College Football Playoff 1st-Round Schedule, TV Info Announced for 2025 Bracket

The schedule for the opening round of the 2026 College Football Playoff has been set.

The second edition of the 12-team playoff will kick off on Friday, Dec. 19. Here's a look at the newly announced first-round schedule.

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2026 CFP First Round Broadcast Schedule

Friday, Dec. 19

• 8 p.m. ET: ABC and ESPN

Saturday, Dec. 20

• Noon ET (ABC and ESPN)

• 3:30 p.m. ET (TNT, truTV and HBO Max)

• 7:30 p.m. ET (TNT, truTV and HBO Max)

The location of each first-round game will be announced on Dec. 7 as part of Selection Day.

The playoff quarterfinals will begin on Wednesday, Dec. 31 with the Cotton Bowl on ESPN.

ESPN will air the rest of the playoff, which culminates in a Monday, Jan. 19 championship game in Miami.

Fans will get a first look at what the final bracket could look like when the first CFP rankings of the year are announced Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET.

The final AP Top 25 poll released ahead of the rankings featured Ohio State at the top of the rankings for the 10th straight week.

The rest of the top seven remained unchanged with Indiana, Texas A&M, Alabama, Georgia, Oregon and Ole Miss hanging on to their spots.

Top-12 AP poll risers ahead of the first CFP ranking included BYU, Texas Tech, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Virginia.

Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech meanwhile slipped out of the top 12 of the AP poll following losses last weekend to Texas and NC State, respectively.

The final CFP bracket will award automatic playoff spots to the five highest-ranked conference champions.

Unlike last year, however, the top four conference champions won't get automatic first-round byes. Those will instead go to the four highest-ranked teams as seeded by the CFP Selection Committee.

The first round will feature teams ranked No. 5 through No. 12 in the final CFP rankings as announced on Selection Day.

Locations will be decided by the No. 5 seed (against No. 12), No. 6 seed (against No. 11), No. 7 seed (against No. 10) and No. 8 seed (against No. 9).