College Football Playoff Poll 2025 Released for Final Regular-Season Rankings

Let the debates continue with Notre Dame and BYU the first two teams out of the College Football Playoff field in the selection committee's final rankings.

Indiana claimed the No. 1 spot after beating Ohio State 13-10 in the Big Ten title game. The Buckeyes didn't fall too far and still earned a first-round bye as the No. 2 seed.

The committee had a much tougher time sifting through the bottom of the bracket thanks to Alabama losing the SEC title game and Duke upsetting Virginia in the ACC championship.

Ultimately, Alabama and Miami claimed the last two at-large bids.

CFP Seeding

1. Indiana (13-0)

2. Ohio State (12-1)

3. Georgia (12-1)

4. Texas Tech (12-1)

5. Oregon (11-1)

6. Ole Miss (11-1)

7. Texas A&M (11-1)

8. Oklahoma (10-2)

9. Alabama (10-3)

10. Miami (10-2)

11. Tulane (11-2)

12. James Madison (12-1)

The Blue Devils' victory was the most consequential outcome of championship weekend, and not just because they won their first outright ACC title since 1989. Their good fortune potentially came at the cost of the conference as a collective.

Duke, which remained unranked in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll, wasn't going to leapfrog James Madison as the fifth-highest-ranked conference champion. From that point, it was up to the committee to pick between Alabama, Notre Dame, Miami and BYU.

When the CFP group had the Hurricanes in 12th heading into the conference championships, their fanbase was left to sweat ahead of Sunday's final reveal.

Followers of Alabama and BYU were left in a similar position after the teams both struggled on the field Saturday.

Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer argued the Crimson Tide shouldn't effectively be punished for playing an extra game.

Still, a three-loss team doesn't have the high ground in any playoff arguments, especially when one of those defeats came against 5-7 Florida State.

In the case of BYU, another lopsided result to Texas Tech was the worst kind of last impression to make. The Cougars gained 200 yards and scored seven points, which will have done little to sway a CFP selection committee that was clearly skeptical of their resume.

Texas Tech Wins BIg 12 Title

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Whatever the committee decided was going to be an unpopular decision, and angered fans would cite a past precedent for why their favorite school should've been in the CFP field.

That's the trouble of having a playoff formula where so much is left to interpretation. A line of logic that makes sense one year may not hold water the following season.

Expanding the College Football Playoff remains a topic of discussion, and widening the bracket from 12 teams is probably inevitable. Assuming that happens, it will do little to the temper the kind of discourse that has unfolded this weekend.

Instead, it will merely be a different set of teams and fanbases that are feeling aggrieved because they're on the outside looking in.