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The Ultimate Guide to the College Football Playoffs – All You Need to Know
- In the first year of a 12-team College Football Playoffs, there were plenty of upsets with Notre Dame and Ohio State, the last two teams standing.
- There are already rumors that the CFP field will expand to 14 teams.
- All four teams to receive first-round byes lost in their opening games in the 2024 College Football Playoffs.
It took years and even decades of work behind the scenes for the major college football national champion to be determined by more than just a popularity contest. Different systems have been in place to utilize the bowls as part of a playoff format. The 2024 season was the first with a 12-team playoff. Ohio State held up the NCAAF playoff national championship trophy. Those who bet on college football games would have been rewarded for picking Ohio State and Notre Dame to reach the CFP title game.
The days of split national champions are behind us, and there’s plenty to consider when a playoff system arrives at the Football Bowl Subdivision level.
Let’s take a closer look at the College Football Playoff format.
History of the CFP
Even though there have been playoffs at the Football Championship Subdivision, Division II, and Division III levels for years with few complaints, and the other team sports sponsored by the NCAA also use a playoff format to determine the national champion, the last holdout was FBS football.
That started to change when there were co-champions in both 1990 and 1991. That began the process of moving away from national polls to pick the national champion in major college football.
It began with the Bowl Coalition, which strived to have the national polls’ top two teams meet in a bowl game. On Jan. 1, 1993, No. 2 Alabama defeated No. 1 Miami 34-13 to win the national title as part of the Bowl Coalition.
Florida State then defeated Nebraska 18-16 in the 1994 Orange Bowl to win the national championship. In the final Bowl Coalition, Nebraska defeated Miami 24-17 in the 1995 Orange Bowl.
Next was the Bowl Alliance. Nebraska won two of the three titles in that format. In the other title game, Florida, out of the SEC, defeated ACC champion Florida State to win the title.
The tinkering of the system appeared to stop when the Bowl Championship Series replaced the Bowl Alliance. This series began in 1998 and continued through the 2013 season.
The No. 1 team topped the No. 2-ranked squad in the first four BCS championship games before Ohio State’s controversial overtime win over the defending national champion following the 2002 season.
The most memorable of those title games likely came in the 2006 Rose Bowl. No. 2 Texas, led by dynamic quarterback Vince Young, topped a Southern California team that featured Heisman Trophy winners Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush.
There was still some dissatisfaction with how the final two teams were selected, so the final BCS game was on Jan. 6, 2014, when Florida State defeated Auburn 34-31.
That set the stage for a four-team College Football Playoff in 2014.
What Is The CFP Committee?
A College Football Playoff committee was formed because the committee did not want to rely on a formula based on national polls alone.
There are 13 members on the CFP committee, and they usually serve three-year terms.
Former head coaches Barry Alvarez, Tom Osborne, Lloyd Carr, Tyrone Willingham, Hall of Fame defensive back Ronnie Lott, and quarterback Archie Manning were among the early committee members.
Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel is the current committee chairman. Will Shields is the player representative. Manuel is one of six active athletic directors on the panel that chose the 12 teams for the 2024 playoffs.
Commissioners from the conferences submitted a list of more than 100 candidates for the committee to get a geographically balanced panel.
The committee releases its College Football Playoff rankings in the second half of the season.
Current CFP Format
The winners of the five highest-ranked conferences earn spots in the 12-team College Football Playoffs. With the top four conference champions getting a bye into the quarterfinals.
With the dissolution of the Pac-12, at least one of the champions from the Group of Five conferences earns a spot in the CFP. Mountain West champion Boise State not only made the field in 2024 but also earned the No. 3 seed. That means the Broncos were placed ahead of the champions from the Big 12 and the ACC.
When looking at how the College Football Playoff system works, the other seven spots go to at-large teams.
Conference realignment enabled the Big Ten and the SEC to distance themselves from the other conferences, so they were expected to have the most teams in the 2024 field.
Seven of the 12 teams came from those two conferences. It looked like there would be eight, as Alabama was in the projected field going into the conference championship games. However, when SMU lost to Clemson in the ACC title game, the Mustangs and Tigers earned CFP spots. Alabama was left out because the CFP expansion did not help the Crimson Tide in the first season following Nick Saban’s retirement.
Notable CFP Games And Moments
There have been memorable matchups when four teams vied for the national title. Let’s look at some that will be ranked among the best matchups in college football playoff history.
It began with the inaugural CFP when No. 4 seed Ohio State topped No. 1 Alabama 42-35 in a thriller at the Sugar Bowl.
The Crimson Tide was involved in another heart-stopping game the following season with a 45-40 victory over Clemson in the college football playoff national championship game.
When the teams met again in the championship game following the 2016 season, Clemson rebounded with the 35-31. Those are considered two of the best games in the history of the CFP.
It wasn’t only Clemson and Alabama having all the fun. Georgia’s 54-48 overtime victory against Oklahoma in the semifinals the following year probably would rank higher on the list of the greatest games ever played had it happened in the title game.
Another overtime session was needed a week later when Alabama edged Georgia in an all-SEC championship matchup.
Let’s fast-forward to the 2022 season. While the title game was over almost before it started, with Georgia rolling past a surprising TCU team, the semifinals were not for the faint of heart.
Georgia edged Ohio State 42-41, and TCU took down Michigan 51-45. It was a similar script for the final four-team playoff, with Michigan outlasting Alabama in overtime and Washington topping Texas 37-31. Michigan has no issues with Washington to complete an undefeated season.
The home teams won the first-round games in 2024 before the final seven matchups were played at pre-determined bowl games.
The best game was clearly the one when Texas topped Arizona State 39-31 in overtime despite a performance for the ages by Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo.
12-Team Expansion Of The CFP
Plenty of formats were discussed behind closed doors. Would the CFP double in size to eight teams or expand to 16?
It landed in the middle, with 12 teams selected to participate in the 2024 College Football Playoffs. One thing was clear: The expansion would emphasize winning the conference title more.
The winners of the top four conferences not only were the top seeds in the bracket. But would receive a bye into the quarterfinals. That didn’t seem like such a great reward when all four teams (Oregon, Georgia, Arizona State, and Boise State) lost in the quarterfinals against teams coming off first-round wins.
CFP National Championship Winners
Alabama has been the most successful team in the College Football Playoffs era, with eight appearances and six trips to the title game.
The Crimson Tide won three national titles when four teams were in the CFP. In contrast, Clemson won twice in seven CFP appearances (counting 2024). Georgia became the only back-to-back CFP champion, climbing to the top of the college football mountain following the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
Notre Dame had a spirited comeback after trailing by 24 points midway through the third quarter. But a 56-yard catch by freshman Jeremiah Smith set up a late field goal to ice the game and give the Buckeyes the 34-23 victory.
Impact of the CFP
One big difference with the move to 12 teams in the NCAAF Playoff system is that a team can absorb a loss early in the season.
In most seasons, Notre Dame’s loss to Northern Illinois in the second game of the season would have signaled the end of the title hopes for the Fighting Irish. The same would be true for Ohio State after losing to Oregon and Michigan.
The hope is to encourage more games against title contenders in non-conference play rather than teams paying for opponents to be sacrificial lambs.
Criticism of the CFP
The feeling is that a team that goes undefeated in one of the power conferences should have a chance to be a part of the playoff system. That was not the case during the 2023 season when ACC champion Florida State was not one of the four teams playing in the CFP.
The partnership with ESPN and its bias toward specific conferences (cough, cough, the SEC) has raised some eyebrows. On-air announcers like Rece Davis and Kirk Herbstreit might as well be on the Alabama football payroll for their actions in the last couple of years when Alabama was straddling the line between being the last team in the CFP field and the first team out.
Future of the CFP
It seems more of a case of when and not if the field will expand to 14 teams.
Much of the push for further expansion comes from those calling the shots in the Big Ten and the SEC. Those two conferences want to guarantee a minimum number of teams they get into the College Football Playoffs.
Ironically, given how the 2024 CFP played out, it would have made more sense to reduce it to eight teams. However, when money is involved, cutting back on teams is not an option. So eventually, more teams will get the chance to be included in the CFP.
Questions of the Day
Who Were The Teams That Just Missed Making the CFP Playoffs?
Alabama finished 11th in the final NCAAF Playoffs rankings. However, No. 12 Arizona State and No. 16 Clemson were guaranteed spots in the field as winners of the Big 12 and ACC championship games. Miami appeared to be the class of the ACC before losing to unranked Georgia Tech and Syracuse teams to miss qualifying for the ACC championship game.
Ole Miss and South Carolina were also SEC teams in contention for playoff spots. It is interesting that of those four teams, Ole Miss was the only one to win its bowl game.
Of course, things might have looked different had those squads earned a spot in the CFP field, as key players left via the transfer portal or opted out rather than risk injury as they declared for the NFL Draft.
Which Teams Have Won the Most National Championships?
From 1869 to 1903, either Yale or Princeton won or shared the national title, except for 1871, when no title-winning team was crowned. This was before the national polls determined the national championship team. Princeton was credited with 28 national titles, while Yale won or shared the title 27 times.
The poll era began in 1936. Since then, Alabama has won 13 national titles. Followed by Notre Dame with eight, while Oklahoma and USC both won seven championships.
How Many Times Did the Polls Result in Split National Champions?
Eleven times different teams at No. 1 in The Associated Press and Coaches polls. The first time this happened was in 1954 when the writers picked Ohio State, but the coaches chose USC. It happened four times in the 1970s and three times in the 1990s.
The last time a split national champion came in 2003 was when the AP poll had USC on top, and LSU finished first in the Coaches’ poll.
