The first College Football Playoff rankings of the 2025 campaign hit the wire Tuesday night. The committee didn’t necessarily surprise us with anything, but we now have valuable insight into their thought process for the month ahead.
In Joel Klatt’s opinion, the most notable piece of information from Tuesday’s reveal was Texas’s placement.
“The biggest takeaway from these rankings is Texas at 11. Now, that tells us a lot about how the committee is valuing not only Texas, but obviously the SEC,” Klatt said on The Joel Klatt Show. “Them at 11, I think, is going to draw some people’s ire… [but] I get it… and candidly, I don’t disagree with it.”
Klatt believes there’s a strong push “behind closed doors” to “make sure” the committee “values teams that schedule difficult non-conference games,” like Texas did against Ohio State.
He supports that effort, and considers the Longhorns a strong contender to make the CFP even if they lose to Georgia or Texas A&M and finish 9-3.
“If we’re just going to penalize a team like Texas for playing… and losing [to Ohio State], then we’re going to lose that game on the schedule. And we don’t want that in college football, Klatt said. “And guess what? Texas has so much ammunition left on their schedule… they’re still in a good position whether they win out or not… [the Longhorns] at 9-3 is absolutely alive.”
Texas is on bye this weekend and travels to Georgia on Nov. 15. Kickoff for the Longhorns-Bulldogs showdown is 7:30 p.m. E.T. (ABC).
