PROVO, Utah — After falling to No. 4 Texas Tech in the Big 12 Championship game on Saturday, BYU dropped one spot to No. 12 in the final release of the 2025 College Football Playoff rankings announced on Sunday.
The CFP selection committee adusted the rankings of five teams in the top 12 from the penultimate rankings announced on Tuesday. Former No. 1 Ohio State (12-1) and No. 2 Indiana (13-0) were flip-flopped to move lone unbeaten IU into the top spot following its Big Ten title win over the Buckeyes. At the bottom of the playoff bracket, the committee advanced Miami (10-2) two places to No. 10 despite not playing while dropping fellow dormant-on-Saturday Notre Dame (10-2) and BYU (11-2) one spot each to No. 11 and No. 12, respectively, to occupy the two spots just outside the playoff.
With Duke, the ACC champion, not being ranked, the final two seeds in the 12-team playoff were awarded to the next two highest-ranked conference champions. American champion Tulane (11-2) and Sun Belt champion James Madison (12-1) qualified for the last two playoff spots after being ranked No. 20 and No. 24, respectively, in the final CFP rankings on Sunday.
Among other Big 12 teams, Texas Tech (12-1) remained at No. 4 after beating BYU in the Big 12 Championship game, while Utah (10-2) stayed at No. 15, Arizona (9-3) move up one to No. 17 and Houston (9-3) kept its No. 21 ranking.
The Cougars enter postseason bowl play having achieved 11 regular-season victories for just the seventh time in program history. It is the third season under head coach Kalani Sitake that BYU has posted 11 wins including bowl results, somthing Sitake's teams achieved in 2024 at 11-2 and in 2020 at 11-1 with bowl victories.
This year the Cougars were included in all six of the College Football Playoff rankings, receiving rankings of No. 7, No. 12, No. 11, No. 11, No. 11 and No. 12. Last year during the first year of the 12-team playoff, the Cougars were also in contention for a playoff spot being ranked in all six CFP rankings when they were rated at No. 9, No. 6, No. 14, No. 19, No. 18 and No. 17.
Final CFP Top 25
Lone undefeated Indiana (13-0) is ranked No. 1 as the top seed, followed by No. 2 Ohio State (12-1), No. 3 Georgia (12-1) and No. 4 Texas Tech (12-1) as the teams earning first-round byes in the playoff. The next five teams kept their prior rankings with Oregon (11-1) at No. 5 followed by No. 6 Ole Miss (11-1), No. 7 Texas A&M (11-1), No. 8 Oklahoma (10-2) and No. 9 Alabama (10-3), who didn't suffer a rankings fall like BYU despite losing in the SEC title game to Georgia.
After No. 10 Miami (10-2), No. 11 Notre Dame (10-2) and No. 12 BYU (11-2), the rest of the top 25 included No. 13 Texas (9-3), No. 14 Vanderbilt (10-2), No. 15 Utah (10-2), No. 16 USC (9-3), No. 17 Arizona (9-3), No. 18 Michigan (9-3), No. 19 Virginia (10-3), No. 20 Tulane (11-2), No. 21 Houston (9-3), No. 22 Georgia Tech (9-3), No. 23 Iowa (8-4), No. 24 James Madison (12-1) and No. 25 North Texas (11-1).
Movement in those ranked below the Cougars included Virginia, who was dropped two rankings after losing in the ACC title game, while Arizona and Michigan each moved up one spot to fill the void left by the Cavaliers. JMU was also moved up one place after winning the Sun Belt title, with North Texas, who lost the American title game to Tulane, moving back one slot. SEC champion Alabama was the lone loser in the league championship games not to drop in the rankings.
Five SEC teams earned a playoff seeding, followed by three from the Big Ten and one each from the Big 12, ACC, American and Sun Belt. Overall, the final CFP top 25 included seven teams from the SEC, six from the BIg Ten, five from the Big 12, three from the ACC, two from the American and one each from the Sun Belt and FBS Independents.
AP & AFCA Polls
After being ranked No. 11 ranking three straight weeks in both The Associated Press Top 25 and AFCA Coaches Poll, BYU dropped to No. among AP voters and No. 13 by the coaches in the national polls released on Sunday after losing the Big 12 Championship game to No. 4 Texas Tech on Saturday. BYU has been ranked 304 times overall in the AP poll since the program's first national ranking in 1974.
Path to 11-2 Entering Bowl Season
BYU enters bowl play with a chance to win 12 games for only the fifth time in program history and the first time since 2001. BYU's bowl matchup will be announced later today.
The Cougars were perfect at home this season in LaVell Edwards Stadium with wins over Portland State (69-0), Stanford (27-3), West Virginia (38-24), No. 15 Utah (24-21), TCU (44-13) and UCF (41-21). BYU finished the regular season 5-1 on the road with wins at East Carolina (34-13), Colorado (24-21), No. 18 Arizona (33-27 2OT), Iowa State (41-27) and Cincinnati (26-14) with a lone setback at No. 4 Texas Tech (29-7).
In their third year in the Big 12, the Cougars advanced to the Big 12 Championship game for the first time after finishing tied atop the standings for the second straight year. After not playing in the game last year due to four-way tiebreakers, this year BYU was tied alone with No. 4 Texas Tech at 8-1 in league games to earn a spot opposite the top-seeded Red Raiders at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The Cougars suffered only their second loss of the year, both to the the No. 4 Red Raiders, falling to Texas Tech (34-7) with the chance to earn an automatic spot in the College Football Playoff.