2025 College Football Playoff Thread

[Chaotic42]

Didn't see one anywhere else and I think this might overwhelm the NFL thread if we put it there. Really weird year, for sure. What do you think about the placements? Mad that Notre Dame is out?



I don't like the idea of any team without a conference being in, but I don't think they'll ever make a rule like that. Should be some good games.

 

[IronWing]

Can you slide the chart to the right by a few feet? I want to see where the Badgers rank.

 

[KLin]

Can you slide the chart to the right by a few feet? I want to see where the Badgers rank.

I got you, fam.

 

[manly]

ND got jobbed, but shit has gotten hilarious. All because the CFP had some dumb rule where James Madison gets to sneak in as the last auto qualifier.

Notre Dame AD: ACC caused 'permanent damage'

Notre Dame's AD ripped the ACC after its CFP snub, saying the conference that houses almost every Fighting Irish team has caused "permanent damage" to the relationship.

www.espn.com

 

[Chaotic42]

Paul Finebaum nailed it:

“[The committee] got it right, and the crying from Notre Dame is quite frankly embarrassing,” Finebaum stated. “Everything Notre Dame has done since the moment this was announced is really beneath a great institution that should stand for principles.

“Instead, they cried. They didn’t get their way, and then they said, ‘You know, we’re going home. We’re taking our ball like a 5-year-old on the playground by not going to a bowl game.’ Why did they get it right? Because Notre Dame had very little to show on its resume. They’re not in a conference. That’s their own fault. They think they’re too good to be in a conference.”

 

[KLin]

Bump so all can see my beautiful Badgers burn.

 

[esquared]

Paul Finebaum nailed it:

“[The committee] got it right, and the crying from Notre Dame is quite frankly embarrassing,” Finebaum stated. “Everything Notre Dame has done since the moment this was announced is really beneath a great institution that should stand for principles.

“Instead, they cried. They didn’t get their way, and then they said, ‘You know, we’re going home. We’re taking our ball like a 5-year-old on the playground by not going to a bowl game.’ Why did they get it right? Because Notre Dame had very little to show on its resume. They’re not in a conference. That’s their own fault. They think they’re too good to be in a conference.”

They lost their first two games to CFP playoff teams. Then they won 10 in a row but 5 of their 10 wins were against five teams with a collective record of 13-47.
That's why they didn't get in.

 

[manly]

They lost their first two games to CFP playoff teams. Then they won 10 in a row but 5 of their 10 wins were against five teams with a collective record of 13-47.
That's why they didn't get in.

ND is indeed cringe-worthy, but they were arguably screwed by the committee. Their two losses were by a combined 4 points; while Bama has a much worse loss to Florida State.

No, the reason ND didn't get in is because James Madison was an auto qualifier. I'm sure CFP will eventually expand to 16 teams (with no byes), but JMU just doesn't belong in the 12-team field. You're right that ND needs to schedule better, but they aren't bothering to fix that in 2026. 🤣

You can make a fair argument that a team should not be penalized for losing in a conference championship game when ND and Miami watched from home. That's reasonable, but Bama wasn't even competitive last Saturday so I would have left them out. It's tough all around, because one of the last 3 at-large teams was going to get screwed. On paper, they're all roughly equally deserving.

All that said, ND crying like a toddler is a very bad look. Makes everyone, including me, glad they didn't get in lol

 

[esquared]

ND is indeed cringe-worthy, but they were arguably screwed by the committee. Their two losses were by a combined 4 points; while Bama has a much worse loss to Florida State.

No, the reason ND didn't get in is because James Madison was an auto qualifier. I'm sure CFP will eventually expand to 16 teams (with no byes), but JMU just doesn't belong in the 12-team field. You're right that ND needs to schedule better, but they aren't bothering to fix that in 2026. 🤣

You can make a fair argument that a team should not be penalized for losing in a conference championship game when ND and Miami watched from home. That's reasonable, but Bama wasn't even competitive last Saturday so I would have left them out. It's tough all around, because one of the last 3 at-large teams was going to get screwed. On paper, they're all roughly equally deserving.

All that said, ND crying like a toddler is a very bad look. Makes everyone, including me, glad they didn't get in lol

I don't believe a 9-3 team should be in.
Alabama got in because......
they are Alabama.

Alabama should have been dropped and then ND would be the next choice in.

But all this was agreed upon before, meaning last year. Duke won the ACC championship but they were not ranked at all so they're out. James Madison was ranked (24th), so they got the auto qualifier. Can't blame James Madison. If they didn't get in, another conference champion would be in. Not ND. They were one of the Five champions. The seven others were at large qualifiers. So the committee picks their seven choices. Someone is always going to cry.

From AI
"For the 2025-2026 College Football Playoff (CFP), there are five automatic qualifiers (AQs) for the 12-team bracket, given to the five highest-ranked conference champions from any conference (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, AAC, C-USA, MAC, MWC, Sun Belt), not specific Power conferences"

ND isn't in any conference. Never has been and in the end, it hurt them here. Along with their shitty scheduling.

 

[esquared]

Here's an article that shows the up and downsides of ND being independent.

Marcus Freeman Had Already Made Decision on Notre Dame Joining New Conference, Before AD's Warning

Marcus Freeman already knew Notre Dame’s stance on conference realignment before the AD warned about future independence risks.

www.essentiallysports.com

 

[KLin]

At least they avoid a huge fine from a conference for declining to participate in a bowl.

/s

 

[manly]

I don't believe a 9-3 team should be in.
Alabama got in because......
they are Alabama.

Alabama should have been dropped and then ND would be the next choice in.

But all this was agreed upon before, meaning last year. Duke won the ACC championship but they were not ranked at all so they're out. James Madison was ranked (24th), so they got the auto qualifier. Can't blame James Madison. If they didn't get in, another conference champion would be in. Not ND. They were one of the Five champions. The seven others were at large qualifiers. So the committee picks their seven choices. Someone is always going to cry.

From AI
"For the 2025-2026 College Football Playoff (CFP), there are five automatic qualifiers (AQs) for the 12-team bracket, given to the five highest-ranked conference champions from any conference (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, AAC, C-USA, MAC, MWC, Sun Belt), not specific Power conferences"

ND isn't in any conference. Never has been and in the end, it hurt them here. Along with their shitty scheduling.

wait, earlier you said ND was out because of their shit schedule.
Now you're saying Bama should have been out instead?
It can't be both.

I'm not a ND fan, and I don't care that they're independent or are upset about being screwed. How else can you explain they were #9 in the CFP a week ago, but slid down to #11 by doing nothing? Over the past week, did Bama or Miami do something, anything to jump over ND? Bama got rolled in the SEC champ game, and jumped up 2 spots LOL.

Finally, nobody is blaming JMU. I'm saying the obvious problem is that 5 AQ entries is too many, even if that sounds most fair on paper. Both Tulane and JMU simply aren't top 12 teams in all of CFB, so both being AQs means the rule is wrong. Cut it down to 4 and I'm fine. Obviously that wasn't an option here, so one of three at-large teams was gonna be butthurt. (To be clear, it's hilarious how butthurt ND is.)

And look, there will always be some team that's upset about being left out. If JMU wasn't in while ND is, then BYU would be the next team that's left out. Eventually they'll expand to 16 team CFP so that the SEC can have 7 teams in. 🙄

 

[esquared]

Yeah, Alabama wasn't our topic, but since you brought it up in your post, I made my comment.

Yeah, people bitching about JMU, but that's part of the agreement they made. Now the 7 at-large picks? Before the picks were made, people were arguing that Alabama, a 3 loss team, shouldn't be there as a three loss team has never been in the playoffs and I agree. People were saying Miami should be excluded. But how? They already beat ND.

Even when playoff spots are expanded, there's always someone left out.

Week-by-Week CFP Selection Committee Rankings: 2025

Week-by-Week CFP Selection Committee Rankings: 2025

collegefootballplayoff.com

ND was 10 a week ago and slipped to 11
Miami was 12 the previous week and jumped to 10 without having played since November when they beat #22 Pitt.
Miami was 4-0 against ranked teams at the time they played them.
ND was 2-2 against ranked teams. I see why ND was omitted vs just Miami.
But Alabama was was picked because of their tougher schedule. They were 4-2 against ranked teams. But still a three loss team?

Someone was going to be butthurt.

 

[manly]

Yeah, Alabama wasn't our topic, but since you brought it up in your post, I made my comment.

Yeah, people bitching about JMU, but that's part of the agreement they made. Now the 7 at-large picks? Before the picks were made, people were arguing that Alabama, a 3 loss team, shouldn't be there as a three loss team has never been in the playoffs and I agree. People were saying Miami should be excluded. But how? They already beat ND.

Even when playoff spots are expanded, there's always someone left out.

Week-by-Week CFP Selection Committee Rankings: 2025

Week-by-Week CFP Selection Committee Rankings: 2025

collegefootballplayoff.com

ND was 10 a week ago and slipped to 11
Miami was 12 the previous week and jumped to 10 without having played since November when they beat #22 Pitt.
Miami was 4-0 against ranked teams at the time they played them.
ND was 2-2 against ranked teams. I see why ND was omitted vs just Miami.
But Alabama was was picked because of their tougher schedule. They were 4-2 against ranked teams. But still a three loss team?

Someone was going to be butthurt.

We both agree it's tricky and somebody will always be unhappy.

OK so ND was #10 last week. But the point remains, how do they get jumped by another team that also was idle? ND was AP #9 a week ago, and they still are now.
(By comparison, JMU and Tulane are AP #19 and #21.)

As for Bama, they are being considered as a 10-2 team. The extra game (and loss) isn't counted against them. But that isn't even my gripe. Bama lost their season opener by 14 to Florida State, a team that ultimately finished 5-7.

It's impossibly difficult to decide which team gets left out, but ND has a good argument for being one of the ten best teams in CFB. Anyway, I won't litigate this any further because ND reacted like clowns and everyone has already moved on.

I'm rooting for the Ducks, but upsets/chaos is always great. I think it's good for CFB if Indiana, or say Ole Miss wins the whole thing.

 

[KLin]

Go Hoosiers!

 

[Muse]

Can you slide the chart to the right by a few feet? I want to see where the Badgers rank.

Screenshot:

 

[esquared]

We both agree it's tricky and somebody will always be unhappy.

OK so ND was #10 last week. But the point remains, how do they get jumped by another team that also was idle? ND was AP #9 a week ago, and they still are now.
(By comparison, JMU and Tulane are AP #19 and #21.)

As for Bama, they are being considered as a 10-2 team. The extra game (and loss) isn't counted against them. But that isn't even my gripe. Bama lost their season opener by 14 to Florida State, a team that ultimately finished 5-7.

It's impossibly difficult to decide which team gets left out, but ND has a good argument for being one of the ten best teams in CFB. Anyway, I won't litigate this any further because ND reacted like clowns and everyone has already moved on.

I'm rooting for the Ducks, but upsets/chaos is always great. I think it's good for CFB if Indiana, or say Ole Miss wins the whole thing.

If ole Miss wins, kiffin will shit. Although not publicly.
I am a Stanford fan but they haven't done anything since David Shaw's 2017 season. His first 7 seasons were good, last 4 not so good and crap coaches since.
Since the old PAC 12 went away, I do also root for Oregon football. Solid teams all around.

I think the CFP committee looked at the whole season, along with strength of each teams schedule.
No way else explain Alabama jumping a place or two after losing to Georgia in the championship. But remember, Alabama beat Georgia earlier in the season and half the teams they played were ranked in the top 20 (4-2). They just ranked ND lower when they looked at their strength of schedule an their 2-2 record against ranked teams.

Someone was going to be left out with JMU and Tulane getting automatic bids.

 

[Muse]

If ole Miss wins, kiffin will shit. Although not publicly.
I am a Stanford fan but they haven't done anything since David Shaw's 2017 season. His first 7 seasons were good, last 4 not so good and crap coaches since.
Since the PAC 12 went away, I do root for Oregon football. Solid teams all around. I don't root for anything LA.

Yeah, I grew up in L.A. I assume you're not talking about Louisiana!

I get asked by my nephew who lives in west L.A. if I root for the L.A. teams.

I was rooting for the Blue Jays to beat the Dodgers in October. Totally.

I was rooting for Philly to beat the Chargers Monday. My TV DVR recording went on the fritz late in the 4th when the score was 16-16. I only found out today, watching the extended highlights how it ended. It was a nailbiter in OT and TBH I WAS rooting for the Chargers at the end. Herbert was a wounded warrior. Couldn't believe the number of interceptions Hurts threw. Fitting that the game ended on one.

Normally I never root for an L.A. team anymore.

When I went to UCLA and when my dad had Dodgers season tickets, that was different.

Yeah, Oregon I root for. Fair chance there will be an Indiana - Oregon rematch early in the brackets. I knew Indiana was for real when I saw them beat Oregon in Eugene earlier this year. Didn't expect that. Oregon was ranked 2 or 3 at the time.

 

[Jeremybre]

Paul Finebaum nailed it:

“[The committee] got it right, and the crying from Notre Dame is quite frankly embarrassing,” Finebaum stated. “Everything Notre Dame has done since the moment this was announced is really beneath a great institution that should stand for principles.

“Instead, they cried. They didn’t get their way, and then they said, ‘You know, we’re going home. We’re taking our ball like a 5-year-old on the playground by not going to a bowl game.’ Why did they get it right? Because Notre Dame had very little to show on its resume. They’re not in a conference. That’s their own fault. They think they’re too good to be in a conference.”

They really shouldn't do the rankings until the final Sunday. I love the entertainment of having the weekly release, but they should keep their options open just like the selection committee for college basketball. If they never did the weekly rankings, I don't think there would be much complains. Miami deserved to be in over Notre Dame. If you didn't do the weekly rankings you could also hedge, so when Alabama lost the conference championship game you could have ranked them 11, and no one would have known that they were "penalized" for losing the title game. Alabama had been leaking oil late this season. Had a lot of great wins midseason (4 ranked wins in a row), but they looked terrible the last month

 

[Jeremybre]

We both agree it's tricky and somebody will always be unhappy.

OK so ND was #10 last week. But the point remains, how do they get jumped by another team that also was idle? ND was AP #9 a week ago, and they still are now.
(By comparison, JMU and Tulane are AP #19 and #21.)

As for Bama, they are being considered as a 10-2 team. The extra game (and loss) isn't counted against them. But that isn't even my gripe. Bama lost their season opener by 14 to Florida State, a team that ultimately finished 5-7.

It's impossibly difficult to decide which team gets left out, but ND has a good argument for being one of the ten best teams in CFB. Anyway, I won't litigate this any further because ND reacted like clowns and everyone has already moved on.

I'm rooting for the Ducks, but upsets/chaos is always great. I think it's good for CFB if Indiana, or say Ole Miss wins the whole thing.

I think the committee got it right if we are combining deserving and best. Miami and Alabama are more deserving than Notre Dame. But I think Notre Dame might actually be better. However, the gap from an eye test is not enough to override the deserving. For example, Florida State went undefeated a few years ago and was left out because their QB got injured. They were clearly the most deserving team, however, with a backup QB, the eye test was so underwhelming that "deserving" was trumped by "best".

The one gripe I have with Alabama is that people say you shouldn't be penalized for playing in the conference championship game. But everyone was saying before the game that if Alabama won they would move up and get the bye, because they'd be 11-2 and Georgia would be 11-2 with both loses to Alabama. So Georgia would have been ranked below Alabama. So, everyone was saying you can only be rewarded for playing the conference championship game and not penalized. However, in that scenario where Alabama would have been rewarded, Georgia, by definition, would have been penalized and lost the bye. So this whole notion of teams can't be penalized for losing a conference championship doesn't hold any consistency even from the people saying that's how it should be

 

[Jeremybre]

We both agree it's tricky and somebody will always be unhappy.

OK so ND was #10 last week. But the point remains, how do they get jumped by another team that also was idle? ND was AP #9 a week ago, and they still are now.
(By comparison, JMU and Tulane are AP #19 and #21.)

As for Bama, they are being considered as a 10-2 team. The extra game (and loss) isn't counted against them. But that isn't even my gripe. Bama lost their season opener by 14 to Florida State, a team that ultimately finished 5-7.

It's impossibly difficult to decide which team gets left out, but ND has a good argument for being one of the ten best teams in CFB. Anyway, I won't litigate this any further because ND reacted like clowns and everyone has already moved on.

I'm rooting for the Ducks, but upsets/chaos is always great. I think it's good for CFB if Indiana, or say Ole Miss wins the whole thing.

This is always the difficult thing when measuring teams. What is more important, good wins or bad losses. Alabama has a much worse loss than Notre Dame. But Notre Dame's best win would be Alabama's 3rd best win, and Notre Dame's 2nd best win would be Alabama's 5th best win. So Alabama has much better wins

 

[Chaotic42]

I'm torn on whether to pull for Ole Miss. I guess as long as Ohio State loses, I'm fine.

 

[manly]

Technically not CFP news, but damnnn

911 Caller Told Dispatcher Man Had Been 'Stalking Her for Months' Moments Before Sherrone Moore's Arrest

Sherrone Moore is currently in custody but has not been charged after being detained by police on the same day he was fired by the University of Michigan

www.yahoo.com

 

[manly]

I'm torn on whether to pull for Ole Miss. I guess as long as Ohio State loses, I'm fine.

wait, you have no choice but to root for Lane Kiffin going forward, right? You can't really pull for Ole Miss, then.

As long as OSU, Georgia or Bama doesn't win yet again, I'll be fine.

 

[manly]

Welcome to the forums, @Jeremybre

The CFP starts tonight; hoping that Bama falls flat so that ND can cry and whine some more about being left out.