CBS Sports 136: Indiana unanimous No. 1 as Big Ten, SEC dominate top 10 in final college football rankings

With Indiana's 27-21 win against Miami in the College Football Playoff National Championship, the 2025-26 season is officially complete. Before turning the page to 2026 and another year of sorting the sport's best teams, the college football rankings receive one final update.

Voters in the CBS Sports 136 -- our comprehensive ranking of every FBS team -- had not submitted ballots since the day after the CFP field was announced. This final update accounts for each team's closing statement, whether it was a playoff run like Indiana's or Miami's, or a bowl result when applicable. Full-season resumes were weighed, along with those final nonconference data points that help separate teams against comparable peers.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Miami made one of the most significant jumps in the rankings. The Hurricanes reeled off consecutive wins against Texas A&M, Ohio State and Ole Miss before falling by six points to Indiana in the title game. That surge pushed Miami up eight spots to No. 2, buoyed by strong -- though not unanimous -- support for the CFP runner-up as the nation's second-best team. Indiana, unsurprisingly, finished as the unanimous No. 1.

Ohio State, Ole Miss and Oregon followed at Nos. 3-5, though there was little consensus on that order. Each posted an average ballot ranking between 4.0 and 4.8. The Buckeyes received credit for their regular-season résumé despite a one-and-done CFP appearance, while the Rebels and Ducks were rewarded for runs to the semifinals.

Notre Dame remained one of the most polarizing teams after opting out of the postseason. With no additional results to evaluate, voters made only minor adjustments, slotting the Fighting Irish at No. 8 -- up one spot from their pre-postseason ranking.

Further down the rankings, a logjam emerged among fringe top-25 teams. No. 22 Arizona through No. 28 Navy were tightly grouped in the balloting, while more substantial movement occurred deeper in the CBS Sports 136. Those shifts are detailed in the Movers Report, which appears below the top 25 table.

College football experts from CBS Sports and 247Sports contribute ballots each week, which are averaged together for our rankings. You can see the top 25 below and 26-136 on our rankings page.

Biggest movers 

• No. 43 Old Dominion (+10): The Monarchs closed the season with a 24-10 bowl win against a South Florida team that carried significant regard among voters throughout the year. Context includes the absence of the Bulls' coach and starting quarterback, but there is little appetite to penalize Old Dominion for a 10-win season in which two of its three losses came against CFP teams -- including eventual champion Indiana.
• No. 2 Miami (+8): Miami's path to the top of the rankings included wins against teams voters ranked No. 3 (Ohio State), No. 4 (Ole Miss) and No. 9 (Texas A&M). Add an early-season victory against No. 8 Notre Dame and a narrow loss to Indiana, and Miami built a résumé strong enough to overcome its two regular-season defeats to Louisville and SMU.
• No. 44 Minnesota (+8): Voters have been relatively high on New Mexico and the Mountain West's top tier throughout the season, which meant Minnesota's bowl win against the Lobos created room for upward movement to reflect the head-to-head result.
• No. 30 Duke (+7): A win against Virginia in the ACC Championship Game was backed up by a Sun Bowl thriller against Arizona State, and the 9-5 Blue Devils produced enough notable head-to-head results to offset a relatively high loss total for a team in this range of the rankings.
• No. 48 Nebraska (-5): Matt Rhule's group lost four of its final five games and was beaten by Utah 44-22 in the Las Vegas Bowl. A midseason injury to Dylan Raiola clearly impacted Nebraska's ability to reach its ceiling in 2025, but voters had to judge the team as it finished. Three losses by 20-plus points to close the year led to a slight step back in the rankings.
• No. 37 South Florida (-5): As mentioned earlier the Bulls were a team that our voters valued highly, particularly after the 6-1 start with the only loss coming to Miami. But late season defeats to Memphis and Navy led to slight steps back on ballots and then the bowl loss to ODU really set up a slide for the final ranking. 
• No. 53 LSU (-6): From Oct. 15 until the end of the season, the only power conference win for LSU was a 23-22 home win against 2-10 Arkansas. The Tigers did not quit after Brian Kelly was fired, in fact they battled in close losses to Oklahoma and Houston, but the lack of results made it easy for voters to slide the Tigers back behind other teams with better postseason showings. 
• No. 52 UConn (-8): ACC wins against Duke and Boston College set UConn up for a decent final ranking, but 41-16 blowout loss to Army in the bowl game made it tougher for voters to fight for the Huskies as a top-50 team in the sport. 

Check out the rest of the CBS Sports 136: Teams ranked 26-136