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The second round of the newly expanded College Football Playoff ended with the top four teams heading home for the season after losing their first game following a theoretically advantageous bye week. That development predictably sparked some Discourse about whether or not some changes are needed, but fans hoping to see a revamped format introduced next season will likely be disappointed.
The decision to expand the College Football Playoff to 12 teams prior to the start of the 2024 season seemed like a welcome change, but there was zero doubt the new approach was going to spawn plenty of drama and debates concerning whether or not the powers that be had gotten everything right.
That prophecy was fulfilled when the first round of games featured a couple of blowouts that made plenty of people question if the teams on the losing end of things deserved to earn a spot in the CFP in the first place (although that argument ignores the fact that there had already been a number of even more lopsided contests when the field was limited to four schools).
We were treated to a fresh new round of Takes in the wake of the quarterfinals, as the four top-seeded teams that earned a bye—Oregon, Georgia, Boise State, and Arizona State—were all eliminated from championship contention, which led to plenty of people asserting the extra rest actually ended up hurting them more than it helped.
It does seem like the folks who oversee the College Football Playoff will end up taking a closer look at the current format to determine if it’s worth reconsidering the way teams are seeded and byes are handed out, but based on what longtime ESPN insider Heather Dinich had to say on Get Up on Friday, it’s unlikely any potential changes will be introduced ahead of next season.
ESPN’s Heather Dinich reports that changes to the College Football Playoff for the 2025 season — including eliminating the requirement for the top-four seeds to be conference champions — are “unlikely.” pic.twitter.com/88VC6O7kwH
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 3, 2025
Dinich stressed any proposed tweaks would require a unanimous vote to be instituted while noting G5 conferences have plenty of incentive to take advantage of that reality based on the power they currently wield before citing sources who don’t believe any major changes will end up getting passed when everything is said and done.
It’s hard to imagine the current format won’t be adjusted at some point in the future, but it could be at least a few years until that ends up happening.