Week 1 of the 2025 college football season features a loaded slate, including LSU at Clemson, Notre Dame at Miami and Alabama at Florida State, among others. LSU-Clemson could be a top-five matchup, as could the biggest headliner: Manning and Texas visiting Ohio State in a matchup of the 2024 national champion and our early 2025 favorite.

In or out? A verdict on which of the College Football Playoff qualifiers will be back in the bracket next season.

For the last two seasons, former Arizona tight end Rob Gronkowski has served as a master of ceremonies for the LA Bowl in Inglewood, Calif. Although the public associates him far more closely with his NFL career, the partnership keeps Gronkowski connected to the college game.

Here's the complete schedule for the College Football Playoff for the 2025-26 season, including game dates, how to watch and teams. This is the second year of the 12-team playoff.

It's never too early to look ahead to next season's College Football Playoff despite the Ohio State Buckeyes capturing the National Championship just weeks ago.

Ohio State reigned supreme in the first year of the 12-team College Football Playoff, defeating Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame on its road to glory. Like most things in college sports right now,

Many overreacted when the Vols were dominated by Ohio State in the first round of the College Football Playoff, but it turned out that the Buckeyes were simply superior to everyone in the 12-team field.

One of those teams is the South Carolina Gamecocks. They finished the 2024 season with a record of 9-4, their highest number of wins since 2017. South Carolina was among the first teams left out of the College Football Playoff, finishing ranked No. 15 in the final CFP standings.

The first 12-team Playoff had a lot of great moments. It could also use some tweaks. In the short term, leaders are unlikely to make major changes to the format for the 2025 season. The bigger stuff is more likely to come in 2026, when the new contracts kick in and the SEC and Big Ten basically get to do whatever they want.

Now that it’s all over and the Ohio State Buckeyes are the college football national champions, it can be definitively said: Expanding the College Football Playoff worked.

The 11 College Football Playoff games averaged 15.6 million viewers according to Nielsen, as audiences increased during each round.

When Texas travels to Ohio State for a Cotton Bowl rematch to kick off the 2025 season, it'll mark a historic season-opener.