The new playoff format makes things harder for the Sun Devils
The Sun Devils’ road to the College Football Playoff just became more challenging.
According to CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello, the CFP committee voted Thursday to revise its seeding format after just one season under the 12-team playoff structure. Going forward, teams will be seeded strictly based on their final College Football Playoff rankings, with the top four earning first-round byes.
Previously, those byes were reserved for the four highest-ranked conference champions, while the remaining teams were seeded according to their rank. That system allowed No. 9 Boise State and No. 11 Arizona State to receive first-round byes despite being ranked lower than some at-large teams.
Arizona State benefited in part because SMU lost the ACC Championship to Clemson, a team that had been ranked behind the Sun Devils. Even though SMU finished ranked higher in the final poll, Arizona State secured the bye simply by winning its conference title—something SMU couldn’t manage.
Under the newly adopted format, that wouldn’t happen. Arizona State, despite capturing their conference crown, would be seeded 11th and have to travel to face a higher-ranked at-large team—Penn State—in the opening round.
The motivation behind the change was to eliminate perceived inequities in the bracket caused by granting automatic byes to conference champions. Critics pointed out that all four teams who received byes last season lost their opening playoff games.
However, that argument overlooks key context: Oregon and Georgia, two of those bye teams, were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the final poll and would have received byes under either format. Both suffered blowout losses regardless—Oregon, for instance, fell 41–21.
So while this format change wouldn’t have prevented those lopsided defeats, it would’ve eliminated the thrilling Peach Bowl matchup between Arizona State and Texas—a game widely praised as the best of the playoff and recently named the 13th greatest college football game of the century by The Athletic’s David Ubben.
I ranked the 25 best games of the last 25 years.
Remembered a lot of Guys. https://t.co/jPIichrPMn
— David Ubben (@davidubben) May 22, 2025
The previous College Football Playoff model offered a straightforward structure. With the Pac-12 dissolved, four power conferences remained—and if you won one of them, you were almost guaranteed a playoff spot and likely a first-round bye.
Now, that’s no longer the case. Under the new system, it’s not just possible but likely that a Big 12 or ACC champion could be sent on the road in the opening round to face a higher-seeded SEC team that didn’t even win its conference—because, as the saying goes, “it just means more.”
That’s despite the fact that the only SEC program to win a playoff game last year was Texas—ironically, in their first season in the conference.
This revised format signals a clear shift: the CFP committee appears to be prioritizing teams that came up short in crucial moments, over those who proved themselves by winning titles. And in doing so, it’s stripped conference championships of much of their significance.
Why should a team care about winning its conference if it no longer guarantees a meaningful reward? At this point, finishing fourth in the SEC might be more beneficial than winning the Big 12. That’s especially absurd considering the playoff’s most exciting game was a double-overtime thriller between the Big 12 champion and the SEC runner-up.
For Arizona State, this is particularly frustrating. The Sun Devils are expected to start the season within range of a top-12 ranking, so they’ll still be in the hunt. But the broader concern is what this change represents.
The College Football Playoff is drifting away from its mission to identify the nation’s best team—and instead leaning toward rewarding the best team from the most powerful conference.
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