For fans of Indiana University football, postseason predictions have never been more fun. A season ago, the Hoosiers began the 2024 campaign as an afterthought but just kept on winning. At the end of the regular season, IU made the school’s first-ever College Football Playoff. The Hoosiers drew a first round matchup on the road against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in South Bend.
Curt Cignetti and his staff assembled another strong roster but again, IU began the season rarely mentioned as a College Football Playoff contender. Four weeks into the season, the Indiana Hoosiers are a perfect 4-0 and they look every bit the part of a College Football Playoff contender once again. Indiana hammered the Illinois Fighting Illini 63-10. The win was over a top ten opponent and IU scored the most points against a team ranked in the Associated Press (AP) Poll in history. Indiana still has several difficult games remaining but the victory serves as a declarative statement that the Hoosiers should not be discounted or forgotten about, no matter how much the national media may wish to do so.
The College Football Playoff will again consist of 12 teams this postseason but the format has been tweaked to strip away the automatic byes for conference champions. Instead, the byes will go to the four highest-ranked teams. The teams ranked numbers 5 through 12 will play in the CFP First Round wit the better seed hosting the worse seed.
The four highest-ranked teams will be assigned to Playoff Quarterfinals bowls on Selection Day in ranking order and with consideration to current contract bowl relationships. The Quarterfinal games this season are as follows: Cotton Bowl (December 31), Orange Bowl (January 1), Rose Bowl (January 1) and Sugar Bowl (January 1). The Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl are the College Football Semifinals and the National Championship Game will be held in Miami on January 19.
This sport is so much greater and richer than just focusing on the College Football Playoff, though. Rivalries, the atmosphere on campus for a game, the passion and energy of each fan base and of course, bowl games. The Big Ten has several bowl affiliations but the expectation is that the conference will put several teams into the College Football Playoff and that will almost certainly make it nearly impossible to accurately predict how the bowl picture will play out. Nonetheless, it’s fun to prognosticate and think about potential matchups!
A procedural note: The former PAC-12 bowl affiliations are still eligible to pull the four former PAC-12 teams (Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington) for one final season. That means these schools could be snagged by the Alamo, Independence, Holiday, LA, Las Vegas or Sun bowls. Sadly, the Big Ten still has no deal with the Pop Tarts Bowl.
College Football Playoff Bracket
12-seed: South Florida Bulls at 5-seed: Penn State Nittany Lions
11-seed: Texas A&M Aggies at 6-seed: Oklahoma Sooners
10-seed: Texas Tech Red Raiders at 7-seed: LSU Tigers
9-seed: Indiana Hoosiers at 8-seed: Florida State Seminoles
4-seed (bye): Oregon Ducks (Cotton Bowl)
3-seed (bye): Miami Hurricanes (Orange Bowl)
2-seed (bye): Georgia Bulldogs (Sugar Bowl)
1-seed (bye): Ohio State Buckeyes (Rose Bowl)
Teams Projected to Miss a Bowl Game
I am projecting the following teams to miss a bowl game for the 2025-2026 season: Northwestern, Purdue, UCLA, Rutgers and Wisconsin.
Cheez-It Citrus Bowl (vs. SEC) – December 31
Michigan Wolverines vs. Ole Miss Rebels
Guaranteed Rate Bowl (vs. Big 12) – December 26
Michigan State Spartans vs. Kansas Jayhawks
Las Vegas Bowl (vs. former PAC-12) – December 31
USC Trojans vs. Utah Utes
Holiday Bowl (vs. ACC) – January 2
Nebraska Cornhuskers vs. Louisville Cardinals
Alamo Bowl (vs. Big 12)
Washington Huskies vs. TCU Horned Frogs
Music City Bowl (vs. SEC) – December 30
Illinois Fighting Illini vs. Missouri Tigers
Pinstripe Bowl (vs. ACC) – December 27
Maryland vs. Syracuse Orange
Reliaquest Bowl (vs. SEC) – December 31
Iowa vs. Vanderbilt Commodores
GameAbove Sports Bowl (vs. MAC) – December 26
Minnesota Golden Gophers vs. Ohio Bobcats