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redrumsoxLoL Ballot for 2025 Week 13

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Nov. 17, 2025, 6:32 p.m.

Rank Team Reason
1 Ohio State Buckeyes The Buckeyes remain #1 after a convincing defeat of UCLA. After their Week victory against Texas, the Buckeyes have won every game the played by 18 points or more. Ohio St plays Rutgers at home next week before traveling to Michigan for "The Game".
2 Indiana Hoosiers After a scare against Penn St, the Hoosiers took care of business against Wisconsin and have a bye week before they play Purdue on the Friday after Thanksgiving to try to close out their undefeated regular season and clinch a spot in the B1G title game. Their comfortable victory versus the Aggies struggles on Saturday had me switch Indiana back to the #2 rankings after placing them at #3 last week
3 Texas A&M Aggies Things looked very scary in the first half, but a dominant second half, highlighted by 21 points scored in the third quarter saw the Aggies complete their biggest comeback in program history.
4 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia's win against Texas and Bama's loss brings Georgia up to being the #1 team with a loss. They looked very strong against the Longhorns and like a true contender for a title this season
5 Texas Tech Red Raiders Texas Tech is probably the last team on this ranking that I wouldn't be surprised if they won a championship. Besides an off game against an inconsistent Arizona St, the Red Raiders have been completely dominant no matter who they match up against. If they win their final game of the season against West Virginia they are in the Big12 title game and probably will make the playoffs as an at large team even if they lose that.
6 Oregon Ducks Oregon is very talented, but simply unproven to me right now. In their real "prove it" game this season against Indiana, they fell flat and also struggled against Iowa in the most stereotypical in conference Iowa game ever.
7 Ole Miss Rebels That win against Oklahoma is looking even stronger now, but Ole Miss has also had some games against weaker opponents where they played way too close for me to be convinced of them as a real national championship contender
8 Oklahoma Sooners The Sooners have had a great couple weeks back to back beating Tennessee and Alabama to now move back in to the Top 10 after their losses to Ole Miss and Texas. However, looking under the microscope at their win against Alabama, Oklahoma lost the time of possession battle was outgained by nearly 200 yards on offense and benefitted greatly from creating 3 turnovers. This doesn't give great hope for that type of win to be re-creatable enough to win a championship.
9 Alabama Crimson Tide While they did lose on Saturday, as noted above, Alabama lost this game because of swing plays like turnovers. A loss is still a loss, but the Tide still can bounceback and make a run in the playoffs
10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish While Notre Dame did win against Pitt this past weekend, I was impressed by Oklahoma's tenacity enough to move them above Notre Dame even though the Fighting Irish didn't do anything wrong this past weekend.
11 BYU Cougars BYU took care of business against TCU in a good bounce back game after losing to Texas Tech. They move up a spot due to Texas falling in the rankings. If they finish up the season with two more victories they will make the Big12 title game and have a rematch with Texas Tech.
12 Utah Utes Utah looked like they played a fun game on Saturday. 83 points scored combined between Utah and Baylor. Utah kept the ball on the ground like they have all season and ran their way to victory and on defense they forced the nation's leading passer, Sawyer Robertson into throwing 2 interceptions. Utah can bring in multiple looks depending on which of their two quarterbacks they have out on the field with Byrd Ficklin being dynamic on the ground and Devon Dampier adding in the passing element to the offense as well
13 USC Trojans USC took down Iowa in another stereotypical "B1G Iowa game" and came out on top and now will play against Oregon in what is the biggest game of the week. If the Trojans lose this game, their playoff hopes are essentially over, but if they win it, they are still in the hunt.
14 Texas Longhorns The Longhorns just looked out matched against Georgia on Saturday evening. While they are a good team, there are some improvements to be made particularly on the offensive line and the WR room.
15 Vanderbilt Commodores Vandy is still having their best season in modern history, but that has been forgotten about a bit after their two losses have dropped them out of the Top 10. Taking down Kentucky and Tennessee to end the season could potentially get Vandy in the conversation for the playoffs, but they still would need some teams to lose ahead of them.
16 Michigan Wolverines Michigan is hanging around still this season. They do have a path into the playoffs still if they win out because that would include a win over the current #1 team Ohio State. They would need chaos ahead of them to make the B1G title game, but a win against the Buckeyes would at least push them into the conversation for an at large spot in the playoffs.
17 Miami Hurricanes The ACC champion will likely be in the playoffs. While I believe Miami to be the strongest team in the ACC due to their victories against Notre Dame & South Florida, they need to win out and have 7 other games across the final two weeks of conference play to go their way for them to make the conference title so realistically Miami doesn't have a path to the conference title and would need some chaos ahead of them to get an at large spot in the playoffs.
18 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Moving to Georgia Tech, they have done well to be the only 1 loss team in this conference, they lack a signature win especially after Clemson's disappointing season diminished that win. They also struggled against Boston College who has not won a game against an FBS team this season. That being said, being 9-1 in a power conference is worthy of a ranking and because of that they have the simplest path to the playoff of any team in the conference. If they beat Pittsburgh, they are in the ACC title game and if they win the conference title game they will very likely be in the playoffs.
19 Virginia Cavaliers Virginia has two losses against teams in the ACC, however their loss against NC State was considered an "out of conference" game. That was probably expected to be completely irrelevant at the time of the game, but now because of this game being officially out of conference, Virginia only has 1 in conference loss and they have the second easiest path the ACC title game if they win against Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech beats Pittsburgh they are in the ACC title game. Again, if they manage to win that game, they would most likely get a playoff spot.
20 Tennessee Volunteers Tennessee is a very good team that simply had a difficult schedule and lost to three Top 10 teams. Beating Florida and Vanderbilt to end the season would be good, but I don't think the Vols have a shot at the playoffs at this point.
21 James Madison Dukes I say this as a fan of Texas State, James Madison is truly in a league of their own in the Sun Belt conference. If not for a loss against Louisville, JMU would be a Top 15 team (maybe Top 10) right now and they are playing like it, beating App State 58-10 on Saturday. Personally I believe that James Madison's destiny should be in their own hands and if they win out in decisive victories they should make the playoffs as the 5th strongest conference champion. They need to be convincing in their victories in order to avoid falling below the AAC champion in the CFP committees rankings.
22 Houston Cougars Crazy to say going into Week 13 of the season, but Houston still has a chance at the Big12 title and therefore could make the College Football Playoff. Of course Houston needs to win out and they need BYU to lose twice and Utah, Cincy and Arizona State to all lose one game. If all of that happens, then Houston would be rewarded with a game against Texas Tech.
23 Missouri Tigers Mizzou is really similar to Tennessee, where they are a good team but lose to Alabama, Vandy and Texas A&M and it can get worse when they play Oklahoma this upcoming Saturday.
24 North Texas Mean Green UNT does have a path to the playoffs. If they win their remaining two games they are likely in the conference title game where if they beat a good Navy or Tulane team it could convince the committee to push them above James Madison even if JMU wins out as well.
25 San Diego State Aztecs Rounding out my rankings I have the Aztecs who lead the Mountain West but likely don't have a chance to make the playoffs unless there we see one of the most chaotic final two weeks of the season and conference title games throughout the nation.

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