Rich Clark, the CFP’s executive director, said in a May press release that the playoff’s management committee “felt it was in the best interest of the game to make this adjustment. The change will continue to allow guaranteed access to the Playoff by rewarding teams for winning their conference championship, but it will also allow us to construct a postseason bracket that recognized the best performance on the field during the entire regular season.”

This being college football, though, there could be more upheaval in 2026.

During the past few months, multiple outlets have reported that the playoff field could expand after this year. ESPN reported last weekend that the Big Ten has had early talks about having as many as 24 or 28 teams qualify for the CFP, while the SEC and other leagues have floated a 16-team field as early as 2026 with five conference champions and 11 at-large berths. The SEC on Thursday agreed to have nine conference games starting next season, up from eight previously, but commissioner Greg Sankey told ESPN’s Paul Finebaum later in the day that the league still prefers the 16-team format.

As of now, nothing has been decided in terms of the number of teams in the field or the number of automatic qualifiers per league. Those conversations are ongoing and will continue as conference commissioners and CFP officials debate what makes the most sense for their leagues’ finances and bragging rights. The CFP has set a Dec. 1 deadline for a new format. If no agreement is reached, it will stay at 12 teams.

“I would rather stay at this than rush to a decision that’s not good,” Clark told reporters this month. “So if the decision is that we stay at the 12-team playoff until we know more, until we watch that another year, until we can discuss the other options on the table a little bit more, it’s worth sticking to the 12 team until we can come to really a solid, sound decision for the future.”

With the season starting on Saturday with No. 17 Kansas State facing No. 22 Iowa State in Ireland and five other games, fans can take solace that the CFP format for 2025 is at least logical and easy to follow.

As usual, the major two conferences are expected to dominate the headlines, with 10 SEC programs and six Big Ten teams ranked in the preseason Associated Press top 25 poll. Those leagues have seven of the top 10 teams, including No. 1 Texas of the SEC and No. 2 Penn State and No. 3 Ohio State of the Big Ten. The only exceptions are No. 4 Clemson and No. 10 Miami of the Atlantic Coast Conference and No. 6 Notre Dame, a proud independent that benefits from a huge NBC deal, an international fan base and an athletics department and University administration committed to invest as much as anyone in football.

Chances are, a team ranked high in the preseason poll will emerge as the national champion. Still, over the next five months, there will no doubt be numerous surprises and storylines to keep fans engaged and interested in a sport that has grown exponentially in recent years even as the college athletics landscape has undergone massive changes.