It took over a century, substantial financial investment, and the realization that change is inevitable. College football has finally introduced a genuine postseason tournament, aligning itself with other sports that already have established playoff formats.
The inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff (CFP) will commence this weekend, featuring four first-round matchups held at iconic college football venues. Teams such as Texas, hosting Clemson, Penn State facing SMU, Notre Dame against Indiana, and Ohio State going up against Tennessee will showcase their talent on the field.
Following these initial games, the successful teams will carry their momentum into the New Year’s holiday, facing off against Arizona State, Boise State, Georgia, and Oregon. The highly anticipated national championship game is set to cap off the tournament on January 20 in Atlanta.
While most major sports in the United States, including lower-tier college football, have long enjoyed postseason tournaments, this format is a new chapter for high-level college football. Unsurprisingly, the rollout of this playoff system has been complicated, with numerous intricate details that will significantly influence its future.
A question looms: Can college football contend with the NFL? An agreement established decades ago as part of the NFL’s anti-trust exemption recognizes Saturdays as the domain of college football, preventing the NFL from broadcasting games on college football’s busiest day. However, this prohibitive measure only applies until mid-December, allowing the NFL to swoop in when playoff season kicks off.
This Saturday, NFL highlights include a pair of major matchups: Texans vs. Chiefs on NBC and Steelers vs. Ravens on Fox. In response, the CFP has strategically scheduled SMU vs. Penn State and Clemson vs. Texas, games that are sublicensed to TNT as part of ESPN’s broader playoff broadcasting agreement.
Viewership metrics will be critical in assessing this new venture. This season, the most-watched college game attracted 16.6 million viewers, whereas last year’s championship drew 25 million when the playoff format featured only four teams. By comparison, a regular NFL game this month saw around 24 million viewers, while the first round of NFL playoffs last season averaged about 38.5 million viewers.
Will these numbers matter? ESPN has a substantial agreement that could reach up to $1.3 billion annually through 2031. However, poor ratings could prompt a reevaluation of scheduling to evade competition from NFL broadcast success.
A long journey led to this moment. The roots of a postseason tournament can be traced back to the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California. To fund the floral floats, the event organizers invited Michigan and Stanford to compete in 1902, leading to an annual tradition. Over time, it evolved with additional games across warm-weather cities, resulting in the establishment of prestigious bowl games.
By the 1940s and 1950s, these bowl games entered into contractual relationships with conferences, solidifying their place in college football’s identity. While most sports adopted playoff systems by the 1960s, college football held on to the bowl game format as its postseason identity.
For many years, the Associated Press conducted its own polls, beginning in 1936, designating national champions based on rankings. The expansion of these ranking systems resulted in discrepancies, often leaving the top teams—who frequently hailed from different conferences—unable to compete against each other.
The ongoing complexities of crowning a champion remained evident, even as playoff formats evolved. A significant push for change emerged after back-to-back seasons of split titles highlighted the sport’s need for reform. Consequently, conference realignments, lucrative television contracts, and financial shifts initiated the transition toward a more structured playoff experience.
The College Football Playoff format introduced in 2014 was a pivotal step. However, disparities emerged between the playoff games and the numerous bowl games, which began resembling exhibition matches, especially as star players opted out to avoid injury before entering the NFL draft.
The selection process also presented its own issues. Unlike college basketball’s March Madness—and its expansive 68-team field—the smaller college football playoff can carry dire consequences for selection errors, such as denying a deserving championship contender a chance based on a single game’s outcome. This high stakes scenario has already led to debate within the community.
Automatic bids for conference winners have come into play, granting teams like Boise State and Arizona State entry into the tournament along with first-round byes. There are ongoing considerations about travel logistics, expense for fans, and how campus games will unfold amid student absences. The future champion will potentially face a lengthy schedule of 16 to 17 games that may impact students’ education.
While the playoff format is likely to expand to 14 teams soon, questions surrounding “access” regarding which conferences can qualify for the tournament remain hotly contested. Additionally, there is an increasing divide between the SEC, Big Ten, and the rest of college football that creates unease among stakeholders.
As this new chapter begins, fans are in for a thrilling experience over the next month, making history as college football embarks on its first-ever foray into a playoff.