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The 2024 college football season is nearly here, which means the first 12-team postseason in the sport’s history is just months away.
After a decade of two rounds and three games and years of talking about how best to expand, the College Football Playoff will officially include a dozen teams this year. More teams equals more games, a later national championship game and home playoff games for the first time in college football history.
Here’s what you need to know about the new playoff format ahead of the season.
Five conference champions get in
In an effort to ensure that conference title games will still carry weight, the top five conference champions in the College Football Playoff rankings are assured of a playoff spot.
With four power conferences (the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC) remaining following the death of the Pac-12 as we knew it, it’s safe to assume the champions of those leagues will be among the top five. That leaves one more spot for a Group of Five champion. A year ago, the top-ranked Group of Five conference champion was Liberty, and the Flames were rewarded with a blowout loss to Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl.
The top four conference champions will also receive the top four seeds and first-round byes no matter where they are in the final CFP rankings. A year ago, that would have been easy. Michigan, Washington, Texas and Alabama all won their conference titles. In 2022, No. 7 Clemson would have gotten the No. 4 seed in this format as No. 4 Ohio State, No. 5 Alabama and No. 6 Tennessee all failed to win their conference.
The College Football Playoff will look very different this season. (Kevin Abele/Getty Images)
Seven at-large teams
With five conference champions guaranteed in the field, there’s room for seven wild-card teams. Those spots will go to the top seven teams in the rankings that did not win…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/how-the-new-12-team-college-football-playoff-will-work-144632858.html
Author : Yahoo Sports
Publish date : 2024-08-05 14:46:32
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