How the college football playoff format in 2024 could push the next evolution

The college football powers that be settled on a "5+7" model for a 12-team championship tournament which will begin next season. How does it work and what will it lead to?

After a flurry of articles detailing concerns the playoffs had yet to reach a good deal to cement the plan (oh no!), they settled on something.

One of the sticking points was how many conference champions would gain automatic admittance into the tournament. The plan had been for a 6+6 model with the six conference champions ranked highest by the selection committee getting in and an additional six teams ranked highest by the committee drawing at-large bids.

Well the collapse of the Pac-12 raised questions about whether or not six conference champions need to be in. This of course was paired with all the strongest programs from the Pac-12 joining the Big 10 and the strongest two programs in the Big 12 joining the SEC. As you’ll see in a moment, it’s not obvious that more than two or three conference champions really need to get in and five may still be too many.

They reached a compromise recently with a 5+7 arrangement. Five conference champions are in automatically with seven teams taken from the at-large pool.

So year one of the playoffs will feature the following set-up:

The top four seeds will be the four highest ranked conference champions and the #5 seed will be based on overall ranking and not whether they won a conference or not. So your fifth conference champion could be as low as a 12-seed (nearly a guarantee, in fact). Also interesting, the first round of the playoffs will take place on campus while the quarterfinals on will be at rotating bowl sites.

So what is all this going to produce? There are a number of ramifications for the structure of the sport moving forward.