There has been a lot of drama surrounding the College Football Playoff and how the teams are selected for the top twelve. Each conference wants a piece of the pie and wants to maximize its opportunity as much as possible. That drama carried over to this year, with Notre Dame left out of the College Football Playoff in favor of Miami, and then two Group of Five teams made it.

On the most recent episode of the “Dan Patrick Show,” Dan Patrick talked about what he heard about the new playoff format. He spoke about what the new format will be, how the champion of each power conference will be guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, how Notre Dame will be guaranteed a place if they are in the top-12, and how the rest will go to at-large teams. The Big Ten and SEC have ultimate control over the format, and if anything were rejected, they would have their own format.

Dan Patrick said he received a text that said, “Each of the big four conferences, so Big Ten, ACC, SEC, and Big 12, guaranteed a berth for being their champion. The highest-ranked team among the remaining conferences is also involved. Notre Dame is guaranteed a berth if it is ranked in the top 12. All the other slots, six of those, if you include Notre Dame as the top 12 teams, are at-large births for the field.

“The Big Ten and SEC went to the Big 12 and ACC and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to guarantee your champion gets into the playoffs.’ They got Notre Dame’s support by saying, ‘You’re going to get in if you’re part of the top 12-ranked teams.’

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“The Big Ten and SEC went to the Mountain West, Pac 12, Sunbelt, MAC, American Conference, Conference USA, and they laid out the new structure. The new format. And they said that the two conferences, the Big Ten and the SEC, will have ultimate control over the college football playoffs, and then gave the other six conferences a short window to accept the deal. It was basically here it is, accept it. Now, if they hadn’t, the SEC and Big Ten were apparently ready to have their own playoff structure and take all the proceeds.”
The new rules allow a pathway for the Group of Five, but limit the overall ability so that we won't have two like this season. There has been a lot of talk about whether they deserve a path, but they still have a chance of shocking the world.