ESPN’s Heather Dinich reveals College Football Playoff Predictions for the 2025 season
By Luke Greco
Published:
Ahead of the official kickoff of the new campaign, ESPN got its staff together to give their predictions for the 12 schools that will make up the College Football Playoff for the 2025-26 season.
Heather Dinich, ESPN’s foremost College Football Playoff insider, gave her picks in the piece. She has 4 teams from the SEC and 2 from the ACC making the field. Her prediction is as follows:
- Penn State
- Clemson
- Texas
- LSU
- Georgia
- Ohio State
- Notre Dame
- Alabama
- Miami
- Oregon
- Kansas State
- Boise State
It is important to remember that there is a slight difference in the format for the Playoff this year. Similar to last year, the Playoff will still be made up of the top 5 conference champions and 7 at-large schools.
However, the difference is that the first-round bye will no longer be given to the 4 highest-ranked conference champions. Last season, that was Oregon, Boise State, Arizona State, and Georgia. This year, the 4 highest-ranked schools in the committee’s final top 12 will get the top 4 seeds and the first-round bye.
If we use the polls from last year and apply this new format, this means that Oregon, Georgia, Texas, and Penn State would’ve been the top 4 seeds and been rewarded with the first-round bye.
The 2025 season kicks off Saturday with 5 Week 0 games. Week 1 gets rolling next Thursday.
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