One proposal.
Read straight through.

Keep one ecosystem

The complementary National Tournament does not create a new subdivision or close the CFP to institutions outside the Power Four. It adds a second meaningful objective while preserving the CFP as the only FBS national-championship path.

Make every position consequential

The postseason is organized into four benefit bands: double bye, single bye, opening-round home game, and opening-round road game. That creates a continuous incentive to improve rather than one qualification cliff followed by nearly identical paths.

Use institutional categories, not named teams

The implementing rulebook would define conference members and independents by affiliation for the season rather than embedding individual institutions. An independent remains an independent regardless of reputation, media value, schedule, or a separate postseason agreement.

• Season classification is based on football membership on the preceding July 1.
• Power Four status attaches to a conference holding designated access and champion-bye rights in the CFP agreement.
• A change in designation ordinarily requires two seasons of notice.

Protect tradition through incentives

The proposal does not try to standardize colors, rivalries, conferences, bands, or campus identity. It standardizes the national incentives that currently reward weak scheduling, punish extra competition, or push roster-market activity into championship season.

Free markets where possible

Players may earn legitimate market compensation, choose flexible or longer agreements, use professional representation, and move when contractually free. The national rulebook regulates conduct—fraud, tampering, gambling, undisclosed conflicts, broken agreements, and competitive cheating—rather than assigning a central price to talent.

Protect competitive certainty

Eligibility, roster, transfer, recruiting, compensation-disclosure, and postseason rules should be settled before the season begins. Courts retain their lawful authority, but the sport should reduce emergency in-season litigation through clear jurisdiction, prospective effective dates, fast internal review, and legally tested rules.

A common schedule floor

The standard makes résumés more comparable while preserving one flexible game. Meaningful opponents can include Power Four institutions, FBS independents, or other FBS teams meeting a published quality threshold. Double-bye eligibility also requires a minimum schedule standard.

The College Football Challenge

Designated conferences rotate pairings on a multi-year cycle and match teams by prior-year performance tiers. Most games are home-and-home. A limited number can become neutral showcases operated by bowl organizations. Independent and qualifying non-Power Four institutions join through a pool balancing quality, geography, and home-game equity.

How the rotation is administered

Each participating conference submits protected rivalries, existing nonconference contracts, available home dates, and venue constraints before the rotation is drawn. The administrator publishes the multi-year pairing logic, performance bands, home-and-away balance, replacement order, and the treatment of a canceled game before schools know the season's selection stakes. A neutral-site conversion requires both teams' consent and must preserve the rotation's long-term home-game equity.

• The meaningful-game threshold is set before scheduling begins and cannot be rewritten after an opponent has a weak season.
• Independents and qualifying non-Power Four teams receive access through the same published pool rather than private one-off exceptions.
• An unavoidable cancellation can use the published replacement order; it cannot become a late opportunity to choose the easiest available opponent.
• The October FCS limit keeps late-season résumé comparisons centered on FBS competition while preserving early-season local and financial relationships.

Rivalries are a design requirement

Rivalry Week remains the final regular-season weekend, and protected opponents remain part of conference schedule construction. A schedule can be mathematically balanced and still be a cultural failure; the reform explicitly rejects that trade.

Fairer large-conference standings

When teams with identical records did not play, head-to-head cannot solve qualification. Conferences would use a published adjustment built from opponent conference performance and shared-opponent data rather than an unexplained national ranking. Divisions, pods, and protected-opponent systems all remain available.

Quantify judgment rather than hide it

The goal is to reduce unsupported subjectivity without pretending every piece of context can be automated. NRR measures résumé accomplishment, schedule difficulty, and completed-game evidence under one published formula, then forces major judgment calls into the open. A committee can still weigh context the model does not capture, but it must identify that context and explain why it changed the result.

The National Résumé Rating

Version 0.57 gives quality-win depth 35%, schedule-adjusted record 25%, opponent-adjusted performance 15%, loss integrity 15%, win control 7.5%, and conference champion 2.5%. Every win earns small positive, grade-sensitive evidence in Quality-Win Depth without a flat minimum. Conference Champion is binary: a league champion scores 100 and every non-champion scores 0, with no runner-up partial value. Conference names, brands, recruiting, and preseason expectations never enter the score. Final Opponent Value blends 45% official CFP checkpoint standing, 30% schedule-connected performance, 15% schedule-adjusted record, and 10% schedule caliber. Official standing remains the largest single input, but it no longer treats every credible unranked opponent as nearly interchangeable. Each game then uses 80% of the opponent’s current evolving value and 20% of a frozen pregame value. For a ranked opponent, its published pregame standing is the floor for that frozen share; unranked opponents receive no poll floor. The official standing curve distinguishes truly elite opponents from the back of the Top 25; unranked teams receive a formula-derived baseline capped below the No. 25 floor. This removes the prior circular risk of using one team’s NRR as the main evidence for another team’s NRR. The performance input moves two points for each point schedule caliber sits above or below 50, limiting soft closed-slate inflation without a conference label. Each win’s directly comparable Game Value blends 85% opponent-and-venue value with 15% game-level opponent-adjusted play efficiency. That game input subtracts opponent EPA allowed from team EPA, adds the opponent’s national baseline, and reliability-shrinks the result toward the team’s season baseline before national checkpoint standardization. It is distinct from the separate 15% season-wide Opponent-Adjusted Performance component. Opponent quality then enters one continuous, unbounded diminishing-return evidence curve on a gentler 22-point scale and game control supplies only a bounded 0.925–1.075 multiplier. Every stronger opponent still adds more evidence; there is no hard evidence cap or tier cutoff. Evidence units from every distinct defeated opponent are added before one smooth curve converts the total to the 0–100 Quality-Win Depth component. There is no first-, fourth-, or fifth-win coefficient: equivalent wins receive equivalent evidence. The nonlinear opponent curve allows one truly elite victory to outweigh two fringe Top-25 wins, while four Top-20 wins still receive four complete contributions. Road context is worth up to six points and neutral context up to three, scaled continuously by opponent quality. Every opponent is ranked nationally at the exact weekly checkpoint; cumulative Top 5, Top 10, Top 15, Top 20, and Top 25 win counts appear on the résumé card, lesser support is disclosed separately, and every evidence card can open the opponent’s horizontal résumé and the archived quarter-by-quarter game line. Schedule-adjusted record gives 65% to achieved record, 17.5% to wins above a fixed benchmark expectation, and 17.5% to schedule-challenge caliber. Every completed game through the checkpoint, including a conference championship, enters all three inputs as a full result. Conference-title losses keep separate low-risk treatment in Loss Integrity and limited record-foundation protection, but Schedule-Adjusted Record does not hide half a loss. A universal softplus upper-tail calibration centered at 80, with a three-point scale and 0.6 rate, lets exceptional undefeated records approach 100 while remaining nearly dormant for ordinary scores. The frozen 40% / 30% / 30% opponent-context graph remains in place, so the revision does not recursively change every opponent’s value. Ranked opponents draw 90% of their schedule value from the selected official checkpoint and 10% from national play-level strength; unranked opponents retain play-level strength. The schedule term blends 30% of the full slate with 70% of one smooth challenge-weighted average, then uses one continuous 12-point logistic contrast curve so elite slates separate from ordinary ones without a tier line. Every opponent counts, with no tier cutoff or counted-game cap. Scored opponent-adjusted performance begins with the national ridge estimate and subtracts one continuous, deduction-only soft-schedule credibility term. The same shortfall lightly scales Win Control, keeping an unbeaten elite résumé near the top of the scale without granting soft schedules a free pass. Opponent-adjusted performance fits every offense and defense together from meaningful scrimmage-play EPA across the national schedule. Loss integrity stays on an independent first-pass opponent graph; its continuous 1.2-rate exponential decay applies to the 0.45-power weakest-loss shortfall below Opponent Value 60, while no loss earns quality credit. A smooth two-point lower-tail calibration preserves separation among damaged résumés without imposing a score floor: zero remains zero and 100 remains 100. Quality-Win Depth receives a smaller 1.5-point version of the same endpoint-anchored calibration. The multiplicative additional-loss frequency rate is 25%. Loss game state gives 20% to the start of Q4, 35% to 6:00, and 45% to 2:00, while the home or neutral charge diminishes smoothly against stronger opponents without disappearing. A separate opponent-independent extreme-blowout tail uses the worst final or late-game deficit, with a smooth 29-point midpoint, three-point scale, and 1.6 severity-point rate rather than a hard cutoff. Every conference-title loss receives half ordinary frequency treatment and one smooth low-risk severity curve: a two-point base plus up to 4.5 points on an 18-point decay scale. The curve still distinguishes close and ugly title losses, while a title-game rematch retains 60% of the ordinary repeat-opponent charge. A separate standalone game cost converts only that game’s direct severity through the common 65-point decay and lower-tail calibration; full-résumé frequency and weakest-loss portfolio effects are not applied a second time. The exact résumé allocation remains a within-team accounting figure. When two teams have the same record and sit within one point in the frozen provisional résumé Index, a direct win earns a small 0.35 raw-composite peer tiebreak. That rule is capped, formula-defined, and visible—it is not a committee reorder. The six weighted measures are first multiplied by one universal record foundation—40% floor plus achieved winning percentage curved to 1.15, followed by a continuous soft-schedule deduction that rises with loss rate to the 1.5 power—making the actual record the majority input to résumé credibility. Scored performance keeps the full slate as its schedule baseline and uses one continuous gate to validate it with the two strongest national schedule connections. The same formula applies to every team, with no school, conference-reputation, or manual adjustment. The published NRR Index then remains exactly 20 + 0.85 × raw composite, and the unrounded Index determines rank. There is no school override, conference multiplier, poll reconciliation, or manual adjustment. Readers may test alternative weights privately without changing the proposal default. The public NRR begins with the first official CFP ranking and is recalculated at every committee release using only games completed through the preceding Saturday.

A distinct strength estimate

The Team Strength Rating asks how good a team is likely to be next and may weigh current availability, recent performance, and validated predictive efficiency. NRR’s opponent-adjusted performance is different: it describes completed plays only. An injury does not erase completed wins in the résumé rating, but it can affect the separate strength estimate. The committee must explain how it balanced the two.

Venue-adjusted opponent quality

The same opponent should not carry the same difficulty label everywhere. The proposal’s initial Q1 bands are NRR 1–15 at home, 1–20 on a neutral field, and 1–25 on the road. The public bands aid communication while the underlying model stays continuous.

Publish the dashboard and the disagreement

Every team page would show CFP rank, résumé rating, strength rating, schedule strength, strength of record, quality results, road performance, best wins, losses, and conference results. The public archive preserves every release, movement from the prior week, the same-date CFP comparison, model code, data definitions, recusal rules, and an annual validation report.

One result, four visible effects

If a team wins its conference championship against a Top-25 opponent, the result adds a win to its record, enters the Quality-Win Depth evidence curve, contributes its actual game-control evidence, and activates the binary Conference Champion measure. That measure is worth 2.5% of the weighted résumé before the universal record foundation and published Index scaling; it is not a manual 2.5-place jump.

Reduced downside—not immunity

If that team loses, the loss still appears in its record and can still lower its final NRR. The model gives no points for a quality loss. It instead limits the extra exposure with one smooth title-loss severity curve, half ordinary loss-frequency treatment, partial record-side protection, and 60% of the normal repeat-opponent charge when the game is a rematch. A close title loss therefore costs less than an equivalent ordinary loss, while a poor title-game performance still matters.

The separate playoff-path protection

Before title games, the committee publishes the ranking that identifies each participant’s minimum path. Nos. 1–2 claim a double bye, Nos. 3–10 a single bye, Nos. 11–14 a home opener, and Nos. 15–18 a berth. The final result can improve the team’s order, but the required extra game alone cannot erase that minimum benefit. A team outside the field has no protected berth and can still earn its way in by winning.

Capacity reconciliation

Protection cannot manufacture an extra bye. Double-bye slots first protect qualifying title-game participants in the top two; any unprotected slot follows the final ranking. The five selected champions fill the single-bye group first, followed by protected top-ten title participants and then remaining teams in final résumé order until all eight slots are filled.

What winning adds

The scoring and access rules do different jobs. NRR gives every league champion the same binary component, without a conference multiplier. The CFP then selects five champions for access and at least one bye, including the required champion from outside the Power Four. An elite champion remains eligible for a double bye through the ordinary résumé order.

Conference autonomy and game load

Conferences keep control of the way they crown a champion. A league can consider a four-team internal playoff only if it shortens the affected regular-season path. No conference should add postseason rounds without accounting for the national maximum workload.

Why the bracket math works

The structure works backward from an eight-team quarterfinal. Two double-bye teams wait there, so Round 2 must produce six winners. Twelve teams therefore play in Round 2: eight single-bye teams plus the four winners from the opening round. The sequence is 18 → 12 → 8 → 4 → 2 → champion.

Selection and champion access

The committee first creates a straight underlying résumé ranking. The five selected conference champions—including at least one champion from outside the Power Four—receive CFP access and at least a single bye. Remaining places and every reseeded matchup follow résumé strength without a per-conference cap.

• All five selected champions skip the opening round, including the required non-Power Four champion.
• The two double-bye positions remain fundamentally merit-based, subject to championship protection.
• Champion protection changes the entry round, never the visible underlying ranking or later reseeding order.

Round-by-round path

Round 1 places four games on campuses. The following weekend becomes a concentrated six-game CFP Bowl Weekend using an illustrative premier set of the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton, Peach, and Fiesta bowls. Christmas week is dark. Quarterfinals and semifinals return to campuses, and the national championship remains neutral.

Prepare to host before the matchup is known

A short turnaround should activate a prepared event, not start the planning. Under the proposed hosting standard, every potential host prepares for each campus round it could earn. Standards and decision deadlines publish before the season; readiness is certified before selection and reconfirmed as teams advance. Certification does not guarantee a home game: the bracket still determines who earns it.

• Reserve the possible dates and confirm paid staffing, security, medical cover, officials, broadcast operations, and a local emergency lead.
• Hold visiting-team lodging and transport, with written release deadlines and responsibility for standby and cancellation costs.
• Verify winter field care, safe stadium access, weather contingencies, and travel capacity; a cold-weather location alone is not grounds to move a game.
• Plan student tickets, housing, dining, and transport around that campus’s actual exam and break dates. Do not assume students or student workers are present.
• Publish the readiness decision, recheck deadlines, and objective relocation triggers. Use the prearranged neutral fallback only if the host cannot meet those standards.

Why reseeding matters

A low-ranked champion can earn a bye without receiving a falsely favorable seed. At each reseed, the highest remaining team faces the lowest remaining team. This preserves both the champion reward and the regular-season value earned by the highest-ranked survivors.

How the two redraws are built

The first redraw combines the four campus-round winners with the eight single-bye teams, restores every survivor's final underlying résumé position, and pairs highest against lowest through six games. The second redraw combines those six winners with Nos. 1 and 2, restores the same underlying order again, and creates four quarterfinals. The bracket then stops moving: those four quarterfinals feed two published semifinal paths, so a later upset does not trigger a third redraw.

• A protected champion ranked No. 16 keeps No. 16 for both redraws; the bye is the title reward, not a manufactured seed.
• If Nos. 16 and 17 both reach the first redraw, the higher available seed draws No. 17 and the next seed draws No. 16.
• If No. 18 survives the first two rounds, No. 1 receives No. 18 in the quarterfinal redraw; after that matchup is created, the semifinal path is fixed.
• Every published bracket view must show the underlying seed, the protected benefit, and the round in which protection expires.

Fund the complete playoff path

The 17-game CFP needs a full budget, not a multiplication of extra games by an assumed television price. Reconcile retained rights, tickets, sponsorship and hospitality against travel, hosting, production, access services and shared obligations. Compare the same round and matchup under campus and neutral-site alternatives. Separate expense support from advancement rewards so an earned bye does not create an unfunded obligation or pressure a team to play an unnecessary game.

A defined three-track postseason

The 18-team CFP determines the FBS national champion. The 16-team National Tournament creates a separate title for eligible institutions outside the Power Four. A smaller traditional-bowl group offers voluntary reward trips and appealing matchups for teams outside both fields.

The premier bowl role

The third weekend of December becomes one concentrated destination round. The bracket creates six seeded Round-of-12 slots before venues are attached. Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton, Peach, and Fiesta then advance one slot per year through a published six-year matrix; the broadcast window travels with the slot. The map is locked before Week 0, so no one can give a preferred bowl a better matchup after seeing the teams. After six seasons, the entire site package faces a competitive standards review rather than automatic renewal.

A regular-season future for event operators

Bowl organizations outside the premier group can create Week 0, Week 1, and September intersectional showcases, including selected neutral-site challenge games. Their expertise in tourism, sponsorship, hospitality, and local operations remains valuable beyond late-December inventory.

Fewer invitations, clearer meaning

The structure produces roughly 50–58 postseason participants rather than manufacturing enough games for nearly every .500 team. Fewer bowls can strengthen the reward-trip identity while the two tournaments supply the elimination stakes.

Test the bowls in their proposed role

A dedicated Round-of-12 weekend gives the six bowls a clear competitive role, but their earlier dates and different matchups need a new commercial case. Evaluate each operator's settlement, school receipts, sponsorship, hospitality, attendance and local public-service costs against the existing event. Regional visitor spending is not operator profit or money available to fund athlete services. Price and fund contract transition obligations before replacing existing inventory.

Eligibility and selection

The field consists only of eligible FBS institutions outside the Power Four that were not selected for the CFP. At-large candidates ordinarily need seven wins and an overall winning record; an eligible conference champion is exempt from the seven-win threshold. Independents can earn at-large bids but not champion automatic bids.

Seeding and campus hosting

Teams are seeded 1–16 by the final underlying résumé ranking. Champions are guaranteed a first-round home game; remaining host positions go to the highest seeds. If a champion moves into a host position, its underlying seed remains visible and still controls later reseeding.

CFP priority without punishing success

CFP selection is the higher opportunity and cannot be declined in favor of the tournament. An outside-the-Power-Four CFP qualifier receives at least the tournament participant distribution plus its CFP distribution, formal qualifier recognition, and the next season’s prime interconference-challenge invitation. A first-game loss does not retroactively make selection a mistake.

A distinct media window and title

The event owns Tuesday and Wednesday nights while the CFP owns Friday and Saturday. The first three rounds are campus-hosted and separated by a holiday pause. The Tuesday-night championship before CFP title weekend rotates among right-sized neutral sites selected at least two years in advance. This keeps the early rounds local, gives the final its own destination identity, and lets teams and supporters plan before the field is known. The champion receives a distinct FBS records designation, trophy, advancement revenue, and a showcase invitation—but no automatic CFP berth the next year.

Give the second tournament a funded operating floor

The 16-team National Tournament adds 15 games and must be included alongside the CFP in the 32-game tournament budget. Test a right-sized neutral final, campus hosting and every team's travel and access commitments using the tournament's own demand assumptions. Do not borrow a CFP audience or payout to price this competition. Identify its protected operating floor, payment dates and shortfall owner before offering participation; the allocation remains unagreed until independently reviewed.

A continuous championship rhythm

The proposed flow gives each stage a defined purpose: rivalry weekend, conference championships, the Campus Opening Round, CFP Bowl Weekend, the Christmas No-Game Pause, Campus Quarterfinals, Campus Semifinals, and the neutral National Championship. It does not eliminate every long layoff: a protected-bye team can still wait roughly three or four weeks after its conference title game, and that tradeoff requires testing.

Why the site changes with the calendar

The bowl round gives the premier bowls one concentrated championship role. Later campus rounds reward the higher-ranked survivors and limit repeated neutral-site trips for their supporters; the final stays neutral so neither finalist receives home-field advantage. This is a deliberate tradeoff, not the simplest travel sequence. Away teams still travel, and an early-January game does not mean students are back. Each host must plan around its own academic calendar and demonstrate student access during winter break.

Workload and recovery

The longest theoretical path is 18 games: 12 regular-season games, a conference championship, and five CFP games. Only a conference finalist starting in Round 1 can reach it. A double-bye conference finalist would play 15 total games. December 23–30 is a proposed no-game window, not a promise of eight days away from football or a trip home for every player. Before adoption, athlete representatives and medical and operations staff must settle limits on required activity, protected time off, travel, and access to care, meals, and housing. A December 31 quarterfinal makes those details particularly important.

The bye tradeoff

A double bye is supposed to reward an elite regular season, but a conference-title participant could go roughly three or four weeks without a game before the quarterfinal. That may support physical recovery while also creating rust and a different competitive rhythm from teams advancing weekly. The proposal does not claim a settled fix; schedule compression, controlled practice standards, and historical outcome testing should be evaluated without forcing a team to surrender an earned bye.

One calendar beyond the games

The national roster freeze and recruiting dead period are designed around the same championship window. The calendar succeeds only if transfer entry, formal signing, and formal FBS-to-FBS coaching movement do not compete with preparation.

The shared operating year

The college and professional calendars should be published as one coordinated record by May 1. Before the season, athletes receive one status guide covering representation, insurance, medical-data consent, draft exploration, evaluation, withdrawal, and professional commitment. During December, no active finalist should face a portal, draft, combine, or contract deadline that forces a decision while the team is still competing. After the title, the systems run the championship handoff, professional evaluation, player movement, roster certification, and spring workload in the published order. The following May audit records deviations, athlete-status disputes, consent failures, corrective action, dissents, and the recommendation for the next compact year.

The Saturday-night championship target

The proposed College Football–NFL Coordination Compact targets Saturday primetime during NFL Wild Card Weekend for the college national championship. Earlier NFL Saturday games and its Sunday and Monday windows are a bargaining scenario, not reserved inventory. The CFP, NFL, rights holders, hosts, and relevant athlete representatives must agree to any change within their authority. If that target cannot be secured, the compact offers a mutually cleared Friday or other standalone night as a bridge. Audit every postseason round for overlap, including January semifinals; the proposal cannot guarantee an NFL-free window by itself.

Clear the windows and the cash deadlines

A proposed date is not a secured broadcast window or an additional rights payment. Evaluate competing programming, production capacity, displaced inventory and negotiated fallbacks before estimating incremental retained value. Map travel deposits, hosting work and access payments against receipt dates for each responsible entity. A positive annual budget cannot excuse a cash shortage before a game, and a television preference cannot waive recovery or academic protections.