Changes once again appear to be coming to the College Football Playoff. The 2024 season saw a major change take place as it was the first year of the 12-team playoff. While this format produced a lot of exciting games, especially during the first round games that took place on campus, the playoff overall didn't go as well as the CFP hoped.
Ohio State and Notre Dame were the two teams that made the National Championship game, and everyone knows how big of a brand both programs are. Even with that being the case however, total viewership of the title game was the lowest it has been in years.
Who knows why that was the case, but it showed that this new format may not be what is best for the sport.
But even though the new format of the CFP is only one year old, more changes to the format could be coming very soon. But instead of decreasing the number of teams that make the playoff, it appears the CFP might expand to 16 teams.
This wouldn't be that big of a change, but how those 16 teams are selected is what would be terrible for college football.
There is growing B1G-SEC support for a 16-team bracket, most notably a…
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) May 8, 2025
4 (SEC)
4 (B1G)
2 (ACC)
2 (B12)
1 (G6)
3 (at large)
…with season-ending inner-league play-in games (3rd place v 6th; 4th vs 5th), as @YahooSports reported in February.https://t.co/Rcl99Wndj9
New College Football Playoff format is bad for the sport
The new format being floated around is called the 4-4-2-2-1-3 model. This format would give the SEC and Big Ten four automatic bids into the College Football Playoff with the ACC and Big 12 getting two teams each. The higgest ranked Group of Five team would also have a guaranteed spot which would leave three at-large bids.
On the surface this seems like it would be good for teams like Georgia because it's hard to imagine a scenario where UGA regularly misses the CFP if four SEC teams are guaranteed to get in. But is anyone sure that is what is best for college football?
Say for example that Georgia goes 8-4 one season, but they still happen to finish in the top four of the SEC. Sure it would be nice for the Bulldogs to still get to play for a national title, but they would not deserve it, and letting teams in that don't deserve it would ruin the sport altogether.
Another example that was discussed on social media is the decrease in importance of the regular season if automatic bids were introduced. Take the Michigan and Ohio State rivalry which is the best rivalry in the country, what if both teams already had their spot in the CFP guaranteed before their annual rivalry game to end the season? That would signficantly decrease the magnitude of this game to the point where no one would really even care about the result anymore.
This change will likely go into effect regardless of what fans say because 16 teams means more games and more money for those who are making this decision. But it is a shame that college football, which has been the most unique and special sport in the entire country, is slowly being ruined just so the powers at be can make more money.