2025 College football season in review

#12 seed Navy will secure that seed by winning the American conference with a 10-2 record. Their losses will be to Notre Dame and Army. They will meet Army again and beat them for the conference championship, to extend their record to 11-2. They will lose in the 1st round and finish 11-3.

#11 USC will be one of 2 teams to make the playoffs with 3 losses- Michigan, Notre Dame and Oregon. They will also have a first round exit and drop to 4 losses, culminating in the firing of Lincoln Riley.

#10 Miami will lose to Notre Dame on opening weekend but then peel off 11 wins to earn a spot in the ACC championship. They will lose to Clemson in that game before losing again in the first round to finish 11-3.

#9 Arizona State will win the Big 12 at 12-1 and will be an upset winner in the 1st round before falling to Notre Dame in the 2nd and finishing 13-2.

#8 Oregon will be 11-1, with their only regular season loss to Penn State. Like usual, they falter down the stretch, losing to Ohio State in the Big 10 Title game before being ejected by Arizona State to finish 11-3.

#7 will go to Penn State. During the season, they will beat Oregon but lose to Ohio State. They will beat the Miami Hurricanes in round 1 to get to 12-1 but then lose badly to Texas in round 2. Final record; 12-2.

#6 Ohio State will win the Big 10 but with 2 losses. The 1st loss will be to powerhouse Texas but an embarrassing 5th loss in a row to Michigan will deny them a top-4 seed and a bye. They will be 11-2 after winning their conference and 12-2 after beating USC in the 1st round. ACC champ Clemson will dispatch them in the 2nd round. They finish 12-3.

#5 Georgia loses 4 games this. Year. During the season, they lose to Alabama, Florida and Texas then they beat Navy in the first round before they lose to Alabama again in the 2nd. Final record 10-4.

#4 Alabama will be 12-0 going into the SEC championship. They will lose a close contest to (also 12-0) Texas and the committee will award them the 4 spot over conference champions Arizona State and Navy as well as others. After beating Georgia in the 2nd round, talk will start about a potential Texas-Alabama rematch for the National title. Notre Dame will end that talk by putting a beatdown on Bama in round 3. Final record 13-2.

#3 Clemson will be 13-0 and ACC champions when they meet Ohio State in the 2nd round. Clemson wins that game with surprising ease. At 14-0, they emerge as a serious National title threat.

#2 Texas will be 13-0 and the SEC champions and fans will shriek that they do not get the #1 seed. Ohio State's 2 regular season losses (including one to Michigan) and Georgia's 3 (including one to Florida) dampen the resume a little. The fact that Texas limps through three ugly wins against Arkansas, Texas A&M and Alabama costs them just enough in style points to wind up #2.

With a 2nd round win against Penn State and a 3rd round win against previously unbeaten Clemson, they move into the title game to face another unbeaten team....

#1 Notre Dame will be the most polarizing team in college football. Their 3 regular season wins against teams that made the playoff- Miami, Navy and USC were all drubbings. The deciding factor giving them the #1 seed at 12-0 was that they had 2 common opponents with Texas. Notre Dame doubled Texas' margin of victory over both Arkansas and Texas A&M and that factor swayed the committee just enough for Notre Dame to get the edge going in.

Alabama beat Georgia 24-17, Notre Dame beat Arizona State 33-10, Clemson beat Ohio State 38-17 and Texas beat Penn State 28-17.

The talking heads all proclaimed that Notre Dame's win was- by far- the least impressive of the 4.

Talk that Texas should have been the top seed only intensified after wins against Penn State and (14-0) Clemson pushed their own record to 15-0. Texas' win over the Tigers was a classic 31-28 shootout, to be sure, but people were quick to point out the 15-0 record with 5 total wins against the playoff teams.

Almost unnoticed was that Notre Dame also had 5 wins against playoff teams. Even more stark, after Notre Dame's 42-14 over Alabama, was that the 3 common opponents of the Longhorns and the Irish (Arkansas, Texas A&M and Alabama) all lost worse to Notre Dame.

Despite entering the game as an 8-point underdog, Notre Dame left virtually no doubt, whistle to whistle.

The Irish scored quickly on a 37-yard fade from CJ Carr to Jordan Faison. PAT good. Irish 7 Longhorns 0.

Texas put together a mish mash drive that fizzled late and they had to settle for a 45 yard FG.

Notre Dame quickly drew blood again on a 16-yard touchdown pass from Carr to Jaden Greathouse. ND 14. Texas 3.

On Texas' next drive, Manning threw deep against Notre Dame's 'no-fly zone' and Leonard Moore delivered a 72-yard house call with the interception. ND 21- Texas 3.

The two teams traded FGs on the next possessions to make 24-6

Manning threw another pick. This one to Christian Gray.

ND took over at the Texas 45 and Jerimiah Love finished it off with an 8 yard TD run to put ND up 31-6 going into the half.

Notre Dame turned to ground and pound, and the 2 teams stalemated 14-14 in the 2nd half. The two Irish scores are a 14-yard touchdown pass from Carr to Tight End Eli Raridon and a 31 yard run by Jadarian Price.

Notre Dame caps a 15-0 season with 45-20 victory over Texas and it's 14th NCAA recognized National championship.

CJ Carr finishes 24 of 28 for 287 yards and 3 TDs and is named the game's MVP.