Forty observations on the 2025 college football schedule:
1. We will hear more about strength of schedule than ever before this season—and then prepare for that to ratchet up another level in 2026, when whatever new format comes into being. So let’s get in front of one element of the discussion: Who is playing the most power-conference-plus-Notre-Dame opponents, and who is ducking them?
Two Big 12 teams play 11 power opponents, nine in their league and two as nonconference games: Baylor and TCU. Zero Big Ten teams scheduled nine plus two.
Fifteen teams that play eight league games scheduled two additional nonconference power opponents: Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Clemson, SMU, Miami, Georgia Tech, Florida State, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, North Carolina State, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Boston College and Stanford.
Eight teams that have nine-game league schedules will face zero power-conference opponents outside of the league: Penn State, Indiana, Washington, Rutgers, Northwestern, Maryland, Texas Tech and Houston.
Two teams play just eight power-conference opponents, all in league play: Mississippi and Wake Forest.
Notre Dame plays 10 power-conference opponents. The two from outside the P4 are among the best of the rest, in Boise State and Navy.
(Key caveat here: Games against Oregon State and Washington State that were in some cases scheduled as power-conference opponents now are not. And games scheduled against SMU that were scheduled as a non-power opponent now are. That’s the ebb and flow of realignment.)
2. If anyone is scheduled for breakthrough success in 2025, it’s Nebraska. The Big Ten and Cincinnati have both set up the Cornhuskers for a return to relevance.
Coach Matt Rhule’s third season and quarterback Dylan Raiola’s second is soft-launched with five straight home or semi-home games. The opener against the Bearcats was originally scheduled for Cincinnati, then moved to Indianapolis, then more money was waved under the Bearcats’ noses to move it to Kansas City. That is a Nebraska stronghold and it will be a virtual home game. Good job, good effort by Cincy to capitulate for the paycheck.
The Huskers open Big Ten play with two home games. The first road contest is Oct. 11 at Maryland, which is not exactly renowned for a feverish home atmosphere. Then comes a trip to Minnesota—a Nebraska nemesis of late, but also not the hardest place to play. After two more home games, the Huskers head to the Rose Bowl to play UCLA in front of a crowd that will skew red if Nebraska is thriving.
The one and only serious road atmosphere the Huskers will face is in the 11th game of the season, at Penn State, on Nov. 22.
Nebraska does not play Ohio State, Oregon, Illinois or Indiana, all of which figure to be ranked when the preseason polls are released. It gets Michigan and Iowa in Lincoln. There are no road games out of conference. If the Huskers can’t win at least nine games for the first time since 2016, the program really is broken.
3. Power-conference teams that go the farthest into the season before playing a true road game: Missouri in its seventh game; Nebraska in its sixth; Tennessee, Penn State, Indiana, Rutgers, Miami, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest in their fifth.
4. Power-conference teams that go the farthest into the season before playing another P4 team: Penn State, Indiana, Washington, Rutgers, Maryland, Louisville and Texas Tech do not face a P4 opponent until their fourth game.
5. Power-conference teams that open both on the road and against another P4 team: Texas (at Ohio State), Alabama (at Florida State), LSU (at Clemson), Auburn (at Baylor), Georgia Tech (at Colorado), Utah (at UCLA), TCU (at North Carolina). Also: Notre Dame at Miami.
6. The LSU-Clemson game marks Clemson’s seventh straight opener against power-conference competition, and LSU’s sixth straight. Clemson is 3–3 in the previous six while LSU is 0–5.
7. Sixteen out of 18 Big Ten teams open at home, with the only exceptions being the aforementioned Nebraska-Cincinnati game in K.C. and Northwestern at Tulane.
8. Body clock alert, Week 1: Central Michigan opens with a 10:30 p.m. ET kickoff at San Jose State.
9. For the most part, the conferences that absorbed the Pac-12 diaspora did a solid job this season scheduling travel across two or more time zones. But Washington has a gripe about what it was dealt by the Big Ten—because of open dates, not distance.
The Huskies, who were undefeated at home and winless on the road in their first Big Ten season, have four games in a five-week span in which their opponents have an open-date advantage. On Sept. 27, Washington is coming off an Apple Cup rivalry game at Washington State while Ohio State is coming off an open date; on Oct. 4, the Huskies go cross-country to visit a Maryland team that is coming off an open date; on Oct. 11 Rutgers visits Seattle coming off an open date; and on Oct. 25, Illinois comes in off an open date.
Washington may handle all that fine. But for more than a month, it will be facing opponents that are more rested (and presumably more healthy) than it is.
10. How tough were the long-travel games in the Big Ten last season? Winning percentage suggests very tough.
The overall road record in league games was 34–47, a .420 win percentage. The road record in league games across two or three time zones was 8–19, a .296 win percentage. Removing those games from the total, Big Ten road teams were a highly competitive 26–29 in “backyard” games, or .473.
11. Hot-seat coaches facing tough schedules: Sam Pittman, Arkansas; Luke Fickell, Wisconsin; Brent Venables, Oklahoma; and Billy Napier, Florida.
12. Wisconsin plays seven potential playoff teams, four of them on the road. The October gauntlet could be decisive: at Michigan, Iowa off an open-date disadvantage, Ohio State and at Oregon.
13. Arkansas plays just one of its first four games in Fayetteville, and faces a couple of little-brother programs that would love to take down the Razorbacks early in Memphis (on the road) and Arkansas State (in Little Rock). Three 2024 playoff teams are on the docket in Notre Dame, Tennessee and Texas. These will be the first-ever meetings between the Hogs and both Arkansas State and Notre Dame.
14. A home game against Michigan in Week 2 will go a long way toward setting the tone around Venables’s tenure, but the season gets harder later—Oklahoma’s final seven games could all be against teams that start the year in the AP Top 25.
15. Florida’s stretch from Sept. 13 to Nov. 1 might be the toughest any team will face. In order, the Gators are at LSU, at Miami, home against Texas, at Texas A&M, home against Mississippi State at an open-date disadvantage, and in Jacksonville against Georgia. A 3–3 record through that gauntlet might be enough to have Florida in playoff contention, especially as the SEC bellows about strength of schedule all fall.
16. Body clock alerts, Week 2: San Jose State plays at 9 a.m. PT at Texas. Utah State plays at 10:45 a.m. MT at Texas A&M.
17. Sonny Dykes gets the Hype Double Whammy Award for being the opposing coach in the opener of the Bill Belichick era at North Carolina this season and the Deion Sanders era at Colorado in 2023.
18. There are 20 Power 4 teams playing road games against Group of 6 competition. ACC teams play eight of them, Big 12 teams play six and the SEC and Big Ten play three each. Oregon State, recently booted from power-conference status, has the most home games against the P4 with three (California, Houston and Wake Forest). Tulane has two (Northwestern and Duke).
19. By far the most unusual P4-at-G5 road game is Oklahoma at Temple, part of a two-for-one arrangement that brings the Owls to Norman twice. Last and only other time the Sooners played the Owls in Philadelphia: 1942.
20. Tulane gets two P4 opponents in New Orleans, Northwestern and Duke. This feels more like an academic consortium than a football arrangement, but it gives the Green Wave a chance at some College Football Playoff-enhancing wins.
21. Body clock alerts, Week 3: Oregon has a 9 a.m. PT start at Northwestern. Boston College kicks off at 10:30 p.m. ET at Stanford, a week after playing on the road at Michigan State.
22. Toughest August/September: Auburn plays three power-conference road games, at Baylor, Oklahoma and Texas A&M. Home games against Ball State and South Alabama cushion the blow but only so much.
23. Toughest October: Texas has zero home games, playing at Florida, in Dallas against Oklahoma, at Kentucky and at Mississippi State.
24. Toughest November: Florida State plays three on the road—one against ACC favorite Clemson, one against archrival Florida and one preceding that at North Carolina State. There are home games against Virginia Tech (which is coming off an open date) and Wake Forest.
25. Back-to-back conference road games didn’t go well for several teams in the SEC last year. Among the big second-game defeats: Georgia lost to Alabama after winning at Kentucky; LSU lost at Texas A&M after beating Arkansas; Mississippi lost at LSU after winning at South Carolina; Tennessee lost at Arkansas after winning at Oklahoma.
This year’s back-to-backs in the SEC: Texas is at Kentucky and Mississippi State on Oct. 18 and 25; Oklahoma is at Tennessee and Alabama on Nov. 1 and 15, with an open date in between; Texas A&M is at Arkansas and LSU on Oct. 18 and 25; Florida is at Kentucky and Mississippi on Nov. 8 and 15; Ole Miss is at Georgia and Oklahoma on Oct. 18 and 25; Tennessee is at Alabama and Kentucky on Oct. 18 and 25; Auburn is at Oklahoma and Texas A&M on Sept. 20 and 27; Arkansas is at LSU and Texas on Nov. 15 and 22; Missouri has two back-to-backs, which compensates for that cushy start—at Auburn and Vanderbilt on Oct. 18 and 25, then at Oklahoma and Arkansas on Nov. 22 and 29; and Kentucky is at South Carolina and Georgia on Sept. 27 and Oct. 4.
Looking at those dates, it seems reasonable to expect some mayhem Oct. 25.
26. Body clock alerts, Week 6: West Virginia plays at 10:30 p.m. ET at BYU. Air Force has a 10 a.m. MT kick at Navy (one of three 10 a.m. body-clock starts for the Falcons).
27. Toughest start for a rookie FBS head coach: Matt Drinkall at Central Michigan opens with three straight road games, at San Jose State, Pittsburgh and Michigan.
28. The nation’s two longest home winning streaks face major tests on the same day: Georgia, winner of 31 in a row in Sanford Stadium, hosts Alabama on Sept. 27. Washington, winner of 20 in a row at Husky Stadium, plays Ohio State.
29. Given those early showdowns, it’s not out of the question that by the end of September, Oregon owns the longest home winning streak. The Ducks’ run currently stands at 15, with September home games against Montana State, Oklahoma State and Oregon State.
30. With Notre Dame playing Arkansas, these are the remaining SEC schools the Fighting Irish have never faced: Auburn, Kentucky, Mississippi State. Georgia is the only SEC program with a winning record against the Irish (3–1).
31. Body clock alerts, Week 7: UCLA has a 9 a.m. PT start at Michigan State. Washington State kicks off at 9:45 a.m. PT at Mississippi.
32. New Mid-American Conference member Massachusetts gets a full #MACtion initiation by playing the entire month of November on Tuesday or Wednesday nights. Four other MAC teams play their last Saturday game in October as well: Kent State, Akron, Northern Illinois and Ohio.
33. Louisiana Tech wins the award for worst travel on consecutive Saturdays, going to FBS newbie Delaware on Nov. 8 and Washington State on Nov. 15. That is a brutal back-to-back.
34. East Carolina does not leave the Carolinas until Oct. 9, playing three games at home (Campbell, BYU and Army) and traveling to North Carolina State (Raleigh) and Coastal Carolina (Conway, S.C.).
35. Body clock alerts, Week 8: North Carolina plays at 10:30 p.m. ET at California, well past Belichick’s bedtime. That game is on a Friday, six days after the Tar Heels play Clemson. Florida State kicks off at 10:30 p.m. ET at Stanford.
36. Missouri and Kansas play Sept. 6, their first meeting since 2011—and their first since 1906 without being in the same conference. After 120 previous meetings, the Tigers lead the series by a thin 56–55 with nine ties. This will be the earliest the two have met in series history.
37. Miami lost its grip on a playoff bid by dropping its last two road games last year, at Georgia Tech and Syracuse. This year the Hurricanes close with two on the road, at Virginia Tech on Nov. 22 and Pittsburgh on Nov. 29. Those could be cold-weather games for the warm-weather Canes, with a lot riding on them.
38. Michigan’s trip to Oklahoma on Sept. 6 is the Wolverines’ first nonconference road game since 2018, snapping a streak of 17 straight regular-season, nonleague matchups in the Big House. The two bluebloods have met just once before, in the 1976 Orange Bowl—Bo vs. Barry.
39. Body clock alert, Week 14: Utah starts at 10 a.m. MT on Black Friday at Kansas.
40. In the bloated conferences with 16 to 18 teams, who you don’t play can matter as much as who you do play. And in the Big 12, that dynamic could loom large: reigning champion Arizona State, Kansas State and BYU do not play each other. Meanwhile, Iowa State plays all three, with the Farmageddon matchup in Ireland against K-State on Aug. 23 looming as potentially the earliest huge conference game in FBS history.
