What Is PFSN’s College Football Playoff Predictor?
PFSN’s College Football Playoff Predictor is a tool that allows you to play out various weekly scenarios to see how the CFP picture changes with each scenario. The combination of actual game results from the college football season, along with user-selected game picks, up-to-date CFB power rankings, AI-simulated results, and our college football strength of schedule metric, provides you with a unique CFP bracket.
PFSN’s Playoff Predictor is updated within minutes of the conclusion of each college football game to allow you to test out an unlimited number of playoff scenarios in real time to see how your favorite team is impacted in the CFB playoff picture.
How Does PFSN’s College Football Playoff Predictor Work?
The PFSN College Football Playoff Predictor is updated in near-real time at the conclusion of every college football game. From there, you can choose to pick every remaining game yourself or select only the games that interest you. Once you make your picks, you can choose to simulate that week only or the rest of the season. PFSN’s College Football Playoff Predictor includes a proprietary, state-of-the-art algorithm that will simulate and predict the outcomes of the games you have not already selected.
From there, you can see the projected playoff field and manipulate any of the game results to see how they affect the CFB playoff picture. Once your CFB playoff bracket is set, you can select the winners of each playoff matchup from the first round through the National Championship.
Currently, the playoff predictor is utilizing a schedule that is, to a large extent, generated by the PFSN team. The SEC and most out-of-conference games are accurate. However, for the Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, MAC, Pac-12, Mountain West, Conference USA, American, and Sun Belt conferences, the information is generated by the PFSN staff until it is officially released by the conferences themselves.
FAQ
How Many Teams Make the College Football Playoff?
A total of 12 teams make it into the playoffs. The 12-team field consists of the five highest-ranked conference champions and the following seven highest-ranked programs. There is no limit on the number of participants from a single conference, and the top four teams will receive a first-round bye to the quarterfinals.
In a change ahead of the 2025-26 season, the top four teams can be made up of any combination, even if a team does not win its conference championship game. In the first year of the 12-team playoff, the four teams that advanced straight to the quarter finals had to be conference champions, meaning teams like Texas and Penn State, who lost in the SEC and Big Ten Conference Championships, had to play first-round games. With the new rules, both would have potentially advanced directly to the quarterfinals.
How Does the College Football Playoff Work?
The 2026 college football regular season is a 14-week endeavor (including Week 0). Most FBS teams will play 12 regular-season games, with eight or nine of these games against conference opponents. The remaining contests are non-conference matchups scheduled by the colleges, sometimes years in advance. At the conclusion of the conference championships (Week 14, Dec. 1-7), the selection committee sets the playoff field.
The committee releases its first of six rankings in early November, followed by a new ranking on the subsequent Tuesdays, with the final ranking published on Sunday, December 6.
Once the final ranking is announced, the five highest-ranked conference champions will immediately lock in their place among the 12 teams. The four highest-ranked teams earn first-round byes.
In the first round, the higher seeds will host the lower seeds (No. 5 vs. No. 12, No. 6 vs. No. 11, No. 7 vs. No. 10, No. 8 vs. No. 9) either on campus or "at other sites designated by the higher-seeded institution."
The winners advance to the Quarterfinals to challenge the No. 1-4 seeds: No. 4 plays the winner of No. 5 vs. No. 12, No. 1 plays the winner of No. 8 vs. No. 9, No. 3 plays the winner of No. 6 vs. No. 11, and No. 2 plays the winner of No. 7 vs. No. 10. These games will be played on or around New Year's Day with the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, and Cotton Bowl Classic hosting the games.
The winners of the Semifinal games (the Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl) will face off in the CFP National Championship.
Who Is on the College Football Playoff Committee?
The College Football Playoff Committee consists of 13 members who serve three-year terms: six former coaches and players, six sitting athletic directors representing seven conferences (including one from each Power 4 league), and one former sportswriter.
The current College Football Playoff Committee includes:
- Chris Ault (Former Nevada coach)
- Troy Dannen (Nebraska AD)
- Mark Dantonio (Former Cincinnati & Michigan State Coach)
- Jeff Long (Former college athletics coach & administrator, and former CFP Selection Committee chairman)
- Ivan Maisel (Sportwriter)
- Chris Massaro (Middle Tennessee State AD)
- Randall McDaniel (Former Arizona State All-American guard)
- Mark Rhoades (Baylor VP & AD)
- Mike Riley (Former Oregon State & Nebraska coach)
- David Sayler (Miami (OH) AD)
- Wesley Walls (Former Mississippi All-American Tight End)
- Carla Williams (Virginia AD)
- Hunter Yurachek (Arkansas AD)