With the Pac-12 ceasing to exist before the start of the 2024 college football season, the College Football Playoff was forced to make changes to its new 12-team format before new format was ever even used, and those changes were unanimously approved on Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning, the College Football Playoff announced the new “5 + 7” format had been unanimously approved for the upcoming 12-team playoff. Under this new format, the five highest-ranked conference champions will get automatic bids to the College Football Playoff, then the next seven highest-ranked teams will earn spots in the playoff field as at-large bids after that.
“This is a very logical adjustment for the College Football Playoff based on the evolution of our conference structures since the board first adopted this new format in September 2022,” Mississippi State President and Board of Managers chair Mark Keenum said in a statement according to USA Today.
“I know this change will also be well received by student-athletes, coaches and fans. We all will be pleased to see this new format come to life on the field this postseason.”
Obviously, this change led to a lot of reactions on social media as a result.
I still maintain that the formal Big 2/Little Whatever split won’t officially happen anytime in the foreseeable future but a “no automatic berths” would almost guarantee that it happens in reality. We need to stamp that out https://t.co/Zp0vQMr9LU
— B1G_Ryan (@B1G_Ryan) February 20, 2024
Really good for G5, as if there's a less-likely champ in the ACC/B1G/Big 12/SEC, getting a bye as a better autobid team is on the table. https://t.co/0Zgvq2PItM
— Collin Sherwin (@CollinSherwin) February 20, 2024
Thank goodness. I was really dreading pretending like 2-3 teams deserved to play for a championship instead of pretending like 1-2 teams deserve a spot to play for a championship. https://t.co/TljXWgtCsx
— Jacob Karnes (@jacobkarnes) February 20, 2024
Can’t wait to have one singular non P5 team in the CFP https://t.co/ue9zRmd543
— Slime (@Slimecgl) February 20, 2024
I give it 5 years before we have automatic qualifiers for SEC and Big 10 championship participants. https://t.co/Qzs2otKpJt
— Evan (Baby Yodapilled) (@SeeEvanR) February 20, 2024
The better of the two options for Notre Dame. This is a very manageable pathway to the playoff, which is one of the critical pillars to independence.
No automatic berth is annoying but we don’t have to play a CCG.
Keep an eye on the format after 2026. That’s the next hurdle. https://t.co/dMCS5L0GGU
— The 4 Horsemen Podcast (@HorsemenPod) February 20, 2024
The 12-team playoff will begin next season using this format.
[USA Today]
