And with that, the 2025 college football regular season is over.

Following the conclusion of Rivalry Week, only nine games remain before the College Football Playoff selection committee determines its final 12-team bracket for the 2025-26 CFP. Even among those games, only a select-few teams have any real chance of improving their chances of making the playoff.

While Week 14 saw some tense moments — ask No. 8 Oklahoma and No. 10 Alabama — the only notable upsets in the final week of the regular season saw No. 16 Texas ruin No. 3 Texas A&M's undefeated season, 27-17. In the ACC, California upset No. 25 SMU (No. 21 in CFP), setting up an improbable conference title game.

How did those games, and more, impact the final projected 12-team bracket? USA TODAY Sports offers up its penultimate predictions for the final 12-team bracket following Rivalry Week:

CFP rankings, bracket predictions after Week 14

* Denotes one of five highest ranked conference champions

Craig Meyer, USA TODAY Network

  1. Ohio State *
  2. Georgia *
  3. Indiana
  4. Texas Tech *
  5. Oregon
  6. Texas A&M
  7. Ole Miss
  8. Oklahoma
  9. Alabama
  10. Notre Dame
  11. Tulane *
  12. James Madison *

There’s a misnomer the College Football Playoff guarantees an automatic berth to the champion of each of the Power Four conferences. Rather, it reserves spots for the five highest-rated conference champions — and this year, in the second iteration of the 12-team playoff, that’s going to exclude one of those major conferences.

If Duke beats Virginia in the ACC Championship game and James Madison beats Troy in the Sun Belt Championship game, both of which I think will occur, the 12-1 Dukes will almost certainly finish higher than the 8-5 Blue Devils in the playoff committee’s rankings. The same will hold true for the winner of the American Conference title game between 10-2 Tulane and 11-1 North Texas.

The ACC still has a way to get into the playoff field with Miami, which is 10-2 and owns a potentially all-important head-to-head win against fellow playoff aspirant Notre Dame. The Hurricanes were three spots behind the Fighting Irish in the committee’s latest rankings, a difference that even a 31-point road win against a good Pitt team in Week 14 might not be able to erase. As the committee has shown in recent years, it’s prone to some baffling decisions, especially when it involves an ACC team from Florida.

Austin Curtright, USA TODAY Network

  1. Ohio State *
  2. Georgia *
  3. Indiana
  4. Texas Tech *
  5. Oregon
  6. Texas A&M
  7. Ole Miss
  8. Notre Dame
  9. Oklahoma
  10. Alabama
  11. Virginia *
  12. North Texas *

Texas A&M falls a few spots in the rankings after dropping its regular season finale to archrival Texas, moving the Aggies out of the SEC Championship game and first-round bye territory. Texas Tech, which has dominated the Big 12 since losing to Arizona State, vaults into the top four in my final CFP bracket prediction.Oklahoma falls a spot in the rankings after its ugly 17-13 home win over LSU, which has bigger implications than one might think, as the Sooners are now set to travel to Notre Dame rather than hosting the Fighting Irish in Norman, Oklahoma.I also have Miami narrowly missing out on the CFP, with the Hurricanes unable to overcome missing out on an ACC Championship game bid.Lastly, I have North Texas reaching the CFP, despite coach Eric Morris being announced as Oklahoma State's next coach. The Mean Green offense has been electric in recent weeks, led by quarterback Drew Mestemaker and true freshman running back Caleb Hawkins, who has a whopping 16 touchdowns in UNT's past four outings.

Ehsan Kassim, USA TODAY Network

  1. Ohio State *
  2. Georgia *
  3. Indiana
  4. Texas Tech *
  5. Oregon
  6. Texas A&M
  7. Ole Miss
  8. Notre Dame
  9. Alabama
  10. Oklahoma
  11. Tulane *
  12. James Madison *

Georgia secures the No. 2 spot after winning the SEC, while Texas Tech wins the Big 12. Duke winning the ACC knocks the conference out of the race and opens the door for James Madison and Tulane to get spots in the CFP.

Oklahoma and Alabama get the SEC to five teams in the playoff, causing controversy with BYU being left out after a loss to the Red Raiders.

Jordan Mendoza, USA TODAY

  1. Ohio State *
  2. Indiana
  3. Texas Tech *
  4. Oregon
  5. Alabama *
  6. Texas A&M
  7. Georgia
  8. Mississippi
  9. Oklahoma
  10. Notre Dame
  11. Virginia *
  12. Tulane *

There will be plenty of reshuffling in the top four thanks to Texas A&M’s loss. The ripple effect of that leads to Alabama and Georgia in the SEC title game, which I see the Crimson Tide winning.

While they would boost up the rankings, it seems hard to believe the selection committee would give them a first-round bye given their record, and the No. 5 seed seems fair. The loss of Lane Kiffin likely hurts Ole Miss but the Rebels get to play at home to open the postseason.

John Leuzzi, USA TODAY Network

  1. Ohio State*
  2. Indiana
  3. Georgia *
  4. Texas Tech *
  5. Oregon
  6. Ole Miss
  7. Texas A&M
  8. Oklahoma
  9. Notre Dame
  10. Alabama
  11. Virginia *
  12. Tulane *

Texas A&M's loss to Texas brings the biggest change in my projections this week, re-shuffling the top seven and dropping the Aggies down to the No. 7 seed. The Aggies' loss could open the door for the SEC to add another team to the field in Texas, but that is dependent on how the committee views the Longhorns' win at home.

Despite squeaking out a win over LSU, Oklahoma remains ahead of Notre Dame because of how the Sooners' resume compares to the Fighting Irish's: OU has four ranked wins against CFP top 25 teams compared to Notre Dame's two wins, against USC and Pitt.

When do new CFP rankings come out?

  • Time: 7 p.m. ET
  • Date: Tuesday, Dec. 2

The penultimate CFP rankings will release at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Dec. 2, five days before the 12-team bracket is set on Dec. 7.

The USA TODAY Network's Craig Meyer, Austin Curtright, Jordan Mendoza, Ehsan Kassim and John Leuzzi contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: CFP bracket predictions after Week 14: USA TODAY Sports' expert rankings

Reporting by Zac Al-Khateeb, USA TODAY NETWORK / USA TODAY

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