Recently it was announced that the College Football Playoff would be shifting its format yet again. The CFP Management Committee clearly did not read my article on what the best version would look like, so they went ahead and proposed their own format.
The new format, which is effective this upcoming season, will still feature twelve teams. Although the top five conference winners will still get automatic bids, the teams will be seeded as they’re ranked in the final CFP rankings. If the format was effective last season, the byes awarded to Boise St. and Arizona St. would have instead been given to Penn St. and Texas.
From the CFP Management Committee’s perspective, this move makes a ton of sense. They gave in to the pressure of their financial backbone to reward the higher overall seeded teams with byes. Despite rumors of another expansion of the field to sixteen teams in 2026, this tweak is a bad sign for G5 CFB hopefuls in the long run.
As a part of the College Football Playoff new TV contract made with ESPN in 2024, the “Power two” (Big Ten and SEC) will combine to earn about 58% of the CFP’s base distribution. This comes out to an annual payout increase of up to $16-17m per school compared to the previous contract.
The ACC and Big XII will get 17.1% and 14.7% respectively, while Notre Dame and all 64 G5 teams will get the remaining 10%. Despite the total dollar G5 teams will be receiving in the new deal being slightly higher, it’s drops in the bucket compared to the increase of college football’s titans. Under the previous contract, G5 schools received almost 20% of the base distribution in the previous structure.
Although G5 teams cannot be pushed out completely from the CFB deal, I think the SEC and Big Ten will threaten to secede from the CFB to start their own playoff and/or use their leverage to dwindle the G5’s revenue share.
If and when that happens, what options do G5 programs have?
Leaving the CFP voluntarily would be a huge mistake – they would be losing their financial lifeline. What they could do instead is create their own playoff, akin to college basketball’s NIT, while still being tethered to the “main” CFP. This would create buzz around G5 teams and make bowl season more interesting.
There aren’t too many G5 fanboys like myself, in fact I don’t know any others personally.
But people love betting on football games, and statistics show more bets are placed during bowl season when there aren’t as many games on. A potential G5 playoff could present conferences and schools with opportunities to broaden their revenue stream by forming advertising and sponsorship partnerships with sportsbooks. The idea has also already been brought up amongst G5 commissioners.
An end of season tournament may also inspire more players to not opt out of their team’s bowl games, although for a knock-off tournament there’s no guarantee.
As far as how the tournament could look, I think an eight team, straight seeded bracket would fit best. Every non-CFP qualifying conference tournament winner would earn a berth, with the next four teams being selected at-large by a committee. If this tournament was in place for the 2024 season, it would have featured Ohio, Marshall, UNLV, Army, etc.
G5 teams will never get the attention that power conference schools do, but a post season tournament between them would draw excitement and open doors for diversified revenue streams for mid-majors in this unpredictable era of college football.
Group of five til' I die 