College Football Playoff
2026 College Football Playoff Bracket Lab
The first College Football Playoff rankings of 2026 come out on November 3. Until then the field below is built from the AP poll of November 1, 2026 using the committee’s rules. Build your own in the lab: pick the champions, move teams and play it to a title.
The field if the season ended today
From the AP poll of November 1, 2026. The highest-ranked team in each of the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC stands in as its champion, and those four are in whatever their ranking. So is the highest-ranked team from the other six conferences, and Notre Dame if it is in the top 12. The highest-ranked teams left take the other places. Seeds follow the ranking, and the top four get a first-round bye.
| Seed | Team | Rank | Record | Conference | How they are in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miami | 1 | 8-0 | ACC | Assumed ACC champion Bye |
| 2 | Georgia | 2 | 7-1 | SEC | Assumed SEC champion Bye |
| 3 | Utah | 3 | 8-0 | Big 12 | Assumed Big 12 champion Bye |
| 4 | Notre Dame | 4 | 7-1 | Independent | Notre Dame in the top 12 Bye |
| 5 | UCLA | 5 | 8-0 | Big Ten | Assumed Big Ten champion |
| 6 | Indiana | 6 | 8-1 | Big Ten | At-large |
| 7 | BYU | 7 | 7-1 | Big 12 | At-large |
| 8 | Kentucky | 8 | 7-1 | SEC | At-large |
| 9 | Alabama | 9 | 6-2 | SEC | At-large |
| 10 | Texas | 10 | 6-2 | SEC | At-large |
| 11 | Ohio State | 11 | 6-2 | Big Ten | At-large |
| 12 | Boise State | 20 | 7-1 | Pac-12 | Best Group of Six team |
First teams out: #12 Ole Miss, #13 Texas Tech, #14 Wake Forest, #15 LSU.
Bracket Lab: build your own playoff
Start from the current poll. Pick the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC champions, move any team up or down with the arrows, and the field and seeds rebuild under the committee’s rules as you go. Then click the winner of every game, round by round, to crown a champion. Your bracket stays in the link, so you can share it, and a shared link keeps the rankings it was built from.
1. Power Four champions
2. The rankings
3. Your bracket
Play it out makes random picks of the kind you choose. It does not look at form, injuries or betting odds. It is for fun, not a prediction.
Print with no picks for a blank bracket to fill in by hand.
This week’s games that shape the field
Games involving ranked teams in week 9. Ranks are from the AP poll above; kickoff times are Eastern.
Upcoming games
The next week’s games appear here once ESPN posts the new week’s schedule, usually by Tuesday.
Latest results
The rankings, week by week
The chart starts on November 10, when the second CFP rankings come out. The first set comes out on November 3. The committee releases a new ranking every Tuesday from November 3 to December 1, and the final ranking, which sets the field, on Selection Day, Sunday, December 6.
Does the first ranking matter?
Every season of the playoff era: how many of the teams in the first CFP rankings were still there when the field was picked, and where the eventual national champion started.
How the 12-team playoff works
Twelve teams make the 2026 College Football Playoff. The champions of the four biggest conferences (the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC) are in whatever their ranking. One more place goes to the highest-ranked team from the other six conferences (the American, Conference USA, the MAC, the Mountain West, the Pac-12 and the Sun Belt), and that team no longer has to be a conference champion. Notre Dame, which plays as an independent, is in if it finishes in the top 12. The other places go to the highest-ranked teams left.
This is a change from the first two seasons of the 12-team playoff, when the five highest-ranked conference champions from any conference were in. Under that rule, in 2025, Tulane (ranked 20th) and James Madison (24th) took places as champions, and Notre Dame (11th) and BYU (12th) missed out.
Seeds follow the final ranking, 1 to 12, and the top four get a first-round bye whether or not they won their conference. Seeds 5 to 8 host the first round on campus. The bracket is fixed, with no reseeding: the 1 seed meets the winner of 8 v 9, the 2 seed meets 7 v 10, the 3 seed meets 6 v 11 and the 4 seed meets 5 v 12, and the semifinals pair the 1 and 4 sides and the 2 and 3 sides. The bowls are picked by the top seeds, not the committee: the No. 1 seed chooses its quarterfinal bowl (and with it the semifinal it would move on to), then the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds choose from the bowls left, and the No. 4 seed gets the last one.
| Round | When | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Conference championship games | Fri Dec 4 and Sat Dec 5 | Conference sites |
| Selection Day | Sun Dec 6 | The committee names and seeds the 12 teams |
| First round | Fri Dec 18 and Sat Dec 19 | On campus at seeds 5 to 8 (5 v 12, 6 v 11, 7 v 10, 8 v 9) |
| Quarterfinals | Wed Dec 30 and Fri Jan 1 | Fiesta Bowl (Dec 30); Peach, Rose and Cotton Bowls (Jan 1) |
| Semifinals | Thu Jan 14 and Fri Jan 15 | Orange Bowl (Jan 14), Sugar Bowl (Jan 15) |
| National championship | Mon Jan 25, 2027 | Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas |
How this page works
Last updated: Sunday, November 1, 2026, 11:17 p.m. ET, from the AP poll of November 1, 2026.
Every night the page reads the latest rankings and this week’s games from ESPN. Until the selection committee publishes its first rankings it uses the AP poll; after that, the College Football Playoff rankings, released each Tuesday, with the final ranking on Selection Day, a Sunday. Each ranked team is placed in its conference, and the field is built the way the committee builds it this season: the four Power Four champions, the highest-ranked team from the other six conferences, Notre Dame if it is in the top 12, then the highest-ranked teams left, seeded in ranking order.
Before the conference championship games are played, nobody is a champion yet, so the page uses the highest-ranked team in each Power Four conference as a stand-in. That is the usual “if the season ended today” convention, and it is why the lab lets you choose the champions yourself. On Selection Day the top seeds pick their bowls: No. 1 first, then No. 2 and No. 3, and No. 4 gets the bowl that is left. The bracket shows the games, not the bowls, until those picks are announced.
“Play it out for me” makes random picks, one game at a time. Weighted toward the higher seed, the better seed wins about 60% of the time, more when the seeds are far apart. It does not use form, injuries or betting markets.
Sources
- College Football Playoff: the 2026-27 format
- College Football Playoff: about the 12-team format (seeding, byes and how the top seeds pick their bowls)
- The 2026 CFP rankings release schedule
- ESPN college football rankings (the AP poll and the CFP rankings used on this page)
- The first CFP rankings and final fields, season by season (the yearly FBS rankings pages, 2014 to 2025)