2025 overview of university football: four huge scenarios that could shake sport

The restructured landscape of university football took some time to get used to the 2024 season. With massive conferences that extend from one ocean to another, at the temporary stop of a centenary league and a series of university football playoffs at 12 teams, last year was perhaps the most discordant in the latest half-century of sport.

But the 2024 season has also provided a lot of familiar excitement. From the entertaining confrontation of the Heisman trophy between Ashton Jeanty and Travis Hunter to the Redeemer race of the Ohio State at the National Championship, the new university football has kept the aura of former university football sufficiently.

With an fall to adapt, the 2025 season begins on August 23 and promises an even more exciting uncertainty than a season. This quartet of potential sub -intrigues offers a simple sample of what this campaign could offer.

Penn State VS expectations

Any descriptor of James Franklin’s mandate as a Penn State chief coach who does not include a certain variation in the adjective “Great” is not part. Franklin took over in 2014, when the future of the program was troubled following the scandal of Jerry Sandusky, and led the Nittany Lions in a Big Ten title in his third season.

The Nittany Lions have always won two -digit games under Franklin and left their first appearance in the university football playoffs. But Penn State fought against Ohio State, with eight consecutive losses, and has not yet reached the national semi-finals.

Buckeyes will welcome Nittany Lions on November 1.

Before 2025, the choice of pre -season media survey to win the Big Ten – the defending champion of Ohio State – it could be the year Penn State is struggling at a level that he has not reached since the 1980s. Nitany Lions won a national championship for the last time in 1986, the most recent of their four in the history of the program.

“This is part of the reason why I came to Penn State, to compete for everything like [the Big Ten and national championships]”Said the quarter-Arrière Drew Allar Nittany Sports now During the media day of the team last week.

ALLAR’s return is at the heart of high expectations while waiting for Lions when they open the season on August 30 against Nevada.

“To go to the place where we want to go, it will take everyone,” said ALLAR. “I think we did a great job by kissing this.”

Dry on the drought watch

Labeling three consecutive seasons without a national championship, a complete drought can be dramatic. The Big 12, for example, won a national title for the last time 20 years ago – and its only two in the 2000s came from programs now in the dry.

However, since LSU divided the 2003 championship with southern California, the SEC has never taken three consecutive seasons without producing champion. If the national title of 2025 goes to another league, it will mark the longest section of this type since 1999 to 2002, when Florida State, Oklahoma, Miami and Ohio State exchanged trophies.

The SEC was the most successful conference in the era of the university football playoffs at four teams, with championships in the 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022 – more than half of the decade.

So no, the CFP format did not explain the monopolization of the BCS championships by the Sec from 2006 to 2012 as by-product of a defective system. The league has proven its strength at the top. But the gap may not be as wide as the Loyalists of the dry made it appear.

The wide open nature of the sport also highlights how the Alabama dynasty by Nick Saban was really remarkable.

Clemson on the return track

Not so long ago, when the Alabama was at its peak under Saban, its greatest challenger was Clemson. The Tigers won national championships in 2016 and 2018 and appeared in six consecutive qualifiers.

Since then, Clemson has struck a slowdown. To be clear, most of the programs would be happy to exchange for the “slowdown” of tigers – 40 victories, a title of conference and an appearance in the playoffs from 2021 to 2024.

However, Clemson did not look like the mastodon of the late 2010s. The resistance of the coach Dabo Swinney to the adoption of Nile and the remuneration of the players raised questions about the stay of the program in the new era.

The 2025 season presents a privileged chance to silence these doubts. Clemson is the favorite of the pre -season to repeat itself as ACC champion, and with Cade Klubnik – the offensive player of the league pre -season year – under the center, expectations are high.

During the peak of Clemson, he had candidates Heisman Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence at the quarter-Arrière. Klubnik has flashed similar, but will have to offer a full season if the Tigers hope to face.

Great anchor

Few teams finished last season stronger than the navy. The aspiring crushed a rival army at the end of the best season of West Point since the middle of the 20th century, then preceded Oklahoma in a thriller in the bowl of the armed forces.

With the quarterrier outside the Blake Horvath competition to execute the option in an expert way – and unleash a sly passes attack – Navy seems to rely on its 10 to 3 campaign.

The offense has long been the identity of Navy, but its defense eager for rolling can be the real key to success. Head coach Brian Newberry, who took over after the departure of the longtime leader Ken Niumatalolo, designed a unit that gathered at the end of last year.

The navy won 17 assists in 2024, ranking nationally seventh. The replacement of Star Corner Dashaun Peele will not be easy, but the returners like Landon Robinson and Griffen Willis should keep the pressure in front and help the secondary to generate take -out dishes.

If the aspirants can cope with the offer of the groups of the group of the five, the Navy army rivalry could take an even more national meaning.

Not a bad way to cap the season before the second tournament of 12 teams.