2025 College Football Playoff National Championship presented by AT&T
11th College Football Playoff National Championship
Ohio State Buckeyes Notre Dame Fighting Irish (13–2) (14–1) Big Ten Independent Head coach:  Ryan Day Head coach:  Marcus Freeman AP Coaches CFP 6 7 6 AP Coaches CFP 3 3 5
Date	January 20, 2025
Season	2024
Stadium	Mercedes-Benz Stadium[a]
Location	Atlanta, Georgia[a]
Favorite	Ohio State by 8.5
National anthem	Coco Jones with Adam Blackstone
Referee	Steve Marlowe (SEC)[1]
United States TV coverage
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Chris Fowler (play-by-play), Kirk Herbstreit (analyst), Holly Rowe and Molly McGrath (sidelines)
College Football Playoff National Championship ←  2024 2026 →

The 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship is an upcoming college football bowl game that is scheduled to be played on January 20, 2025, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. The eleventh College Football Playoff National Championship, the game will determine the national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for the 2024 season. It will be the final game of the 2024–25 College Football Playoff (CFP), the first national championship under the 12-team CFP format, and, aside from any all-star games afterward, the culminating game of the 2024–25 bowl season. It is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. EST and will be televised nationally by ESPN. Sponsored by telecommunications company AT&T, the game is officially known as the 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship presented by AT&T.^[2]

The game will feature the No. 8 seed Ohio State Buckeyes from the Big Ten Conference and the No. 7 seed Notre Dame Fighting Irish, an FBS independent.

On January 7, 2022, the College Football Playoff (CFP) awarded the rights to host the 2025 championship to Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada. However, Allegiant Stadium had to relinquish hosting duties due to a conflict with the Consumer Electronics Show, which was not able to be moved to a later date. As a result, Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, was named as the replacement host site on May 5, 2022.^[3][4] (Allegiant Stadium would eventually host the 2027 championship.) As Mercedes-Benz Stadium hosted the 2018 CFP national championship, the 2025 game will make Atlanta the first city to host the CFP national championship twice.^[5] The stadium, built to replace the Georgia Dome in 2017,^[6] is also the annual host of the Aflac Kickoff Game, SEC Championship Game, and the Peach Bowl.^[7] The 71,000-seat retractable roof stadium is also the regular host of the Celebration Bowl, the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL), and Atlanta United FC of Major League Soccer (MLS).^[8] Additionally, it has hosted the 2018 MLS Cup,^[9] Super Bowl LIII,^[10] and two matches during the 2024 Copa América;^[11] in the future, it has been selected to host matches during the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup and the 2026 FIFA World Cup, including a semifinal during the latter.^[12][13] In October 2024, the NFL announced that the stadium will host Super Bowl LXII.^[14]

The game will be the 11th national championship in CFP history and will be the first national championship game under the expanded playoff format, which features twelve teams instead of four.^[15]

The game will be the ninth meeting between the Buckeyes and the Fighting Irish, with the last meeting taking place in 2023 at Notre Dame Stadium where Ohio State won, 17–14. The Buckeyes have won six straight games after two Notre Dame victories in the first pair of games.^{[citation needed]}

Ohio State played to a 10–2 record (7–2 in conference) during the regular season; their only losses were to Oregon and archrival Michigan. Ranked sixth in the final CFP poll, the Buckeyes received the eighth seed in the playoff tournament. They played and defeated Tennessee 42–17 in their first-round game in Columbus, Oregon in a rematch the Rose Bowl quarterfinal 41–21, and Texas in the Cotton Bowl semifinal 28–14.

The Buckeyes will be making their first national championship game appearance since the 2020 season, where they lost to Alabama, as well as their eighth all-time national championship game appearance (1969, 1973, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2015, 2021). They also seek their first national championship since the inaugural CFP in 2014.

Notre Dame enters the game with a 14–1 record, their only loss being a major upset against Northern Illinois on September 7. The Fighting Irish won a first-round home playoff game over Indiana 27–17, the Sugar Bowl quarterfinal over Georgia 23–10, and the Orange Bowl semifinal over Penn State 27–24 to earn a berth in the championship game.

This will be the fifth FBS championship game appearance for the Fighting Irish (1966, 1973, 1989, 2013) and the first since the introduction of the CFP. Their last appearance was the 2013 BCS National Championship Game, which they lost to Alabama 42–14, however it was vacated due to NCAA sanctions. Overall in their football program's history, Notre Dame claims 11 prior national championships, spanning 1924 to 1988.^[16]

The game will be televised in the United States on ESPN and is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. EST.^[17] In the United Kingdom, the game will be broadcast on Sky Sports.^[18]

• College football national championships in NCAA Division I FBS

• Game statistics at statbroadcast.com