How CFP update benefits Notre Dame the most, plus loads of top 25s

Know how people like to complain about Notre Dame?

Wait, I need to be much more specific. Know how people like to complain about Notre Dame still being an independent, decades after every other power decided to join one faction or another?

• “Their schedules are too easy!” First, their schedules are almost always fine overall. Second, anyone who’s concerned with schedule inequality could’ve simply avoided being in conferences that added Oregon or Texas or whatever. Don’t blame Notre Dame for declining to chase somebody else’s upgraded difficulty (AKA money).
• “They don’t have to play a 13th game like we do!” Again, nobody made your league decide it liked conference title game revenue more than it liked having undefeated teams.
• “I just don’t like them, and I will gripe about anything that applies more to them than to my own team!” Valid. Fair. The way things ought to be. Go nuts.

Most recently, Notre Dame’s independence become even more important when the new 12-team College Football Playoff began awarding first-round byes only to conference champions. Finally, a way to punish the Irish for their stubborn ways! What a grand comeuppance this will be, when those arrogant independents roll up with a No. 1 seed, then have to play in the first round agai—

Oh. There goes that idea.

After exactly one year of that format, Notre Dame is now eligible for first-round byes. This week, the CFP management committee announced the bracket will now be sorted strictly by rankings.

South Bend, you owe a big thank you to Arizona State and especially Boise State for ranking among last season’s top four conference champs — and thus claiming byes that would’ve otherwise gone to Texas and Penn State.

Sure, this is mostly about making sure we don’t have another scenario like last year, when No. 1 Oregon drew an instant rematch against a molten-hot Ohio State — while two-loss Penn State enjoyed being a big favorite until the semifinals. But after college football spent decades keeping teams like Boise out of the title picture, once the Broncos were a team that landed on a perch, this system felt even more immediately doomed.

Either way, here’s one way to look at the situation: The power conferences so hated giving up a couple spots to semi-randos that they decided to give up even more spots to Notre Dame. After all, who’s going to swipe one of these bids more frequently: the Irish, or teams like Boise State? Notre Dame would’ve claimed byes in 2012, 2018 and 2020 and been one spot away in 2021 and 2024. One of the country’s most bankable bye-claimers, actually.

Overall, there are pros and cons about this updated CFP.

• Yay: The field can now be much fairer toward the teams that had the best regular seasons, and yeah, that’s pretty essential.
• Ehh: But this will also tilt everything even more in favor of the Big Ten and SEC, who will now start splitting so many byes among themselves. (Plus, I kinda liked how weird it was that freaking Arizona State stole a bye out of nowhere. College football should be weird. Ah well.)

More Rankings! Sooners back in the national picture

And finally, circling back to this one: yet another Mandel top 25, this time an updated list of 2025 teams, with spring and portal stuff in the books.

The top five, now that we’ve also all had much more time to study these teams than we’d had back in January, when Stewart posted his first top 25 of the year:

1. Texas (up from No. 2)
2. Penn State (down from No. 1)
3. Clemson (up from No. 5)
4. Ohio State (up from No. 6)
5. Notre Dame (down from No. 3)

The biggest gainer: No. 14 Oklahoma, up from No. 25. The Sooners recently added RB Jaydn Ott (Cal) and OG Jake Maikkula (Cal’s ACC archrival, Stanford) to their totally overhauled offense. Also making a big jump is No. 19 Texas Tech, which has probably signed like 38 more players since I started writing this newsletter.

Biggest tumble, all the way out of the list: No. 13 Tennessee. I still feel OK about the Vols despite all that portal turbulence. In post-spring SP+ rankings, they’re No. 13.

Stewart’s updated top 25 is here, with explanations for each team included. And that’s a wrap for this week. Holler at me: untilsaturday@theathletic.com.