College football rankings: Indiana enters CFP as unanimous No. 1 in CBS Sports 136

The Hoosiers capped off an unbeaten 13-0 season with a win against Ohio State in the Big Ten title game

By Chip Patterson

Dec 9, 2025 at 10:24 am ET • 4 min read

CBS Sports Graphic

The College Football Playoff bracket is set, and as the 12 teams competing for the national championship prepare for the postseason, there is no debate about who enters the final stretch of the 2025-26 season ranked No. 1. The Indiana Hoosiers are the only 13-0 team in the country, and after beating Ohio State in a thriller of a Big Ten Championship Game, our voters in the CBS Sports 136 have named Curt Cignetti's squad the unanimous No. 1 team in our college football rankings.

Of course, since the CBS Sports 136 is concerned with far more than the top 10 or even top 25, we do have a total update of the rankings after championship weekend that showcases how our voters reacted to the results between conference title contenders. Georgia's impressive win against Alabama had the Bulldogs moving up to No. 3 but falling behind Ohio State, which dropped to No. 2 after the Big Ten title game loss. Tulane also had a big jump up after beating North Texas in the American Championship Game, moving up three spots into the top 20, and Boise State was one of the biggest movers of the week with a 12-spot jump right to the edge of the top 40 after beating UNLV to claim the Mountain West championship.

Interestingly enough, conference championship game wins did not do a ton for Texas Tech or Duke in terms of big moves up, but those games did see rankings drops for the losers with BYU and Virginia losing some spots in the CBS Sports 136. The same cannot be said for Kennesaw State and Western Michigan, the winners in Conference USA and the MAC, who both saw a rankings boost after winning their conference championship game.

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Now, as you can imagine, the movements in the wake of a nine-game FBS week weren't overly dramatic as voters adjusted their ballots for all the championship game results. But just because a team did not play does not mean it did not see some movement as the resumes and rankings were adjusted with new information, so we've detailed some of the notable movements in the Mover's Report 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.

Rank	Team	Record	Previous
1	Indiana	13-0	2
2	Ohio State	12-1	1
3	Georgia	12-1	4
4	Texas Tech	12-1	3
5	Oregon	11-1	5
6	Texas A&M	11-1	6
7	Ole Miss	11-1	7
8	Oklahoma	10-2	11
9	Notre Dame	10-2	8
10	Miami	10-2	12
11	Alabama	10-3	10
12	BYU	11-2	9
13	Vanderbilt	10-2	13
14	Utah	10-2	14
15	Texas	9-3	15
16	USC	9-3	16
17	Michigan	9-3	19
18	Arizona	9-3	21
19	Tulane	11-2	22
20	James Madison	12-1	20
21	Virginia	10-3	17
22	Georgia Tech	9-3	23
23	North Texas	11-2	18
24	Houston	9-3	26
25	Iowa	8-4	27

Biggest movers

No. 40 Boise State (+12): The Broncos rallied from a midseason injury to starting quarterback Maddux Madsen to finish strong and then claim yet another Mountain West championship on the way out the door as the program prepares to make its move to the Pac-12 in the offseason. Boise State jumped out to a big lead against UNLV in the conference title game and defended it the rest of the way to finish 9-4 and jump ahead of a dozen other teams in the rankings.
No. 63 Western Michigan (+9): It has not been since the P.J. Fleck era that Western Michigan has experienced the kind of success the Broncos saw under Lance Taylor in 2025. The team came a long way from lopsided nonconference losses to Michigan and Pitt and finished the season playing its best football to claim the MAC Championship.
No. 57 Kennesaw State (+8): A thriller between Kennesaw State and Jacksonville State was decided with Amari Odom and the Owls coming up with clutch play in the final minute, and this program completed one of the most impressive year-over-year turnarounds in the country. From two wins a year ago to 10 wins and a conference title, Kennesaw State deservedly got some attention from our voters in their post-championship week adjustments.
No. 21 Virginia (-4): The Wahoos' overtime loss to Duke in the ACC Championship Game did not do a ton of damage to the resume, which still hangs on the strength of 10 wins. Our voters moved up Michigan and Arizona ahead of the Wahoos, along with conference winners Tulane and JMU, but weren't ready to put Virginia behind ACC foe Georgia Tech.
No. 23 North Texas (-5): The rankings resume for the Mean Green has always been powered by a high win total (11), so any additional loss was going to lead to a correction when you start putting the resume under a microscope. Not only did North Texas give up some ground to Tulane after the loss to the Green Wave, but it fell behind JMU and a few other power conference squads.
No. 48 UNLV (-9): The Rebels have been among the most volatile teams to rank all season long. The strength of schedule isn't great but the win total (10-3) has been impressive for much of the year. By beating UCLA early this was a team that got on our voters' radar, but after each of the three losses they've taken a tumble in the rankings. Even though Boise State is s big riser in this week's ranking, our voters brought an equally aggressive move down for the Mountain West Championship Game loser.