The 2024-25 College Football Playoff bracket has now moved toward the semifinals, with the first 12-team version of the tournament advancing quickly. With the quarterfinals now scheduled – and only four teams remaining – we are closer than ever to crowning a national champion.
Let’s see how we got to this point.
The first round saw (7) Notre Dame win 27-17 more than (10) Indiana(6) State of Pennsylvania pick up a destroyer Victory 38-10 more than (11) EMS, (5) Texas to recover win decisively 38-24 more than (12) Clemson and (8) Ohio State cruise to a devastating victory 42-17 more than (9) Tennessee.
The same four teams ended up winning in the quarterfinals, with all of the conference champions earning a second-round bye ultimately falling to programs playing their second games in as many weeks.
It remains to be determined which team has the best chance of winning the national title. Seven of our 11 experts had (1) Oregon becoming the first 17-0 team in college football history. As LA Knight would say, “Nah-nah.” Ohio State emerged as the decisive favorite in our voting bloc, with all 11 experts picking the Buckeyes to win their first national championship since 2014-15, the first year of the College Football Playoff.
Will this be a new scoreboard for the favorites, who have been up 8-0 in a row (7-1 ATS) through the first two rounds of these playoffs, or is it- could someone finally spring a surprise next week?
With 134 FBS teams now down to four, all we have to do is make our final choice. The experts at CBS Sports have done just that below. We’ve spent months watching, analyzing and projecting matches, and now we’re using all that accumulated knowledge to try to guide you in your own choices over time.
2024-25 College Football Playoff Semifinals
Cotton Bowl: (8) Ohio State vs. (5) Texas
The Buckeyes were torn apart (1) Oregon, 41-21 at the Rose Bowlwhile the Longhorns survived (4) Arizona State, 39-31 in double overtimecompleting an all-time spectacle the Peach Bowl.
Orange Bowl: (7) Notre Dame vs. (6) Penn State
The Nittany Lions made relatively easy work of it (3) Boise State, 31-14 in Fiesta Bowl quarterfinalas the Fighting Irish moved away from (2) Georgia around halftime to finally hold on 23-10 victory at the Sugar Bowl.
- Dodd has made it through the last four games with his picks remaining unchanged. | CFP pick: 8-0
- Fornelli replaces Oregon, his original choice to run the table, with Ohio State. | CFP pick: 6-2
- Patterson now has Ohio State against Notre Dame after initially having Oregon and Georgia in the title game. | CFP choice: 4-4
- Johnson was perfect in the first round but was completely wrong in the Cotton Bowl. Now, Ohio State beats its previous national championship pick, Notre Dame. | CFP pick: 6-2
- Talty, like Patterson, had to reconsider everything after initially having Oregon and Georgia play for the national title. He’s the only pundit who believes in Penn State. | CFP pick: 6-2
- Marcello was so impressed with Notre Dame that he changed his Orange Bowl call to Penn State, and he now has Ohio State all the way. CFP pick: 7-1
- Crawford originally had Texas winning it all, but he doesn’t believe the Longhorns are playing well enough defensively to even get past the Buckeyes, who he believes will take the crown in a few weeks. CFP pick: 6-2
- Backus had to rethink the Cotton Bowl, as many did. He has OSU the rest of the way. | CFP pick: 6-2
- Silverstein was nearly perfect through the first two rounds, with Ohio State being the only mistake. He now has the Buckeyes all the way. | CFP pick: 7-1
- Crosby couldn’t figure out the Cotton Bowl game, but with the games now set, OSU has made him a believer, too. | CFP pick: 6-2