How a 12-team College Football Playoff would have looked this year

The 2022 College Football Playoff field is set, with the final Top 25 CFP rankings unveiled on Sunday afternoon on ESPN.

And using the new adopted format for the playoffs beginning in 2024, we can get an idea what things would have looked like had the new format been in place this year. It’s quite interesting.

Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger tweeted the setup on Sunday.

12-Team College Football Playoff Applied in 2022

Using the criteria that will be applied to the 12-team College Football Playoff starting in 2024, here’s how this year’s field would have broken down:

Using the final rankings, here's how an expanded playoff would look via the adopted format that’ll begin in 2024:

Reminders:
(1) 6 highest-ranked champs get AQs
(2) next 6 highest-ranked teams get At-Larges
(3) byes to top 4 conference champs
(4) 1st round at better seed pic.twitter.com/tZCAPH9kme

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) December 4, 2022

That setup would certainly produce some intriguing matchups, with a Big Ten rematch between Ohio State and Penn State perhaps one early round drawback but several other quite compelling head-to-head showdowns.

Alabama and USC, for example, would presumably be a thrilling game to watch, featuring this year’s likely Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Caleb Williams taking on last year’s Heisman winner Bryce Young.

A 12-team College Football Playoff with this format would also produce a really interesting stylistic clash with Tennessee‘s high-octane passing offense taking on Kansas State‘s more run-based offense led by Deuce Vaughn.

Possibilities for interesting post-bye matchups

One of the more interesting potential second-round matchups, with the top four teams getting first-round byes, would be a Georgia–Tennessee rematch.

Georgia, of course, won the first meeting this season convincingly in Athens, Ga., beating Tennessee 27-13.

Interestingly enough, that’s really the only matchup in the second round that would feature a possible rematch. And the split this year actually means that the actual final Top 4 in the College Football Playoff in 2022 would be a bit different. Georgia and TCU are on the same side of the bracket in the 12-team format, but on the opposite side this year in the four-team format.

Regardless, it’s clear that a 12-team College Football Playoff will produce plenty of intriguing matchups in the future.