How Does The New 12-Team College Football Playoff Format Work? New CFP Format Explained

This year’s college football playoff will take place from Dec. 20, 2024, to Jan. 20, 2025. The schedule is as follows:

• First Round: Dec. 20-21, 2024
• Quarterfinals: Dec. 31, 2024 – Jan. 1, 2025
• Semifinals: Jan. 9-10, 2025
• National Championship Game: Jan. 20, 2025

The four first-round matchups will take place at home sites, with seeds 5-8 hosting seeds 9-12 on campus or at a neutral site chosen by the higher-seeded institution. Seeds 1-4 get a first-round bye.

• Dec. 20, 8 p.m.
• Dec. 21, 12 p.m.
• Dec. 21, 4 p.m.
• Dec. 21, 8 p.m.

The four quarterfinal games will consist of the following bowl games:

• Vrbo Fiesta Bowl (Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m.)
• Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl (Jan. 1, 1 p.m.)
• Rose Bowl (Jan. 1, 5 p.m.)
• Allstate Sugar Bowl (Jan. 1, 8:45 p.m.)

The two semifinal games will consist of the following bowl games:

• Capital One Orange Bowl (Jan. 9, 7:30 p.m.)
• Goodyear Cotton Bowl (Jan. 10, 7:30 p.m.)

Lastly, the College Football Playoff National Championship Game will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

This year’s College Football Playoff bracket will feature a 12-team playoff. It will stay the same for the 2025 season, after which the playoff field may expand to 16 teams.

The 12 teams are broken down as follows:

• The top five conference champions receive an automatic bid. A conference must have at least eight members to be eligible, and no conference will get an automatic bid. Because of this, at least one “Group of Five“ team will earn a spot in the playoff.
  • The top four conference champions are seeded 1-4 and receive a first-round bye, advancing directly to the quarterfinals.
• The other seven at-large bids will go to the seven highest-ranked remaining teams, with seeds 5-8 hosting seeds 9-12 in the first round.
• The playoff bracket will not be reseeded at any time, so seeds remain consistent throughout the tournament.

Here’s how the CFP rankings look heading into Week 14 based on the top 13 teams in the new CFP playoff format:

1. Oregon (12-0)
2. Texas (11-1)
3. Penn State (11-1)
4. Notre Dame (11-1)
5. Georgia (10-2)
6. Ohio State (10-2)
7. Tennessee (10-2)
8. SMU (11-1)
9. Indiana (11-1)
10. Boise State (11-1)
11. Alabama (9-3)
12. Miami (10-2)

The new College Football Playoff will feature the five highest-ranked conference champions and the next seven highest-ranked teams. There is no limit on how many teams from one conference can qualify.

CFP Selection

This year’s CFB rankings are determined by the 13-member College Football Playoff Committee, whose rankings are announced every Tuesday until Dec. 3. The playoff field will be announced on Sunday, Dec. 8.

CFP Seeding

The top four seeds (who also receive a bye) are the four highest-ranked conference champions. The fifth-highest-ranked champion will either be seeded where it was ranked or at No. 12 if its final ranking falls outside the top 12 of the final CFP ranking.

Non-conference champions ranked in the top four can’t be seeded higher than No. 5.

CFP First Round

The first round of the College Football Playoffs will take place between seeds 5-12 and at the higher seeds’ home fields (or neutral sites of their choosing).

• No. 12 seed at No. 5 seed
• No. 11 seed at No. 6 seed
• No. 10 seed at No. 7 seed
• No. 9 seed at No. 8 seed

The game times are:

• Friday, Dec. 20, 8 p.m. (ABC/ESPN)
• Saturday, Dec. 21, 12 p.m. (TNT)
• Saturday, Dec. 21, 4 p.m. (TNT)
• Saturday, Dec. 21, 8 p.m. (ABC/ESPN)

CFP Quarterfinals

The quarterfinals will feature seeds 1-4 facing the first-round winners at neutral sites in the following bowl games.

• Vrbo Fiesta Bowl: Tuesday, Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)
• Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl: Wednesday, Jan. 1, 1 p.m. (ESPN)
• Rose Bowl: Wednesday, Jan. 1, 5 p.m. (ESPN)
• Allstate Sugar Bowl: Wednesday, Jan. 1, 8:45 p.m. (ESPN)

CFP Semifinals

Like the quarterfinals, the semifinals are bowl games at neutral sites. In previous years, this was the only round of the playoff before the National Championship.

• Capital One Orange Bowl: Thursday, Jan. 9, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)
• Goodyear Cotton Bowl: Friday, Jan. 10, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)

CFP National Championship

The National Championship Game will take place on Monday, Jan. 20, at 7:30 p.m. at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The game will air on ESPN.

This marks the second time Mercedes-Benz Stadium has hosted the CFP Championship. It also hosted the game in 2018.

The College Football Playoff Committee is comprised of 13 former coaches and/or athletic directors from different universities. They determine the top 25 teams in the country, with those rankings then determining the College Football Playoff field.

The 13 members are:

• Chris Ault
• Chet Gladchuk
• Jim Grobe
• Warde Manuel
• Randall McDaniel
• Gary Pinkel
• Mack Rhoades
• Mike Riley
• David Sayler
• Will Shields
• Kelly Whiteside
• Carla Williams
• Hunter Yurachek

The College Football Playoff rankings come out every Tuesday until Dec. 3. The playoff field will be announced on Sunday, Dec. 8, a little less than two weeks before the first round.

The college bowl games were announced in June. See below for the college bowl game schedule, which runs from Dec. 14, 2024, to Jan. 20, 2025.

Sunday, Dec. 14

• Cricket Celebration Bowl (ABC, 12 p.m.)
• Camellia Bowl (ESPN, 9 p.m.)

Tuesday, Dec. 17

• Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl (ESPN, 9 p.m.)

Wednesday, Dec. 18

• Boca Raton Bowl (ESPN, 5:30 p.m.)
• LA Bowl (ESPN, 9 p.m.)

Thursday, Dec. 19

• R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl (ESPN2, 7 p.m.)

Friday, Dec. 20

• StaffDNA Cure Bowl (ESPN, 12 p.m.)
• Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl (ESPN, 3:30 p.m.)
• CFP First Round Matchup (ABC/ESPN, 8 p.m.)

Saturday, Dec. 21

• CFP First Round Matchup (TNT, 12 p.m.)
• CFP First Round Matchup (TNT, 4 p.m.)
• CFP First Round Matchup (ABC/ESPN, 8 p.m.)

Monday, Dec. 23

• Myrtle Beach Bowl (ESPN, 11 a.m.)
• Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (ESPN, 2:30 p.m.)

Tuesday, Dec. 24

• Hawai’i Bowl (ESPN, 8 p.m.)

Thursday, Dec. 26

• Detroit Bowl (ESPN, 2 p.m.)
• Guaranteed Rate Bowl (ESPN, 5:30 p.m.)
• 68 Ventures Bowl (ESPN, 9 p.m.)

Friday, Dec. 27

• Birmingham Bowl (ESPN, TBD)
• Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl (ESPN, TBD)
• AutoZone Liberty Bowl (ESPN, 7 p.m.)
• Holiday Bowl (X, 8 p.m.)
• SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl (ESPN, 10:30 p.m.)

Saturday, Dec. 28

• Wasabi Fenway Bowl (ESPN, 11 a.m.)
• Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl (ABC, 12 p.m.)
• Isleta New Mexico Bowl (ESPN, 2:15 p.m.)
• Pop-Tarts Bowl (ABC, 3:30 p.m.)
• Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl (CW Network, 4:30 p.m.)
• Go Bowling Military Bowl (ESPN, 5:45 p.m.)
• Valero Alamo Bowl (ABC, 7:30 p.m.)
• Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl (ESPN, 9:15 p.m.)

Monday, Dec. 30

• TransPerfect Music City Bowl (ESPN, 2:30 p.m.)

Tuesday, Dec. 31

• ReliaQuest Bowl (ESPN, 12 p.m.)
• Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl (CBS, 2 p.m.)
• Cheez-It Citrus Bowl (ABC, 3 p.m.)
• Texas Bowl (ESPN, 3:30 p.m.)
• CFP Quarterfinal at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl (ESPN, 7:30 p.m.)

Wednesday, Jan. 1

• CFP Quarterfinal at the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl (ESPN, 1 p.m.)
• CFP Quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl (ESPN, 5 p.m.)
• CFP Quarterfinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl (ESPN, 8:45 p.m.)

Thursday, Jan. 2

• TaxSlayer Gator Bowl (ESPN, 7:30 p.m.)

Friday, Jan. 3

• SERVPRO First Responder Bowl (ESPN, 4 p.m.)
• Duke’s Mayo Bowl (ESPN, 7:30 p.m.)

Saturday, Jan. 4

• Bahamas Bowl (ESPN/ESPN2, 11 a.m.)

Thursday, Jan. 9

• CFP Semifinal at the Orange Bowl (ESPN, 7:30 p.m.)

Friday, Jan. 10

• CFP Semifinal at the Cotton Bowl (ESPN, 7:30 p.m.)

The College Football Playoff schedule is as follows:

• First Round: Dec. 20-21, 2024
• Quarterfinals: Dec. 31, 2024 – Jan. 1, 2025
• Semifinals: Jan. 9-10, 2025
• National Championship Game: Jan. 20, 2025

The four first-round games will be played at home sites, with seeds 5-8 hosting seeds 9-12 on campus or at a neutral site chosen by the higher-seeded institution. Seeds 1-4 get a first-round bye.

• Dec. 20, 8 p.m.
• Dec. 21, 12 p.m.
• Dec. 21, 4 p.m.
• Dec. 21, 8 p.m.

The four quarterfinal games double as the following bowl games:

• Vrbo Fiesta Bowl (Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m.)
• Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl (Jan. 1, 1 p.m.)
• Rose Bowl (Jan. 1, 5 p.m.)
• Allstate Sugar Bowl (Jan. 1, 8:45 p.m.)

The two semifinal games are also bowl games:

• Capital One Orange Bowl (Jan. 9, 7:30 p.m.)
• Goodyear Cotton Bowl (Jan. 10, 7:30 p.m.)

Lastly, the College Football Playoff National Championship Game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 20, 2025, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

Along with being able to place futures bets on which teams will make or win the College Football Playoff, you can also bet on individual games once matchups are set and markets become available.

Betting on the CFP is just like betting on any other CFB or NFL game. There are standard bets like spreads, moneylines and totals, plus more exotic bets like props and parlays.

That said, college sports props aren’t legal in every state, so make sure to check if they’re available in your state before placing a wager.