BREAKING: College Football Playoff Modifies Seeding Format

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The College Football Playoff (CFP) management committee voted unanimously on Thursday to modify the way college football teams are seeded in the playoff to a straight-seeding format. The management committee is composed of the 10 FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s director of athletics. 

The five highest-ranked conference champions will be guaranteed a spot in the playoff, but byes will no longer go to the four-highest ranked conference champions like it did this past season in the first edition of the 12-team playoff. 

Last season, there was much pushback on the seeding format, which landed non-power four Boise State a playoff bye for being one of the four highest ranked conference champions, along with Arizona State, which was a borderline top-12 team. 

This is the quote on the change provided by the CFP:

“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,” said Rich Clark, executive director of the College Football Playoff. “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.”

There will still be four byes to earn, but they will no longer be guaranteed to the conference champions. The byes will go to the top-four ranked teams.

Penn State and Texas were ranked in the top-four last season, but did not earn byes due to losing their conference championship games. If the new seeding system was in place last season, two SEC and two B1G teams would have made up the four squads with byes.

The rest of the CFP format will remain the same. The first round games will still be played on campuses by the 5-12 seeds.