College Football Playoff announces Top 25 rankings release schedule for 2024 season
The College Football Playoff selection committee recently met and hammered out a schedule for the Top 25 rankings announcement shows this fall, the CFP announced on Thursday. The first rankings show will be on Nov. 5, airing at 7 p.m. EST.
The full schedule for the rankings reveals is as follows:
- Nov. 5, 7 p.m. EST
- Nov. 12, 9 p.m. EST
- Nov. 19, 7 p.m. EST
- Nov. 26, 8 p.m. EST
- Dec. 3, 7 p.m. EST
- Dec. 8 (Sunday), noon EST
The Nov. 12 rankings show is subject to air at a slightly later time, as it will come on during the break between games in the men’s hoops Champions Classic. All of the rankings shows air on ESPN.
The CFP also slipped in a notable update about selection criteria, adding that conference championships will no longer be used to break ties between comparably ranked teams. This change is in response to the four highest-ranked conference champions getting automatic bids and byes.
“Because that recognition is now embedded into the process, it was decided to remove the conference champion designation as a selection criterion when serving as a tiebreaker between comparable teams,” the announcement said.
The selection committee also has a new chair starting in 2024: Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel.
“It is always great to get everyone together before the season starts to welcome our new members and review our procedures in detail,” Manuel said in the release. “The work of the College Football Playoff selection committee has a solid foundation with its processes and protocols, and the committee members are looking forward to ranking the top 25 teams this season as we kick off the first year of the 12-team format.”
The Group of 5 is considering its own postseason tournament
As the 2024 college football season fast approaches, conference commissioners from the Group of Five conferences already have one eye on the future. They will have an in-person meeting in Dallas next week to discuss the future of the sport.
Among the topics of conversation will be a shifting landscape in the sport as the playoffs expand and new ideas about tweaking the system trickle through the sport.
A Yahoo! Sports report notes that the G5 meeting will likely address future issues such as whether the G5 will maintain its one automatic qualifying playoff spot and whether leagues like the Big Ten and SEC could eventually get multiple automatic berths in the field — a looming potential threat to the G5.
The G5 commissioners will also discuss “the possibility of a reshaped postseason incorporating the bowl system.”
“We are open to all of that. That would be really interesting and have some value,” Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez told Yahoo! Sports. “What if it’s like an NIT of football?”
The main goal for the G5 conference commissioners is to ensure maximum revenue generation and interest at that level of college football. The leagues are not interested in surrendering their current automatic playoff spot in the larger College Football Playoff.