Here’s what you need to know ahead of the inaugural College Football Playoff rankings release

In a fourth-floor conference room inside the Gaylord Hotel, just north of the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, 13 members of the College Football Playoff selection committee began meetings Monday and will meet all day Tuesday before producing, for the first time this season, their Top 25 rankings.

None of that is really new. This is the 11th year of the same process.

What is new: They are creating rankings that will apply, at the end of the season, not to a four-team playoff but a 12-team playoff. Their rankings, however, are not expected to reflect the playoff change. They will rank the teams as they normally have done — the best 25 teams in that order regardless of conference affiliation, etc.

For all of us on the outside looking in, we will apply those rankings to the new 12-team playoff format. Here are the rules of the new format:

– Rule 1: The five highest-ranked conference champions automatically qualify for the field.

– Rule 2: The four highest-ranked conference champions are seeded Nos. 1-4 and get a first-round bye (to re-emphasize this: teams that did not win their conference championship cannot get a bye and cannot be seeded better than No. 5).

– Rule 3: After the four highest-ranked conference champions are seeded, the next seven highest-ranked teams advance into the field through at-large spots and are seeded based on the order of their ranking. The fifth highest-ranked conference champion is also seeded based on its ranking order.

– Other particulars:

(1) independents, like Notre Dame, are not eligible to receive a top-four seed or a bye.

(2) first-round games between Nos. 5-12 seeds, Nos. 6-11, Nos. 7-10 and Nos. 8-9 are played Dec. 20-21 at the site of the better seed.

(3) quarterfinals, this year, are held at the Fiesta Bowl (assigned to the Big 12 champion), Peach Bowl (ACC champ), Rose Bowl (Big Ten champ)…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/heres-what-you-need-to-know-ahead-of-the-inaugural-college-football-playoff-rankings-release-034618391.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-11-05 03:46:18

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