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2025 College Football Rankings Recap: Week 15 (Conference Championship Week)
Indiana (13-0) takes over the top spot in The Davis Rankings, up from 2nd after week 15 of the 2025 season, with a score of 91.7 out of 100. Also ranked in the top five (ties included): #2 Texas Tech, #3 Georgia, #4 Oregon, T-5 James Madison, T-5 Ole Miss.
Every score comes from the same published formula, explained on the methodology page.
The top 25
The Real Big 10 - trying to keep the losers out... Purdue (#128), 10th week running
| Rank | Team | Record | TDR scoreTDR | Move |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Indiana | 13-0 | 91.7 | ▲ 1 |
| 2 |  Texas Tech | 12-1 | 86.3 | ▲ 3 |
| 3 |  Georgia | 12-1 | 86.2 | ▲ 4 |
| 4 |  Oregon | 11-1 | 85.8 | - |
| T-5 |  James Madison | 12-1 | 85.7 | ▲ 3 |
| T-5 |  Ole Miss | 11-1 | 85.7 | - |
| 7 |  Tulane | 11-2 | 83.7 | ▲ 3 |
| 8 |  Notre Dame | 10-2 | 82.7 | ▲ 2 |
| 9 |  Oklahoma | 10-2 | 80.2 | ▲ 4 |
| 10 |  Utah | 10-2 | 80.0 | ▲ 4 |
| 11 |  Vanderbilt | 10-2 | 79.5 | ▲ 4 |
| 12 |  Miami | 10-2 | 79.2 | ▲ 5 |
| 13 |  Navy | 9-2 | 78.7 | ▲ 5 |
| 14 |  USC | 9-3 | 77.0 | ▲ 6 |
| 15 |  Texas | 9-3 | 76.7 | ▲ 6 |
| 16 |  Kennesaw State | 10-3 | 75.0 | ▲ 8 |
| 17 |  South Florida | 9-3 | 73.9 | ▲ 5 |
| 18 |  Arizona | 9-3 | 73.7 | ▲ 5 |
| 19 |  Houston | 9-3 | 73.3 | ▲ 6 |
| T-20 |  New Mexico | 9-3 | 73.0 | ▲ 6 |
| T-20 |  Old Dominion | 9-3 | 73.0 | ▲ 6 |
| 22 |  UConn | 9-3 | 72.6 | ▲ 6 |
| 23 |  Ohio State | 12-1 | 71.2 | ▼ 22 |
| 24 |  Texas A&M | 11-1 | 70.3 | ▲ 5 |
| 25 |  Boise State | 9-4 | 69.6 | ▲ 9 |
The TDR Championship bracket
All 9 conference champions, seeded by TDR rank among them. A hypothetical bracket, not an official event. A conference without a championship game sends the team with its best conference record. The semifinals are re-seeded: the best remaining seed plays the lowest remaining seed, the 2nd best plays the 2nd lowest.
Play-in
The winner takes the last quarterfinal slot and plays the #1 seed.
The winner takes the last quarterfinal slot and plays the #1 seed.
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Championship
Biggest movers
1 team jumped two or more tiers (0 up, 1 down). 14 more moved a single tier.
Risers
| Team | From | Direction | To | Tiers | Rank | Move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boise State 9-4 | Feeling Good | → | Winning | ▲ 1 | 34 → 25 | ▲ 9 |
| After a home win over #19 UNLV (38-21). An upset: Boise State entered with 67.6 TDR points to UNLV's 78.5. Now 9-4, third straight win. TDR score +2.0: win/loss record +1.4. | ||||||
| New Mexico 9-3 | Feeling Good | → | Winning | ▲ 1 | 26 → T-20 | ▲ 6 |
| Without a game that week. Now 9-3. TDR score +0.0. | ||||||
| Old Dominion 9-3 | Feeling Good | → | Winning | ▲ 1 | 26 → T-20 | ▲ 6 |
| Without a game that week. Now 9-3. TDR score +0.0. | ||||||
| UConn 9-3 | Feeling Good | → | Winning | ▲ 1 | 28 → 22 | ▲ 6 |
| Without a game that week. Now 9-3. TDR score +0.0. | ||||||
| Texas A&M 11-1 | Feeling Good | → | Winning | ▲ 1 | 29 → 24 | ▲ 5 |
| Without a game that week. Now 11-1. AP: #7 to #7. TDR score +0.0. | ||||||
Fallers
| Team | From | Direction | To | Tiers | Rank | Move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Miami (OH) 7-6 | Feeling Good | → | Do We Need to Talk? | ▼ 2 | 50 → 84 | ▼ 34 |
| After a neutral-site loss to T-35 Western Michigan (13-23). As expected: Miami (OH) entered with 61.3 TDR points to Western Michigan's 67.4. Now 7-6. TDR score -18.2: win/loss record -2.5. | ||||||
 Alabama 10-3 | Winning | → | Feeling Good | ▼ 1 | 12 → 48 | ▼ 36 |
| After a neutral-site loss to #7 Georgia (7-28) in a blowout. As expected: Alabama entered with 80.4 TDR points to Georgia's 85.6. Now 10-3. AP: #10 to #11. TDR score -19.5: win/loss record -3.5, road-win bonus -0.7. | ||||||
 BYU 11-2 | Winning | → | Feeling Good | ▼ 1 | 3 → 38 | ▼ 35 |
| After a neutral-site loss to T-5 Texas Tech (7-34) in a blowout. A coin flip: BYU entered with 85.9 TDR points to Texas Tech's 85.7. Now 11-2, snapped a 3-game winning streak. AP: #11 to #12. TDR score -19.9: win/loss record -3.9, road-win bonus -0.8. | ||||||
 Virginia 10-3 | Winning | → | Feeling Good | ▼ 1 | 15 → 49 | ▼ 34 |
| After a neutral-site loss to #45 Duke (20-27) in a one-score game. An upset: Virginia entered with 79.5 TDR points to Duke's 62.5. Now 10-3. AP: #16 to #20. TDR score -19.6: win/loss record -3.5, road-win bonus -0.7. | ||||||
 Jacksonville State 8-5 | Feeling Good | → | Character Building | ▼ 1 | 39 → 72 | ▼ 33 |
| After a home loss to #24 Kennesaw State (15-19) in a one-score game. As expected: Jacksonville State entered with 67.1 TDR points to Kennesaw State's 73.4. Now 8-5. TDR score -18.6: win/loss record -2.9, road-win bonus -0.6. | ||||||
Weekly awards
Eight awards in four groups, each with one you want and one you don’t. The biggest poll gaps are in Polls vs the data, in detail under Mind the Gap. Season totals for every team are on the Awards page. The week’s game honors are in Games that mattered.
Kitchen
Who sits on top of the rankings, and who is stuck at the bottom.
Mountaineering
Two straight weeks of climbing, and two straight weeks of falling.
Biggest two-week rise, up both weeks
Mind the Gap
Where the polls and the data disagree most.
Data rank far better than any poll's
Poll rank far better than the data's
Polls vs the data, in detail
The biggest gaps between the TDR rank and the best rank in any poll. A team in no poll counts as just outside them, so its gap is a minimum (shown with a +). Gaps under 5 spots are not listed.
Wins don't matter
TDR counts every win.
| Team | TDR | AP | Coaches | CFP | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| James Madison 12-1 | T-5 | 19 | 19 | 24 | ▲ 14 |
| Tulane 11-2 | 7 | 17 | 18 | 20 | ▲ 10 |
| Kennesaw State 10-3 | 16 | NR | NR | NR | ▲ 10+ |
| Navy 9-2 | 13 | 22 | 25 | NR | ▲ 9 |
Explaining losses away
Every loss is about 8% of a season.
| Team | TDR | AP | Coaches | CFP | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tennessee 8-4 | T-66 | NR | 23 | NR | ▼ 43 |
| Alabama 10-3 | 48 | 11 | 11 | 9 | ▼ 39 |
 Georgia Tech 9-3 | 52 | 24 | 22 | 22 | ▼ 30 |
| Virginia 10-3 | 49 | 20 | 21 | 19 | ▼ 30 |
Moving Company
The biggest single-week moves up and down the rankings.
Biggest rank rise of the week
Games that mattered
The week’s standout games, each shown once, in the first list it qualifies for. The one exception: a close loss by a top-25 team can be in both Upset of the Week and Winnin’ ain’t easy (one is about the size of the gap, the other about how close it was). Upset of the Week, Winnin’ ain’t easy and Coin Flips are recognitions: they are not trophy-case awards, so they never go on a helmet.
The lowest-entering team to beat a better-ranked one. Ranks are from the week before.
Duke beat Virginia27-20#45 vs #1530 spots- Boise State beat
UNLV38-21#34 vs #1915 spots - Texas Tech beat BYU34-7#5 vs #32 spots
A top-25 team in a one-score game against a team ranked far below it: it survived, or it fell. Ranks are from the week before.
Teams within 3 points of each other on paper going in, closest finish first. Scores are away, then home.
- Indiana at Ohio State13-100.1 points apartwon by 3
North Texas at Tulane21-342.5 points apartwon by 13- BYU at Texas Tech7-340.2 points apartwon by 27
The biggest margins by a team in the current top 50, the two top tiers.
- Georgia beat Alabama28-7#3 vs #48won by 21
- James Madison beat
Troy31-14T-5 vs T-70won by 17 
Western Michigan beat Miami (OH)23-13#26 vs #84won by 10
Where the CFP committee and the data disagree
Teams the formula likes more than the committee
| Team | TDR | CFP | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| James Madison 12-1 | T-5 | 24 | ▲ 19 |
| Tulane 11-2 | 7 | 20 | ▲ 13 |
| Navy 9-2 | 13 | NR | ▲ 13+ |
Teams the committee likes more than the formula
| Team | TDR | CFP | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama 10-3 | 48 | 9 | ▼ 39 |
| Georgia Tech 9-3 | 52 | 22 | ▼ 30 |
| Virginia 10-3 | 49 | 19 | ▼ 30 |
Conference snapshot
Conferences by average team score, with how many of each conference's teams sit in each tier. This is a different measure from the non-conference record ranking (for this week) on the standings page.
| Conference | Avg score | Highest-ranked team | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEC | 56.3 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | #3Georgia |
| Big Ten | 53.5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | #1Indiana |
| Big 12 | 52.5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | #2Texas Tech |
| ACC | 49.6 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 5 | - | #12Miami |
| American Athletic | 49.1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | #7Tulane |
| Mountain West | 47.2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | T-20New Mexico |
| Sun Belt | 45.9 | 2 | - | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | T-5James Madison |
| Conference USA | 42.9 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | #16Kennesaw State |
| Mid-American | 40.1 | - | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | #26Western Michigan |
Winning | Feeling Good | Character Building | Do We Need to Talk? | Sick of It | Oh Crap
The most teams in the Winning tier: SEC (6). The most teams in the bottom two tiers (Sick of It and Oh Crap): ACC and Conference USA and Mid-American (5 each).
Not ranked as a conference: FBS Independents (not a conference: Notre Dame #8, UConn #22); Pac-12 (only 2 teams: Washington State #53, Oregon State #130).
Conference race
Who leads each conference and what the title game picture looks like. Ties are shown as ties, never broken: each conference decides them with its own rules. See the full conference standings.
| Conference | Leaders | Title game |
|---|---|---|
| SEC | FinalChampion: Georgia | |
| Big Ten | Indiana 9-0Ohio State 9-0 | FinalChampion: Indiana |
| Big 12 | Texas Tech 8-1BYU 8-1 | FinalChampion: Texas Tech |
| ACC | Virginia 7-1 | FinalChampion: Duke |
| American Athletic | FinalChampion: Tulane | |
| Mountain West | FinalChampion: Boise State | |
| Sun Belt | East James Madison 8-0West Troy 6-2 | FinalChampion: James Madison |
| Conference USA | Kennesaw State 7-1Jacksonville State 7-1 | FinalChampion: Kennesaw State |
| Mid-American | Western Michigan 7-1 | FinalChampion: Western Michigan |
See the full 2025 week 15 rankings, see every team by tier, the conference standings, or browse every weekly recap.
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