Get Ready for the 2025 College Football Playoff: Will Anyone Nail a Perfect Bracket?

The 2025-26 College Football Playoff is just days away, and the expanded 12-team format means more games, more upsets, and a tougher challenge for bracket pickers. With 11 games to predict correctly, getting a perfect bracket is no easy task. NCAA.com is set to track how many perfect entries remain as the action unfolds, starting with the first-round games this weekend.

How Hard is it to Predict a Perfect CFP Bracket?

This is the second year of the 12-team playoff, and last season proved just how unpredictable it can be. No. 8 seed Ohio State stormed through the bracket as an underdog, knocking off higher seeds like No. 1 Oregon in the Rose Bowl and eventually beating No. 7 Notre Dame in the national championship. It showed that byes don’t always help and road teams can pull off big wins.

The 2025-26 College Football Playoff Bracket and Key Matchups

The College Football Playoff field is locked in, with Indiana earning the No. 1 seed after a strong season. The top four seeds get byes: No. 1 Indiana, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Georgia, and No. 4 Texas Tech.

First-round games kick off on campus sites:

Friday, Dec. 19: No. 9 Alabama at No. 8 Oklahoma (8 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN)
Saturday, Dec. 20:
- No. 10 Miami (Fla.) at No. 7 Texas A&M (12 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN)
- No. 11 Tulane at No. 6 Ole Miss (3:30 p.m. ET, TNT/truTV/HBO Max)
- No. 12 James Madison at No. 5 Oregon (7:30 p.m. ET, TNT/truTV/HBO Max)

Winners advance to the quarterfinals on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, including classics like the Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, and Sugar Bowl. Semifinals are Jan. 8-9 in the Fiesta and Peach Bowls, with the national championship on Jan. 19 in Miami Gardens, Florida.

What Fans Are Picking So Far

According to early data from NCAA’s Bracket Challenge (as of Dec. 18), here’s how picks are shaping up:

Most popular national champion: Indiana (28%), followed by Ohio State (25%) and Georgia (21%).
First-round favorites:
- Oregon over James Madison (93%)
- Ole Miss over Tulane (87%)
- Texas A&M over Miami (69%)
- It’s close for Oklahoma vs. Alabama, with Alabama edging out at 50%.

The closest matchup looks like Oklahoma-Alabama, which could bust a lot of brackets right out of the gate. Lower seeds like James Madison and Tulane have a shot to play spoiler if they pull off upsets.

National Champion Pick Percentage by Team

Team	% picked to win title
No. 1 Indiana	28.44%
No. 2 Ohio State	25.02%
No. 3 Georgia	21.36%
No. 4 Texas Tech	7.14%
No. 5 Oregon	4.75%
No. 9 Alabama	3.60%
No. 7 Texas A&M	2.99%
No. 6 Ole Miss	1.73%
No. 8 Oklahoma	1.63%
No. 10 Miami (Fla.)	1.59%
No. 12 James Madison	1.26%
No. 11 Tulane	0.51%

Why Perfect Brackets Are So Rare

Predicting all 11 winners correctly requires getting every upset right, and college football loves chaos. Last year’s run by Ohio State as a No. 8 seed reminded everyone that anything can happen once the games start. NCAA.com will update the perfect bracket count after each round, so check back to see how quickly they drop.

If you want to play in the free NCAA Bracket Challenge, you can check it out here.

Author

Will Lewis
Have been covering sports of all types for more than 18 years. March Madness is his favorite time of year before we hit the NBA and NHL playoffs. Will is a lifelong Kentucky Wildcats fan and rooted for the Bengals way back when Joe Montana dashed our hopes and dreams. Now a Padres fan as well. He covers all sports here at Sports Brackets.