The College Football Playoff announced a new brand identity and logo system, per a release. The news was made official on Tuesday.
“Since its inception, the CFP has represented the pinnacle of college football, capturing the excellence, pageantry and unwavering fan passion that make our sport so unique,” CFP Executive Director Rich Clark said. “Our refreshed logo system builds on the successes of our first 12 years and positions the brand for continued growth moving forward.”
You can see the new logo system below. The College Football Playoff explained the changes as “the updates introduce subtle, yet meaningful enhancements designed to elevate the CFP brand across experiential, digital, broadcast, in-stadium, and out-of-home applications.”
The new visual identity of the College Football Playoff will coincide with the CFP’s comprehensive branding effort, with initiatives to be revealed leading up to and during the 2026-27 college football season.
While the changes are small, the College Football Playoff felt some were necessary to modernize the look a little bit. The CFP was created in 2014 and has been the model of determining college football’s national champion ever since with four and 12-team brackets. The 12-team model was introduced in 2024-25.
But the expansion might not stop at 12 teams. There were 14 and 16-team models suggested, and the Big Ten Conference even proposed a 24-team model.
Alas, the document circulating details a gradual approach. The Big Ten’s preferred timeline would first expand the playoff to 16 teams in 2027 and 2028 before jumping to 24 teams no later than the 2029 season. That larger format would run through the end of the current CFP television contract in 2031, after which another round of negotiations could reshape the postseason again.
In the interim 16-team format, five automatic qualifiers and 11 at-large bids would make up the bracket. The top two seeds would earn first-round byes, while the opening round would begin on the second weekend of December with on-campus games. From there, later rounds would move to traditional bowl sites on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day before a mid-January national championship game.