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The 2024-25 College Football Playoff bracket has now evolved into the semifinals with the first 12-team version of the tournament progressing quickly. With the quarterfinals now in the books — and only four teams remaining — we are closer than ever to crowning a national champion.
Let’s take a look at how we got to this point.
The first round saw (7) Notre Dame win 27-17 over (10) Indiana, (6) Penn State pick up a destructive 38-10 victory over (11) SMU, (5) Texas claw back to decisively prevail 38-24 over (12) Clemson and (8) Ohio State cruise to a devastating 42-17 win over (9) Tennessee.
The same four teams wound up prevailing in the quarterfinals with every conference champion that received a bye into the second round ultimately falling to programs playing their second games in as many weeks.
What’s still left to determine is which team is most likely to win 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 has taken over as the decisive favorite in our voting block with all 11 experts choosing the Buckeyes to hoist their first national championship since 2014-15, the first year of the College Football Playoff.
Will it be another clean sweep for the favorites, which have gone 8-0 straight up (7-1 against the spread) through the first two rounds of these playoffs, or might someone finally spring an upset next week?
With 134 FBS teams now whittled down to four, all that’s left to do is make our final picks. CBS Sports experts did exactly that below. We’ve spent months on end watching, analyzing and projecting games, and now, we use all that accumulated knowledge in an attempt to help guide you through your own choices down the stretch.
2024-25 College Football Playoff semifinals
Cotton Bowl: (8) Ohio State vs. (5) Texas
The Buckeyes tore apart (1) Oregon, 41-21 in the Rose Bowl, while the Longhorns outlasted (4) Arizona State, 39-31 in double overtime, completing an all-time spectacle the Peach Bowl.
Orange Bowl: (7) Notre Dame vs. (6) Penn State
The Nittany Lions made relatively easy work of (3) Boise State, 31-14 in the Fiesta Bowl quarterfinal, while the Fighting Irish pulled away from (2) Georgia around halftime only to ultimately hold on for the 23-10 victory in the Sugar Bowl.
- Dodd nailed the final four with his picks remaining unchanged. | CFP picks: 8-0
- Fornelli is replacing Oregon, his original pick to run the table, with Ohio State. | CFP picks: 6-2
- Patterson now has Ohio State going over Notre Dame after originally having Oregon and Georgia in the title game. | CFP picks: 4-4
- Johnson was perfect in the first round but got the Cotton Bowl entirely wrong. Now he has Ohio State beating his prior national championship pick, Notre Dame. | CFP picks: 6-2
- Talty like Patterson, had to reconsider everything after originally having Oregon and Georgia playing for the national title. He is the lone expert to believe in Penn State. | CFP picks: 6-2
- Marcello was so impressed by Notre Dame that he’s switching his Orange Bowl call from Penn State, and he now has Ohio State going all the way. CFP picks: 7-1
- Crawford originally had Texas winning it all but does not believe the Longhorns are playing well enough defensively to even get past the Buckeyes, who he now believes will take the crown in a few weeks. CFP picks: 6-2
- Backus had to rethink the Cotton Bowl, as many did. He’s got OSU going the rest of the way. | CFP picks: 6-2
- Silverstein was near-perfect through the first two rounds with Ohio State the lone mistake. He now has the Buckeyes going all the way. | CFP picks: 7-1
- Crosby could not figure out the Cotton Bowl matchup, but with the games now set; OSU has also made him a believer. | CFP picks: 6-2
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