The College Football Playoff begins today. It very well could feature some great games.
Here’s a look at the full schedule:
College Football Playoff Schedule
The first round of the CFP will be played on Friday and Saturday. The CFP quarterfinals will take place on Wednesday, Dec. 31, and Thursday, Jan. 1. The CFP semifinals will occur on Thursday, Jan. 8, and Friday, Jan. 9.
In the first round, No. 12-seeded James Madison will play at No. 5-seeded Oregon. No. 9 Alabama will go on the road to face No. 8 Oklahoma. The No. 11 team, Tulane, will travel to take on No. 6 Ole Miss. And the No. 10 team, Miami, will compete at No. 7 Texas A&M.
The winner of the 5/12 matchup will play the No. 4-seeded team in the quarterfinals. Whoever wins the 8/9 contest will go against the top-seeded team. The victor in the 6/11 contest will next face the No. 3 team. And whoever is triumphant in the 7/10 bout will compete against the No. 2-seeded team.
The winners of the games involving the No. 1-seeded team and the No. 4-seeded team will square off in the semifinals, and the winner of the games involving the No. 3-seeded team and the No. 2-seeded team will also play in the semifinals.
The victor of those two contests will see each other in the national championship.
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CFP First-Round Times, Dates & TV
- No. 9 Alabama at No. 8 Oklahoma, 8 p.m. ET Friday, Dec. 19 (ABC/ESPN)
- No. 10 Miami at No. 7 Texas A&M, noon ET Saturday, Dec. 20 (ABC/ESPN)
- No. 11 Tulane at No. 6 Ole Miss, 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday, Dec. 20 (TNT/HBO Max)
- No. 12 James Madison at No. 5 Oregon, 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday, Dec. 20 (TNT/HBO Max)
CFP Championship Schedule
The national championship will be played on Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
CFP Bracket & Seeding
The College Football Playoff features 12 teams, just like it did last season.
The five highest-ranked conference champions in the FBS – decided by the CFP Selection Committee – made the field, as well as the seven highest-ranked teams that didn’t win a conference title.
Unlike last year, where the four conference title winners ranked the highest earned a bye, the four highest-ranked teams will have a bye and the remaining squads will compete in the first round.
The higher seeds in those matchups will host in the first round. The top four teams with the bye were given a bowl game, like the Sugar Bowl, and the four teams playing in the two semifinal games will also be assigned to another bowl.
Final CFP Rankings
| Ranking | Team |
| 1 | Indiana |
| 2 | Ohio State |
| 3 | Georgia |
| 4 | Texas Tech |
| 5 | Oregon |
| 6 | Ole Miss |
| 7 | Texas A&M |
| 8 | Oklahoma |
| 9 | Alabama |
| 10 | Miami |
| 11 | Notre Dame |
| 12 | BYU |
| 13 | Texas |
| 14 | Vanderbilt |
| 15 | Utah |
| 16 | USC |
| 17 | Arizona |
| 18 | Michigan |
| 19 | Virginia |
| 20 | Tulane |
| 21 | Houston |
| 22 | Georgia Tech |
| 23 | Iowa |
| 24 | James Madison |
| 25 | North Texas |
College Football Playoff History
The College Football Playoff is a postseason system where now 12 teams compete for the national championship. The CFP was introduced in 2014.
Before that year, the two teams playing in the national title were decided by the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). The two teams ranked the highest would compete for the championship while the next highest-ranked squads would face off in other bowl games.
Then the College Football Playoff was adopted in 2014, which allowed for four teams to square off, with two semifinal contests and one title game.
Ohio State won the first CFP title. Alabama won the most national championships during the four-team CFP era with three victories.
But now the CFP is in a new era with 12 teams.
