ESPN Will Drop First 12-Team CFP Rankings in Heart of Election Night

On Tuesday, Nov. 5, the nation will finally learn the results it has been waiting for.

ESPN is set to unveil the inaugural rankings for the first 12-team College Football Playoff.

The reveal just so happens to coincide with Election Day—and its 7 p.m. ET start time will run right up against prime-time coverage of election results. It’s yet another instance of college football being unable to avoid the 2024 election.

The simultaneous events don’t appear to be a concern for either ESPN or the CFP. Playoff executive director Rich Clark, who will oversee his first postseason since taking over the role from Bill Hancock earlier this year, painted it as a positive. “Everybody’s going to be thinking about the election—and then we can take their mind off of it a little bit with football,” Clark told reporters on a Zoom call last week.

ESPN is following its traditional weekly schedule. The CFP has always released rankings Tuesday evenings on ESPN, leading all the way up to the official bracket reveal the Sunday after conference championships conclude in December. The CFP did not have any discussions about changing the timing, a CFP spokesperson tells Front Office Sports.

The network will air the selection, including the full top 25, beginning at 7 p.m. ET, when only six states will have closed their polls. The rankings will be completely revealed within the first 15 minutes of the show, before three more states close their polls at 7:30 p.m. ET. A media conference call will begin at 7:45 p.m. ET after the show concludes. 

“There’s certainly opportunity to both watch the rankings and stay informed throughout election night,” an ESPN source tells FOS. In any case, experts predict the official results of the election could take days, if not longer.

It’s not the first time ESPN—which has owned the rights to the CFP since its inception a decade ago and just signed a $7.8 billion extension—has had to navigate the two events happening simultaneously. ESPN previously aired rankings on election night in 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2022. In 2020, the reveal was pushed back after the pandemic caused multiple FBS conferences to delay their seasons.  

While the selection isn’t the final CFP ranking, it is historic. The CFP previously included only four teams. But this year, 12 teams will make the postseason: The top five-ranked conference champions plus seven at-large teams will receive bids. The Playoff will consist of four rounds. The top four conference champions will receive a bye in the first week, while the other eight will play games on campuses (also for the first time in CFP history). Quarterfinals and semifinals will be played during New Year’s Six bowl games, and the national championship will be held, as always, at a neutral site—this year at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. 

The CFP will have yet another run-in with election-related events at the end of the postseason. The title game is on Monday, Jan. 20, the same day as the inauguration. The schedule is, again, a coincidence, as the national championship game always airs on a Monday night—but this year, it airs later in January due to the extended playoff. 

Clark, for his part, had a rosy view of the schedule. “The whole country’s going to be pretty well divided at that point, I guess, if things are panning out the way it’s looking,” he said. “But then we’re going to bring them right back together, right? It’ll be a great way to get everybody’s mind back onto some football after that inauguration happens.”