correct. That condition only applies when the "contract" bowl is not part of the playoff (so the Orange Bowl this year will be taking an ACC team that is likely not the champion). For the Rose and Sugar Bowl, since they are part of the playoff their "bids" simply guarantee the 4 conference champions affiliated with those 2 bowl games get a spot in the NY6 - whether in the playoff or not.

That basically means there are 7 "guaranteed" spots (5 P5 champions, the SEC/B10 #2, and the G5 champion), and 5 "At-large" spots. Those 5 "at-large" spots are guaranteed to be the 5 highest ranked teams that aren't in the above list. If those teams are ranked in the top 4, they are part of the playoff. If they aren't ranked in the top 4, they are part of one of the other NY6 bowls.

The only "caveat" this year is if/when the ACC champion makes the playoffs this year, then their auto-bid in the Orange Bowl will be replaced by the ACC #2 which will eat up 1 spot in the list. Since that's all but assured to happen this season, I guess you could say there are 4 "at-large" spots available.


In years when the 2 playoff games are "access bowls", then that caveat is a little more impactful since the Rose, Sugar, and Orange Bowls would all be "contract bowls" and if the 4 playoff teams are teams that would have otherwise been in those 3 bowl games, the bowl games would be able to select the #2 team from the respective conference and leaving as few as 1 "at-large" bid available.