College Football Playoff format for next season still in limbo as commissioners punt on making seeding changes

DALLAS — The format for this year’s College Football Playoff remains in limbo.

Perhaps, it can be solved with a familiar thing: money.

At a meeting here Tuesday, playoff executives explored changes to the 2025 postseason but came to no decision on a proposal from the Big Ten and SEC to alter the playoff seeding.

In interviews afterward, conference commissioners say they need more data before making a decision to move to a “straight seeding” model that would eliminate the automatic first-round byes assigned to the four highest-ranked conference champions — a shift that Big Ten and SEC leaders support but a move that requires unanimity from the CFP Management Committee (the 10 FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director).

However, a financial compromise was discussed on Tuesday among the 11-member group, several people with knowledge of the talks told Yahoo Sports. In the current 12-team format, the top four seeds — and first-round byes — are reserved for the four highest-ranked conference champions. Each of those teams automatically earn $8 million as part of the CFP’s performance-based distribution model. They get $4 million for qualifying for the event and another $4 million for advancing to the quarterfinals.

Under discussion is the possibility of the four highest-ranked conference champions continuing to earn that additional revenue despite not receiving a top four seed and first-round bye.

Is it enough to sway the room to make the seeding change? Maybe, but there’s another piece to this puzzle. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark believe that alterations to the 2025 playoff are tethered to any potential changes in 2026.

The 2026 playoff begins a new six-year contract with ESPN where the SEC and Big Ten gain control over any format…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football/article/college-football-playoff-format-for-next-season-still-in-limbo-as-commissioners-punt-on-making-seeding-changes-011906484.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2025-02-26 01:19:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.