How the College Football Playoff automatic qualifiers work, from byes to seeds

The College Football Playoff's expansion from four to 12 teams starting with the 2024 season provided teams with more room to break into the CFP.

There's also new way for teams to secure a spot in the field. That's right — automatic qualifiers are now part of FBS and the College Football Playoff.

Here's a quick look at how the CFP automatic qualifiers work:

• There are five automatic qualifiers — the five conference champions ranked highest by the CFP selection committee get in automatically
• NEW IN 2025 — The four highest-ranked champions no longer get byes into the quarterfinals automatically.
• NEW IN 2026 —
  • The 12-team College Football Playoff field each of the conference champions from the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC —also known as the Power 4 — will receive an automatic bid regardless of their final ranking.
  • The highest-ranked team from one of the Group of 6 conferences (American, CUSA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12 OR Sun Belt) — regardless of whether its a conference champion or not — will also get an automatic bid.
  • Notre Dame can also receive an automatic bid in 2026 if it ranks among the top-12 teams.

Here’s a deeper dive into how AQs work:

Explaining the College Football Playoff automatic qualifiers

Unlike college basketball’s NCAA tournament, automatic bids won’t be given to every conference champion for the CFP. For the FBS level's CFP, automatic spots will be given to just the four conference champions from the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC.

The fifth highest-ranked conference champions no longer automatically receives a bid as of 2026. Instead, the fifth AQs is dependent on how the CFP selection committee ranks teams from the American, CUSA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12 OR Sun Belt conferences in the top 25, regardless of whether a team won its conference championship game.

If the fifth-highest ranked conference champion is ranked below a team that didn't win its conference championship from the American, CUSA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12 OR Sun Belt, it will not automatically make the college football playoff.

Also new in 2026 is Notre Dame's ability to earn an automatic bid. The Fighting Irish can receive an automatic bid as an independent if its ranked inside the top-12 teams.

CFP Breakdown: How the College Football Playoff works

Does automatic qualification translate to a first-round bye?

While in year one of the 12-team CFP the top-four auto-qualifiers were seeded one through four no matter their ranking, beginning in the 2025, every team will now be seeded directly based on the final ranking of the CFP Selection Committee.

An auto-qualifer can only receive a bye if it is one of the four highest-ranked teams as only the top-four ranked teams (No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4) get byes.

CFP Forecast: Predicting the College Football Playoff rankings, bracket for Week 13

Who isn’t eligible to be an AQ? 

With the update to Notre Dame's ability to earn an automatic bid in  2026, The only FBS team ineligible to be an automatic qualifier is UConn, an independent team.