Now, it's settled.
For now, anyway.
The College Football Playoff has its finalized version for its 12-team expansion, which was adopted and scheduled for its first deployment after the upcoming 2024 regular season.
As previously reported, the top four conference champions will receive first-round byes in the newly broadened field and then host winners of the opening-round games in the second round.
Overall, the top five conference champions will receive automatic bids -- but that fifth conference champion is not guaranteed to host a game.
For example, if the finalized CFP rankings from the 2024 regular season feature a dozen teams from Power 4 conferences, the top 11 would advance into the CFP and then the 12th seed would go to the outlying conference champion.
“This is a very logical adjustment for the College Football Playoff based on the evolution of our conference structures since the board first adopted this new format in September 2022,” Dr. Mark Keenum, President of Mississippi State University and Chair of the CFP Board of Managers, said in the CFP release. “I know this change will also be well received by student-athletes, coaches and fans. We all will be pleased to see this new format come to life on the field this postseason.”
While the top four teams receive an opening weekend off in the new format, teams that earn seeds 5 through 8 will host the teams that capture the final four slots; No. 5 would host No. 12, and so on.
Notre Dame, which because of its independent status agreed never to be considered for a top-four seed, nonetheless could earn a No. 5 through 8 ranking and still be afforded the opportunity to host an opening-round CFP game.
The quarterfinals and semifinals will be played in the designated New Year's Six bowl games and then the CFP Championship will be hosted at a designated neutral site.
The CFP release also stated: No conference will quality automatically and there will be no limit on the number of participants from a conference.
So if the Big Ten and SEC have nine of the top-12 teams in the final regular-season CFP rankings, those leagues will send forth nine teams into the tournament; the ACC and Big 12 would presumably capture two spots and then the final berth would go to the highest-ranked conference champion left and not yet entered into the field.