ESPN's Heather Dinich Talks CFP Seeding, Hints At Timeline For Possible Expansion

On Friday morning, ESPN's Heather Dinich appeared on 'Get Up' to discuss recent chatter surrounding the College Football Playoff and potential changes that could be coming sooner rather than later.

Some tweaks include changing the seeding in the 12-team bracket and possibly expanding to 14 teams, which Dinich says will happen in 2026. Per On3:

quote:

---

“We’re headed to major change, inevitably, at some point,” Dinich prefaced. “The question is, do they tweak the seeding for this fall? If they do, it needs to be unanimous. That means all 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame Athletic Director Pete Bevacqua have to agree to it. What would it look like? It would look like the Selection Committee’s Top 12. The Top 12 teams get the top 12 seeds. The four highest-ranked teams would get the top four seeds. That’s instead of the four highest-ranked conference champions, which it was this year, and then they get the first round bye. That’s small change, in the eyes of the commissioners, for this year.

“The big change would be in 2026 and beyond, get ready for 14 teams. Multiple sources at every level have told me that that’s the direction this is heading. The question is, are there automatic qualifiers in 2026 and beyond? The SEC and Big Ten sources have told me multiple people are in favor of four guaranteed teams each for both of those leagues. Two for the ACC, two for the Big 12, one at-large bye and one spot for that Notre Dame team if they’re ranked high enough to be included in it.”

---