You asked for it; you got it. The College Football Playoff will officially expand from four teams to 12 this season, busting the bracket wide open and opening the championship for further parity.
But what was the timeline of events that got us here, and will we see further expansion in the future?
Expanded College Football Playoff Timeline
First, a primer on how the CFP came to prominence.
The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) came to life in 1998, bringing all FBS conferences and bowl games under one umbrella that led to the BCS National Championship Game, which was rotated amongst the four largest and most profitable bowls: Fiesta, Orange, Rose, and Sugar.
The BCS era produced several electric matchups, but the controversies far outweighed them, most notably 2003’s split championship caused by the BCS rankings leaving USC No. 1 in major polls out of the Sugar Bowl. The move ultimately led to the AP Poll withdrawing from the BCS and many losing faith in the system.
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Enter the College Football Playoff. The new-look postseason made its debut in 2014 with a multi-game single-elimination tournament. A 13-member selection committee seeded the top four teams instead of relying solely on existing polls or mathematical rankings.
There were no limits on the number of teams per conference, which was a change from previous BCS rules. However, some non-semifinal bowl selections still maintained their conference tie-ins, similar to the BCS’s automatic qualifier berths.
Six bowl games — Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton, Fiesta, and Peach — rotated as hosts for the semifinals on a three-year cycle with the following pairings: Rose/Sugar, Orange/Cotton, and Fiesta/Peach. The six bowls were marketed as the New Year’s Six, with the Rose and Sugar Bowls played on New Year’s Day, per their contract.
While the CFP was a welcome change from the BCS, the number of teams in the playoff was quickly called into question once the novelty wore off. But it wasn’t until 2021 that those questions were finally answered.
- June 10, 2021: A 12-team expansion was proposed
- Feb. 18, 2022: The CFP surprisingly rejects the playoff proposal largely because of resistance from the ACC, who, along with the Big Ten and Pac-12, formed a temporary “Alliance” in response to Oklahoma and Texas announcing their departure from the Big-12 in favor of the SEC.
- Sept. 2, 2022: CFP announces the 12-team format, consistent with a proposal the board reviewed in 2021, will begin in the 2026 college football regular season.
- Dec. 1, 2022: CFP declares the expanded postseason will debut in time for the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
- March 14, 2024: ESPN reports the CFP is in the process of finalizing a 14-team expansion for 2026 and beyond.
- July 18, 2024: CFP executive director Richard Clark says, “I would not make that assumption, but what we know is that we’re going to make this 12-team as spectacular as we absolutely can,” in response to when fans could expect future expansion. It appears the 14-team idea has been put on hold.
The yet-to-debut 12-team playoff is only under contract through the 2025 season, hence the talks of further expansion in 2026.
Here is how the 2024 and 2025 College Football Playoffs will look:
The top five conference champions will earn guaranteed bids, with a conference needing a minimum of eight members to be eligible … *cough* Pac-2 *cough*. The next seven spots will go to the seven highest-ranked remaining teams.
The four highest-ranked conference champions will receive first-round byes, with the first-round matchups being No. 5 vs. No. 12, No. 6 vs. No. 11, No. 7 vs. No. 10, and No. 8 vs. No. 9.
KEEP READING: 2024-2025 College Football Playoff Schedule
The quarterfinals and semifinals will be hosted by the New Year’s Six bowls (the Cotton, Fiesta, Orange, Peach, Rose, and Sugar) on a rotating basis. The championship game will continue to be held at a separately determined neutral site.
Using the AP Poll’s preseason Top 25, the CFP would look like this:
- No. 12 Boise State at No. 5 Oregon
- No. 11 Michigan at No. 6 Texas
- No. 10 Penn State at No. 7 Alabama
- No. 9 Notre Dame at No. 8 Ole Miss
- Boise State-Oregon winner at No. 4 Utah
- Michigan-Texas winner at No. 3 Florida State
- Penn State-Alabama winner at No. 2 Ohio State
- Notre Dame-Ole Miss winner at No. 1 Georgia
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