Pitt is No. 24 in opening College Football Playoff rankings

Ohio State gets top billing in opening College Football Playoff rankings; Indiana, Texas A&M next

Uh, Pat, tell me first of all what this week has been like as you’re getting ready to leave for Stanford, getting ready not just on the field with practice but also off the field for this midseason West Coast trip. Yeah, I think it’s like, you know, like *** normal week. However, I think the coaches got to be *** little bit further ahead, like I was explaining to you, like, you know, last night I’m doing stuff that I normally would do on *** Thursday afternoon just because we’re gonna be on *** plane and. I’d like to get my stuff printed out that I need done, so really just coaches getting ahead. Uh, we’ll have meetings on the airplane with our players, you know, individually just, hey, come back, sit next to me, sit in between me and show us some stuff. So, uh, it’s actually, you know, gonna be *** lot better because usually Thursday afternoons we don’t get *** chance to to see our kids they’re back on campus going to class. Well, we’re gonna have football class on the airplane. Any change in sleep schedule. Not really. I, I think the biggest thing is, uh, that we’ve been told by the scientists is on the flight out there we wanna try to keep our guys awake. You don’t want to get into *** 5 hour coma and just take this gigantic nap. By the time you get there, uh, and after our dinner, I think an hour after our dinner, it’s gonna be like 11 p.m. Um, Eastern time, so we wanna kind of, we wanna sleep through the night. We’d like to, you know, stay up during the day. I’ll keep that in mind next time I travel out west, uh, Stanford, OK, 015 on the road, 3 and 0 at home. Why have they been so successful? You know, I mean, home field advantage. I mean, you always talk about the home games and it’s, it’s hard to win anytime, but they’re 3-0 at home. They beat Florida State. They beat *** BC team and and San Jose, of course. So, um, you know, some teams play better at home and they certainly play in front of their crowd, um, so you know it’s something we’ve got to be prepared for. I’ve sold it to our kids all week that hey, they play different at home, uh, but even in the 3rd quarter on the road at Miami last week, it’s *** 14 7. Uh, with 4 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter, so they’ve been in *** lot of football games. It’s *** good football team. We gotta come ready to go. This past week, Mason Hensch spoke to us in the media, uh, talked about his experience, his success. Uh, one thing he did mention is trying to block out the noise when you’re 4-0 and you’re doing things he’s doing. *** lot of people are talking to you. Have you talked to him about blocking out the external noise? No, maybe I’ll sit down and have my meeting with him on the airplane. I’m, you know, I get on *** routine during the week and I do *** poor job of, of probably getting in his ear, but, uh. You know, I don’t wanna mess things up. Hopefully we talk about it all the time about relief syndrome and, and, and you know, the rat poison. That, uh, that can get in your head, but, uh, I think he’s pretty level if he’s talking about it, that means he knows about it. So hopefully he’s able to cancel it out. Well, in the college football world we live in, I mean, do you worry about having him stay here another year? Do you even think about that? Because let’s face it, kids are going from place to place, going for *** better deal sometimes. Yeah, we don’t worry about that at Pitt. I mean, you know, I’m kind of embarrassed that people would even ask him *** question in the middle of the season. It’s almost like, you know, what are we, what are we talking about like. You know, leave that alone. Let’s hop up and play this season, but, uh, our guys are loyal to Pitt. Pitt’s gonna take care of Mason and, and, uh, and our entire football team, uh, the best they can, and, uh, we’ll let you know, we’ll be fine there. I know it’s *** team effort, but given the success Mason has had, uh, in fact, CBS Sports had ranked as their number one quarterback in the country right now. Is it too early to begin the Heisman talk? You know what, I worried about Stanford. Yeah, it’s too early. Uh, we need to worry about what we’re doing against Stanford and, and take one play at *** time. Talk about another true freshman, Trey Bakowski, leads the nation is scoring. Are you surprised at the success success this young man has had? No doubt about it, um, you know, he’s, he’s, uh, *** guy that you didn’t know what you’re gonna get into just like when you, you know, you start macing that first game. What are you gonna get out of the true freshman. You know, Trey could be great in practice, but what’s gonna happen when the game starts? Who knows, um, but he’s been spectacular and, and, uh, you know, we, we couldn’t ask for *** better performance out of him so far. You talked about this *** bit earlier, but this freshman class has really contributed. Are you surprised the success they’ve had so early in their tenure here? You know nothing surprises me. Uh, our coaches do *** great job recruiting, but. You know it’s all opportunity too, right? I mean, I think we’ve had just as talented freshman classes, but have they had the opportunity to go in and do it based on who was in front of them? I mean, Boosie’s, you know, got an opportunity because Des has been banged up *** little bit, you know, Trey got an opportunity because Ben Saul left, so he came at the right time, um, so I think, you know, opportunities based on who’s there, what the depth chart looks like, uh, so. That’s about it. And I don’t know if the NCAA has been listening to you. Perhaps they have, but I don’t know if you’ve heard they have decided to delay the decision to allow student athletes to build on pro sports until November 22nd. Um, good move by the NCAA, Great move by the NCAA, and they aren’t listening to me, uh, they, they, I don’t think they, they hear, hear what I’m saying, but I still think like what are we teaching our children, you know, I mean, uh, I know you’re not gonna, you know, sit there and tell all your kids that, hey, go out and gamble, it’s *** good thing. Um, I think it’s *** disease like any other cancer out there, and, and, uh, we shouldn’t be encouraging with our young people. Do you want to be 40 years old and go gamble, hey, you know, you didn’t get trained right, but our job as coaches and teachers and mentors is to prepare our guys for life, and that’s what we’re gonna do at Pitt.


By EDDIE PELLS AP National Writer

The closest thing resembling drama for the first big reveal of this season’s College Football Playoff rankings hinged on which undefeated team would receive top billing.Answer: The defending champions, Ohio State.The Buckeyes took the top spot in the first set of 2025 rankings Tuesday, followed by Indiana and Texas A&M.(Scroll down this page to see the full CFP rankings)In choosing the two Big Ten teams ahead of Texas A&M, the 12-person committee appeared to give less weight to A&M’s tougher schedule and its 41-40 win over tenth-ranked Notre Dame at the beginning of the season and more to the way the Buckeyes and Hoosiers have mowed down opponents this year, with only two games between the two of them decided by less than 10 points.“I think statistically when we looked at A&M defensively, they’re just lower than both Ohio State and Indiana,” committee chair Mack Rhoades said. “We had to make a hard decision, and you’re trying to find separators, and that was a separator for us.”Another team with no losses, BYU of the Big 12, was ranked seventh.Nos. 4, 5 and 6 went to Southeastern Conference teams with one loss each — Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. All of the top six came from either the Big Ten or SEC — a dose of business as usual despite a season that has been anything but predictable. This marked the first of six weekly rankings the committee will release this season, ending Dec. 6 when the final list will set the bracket for college football’s 12-team playoff.That tournament begins Dec. 19-20 with four games on the campus of seeds No. 5-8. The top four seeds play winners of those games over the New Year holiday and the title game is set for Jan. 19 at Hard Rock Stadium outside Miami.Texas Tech was ranked eighth and Oregon came in at No. 9. Rounding out the top 12 were Notre Dame — the only team in the Top 25 not from a power conference — then Texas and Oklahoma.But if the bracket were set based on these rankings, the Longhorns and Sooners would miss out — bumped by No. 14 Virginia of the ACC and Memphis of the American. That’s thanks to a rule that places the five best-ranked conference champions into the bracket even if they’re not in the top 12.Memphis wasn’t among the committee’s top 25 but was still the highest ranked leader in a Group of 5 conference.There is, of course, plenty of time for teams to make their cases, with four more weeks of the regular season, then a slate of conference title games set for the first weekend in December. “If we go back to last year, Arizona State wasn’t even in the rankings for our first two rankings,” Rhoades said of the Sun Devils, who won the Big 12 and made the field. “Again, to everybody out there, this is the first ranking and still a lot of ball left to be played.”The final tally in the top 12: SEC 6 teams, Big Ten 3, Big 12 2, ACC 0, with one independent.Among those still holding out hope are teams such as 16th-ranked Vanderbilt and 17th-ranked Georgia Tech, each of whom spent time in the AP Top 10 this season thanks to upsets that turned college football upside down through September and October.Tweaks in this year’s bracketThe biggest change in the setup of this year’s bracket was eliminating the first-round bye for the four best conference champions. It would mean that Virginia, instead of jumping from a No. 14 ranking to a No. 3 seed, would be seeded 11th with a road game against Mississippi. Rhoades also spent time discussing Oregon, which was ranked sixth in the AP poll but ninth in the playoff rankings. The Ducks’ best win this year was a 20-point victory over Northwestern, while its double-overtime win at Penn State early in the season has become less impressive as last year’s semifinalists have imploded.“When we looked at and evaluated Oregon, we really looked at the quality of the team and how they looked on film,” Rhoades said.A look at the first-round matchups based on this set of rankingsNo. 12 Memphis at No. 5 Georgia: You can almost hear SEC commissioner Greg Sankey breaking his TV wondering how an unranked team is in here over one of his.No. 11 Virginia at No. 6 Ole Miss: Virginia’s only Top 25 meeting this season was against Florida State, which does not resemble a Top 25 team now.No. 10 Notre Dame at No. 7 BYU: Two schools that mix football and religion did not meet for the first time until 1992.No. 9 Oregon at No. 8 Texas Tech: Booster Bowl pitting teams backed by billionaires Phil Knight (Ducks) and Cody Campbell (Red Raiders).2025 College Football Playoff Rankings: Nov. 4The four highest-ranked teams determined by the selection committee will be seeded Nos. 1-4 and receive a first round bye. Seeds 5-12 will play each other in the first round.1 Ohio State 8-02 Indiana 9-03 Texas A&M 8-04 Alabama 7-15 Georgia 7-16 Mississippi 8-17 BYU 8-08 Texas Tech 8-19 Oregon 7-110 Notre Dame 6-211 Texas 7-212 Oklahoma 7-213 Utah 7-214 Virginia 8-115 Louisville 7-116 Vanderbilt 7-217 Georgia Tech 8-118 Miami 6-219 USC 6-220 Iowa 6-221 Michigan 7-222 Missouri 6-223 Washington 6-224 Pitt 7-225 Tennessee 6-3

The closest thing resembling drama for the first big reveal of this season’s College Football Playoff rankings hinged on which undefeated team would receive top billing.

Answer: The defending champions, Ohio State.

The Buckeyes took the top spot in the first set of 2025 rankings Tuesday, followed by Indiana and Texas A&M.

(Scroll down this page to see the full CFP rankings)

In choosing the two Big Ten teams ahead of Texas A&M, the 12-person committee appeared to give less weight to A&M’s tougher schedule and its 41-40 win over tenth-ranked Notre Dame at the beginning of the season and more to the way the Buckeyes and Hoosiers have mowed down opponents this year, with only two games between the two of them decided by less than 10 points.

“I think statistically when we looked at A&M defensively, they’re just lower than both Ohio State and Indiana,” committee chair Mack Rhoades said. “We had to make a hard decision, and you’re trying to find separators, and that was a separator for us.”

Another team with no losses, BYU of the Big 12, was ranked seventh.

Nos. 4, 5 and 6 went to Southeastern Conference teams with one loss each — Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. All of the top six came from either the Big Ten or SEC — a dose of business as usual despite a season that has been anything but predictable.

This marked the first of six weekly rankings the committee will release this season, ending Dec. 6 when the final list will set the bracket for college football’s 12-team playoff.

That tournament begins Dec. 19-20 with four games on the campus of seeds No. 5-8. The top four seeds play winners of those games over the New Year holiday and the title game is set for Jan. 19 at Hard Rock Stadium outside Miami.

Texas Tech was ranked eighth and Oregon came in at No. 9. Rounding out the top 12 were Notre Dame — the only team in the Top 25 not from a power conference — then Texas and Oklahoma.

But if the bracket were set based on these rankings, the Longhorns and Sooners would miss out — bumped by No. 14 Virginia of the ACC and Memphis of the American. That’s thanks to a rule that places the five best-ranked conference champions into the bracket even if they’re not in the top 12.

Memphis wasn’t among the committee’s top 25 but was still the highest ranked leader in a Group of 5 conference.

There is, of course, plenty of time for teams to make their cases, with four more weeks of the regular season, then a slate of conference title games set for the first weekend in December.

“If we go back to last year, Arizona State wasn’t even in the rankings for our first two rankings,” Rhoades said of the Sun Devils, who won the Big 12 and made the field. “Again, to everybody out there, this is the first ranking and still a lot of ball left to be played.”

The final tally in the top 12: SEC 6 teams, Big Ten 3, Big 12 2, ACC 0, with one independent.

Among those still holding out hope are teams such as 16th-ranked Vanderbilt and 17th-ranked Georgia Tech, each of whom spent time in the AP Top 10 this season thanks to upsets that turned college football upside down through September and October.

Tweaks in this year’s bracket

The biggest change in the setup of this year’s bracket was eliminating the first-round bye for the four best conference champions. It would mean that Virginia, instead of jumping from a No. 14 ranking to a No. 3 seed, would be seeded 11th with a road game against Mississippi.

Rhoades also spent time discussing Oregon, which was ranked sixth in the AP poll but ninth in the playoff rankings. The Ducks’ best win this year was a 20-point victory over Northwestern, while its double-overtime win at Penn State early in the season has become less impressive as last year’s semifinalists have imploded.

“When we looked at and evaluated Oregon, we really looked at the quality of the team and how they looked on film,” Rhoades said.

A look at the first-round matchups based on this set of rankings

No. 12 Memphis at No. 5 Georgia: You can almost hear SEC commissioner Greg Sankey breaking his TV wondering how an unranked team is in here over one of his.

No. 11 Virginia at No. 6 Ole Miss: Virginia’s only Top 25 meeting this season was against Florida State, which does not resemble a Top 25 team now.

No. 10 Notre Dame at No. 7 BYU: Two schools that mix football and religion did not meet for the first time until 1992.

No. 9 Oregon at No. 8 Texas Tech: Booster Bowl pitting teams backed by billionaires Phil Knight (Ducks) and Cody Campbell (Red Raiders).

2025 College Football Playoff Rankings: Nov. 4

The four highest-ranked teams determined by the selection committee will be seeded Nos. 1-4 and receive a first round bye. Seeds 5-12 will play each other in the first round.

1 Ohio State 8-0

2 Indiana 9-0

3 Texas A&M 8-0

4 Alabama 7-1

5 Georgia 7-1

6 Mississippi 8-1

7 BYU 8-0

8 Texas Tech 8-1

9 Oregon 7-1

10 Notre Dame 6-2

11 Texas 7-2

12 Oklahoma 7-2

13 Utah 7-2

14 Virginia 8-1

15 Louisville 7-1

16 Vanderbilt 7-2

17 Georgia Tech 8-1

18 Miami 6-2

19 USC 6-2

20 Iowa 6-2

21 Michigan 7-2

22 Missouri 6-2

23 Washington 6-2

24 Pitt 7-2

25 Tennessee 6-3