There is a new format to the College Football Playoff for the 2025 college football season. The anticipated change will shift the tournament to a straight-seeding format. This means the selection committee will now rank all 12 teams directly, rather than automatically granting byes to the four highest-ranked conference champions as they did in the 2024 bracket.
Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports has reported that College Football Playoff executives have met and have adopted a new format for seeding the 12 teams in the field. Dellenger further explained that this change wouldn’t alter the financial distribution; the four highest-ranked conference champions would still receive the same revenue share, even if their overall ranking falls outside the top four.
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The 2024 playoff would look a little different for all teams so here is a look into what would be the matchups for the Bulldogs.
Georgia‘s playoff path using the new seeding
Georgia’s path would have featured a first opponent of the Tennessee Volunteers or the SMU Mustangs instead of playing the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Following that matchup, Georgia would have played (if they won in the quarterfinal) the Texas Longhorns, Ohio State Buckeyes, or Arizona State Sun Devils in the semifinal.
Georgia (SEC) and Oregon (Big Ten), who were the top two seeds in the 2024 College Football Playoff, would have been the top beneficiaries under the new seeding format, which is based on rankings. Boise State (Group of Five) and Arizona State (Big 12) would have no longer received first-round byes in the new format. Instead, Penn State (Big Ten) and Texas (SEC) would have had first-round byes. The SEC, Big Ten and Notre Dame (who can now get a first-round bye) are big winners of the new format while the Big 12, ACC and Group of Five are all losers.
This article originally appeared on UGA Wire: How UGA’s 2024 playoff path would have looked like under new seeding
