25 Best College Football Moments of 2025, From Indiana Fireworks to Big Noon Kickoff

It’s been a thrilling, dramatic, kooky and flat-out fun college football season. And while we’re in the thick of the College Football Playoff now, we can’t ring in 2026 without looking back at some of the best plays of the 2025 season.

From Fernando Mendoza’s Heisman Trophy heroics in a game-winning drive against Penn State, to Lane Kiffin spurring Ole Miss for LSU right before the CFP, to the selection committee drama with Notre Dame, Miami and Alabama, to some memorable moments on Big Noon Kickoff, it’s been an eventful year to say the least.

Now, ahead of the New Year while the college football season winds down, here are our top-25 moments of the 2025 season:

The 16-yard touchdown pass from USC quarterback Jayden Maiava to wide receiver Makai Lemon with 1:55 remaining appeared to complete a multi-score, fourth-quarter comeback for the previously unbeaten Trojans. But Illinois swiftly covered 51 yards in eight plays to set up a 41-yard, game-winning field goal by kicker David Olano as time expired at Memorial Stadium. 

It was a kick that proved to have a long-lasting influence on the College Football Playoff, as USC might have been included in the field had Olano missed. In that alternate world, the Trojans finish 10-2 overall and 8-1 in the Big Ten with their only losses to then-No. 13 Notre Dame and then-No. 7 Oregon. 

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The 12-team College Football Playoff was designed with Notre Dame in mind, and the Fighting Irish benefited nicely from it in 2024. As the top-ranked non-league champ, they were awarded the No. 5-seed and a home playoff game. 

They expected similar treatment in 2025. When the Fighting Irish became the first