The Rose Bowl on Wednesday agreed to become part of the expanded College Football Playoff, which paves the way for a 12-team playoff system to be implemented as early as 2024. As a result, fans and the media are starting to think about what the larger field will look like.
Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated shared an image on Twitter of what the College Football Playoff would look like this season if there were 12 teams. The top four conference champions — currently Georgia, Michigan, TCU, and USC — would receive a bye in the first round. The rest of the field would consist of the remainder of the six highest-ranked conference champions and the next six highest-ranked teams.
You can see the hypothetical bracket below:
First-round games will be played at the higher-ranked team’s home stadium under the current proposal. That would obviously make for some electric environments, even in a situation where a team like Ohio State is expected to steamroll Tulane.
Critics of the 12-team playoff will say some of the games would wind up being mere formalities, but that is no different from the playoffs in most other sports. Some also think a three-loss team should not have a chance to be crowned a national champion, but how is that any different from an NFL Wild Card team winning the Super Bowl?
The Rose Bowl had previously been holding up CFP expansion as the only one of the six current participating bowls to resist the 12-team format. That is because they want special treatment, and the CFP has said they will work with the Rose Bowl to accommodate one particular request.
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