Did the College Football Playoff Selection Committee Get it Right?

The debates are settled for the College Football Playoff selection committee, and the 2025 bracket has been unveiled.

In: Alabama, Miami and James Madison.

Out: Notre Dame and Duke.

The controversial decision to include Alabama and Miami but leave out Notre Dame in particular is the headliner of this season's championship tournament. Beyond that conversation, though, the remainder of the 12-team field is organized and seeded well.

In the following sections, we'll break down the 12 teams included, how or whether their placement is justified and touch on the at-large debate.

Final CFP Seeding

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1. Indiana
2. Ohio State
3. Georgia
4. Texas Tech
5. Oregon
6. Ole Miss
7. Texas A&M
8. Oklahoma
9. Alabama
10. Miami
11. Tulane
12. James Madison

Clear Automatic Bids

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Charlie Becker

It was impossible to mess these up! As far as inclusion, that is.

Indiana finished the regular season at 12-0, took out Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game and is the lone 13-0 team in the country. No other program should have been considered for the No. 1 spot.

Georgia stuck at No. 3 after destroying Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. Well-deserved ranking for the Dawgs, who had an argument for climbing to No. 2 but understandably stayed put.

Texas Tech, similarly, left no doubt in the Big 12 Championship Game, ripped through BYU 34-7 and locked up the No. 4 seed.

Expected Automatic Bids

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Jake Retzlaff

Tulane? No doubt.

Ranked as the highest Group of Five program for several weeks, the Green Wave had a clean path to the automatic bid. They toppled North Texas in the American Championship Game and properly wrapped up the No. 11 seed.

For good measure, Tulane beat Duke early in the year. There's no way an 11-2 Tulane team should fall behind 8-5 Duke.

And the ACC champions shouldn't have made it, either.

Look, you don't get to lose a handful of games and stake a claim with 12-1 James Madison in the running. Maybe if that's a 10-3 JMU squad, sure, but Duke dropped far too many contests to deserve a spot.

James Madison is the correct choice at No. 12.

Obvious At-Large Bids

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Dante Moore

Based on the most recent rankings, it was safe to write in three 11-1 teams—Oregon, Ole Miss and Texas A&M—as CFP-bound programs.

Oregon's loss happened to Indiana, and the Ducks picked up solid victories over Iowa, USC and Washington in November. Throw in Oregon's nine winning margins of 12-plus points, and it's a suitable résumé for a No. 5 seed.

Properly checking in sixth, Ole Miss dropped its game at Georgia but defeated American champ Tulane and Oklahoma.

Texas A&M stole an early victory at Notre Dame to prop up a profile that lacked many marquee SEC games. (Not the Aggies' fault!) The timing of the loss to Texas certainly didn't help A&M, but a No. 7 seed is rational.

All of these programs will host a first-round CFP matchup.

Expected At-Large Bid

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Brent Venables

There is little question Oklahoma's defense is a CFP-caliber group, and the Sooners' résumé is that of a Playoff team.

Hey, strong combination!

If you wanted to play the eye-test game, you could mention OU's unspectacular offense. John Mateer dominated the early, easy portion of the slate, but he's been noticeably inefficient since returning from a hand injury.

Simultaneously, that's a heck of a hair to split when comparing the Sooners with the programs behind them.

In short: It's a sane conversation—and OU is at least a bit fortunate to host—but excluding OU would've been a stretch.

Debatable At-Large Bids

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Ty Simpson

Let's be real: It was a three-team debate for two spots.

BYU played a CFP-caliber team twice and got destroyed twice. Congrats on 11 wins, Cougars, but their argument is pretty thin.

And Texas? I don't want to hear it. You're not getting penalized for losing to Ohio State. No, you lost to Florida—and to Georgia by 25 points. Hush. This is something that can happen when you willingly join the SEC.

The discussion focused on Alabama, Miami and Notre Dame.

And, no, the committee didn't get it right.

Everybody has a bias, here's mine: The selection committee is supposed to abide by a protocol that values "strength of schedule, head-to-head competition and comparative outcomes of common opponents." The subjective eye test has been a consistent factor for the group, as well.

Strength of schedule: Advantage to Bama with a virtual toss-up behind.

Head-to-head result: Miami beat Notre Dame.

Common opponents: Miami and ND both finished 4-0 against those foes, and neither one particularly stood out. (No, Notre Dame fans, routing a horrible Syracuse team starting its third-string QB is not a convincing argument.) Also, Miami dominated Florida State, which overpowered Alabama.

Eye test: Notre Dame has excelled since October began, and Miami has been sensational down the stretch. Bama, meanwhile, has been unremarkable since beating rival Tennessee in mid-October.

Miami fully deserves a spot. Bama should not have jumped ND last week, though, and certainly should've been penalized for a non-competitive loss to Georgia in the SEC Championship Game.

The committee dinged BYU, after all.

Alabama is extremely lucky to not receive the same penalty from the committee, and Notre Dame will be rightfully upset.