The College Football Playoff (CFP) bracket is released on “Selection Sunday,” which falls on the Sunday after the conference championship games, typically in early December each year.

Key timing

  • The final CFP rankings and full 12‑team bracket are unveiled on Selection Sunday, after the Saturday conference title games wrap up.
  • For the 2025–26 season, that Selection Sunday date was December 7, and the full bracket was released that day.

Typical release window

  • The bracket reveal happens during a dedicated TV selection show, usually in the early to mid‑afternoon Eastern Time on that Sunday.
  • This timing lets the committee incorporate all conference championship results before locking in the field and seeding.

If you’re filling out brackets

  • Printable and online CFP brackets generally go live as soon as the Selection Sunday show has announced the final field.
  • Pools usually require picks to be submitted before kickoff of the first CFP first‑round game, which has recently been around December 19–20.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.