When the College Football Playoff expanded to 12 teams, the key words generating the most excitement heading into the 2024 season were “opportunity” and “access.” By allowing for five conference champions and seven at-large selections to compete for the national championship, the CFP opened doors to programs that had been left out of a four-team format that regularly featured the same familiar names.
But when the field was announced in December 2024 and the first-ever 12-team bracket was set, the collection of teams that were the first to seize this opportunity of increased access included some of the programs that were expected to be in the mix as well as a few wild cards no one saw coming.
Penn State had been one of the most successful programs of the CFP era without a playoff appearance, logging multiple New Year Six bowl bids and high rankings at the end of the year. The expansion from four teams to 12 teams was projected to benefit a program with top-10 consistency like Penn State, and so their inclusion came as no surprise. The same could be said, though not to same extent, for Tennessee making the field two years after a top-10 finish and Orange Bowl win or Boise State finishing as one of the highest ranked conference champions. No one was shocked to see these teams in the mix for the new-look CFP.
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Cody Nagel
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Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/we-shocked-the-world-now-what-how-last-years-cfp-cinderellas-prepare-for-their-encore/
Author : Chip Patterson
Publish date : 2025-08-04 19:57:00
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