The 2025 College Football Playoff—the second iteration of the 12-team format—released a highly controversial field Sunday afternoon that saw two Group of 6 conference programs in the field while leaving out formidable programs—Notre Dame, BYU, Vanderbilt, and Texas—that many considered Playoff-worthy.

The format goes something like this: The top five ranked conference champions receive automatic qualifiers, with the next seven highest-ranked programs getting at-large bids. Unlike last year, however, the CFP will have straight seeding. In 2024, the top four ranked conference champions received byes, but now, the top four ranked programs overall will receive byes—regardless of conference champions.

Who Got In?

No. 1 Indiana led the rankings after beating No. 2 Ohio State in the Big Ten title game Saturday night—causing the previously undefeated programs to flip in the rankings. No. 3 Georgia and No. 4 Texas Tech, both of whom won their conference championships Saturday, will round out the top four slate of programs that will get a first-round bye. 

The next set of at-large programs, which will host first-round CFP games: No. 5 Oregon, No. 6 Ole Miss, No. 7 Texas A&M, and No. 8 Oklahoma. 

Where Things Got Controversial

Alabama maintained its No. 9 slot despite losing to Georgia on Saturday. Miami earned the No. 10 slot—which was highly controversial, particularly given that it was ranked behind Notre Dame and BYU in last week’s rankings, and didn’t play this week. 

However, Miami did narrowly beat Notre Dame 27–24 during a Week 1 matchup, which the committee appeared to revisit. BYU lost to Texas Tech, perhaps dropping them in the rankings, though the committee said it tries not to penalize teams for conference championship performances.

The controversy ballooned at the bottom of the bracket. The CFP requires that the top five-ranked conference champions receive bids. The assumption was always that would be one conference champion from each Power 4 league, and the top-ranked Group of 6 program. But that didn’t happen this year—and it wreaked havoc on the field. 

The expected Group of 6 champion in the field ended up being Tulane, which beat North Texas in the American championship game Friday night. The Green Wave was ranked No. 11 in the field.

The ACC championship game featured unranked Duke and No. 17 Virginia—and Duke won in overtime. The Blue Devils were left out of the field. The fifth-ranked conference champion was the Sun Belt’s James Madison.

Because of that, the No. 11 and No. 12 overall-ranked teams—Notre Dame and BYU—were completely left out of the field. Texas and Vanderbilt were also left out.

The College Football Playoff field of 12 teams is set, following an ESPN reveal show Sunday that put to rest two main controversies: whether Alabama would remain in even after losing badly to Georgia in the SEC championship game (yes), and whether two-loss, independent Notre Dame would remain ranked above two-loss, non-champion Miami that beat Notre Dame during the season (no).

Alabama stayed in, Miami jumped Notre Dame, and BYU, Texas, and Vanderbilt remained on the outside looking in.

In the end, the bracket has:

• 5 SEC schools (Georgia, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Alabama)
• 3 Big Ten schools (Indiana, Ohio State, Oregon)
• 1 Big 12 school (Texas Tech)
• 1 ACC school (Miami)
• 1 American school (Tulane)
• 1 Sun Belt school (James Madison)

There’s at least $116 million in CFP prize payouts up for grabs for conferences, depending on how far their schools get. The payouts are as follows:

• Making the CFP: $4 million (12 teams)
• Advancing to the quarterfinals: $4 million (8 teams)
• Advancing to the semifinals: $6 million (4 teams)
• Advancing to the title game: $6 million (2 teams)

With five teams in the Playoff, the SEC is getting $20 million from the first round to distribute among its member schools. The Big Ten has $12 million coming its way. 

The Big 12, ACC, American, and Sun Belt each get $4 million for their lone schools that made it in. It’s a modest windfall for the American and Sun Belt, two conferences that did not see any CFP prize money last year, as they didn’t get teams into the field.

In addition, a new wrinkle this year as part of the CFP’s straight seeding is that the four highest-ranked conference champions will earn a guaranteed $8 million for their conferences, whether or not they win their first-round game. Indiana, Georgia, and Texas Tech all have byes, so they will get $8 million anyway for making it to the second round; Tulane is the only school affected, so the American will get $8 million even if Tulane loses in the first round.

Each individual school in the Playoff also gets $3 million per round to cover expenses. Notre Dame is a major financial loser in this situation, given that it would have gotten to keep all CFP prize payouts for itself—while programs in conferences have to share payouts. Last year, the Fighting Irish racked up $20 million. But without a CFP bid this year, it won’t be afforded the opportunity.

The utility of the College Football Playoff’s weekly rankings reveal show, which airs in the five weeks leading up to the official bracket reveal on Tuesday nights on ESPN, has been brought into question after a particularly controversial bracket reveal.

Fans, media members, and administrators criticized the weekly rankings reveal show after flip-flopping on previous decisions, specifically regarding Notre Dame and Miami. Multiple ESPN analysts themselves questioned—live on air this weekend— if the premature rankings show, which airs on their own network, should be nixed altogether.

To change it, ESPN and the College Football Playoff might have to draw up a new contract.

Not So Fast, My Friend

The media-rights contract requires five rankings reveal shows in the lead-up to the CFP bracket reveal on the Sunday after conference championship games, sources at both ESPN and the CFP confirmed to Front Office Sports on Sunday. This is the case both with this current contract and the future CFP media rights contract.

Neither ESPN nor CFP sources would opine on what would happen if the CFP—or ESPN, for that matter—decided that the weekly rankings were no longer in the best interest of the Playoff. 

Seeds of Controversy

During the final Tuesday night rankings reveal on Dec. 2, the CFP Committee ranked Notre Dame at No. 10 and Miami at No. 12 (with BYU at No. 11). The decision was controversial at the time, given Miami had beaten Notre Dame head-to-head at the beginning of the season. Then there was the question of what to do with Alabama, which had overtaken Notre Dame’s No. 9 spot but still had a conference championship to play before the bracket reveal.

Regarding Miami and Notre Dame, at least, the expectation was that the committee had already made its decision that the Fighting Irish were better than the Hurricanes. Neither Miami nor Notre Dame was playing between the reveal show on Tuesday and the official bracket reveal Sunday, though Alabama had its title matchup against Georgia, and BYU had its title game against Texas Tech.

Even leading into the final bracket reveal, the Tuesday rankings were already receiving criticism—including from analysts of the network that broadcasts the reveal itself.

During a discussion regarding the situation on ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday, Kirk Herbstreit said, “If you talk to the conference commissioners, honestly, I think we should remove, with all due respect, the Tuesday night show.” Fellow analysts and former Alabama coach Nick Saban agreed with him: “You put yourself in a box.”

The comments proved prescient. 

On Sunday, the committee ranked Miami No. 10 overall—over Notre Dame (and BYU, which had lost its conference championship game against Texas Tech)—giving it a slot in the Playoff and leaving the Fighting Irish out altogether. CFP Selection Committee chair Hunter Yuracheck said during the rankings reveal that the committee took another look at that early season matchup this weekend.

“Any rankings ahead of the final rankings are a farce and total waste of time,” Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua told ESPN shortly after the bracket reveal. 

On a call with reporters Sunday, Yuracheck addressed the controversy over the Tuesday show. 

“I think what happens over the course of the five or six weeks that we have the show, it really sets the expectations,” Yuracheck said, adding that it “allows us to share a little peek behind the curtain. College football has the most passionate fan bases across the country. … You’re always going to have controversy. That’s why we debated for so long.”

Yuracheck did not indicate that the group was considering exploring options to get rid of the rankings reveal or its accompanying show.

The unrelenting college football coaching carousel has wreaked havoc on multiple teams that will appear in this year’s College Football Playoff. 

Half of the teams in the CFP field are losing coaches, from coordinators to head coaches. Three schools—No. 6 Ole Miss, No. 11 Tulane, and No. 12 JMU—have either already lost or will lose their head coaches.

The biggest story in college football last week was Lane Kiffin’s controversial exit from Ole Miss right before the Rebels were set to make a run in the College Football Playoff. Kiffin announced last Sunday that he would take the job at LSU, signing a seven-year, $91 million contract complete with a multimillion buyout and no offset clause. 

Kiffin lobbied to continue to coach Ole Miss in the Playoff, but Ole Miss leadership decided he couldn’t stay in Oxford after signing a contract to coach one of the team’s biggest rivals. Instead, defensive coordinator Pete Golding will lead Ole Miss in the Playoff.

Double-Duty Coaches

The Rebels will face off against Tulane, another program that lost its head coach just days before the CFP rankings were revealed. On Sunday, Jon Sumrall announced he will head to Florida next season—but unlike Ole Miss, Tulane leadership said Sumrall would be allowed to continue to coach the program through the CFP. (The decision was arguably easier given that Tulane isn’t in the same conference as Florida, and is not at the same conference level.)

During an interview on Sunday, Sumrall told ESPN he was heading to Gainesville for a couple of days—presumably to begin prepping his Gators program, including working on retaining players and preparing for the upcoming transfer portal window. Sumrall is doing double duty, however: He said he’ll be watching game tape on the plane to prep for the CFP matchup against Ole Miss on Dec 20.

He has a similar schedule to fellow Group of 6 CFP coach Bob Chesney. On Saturday, UCLA announced it had hired Chesney to lead a beleaguered Bruins program—just one day after Chesney led James Madison to the Sun Belt title. 

Like Tulane, JMU will allow Chesney to finish out his season with the Dukes before moving to Westwood. Chesney told ESPN he will fly cross-country to Los Angeles on Monday to meet the UCLA team; he has a press conference to be introduced as the Bruins head coach Tuesday. Then, he said he’ll head back to Virginia to prepare the Dukes for their matchup against Oregon on Dec. 20.