SEC, Big Ten want to change College Football Playoff seeding in 2025

Leaders from the SEC and Big Ten are looking to change how teams are seeded in the College Football Playoff starting in 2025.

James Parks | Feb 19, 2025

Using their newfound power over college football, the SEC and Big Ten are looking to change how playoff teams are seeded. / USA Today Sports | Imagn

Months after the SEC and Big Ten held an independent meeting, brass from college football’s two most powerful conferences have agreed that there should be a change in how teams are seeded going forward in the College Football Playoff.

Leaders from the conferences held a joint meeting in New Orleans on Wednesday ahead of the College Football Playoff Management Committee summit on Feb. 25, where officials will review the first-ever 12-team field and discuss possible changes to the format.

Any changes for the 2025 season will have to be passed by a unanimous vote from the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua.

“I’m prepared to vote for seeding change,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said, via ESPN.

Currently, the four highest-ranked conference champions earn the top four seeds and a first-round bye, but consensus is building to change the system.

That change revolves around simply using the selection committee’s rankings for the seeding and avoiding any confusing discrepancies between rankings and seedings going forward.

For example, this past season saw No. 9 ranked Boise State earn the No. 3 seed as Mountain West champion and for No. 12 ranked Arizona State to play as the No. 4 seed as Big 12 champion.

No. 3 ranked Texas and No. 4 ranked Penn State were both runners-up in the SEC and Big Ten, respectively, so could not be seeded higher than 5 and 6 because of the top four places being reserved for conference champion teams.

“We’re in favor of going to a straight seeding, where there’s no difference between rankings and seeing like we had this year,” Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said. “We’re in support of that for next year.”

Seeding likely will not be the only subject of interest when the Management Committee holds its official meeting.

Speculation around the College Football Playoff expanding further from 12 teams remains active, especially after it emerged that the SEC and Big Ten are planning to push for enlarging the format to 14 or 16 teams starting in the 2026 season.

More ... SEC, Big Ten push for College Football Playoff expansion

(ESPN)

Read more from College Football HQ