Week 14 of the 2024-2025 college football season was one of the craziest in recent memory. Planting flags at midfield, fights ensuing between bitter rivals, and upsets that no one saw coming made this week truly remarkable. 

Most importantly, however, is that fans now know who will be playing for the nine FBS conference championship games, and in turn are one step closer to figuring outthe field for the first ever 12 team playoff. Here is the blank 12 team playoff bracket:

Image from collegefootballplayoff.com 

The conference title games are listed below, with the first four matches being the “Power 4” conferences, and the following five being the “Group of 5.” The top team listed is the higher seed, and the AAC, C-USA, Mountain West, and Sun Belt all play the title games at the higher seeded team’s home stadium (the other conferences play neutral site games).

Championship games start next week, and of those nine winners, the four “Power 4” conference winners gain an automatic spot in the playoff. Along with this, the highest ranked “Group of 5” conference winner is automatically given a spot regardless of ranking, and that spot will likely be given to the winner of the Mountain West title game between 10th ranked Boise State and 20th ranked UNLV. Of these five conference winners, the four highest-ranked teams will gain an automatic bye in the first round, slotting into seeds 1 through 4. The fifth conference winner will be placed at their CFP ranking position if ranked 12 or higher. If that team is ranked outside the top 12, they will be placed at seed 12.

After those games are finalized, the Selection Committee will move towards selecting at-large bids. These are just teams that did not win their conference championship, but have a strong enough track record throughout the season to advocate for a playoff spot. The Selection Committee takes a look at things such as head-to-head results, strength of schedule, strength of record, comparison to common opponents, and other metrics to determine which seven teams they deem fit to compete for a national championship.  

For the first round of games, the higher seeded team will host the lower seeded team. The winners of those games will then face off against the teams who earned a bye, and those quarterfinal games will be played at four of the six “New Year’s Six” bowl games (six of the 10 oldest bowl games still being played), with those being the Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl. The other two of the New Year’s Six games will host the semifinals, and that will be the Orange Bowl and the Cotton Bowl this year. These sites for the semi finals are on a three year cycle of pairs, and change every year. The championship game will be played on Monday, Jan. 20 in Atlanta, Georgia, and will put the stamp on the 2024-2025 NCAA FBS season.

There is a lot of uncertainty of how this playoff will shake out, as it is the first edition with 12 teams. However, if the product on the field keeps up to par with the regular season, the 12 team playoff will be here to stay. 

*These rankings are from the Dec. 3 College Football Playoff poll.*