How This Year’s CFP Rankings Translate to 12-Team Format

With the expanded playoff coming in two years, here is what it would look like with this year’s teams.

With the College Football Playoff expected to expand to 12 teams in two years, the arguments that we saw this year for which top five teams should be left out will become moot. Instead, there will be automatic bids, while arguments will be over which top 15 teams deserve at-large selections.

If the expanded playoffs were beginning this year, the multiple championship game upsets would play a role in seeding. First, the four higher-ranked champions earn the four byes, meaning Georgia, Michigan, Clemson and Utah would make up the top four seeds.

That means the two lower-ranked conference champions, Kansas State and Tulane this year, would be treated like at-large teams despite getting an automatic bid. Additionally, the six better-ranked teams that didn’t win their conferences would earn automatic selections.

Seeds 5–12 would simply be a ranking of the eight teams that did not earn a bye in the bracket. Therefore, TCU would earn the fifth seed, followed by Ohio State and then Alabama. The first round of games will take place at the higher seeds’ stadiums, with the other rounds being played in neutral locations.

Using this year’s College Football Playoff rankings, this is what the bracket would look like:

Round of 16:

No. 5 TCU vs. No .12 Tulane

No. 6 Ohio State vs. No. 11 Penn State

No. 7 Alabama vs. No. 10 USC

No. 8 Tennessee vs. No. 9 Kansas State

Quarterfinals:

No. 1 Georgia vs. Tennessee/Kansas State

No. 2 Michigan vs. Alabama/USC

No. 3 Clemson vs. Ohio State/ Penn State

No. 4 Utah vs. TCU/Tulane

Finally, it’s a bracket format, so there is no reseeding if upsets occur. 

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

An expanded playoff will not happen for another two years, but now that we know the official rules of the new format, we can imagine what it will be like when 12 teams are allowed in the tournament.

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