The College Football Playoff is changing again for the 2025 season. The 12-team model remains, but this time around the new seeding format will rank teams in order rather than prioritizing conference champions for the first round bye.

What does that mean for this season and the top candidates to make the playoff? The path to a championship is certainly going to be a tough one for every team now that the byes and seeding order don't create easier paths for multiple teams.

Our team of college football analysts took a collective dive into predicting this year's playoff bracket. Each contributor ranked their top 12 projected seeds, then we combined those results to project the most likely College Football Playoff field. From there, our analysts broke down the argument for and against a number of these top college football teams. Enjoy!

College Football Playoff Bracket Prediction

1. Clemson Tigers
2. Texas Longhorns
3. Ohio State Buckeyes
4. Penn State Nittany Lions
5. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
6. Georgia Bulldogs
7. Oregon Ducks
8. LSU Tigers
9. Florida Gators
10. Alabama Crimson Tide
11. Arizona State Sun Devils
12. Southern Miss Golden Eagles

Clemson or Texas battle for top seed

The battle for the one seed like comes down to Clemson and Texas this year. Clemson returns quarterback Cade Klubnik and about a half dozen early round NFL Draft picks on both sides of the ball. Texas will be trotting out Arch Manning full-time with a ton of speed at wide receiver and experience at most levels of their defense with plenty NFL talent of their own.

Clemson just needs to take care of business against LSU to open the season. If they can do that there's a great chance the Tigers aren't even challenged again until they're at least 6-0 thanks to their soft early season ACC schedule. There's a real path to a 12-0 regular season finish if their late 2024 offensive improvements translate to this year.

Everything for Texas hinges upon Arch Manning looking like the five star talent that he is this season. Steve Sarkisian has an incredible offensive scheme with plenty of skill talent to help him pull it off. If Texas can beat Ohio State to open the year the race for the one-seed likely goes through them all season long. – Travis May

Ohio State not as dominant but boasts elite talents

Ohio State just had 14 players selected in the NFL Draft, and several other starters earned undrafted free agent deals. The Buckeyes will be replacing a significant amount of talent on both sides of the ball, but they return what might be the best player on each side in wide receiver Jeremiah Smith and safety Caleb Downs.

Once again, Ohio State will be starting a new quarterback—this time, likely Julian Sayin—and it’s very possible he’ll experience some growing pains as he adjusts to being the starter. Given how much the team is replacing, I don’t expect the Buckeyes to be quite as dominant, so I’d be comfortable placing them at No. 4 for now. – Brandon Little

Penn State must overcome Ohio State and Oregon

The top seed in the College Football Playoff could ultimately come down to the results of the games between the top trio of Big Ten teams in Oregon, Ohio State, and Penn State. While I think multiple other teams are also in the mix when it's all said and done, I have my eye on the November matchup between Ohio State and Penn State more than anything. Drew Allar could finally push Penn State past Ohio State. There's a real chance both teams enter that game undefeated in the conference. The winner of that game should be in the drivers seat for a spot in the Big Ten championship and one of top seeds in the CFP.

Ohio State lost a lot of talent from last year's national championship roster. But to the surprise of no one they reloaded in a big way through the transfer portal and some of the top recruits in the country. At this moment, my money would be on Ohio State winning the Big Ten, keeping Penn State down yet again, and going on to be the top seed in the CFP. – Destin Adams

Notre Dame still has a shot at a championship

Notre Dame heads into a very interesting 2025 season. There is a strong argument–and one I subscribe to–that the Fighting Irish were a year ahead of schedule and overachieved last season. Even with a couple of big defections from the team, particularly on defense, the team brings a lot of talent back this fall. The defense should be borderline elite once again, having one of the better secondaries returning in college football, and the deepest defensive line and linebacker rooms they have had in a very long time.

On offense, they will once again be a running football team led by All-American Jeremiyah Love. The offensive line should be one of the better overall groups they have had in several years, and so should the wide receiver room. If the offense can ease a younger quarterback along, and show steady improvements throughout the season, Notre Dame has a chance to be in the national title conversation again in 2025. – Ryan Roberts

Georgia could take a small step back

Georgia has earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to expectations as much as any program in the country. Kirby Smart can take a relatively star-less defense and make it elite, but the challenges of harboring a top tier offense in the NIL era are showing. Smart has followed his mentor Nick Saban in struggling to adapt to a world where you can't simply roster as many five stars as possible and reload every year.

Returning only 46.5% of their production from 2024 (ranking 97th) and replacing Carson Beck at quarterback puts Georgia in an unfavorable position. While Beck wasn't amazing in 2024, he wasn't working with an all star cast of playmakers. When his backup Gunner Stockton saw the field, he looked even more lost.

The team's playmaking has improved with the additions of Zachariah Branch and Noah Thomas, plus keeping tight end Oscar Delp in Athens is a boost. However, the defense lacks the elite presences of yesteryear, and the quarterback position is a huge question mark. They may struggle more than many expect. – Ian Valentino

LSU Tigers have a high ceiling and low floor

LSU is quite the unpredictable beast. Their offense contains arguably the most talent of any unit in the country, led by potential Heisman Trophy candidate QB Garrett Nussmeier. Their defense is the wildcard once again. After struggling for much of last year, they’ll have some key pieces back from injury and expect some transfers to step up. Brian Kelly made sure to find depth and star power in the transfer portal when it comes to talent. Will those additions mesh well enough to overcome a tough, gritty SEC schedule. Only time will tell. Kelly is sure hoping that’s the case.

Relying so heavily on transfer portal moves has backfired before, but we’ve also see teams flourish following an impressive offseason of transfer action. LSU will be another experiment in that field. Pinpointing exactly where the Tigers land is tough because they could finish the season in the top five or unranked. Neither would particularly shock me. – Adam Holt

Florida will go as far as DJ Lagway takes them

The Florida Gators are a fascinating team. They only have 19 wins over the first three years of Billy Napier's tenure. However, the four-game winning streak to end last season paired with DJ Lagway not losing a single start that he finished provide some real hope. It's a gauntlet of a schedule for the Gators, but they have something that arguably no other team in the country has: the potential to have the best offensive line in the country and a top 10 defense.

Two losses will still get the Gators into the playoff, and they're likely going to lose at least that. Florida has games against LSU, Georgia, Texas, and Ole Miss–winning at least half of those should prove crucial in getting to the College Football Playoff, but it's doable. Lagway is very likely to take a big next step. Dynamic quarterback play could elevate the Gators back to the level they were under Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer. – Tyler Forness

Alabama sneaks back into the playoff with underrated talent

For the first time in a while, there is some significant uncertainty surrounding the Alabama Crimson Tide. Was last year just growing pains or a sign of what's to come? What will the QB situation look like between Ty Simpson and five star freshman Keelon Russell? The concerns are valid, but the team still returns some of the best players in college football. Kadyn Proctor, Ryan Williams, and Deontae Lawson are all back. Not to mention, Kalen DeBoer has his right-hand man now in Tuscaloosa this year via offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb.

A second year for everyone under DeBoer should be huge. The inclusion of Grubb's concepts has a chance to be a major dynamic for an offense that, right or wrong, catered more to Jalen Milroe's strengths than it did Kalen DeBoer's offense. Because of that, I am bullish on the Crimson Tide. I believe they may actually outperform expectations opposed to underperforming, like they did in 2024. – Rob Gregson

Southern Miss jumps from worst to first

Southern Miss went 1-11 last season, so how in the world did our team of college football analysts land with them as the 12-seed? In short, they're a completely different team than they were a year ago thanks to new head coach Charles Huff.

Huff just led the Marshall Thundering Herd to a 10-3 record last season, ultimately winning the Sun Belt Conference Championship, but then jumped ship to rebuild Southern Miss. Huff brought with him 52 transfers, including his star quarterback Braylon Braxton and 20 other players from the 10-3 Marshall team.

Braxton returns as possibly the best quarterback in the entirety of the Group of Five ranks and he'll get to toss the ball to several players he's already familiar with from last season. The defense will be a bit questionable early on as the new pieces (at least six new transfer starters) gel together, but Southern Miss should be stacked by Sun Belt Conference standards. If they can defeat Mississippi State to open the season–which is quite feasible–there's a path to a 12-0 or 11-1 season given their mess of a schedule this year. This would be a phenomenal "story of the year" turnaround. – Travis May

Other Teams Receiving Votes:

South Carolina
Indiana
Miami
SMU
Boise State
Texas Tech
Utah
James Madison
Navy
Illinois

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We'll be back with more College Football coverage here at A to Z Sports soon! Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news!

If you want to see why the Clemson Tigers are in such a good position to become the one-seed in the College Football Playoff just check out Cade Klubnik's highlights from last season in the video below.

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