The SEC and Big Ten have officially gotten their wish for the 12-team College Football Playoff during the 2025-26 season.
After one season with the 12-team format that awarded automatic byes through the first-round to the four highest-ranked college football conference champions, we are moving away from that system.
Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger reported that CFP executives unanimously voted for straight seeding to take the place of that model. This means that the four highest-ranked teams, regardless of conference affiliation, will earn those first-round byes and the rest of the field will be seeded based off rankings, as well. The five highest-ranked conference champions will still get an automatic berth into the playoff, but they won't be guaranteed a bye.
The SEC and Big Ten are throwing their weight around
The other conferences didn't have to vote to do this for the current playoff, but it could've been that the SEC and Big Ten began touting their power in the playoff beginning in 2026 and beyond.
The SEC and Big Ten reportedly hold full control in the College Football Playoff beginning with the 2026 season and this was one of the things that the conferences wanted. They agreed to a financial concession that allows the conference champions to still get a payout, but it's clear that they want to have more paths to advance deeper into the playoff, and getting rid of those first-round bye options for conference champions was the easiest way to do so.
It's clear that those conferences are throwing their weight around and, honestly, it's not going to mean anything when it comes time for the 16-team playoff to come. The ACC and Big 12 have proposed models where they get three automatic qualifiers. That isn't happening. Those two conferences have also proposed models where the SEC and Big Ten would essentially get three and they would get two, but that's not likely to happen either.