2026-2027 Schedule

BOWL GAMES

These are played on a rotational basis and used for the Quarterfinals and Semifinals but host sites cannot bid to host the National Championship in a season when they are hosting one of the Playoff Rounds.

Only the Rose Bowl Game has a permanent date of January 1.

Logo	Website	Date	Stadium
	Cotton Bowl Classic	1937-	AT&T Stadium Arlington,TX
	fiesta bowl	1971-	University of Phoenix Stadium Glendale,AZ
	Orange bowl	1935-	Hard Rock Stadium Miami Gardens,FL
	Peach bowl	1968-	Mercedes-Benz Stadium Atlanta,GA
	sugar bowl	1935-	Mercedes-Benz Superdome New Orleans,LA
	Rose Bowl Game	1902 / 1916-	ROSE BOWL Pasadena,CA

How the CFP Field Is Set

Reference: College Football Playoff

• The 12 participating schools will be the Power 4 conference champions from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference, Southeastern Conference and the highest-ranked team from the Group of 6 conferences American, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, Mountain West, Pac-12 Conference or Sun Belt Conference, along with the next seven highest-ranked teams regardless of conference. The University of Notre Dame, independent team, can qualify if it is ranked among the top 12 teams in the final rankings.
• The four highest-ranked schools are seeded 1-4 and receive a first-round bye. The remaining schools will be seeded 5-12 based on their final ranking.
• If any of the automatic qualifiers falls outside of the top 12, they will be seeded at the bottom of the 12-team pool. If any are not ranked in the top 25, the committee will evaluate the team(s) using its established selection criteria and determine their relative positions for seeding purposes and seed them at the bottom of the 12-team pool.
• The eight schools seeded No. 5-12 will play in the CFP First Round with the higher seeds hosting the lower seeds either on campus or at other sites designated by the higher-seeded institution (No. 12 at No. 5, No. 11 at No. 6, No. 10 at No. 7 and No. 9 at No. 8.).
• The No. 1 seed will select its quarterfinal bowl site and the semifinal site into which it will advance should it win its quarterfinal game.
• The No. 2 seed, followed by the No. 3 seed, will then select from the remaining quarterfinal bowl sites. Those two teams will be assigned to the remaining semifinal.
• The No. 4 seed will be assigned to the remaining quarterfinal bowl site.
• With the four highest-ranked schools' bowls selected, their four CFP Quarterfinal opponents will be dictated by the bracket (i.e., No. 1 vs. No. 8/9 winner, No. 4 vs. No. 5/12 winner, No. 2 vs. 7/10 winner; No. 3 vs. 6/11 winner.)
• The College Football Playoff bracket will follow the selection committee’s rankings, with no modifications made to avoid rematches between teams that may have played during the regular season or are from the same conference.
• The bracket will remain in effect throughout the playoff (i.e., no re-seeding).
• All 11 games will be under the CFP umbrella with the administrative policies determined by the CFP.

SEASONS

2026 CFP Season

2025 CFP Season

2024 CFP Season

2023 CFP Season

2022 CFP Season

2021 CFP Season

2020 CFP Season

2019 CFP Season

2018 CFP Season

2017 CFP Season

2016 CFP Season

2015 CFP Season

2014 CFP Season

Playoff Format

PLAYOFF ROUNDS

The following is a list of College Football Playoff games, excluding the National Championship, which is shown above. From the 2014–15 through 2023–24 seasons, the semifinals rotated among the Rose, Sugar, Cotton, Orange, Fiesta, and Peach Bowls, with each bowl hosting a semifinal once every three years. A standalone National Championship game was played roughly a week later.

Beginning with the 2024–25 season, the Playoff expanded to a 12‑team format featuring four rounds. First‑round games are played on campus sites, while the quarterfinals and semifinals continue to rotate among the same six bowl games. The postseason concludes with the standalone National Championship game.

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Future games: 2028 (2027), 2029 (2028), 2030 (2029)

PLAYOFF	GAME	WINNER	SCORE	LOSER	STADIUM
2014-2015	January 12, 2015	4 Ohio State Buckeyes(1)	42-20	2 Oregon DUCKS	AT&T Stadium(1) Arlington,TX(1)
2015-2016	January 11, 2016	2 Alabama Crimson Tide(1)	45-40	1 Clemson Tigers	University of Phoenix Stadium(1) Glendale,AZ(1)
2016-2017	January 9, 2017	2 Clemson Tigers (1)	35-31	1 Alabama Crimson Tide	Raymond James Stadium(1) Tampa,FL(1)
2017-2018	January 8, 2018	4 Alabama Crimson Tide (2)	26-23 (OT)	3 Georgia Bulldogs	Mercedes-Benz Stadium(1) Atlanta,GA(1)
2018-2019	January 7, 2019	2 Clemson Tigers (2)	44-16	1 Alabama Crimson Tide	Levi's Stadium(1) Santa Clara,CA(1)
2019-2020	January 13, 2020	1 LSU Tigers (1)	42-25	3 Clemson Tigers	Mercedes-Benz Superdome(1) New Orleans,LA(1)
2020-2021	January 11, 2021	1 Alabama Crimson Tide (3)	52-24	3 Ohio State Buckeyes	Hard Rock Stadium(1) Miami Gardens,FL(1)
2021-2022	January 10, 2022	3 Georgia Bulldogs (1)	33-18	1 Alabama Crimson Tide	Lucas Oil Stadium(1) Indianapolis,IN(1)
2022-2023	January 9, 2023	1 Georgia Bulldogs (2)	65-7	3 Texas Christian Horned Frogs	SoFi Stadium(1) Inglewood,CA(1)
2023-2024	January 8, 2024	1 Michigan Wolverines (1)	34-13	2 Washington Huskies	NRG Stadium(1) Houston,TX(1)
2024-2025	January 20, 2025	8 Ohio State Buckeyes	34-23	7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish	Mercedes-Benz Stadium(2) Atlanta,GA(2)
2025-2026	January 19, 2026	1 Indiana Hoosiers	27 VS 21	10 Miami Hurricanes	Hard Rock Stadium(2) Miami Gardens, FL(2)
2026-2027	January 25, 2027	TBD	-	TBD	Allegiant Stadium(1) Paradise, NV(1)
2027-2028	January 24, 2028	TBD	-	TBD	Mercedes-Benz Superdome(2) New Orleans,LA(2)
2028-2029	January 22, 2029	TBD	-	TBD	Raymond James Stadium(2) Tampa,FL(2)
2029-2030	January 21, 2030	TBD	-	TBD	Hard Rock Stadium(3) MIAMI GARDENS,FL(3)

Attendance at the January 2021 National Championship game was limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

STANDINGS BY TEAM
Team		A	REC	T	RT	RA
	Alabama Crimson Tide	6	3-3	3	2020	2021
	Clemson Tigers	4	2-2	2	2018	2019
	Ohio State Buckeyes	3	2-1	2	2024	2024
	Georgia Bulldogs	3	2-1	2	2022	2022
	Indiana Hoosiers	1	1-0	1	2025	2025
	Michigan Wolverines	1	1-0	1	2023	2023
	LSU Tigers	1	1-0	1	2019	2019
	Oregon Ducks	1	0-1	0	0	2014
	Texas Christian Horned Frogs	1	0-1	0	0	2022
	Washington Huskies	1	0-1	0	0	2023
	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	1	0-1	0	0	2024
	Miami Hurricanes	1	0-1	0	0	2025

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP APPEARANCES BY CONFERENCE

Year represents the season and not the year in which the National Championship took place as this is in January following the close of the season in December of the previous year.

Conference		A	REC	# Teams	Team(s)	Title seasons
	SEC	10	6-4	3	Alabama (3-3) Georgia (2-1) LSU (1-0)	2015, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
	Big Ten	5	4-1	3	Ohio State (2-1) Michigan (1-0) Indiana (1-0)	2014, 2023, 2024, 2025
	ACC	5	2-3	2	Clemson (2-2) Miami (0-1)	2016, 2018
	Pac-12	2	0-2	2	Oregon (0-1) Washington (0-1)	0
	Big 12	1	0-1	1	TCU (0-1)	0
	Independent	1	0-1	1	Notre Dame (0-1)	0

Team's conferences are when that team played in that conference and may not be their current conference.