CFW Week 15 Results – Alabama, Miami in; Notre Dame out
BELIEVE! Georgia beats Alabama,
Indiana beats Ohio State, Duke beats Virginia
And there are two Group of Five teams in the College Football Playoff.
A Hollywood script writer could not have written it better.
What began as a boring day on Championship Saturday (Texas Tech clobbered BYU, 34-7) ended up as one of the wildest, craziest and most unbelievable days in college football. Expect the unexpected.
But the wild, crazy, unbelievable and unexpected excitement of Championship Saturday soon faded as we moved into Selection Sunday. The wild, crazy, unbelievable and unexpected excitement morphed into angst. Angst for Alabama, Miami and Notre Dame.
The first eight and the last two positions in the 12-team College Football Playoff seeding were certain. There was no doubt who those ten teams (Indiana, Georgia, Texas Tech, Oregon, Ohio State, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Tulane, James Madison) would be.
The big question was who would be the ninth and tenth seeded teams. There were only two spots for three teams. Alabama, Miami and Notre Dame all claimed the right for those two spots. Each of the three had strong arguments for being seeded ninth and tenth. But there were only two spots. And there were three teams. Three doesn’t fit into two. One of those three teams was going to be angry.
Now we know – Notre Dame is the angry team. The Irish were not selected to play in the CFP. Alabama was seeded 9th and Miami was seeded 10th.
Here are the 12-team seedings for the College Football Playoff, along with the locations, times and dates of the games.
(1) Indiana (13-0), (2) Ohio State (12-1), (3) Georgia (12-1) (4) Texas Tech (12-1) get the first-round byes.
First Round – December 9 and 20
Games will be played at the site of the higher-ranked team
Friday, December 19
(9) Alabama (10-3) at (8) Oklahoma (10-2) – 8 pm ET, ABC
Saturday, December 20
(10) Miami (10-2) at (7) Texas A&M (11-1) – 12 noon ET, ABC
(11) Tulane (11-2) at (6) Ole Miss (11-1) – 3:30 pm ET, TNT
(12) James Madison (12-1) at (5) Oregon (11-1) – 7:30 pm ET, TNT
Second Round (Quarterfinals) – December 31 and January 1
Games will be played in four of the six New Year’s Six bowls
Wednesday, December 31
Miami-Texas A&M winner vs (2) Ohio State – 7:30 pm ET, ESPN (Cotton Bowl)
Thursday, January 1
James Madison-Oregon winner vs. (4) Texas Tech – 12 noon ET, ESPN (Orange Bowl)
Alabama-Oklahoma winner vs. (1) Indiana – 4 pm ET, ESPN (Rose Bowl)
Tulane-Ole Miss winner vs. (3) Georgia – 8 pm ET, ESPN (Sugar Bowl)
Third Round (Semifinals) – January 8 and 9
Games will be played in two of the six New Year’s Six bowls
Thursday, January 8
7:30 pm ET, ESPN (Fiesta Bowl)
Friday, January 9
7:30 pm ET, ESPN (Peach Bowl)
National Championship Game – January 19
Hard Rock Stadium – Miami gardens, Florida
Monday, January 19
7:30 pm ET, ESPN
Five of the nine conference championship games were played Saturday. During the season, BYU’s only loss was to Texas Tech – 29-7. The Cougars had three turnovers in that game. On championship Saturday, BYU suffered its second loss to Texas Tech – 34-7. The Cougars had four turnovers. The Big 12 championship game wasn’t very exciting.
During the season, Georgia lost to Alabama, 24-21. Not unusual. After all, Alabama leads the overall series with Georgia, 45-27-4. And Alabama has won 10 of their last 11 meetings. As of Saturday, make that 10 of their last 12 meetings.
Going into Saturday’s SEC championship game, Georgia was actually favored by 2 points. But most people thought Alabama was going to win. At just 2 points, Georgia was only a slight favorite. Unlike BYU, Georgia didn’t have any turnovers. Unlike BYU, Georgia played some football.
Despite the score – Georgia won 28-7 – the game was fairly tense and held your interest. Georgia led 14-0 at halftime, but Alabama is always a threat to come back. The Tide has done it to Georgia before. Even when Georgia was up 21-0 in the third quarter, Alabama remained a threat. Georgia fans remained leery. Sure enough, at the 12:33 mark in the fourth quarter, Alabama scored – 21-7. Here comes the Tide. But when Georgia scored at the 6:51 mark in the fourth quarter and went up 28-7, Georgia fans knew it was all over but the shouting. The Dawgs were happy.
Indiana’s record against Ohio State is far worse than Georgia’s against Alabama. Ohio State leads the series with Indiana, 81-13-5. Going into Saturday’s game, Ohio State had won the last 30 games against Indiana. The Hoosiers last beat Ohio State in 1988.
Saturday, Ohio State was a 7-point favorite over Indiana in the Big Ten title game. Point spread and history didn’t bother Indiana coach Curt Cignetti or Indiana quarterback Fernado Mendoza. Cignetti and Mendoza were all about winning. And win they did. At halftime, Ohio State led the Hoosiers, 10-6. After three quarters, Indiana led the Buckeyes, 13-10. With a 4th-and-one on the Indiana 5-yard line, the Buckeyes failed to get a first down. You can’t get much closer than that.
It all came down to the fourth quarter. The defenses took over. Neither team scored. Ohio State missed a 29-yard field goal with 2:48 to play. Indiana held on to upset the Buckeyes, 13-10.
During the season, Duke lost to Virginia 34-17. The Dookies only had 42 rushing yards in that game. In the ACC title game Saturday, Duke had 137 rushing yards against Virginia. Running back Nate Sheppard had 97 of those yards.
In a game that was just as intense and exciting as the Indiana-Ohio State game, Virginia never held a lead. But Duke never led by more than 10 points over the Cavaliers. Virginia never held a lead, but the Cavaliers tied the score at 20-20 in the fourth quarter, with 0:22 remaining. In the overtime, Virginia never had a lead either. Duke scored a touchdown and Virginia quarterback Chandler Morris threw an interception. The Dookies beat the Cavaliers, 27-20 (OT).
Unlike the other Power Four conference champions, Duke, with an 8-5 record, didn’t make the College Football Playoff. The five highest-ranked Power Four and Group of Five conference champions play in the CFP. Two Group of Five champions – Tulane and James Madison – ranked higher than Duke. But winning the ACC championship, the Dookies couldn’t be happier. And Duke coach Manny Diaz couldn’t have been happier either. Diaz was well-deserving of the victory.
There was one other conference championship game on Saturday. Western Michigan won the MAC title, beating Miami (Ohio). 23-13.
Four of the nine conference championship games were played Friday night. The C-USA title game was the most exciting of the four. With less than 11 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Kennesaw State led Jacksonville State, 12-0. During the next six minutes, Jax State scored 15 unanswered points to go ahead of Kenn State, 15-12. Jax State scored the second of its two touchdowns with 4:04 remaining. But the Owls still had some life left in them. With just 0:51 on the clock, Kenn State scored a touchdown on an 11-yard pass from Amari Odom to Navelle Dean. Kennesaw State beat Jacksonville State, 19-15.
The other three Friday night title games were not close. James Madison took the Sun Belt championship, beating Troy, 31-14. JMU outscored Troy, 14-0 in the fourth quarter. In the American Conference title game, Tulane beat North Texas, 34-21. North Texas had five turnovers, Tulane had none. That was the difference. And finally, in the MWC title affair, Boise State put down UNLV, 38-21. The Broncos outscored the Rebels 10-0 in the fourth quarter.
The coaching carousel remained active during the conference championship weekend – six hires, no one was fired, but three schools lost their coaches to other openings.
UAB named interim head coach Alex Morgensten its full-time head coach. Morgensten had been UAB’s offensive coordinator before he became the interim coach when Trent Dilfer was fired.
James Madison hired former Florida coach Billy Napier. Napier is back in the Sun Belt Conference where he came from. After a lengthy search, Penn State hired Iowa State coach Matt Campbell. Iowa State, in turn, hired Washington State coach Jimmy Rogers.
Connecticut hired Toledo coach Jason Candle, and Memphis hired Southern Miss coach Charles Huff. So, Washington State, Toledo and Southern Miss are looking for coaches.
In a unique situation, two former head coaches are returning to their former schools as the defensive coordinators. Virginia Tech coach James Franklin hired recently fired Virginia Tech head coach Brent Pry to come back to be the Hokies defensive coordinator. Pry is a former defensive coordinator under Franklin at Penn State. Meanwhile another former head coach is returning as the defensive coordinator. Former Mississippi State head coach Zac Arnett is returning to Starkville to be the Bulldogs’ DC under Jeff Lebby.
The players at Notre Dame, Kansas State and Iowa State voted to opt out of bowl invitations. The Big 12 fined Kansas State and Iowa State $500,000 each for declining a bowl bid. I don’t blame them for opting out. There are still a few good bowls, but most bowls today are jokes.
Former SEC commissioner Roy Kramer died on December 5. Kramer served as SEC commissioner from 1990 through 2002. He was the first to introduce the conference championship game, which divided the 12-team SEC into two divisions. His greatest contribution was the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) which was a predecessor to the College Football Playoff. The BCS was in place from 1998 through 2013. The four-team playoff replaced the BCS in 2014. Prior to being the SEC commissioner, Kramer was the athletic director at Vanderbilt. Prior to that he was the head football coach at Central Michigan from 1967 to 1978. A native of Maryville, Tennessee, Roy Foster Kramer was 96.
Happy Holidays…Merry Christmas…Happy Hanukkah…Season’s Greetings
Touchdown Tom
December 8, 2025
https://collegefootballweek.blogspot.com
Weekend Recap
GAME OF THE WEEK: The Eyes were shut – Indiana 13, Ohio State 10 (Touchdown Tom said: Ohio State 27, Indiana 24). This game lived up to its expectations. It was exciting throughout. Trailing Ohio State, 10-6, Indiana scored its go-ahead and winning touchdown on a 17-yard pass from Fernando Mendoza to Elijah Sarratt at the 8:02 mark in the third quarter. Indiana quarterback Mendoza passed for 222 yards and one touchdown. Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin passed for 258 yards and one touchdown. Both quarterbacks threw one interception each. Indiana receiver Charlie Becker had six catches for 126 yards. Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith had eight catches for 144 yards. Ohio State only had 58 yards rushing. Attendance in Indianapolis: 68,214
RUNNER-UP: DeBoering – Georgia 28, Alabama 7 (Touchdown Tom said: Georgia 27, Alabama 24). Yeah, Kellen has become boring. That’s the way Alabama has been playing lately. Georgia scored one touchdown in all four quarters. Alabama scored one touchdown in the fourth quarter. Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton was 20-26-0, passing for 156 yards and three touchdowns. Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson passed for 212 yards and one touchdown. Simpson also threw an interception. Alabama only had 11 first downs and 209 total yards. Even worse, the Tide had -3 rushing yards. Georgia had a 13-minute edge in time of possession. The Dawgs had 7 penalties, and the Tide had one. Attendance in Atlanta: 77,247
REST OF THE TITLE GAMES: The Bear was a no show – Texas Tech 34, BYU 7 (Touchdown Tom said: Texas Tech 31, BYU 21). BYU looked good in the first quarter. The Cougars led 7-0 after one. But it was all Texas Tech after that. The Cougars never scored again. Texas Tech quarterback Behren Morton passed for 215 yards and two touchdowns. Tech held BYU to 200 total yards. Just 63 rushing yards. Attendance in Arlington: 85,519
The Green waves were meaner than the Mean green – Tulane 31, North Texas 21 (Touchdown Tom said: North Texas 35, Tulane 27). Tulane jumped out to a 24-7 halftime lead. Tulane extended its lead to 31-7 early in the fourth quarter. The Green Wave then held off the Mean Green rally. Tulane quarterback Jake Retzlaff ran for 49 yards and two touchdowns. Green Wave running back Jamauri McClure ran for 121 yards and a touchdown. North Texas quarterback Drew Mestemaker threw three interceptions. Mean Green receiver Miles Coleman had seven catches for 125 yards and one touchdown. Tulane had an 11-minute edge in time of possession. North Texas coach Eric Morris moves on to Oklahoma State to coach the Cowboys next season. Tulane coach Jon Sumrall has to wait at least one more game before he moves on to Florida to coach the Gators next year. Tulane’s next game will be in the CFP. Attendance in New Orleans: 23,986
A big overtime decision – Duke 27, Virginia 20 (OT) (Touchdown Tom said: Virginia 31, Duke 28). Duke scored first and went up 7-0. Virginia tied the score at 7-7 early in the second quarter. It was a brief tie. Duke went back up 14-7. After three quarters, Duke led 17-10. At the 5:02 mark in the fourth quarter, Duke extended its lead to 20-10. Then Virginia scored 10 unanswered points in the final 4 minutes of the game. At the end of regulation, the score was 20-20. In overtime, Duke scored on a fourth down play – choosing to go for the touchdown instead of the field goal. It paid off. Duke running back Nate Sheppard rushed for 97 yards. Duke receiver Cooper Barkate had 5 catches for 91 yards. Duke had a 9-minute edge in time of possession. Attendance in Charlotte: 41,672
The Dukes had a horse – James Madison 31, Troy 14 (Touchdown Tom said: James Madison 31, Troy 20). James Madison held a 17-14 halftime lead. The score was still 17-14 at the end of three quarters. Then JMU scored 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter. The second JMU touchdown in the fourth quarter was a fumble recovery returned for a TD. JMU running back Wayne Knight ran for 212 yards and one touchdown. JMU quarterback Alonza Barnett ran for 85 yards and one touchdown. The JMU defense held Troy to -26 yards rushing. The Dukes had 411 total yards to 177 total yards for Troy. JMU received a penalty for snowballing. Early in the game, JMU fans were throwing snowballs at the Troy players. Attendance in Harrisonburg: 19,836
The Broncos are tough to beat on the Blue Turf – Boise State 38, UNLV 21 (Touchdown Tom said: Boise State 30, UNLV 28). After three quarters, Boise State led UNLV, 28-21. Boise State then scored 10 points in the fourth quarter. UNLV scored none. Boise State quarterback Maddux Madsen passed for 289 yards and three touchdowns. The teams were fairly even in the stats. Boise State was slightly better at passing. UNLV was slightly better at running. UNLV had nine penalties (70 yards). Boise State had three penalties (20 yards). Attendance in Boise: 27,152
Hoot Owls – Kennesaw State 19, Jacksonville State 15 (Touchdown Tom said: Kennesaw State 28, Jacksonville State 27). This was a defensive struggle that leaned towards Kennesaw State early. Then Jax State woke up and took a fourth quarter lead. But Kenn State had another touchdown in them. However, it didn’t come until 0:51 remaining on the clock in the fourth. Kennesaw State quarterback Amari Odon was 26-32-0, passing for 246 yards and one touchdown. Jax State quarterback Caden Creel ran for 112 yards and one touchdown. Jax State only had 96 yards passing. Ken State only had 72 yards rushing. Attendance in Jacksonville: 18,142
The Broncos were bucking – Western Michigan 23, Miami (Ohio) 13 (Touchdown Tom said: Western Michigan 23, Miami 21). Western Michigan never trailed in the game. But the Broncos only led 7-6 in the second quarter and 10-6 at halftime. In the second half, the Broncos went on to build up a 23-6 lead. The only offense in the game was WMU running back Jalen Buckley. Buckley rushed for 193 yards and two touchdowns. Miami only rushed for 73 yards. WMU only had 111 yards passing. The Broncos held a 9-minute edge in time of possession. Attendance in Detroit: 19,114
Week 15 Results: 6 winners, 3 fumbles (66.7 percent)
For the Season: 141 winners, 65 fumbles (68.4 percent)
SWAC Championship Game
Jackson State 23, Prairie View 21 – Attendance in Jackson: 32,187
Superlatives
Impressive Passers:
None
Impressive Rushers:
James Madison’s Wayne Knight – 212 yards (1TD); Western Michigan’s Jaden Buckley – 193 yards (2TDs).
Your 2025 Conference Champions
ACC: Duke
Big 12: Texas Tech
Big Ten: Indiana
SEC: Georgia
AC: Tulane
C-USA: Kennesaw State
MAC: Western Michigan
MWC: Boise State
Sun Belt: James Madison
Quotes of the Week
“My feelings and the feelings here are just shock and, really an absolute sense of sadness for our student athletes. Overwhelming shock and sadness. Like a collective feeling that we were all just punched in the stomach,” Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua, on the Irish failing to make the playoff.
“There is no explanation that could possibly be given to explain the outcome. Any rankings or shows prior to the last one is an absolute joke and a waste of time. Why put these young student athletes through these false emotions just to pull the rug out from underneath them,” Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua, on the failure to select Notre Dame for the CFP.
“Deal with it Notre Dame. The CFP and bowl season doesn’t need you anymore,” USA Today sports writer Matt Hayes.
“Well, boo-freaking-hoo, Notre Dame. The Irish walk right out of the bowl system into the loving, waiting arms of self-pity. Which, of course, tracks,” USA Today sports writer Matt Hayes.
“Notre Dame lost to Miami and lost the CFP argument. Not only that, the Irish have beaten no team with a pulse, and had no argument that could stick,” USA Today sports writer Matt Hayes.
Touchdown Tom
https://collegefootballweek.blogspot.com
The next CFW – Week 16 Forecast – will be posted Thursday morning, December 11.
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