Takeaways from the final Playoff Poll of 2025: Did the selection committee get it right?
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Finally, it’s here. No more Tuesday ranking shows, no more 6-7 jokes and no more debates.
Well, check that. Sunday’s reveal was always going to yield massive debate between the likes of Alabama, Miami (FL) and Notre Dame. The debate within the selection committee is at least in the rearview mirror.
Here’s what the final top 12 looked like:
- 1. Indiana
- 2. Ohio State
- 3. Georgia
- 4. Texas Tech
- 5. Oregon
- 6. Ole Miss
- 7. Texas A&M
- 8. Oklahoma
- 9. Alabama
- 10. Miami (FL)
- 11. Tulane
- 12. James Madison
Here were the biggest takeaways:
Alabama is … in at No. 9 to set up a rematch with Oklahoma
I’m blown away that Alabama didn’t move a single spot at No. 9. While I still projected the Tide to be in the field, I thought yesterday at least opened the door for the selection committee to move the Tide down to No. 10. Instead, Alabama stayed at No. 9 and confirmed the 2024 precedent that the selection committee wasn’t going to take out a conference championship participant in favor of an idle team.
Did brand bias play into that? Perhaps. Or perhaps as Marty Smith said while we were all waiting for the Playoff reveal, Alabama is the only team in America ranked in the top 10 in FPI, strength of record and strength of schedule. Make of that what you will.
What we can make of Alabama’s résumé is that it was boosted largely by the fact that it had the 4 wins vs. AP Top 25 teams in consecutive weeks, including a Georgia win that improved by virtue of the Dawgs beating the Tide decisively to earn the SEC Championship. Ironic. Just a bit.
As it stands, Alabama is the first 3-loss, at-large team to ever make the field. Can the Tide get healthier and avenge the loss to Oklahoma? Time will tell. That Sooners defense will have a chance to get healthier itself, which will make it an uphill climb for Kalen DeBoer after losing both Oklahoma matchups the last 2 years.
But let’s get back to the real jaw-dropper of Sunday.
Miami and Notre Dame flipping is absolutely bananas because of when it happened, not how it happened
Cannot believe it. The timing will go down as an all-time blunder for the selection committee. It could yield the end of the Tuesday ranking shows as we know them because week after week, we were told that Notre Dame was only getting the nod ahead of Miami because the 2 didn’t have close enough résumés for the head-to-head to matter. All those teams did was win, yet apparently the selection committee decided that an idle conference championship weekend was finally time to factor in a game played in August.
If you’re Notre Dame, yes, you should be baffled that this played out the way that it did. Weekly assurances that the Irish had the better résumé even with the same amount of losses.
But at the same time, did the selection committee mess this up in the initial rankings by putting the Hurricanes at No. 18? Yes. Surely they banked on Miami suffering a third loss, and that never came. Instead, the selection committee moved them up closer to Notre Dame all but once. Go figure that the one time that Miami didn’t get moved up was ahead of conference championship weekend.
Nothing makes sense with how this played out, but at the very least, the right team got in.
Tulane and Ole Miss get a rematch … albeit with 2 coaches at new jobs (sort of)
What a bizarre rematch. We’ve got 2 Round 1 rematches, but go figure that one of them will be for a game that was decided by 35 points. That never happens on this stage, and usually, a Group of 5 team who loses in such lopsided fashion isn’t in line for one of those spots. But in a strange year at the Group of 5 level wherein a 2-loss Tulane team and 1-loss James Madison both made the field because of the ACC’s 5-loss champ, that’s what we’ve got.
Jon Sumrall will still be coaching Tulane in the Playoff while juggling duties at Florida, while Ole Miss will obviously be without Lane Kiffin. How many points is Kiffin worth? That’ll be dissected, as will a nearly 2-to-1 yardage disparity in the first matchup. Ole Miss will at least have offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. to call plays, and it’s the same defense that held Tulane to just 10 points.
Ole Miss staying at No. 6 and getting this draw was as favorable of a development as it could’ve asked for once all the Kiffin drama unfolded.
Georgia staying at 3 might actually be the best path for the Dawgs
I went from initially thinking that Georgia not moving up to the No. 2 line was bad news for the Dawgs to thinking they might’ve actually lucked out by having Ohio State and Indiana just switch spots. Why? Now, Georgia gets the winner of Tulane-Ole Miss. At the very least, the Dawgs will face a team with a fluid head coaching situation. Plus, UGA beat Ole Miss with Kiffin. Granted, it wasn’t exactly a day in which UGA shut down Trinidad Chambliss until the 4th quarter.
Still, though. This feels different than last year when Georgia drew a surging Notre Dame team. Neither Tulane nor Ole Miss will be in that camp. It’ll instead face questions about game-planning for Georgia in the Sugar Bowl without their head coach’s full attention. That’s a daunting task for anyone, much less a team with a fluid staff.
The Dawgs might just end up being the scariest team in this field, even if the ranking doesn’t reflect it.
The best Round 1 matchup is … Miami-Texas A&M
Carson Beck returning to the SEC? Buddy, sign me up. That’s a fascinating matchup that we’re going to see with Miami facing that A&M pass rush. Can the Canes bully A&M in the run game? How healthy will Marcel Reed be? Those questions will be asked a ton over the course of the next 2 weeks.
It was a brutal blow for A&M to fall to the No. 7 seed because it meant not getting a potential Group of 5 matchup in Round 1. But at some point, A&M was going to have to face a team like Miami. It just happened that the last team in was considered the biggest surprise of Sunday.
But lost in the shuffle of an eventful Selection Sunday was the fact that A&M earned its first Playoff berth in program history while Texas missed the field altogether. Something tells me that wasn’t lost in the shuffle of those fanbases on the internet.
Let the on-field chaos begin.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
