The 2025 College Football Playoff will kick off on Friday, Dec. 19 with the first of four opening-round playoff games to be held at the higher seeds’ on-campus stadiums. The 2024 season marked the first expansion of the playoff from four teams to 12, opening up what has historically been a restrictive postseason system to one that gives access to most of the sport, even one lucky participant from the smaller Group of 5 leagues.
Change has been a constant in college football, and the CFP didn’t even make its debut until a decade ago, long after the NCAA tournament allowed college basketball to dominate all of late-March. College football has the end of the NFL season to contend with, but so far, the sport is better off for the shift away from the bowl and poll-dominated systems and formats, which led to serious dissatisfaction among fans and many of the players and coaches who didn’t have the chance to prove themselves on the field. Debates about which teams should reach the playoff continue, but the decades of split national championships are behind us.
