"It allows us to keep little bit more premium on regular season": Greg McElroy endorses idea of 5+11 College Football Playoff model

The new College Football Playoff debate is getting more intense than ever. After the head coaches and AD meetings, it was decided that the extended 12-team playoff format would no longer have automatic bids for conference champions, but would be based on the rankings of the selection committee.

This gives more leg space for big sharks like SEC and Big Ten teams to get a fair amount of chances to compete with other schools that usually get in with weaker schedules. In fact, there has been a new debate about a 16-team playoff with a 5+11 model.

Reacting to this theory, ESPN insider Greg McElroy claimed the move would benefit the SEC a lot, since they play only eight conference regular season games and getting one more matchup adds more depth to the season and a chance to contend for the automatic bid.

Here, in the 5+11 model, the first five automatic bids will be secured by conference champions, while the other 11 spots will be based on the selection committee's criteria.

“The other thing I like about the possible five plus 11 is that it kind of allows us to keep a little bit more of a premium on the regular season,” McElroy said on the ESPN podcast on Thursday. [Timestamp - 37:00]

"And now, while I would look forward to playing in games that we might get on the Conference Championship Saturday, I think those would be amazing win or go home process, possibilities, do or die scenarios. I love that idea for college football, but I also know that throughout the course of our history, the 150 plus year history of college athletics, we have always put a heavy premium on college football during the regular season.

"Well, if we go with the at large model, where we have 11 teams at large that would actually encourage teams in the SEC and the ACC and in other places to continue to strengthen their schedule by adding more big non conference games,” he added.

New College Football Playoff seeding model is a temporary setup

Heading into the 2025 season, the recently approved seeding model will be valid for only one year. The main idea behind the agreement is to check the feasibility of this newly proposed setup. As a result, this season, no conference champion will directly win an automatic bid in the 12-team bracket or enjoy a first-round bye.

All 12 spots will be based on the selection committee’s ranking. However, the first four spots will enjoy first-round bye as usual and the rest teams will match up against each other. Not to mention, the SEC and Big Ten would be the frontrunners to secure top spots in the bracket.