It’s official!  The 12-0 Indiana Hoosiers team (football, not basketball) crushed nearly every opponent and have earned the final #1 ranking for the 2025 college football season.

Other college football rating services made 12-0 Ohio State as their #1.  That’s quite understandable.  The Buckeyes are the defending national champions and have enjoyed another terrific season.

However, the Buckeyes finished in second place in the SwampSwamiSports.com College Football Top 25 rankings for the 2025 regular season.

My ranking system gave the edge to Indiana by virtue of the Hoosiers’ 30-20 road victory at 11-1 Oregon.

By contrast, the Buckeyes’ toughest win of the season came last Saturday in Ohio State’s methodical 27-9 beatdown of 9-3 Michigan.

The Big Ten has morphed into “The Big 18” teams.  That meant that Indiana and Ohio State will face a different set of conference opponents every season.

Indiana handed Oregon its only loss of the season.  That’s why the Hoosiers are my #1 team as the regular season ends.

Indiana and Ohio State are now the final two unbeaten FBS teams after 9-3 Texas handed Texas A&M its first loss of the season Friday night in Austin by a 27-17 final score.

The Indiana Hoosiers will enjoy some unexpected home cooking this Saturday as they face the Buckeyes in the Big Ten championship game at 7PM (CST) on FOX.  Saturday’s game will be played (as always) at the home field of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.

By this time next week, the FBS will have just one team with a perfect record heading into the College Football Playoffs.

Congratulations to Indiana for being my top rated team in 2025!

Why are 10-2 Alabama and 11-1 Georgia playing in the SEC Championship game instead of 11-1 Texas A&M or 11-1 Ole Miss?

All four teams were 7-1 in SEC competition this season, but only two can play in Saturday’s SEC title game (3PM on ABC).

Here are the SEC tiebreaker rules:

A. Head-to-head competition among the tied teams.

Alabama – won at Georgia 24-21 in late September.  Bama did not play either Texas A&M or Ole Miss this season.  Bama gets the nod over Georgia in a tiebreaker.

Georgia – lost to Alabama 24-21.  The Bulldogs beat Ole Miss 43-35.  That win gives Georgia the advantage over Ole Miss.  The Bulldogs did not play Texas A&M this season. 

Texas A&M – did not play Alabama, Georgia, or Ole Miss this year (odd, isn’t it?)

Ole Miss – lost at Georgia (43-35) and did not play against Alabama or Texas A&M this season.

In this first scenario, Alabama would eliminate Georgia (based on a head-to-head win) and Georgia would eliminate Ole Miss (another head-to-head win).  Texas A&M (which didn’t play any of the other three SEC teams with a 7-1 conference record this year) would still be “alive” at this point.

B. Record against all common opponents among the tied teams.

In the second tiebreaker scenario, Georgia beat Texas (35-10).  Texas A&M then lost to Texas 27-17 last Friday. Georgia’s win over Texas was enough to eliminate Texas A&M.

How did 7-5 Duke make it into the ACC Championship game this Saturday?

This year’s Atlantic Coast Conference football race was dominated early in the season by Georgia Tech and surprising Virginia.  The Yellow Jackets started 8-0 but faded by losing three of its final four games.

The Virginia Cavaliers finished as the ACC’s #1 team by virtue of a 7-1 conference mark and a 10-2 overall record.

This Saturday night at 7PM, the ACC Championship game features Virginia playing…7-5 Duke?

Duke benefited from a weak conference schedule.  The Blue Devils’ six ACC wins came over teams with losing conference records.

Duke was part of a massive five-way traffic jam for second place in the ACC at 6-2.  They were tied with 10-2 Miami (FL), 9-3 Georgia Tech, 8-4 SMU, and 8-4 Wake Forest.

Somehow (I won’t try to explain this one), Duke won tiebreakers over Miami, G-Tech, SMU, and Wake Forest to emerge as the second place team.

A win by Duke over Virginia on Saturday night would hand the ACC crown to the Blue Devils.  However, an 8-5 Blue Devils team would not receive an automatic invitation into the College Football Playoffs.  Other conference champions (such as the American or Sun Belt) could receive that slot in the playoff by virtue of having better season records.

So, why do the Power Four Conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, and SEC) bother playing these conference championship games now?

Television money, of course!

This weekend’s reduced college football slate brings more TV eyeballs to the rather finite number of televised games.  That’s a bonanza for the networks (ABC/ESPN and FOX).  Their sales staff is busy selling prime advertising slots to a male-dominated audience of shoppers during the crucial Christmas merchandising season.

Believe it or not, the SEC is paid about $470 million for its entire slate of games televised by ABC and ESPN for this season.  That doesn’t count extra money from the College Football Playoffs.

The “Bank of SEC” takes in about $31 million per week over a 15-week season (12 regular season games over a 14-week span plus this weekend’s championship game).

An incremental $31 million payday for this weekend’s SEC Championship game is why we are being forced to wait another week prior to the beginning of the College Football Playoffs.

A special consolation note to U-Mass Minuteman football fans

The University of Massachusetts (U-Mass) joined the Mid-American Conference beginning July 1, 2025.

After November 29, 2025’s final weekend of college football games, U-Mass is still searching for its first Mid-American Conference football victory.  They didn’t win a single game this season!

The Minutemen even lost (at home) to FCS member Bryant University 27-26 in September.

U-Mass lost its home finale on Saturday to 4-8 Bowling Green 45-14 as the only FBS team in America to finish 0-12.

First-year coach Joe Harasmyiak said after the team’s final loss, “The record is the record.  It’s crappy.  It’s not acceptable.”

Indeed!  There’s only one way to go next season, right?!!!

Hey, Swami!  Aren’t you going to discuss the Lane Kiffin situation today?

Come back on Tuesday for that.  Here’s a teaser to think about today.

Why did Tulane and North Texas allow their current coaches (who are leaving for Florida and Oklahoma State respectively) to keep leading their current teams until season’s end, but the Ole Miss Athletic Director did not?

Let’s reveal the FINAL SwampSwamiSports.com FBS College Football Top 25 rankings for the week ending November 29, 2025:

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