2026 Season
CFP Fantasy Football
You draft college football programs, not players. Every week you start seven of them — one from each of the four power conferences, two from the Group of Five, and an ACC-or-independent flex — and they score by winning. Beat a ranked team and it counts double.
The starting lineup
Seven slots. A team is eligible for a slot when its conference matches — the ACC/IND slot takes an ACC team or an independent.
| Slot | Eligible |
|---|---|
| SEC | Any SEC team |
| Big Ten | Any Big Ten team |
| Big 12 | Any Big 12 team |
| ACC | Any ACC team |
| G5 West | American, Pac-12, Mtn West |
| G5 East | MAC, Sun Belt, C-USA |
| ACC/IND | ACC, Ind |
Scoring
| Result | Points | As Game of the Week |
|---|---|---|
| Win | 1 | 2 |
| Win against an AP Top 25 team (Quality Win) | 2 | 3 |
| Loss | 0 | −1 |
| Bye | 0 | 0 |
A tagged team beating a ranked opponent scores 3 — the most a single game can be worth. Weekly totals range from −1 to 15.
A week, played out
A real head-to-head from Week 7 of the 2025 season — same seven slots, scored by the rules above. One starter each side carries the Game of the Week tag.
Corso's Headgear
Herbstreit's Homers
Winner
- The Game of the Week decided it
- Herbstreit tagged Indiana, which stunned No. 3 Oregon — a 2-point win, bumped to 3 for beating a ranked team. Corso tagged Oregon and took the −1. Same game, a four-point swing, and an 8–7 final.
- One game, two rosters
- The Pitt–Florida State upset sat on both teams. Corso started Pitt for a quality win (+2); Herbstreit started Florida State for a zero. Every FBS team is ownable, so collisions like this happen.
- Ranked scalps are worth double
- Three Top-25 upsets — Indiana over Oregon, Colorado over Iowa State, Pitt over FSU — each carried the +1 Quality Win bonus. Beating good teams is how weeks are won.
The bench
You roster more teams than you start. The extras sit on your bench — depth for bye weeks, upsets, and waiver pickups. Bench and draft length scale with league size so the team pool stays scarce.
| Managers | Bench | Roster | Draft rounds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 2 | 8 | 8 |
| 8 | 2 | 8 | 8 |
| 10 | 2 | 9 | 9 |
| 12 | 2 | 9 | 9 |
At 10 or 12 managers, expect the waiver wire to be almost entirely Group of Five teams — nearly every Power Four team is rostered from draft night on.
Waivers
Unrostered teams sit on the waiver wire. Claims run on reverse-standings priority — worst record gets first pick — and run automatically Tuesday through Friday at 2:00 PM ET and Saturday at 9:00 AM ET. Every run resolves all pending claims; one that doesn’t go through must be submitted again for a later run. No bidding, no weekly add limit. Trades close at the end of Week 10.
A team is locked once its game that week starts: it can’t be added or dropped until next week, and a claim can’t include a team whose game kicks off before the next run.
A team you add off waivers is subject to a three-week hold: you can start, bench, or trade it, but you can’t drop it for three scoring weeks. Drafted teams have no hold.
Season
Head-to-head, one opponent a week. Weeks 1–11 are the regular season, the top four seeds play a semifinal in week 12, and the final is week 13.
Full league rules(buy-in, tiebreakers, the fine print) →
Buy-in & payout
$50 to enter, 6–12 managers (even number preferred). First place takes the pot; second place gets their buy-in back. At 8 managers a $400 pot pays $300 / $100; at 12, a $600 pot pays $500 / $100.
Lineups & locks
Each starter locks at its own kickoff — there’s no weekly deadline. The Game of the Week tag can move to any starter whose game hasn’t kicked off yet; once the tagged team plays, it’s locked. An unset tag carries over from last week (Week 1 defaults to your first-round pick).
The three-week hold
A waiver add must stay rostered for three scoring weeks (counting the week of the add). It can be started, benched, or traded — the remaining hold follows it in a trade — but not dropped. Bye weeks count. The hold expires at the end of Week 11 regardless. Drafted teams are exempt.
Tiebreakers
If a matchup ends level: (1) highest AP-ranked winning starter, then (2) Game of the Week result, then (3) combined margin of victory among starters, then (4) a coin flip.
The calendar
Weeks 1–11 are the regular season, Week 12 is the semifinal (top four seeds), Week 13 is the final. Week 14 (rivalry weekend) exists on the schedule but doesn’t score. Postseason bowls and the playoff are not part of these rules.