The second unveiling of the 2025 College Football Playoff rankings saw Indiana hold strong at No. 2, despite a harrowing last-minute drive to beat Penn State and Texas Tech impress with its beatdown of BYU.
CFP committee chairman Mack Rhoades joined the ESPN reveal show for his weekly breakdown. Here’s what the Baylor athletic director said:
On Indiana staying at No. 2, Texas A&M staying at No. 3
‘Yeah, one of our longer discussions in our meetings. Indiana, gave them the edge again defensively. We talked about that last week. Certainly, offensively as well. You think about Indiana’s body of work and wins going at Oregon, against Oregon in Eugene, you know, the Iowa win. We certainly looked at the Texas A&M win in South Bend, that’s a big win for them. The win versus Missouri on the road, you know committee talked a little bit about, Missouri, not the Missouri team that they’ve been. Their third quarterback playing, playing their third quarterback, a true freshman, and just Indiana found a way to find a way. Mendoza, you know, down the stretch, second-rated quarterback passing efficiency. So those were all the things we talked about and gave Indiana the edge.’
A Miami Hurricane course correction
‘Miami, I think, Rece you said, we had some teams lose, and again the conversation with Miami has been about their consistency — their consistency especially on offense. They’ve been really, really good on defense. Obviously the head-to-head with Notre Dame comes up, and so a lot of conversation about Notre Dame, seven straight, you know, better defensively than what they were at the beginning of the year. So all of those things played into it. We’ve got great respect for Miami. When you think about the eye test, they’re really talented, both sides of the ball. Just need to be a little more consistent on the offense.’
What’s keeping Texas Tech out of the top 4?
‘I think what a convincing win against BYU, both sides of the ball. I think offensively, you know, in the red zone, they’ve left some points off the board, kicked a lot of field goals. But Rece, they are a really good football team. Their front seven defensively, we think as good as there is in the country. Behren Morton, he’s playing with a bad leg. A really, really tough kid, but you know, offensively is what’s probably kept them out of the top four, top five.
On rest of ACC lack of strength
‘We look at each team on its own. We don’t look at conferences. We look at each of the teams. And I think for the ACC, when you look at their nonconference schedule, there really are no signature wins other than Miami versus Notre Dame. And so when we’re having that conversation, we do look. We look at schedule strength, record strength, that’s certainly one of the metrics that come to play.’