For many years college football lived with a problem that everyone saw, but no one wanted to fix.
Only four teams were allowed in the playoffs, and every season fans would fight about who was left out or shouldn’t have made it. Usually, the same teams appeared year after year, while undefeated teams were forced to watch from home. One-loss teams were often told they weren’t good enough. Under the 4-team format, more than half of FBS conferences had virtually no path to the national championship, regardless of record. The system was flawed, and it was clear that change was needed.
That change finally came when the CFP management committee proposed a 12-team College Football Playoff, which officially came to life in 2024.
This shift has been a lift for college football, both financially and in terms of public interest, but there are still those who would like to tweak it, expanding the field of contenders even further. That would not be the best idea for several reasons.
The new and improved CFP bracket is fairly simple and easy to understand. The top teams in college football compete in a single elimination bracket to determine the national champion. The playoff features 5 automatic qualifiers (top conference champs) and 7 at-large teams. The top 4 seeds get a first round bye, whereas the 5-12 seeds play in opening round to make it to later rounds.
However, the expanded format has not been perfect. One of the biggest issues with the new system is teams that arguably should not have made the playoff sometimes get in, while stronger and better teams are left out. For example, this season Notre Dame got robbed of a spot largely because they didn’t win a conference (they aren’t in a conference). The main reason people were so mad about this is because the teams that made it instead of them were Tulane and James Madison. To be fair, Notre Dame would have likely performed better than some of those teams.
There’s also been some speculation of a possibly expanding this playoff to 16 teams. The reason for this being the teams that get that one week off don’t seem to play as well. So far, only one team that was seeded 1-4 has made it out of the quarterfinals, raising questions about whether additional expansion would improve the system or create more issues.
Despite these flaws, the 12-team playoff has several major advantages. In my opinion, the expanded field gives the lesser-known schools a chance to prove themselves on a national stage and show what they can do. It also creates more meaningful games late in the season, as more teams remain in playoff contention.
Even with the mistakes and growing pains of the new bracket, it is a strong step in the right direction. While no system will ever be perfect, the 12-team CFP is currently the most effective way to reward deserving teams and bring fairness to the game.
