College Football Playoff officials are expected to talk next month about potential changes to the format and selection process, and that could include discussion about reconsidering who will be chosen for first-round byes.

Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports provided the report after relaying a conversation with SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey on Tuesday.

“On Tuesday, in his first public comments since the CFP bracket was revealed Sunday, Sankey declined to comment or offered only limited thoughts on potential changes to both the format and the selection process. But conversations should begin next month when the CFP leaders – conference commissioners and school presidents – gather at the site of the national championship game in Atlanta for their annual meetings.

Dellenger also added this comment, citing Big Ten and SEC officials: “Big Ten and SEC officials, as well as other highly placed sources in college athletics, believe that executives will re-examine the bye rule in the first round, which could potentially shake up the field. in accordance with the classification.”

This year marks the first with the new 12-team format, which sees four teams qualify for the quarter-finals.

The four top-ranked conference champions earned first-round byes. No. 1 Oregon (the Big Ten champion) took first place and No. 2 Georgia (the SEC champion) slipped behind the Ducks.

However, Mountain West champion Boise State is the No. 3 seed despite being ninth in the CFP rankings. And Big 12 champion Arizona State is the No. 4 seed even though the Sun Devils are 12th.

There has also been another problem created by giving the top four conference champions goodbye, in that the strongest teams are knocked down in the rankings, giving the top teams much tougher matchups (on the paper) in the quarter-finals.

For example, Ohio State and Tennessee are ranked sixth and seventh in the CFP rankings, but eighth and ninth overall. Oregon must face one of these tough teams on a neutral field in the quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, No. 5 seed Texas and No. 6 seed Penn State will have easier paths (on paper) to winning the quarterfinals if they advance past the first round. The Longhorns are scheduled to face Arizona State, while PSU will face Boise State. Essentially, being the top seed doesn’t bring as much benefit as it should in this format.

The simplest solution, of course, would be to reward the automatic bids of the top five conference champions in the field, then rank everyone normally. This would create a fairer playoff across the bracket.

When this current format was thought about a few years ago, the conference landscape was very different. The Big Ten and SEC have since transformed into superpowers, with their teams clearly dominating college football. Dellenger referred to it in his account of Sankey’s remarks.

“However, in an interview with Yahoo Sports on Tuesday, the SEC commissioner acknowledges that the 12-team format… the one he helped create in 2020-2021 – was intended for a world characterized by five somewhat equitable power conferences and not the current landscape of four inequitable power leagues. »

“We’re seeing the stress points that we knew would be there, but I actually think they’re as or more volatile than we thought,” Sankey said. “Now we have a whole different (conference) dynamic. So what’s going on?”

Changes could come to the CFP as early as next year, Sankey told Dellenger. However, “most or all of these changes” would require all 10 FBS conferences to agree to make it happen.

Meanwhile, the 12-team CFP will debut Friday, Dec. 20, when No. 7 seed Notre Dame hosts No. 10 seed Indiana.