What If the College Football Playoff Were 12 Teams This Season?

Among college football fans and sports fans in general, I feel like I am in the minority with this take, but I’ll say it — I am going to miss the 4-team College Football Playoff. Next season, the playoff balloons from four teams to 12 teams, meaning the regular season becomes a little less meaningful, and the hilted teams are a little deserving of being in the playoff to begin with.

The final 4-team playoff of this era of college football gave us perhaps the most controversial decision in the history of the tournament, with undefeated Florida State left on the outside looking in, entirely because the selection committee thinks they’re just not very good since their starting quarterback, Jordan Travis, went out with a season ending injury.

Florida State head coach Mike Norvell was so disgusted with the committee’s decision that he sent a strongly worded, Yelp-style statement to the committee on Sunday afternoon:

Absolute fire from Mike Norvell. He is 100 percent right pic.twitter.com/soMDH0g5dV
— Andrea Adelson (@aadelsonESPN) December 3, 2023

I can’t stress this enough — I AM GOING TO MISS THIS! There is no better variety of vitriol out there than college football vitriol. Twelve teams placates most of the powers that be every year, and I hate that. That said, I will still enjoy a playoff with 12 teams, which will include an opening round of games on college campuses, a quarterfinal round in bowl venues, semifinal rounds in bowl venues, and a title game in a major neutral site city. (This season’s title game is here at NRG Stadium on January 8!)

So let’s imagine what 2023 would look like, if the 12-team playoff had come a year early. We know that the six highest ranked conference champions get automatic bids, with the four highest ranked of those six betting a first round bye. The remaining six spots are filled by the six highest ranked non-conference champions.

Here we go, the Imaginary 2023 12 Team College Football Playoff! First, here is the final set of CFP rankings, as determined by the selection committee:

1. Michigan 13-0
2. Washington 13-0
3. Texas 12-1
4. Alabama 12-1
5. Florida State 13-0
6. Georgia 12-1
7. Ohio State 11-1
8. Oregon 11-2
9. Missouri 10-2
10. Penn State 10-2
11. Ole Miss 10-2
12. Oklahoma 10-2
13. LSU 9-3
14. Arizona 9-3
15. Louisville 10-3
16. Notre Dame 9-3
17. Iowa10-3
18. NC State 9-3
19. Oregon State 8-4
20. Oklahoma State 9-4
21. Tennessee 8-4
22. Clemson 8-4
23. Liberty 13-0
24. SMU 11-2
25. Kansas State 8-4

So your six highest ranked conference champions are as follows:

1. Michigan, Big Ten
2. Washington, Pac-12
3. Texas, Big XII
4. Alabama, SEC
5. Florida State, ACC
23. Liberty

Here are the six highest rated non conference champions:

6. Georgia
7. Ohio State
8. Oregon
9. Missouri
10. Penn State
11. Ole Miss

So in this fantasy world, the strongly worded letter to the committee would come from Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables. (Side bar — an unhinged Venables statement would be epic!) Now onto the matchups, with seeding done 1 through 12 for the twelve teams making the cut:

First Round — weekend of December 16

12. Liberty at 5. Florida State (Tallahassee, FL)

11. Ole Miss at 6. Georgia (Athens, GA)

10. Penn State at 7. Ohio State (Columbus, OH)

9. Missouri at 8. Oregon (Eugene, OR)

The one thing I do wonder is whether the committee would slightly manipulate the rankings to prevent matchups that (a) already occurred this season (Penn State vs Ohio State), or (b) are between teams from the same conference, even if they didn’t play this season (Ole Miss vs Georgia). Those are four great on campus environments for these games, though.

Quarterfinal Round — weekend of December 23

Florida State/Liberty winner vs 4. Alabama

Georgia/Ole Miss winner vs 3. Texas

Ohio State/Penn State winner vs 2. Washington

Oregon/Missouri winner vs 1. Michigan

So yeah, I’m a 4-team playoff enthusiast, but I will get appropriately amped this time next season, I can promise you that.

Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Also, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergast, on Instagram at instagram.com/sean.pendergast, and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.