Proposed 12-Team CFP Model Includes Guaranteed Spots For 'Power Five' Champions

This winter, the CFP Board of Managers will decide whether to go forward with a significant expansion in time for the 2024 season or consider it in 2026.

The original proposed 12-team model would give automatic bids to the six highest-ranked conference champions, regardless of league. If used with last year's standings, the Cincinnati and Coastal Carolina, representing the AAC and Sun Belt, would have been in over Pac-12 champion Oregon.

That proposal wasn't well received in Power Five conferences like the ACC, Big 12, and Pac-12. Since 2014, when the four-team playoff began, only the ACC and SEC have had a team make the field every single year. The ACC will likely miss this year's Playoff, barring some true mayhem overtaking the teams ranked ahead of No. 12 Wake Forest, the league's top-ranked program.

Sports Illustrated's Ross Dellenger reports that the group of conference commissioners working on Playoff expansion "introduced a new alternate 12-team postseason model that guarantees a berth to each Power 5 champion."

The sixth automatic bid would go to the highest-ranked Group of Five champion, completing the "5+1 model," according to Dellenger. The final six schools would be at-large selections based on the final College Football Playoff rankings.

The 2020 season, shortened significantly for many teams because of COVID-19, is not the best example of how things may look most years. Still, with how Group of Five schools have generally fared in College Football Playoff rankings, it does seem like this shift would damage the chances for top Group of Five teams, at least a bit.