Week 2 College Football Playoff rankings, Vanderbilt gets snubbed

Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

By Chris Marler

The second rankings for the 2025 College Football Playoff were unveiled on Tuesday night. While there were no changes in the top five, there was plenty to talk about.

Here are the biggest takeaways.

G6 representation

The highest-ranked Group of Six team earns an automatic spot in the 12-team playoff, which made last week’s initial Top 25 even more surprising, and confusing, when not a single Group of Six school appeared in it. This week that changed as South Florida crept in at No. 24. South Florida would theoretically get the No. 12 seed in the field and face Georgia in the opening round.

No nerds allowed

Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech are used to being disrespected at this point. But, being ranked behind Utah and Miami seems absurd. As for Georgia Tech, it ultimately won’t matter, the ACC’s mess of mediocrity and chaos this season will sort itself out sooner or later. Vanderbilt on the other hand needs to win out to get in as an at large bid. I have been in the camp that if they are able to do that by beating Kentucky and Tennessee, then they will get a bid.

Today’s ranking suggests otherwise. If Vanderbilt was taking a back seat to a Big Ten team, then I’d have no issues, but to the Big 12? That’s absurd.

Utah and Vanderbilt each have two losses, but let’s compare. Utah fell to No. 12 BYU and No. 6 Texas Tech, including a 24-point home loss. Vanderbilt’s came on the road against Top 10 Alabama and Texas. What are we doing here?

No change at the top

There’s probably a case for Texas A&M to be ranked ahead of Indiana, not only after this weekend, but also based on their entire season. Texas A&M boasts the nation’s No. 1 strength of record and No. 15 strength of schedule, far tougher than Indiana’s, which ranks just 33rd.

Then, there’s the fact that the Aggies are coming off a 21-point road win against a ranked team, while Indiana escaped 3-5 Penn State with a last minute touchdown.