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CFP chairman Mack Rhoades: Ohio State given 'slight edge' over Indiana in initial playoff rankings

headshotby: Alec Lasley13 hours agoallasley
NCAA Football: UCLA at Indiana
Oct 25, 2025; Bloomington, Indiana, USA; Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti watches game play during the second half against the UCLA Bruins at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Goddin-Imagn Images

The first College Football Playoff rankings were revealed on Tuesday night and had Indiana football at No. 2, one spot behind Ohio State.

Oregon was the other Big Ten team to make the initial 12-team playoff bracket, slotting in at No. 9.

The top four seeds receive a first round bye before playing in the quarterfinals — and would play the winner of No. 7 BYU and No. 10 Notre Dame.

Indiana and Ohio State both remain unbeaten, as does Texas A&M — the No. 3 seed.

The Hoosiers and Buckeyes are on a collision course to face off in the Big Ten Championship game in Indianapolis.

What are some of the factors under consideration when seeding the teams? How did Indiana match up with Ohio State and Texas A&M? CFP chairman Mack Rhoades broke it down.

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Q.  Just wondering what the debate was like as far as No. 1, and what tilted things in Ohio State’s favor over Indiana and A&M?

MACK RHOADES: Good evening. I certainly appreciate the question. There was robust conversation, discussion about 1 through 3, all three of them undefeated.

Certainly great conversation and discussion about Ohio State and Indiana, two really, really quality, quality teams, two teams with really, really good wins. Ohio State versus No. 11 Texas, and a win over 23 Washington. Indiana, No. 9 Oregon, No. 20 Iowa. Both defenses, both offenses ranked in the top 5.

So it was certainly close, but when we looked at film, and we’re blessed to have committee members and coaches that do a lot of film work, we just felt like Ohio State had a slight edge when we think about offensive line play and then a slight edge defensively. That was really the outcome.

Ohio State has some, I’m going to call them, explosive players that probably stood out as well.

Q.  Just wanted to ask, what did y’all see in A&M, and can you elaborate on any particulars about A&M’s defense that separated them behind Ohio State and Indiana right now?

MACK RHOADES: Yeah, so what we saw in A&M is a really, really good football team. They went into Death Valley, I thought dominated a good LSU team. You have a dynamic playmaker at quarterback, Marcel Reed. He can beat you with his arm. He can beat you with his feet. Impressive win, certainly going on the road, South Bend.

I think you’re talking about really small margins when you think about the difference between Ohio State, Indiana and A&M, and then I think statistically when we looked at A&M defensively, they’re just lower than both Ohio State and Indiana. We had to make a hard decision, and you’re trying to find separators, and that was a separator for us.

Q.  As you guys are discussing these teams, as you mentioned the discussion at the top of the poll, when you talked about those three teams, did you talk about non-league scheduling and the fact that two of those teams challenged themselves and of course Indiana didn’t?

MACK RHOADES: Yeah, the schedule is the schedule. We don’t talk about scheduling philosophy and how any team scheduled. We just looked at hey, this is who they have on the schedule. This is the outcome of those games. Then looking at all of the metrics at our disposal.

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