Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer gestures on the sidelines during his team's game against Georgia at the 2025 SEC championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

As you know by now, the 2025-2026 College Football Playoff bracket and field were revealed on Sunday. The full schedule is out. Notre Dame, Miami, and Alabama were the three teams at the center of the drama going into the selection show.

This is the second year of the College Football Playoff, but with amended policies compared to 2024. The main change this year: Conference champions do not get automatic first-round playoff byes. This reveal was going to give us a sense of whether the process is more honest and less subject to commercial pressure. For the most part, the verdict was negative, but one good thing emerged from this bracket and the selection process which created it. Let's go through the winners and losers of this playoff bracket:

Winner -- Alabama

The Crimson Tide got blasted by Georgia and not only got in, but were the No. 9 seed. They didn't even drop in the overall rankings. Alabama got in over 13-0 Florida State in 2023 and got in in 2017 when it didn't even make the SEC Championship Game, let alone win it. The Tide get a level of benefit of the doubt other programs, in and outside the SEC, do not receive.

Loser -- Notre Dame

Miami deserved to get in over Notre Dame because of the head to head, but the Irish being left out with Alabama getting in is a clear error. Yes, Notre Dame could choose better opponents -- Stanford and Syracuse were dead weight which did prove costly -- but Alabama lost to Florida State and lost three games, one in a blowout. Notre Dame fans should be angry -- but at Bama, not Miami.

Winner -- Miami

The win over Notre Dame mattered, as it should have. No one should have a problem with this. It was the one really great thing the committee did. If that game didn't matter, why should teams take risks in Week 1? Just play Cupcake Valley State or Little Sisters of the Poor University. This one the committee got right, and it spared the ACC the humiliation of getting shut out of the playoff. One actually wonders if that point -- the ACC possibly being excluded entirely -- weighed on the minds of committee members. At any rate, this was the right call.

Loser -- BYU

The Cougars went 11-2, better than Alabama, but got punished for losing a 13th game. Alabama did not. That's called inconsistency.

Loser -- Vanderbilt

Be honest: If Alabama had Vanderbilt's 10-2 record and didn't have a 13th-game loss on its ledger sheet, would the Crimson Tide have been excluded? Very clearly not. Vanderbilt is the victim of helmet bias, otherwise known as the label on the soup can. Some SEC schools get treated better than others. This is beyond dispute. Interestingly, Vanderbilt being excluded might be precisely why the playoff expands to 16 teams.

Winner -- Group of Five

Two teams in the playoff? Who would have thought? James Madison and Tulane both get in.

Loser -- Utah

Utah is another 10-2 team, alongside Vanderbilt, which is probably better than James Madison but is sitting on the outside looking in. James Madison versus Utah in a play-in game would have been a really good idea this past Saturday. Speaking of that point...

Loser -- conference championship games

These are now outdated events due to the expansion from four to 12 playoff teams. Ohio State did not fall below No. 2 after losing the Big Ten Championship Game. Georgia was not rewarded by winning the SEC Championship Game. It didn't move above Ohio State. Alabama wasn't punished for getting blown out. Duke did not make the playoff as a result of winning the ACC title game. Why are these games even being played?

Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza survived an injury scare in the Big Ten title game. Indiana and Ohio State should have had a week of rest before a multi-game playoff meat grinder. Third- or fourth-place teams should be playing in these early-December games. They have outlived their usefulness and need a rethink.

Loser -- early-December football

This past weekend used to be so much more consequential than it currently is. There's a way to fix this: Turn championship games into bubble games. Have BYU play Texas in Arlington. Have Notre Dame play Vanderbilt in Charlotte. Have Miami play Alabama in Atlanta. Have James Madison play Utah in Indianapolis. How much better would college football be if conference title games get turned into bubble games? This is where and how the sport must change in the future to adjust to the new realities of the 12-team playoff.

Winner -- Oregon

The Ducks host James Madison, then get Texas Tech and avoid the top three. Then they could get a rematch with Indiana in a revenge game. No team seeded outside the top four got a better bracket.

Loser -- selection committee

If you wondered about the football selection committee's ability to bracket a tournament as poorly as basketball does, your worst fears were realized in this 2025-2026 bracket. Oklahoma-Alabama rematch? Tulane-Ole Miss rematch? Ole Miss-Georgia rematch in the quarterfinals? This is the worst possible bracket we could have had in terms of stale first-round matchups and failing to avoid regular-season rematches. It should be obvious that a postseason tournament should steer clear of rematches before the semifinals. The committee did not care.

Loser -- college football fans

The best first-round game is -- without question -- Miami-Texas A&M. It's at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific, on Saturday, December 20. James Madison-Oregon and the Bama-OU rematch are the primetime games. This is not a fan-friendly first round at all.

Loser -- ESPN

The network continues to shill for the SEC team (Alabama) and fails to deliver the caliber of objectivity one would hope for. Also, not announcing the teams for the first 20 minutes of the selection show -- a regular pattern -- is a total turn-off to fans and viewers. Basketball (CBS) does it the right way.

Contact/Follow @College_Wire on X and @College_Wires on Threads. Like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of college sports news, notes, and opinions.

This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: Winners and losers from CFP bracket and selection process

Reporting by Matt Zemek, College Sports Wire / College Sports Wire

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect