The College Football Playoff will introduce a 12-team playoff bracket for the 2024-25 season, an expansion of the four-team format. Here’s what you need to know about the change:

How CFP teams are selected under the new format

The new 12-team College Football Playoff field will include the five highest-ranked conference champions, who will receive automatic bids. The seven highest-ranked teams remaining will complete the 12-team format.

The top four teams in the first round advance to the quarter-finals.

FOLLOW IT ALL: Live scoreboard and stats for every match

Where CFP Matches Are Played

The four highest-seeded conference champions are seeded Nos. 1-4 and receive a bye in the first round. Nos. 5-12 play each other in the first round. The highest-seeded teams play their first-round game. Here is a breakdown of the first-round games:

• No. 5 vs. No. 12
• No. 6 vs. No. 11
• No. 7 vs. No. 10
• No. 8 vs. No. 9

New Year’s Six bowl games are introduced in the quarterfinal round. The semifinals are played in bowls on a rotating basis while the national championship host site is determined by bids from potential host sites.

This is what the 12-team field would have looked like in 2023-24

On Sunday, December 3, the CFP Selection Committee released the final rankings for the 2023-24 season. Michigan, Washington, Texas, and Alabama are the top four teams that will participate in the College Football Playoff in the final year before the expanded format is introduced. Using the respective rankings, let’s project what the 12-team bracket would look like for the 2023-24 season.

Here are the final 2023-2024 CFP rankings:
Released: Sunday, December 3, 2023

First round

As stated in the official CFP announcement, the first rounds will take place at the home field of the highest-seeded team or at another location designated by the highest-seeded team, during the week of Saturday, December 21.

While specific game dates haven’t been announced yet, we can make predictions about what each matchup will look like. Note that the No. 12 seed goes to Liberty, as the Flames are the sixth-highest-ranked conference champion in the latest CFP rankings, replacing Oklahoma — a team that finished third in the Big 12 — as the No. 12 team.

No. 12 Liberty at No. 5 Florida State
No. 11 Ole Miss at No. 6 Georgia
No. No. 10 Penn State vs. No. 7 Ohio State
No. 9 Missouri at No. 8 Oregon

🔮 FUTURE: How the Early College Football Playoff Rankings Predict the Semifinals

With the top four seeded teams getting a bye week, the winner of each team listed above would advance to teams No. 1 through No. 4. Teams will not be reseeded. This means the highest seeded team will advance to the winner of the No. 9 and No. 8 matchup.

Bowl games

CFP officials said the four quarterfinals and two semifinals of the playoffs will be played on a rotating basis in the New Year’s Six Bowls.

Quarterfinals 2024: Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl
Semi-finals 2024: Cotton bowl and orange bowl
Quarterfinals 2025: Cotton bowl, orange bowl, rose bowl and sugar bowl
Semi-finals 2025: Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl

The CFP schedule for the 2024 and 2025 seasons:

Click here to learn more about the 12-team CFP expansion for the 2024 and 2025 seasons.