College Football Playoff rankings and matchups revealed on Selection Day

The College Football Playoff Selection Committee unveiled its final rankings and the bracket for the first-ever field of 12 teams competing for a national title in the expanded playoff format later this month.

The top four seeds in the tournament – Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State – all received a bye in the tournament’s first round and will prepare for a game on either New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. They’ll be watching at home as the rest of the teams compete in the first round of games in a little less than two weeks.

Those matchups are: seventh-seed Notre Dame hosting 10th-seeded Indiana at 8 p.m. ET on December 20, sixth-seeded Penn State hosting 11th-seeded Southern Methodist University at noon ET on December 21, fifth-seeded Texas hosting 12th-seeded Clemson at 4 p.m. ET on December 21 and eighth-seeded Ohio State hosting ninth-seeded Tennessee at 8 p.m. ET on December 21.

SMU is in, Alabama is out and the committee makes a statement

The SMU Mustangs looked like they were set to make the field of 12 despite a heartbreaking loss in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game to Clemson on Saturday, as the Tigers hit a 56-yard field goal as time expired to win the game.

But there were still some nerves. Were the Ponies good enough to make the field over three-loss Alabama, the traditional powerhouse that had only missed the playoffs twice since it began in the 2014 season? By sending the Ponies to the playoffs, the committee set a precedent.

The top four seeds are relishing the rest

Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State each won their conference championship games this weekend and now get to rest and recover for a few weeks before their quarterfinal matchups.

Ohio State vs. Tennessee set to be the marquee matchup of the first round

The first-round game that immediately raised eyebrows is a battle of college football bluebloods. The Ohio State University Buckeyes and the University of Tennessee Volunteers will play under the lights at 8 p.m. on December 21 in Ohio Stadium. The famous venue nicknamed “The Horseshoe” has been home to scores of classics over the years and will present an intimidating atmosphere as the final game of the first round – for both teams.

Texas may have the clearest path to a national championship

The Longhorns will take on Clemson, the ACC champion and only three-loss team in the field. If Texas beats the Tigers, they’ll go on to the Peach Bowl to play Big 12 champion Arizona State, the unlikely fourth team to receive a first-round bye. From there, Texas will face a semifinal matchup against either Oregon, Ohio State or Tennessee. The road gets a lot tougher from that point on, as would be expected.

An in-state showdown in Indiana

There’s usually a stark divide in Indiana’s college athletics: Football is covered in gold and basketball is a deep crimson. This year, Notre Dame’s gold helmets will clash with the Indiana Hoosiers’ crimson and cream in the first round in a game that will not only be to advance in the playoffs but also for home state supremacy. It’ll be the first time the two teams have played each other since 1991.

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Clemson's Nolan Hauser kicks game winning field goal in the ACC championship game against SMU.

The Clemson Tigers know a thing or two or seven about playing in the College Football Playoff (CFP).

The Tigers upset the SMU Mustangs 34-31 in the ACC championship game Saturday on a 56-yard field goal as the clock expired to secure the school’s seventh playoff appearance.

“I’m just proud of our guys. It’s what we do,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said in an ESPN interview on Sunday.

“We’ve had a lot of experience in these moments. Our season wasn’t perfect, but they did enough to earn the opportunity in a 17-team league to get to the championship game and they had to win it.”

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney and his team celebrate after winning the ACC championship game Saturday.

Clemson was appearing in an ACC-record 10th conference championship game only because Miami lost to a then-unranked Syracuse squad on the road last Saturday.

“The game was kind of the epitome of our season just so happy that they finished. They’re a mentally tough group. They are battle-tested. I know a lot of people rode us off after the first game. … We’ve not played our best football. We have in moments but yet we’re in the playoff.”

The Tigers visit the Texas Longhorns in the first round on December 21.

Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti watches from the sideline during a game against Northwestern on October 5 in Chicago.

Despite the Hoosiers unexpected, spectacular season, it still looks and feels odd to see Indiana University in the 12-team CFP playoff.

IU’s first-year head coach has done wonders for the program since moving over from James Madison late last year. Coming into the gig, he had an overall record of 52-9, including a 19-4 run as the Dukes’ head coach in 2022 and 2023. After all, all he does is win - just Google “Curt Cignetti.”

“We were the feel-good story of college football for a long time (this season),” Cignetti told ESPN after IU was paired with Notre Dame in the first round of the playoff.

The Hoosiers astonished the college football world by tearing through their first 10 games unbeaten - leaving teams like UCLA, Nebraska, Washington and Michigan in their wake. The lone blemish this season was to Big Ten powerhouse Ohio State, the second-ranked team in the country at the time.

Hoosier fans celebrate their team's 56-7 victory over the Nebraska Cornhuskers on October 19 in Bloomington, Indiana.

It will be the first time the two teams have played each other since 1991.

The Hoosiers didn’t win that game.

In fact, the boys from Bloomington haven’t beaten Notre Dame in South Bend since 1898.

Cignetti joked about the nearly long-forgotten win.

“I see that 1898 on there,” he said while referring to the ESPN graphic showing the rare victory.

“I think we have accomplished a lot of things that they haven’t accomplished since 1898 this year,” Cignetti said with a smile.

After losing to Ohio State, Cignetti’s men watched and did not play in the Big Ten championship game.

Previously, Cignetti said, “I can’t say enough about what this team has done between the white lines, but they are not satisfied.”

He continued, “They are not done yet. They want more. They are going to get more.”

Seeded No. 7, Notre Dame will host the No. 10 seeded Hoosiers on Friday, December 20 in the first game of the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoffs.

Tennessee linebackers Kalib Perry and Ben Bolton, and quarterback Jake Merklinger hug as they listen to the Pride of the Southland Band play following a game against Vanderbilt on November 30.

It was a resurgent 2024 for the Tennessee Volunteers, who enjoyed their second 10-win regular season in the past 20 years.

Sitting at No. 7 in the CFP rankings with their spot in the 12-team field all but assured, Tennessee got to kick back and enjoy their Saturday while many of the other contenders had to battle in their conference championship games.

After a long stretch of lean years in Knoxville, the Vols have found renewed success under fourth-year coach Josh Heupel. Tennessee has won 37 games in Heupel’s tenure, highlighted by an Orange Bowl victory in 2022.

Tennessee’s best win this season came against heated rival Alabama, with its lone losses coming on the road to Arkansas and SEC champion Georgia.

The Volunteers will play Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio, at 8 p.m. ET on December 21.

Ohio State running back Quinshon Judkins runs the ball during the second half of his team's 13-10 loss to Michigan in Columbus, Ohio, on November 30.

Despite a disastrous end to the season, the Ohio State Buckeyes have a chance of redemption in the College Football Playoffs.

The Buckeyes finished with a 10-2 record but ultimately lost the biggest game of their season so far in the rivalry week defeat against Michigan.

Another loss to the Maize and Blue has piled the pressure on Ohio State head coach Ryan Day who will now know that a strong showing in the playoffs is vital.

“Everybody wants to win this game in the worst way, and nobody wants to win it more than we do, and it’s our number one goal every year,” Day told reporters after the loss to Michigan in late November.

Now Day and Ohio State will turn their targets elsewhere. The Buckeyes know there is no time to feel sorry for themselves ahead of a playoff run.

“I’m sorry to Buckeye Nation, but listen, we still got things ahead of us and we can still run the table and win a national championship,” quarterback Will Howard said after losing to Michigan.

Howard’s performances will be crucial if the Buckeyes can indeed be great. The senior, playing in his first year at Ohio State, has thrown for 27 touchdowns this season, as well as rushing for seven heading into the playoffs.

Ohio State will host Tennessee in the marquee matchup of the first round at 8 p.m. ET on December 21.

Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard throws a pass during a game against Stanford on October 12 in South Bend, Indiana.

If the 2024 season proved anything, it was that the Notre Dame Fighting Irish had a lot of fight in them.

The Irish opened the season in one of the toughest environments to play in — Kyle Field of Texas A&M — and came out victorious, led by quarterback Riley Leonard, who transferred in from Duke ahead of the season.

The joy didn’t last long in South Bend, Indiana.

The following week, Northern Illinois shockingly defeated Notre Dame, the biggest upset in program history, after its last-second field goal was blocked.

It was all doom and gloom, with murmurs of a potential firing of head coach Marcus Freeman starting to break out throughout campus and the school’s massive fanbase.

The Irish never looked back. The defeat to the Huskies was the only loss Notre Dame had the rest of the season.

Notre Dame finished the season 11-1, with program-boosting wins over Louisville, Army at Yankee Stadium, and USC.

Leonard lived up to the pre-season hype - throwing for 2,092 yards and 16 touchdowns while adding 14 touchdowns on the ground.

“Every single week, these guys prepare their tails off,” Leonard said after beating USC last week. “This team, we’ll be very ready and very healed up for this playoff game coming up.”

Notre Dame, one of the most respected football programs ever, will look to win its first title since 1988 and starts its playoff journey against Indiana at home at 8 p.m. ET December 20.

Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson celebrates after a touchdown during a game against Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, on September 7.

Despite being the only Group of Five team in the CFP bracket, Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson likes his squad’s chances against any team in the country.

“Hearing the rankings finally come out and everybody saying ‘Boise State shouldn’t be there.’ I mean, that’s what we’ve been built on,” Danielson told ESPN Sunday. “We talk about ‘respect all, fear none’ here, and our guys are always the hunter, not the hunted.”

After the Mountain West Conference Championship and a 12-1 season where the only blemish was a heartbreaking 37-34 loss on the road against No. 1 Oregon, the Broncos earned a bye as the CFP’s No. 3 seed.

“I’m proud of our team. We’ve been in playoff mentality since week one,” Danielson said. “We lost the game to Oregon. We learned a lot from that game and we grew as a team from that game. And since then, one week at a time, our guys just went to work.”

After decades of success as a perennial mid-major darling, Danielson is happy that the Broncos will finally have the opportunity to compete for a national championship.

“We’ve had years here, I was not a part of them, but years here where Boise State was undefeated, won the Fiesta Bowl, but never really had an opportunity to play for a national championship. And all you really want is a shot as a competitor.”

The Broncos await a quarterfinal game at the Fiesta Bowl, the site of the team’s greatest past successes, against the winner of the first round game between SMU and Penn State. And it’s completely possible that Boise State will once again find itself in the underdog role.

“Everybody can have their opinion.

“I know what we do here is we got to work, and we don’t want anything promised to us,” Danielson told ESPN. “We have an opportunity to play another game on (December) 31st, and I promise you we’ll be ready.”

The Arizona State Sun Devils earned a CFP first-round bye after winning the Big 12 title Saturday.

Head coach Kenny Dillingham addressed the turnaround from last season when the school finished with a 3-9 record.

“The most important thing is the mindset of the person you’re recruiting,” Dillingham said in an ESPN interview. “We said ‘no’ to a lot of kids that were really talented, and we made sure that the guys that were coming in here fit the culture that we wanted to have.”

The Sun Devils (11-2) — who will be making their first playoff appearance — were picked to finish last in the preseason Big 12 poll.

“The guys that we brought in here, they love to compete,” Dillingham added. “I can’t coach people that don’t want to talk a little crap, play ping pong, get their a** beat by me in Madden or 2K whatever that is.

“I love to compete. … and if you don’t love to compete, you’re not going to like it here and that’s really what started the turnaround, was getting guys who are just competitive.”

Arizona will take on the Clemson vs Texas winner in the quarterfinals on New Year’s Day.

Penn State head coach James Franklin watches quarterback Drew Allar throw during the second quarter of the Big Ten championship in Indianapolis on Saturday.

Penn State head coach James Franklin says his team finds ways to win football games. He’s still looking for them to win the big one – and he’ll get the ultimate chance with the expanded playoff.

The Nittany Lions and their multi-faceted offense come into the playoffs with an 11-2 record and a Big Ten Championship game appearance on their resume. Their only losses came against Ohio State and the No. 1 ranked Oregon Ducks. It is a team built on the sum of its parts, with lots of different pieces coming together to complete the puzzle rather than any one standout player.

In an almost perfectly balanced offense, Penn State has 26 rushing touchdowns on the year alongside its 24 receiving touchdowns – shared among a whole host of players. Coming into Saturday’s Big Ten championship game, five Nittany Lions have more than four rushing touchdowns with four Penn State players boasting more than three receiving touchdowns.

Penn State Nittany Lions running back Nicholas Singleton runs during the first quarter of the Big Ten Championship on Saturday.

Tyler Warren and Nicholas Singleton have both had double-digit TD seasons, which will be crucial to Penn State’s chances in the playoffs.

After pounding Maryland 44-7 in late November, Franklin said opposing teams have a problem when trying to stop the senior tight end.

“Yeah, he’s a beast and I think the point is that everybody goes into it saying you got to stop Tyler Warren,” Franklin said of his star man.

“Everybody’s defensive game plan is we can’t allow 44 to impact the game.”

Will anybody find a way to stop Penn State’s star in the playoffs?

“He’s a big-time player, and he’s doing it when all eyes are on him, and he’s the focus of the game plan.”

The Nittany Lions will face SMU at home at noon ET on December 21.

Texas wide receiver DeAndre Moore Jr. scores a touchdown against Georgia in Atlanta on Saturday.

The Texas Longhorns climbed to No. 2 in the penultimate College Football Playoff rankings after an impressive 2024 season, but

The Longhorns are 11-2 after losing a classic SEC championship game in overtime against the Georgia Bulldogs at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Saturday. They’ll play 12th-seeded Clemson at home at 4 p.m. ET on December 21.

After the Bulldogs handed Texas its only regular season loss, Texas was keen for vengeance against the Dawgs but couldn’t overcome a stout Georgia defense and the heroics of the Bulldogs’ tow quarterbacks.

The Longhorns’ beloved 1,700-pound mascot, Bevo, couldn’t attend the game, but don’t blame him — he wasn’t allowed to be there.

Texas’ 11-2 charge to the playoffs has been built on its irrepressible offense and led by its talented quarterback room. Starting QB Quinn Ewers has had another superb season, and when the junior has been unavailable, freshman Arch Manning has stepped in to fill the role impressively.

Ewers has thrown for 2,307 yards and 24 touchdowns across the 10 games he has featured in this season as he continues to build on his notable resume.

Manning has also shown he is more than capable of leading an offense. The nephew of legendary NFL quarterbacks, Peyton and Eli, expectations could not be higher for Arch but the teenager looks to be proving that the Manning Dynasty is in safe hands. Manning has been responsible for nine passing and four rushing touchdowns across seven games this season.