There will be many changes in college football in 2024 – and the most important of these is the expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams after ten years of a four-team model.

The new CFP gives eight additional teams the opportunity to have a chance to win the national championship after Conference Championship Weekend, whereas the old format only had the top four ranked teams compete in two semifinal games at the end of the season.

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The format for placing teams in the 12-team playoff, as well as the venues, is also different than in years past. Here’s an explanation of how the new 12-team CFP will work ahead of the 2024 season:

How many teams are in the College Football Playoff?

The new CFP format will include 12 teams for the first time in college football history. Previously, four teams participated in the playoffs from its introduction in 2014 through the 2023 college football season. In the playoffs’ predecessor, the Bowl Championship Series (1998-2013), only the top two teams in the final BCS standings were allowed to participate in the final.

Which teams will make it to the CFP in 2024?

The 12-team CFP consists of the five top-ranked conference champions and seven at-large teams.

Noteworthy: With the dissolution of the Pac-12 Conference, at least one champion of the Group of Five is guaranteed to reach the playoffs in the current format. In the era of four teams, only one such team made the playoffs: Cincinnati, which went 13-0 in the 2021 regular season and secured fourth place as champion of the American Athletic Conference.

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How are the teams seeded in the 12-team CFP?

The top four of the top five ranked conference champions will be seeded 1st through 4th, receive a first-round bye, and advance directly to the quarterfinals. The fifth conference champion will be seeded in the same position it was ranked in the top 12 (or 12th overall if it finished outside the top 12). The remaining teams will be seeded 5th through 12th.

This format means that the final CFP rankings of the season do not necessarily match the final standings. For example, Oklahoma was ranked 12th in last year’s final CFP rankings. However, since no Group of Five team was ranked ahead of the Sooners, they would have been left out of a 12-team playoff and instead would have matched Conference USA’s Liberty, the highest-ranked Group of Five champion, at No. 23.

College Football Playoff format

The format places a special emphasis on winning conference championships, as the top four seeds receive byes. It also means that Notre Dame and other independent teams that don’t play a conference championship game will never have a first-round bye under the current format; the highest they can finish is No. 5.

The top four teams advance directly to the quarterfinals, while the remaining eight teams play in the first round on the higher seed’s home field (or another designated site). This is the first time that college football has featured home-field advantage in a win-or-lose scenario.

The seed number 5 receives the number 12, the seed number 6 receives the number 11, the seed number 7 receives the number 10 and the seed number 8 receives the number 9.

After the completion of the first round matches, team No. 1 will play against the winner of game 8-9, team No. 2 will play against the winner of game 7-10, team No. 3 will play against the winner of game 6-11, and team No. 4 will host the winner of game 5-12.

The four quarterfinal games will be played in one of the four New Year’s Six Bowls, with the playoff committee allocating bowls based on rankings and historical conference ties. For example, if an SEC team is ranked No. 1, it will receive the Sugar Bowl; if the Big Ten is ranked first, it will receive the Rose Bowl.

The semifinals consist of the remaining two games of the New Year’s Six, with the top finishers receiving preferential bowl seeding. From there, the semifinal winners face each other in the College Football Playoff championship game.

More information on the CFP format, courtesy of the College Football Playoff:

• No changes will be made to avoid rematches between teams that may have played each other during the regular season or are from the same conference.

• The bracket remains in effect throughout the playoffs (i.e. no re-seating).

2024-25 College Football Playoff dates

Here are the dates for the 2025 College Football Playoffs (for the 2024 college football season). They consist of three rounds before the national championship:

• First round: Friday, December 20th – Saturday, December 21st

• Quarterfinals: Tuesday, December 31 – Wednesday, January 1

• Semifinals: Thursday, January 9 – Friday, January 10

• National Championship: Monday, 20 January

College Football Playoff Locations

First round:

Quarterfinals:

• Tuesday, December 31st: Fiesta Bowl (Glendale, Arizona)

• Wednesday, January 1st: Peach Bowl (Atlanta)

• Wednesday, January 1st: Rose Bowl (Pasadena, California)

• Wednesday, January 1st: Sugar Bowl (New Orleans)

Semifinals:

• Thursday, January 9: Orange Bowl (Miami Gardens, Florida)

• Friday, January 10: Cotton Bowl (Arlington, Texas)

CFP Championship:

CFP group with 12 teams in 2023

This is what the 2024 College Football Playoff (for the 2023 college football season) would have looked like after Conference Championship Week last year:

First round

• No. 5 Florida State vs. No. 12 Liberty

• No. 6 Georgia vs. No. 11 Ole Miss

• No. 7 Ohio State vs. No. 10 Penn State

• No. 8 Oregon vs. No. 9 Missouri

Quarterfinals

• No. 1 Michigan vs. the winner of Oregon-Missouri

• No. 2 Washington vs. the winner of Ohio State-Penn State

• No. 3 Texas vs. the winner of Georgia-Ole Miss

• No. 4 Alabama vs. the winner of Florida State-Liberty

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 12-team CFP format, explained: How expanded playoffs will work in 2024