"This may be the best shot": Josh Pate gets candid on new College Football Playoff format amid battle between SEC, Big Ten and everyone else

The new College Football Playoff format has dominated the college football news cycle. According to the NCAA, the new format will see programs ranked 1-4 seeded 1-4 and will receive a first-round bye. It was in stark contrast in 2024, when the four highest-ranked conference champions got a first-round bye, regardless of their ranking.

Additionally, the remaining eight seeds faced each other in the first round. The higher-ranked teams played at home.

College football analyst Josh Pate assessed the new format and gave his candid thoughts amid a battle of the conferences.

"The landscape (of college football) has become more tilted," Pate said on Friday, via "Josh Pate's College Football Show." "The balance of power has become more heavily tilted towards the SEC and the Big Ten into where I kid you not, if you were to just go straight seeding: no qualifiers, just straight seeding over the next five years.

"It would not surprise me if in any given year 75% of the field was made up of SEC and Big Ten teams. That is if you were just straight up taking the 16 best teams in the country, because remember they're going to recalibrate the way they define strength of schedule. They're going to recalibrate that stuff. I'm telling you that's coming."

Pate continued with his take.

"So you are what your record says because it's probably not going to become a thing of the past, but it will be far lesser a thing than it was," Pate said.

"You can't just go load up four tomato cans for your out of conference, play two tough or semi tough out of conference games, then go 10-2 and count that to be the end all be all to get you into the playoffs and past the 9-3 SEC and Big Ten."

The analyst added that the playoff teams could be dominated by the SEC or Big Ten.

"That's not the way it's necessarily going to happen," Pate said. "So if they're just flat out taking the 16 best, I am telling you more times than none that 11 or 12 of those I could easily see being SEC or Big Ten. So my point is that if you're comfortable with that, then you're comfortable with that.

"I'm just trying to suggest that this may be the best shot. The format they're tossing around may be the best shot you have to actually gain inclusion for other brands of the conferences etcetera."

SEC coaches like Steve Sarkisian and Kirby Smart have expressed indifference towards the new College Football Playoff format. It's not surprising that suggestions are being made for formatting that will favor the two biggest conferences in college football.

When does the 2025-26 college football season start?

The 2025-26 season will begin on Aug. 23. It'll start with the traditional Week 0. This unique schedule has just a few teams playing, while the bulk of the programs will commence their campaign in Week 1.

Some of the notable programs set to start their season in Week 0 are Iowa State, Kansas State, Stanford, Kansas and Western Kentucky.

The Ohio State Buckeyes will aim to defend their national championship. They'll face tough competition, with the Texas Longhorns, Georgia Bulldogs, Alabama Crimson Tide and Notre Dame Fighting Irish stacked with natty-level players.

Ryan Day's team has its work cut out to become the first program since Kirby Smart's Georgia Bulldogs (2021 and 2022) to win back-to-back national championships.