Updated College Football Rankings to Feature New No. 1
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In what was a clash between the last two undefeated teams in the FBS college football ranks, the No. 2 Indiana Hoosiers and No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes faced off in the Big Ten championship.
While the Buckeyes went into halftime with a 10-6 lead, thanks to a 9-yard touchdown pass from Julian Sayin to Carnell Tate with 46 seconds remaining in the first quarter, Indiana never let them pull away. In what was the lone score of the second half, Fernando Mendoza connected with Elijah Sarratt for a 17-yard touchdown with 8:02 remaining in the third quarter to take a 13-10 lead that ended up being the final.
The victory gave Indiana its first outright Big Ten championship since 1945, and will more likely than not position them to be the No. 1 team in Sunday’s College Football Playoff rankings.
Projected Top Five College Football Rankings After Conference Championships
With the conference championship games taking place on Friday and Saturday, the top five of the rankings will surely see a shakeup on Sunday. Following Ohio State‘s loss, it certainly paves the way for Indiana to supplant them as the top team, but behind them is where things get complicated.
Here is how I see things shaking out on selection Sunday:
- Indiana Hoosiers (13-0)
- Georgia Bulldogs (12-1)
- Ohio State Buckeyes (12-1)
- Texas Tech Red Raiders (12-1)
- Oregon Ducks (11-1)
Georgia not only avenged their lone loss of the season against Alabama, but also throttled them 28-7 on Saturday in what was arguably the most surprising result of the weekend. The convincing win should be enough to see them slide up a spot.
The reason Texas Tech likely won’t surpass Ohio State is that the Buckeyes still have a stronger body of work, with wins over No. 1 Texas and No. 15 Michigan. In contrast, Tech has beaten BYU twice and also knocked off a ranked Utah team, which the committee hasn’t necessarily favored in past weeks.
With that being said, Ohio State gave up five sacks, converted on just 33% of third downs and fell silent in the second half, which could lead to a slight slippage.
As for the Ducks, they came into the weekend at No. 5, and being that they didn’t play didn’t do anything to hurt themselves.
Needless to say, we are in for what could be a legendary playoff.
This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Dec 7, 2025, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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