Dabo Swinney weighs in on CFP moving to 12 teams

CLEMSON — More big changes are coming to college football.

The College Football Playoff committee announced Friday afternoon that the playoff is moving to a 12-team format.

Under the new format, six conference champions will receive a spot in the playoff and then the next six highest-ranked teams will also get in.

The changes are set to take place in 2026 but reportedly could happen as soon as 2024.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney was asked for his thoughts on the changes shortly after they were announced.

“Hey, bring it on. Let’s go. Just tell us what the rules are,” Swinney said. “We all knew this was coming. Tell us what the rules are and let’s go play. We’ll be ready.”

Clemson has made the playoff six of the past seven years, only missing out last season during that stretch.

Swinney was asked if this is a positive for the ACC.

“It helps everybody. If we want playoff football in college football, certainly going from four to 12 mathematically gives everyone more opportunities. I don’t think there’s any question about that,” Swinney said. “We’ve been there with four [teams] six times. I don’t think going to 12 hurts our chances or anybody else in the league as well.”

While expanding the playoff will help teams get in, it does change the regular season, in Swinney’s opinion.

“There’s no question about that. That’s what the NFL is. Just like we went to four and all of a sudden certain games don’t matter anymore. It’s the same thing. It’s just common sense,” Swinney said.

“If you know you’re in the playoffs and you’ve got one more game and it’s the end of the year, it’s like the NFL. They don’t play a lot of those guys, because you’ve got the playoffs the next week. It’s all about the playoffs. So you’re just trying to find a way to do well enough to get in the tournament and try to go win the tournament. It’s just a different mindset.”

Swinney added that every game in college football used to be live or die when only two teams played for the national title.

It changed when the four-team playoff was created and will change even more now, according to Dabo Swinney.

“My job is to do everything I can to get our team ready for the postseason,” Swinney said. “The regular season obviously matters because it determines the postseason. But I do think there will be some teams that punch their ticket early and change how they approach the latter part of the season. No different than the NFL.”