Indiana finished No. 1 on Tuesday in the AP Top 25 college football poll for the first time in school history, putting an exclamation point on its remarkable championship season.
The Hoosiers were a unanimous No. 1 after becoming the first 16-0 team in modern college football history by beating Miami Monday night in the College Football Playoff championship game. Indiana had never finished better than No. 4 in the final AP poll (1967 and 1945).
The Hurricanes were No. 2 in the Top 25, their first top-10 finish since 2003. No. 3 Ole Miss finished in the top five for the first time since 1962.
No. 4 Oregon and No. 5 Ohio State gave the Big Ten three of the top five along with Indiana. Georgia was No. 6.
No. 7 Texas Tech finished in the top 10 for the first time in program history. Texas A&M was eighth, followed by Alabama and Notre Dame, which was left out of the CFP in favor of Miami.
BYU finished 11th and Texas 12th, the worst final ranking for a preseason No. 1 since USC went from top-ranked to unranked in 2012.
Oklahoma, which went into the CFP seeded eighth, landed at No. 13 in the final rankings
Final AP Top 25 for 2025
Rank
Team
Ralph’s vote
Record
Prev
1
1
16-0
1
2
2
13-3
10
3
3
13-2
6
4
6
13-2
5
5
5
12-2
3
6
4
12-2
2
7
7
12-2
4
8
9
11-2
7
9
11
11-4
11
10
10
10-2
9
11
12
12-2
12
12
8
10-3
14
13
13
10-3
8
14
14
11-2
15
15
18
10-3
13
16
16
11-3
20
17
15
9-4
NR
18
25
11-3
17
19
NR
12-2
19
20
17
9-4
16
21
19
9-4
18
22
20
10-3
NR
23
NR
11-2
22
24
NR
12-2
23
25
23
9-4
NR
NR
21
9-4
NR
NR
22
9-4
NR
NR
24
9-4
NR
Others receiving votes: Illinois 123, Washington 76, SMU 69, Duke 58, Arizona 54, Georgia Tech 44, Tennessee 10, Missouri 8, Louisville 7, Louisville 3, Western Michigan 2, Wake Forest 2, Hawaii 1, Boise State 1
Also considered by Ralph: Georgia Tech, Duke, James Madison, North Texas, Arizona, Tennessee, Mizzou, Louisville, Navy
How I voted
Just because the College Football Playoff selection committee made some sketchy choices doesn’t mean I’m obligated to base my final rankings around them.
Obviously, Monday night’s championship game was going to determine the top two spots on the final ballot of my first season as an AP voter. After that, I wasn’t going to be completely bound by how far teams advanced in the Playoff. Or if they made the CFP at all.
Hence, Ohio State was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Miami, but I have the Buckeyes ahead of semifinalist Oregon after the Ducks were trounced in the semifinals by Indiana.
Where I ended up sharply diverging from the committee was with Texas and Notre Dame.
I ranked the Longhorns at No. 8, ahead of three Playoff teams from the SEC, two of which (Texas A&M and Oklahoma) Texas beat.
I slid Notre Dame in at No. 10, which matched the final rankings. I was of the opinion Notre Dame should have made the Playoff over Oklahoma and Alabama, and nothing that happened in the CFP changed my mind.
Spots 11-14 were tricky, with two SEC teams (Alabama and Oklahoma) and two Big 12 teams (BYU and Utah). I ended up going with Alabama at No. 11, followed by BYU. Both lost their conference title games in lopsided fashion and won close postseason games. The Tide got the nod by beating two CFP teams (Georgia and OU), while BYU lost twice to Texas Tech.
I had Oklahoma at No. 13 and Utah at 14, and most of the voters agreed. Frankly, I was a little surprised my opinion on OU was where consensus landed. As for the Utes, they were dominant in their 11 victories, but they didn’t have many wins that really popped.
The Big Ten had a batch of 9-4 teams that knocked off each other and made them a bit complicated to rank. I came away thinking Iowa was the best of the bunch. I have the Hawkeyes ranked 15th, based as much on how well they played in losses to Indiana and Oregon as any particular victory.
I had USC 17th, Michigan 19th, Washington 21st and Illinois 22nd, giving me eight Big Ten teams in my top 25, most of any conference.
In the actual Top 25, Washington and Illinois were unranked, leaving the SEC with the most ranked teams at seven. The Big Ten had six, followed by the Big 12 with five.
The final poll gave more love to the Group of 5 than I did. The American finished with three ranked teams and the Sun Belt had one with James Madison at No. 19. The only G5 team I had in my final rankings was Tulane at No. 25.
Highs and lows
Two preseason top-five teams (No. 2 Penn State and No. 4 Clemson) and three preseason top-10 teams (No. 9 LSU) finished the season unranked.
Penn State is the first team to start the season ranked in the top two and finish it unranked since preseason No. 1 USC ended the 2012 season outside the poll. Before that, it was preseason No. 2 Notre Dame in 1994.
As unpredictable as this season was — with a championship game featuring preseason No. 10 vs. preseason No. 20 — no teams went from unranked in the preseason to finishing in the top 10. BYU was closest, landing at No. 11 in the final poll.
Clemson snapped a streak of 14 seasons finishing ranked. It was the second-longest active streak behind Alabama and is tied for the sixth-longest ever, per College Poll Archive. The ninth-ranked Crimson Tide ran their streak to 18 straight seasons of being ranked.
With Texas Tech finishing in the top 10 for the first time, the only remaining Power 4 teams that have never been ranked in the top 10 of the final AP poll are Vanderbilt, Rutgers, NC State, Wake Forest and Virginia.
Vanderbilt finished No. 15, its best since it was No. 12 in 1948. It is just the fourth-ranked finish in the history of the program, joining 2012 and 2013 under James Franklin.
No. 16 Virginia had its best finish since 2004 while also snapping the second-longest streak among P4 schools of unranked finishes. Purdue hasn’t finished a season ranked since 2003.
No. 19 James Madison finished ranked for the first time in its fourth FBS season, and No. 24 North Texas also finished ranked for the first time.
