2025 Week 8 12-team College Football Playoff prediction: Alabama keeps climbing

Alabama pulled off an unlikely and impressive feat on Saturday, becoming the first team in SEC history to win four consecutive games, each against a ranked conference opponent, without a bye week at any point in between. The Crimson Tide controlled the action in Tuscaloosa on the Third Saturday of October, and with other top teams falling away, Kalen DeBoer’s team climbs all the way to No. 2 in my latest College Football Playoff prediction. 

Tennessee had a chance to punch back before halftime, to send the game into the intermission at 16-14, but Josh Heupel’s poor clock management and offensive coordinator Joey Halzle’s inexplicable goalline play-call led directly to a Zabien Brown 99-yard pick-six which, functionally, put the game away. 

Alabama still couldn’t salt the clock away with the run game, and Ty Simpson took a few unnecessary risks in the second half, but the offense can overwhelm teams with talent, especially now that Ryan Williams looks back to 100 percent. Defensively, Kane Wommack’s unit gave up a few big runs, which has become standard operating procedure, but Yhonzae Pierre continues to emerge as the disruptive pass-rusher the unit needs. 

The SEC has major weaknesses

Alabama is the favorite in the SEC for a reason. While the Tide aren’t infallible themselves, all the other contenders have more significant deficiencies that will or have held them back. Ole Miss, which lost to Georgia in one of the biggest games of the weekend, doesn’t have an SEC-caliber defensive line. Georgia, on the other side, doesn’t have a pass-rush either, only pressuring Rebels’ QB Trinidad Chambliss on 11 percent of his dropbacks. 

Texas and LSU have major offensive line issues that have crippled their entire offenses, something Vanderbilt took full advantage of on Saturday, downing the Tigers in Nashville. Diego Pavia is expertly operating the Commodores’ unconventional offensive attack. It’s an offense that flips its line from play to play and relies heavily on motion, play-action, option plays, and a quarterback who can constantly get out of trouble. 

Pavia’s red zone miscues allowed Alabama to pull away, but Vanderbilt looks like a clear top five team in the SEC, and maybe even has a case as No. 3 behind Alabama and Texas A&M, which got a scare from Arkansas on Saturday. 

It’s still five teams in from the SEC, but out goes Tennessee and in come the Commodores. The two play in the final week of the season at Neyland Stadium, and I’ll have a hard time picking against Pavia in that one. 

Top teams tumble

Outside of the SEC, Miami and Texas Tech are unbeaten no more. The Hurricanes got stunned by a perfect Jeff Brohm gameplan that nuetralized their dominant pass-rush with a quick-game attack and fully healthy Isaac Brown in the backfield. However, it was ultimately Carson Beck’s four interceptions, that sunk Miami. 

Like Miami, Texas Tech fought back late, only to fall short. However, the Red Raiders did it with a backup quarterback, Will Hammond, who took a long time to find his bearings in his first start of the year. With Sam Leavitt back healthy, Arizona State was able to conjure up some late-game magic in Tempe. 

Texas Tech is still the class of the Big 12, but it’s no longer a certainty that the Red Raiders will win the conference. It’s not just that Behren Morton is banged up either. The team also lost defensive tackle Skyler Gil-Howard to an ankle injury that will keep him out indefintely. David Bailey and Romello Height are difficiult to handle off the edge, but the task gets considerably easier without Gil-Howard wrecking things on the interior.