Jan 19, 2025; Atlanta, GA, USA; The College Football Playoff National Championship trophy at a press conference at The Westin Peachtree Plaza, Savannah Ballroom. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images Could more changes be on the way to the College Football Playoff, which hasn’t yet finished its first year with a 12-team field?
There were no major decisions made when the FBS conference commissioners and university presidents convened in Atlanta on Sunday, one day before the national championship game between No. 7 seed Notre Dame and No. 8 seed Ohio State.
But CFP executive director Rich Clark told reporters that “it’s possible” for tweaks to be made to the playoff format before next season, though such changes would need to happen “very soon.”
“I would say it’s possible, but I don’t know if it’s going to happen or not,” Clark said. “There’s probably some things that could happen in short order that might be tweaks to the 2025 season, but we haven’t determined that yet.”
Changes previously needed unanimous approval, but when a new contract kicks in in 2026, that will no longer be the case and the governance structure will favor the two top football leagues, the SEC and the Big Ten.
This year, the field expanded from four to 12, the five highest-ranked conference champions received automatic bids and the four highest-ranked champs were given seeds Nos. 1-4 and first-round byes. The latter piece drew criticism after No. 3 seed Boise State and No. 4 seed Arizona State, representing the Mountain West and Big 12, went one-and-done.
Potential changes in the future may include updating the seeding process or expanding the field yet again.
Clark told reporters that the decision-makers will consider “everything across the board” going forward.
“We’re going to tee them up so that they could really have a thorough look at the playoff looking back after this championship game is done … and then look back and figure out what is it that we need,” he said.
–Field Level Media
