The College Football Playoff will be changing in a big way.

The CFP Board of Directors made the decision on Friday to increase the number of teams in the postseason tournament from four – not to eight, as some were expecting, but 12.

“This is an historic and exciting day for college football,” said Mississippi State President Mark Keenum, the chairman of the board. “More teams, more participation and more excitement are good for our fans, alumni, and student-athletes.”

The new-look postseason will go into effect no later than 2026, though The Post’s Zach Braziller reports the goal is for it to start as soon as 2024.

In what was a unanimous vote, the group moved forward with the original 12-team proposal tha will see a field made up of the six highest-ranked conference champions and six at-larges.

The top four seeds would be conference champions and receive byes into the second round. First-round games would be played on campus and the rest at bowl sites.

A 12-team, 11-game postseason system to crown a champion could be worth as much as $2 billion in media rights to the conferences that play major college football, starting in 2026.

If the new format can be implemented before the current 12-year contract with ESPN expires after the 2025 season, the conferences could make an additional $450 million over the final two years. The current deal pays about $470 million per year.

Beyond 2025, there is no TV contract for a playoff. The plan is to take the new format to the open market and involve multiple TV partners instead of just ESPN.

There are still issues to be hammered out by the conference commissioners who comprise the CFP management committee, which is scheduled to meet next week.

The biggest question is whether the logistical hurdles such as dates of games, host sites, available television windows and impact on the regular-season schedule can be sorted though quickly enough for a new playoff to be up and running by 2024.

— With AP