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The News Site of Fresno City College

The Rampage Online
The News Site of Fresno City College

The Rampage Online
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College Football is Rolling Out Their New 12-Team Format

Story By: Josiah Poynter, Editor-in-Chief
December 4, 2024
Photo by: Logan Payne
All the remaining college teams and their mascots fight for the national trophy. Composite by Logan Payne.

The College Football Playoff will roll out their new post-season format, a 12-team playoff bracket, later this month. This expands on the previous four team bracket that has existed since the 2014 season.

The CFP voted to expand the playoffs in 2023 after talks had been floating around for years about expansion to include teams that would get excluded, despite putting out stellar seasons.

Schools like Alabama, which have appeared in the playoffs eight times and won three times, have dominated the college football landscape even before the introduction of the playoff format. Other teams like Georgia and Clemson have also dominated leaving out really good teams from competing.

The expansion is meant to fix these problems by having a variety of teams compete along with the CFP and NCAA getting more TV deals, similar to college football conference realignments in recent years.

How it’ll Work
The top four highest ranked conference champions will get bye weeks, meaning they won’t have to play in the first round of the playoffs, allowing them to rest and scout opponents. While the rest of the eight teams will play in an initial first round of playoffs with the higher seeded teams hosting the lower seeded teams, for example:
No. 12 vs. No. 5
No. 11 vs. No. 6
No. 10 vs. No. 7
No. 9 vs. No. 8
Following the first round, the New Year Six Bowls, some of the most prestigious and iconic games of the whole year, will be held as the quarterfinals. Those will be the Fiesta, Rose, and Peach, and Cotton Bowls on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.

There will be two semifinals games, the Orange and Cotton Bowls, on Jan. 9 and 10 followed by the National Championship in Atlanta on Jan. 20.

This works for both scheduling and conference schedules as conference champions will need to be decided before the playoffs start.

This also allows for teams that are independent, not in a conference, who get to pick the teams they play which allows them to have a relatively easier schedule and don’t have tough conference games to not get a top four seed. For example, Notre Dame will not get a top four seed despite being ranked in the top 10 this season.

Even if teams are in the top 12 that still doesn’t mean they’re in the playoffs.

Teams can get replaced by other teams ranked No. 13 and lower if they win their respective conference. The teams closer to the bottom will get replaced first unless teams at the bottom of the top 12 have won their conferences.

Rankings
Rankings are subjective to change on a weekly basis.

Rankings are based on a multitude of factors like: record, each team’s record in conference play, strength of schedule, strength of wins, strength of losses, and even the team you win or lose to and how good they are based on these factors.

If you look at a team like Boise State, they have only one loss and that came from No. 1 ranked Oregon.

Here are the current top 25 and the rankings for the 12-team playoffs with teams that are in bold getting byes:

No. 1 Oregon (11-0) — Big Ten champions (seeded No. 1)
No. 2 Ohio State (10-1)— second team from the Big Ten (seeded No. 5)
No. 3 Texas (10-1) — SEC champions (seeded No. 2)
No. 4 Penn State (10-1) — third team in the Big Ten (seeded No. 6)
No. 5 Notre Dame (10-1) — independent (seeded No. 7)
No. 6 Miami (Fla.) (10-1) — ACC champions (seeded No. 3)
No. 7 Georgia (9-2) — second team from the SEC (seeded No. 8)
No. 8 Tennessee (9-2) — third team from the SEC (seeded No. 9)
No. 9 SMU (10-1) — second team from the ACC (seeded No. 10)
No. 10 Indiana (10-1) — second team from the Big 10 (seeded No. 11)
No. 11 Boise State (10-1) – Mountain West champions (seeded No. 4)
No. 12 Clemson (9-2) — first team out of the playoffs
No. 13 Alabama (8-3) — out of playoff
No. 14 Ole Miss (8-3) — out of playoff
No. 15 South Carolina (8-3) — out of playoff
No. 16 Arizona State (9-2) — Big 12 champions (seeded No.12)
No. 17 Tulane (9-2) — out of playoff
No. 18 Iowa State (9-2) — out of playoff
No. 19 BYU (9-2) — out of playoff
No. 20 Texas A&M (8-3) — out of playoff
No. 21 Missouri (8-3) — out of playoff
No. 22 UNLV (9-2) — out of playoff
No. 23 Illinois (8-3) — out of playoff
No. 24 Kansas State (8-3) — out of playoff
No. 25 Colorado (8-3) — out of playoff

As of now, Oregon, Texas, Miami, and Boise State are the highest seeded teams in their respective conferences and would get the bye week. This would be the match ups for the first round of the playoffs:

No. 12 Arizona State at No. 5 Ohio State — winner plays No.4 Boise State in the quarterfinals
No. 11 Indiana at No. 6 Penn State — winner plays No. 3 Miami (Fla.) in the quarterfinals
No. 10 SMU at No. 7 Notre Dame — winner plays No. 2 Texas in the quarterfinals
No. 9 Tennessee at No. 8 Georgia — winner plays No. 1 Oregon in the quarterfinals

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About the Contributors
Josiah Poynter
Josiah Poynter, Editor-in-Chief
Josiah Poynter is a 21-year-old journalism major in his fifth semester at Fresno City College and his fourth in the Rampage. He was born and raised in Camarillo, CA (go PVCS Lions) but has lived in Chicago and now lives in Fresno. Josiah previously held the positions of both the Entertainment and Sports Editor, Managing Editor, and is now the Editor-in-Chief. He loves journalism and has excelled at writing, even winning a writing contest in second grade against high school students. He has been a part of a newsroom since 2020 going all the way back to his high school in Downers Grove, IL with the award-winning Omega; his high school newsroom. Along with working his way up to EIC, Josiah has won four awards with the Rampage and one in high school all for journalism. Moving forward into the future, Josiah knows journalism is calling. He takes pride in knowing his voice and his writing can shape the news landscape and be the voice for people for many years to come. He wants to take on bigger issues that affect local communities but is excited for what the future may have for him. Josiah also has a weird obsession with semicolons, which you can find in the majority of his articles. When he’s not in the newsroom, Josiah is enjoying life. He takes one day at a time and prefers relaxing and going out with friends than anything else. Some of his hobbies include being a movie buff, nerding out about all things in the nerd-media landscape, watching and learning the ins and outs of sports, and constantly trying to convince his girlfriend he’s Batman.
Logan Payne
Logan Payne, Multimedia Editor
Logan Payne returns this semester as the Multimedia Editor. He will step away from writing articles and embrace instead the more visual aspects of journalism. You'll see him most often on the Rampage instagram, reporting on the new facilities and events that occur on campus. He will also help the incoming reporters with their stories and visual accompaniments. Before joining The Rampage, Logan was involved with the Roosevelt Theater Company for four years where he wrote, directed, acted, and worked backstage for many productions. He’s also a certified linguist who has always loved to read and write stories. Logan has grown very familiar with the cutting room; hours slip away when he video edits due to his perpetual perfectionism. He is well-versed in the art of film and knows that every frame shown and every note heard makes a key difference in the bigger picture. His Youtube channel is where he promotes most of his personal projects. This isn’t his first time in a newsroom either; he’s put together many news packages for Roosevelt High, CART, and The Rampage over the years and is more than comfortable with conducting an interview or being the handyman on set. Logan can’t work on anything without being meticulous, and this eye for detail makes him a wonderful asset to the team. This is Logan’s third semester as a journalism major here at Fresno City College, and he likes to spend his time on campus productively. When he’s not in class, he’s in the library catching up on schoolwork or building a narrative with his team in The Rampage office.