College Football Playoff rankings: Updated 12-team bracket revealed in first CFP poll of 2025

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• College Football Playoff rankings
• College Football Playoff bracket
• College Football Playoff predictions
• How College Football Playoff format works
• College Football Playoff rankings release schedule

Unsurprisingly, college football has brought the chaos this 2025 season, the second of the 12-team playoff era.

While the defending champions Ohio State Buckeyes have remained a dominant force, there have been plenty of unexpected twists and turns for other top programs. Some of those have been downward spirals -- Texas and Penn State were the top two-ranked squads in the preseason AP Poll, but the Longhorns have already two games, while the Nittany Lions are searching for a new head coach and still winless in Power Four matchups.

The disappointment from some programs has opened up opportunity for others, though. Among the teams still unbeaten are Curt Cignetti's Indiana squad (wins over Illinois and Oregon), Texas A&M (wins over Notre Dame and LSU) and BYU (win over Utah, Iowa State). 

For the first time this season, CFP rankings were released Tuesday evening, offering the first insights into how the 12-team bracket could shake up in December. Which teams are tracking for first-round byes? Which find themself on the bubble of playoff contention?

AllSportsPeople tracked the first CFP bracket reveal of the 2025 season. Here's how the committee ranked the top 25, along with a look at the first projected bracket.

STREAM: Watch the first CFP rankings show live with Fubo (free trial)

College Football Playoff rankings 2025

Who are the top 12 teams in first CFP bracket poll?

Without much surprise, the defending national champion, Ohio State, slotted in at No. 1 in the first College Football Playoff rankings for the 2025 season. The Buckeyes' ranked wins include against Texas, who was No. 1 in the AP Poll at the time but now landed at No. 11 in the first CFP rankings with two losses, along with Illinois in October.

As expected, the two other unbeaten squads from the Big Ten and SEC slotted in at No. 2 and No. 3. Indiana, with its wins over Illinois and Oregon, claimed the second spot, while Texas A&M, atop the SEC with wins over Notre Dame and LSU, fell in third. By the committee's rankings, the final team that would currently have a first-round bye is Alabama, which has beaten Georgia, Missouri, Vanderbilt and Tennessee since a season-opening loss to Florida State.

Georgia, Ole Miss and Texas Tech would all be in-line to host a first-round matchup in the CFP bracket under the current rankings — as would the Big 12's BYU Cougars, which remain unbeaten. The committee gave an undefeated BYU unit the nod over one-loss Texas Tech and Oregon teams.

Rounding out the top-12 ranked teams, which doesn't exactly represent the teams who would be in the playoff bracket, was Oregon, Notre Dame, Texas and Oklahoma. The Longhorns have bounced back from losses to Ohio State and Florida, taking down the Sooners and Vanderbilt in recent weeks to find themselves back in playoff conversations. As for the Ducks, their best win has likely come against Penn State in overtime, which has lost its shine as the Nittany Lions have collapsed. Still, Oregon came in at No. 9, over a Notre Dame team that's beaten USC but lost to Miami and Texas A&M.

There is an important difference between the rankings and the bracket: as things stand, Texas and Oklahoma would not  play in the College Football Playoff. Because the Group of Five and ACC have automatic bids, that meant that unranked Memphis and 14th-ranked Virginia would make the bracket over Texas and Oklahoma, as things stand.

MORE: Why is Virginia in the College Football Playoff bracket projection?

First four teams out

The "first four out" isn't actually the first four out, as a team can be ranked lower than No. 12 in the CFP rankings and still make the bracket. In fact, that was the case with Virginia, the highest-ranked ACC unit — and because of the conference's automatic bid, the 14th-ranked Cavaliers would current make the bracket, with a loss to NC State but wins over Louisville and Florida State.

Utah was barely on the outside looking into the top 12; had the Utes not fallen to BYU back in October, that could have changed a lot. Still, Utah has beaten three ranked teams at the time of their matchups this season.

Louisville and Vanderbilt also found themselves on the outside of the first projected bracket; the Cardinals' win over Miami moved their stock up, while the Commodores were red-hot for a bit and have some nice SEC wins, but also fell to Alabama and Texas this season.

Rest of the top 25

There were no Group of Five teams included in the first CFP rankings, although Memphis was slotted in as the committee's projected No. 12 seed in the bracket.

Miami came in at No. 18 in the rankings, on a bit of a downfall after opening the season as one of the best units in the country. The Hurricanes did beat Notre Dame to open the year — and team that is ranked eight spots ahead of them — but have recently lost to Louisville and SMU.

With Missouri and Tennessee later in the rankings, there were a total of nine SEC squads included by the committee. The Big Ten had seven teams. 

Among the other intriguing squads to round out the Top 25 in the CFP rankings was Iowa, which lost by just five points to Indiana and has a date with Oregon this upcoming week, and Georgia Tech, which has lost just one game and still has scheduled tilts with Pitt and Georgia this season.

College Football Playoff bracket 2025

MORE: Latest AP, Coaches Top 25 polls

How College Football Playoff format works in 2025

The same as 2024, the CFP format in 2025 will be a 12-team field. However, there are changes to the seedings this season.

Automatic bids are given to the top five highest-ranked conference champions. In a change from 2024 though, the four highest-ranked teams will get the top four seeds and the first-round bye, regardless of whether or not they won their conference. There are seven at-large bids available for non-conference champs.

While the top four seeds get the bye, seeds 5-12 will play in the first round. 

Here's a look at how the College Football Playoff seeding will play out:

First round

• No. 1 team (bye)
• No. 2 team (bye)
• No. 3 team (bye)
• No. 4 team (bye)
• No. 12 team at No. 5 team
• No. 11 team at No. 6 team
• No. 10 team at No. 7 team
• No. 9 team at No. 8 team

Quarterfinals

• No. 1 team vs. No. 8/9 team
• No. 2 team vs. No. 7/10 team
• No. 3 team vs. No. 6/11 team
• No. 4 team vs. No. 5/12 team

MORE: Is Miami out of the running for a CFP berth?

College Football Playoff predictions

Here are AllSportsPeople' first CFP bracket projections for Week 11, according to Bill Bender:

MORE: How OU's upset of Vols shakes up SEC race

College Football Playoff rankings release schedule 2025

Starting Tuesday night, a weekly CFP ranking reveal show will be on ESPN. The time for the show will vary by week. The schedule is listed below.