College Football Playoff Rankings Week 13: Reaction to All 25 Teams

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This is the biggest week yet of the College Football Playoff rankings. 

The first round was just to throw it all out there to get it going, and Week 2 was more of a holding pattern.

But now, stuff’s become real, and positioning matters in a huge way after critical losses by Alabama, Texas, and a slew of teams at the bottom of last week’s Top 25.

Here’s the breakdown and look at each of the ranking slots in the latest College Football Playoff Top 25. | @PeteFiutak

Breaking Down Every Team in the Week 13 College Football Playoff Rankings

Teams on the outside that have a beef: Louisville, James Madison, North Texas, Navy, Iowa

25. Arizona State Sun Devils

7-3 | Last Week Ranking: Not Ranked
Really? A 25-23 home win over West Virginia really did it for you, College Football Playoff committee?  Okay, there is that win over Texas Tech.

24. Tulane Green Wave

8-2 | Last Week Ranking: Not Ranked
The blowout loss to UTSA is still a problem, but wins over Northwestern, Duke, East Carolina, and Memphis are strong enough to slip into the top 25.

This proves that the American Conference champion will be ahead of James Madison in the end.

23. Houston Cougars

8-2 | Last Week Ranking: Not Ranked
If you’re going to put in Arizona State, then you’ve got to put in the Houston team that won the head-to-head matchup a few weeks ago.

(That’s two more Big 12 teams in, and, as you’ll see, five in total – that’s a lot of respect for a conference that will get just one team in.)

22. Missouri Tigers

7-3 | Last Week Ranking: Not Ranked
Welcome back, Missouri. It still hasn’t beaten a team that will go bowling, but it’s an SEC team, it’s 7-3, and it just rocked Mississippi State. For some reason, it’s getting a lot of credit for a schedule without any big wins.

21. Illinois Fighting Illini

7-3 | Last Week Ranking: Not Ranked
Beating Maryland 24-6 apparently sparked some love from the committee. Fine, but if you’re going to do that, where’s that Washington team that beat the Illini by 17 a few weeks ago? 

20. Tennessee Volunteers

6-3 | Last Week Ranking: 23
Tennessee didn’t do much to earn this spot – the best win was … Kentucky?! – but it benefits from all the losses at the bottom of last week’s CFP top 25. It shouldn’t be higher than this.

19. Virginia Cavaliers

9-2 | Last Week Ranking: 19
That’s more like it. Having Chandler Morris back at quarterback did wonders in the drubbing of Duke. This ranking is no big whoop. Beat Virginia Tech, win the ACC Championship, and the committee will likely put the Cavaliers around 9ish.

18. Michigan Wolverines

8-2 | Last Week Ranking: 18
This ranking doesn’t matter. Beat Maryland, beat Ohio State, get into the College Football Playoff (as long as Oklahoma wins out and USC beats Oregon).

17. Texas Longhorns

7-3 | Last Week Ranking: 10
Oof. There’s way too much traffic ahead of them now. Even if they get by Arkansas and pull off the Texas A&M, no … a 9-3 Longhorn team isn’t getting in.

Even so, this is absolutely ridiculous. Texas beat Vanderbilt just 17 days ago, and it lost at Georgia, who’s now No. 4 … and Texas drops below the Commodores?!

16. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

9-1 | Last Week Ranking: 16
Either the College Football Playoff committee didn’t watch the game against a Boston College team that doesn’t have an FBS win this season, or this bunch phoned in this ranking.  

15. USC Trojans

8-2 | Last Week Ranking: 17
This is still horribly low and a total blind spot for the committee. The Trojans should be far higher, like, pushing for the top-12 or higher.

Losing to Notre Dame and in the final moments against Illinois shouldn’t be so bad – this is a massive whiff by the CFP. 

This will all change if they beat Oregon, but for now, the wins over Michigan, Iowa, and even Nebraska are better than anything done by …

14. Vanderbilt Commodores

8-2 | Last Week Ranking: 14
With all of the movement and changes throughout the top, Vanderbilt didn’t and couldn’t move in its off week. It’s still way too high without any massive wins.

13. Miami Hurricanes

8-2 | Last Week Ranking: 15
There we go. Look out … the Hurricanes are coming off a total domination of NC State.

It still has the win over Notre Dame that’s not being given enough love, even with the two rough, close losses to Louisville and SMU.

12. Utah Utes

8-2 | Last Week Ranking: 13
The Utes are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do to get noticed – they’re destroying teams, beating Baylor 55-28 last week. However, there’s a CFP hard ceiling they won’t be able to get through unless BYU or Texas Tech lose twice.

11. BYU Cougars

9-1 | Last Week Ranking: 12
Alabama fans, start cheering really, really hard right now for Cincinnati.

The Cougars go to play the Bearcats, and close with UCF. Win those two, and with the only loss to Texas Tech, a repeat game against Texas Tech might end up pushing them up a spot.

10. Alabama Crimson Tide

8-2 | Last Week Ranking: 4
Don’t get comfy with this.

If the Crimson Tide destroy Auburn after beating Eastern Illinois, then all might be fine, but with this ranking, they’re probably going to 1) need some help and/or 2) get into the SEC Championship on the tie-breaker and win it.

Why? BYU might move up if it ends up 11-1 and gets to the Big 12 Championship.

9. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

8-2 | Last Week Ranking: 9
If the Irish are here now, they’re not going to drop a whole lot, if at all, unless the committee decides late in the game that Miami – if it goes 10-2 – should be one spot ahead. It certainly won’t move any higher without some help.

8. Oklahoma Sooners

8-2 | Last Week Ranking: 11
It’s interesting that Oklahoma didn’t make a big push up one more spot after beating then-No. 4 Alabama. But with this ranking, now it’s all on the Sooners. They’re not going to move down if they beat Missouri and LSU to close.

7. Oregon Ducks

9-1 | Last Week Ranking: 8
There was probably some thought to pushing the Ducks a spot higher after dominating Minnesota, but give it a week or two. If they beat USC and win at Washington, they’ll probably end up at …

6. Ole Miss Rebels

10-1 | Last Week Ranking: 7
The Rebels will likely be renting this spot if Oregon wins out. Beating Mississippi State would be nice, but it wouldn’t match what the Ducks would do.  

5. Texas Tech Red Raiders

10-1 | Last Week Ranking: 6
Don’t get crazy or overanalyze this. If Texas Tech wins the Big 12 title at 12-1, it’ll be No. 3 in the final rankings

4. Georgia Bulldogs

9-1 | Last Week Ranking: 5
Yeah, Georgia lost to Alabama, but that was close, and that’s in the rearview mirror now after the way it whacked around Texas.

3. Texas A&M Aggies

10-0 | Last Week Ranking: 3
Does the committee like the second half against South Carolina and blow off what the Aggies needed to be amazing? There probably wasn’t a whole lot of thought into keeping the status quo.

2. Indiana Hoosiers

11-0 | Last Week Ranking: 2
There’s nothing there to push Indiana past Ohio State right now, and the committee won’t put Texas A&M here this week. 

1. Ohio State Buckeyes

10-0 | Last Week Ranking: 1
After the way Texas A&M struggled in its wild win over South Carolina, there probably was less discussion about the No. 1 spot – and the top three overall – than in the first few weeks.

Related: What Will the Final College Football Playoff Top 12 Be?

This story was originally reported by College Football News on Nov 19, 2025, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add College Football News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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