College Football Playoff Rankings: Live Reaction to Top 25 Following Week 12

How many playoff bids is the SEC looking at now?

Bryan Fischer, Pat Forde | Nov 18, 2025

The Bulldogs landed a big résumé-building win over the Longhorns on Saturday. / Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

In this story:

With No. 4 Alabama falling to Oklahoma and fifth-ranked Georgia taking down No. 10 Texas on Saturday, Tuesday’s College Football Playoff rankings are bound to see some significant changes at the top.

All that SEC shuffling is likely to have a trickle down effect for the projected playoff bracket, impacting the expected number of bids from rival power conferences.

Additionally, South Florida losing to Navy means the American’s expected Group of 5 playoff spot will fall to someone else, with the likes of Tulane, North Texas and East Carolina tussling with the Midshipmen for the bid.

Luckily, Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde and Bryan Fischer are here to sort through all of it tonight. Watch as they break down the latest Top 25.

More College Football on Sports Illustrated

Listen to SI’s new college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, below or on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s YouTube channel.

feed

Published Nov 18, 2025|Modified Nov 18, 2025

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 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.