CFP Rankings Release Schedule Announced for 2025, Bracket Reveal Set for Dec. 7

The College Football Playoff has announced six ranking reveal dates for the 2025 season, beginning on Tuesday, November 4 and ending on Sunday, December 7, with selection day.

Like last year, the final playoff bracket on Dec. 7 will feature 12 postseason teams.

However, this year will feature a different ranking system, as explained by the CFP last May. The five highest-ranked champions will still be in the 12-team field, but the top four league winners will not be granted first-round byes this time. Instead, the bracket will be seeded based on the CFP Selection Committee's final ranking.

The CFP will also be using enhanced metrics to help determine the field's teams and the final ranking, per ESPN's Heather Dinich.

"In the current schedule strength metric, more weight will be applied to games against strong opponents," Dinich wrote. "The new metric of 'record strength' will help the committee determine how teams performed against their schedule, rewarding those that beat high-quality opponents while minimizing the penalty of losing to one. These changes will also provide minimal reward for beating a lower-quality opponent while imposing a greater penalty for losing."

The playoff itself will have the same schedule format as last year, with four first-round games at campus sites before the tournament moves to neutral fields for the quarterfinals on New Year's Eve (one game) and New Year's Day (three games). The Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl will host the semifinals on January 8 and January 9 before the national championship occurs on January 19 in Miami.

Ohio State won the first-ever 12-team playoff last year, defeating Notre Dame in the championship. Both teams are ranked highly going into this season, with OSU sitting third in the Associated Press' preseason poll and Notre Dame at sixth. Texas and Penn State are first and second, respectively, with Clemson and Georgia at fourth and fifth.