Indiana's Tyrique Tucker and Drew Evans celebrate after the Big Ten championship NCAA college football game against Ohio State in Indianapolis, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)

Nobody paying attention over the past 24 months would be surprised to see Indiana leading the way into this year’s College Football Playoff.

But anyone paying attention over the last 24 hours knew the only sure thing beyond the Hoosiers was that the playoff selection committee was destined to get picked apart when it released the pairings for this season’s 12-team bracket on Sunday.

Most of that second-guessing came from Notre Dame, which was passed over in favor of Alabama and Miami for two of the bracket’s bubble spots. The Fighting Irish dropped two notches in the CFP rankings over the last two weeks

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