Where will Alabama football be ranked in first College Football Playoff Rankings?

Photo By Cedric Mason - Touchdown Alabama

The first College Football Playoff rankings of the 2025 college football season are set to be released on Tuesday, and Alabama football is expected to be ranked among the top teams.

The Crimson Tide will likely have one of the most impressive resumes in the initial rankings with possibly four wins against teams ranked in the top 25. Unfortunately for Alabama, it has a disastrous road loss to Florida State next to its name. The Seminoles are 4-4 after nose-diving soon after defeating the Tide to open the season.

Kalen DeBoer and company are currently ranked No. 4 in the AP Poll with Ohio State sitting at No. 1, Indiana at No. 2 and Texas A&M at No. 3 as the only teams ranked above the Tide with undefeated records. It is likely these teams occupy the top four spots in the first official College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday, but should Alabama be ranked higher than a pair of these teams?

Texas A&M has no blemishes next to its name with an 8-0 record. However, the Aggies will most likely have only one win over a team in the top 25 with a one-point win over Notre Dame in the initial rankings. Outside of its win over the Fighting Irish, Texas A&M has only two wins against teams over .500. ESPN College Football Playoff expert, Heather Dinich recently expressed she feels Alabama should be ranked higher than the Aggies.

“Well because my job is to look at it through the eyes of the selection committee, and they would take a deeper dive into the Aggies’ overall resume and when you do that, you see that their wins against LSU and Notre Dame are the only opponents that they’ve defeated with a winning record,” Dinich said last week on ESPN. “Everyone else on Texas A&M’s schedule is a combined 20 and 26. Let that sink in for a second. Alabama, on the other hand, has four wins against ranked opponents. They’re number four in strength of record, number four in strength of schedule, number eight in total efficiency. Overall, Alabama has more quality wins, more statement wins. The question will be, can committee members get over that loss to Florida State, which continues to look worse every week?”

Ohio State and Indiana have similar resumes to the one Texas A&M has. Both will likely have only one win over a ranked opponent on their resume come Tuesday.

Of course, strength of schedule is just one of the many metrics the College Football Playoff Committee has to consider when ranking each team. The eye test remains a valuable measuring stick, and this could give the other three teams previously mentioned an edge over the Tide if the committee feels they are simply better teams.

The first rankings are going to be quite eye-opening. The rankings are set to be released Tuesday live on ESPN at 7 p.m. CST.