The first CFP rankings were released yesterday, and for the ACC, it wasn’t as good as we thought it could have been a few weeks ago.
BREAKING: Initial College Football Playoff Rankings🚨https://t.co/nSJbXtt30A pic.twitter.com/RsQCtcadOG
— On3 (@On3sports) November 5, 2025
Here are the ACC Teams’ rankings.
#14 Virginia (8-1)
Virginia has a win at Louisville, but the loss is to 5-4 NC State. The Hoos are winning, but aren’t winning a lot of style points. Maybe they could have been a spot or two higher, but I can’t really get worked up on this one.
#15 Louisville (7-1)
Louisville has the biggest argument of any of the ACC teams. Their only loss is to top 15 Virginia, and they have two ranked wins #18 Miami and #24 Pittsburgh. Frankly, they should have been ahead of every two-loss team. The committee weighed the same record and H2H in this case, but you’ll see they weren’t consistent.
#17 Georgia Tech (8-1)
Georgia Tech took a 48-36 loss to NC State, and the committee crushed them for it, as they are lowest lowest-ranked 1 loss team. The committee weighed recency bias heavily, and Georgia Tech paid for it. I’m not sure you can argue much with this ranking other than 2 or 3 spots, like Virginia.
#18 Miami (6-2)
Miami and Notre Dame have the same 6-2 record, and Miami beat Notre Dame. They are 8 spots apart. Miami losing 2 of their last 3 games is what sunk them, and both losses were to unranked teams at the time. It’s another example of recency bias. Should Miami have been much higher? Maybe 15 or 16? Why didn’t H2H matter at all here? I don’t have a problem with the ranking, but then Notre Dame should have been 13 or 14, not 10.
#24 Pittsburgh (7-2)
Pittsburgh got the most benefit of the doubt of any ACC school. Unranked in the AP and Coaches polls, Pitt is ranked in the CFP with an ugly loss to a bad West Virginia team. Pittsburgh has won 5 games in a row, and that’s the recent bias coming in again, but this time in an ACC team’s favor.
In the end, I think only Louisville has a big gripe. When you lose right before the first CFP rankings, the committee is going to notice.
