HOUSTON — Why will the College Football Playoff look a lot different next year?
We now know which two teams will face off in the College Football Playoff National championship game next Monday at NRG stadium. Michigan will go up against Washington here in Houston.
They will also be the last to go through a four-team playoff to get to the national championship. That all changes next season.
Right now, four teams play in two semifinal games with the winners of those games going to the final showdown. A 13-member committee selects the four teams that go to the playoffs and that can lead to controversy, like unbeaten ACC champion Florida State being left out of the playoff this year.
The system before wasn’t that popular, either. The Bowl Championship Series used a combination of polls and rankings to select which team got to make it to a bowl game. And the decisions were not always popular.
Starting next season, the playoff will expand to 12 teams. That means the six highest ranked conference champions will get automatic bid. The six highest ranking teams remaining will round out the rest of the 12 teams.
Though there are rumors that could be changing, thanks to the Pac 12 conference now only having two teams -- a reminder that the only constant in college football is change.