College Football Playoff will undergo seeding change in 2025

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Dec 21, 2024; Columbus, Ohio, USA; A pylon features College Football Playoff logos during the second half of a first round game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Tennessee Volunteers at Ohio Stadium. Ohio State won 42-17. Mandatory Credit: Adam Cairns-Imagn Images

We saw the College Football Playoff (CFP) begin its next chapter in 2024 when the plus-one model made a big expansion move. The 12-team playoff with first-round campus was a big hit. The new format created a more exciting regular-season and gave college football fans a very long postseason. But changes are being made.

More expansion is arriving shortly, but the 12-team model is here to stay for one more year. No longer will the conference champions be locked into the top seeds.

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On Thursday, CFP executives met and approved a straight seeding model. The vote was unanimous. Instead of the top four seeds in the tournament going to the highest-ranked conference champions, teams would be seeded in the slot that they are ranked by the playoff committee. There will still be automatic bids available for the four power conference champions and highest-ranked Group of Five champion, but the seeding process will not include automatic byes for winning a conference.

BREAKING: CFP executives unanimously adopted a move to “straight seeding” for this year’s playoffs in a call today, per @RossDellenger.

Teams will be seeded directly on the 1-12 rankings, eliminating the concept that designated the top 4 seeds for conference champs. pic.twitter.com/4dscG5fSwL
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) May 22, 2025

This is what last year’s playoff would have looked like with a straight seeding model.

1.) Oregon (Big Ten Champ)

2.) Georgia (SEC Champ)

3.) Texas (At-Large)

4.) Penn State (At-Large)

5.) Notre Dame (At-Large) vs. 12.) Clemson (ACC Champ)

6.) Ohio State (At-Large) vs. 11.) Arizona State (Big 12 Champ)

7.) Tennessee (At-Large) vs. 10.) SMU (At-Large)

8.) Indiana (At-Large) vs. 9.) Boise State (Group of Five Champ)

No longer would being an at-large team remove you from receiving a bye. The losses Texas and Penn State suffered on conference championship weekend would not have taken them out of the top four seeds. The new format would prevent lower-ranked teams such as Boise State and Arizona State from receiving a bye due to their automatic status. Notre Dame can also receive a bye now after having no access due to being without conference affiliation in the previous seeding structure.

More changes keep happening to college football.