The 2024-25 college football season ended with a new bracketing system in the 12 team college football playoffs.
This season was the first time they’ve included 12 teams in the bracket system, as previously the top four teams would be in the running for the College Football National Championship.
This new system has created controversy among college football fans, as the fairness of seeding is being questioned.
“I think [the NCAA] is already in talks of fixing it. A lot of it doesn’t really make sense. Oregon played Ohio State, the number one team in the country, which they deserve to be. Then they had to play the national champion in their first round, whereas you had Texas playing Arizona State so on, so forth,” Luke Fykes, senior Alabama football fan, said. “The seeding is not great, the conference champion’s auto bid isn’t great, but I think they’re gonna fix it after this year.”
The 2024-25 College Football Playoff bracket was officially released on Dec. 8. The bracket consisted of 12-teams.The four highest-ranked conference champions received the top four seedes and a bye week.
Oregon played Ohio State University (OSU) in the quarterfinals for the second time after beating them 41-21 to win in the regular season, creating an unfair advantage, as there’s an added difficulty coming from beating a team twice.
“It shows the same for every sport, like how in the NFL these teams in the playoffs made it because of their easy schedule. If a team is able to make the playoffs with a hard schedule that shows that they deserve to be there,” Ethan Michels, junior Wisconsin Badgers fan, said.
This bracket showed seed placement isn’t up to how good of a team you are, or the players, but instead the record. In order to receive a good seed, playing an easier season (non-conference games) against easier teams will guarantee a spot in the final.
“I think that it is probably more important than just your record, because strength to schedule tells you if you’re battle tested at all, because with home games in the playoffs now, I saw SMU go to play Penn State, and they got blown out on the road,” Fykes said.
SMU took what some fans say should have been Alabama’s spot, the number 12 seed.
Despite some fans being disappointed in this change, others highlight the new opportunity it brings.
“I like how the new bracket gives more teams a chance to win the national championship and how there are more games on now,” Michels said.
In the finals, Ohio State played Notre Dame for The College Football National Championship on Jan. 20 with Ohio winning 34-23.
“I thought that Ohio State was going to win because I have seen them play this year and I thought they could bring it all the way,” Michels said.
