College Football Expanding to a 12 Team Format

Photo credit Kirby Lee of USA Today Sports

As reported by several news outlets, the College Football Playoffs Board has voted to increase the number of teams accepted into the playoff from 4 to 12. According to ESPN reporters Heather Dinich and Pete Thamel, the playoff will have the following format:

“The four highest-ranked conference champions will be seeded one through four with each receiving a first-round bye. Teams seeded five through 12 will play each other in the first round on either the second or third weekend of December. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be played in bowl games on a rotating basis, and the championship game will be at a neutral site, as under the current four-team format.”

This decision is a huge win for college football as a whole. The new format is slated to go into effect in 2026, but there is reportedly those that would push for the expanded format to be ready earlier.

With this expanded pool, fans and teams no longer have to be concerned about 1 loss ruining their season and needing to “run the table” to have a shot at being selected into the College Football Playoff. Let’s be honest, college football has become stagnant the more a season wears on. The same schools seem to be in contention every year with little variety. Last year marked the only significant departure from the playoff norm when the Cincinnati Bearcats made it to 4 team playoff. Even then, as there always are, we’re teams feeling slighted in some way. Arguing their case for inclusion. The playoff expansion will cure some of that.

Since the 4-team playoff system was instituted in the 2014/15 season, here are the teams who made the final 4 by year:

 

2014/2015:

 

Alabama

Oregon

Florida State

Ohio State

 

2015/2016:

 

Alabama

Clemson

Michigan State

Oklahoma

 

2016/2017:

 

Alabama

Clemson

Ohio State

Washington

 

2017/2018:

 

Clemson

Oklahoma

Georgia

Alabama

 

2018/2019:

 

Alabama

Clemson

Notre Dame

Oklahoma

 

2019/2020:

 

LSU

Ohio State

Clemson

Oklahoma

 

2020/2021:

 

Alabama

Clemson

Ohio State

Notre Dame

 

2021/2022:

 

Alabama

Michigan

Georgia

Cincinnati

 

Notice any patterns? It’s simply ridiculous that 99% of teams are virtually eliminated from contending for a National Championship before the season even starts. Some because of the conference the school is in, others because of strength of schedule, etc. There’s also the matter of media coverage, being able to sell the game to advertisers, and TV deals with certain conferences. That’s a story for another time, but no one can convince me that those qualities don’t have a major impact on decision-making.

Let me ask you this: what’s one of the great appeals of the NCAA basketball tournament? Cinderella stories. Fans, myself included, love the underdog story. We love that narrative in sports. That’s part of the disservice having only 4 teams does to college football. Schools and fans are denied opportunity and a good story. What are sports anyway without good appealing stories? Wouldn’t you love to see 12th seed Wisconsin knock off 5th seed Clemson and beat #1 Alabama? It’s unlikely, but possible. No one expected 15 seed St. Peter’s to upset #3 Purdue to get to the Elite 8 last March, but it happened. College football can now somewhat replicate that with the 12-team format.

Hopefully, we’ll see the new playoff format before the 2026 season, but that appears to be the latest it will be implemented. It’s better for the game, for school and for fans. I’m looking forward to it.