The playoff that everyone wanted — make that, demanded — is now a fixture in college football. The latest set of tweaks were made to favor Notre Dame and maybe some mid-level champion of a big-name conference (think, Duke and the ACC last year), while the losers in that calculation are the little guys who see their chances of cracking into the bracket, let alone winning a game or two, grow that much slimmer.Even with the adjustments, as the College Football Playoff heads toward its third season of the 12-team playoff, one thing feels the same: Among all the major sports in America (and maybe the world), it still has the market cornered on the most opaque, least consensus-building way of determining who gets to play for the title.It is still a system in which one team’s 10-2 record means something completely different than another team’s 10-2 record (see 2025 versions of Oklahoma and Vanderbilt); in which one team’s loss to another can have a drastically different meaning at the time it happens vs. four months later (see the Miami-Notre Dame fiasco from last year); and in which a weekly rankings show purports to shine a light on where things might fall, but in the end can sow more confusion (see every show last season airing the CFP rankings).All that said, 12 teams will make it into the playoff field, which kicks off with four campus games starting Dec. 18. Two will get to Las Vegas to play for the title next Jan. 25. And one will win it all and join Indiana and Ohio State as the third champion of the 12-team-playoff era. Here’s a best guess on how things shake out (numbers indicate predicted seed):