Report: CFP Playoff Officials Expected to Re-Examine Byes for Conference Champions

College Football Playoff officials are expected to talk next month about potential format and selection process changes, and that may include discussion on re-examining who gets chosen for first-round byes.

Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports provided the report after relaying a conversation with SEC commissioner Greg Sankey on Tuesday.

"On Tuesday, in his first public comments since the reveal of the CFP bracket on Sunday, Sankey declined to comment, or offered only limited thoughts about potential changes to both the format and selection process. But conversations are expected to start next month when CFP leaders — conference commissioners and school presidents — gather at the site of the national championship game in Atlanta for their annual meetings."

Dellenger also added this comment, citing Big Ten and SEC officials: "The Big Ten and SEC officials, as well as other highly placed sources around college athletics, believe that leaders will re-examine the first-round bye rule, potentially seeding the field in alignment with the rankings."

This year marks the first with the new 12-team format, which sees four teams get byes into the quarterfinals.

The top four highest-ranked conference champions got first-round byes. No. 1 Oregon (the Big Ten champion) grabbed the top spot and No. 2 Georgia (the SEC champion) slid in behind the Ducks.

However, Mountain West champion Boise State is the No. 3 seed despite finishing ninth in the CFP rankings. And Big 12 champion Arizona State is the No. 4 seed even though the Sun Devils are 12th.

There's also been an alternate problem created by giving the top four conference champions the byes, in that stronger teams are knocked down in the seeding, giving the best teams much tougher matchups (on paper) in the quarterfinal round.

For example, Ohio State and Tennessee are listed sixth and seventh in the CFP ranking but eighth and ninth in the bracket. Oregon has to face one of those tough teams on a neutral field in the quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, No. 5 seed Texas and No. 6 seed Penn State will have easier paths (on paper) to winning the quarterfinals if they advance past the first round. The Longhorns would have to play Arizona State, while PSU would face Boise State. In essence, being the top seed doesn't have as great a benefit as it should in this format.

The easiest solution, of course, would be to reward the top five conference champions automatic bids into the field and then just seed everyone normally. That would create a more equitable playoff throughout the bracket.

When this current format was being thought out a few years ago, the conference landscape was much different. The Big Ten and SEC have since morphed into superpowers, with their teams clearly dominating college football. Dellenger referenced this in his re-telling of Sankey's remarks.

"However, in an interview with Yahoo Sports on Tuesday, the SEC commissioner acknowledges that the 12-team format — one he helped create in 2020-21 — was intended for a world that featured five somewhat equitable power conferences and not the current landscape of four inequitable power leagues."

"We're seeing the stress points that we knew would be there, but I actually think they are as or more volatile than we thought," Sankey said. "Now we have a whole different [conference] dynamic. So what happens?"

Changes could happen to the CFP as soon as next year, per Sankey to Dellenger. However, "most or all of those changes" would need all 10 FBS conferences to be in agreement for that to happen.

In the meantime, the 12-team CFP debuts on Friday, Dec. 20, when No. 7 seed Notre Dame hosts No. 10 seed Indiana.