College Football Playoffs could expansion to 12 teams

12-TEAM PLAYOFF PROPOSED BY COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF WORKING GROUP

NCAA and the college football selection comedy with working on a new playoff format to include more teams. This would give more teams a chance for a championship, teams like Notre Dame and Group of 5 teams. Fans would love this new format, it will give more games, more excitement, and give cinderella teams a chance. What will it look like? Well, we are not sure yet as it still in the planning phase. We do know that seed 1 though 4 gets a bye.

The four highest-ranked conference champions would be seeded one through four and each would receive a first-round bye, while teams seeded five through 12 would play each other in the first round on the home field of the higher-ranked team. (The team ranked #5 would host #12; team #6 would meet team #11; team #7 would play team #10; and team #8 would meet #9.) Under the proposal, the quarterfinals and semifinals would be played in bowl games. The championship game would continue to be at a neutral site, as under the current format.

What would be the schedule? While the playoff calendar is still to be worked out, broadly this is the recommendation:

• First-round games would take place on campus sometime during the two-week period after conference championship games.

• Quarterfinals would be played on January 1—or January 2 when New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday—and on an adjacent day.

• Semifinals and championship game dates are to be determined; semifinals likely will not be played as a doubleheader.

This plan will go into voting next week in Chicago and if pass they will finalize in September. Bill Hancock, Executive Director of the CFP, said the format will not change this year or next year.