David Pollack endorses seeding change in College Football Playoff

Like many college football fans last season, David Pollack simply couldn’t wrap his mind around the idea that a 12th-ranked Arizona State was the No. 4-seed in the 2024 College Football Playoff just by virtue of winning the Big 12 championship. And don’t get him started on No. 9 Boise State as the No. 3 seed.

Thankfully for Pollack and fans everywhere, this year’s College Football Playoff won’t have that problem after the CFP management committee formally adopted a straight seeding model beginning with the 2025 Playoffs. It’s a welcomed change after last season’s initial 12-team Playoff awarded first-round byes to the four highest-ranked conference champions, all of which lost their first game in the CFP quarterfinals.

“This is good moving forward, this is rewarding teams that did the best during the regular season. Which is what we talk about. That’s all we have,” Pollack said during this week’s episode of the See Ball Get Ball with David Pollack podcast. “Everybody wants to talk about strength of schedule and numbers and metrics they want to use. Whatever metrics you want to use, they’re still metrics. … I think you take the whole regular season, do the best you can for seeding purposes and then I think you benefit the teams the most with the matchups.

“That’s not difficult. That’s very easy. What’s difficult was if you win a conference championship you get an automatic bye,” Pollack continued. “That was the part that’s difficult. Now you make it very clean, very easy. … If we can do more of that with the NCAA, life would be much better for our sport.”

The reshuffled seeding also created some headscratching Playoff matchups, including a second-round rematch between Big Ten champion and No. 1 overall seed Oregon and eighth-seeded Ohio State, which the eventual national champion Buckeyes won handedly, 41-21, in the Rose Bowl.

Had the 2024 Playoffs utilized a straight seeding format, Ohio State would’ve been the No. 6-seed and opened against 11th-seeded Arizona State rather than Tennessee, with the winner of that game advancing to face new No. 3-seed Texas. As the No. 1 overall seed, Oregon would’ve faced the winner between 12th-seeded Clemson and new No. 5-seed Notre Dame in the second round.

“I think Oregon would’ve liked it a lot better,” Pollack said. “Listen, I don’t think we’re arguing the outcome. Ohio State put it together and was sensational. They were so good. But I do think that makes a difference because your first game for Oregon is a win.”

Boise State AD Jeramiah Dickey calls out College Football Playoff over seeding rule change

Boise State athletic director Jeremiah Dickey directly called out the College Football Playoff and challenged them to rename the new straight-seeding format after the Broncos, which earned a first-round bye in the 2024 Playoff as the No. 3 seed by virtue of winning the Mountain West despite being ranked ninth in the final CFP rankings following Championship Weekend. Boise State (12-2, 7-0 MWC), the first-ever Group of Five program to make the Playoff, would ultimately lose to sixth-seeded but No. 4-ranked Penn State, 31-14, in the Fiesta Bowl national quarterfinal on Dec. 31.

“@CFBPlayoff, please call it the Boise State policy…legacy is important…would make us feel better,” Dickey wrote Thursday night on X/Twitter. “When the system is created to keep you down, you fight like hell to break it. Nothing to lose…Always What’s Next! (smiling devil emoji) Believe in epic! 1-0! #BleedBlue (prayer hand emoji).”

The change to the Playoff’s seeding model comes after widespread criticism of the 2024 College Football Playoff, where all Top 4 seeds and conference champions lost in their first game after receiving a first-round bye under the previous model. Joining Boise State among the conference champs to fall in the second round were 12th-ranked and Big 12 champion Arizona State, as well as Big Ten champion and No. 1 overall seed Oregon and SEC champion Georgia, the No. 2 overall seed.