College Football Playoff 2025 Rankings Released Ahead of Week 11

Let the debates begin.

The College Football Playoff selection committee released its first set of rankings for the 2025 season Tuesday, and undefeated Ohio State checked in at No. 1 ahead of Indiana and Texas A&M. There is still plenty of football left to play, but early pole position means the Buckeyes control their own destiny for a first-round bye in the 12-team field.

Here is a look at the full Top 25, which will look slightly different than the current projected 12-team bracket since the five highest-ranked conference champions earn automatic bids.

Of note, the four teams that receive first-round byes this season will be the four highest-ranked teams. That is different than last year when the byes went to the four highest-ranked conference champions.

1. Ohio State
2. Indiana
3. Texas A&M
4. Alabama
5. Georgia
6. Ole Miss
7. BYU
8. Texas Tech
9. Oregon
10. Notre Dame
11. Texas
12. Oklahoma
13. Utah
14. Virginia
15. Louisville
16. Vanderbilt
17. Georgia Tech
18. Miami
19. USC
20. Iowa
21. Michigan
22. Missouri
23. Washington
24. Pittsburgh
25. Tennessee

There was no shortage of questions entering Tuesday's initial ranking reveal with the biggest one perhaps being which team would be No. 1 among undefeated Ohio State, Indiana and Texas A&M. 

The Buckeyes are the reigning national champions with a headline nonconference win over the SEC's Texas and notable road victories over Washington and Illinois. But they are also No. 3 in ESPN's strength of record metric behind the Aggies and Hoosiers.

Indiana's road win over Oregon might be the most impressive individual result of the season, and Texas A&M counts a road victory over Notre Dame on its resume.

All three had valid cases, but this is just the first set of rankings. If Ohio State and Indiana remain undefeated and face each other in the Big Ten championship game, the winner of that matchup will likely find itself at No. 1 in the final and more important rankings.

Elsewhere, Notre Dame was a point of interest heading into Tuesday, as the Fighting Irish have two losses by a combined four points to Miami and Texas A&M. They don't have a conference race like the other contenders and may need some help to make the field, but it is difficult to envision them being excluded if they rally from their 0-2 start to finish with a 10-2 record.

The positioning of the Big 12 and ACC teams were also of note as those conferences look to get more than one team each into the field.

Whether they will or not depends on the results down the stretch for teams such as BYU, Texas Tech, Utah, Virginia, Louisville, Georgia Tech and Miami, especially since they likely won't get as much benefit of the doubt as one- or two-loss SEC and Big Ten teams.

With a gluttony of one- and two-loss SEC teams in Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Texas, Vanderbilt and Missouri, as well as lurking two-loss Big Ten teams such as Michigan, USC, Washington and Iowa behind one-loss Oregon, there will be no shortage of teams from the two premier conferences ready to take as many spots as possible if the Big 12 and ACC contenders slip.

Alabama Crimson Tide - South Carolina Gamecocks Highlights

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Ultimately, this is just the first set of rankings that will change with a number of marquee, narrative-shifting games remaining in November before the conference championship games.

After all, it was just last season that Notre Dame was No. 10 in the initial CFP rankings only to play its way into the national championship game. Perhaps most drastically, Ohio State was No. 16 in the first-ever CFP rankings in 2014 and went on to win the national title in a four-team field.

The one guarantee is the rankings will look different as the season progresses.

But for now, Ohio State has early bragging rights.