The College Football Playoff has revealed the schedule for the First Round games in 2025, which is the second year of the expanded 12-team format.
The College Football Playoff will begin on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025 one First Round game. The contest will kickoff at 8:00pm ET and the game will be televised by ABC and ESPN.
Then on Saturday, Dec. 20, First Round games continue at noon ET, and that contest will also air on ABC and ESPN. The final two First Round playoff games will air back-to-back via TNT, truTV, and HBO Max, and they will kickoff at 3:30pm ET and 7:30pm ET.
“We are pleased to work with both ESPN and TNT Sports to deliver these first-round games to fans across the country in premier viewing windows,” said Rich Clark, executive director of the College Football Playoff. “We also appreciate the collaboration with the National Football League in coordinating schedules to best serve fans of both college and professional football. This all reflects the growing reach and excitement surrounding the new Playoff format, and we look forward to showcasing the best of college football on both networks.”
The College Football Playoff previously announced the bulk of the 2025-26 schedule in April. The College Football Playoff quarterfinals begin on New Year’s Eve (Wednesday, Dec. 31) with the CFP Quarterfinal at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, at 7:30pm ET on ESPN.
Quarterfinal round action continues on New Year’s Day, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, with games at the Capital One Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens, Fla. (noon ET, ESPN), Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena, Calif. (4:00pm ET, ESPN), and Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, La. (8:00pm ET, ESPN).
The College Football Playoff Semifinals this season will be played on consecutive weeknights in January. The Vrbo Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., is up first on Thursday, Jan. 8, followed by the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta, Ga., on Friday, Jan. 9. Both games will be televised by ESPN at 7:30pm ET.
The College Football National Championship concludes the college football season on Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. The two playoff semifinal winners will meet at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium and the game will be televised by ESPN at 7:30pm ET.
Check out the complete schedule for the 2025-26 College Football Playoff below (all times Eastern):
FIRST-ROUND GAMES
Friday, Dec. 19, 2025
CFP First Round Game – 8pm, ABC/ESPN
Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025
CFP First Round Game – 12pm, ABC/ESPN
CFP First Round Game – 3:30pm, TNT/truTV
CFP First Round Game – 7:30pm, TNT/truTV
QUARTERFINAL ROUND GAMES
Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025
Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic – 7:30pm, ESPN
Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2026
Capital One Orange Bowl – 12pm, ESPN
Rose Bowl Game – 4pm, ESPN
Allstate Sugar Bowl – 8pm, ESPN
SEMIFINAL ROUND GAMES
Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026
Vrbo Fiesta Bowl – 7:30pm, ESPN
Friday, Jan. 9, 2026
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl – 7:30pm, ESPN
Monday, Jan. 19, 2026
CFP National Championship – 7:30pm, ESPN
Hard Rock Stadium – Miami Gardens, Fla.
College Football Playoff Schedule
College Football Playoff announces kickoff times for first round games beginning on Friday, December 19. pic.twitter.com/Rnb0Et6BcT
— FBSchedules.com (@FBSchedules) November 4, 2025
The CFB poobahs are just dumb. They should take the B10’s proposal and replace the conference title games with a 24-team playoff. First and second rounds in the first 2 weeks of Dec (when Saturdays and Friday nights are protected against the NFL). 8 games each of those weekends at 6PM and 9:30PM EST Friday, 11AM, 2:30PM, 6PM, 9:30PM EST Sat, and primetime Tues and Wed. Mountain and PST schools can host any game outside of the 11AM EST timeslot. EST schools can host any game outside of the 9:30EST time slots.
2 TV packages up for bid: The slate of 4 Sat games with first 4 picks each weekend + The slate of 4 weeknight games with last 4 picks. Each pick is for a first round game + bye team pair. All first round winners would play on the same day of the week the next weekend.
Army-Navy can feel free to move to noon the third weekend of Dec if they want to.
24 teams are far too many. No way are there 24 teams worthy of playing for a championship.
12 teams is too many, 24 is preposterous
Who should decide “too many” or “worthy” and why?
Are 14 out of 32 NFL teams “worthy” of playing for a championship?
Richard, you are getting there with the 24 number, but not quite. I applaud you, but let me help make your idea even better. In the years prior to the 12-team playoff, be it the 4-team CFP or the 2-team BSC, there was usually 2 or 3 (rare occasions 4) Group of 5 (now 6) schools that were in the Top 25 before bowl season. So here is my plan for the 24-team playoff. First, the Army-Navy game is moved to Week 0. That is to move the Power 4 conference championships one week later so each power conference can have a 4-team conference playoffs, just as basketball has a conference tourney before March Madness. The weekend that is currently conference championship weekend becomes the weekend for the P4 semifinals. All four P4 conference playoff teams (that’s 16 total) are automatic qualify in the CFP, but the 8 winners of the P4 conference semi-finals get a first round bye. Each conference can increase the value of their TV deals with 2 semifinal games that determine a team getting a CFP bye. The top 2 Group of 6 conference champions also make the playoffs. In years past it was not uncommon to see 2-4 G5 in the top 25, so 2 AQ in a field of 24 is not too much. That leaves 6 At Large spots for Notre Dame, P4 teams that are outside their 4-team conference playoff, *or an exceptional G6 school that had a strong regular season but was upset in their conference championship. The results of the P4 Championship games will help in seeding the #1-8 bye teams. The first round would be #9-24 and scheduled on the calendar midway between the conference championship and NYE, hypothetically this year the conference championships would be December 13 (maybe one primetime on Friday Dec 12th) and the CFP first round would be Dec 22 & 23. Round 2 would be NYE and Jan 1st. If we go with the logic of the naysayers who think 12 are too many, then using their logic the March Madness basketball tourney should be scaled back to 16. I think a 24 team playoff field out of 136 FBS (17.64%) schools is far more exclusive than the 14 of 32 (43.75%) NFL field.
I forgot to mention in my last post, the semi-finals and quarterfinals would continue to rotate among the current six bowls, but the 8 second round games would include great (additional) bowl games as well. Those bowl games would be Gator Bowl (major renovations forthcoming), Music City Bowl (new Nashville stadium), Citrus Bowl, Gasparilla Bowl, Alamo Bowl (renovated/new stadium planned), Texas Bowl (or revived Bluebonnet Bowl), Las Vegas Bowl (or revived Silver Bowl). That’s 7 of the 8 needed for the second round. For the final game, the Holiday Bowl in San Diego would be preferred, but Snapdragon is (unfortunately) too small a venue. So the NFL stadium in Los Angeles will have to get the final spot. I, personally, find the name Los Angeles Bowl more lame and undesirable than Texas Bowl and Las Vegas Bowl. Naming aside, those would be great sites and venues to host 4 games each on New Years Eve and New Years Day. Yes, there are 3 games in Florida, but it would be spread out over two days.
what if I told you…….Friday Night December 19th….. Iowa vs Georgia
The Game Nobody Ever Wanted
thank u espn for ruining our sport and the youtubes tv
What’s wrong with Iowa v. Georgia? If both teams earn it, they deserve to play each other.
Dave, I’m finding that a TON of sports fans are curmudgeonly curmudgeons who are curmudgeonly about _any_ change that makes a sport different from how it was when they were growing up.
And yeah, I’m pretty certain UGa and (especially) Iowa fans (who wouldn’t expect to make the playoffs often) would want that game. Millions of people is not “nobody”.
thats the point iowa lost to iowa st. they dont deserve it. theres 4 teams maybe who can win it they ruined it
Pavia,
What you said is as nonsensical as saying that the 12-5 Ravens didn’t deserve to make the NFL playoffs last year because they lost to the Raiders.
No word whether TNT Sports will continue to use ESPN’s production and broadcasters? Or will they take over this (or next) season?
Richard, you don’t speak for “millions of people.” Stop pretending that you do. The fact is that millions of fans will watch UGA play Iowa, if it comes to that. Millions of fans will watch any two teams who make the playoffs. If you don’t want to watch those teams play, don’t watch.
Uh, Dave, you’re literally agreeing with what I said. And I didn’t say I wouldn’t watch UGa-Iowa. Please learn to read.