The Scarlet and Gray

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CFP Rankings Hold at the Top as Oregon Rises; Mendoza Still the Heisman Pace-Setter

Marissa Bleday
November 25, 2025


The College Football Playoff committee didn’t rewrite the script at the top in its Week 14 rankings, but it did sharpen the picture in the middle, where Oregon’s double-overtime win over USC created just enough movement to rearrange the contenders without upsetting the heavyweights.

No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Texas A&M both handled business to keep their positions, while No. 3 Indiana stayed put during an idle week, a quiet Saturday that still felt like a win with chaos limited elsewhere. The most notable shakeup came just below them: Georgia climbed to No. 4, Oregon moved up to No. 5 after its 37-34 win over USC, and Ole Miss slid down to No. 6 after being idle.

The rest of the top 11 stayed frozen in place: No. 7 Oklahoma, No. 8 Texas Tech, No. 9 Notre Dame, No. 10 Michigan and No. 11 BYU all held their spots, setting up a final-week slate that will decide conference title paths and, for several teams, playoff security.

Behind them, the committee made room for winners and penalized the week’s few losers. Miami and Alabama each moved up two spots to Nos. 12 and 13, benefiting from USC’s drop and Georgia Tech’s stumble. Vanderbilt made one of the week’s biggest jumps, up three places to No. 14 after a 28-26 win over Kentucky, while Utah inched to No. 15 following a 45-14 victory over Kansas State.

USC fell from No. 12 to No. 16 after the loss at Oregon, and Arizona State slid in right behind at No. 17. Tennessee climbed three spots to No. 18 after a 42-35 win over Florida, Texas rose to No. 19 with a 38-31 win over Arkansas, and idle Virginia moved up to No. 20 ahead of a Georgia Tech team that fell from No. 13 to No. 21 after a 24-22 loss to Pitt. Formerly ranked Illinois and Missouri dropped out of the rankings with losses, the only two ranked teams to do so this week.

Tulane and SMU both won and rose to Nos. 22 and 23. North Texas (10-1) jumped into the rankings for the first time at No. 24, and Arizona (8-3) entered at No. 25 after beating Baylor.

Heisman Watch

In the Heisman race, Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza didn’t play, but his résumé still towers over the field: 3,750 passing yards, 31 passing touchdowns (tied for third nationally), 0 interceptions on 442 attempts, plus four rushing scores. Barring a dramatic late-season swing, the award remains his to lose.

One name worth monitoring as a late-stage mover: Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin, who has averaged 398 passing yards over his last two games and now faces a top-10 showdown with Michigan, and potentially a direct postseason stage against Mendoza if the Big Ten title game becomes the collision course it appears to be.

Rank	Team	Record	Last Week	Up Next
1	Ohio State	11-0	61-3 Win vs Rutgers	at #10 Michigan
2	Texas A&M	11-0	58-0 Win vs Samford	at #19 Texas
3	Georgia	10-1	38-0 Win vs Charlotte	vs #21 Georgia Tech
4	Indiana	11-0	Bye	at Purdue
5	Oregon	10-1	37-34 Win vs #16 USC	at Washington
6	Ole Miss	10-1	Bye	at Mississippi State
7	Oklahoma	9-2	41-9 Win vs Missouri	vs LSU
8	Texas Tech	10-1	Bye	at West Virginia
9	Notre Dame	9-2	47-20 Win vs Syracuse	at Stanford
10	Michigan	9-2	56-21 Win at Maryland	vs #1 Ohio State
11	BYU	10-1	42-7 Win at Cincinnati	vs UCF
12	Miami (FL)	9-2	34-27 Win at Virginia Tech	at Pittsburgh
13	Alabama	9-2	45-0 Win vs Eastern Illinois	at Auburn
14	Vanderbilt	9-2	28-26 Win vs Kentucky	at #18 Tennessee
15	Utah	9-2	45-14 Win vs Kansas State	at Kansas
16	USC	8-3	37-34 Loss at #5 Oregon	vs UCLA
17	Arizona State	8-3	42-7 Win at Colorado	vs #25 Arizona
18	Tennessee	8-3	42-35 Win at Florida	vs #14 Vanderbilt
19	Texas	8-3	38-31 Win vs Arkansas	vs #2 Texas A&M
20	Virginia	9-2	Bye	vs Virginia Tech
21	Georgia Tech	9-2	24-22 Loss vs Pittsburgh	vs #3 Georgia
22	Tulane	9-2	48-10 Win at Temple	vs Charlotte
23	SMU	8-3	37-13 Win vs Louisville	at California
24	North Texas	10-1	24-23 Win at Rice	vs Temple
25	Arizona	8-3	17-7 Win vs Baylor	at #17 Arizona State

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Week 14 Preview: Ohio State-Michigan, Elko’s Test in Austin, and a CFP Bubble Ready to Burst

Marissa Bleday
November 27, 2025


If college football’s regular season is a long argument about identity, Rivalry Week is the closing statement, loud, personal and unforgiving. This year, the marquee games aren’t just dripping with history. They’re loaded with playoff consequences, from Ann Arbor to Austin to Atlanta, where the final weekend will decide who earns a seat at the championship tables and who gets squeezed out by one bad Saturday.

#1 Ohio State Buckeyes (11-0) at #10 Michigan Wolverines (9-2)
The sport’s gravitational center is Michigan Stadium, where No. 1 Ohio State (11-0) walks into the most familiar pressure point of the Ryan Day era: a four-year losing streak to No. 10 Michigan (9-2). Day has the country’s top-ranked team behind him, the nation’s best defense, and an offense that has detonated through November, but none of that matters if the Buckeyes leave Ann Arbor with another scarlet-and-gray gut punch.

“We’ve talked all year about being the toughest team in the fourth quarter,” Day said earlier this week. “This one requires your best football, your best composure, and your best response when it gets uncomfortable, because it will.”

Michigan is comfortable making it uncomfortable. The Wolverines are perfect at home, winners of five straight, and built around a punishing run game that’s propelled the nation’s fourth-best offense by yardage (474.7 YPG). True freshman Bryce Underwood has been more than a caretaker (2,820 passing yards, 19 TDs; plus 427 rushing yards and six scores), but the engine is the two-headed backfield: Alabama transfer Justice Hayne (over 1,000 yards, 16 rushing TDs) and Ohio native Jordan Marshall (732 yards, 13 TDs). Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore kept his message simple.

“We’re at our best when we dictate terms,” Moore said. “That means finishing runs, protecting the football, and making them play in tight spaces.”

That last part is the whole puzzle: Michigan’s ground game versus Ohio State’s historically stingy rush defense (41 rushing yards allowed per game), the backbone of an FBS-best unit giving up 264.6 yards and 10.9 points per game.

The counterpunch is equally clear: Ohio State’s passing game, with Julian Sayin (3,050 yards, 29 TDs, six INTs) throwing to an arsenal led by All-American Jeremiah Smith (now over 1,000 yards, 12 TDs), plus Carnell Tate, Brandon Inniss and tight end Max Klare. Michigan’s edge duo, TJ Guy (12 sacks) and Derrick Moore (10.5), gives the Wolverines a way to disrupt that rhythm without blitzing recklessly. If they can win first-and-second down and unleash the rush on third, the Big House gets loud enough to bend games.



#2 Texas A&M Aggies (11-0) at #19 Texas Longhorns (8-3)
Down south, the SEC’s flagship rivalry finally carries top-of-the-board weight: No. 2 Texas A&M (11-0) at No. 19 Texas (8-3). Mike Elko’s Aggies have been the league’s steadiest team, but rivalry week doesn’t care about steadiness.

“This game exposes you if you’re not connected,” Elko said this week. “Every snap is contested. Every decision is magnified. You either lean into it, or it leans on you.”

The matchup suggests a defensive slugfest, these are the third- and fourth-best defenses nationally by yards per game, and it puts a spotlight on Arch Manning’s continued growth for Texas. The Longhorns have the talent that made them a preseason No. 1, and they’re at home, which makes the nightmare scenario for A&M very real: lose in Austin, and the SEC title game picture gets rewritten in an instant.

#3 Georgia Bulldogs (10-1) at #21 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (9-2)
In Atlanta, No. 3 Georgia (10-1) visits No. 21 Georgia Tech (9-2) with the Yellow Jackets trying to reverse a November slide into a season-defining statement.

Tech started 8-0, and the energy will spike with Haynes King expected back after missing time. But Georgia’s offense is the kind that doesn’t negotiate: third nationally in yards per game, with Gunner Stockton putting up video-game numbers (3,355 yards, 31 TDs) and both Zachariah Branch and Dillon Bell over 1,000 receiving yards. Kirby Smart framed it like a road exam, not a rivalry showcase.

“You don’t get style points this weekend,” Smart said. “You get stops, you get finishes, and you get out of there alive.”



Other Games to Watch

The rest of the weekend is a minefield of “win-and-in” or “win-and-sweat” scenarios. No. 14 Vanderbilt (9-2) goes to No. 18 Tennessee (8-3) with Clark Lea’s best season needing one more signature stamp, and with Diego Pavia’s toughness always capable of dragging a game into the mud.

No. 12 Miami (9-2) travels to Pitt (8-3) with the Hurricanes chasing an at-large lifeline and the Panthers eyeing an ACC title berth with a home win.

And don’t blink elsewhere: No. 5 Oregon at Washington, LSU at No. 7 Oklahoma, No. 6 Ole Miss at Mississippi State, No. 13 Alabama at Auburn, plus Arizona-Arizona State in the desert.

It’s rivalry week, the last weekend where the sport still feels like a neighborhood argument and a national referendum at the same time. The playoff race doesn’t just tighten here. It snaps.






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Game Preview: Ohio State, Michigan and the Weight of Everything
By Zachary Anderson on November 28, 2025





Ann Arbor has a way of shrinking the calendar until only one day matters. Noon. Big House. The Game. And this year, it comes with the kind of stakes that turn even routine plays into referendum.

No. 1 Ohio State (11-0) travels to No. 10 Michigan (9-2) on Saturday with Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff bringing the country along and the betting market essentially calling it a coin flip with a scarlet lean: Buckeyes -3, over/under 46.5. It’ll be cold, the kind of crisp that makes breath visible and mistakes louder, but the weather isn’t the story.

The story is that Ohio State has built the most complete team in college football, won a national championship, and still walks into this stadium carrying a four-year rivalry losing streak like a weight vest.

“We know what it is,” Ryan Day said this week. “It’s not just another game. It’s a standard around here, and it’s a standard we haven’t met enough. Our guys understand what’s at stake, for the Big Ten, for the playoff, for everyone who wears the jersey.”

Ohio State has looked like a machine most of the fall. The Buckeyes have not allowed more than 22 points all season, and they’ve given up more than 14 only three times. They’re 4-0 on the road, and over the last month they’ve treated overmatched opponents the way title contenders are supposed to, suffocating early, piling on late, and walking off with a clean box score and a cleaner injury report.

They’re No. 2 nationally in scoring at 41.5 points per game, even with a run game that’s been more “efficient” than “dominant,” and a red-zone offense that has left points on the field (34 touchdowns, 13 field goals on 72 trips). They win anyway because Julian Sayin has grown into the season and because the defense, led by an all-star cast, rarely lets games breathe.

Michigan, though, has been the best version of itself at home, and that’s why this feels different than a typical 10 vs. 1 matchup. The Wolverines’ season includes two losses, a Week 2 reality check at Oklahoma (27-6) and a shootout at USC (52-42), but it’s also been a steady build toward this moment, capped by a ruthless November run that includes 55-3 at Purdue and 56-21 at Maryland.

Sherrone Moore has watched his team develop a personality: run the ball, hit explosives, rush the passer, and let the stadium do the rest.

“You don’t get to hide in this game,” Moore said. “You find out who you are, how you handle adversity, and whether you can play your best football when everything’s on the line.”

The matchup is compelling because it pits two national-title-caliber identities against each other instead of a contender against a spoiler. Michigan is fourth in the country in total offense (474.7 yards per game) and fifth in scoring (39.5). Ohio State is second in scoring and sits at 419.7 yards per game, but the real divider is balance. Michigan averages 208.9 rushing yards per game and wants to make every possession feel like a grind. Ohio State averages just 124.8 on the ground and is built to win with efficiency, spacing and a quarterback who can distribute to NFL bodies.

Sayin enters this game at 3,050 passing yards, 29 touchdowns and six interceptions, and the trendline is obvious: 392 yards last week, 405 the week before, a passing game that has begun to look inevitable. The nit is equally obvious: he’s thrown an interception in four of the last five games, the kind of small leak that becomes a flood in a rivalry game where possessions are precious.

If Ohio State’s offense is going to look like the nation’s best, it has to finish drives against a Michigan defense that is top-five by yardage allowed (313.6) and top-six in scoring defense (17.9). The Wolverines are also the rare opponent that can rush the passer without compromising structure, with TJ Guy (12 sacks) and Derrick Moore (20 TFLs, 10.5 sacks) creating chaos off the edge and defensive tackle Rayshaun Benny collapsing pockets from the middle.

For Ohio State, the answers are obvious on paper and brutal in practice: Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate, Max Klare, Brandon Inniss, and a passing game that can force Michigan out of its comfort. Smith feels like a Biletnikoff winner in waiting (1,064 yards, 12 touchdowns on 79 catches), and he’s the kind of player who can turn a perfect coverage call into a shrug. Tate (50-646-1) stretches the field. Klare (49-442-6) punishes linebackers. Inniss (34-379-5) becomes a problem when defenses tilt toward Smith.

And then there’s James Peoples, the quiet glue: 727 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns, plus 24 receptions for 171 yards and three receiving scores, a reminder that Ohio State’s backs are as much route runners as they are ball carriers.

Michigan’s offense is built to make you tackle until you don’t want to. Bryce Underwood has lived up to the hype (2,820 passing yards; 19 passing TDs, six rushing TDs; 427 rushing yards; just five turnovers), but the Wolverines’ identity is the two-headed backfield.

Justice Haynes (1,009 yards, 16 TDs), the Alabama transfer who once chose the Tide over the Buckeyes, runs with the kind of downhill certainty that turns four-yard carries into eight. Jordan Marshall (732 yards, 13 TDs) is the Ohio native who’s leaned into the rivalry this week, and he’s the kind of No. 2 back who would be a No. 1 almost anywhere else. In the passing game, Andrew Simpson has become the big-play threat (19.2 yards per catch, six TDs), while 6-foot-5 Donovan McCulley is a weekly matchup problem (61 catches, 637 yards, eight TDs) when the field tightens.

And then there’s the part that never fits cleanly in a preview: the emotional math. Moore is 2-0 against Ohio State. Day is 1-4 against Michigan, a record that once put his job under a microscope until he responded by winning a national championship. That ring changed the résumé, not the reality of this weekend.

If Ohio State wins, it likely clinches a Big Ten title game spot, most likely against Indiana. If Michigan wins, the Wolverines stay alive for Indianapolis depending on what happens in Oregon-Washington and Indiana-Purdue, and they likely punch a playoff ticket in Moore’s second season. That’s not just a rivalry swing; that’s a program arc.

There are injury notes, but they don’t change the core of the game. Ohio State’s right tackle Phillip Daniels is questionable after missing last week, though sophomore Ian Moore filled in comfortably. Michigan remains without star safety Rod Moore (broken tailbone), plus freshman receiver Nathan Efobi and a starting right guard who have been out since October. The bigger variables are the ones no report can measure: ball security, red-zone finishing, and which team handles the moment when the crowd swells and the game gets tight.

Ohio State has the nation’s best defense and the best rush defense of this generation, allowing just 41 rushing yards per game, a number so extreme it evokes the last time anyone lived in that neighborhood, the 2006 Michigan defense that allowed roughly 43 per game. Michigan is second nationally against the run at 69 per game, meaning neither offense is likely to win by simply doing what it does best.

Someone will have to be uncomfortable. Someone will have to hit a shot downfield. Someone will have to take points when they’re there. Someone will have to avoid the kind of short-field mistake that turns a rivalry game into a nightmare.

That’s why, for all the scheme talk and all the stat talk, this one comes down to the oldest truth in the sport: rivalry games don’t ask what you’ve been. They ask what you are, right now, in the cold, with everything watching.

Date	Opponent	Stadium	TV	Result
Aug. 30	Texas Longhorns	Ohio Stadium		W, 31-13
Sept. 6	Grambling State Tigers	Ohio Stadium		W, 46-6
Sept. 13	Ohio Bobcats	Ohio Stadium		W, 40-10
Sept. 20	BYE
Sept. 27	Washington Huskies	Husky Stadium		W, 37-16
Oct. 4	Minnesota Golden Gophers	Ohio Stadium		W, 53-22
Oct. 11	Illinois Fighting Illini	Memorial Stadium		W, 38-6
Oct. 18	Wisconsin Badgers	Camp Randall		W, 38-7
Oct. 25	BYE
Nov. 1	Penn State Nittany Lions	Ohio Stadium		W, 31-13
Nov. 8	Purdue Boilermakers	Ross-Ade Stadium		W, 41-7
Nov. 15	UCLA Bruins	Ohio Stadium		W, 41-17
Nov. 22	Rutgers Scarlet Knights	Ohio Stadium		W, 61-3
Nov. 29	Michigan Wolverines	Michigan Stadium		12:00 PM