The 2025-26 College Football Playoff bracket is officially set. The CFP committee announced the 12 team field on Sunday, in what’s sure to kick off a firestorm of debate over the coming weeks over those who made it, and those left on the outside looking in.
Here’s who the committee chose to vie for a national championship this season:
No. 1 Indiana (13-0)
No. 2 Ohio State (12-1)
No. 3 Georgia (12-1)
No. 4 Texas Tech (12-1)
No. 5 Oregon (11-1)
No. 6 Ole Miss (11-1)
No. 7 Texas A&M (11-1)
No. 8 Oklahoma (10-2)
No. 9 Alabama (10-3)
No. 10 Miami (FL) (10-2)
No. 11 Tulane (11-2)
No. 12 James Madison (12-1)
CFP schedule 2025-2026
- First round: Friday, Dec. 19 and Saturday, Dec. 20.
- Quarterfinals: Wednesday, Dec. 31 and Thursday, Jan. 1.
- Semifinals: Thursday, Jan. 8 and Friday, Jan. 9.
- National championship: Monday, Jan. 19.
The bracket is sure to upset Notre Dame fans, who believed that their team, currently riding a 10 game winning streak, were deserving of a spot. BYU also fell out of the CFP picture after a 34-7 loss to Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game. However both teams will likely cry foul over Alabama’s inclusion at number 9 overall, despite having 3 losses on the year, and getting trounced 28-7 against Georgia in the SEC championship.
Meanwhile, the Duke Blue Devils (8-5) who won the ACC championship game are left wondering why their conference champion was omitted, while teams like Tulane and James Madison were rewarded for winning their respective conferences.
“Lost behind the computer algorithms and ‘playoff predictors’ which cloud human decision making are these two fundamental questions: Would a team that went undefeated in the Sun Belt, which has only four teams with a winning record, win seven games in the ACC? Would a team that won seven games in the ACC, which had 11 teams with a winning record (we played seven) go undefeated in the Sun Belt?” Duke coach Manny Diaz told reporters.
“We are aware of our setbacks that put us at the mercy of the committee, but anyone who truly watches and studies football knows the real answer to the two questions above.”
Those questions and more will be hotly debated over the coming days, but for now, what we do know is that Ohio State will play the Miami-Texas A&M winner at the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Eve. The New Year’s Day lineup will include Texas Tech vs. the JMU-Oregon winner at the Orange Bowl, Indiana vs. the Alabama-Oklahoma winner at the Rose Bowl, and Georgia vs. the Tulane-Ole Miss winner at the Sugar Bowl.
Photo: Bobak Ha’Eri. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.