Josh's World

Second Longest Running Personal Blog on the Internet

Josh's World

Second Longest Running Personal Blog on the Internet

Football

Josh’s College Football Rankings 2025–End of Season Rankings

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What an amazing year in college football! Indiana wins the National Championship. They went undefeated, and destroyed most of their opponents in the playoffs. It was a tight game against Miami in the finals, but the Hoosiers fought hard, and pulled off the win. Fernando Mendoza showed tremendous toughness, and proved why he deserved to win the Heisman. 

Bowl season was also pretty good. Even with opt-outs and coaching changes, teams came out ready to play. There were some exciting games. With that being said, I am factoring those games into the final ranking. Playing through those hardships and winning a game is impressive, I think teams should be rewarded for it.

  1. Indiana (16-0)–#1–W 38-3 #11 Alabama, W 56-22 #5 Oregon, W 27-21 #9 Miami. The Hoosiers join an elite club of eleven schools who have won a basketball and football championship.
  2. Miami (13-3)–#9–W 10-3 #8 Texas A&M, W 24-14 #2 Ohio State, W 31-27 #6 Ole Miss, L 27-21 #1 Indiana. The Hurricanes silenced doubters who thought they did not deserve to be in the playoffs (minus Notre Dame fans, who continue to believe they should have been in over Miami…)
  3. Ole Miss (13-2)–#6–W 41-10 #21 Tulane, W 39-34 #3 Georgia, L 31-27 #9 Miami. New coach? No problem. The Rebels looked good in the playoffs.
  4. Ohio State (12-2)–#2–L 24-14 #9 Miami. The Buckeyes did not look good against that tough Hurricane defense. But, this is still an elite team, they would beat most teams out there.
  5. Georgia (12-2)–#3–L 39-34 #6 Ole Miss. Same as above.
  6. Oregon (13-2)–#5–W 51-34 #20 James Madison, W 23-0 #4 Texas Tech, L 56-22 #1 Indiana. Not going to lie, after the Texas Tech game, I thought Oregon would win it all. I assumed they would get revenge on Indiana. I was dead wrong.
  7. Texas A&M (11-2)–#8–L 10-3 #9 Miami. The Aggies could do nothing against that Miami defense. But they held their own, and should feel good about their season.
  8. Alabama (11-4)–#11–W 34-24 #7 Oklahoma, L 38-3 #1 Indiana. Did the Tide deserve to be in the playoffs? They beat the Sooners, but then ran into a true powerhouse.
  9. Texas Tech (12-2)–#4–L 23-0 #5 Oregon. Yikes…the Red Raiders looked totally inept against Oregon. Proof that the Big XII was not ready for the Big Ten.
  10. Oklahoma (10-3)–#7–L 34-24 #11 Alabama
  11. Texas (10-3)–#12–W 41-27 #16 Michigan
  12. Notre Dame (10-2)–#10–NO GAME. The Irish would not play a bowl game because they were mad about being left out of the playoffs. I thought about dropping them down further, but they are still a good team, and maybe they deserved to be in the playoffs, maybe they did not.
  13. BYU (12-2)–#14–W 25-21 #22 Georgia Tech
  14. Utah (11-2)–#15–W 44-22 Nebraska
  15. Virginia (11-3)–#16–W 13-7 #28 Missouri
  16. Iowa (9-4)–#31–W 34-27 #13 Vanderbilt. The Hawkeyes silenced the SEC by taking down Vandy. Also, they gave Indiana and Oregon a run for their money.
  17. Vanderbilt (10-3)–#13–L 34-27 #31 Iowa
  18. Michigan (9-4)–#16–L 41-27 #12 Texas
  19. James Madison (12-2)–#20–L 51-34 #5 Oregon. Look, the Dukes got behind early, but then mounted a comeback against the Ducks. JMU did their best to silence the critics.
  20. Duke (9-5)–#25–#25–W 42-39 #32 Arizona State
  21. Washington (9-4)–#24–W 38-10 Boise State
  22. SMU (9-4)–#33–W 24-19 #18 Arizona
  23. Illinois (9-4)–#35–W 30-28 #23 Tennessee
  24. Georgia Tech (9-4)–#22–L 25-21 #14 BYU
  25. Navy (10-2)–#27–W 35-13 Cincinnati
  26. North Texas (12-2)–#26–W 49-47 San Diego State
  27. TCU (9-4)–#39–W 30-27 OT #17 USC
  28. USC (9-4)–#17–L 30-27 OT #39 TCU
  29. Tennessee (8-5)–#23–L 30-28 #35 Illinois
  30. Arizona (9-4)–#18–L 24-19 #33 SMU
  31. Houston (10-3)–#38–W 38-35 LSU
  32. Missouri (8-5)–#28–L 13-7 #16 Virginia
  33. Louisville (9-4)–#36–W 27-22 Toledo
  34. Arizona State (8-5)–#32–L 42-39 #25 Duke
  35. Penn State (7-6)–NR–W 22-10 Clemson. Welcome back to the rankings! I almost put them higher with that win, and the fact that they were the closest to beating Indiana. But I cannot ignore those losses to UCLA and Northwestern.
  36. Tulane (11-3)–#21–L 41-10 #6 Ole Miss
  37. Old Dominion (10-3)–HM–W 24-10 #34 South Florida
  38. Western Michigan (10-4)–HM–W 41-6 #40 Kennesaw State
  39. Iowa State (8-4)–#30–NO GAME
  40. North Carolina State (8-5)–NR–W 31-7 Memphis

Honorable Mentions
Hawaii (9-4)–NR–W 35-31 California
East Carolina (9-4)–NR–W 23-17 #29 Pittsburgh
Ohio (9-4)–NR–W 17-10 UNLV
Kennesaw State (10-4)–#40–L 41-6 Western Michigan
Minnesota (8-5)–NR–W 20-17 OT New Mexico

Looking at my preseason rankings, I ended up having 29 of the 45 teams ranked (if we include the honorable mentions).And there were 91 different teams that made the rankings at some point in the year. I had Indiana at #17 to start the season. I guess I was a little off with them. Obviously Penn State and Texas did not finish in the top two. I have already seen a bunch of 2026 preseason rankings, I am not ready to jump on that bandwagon. 

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