Kyle BonaguraCloseKyle BonaguraESPN Staff WriterCovers college football.Joined ESPN in 2014.Attended Washington State University.Follow on XMark SchlabachCloseMark SchlabachESPN Senior WriterSenior college football writer Author of seven books on college football Graduate of the University of GeorgiaFollow on XOct 26, 2025, 12:15 PM ET
Finebaum: Ole Miss made the biggest statement to the CFP committee (0:40)Paul Finebaum explains why Ole Miss’ road win against Oklahoma makes the Rebels a virtual lock for the playoff and quiets the noise surrounding Lane Kiffin. (0:40)
There weren’t as many surprising results during Week 9 as we’ve grown accustomed to this season, but some surprising teams continued to make their mark.
All four of those teams are in the mix for the College Football Playoff, something few would have foreseen a couple of months ago.
As with last season’s inaugural 12-team CFP, the five highest-ranked conference champions, plus the next seven highest-ranked teams, will make the field. Unlike last year, the four highest-ranked teams (not necessarily conference champions) will be awarded first-round byes. The other eight teams will meet in first-round games at the campus sites of seeds Nos. 5 through 8.
From there, the quarterfinals and semifinals will be played in what had been the New Year’s Six bowls, with this season’s national championship game scheduled for Jan. 19 at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.
All of that is just the tip of the iceberg, though. Apart from the playoff is the 35-game slate of bowl games, beginning with the Cricket Celebration Bowl on Dec. 13.
ESPN bowl gurus Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach are projecting every postseason matchup, including their breakdowns of how the playoff will play out, and we’ll be back every week of the season until the actual matchups are set.
Schlabach: Finally, there was some order in college football this weekend, as every AP top-10 team that played won, although Alabama, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt had to rally to get it done.
CFP quarterfinal at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic AT&T Stadium (Arlington, Texas) 7:30 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: No. 7 Ole Miss vs. No. 2 Indiana Schlabach: No. 5 Georgia vs. No. 4 Alabama
CFP quarterfinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl Hard Rock Stadium (Miami Gardens, Florida) Noon, ESPN Bonagura: No. 5 Oregon vs. No. 4 Alabama Schlabach: No. 7 Georgia Tech vs. No. 2 Indiana
CFP quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential Rose Bowl (Pasadena, California) 4 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: No. 8 Georgia Tech vs. No. 1 Ohio State Schlabach: No. 9 Oregon vs. No. 1 Ohio State
Bonagura: With no major upsets near the top this week, there were no changes here for me. Three Big Ten teams, four SEC teams, plus Georgia Tech in the quarterfinals.
Georgia Tech still feels very much like an unknown relative to the others. The Yellow Jackets haven’t beaten a ranked team and won’t play one (Georgia) for another month before a would-be ACC title game. The unbeaten record matters, but it will be interesting to see how the selection committee slots them when those rankings are released a week from Tuesday.
Texas A&M was equally impressive in its 49-25 rout of LSU on the road. Tiger Stadium is one of the most difficult road venues in the country, especially at night, but the Aggies didn’t have any problems. They outscored the Tigers 35-7 after halftime and won in Baton Rouge for the first time since 1994.
There would be two SEC vs. SEC matchups in my quarterfinals, along with one Big Ten vs. Big Ten game. Hopefully, the CFP selection committee would set the seedings to avoid that, but it’s going to be difficult to do if there are four or five SEC teams and three from the Big Ten in the field.
CFP semifinal at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl State Farm Stadium (Glendale, Arizona) 7:30 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: No. 4 Alabama vs. No. 1 Ohio State Schlabach: No. 5 Georgia vs. No. 1 Ohio State
CFP semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta) 7:30 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: No. 3 Texas A&M vs. No. 2 Indiana Schlabach: No. 3 Texas A&M vs. No. 2 Indiana
Bonagura: Here we are on Oct. 26, and Indiana has a strong case to be the No. 1 team in college football. Just as it looked like UCLA had tapped into something special, the Hoosiers calmly beat the Bruins by 50. These types of projections are always fun to go back and laugh at come playoff time, but two postseason games between Ohio State and Indiana — Big Ten title game and national championship — seem more likely every week.
Let’s also take a minute to acknowledge that it was the correct decision to go away from giving byes to the top four conference champions. It completely threw off the seeding and a natural seeding process for all teams, as is the case now, makes much more sense.
Texas A&M has road games left at Missouri and Texas, and the Aggies haven’t been in this position in quite some time. Marcel Reed should be a Heisman Trophy candidate and Mike Elko has done a fantastic job bringing some bite to the defense.
I went with Georgia as my fourth team, although the Bulldogs would have to get past Alabama to reach the semifinals — and that has rarely happened lately. The Bulldogs have some obvious shortcomings on defense, but with their offensive line getting healthy, Kirby Smart’s team is going to have a chance to outscore its opponents. Gunner Stockton is playing very well, and he has plenty of weapons around him.
Cricket Celebration Bowl Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta) Noon, ABC Bonagura: Alabama State vs. North Carolina Central Schlabach: Jackson State vs. Delaware State
LA Bowl SoFi Stadium (Inglewood, California) 9 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: Washington State vs. Boise State Schlabach: Washington vs. Boise State
IS4S Salute to Veterans Bowl Cramton Bowl (Montgomery, Alabama) 9 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: UConn vs. Toledo Schlabach: Jacksonville State vs. Coastal Carolina
StaffDNA Cure Bowl Camping World Stadium (Orlando, Florida) 5 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: Kennesaw State vs. Temple Schlabach: Buffalo vs. Marshall
68 Ventures Bowl Hancock Whitney Stadium (Mobile, Alabama) 8:30 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: Marshall vs. Western Michigan Schlabach: Liberty vs. Western Michigan
Myrtle Beach Bowl Brooks Stadium (Conway, South Carolina) Noon, ESPN Bonagura: Bowling Green vs. Old Dominion Schlabach: East Carolina vs. James Madison
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl Albertsons Stadium (Boise, Idaho) 2 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: Ohio vs. San Diego State Schlabach: Ohio vs. Utah State
Boca Raton Bowl Flagler Credit Union Stadium (Boca Raton, Florida) 2 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: Southern Miss vs. Jacksonville State Schlabach: Temple vs. Toledo
New Orleans Bowl Caesars Superdome (New Orleans) 5:30 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: Western Kentucky vs. Troy Schlabach: Western Kentucky vs. Southern Miss
Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl Ford Center at The Star (Frisco, Texas) 9 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: Fresno State vs. Baylor Schlabach: North Texas vs. Kennesaw State
Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex (Honolulu) 8 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: New Mexico vs. California Schlabach: Hawai’i vs. Tulane
GameAbove Sports Bowl Ford Field (Detroit) 1 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: Maryland vs. Miami (Ohio) Schlabach: Maryland vs. Central Michigan
Rate Bowl Chase Field (Phoenix) 4:30 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: UCF vs. Northwestern Schlabach: Iowa State vs. Minnesota
SERVPRO First Responder Bowl Gerald J. Ford Stadium (Dallas) 8 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: Texas State vs. Central Michigan Schlabach: San Diego State vs. Miami (Ohio)
Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl Yankee Stadium (Bronx, New York) Noon, ABC Bonagura: SMU vs. Minnesota Schlabach: Pittsburgh vs. Northwestern
Wasabi Fenway Bowl Fenway Park (Boston) 2:15 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: Wake Forest vs. South Florida Schlabach: NC State vs. Memphis
Pop-Tarts Bowl Camping World Stadium (Orlando, Florida) 3:30 p.m., ABC Bonagura: Virginia vs. Houston Schlabach: Louisville vs. Cincinnati
Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl Arizona Stadium (Tucson, Arizona) 4:30 p.m., CW Network Bonagura: Buffalo vs. Hawai’i Schlabach: Washington State vs. Fresno State
Isleta New Mexico Bowl University Stadium (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 5:45 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: UNLV vs. Arizona Schlabach: New Mexico vs. Arizona
TaxSlayer Gator Bowl EverBank Stadium (Jacksonville, Florida) 7:30 p.m. ABC Bonagura: Notre Dame vs. LSU Schlabach: Virginia vs. LSU
Kinder’s Texas Bowl NRG Stadium (Houston) 9:15 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: TCU vs. Oklahoma Schlabach: Houston vs. Oklahoma
JLab Birmingham Bowl Protective Stadium (Birmingham, Alabama) 2 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: Memphis vs. James Madison Schlabach: Troy vs. UConn
Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl Independence Stadium (Shreveport, Louisiana) 2 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: Kansas vs. Louisiana Tech Schlabach: Kansas vs. Louisiana Tech
Music City Bowl Nissan Stadium (Nashville, Tennessee) 5:30 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: Nebraska vs. Texas Schlabach: Illinois vs. Auburn
Valero Alamo Bowl Alamodome (San Antonio) 9 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: Houston vs. Washington Schlabach: Texas Tech vs. USC
ReliaQuest Bowl Raymond James Stadium (Tampa, Florida) Noon, ESPN Bonagura: Illinois vs. Missouri Schlabach: Iowa vs. Tennessee
Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl Sun Bowl Stadium (El Paso, Texas) 2 p.m., CBS Bonagura: Duke vs. Arizona State Schlabach: SMU vs. Arizona State
Cheez-It Citrus Bowl Camping World Stadium (Orlando, Florida) 3 p.m., ABC Bonagura: Michigan vs. Vanderbilt Schlabach: Michigan vs. Texas
SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl Allegiant Stadium (Las Vegas) 3:30 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: Iowa vs. Utah Schlabach: Nebraska vs. California
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl Amon G. Carter Stadium (Fort Worth, Texas) 1 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: Kansas State vs. East Carolina Schlabach: Baylor vs. Army
AutoZone Liberty Bowl Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium (Memphis, Tennessee) 4:30 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: Iowa State vs. Auburn Schlabach: TCU vs. UNLV
Duke’s Mayo Bowl Bank of America Stadium (Charlotte, North Carolina) 8 p.m., ESPN Bonagura: Pitt vs. Tennessee Schlabach: Duke vs. Missouri
Holiday Bowl Snapdragon Stadium (San Diego) 8 p.m., Fox Bonagura: Louisville vs. USC Schlabach: Notre Dame vs. Utah