College Football Playoff format & criteria for 2024-25 season announced

The expansion for the College Football Playoff is finally here and it could not have come at a better time. No, seriously, if there's one thing we learned just a couple of months ago is that expansion was needed.

By now, you remember how Florida State went 13-0 and won the ACC Championship game over Louisville, but was left out of the four-team playoff by the committee and instead, they took one-loss teams Alabama and Texas, who both lost in the semifinals to Michigan and Washington, two undefeated teams at the time.

Expansion to a 12-team field beginning this upcoming season is seen as long overdue and Tuesday the criteria for the playoff was announced.

NCAA releases 2024-25 College Football Playoff criteria

Here is the biggest takeaway from the announcement,

Under the 12-team playoff format that begins this fall, the four highest-ranked conference champions will be seeded one through four and each will receive a first-round bye, while teams seeded five through 12 will play each other in the first round on the home field of the higher-ranked team. (The team ranked #5 will host #12; team #6 will meet team #11; team #7 will play team #10; and team #8 will meet #9.) The quarterfinals and semifinals will be played in the New Year's Six bowl games, the national championship game will continue to be at a neutral site. No conference will qualify automatically and there will be no limit on the number of participants from a conference.

So here we are, 12 teams and the four highest-ranked conference champions will get a bye and seeded 1-4. After that, the debates will begin as to who the remaining eight teams are. Under this format, FSU would have made the field last season.

This format opens the door for more teams to have a lot to play for down the stretch. Will that include Virginia Tech? Time will tell, but if the Hokies take care of business the best they can on their schedule, there's no reason why there can't be whispers around them even if they don't do enough to get into the 12-team field.