2025 College Football Season

[NWI_Irish96]

I think only one spot is left for the playoffs.

Locks:

Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State, Indiana
Georgia, Texas, Tennessee
SMU
Notre Dame
Big 12 Champion
G5 Representative

The last spot will be Clemson if they win the ACC Championship. If they don't, my guess is that it will be Alabama over Ole Miss, South Carolina and Miami.

Agree 100% with this. Will be very interesting to see where those four are ranked in relation to each other on Tuesday. None of them play next week so the order isn't likely to change in the final rankings.

Coaches poll has the pecking order for that last spot as Alabama, South Carolina, Miami, Mississippi.

[Max Rockatansky]

Nobody cares about the Army vs Navy game even on the primary military base I work on.  I would imagine it probably gathers a much larger following at the Naval Postgrad school in Monterey.  I've just never been working out there on temporary duty the week of the game.

[74/171FAN]

Some people from my old church really cared about Army-Navy.  My main issue with watching it is that triple option offense where they run the ball 95% of the time.

Georgia Tech even ran that offense under Paul Johnson for a while, but I guess it generally did not work in the ACC because no highly-ranked QB or WR would want to participate in that kind of offense.

[SEWIGuy]

Some people from my old church really cared about Army-Navy.  My main issue with watching it is that triple option offense where they run the ball 95% of the time.

Georgia Tech even ran that offense under Paul Johnson for a while, but I guess it generally did not work in the ACC because no highly-ranked QB or WR would want to participate in that kind of offense.

It worked when he first got there. He won an ACC title and got to a couple more ACC Championship Games.

Ironically Calvin Johnson, who is likely the greatest receiver in their history, played under Johnson. (He committed under the previous coach Chan Gailey however.)

[ET21]

NIU finished 7-5 and now await their bowl game. The fact that this team is the only reason playoff bound Notre Dame doesn't have a perfect season makes me a proud alumni. That September game will never be forgotten 

[NWI_Irish96]

NIU finished 7-5 and now await their bowl game. The fact that this team is the only reason playoff bound Notre Dame doesn't have a perfect season makes me a proud alumni. That September game will never be forgotten 

That was a tough loss to witness for me, but the reality is that wake up call has made ND a much better team, one capable of winning multiple games in the playoff.

[bugo]

Now they are putting 9-3 Alabama in the playoffs and leaving out 10-2 Miami. An Alabama team that lost to fucking Vanderbilt and got spanked by a bad Oklahoma team. That alone should disqualify them from the playoffs. But the playoff committee loves giving Alabama things they don't deserve on a silver platter. It's clearly obvious that they are biased for Alabama. At the risk of being called a boomer, but between this, NIL and the transfer portal has severely damaged college football. Unfortunately, it's about $€¥£¢. Another American tradition ruined by greed. Greed is the most egregious of the seven deadly sins.

[Roadgeekteen]

To be fair Miami isn't exactly good either, they haven't really beaten anyone. I'd have them over Alabama by one spot but the computers seem to like Bama, they have some good wins.

[SEWIGuy]

Like with the last at large in the basketball tournament, I don't think the first one left out has much room to complain. You could have done more to enhance your resume.

Miami had a 21-0 lead at Syracuse and blew it. Finish your business and there's no question you're in.  But you failed.

[thspfc]

Now they are putting 9-3 Alabama in the playoffs and leaving out 10-2 Miami. An Alabama team that lost to fucking Vanderbilt and got spanked by a bad Oklahoma team. That alone should disqualify them from the playoffs. But the playoff committee loves giving Alabama things they don't deserve on a silver platter. It's clearly obvious that they are biased for Alabama. At the risk of being called a boomer, but between this, NIL and the transfer portal has severely damaged college football. Unfortunately, it's about $€¥£¢. Another American tradition ruined by greed. Greed is the most egregious of the seven deadly sins.

Have you been paying attention?

[NWI_Irish96]

Now they are putting 9-3 Alabama in the playoffs and leaving out 10-2 Miami. An Alabama team that lost to fucking Vanderbilt and got spanked by a bad Oklahoma team. That alone should disqualify them from the playoffs. But the playoff committee loves giving Alabama things they don't deserve on a silver platter. It's clearly obvious that they are biased for Alabama. At the risk of being called a boomer, but between this, NIL and the transfer portal has severely damaged college football. Unfortunately, it's about $€¥£¢. Another American tradition ruined by greed. Greed is the most egregious of the seven deadly sins.

I don't think it should go purely by record. Nobody is campaigning for 10-1 Army to get in. You have to look at who you beat, who you lost to, and what your metrics are. Both teams had their chance to lock themselves in and blew it so neither has a right to complain.

[thspfc]

My CFP would be:

1. Oregon
2. Georgia
3. Boise State
4. Arizona State
5. Texas
6. Penn State
7. Notre Dame
8. Ohio State
9. Tennessee
10. Indiana
11. Alabama
12. Clemson

Leading to these first round matchups

Clemson at Texas
Bama at Penn State
Indiana at Notre Dame
Tennessee at Ohio State

[tigerwings]

Doesn't seem right that SMU gets screwed because they made the conference championship game.

[Max Rockatansky]

SMU has a better case for booting Alabama out of the playoffs than Miami did.

[JayhawkCO]

My CFP would be:

1. Oregon
2. Georgia
3. Boise State
4. Arizona State
5. Texas
6. Penn State
7. Notre Dame
8. Ohio State
9. Tennessee
10. Indiana
11. Alabama
12. Clemson

Leading to these first round matchups

Clemson at Texas
Bama at Penn State
Indiana at Notre Dame
Tennessee at Ohio State

In an ideal world, SMU replaces Alabama and Clemson moves up to the 11-seed so you have two in-state matchups in the first round.

[NWI_Irish96]

My CFP would be:

1. Oregon
2. Georgia
3. Boise State
4. Arizona State
5. Texas
6. Penn State
7. Notre Dame
8. Ohio State
9. Tennessee
10. Indiana
11. Alabama
12. Clemson

Leading to these first round matchups

Clemson at Texas
Bama at Penn State
Indiana at Notre Dame
Tennessee at Ohio State

Penn State and Ohio State both have 2 losses, and OSU won head-to-head. Hard to see PSU being ranked higher.

[thspfc]

Doesn't seem right that SMU gets screwed because they made the conference championship game.

I wouldn't have had them above Bama last week either.

Now that I look at it though, it's a valid point that if SMU is out in favor of Alabama, Indiana should be out too in favor of Ole Miss, and perhaps even Notre Dame in favor of South Carolina. I definitely see both sides, and won't be bent out of shape if SMU gets in.

What concerns me is that assuming SMU gets in, 6 out of 12 playoff teams will not have beaten a top 20 team all season (as of the current rankings). Boise St, Texas, Penn St, Notre Dame, Indiana, SMU. It shouldn't be like that. Good teams need to play more games against each other. If you go the whole season without beating a good team it's hard for me to feel bad when you get left out of the playoffs.

[NWI_Irish96]

Doesn't seem right that SMU gets screwed because they made the conference championship game.

I wouldn't have had them above Bama last week either.

Now that I look at it though, it's a valid point that if SMU is out in favor of Alabama, Indiana should be out too in favor of Ole Miss, and perhaps even Notre Dame in favor of South Carolina. I definitely see both sides, and won't be bent out of shape if SMU gets in.

What concerns me is that assuming SMU gets in, 6 out of 12 playoff teams will not have beaten a top 20 team all season (as of the current rankings). Boise St, Texas, Penn St, Notre Dame, Indiana, SMU. It shouldn't be like that. Good teams need to play more games against each other. If you go the whole season without beating a good team it's hard for me to feel bad when you get left out of the playoffs.

While you're at it, just make the playoff the top 9 teams from the SEC and 3 from the Big Ten. Let's not even allow anybody else to be eligible.

The "didn't beat a top 20 team" has a major flaw. You can't control how good your opponents are the rest of the season. Notre Dame scheduled Texas A&M, Louisville, Florida State, Army and USC, all of whom were ranked in the top 20 at some point during the season. Indiana didn't get to choose that they avoided Oregon, Penn State and Illinois in the Big Ten. At the end of the day, it's how good you were against the teams that you played. There are metrics to adjust for schedule strength, and those metrics have both ND and IU solidly ahead of any 3-loss team.

[SEWIGuy]

11 of the 12 are obvious. No one should have a beef for #12 because each contender had multiple opportunities to seal it up...and they didn't.

[Max Rockatansky]

Alabama got the boot in the 12 team bracket in favor of SMU:

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/42854711/oregon-georgia-boise-state-arizona-state-top-cfp-field

[NWI_Irish96]

Alabama got the boot in the 12 team bracket in favor of SMU:

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/42854711/oregon-georgia-boise-state-arizona-state-top-cfp-field

Rightly or wrongly, the committee made it clear that teams wouldn't be significantly punished for losing a championship game compared to teams that didn't play in one. Neither Texas nor Penn State moved below Notre Dame. SMU did drop below Indiana but not Alabama.

[Roadgeekteen]

Thank goodness Bama didn't make the playoffs. If you want to make the playoffs don't get blown out by Oklahoma.

[Max Rockatansky]

I do wonder how this would have panned out had SMU been stomped by Clemson?  It was looking like that might happen early on last night.

[hotdogPi]

I very clearly remember a few days ago that Alabama made it into the playoffs.

Check bugo's post above.

[CoreySamson]

I very clearly remember a few days ago that Alabama made it into the playoffs.

Check bugo's post above.

That was assuming SMU would beat Clemson. But they didn't, so Alabama is now out. I couldn't be happier with the selected top 12.