Who will make the College Football Playoff? Our experts predict the final bracket

The Athletic has live coverage of the College Football Playoff bracket reveal.

Final College Football Playoff arguments have been made on the field, and it’s finally time for the selection of the 12-team field for the 2025 season.

So who will make the bracket when it’s revealed at noon ET Sunday? Let’s make some final predictions using Austin Mock’s projections model and Scott Dochterman’s own analysis.

Spoiler: Their brackets are similar, except for one key seeding question … and neither likes Miami’s chances.

The committee sent a signal on Tuesday that Alabama was going to stay in the field regardless of its outcome in the SEC championship. By moving the Crimson Tide past Notre Dame, the committee provided enough flexibility that it could keep Alabama in the field and still drop it a spot if warranted. To drop the Tide out of the field after losing an extra game to Georgia would jeopardize future conference championship games. There’s no way the committee does that.

If Notre Dame and Miami lined up side-by-side, there is a good chance the Hurricanes would leap past the Fighting Irish for the final at-large spot. And if the committee kept Alabama at No. 9, that probably would happen. But the committee has ranked Notre Dame significantly higher than Miami all year, despite the Hurricanes’ season-opening win. It’s obvious the committee believes Notre Dame is a better football team, so the best way to alleviate that stressor is to flip the Irish with the Tide.

I like Georgia to move up one spot and Ohio State to fall to No. 3. The committee always has shown a preference for teams winning conference titles. The Bulldogs did so in dominant fashion and will be rewarded for it. The only difference between the two is the quarterfinal opponent because if Georgia and Ohio State win in that round, they’ll play each other in the semifinals.

As for the field’s final spot, James Madison was a more impressive team all year than Duke. The Blue Devils’ five losses would be too many for the committee to look past when ranking them. — Dochterman

The big debate is which two of Notre Dame, Alabama and Miami are going to make it into the field in the final at-large spots and which team gets left out. My model, as it has thought since the first selection committee rankings, thinks Notre Dame is a tier above Miami, which means the Irish are going to get in.

As for Alabama, getting crushed by Georgia will certainly bring it closer to Miami. But, honestly, if it wasn’t a blowout, I don’t think there would be much conversation. My model thinks Alabama’s strength of schedule and marquee wins are enough to keep the Crimson Tide ahead of Miami despite three losses, including a bad loss to Florida State.

The other interesting part will be Ohio State and how far it falls from No. 1 after losing to Indiana. My model thinks the Buckeyes will just swap positions with Indiana and hold off Georgia for the No. 2 seed. A close loss to the presumptive No. 1 in the final CFP rankings doesn’t ding the Buckeyes’ resume very much.

As for James Madison and Duke? Despite the 124th-ranked schedule, per my model, JMU’s 12-1 record heavily outweighs the 8-5 record of Duke against the 60th toughest schedule. My model factors in a level of randomness, but even that can’t get the Duke above James Madison.

All signs here are pointing toward the ACC getting left out. — Mock