The College Football Playoff will convert beginning this coming year to a straight-seeding model that ranks all 12 teams in order of the final playoff rankings of the regular season, the group’s management committee announced on Thursday.

The new policy will no longer include an opening-round bye for the four highest-ranked conference champions, though the five top conference winners will still receive automatic playoff bids.

Instead, the four highest-ranked teams regardless of conference championships won will receive that bye into the quarterfinals. In the case that one or more of the five top-ranked conference champions rank outside the top 12 of the final playoff rankings, that team or those teams will move into the top 12 and displace any non-conference winners.

The updated seeding

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