The 934th and final FBS game of the 2025 college football season is almost here, with an unlikely national championship matchup on Monday night between No. 1 seed Indiana and No. 10 seed Miami.
It’s been an unforgettable, weird and wild season, filled with unexpected results, shocking coaching moves and the potential for one of the most surprising champions in sports history. Before the grand finale, we asked The Athletic’s staff to recount their favorite games of the season thus far (no repeats allowed). Let us know your favorite games in the comments section at the bottom. Here are our picks:
Aug. 23: Iowa State 24, Kansas State 21
I’m here for vibes only, and the Week 0 vibes in Dublin were off the charts. I was fortunate enough to spend 48 hours in Ireland chronicling why one of college football’s oldest rivalries was transported from the heartland to Dublin. And it was a treat. I saw fans in cardinal red and Wildcat purple get plastered on Guinness, enjoyed the sun-soaked days prior to kickoff and kicked myself for not bringing a rain jacket when the skies parted on game day. It was a snoozer for three quarters, but the fourth quarter was spectacular to take in from the press box sandwiched between rows of fans. — Christopher Kamrani
Aug. 31: Miami 27, Notre Dame 24
This one introduced us to Malachi Toney, who had six catches for 82 yards and a touchdown in his collegiate debut. It introduced us to CJ Carr, who wasn’t perfect but whose winding scramble led to a spectacular first scoring pass of his career and whose rushing touchdown capped a late comeback from 14 down. Miami’s first win over a top-10 opponent in eight years also featured a Rueben Bain Jr. interception, a dazzling CJ Daniels one-handed grab of a Carson Beck pass for a score and a 47-yard Carter Davis field goal for the win. It lived up to expectations. It loomed large. It finally mattered on the last day of selection committee deliberations, opening the door for a national finalist and leaving a capable team out of the field. — Joe Rexrode
Sept. 6: Missouri 42, Kansas 31
My first Border War experience was a memorable one. It was the first Border War for a few folks, actually, with Missouri and Kansas reviving a literal Civil War-era feud for the first time in 14 years on the gridiron. One of the sport’s most bitter rivalries was lost to conference realignment, giving this game a crackling, pent-up vibe. Tigers fans spent all morning berating Jayhawks fans before the game even started. The matchup delivered on the field as well, with Mizzou overcoming an early 21-6 deficit and mounting a fourth-quarter comeback for the win. There was even a fan who passed up a chance to win $25,000 so he could troll Kansas (which the home crowd loved), and Tigers players paraded around a delirious stadium after the victory with the drum trophy. It was the type of unhinged energy only college football can provide. This was Week 2, by the way. — Justin Williams
Sept. 13: Georgia 44, Tennessee 41 (OT)
This was an instant classic in real time, with five lead changes in the second half, and now it seems like the ultimate sliding doors moment in the 2025 SEC. What happens to both of those teams if Max Gilbert’s 43-yard winning field-goal attempt for Tennessee goes through the uprights instead of sailing wide right at the end of regulation? Or if Gunner Stockton’s fourth-down end zone throw to London Humphreys late in the fourth quarter isn’t perfect? Does Georgia’s loss to Alabama then start the Dawgs’ unraveling as a two-loss team before the end of September? On the flip side, does Tennessee’s Joey Aguilar ride the momentum of a victorious 371-yard, four-touchdown performance into a Heisman Trophy campaign? And does that one kid still refuse to sing “Rocky Top” at his school play? — Austin Green
Sept. 13: Texas A&M 41, Notre Dame 40
Nobody knew just how large this result would loom, but a few things were clear by Week 3: 1) Both teams were very talented. 2) Both teams looked like they could lose a game or two down the road, and thus absolutely had to win this one. That led to a frantic duel that expertly toed the line between “thrilling shootout” and “insult to defensive coordinators everywhere.” My lasting memory is NBC’s unflinching focus on Notre Dame’s Tyler Buchner, whose botched PAT hold proved to be the difference, as Marcel Reed marched the Aggies down for the winning touchdown. — Eric Single
Sept. 26: Virginia 46, Florida State 38 (2OT)
This was the first moment we realized the ACC might be very weird. The 3-0 Seminoles had beaten Alabama in Week 1, while Virginia was just hoping to make a bowl game for the first time since 2019. The game turned out to be a roller coaster, going from 14-0 Virginia to 21-14 FSU just in the first half. Both teams had three turnovers. Trailing 35-28, facing fourth-and-goal from the 11-yard line with 43 seconds left, FSU quarterback Thomas Castellanos scrambled left and threw a touchdown pass to send it to overtime. Both teams made field goals in the first overtime, and Virginia scored a touchdown in the second. A Florida State heave on fourth down was intercepted in the end zone, and Virginia’s student section instantly ran down the hill and over the players on the field in a wild scene. The players were OK, thankfully, but 19 students were treated for injuries. FSU would go on to miss a bowl game, while Virginia would reach the ACC Championship Game. — Chris Vannini
Sept. 27: Indiana 20, Iowa 15
The Hoosiers crushed then-No. 9 Illinois 63-10 the previous week, but coach Curt Cignetti cautioned their trip to Iowa City featured a greater challenge. With the score tied 13-13, Fernando Mendoza’s interception gave the Hawkeyes the ball at Indiana’s 29-yard line with 2:50 left. On third-and-5, Iowa’s perfectly called screen pass inexplicably was thrown short of the wide-open running back, which led to a missed field goal. Given new life, Mendoza moved the Hoosiers to midfield but faced a third-and-10 at Iowa’s 49. In the face of an all-out blitz, Mendoza completed a slant to Elijah Sarratt that went for a 49-yard touchdown and catapulted the Hoosiers to a historic season. — Scott Dochterman
Oct. 4: UCLA 42, Penn State 37
The Bruins were winless at 0-4, and a 25-point underdog. They had fired head coach DeShaun Foster a few weeks earlier — and offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri in the week before this game — and hadn’t led for a single second in the season. Enter Jerry Neuheisel, a former Bruins quarterback and longtime assistant (and son of former head coach Rick Neuheisel), who was passed over for the OC job twice by UCLA brass. He was tabbed by interim head coach Tim Skipper to become the new play caller. The Bruins had just two days to rep their new game plan. The Nittany Lions had what was supposed to be a top-10 defense, but Neuheisel brought a jolt of positive energy to an offense that desperately needed it. He also turned Nico Iamaleava loose and the 6-foot-6 QB ran for three touchdowns and passed for two more, seeming to catch Penn State off-guard. UCLA jumped out to a 27-7 halftime lead, and the Bruins ran for almost 300 yards and converted on 10 of 16 third downs. It was their first win over a top-10 opponent at home in 18 years. A week later, Penn State lost to Northwestern and stunningly fired James Franklin, setting off a coaching carousel unlike any other. — Bruce Feldman
Oct. 17: Louisville 24, Miami 21
Sitting in a Madison hotel bar the night before covering Ohio State-Wisconsin, I thought I would watch the first half, have a drink and go to bed. Four hours later, I was locked into one of the best games of the season. I was shocked from the start how well Louisville came out of the gate, and then-No. 2 Miami, as you’d expect, rallied. But it was the end of the game that solidified this for me. There were three turnovers in the fourth quarter, including two interceptions by Miami quarterback Carson Beck, and each time something happened I thought, “Oh, no way this team loses now.” Yet they both kept trying. When Louisville punted with four minutes left, I just knew Miami would win — and then Beck threw his fourth and final interception with 32 seconds left. It wasn’t the best football played this season, but it was a comically dramatic ending to what I thought would be a short Friday night. — Cameron Teague Robinson
Oct. 18: Georgia 43, Ole Miss 35
This game didn’t go down to the wire, but it was still a really fun watch at one of the sport’s great venues. There were already signs that this wasn’t a vintage Georgia defense — the Dawgs gave up 41 points to Tennessee in Week 3 — but it was still staggering to see Ole Miss score touchdowns on its first five possessions in Athens. And there was nothing cheap about it; all five of the drives went for at least 65 yards, and all but one were at least 10 plays long. This was also a test (which he passed) for Trinidad Chambliss, whose previous road start was in November 2024 in front of 1,873 fans in Ferris State’s 55-9 win at Northern Michigan. Enough about Ole Miss. Georgia won this game, 43-35, because it scored on every possession, five TDs and three field goals, and Gunner Stockton showed once again that he could make big plays in the clutch. — Mitch Light
Nov. 8: Indiana 27, Penn State 24
Respect to my colleagues for some of these deep cuts, but this was the real game of the year in college football. It had everything: a dramatic fourth-quarter comeback, a Heisman Trophy moment for the future Heisman Trophy winner, Gus Johnson briefly entering another dimension and achieving nirvana. Not only was this the game of the year, but it also featured the play of the year, Omar Cooper Jr.’s toe-dragging touchdown catch in the back of the Beaver Stadium end zone to give Indiana the lead with 36 seconds remaining. The Hoosiers had already proven themselves to be a great team, but this was the moment they started to feel like a team of destiny. It was also the moment Mendoza stamped himself as the Heisman frontrunner. Penn State’s doomed season and Indiana’s magical one collided in just the right way to produce an instant classic. — Austin Meek
Nov. 15: Texas A&M 31, South Carolina 30
For a sport that is known for wild back-and-forth finishes, it feels weird picking a game that didn’t have any points for the last 10 minutes of the fourth quarter. However, A&M’s big comeback, from 30-3 down at halftime, will stick in my brain. In the first half, A&M couldn’t do anything right. It was like watching the NBA stars in “Space Jam” playing without their talent. The Aggies had two missed field goals, a fumble that resulted in a South Carolina touchdown and two interceptions by Marcel Reed in the first half. That they won this game is a modern marvel. — Dan Santaromita
Nov. 15: Oklahoma 23, Alabama 21
John Mateer threw for 138 yards with no touchdowns, Oklahoma managed to pick up just 12 first downs and Alabama had almost double the yardage of the Sooners. And yet, OU won 23-21 in one of the biggest wins of Brent Venables’ career thanks to a masterclass from the Sooners on defense. OU had four sacks and an 87-yard pick-6 from Eli Bowen to make the kind of statement that eventually got the Sooners into the Playoff. It was a vintage Venables performance on defense. — Grace Raynor
Nov. 29: Cal 38, SMU 35
It checked this sport’s entertaining, sometimes crazy boxes. Freshman quarterback starring? Cal’s Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele threw for 330 yards and four touchdowns. Bonkers fourth quarter? SMU trailed 31-14, scored on three consecutive drives to take the lead, surrendered a touchdown to lose that lead, then missed the would-be tying 52-yard field goal with 3 seconds left. Odd stakes? No. 21 SMU would have been in the ACC championship if it had beaten a Cal team that fired its coach a few days earlier. Instead, it sparked a complicated tiebreaker situation that let five-loss Duke win the conference and jeopardized the ACC’s CFP hopes. — Matt Baker
Dec. 6: Indiana 13, Ohio State 10
For all the good vibes around Indiana’s unbeaten season coming into the Big Ten Championship Game, knocking off the league’s biggest bully — and the defending national champs — felt like we were watching a “Beat the Final Boss” moment for Curt Cignetti and his squad. Offense was largely a slog for the Hoosiers — hardly an indictment given the Buckeyes’ superlative defense — but it was the way Indiana flipped the script and bullied Ryan Day’s offense into submission that put the exclamation mark on IU’s entry into college football’s highest tier. — Dan Shanoff
Dec. 24: Hawaii 35, Cal 31
You can say that bowl games no longer matter. You can ask who cares about 8-4 Hawaii playing 7-5 Cal in front of a crowd of 15,000. But the great thing about bowl games — and, still, college football as a whole — is that you never know when you’re going to get sucked into a thrillingly dramatic finish in a game between two teams you have no connection to with no championship stakes. In this case: A down-to-the-wire sunny Hawaii Bowl while sitting on the couch in front of a Christmas tree on a chilly Christmas Eve night in the Northeast. Hawaii outscored Cal 22-10 in the fourth quarter, including a 22-yard Nick Cenacle touchdown pass from Luke Weaver with 10 seconds left to answer a late Cal touchdown and give the Rainbow Warriors their first bowl win since 2020. — Matt Brown
Jan. 1: Indiana 38, Alabama 3
Not only did the Rose Bowl become a national declaration of Indiana’s frightening football prowess, but it laid bare the relative shambles Alabama has become under Kalen DeBoer and perhaps confirmed an uncomfortable truth to anyone who’s watched SEC football the past 20 years. The league’s hold on the sport is finished, and it may have lost the benefit of the doubt, too. That much narrative made this Rose Bowl so compelling despite the five-touchdown margin. We’re never going to look at Indiana or Alabama the same. Ever. Rarely does a game change worldviews quite like this one. — Pete Sampson
Jan. 1: Ole Miss 39, Georgia 34
Ole Miss was the underdog, but it never really felt like that in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia, even when the Bulldogs led at halftime or at the end of the third quarter. Both quarterbacks — Georgia’s Gunner Stockton and Ole Miss’ Trinidad Chambliss — made outrageous plays through the first three quarters, but Chambliss had a fourth quarter that college football fans will remember for a long time. The Rebels, in their second game after Lane Kiffin bolted for LSU, scored 20 points in the final quarter, including a ridiculous three-play sequence from Chambliss to set up a touchdown and a deep throw to get the Rebels in position for the winning field goal. — Daniel Shirley
Jan. 5: Montana State 35, Illinois State 34 (OT)
The FCS championship game, particularly the fourth quarter and overtime, was a heart-stopper. Illinois State — the team that pulled off the stunning upset of top seed North Dakota State in the second round — climbed out of a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit thanks in part to receiver Dylan Lord, whom the Bobcats could not seem to tackle. Facing fourth-and-1 with 1:04 left, instead of going for it, the Redbirds tried a go-ahead field goal that got blocked (something that apparently happened five times before to them in 2025). Lord caught an overtime touchdown from Tommy Rittenhouse to give Illinois State a six-point lead, but — AGAIN! — Montana State blocked the kick, this time an extra point, leaving the Redbirds with a 34-28 lead. They were on the verge of glory, forcing the Bobcats into a fourth-and-10 at the 14, one play away from a title. That’s when Justin Lamson, a transfer quarterback from Stanford, backed away from a blitz, and, with the national title on the line, made the throw of his life from his back foot from the right hash to the left pylon, hitting Taco Dowler in stride for a touchdown. It’s the kind of throw you only see in a script, a Matt Saracen last-minute heave to end a game in “Friday Night Lights.” The ensuing extra point sealed a 35-34 win and Montana State’s first national championship since 1984. — Sam Khan Jr.
Jan. 8: Miami 31, Ole Miss 27
So many great storylines, so many famous alumni on the sideline to witness it and a classic, heart-stopping finish down to the final play. Miami completely dominated the clock, smartly keeping Trinidad Chambliss’ high-scoring offense off the field. Yet, the Hurricanes kept shooting themselves in the foot with dropped interceptions and bad penalties and had to survive a last-second heave into the end zone by Chambliss to clinch their first trip to the national championship game since the 2002 season. Carson Beck was the hero, extinguishing Miami’s 0-4 misery at the Fiesta Bowl. Just fun. — Manny Navarro
Jan. 9: Indiana 56, Oregon 22
Every minute of Indiana football since the kickoff of Dec. 6’s Big Ten title game has been the biggest minute in program history. A minute I’ll never forget: The start of the Peach Bowl’s fourth quarter, when about 65,000 Hoosiers in Atlanta belted “Mr. Brightside” just before their team blocked a punt while already up 42-15. The biggest (and so far happiest, at least on the football side) collection of Indiana fans in history — until Curt Cignetti somehow gets the Bloomington stadium doubled in size, of course. — Jason Kirk