College Football Playoff making more changes to 12-team format
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Rumors of College Football Playoff expansion have been swirling for months.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey has publicly said his conference would like to see a 16-team format while the Big Ten prefers a 24-team model. Without a consensus, the playoff is set to stay at 12 teams for at least one more season.
2026 will be the third season with a 12-team playoff but for the third straight year, there will be some tweaks made to the format.
According to reports from ESPN and On3, two major changes will be used in 2026. Keep reading to learn more + how it could impact our in-state programs.
2026 College Football Playoff
For those against expansion, this news may come across as good news… at least for now.
It still seems likely an expansion is coming at some point in the future but for 2026, the 12-team playoff will remain. But the two format changes would have made the 2025 playoff look very different.
Notre Dame
First, Notre Dame gets the benefit of an automatic bid to the playoff when it finishes in the top 12 of the final CFP rankings. This year, that would have meant the Fighting Irish getting the 10 seed and eventual runner-up Miami being left out.
Power 4 conferences
The second major change benefits the Power 4 conferences.
In 2025, two Group of 5 conference champions made the playoff over ACC champion Duke. Under the new format, the Power 4 conferences—SEC, Big Ten, Big XII, ACC—will have their champion automatically into the playoff.
That leaves just one auto bid left for the Group of 5 conferences which include our in-state teams UAB, Troy, Jax State and South Alabama.
What do you think about the new changes to the format? Let us know by tagging The Bama Buzz on Instagram, X, Facebook + LinkedIn.
