We saw last year how winning your conference is so important in the 12-team College Football Playoff era.
Who will do it in the ACC in 2025?
Clemson is the heavy favorite as the playoff format is tweaked a bit this season. In 2024, the top four conference champions got first-round byes.
This year, the top four teams in the final set of rankings will be the top four seeds. If a conference champion finishes at No. 7 in the rankings, that team will be the No. 7 seed.
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With the 2025 season quickly approaching, here's our look at the ACC. Good luck getting the exact finishing order in this 18-team league correct.
ACC champion odds
Clemson (-110)
Miami (+400)
Louisville (+750)
SMU (+900)
Georgia Tech (12-1)
Florida State (25-1)
North Carolina (30-1)
Duke (35-1)
Pitt (40-1)
Syracuse (40-1)
NC State (50-1)
Virginia Tech (50-1)
Cal (100-1)
Virginia (100-1)
Boston College (200-1)
Wake Forest (350-1)
Stanford (350-1)
Can Florida State climb back to the top of the conference?
Let’s get this out of the way. Clemson is our No. 1 team in the country heading into the season. Miami is No. 10 and SMU is also a contender for the conference title game again. Don’t sleep on Louisville, either. The Cardinals just missed out on our preseason top 25 but could easily be ranked by the end of the season despite having to play the Tigers, Hurricanes and Mustangs again in 2025.
But we’re fascinated by Florida State and that’s why the Seminoles lead the ACC preview. As you know by now, FSU cratered in 2024 after a 13-0 season in 2023 that resulted in missing the College Football Playoff and getting blown out by Georgia in the Orange Bowl. About everything that could go wrong did go wrong for Florida State as the Seminoles finished 2-10 and averaged a horrific 4.4 yards per play.
Former Boston College QB Thomas Castellanos arrives to provide a spark for the offense, and he might have given Alabama a spark over the summer with his comments ahead of their Week 1 matchup. Castellanos can be a dynamic playmaker, but he also lost his starting job midway through the 2024 season and decided to transfer. Former Oklahoma RB Gavin Sawchuk also arrives as FSU added 31 players via the portal.
The offense will also be called by former Auburn and UCF coach Gus Malzahn. Can Malzahn juice some creativity into the offense?
The defense wasn’t as bad as the offense in 2024 but it still gave up 28 points per game and 5.8 yards per play. Eight starters are back, but Florida State had 19 fewer sacks in 2024 than it did in 2023. FSU added linebackers Deamontae Diggs (Coastal Carolina) and Elijah Herring (Memphis) in the transfer portal along with Syracuse cornerback Jeremiah Wilson. An Oct. 4 home game against Miami should be a fantastic measuring stick for Florida State.
Year 1 of Bill Belichick
How can you not be intrigued by how Belichick will fare in his first season at North Carolina? He’s just the second coach to lead a college football team after winning a Super Bowl, along with Bill Walsh. And Walsh had previously coached Stanford before going to the San Francisco 49ers. This is Belichick’s first college job.
North Carolina knew that it was signing up for a lot of notoriety when it hired Belichick to replace Mack Brown. It’s hard to see how university administrators realized that attention would come from Belichick’s girlfriend, however. There are probably many people at UNC desperate for football to start, though things have been relatively quiet on the Jordon Hudson front in recent weeks.
Belichick might not have assembled a team that will contend for the ACC title in his first season, but there are some pieces to make the Tar Heels capable of a very solid season. Gio Lopez will likely start at QB after transferring from South Alabama, and RB Davion Gause averaged nearly five yards a carry as a true freshman.
All eyes will be on UNC’s Week 1 game at home vs. TCU on Labor Day and you can expect the prime-time treatment for Clemson’s visit on Oct. 4. But even if UNC loses both of those games, the Tar Heels shouldn’t be written off. They have one of the easiest schedules in the ACC and a nine-win season isn’t out of the realm of realistic possibility.
There’s more intrigue outside of UNC and Belichick
The ACC likes to boast about the parity in the conference as 13 teams had at least six wins in 2024 and 10 teams finished within two games of each other at either 5-3, 4-4 or 3-5 in conference play.
That should be true again in 2025, though there may be a shuffling of the order. Syracuse was 5-3 in the ACC and 10-3 overall in Fran Brown’s first season last year. But the Orange need to replace a ton of key contributors and have a schedule that includes Tennessee, Clemson, SMU, Miami and Notre Dame. It’s possible the Orange’s record won’t reflect the team’s quality.
Virginia Tech was 6-7 in 2024 and is looking for eight wins for the first time in Brent Pry’s tenure. An opener against South Carolina is unfavorable but the Hokies get both Miami and Louisville in Blacksburg.
NC State was also 6-7 in 2024 after Grayson McCall was forced to medically retire. It was just the third time in 12 seasons the Wolfpack had a losing record during Dave Doeren’s tenure. Conversely, Duke was 9-4 in Manny Diaz’s first season last year. The Blue Devils also added Tulane QB Darian Mensah in the transfer portal in one of the first and biggest QB moves of the offseason.
There are also teams like Georgia Tech and Pitt. Both finished 7-6 in 2024 and are looking for more. Especially Pitt. The Panthers lost their final six games of the season last year.
Georgia Tech is a sneaky pick given the team's experience and style of play under Brent Key. Don't be surprised if the Yellow Jackets go to Boulder in Week 1 and get a win at Colorado.
Projecting the middle of the ACC may be an exercise in futility.
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