The College Football Playoff: Is the G5 team a problem?

We have had the CFB 12 team playoff format for 2 seasons now, and with it, have come many controversies. Between teams being left out, and teams who were supposed to win the whole thing losing in their first game, there has been much conversation on changing it, and many questioning which is the best way to correctly do it.

The current format for the 12 team CFP began during the 2024-25 football season, and when it was first announced, many were excited for more teams to get the opportunity to fight for a national title. Especially since the group of 5 was now being included. However, the group of 5 conference entries to the CFP has been a problem both years. The reason for this being that they aren’t winning. Not only are they not winning, they aren’t even playing at a competitive level against the Power 4 conference teams. They are either being blown out, or are being beaten by more than a touchdown, which doesn’t make for a good game, and leaves people disappointed in the matchup. Because this has happened 3 times now, viewers and fans are starting to wonder if the G5 teams being allowed to compete is such a good idea afterall. Many were especially upset when this season, 2 G5 teams made it.To understand this issue, I broke down both years of the 12 team format, specifically focusing on the G5 teams, and the impact they had on other teams. 

The games of the playoff that G5 teams compete in are essentially a “scrimmage” for the P4 team that they are playing. I say this not only because a G5 team has never won a 12 team playoff game, but because the games that they play in are not even close in score, and these games are only preparing the P4 team that wins the game, for their next round of playoffs. This is giving the P4 teams that play these opponents an edge over the first round bye teams that they play after, because while the winner against the G5 team was given a scrimmage against a lesser team to prepare for the big games, the team given the first-round bye hasn’t played anyone in weeks. This might very well be the reason that the first-round bye teams are 1-7 in the 12 team format. The G5 teams' impact on the CFP is significant, and if P4 teams were competing in their place instead, we might have more competitive games, and different outcomes.  

The G5 teams being allowed to compete in the CFP this year ensured that 50% of the first games were won by P4 teams. In doing so, this gave the P4 teams an edge over the next team they would play in a bowl game at a neutral field site, because they would have played a "scrimmage" against the puny G5 team that in reality does not compete on the same level of any P4 team. We have seen this in both years of the 12 team format, when in 2024, Boise State was given the first round bye, and in the Fiesta Bowl, was matched against Penn State, who had previously beaten the SMU ponies, which allowed for more preparation for the Nittany Lions before their game against Boise. Boise lost the Fiesta bowl by 17 points, thus being exhibit A in my proof for the G5 entrance being a problem. 

This was proven yet again this season, when both JMU and Tulane were allowed into the CFP. This was extremely controversial amongst fans, many saying that only one should’ve been let in, and teams like Notre Dame and Texas were snubbed. The reason the committee did this is because they must select the 5 highest ranked conference winners, and because the ACC was a vastly inferior conference this season, and their conference winner had 5 losses and was undeserving of a playoff spot, they then had to select a second G5 team in lieu of the usual ACC conference winner. In the AP Poll rankings, JMU was ranked #24, while Tulane was ranked #11. Tulane was deserving of making a spot, but the fact that the 24th ranked team was put in the CFP, only because the committee must select 5 conference winners, is what upset fans the most. JMU was set to play Oregon in Eugene, and Tulane was matched against the Ole Miss rebels in Oxford. Oregon beat JMU 51- 34 and in a blowout (41-10), Tulane was knocked off by the Ole Miss rebels. While the ducks and rebels got an easy “scrimmage” to prepare for their next game, Oklahoma was seeded to play #9 Alabama in Norman, a team that Oklahoma had already played and beaten this season. In the other matchup, Texas A&M got seeded to play Miami in College Station, both of these games being extremely tough matchups in very hostile environments. In the end, Alabama beat Oklahoma and continued on to play Indiana only to lose, and Miami beat the Aggies and proceeded to play the Ohio State Buckeyes, coming out with a win. On the other hand, Ole Miss continued on to play Georgia and won, and Oregon was matched up against Texas Tech, beating them as well. The scores of the first four games in the playoff showed that the G5 games were merely a practice for the P4 teams, while Miami and Oklahoma were seeded against actually competitive opponents- being P4 schools- and were given a tougher route to their next game.  

While both Oregon and Ole Miss have proved to be competitive by both having won their second playoff game, there is always the question that if they would’ve played a more competitive opponent, would they have made it as far? Most also see that no G5 team that has competed in the playoff has won a game, nor have they even put up a fight against the other team. This makes many feel that the G5 team even being able to play in CFP is not right, and that they are just wasting the spot for a not as eligible, but more competitive team, that was maybe the first or second team out from a P4 conference. 

But the biggest question is, what can the committee do to change this, and what would the better solution be? Because you sometimes have those once-in-a-bluemoon teams like the 2021 Cincinnati team that was still in the AAC at the time, that end up being good enough to make the playoffs, which is fair. But there is never a G5 team every year that is good like that. So why are we wasting good playoff spots on these teams that are not even playing competitively come playoff time, when there are other teams that are more deserving of it? While I believe the committee does this because of the once in a blue moon G5 teams that are really good, that is not something that is happening every year, and I feel that there needs to be a new system on deciding who gets into the playoff, specifically for the G5 teams. Letting one in every year is not fair to other teams that only barely don’t make it because they are playing in competitive conferences. Letting the G5 teams play in these games only proves the level of competition that is played in the P4, and exposes these G5 teams that might have only gone undefeated because they were playing small schools in their conference, whose main focus is not football. While I don’t necessarily have any idea as to how this problem could be resolved, I do feel that there needs to, and already has been a call for change in the CFP format, and many are upset with the fact that 2 G5 teams were given spots in the playoffs this season. College football is ever changing and having glitches in the system is how problems are brought to the surface in order to be solved. Many are pushing for a 16 team format that would help to alleviate some of these issues, but only time will tell.

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