The College Football Playoff needs to change its seeding procedures. Here’s a solution.

This needs fixing.

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Charles Curtis.

Morning, friends! Happy Friday!

Now, I’m going to be honest with you: I’m a huge pro sports guy. I didn’t go to a big college with a giant football program, and I grew up in New York City, where college sports aren’t a big thing.

So I’m coming at this as a pure casual. You’ll pardon my ignorance. But from where I stand, the 12-team College Football Playoff needs some tinkering. If you were a top-4 team with a bye this year, you lost: Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State are all going home.

While you could argue that a bye is what defeated them, killing any momentum, this is more about WHO got a bye. Five of the highest-ranked teams who won conferences got automatic bids, with the four top-ranked squads getting those byes.

So what’s the solution here? How do you reward teams for winning in the regular season when conferences might be uneven? On paper, SEC schools are supposed to be better than, say, Mountain West programs (er, actually, scratch that. Georgia lost. Tennessee lost. Texas almost lost to Arizona State).

The solution? Get 12 teams in, get the committee to seed them all correctly, and call it a day. If you’re a good team that DIDN’T win your conference (Notre Dame, right?), maybe you get a top seed. If you’re a lesser team that won a weaker conference, you get a lower seed.

Will there be complaints that the committee got something wrong? Well, we’re here complaining about this format! There’s no exact science here.

But what I do know is there should be some adjustments made.

Jimmy Butler trade SZN is here!

Jan 2, 2025; Miami, Florida, USA; Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler (22) warms-up before the game against the Indiana Pacers at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Jim Rassol-Imagn Images

Jimmy Butler has one of the wildest transaction pages of any NBA player. There was the trade to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Zach LaVine and Lauri Markkanen. There was the deal involving Dario Saric and Robert Covington to the Philadelphia 76ers. Then he was shipped in a mega-deal to the Heat.

And now? Where to next?

I ranked five possible destinations now that he officially wants out of the Heat, with all that talk that he wants to “get [his] joy back” on the basketball court.

I happen to LOVE transactional NBA stuff, so I can’t wait to see that page get another wild trade on it.

Quick hits: Golden Globe predictions … Black Monday is coming … and more.

— Cory Woodroof has his Golden Globes film predictions for Sunday’s ceremony.

— Here are eight NFL teams that could fire their head coach this Monday.

— Saquon Barkley’s new ad trolls Giants owner John Mara.

— Simone Biles revealed why she’s torn about competing at the 2028 Olympics.