12-team college football playoff

A look at the hectic upcoming 2024-25 College Football Playoff schedule

The college football schedule in December could look a bit hectic this upcoming season with the playoff expansion.

It was a foregone conclusion that once college football went into a playoff format it would be expanded for more teams than just four.

That expansion begins this coming year as the College Football Playoff will include a total of 12 teams with the top four receiving a first-round bye. Those first-round games will be played on campus sites.

Expansion doesn’t just mean more teams, however.

The football calendar will also be pushed to the limit and will resemble the NFL playoffs and will last nearly that long. The days of college football ending on New Year’s are long over.

For those two teams that make the National Championship, they would have played 15 or 16 total games. There was a reason the regular season ended in late November and most bowl games were played in the southern part of the country.

The weather.

A December game played at Wisconsin or Michigan won’t be fun for players or fans, but these extra playoff games will rack in the dough for schools to spread around.

On top of just the new playoff games, coaches and programs will also have to deal with the transfer portal and the early signing period, both of which will come in early December as well. Here’s a look at the upcoming schedule for the 2024-25 season, wich dates set for games this postseason.

Early projections say Oregon hosts CFP game at Autzen in 2024

Oregon is predicted to host a first round playoff game before going down in the quarterfinals in New Orleans next year.

The landscape of college football is swiftly changing with the transfer portal and players going from team to team more than any professional free agency could ever have.

Another big change will occur in 2024 when the College Football Playoff expands from four teams to 12.

As one of the favorites to win the Big Ten next season, the Oregon Ducks are expected to be one of the 12 playoff teams. The top four seeds would receive a first-round bye with the opening-round contests being played on campus.

According to Brad Crawford of 247sports.com, the Ducks would play in that first round by hosting South Florida at Autzen in the middle of December as a 6-seed.

There is a lot to like with what former Tennessee assistant Alex Golesh built down there in Tampa. He out-recruited every other Group of Five program in the 2024 cycle and with reigning conference champion SMU moving on to the ACC and questions around Tulane following Willie Fritz’s departure to Houston, that strong league is wide open. Oregon makes its first playoff appearance under Dan Lanning after a terrific projected finish during its first season in the Big Ten. — Crawford

Once Oregon eliminates the Bulls, the Ducks are projected to travel to New Orleans and face Florida State in the Sugar Bowl. The Seminoles, a 3-seed, automatically advance to the quarterfinals with their seed. It will be interesting to see how first-round winners do after playing a game against a team that has a month off.

Florida State will have former Beaver DJ Uiagalelei as its quarterback and the Ducks are very familiar with him and his skillset. Nonetheless, 247sports projects a Seminole win here.

Florida State and Oregon in New Orleans would be an excellent, evenly-matched tilt between teams led by transfer portal quarterback and two fast-rising head coaches among the elites. — Crawford

The Ducks will have many firsts in 2024 with their initial season as a member of the Big Ten. Thankfully, they’re expected to do very well and see where this new playoff format takes them.

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How Oregon Ducks would fare in expanded 12-team CFP in 2023

A look at what the Oregon Ducks’ path in an expanded 12-team College Football Playoff would look like in 2023.

I think that there are a lot of college football fans across the nation wishing that the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff were here this year, instead of making its debut in 2024.

Most notably, fans at Florida State, Oregon, Georgia, and Ohio State are feeling that the most.

On Sunday morning, it was announced that Michigan, Washington, Texas, and Alabama would be the four teams in the College Football Playoff this season. That left out undefeated ACC Champion Florida State, which is the first time in the sports history that an undefeated Power 5 champion has not gotten in as a final-four team.

So what might things look like if we had the 12-team playoff this year instead of next?

The 12-team model that was approved last year would include the six highest-ranked conference champions and six at-large teams, with the four highest-ranked conference champions seeded 1 through 4 and receiving first-round byes. The first-round games would be played on campus sites.

So with that system in mind, where would the Oregon Ducks stand after the release of the final CFP rankings of the year? Take a look:

Note: In these matchups, we advanced Oregon through each game to show what their path would look like, while teams in other matchups were advanced based on who had the higher seed.

12-Team Playoff: Ducks face new first-round opponent in hypothetical expanded playoff

The second official set of College Football Playoff rankings have been released, and at the top, there weren’t that many changes.

From No. 1 down to No. 8, all of the teams remained the same. After that, though, there was a bit of a shake-up, with the Oklahoma Sooners losing and the teams behind them moving up into the top 10.

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That’s all well and good, but we want to live in a hypothetical world. How would things look if the future 12-team playoff model was put into effect this season, with these rankings?

So with that system in mind, where would the Oregon Ducks stand after the release of the first official CFP rankings of the year? Take a look:

Note: In these matchups, we advanced Oregon through each game to show what their path would look like, while teams in other matchups were advanced based on who had the higher seed.