https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/41531125/big-ten-sec-talk-possible-scheduling-partnership
I think this is going to be similar to basketball where you have the ACC/B10 challenge every year.
With a 12 team playoff, you can afford to play better teams earlier in the season to increase the profile of your school.
What I think will happen is you will either have home/home matchups or you can have these games in neutral stadiums based on how you finish in your conference last year.
So for example you would have
Alabama VS Michigan (both teams on their conference last year)
Georgia Vs Ohio State
Ole Miss Vs Penn State
Etc.. etc