With the 2023-24 College Football season ending, the 4-team playoff format leaves. The new format will be a 12-team playoff, a large jump from four teams.
How does it work? The new 12-team playoff will include the “five highest-ranked conference championships, which will receive automatic bids” per the NCAA. The last seven teams will be the remaining highest-ranked teams. The top four teams will receive an automatic bye to the tournament’s second round. The first round will consist of the 5-12 seeds playing each other in games featuring home-field advantage for the higher-seeded teams. It would be 5 vs. 12, 6 vs. 11, 7 vs. 10, and 8 vs. 9.
What is the schedule? The playoffs start Friday, Dec. 20, with one game, and the rest of the first round is finished on Saturday, Dec. 21. The quarter-finals are 10 days later, with one game on New Year’s Eve and the rest on New Year’s Day. The semifinals will occur on January 9th and 10th, and the National Championship will be on January 20th in Atlanta, GA.
How will this affect the regular season? These new changes will make the regular season less important, with many opportunities for teams with multiple losses to make it in, which was virtually impossible in the 4 team format. The good thing about this format is that it will enable more parity all around the college football world, which fans have wanted for a while. It’s still too early to say whether or not these changes will better or worsen the sport as a whole, but it will certainly make for some very entertaining moments in the postseason.
Pros and Cons: There are some negatives to this change as it makes historic rivalries such as The Game and the Iron Bowl less important than usual. With a lot of room for error, teams with even 3 losses could make it in. While this could be viewed as a negative, it could also be seen from a different perspective, giving teams opportunities to win the championship even after losing games.
In years past, there have been controversies surrounding who doesn’t get in the 4 team playoff, with people claiming some teams getting robbed of playing for a national championship. Last year was especially controversial, as 13-0 Power Conference Champ Florida State didn’t make it into the playoffs, instead getting pushed back by 12-1 Alabama and 12-1 Texas. The 12-team playoff will significantly help this problem, as every team that deserves an opportunity at the championship will get a chance.
