Playoff Committee Rankings Expose Giant Flaw in the College Football Playoff Format

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Dale Bliss | Last updated Nov 27, 2024 9:29 AM ET

It's all projections until Selection Sunday December 8th, but last night's College Football Playoff Committee reveal of their current Top 25 ranking lays bare an egregious defect in the design of the 12-team bracket.

If the playoffs began today the #5 seed would enjoy a home game against Arizona State in the first round followed by a neutral site bowl matchup against 4-seed Boise State, and they'd be heavily favored in both.

After a first-round bye, the #1 seed would draw the winner of Tennessee at Georgia in the quarterfinals. That's a tough matchup against a loaded defense, both traditional powers with a fanbase that will blanket the stadium.

The disparity is so great that the architects of the playoff have created a scenario that in a matchup of #1 versus #2 in a conference championship game, like Oregon versus Ohio State this year, both teams and their fans have substantial incentive to lose and take the five seed.

Though it may not happen this year (Ryan Day and Dan Lanning both need to show they can win a league championship) it isn't hard to envision a future game where a crafty coach might rest his starters and angle for the five seed.

The worry before the season was that the playoffs might diminish the regular season. Instead, what's emerged is that Greg Sankey and Tony Petitti have created a format where it is better to lose than to win and evasion gets rewarded.

Fox College Football Analyst Joel Klatt pointed to one obvious solution, which would be to reseed the bracket after the first round.

CFP format is flawed...giving top 4 seeds and bye to Conference Champs regardless of rank makes 5th seed more attractive than 1 seed! EASY FIX: re-seed after the first round to make sure that the 1 seed gets most favorable match-up thus rewarding the regular season
— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) November 27, 2024