FIW Roundtable: Our biggest surprises of the first College Football Playoff rankings

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The first College Football Playoff rankings of the 2025 season were released on Tuesday, and to no one’s surprise, Notre Dame was ranked inside the top-12.

Sure, the Irish have two-loss, but they were early and have had time to correct the mistakes that were made, and look like a much different team. That was one of the big benefits of playing both Notre Dame’s marquee matchups in the first two games, as there has been time to shake off the idea that it isn’t good enough for a spot in the playoff.

While the Irish seemingly got a fair shake, some other teams didn’t. In this week’s Fighting Irish Wire roundtable, we’ll look a bit more nationally and pick out our biggest surprise in the first CFP rankings of this season.

Tim Healey

Honestly, not much surprises me here. Maybe I’d have placed Miami (FL) higher? Maybe. Maybe Michigan should be ahead of Southern Cal? Maybe Tennessee should be higher despite three losses? Maybe BYU is a bit too high — but the Cougars have also won eight and lost none so far.

College football is weird and maybe ranking potential playoff teams just after Halloween is a fool’s errand — or, rather, a made-for-TV spectacle meant to further pad ESPN’s already bottomless pockets.

Dave Miller

I’m going with Indiana not being ranked No. 1.

Maybe I’m naive, but I thought the selection committee may have put the Hoosiers at the top because they arguably have the best résumé, and it would have veered from the US LBM Coaches Poll Top-25. But Ohio State is Ohio State, and the Buckeyes are the defending national champions.

Michael Chen

I was surprised by a few like Miami being so low as Tim pointed out, but for me the biggest surprise was how low Oregon was. The Ducks only loss they’ve taken is the Dave’s No. 1 in Indiana, but their “big” win is against a reeling Penn State team, and that one went into double-overtime. It may be a look test, or resume, but Oregon slipping up another time, or even playing poorly, Notre Dame could jump them over the next few weeks. It would be interesting to see if the committee would put a 2-loss team over a single-loss squad, but they’ve done odd things in the past.

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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Our biggest surprise in the first ‘25 College Football Playoff ranking

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