Evaluating the pros, cons of new 12-team College Football Playoff format

There are pros and cons of the new 12-team College Football Playoff format, according to On3 hosts Andy Staples and JD PicKell.

The two debated if the committee got it right on Andy Staples On3 Wednesday. There is a lot to like about this new era of college football.

And it started with getting more teams involved, albeit rapidly in 2024.

“Now we got to talk about the national championship because is there a subject that’s been more fraught in college football than how to decide the national champion and for years, as you mentioned earlier, like people would play in bowl games, sometimes the bowl and vice would go out and late October, early November, and they would have to figure out a national champion based on games involving disparate teams,” Staples said.

“Like number one might play number six, and number two might play number seven, and you had to judge what that was going to be.”

So in essence, a 12-team bracket eliminates those questions and worries with the playoff.

“So I think now we have a 12 team playoff that probably is more similar to what fans expect in the other sports,” Staples said. “You know, the NFL is a 14 team playoff, Major League Baseball, their format’s changed a bunch, kind of like college football’s playoff format … but it’s it’s I feel like 12 is a manageable number.”

PicKell was really excited about the potential matchups in this playoff, but also weighed the pros and cons of the playoff.

“I think the favorite part of this is probably everybody’s favorite, which is that we’re gonna see some really awesome matchups,” PicKell said. “Also we’re gonna see that first round on campus. That’s gonna be electric. Like if there’s a home game in Clemson, South Carolina or Baton Rouge, Louisiana like those home game home playoff games are gonna be nothing short of absolutely incredible. That’s gonna be awesome seeing those matchups and seeing more of those matchups.” 

However, going from four to 12 teams in the playoff seemed like an excessive jump. Why not slowly but surely get there? Heck, the committee is already weighing both a 14- and 16-team format beginning in 2026.

“My least favorite part about this, I don’t want to go too long here, why did we just triple the field right off the bat,” PicKell said. “Like that felt like more of a pandering move to like hey let’s get more games get more revenue. Let’s provide more inventory. I’m like, why don’t we go from four to six teams? Why don’t we go from four to if we want to go crazy, double and go to eight teams. 

“Going from four to 12 when I kind of felt like the four-team playoff worked for just about every single year except for this year, which you know, it is what it is, call a spade a spade. I wasn’t a fan of us making that knee jerk kind of change but it is what it is. It’ll be great to see the games, it will be awesome, but those are my favorite and least favorite parts.”