College Football Playoff Rankings: Live Reaction to First CFP Top 25 of the Season

What does the field of 12 look like? SI’s Pat Forde and Bryan Fischer break down the committee’s rankings and bracket as they are revealed.
Marcel Reed (10) and the Aggies are enjoying a dream season and look like a playoff lock at the moment.
Marcel Reed (10) and the Aggies are enjoying a dream season and look like a playoff lock at the moment. / Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

The 2025 college football season will get a major jolt of drama Tuesday night when the first College Football Playoff rankings of the year are unveiled on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET.

Will the SEC take over the upper half of the selection committee’s Top 25 much like it has the AP and coaches polls? How will the ACC and Big 12 stack up against their stronger Power 4 counterparts? What at-large debates will we already be raging about? Some—though definitely nowhere near all—of these questions will be answered Tuesday.

Watch below as Pat Forde and Bryan Fischer do their best to sort through the noise and politicking.


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Bryan Fischer
BRYAN FISCHER

Bryan Fischer is a staff writer at Sports Illustrated covering college sports. He joined the SI staff in October 2024 after spending nearly two decades at outlets such as FOX Sports, NBC Sports and CBS Sports. A member of the Football Writers Association of America's All-America Selection Committee and a Heisman Trophy voter, Fischer has received awards for investigative journalism from the Associated Press Sports Editors and FWAA. He has a bachelor's in communication from USC.

Pat Forde
PAT FORDE

Pat Forde is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated who covers college football and college basketball as well as the Olympics and horse racing. He cohosts the College Football Enquirer podcast and is a football analyst on the Big Ten Network. He previously worked for Yahoo Sports, ESPN and The (Louisville) Courier-Journal. Forde has won 28 Associated Press Sports Editors writing contest awards, has been published three times in the Best American Sports Writing book series, and was nominated for the 1990 Pulitzer Prize. A past president of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and member of the Football Writers Association of America, he lives in Louisville with his wife. They have three children, all of whom were collegiate swimmers.