The 12-team field for the 2025-26 College Football Playoff was finally revealed on Sunday and the countdown to the national title game in Miami on January 19 is officially on.
Indiana is the No. 1 overall seed is as the only 13-0 team in the country and it will be joined by Ohio State, Georgia, and Texas Tech as the top-four seeds in the field who will get byes straight into the quarterfinals on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. They will await the other eight schools in the bracket, who will compete in a set of first-round games at on-campus sites taking place on Friday, December 19 and Saturday, December 20.
Let’s not waste any more time and make some quick predictions for how this CFP will play out.
No. 9 Alabama @ No. 8 Oklahoma, 8 p.m. ET
No. 10 Miami @ No. 7 Texas A&M, 12 p.m. ET
No. 11 Tulane @ No. 6 Ole Miss, 3:30 p.m. ET
No. 12 James Madison @ No. 5 Oregon, 7:30 p.m. ET
We have some interesting matchups to kick this bracket off in the first round, starting with Alabama visiting Oklahoma on Friday night in a rematch from their mid-November battle in Tuscaloosa. The Tide’s inclusion as a three-loss team is the biggest point of controversy in this year’s bracket, especially right after getting pummeled by Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. Defense and special teams were the deciding factors for the Sooners in their two-point regular season victory over the Tide and I think that in a raucous home environment, they’ll put the clamps on them once again.
Saturday’s slate will feature another regular-season rematch with American Champion Tulane visiting an Ole Miss team with Pete Golding now running the show instead of Lane Kiffin. The Rebels absolutely crushed the Green Wave 45-10 way back in September and while this matchup should be a bit closer, I think they’ll be motivated out of pure spite in the wake of the Kiffin saga. Meanwhile, both of Miami’s losses this season have involved Carson Beck committing multiple turnovers and that doesn’t bode well when heading on the road to face a tough A&M defense. And unfortunately for James Madison, I think they’ll be totally outclassed when visiting Eugene to take on Oregon.
