With the College Football Playoff’s rapid expansion, a chance to play for a national championship suddenly doesn’t seem impossible for the Louisville football program. In its first two seasons under Jeff Brohm, Louisville has already posted nine and 10-win seasons, and in 2024, 9 wins were enough for Clemson to get into the ACC Championship Game, and the 10th sealed their fate as the No. 12 seed in the playoff field.
The CFP is in shouting distance from Jeff Brohm, and if the Indiana Hoosiers’ rise last season taught us anything, it’s that win totals often hold more weight in CFP committee discussions than who those wins came against.
Wisely, Louisville has set up a light non-conference schedule in 2025, which provides two of its three cupcakes games that will serve as de facto extra bye weeks throughout a tough schedule that features matchups against Clemson, SMU, and Miami, the powerhouses of the newly bloated ACC.
Cal found itself in the national spotlight after an exciting start to the 2024 season, but after Miami won a thriller out in Berkley with ESPN’s College Gameday in attendance, the season spiraled, and the Golden Bears finished a disappointing 6-7. Then, an offseason transfer portal exodus saw quarterback Fernando Mendoza leave for Indiana and running back Jadyn Ott flee for Oklahoma in the spring window, leaving Cal without much star power heading into the 2025 season.
At this point in the offseason, Stanford looks poised to occupy the ACC basement, but their northern California rivals will almost certainly be close by.
Bowling Green submitted another 7-6 campaign under Scott Loeffler last season, their second-straight, and led by tight end Harold Fannin Jr. and veteran quarterback Connor Baselak, the Falcons gave Penn State an early-season scare. However, now, with Fannin and Bazelak both gone, Bowling Green won’t be nearly as formidable and should present a comfortable victory for the Cardinals in Week 4, coming off a bye week.
Louisville gave itself the courtesy of scheduling an FCS opponent to kick off the season in Week 1, and it’ll be the perfect opportunity to onboard transfer quarterback Miller Moss in Brohm’s offense without fear of an upset loss.
Eastern Kentucky won eight games last season, but if you’d like a representation of how far the program is from competing with FBS opponents, the Colonels lost 56-7 to a Mississippi State team that finished 2-10 in Week 1 last season. That same Mississippi State team turned around and lost 41-17 to Toledo two weeks later. Needless to say, Louisville should cruise in Week 1.