College football is in the first season of the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff, and fans throughout the country are already upset with how it played out. To be fair, most of the compaints have surrounded which teams were included in the playoff, but there has been a big issue with the format of the playoff itself.
The issue with the 12-team bracket is that the top four seeds in the field who earn a first round bye do not represent the four best teams in the field. Oregon and Georgia football are undoubtedly two of the top four teams in the country, but nobody actually thinks Boise State and Arizona State are one of the four best teams even though they are the third and fourth seed.
However, the rules of the CFP grant these teams a top four seed and first round bye, so that is what college football fans have to live with this year.
But changes to this format could be coming as soon as next season, and this would have a huge impact on Georgia.
There will be “in-depth discussions” about not guaranteeing conference champs the top 4 @CFBPlayoff seeds in 2025, sources said. Top 5 conference champs still would get in playoff but rankings would determine seeds, sources said. This would require unanimous approval by all stake…
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 30, 2024
Changes could be coming to the CFP bracket
Brett McMurphy with Action Sports HQ reported that discussions are already beginning over teams automatically earning the top four seeds. It's important to note that the five highest ranked conference champions would still automatically make the field, which is the right call so each power conference and a group of five team are represented, but the seeding would work completely different.
Instead of teams earning the top four seeds automatically, the seeding would would fall in line with the CFP committee's rankings. This would ensure that the 1-seed has the easier path to the National Championship game, which is not the case this year.
So if these rules were in effect this year, Georgia's path to the title game would like very different, and be much more difficult. Instead of playing Notre Dame then either Boise State or Penn State, Georgia would face Tennessee in the quarterfinals then the winner of Texas and Ohio State in the semifinals. Now that is what we call a gauntlet.
Thankfully this is not the path Georgia faces this season, but in all honesty this change is the right call for the CFP to make. Oregon earned the right this season to have the easier path in the playoffs, so hopefully the CFP makes these changes so the bracket is more fair next season.