A playoff bracket is one of the simplest games to play with friends. Before the first game kicks off, everyone picks a winner for every game of the college football playoff. Correct picks score points, later rounds score more, and the bracket with the most points once the national championship is over wins the group.
How the Playoff Bracket Works
The playoff has twelve teams, seeded 1 through 12. The top four seeds go straight to the quarterfinals. Seeds 5 through 12 play a first round: 5 against 12, 6 against 11, 7 against 10, and 8 against 9.
Each first-round winner then meets one of the top four. The 8-9 winner plays the 1 seed, the 7-10 winner plays the 2, the 6-11 winner plays the 3, and the 5-12 winner plays the 4. The 1 and 4 sides meet in one semifinal, the 2 and 3 sides in the other, and the two winners play for the national championship. That is 11 games in all, and a bracket picks every one.
How a Bracket Group Works
One person starts a group and shares its link. Friends join with that link, signing in first if they need to. Joining closes when brackets lock, so nobody new can join after the first kickoff.
Everyone fills out a bracket: a winner for every game, plus a tiebreaker. A pick in a later round has to be a team you have winning the game before it, so your champion is a team you picked to win every game it plays.
Brackets lock when the first game kicks off. Until then you can change any pick, your tiebreaker and your bracket's name as often as you like. After that, nothing changes. In 2026 the field is set on Sunday, December 6, and the first game kicks off Friday, December 18 at 8:00 PM ET.
Each group decides how many brackets one person may fill out, from one to ten. The default is one. A bracket left unfinished still plays: a game with no pick scores 0, and the picks you did make count as usual.
Nobody sees anyone else's picks until brackets lock. Before then, the group shows each bracket's name and whether it is done. After the lock, every bracket is open to everyone who can see the group. Who can see it is Members only by default: only people who joined see the brackets and standings. The person who started the group can change it to Anyone with the link, so others can follow along without joining.
How Brackets Are Scored
Every correct pick scores the points for its round. By default:
- First round: 10 points a game
- Quarterfinals: 20 points a game
- Semifinals: 40 points a game
- Championship: 80 points
Before any bonus, a perfect bracket scores 280: 40 from the first round, 80 from the quarterfinals, 80 from the semifinals and 80 from the championship. The person who started the group can change the points for each round until the first game kicks off. After that, scoring is locked.
The Upset Bonus
When you correctly pick a lower seed to beat a higher one, you also get a bonus for each seed between them: 1 point per seed by default. If a 12 seed beats a 5 seed in the first round, every bracket that picked the 12 seed gets 10 points for the game plus 7 for the upset, so 17. A 9 seed beating the 1 seed in a quarterfinal is 20 plus 8, so 28. A higher seed winning earns no bonus, and the bonus counts the seeds of the two teams that actually played.
The group can change how many points each seed is worth, or turn the bonus off, until the first game kicks off.
The Tiebreaker
Every bracket also guesses the total points scored in the championship game, both teams together, as a whole number from 0 to 200. If brackets finish level on points, the guess closest to the real total wins the tie, over or under. Brackets still level after that share the place. A bracket with no tiebreaker loses a tie for first to any bracket that has one.
What You See After Every Game
Once brackets lock, the group updates as each game finishes:
- Place and points, and your best possible score: the most your bracket can still finish with.
- Your chance to win the group. Every way the rest of the playoff can still go is played out, each game weighted by how likely each team is to win it, and a tie for first counts as a shared win. With only 11 games, every possible finish is counted, not a sample of them.
- Your biggest game: the game still to come that moves your chance the most, and your chance with each result.
- The round recap: a few sentences on what the last round did to the group.
- What you need: near the end, with three or fewer games left, what has to happen for you to finish first.
- What if? Pick winners for the games left and see where your bracket would finish. Nothing you try there is saved.
To see how this looks, the demo group has made-up brackets partway through the playoff.
Strategy
The Champion Pick Carries the Most Points
With the default scoring, the championship game alone is worth 80 points, twice the whole first round. And your champion is a team you picked to win every game it plays, so a right champion pays at every step. A top-four seed that wins it all is worth 20, 40 and 80 points in your bracket, 140 in all: half of a perfect bracket.
So start there. Decide who you think wins the national championship, fill in that team's path, then work out the other side of the bracket.
One Late Pick Can Outweigh a Pile of Early Ones
Points double each round, so the rounds are not equal. One right semifinal pick is worth as much as all four first-round games together. A bracket that gets every first-round game right and misses the champion has 40 points from those games, while a bracket that misses every first-round game and names the champion has 80 from the final alone.
A first-round miss costs that game's 10 points and no more, unless the team you picked was one you had going further. Spend most of your thinking on the last three rounds.
When an Upset Is Worth Picking
The upset bonus changes the arithmetic most in the first round, where the round's points are smallest and the seed gaps are widest. With the default scoring, picking the 12 seed over the 5 scores 17 if it happens and 0 if it doesn't. Picking the 5 seed scores 10 or 0. On that one game, the 12 seed is the better pick whenever you give it about three chances in eight or better.
An early upset also costs less than it looks. If you have the 12 seed losing its next game anyway, the pick risks only that game's 10 points: a quarterfinal pick of the 4 seed scores whether the 4 seed plays the 5 or the 12.
The later the round, the less the bonus matters. In the championship a few points of bonus sit beside 80 for the game, so pick the team you believe wins. If your group changed the scoring, its Rules show the numbers, and the same arithmetic works with them.
Standing Out in Your Group
A bracket group is won against the people in it, not against the playoff. If everyone in your group picks the same champion and that team wins, nobody gains on that pick, and the group comes down to the games where brackets differ. You can't see anyone's picks until brackets lock, so this is a read on your friends, not a lookup.
In a small group there are only a few brackets to beat, and the bracket you believe in is a fine one. The bigger the group, the more a bracket needs to differ somewhere that counts, a semifinal or the champion, to finish first on its own rather than share it.
If your group allows more than one bracket each, make them different where it matters: different champions, rather than copies with one first-round game swapped. Brackets that agree on the late rounds rise and fall together.
Using the Tiebreaker
Fill it in. Without one, you lose a tie for first to any bracket that has one. Base it on the two teams you have in the championship game and how they play. Closest wins over or under, so there is no trick to it: make your honest best guess.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do college football playoff brackets work?
The playoff has 12 teams. The top four seeds go straight to the quarterfinals, and seeds 5 through 12 play a first round. A bracket picks the winner of all 11 games, from the first round to the national championship, before the first game kicks off. Correct picks score points, and later rounds are worth more.
How are brackets scored?
By default a correct pick is worth 10 points in the first round, 20 in the quarterfinals, 40 in the semifinals and 80 in the championship, plus an upset bonus. The group can change the points for each round until the first game kicks off.
What is the upset bonus?
When you correctly pick a lower seed to beat a higher seed, you get extra points for each seed between them, 1 point per seed by default. A 12 seed beating a 5 seed in the first round is worth 10 points plus 7, so 17. The group can change the bonus or turn it off until the first game kicks off.
What happens if two brackets tie?
The tiebreaker decides it. Every bracket guesses the total points scored in the championship game, and the closest guess wins the tie, over or under. Brackets still level after that share the place. A bracket with no tiebreaker loses a tie for first to any bracket that has one.
Can I change my bracket after the first kickoff?
No. Brackets lock when the first game kicks off. Until then you can change any pick, your tiebreaker and your bracket's name as often as you like. After that every bracket stays as it is, and nobody new can join the group.
Can I see the other brackets in my group?
Not before the lock. Until then the group shows each bracket's name and whether it is done or still being picked. Once brackets lock, every bracket in the group is open to everyone who can see the group.
Is it free?
Yes. Starting a bracket group and joining one are both free.
Start a Bracket Group
Bracket groups are free to start and free to join. Start one, send your friends the link, and everyone has until the first kickoff to fill out a bracket. The demo group shows what a group looks like partway through the playoff, with made-up brackets.
For a game that runs all season, College Survivor is a survivor pool for college football: each week you pick one team, and you stay alive when it wins. Read how a college survivor pool works, or start one.