This season marks the second contest of the 12-team college football playoff, bringing new excitement to the postseason for college football across the country. Even since the new format’s first season there have been changes, including how the team seeding works. The nature of the sport is also changing as a result of teams and universities investing in Name, Image and Likeness, or NIL, programs; coaches leaving programs for more lucrative contracts; and players often transferring in the portal.
So, with 12 teams now making the playoffs amid other changes to the sport, what makes a college football team successful in 2026 and beyond?
Louis Moore is a professor at Michigan State University’s Department of History where he is an expert in sports history, Black athletes and U.S. and African American history. Moore explores answers to that question by taking a look at how college football champions were crowned in the past as well as considering the implications these new aspects of the game.
What is the history of postseason college football?
In short, the history and background of the postseason for college football starts with bowl games. As we like competition, we want to know who the best is, and we have a strong sense of regionality in our nation. So, if you go back to the first Rose Bowl in 1902, the game featured the University of Michigan and Stanford University, two teams that had a reputation as being the best in their regions. Michigan won the game, finished the season undefeated, and some labeled them as the champions of college football. However, if you told a Harvard fan back in 1902, or a sportswriter from the East Coast that Michigan was the best team in the nation, you would have an argument on your hands.
Harvard also went undefeated. If one was inclined to believe East Coast football was the best football — and most people at that time believed that — then one would argue Harvard played better teams and, thus, they were the true champions. At that time, folks also debated about strength of schedule, common opponents and who ran more plays on offense. So, who was truly the best? Because Harvard and Michigan did not play each other that season, we don’t know.
As college football added more prestigious bowls to the mix (Orange, Cotton and Sugar came in the 1930s), the debates continued because, unlike other major sports, college football did not have a true way to determine a champion. The bowl games pitted the best teams from regions against each other, but they were not an elimination-style tournament. In 1936, the Associated Press started to crown a national champion based on their rankings, but that just added to the chaos. If you’re a Spartans fan, for example, you only need look at the 1966 AP rankings to understand this process. Although we tied Notre Dame 10-10, in what many consider the greatest college football game ever, and both teams finished the season 9-0-1, Notre Dame finished number one in the AP poll in front of second place Michigan State.
How did we arrive at the current College Football Playoff format?
In 1998, league commissioners started the Bowl Championship Series, or BCS. This system used the end of the season polls, plus computer formulas, like strength of schedule, to find the top two teams to play for the championship. But right from the start, it was not enough. People complained that this was not a tournament — there was possible bias and that the computer formulas were not effective.
So, in 2014, the NCAA ditched the BCS for a four-team College Football Playoff. But, right from the start, it was still not enough. People complained that too many teams were being left out and there was bias in the selection. So, in 2024, we arrived at the 12-team tournament. Even now, folks are complaining that teams are being left out. But where does it stop?
How has NIL, the transfer portal and coaching turnover affected the game?
I think the NIL and the transfer portal show us what true freedom looks like. A good young student-athlete can go from school to school and get their market value. There’s nothing to tie them down. If they don’t like a situation, and they think there’s something better for them, they can go chase that dream. It doesn’t mean that it’s the right decision for their future, or it’s going to be easy, but they have that option. To me, that’s the basic definition of American freedom. But for too long, players were denied that. They could not make money, and the rules severely restricted their mobility.
It does not mean the system is perfect. It creates chaos and instability. Coaches no longer know what their team will look like year to year. It creates panic and impatience among the alumni who read one thing about their preseason rankings and, when those predictions don’t come to fruition, they want to oust a coach. Then the coach gets fired, the cycle starts all over again.
But in the end, the best programs will figure it out.
What lessons do sports and college football offer?
Sports are a window to look at society, and a mirror to look at ourselves. The current state of college football is a good place to start. College football shows us how impatient we are nowadays. Nobody wants to go through the process of planning. They want things right now. Players leave if they get a whiff of adversity. Coaches commit to building something then leave to commit to building something somewhere else. Programs are quicker to move off a coach before the end of his contract.
In the classroom, and in society, we want to use artificial intelligence to draft an email or author a book or movie script instead of going through the steps to produce for ourselves. I just finished reading a book about Lewis and Clark, and what stands out the most to me is how much planning and preparation went into each decision, and how they stayed on task to reach their final goal.
Football programs that place stock in values such as patience, preparation and planning ultimately have the best chance of finding success on and off the field.
