2026 12 Team CFP

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Those rules would’ve put Duke and Notre dame in and left out James Madison and Miami


I actually like it because it incentivizes conferences to build better schedules that actually end with the best team winning the conference
 

Some guy said:
Those rules would’ve put Duke and Notre dame in and left out James Madison and Miami


I actually like it because it incentivizes conferences to build better schedules that actually end with the best team winning the conference
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I think conferences are going to have to evaluate and change some tie breakers for their conference championship games. Possibly needs some SOS schedule component.

Or do you have teams that are guaranteed the CFP sit out the Conference Championship game?
 

MaxyJR1 said:
I think conferences are going to have to evaluate and change some tie breakers for their conference championship games. Possibly needs some SOS schedule component.

Or do you have teams that are guaranteed the CFP sit out the Conference Championship game?
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Don’t you have to win the conference championship to be guaranteed?
 



Some guy said:
Those rules would’ve put Duke and Notre dame in and left out James Madison and Miami


I actually like it because it incentivizes conferences to build better schedules that actually end with the best team winning the conference
Click to expand...
Might be what causes the end of conf championship games.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
I think conferences are going to have to evaluate and change some tie breakers for their conference championship games. Possibly needs some SOS schedule component.

Or do you have teams that are guaranteed the CFP sit out the Conference Championship game?
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What you do is you break the conference into two groups and have the two group play round robin. So you guarantee your best team doesn’t miss the conference title game due to SOS


Some call this divisions
I don’t think you do divisions. I think you could have two teams from the same group in the conference title game.
I think you could change the two groups every year.

At 18
Two groups.
Play 8 in your group and one from the other group (can use the one to preserve rivalries if teams are in opposite groups)
Or
3 groups of 6
Play your 5
Play 2 at random from each of the other two groups.

Again the groups could change every year

At 20
4 groups of 5
Play your whole group plus and entire other group.

At 24
Becomes tougher with just 9 conference games.
 

btowngopher said:
Might be what causes the end of conf championship games.
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I think the big ten wanted a set number of auto bids by conference so they could have 5 play 6 for the 5th bid in lieu of a conference title game

Go back to split titles


They also wanted a set number of auto bids so they could expand to 10-11 conference games without hurting their playoff chances
 




Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
Agreed. Not much incentive to schedule many p4 teams outside of the ACC requirement.
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Not sure I agree

If they go 10-2 next year and SMU is an 8-4 team I don’t think they’ll be top 12

They were top 12 at 10-2 this year because they lost to two top 10 teams and had wins against a team that tied for conference champ game (Boise state), a top 18 team (USC), and a team in the tie for the ACC title game appearance (Pitt), and another team that was 11-1 outside of the Notre dame game (Navy)


If boise state and USC were both 6-6 they’re probably rated around 16 rather than 10
 
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I guess most years if ND was a top 12 team they’d be getting in as a at large anyways. Really only affects the rare occasions where they end up 11th or 12th.
 

I really like this change. Probably the best iteration of the twelve-team playoff in terms of seeding.
 

btowngopher said:
I guess most years if ND was a top 12 team they’d be getting in as a at large anyways. Really only affects the rare occasions where they end up 11th or 12th.
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I think it being a controversy is pretty much a lock any time Notre dame is 10-2

If they’re 11-1 they’ll be firmly in
9-3 firmly out


How often will Notre dame go 10-2?
 







MaxyJR1 said:
They want 24 and auto bids and biggest thing they want is more Media bidding on the games outside of ESPN.
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Agree

I don’t think 16 makes sense


I think opening up the playoff to a multinetowrk bid makes sense at 12, 16, 24
 

Some guy said:
I actually like it because it incentivizes conferences to build better schedules that actually end with the best team winning the conference
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Can you explain more? If there are better schedules, doesn't that muddy the waters? I guess what I mean is, when these conferences last expanded people on here were talking that top teams were gonna have to get used to more losses because now Texas and Oklahoma are in the SEC waters, Oregon and USC here, etc.

But maybe there's an angle I'm missing?
 

GopherTheJugular said:
Can you explain more? If there are better schedules, doesn't that muddy the waters? I guess what I mean is, when these conferences last expanded people on here were talking that top teams were gonna have to get used to more losses because now Texas and Oklahoma are in the SEC waters, Oregon and USC here, etc.

But maybe there's an angle I'm missing?
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I am saying in the 2026 playoff Duke and notre dame would bump out Miami and Alabama


And the ACC should design a schedule to have their best team (Miami) win the conference and make the playoff rather than their 3rd or 4th best team (Duke)

Because the ACC made the national title game whereas Duke probably loses by 25 @ Oregon



I get what you’re saying and agree with you. But I’m talking about something else.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
They want 24 and auto bids and biggest thing they want is more Media bidding on the games outside of ESPN.
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Correct.

They want it to stop being an SEC-fest.


The SEC has rigged the rankings. And the CFP is owned by ESPN, which is now the SEC's bed warmer.


The Big Ten knows with how the SEC has rigged the rankings that they need 24 in order to guarantee the same number of teams per year that the SEC can guarantee with only 16.


I just think 5 weeks of playoffs is impossible. Someone will show me how that's wrong though, I'm sure
 

My question is: what's the point where the Big Ten gives everyone the middle finger and drops out of the CFP, creating their own playoff?
 

For the 2026 CFP .... so the following scenario is possible?

- lowest P4 conf champ is ranked outside the top 12, but it doesn't matter they're in
- Notre Dame ranked inside top 12, so they're in
- highest ranked G6 is ranked higher than lowest P4 conf champ, but outside the top 12 ... so they're now out? No G6 team at all?

Right? Stays at 5 auto-bids total?
 

So looking into it a bit more ... possibly the Notre Dame thing is like a "guaranteed at-large spot"?

Kinda a BS hand waving semantics thing, then?
 

MaxyJR1 said:
They want 24 and auto bids and biggest thing they want is more Media bidding on the games outside of ESPN.
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24 would be sweet

1 for each of the 11 conferences

13 left
3 at large
3 more for big ten
3 more for SEC
2 more for ACC
2 more for big 12


All the committee picks is the seeding and the 3 at larges.

The conferences then design league schedules to make their best teams finish at the top.

Would make more regular season games matter.
Would probably move the big ten to 10 or 11 conference games.
 

GopherGrit said:
For the 2026 CFP .... so the following scenario is possible?

- lowest P4 conf champ is ranked outside the top 12, but it doesn't matter they're in
- Notre Dame ranked inside top 12, so they're in
- highest ranked G6 is ranked higher than lowest P4 conf champ, but outside the top 12 ... so they're now out? No G6 team at all?

Right? Stays at 5 auto-bids total?
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No.
In that scenario if Iowa and Duke win the ACC and big ten outside the top 12 and Notre dame finished 12

High Group of 5 champ finishes outside the top 12

4 teams 12+ in the tourney.
If in the same scenario the big 12 champ finishes 10, now you could have a scenario where the 8th place team misses the playoff but 5 teams rated 10 or lower are in.
 

Some guy said:
24 would be sweet

1 for each of the 11 conferences

13 left
3 at large
3 more for big ten
3 more for SEC
2 more for ACC
2 more for big 12


All the committee picks is the seeding and the 3 at larges.

The conferences then design league schedules to make their best teams finish at the top.

Would make more regular season games matter.
Would probably move the big ten to 10 or 11 conference games.
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I hate the idea of 24. Too long. Too many teams undeserving. Bye's are back in play. Prefer 16. No bye's. 4 weeks.

Not sure that even 16 allows too many non-competive teams. But, its a more workable number.

JMO.
 

TNGophfan said:
I hate the idea of 24. Too long. Too many teams undeserving. Bye's are back in play. Prefer 16. No bye's. 4 weeks.

Not sure that even 16 allows too many non-competive teams. But, its a more workable number.

JMO.
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Yeah, I like how simple and straightforward it is too. But for some reason we have a 68-team basketball tournament, so I don’t think the simple and straightforward argument will carry enough weight.
 

TNGophfan said:
I hate the idea of 24. Too long. Too many teams undeserving. Bye's are back in play. Prefer 16. No bye's. 4 weeks.

Not sure that even 16 allows too many non-competive teams. But, its a more workable number.

JMO.
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24 team tournament probably ends the season earlier than it’ll end next year

I just want fewer at larges. The more in the hands of the team and the less in the hands of the committee the better
Which why I like 12 more than 16

I also don’t mind byes if it’s 13-15 days off. Once you get more than that it isn’t really a help.

If I get a bye so I get 4 weeks off but you got no bye but got two weeks off, then a game, then another two weeks off…we actually both got a bye.


the two things I care most about are limiting at larges because I think it diminishes the regular season and the calendar





I guess people complaining about non competitive in but okay putting Alabama in this year just doesn’t make sense to me.
12 let’s non competitive in.
At least 24 most of the non competitive would be a conference champion rather than the 6th best team in the SEC.




If I had my actual choice it would be 12.
Any conference champion in the massey top 40 is automatically in.
The rest convert to at larges.
As few as 1 at large, as many as 12
This year there would’ve been 7 conference champs and 5 at larges.
Also fine lowering that 40 to 30.
Ideally what I would like is any conference champ that has one or fewer losses to be auto bids…but hard to do that without incentivizing no good non conference games.
 
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Some guy said:
No.
In that scenario if Iowa and Duke win the ACC and big ten outside the top 12 and Notre dame finished 12

High Group of 5 champ finishes outside the top 12

4 teams 12+ in the tourney.
If in the same scenario the big 12 champ finishes 10, now you could have a scenario where the 8th place team misses the playoff but 5 teams rated 10 or lower are in.
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I can't follow this.


This is what I think is correct, but easily could be wrong.

- Three of the P4 conf champs are ranked top 10
- Last is ranked #20
- Top G6 is ranked #13
- Notre Dame ranked #12

I think the new rules guarantee an at-large to ND. Last year's rules would not, and they very likely would have been left out.

Actual auto-bids go to the four P4 conf champs no matter what, plus the top ranked G6 conf champ no matter what.

It's a defacto conditional auto-bid for ND, but using an at-large to do it.
 

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