College Football Playoff moving to straight seeding model
The College Football Playoff is moving to a straight seeding model for the 2025 season.
Teams will be seeded based on the selection committee's ranking, awarding first-round byes to the top four programs regardless of whether they won their conference.
The five highest-ranked conference champions will still receive automatic bids into the playoff but will only be seeded according to their ranking.
The CFP's management committee, comprised of the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua, unanimously agreed to the change Thursday.
"After evaluating the first year of the 12-team playoff, the CFP management committee felt it was in the best interest of the game to make this adjustment," executive director Rich Clark said in a statement.
"This 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 recognizes the best performance on the field during the entire regular season."
In last season's playoff, the first under the 12-team format, the top four seeds and accompanying byes were automatically given to the four highest-ranked conference champions.
As a result, ninth-ranked Boise State (Mountain West champion) earned the 3-seed, while No. 11 Arizona State (Big 12 winner) was the 4-seed in the tournament. Both teams lost their second-round matchups, though Arizona State took Texas to overtime in the Peach Bowl.
If the new format had been in place last season, nonconference winners Texas and Penn State would have received the first-round byes alongside Oregon and Georgia. Notre Dame, which is independent of the conferences, is now eligible to receive a bye in the playoff.
This will also be the final season of the 12-team playoff format, with the CFP expanding to either 14 or 16 teams starting in 2026, sources told Action Network's Brett McMurphy.
No future model has been finalized, but the SEC and Big Ten are pushing for a 16-team format in which they each receive four automatic bids, Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger reports.