COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The College Football Playoff will get a slight makeover for the 2025 season as the Buckeyes look to defend its national championship.

Executives with the CFP voted unanimously to change the seeding structure for the 2025 bracket of 12 teams. Next season will be the last with a 12-team playoff with an expected expansion to 14 or 16 teams in 2026.

The seeding structure for the 2025 College Football Playoff will go purely based off the rankings instead of conference champions earning automatic byes into the quarterfinals. Five conference champions will still be guaranteed automatic berths but will be seeded based on their ranking in the final CFP poll.

If 2024 bracket used new seeding structure

With the new seeding structure, the Buckeyes would have been the No. 6 seed instead of No. 8 and would have hosted No. 11 Arizona State in the first round. The winner would have played Texas, who was ranked No. 3 in the poll but was seeded fifth due to losing the Southeastern Conference championship game.

In the 2024 playoff, each conference champion that earned a bye lost its lone playoff game in the quarterfinals.

Actual 2024 playoff bracket (Old seeding)

Ohio State can now claim its 2024 College Football Playoff title as the only one using the conference-champion byes seeding structure. The Buckeyes begin the season on Aug. 30 against Texas in a rematch of the Cotton Bowl semifinal at Ohio Stadium. Ohio State searches for its first Big Ten title since 2020 but now knows it won’t guarantee them a quarterfinal place in the 2025 playoff.