College Football Playoff announces updated criteria for determining 12-team field in 2024

Beginning next season, the College Football Playoff will expand to 12 teams and earlier today, it was announced how the tournament field will be determined. 

The College Football Playoff field will be determined by taking the five highest-ranked conference champions and the following seven highest-ranked teams, which will be determined by the CFP Selection Committee. 

Up until today’s announcement, the previous plan had the field selected in a “6-6” format, meaning the six highest-ranked conference champions would be chosen as well as six highest-ranked teams from the CFP Selection Committee. 

Let’s backtrack real quick. There are A LOT of changes to College Football coming in 2024.

Beginning with the 2024 season, the Big Ten will be the largest conference in the country with 18 teams. The ACC ranks second at 17 teams with the additions of SMU, Cal and Stanford. The SEC and Big 12 will be tied for third overall with both conferences each having 16 teams.

2024 College Football “Power 5” Conference Re-Alignment

Big Ten: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, Wisconsin, UCLA, USC, Oregon, Washington.

ACC: Boston College, Cal, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, NC State, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, SMU, Stanford, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest.

SEC: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt.

Big 12: Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, BYU, Cincinnati, Colorado, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech, UCF, Utah, West Virginia.

Wait..what happened to the Pac 12?!

Well, only Oregon State University and Washington State University are left after the conference was absolutely destroyed following the 2023 college football season. As you’ll see above, the majority of Pac-12 teams left the conference, leaving only OSU and WSU as the soul survivors of the 2023 exodus.

College Football Playoff Updated Selection Criteria

So again, under the old plan, the six highest-rated conference champions would have been guaranteed a spot in the playoffs by the selection committee. The SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC and Pac-12 along with the highest-rated conference champion from the “Group of Five” conferences were the automatic bids.

Not anymore.

The College Football Playoff format is now moving to the “5-7 Format” for at least the next two seasons while Oregon State and Washington State are figuring out how the hell they are supposed to survive in a two-team Pac-12 Conference. 

NCAA bylaws require conferences to have at least eight members, however there is a two-year grace period for any conference that is looking to stick around and acquire new teams to join in order to hit the eight team requirement. 

The 6-6 Format worked out well for OSU and WSU alone in the Pac-12. They would have been guaranteed a spot while in the two-year grace period. The 5-7 Format will now open up the doors for other conferences to have a better chance at getting the automatic bid before the College Football Selection Committee picks the remaining seven highest-rated teams.

Oregon State and Washington State being a two-team conference. OSU/WSU could have made their own schedule to ensure they finished above the MWC/AAC/SBC champion, basically guaranteeing a big as one of the fight highest ranked conference champs. 

Plus, there’s a ton of money involved in being considered a Power 5 school and making the playoffs. I’m not going to pretend I understand that much about the money involved but basically, OSU and WSU want to keep their Power 5 affiliation for as long as possible. They have the two-year grace period which helps keep that Power 5 funding coming for at least the next two seasons.

Tuesday’s meeting was also an opportunity for Washington State and Oregon State to request continued Power 5 revenue and voting rights in the new CFP contract. For the next two years, the remainder of the CFP’s current 12-year contract, Washington State and Oregon State will each continue to receive the full Power 5 revenue distribution, which is $5 million to $6 million per school. They are asking to continue to receive that amount in the next CFP contract, not knowing what their conference affiliation will be. [ESPN]

The Fighting Irish will forever be at most, a No. 5 seed (lol)

Notre Dame the cowardly football program with zero conference affiliation, will never be able to earn an automatic bid to the College Football Playoff. The four highest ranked teams will be the Top 4 seeds in the playoffs and those will come from the Big Ten, ACC, SEC, and Big 12. Even if the Fighting Irish finish No. 1 overall in the rankings, the highest seed they will have in the playoffs is No. 5 – which means they will have to win 4 straight games to be crowned Natty Champs.

2024 College Football Playoff Schedule

First round (on-campus)
Friday, Dec. 20, 2024: One game (evening)
Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024: Three games (early afternoon, late afternoon and evening)

Quarterfinals
Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024: Vrbo Fiesta Bowl (evening)
Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025: Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl (early afternoon), Rose Bowl Game (late afternoon) and Allstate Sugar Bowl (evening)

Semifinals
Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025: Capital One Orange Bowl (evening)
Friday, Jan. 10, 2025: Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic (evening)

CFP National Championship game
Monday, Jan. 20, 2025: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta

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