The College Football Playoff ushered in another new era Tuesday, as the management committee voted to approve a new 5+7 model that decreases the number of automatic conference champion qualifiers by one and adds an extra at-large bid for the rest of the field. This change is in response to the Pac-12’s effective dissolution, which essentially decreased the number of power conferences from five to four.
College football’s power brokers — read: the SEC and Big Ten — pushed hard for the 5+7 model. There will be some years where each conference gets three to four teams in the final field of 12, increasing the profile of two conferences already grand in stature. The ACC and the Big 12 are also in a better spot now than they ever were in the four-team field, with at least one team virtually guaranteed to make it each year.
The new format still preserves the Group of Five’s spot at the table, with that fifth automatic qualifier likely going to one of the Mid-American Conference, Sun Belt, American Athletic Conference, Conference USA or Mountain West Conference.
On the other side, some conferences and teams were hurt by Tuesday’s decision, including the poor Pac-12. Here’s a look at a few winners and losers from the College Football Playoff’s new 5+7 model.
Winners
The ACC
No matter what happens, an undefeated power conference champion won’t miss out on the playoff ever again. Sorry, Florida State, you peaked a year too early. On top of last year’s controversial decision to leave the Seminoles out of the field, 2023 marked the third straight year that an ACC champion was excluded from the College Football Playoff. But while the Seminoles are actively looking for a way out of the ACC the conference can now sell the other schools on a much…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-playoffs-new-5-7-format-will-benefit-penn-state-hurt-pac-12-holdouts/
Author : Will Backus
Publish date : 2024-02-20 22:54:36
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