Ohio State's Lorenzo Styles Jr. breaks up a pass intended for Indiana's Omar Cooper Jr. during the first half of the Big Ten championship NCAA college football game in Indianapolis, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)2025-12-07T11:10:08Z Get the AP Top 25 college football poll delivered straight to your inbox every week with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here. Nobody paying attention for the past 24 months would be surprised to see Indiana yes, Indiana leading the way into this years College Football Playoff.But anyone paying attention over the last 24 hours knew the only sure thing beyond that was that the selection committee that set this 12-team bracket was destined to get destroyed when it released the pairings Sunday. All that second-guessing and vitriol will be coming from Notre Dame, which was passed over for Alabama and Miami for two bubble spots in the bracket. The Fighting Irish dropped two notches in the rankings over the last two weeks despite a 10-game winning streak, winning their finale by 29 points and sitting on the couch Saturday. Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Alabama didnt move at all in the CFP rankings after a 28-7 loss to Georgia that looked worse than that, but that the committee didnt count that against the Tide in keeping with a hazy policy that refrains from penalizing teams for playing in their league title game. Miami didnt play either, but the Hurricanes win over Notre Dame in Week 1 played a role in their move once the teams were grouped right next to each other after BYU lost its game on Saturday. Committee chairman Hunter Yurachek said he directed the committee to rewatch Miamis win over Notre Dame way back on Aug. 31. Once we moved Miami ahead of BYU, we had the side-by-side comparison that eveyrone had been hungy for, Yurachek said. Think you know who belongs in the Top 25? Now its your turn to vote with the AP Top 25 fan poll. The committees other key decision was choosing James Madison over Duke for the final spot, a selection that left the Atlantic Coast Conference champion out of the mix, but didnt fully exclude the ACC because of Miamis move into the bracket. Yurachek insisted that including the ACC one of the Power Four conferences in the playoff in some form played no role in the deliberations.The rest of the field includes No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Georgia and No. 4 Texas Tech, which joined Indiana in getting first-round byes. Then it was No. 5 Oregon, followed by Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Alabama, Miami, Tulane and James Madison. The playoffs start Dec. 19-20 with first round games: James Madison at Oregon; Tulane at Misssissippi; Miami at Texas A&M; and Alabama at Oklahoma. The final is set for Jan. 19 outside of Miami. ___Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football