College Football Playoff
The College Football Playoff is an annual knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, the highest level of college football competition in the United States. It culminates in the College Football Playoff National Championship game. The inaugural tournament was held at the end of the 2014 NCAA Division I FBS football season under a four-team format. The CFP Board of Managers voted in 2023 to expand the playoff to 12 teams beginning in 2024, an arrangement that will last at least through the end of the 2026 season. After 2026, additional expansion to a 14-team playoff or larger may take place at that time.
As the NCAA does not organize or award an official national championship for FBS football, the CFP's inception in 2014 marked the first time a major national championship selector in college football was able to determine their champion by using a bracket competition. A 13-member committee has selected and seeded the teams to take part in the CFP. This system differs from the use of polls or computer rankings that had previously been used to select the participants for the Bowl Championship Series, the title system used in FBS from 1998 to 2013. The CFP format used from 2014 to 2023 was a four-team single-elimination tournament, with participants determined and seeded by the selection committee.
The current 12-team CFP format features, for the first time, a first round of playoffs separated from bowl games. The first round consists of seeds 5 through 12 playing one another at the home stadium of the better seeded teams, or another venue of their choice. Then, the quarter-final and semi-final games consist of the New Year's Six bowl games, with a national championship game after that.
From 2014 through 2023, the two semifinal games rotated among the six New Year's Day bowl games: the Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl, and Sugar Bowl. In addition to the teams selected for the playoff, from 2014 to 2023 the final CFP rankings were used in determining the participants for the four New Year's Six bowls that were not hosting the semifinals that year. Under the original four-team format, the two semifinal games were played on the same day; since the expansion of the CFP in 2024, they are played on back-to-back days. The College Football Playoff National Championship game is then played on the first Monday that is six or more days after the Semifinals. The venue of the championship game is then selected based on bids submitted by cities, similar to the NCAA Final Four.
The winner of the Championship Game is awarded the College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy, which was commissioned to avoid connections with the previous championship systems and their associated trophies. This included the AFCA "crystal football" trophy, which had been presented to the national champion since the 1990s due to the AFCA being contractually obligated to name the BCS champion as the Coaches Poll champion.
While the BCS brand was retired, BCS Properties, LLC still exists and owns all CFP trademarks. The CFP is separately administered by CFP Administration, LLC, which consists of representatives from each of the FBS conferences and the University of Notre Dame.
Format
4-team playoff (2014–2023)
From its formation in 2014 to the end of the 2023 season, the College Football Playoff used a four-team knockout bracket to determine the national champion. Six bowl games—the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, and Peach Bowl– rotated as hosts for the semifinals. The rotation was set on a three-year cycle with the following pairings: Rose/Sugar, Orange/Cotton, and Fiesta/Peach. The two semifinal bowls and the other four top-tier bowls were marketed as the New Year's Six. Per contract, the Rose and Sugar Bowls were always on New Year's Day. Originally three games were held on New Year's Eve with the other three on New Year's Day. However, disappointing TV ratings in the first rotation led to games originally planned for New Year's Eve be moved to as early as December 27 in some years. The selection committee seeded the top four teams, and also assigned teams to the at-large bowls in years when they did not host semifinals.The four-team format pitted the No. 1-ranked team against No. 4 and No. 2 against No. 3. The seeding determined the semifinal bowl game assigned to each matchup; the No. 1 seed chose its bowl game to prevent it from playing in a "road" environment. There were no limits on the number of teams per conference, a change from previous BCS rules. However, some non-semifinal bowl selections still maintain their conference tie-ins, similarly to the BCS's automatic qualifier berths.
12-team playoff (2024–present)
The CFP expanded to a 12-team format for the 2024 and 2025 seasons.Features of the expanded playoff include:
- Guaranteed bids for the top five conference champions in the CFP rankings; no conference has an automatic bid, a conference must have a minimum of eight members for its champion to be eligible for a guaranteed bid.
- * Starting in 2026, this was altered to guarantee each champion of a Power Four conference a bid, along with one Group of Six team. Every Power Four conference champion is guaranteed a bid, regardless of their ranking in comparison to Group of Six conference champions. The Group of Six representative will be the highest-ranked team from that cohort, and does not have to be a conference champion.
- At-large bids for the seven highest-ranked remaining teams, which could include additional conference champions.
- * Starting in 2026, if independent Notre Dame is ranked in the top 12, it is guaranteed an at-large bid.
- For the 2024 season, the four highest-ranked conference champions received first-round byes. This was altered for the 2025 season, with the four highest-ranked teams overall now receiving first-round byes, regardless of conference champion status.
- The remaining teams play each other in the first round at the home fields of the better seeds or an alternate venue of their choosing; match-ups are 5–12, 6–11, 7–10, and 8–9.
- The quarterfinals and semifinals are hosted by the New Year's Six bowl games on a rotating basis.
- The championship game continues to be held at a separately determined neutral site.
- The playoff bracket is not reseeded at any time.
- First round games occur on the third weekend of December, quarterfinal games on or around New Year's Day, semifinal games at least one week later, and the championship game one week after the semifinals.
Venues
On-campus games
The teams seeded 5–12 will play first-round games hosted by the better seed, either at their home stadium or another venue of their choosing.New Year's Six
The semifinal and quarterfinal rounds of the playoff are hosted by the New Year's Six: the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Peach Bowl, and Fiesta Bowl. These games are played annually on or around New Year's Day and represent six of the oldest and most prestigious college football bowl games.During the four-team playoff era, the bowls rotated on a three-year cycle. Two of the six bowls served as the CFP semifinals for any given year with the following pairings: Rose/Sugar, Orange/Cotton, and Fiesta/Peach. The year's four off-cycle bowls hosted bowl games outside of the CFP tournament bracket.
In the 12-team playoff format, four of the six bowls host quarterfinal games on or around New Year's Day. The winners advance to play in the semifinals, held in the two remaining bowls one week later. The bowls will again cycle on a rotating basis.
Championship game
Cities around the country bid to host each year's championship game. The playoff group's leaders make a selection from those proposals, in a similar fashion to other large sporting events, such as the NCAA Final Four. Officials say the championship game will be held in a different city each year, and that bids must propose host stadiums with a capacity of at least 65,000 spectators. Under the system, cities cannot host both a semifinal game and the title game in the same year.In practice, since the inaugural CFP national championship game, every title game up to and including the 2029 season has been played in a stadium that hosts at least one National Football League team and has been played indoors or in a warm-weather city.
Selection process
Selection Committee
The College Football Playoff Selection Committee consists of 13 members who generally serve three-year terms, although some initial 2013 selections served two- and four-year terms "to achieve a rotation" of members.The 2025–26 CFP selection committee members are:
| Member | Position | Conference affiliation | Term start |
| Chris Ault | Retired Nevada athletic director and football coach | At-large | 2023–24 |
| Troy Dannen | Nebraska athletic director | Big Ten | 2025–26 |
| Mark Dantonio | Former head coach of Cincinnati and Michigan State | Big Ten | 2025–26 |
| Mark Harlan | Utah athletic director | Big 12 | 2025–26 |
| Jeff Long | Former Arkansas, Kansas, Pittsburgh athletic director | SEC | 2025–26 |
| Mack Rhoades | Baylor athletic director | Big 12 | 2023–24 |
| Mike Riley | Former head coach of Oregon State and Nebraska | At-large | 2024–25 |
| David Sayler | Miami athletic director | MAC | 2023–24 |
| Wesley Walls | Former player for Ole Miss | At-large | 2025–26 |
| Carla Williams | Virginia athletic director | ACC | 2024–25 |
| Hunter Yurachek | Arkansas athletic director | SEC | 2024–25 |
The committee members include one current athletic director from each of the four major conferences—ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, and SEC—also known as the Power conferences. Other members are former coaches, players, athletic directors, and administrators, plus a retired member of the media. The goal was for the panel to consist proportionally of current "Power Five" athletic directors, former coaches, and a third group of other voters, excluding current conference commissioners, coaches, and media members. During the selection process, organizers said they wanted the committee to be geographically balanced. Conference commissioners submitted lists totaling more than 100 names from which to select the final committee members.