The first edition of the College Football Playoff rankings for the 2025 season was revealed Tuesday night on ESPN, with Ohio State coming in at No. 1, followed by Indiana at No. 2. But two of the ESPN analysts on the College Football Playoff Top 25 studio show feel that the team ranked third belongs at No. 1.
ESPN’s Booger McFarland and Joey Galloway argued in favor of No. 3 Texas A&M deserving to be atop the initial CFP rankings.
After a “baffled” Greg McElroy said that he agrees with the rankings, McFarland and Galloway made their case for Texas A&M at No. 1.
“Who’s Ohio State’s best win?” McFarland asked McElroy.
“Texas, who’s ranked 10th (technically 11th),” McElroy replied.
“To Joey’s point, I think Texas A&M’s resume, the way they look, what they’ve done, deserves to be No. 1,” McFarland explained.
McFarland did say that he believes Indiana would be a worthy top-ranked team as well.
“And I think when you Indiana going on the road to [Autzen Stadium] and beating Oregon, they even had an opportunity,” McFarland said. “I would’ve put them No. 1. I don’t know if I’d put Ohio State at No. 1 based on what they’ve done. Now, they still have a road ahead of them. But to Joey’s point, Indiana and Texas A&M, I think they’ve done more so far.”
“Let me ask you this, though,” host Rece Davis responded. “Who do you think’s better? That carries some weight too.”
Galloway jumped in to make the argument that analytics should outweigh the eye test, and that “Texas A&M is best analytically.”
“Here’s the thing about that question, and that’s why I wanted to see this ranking,” Galloway responded to Davis. “Because this tells me that they’re going a lot on eye test here. Because if we’re going on rankings and analytics, Texas A&M is best analytically over Indiana and Ohio State. And they’re sitting at 3. So, [the CFP selection committee is] going a lot off of eye test. And when you start telling me we’re going off eye test, Rece, now all of a sudden we have no idea where this thing is going.”
“This surprises me because it’s a lot of eye test, and I don’t trust eye test as much as I trust analytics,” Galloway continued.
McElroy offered more analysis, and Galloway responded with, “Everything you said, though, is baked into the analytics that still has Texas A&M above both those teams.”
It’s worth noting that the Massey Ratings composite system has Indiana No. 1, Ohio State No. 2, and Texas A&M No. 3.
And ESPN’s own metric, the Football Power Index (FPI), has Ohio State No. 1, Indiana No. 2, and Texas A&M No. 9.
There should be more clarity on at least some of the current questions by the time the College Football Playoff selection day arrives on Dec. 7.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.