Change certainly coming to College Football Playoff, but how much and when? ‘Too soon to say it’s broken’

Change is inevitable for the College Football Playoff, but just how drastic those tweaks could be after just one year in a new, 12-team format is uncertain. 

Conference commissioners are developing campaigns for changes as soon as the 2025 season, but others have asked for patience, including the CFP’s outgoing selection committee chairman.

“It’s too soon to say it’s broken,” Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel told CBS Sports.

The crux of the issue is transparency with the process, most notably the decisions and criteria followed by the 13-person committee, and seeding within the bracket. Those points also bleed into the selection process, including the number of automatic bids in a system that was built during an already-expired timeline, when five power conferences ruled the landscape before the dissolution of the Pac-12.

The big discussion points:

Should the four highest-ranked conference champions receive first-round byes if they’re ranked outside the top four in the committee’s top 25?Should the field expand to 14 teams?

Changes can be made as soon as the 2025 season, but it will require unanimity among the 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame — which means, say, the Big 12 would have to volunteer away its best shot at a first-round bye. That will not be the case in 2026 with a new agreement, which provides more weight to the voices of the Big Ten and SEC through at least 2031.

The devil is in the details. A year after the controversial decision to bump undefeated Florida State out of the four-team playoff, the committee faced another difficult task in the first iteration of the 12-team format: whether to include a three-loss SEC team (Alabama) or a two-loss ACC runner-up (SMU). 

Fueling the frustration on Selection Sunday was a…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/change-certainly-coming-to-college-football-playoff-but-how-much-and-when-too-soon-to-say-its-broken/

Author : Brandon Marcello

Publish date : 2024-12-16 18:15:00

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