The new policy will no longer include an opening-round bye for the four highest-ranked conference champions, though the five top conference winners will still receive automatic playoff bids. Instead, the four highest-ranked teams regardless of conference championships won will receive that bye into the quarterfinals. In the case that one or more of the five top-ranked conference champions rank outside the top 12 of the final playoff rankings, that team or those teams will move into the top 12 and displace any non-conference winners.

The 12-team College Football Playoff will move to a straight seeding model this fall, rewarding the selection committee's top four teams with the top four seeds and a first-round bye, the CFP announced Thursday. The 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua, who constitute the CFP's management committee, reached the unanimous agreement necessary to make the change during a call Thursday afternoon.

Last season, the four highest-ranked conference champions had automatic byes and received the top four seeds. This year, the playoff bracket will be filled with straight seeding, with five spots still reserved for conference champions, according to ESPN. "After evaluating the first year of the 12-team playoff, the CFP management committee felt it was in the best interest of the game to make this adjustment," CFP Executive Director Rich Clark said in a statement. "This change will continue to allow guaranteed access to the playoff by rewarding teams for winning their conference championship, but it will also allow us to construct a postseason bracket that recognizes the best performance on the field during the entire regular season." If the new format were put in last year, Oregon, Georgia, Texas and Penn State would all have had bye weeks. Instead, Texas and Penn State both had to play in the first round and won convincingly. The Longhorns beat No. 12 Clemson (15th in the country), 38-24, and then defeated No. 4-seeded Arizona State, which had a bye as the Big 12 winner but was ranked 11th in the country, in double-overtime.