🏈 CFP executives adopt a straight-seeding model for this season’s College Football Playoff

 

[RTB X Bot]

 

[rick4bama]

Someone will get upset again! I think this screw over the teams in the bracket!

 

[TerryP]

Someone will get upset again! I think this screw over the teams in the bracket!

If it's 12, #13 will be upset. If it's 14..if it's...

If we look at this logically, simply based on chalk, the ideal ranking going into the playoffs is a five seed. It's the easiest path. Just behind that would be a six seed.

 

[rick4bama]

If it's 12, #13 will be upset. If it's 14..if it's...

If we look at this logically, simply based on chalk, the ideal ranking going into the playoffs is a five seed. It's the easiest path. Just behind that would be a six seed.

I just read that you don't even need to win your conference to be in the top 4. Before you ask it was something I read this morning and I can't remember where it was at.

 

[TerryP]

I just read that you don't even need to win your conference to be in the top 4. Before you ask it was something I read this morning and I can't remember where it was at.

There's one improvement.

 

[Justneedme81]

I just read that you don't even need to win your conference to be in the top 4. Before you ask it was something I read this morning and I can't remember where it was at.

So, If three teams in SEC that are real good, and records show that, and two of them meet each other for second time in SEC Championship. The winner of SEC gets Bye, along with third team. In the end, those three teams will make the playoff.

 

[Krimson]

There's one improvement.

Another would be removing conference affiliation slots altogether and just straight seeding the best teams.

 

[50+yeartidefan]

Based on this. And applying to last year

Tennessee gets SMU instead of Ohio State.


Winners of conference championship isnt the same as finishing second or third in sec or big 10. Realistically but fair????

 

[TerryP]

Another would be removing conference affiliation slots altogether and just straight seeding the best teams.

Here's where it gets a little "hinky." They want to include G5 schools but when you look at rankings right now what do you see? If you look at the SP+ thread I posted the other day? No G5 teams in the top 25 that I can recall. I don't recall seeing any in the post-spring polls.

 

[alabama mike]

IMO, this is a good move and I look forward to more tweaks in the way things are done.

 

[Krimson]

Here's where it gets a little "hinky." They want to include G5 schools but when you look at rankings right now what do you see? If you look at the SP+ thread I posted the other day? No G5 teams in the top 25 that I can recall. I don't recall seeing any in the post-spring polls.

I don't have an issue with including them if they played a similar strength of schedule and deserved the ranking but playing G5 teams isn't the same as playing SEC teams. How would they ever deserve the ranking? Same with the champion of a weak conference.

 

[TerryP]

How would they ever deserve the ranking?

Folks focused on W/L's vs SOS or SOR.

 

[SEC Sports]

Seeding change shows Big Ten, SEC in charge

COMMENTARY It’s adorable how they put up the facade of a fight, the

tuscaloosanews-al.newsmemory.com

It’s adorable how they put up the facade of a fight, the allusion of strength in the face of sheer power.

The Big 12, ACC and Group of Five conferences put on the appearance they would stand firm against the Big Ten and SEC bullies, demanding fairness and accountability.

Until they couldn’t – until their false bravado of public statements wilted in the face of reality.

So it should come as no surprise that the College Football Playoff announced May 22 that 2025 season 12-team bracket would be a straightseeded format.

No more highest-ranked conference champions earning first-round byes, a format that benefits the ACC, Big 12 and Group of Five. No more Mr. Nice Guy from the Big Ten and SEC.

“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 CFP.

Translation: the SEC and Big Ten said take it or leave it, and the rest of the Football Bowl Subdivision conferences fell in line. More damning: This is just the beginning of the Big Ten and SEC power play – and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

If you don’t believe it, consider this: any change to the final year of first CFP contract needed a unanimous vote.

The next CFP contract beginning with the 2026 season, which will effectively be controlled exclusively by the Big Ten and SEC, doesn’t.

So if the minority didn’t agree with the majority on the straight seeding for 2025 (which they could have), they may as well have signed their own pink slips for the next CFP contract.

The Big Ten and SEC control everything – format and financials – beginning in 2026. A new 16-team format will likely exceed $1.2 billion in revenue annually, and no one wants to be left out.

So while Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and ACC commissioner Jim Phillips have accomplished some heavy lifting to save their respective conferences, while the Group of Five conferences have done all they can to hang on for revenue scraps, the Big





Ten and SEC have doubled down and flexed.

It’s their postseason world, the rest of college football is just surviving in it. And the Big Ten and SEC haven’t even begun to take big swings yet.

Soon enough – more than likely shortly after the SEC spring meetings next week in Destin, Florida - the College Football Playoff will announce the format for 2026 and beyond.

It wasn’t long ago that the Big 12 and ACC were publicly questioning a move to 16 teams, and against the idea that the Big Ten and SEC would be gifted four automatic qualifiers each — or half of the field.

It wasn’t long ago that Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey floated the idea that maybe, with the new contract, they wouldn’t use a committee to pick the field — or they would, but it would be tweaked. Shoot, maybe they’d bring back computer polls.

Understand this: the Big Ten and SEC aren’t floating ideas publicly (or leaking them) to gain an understanding of how far things can be pushed. They’re telling you what they’re doing.

And then they’re going to do it. When the SEC meets next week in Destin, the league could finally and officially approve a nine-game conference schedule. This will put the Big Ten (which already plays a nine-game conference schedule) and SEC on an even playing field, and eliminate the final point of structural friction between the conferences.

It will also send a shot across the bow to everyone else in college football. The two super conferences are now in lockstep in format and focus, and they’re going after big financial paydays.

If you don’t like how we structure the postseason beginning in 2026, we’ll take our ball and have our own playoff. Better yet, we’ll schedule each other in non-conference games, and effectively shut out the rest of the sport.

There’s a reason the Big Ten and SEC have been talking about an expanded non-conference schedule for nearly a year. Network television (and eventually streaming) wants more Big Ten vs. SEC.

So don’t be shocked when the new 2026 CFP format includes an expanded championship week prior to the beginning of the playoff.

That week – which long has been a standalone week for conference championship games – would include a championship game and three play-in games from the Big Ten and SEC.

The teams playing in the two championship games, and the winners of the play-in games, would advance to the CFP. That’s four automatic qualifiers each from the Big Ten and SEC.

More problematic for the ACC and Big 12 (and Group of Five): the Big Ten and SEC play-in games will suck the oxygen (not to mention, television money) from that final regular-season weekend.

More games, more television inventory, more revenue for the elite 34 schools of college football.

The ACC and Big 12 would get two automatic qualifiers each beginning in 2026, Notre Dame would be guaranteed a spot if it’s ranked in the top 16, and the highest-ranked Group of Five conference champion would also earn a spot.

That leaves three at-large spots in a 16-team field. Three spots for the Big Ten and SEC to more than likely share, or earn a majority — based, more than anything, on strength of schedule.

This is just the beginning, everyone. And there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

 

[Krimson]

Folks focused on W/L's vs SOS or SOR.

Why I said deserve. If it's straight wins and losses sec should go to 4 conference games with everyone else playing Mississippi st, vandy, Kentucky, one rivalry game, and schedule directional schools for the rest. SOS has to mean the most to get good games imo. If you want to play in the playoffs schedule ranked teams or create an NIT for the lesser teams.

Current state of college football, keep conferences for all other sports and create a 26 or so super conference for the top schools in football and use the NFL model.

 

[50+yeartidefan]

Why I said deserve. If it's straight wins and losses sec should go to 4 conference games with everyone else playing Mississippi st, vandy, Kentucky, one rivalry game, and schedule directional schools for the rest. SOS has to mean the most to get good games imo. If you want to play in the playoffs schedule ranked teams or create an NIT for the lesser teams.

Current state of college football, keep conferences for all other sports and create a 26 or so super conference for the top schools in football and use the NFL model.

Thats great unless ur paying aying 2500$ for season tickets and wanna watch that crap.

I want great games. I don't woory about cfp
If we are good enough to win it. Then we can play a tough schedule and still win it.

But losing to vandy and humiliation at Oklahoma. I dont see anything that says "deservings "

 

[Krimson]

Thats great unless ur paying aying 2500$ for season tickets and wanna watch that crap.

I want great games. I don't woory about cfp
If we are good enough to win it. Then we can play a tough schedule and still win it.

But losing to vandy and humiliation at Oklahoma. I dont see anything that says "deservings "

Weak schedules aren't good for college football but neither is NIL in current state. Nobody wants a weak schedule but you can't reward other conferences or G5 teams who play them and punish the teams who don't. Make winning with a strong schedule the most important criteria and forget G5 teams playing in the playoffs.

 

[50+yeartidefan]

Weak schedules aren't good for college football but neither is NIL in current state. Nobody wants a weak schedule but you can't reward other conferences or G5 teams who play them and punish the teams who don't. Make winning with a strong schedule the most important criteria and forget G5 teams playing in the playoffs.

Everyone knows. Playing in sec or big 10 has it tough.
Even last year. Smu really came back and played great. Ok. They get smashed. Bama gets that slot. Even after vandy n Oklahoma debacles. We couldn't even beat a shit Michigan team.
The cfps are the cherry on top. The regular schedule is the meat.

 

[mando]

But losing to vandy and humiliation at Oklahoma. I dont see anything that says "deservings "

Yep should be written in the CPF rules, lose to Vandy and you are automatically disqualified. Why I had no problems with bama being left out last year no matter what happened in the other games.

 

[Krimson]

Everyone knows. Playing in sec or big 10 has it tough.
Even last year. Smu really came back and played great. Ok. They get smashed. Bama gets that slot. Even after vandy n Oklahoma debacles. We couldn't even beat a shit Michigan team.
The cfps are the cherry on top. The regular schedule is the meat.

Definitely not advocating for last year's Bama team to be in with the losses they had but Clemson only beat one ranked team, SMU. SMU played 2 ranked teams with 1 being Clemson and lost to both, the other was BYU. The schedules don't compare to an SEC schedule so how do you make it "fair"? I don't want fair, I want the best teams to play. Auto conference bids don't equal best teams.