With the death of the Pac-12, the ACC suddenly bloated to 17 teams, and across college football, the oversized conferences and unbalanced schedules provided some surprises last season. Still, no amount of schedule luck can save this group of ACC teams that are destined to occupy the basement of the conference.
The transfer portal has made it easier than ever to expedite a program rebuild, but don’t expect any miraculous turnarounds here. These are the four teams in the ACC that have no chance to win the conference title and claim a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff.
Lucky for Louisville, the Cardinals have two of these teams from the "no-chance" tier of the conference on their schedule in 2025.
Tony Elliot brought the Cavaliers within one win of bowl eligibility last season, and he could finally get over that hump with a favorable schedule that avoids Clemson, Miami and SMU. However, there’s no reason to get delusions about what this team’s ceiling could be in 2025. Quarterback Chandler Morris is making the jump back to Power 4 football after putting up big numbers at North Texas, and he could make the Wahoos exciting, just not ACC title contenders.
Cal didn’t even have to get to Week 1 to realize that hiring Bryan Harsin to run its offense was a big mistake. The hiring led to numerous skill players fleeing to the transfer portal in the winter and spring windows, but when star running back Jadyn Ott left for Oklahoma, it was the nail in the Golden Bears’ coffin for 2025.
Cal collapsed down the stretch last season after a hot start, and with quarterback Fernando Mendoza preparing to lead Indiana back to CFP contention and Ott looking for a bounce-back year in Norman, it’ll be an uphill battle to bowl eligibility.
The long-term outlook is improving for Wake Forest after hiring Jake Dickert to succeed Dave Clawson, but Wake Forest was slow to react to the transfer portal era, and it has set the Demon Deacons back a few years. A QB battle between Deshaun Purdie and Robbie Ashford, now with his third program, doesn’t inspire much confidence in Year 1 of a new era.
The Stanford football program is desperate for a fresh start after firing Troy Taylor in March, but for now, general manager Andrew Luck has tasked Frank Reich with stewarding the program through a season that’s destined to be tumultuous. Last year’s starting quarterback, Ashton Daniels, left for Auburn in the transfer portal, part of a massive exodus that will ensure a lost season in Palo Alto. The Cardinal haven’t played in a bowl game since 2018, and that won’t change in 2025.