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The 2025 College Football Playoff—the second iteration of the 12-team format—released a highly controversial field Sunday afternoon that saw two Group of 6 conference programs in the field while leaving out formidable programs—Notre Dame, BYU, Vanderbilt, and Texas—that many considered Playoff-worthy.
The format goes something like this: The top five ranked conference champions receive automatic qualifiers, with the next seven highest-ranked programs getting at-large bids. Unlike last year, however, the CFP will have straight seeding. In 2024, the top four ranked conference champions received byes, but now, the top four ranked programs overall will receive byes—regardless of conference champions.
Who Got In?
No. 1 Indiana led the rankings after beating No. 2 Ohio State in the Big Ten title game Saturday night—causing the previously undefeated programs to flip in the rankings. No. 3 Georgia and No. 4 Texas Tech, both of whom won their conference championships Saturday, will round out the top four slate of programs that will get a first-round bye.
The next set of at-large programs, which will host first-round CFP games: No. 5 Oregon, No. 6 Ole Miss, No. 7 Texas A&M, and No. 8 Oklahoma.
Where Things Got Controversial
Alabama maintained its No. 9 slot despite losing to Georgia on Saturday. Miami earned the No. 10 slot—which was highly controversial, particularly given that it was ranked behind Notre Dame and BYU in last week’s rankings, and didn’t play this week.
However, Miami did narrowly beat Notre Dame 27–24 during a Week 1 matchup, which the committee appeared to revisit. BYU lost to Texas Tech, perhaps dropping them in the rankings, though the committee said it tries not to penalize teams for conference championship performances.
The controversy ballooned at the bottom of the bracket. The CFP requires that the top five-ranked conference champions receive bids. The assumption was always that would be one conference champion from each Power 4 league, and the top-ranked Group of 6 program. But that didn’t happen this year—and it wreaked havoc on the field.
The expected Group of 6 champion in the field ended up being Tulane, which beat North Texas in the American championship game Friday night. The Green Wave was ranked No. 11 in the field.
The ACC championship game featured unranked Duke and No. 17 Virginia—and Duke won in overtime. The Blue Devils were left out of the field. The fifth-ranked conference champion was the Sun Belt’s James Madison.
Because of that, the No. 11 and No. 12 overall-ranked teams—Notre Dame and BYU—were completely left out of the field. Texas and Vanderbilt were also left out.
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