College Football Playoff shifts to straight seeding for upcoming season
- Share via
The College Football Playoff will go to a more straightforward way of filling the bracket next season, placing teams strictly on where they are ranked instead of moving pieces around to reward conference champions.
Ten conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director came to the unanimous agreement they needed Thursday to shift the model that drew complaints last season.
The new format was widely expected after last season’s jumbled bracket gave byes to Big 12 champion Arizona State and Mountain West champion Boise State, even though those teams were ranked ninth and 12th by the playoff selection committee.
USC officials insist the school is not trying to kill its prestigious college football series with Notre Dame and instead is seeking shorter contracts.
That system made the rankings and the seedings in the tournament two different things and resulted in some matchups — for instance, the quarterfinal between top-ranked Oregon and eventual national champion Ohio State — that came earlier than they otherwise might have.
“After evaluating the first year of the 12-team Playoff, the CFP Management Committee felt it was in the best interest of the game to make this adjustment,” said Rich Clark, executive director of the CFP.
The five highest-ranked champions will still be guaranteed spots in the playoff, meaning it’s possible there could be a repeat of last season, when CFP No. 16 Clemson was seeded 12th in the bracket after winning the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey was among those who pushed for the change in the second year of the agreement, though he remained cautious about it being approved because of the unanimous vote needed.
UCLA’s chief revenue officer is planning to make a number of changes aimed at giving fans what they want as the athletic department tries to become profitable.
Smaller conferences had a chance to use the seeding issue as leverage for the next set of negotiations, which will come after this season and could include an expansion to 14 teams and more guaranteed bids for certain leagues. The SEC and Big Ten will have the biggest say in those decisions.
As it stands, this will be the third playoff system for college football in the span of three years. For the 10 years leading into last season’s inaugural 12-team playoff, the CFP was a four-team affair.
The news was first reported by ESPN, which last year signed a six-year, $7.8-billion deal to televise the expanded playoff.
Pells writes for the Associated Press.
Go beyond the scoreboard
Get the latest on L.A.'s teams in the daily Sports Report newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
