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Mike's top 25 college football teams heading into Week 14 of the 2025 season. His complete top 25 rankings, including Ohio State Oregon, Indiana, and more.
Week 14 College Football Power Rankings
There wasn’t as much chaos in Week 13, but a couple more ranked teams fell on the road. A few more made big statements against lesser teams for style points with the CFP committee. Hey, don’t blame them! It’s a world the committee created by throwing around the eye test “metric” when ranking some teams this year. My goalposts don’t move. I’ve been pretty consistent with my rankings and reasons over the years.
25. Arizona (8-3)
Last week: NR
Result: W 41-17 vs Baylor
The Wildcats are going the way of 2024 Baylor. This team struggled early in conference play, but has won four in a row heading into the Territorial Cup. The three losses were at Houston, at Iowa State, and against BYU. That’s a solid three losses with decent wins over Cincinnati and Baylor.
24. Tennessee (8-3)
Last week: NR
Result: W 31-11 at Florida
It was the first win in the Swamp for the Vols since 2003. That’s right…if you can’t drink alcohol legally, this is something that you had never seen before. Tennessee has the monopoly on quality losses. Their only chance at a quality win comes this weekend.
23. Wake Forest (8-3)
Last week: 23 ⇔
Result: W 52-14 vs. Delaware
We can make the argument that Wake should be 9-2, but those who didn’t watch the Georgia Tech game won’t get the reference. We’ll just have to rely on the win over Virginia to do the talking for the Demon Deacons. That’s better than any win Tennessee has.
22. James Madison (10-1)
Last week: 22 ⇔
Result: W 24-20 vs. Washington State
The loss to Louisville is going to tank this team since Louisville is in the tank. Sadly, the fates of Group of 5 teams are closely tied to the parallel of teams they know in the Power 4. Those games are magnified, which is why Tulane is sitting so well. No on is going to care that the Dukes obliterated rival Old Dominion. They’re going to see that the Dukes lost to Louisville and struggled with Washington State — the same Washington State team (in name only) that North Texas beat by 49.
21. North Texas (10-1)
Last week: 21 ⇔
Result: W 56-24 at Rice
I don’t want to see Drew Mestemaker leave North Texas, but it’s almost a foregone conclusion after flirting with 500 passing yards in a game again. This will definitely be it for Mestemaker in Denton if the Mean Green are left out of the CFP with a 12-1 record as champions of the American Conference. There’s still a little bit of work to do.
20. Georgia Tech (9-2)
Last week: 15 (⇓5)
Result: L 28-42 vs Pittsburgh
Georgia Tech didn’t have to play Virginia, Miami, or SMU. They lost to Pitt. I feel comfortable with Tulane above them. Tech could still single-handedly demolish the CFP rankings if they beat Georgia.
19. Tulane (9-2)
Last week: 20 (⇑1)
Result: W 37-13 at Temple
Tulane beat Power 4 teams Duke and Northwestern. They beat Memphis an East Carolina, who are near the top of the AAC. We can make a strong case for Tulane’s schedule rivaling Georgia Tech’s. The Bees dodged Miami, Virginia, and SMU. They lost to Pitt last week. If you want to get down to it, we could make a case for Pitt as well…
18. USC (8-3)
Last week: 16 (⇓2)
Result: L 27-42 at (8) Oregon
I decided not to punish USC much for losing on the road to a top-10 team. It just means that the rankings were correct. The interesting thing is that USC is now on the heels of a Michigan team they beat. The loss to Notre Dame is the only thing keeping them behind the Wolverines.
17. Michigan (9-2)
Last week: 19 (⇑2)
Result: W 45-20 at Maryland
This was one of the better games that Michigan has played this year. They’re not going to do it again, are they?
16. Virginia (9-2)
Last week: 18 (⇑2)
Result: BYE
Michigan’s win, while impressive, isn’t quite enough to jump Virginia.
15. Texas (8-3)
Last week: 17 (⇑2)
Result: W 52-37 vs. Arkansas
When two of the three losses are to top-four teams, you get to be the highest-ranked three-loss team. The Florida loss is what it is and will serve its purpose. It will keep Texas out of the College Football Playoff.
14. Vanderbilt (9-2)
Last week: 14 ⇔
Result: W 45-17 vs Kentucky
The score is deceiving. Kentucky outscored Vandy 14-0 in the fourth quarter, so this game was even worse for the Wildcats than the score indicated. The Commodores are in the same boat as A&M. The good wins turned out to be not-so-good. The difference is that Vandy lost to the two strong teams that they played.
13. Utah (9-2)
Last week: 13 ⇔
Result: W 51-47 vs. Kansas State
Wow, the Kansas State offense had its way with Utah. It was a rushing day for the ages for the Wildcats at the expense of the poor Utah defense. Utah has the good losses, but where are the good wins? Even Miami has those.
12. Miami (FL) (9-2)
Last week: 12 ⇔
Result: W 34-17 at Virginia Tech
I’ll tell you right now that if Miami beats Pitt, they’re jumping Notre Dame. You don’t get to skate into the playoffs when you already lost to two playoff teams. All Notre Dame had to do was win one of those games. They had chances to win both. It’s also worth noting that if Louisville had a healthy RB room, the ACC Championship could be between the two teams that beat Miami. They aren’t bad losses. We just think they’re bad because of how Miami looked early in the season in wins over Notre Dame, South Florida, Florida, and Florida State.
11. Notre Dame (9-2)
Last week: 11 ⇔
Result: W 70-7 vs. Syracuse
No, I’m not moving a team down after it won by 63 points, the highest margin of victory for the Irish since 1966. Does it highlight what utter garbage Syracuse has around Steve Angeli? Yes. Notre Dame scored three touchdowns before the offense even touched the ball. As per usual, the Irish understand the assignment. They have been living on style points since the 1950s, when voters, and ONLY voters, decided the national champion. As much as I hate the watered-down expanded playoffs, it’s still better than the voters deciding the champion, especially given the current horrible state of the AP Poll.
10. Alabama (9-2)
Last week: 10 ⇔
Result: W 56-0 vs. Eastern Illinois
Two more Ty Simpson interceptions have to be a concern against a team like this, right? Especially right in front of the Iron Bowl.
9. Oklahoma (9-2)
Last week: 9 ⇔
Result: W 17-6 vs. Missouri
I didn’t have Missouri ranked, so this isn’t some big flex. It does say something that Oklahoma is winning the games that they should. Should we have beaten Texas? Probably, but it’s a rivalry game. Anyone who is a fan of a team that has that one big rival knows what I mean. Weird things happen. Things like the Kick Six and Michigan State taking a blocked punt off the punter’s shoe to beat Michigan. How else do you explain Michigan’s recent dominance over the Buckeyes? Michigan only had a clearly better team in one of those years, and was markedly worse in at least two of those games.
8. Oregon (10-1)
Last week: 8 ⇔
Result: W 42-27 vs. (16) USC
Cool, Oregon! You beat a ranked team! Some teams have been doing this for a couple of months already. The Ducks are late to the party and are ranked accordingly. BYU has better wins and more of them. If only the committee wouldn’t read the logo on the sides of the helmets…
7. BYU (10-1)
Last week: 7 ⇔
Result: W 26-14 at Cincinnati
BYU quietly keeps racking up solid wins, while Mississippi played the Citadel and had a bye. A decent argument could be made to move BYU ahead of the Rebels.
6. Mississippi (10-1)
Last week:6 ⇔
Result: BYE
Ole Miss took full advantage of the bye week to let the Lane Kiffin circus take over Oxford and have none of the talk about the seasons that Kewan Lacy and Trinidad Chambliss are having. Regardless of whether Kiffin stays or goes, this is reprehensible. If the decision is really this tough for him and is tearing him up, maybe money isn’t everything. Stay in Oxford. Make some playoff runs. Maybe even win a title. They’ll build you a statue and name the field after you. In Florida or Baton Rouge, they’ll fire you after two eight-win seasons. Ole Miss will forgive that if it happens based solely on this season. Now that goodwill is likely gone, and it probably should be.
5. Texas Tech (10-1)
Last week: 5 ⇔
Result: BYE
Wins over Utah and BYU are better than anything Oregon has. I’ll take the quantity over the quality win of Mississippi. I’m also giving Tech the benefit of the doubt for losing without starting QB Behren Morton to Arizona State on the road in one of the few games in which the Sun Devils were healthy this year.
4. Georgia (10-1)
Last week: 4 ⇔
Result: W 35-3 vs. Charlotte
Georgia did what they always do in these games under Kirby Smart. They work on some things. It’s not meant to be a measurement of their worth to a national audience.
3. Texas A&M (11-0)
Last week: 3 ⇔
Result: W 48-0 vs. Samford
Despite the Aggies’ cakewalk through the SEC, I’m not going to move them below a one-loss team. It’s not their fault…LSU, Auburn, Florida, South Carolina, and Missouri were supposed to be good, not a combined 10-27 in conference play. That doesn’t consider 0-7 Arkansas. The win over Notre Dame is arguably as good as Ohio State’s entire schedule, so it’s not like the Aggies are getting away with some great heist by this ranking.
2. Ohio State (11-0)
Last week: 2 ⇔
Result: W 42-9 vs. Rutgers
The Buckeyes rested Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate for the Michigan game. Let’s call it like it is. This is the world created for the Buckeyes, and you’ll see no shade from me for protecting the team’s best interests. In the grand scheme of things, Ohio State doesn’t need to beat Michigan. Emotionally, the fans need the team to beat Michigan.
1. Indiana (11-0)
Last week: 1 ⇔
Result: BYE
I have been consistent with my Indiana ranking and my reasoning. The reasoning got stronger with Oregon finally beating a team with a pulse.
