We enter year three of the 12-team College Football Playoff era, and the selection process has yet to remain consistent in consecutive seasons.
For the third-straight year, the CFP altered its format. The College Football Playoff Selection Committee met last week to discuss revisions, and the following edits were made:
Conferences now have automatic bids
Under the 2024 and 2025 CFP selection format, the five highest-ranked conference champions received automatic bids, regardless of conference. In theory, if a Sun Belt champion was one
of the five highest-ranked conference champions and the SEC champion was not, the Sun Belt champion would receive priority admittance into the playoff. However, that is no more.
For the first time in CFP history, certain conferences have automatic bids — the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, and SEC champions will all receive automatic berth into the playoff. Meanwhile, the champions of the American Conference, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12, and Sun Belt must compete against one another for the fifth conference champion bid.
Last year, the five highest-ranked conference champions were from the Big Ten (Indiana), SEC (Georgia), Big 12 (Texas Tech), American (Tulane), and Sun Belt (James Madison). ACC champion Duke missed the playoff since it was not one of the five highest-ranked conference champions. Under the 2026 rules, Duke would have earned a spot over Sun Belt champion James Madison thanks to the ACC champion’s automatic bid.
Top 12 Notre Dame automatically makes it
There are two independent teams remaining in the FBS (Notre Dame and UConn), but one of them receives a special exception when it comes to the College Football Playoff.
If Notre Dame finishes in the top 12 of the CFP rankings, the Fighting Irish will automatically qualify for the playoff. This would have altered the 2025 playoff picture, considering Notre Dame — which was the highest-ranked team excluded from the field — finished ranked No. 11. Under the 2026 rules, the Fighting Irish would have received priority entry over No. 10 Miami (FL) in the 12-team field.
Top 4 seeds choose their bowls
In prior years, the four teams that earned first-round byes would participate in quarterfinal bowls based on historic conference tie-ins. For example, the Big Ten champion would play in the Rose Bowl and the SEC champion would participate in Sugar Bowl for the quarterfinal round. That is no longer the case in 2026. The top 3 seeds in the CFP picture will now draft their New Year’s Six Bowl of preference for the quarterfinal round.
In 2026, the quarterfinal bowls are the Fiesta, Peach, Rose, and Cotton Bowls. The Orange and Sugar Bowls will host the semifinal matchups.
2024 vs. 2025 vs. 2026
Here is what the 2025 College Football Playoff bracket would have looked like under the 2024, 2025, and 2026 format.
- 2024 format (only conference champions receive byes)
- 2025 format (top 4 teams received byes)
- 2026 format (automatic bids for ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC; top 12 Notre Dame is guaranteed a berth).
The top 4 seeds continue to receive first-round byes. Seeds 5 through 8 host first-round matchups on campus against seeds 9 through 12.
