We’re one hour away from two teams fighting for their first-ever CFP national championship as Indiana battles Miami (Fla.). It’ll be the first matchup between the schools since 1966.
Here’s what you need to know.
How to watch the game
You can watch Indiana battle Miami on ESPN. Click or tap here for live stats
What time is the game?
The National Championship will be played at 7:30 p.m. ET. Here’s some tidbits about how each team has performed based on kickoff time.
Where’s the game?
The National Championship Game will be played in Miami Gardens, Fla. at Hard Rock Stadium.
- Miami is the first team in CFP history to play in its home stadium for a national title.
- The Hurricanes lost to Louisville at home this season, its only loss at home over the last two seasons.
Underrated team storylines
- Miami’s last national title came in 2001, winning the BCS crown. The Hurricanes have a shared title from 1991 and three other outright titles from 1989, 1987 and 1983. Indiana has never won or played for a national title in program history.
- Indiana is the unanimous No. 1-ranked team in the AP Poll. Miami is 9-10 all-time against AP No. 1 teams, losing its last three matchups.
- The Big Ten Conference is looking for its third CFP national championship in a row. The SEC has the longest conference national championship streak of the CFP era, winning four titles from 2019-22.
- The past two matchups between Indiana and Miami were in 1964 and 1966 — the same year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. won his Nobel Peace Prize and met with US president Lyndon B. Johnson in the White House, respectively. Fast forward to the national holiday Martin Luther King Day in 2026, and the two schools meet again.
- In Miami’s past two matchups with Indiana, the Hurricanes have scored 14 points in each game. While Miami split those two games for a 1-1 all-time record against the Hoosiers, they might need more points this go around. Indiana is 19-0 under head coach Curt Cignetti when holding opponents to 14 or fewer points.
Player storylines
- Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza is making a homecoming of sorts, returning to Miami to play in his hometown for the first time of his collegiate career. He’s 0-1 against Miami all-time, losing to the Hurricanes last year. Click or tap here for more on the story.
- Fernando Mendoza also won the Heisman. He’s looking to become the eight player during the CFP/BCS eras to win both the Heisman and a national title in the same season.
- Twice has a true freshman earned MVP honors of the CFP national title game. Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (2018) and Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence (2019) are the only ones. If Miami wins, could star wide receiver Malachi Toney be next on the list? The freshman was named 2025 Offensive Freshman of the Year by the FWAA earlier this week.
- Miami quarterback Carson Beck has national championship experience from being a backup quarterback during Georgia’s back-to-back national championship wins from 2021-22. However, this will be Beck’s first title game as a starter.
- Miami running back CharMar Brown also has postseason experience, leading FCS program North Dakota State to a national championship last year. He won the Jerry Rice Award as the FCS freshman of the year. Will Marty Brown go back-to-back, winning titles in each level Division I college football?
CharMar Brown’s FCS playoff highlights at NDSU
Stars are out
Miami is one of America’s favorite cities to vacation in, so a CFP title game only boosts the stars that will come out. The College Football Playoff brought some star power of its own thanks to musical guests like Calvin Harris and Peso Pluma performing on Saturday and Sunday. Mr. Worldwide himself, Pitbull, is set to perform ahead of Monday night’s game.
That’s not all. Sitting U.S. President Donald Trump is set to attend the game in person. That means enhanced security entering the stadium and more traffic closers around the stadium for fans at the game. Here’s what it means on the field.
- Donald Trump has attended two CFP title games as president in 2017-18 and in 2019-20.
- Alabama won as the away team in 2017-18. LSU won as the home team in 2019-20.
- Indiana-Miami is Trump’s 12th college football game attended since his 2016 election and eighth game attended as a sitting president.
- Since becoming president-elect in 2016, the home-designated team is 2-2.
- As sitting president, the home-designated team is 7-4.
- Indiana-Miami will be Trump’s third football game attended this year, joining Army-Navy and Lions-Commanders.
- The home-designated teams are 1-1 in the 2025 season when Trump attends.
Whom did you pick?
Only 20 perfect brackets remain in the College Football Bracket Challenge Game. That means 20 people picked a 10-seed, the lowest at-large in this year’s playoff field, to make the national championship. Of those 20, 12 picked Indiana while eight have Miami. That’s a 60-40 ratio of fans picking the Hoosiers to finish their bracket perfect.
It’s impressive that we’ve made it this far, especially since Indiana opened as the most popular champion pick across 28.1 percent of brackets, while Miami was picked to win it all in just 1.54 percent of brackets.
Follow our perfect bracket tracker postgame to see where the perfect brackets stand heading into the national championship game.
Uniform matchup
- Indiana and Miami are both adidas sponsored schools. This is the first time in the BCS or CFP era that a national title game does not feature a Nike school.
- Indiana will be wearing its crimson red jerseys. The Hoosiers are undefeated under head coach Curt Cignetti when wearing red jerseys.
- Even though Miami is playing at its home stadium, the 10th-seeded Hurricanes are the lower seed, and thus the away-designated team. Miami will again be wearing its all-white uniform combo. The Hurricanes have worn this combo in its last four games (four wins) against Pittsburgh, Texas A&M, Ohio State and Ole Miss. Miami also won wearing its all white uniforms against Florida State. That’s 5-0.
What’s at stake?
The national championship. The stakes don’t get higher than this. Click or tap here to view the full CFP bracket.
