ESPN is floating a 20-team CFP with four play-in games - here's what the bracket would actually look like

The "16 teams plus four play-in games" framing confused me until I mapped it out, so here's the plain version. Seeds 1-12 are locked straight into the bracket. Seeds 13-20 play four play-in games (13v20, 14v19, 15v18, 16v17) for the last four spots, and the winners slot in as seeds 13-16. From there it's a normal 16-team single-elimination bracket. Using last season's final rankings, the play-in round would have been Texas-Tulane, Vanderbilt-Michigan, Utah-Arizona, and USC-Virginia. I put together a full bracket of the structure plus where it stands (Big Ten wants 24, SEC leans 16, notify-by deadline is Dec 1). Nothing's adopted yet, but it's the model actually being socialized. https://sportsbrackets.net/2026/08/10/espn-20-team-college-football-playoff-proposal/