With the 2025 college football season coming to an end on Monday night, ESPN’s Bill Connelly gave his SP+ ratings one last adjustment for the year. On Tuesday, he unveiled his final FBS rankings. Indiana, unsurprisingly, held the top spot.
The Hoosiers won the College Football Playoff title on Monday night by beating Miami 27-21. That win capped a perfect, 16-0 season for IU and secured the program its first-ever national championship. According to Connelly’s model, IU ended the year 32.4 points per game better than the average FBS team — the best end-of-the-year mark by a team since Georgia in 2022 (35.3).
IU’s final rating was slightly lower than the 33.1 mark LSU finished with in 2019, for any Tiger fans who are curious.
Ohio State finished in second, followed by Texas Tech, Oregon, and Notre Dame.
Georgia was the highest-rated team from the SEC. Ole Miss ranked just behind in seventh. The model had Miami, the national runner-up, at No. 9 and Texas A&M at No. 10.
Vanderbilt (11th), Oklahoma (14th), Texas (17th), Tennessee (19th), Alabama (20th), and Mizzou (21st) rounded out the group of SEC squads in the top 25.
In addition to having 3 of the top 4 spots, the Big Ten, which has claimed each of the last 3 national championships, also had as many teams in the top 25 (9) as the SEC did.
The top 25 is below. The number next to each team name indicates their rating, which can be read as points per game better than the average FBS team. You can find the full 136-team rating from Connelly here.
- Indiana (32.4)
- Ohio State (30.1)
- Texas Tech (27.6)
- Oregon (25.9)
- Notre Dame (24.4)
- Georgia (24.1)
- Ole Miss (24.0)
- Utah (22.2)
- Miami (20.7)
- Texas A&M (20.7)
- Vanderbilt (20.3)
- Iowa (19.7)
- Washington (18.4)
- Oklahoma (18.3)
- Penn State (18.1)
- USC (16.9)
- Texas (16.2)
- BYU (15.9)
- Tennessee (15.0)
- Alabama (14.8)
- Mizzou (14.4)
- North Texas (13.8)
- SMU (13.4)
- Illinois (12.9)
- Michigan (12.4)
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
