Amidst great debate and lobbying from all corners of the internet as to which schools are most deserving for a berth in the 2025 College Football Playoff, the CFP committee unveiled its final set of regular season rankings, as we await a weekend chock full of conference title games, a few of which have massive implications on the final 12-team bracket.
Before laying out some of my thoughts on the committee’s efforts this week, here are the top 25 teams in college football, according to the CFP selection committee:
1. Ohio State (Big Ten)
2. Indiana (Big Ten)
3. Georgia (SEC)
4. Texas Tech (Big XII)
5. Oregon (Big Ten)
6. Ole Miss (SEC)
7. Texas A&M (SEC)
8. Oklahoma (SEC)
9. Alabama (SEC)
10. Notre Dame (Independent)
11. BYU (Big XII)
12. Miami (ACC)
13. Texas (SEC)
14. Vanderbilt (SEC)
15. Utah (Big XII)
16. USC (Big Ten)
17. Virginia (ACC)
18. Arizona (Big XII)
19. Michigan (Big Ten)
20. Tulane (American)
21. Houston (Big XII)
22. Georgia Tech (ACC)
23. Iowa (Big Ten)
24. North Texas (American)
25. James Madison (Sun Belt)
Keep in mind, the top four ranked teams will receive a bye in the first round, and are seeded 1 through 4 for the bracket. The five highest ranked conference champions receive automatic bids, and the top seven non-conference champs are admitted as at large teams.
This latest iteration of the CFP rankings had some very interesting wrinkles, some of which make this coming weekend of conference title games very interesting:
It’s a mixed bag for the state of Texas
Let’s start at the top and work our way down. Texas Tech is in outstanding shape, having moved up to 4th in the rankings, thanks to Texas A&M’s loss to Texas over the weekend. Tech is now sixty minutes away from clinching a conference title and a bye in the first round. The Aggies are still comfortably an at-large team, sitting at 7th. All of Steve Sarkisian’s lobbying was not enough to get Texas into the dance, as they are 13th, and will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2022. Finally, Houston (21st) and North Texas (24th) round out the Texas contingent of teams.
Ole Miss lost their head coach, and moved….up?
The CFP website has a section where it outlines the “principles” (their word, not mine) that provide the guidelines for selecting the field. You could argue that they adhere to these principles quite loosely, nevertheless there is one that says when a team loses a significant player or coach, it could effect their ranking. We saw this in 2023 when an undefeated Florida State was left out of the playoff due to losing their quarterback, Jordan Travis. Well, Ole Miss saw their head coach Lane Kiffin leave for LSU, and they actually moved UP one spot from 7th to 6th. I have zero clue what to make of that, but it’s a head scratcher for sure.
The ACC might get snubbed
So Miami is clearly the best team in the ACC. They are 10-2 overall, and ranked 12th in the CFP rankings. The ACC only has two other teams even in the rankings, Virginia (17th) and Georgia Tech (22nd). However, due to some very ill-conceived tiebreakers, Miami is not in the ACC title game. In fact, one of the participants, Duke, is 7-5 and unranked. They’ll play the aforementioned Virginia Cavaliers for the ACC title on Saturday. What that means is that, if unranked Duke wins, we could see the ACC not get a single team in the dance, as the five highest ranked conference champions get automatic bids, and the winner of the American title game between 20th ranked Tulane and 24th ranked North Texas will be rated higher than Duke, as will 25th ranked James Madison, out of the Sun Belt. That’s wild. At the very least, these rankings have made conference title weekend more interesting.
Notre Dame’s fate is suddenly tenuous
Which brings us to the one team in all of this conversation with no conference affiliation, Notre Dame. The committee dropped Notre Dame to 10th, which means they are the final at-large team, with the lowest ranked automatic bids, whoever they end up being, taking spots 11 and 12. Notre Dame is still a heavy favorite to make the field, but there are two potential road blocks. First, if 11th ranked BYU beats Texas Tech in the Big XII title game, that likely makes the Big XII a two bid league, likely forcing Notre Dame out. Second, if BYU loses by enough points to bump them below 12th ranked Miami, then suddenly Notre Dame and Miami are next to each other in the rankings, and Miami’s head to head win over the Irish in September may factor into the committee’s decision to take Notre Dame or Miami in the final spot. Thus far, Notre Dame has been ahead of Miami in every weekly ranking since early November. The committee has done stranger things before, though.
The 12 team field will be revealed Sunday morning at 11 a.m. on ESPN.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.