2025’s College football playoff bracket has consisted of several dominant wins and surprising losses. Every game up to the National Championship has been played. Courtesy of CBS Sports.

The recent change from a four-team playoff to 12 has brought a lot of positive feedback as the amount of games has gone from three to 11. Along with this comes disagreement with what teams are qualified to make the playoffs. 

The current playoff format rewards the top four ranked teams by granting them a first-round bye. This has become a highly controversial topic as throughout the two years of the 12-team playoffs only one team with a first-round bye has advanced past the second round, which was Indiana over Alabama.

The idea that a team automatically gets into the second round may seem beneficial, but the two week break from live games can impact the players negatively.

The CFP committee grants a playoff spot to the five highest ranked conference champions, which often brings in teams with lower skill. 

For example, JMU won the Sun-Belt Conference Championship and then lost to Oregon 34-51 in the playoffs, and Tulane won the American Athletic Conference and lost to Ole Miss 10-41. The spots reserved for conference championship gives teams in the less talented conferences chances to make the playoffs, but has directly resulted in blowouts. 

Another noticeable trend is teams opting out of bowl games because they’re upset about their final rankings. 10-2 Notre Dame opted out of the Pop-Tarts Bowl after being denied the playoffs, as they argued that teams with worse resumes made it. 

An increasing number of people believe that the playoffs should include the overall 12 highest ranked teams as it will increase the quality of games. With a large number of people upset at the committee, there’s a growing increase of suspense while people wait to see if a change will be made.