New Playoffs and a New “National Champion”

Plus: the Week 8 FBS Playoff Chase Update

Image: Torsten Bolten

In this Issue:

• The 24-team playoff
• A new “national champion
• College Football Playoff Chase Update

The New Standard

The highest division of college football (FBS) will expand its playoff from 12 to 24 teams beginning in 2027. There will be no conference championship games, and the eight top seeds will get a first-round bye. They will still have to play four games to win the title, and a 9th-24th seed that reaches the championship game will play five playoff games and 17 overall.

We’ve come a long way from when the “national champion” was decided by a vote of newspaper wire services. It was essentially an award for “Best Team,” like the Academy Awards, where voters choose a Best Picture. Major conference champions were often contractually obligated to particular bowl games, and in many years the two best regular-season teams, often two undefeated teams, weren’t allowed to face each other in the postseason.

It sucked.

This became a little more flexible in the 1990s, and the “two-team playoff” called the BCS was inaugurated in 1998. In some years, like 2005…