PROVO, Utah — BYU moved up to No. 11 in the third release of the 2025 College Football Playoff rankings revealed Tuesday by the CFP selection committee.
The Cougars (9-1, 6-1 Big 12) moved up one spot this week after its dominating 44-13 win over TCU in LaVell Edwards Stadium, acheiving BYU's largest margin of victory in a conference game since joining the Big 12 in 2023. The 44 points scored marked the most any team has scored against the TCU this season, while also holding the Horned Frogs to their season low of 13 points.
BYU also received a No. 11 ranking in both The Associated Press Top 25 and AFCA Coaches Poll released on Sunday. During the first year of the 12-team playoff last season, the Cougars were ranked in all six CFP rankings released, receiving rankings of No. 9, No. 6, No. 14, No. 19, No. 18 and No. 17.
This week the CFP Committee advanced BYU one spot from last Tuesday's No. 12 slot in the second release of the rankings. The Cougars were ranked No. 7 in the initial CFP rankings before suffering their lone setback of the season at then No. 8 Texas Tech, who this week moved from No. 6 to No. 5 after improving to 10-1 on Saturday.
CFP Top 25
The top three teams in the CFP rankings remained the same this week with Ohio State (10-0) at No. 1, followed by No. 2 Indiana (11-0) and No. 3 Texas A&M (10-0).
Georgia (9-1) advanced to No. 4 this week after previous No. 4 Alabama (8-2) dropped six spots to No. 10 following its loss to Oklahoma, who moved up three places from No. 11 to No. 8 with the victory. After Texas Tech (10-1) at No. 5, Ole Miss (10-1) is No. 6, followed by Oregon (9-1) at No. 7, the Sooners (7-2) at No. 8, Notre Dame (8-2) staying at No. 9. and the Crimson Tide landing at No. 10 just ahead of BYU.
After the Cougars at No. 11, the rest of the top 25 includes No. 12 Utah (8-2), No. 13 Miami (8-2), No. 14 Vanderbilt (8-2), No. 15 USC (8-2), No. 16 Georgia Tech (9-1), No. 17 Texas (7-3), No. 18 Michigan (8-2), No. 19 Virginia (9-2), No. 20 Tennessee (7-3), No. 21 Illinois (7-3), No. 22 Missouri (7-3), No. 23 Houston (8-2), No. 24 Tulane (8-2) and No. 25 Arizona State (7-3).
Teams falling out of the CFP rankings were Louisville, Iowa, Pittsburgh, South Florida and Cincinnati, being replaced by this week's teams ranked from No. 21 to No. 25. Other than Alabama's six-rankings fall, Texas had the largest drop in the rankings, moving down seven places from No. 10 to No. 17 after suffering its third loss of the year.
Overall, this week's CFP rankings included nine teams from the SEC, six from the BIg Ten, five from the Big 12, three out of the ACC and one each from the American and FBS Independents.
Big 12
The Big 12's five teams in the CFP rankings is a season high, with Texas Tech at No. 5, BYU at No. 11, Utah at No. 12, Houston at No. 23 and Arizona State at No. 25.
The Big 12 race features Texas Tech (7-1) and BYU (6-1) as teams with only one league defeat, followed by four two-loss teams in reigning league champion Arizona State (5-2) along with Utah (5-2), Houston (5-2) and Cincinnati (5-2).
This Week
This week BYU travels to face Cincinnati in an 8 p.m. ET kick being televised nationally on FOX. In additon to the game broadcast, FOX Big Noon Kickoff will be in Cincinnati to feature the Big 12 matchup between the Cougars and Bearcats.
BYU returns to the road where it is 4-1 this year with wins at East Carolina (34-13), Colorado (24-21), Arizona (33-27 2OT) and Iowa State (41-27) with a lone setback at then No. 8 Texas Tech (29-7). The Cougars are perfect in five sellout home games in LaVell Edwards Stadium so far this year with wins over Portland State (69-0), Stanford (27-3), West Virginia (38-24), then No. 23/22 Utah (24-21)., and TCU (44-13).