The second College Football Rankings reveal of the 2025 season is coming on Tuesday night, and for a season full of chaos, there likely won’t be much of a shake-up at the top. The top eight teams in last week’s rankings all held serve in Week 11, and the only loss within the top 10 was by No. 7 BYU, which faced No. 8 Texas Tech.
There’s a good chance that the top 12 remains mostly unchanged, with Texas Tech moving up one spot and BYU sliding back to No. 12, just behind Texas and Oklahoma. That’s likely what will happen. What should happen, however, is much different.
While I didn’t have any massive disagreements with last week’s rankings, there are a few moves I would have made and others I’d like to see the committee make on Tuesday night. Unfortunately for Alabama fans, though, with one loss, it’s impossible to move the Crimson Tide ahead of Texas A&M, and with a road win over Oregon still on Indiana’s resume, there’s no case for putting the Aggies ahead of the Hoosiers.
What the CFP Rankings should be on November 11, 2025
The Buckeyes have been No. 1 pretty much the whole way, and Indiana’s close call with Penn State only further entrenches Ohio State in the top spot.
The Hoosiers would have taken a bit of tumble, though they may have still belonged in the top 4 had they lost to Penn State. Instead, Fernando Mendoza and Omar Cooper Jr. combined for one of the wildest plays in recent college football history to save the day.
There’s a push for A&M to move up, and last week, Joey Galloway was calling for the Aggies to be No. 1, but it’s hard to justify considering how soft their SEC slate has been.
Alabama just keeps winning, and while the lack of a run game is a long-term concern, it’s not affecting the team’s resume. With a head-to-head win over the Dawgs and Georgia’s head-to-head win over Ole Miss, it’ll be almost impossible for any team to leapfrog the one-loss Tide.
Sure, it came against Mississippi State, but Georgia needed a dominant win like the one it submitted in Starkville on Saturday. The Dawgs have been getting by on second-half heroics, but this time they flipped the switch in the second quarter.
The Red Raiders were No. 8 last week. Then, the Red Raiders beat No. 7 BYU at home by 22 points, but that win isn’t the only reason I have them jumping to No. 6, ahead of Ole Miss and Oregon.
Texas Tech has two strong wins and is clearly the best team in the Big 12. Beating Utah on the road by 24 and BYU at home by 22 are significant resume builders and may rival even Georgia’s best wins. Plus, Tech’s lone loss came on the road at Arizona State without starting quarterback Behren Morton, something we know the committee takes into consideration.
This isn’t to drop Ole Miss after a 49-0 win over The Citadel, it’s simply to give Texas Tech credit for an impressive win over BYU. It’s also recognition that Ole Miss has beaten one SEC team (Oklahoma) that will definitely make a bowl game. LSU will likely get its sixth win against Western Kentucky, but Kentucky, Arkansas, and South Carolina will have an uphill battle to reach a postseason berth.
Why Oregon ever lost touch with Ole Miss is a mystery to me. The Ducks were No. 9, behind BYU and Texas Tech last week, but with an almost identical resume to the Rebels. The Ducks have a home loss to Indiana, while Ole Miss has a road loss to Georgia. Both teams were floated in the early season by wins that are much less meaningful now, with Oregon beating Penn State and Ole Miss taking down LSU.
I’ll give the nod to Ole Miss because Oregon’s best win is on the road at Iowa, while Ole Miss beat Oklahoma in Norman, but the Ducks should be ahead of Texas Tech.
Yes, Texas has two losses. Yes, Arch Manning hasn’t lived up to the hype. And yes, Steve Sarkisian’s offense has been a big issue all season. But the Longhorns have a head-to-head win over Oklahoma, which has to matter, and they should be rewarded for playing a road game at Ohio State in Week 1 and pushing the Buckeyes more than any other team has all season.
The Sooners have a brutal close to the schedule with Alabama in Week 12, Missouri in Week 13, and LSU in Week 14. 9-3 might be enough for the Sooners to get an at-large bid.
With the SEC and ACC expanding to nine-game conference schedules in the upcoming years, Notre Dame may feel the pressure to finally join a conference. The schedule that the Fighting Irish put together for this season is respectable, and featured two major tests early against Miami and Texas A&M, but week-in and week-out, it’s just not on the level of the average SEC or Big Ten slate.
The USC win is big for the Irish, and I’m fine with them being in over two-loss Miami, which won the head-to-head, but I worry that Notre Dame is getting a bit too much love for beating Navy, Boston College, NC State, Boise State, Arkansas, and Purdue.
BYU’s win over Utah is doing a lot of work right now. So are Texas Tech’s red zone struggles. The Cougars should have lost by more than 22 points this week, and they’re clearly not a national title contender. However, you can’t drop them beyond the Utes, and Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech don’t have a better win than beating that. However, even at No. 12, the Cougars wouldn’t get in if the season ended this week.