College football rankings: ESPN updates top 25 poll ahead of CFP national title game

Where things stand in the latest ESPN top 25 college football rankings ahead of the national championship game between Georgia and TCU

The two College Football Playoff semifinal games are in the books and now it's time to get an updated look at the latest top 25 rankings.

This week, the ESPN computer went to work ranking the 25 best teams and, as is often the case, there were some questionable decisions made.

Like the Crimson Tide being ranked at No. 2, ahead of both Ohio State and Michigan, a pair of College Football Playoff teams.

And then there's the continued insistence by the computer to keep Texas in the top 10, as it had all season, despite it going 8-5 and losing to Washington in the Alamo Bowl game.

But it was the position of TCU that garnered the most negative attention, as the computer slotted the Horned Frogs at the No. 11 position even after they beat No. 2 Michigan and earned a spot in the national championship game.

Here's your look at the most recent top 25 rankings, according to the Football Power Index computer model.

College football rankings: ESPN updates top 25 ahead of the national championship game

ESPN revealed its top 25 college football rankings / USA Today Images

1. Georgia
2. Alabama
3. Ohio State
4. Michigan
5. Tennessee
6. Texas
7. Penn State
8. Utah
9. Clemson
10. LSU
11. TCU
12. Florida State
13. Kansas State
14. Oregon
15. USC
16. Mississippi State
17. Notre Dame
18. Ole Miss
19. Oregon State
20. Washington
21. Minnesota
22. Louisville
23. Oklahoma
24. Illinois
25. Tulane

College Football Power Index

Football Power Index (FPI) college football rankings and computer prediction model are a measure of team strength that predicts a team’s future performance.

Rankings and scores predictions are based on 20,000 simulations of a team’s season, using a combination of analytics, including scores to date, quality of opponents, and a team’s schedule.

Not a conventional power ranking in the mode of the AP top 25 or the College Football Playoff rankings, the FPI instead slots teams on a projected per-game scoring margin, judging how teams would perform against an average opponent on a neutral field.

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