Let's take a look at the college football teams with the most national championships in the AP Top 25 rankings era, since 1936.

The 11 programs that tasted the College Football Playoff but came up short in 2024 are already yearning for a return trip. For some -- such as Oregon and Georgia-- merely getting to the CFP won't be enough to satisfy championship-thirsty fan bases.

Week 1 of the 2025 college football season features a loaded slate, including LSU at Clemson, Notre Dame at Miami and Alabama at Florida State, among others. LSU-Clemson could be a top-five matchup, as could the biggest headliner: Manning and Texas visiting Ohio State in a matchup of the 2024 national champion and our early 2025 favorite.

A championship in 2025 would guarantee the Cardinals a spot in the College Football Playoff for the first time. The Cardinals' highest finish in the CFP era was No. 13 in 2016, the same year quarterback Lamar Jackson won the Heisman Trophy. The Cardinals will kick off their season by facing Eastern Kentucky on Saturday, August 30.

The first 12-team Playoff had a lot of great moments. It could also use some tweaks. In the short term, leaders are unlikely to make major changes to the format for the 2025 season. The bigger stuff is more likely to come in 2026, when the new contracts kick in and the SEC and Big Ten basically get to do whatever they want.

Here's the complete schedule for the College Football Playoff for the 2025-26 season, including game dates, how to watch and teams. This is the second year of the 12-team playoff.

In or out? A verdict on which of the College Football Playoff qualifiers will be back in the bracket next season.

It's never too early to look ahead to next season's College Football Playoff despite the Ohio State Buckeyes capturing the National Championship just weeks ago.

One of those teams is the South Carolina Gamecocks. They finished the 2024 season with a record of 9-4, their highest number of wins since 2017. South Carolina was among the first teams left out of the College Football Playoff, finishing ranked No. 15 in the final CFP standings.

The 11 College Football Playoff games averaged 15.6 million viewers according to Nielsen, as audiences increased during each round.

Many overreacted when the Vols were dominated by Ohio State in the first round of the College Football Playoff, but it turned out that the Buckeyes were simply superior to everyone in the 12-team field.

Ohio State came out on top in the national championship on Monday, outlasting a late Notre Dame comeback push to win 34-23. The game brought an end to the first edition of the expanded College Football Playoff, which features 12 teams vying for the title instead of four.