Bold college football predictions for 2025: A jumbled SEC race, offense leads way at Penn State

The 2025 college football season is less than 100 days away, and now that spring practice and the transfer portal window(s) have closed the time has come to really nail down our expectations for the fall. It won’t be long before we are putting pen to paper on win totals best bets and expert picks for the College Football Playoff, but to get things started we want to make some big swings when it comes to expectations. 

Bold predictions can come in all shapes, sizes and levels of spiciness in college football, with 130-plus FBS teams and seemingly unlimited storylines to choose from. On the Cover 3 Podcast we took aim at each of the power conferences to deliver some of our boldest predictions for what’s to come in the 2025 season. 

Below, we have highlighted one of those predictions per conference with commentary and quotes from the contributor responsible, except for my offering from the ACC which I was able to explain in detail. Some of the following predictions seem more likely than others, but at this point in the college football calendar sometimes the less likely (and boldest) of the predictions are the most fun to discuss and debate. 

Big Ten

Bud Elliott: Penn State’s offense will be better than its defense 

The group offered up predictions that included a College Football Playoff Play-In Game in September and the outlook for the coaching hot seat in the Big Ten, but here we get a great look at Bud calling his shot for how one of the league’s national title contenders will look on the field. Penn State has changed over defensive coordinators multiple times in recent years but maintained one of the best units int he country, and while they got a high-profile new additions for their latest DC hire there is some turnover that will be tough to address. Luckily, as Bud explained, the championship-contending caliber will continue thanks to a step forward for the offense.  

Elliott: “I think they have better players on offense. You get Drew Allar back, I think Andy Kotelnicki is a good coach. You have a change over there with Jim Knowles coming in to coach the defense, and obviously they are still real talented over there on defense but I don’t know man. It’s hard to replace guy-after-guy. You lose Chop Robinson, all of the sudden Abdul Carter is unblockable. Year-after-Year, you lose Micah Parsons and then Chop Robinson is there. That’s hard to do over and over again. I think I see a little backslide for Penn State’s defense and I do think I see a step forward for Penn State’s offense. I think for the first time in a long time the offense is better than the defense.” 

SEC 

Danny Kanell: The SEC champion will have a 9-3 regular season record 

The SEC continues to increase its overall talent with nearly every transfer portal window, as even the best recruiting programs out of high school have been shopping for additions at positions of need. And while that has boosted the overall talent level of the conference it has also increased the parity and lessened the chances of seeing one team dominate the conference the way that Nick Saban’s Alabama program did throughout a good portion of the 2010s. Danny is doubting the strength of the conference with this prediction as much as the potential for more chaos, as the top teams have quarterback questions and the ability to separate from the pack has become more difficult in the modern era. 

Kanell: “First, the win totals alone. The win total is 9.5 at the highest win total for Alabama, Texas and Georgia. Alabama is juiced to the under, Texas is heavily juiced to the over and Georgia is juiced to the over. The SEC has had teams that have invested, I do think the schedules are brutal and I do think we will see some carnage yet again. We’ve all wanted parity and we’ve gotten it — that’s a good thing. Texas has Arch Manning, a first year starter. I think he’s going to have a game or two where they’re going to slip up and fall. A game that they’re supposed to win, maybe it’s his fault maybe it isn’t. Georgia, same thing, replacing a new quarterback, and Alabama is too. That’s why it’s so wide open at the top, I think this year the margin of error is not what it used to be at the top of the SEC.”

ACC 

Chip Patterson: Florida State and Boston College will have the same number of wins

The thread here is quarterback Tommy Castellanos. The former Boston College star was benched after nine games in 2024 and took time away from the team before ultimately transferring to Florida State in the winter transfer portal window. Castellanos had some brilliant moments during two seasons with the Eagles, including three total touchdowns (two passing, one rushing) and no interceptions in an upset win against the Seminoles in Tallahassee in Week 1 last year. Bill O’Brien’s choice of Grayson James to lead the offense has BC fans trusting the head coach who took over a tough situation and still guided the team to seven regular season wins, but there will be some eyes turned south to see how Castellanos performs with a Florida State offense now led by Gus Malzahn. 

Both of these teams have difficult schedules, but the current win totals at FanDuel Sportsbook have them two wins apart with Florida State at 7.5 and Boston College at 5.5. Florida State has both Alabama and Florida on the non-conference schedule and arguably the two most talented teams in the ACC (Clemson and Miami) as annual rivals. With a ton of turnover on both sides of the ball there’s a decent chance they pick up another defeat along the way and could finish with seven twins. Boston College does draw Notre Dame out of conference and a tough trio of Clemson, Louisville and Boston College in league play, but with two of those games in Chestnut Hill and some winnable games early it’s a slate that can get the Eagles to a bowl game and threaten for seven wins by season’s end.  

Big 12  

Tom Fornelli: The Big 12 will get two teams in the College Football Playoff this year 

An ongoing debate on the Cover 3 Podcast is whether the Big 12 will have as much parity as it did last season. In 2024 we saw teams projected to finish at the top of the league miss a bowl game and teams projected to finish at the bottom of the league compete for and ultimately win the conference title. Tom has targeted the Big 12’s strength at the most important position on the field as a reason to think that it will double its number of College Football Playoff bids from 2024 to 2025.  

Fornelli: “We talk about how the SEC is deep in quarterbacks, I think there’s an argument to be made the best quarterback conference in the country this year is the Big 12. If you go up and down the roster, a lot of the best quarterbacks with experience and talent returning in the country are in the Big 12. So it wouldn’t shock me if you see a couple of teams finish 10-2, and I know we talk about the Big 12 being a random number generator and I still think that’s mostly true, but I also think there’s a chance multiple teams could separate from the pack and if they do, and if the Big Ten only has three teams and maybe the ACC only has one team, there’s a chance the Big 12 gets two teams into the College Football Playoff.”