The college football playoffs have been revamped for the second time in a decade. When the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) became the College Football Playoff (CFP) in 2014, it expanded from the top two teams to the top four. This always created controversy as one or two teams thought that they had a case to be in the playoffs, and were left out from competing for the national championship. Many teams, players, coaches, and fans have been pushing for an expansion of the playoffs. The CFP committee caved into the demands and requests in 2022 when they expanded the four-team playoff field to 12 teams in 2024. 

Since the playoffs now have the most teams ever, it is important to understand how the bracket works. Five out of the ten conference winners automatically get in. Out of the top five conference winners, the top four get seeds 1-4 and a bye into the quarterfinals, while the fifth conference winner receives the 12th seed. The CFP committee members then have to decide on seven teams that deserve to be in the playoffs. The first round consists of seeds five through twelve playing each other at the lower seeds home. The 12th seed plays the 5th seed, the 11th seed plays the 6th seed, the 10th seed plays the 7th seed, and the 9th seed plays the 8th seed. The winners of these games move on to the quarterfinals where the top four seeds are waiting. 

This year the playoffs start on December 20th with Indiana (10) taking on  Notre Dame (7) in South Bend. The remaining three games will be played on the 21st, with SMU (11)playing  Penn State (6),  Clemson (12)  taking on Texas (5), and Tennessee (9) playing Ohio State (8). The winner of the Clemson/Texas game goes on to play Arizona State (4) in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. The Rose Bowl will be played against Oregon (1) and the winner of the Tennessee/Ohio State. Boise State (3) will play either SMU or Penn State in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl, and Indiana or Notre Dame will face Georgia (2) in the Allstate Sugar Bowl. All these games, will be played on New Year’s Day, except for the Fiesta Bowl which will be played on New Year’s Eve.

Much like every year, even with eight more teams, there are still a few teams who thought they had a strong resume to be in the playoffs. 18-time national champion Alabama and Miami both thought they were snubbed from the playoffs. Alabama went 9-3, with two terrible losses to poor teams, historically bad Vanderbilt, and a below .500 team in Oklahoma. These two losses heavily affected their chances for a bid. First-year head coach Kalen DeBoer, who took over for legendary coach Nick Saban, thought they had wins to prove they belonged with the rest of the 11 teams. Alabama had a good win beating the second seed in the playoffs, Georgia in a game that lived up to the hype it brought. DeBoer had gone on a media run, expressing to multiple media outlets and networks that his team had all the capabilities to be a national title contender in the playoffs. The CFP did not think that DeBoer’s team had the ability, as they put SMU, who made it to the Atlantic Coastal Conference (ACC) championship in their first year in the conference, over the Crimson Tide. SMU went 11-2 with a top-25 win against Pitt and a good win versus a surprisingly decent Duke team. Losing to Clemson in the ACC championship game by a 56-yard field goal, had Clemson’s Head Coach, Dabo Sweeny saying they belonged in the playoffs. On the other hand, Miami, who went 10-2, did not have any top-25 wins and had two losses to unranked teams, which heavily hurt their chances of making the playoffs as they did not make their conference championship game. 

This controversy with Alabama and SMU is very reminiscent of what happened last year with FSU and the Crimson Tide. FSU went 13-0, until their bowl game against Georgia, won the ACC, and thought they deserved to be one of the four teams in the playoffs. They were snubbed from the playoffs by the CFP committee and Alabama got in over them, which caused a flurry of controversy. The Seminoles Head Coach, Mike Norvell, was disgusted by it, and just like DeBoer went on a media run complaining about the decision. The controversy got so bad, that Florida state officials got involved and threatened to sue the CFP. Instead of putting up a fight against a highly-ranked and good Georgia team to prove that the committee made a mistake, they got destroyed 63-3 in the Captial One Orange Bowl 

While Alabama and Miami may not have to prepare for playoffs, they still have a bowl game to prepare for. Alabama will play Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl in a rematch of one of the semifinal games from last year,   while Miami takes on Iowa State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl.