CFP Archives

2015 4-team era

College Football Playoff History

Alabama beat Clemson 45-40.

Move from full brackets to round scoring, champion runs, and era-wide team history without leaving the archive context.

Browse playoff history

Champion: Alabama
Games: 3
Total points: 177
Avg margin: 21.0

Archive Snapshot

Era coverage

2014 to 2025

Full playoff brackets, championship paths, and team-level results across every season in the archive.

Champion programs

Teams with appearances

Fast answer

CFP champions by year

The core reference table comes before the interactive bracket so visitors can answer the most common playoff-history questions immediately.

Season	Champion	Runner-up	Score	Champion seed	Format	Title game	Bracket
2025	Indiana	Miami	Indiana 27, Miami 21	Seed 1 · CFP Rank #1	12-team era	View title game	Open bracket
2024	Ohio State	Notre Dame	Notre Dame 23, Ohio State 34	Seed 8 · CFP Rank #6	12-team era	View title game	Open bracket
2023	Michigan	Washington	Michigan 34, Washington 13	Seed 1 · CFP Rank #1	4-team era	View title game	Open bracket
2022	Georgia	TCU	Georgia 65, TCU 7	Seed 1 · CFP Rank #1	4-team era	View title game	Open bracket
2021	Georgia	Alabama	Alabama 18, Georgia 33	Seed 3 · CFP Rank #3	4-team era	View title game	Open bracket
2020	Alabama	Ohio State	Alabama 52, Ohio State 24	Seed 1 · CFP Rank #1	4-team era	View title game	Open bracket
2019	LSU	Clemson	LSU 42, Clemson 25	Seed 1 · CFP Rank #1	4-team era	View title game	Open bracket
2018	Clemson	Alabama	Alabama 16, Clemson 44	Seed 2 · CFP Rank #2	4-team era	View title game	Open bracket
2017	Alabama	Georgia	Georgia 23, Alabama 26	Seed 4 · CFP Rank #4	4-team era	View title game	Open bracket
2016	Clemson	Alabama	Alabama 31, Clemson 35	Seed 2 · CFP Rank #2	4-team era	View title game	Open bracket
2015	Alabama	Clemson	Clemson 40, Alabama 45	Seed 2 · CFP Rank #2	4-team era	View title game	Open bracket
2014	Ohio State	Oregon	Ohio State 42, Oregon 20	Seed 4 · CFP Rank #4	4-team era	View title game	Open bracket

All-time programs

All-time CFP team records

A crawlable top-ten snapshot of appearances, records, titles, finals, and best finishes. The full sortable table remains in the interactive overall view.

Team	Appearances	Record	Titles	Finals	First/last	Best finish
Alabama	9	10-6	3	6	2014 / 2025	Champion
Ohio State	7	7-5	2	3	2014 / 2025	Champion
Clemson	7	6-5	2	4	2015 / 2024	Champion
Georgia	5	5-3	2	3	2017 / 2025	Champion
Indiana	2	3-1	1	1	2024 / 2025	Champion
Notre Dame	3	3-3	0	1	2018 / 2024	Finalist
Oregon	3	3-3	0	1	2014 / 2025	Finalist
Miami	1	3-1	0	1	2025 / 2025	Finalist
Michigan	3	2-2	1	1	2021 / 2023	Champion
LSU	1	2-0	1	1	2019 / 2019	Champion

Extremes

CFP records and leaderboards

The highest-impact game and team records stay visible without requiring a chart interaction.

Most points in a playoff game

102

Georgia at Oklahoma in 2017

Largest margin of victory

TCU at Georgia in 2022

Closest championship game

Alabama at Georgia in 2017

Most playoff points by a team

469

Alabama

Highest win percentage

75.0%

Indiana with at least four games

Most semifinal appearances

Alabama

Most finals appearances

Alabama

Most first-round appearances

Alabama

Bracket position

History by seed

Seed records use playoff seed, not just committee rank, which matters in the expanded CFP format.

Seed	Record	Win %	Titles	Finals	First	Last	Best result
Seed 1	15-7	68.2%	5	9	2014	2025	Champion
Seed 2	8-9	47.1%	3	5	2014	2025	Champion
Seed 3	6-11	35.3%	1	5	2014	2025	Champion
Seed 4	4-9	30.8%	2	2	2014	2025	Champion
Seed 5	4-3	57.1%	0	0	2023	2025	Semifinalist
Seed 6	4-2	66.7%	0	0	2024	2025	Semifinalist
Seed 7	3-2	60.0%	0	1	2024	2025	Finalist
Seed 8	4-1	80.0%	1	1	2024	2025	Champion
Seed 9	1-2	33.3%	0	0	2024	2025	Quarterfinalist
Seed 10	3-2	60.0%	0	1	2024	2025	Finalist
Seed 11	0-2	0.0%	0	0	2024	2025	First Round
Seed 12	0-2	0.0%	0	0	2024	2025	First Round

Membership at the time

History by conference

Conference records use each team's conference at the time of the playoff game instead of current realignment membership.

Conference	Record	Win %	Titles	Finals	Teams	Best season
SEC	21-14	60.0%	6	10	8	2022 champion
B1G	11-10	52.4%	3	4	6	2024 champion
ACC	9-8	52.9%	2	5	4	2018 champion
Big Ten	5-2	71.4%	1	1	3	2025 champion
Ind	3-3	50.0%	0	1	1	2024 Finalist
PAC	2-3	40.0%	0	2	2	2023 Finalist
B12	1-7	12.5%	0	1	4	2022 Finalist
AAC	0-1	0.0%	0	0	1	2021 Semifinalist
American Athletic	0-1	0.0%	0	0	1	2025 First Round
Big 12	0-1	0.0%	0	0	1	2025 Quarterfinalist
MWC	0-1	0.0%	0	0	1	2024 Quarterfinalist
Sun Belt	0-1	0.0%	0	0	1	2025 First Round

Format context

4-team era vs 12-team era

Format changes reshape records, access, and champion paths, so era context is kept in the main reference flow.

Era	Seasons	Teams	Games/playoff	First-round byes	Campus games	Champion path
4-team era	2014-2023	4	3	None	None	Win a semifinal and the national championship.
12-team era	2024-2025	12	11	Top four seeds	First round at higher seeds	Seeds 5-12 start in the first round; top-four seeds enter in the quarterfinals.

Search questions

College Football Playoff history FAQ

Concise answers for the questions fans usually ask before diving into full brackets and team tables.

When did the College Football Playoff start?

The College Football Playoff started with the 2014 season. CFBTrack separates the original 4-team era from the expanded 12-team era so records and bracket paths stay comparable.

Who won the first CFP national championship?

Ohio State won the first College Football Playoff national championship for the 2014 season.

How many teams are in the College Football Playoff?

The current format uses 12 teams. The playoff used a 4-team field from 2014 through 2023, then expanded beginning with the 2024 season.

What is the difference between a playoff seed and a CFP rank?

The CFP rank is the committee ranking. The playoff seed is the bracket position, which can differ in the 12-team format because automatic qualifiers and byes shape the bracket.

Why are dates shown in Eastern time?

Many playoff kickoffs are stored as UTC timestamps. CFBTrack formats CFP history dates in Eastern time so the displayed calendar date matches the official game-day listing.

Data notes

Coverage spans 2014-2025. Dates are displayed in Eastern time. Playoff seed and CFP rank are shown separately when the bracket seed differs from the committee ranking.

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