Change That Would Have Helped Indiana Could Come To College Football Playoff

According to a report, college conference commissioners will discuss elimination of bye for conference champions in future College Football Playoff brackets.

Todd Golden | Dec 31, 2024

A logo for the College Football Playoff First Round on a pylon during the Indiana-Notre Dame game on Dec. 20 in South Bend. / Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

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Indiana Hoosiers

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – A change could come to the College Football Playoff format for the 2025 season — one that would have greatly benefited Indiana had the proposed change been in place for the 2024 season.

According to Brett McMurphy of Action Network, multiple sources have said that there will be “in-depth discussions” about changing the seeding for the 2025 playoff field.

There will be “in-depth discussions” about not guaranteeing conference champs top 4 @CFBPlayoff seeds in 2025, sources said. Top 5 conference champs still get in but rankings determine seeds. How this year’s playoff would have looked in that format ⤵️https://t.co/MVhukO8BlV pic.twitter.com/2KKUSgtT0D
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 30, 2024

The change would remove the provision that gave the four best conference champions a bye into the quarterfinals. A fifth conference champion is guaranteed a spot in the 12-team field but does not get a bye.

The field would still include the five best conference champions, but teams would be seeded by the way they were ranked.

Conference commissioners will meet in January to discuss the possible change.

The conference champions bye, put in place in 2021, was done when the Pac-12 Conference was still a power conference – part of the so-called Power Five.

However, before the first 12-team College Football Playoff commenced in 2024, the Pac-12 fell apart, spreading all but two of its members into three of the other power conferences. That diluted the conference champion pool.

Thanks to parity in the Big 12, a good season from Mountain West champion Boise State, and a low-rated champion in the ACC (Clemson), the seeded bracket did not match the CFP rankings because of the conference champions rule.

That meant No. 9 ranked Boise State and No. 12 ranked Arizona State – champions of the Mountain West and Big 12, respectively – got byes to the quarterfinals.

It also meant No. 3 Texas and No. 4 Penn State had to play in the first round instead of receiving the bye their ranking deserved.

For Indiana, it meant the Hoosiers – who were ranked No. 8 in the field-determining rankings – had to go on the road to play at Notre Dame as the No. 10 seed. The Hoosiers lost 27-17 to the Fighting Irish on Dec. 20.

If the system that will be discussed would have been used for the 2024 College Football Playoff, Indiana would have had the No. 8 seed and would have hosted No. 9 seeded Boise State.

If the Hoosiers would have beaten Boise State, they would have played No. 1-seeded Oregon, presumably in the Rose Bowl, where the Ducks were placed in the current field.

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