In 2024, the College Football Playoff delivered a new format for the road to the NCAA Football National Championship. This new format included twelve teams, home games, and bye weeks, all of which have never been seen before in the College Football Playoff.

In the past ten years, the College Football Playoff was made up of four teams who would compete in the semi-finals, and then the National Championship. The entire playoff was held at neutral sites and took place across two weeks. In the previous format, if a team lost one game during the regular season, it was very possible they could have been eliminated from playoff contention. There were also issues with team selection, such as only four teams could be selected. A very well known example of this was in 2023 when Florida State was not selected for the College Football Playoff, despite finishing the season with a perfect 13-0 record. 

Many fans were excited to see this new format. With twelve playoff spots, teams with weaker seasons were selected as a playoff team. Along with the increase in teams, the College Football Playoff awarded teams that won their conference a bye week due to the new format. This incentivized teams to win their conference as they would have to play one less game on their path to the National Championship. 

There are a wide variety of opinions from football fans about this new playoff structure. Opinions were formulating from the very beginning of the season, but now the debates are more common and valid as the playoffs have concluded. 

There are many different ideas that people believe could improve the playoff structure. Nothing can be guaranteed when taking these approaches, but it’s good to think about what could be fixed by making certain changes. 

Different Number of Teams

The four conference winners that earned a bye game this season were Oregon (Big Ten), Georgia (SEC), Boise State (Mountain West), and Arizona State (Big 12). In their bye game, all four teams lost their games to lower seeds. After this round, it was the semi-finals, and none of the top four seeded teams were still competing in the playoffs. The four remaining teams were Texas (5), Penn State (6), Notre Dame (7), and Ohio State (8). We think that the CFP should continue to use twelve teams because in the past these teams would not have the opportunity to compete for a National Championship. This outcome was surprising as many fans would expect the better seeded teams to perform well against lower seeded teams. With an expanded playoff system, teams have more opportunities to prove themselves and show that they are a national championship caliber team. 

In the new 12 team playoff, there are lots of different things that fans have enjoyed and have gotten excited about. For one, there have been eight more playoff games with this new format. In the previous four-team model, there would be two semi final games and one championship game, totaling only three games. Now there are four opening-weekend games, four quarterfinal games, two semi finals, and a national championship, totaling eleven playoff games. 

Conference Winner Gets a Bye

In the past ten years, winning your conference championship has never given a team an automatic berth to the playoffs; this year was the first. Out of all the teams that won their conference, the five highest seeded winners were given an automatic berth to the playoff. Out of those five teams, the top four highest ranked teams were seeded 1-4 by the College Football Playoff Committee, all receiving a first round bye. The top four seeds of this years playoffs were Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State. However, out of those teams, Oregon and Georgia were the only teams ranked in the top 4 in the AP poll. Clemson was the fifth best ranked team to win their conference. They were ranked 13th in the AP Poll, but because they won the ACC, they were put at the 12 seed, taking the last playoff spot from Alabama. 

With all four bye week teams losing, it shows that this system doesn’t accurately rank the teams. 

We understand that the playoff won’t be perfect as it is the first year that they have done this format. We also understand that the committee wants to reward teams for winning their conference, and we agree that teams should automatically qualify for the playoffs after winning their conference title game. But after watching this year’s College Football Playoff, we believe that conference winners should not deserve to get bye weeks. In the four quarterfinal games this year, it was shown that the higher seeded team didn’t necessarily mean they were better. Boise State is a perfect example of this as they struggled versus Penn State in the quarter finals.

Home Games vs Neutral Sites

Another new addition to the playoff this year was games on college campuses. This created a very good atmosphere for the playoff games and was well liked by many fans. However, the following rounds were hosted at neutral sites. 

We believe there are benefits to having games on both campuses and neutral sites. We think it would be more fair to keep it consistent across all of the playoffs. 

For example, Ohio State played their first playoff game at home in a packed Ohio Stadium. In the next round, they played in the Rose Bowl against Oregon in California and embarrassed Oregon 41-21. Had Oregon had a home game, it is reasonable to think that the game could have gone much differently.

TV Ratings

According to frontofficesports.com, the College Football Playoff semi-finals had a roughly 17% decrease in viewership. As the article covers, the semi-finals were held on a random Thursday and Friday night this season. In the past, the semi-finals were held on New Years Eve or New Year’s Day, a holiday where people don’t have to work and are able to watch the games. By having the games on random week nights, not as many people would be able to watch the games. This is something that we would like the playoff committee to change as more fans would be able to watch the game and there would be more hype and excitement regarding the games. 

Overall, we were fans of the new twelve-team playoff. For it being the first year, we think the committee got the seeds correct, and organized a successful playoff. We think that if the playoff committee considers these changes, the playoff can become better and create a new-and-improved legacy in college football.