The College Football Playoff committee did not have very many fans at the conclusion of the 2024 season. This was especially the case from fans of the SEC as many felt the difficulties they face week in and week out during conference play were not factored into the CFP's ranking formula.
That may no longer be a problem this season however as a statement released by the CFP committee indicates that they have made some changes to better account for the differences in the strengths of schedules.
"Changes for the upcoming season include enhancements to the tools that the selection committee uses to assess schedule strength and how teams perform against their schedule. The current schedule strength metric has been adjusted to apply greater weight to games against strong opponents. An additional metric, record strength, has been added to the selection committee’s analysis to go beyond a team’s schedule strength to assess how a team performed against that schedule."
The College Football Playoff selection committee announces the changes to its strength of schedule metric. pic.twitter.com/POIeJ0wMwe
— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) August 20, 2025
College Football Playoff committee announce updates to strength of schedule analysis
Georgia could have really used this updated criteria last season after the CFP committee did not treat them fairly throughout the season. The Bulldogs were the No. 3 team in the country when they lost to Ole Miss on the road. The Rebels were ranked at the time as well, so this by no means was a bad loss, but the committee decided to drop Georgia all the way to No. 12 and outside of the playoff picture.
Georgia ended up fighting back and finishing as the No. 2 team in the CFP's final rankings, but this drop showcased a major problem in the committee's criteria they use to produce their rankings.
Beginning this season however the committee will place more weight on the strength of every team's schedule, good or bad. This will greatly help teams like Georgia and the rest of the SEC who currently make up 15 of the 16 most difficult schedules in the country this season. Conversely this will hurt teams like Indiana who are refusing to schedule anyone with a pulse in their non-conference schedule.
The CFP committee will release their first set of rankings the first week of November, so it will be interesting to see if they follow this new criteria and if it helps Georgia and the rest of the SEC.