Overview
- The College Football Playoff Selection Committee will unveil its first top-25 on Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN as the new weekly ranking cycle begins.
- The committee will rank teams using on-field performance, resume strength, game control, schedule toughness, head-to-head results and an enhanced conference-strength metric while explicitly ignoring the AP and Coaches polls.
- Unbeaten Miami is widely expected to be No. 1, while other unbeaten teams such as Utah and UCLA and one-loss contenders like Georgia, Indiana, Notre Dame and Kentucky will jockey for the top seeds.
- Ohio State is being treated as a bubble team after two losses and the loss of starting quarterback Julian Sayin, a change the committee could penalize if it deems the roster materially altered.
- The 12-team bracket guarantees the five highest-ranked conference champions plus the highest-ranked Group-of-Six team an automatic spot and NCAA data show teams inside the initial top six are about 92% likely to make the final field, though several ranked matchups next week could rapidly reshape the list.