Georgia football fans are loving this! Thankfully, logic prevailed and the Georgia Bulldogs were ranked where they should have been to start in the first College Football Playoff rankings of the season. After a 7-1 start to the season and a 5-1 record in SEC play, Georgia is ranked No. 5 overall in every poll that matters. CFP, AP, Coaches, it does not matter. This is because strength of record is their friend!
Earlier in the day, there was actually some belief that seven teams could have been better than Georgia. Not just Alabama, Indiana, Ohio State or Texas A&M, but the likes of BYU, Ole Miss and Oregon. It was utter lunancy to have any more than four teams ranked ahead of Georgia. Why is that? Well, because Georgia's great strength of record blew BYU, Ole Miss and Oregon's out of the water.
Here is who the College Football Playoff Selection Committee decided are the 25 best teams today.
- Ohio State Buckeyes (8-0)
- Indiana Hoosiers (9-0)
- Texas A&M Aggies (8-0)
- Alabama Crimson Tide (7-1)
- Georgia Bulldogs (7-1)
- Ole Miss Rebels (8-1)
- BYU Cougars (8-0)
- Texas Tech Red Raiders (8-1)
- Oregon Ducks (7-1)
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish (6-2)
- Texas Longhorns (7-2)
- Oklahoma Sooners (7-2)
- Utah Utes (7-2)
- Virginia Cavaliers (8-1)
- Louisville Cardinals (7-1)
- Vanderbilt Commodores (7-2)
- Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (8-1)
- Miami Hurricanes (6-2)
- USC Trojans (6-2)
- Iowa Hawkeyes (6-2)
- Michigan Wolverines (6-2)
- Missouri Tigers (6-2)
- Washington Huskies (6-2)
- Pittsburgh Panthers (7-2)
- Tennessee Volunteers (6-3)
Based on College Football Playoff criteria, these would be the 12 teams making the playoff right now.
- Ohio State Buckeyes (8-0): Projected Big Ten champion
- Indiana Hoosiers (9-0): Projected Big Ten runner-up
- Texas A&M Aggies (8-0): Projected SEC champion
- Alabama Crimson Tide (7-1): Projected SEC runner-up
- Georgia Bulldogs (7-1): Projected SEC at-large
- Ole Miss Rebels (8-1): Projected SEC at-large
- BYU Cougars (8-0): Projected Big 12 champion
- Texas Tech Red Raiders (8-1): Projected Big 12 runner-up
- Oregon Ducks (7-1): Projected Big Ten at-large
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish (6-2): Projected national independent at-large
- Virginia Cavaliers (8-1): Projected ACC champion
- Memphis Tigers (8-1): Projected AAC/Group of Five champion
If you want a visual representation of what a playoff bracket would look like, go take a gander at this...
The initial College Football Playoff Rankings and the projected 12-team bracket: pic.twitter.com/jdeKYWIvhs
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 5, 2025
Georgia may have a brutally bad playoff pathway, but it should be ranked ahead of those three teams.
Georgia's great strength of record stumps Ole Miss', BYU's and Oregon's
Of the four teams ranked ahead of Georgia, Ohio State, Indiana and Texas A&M are all undefeated and have beating at least one top-12 team this season, while playing in a Power Two conference. Alabama has one loss, a really bad one to Florida State, but the Crimson Tide have a slew of quality wins under their belt, including a close three-point road victory over Georgia. They are justified to being at No. 4.
Looking at the four teams ranked immediately behind Georgia in Ole Miss, BYU, Texas Tech and Oregon, none of them ever really had a chance to take the Dawgs' spot in the top five. Ole Miss has looked great, but lost to Georgia head-to-head. Ole Miss' best win is over No. 12 Oklahoma. While the Rebels are a likely playoff team, they have played, and will play, the weakest schedule in the SEC...
BYU is undefeated at 8-0, but their only quality win is over No. 13 Utah in Holy War. Utah is a quality team, but they may be a bit overvalued, based strictly on who they have lost to in BYU and Texas Tech. Utah is the best win No. 8 Texas Tech has this year. Whoever proves victorious between BYU and Texas Tech will be nearly a playoff lock at this point, regardless of if they were to win the Big 12 or not.
And then there is Oregon... The Ducks have not beaten anything close to a ranked team yet. They might be 7-1, but their best win is over 5-3 Northwestern. While they did keep it close vs. No. 2 Indiana, it was a 10-point home loss for the Ducks. The good news for them is that they can get a few quality wins this month with No. 20 Iowa, No. 19 USC and No. 23 Washington on the November slate.
To tie a bow on this, Georgia is properly ranked because it has a win over two top-25 teams in No. 25 Tennessee and No. 6 Ole Miss. Its only loss is by three points at home to No. 4 Alabama. With four games left to be played this regular season, Georgia can add to its playoff resume with wins over No. 11 Texas and No. 17 Georgia Tech. As long as it beats one of those teams, they will make the playoff.
Now the hard part for Georgia is to somehow get on the other side of the bracket from Alabama...