Brackets means seeds. And with that comes seeing which combination of seeds will advance to each round of the College Football Playoff.
Since the first season of the CFP in 2014, we've seen different seeds go on runs and win it all. The first year of the 12-team era in 2024 showed how the possibilities became even greater — Ohio State lost to rival Michigan in the regular-season finale to miss out on playing in the Big Ten title game... but received the No. 8 seed in the CFP and won four playoff games, all by double digits, to win the national championship.
POLLS: Here are all the latest top 25 rankings
Here's the complete breakdown of how seeds have done in the College Football Playoff era. Because it was only a four-team field from 2014 through the 2023 seasons before the current 12-team bracket, we separated the two formats in different columns before combining them into one, overall record.
Not surprisingly, the No. 1 seed had the best record in the four-team era at 12-6. The top seed also won four of the 10 CFP titles (No. 2 won three, No. 4 won two and No. 3 won once) — all coming in the last five seasons of the four-team bracket. The 12 wins in 10 seasons also means the No. 1 seed advanced to the title game each year, on average (the seed averaged more than one win per year in the CFP era).
It's important to note that besides the expansion leading to a different bracket setup, the seedings also are a little different. In the four-team format, the selection committee's four-highest ranked teams got seeded 1-4 — no matter how they did in terms of winning a conference. But in the first year of the 12-team bracket, the four highest-ranked conference champions received the top four seeds and a bye. In the only year of this practice, Boise State was ranked No. 9 and Arizona State was ranked No. 12, but because they were the third- and fourth-highest ranked conference champions they got seeded Nos. 3 and 4. Going forward, the committee's four highest-ranked teams will get the top four seeds and byes — they don't have to be conference champions.
Week 5 of the College Football season did not disappoint. In what was promised to be a day of ranked matchups and wall-to-wall action, Saturday was packed with upsets and overtime finishes. Six top 25 teams fell, including three of the top 5. As a result, the Week 6 AP Top 25 features some major movement, so let's break it down.
Ohio State remains No. 1 with 46 first-place votes after a win at Washington, but Oregon surged four spots to No. 2 and picked up 16 first-place votes following its double-overtime victory at Penn State. Miami slipped one spot to No. 3 despite being idle, while Ole Miss rocketed nine places to No. 4 after beating LSU in Oxford. Oklahoma benefited in its bye week, rounding out the top five for its highest placement in two years.
Texas A&M starts Week 6 just outside the top 5 at No. 6 after taking care of business against Auburn. Indiana has entered the top 10 for the second straight season after a 20-15 victory over Iowa. Texas moved up one spot out of its bye week, while Alabama has reentered the top 10 after snapping Georgia's nation-leading 33-game home winning streak.
The losses piled up for several contenders. Penn State fell four spots to No. 7 after its home loss to Oregon. James Franklin now falls to 2-21 against AP top 6 opponents. Georgia tumbled all the way out of the top 10 to No. 12 after going down to Alabama. LSU dropped nine spots to No. 13 after another lackluster offensive showing in Oxford, and Florida State slid 10 spots to No. 18 after an overtime loss at then-unranked Virginia.
RANK SCHOOL POINTS RECORD PREV
1 Ohio State (46) 1626 4-0 1
2 Oregon (16) 1589 5-0 6
3 Miami (Fla.) (4) 1529 4-0 2
4 Ole Miss 1354 5-0 13
5 Oklahoma 1313 4-0 7
6 Texas A&M 1308 4-0 9
7 Penn State 1179 3-1 3
8 Indiana 1156 5-0 11
9 Texas 1071 3-1 10
10 Alabama 1057 3-1 17
11 Texas Tech 967 4-0 12
12 Georgia 965 3-1 5
13 LSU 838 4-1 4
14 Iowa State 830 5-0 14
15 Tennessee 697 4-1 15
16 Vanderbilt 640 5-0 18
17 Georgia Tech 549 5-0 16
18 Florida State 535 3-1 8
19 Missouri 528 5-0 20
20 Michigan 422 3-1 19
21 Notre Dame 333 2-2 22
22 Illinois 271 4-1 23
23 BYU 191 4-0 25
24 Virginia 125 4-1 NR
25 Arizona State 107 4-1 NR
Others receiving votes: South Florida 53, Utah 52, Mississippi St. 46, Memphis 38, Louisville 36, Southern Cal 22, Maryland 7, North Texas 7, TCU 6, UNLV 3.
Teams receiving first-place votes
School Record First-place votes
Ohio State 4-0 58
Oregon 5-0 6
Miami (Fla.) 4-0 1
Movers of the week
Biggest jumps: Ole Miss was ranked in the top 5 for two weeks in 2024 and made it out of the month back in the top 5 in 2025. Tide climb nine spots back into CFP contention after win at Georgia.
Biggest drops: The Seminoles were stunned at Virginia, falling out of the top 15 as they look to recover against Miami. LSU's resume hasn't aged as well as it would have liked, and with the loss to Ole Miss, the Tigers will have to fight their way back into the top 10. The Bulldogs' loss to the Crimson Tide puts Kirby Smart's record against the Tide at 1-7 (0-2 against Kalen DeBoer).
New entrants: Virginia finds itself in the Top 25 for the first time since 2019 with its win over then-top 10 Florida State.
The 2023-24 Michigan Wolverines became the 64th undefeated college football national champion since 1936 in their dominating 34-13 win against Washington to go 15-0 during the 2023 college football season.
In 2022, Georgia became the fourth college football team ever to finish the season at 15-0, and the second in consecutive years. Penn was first to do so in 1897 and Clemson and LSU followed in 2018 and 2019.
The Associated Press didn’t begin crowning the NCAA national champion until 1936, so that’s where we’ll start with this list of every undefeated national champion.
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Notre Dame has the most undefeated seasons with six, followed by Nebraska and Alabama with five each, then Oklahoma and Ohio State with four each.
Nebraska was the first national champion to have a record better than 11-0, finishing 13-0 in 1971. Ohio State in 2002 became the first team to get to 14-0 and win a national championship. Though LSU and Clemson have finished undefeated in consecutive seasons (2018 Clemson, 2019 LSU), they were the first to do so since Florida State in 2013.
Here’s a list of every undefeated national champion since 1936. We made this list based on our own history page here. For some years there are two champions listed because they were co-champions. Southern California in 2004 is not included in the list because its season was vacated.
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