College football is one of the biggest sporting spectacles of the year. This season has been a lot like past years from the nation’s top teams getting upset to rivalry games sparking on-field fights. However, there has been one change this year that will alter the landscape of college football forever. 

That change was the switch from the traditional four-team college football playoff to the new 12-team playoff system. While there have been strong feelings on both sides, this change is for the better. 

At first glance, the 12-team playoff system may just seem like a larger field for a simple tournament. While that is true, there is more to it, and the system isn’t as easy as it seems. 

This new system brings new features to college football that it hasn’t had before. It not only is a tournament between the top 12 “best” teams, but it places an emphasis on conference championships more than ever. Now, the top four seeded conference champions will receive a first-round bye. 

This aspect is great because in the past, conference championship games have been no different than a partially elevated regular season game against the two top teams in a conference. Now, there is more of a reward for winning one of these games. 

However, the rankings are highly subjective because they are all voted on by a group of people known as the College Football Playoff Committee. Due to this, members of the committee can have differing opinions, which means that there is never a right answer and the Committee is always framed in a bad light. This unfortunately leads to the omission of deserving teams in the College Football Playoff, which causes lots of uproar every year, for example in 2023 how a 13-0 team in Florida State was left out of the field of four for the playoffs. 

The official bracket of 12 came out this weekend. The discussion of whether or not the Committee voting on the rankings is right or wrong is a story for a different day, but the fact of the matter is that the new 12-team playoff is good for college football because of the fans and the competition. 

Fans

A new aspect that comes with the 12-team playoff is home-field advantage. This gets fans involved in the playoffs more than ever. One of the best parts of college football is the fans who lead to some of the best environments in all of sports. Fans can directly impact the outcome of a game and will be crucial for the playoffs. 

In the past, under the four-team playoff system, all games would be held at a neutral site where neither team would be the home team. However, there were flaws with this system such as multiple games being held at Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium. 

While the stadium is very nice, it is in Atlanta which is very close to the University of Georgia’s campus in Athens. Georgia has a historically great football team and they have racked up four appearances in the playoffs, the most ever. That means when they played in that stadium they essentially have home-field advantage

Receiving home-field advantage in this new playoff system will be crucial if teams want to go far in the playoffs. It also keeps fans, one of the most important aspects of college football, involved.

Competition

With the new 12-team playoff, more emphasis than ever before is on competition. Over the past six National Championships, the average margin of victory was four touchdowns leading to a noncompetitive and unexciting game. 

The 12-team playoff brings an aspect to college football much like in the NCAA basketball championship tournament. There was this lack of competition because all you had to do to win a national championship was win two games, a semifinal and the National Championship. 

This can no longer happen because, in the new system, the minimum amount of games a team would have to win to be National Champions is four games, a drastic change from the past. 

This will make it so that the last two teams remaining are the two best teams in the country, as they have made it through the gauntlet of the new playoff system. This will lead to a far more entertaining experience for everyone and a better experience overall. 

While there has been criticism surrounding this new system, it is for the better. Whether or not you are a sports fan, you should tune in to see it in action.