When Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and his SEC counterpart Greg Sankey could not agree on a new College Football Playoff system for the 2026-27 season, the entire postseason was left in purgatory.
The CFP will remain at 12 teams, not expand to 16 as Sankey prefers, nor double to 24 in the format championed by Petitti, and the ripple effect has been felt everywhere. All six-year contracts governing the bowl system expired in January, but the leagues and bowls opted to extend their previous deals by one year. That has lengthened an already awkward bowl arrangement between the former and current Pac-12 schools. There are also a couple of CFP tweaks that will spark heavy discussion as the postseason picture crystallizes in late November and early December.
Before we get into the projections, here are other particulars to know about the 2026-27 postseason.
CFP alterations
The CFP consists of five conference champions and seven at-large selections — just like in its first two iterations as a 12-team event — but it will be composed differently. Instead of the top five conference champions earning bids, now the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC champions get automatic berths, as does the highest-ranked team (conference title no longer required) from the Group of 6 conferences: American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12 and Sun Belt. In addition, Notre Dame qualifies for the CFP if the selection committee ranks it in the top 12.
Had these rules been in place last year, Duke and Notre Dame would have replaced James Madison and Miami (Fla.) in the 12-team tournament.
Historical bowl ties will no longer figure into where top seeds are placed for CFP quarterfinals. Previously, if the Big Ten and SEC champions earned first-round byes, they slotted into the Rose and Sugar bowls, respectively. Now, the top three teams will choose their destinations in their rank order. If, for instance, Ohio State is seeded No. 1, it could pick the Peach Bowl for proximity or Pasadena for nostalgia.
Another change comes in the CFP viewership options. ABC/ESPN has evenly split its CFP distribution with TNT/HBO through the national semifinals. TNT/HBO will air the final two first-round matchups on Dec. 19, quarterfinals at the Fiesta Bowl (Dec. 30) and either the Cotton or Peach bowl (Jan. 1) plus the semifinal at the Orange Bowl (Jan. 14). ESPN will broadcast the first two first-round games (Dec. 18-19), the Rose Bowl and either the Cotton or Peach bowls (Jan. 1), the Sugar Bowl (Jan. 15) and CFP championship (Jan. 25).
Starting times for the Rose, Cotton and Peach bowls will be set after seeding becomes finalized. The Rose will kick off either in its traditional midday slot or in primetime.
Bowl-oney
If CFP scheduling is a bit confusing, it has nothing on the contract bowls. When 10 Pac-12 members left the old version of the conference for the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC in 2024, most bowl contracts still had two years remaining. The stop-gap solution held the former Pac-12 schools (plus holdovers Oregon State and Washington State) in place for two years as part of a “Pac-12 Legacy” bowl agreement. It was a patchwork arrangement for two seasons, but in this extra year, it becomes even more complicated.
Washington State and Oregon State, which reformed the Pac-12 with six other schools, are considered Pac-12 Legacy teams except if they qualify for the newly constituted Poinsettia Bowl, in which they would be considered a current Pac-12 school. None of the Pac-12 Legacy teams can fill bowl spots for their current leagues, which makes things tough for the Cactus Bowl. The Phoenix-area bowl has a Big Ten-Big 12 matchup but can’t invite the leagues’ Arizona or California schools.
Five new Pac-12 members competed last year in the Mountain West, and those two leagues are slated to meet in the Hawaii Bowl and perhaps others, with fewer direct slots set aside for specific Group of 6 conferences in the numerous bowls owned by ESPN Events.
The SEC and Big Ten alternated sending teams to the Duke’s Mayo and Las Vegas bowls over the previous six years. This year, the SEC heads to Vegas, while the Big Ten travels to Charlotte.
Projections
In what could be the final 12-team CFP before leaders expand the field again, I went with four SEC teams, four Big Ten teams, Notre Dame and the ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12 champions. The SEC’s introduction of a ninth regular-season conference game will cost at least one of its teams (either Ole Miss or LSU) a CFP spot. Penn State collects the final at-large bid here, which surely will invite controversy given the Nittany Lions’ strength of schedule.
Among the most interesting of the way-too-early bowl projections is LSU and national villain Lane Kiffin taking on his former USC squad and Lincoln Riley in Las Vegas. A Great Plains reunion between Kansas State and Nebraska at the Cactus Bowl would conjure up some sentimentality. Maybe a UCF-USF matchup in Boca Raton would spur the I-4 rivals to play more regularly. Finally, nothing would fit bowl season better than Steve Spurrier flipping the coin before a Florida-Duke kickoff in Tampa.
Check out Stewart Mandel’s league predictions and CFP qualifiers here: ACC/Notre Dame, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC.
BowlMatchup
Playoff
Dec. 18, 2026
6 Georgia
11 Penn State
Playoff
Dec. 19, 2026
7 Miami (Fla.)
10 Oklahoma
Playoff
Dec. 19, 2026
5 Indiana
12 Boise State
Playoff
Dec. 19, 2026
8 Alabama
9 BYU
Fiesta
Dec. 30, 2026
3 Ohio State
UGA/PSU winner
Cotton
Jan. 1, 2026
2 Texas
Miami/OU winner
Rose
Jan. 1, 2026
4 Oregon
Indiana/Boise winner
Peach
Jan. 1, 2026
1 Notre Dame
Bama/BYU winner
Orange
Jan. 14, 2026
QF winner
QF winner
Sugar
Jan. 15, 2026
QF winner
QF winner
Championship
Jan. 25, 2026
SF winner
SF winner
BowlMatchup
Salute to Veterans
Dec. 15, 2026
Sun Belt Appalachian State
G6 Miami (OH)
Frisco Classic
Dec. 15, 2026
G6 Louisiana Tech
G6 Western Kentucky
Boca Raton
Dec. 18, 2026
TBD USF
TBD UCF
Gasparilla
Dec. 18, 2026
SEC/ACC/Other Duke
SEC/ACC/Other Florida
Myrtle Beach
Dec. 21, 2026
Sun Belt Old Dominion
TBD Jacksonville State
Famous Idaho Potato
Dec. 21, 2026
G6 New Mexico
G6 Toledo
Puerto Rico
Dec. 22, 2026
MAC Ohio
G6 Delaware
Cure
Dec. 22, 2026
Sun Belt James Madison
TBD East Carolina
Independence
Dec. 22, 2026
Big 12 7 West Virginia
Pac-12 Legacy UCLA
New Orleans
Dec. 23, 2026
Sun Belt Louisiana
CUSA Kennesaw State
Armed Forces
Dec. 23, 2026
TBD Air Force
TBD UTSA
Poinsettia
Dec. 23, 2026
Pac-12 Legacy 6 Arizona State
Pac-12 Fresno State
Frisco
Dec. 23, 2026
TBD Texas State
TBD Memphis
New Mexico
Dec. 24, 2026
MWC UNLV
TBD Washington State
Hawai’i
Dec. 24, 2026
MWC Hawaii
Pac-12 San Diego State
Pinstripe
Dec. 26, 2026
Big Ten 6 Minnesota
ACC 5-7 NC State
Fenway
Dec. 26, 2026
ACC 8-9 Pittsburgh
American Navy
Duke’s Mayo
Dec. 26, 2026
Big Ten 5 Wisconsin
ACC 5-7 Virginia
68 Ventures
Dec. 26, 2001
Sun Belt Troy
G6 Liberty
Cactus
Dec. 26, 2026
Big Ten 7 Nebraska
Big 12 6 Kansas State
Military
Dec. 28, 2026
American Army
ACC 8-9 North Carolina
Holiday
Dec. 28, 2026
Pac-12 Legacy 4 Utah
ACC 2-4 Clemson
Birmingham
Dec. 29, 2026
ACC/SEC/G6 Marshall
ACC/SEC/G6 Georgia Tech
Pop-Tarts
Dec. 29, 2026
Big 12 3 Oklahoma State
ACC 2-4 SMU
Alamo
Dec. 29, 2026
Big 12 2 Texas Tech
Pac-12 Legacy 2 Washington
Gator
Dec. 30, 2026
ACC 2-4 Louisville
SEC 3-8 South Carolina
Music City
Dec. 30, 2026
Big Ten 4 Illinois
SEC 3-8 Auburn
ReliaQuest
Dec. 31, 2026
Big Ten 3 Michigan
SEC 3-8 Tennessee
Sun
Dec. 31, 2026
ACC 5-7 Florida State
Pac-12 Legacy 5 Arizona
Las Vegas
Dec. 31, 2026
Pac-12 Legacy 3 USC
SEC 3-8 LSU
Texas
Dec. 31, 2026
Big 12 4 TCU
SEC 3-8 Texas A&M
Citrus
Jan. 2, 2027
Big Ten 2 Iowa
SEC 2 Ole Miss
First Responder
Jan. 2, 2027
TBD California
TBD Tulane
Liberty
Jan. 2, 2027
Big 12 5 Houston
SEC 3-8 Missouri
Arizona
Date TBD
MAC Western Michigan
MWC North Dakota State