As the college football regular season enters its final stages, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee becomes one of the most important entities in the sport. This 13-member crew takes over from the AP Poll as the recognized authority on the best teams in the nation, but what is the role of the committee?
Why Does the College Football Playoff Selection Committee Exist?
The College Football Playoff Selection Committee is a panel of 13 individuals with relevant ties to — and experience within — college football. They decide the top 25 teams in the nation, and ultimately decide who will fight for the College Football National Championship once the regular season comes to an end. However, there’s a little bit more to it than that.
When it was decided in 2012 that college football would move away from the BCS era — with two teams competing for a national title on the basis of computer-generated rankings — to a final four-style tournament that christened the College Football Playoff, a committee was needed to provide a human element to the decision process of deciding the top four teams in the nation.
MORE: Simulate the College Football Season with CFN’s College Football Playoff Predictor
The College Football Playoff Selection Committee was born with a simple mission statement:
“The committee’s task will be to select the best teams, rank the teams for inclusion in the playoff and selected other bowl games, and then assign the teams to sites.”
Despite the change from a four-team to a 12-team postseason tournament for the 2024-2025 season, the remit of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee remains the same.
Like any secret society, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee meets in private, reportedly up to 10 times per year.
A shadowy entity working out of the Gaylord Texan hotel in Grapevine, Texas, they discuss and dissect the now 134 FBS teams, decreeing which are the top 25 teams in the nation.
The CFP Committee is tasked with deciding the best teams in the nation using a number of factors.
Complex statistical analysis, strength of schedule, and the mythical “eye test” are terms consistently associated with the College Football Playoff Selection Committee and its decision-making process. However, these are the guiding principles that help the members compare, contrast, and ultimately rank and decide which teams are the best in the nation:
- Conference championships won
- Strength of schedule
- Head-to-head competition
- Comparative outcomes of common opponents (without incenting margin of victory)
- Other relevant factors, such as the unavailability of key players and coaches, may have affected a team’s performance during the season or will likely affect its postseason performance.
The College Football Playoff Selection Committee releases its ranking on a weekly basis. These Tuesday night rankings, released in a show televised by ESPN, usually begin in late October/late November and run until “Selection Sunday,” which occurs following the completion of conference championship games.
FREE: Sign up for the College Football Network Newsletter to receive unique stories from the world of college football directly to your inbox!
The first set of College Football Playoff Rankings for the 2024 season is released on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, at 7 p.m. ET. The schedule for the rest of the rankings is below.
- Tuesday, Nov. 5, 7 p.m. ET
- Tuesday, Nov. 12, 8:30 p.m. ET
- Tuesday, Nov. 19, 7 p.m. ET
- Tuesday, Nov. 26, 8 p.m. ET
- Tuesday, Dec. 3, 7 p.m. ET
- Sunday, Dec. 8, 12 p.m. ET (Selection Sunday)
In that final show, the first College Football Playoff 12-team bracket will be revealed, which will include the four first-round playoff games and the four conference champions who will earn an automatic berth in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals.
College Football Network has you covered with the latest from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, and every Group of Five conference and FBS Independent program.