The winners of the semis get a chance at lifting the final prize at the College Football Playoff National Championship game. This postseason invitational tournament sees the league’s top four teams, each selected and seeded by a 13-member committee, go head-to-head in two semi-final games. Next up in the NCAAF calendar comes the thrill of the College Football Playoff.

The regular season concludes in December after each conference has crowned its winner. Meanwhile, non-conference games also take place. Each team plays between 10 and 13 games against other teams from their own conference. NCAA football tournament action kicks off around late August and early September. A handful of teams, such as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Indiana’s University of Notre Dame, are not affiliated with a conference, and are instead known as independents. NCAA Tournament Format How the NCAA Worksįor the most part, the 130 teams in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision 1 are grouped together in separate conferences - for example, the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big Ten, and the Southeastern Conference.