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Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sport
Eva Geitheim

Ranking the Easiest to Hards Paths to the CFP National Championship Game

The race for the national championship begins on Friday as the 2025 College Football Playoff kicks off in Norman, Oklahoma. Twelve teams have qualified into the bracket and will try to take home the title over the next month.

Every team has a chance to make a run, but not every path to the championship game is equal. The top four seeds—Indiana, Ohio State, Georgia and Texas Tech—all have byes and will automatically advance to the quarterfinals. From there, the difficulty of matchups varies across the bracket.

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