After 10 years, the four-team College Football Playoff era is over.
The 2024 season marks the first time the playoff will now include 12 teams; seeds 1 through 4 will be the highest-ranked conference champions and get a bye, the fifth will be "seeded where it was ranked or at No. 12 if it is outside the top 12 rankings," and the remaining teams will be the next best-ranked teams.
The feeling among some of college football's biggest stars is unanimous: It's a great move.
"You ask any program, their goal is to win a national championship. With the opportunity of a 12-team playoff, that extends everybody’s goal as far as trying to achieve them. It’s a great opportunity for them to do that," Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.
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"It’s giving a lot of teams an opportunity to get in there," added Colorado two-way superstar Travis Hunter. "I’m excited to see what we can do so we can be a part of that playoff. I like it."
Naturally, the closing of the four-team era ended in controversy as 13-0 Florida State didn't make it. Neither did Georgia, the back-to-back reigning champs who had been 42-2 in a 44-game stretch, but that second loss came in the SEC title game to No. 8 Alabama, who jumped up four spots to get in.
Because of last year's playoff, two Big Ten stars say adding eight more teams was the only route to go.
"It’s fair to a certain standpoint. You can have a really successful season but lose one game and be out of the playoffs. I don’t think that’s fair," said reigning national champion Donovan Edwards, who is Michigan's running back.
His rival in Ohio State wide receiver Emeka Egbuka said it "absolutely" had to happen.
"Every year, there’s teams that are super-deserving of those spots, but there could only be four in the past, which is kind of limiting. I remember in recent history, teams like FSU, undefeated season, but they didn’t get a shot at it," Egbuka said. "That’s going to take that out of the equation, and having a 12-team playoff, despite what you didn’t do earlier in the season, you get a chance to show you’re really the best team out there."
Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers shared a similar sentiment.
"Even for a smaller program that hasn’t had the opportunities, that hasn’t had some of the opportunities that some of the bigger programs have had, I think it’s going to be awesome for those guys to get a shot at it, for sure. And it leaves a little bit more room for error. I think it’s what college football has needed."
Perhaps the most exciting part of it all, though, is that seeds 5, 6, 7 and 8 will all have a home playoff game.
"To have a playoff game in Death Valley would be insane," said LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, who also cited "different matchups that can be created with it." (For the record, he obviously prefers a bye).
"You’re going to have teams play [each other] that may have never played before and were never going to play. …" he added. "There are just so many different possibilities that I think make it really cool for the sport."
The first-round games take place on Dec. 20-21, and the quarterfinals will be on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. The semifinals are slated for Jan. 9-10, and the championship will be on Jan. 20, one week later than normally played.
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