Projected College Football Playoff bracket: How the 2025 field would look based on post-spring top 25 rankings

The expanded 12-team College Football Playoff debuts this fall, creating one of the biggest changes in the sport’s storied history. Suddenly, fans will have to get used to differentiating rankings from seedings, and teams that finish in the top 12 of the rankings will unceremoniously get pushed out of the field. 

CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd released his post-spring top 25 on Wednesday, which sets the stage for the new field. Granted, a post-spring top 25 does not include all the nuance of teams playing a full schedule, but it comes close enough to let us tinker with the new format and give you a first look at how it may work. 

There are a few things to note before we dive in. First, get these words into your head: ranking and seeding. The committee will release a final ranking, but seeding is the only thing that matters. In this bracket, the No. 3 team in the country will enter as the No. 5 seed. The No. 14 team jumps up to the No. 4 seed. That’s how the system works. 

Second, a post-spring ranking is only one piece of context. Many of the top 10 teams in the top 25 will play — and beat — each other along the way, and potentially knock each other out. It’s unlikely that five of the top seven teams will ultimately come from one conference alone. 

One last point: We are treating Boise State as the top Group of Five champion despite coming from outside the poll. Per the CFP Committee’s protocols, if there is not a fifth champion in the final rankings, they will specifically compare the remaining conference champions and determine a fifth outside of the rankings. That protocol never became relevant in the previous CFP rankings, where multiple Group of Five teams often finished ranked. 

Without further ado, here is how our post-spring top 25 would translate to the College Football Playoff field in 2024. 

Dodd’s Top 25 Rankings

1. Georgia*
2. Ohio State*
3. Oregon
4. Texas
5. Alabama
6. Ole Miss
7. Missouri
8. Notre Dame
9. Penn State
10. LSU
11. Utah*
12. Michigan
13. Oklahoma
14. Clemson*
15. Arizona
16. Tennessee
17. Miami
18. Washington
19. Kansas State
20. Florida State
21. Kansas
22. SMU
23. Texas A&M
24. NC State
25. Oklahoma State

Other: Boise State*

*projected conference champion

CFP Seeds

1. Georgia
2. Ohio State
3. Utah
4. Clemson
5. Oregon
6. Texas
7. Alabama
8. Ole Miss
9. Missouri
10. Notre Dame
11. Penn State
12. Boise State

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13. LSU
14. Michigan
15. Oklahoma

Analysis: Welcome to the new era. Despite finishing in the top 10, LSU is projected to miss the field. Three teams ranked behind them — Utah, Clemson and Boise State — push…