The College Football Playoff selection committee released the fifth edition of their top-25 rankings on Tuesday. Arguably the biggest surprise of these rankings was the fact that Alabama and Notre Dame swapped places despite both teams winning their games this week.
In last week’s CFP rankings, Alabama dropped to No. 10 after losing to Oklahoma while Notre Dame moved to No. 9. This past weekend, both teams won their games as Notre Dame dominated Stanford while Alabama outlasted Auburn. Despite this result, Alabama has now moved up to No. 9 while Notre Dame fell back a spot to No. 10.
CFP chair Hunter Yurachek explained the move shortly after the rankings release.
“The debate between Alabama and Notre Dame over the past three weeks has been one of the strongest debates we've had in the room for the past two years that I've been a member of the committee,” He said. “I think this week as we looked at those two teams and how closely they have been over the past three weeks, Notre Dame went on the road, had a strong win at Stanford, but Alabama went on the road and a rivalry game looked really good, especially in the first half, getting up 17 to nothing. Ran the ball well. Auburn came back at them. They had a great gutsy call on fourth-and-2, late in the [fourth] quarter to get a touchdown, and then got the turnover late in that game.
“And I think that was enough to change the minds of a couple of committee members to push Alabama up ahead of Notre Dame in this week's rankings.”
Here's why Notre Dame got jumped by Alabama. pic.twitter.com/XFhaEVAskN
— Grant Speaks (@GrantSpeaks1) December 3, 2025
Yurachek also confirmed that teams that aren’t playing in conference championships this weekend still have the opportunity to move in the rankings. As the rankings currently stand, both Alabama and Notre Dame are slated to make the CFP. However, if BYU were to win the Big 12 championship game over Texas Tech, it could potentially knock Notre Dame out of the playoff if their ranking holds, which would make this swap especially significant. The switch also places Notre Dame just two spots ahead of Miami, a team that beat them back in August.
Alabama will play in the SEC championship game on Saturday, another matchup that could have implications on the final playoff bracket, which will be announced Sunday. There is still plenty of potential movement and football to be played before the final rankings are announced, but this switch could have carry-over impact to the tournament.
More College Football on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as CFP Chair Explains Why Alabama, Notre Dame Swapped Spots in Latest Rankings.
