The College Football Playoff began in 2014 as the final postseason format for college football. It consisted of the top four teams facing off in the semi-finals, with each winner meeting in the national championship.

After 11 years of the four-team format, it was decided that the playoff field would be expanded to 12 teams. The CFP committee was coming off a bad year where it and the process had come under intense scrutiny, with many people believing they had messed up last year by leaving out an undefeated Florida State.

One of the arguments made when defending this decision was that this situation would not happen again given that the field was expanding to 12 teams this year. The first rankings for the 2024 College Football Playoff are scheduled to be released on Tuesday, November 5.

Here’s everything you need to know about the playoffs and the new format.

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2024 College Football Playoff Rules

The College Football Playoff field will consist of 12 teams, led by the top four conference champions. The remaining six spots will be a combination of the top six at-large bids and/or the two highest-ranked remaining conference champions, as determined by the CFP selection committee.

Teams will be ranked according to weekly college football playoff rankings.

The new format ensures that at least one “Group of 5” team will make the College Football Playoff each year and allows for the possibility of more than one G5 team making the playoffs instead of one “Power 5” team.

Here’s a look at how the College Football Playoff seeding will play out:

First round

• Team #1 (goodbye)
• Team #2 (goodbye)
• Team #3 (goodbye)
• Team #4 (goodbye)
• Team #12 to Team #5
• Team #11 to Team #6
• Team #10 to Team #7
• Team #9 to Team #8

Quarter-finals

• Team #1 vs. Team #8/9
• Team #2 vs. Team #7/10
• Team #3 vs. Team #6/11
• Team #4 vs. Team #5/12

The top four teams will receive a bye as seeds 5 through 8 will host home playoff games against seeds 9 through 12. After those games, the remaining eight teams will compete in bowls 6 of the New Year in progress (Pink, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, Cotton and Peach). These balls will rotate each year between the quarter-final and semi-final matches.

The winners of the semifinal games will advance to the College Football Playoff championship game to determine this season’s national title winner.

2024 College Football Playoff Dates

Expanding the College Football Playoff means going from three playoff games to 11.

The semifinals were played around New Year’s Eve, with the national championship game taking place about a week later. Now, the first round of playoff games will be included among the previous bowl games. The quarter-finals will be played around New Year’s Eve and the semi-finals in the second week of January.

This pushes the national championship game later than it has ever been.

How do the new 12-team playoffs work?

The new 12-team playoffs will be a bracket-style tournament. The top four seeds will receive a bye and will proceed directly to the quarterfinals. No. 5 will face No. 12, No. 6 will face No. 11 and so on, with the top seed hosting the match on its home court.

The quarter-finals and subsequent matches are played at neutral sites. The winner of No. 8-No. Game 9 will face the No. 1 seed, the winner of the No. 7-No. Game 10 will play the No. 2 seed and so on.

The two semi-final matchups will be determined, with the winners meeting in the national championship.

2024 College Football Playoff bracket

Updated CFP tranche forecasts

Here are the top 12 teams expected to make the 2024 College Football Playoff, according to Bill Bender of Sporting News (updated after week 9):

Publication schedule for the 2024 CFP survey

History of the College Football Playoff

From 1998 to 2013, the College Football Playoff was called the Bowl Championship Series or BCS. The top two teams in the country at the time the final rankings were released would meet in the BCS National Championship.

After years of snubs, it was decided that the playoff field would be expanded to four teams, which happened in 2014. This process was in place for 10 years and rumors spread that the field wasn’t big enough. The committee voted and decided it would expand to 12 teams for the 2024-25 season.

There have already been discussions about further expansion in the coming years, but for now the number remains at 12.