The Latest: College Football Playoff sees Indiana at No. 1 with Miami and Bama making the cut

The College Football Playoff rankings are here.

Follow live updates from The Associated Press on the playoff bracket, with analysis and Top 25 voter answers to fan questions, all in one place. Here is the latest, starting with the College Football Playoff bracket:

1. Indiana 2. Ohio State 3. Georgia 4. Texas Tech 5. Oregon 6. Ole Miss 7. Texas A&M 8. Oklahoma 9. Alabama 10. Miami 11. Tulane 12. James Madison

By MAURA CAREY

The CFP and AP Top 25 agree on eight of the top 12 teams: Indiana (1), Texas Tech (4), Oregon (5), Ole Miss (6), Texas A&M (7), Oklahoma (8), Miami (10) and BYU (12).

AP Top 25 voters ranked Georgia at No. 2 and Ohio State at No. 3, while the CFP committee did the opposite.

Alabama ranked No. 11 in the AP Top 25 and would have been the first team out of the playoff picture, which would have helped Notre Dame secure a spot at No. 9. The College Football Playoff committee kept Alabama at No. 9, leaving Notre Dame as the first team out of the playoff.

By DAVE ZELIO

Conference bragging rights in the College Football Playoff belong to the Southeastern Conference. It wasn’t even close, though the ultimate flex will be winning the national championship on Jan. 19.

The breakdown (by CFP rankings):

SEC (5 teams) No. 3. Georgia No. 6. Ole Miss No. 7. Texas A&M No. 8. Oklahoma No. 9. Alabama

Big Ten (3): No. 1. Indiana No. 2. Ohio State No. 5. Oregon

Big 12 (1): No. 4. Texas Tech

ACC (1): No. 10. Miami

American (1): No. 11. Tulane

Sun Belt (1): No. 12. James Madison

By MAURA CAREY

The first round of the College Football Playoff offers two rematches.

Oklahoma will face Alabama and Tulane will take on Ole Miss, each for the second time this season. Oklahoma and Ole Miss were victors in those earlier matchups.

If Ole Miss beats Tulane again, the quarterfinals would mark the second encounter between the Rebels and the Georgia Bulldogs this season. Georgia came out on top with a 43-35 win in October.

By SCOTT HAMILTON

It’s a great question.

The CFP’s format mandates the five highest-ranked conference champs. Indiana, Georgia and Texas Tech held up their ends of the bargain in the P4.

Duke won the ACC, but with five losses was ranked behind both James Madison and Tulane. Each is a G5 conference champ, though conference champs, nonetheless. Only one would’ve gotten in, however, had Virginia won.

The Cavaliers were 17th going into the weekend — ahead of then-No. 20 Tulane and then-No. 25 James Madison. You have to wonder if that stipulation re: conference champs is gonna be massaged or erased?

Scott Hamilton, a longtime sports columnist for The Charleston Post and Courier, has been an AP Top 25 voter for eight years. You can follow him on X: @scotthamiltonpc.

By MAURA CAREY

James Madison’s trip to the CFP accounts for several firsts. It marks the first time the Dukes made the College Football Playoff, and it will also be the first time James Madison and Oregon meet in football.

JMU and Oregon will face off at 7:30 p.m. ET on Dec. 20. The winner will meet Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl on Jan 1.

By SCOTT HAMILTON

I hear ya.

It’s definitely going to paint the CFP into a corner with regards to a few things — including how to weigh simply making a conference title game. All losses aren’t created equal — that was evident when Notre Dame started off this season 0-2, yet remained ranked.

But that needs to be clearly defined and written out.

By MAURA CAREY

Tulane punched its playoff ticket with a 34-21 American Conference championship win against North Texas on Friday night.

The Green Wave earned the No. 11 seed in the College Football Playoff as a result and will face No. 6 Ole Miss at 3:30 p.m. ET on Dec. 20. The two last met in September, when Ole Miss cruised to a dominant 45-10 victory.

The outing will mark the Rebels’ first without head coach Lane Kiffin. The winner will meet No. 3 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.

Three first-round games are set for Dec. 20, starting with Texas A&M vs. Miami at noon ET. The matchup marks the first time the two teams have met since 2023 and only the sixth meeting overall.

Miami won the last contest, beating Texas A&M 48-33. The Aggies and Hurricanes were the only two teams to knock off Notre Dame this year. Miami beat the Irish in Week 1 and the Aggies delivered an overtime victory one week later.

The winner will improve to the Cotton Bowl and meet No. 2 Ohio State on Dec. 31.

No. 8 Oklahoma will host No. 9 Alabama in Norman to kick off the College Football Playoff at 8 p.m. ET on Dec. 19.

Oklahoma got the best of Alabama 23-21 in mid-November in Tuscaloosa. The Sooners had a strong defensive performance, notching 17 points off three turnovers, one of which was a 87-yard pick-six.

The rematch will be streamed on ESPN and ABC, and the winner will travel to face No. 1 Indiana in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1.

BYU was the second team out of the CFP rankings after Notre Dame following a 34-7 loss in the Big 12 championship game.

It marked the Cougars’ second loss to Texas Tech this season and solidified the Big 12 as a one-bid league. Texas Tech represents the conference at No. 4.

Duke’s ACC championship game appearance complicated the playoff picture and opened the door for another conference winner. Despite an impressive overtime win in the championship, the Blue Devils’ five losses this season prevented them from real CFP consideration.

American Conference champion Tulane and Sun Belt champion James Madison were the fourth and fifth highest-ranked conference winners and clinched the No. 11 and No. 12 seeds in the bracket as a result.

The Alabama, Miami, Notre Dame debate was settled, and the reigning runners-up Irish fell just short of the 12-team bracket.

Miami leapt over Notre Dame in the rankings despite both teams having the week off. The results are likely due to the Week 1 head-to-head win by Miami.

Alabama avoided being penalized for its 28-7 SEC championship game loss and earned the No. 9 seed in the bracket.

By ERIC OLSON

The Big 12 Conference announced Sunday it would fine Iowa State and Kansas State $500,000 each for opting out of post-season bowl games.

Both schools are going through coaching transitions, with Matt Campbell leaving Iowa State for Penn State and Chris Klieman announcing his retirement.

The conference said that while it acknowledges the difficult timing around coaching changes, the Big 12 is responsible for fulfilling its contractual obligations to its bowl partners.

Iowa State announced its players voted to not play in a bowl because the team doesn’t have healthy players to safely practice and play. ISU did not mention the coaching change from Campbell to Jimmy Rogers in its statement.

K-State athletic director Gene Taylor said he had conversations with players and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark before deciding to decline a bowl bid.

By MAURA CAREY

Oregon (5), Ole Miss (6), Texas A&M (7) and Oklahoma (8) will each be playing at home after earning spots 5-8 in the College Football Playoff rankings.

Texas A&M will host No. 10 Miami. Oklahoma will welcome No. 9 Alabama for a rematch. Ole Miss takes American Conference-winner Tulane (11). Lastly, No. 12 James Madison, fresh off a Sun Belt championship win, will head to Eugene to take on No. 5 Oregon.

As expected, the Hoosiers earned the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye after beating Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game on Saturday.

Despite the loss, the committee opted to rank Ohio State No. 2 ahead of SEC champion Georgia. The Bulldogs earned their second straight first-round bye and top four ranking in the CFP bracket, coming in at No. 3.

Texas Tech rounded out the top four after beating BYU on Saturday. All four teams get the luxury of having the first round off and will resume game action in the quarterfinals.

By ERIC OLSON

Alabama would be on the outside looking if the College Football Playoff selection committee’s final rankings echo the new AP Top 25 poll. So would BYU, Vanderbilt and Texas.

And for the first time, there would be two Group of Five schools in the playoff, with James Madison joining Tulane on the bracket.

Here’s how the CFP bracket would look if it were based on the AP poll:

— No. 9 seed Notre Dame at No. 8 seed Oklahoma. Winner vs. No. 1 Indiana.

— No. 12 seed James Madison at No. 5 Oregon. Winner vs. No. 4 Texas Tech.

— No. 10 seed Miami at No. 7 Texas A&M. Winner vs. No. 2 Georgia.

— No. 11 seed Tulane at No. 6 Mississippi. Winner vs. No. 3 Ohio State.

The Associated Press Top 25 is out, with Indiana taking the No. 1 spot for the first time in program history. Now what will the final College Football Playoff rankings look like? We’ll find out at noon Eastern.

The order of teams in the AP poll and CFP rankings have been similar since the playoff selection committee started putting out its top 25 in November.

Indiana, Georgia, Ohio State and Texas Tech are the top four teams in the new AP poll. They were also the top four in last week’s CFP rankings and it’s a good bet the bracket will award those teams top-four seeds and first-round byes. It’s possible the committee would put Ohio State second and Georgia third based on the narrow margin of victory in the Big Ten title game.

Mississippi, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Notre Dame and Miami are teams 6 through 10 in the AP poll. AP voters moved Miami up two spots — ahead of Alabama and BYU. The Hurricanes will be hoping the committee follows suit, which would grant them an at-large bid.

AP Top 25 poll rankings

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

1. Indiana

2. Georgia

3. Ohio State

4. Texas Tech

5. Oregon

6. Ole Miss

7. Texas A&M

8. Oklahoma

9. Notre Dame

10. Miami (Fla.)

11. Alabama

12. BYU

13. Vanderbilt

14. Texas

15. Utah

16. USC

17. Tulane

18. Michigan

19. James Madison

20. Virginia

21. Arizona

22. Navy

23. North Texas

24. Georgia Tech

25. Missouri

By DAVE ZELIO

Indiana’s Tyrique Tucker and Drew Evans celebrate after the Big Ten championship NCAA college football game against Ohio State in Indianapolis, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)

One team that doesn’t have to sweat much today about the College Football Playoff announcement: Indiana.

At 13-0, the Hoosiers are the last unbeaten team in major college football after beating Ohio State in a thriller for their first outright championship since 1945. By beating the Buckeyes, Indiana ended the nation’s longest active winning streak at 16 and the Big Ten’s longest winning streak in a series between two teams.

In between, the Hoosiers shed the label of FBS’ losing-est program, too.

Most expect Indiana to grab AP’s No. 1 ranking and get the No. 1 CFP seed later today.

Duke tight end Jeremiah Hasley (85) scores a touchdown against Virginia in overtime of the Atlantic Coast Conference championship NCAA college football game Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Jacob Kupferman)

Duke’s overtime win against No. 16 Virginia in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game was something of a doomsday scenario for the league when it comes to the College Football Playoff.

The five-loss Blue Devils were unranked in the CFP, which raises the potential that the ACC could get shut out of the 12-team playoff later today. Sun Belt champion James Madison could secure the last automatic bid that goes to the five highest-ranked conference champions; three of those –- the Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC -– are locks and American champ Tulane is considered the fourth.

ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips says his league deserves two bids: one for No. 12 Miami as an at-large team and one for Saturday’s title-game winner.

Alabama, Notre Dame and Miami fans probably had something of a sleepless night ahead of the College Football Playoff bracket announcement.

Last week’s CFP rankings moved Alabama up a spot, raising the idea that the Crimson Tide have a cushion to make the bracket even if they lost to Georgia in the SEC championship game, which they did.

Notre Dame has won 10 straight games convincingly since starting 0-2, but had a lighter schedule than both Alabama and Miami, which handed the Fighting Irish one of those losses. Altogether those factors complicate the bottom of the playoff bracket.

It’s one of the biggest days on the calendar in college sports: The College Football Playoff will release its second 12-team bracket to kick off the postseason chase for the national championship.

We will kick things off soon with the final regular-season AP Top 25 football poll, so keep an eye for changes there that could foreshadow what you see in the CFP bracket.

There are eight teams that can feel pretty good about making the CFP, from Indiana to Ohio State and Georgia to Texas Tech and Ole Miss.

The final four slots are something else entirely. There is a lot of uncertainty on those and we will update you throughout the bracket release.

No organization has been ranking teams and naming a major college football national champion longer than The Associated Press, since 1936.

AP employees don’t vote themselves, but they do choose the voters. AP Top 25 voters comprise around 60 writers and broadcasters who cover college football for AP members and other select outlets. The goal is to have every state with a Football Bowl Subdivision school represented by at least one voter.

There is a 1-to-25 point system, with a team voted No. 1 receiving 25 points down to 1 point for a 25th-place vote. After that, it’s simple: The poll lists the teams with the most points from 1 to 25, and others receiving votes are also noted.

Voting is done online, and the tabulation is automated.

Indiana's Fernando Mendoza celebrates after the Big Ten championship NCAA college football game against Ohio State in Indianapolis, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)

The midterm elections officially begin Tuesday with primaries in Texas, North Carolina and Arkansas. As war with Iran breaks out, Democrats and Republicans are figuring out who they want to lead their party into November’s general election, when control of Congress and statehouses around the country will be up for grabs.

The most hotly contested races of the day are in Texas, with fierce competition on both sides of the aisle for U.S. Senate nominations. It’s possible that the Republican campaign will continue into a runoff.

Here's the latest:

Election officials in North Carolina said Tuesday about 25% more people cast early voting ballots this year than the last midterm primaries in 2022.

About 714,000 ballots were cast early in 2026, North Carolina State Board of Elections Executive Director Sam Hayes said.

Only isolated issues with precincts have been reported Tuesday and those have been addressed, Hayes said.

A poling place in Warren County did catch fire Monday, but the state sent a mobile voting unit to the site and voting started normally Tuesday morning, officials said.

That’s because an Arkansas father accused of killing his daughter’s alleged abuser is running for sheriff while awaiting trial for murder.

Aaron Spencer, an Army veteran and farmer, is running as a Republican against Lonoke County Sheriff John Staley, whose department arrested Spencer in October 2024. A third Republican, David Bufford, also is on the ballot in that race.

Spencer’s trial was scheduled to start in January, but was delayed after the presiding judge was removed from the case.

And he argues that scenario is especially plausible if he doesn’t win the GOP primary in Texas.

“Republican voters are going to need to decide, do we want to win? Do we want to keep Texas red? If the Attorney General (Ken Paxton) is the nominee, that risks everything we’ve been working on for decades in Texas, with Republican leadership and conservative policies making Texas the envy of the nation,” Cornyn said on Fox News on Tuesday morning.

Cornyn faces a crowded field in the party primary, drawing challenges from Paxton, U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt and five others.

Tanu Sani, a Democrat, said she had been undecided on who to vote for but ultimately chose state Rep. James Talarico, saying he “really spoke to me in the way he tries to unify.”

Andrew Kern, who said he leans Democrat, said he went the same way. Kern said he feels Talarico “is taking an approach that’s bridging some of the divisiveness.”

Sen. Tom Cotton was unopposed in his 2014 and 2020 primaries, and Sanders and Republican U.S. Sen. John Boozman won their 2022 primaries with 83% and 66% of the vote, respectively.

Cotton faces two challengers this year. Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who is seeking a second term, is running unopposed in the primary.

The state’s Republican lieutenant governor, attorney general, auditor and treasurer also face no primary challengers in their reelection bids.

In almost all cases, races can be called well before all votes have been counted. The AP’s team of election journalists and analysts will call a race as soon as a clear winner can be determined.

In competitive races, AP analysts may need to wait until additional votes are tallied or to confirm specific information about how many ballots are left to count.

Competitive races in which votes are actively being tabulated — for example, in states that count a large number of votes after election night — might be considered “too early to call.” A race may be “too close to call” if a race is so close that there’s no clear winner even once all ballots except for provisional and late-arriving absentee ballots have been counted.

The AP’s race calls are not predictions and are not based on speculation. They are declarations based on an analysis of vote results and other election data that one candidate has emerged as the winner and that no other candidate in the race will be able to overtake the winner once all the votes have been counted.

The AP’s vote count brings together information that otherwise might not be available online for days or weeks after an election or is scattered across hundreds of local websites. Without national standards or consistent expectations across states, it also ensures the data is in a standard format, uses standard terms and undergoes rigorous quality control.

The AP hires vote count reporters who work with local election officials to collect results directly from counties or precincts where votes are first counted. These reporters submit them, by phone or electronically, as soon as the results are available. If any of the results are available from state or county websites, the AP will gather the results from there, too.

In many cases, counties will update vote totals as they count ballots throughout the night. The AP is continually updating its count as these results are released. In a general election, the AP will make as many as 21,000 vote updates per hour.

The 2026 midterm season begins in earnest Tuesday with two of the nation’s most consequential Senate primaries playing out in Texas, a political behemoth Democrats have been fighting to flip for decades.

Is this the year? Republican leaders in Washington openly fret that a victory by conservative firebrand Ken Paxton over four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn would give Democrats a rare shot of winning the seat come November. The contest has already cost Republicans tens of millions of dollars, and there will be much more spent ahead of a May 26 runoff if no one gets 50% in the three-way primary that also includes Rep. Wesley Hunt.

Democrats, meanwhile, are picking between two rising stars with conflicting styles. There’s U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who made a name for herself through confrontation, and state Rep. James Talarico, a former middle school teacher who’s working toward a divinity degree.

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The United States doesn’t have a nationwide body that collects and releases election results. Elections are administered locally, by thousands of offices, following standards set by the states. In many cases, the states themselves don’t even offer up-to-date tracking of election results.

The AP fills this gap by compiling vote results and declaring winners in elections, providing critical information in the period between Election Day and the official certification of results, which typically takes weeks.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said in January that the state should seize control of elections in Harris County, which includes Houston and is a key battleground.

His comments continued years of Republican criticism over how elections are run in the county of more than 5 million, where Hispanic and Black residents make up a majority. Democrats have controlled the county since 2018.

Abbott signed laws that eliminated Harris County’s independent elections administrator and banned drive-thru voting in Houston. And last year he waited nine months to hold a special election to fill a U.S. House seat representing Houston, saying the county needed extra time to prepare for a vote without any problems.

Democrats accused Abbott of delaying that election to help Republicans maintain their razor-thin margin in the House.

Republican incumbents, including U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, are heavy favorites to win their primaries in Arkansas.

Cotton, who is seeking his third term in office, will face Jeb Little, an Arkansas State Police trooper, and Micah Ashby, a minister from Bradford.

Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who served as President Donald Trump’s press secretary during Trump’s first term, is seeking her second term in office. She did not draw a Republican opponent.

Arkansas hasn’t elected a Democrat statewide since 2010, and Sanders and Cotton will be heavy favorites to win reelection in November.

Polls have now opened for voters in El Paso and Hudspeth counties, an area of about 1 million people on the western tip of Texas in the Mountain Time Zone.

Polls in Arkansas are open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and voters are required to show photo identification before voting.

About 2,600 sites opened statewide at 6:30 a.m. ET and will close at 7:30 p.m. ET. Some ballots have already been cast by mail or during an early in-person voting period that ended Saturday.

There’s an open race for a seat in the U.S. Senate because Republican Sen. Thom Tillis decided not to seek reelection after clashing with Trump. Former Gov. Roy Cooper is seeking the Democratic nomination, while former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley is running to represent his party.

Voters are also picking nominees for U.S. House seats, including the Republican choice to challenge Democratic Rep. Don Davis in the 1st District. That district became more Republican as state legislators redrew it during Trump’s redistricting effort to help his party maintain control of the House.

People vote on primary election day at the West Gray Metropolitan Multi-Service Center in Houston, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (Raquel Natalicchio /Houston Chronicle via AP)

People vote during a primary election day at the West Gray Metropolitan Multi-Service Center in Houston, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (Raquel Natalicchio /Houston Chronicle via AP)

A man wears an "I voted" sticker outside a polling location Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Spring, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

A voter makes his way into a polling location, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Spring, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

FILE - An election judge arranges "I Vote, I Count" stickers on a table in the Marion County Clerks office as voters cast early ballots in Indianapolis, Oct. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)