College Football Playoff executives unanimously agreed Thursday to adopt a straight-seeding model for the 2025 season, Yahoo Sports reported.
Last season’s controversial 12-team format gave the top four seeds — and the accompanying first-round byes — to the four highest-ranked conference champions.
Those four schools in 2024 were Big Ten champion and No. 1 Oregon and Southeastern Conference champion and No. 2 Georgia along with No. 9 Boise State (Mountain West) and No. 12 Arizona State (Big 12).
Under the straight-seeding model, the No. 3 and 4 seeds would have gone to Texas (SEC) and Penn State (Big Ten), respectively.
In 2025, the teams will be seeded 1-12 based on their final CFP ranking.
As it turned out, all four of the teams that received byes last season lost their first playoff games.
No. 8 seed Ohio State won the national championship with a 34-23 win against No. 7 seed Notre Dame.
Report: CFP switching to a straight-seeding model for 2025
May 22, 2025 | 10:17 PM