Michigan alum Rich Eisen makes feelings known on CFP committee changing "dumba*s" seeding system

Michigan alum and sportscaster Rich Eisen shared his thoughts about the changes coming to the College Football Playoff format in 2025. Following widespread criticism over last year’s playoff seeding, where many felt more deserving teams were left out, Eisen applauded the committee for finally correcting what he saw as a fundamentally flawed system.

The old system gave automatic sports to certain conference champions even if they weren’t among the top-ranked teams. This year, that is changing. ESPN’S Heather Dinich reported on Thursday that 10 FBS commissioners and Pete Bevacqua, Notre Dame's athletic director, voted unanimously to adopt a new, simpler format.

Starting in 2025, the top four teams, chosen by the CFP selection committee, will get first-round byes.

“Breaking: The 12-team College Football Playoff will move to a straight seeding model this fall, rewarding the selection committee's top four teams with the top four seeds and a first-round bye, sources told @CFBHeather,” ESPN tweeted.

Eisen voiced his approval on air at the “Rich Eisen Show” on Saturday, saying (Timestamp: 0:45):

“How about this? How about us celebrating the people who are the guardians of college football getting something right? Can we just at least live in that instead of saying, 'You know what? We're still trying to do something better than what's already been done, that is better.'

"Let's just do that and let's just focus on the college football community taking what appeared to be something completely dumb***, back**ward, right, and fixing it.”

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Rich Eisen believes conference championship games should be removed

After talking about how last year’s national champion, Ohio State, would have had a harder path to the title under the new seeding rules, Rich Eisen said that the next step should be doing away with conference championship games altogether.

"Now, the thing is, you should get rid of the conference championship games," Eisen said (Timestamp: 3:43). "They're dumb. They're unnecessary. They're unnecessary. I'm sorry. … We're already asking these players at collegiate level to play a pro sports length of a season.”

It’s not known whether the conference championship games will stay or be removed in the future, but other changes are expected for the 2026 season. Officials from the Big Ten and SEC are backing a proposal to expand the playoff to 16 teams.

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