More home games should be the next change to the college football playoff format

Ohio State Buckeyes safety Caleb Downs leaves the field with a rose in his mouth following the 42-17 win over the Tennessee Volunteers in the College Football Playoff first round game at Ohio Stadium in Columbus on Dec. 21, 2024. Ohio State will face Oregon in the Rose Bowl.
Ohio State Buckeyes safety Caleb Downs leaves the field with a rose in his mouth following the 42-17 win over the Tennessee Volunteers in the College Football Playoff first round game at Ohio Stadium in Columbus on Dec. 21, 2024. Ohio State will face Oregon in the Rose Bowl. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

There have already been quite a few changes to the college football playoff format already from straight seeding, to the amount of teams changing from 12 to 16 teams it looks like starting in 2026, but after that a change that should really be looked into is more home games for the higher seeds.

The home playoff games in Happy Valley, Columbus, South Bend, and Austin were awesome and arguably was the best part of the new playoff system in year one. The minimum change for more home playoff games should be the teams who get a bye in round one host in the second of the playoff.

It would have been awesome to see Ohio State go to Autzen to play Oregon, Notre Dame to have gone to Athens to play Georgia, Texas to have to gone to Tempe to play Arizona State, and maybe the most intriguing one would have been Penn State going to play Boise State on the blue field.

If you have done enough to get a bye to not play in round one the reward should be to get a home playoff game as well. I understand the tricky part will be convincing the bowl system to agree, but it would add so much to the playoff with more home games.

As college football has moved to more of an NFL format with players being paid, the playoff system, and having GMs manage the roster changes, playoff home games up to the National Championship Game should be seriously considered for the college game as well.

The Divisional round and the Championship Games are usually the most exciting part of the NFL playoffs, so I would think having the higher seeds host a playoff game until the National Championship Game would be just as exciting.

Not only does it add an atmosphere that is lost with neutral site bowl games, but gives even more importance to success in the regular season. Then, the current bowl sites which host playoff games can figure out a system to rotate the title game between them since they will fight hard to stay a part of the college football playoff system.

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