College Football 12 Team Playoff Explained: Star Date & Functioning

There will only be one more season of the College Football Playoff as we know it after this one. The Playoff will grow from a four-team field to a 12-team field starting with the 2024 season. The playoffs of college football will undergo significant change as a result, and many new teams will have a chance to compete for the national championship.

College Football 12 Team Playoff Explained: Star Date & Functioning

Polls, coalitions or alliances in bowl games, or the BCS, will no longer be used to pick champions. Additionally, only four teams will be eligible for the College Football Playoff in any given season.

By offering more accessible admission into the college football playoffs, increasing the number of existing teams from four to 12, and offering four rounds of play instead of two, the Playoff will follow the lead of the great majority of the organised sports world.

However, a more inclusive Playoff naturally makes the present structure more flexible. What role will the present Future Year’s Day 6 bowls play in the new 12-team structure? How are the clubs ranked and which teams are allowed entry into the Playoff? The most crucial question is, when will such adjustments take effect?

12-team College Football Playoff start date

Following a deal from the Rose Bowl, the new College Football Playoff model will start in the 2024 and 2025 seasons, changing the terms of the Playoff’s current contract with ESPN as the exclusive broadcaster of the college football postseason.

After the existing arrangement with the College Football Playoff, the expansion was supposed to begin in 2026; but, with the Rose Bowl’s agreement, it can now happen earlier. On Thursday, the College Football Playoff formally announced that the expansion will take place between 2024 and 2025.

“We’re delighted to be moving forward,” Bill Hancock, Executive Director of the College Football Playoff, said per the release. “When the board expanded the playoff beginning in 2026 and asked the CFP Management Committee to examine the feasibility of starting the new format earlier, the Management Committee went right to work. More teams and more access mean more excitement for fans, alumni, students and student-athletes. We appreciate the leaders of the six bowl games and the two future national championship game host cities for their cooperation. Everyone realized that this change is in the best interest of college football and pulled together to make it happen.”

How will a College Football Playoff with 12 teams operate?

The top four conference champions, any combination of the top six at-large bids, and the two highest-ranked remaining conference champions will appear in that order in the 12-team format. According to the College Football Playoff standings, teams will be arranged.

This ensures that at least one “Group of 5” team will advance to the Playoff each year and, though it’s rare, gives more than one G5 team the opportunity to do so in place of a “Power 5” team.

Notable: Because they are not members of any conference, independent FBS clubs like Notre Dame — and, less likely, Army, UConn, and UMass — will never rank among the top four teams under the authorised system. Hence, they cannot win a conference championship. This also means no independent team will ever have a bye in the Playoff.

While seeds 5-8 host home playoff games against seeds 9–12, the top four clubs will receive a bye. The remaining eight teams will then compete against one another in the current New Year’s Day 6 bowls following those contests (Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, Cotton and Peach). Those bowls will alternate annually between the semifinal and quarterfinal contests.

The top team will then get to pick the location of its quarterfinal opponent. The No. 2 team will choose its location next, followed by the No. 3 squad. By default, the No. 4 team will compete in the last bowl available in the quarterfinals.

The team that enters the semifinals with the highest ranking will choose its bowl following the quarterfinals; the other two teams will play in the last remaining bowl of the Playoff by default.

Playoff bracket

Below is what the first and quarterfinal rounds of the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket will look like:

First round

  • No. 1 team (bye)
  • No. 2 team (bye)
  • No. 3 team (bye)
  • No. 4 team (bye)
  • No. 12 team at No. 5 team
  • No. 11 team at No. 6 team
  • No. 10 team at No. 7 team
  • No. 9 team at No. 8 team

Quarterfinals

  • No. 1 team vs. No. 8/9 team
  • No. 2 team vs. No. 7/10 team
  • No. 3 team vs. No. 6/11 team
  • No. 4 team vs. No. 5/12 team

Following that, the remaining four teams will play in the semifinal games, with the highest-ranked team picking its preferred bowl venue. The winners of the semifinal games will advance to the College Football Playoff championship game to determine that season’s national title winner.

What would the Playoff look like?

Seed Team How they made it
1 Georgia SEC champion
2 Michigan Big Ten champion
3 TCU Big 12 champion
4 USC Pac-12 champion
5 Ohio State At-large (Big Ten)
6 Alabama At-large (SEC)
7 Tennessee At-large (SEC)
8 Penn State At-large (Big Ten)
9 Clemson ACC champion
10 Kansas State At-large (Big 12)
11 Utah At-large (Pac-12)
12 Tulane AAC champion

 

The top four seeds would consist of:

  • No. 1 Georgia
  • No. 2 Michigan
  • No. 3 TCU
  • No. 4 USC

The first round would consist of the following games:

  • No. 12 Tulane at No. 5 Ohio State
  • No. 11 Utah at No. 6 Alabama
  • No. 10 Kansas State at No. 7 Tennessee
  • No. 9 Clemson at No. 8 Penn State

The quarterfinals would consist of the following games before the Playoff advanced to the semifinals and national championship game:

  • No. 1 Georgia vs. Penn State/Clemson
  • No. 2 Michigan vs. Tennessee/Kansas State
  • No. 3 TCU vs. Alabama/Utah
  • No. 4 USC vs. Ohio State/Tulane

History of the College Football Playoff

Year Games
2014 Sugar Bowl: No. 4 Ohio State 42, No. 1 Alabama 35
Rose Bowl: No. 2 Oregon 59, No. 3 Florida State 20
Championship: No. 4 Ohio State 42, No. 2 Oregon 20
2015 Orange Bowl: No. 1 Clemson 37, No. 4 Oklahoma 17
Cotton Bowl: No. 2 Alabama 39, No. 3 Michigan State 0
Championship: No. 2 Alabama 45, No. 1 Clemson 40
2016 Peach Bowl: No. 1 Alabama 24, No. 4 Washington 7
Fiesta Bowl: No. 2 Clemson 31, No. 3 Ohio State 0
Championship: No. 2 Clemson 35, No. 1 Alabama 31
2017 Sugar Bowl: No. 4 Alabama 24, No. 1 Clemson 6
Rose Bowl: No. 3 Georgia 54, No. 2 Oklahoma 48 (2OT)
Championship: No. 2 Alabama 26, No. 3 Georgia 23 (OT)
2018 Orange Bowl: No. 1 Alabama 45, No. 4 Oklahoma 34
Cotton Bowl: No. 2 Clemson 30, No. 3 Notre Dame 3
Championship: No. 2 Clemson 44, No. 1 Alabama 16
2019 Peach Bowl: No. 1 LSU 63, No. 4 Oklahoma 28
Fiesta Bowl: No. 3 Clemson 29, No. 2 Ohio State 23
Championship: No. 1 LSU 42, No. 3 Clemson 25
2020 Rose Bowl: No. 1 Alabama 31, No. 4 Notre Dame 14
Sugar Bowl: No. 3 Ohio State 49, No. 2 Clemson 28
Championship: No. 1 Alabama 52, No. 3 Ohio State 24
2021 Cotton Bowl: No. 1 Alabama 24, No. 4 Cincinnati 6
Orange Bowl: No. 3 Georgia 34, No. 2 Michigan 11
Championship: No. 3 Georgia 33, No. 1 Alabama 18

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