College Football Playoff straight-seeding model adopted for 2025: What it means for conference champions

Getty Images

College Football Playoff administrators approved a proposal for a straight-seeding model for the 2025 postseason, confirms Brandon Marcello of CBS Sports. This represents a major change in Year 2 of the expanded playoff. Happy trails to automatic first-round byes for the four highest-rated conference champions and welcome to a less complex power-ranking of the selection committee’s top 12 teams.

More from College Football

Under the new seeding process, the top-four teams in the selection committee’s final rankings get a first-round pass to the quarterfinals. Last season, the four highest-ranked conference champions earned that distinction regardless of where those teams were slotted by the selection committee.

Eliminating the conference champion auto-bye scenarios was a major sticking point this offseason after it resulted in an unbalanced bracket last December. No individual metric suggested Mountain West champion Boise State had “earned” the No. 3 seed last season as a more deserving team than 11-win Texas or Penn State with more competitive schedules, but the Broncos benefited from the highest-ranked conference champion rule.

The top four seeds who received first-round byes last season — Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State — all lost their opening games in the quarterfinals against opponents coming off wins the previous week.

How the 2024 CFP would’ve looked with straight seeding

1. Oregon Ducks (13-0) *Big Ten champion

No. 1 in final CFP Rankings, drew 1-seed

2. Georgia Bulldogs (11-2) *SEC champion

No. 2 in CFP Rankings, drew…


Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-playoff-straight-seeding-model-adopted-for-2025-what-it-means-for-conference-champions/

Author : Brad Crawford

Publish date : 2025-05-22 18:42:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.

Check Also

Coach Elko provides key updates at Coaches’ Night

During this part of the football calendar, there’s not much happening beyond recruiting updates. However, …