Although we’ve seen just the first round of the new College Football Playoff format, there’s already been plenty of dialogue about changes and tweaks that need to be made — especially concerning the seeding system.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, college football fans will see the wonky seeding system on full display. Texas and Penn State — the losers of the SEC and Big Ten Championship Games — appear to be getting rewarded for losing their conference title games, as they’ll both be double-digit favorites over Arizona State and Boise State, respectively.
Meanwhile, No. 1 Oregon and No. 2 Georgia — champions of the Big Ten and SEC — draw Ohio State and Notre Dame and both opened as slight underdogs despite being the top two seeds.
If you’re trying to make sense of it, don’t worry; we are, too.
As Action Network’s Brett McMurphy points out, the problem lies with Boise and Arizona State getting a first-round bye, even though they probably shouldn’t have.
“No. 3 ‘seed’ Boise State and No. 4 ‘seed’ Arizona State absolutely belong in the College Football Playoff as conference champions,” McMurphy says. “They do not, however, under any reasonable analysis, metrics, straw poll or ranking system deserve a first-round bye.“
McMurphy goes on to say, however, that there are “in-depth discussions” coming that could change the seeding process for future playoff brackets, perhaps even as soon as 2025.
“The good news — for the overall legitimacy of the College Football Playoff — is multiple sources said there will be “in-depth discussions” about changing the seeding process for the 2025 season when the conference commissioners meet later this month.
“This would provide first-round byes to the top four teams in the final rankings regardless of whether it won a conference title, sources said.“
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The most popular sentiment shared around college football circles is to give automatic bids to the five highest-ranked conference champions, but award the top four seeds — and their first-round byes — to the committee’s four highest-ranked teams.
“We should be open to getting (the seeding) right regardless of what that means,” a commissioner told Action Network. “But protecting conference champions and securing a spot in the playoff is a must.”
What do you think? As long as a Power Four conference champion is guaranteed to get in, is that all they should be worried about? Would this kind of seeding change be beneficial for the Big 12? Let us know what you think in the member’s forum.
