This year in college football there will be a new playoff format. The difference between this one from the last college football playoffs is this one has 12 teams competing for a National Championship instead of four.

I like this new format because it gives a chance to teams that usually don’t make it because they’re right outside the top four with one loss. It will add more excitement and possible upsets to the games in the future. This change will add more games in general as well as making them more challenging. In the previous set up, all a team needed to do was win one game in the playoffs to make it to the National Championship. Now teams will have to win three games to make it, but if you’re in the top four seeds, only two wins are needed. Also the first game bye doesn’t get home field advantage. It makes it so much more difficult to win, when you don’t have your fans.

For seeding, the CFP selection committee ranks the top 25 teams. However, five teams are guaranteed a spot in the playoff. The champion of the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, and SEC all earn an automatic bid. On top of that, the best team out of the champions of the AAC, C-USA, MAC, MWC, or SBC will also get a spot. This leaves just seven spots for the committee to fill out. Depending on how the cards fall championship weekend, it could be the sixth to 12th best teams filling out those spots, the first to seventh best teams fighting for placement, or anywhere in between. The new seeding format raises the stakes on conference championships and makes teams fight for every win leading up to the playoff.

Last season for instance, Alabama played Georgia in the Division Championship and the winner was more than likely going to be in the top four for the playoffs. Alabama ended up winning the game and pushed Georgia out of the playoff run even though Georgia was the number one team. This example is why having a four-team playoff format isn’t a good idea. If this game had happened in this year’s format, Georgia would have still made it due to them being in the top 12 teams. After last year’s loss, Georgia went to the number five spot, denying their ticket to the football playoffs.

A strange situation occurred last year with Florida State. They went undefeated during the regular season but still missed out on the playoffs. The main reason was because they lost their star quarterback, Jordan Travis, who suffered an injury before the ACC championship game. Although Florida State won the game without him, the playoff committee did not believe they were at their best without their key player, and because of that they were not selected for the playoffs. Alabama, which had just defeated the number one team, Georgia, took Florida State’s spot, as the committee saw them as the stronger team at that point in the season. With the new playoff format, Florida State would not have to worry about missing the playoffs due to an injury despite having an undefeated season. Even without their star quarterback, they would still have been one of the top 12 teams and could have competed for the championship and proved the playoff committee wrong.

Overall, this new format is an exciting improvement for the sport of football. It will not only keep fans engaged with more teams but provide a more fair system where more teams can actually compete for the National Championship. It brings a new level of competitiveness, making it more challenging to win a title, and gives teams that have in the past fell short of the top four a real shot at a title.