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Heather Dinich, ESPN Senior Writer
For the first time in a decade, college football has changed the way it determines its champions. If you’re off the grid, the field will expand from four to 12 teams in the fall of 2024.
The 13-member selection committee remains, and according to the College Football Playoff its mission is essentially the same:
“The job of the selection committee will be to select the best teams, rank the teams for inclusion in the playoffs and allocate the teams to the playoff sites.”
Here’s what you need to know about how it actually works.
Who qualifies for the College Football Playoff?
The five highest-ranked conference champions and the next seven highest-ranked teams will earn a spot in the 12-team bracket. There is no limit on how many teams can qualify from a conference. Rules do not guarantee spots for specific conferences. The champions of the Big 12, SEC, ACC and Big Ten almost certainly qualify regularly, along with the highest-ranked champions of the Mountain West, American Athletic Conference, Sun Belt, Mid-American Conference or Conference USA.
There is no minimum ranking requirement for the five highest-ranked conference champions. A No. 23 ranked conference champion, for example, earns the fifth-highest ranked league win and a spot in the playoffs — at the expense of the No. 12 team on the committee.
How does seeding work?
The four highest-ranked conference champions will earn the top four seeds and a first-round bye. The other eight teams will play in the first round, with the higher seed playing the lower seed either on campus or “at other locations designated by the higher-seeded institution.”
That means any team that doesn’t earn the luxury of a first-round bye must win four straight games to win the national championship. If a team lost its conference championship game and played four playoff games, it would have played an unprecedented total of 17 games.
Be careful not to confuse seeding with selection committee rankings. The 13-member committee will still issue its weekly Top 25, which will be used to determine the highest-ranked conference champ. That means, though, if Georgia wins the SEC and is ranked No. 1 by the selection committee, and Alabama loses that game and is No. 3 in the CFP rankings — or even No. 2! — The Tide will be the No. 5 seed behind three other conference champions and Georgia.
(Please read again.)
Any independent like Notre Dame can’t earn a first-round bye because it can’t win a conference title. This also applies to Washington State and Oregon State, who have a temporary schedule arrangement with the Mountain West and can compete for national championships but are not eligible to win the MWC and do not form a league of their own per NCAA and CFP rules.
Once the teams are selected on Selection Day, the seeds are finalized There will be no receding.
What about the rematch?
No changes will be made to avoid rematches or games between schools from the same conference.
How do braces work?
First Round (All Home Games)
Friday, December 20 and Saturday, December 21
No. 12 seed at No. 5 seed
No. 9 seed at No. 8 seed
No. 11 seed at No. 6 seed
No. 10 seed at No. 7 seed
Quarter finals
Tuesday, December 31, and Wednesday, January 1, 2025
The No. 4 seed plays the winner of the No. 12 vs. No. 5 seed
The No. 1 seed plays the winner of the No. 9 vs. No. 8 seed
No. 3 seed plays No. 11 vs. No. 6 winner
The winner of the No. 2 seed game is No. 10 vs. No. 7
semi-final
Thursday, January 9, 2025: Capital One Orange Bowl (evening)
Friday, January 10, 2025: Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic (evening)
CFP National Championship
Monday, January 20, 2025: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta
What do I need to know about the selection committee?
The group consists of six former coaches and players, six sitting athletic directors representing seven conferences (including one from each Power 4 league) and one former sportswriter:
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Michigan Athletic Director Ward Manuel (Committee Chair)
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Former Nevada coach Chris Alt
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Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk
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Former Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe
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Miami (Ohio) athletic director David Seiler
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Former sportswriter Kelly Whiteside
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Former All-American Nebraska lineman Will Shields
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Former Toledo and Missouri coach Gary Pinkel
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Baylor Athletic Director Mac Rhodes
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Virginia Athletic Director Carla Williams
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Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek
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Former Oregon State and Nebraska coach Mike Riley
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Former Arizona State All-American guard Randall McDaniel
How long is their term? Committee members serve three-year terms.
When do they meet? Committee members meet every Monday and part of Tuesday morning to determine their six weekly rankings, beginning Nov. 5.
What is their protocol? When circumstances indicate that parties are comparable, committee members must consider:
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won the championship
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The power of schedule
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Head to head competition
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Comparable results to common opponents (without factoring in margin of victory)
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Other relevant factors such as unavailability of key players and coaches that may affect a team’s performance during the season or likely to affect its post-season performance
These factors are not weighted, and an individual committee member may place a higher value on a factor than the person sitting next to them.
What is their withdrawal policy?
If a committee member or an immediate family member (a) is compensated by a school, (b) provides professional services for a school, or (c) is on the coaching staff or administrative staff or is a player at a school, that committee member is recused. will be Excluded members are not allowed to vote for those groups and are only allowed to answer factual questions about that school. Excluded committee members are not allowed to be in the room during any discussion regarding the selection or seeding of that team. They are also not allowed to participate in discussions about which bowl games that team might be assigned to.
How is voting done?
Voting is done electronically on members’ individual laptops and by secret ballot. No one knows how anyone else in the room voted unless they share it. Voting usually includes seven rounds of ballots. Voters start with a small pool of parties, rank them, and place the top ranked parties in groups of three or four. They keep repeating that process until 25 teams are ranked.
What metric do they use?
There is no single metric that ranks one team above another. Instead, it’s a subjective analysis of the plethora of statistics available to committee members from a company called SportSource Analytics. Each FBS team has a “team sheet” listing its statistics and strength of schedule, along with its situational record (eg, 3-1 vs. current CFP Top 25 teams). There are ranks for offense, defense, special teams, and skill.
How are teams assigned to bowl games?
Six New Year’s bowl games – the Rose, Orange, Sugar, Cotton, Fiesta and Peach bowls – are still a part of the CFP. For quarterfinal play, the committee will allocate those four bowls to the four highest-ranked conference champions on Election Day immediately after setting the bracket. Those teams will be slotted based on historical bowl ties and seeding.
The No. 1 seed will earn preferential treatment for its bowl slot and will not be disadvantaged by geography. Recently, the Sugar Bowl has had a contractual agreement with the SEC and the Big 12, while the Rose has maintained ties to the Big Ten (or Washington State and Oregon State, which are the rest of the Pac-12).
The Orange hosted a semifinal with the Cotton Bowl this year.
When is the ranking?
The selection committee will release the first of its six rankings on November 5. Each will be published on the following Tuesday.
The final ranking will be released on December 8.
When are the college football playoff games?
First Round (On Campus)
Friday, December 20, 2024: Game One (evening)
Saturday, December 21, 2024: Three games (first afternoon, late afternoon and evening)
Quarter finals
Tuesday, December 31, 2024: Vrbo Fiesta Bowl (Evening)
Wednesday, January 1, 2025: Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl (early), Rose Bowl Game (late afternoon) and Allstate Sugar Bowl (evening)
semi-final
Thursday, January 9, 2025: Capital One Orange Bowl (evening)
Friday, January 10, 2025: Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic (evening)
CFP National Championship
Monday, January 20, 2025: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta
