Following the games of Saturday, October 11 weekend, we are exactly half way through the 2025 College Football season. This the perfect time to take a relook at updated forecasts for how the rest of the season will play out.
We’ll start with a look at a very updated College Football Playoff. Here are my picks for the playoff seeding and a quick thought on how each team’s season will play out.
In the Big Ten, I see Ohio State as the best team in the conference and the country. I expect the Buckeyes to win out, get over the Michigan hump and beat undefeated Indiana in the conference champ game. Oregon and OSO don’t play, so the Ducks can win out as well. The collapse of Penn St hurts the strength of schedules but Ohio State OOC win over Texas is still valuable.
The SEC only got 3 teams into the playoffs this year, but while the top teams aren’t dominant the upper third is better this year. Alabama and Georgia both will probably still lose another game and I don’t expect A&M or Ole Miss to finish undefeated. This will leave the SEC with a large number of 2 loss teams and all will get in. The question becomes, will there be a 3 loss SEC teams in the playoffs?
Miami is the big favorite to win the ACC, with Georgia Tech still undefeated. Unfortunately, the win over a 3 or 4 loss Clemson won’t carry as much weight and while the Jackets have the talent to beat rival UGA, I’ll believe that when I see it. I expect Tech to get upset somewhere on the way to Charlotte and the loss to UGA seals their fate – a great year, and impressive program building under HC Brent Key, but not a playoff berth.
In what was supppsed to be a wide open Big 12, Texas Tech has looked dominant. Look for the Red Raiders to win out, but no other conference teams will finish with less than 2 losses.
What about Notre Dame you ask? The Irish lost very close games to excellent teams in the first two games of the season, but have own out since. I expect a win at home tomorrow in their last game against a ranked team USC, to end the season 10-2 with 10 straight wins. The Irish will not have many quality wins but I’m sure the playoff committee chair will talk about quality losses for Notre Dame and they’ll get in.
That leaves our one remaining sfot for the best G5/6 conference champion. The American has stepped up their play this year with a number of teams that have quality wins, including USF, Memphis and Tulane. I think a close call between these 3, but after watching USF destroy undefeated North Texas in Denton, I”m taking the Bulls to win at Memphis and take the non power 4 slot.
Put all this together, and this is how I see the playoffs with seedings (note rankings and seedings are the same this year).
- Ohio State
- Miami
- Alabama
- Indiana
- Texas Tech
- Georgia
- Oregon
- Ole Miss
- Texas A&M
- Notre Dame
- Missouri
- USF