The college football head coaches must be coming up with some last-minute changes to make their playoff or Natty dreams come true. And look who caught the inspiration to reshuffle the bunch? The College Football Playoff committee itself. After all, in one word, the last season has been pure chaos. So the College Football Playoff committee is now on a mission to ward off all the complexities. Instead, they are now eager to adopt a straightforward way of filling the bracket next season. While the decision is to ward off any bias, things are going to be tough for Mario Cristobal and the ACC after this.
“I just want to say to everybody on the call, these are not easy decisions for us to make,” said Warde Manuel, who holds the chair of the College Football Playoff committee. He landed in the hot seat for leaning openly towards Alabama. Kalen DeBoer’s got the playoff tickets even though they were down with three losses while Miami was at two losses. Ten conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director, Pete Bevacqua, came to the unanimous agreement that they needed to shift the model that drew complaints last season. So, long story short- teams will be seeded based on the selection committee’s final rankings instead of using conference champions as the top seeds. On May 22, analyst Jason Fitz shared his take. “Today, college football eliminated the most glaring mistake in the college football playoff setup by eliminating any automatic seeding for conference champions.”
Remember how last season the top four seeds went to the highest-ranked conference champions. Arizona State, Oregon, Boise State, and Georgia earned their first-round byes but lost their first games after having a bye week leading into the playoff quarterfinals. That’s when Fitz raised a warning against the decision made by the College Football Playoff committee. “Now keep in mind, while this fixes what was obviously last year an egregious problem…it will create more of the constant argument about my conference is better than your conference.” Under the new normal, the top four teams in the CFP poll will earn the top four seeds and get the first-round byes.
Notre Dame, for instance, will now have a chance at a top-four seed. For so long, they did not enjoy the privilege since they did not belong to any conference. While this might be haunting for the programs given the powerhouse that Marcus Freeman’s tribe is, the College Football Playoff committee’s new move gives rise to an alternative narrative. “Now suddenly you could have a system where at-large teams from the SEC that are qualifying for the playoffs as a wildcard are beating constant conference champions from other walks of the college football world. That is going to create a level of chaos… but this was the only thing that could be done after watching a five-team get a sudden advantage.”
As per the assumptions, the SEC could be one of the biggest beneficiaries. They will be privileged to get more than one team on a bye. But the luck might not favor the ACC teams.
Mario Cristobal and ACC feel the burn from the College Football Playoff committee’s new decision
We will have to bid bye-bye to byes for conference champions. With this, the College Football Playoff committee’s decision lands the ACC in a deep soup. For Mario Cristobal’s Miami, it will be more difficult to make deep runs in future postseasons. The top four teams in the College Football Rankings will receive a bye in 2025 and going forward, regardless of whether they are a conference champion or not. Last season, the top eight teams in the final CFP ranking belonged to the Big 10, SEC, along with Notre Dame.
Clemson, who won the ACC but was the lowest among the five conference champions, was the 12th seed and would not have been affected by the straight seeding model. Cristobal’s boys were close and arguably should have finished undefeated entering the 2024 ACC Championship Game. Now, going by the College Football committee’s latest move, things are going to get tough for the Hurricanes. How?
The Florida Gators are expected to boost themselves in a big way, moving into the 2025 season. On the other hand, Miami will be opening the season against Notre Dame. This dims their chances to go undefeated in 2025. The Hurricanes play Fighting Irish and/or an SEC team in non-conference every year through 2030. Now, what did the ACC commissioner, Jim Phillips, comment on the College Football Playoff Committee’s big move? “Today’s decision was done in the best interest of the sport. It may not always benefit the ACC but it was the right decision and that’s a responsibility I take very seriously.” Now, let’s see whether the ACC teams take this in good spirits…
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