RJ Young

FOX Sports National College Football Analyst

Michael Cohen

College Football and College Basketball Writer

It’s prediction season, and we’re calling our shots.

As the kickoff to the 2025 college football season inches closer, the debates continue to pick up steam. Is Ohio State set to own the Big Ten this season, or is Penn State finally ready to take the next step? Is it title or bust for Arch Manning and Texas, or will Georgia rule the SEC once again?

From coast to coast, fan bases are brimming with confidence — and in some cases, delusion — as teams reload, rebuild, or reassert themselves in the chase for a conference crown.

So, before the new season gets underway, our staff is making their conference championship picks. Who’s going to run the table? Who’s destined to disappoint? And which teams are flying under the radar with a shot to crash the championship party?

FOX Sports college football writers Michael Cohen and RJ Young give their predictions for the conference championship game and winners from each Power 4 conference.

1. Who will play in the 2025 Big Ten Football Championship Game and who will win?

RJ Young: Ohio State vs. Michigan

This is Big Ten title game I want. This is the Big Ten title game I believe most neutral fans want too. When the Big Ten separated into divisions, one of the consequences was that Ohio State and Michigan would never meet in the Big Ten Championship. Now that the league has moved away from that model and added four more members, there’s a chance for the Buckeyes and Wolverines to play back-to-back games and even meet in the College Football Playoff national championship game.

A meeting of these two in a championship atmosphere, on a neutral field, has never happened. And it would be the Big Ten’s first chance to have its last two — and the sport’s last two — national champions meet in a game that will once again be for bragging rights, but also add another layer to the most important rivalry in the history of the conference.

But can both programs keep up their end? If Ohio State does in fact reload and Michigan was a QB away, I don’t see why not.

Winner: Ohio State

Michael Cohen: Ohio State vs. Penn State

In a year when many of the potential Big Ten contenders will be introducing new starting quarterbacks — a group that includes defending national champion Ohio State — it certainly feels like the established presence of veteran signal-caller Drew Allar can give Penn State an inside track to winning the conference championship game for the first time since 2016. 

Convincing Allar to remain in school for his senior season was the banner moment in an offseason that will be remembered for head coach James Franklin’s impressive retention efforts. Tailbacks Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen, edge rusher Dani Dennis-Sutton and defensive tackle Zane Durant, all of whom were core members of the Nittany Lions’ lauded 2022 recruiting class, bypassed the NFL Draft for one more shot at bringing a trophy or two back to Penn State. That kind of mass movement is in keeping with the blueprint successfully carried out by Michigan and Ohio State the last two seasons en route to winning it all. Franklin’s aggressive acquisition of former Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, who is now the highest paid coordinator in the country at north of $3 million per year, is also worth noting. 

Drew Allar will look to finally get Penn State over the hump in 2025. (Photo by Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The difference between the Buckeyes and their other new-quarterback brethren is the caliber of player that will be surrounding either Julian Sayin or Lincoln Kienholz, regardless of who wins the job. Head coach Ryan Day and his staff have assembled a roster built on four consecutive recruiting classes ranked among the top five in the country, according to 247Sports, which should give them enough blue-chip talent to assuage the learning curve of either signal-caller. A second consecutive transfer portal class that ranked among the top six in average prospect score infused the roster with even more talent, headlined by former Purdue tight end Max Klare and former North Carolina edge rusher Beau Atkinson.  

No quarterback in college football will have a better collection of receivers than what the Buckeyes possess in Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate, Brandon Inniss and Mylan Graham, not to mention Klare, the No. 1 tight end in the transfer portal. And no defense in college football will have a better combination of athleticism, talent and high-end production in the back seven than Ohio State, which is anchored by arguably the nation’s best player in safety Caleb Downs. That should be more than enough to get them to Lucas Oil Stadium in December despite losing both coordinators and a school record-tying 14 players to the NFL Draft. 

Winner: Penn State

2. Who will play in the 2025 Big 12 Football Championship Game and who will win?

Michael Cohen: Arizona State vs. Utah

The Big Ten and the SEC might be college football’s best leagues, especially in a new era where money talks more than ever before, but it’s hard to argue against the Big 12 being the sport’s most exciting league. In a conference where parity always reigns supreme, the Big 12 has produced five different champions in the last five years: Arizona State in 2024, Texas in 2023, Kansas State in 2022, Baylor in 2021 and Oklahoma in 2020. And for the second consecutive season, the Big 12 has seven different teams with 10:1 odds or better to win the league. It’s anyone’s guess who will finish on top come December, especially after last year’s winner — the Sun Devils — entered the 2024 campaign picked dead last in the conference’s preseason media poll.

The safest pick, if those words can even be uttered, is for Arizona State to repeat as league champion after reaching the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history. The Sun Devils bring back more returning starters (16) than anyone else in the conference and have at least seven such players on each side of the ball. None are more important than All-Big 12 quarterback Sam Leavitt, the former Michigan State transfer who blossomed from nowhere into one of the most effective dual-threat players in the country. Leavitt, who was modestly ranked as the No. 28 quarterback in the 2024 transfer portal rankings, wound up throwing for 2,885 yards and 24 touchdowns while also rushing for 443 yards and five additional scores. He played his best football late in the season with 17 total touchdowns and only two interceptions over the final seven games. The challenge for Leavitt and for Arizona State as a whole will be replacing first-team All-American tailback Cam Skattebo, who accounted for more than 2,300 scrimmage yards and 24 total touchdowns last season.

The far riskier selection is Utah, fresh off its first losing season since 2013 and only the third losing campaign under head coach Kyle Whittingham, who is entering his 21st season at the helm. An exciting 4-0 start to 2024 quickly bottomed out when starting quarterback Cam Rising was unable to return from a finger injury that eventually prompted him to retire. Utah dropped seven of its final eight games as the offense plummeted to 102nd in scoring at 23.6 points per game and 115th overall at 329.8 yards per game. Such a deflating conclusion prompted Whittingham to squash any thoughts he had about retirement and return for what he believes will be a much better season in 2025. 

With that renewed focus came plenty of changes, namely the decision by offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig to step down after six seasons. Whittingham replaced him with former Syracuse and New Mexico offensive coordinator Jason Beck, who brought highly productive quarterback Devon Dampier with him. A first-team All-Mountain West selection last fall, Dampier led the conference with 327.8 yards per game and 31 total touchdowns, 19 of which came on the ground as he eclipsed 1,100 rushing yards. The run-pass threat of Dampier should inject the offense with new life while Beck identifies replacements for the team’s leading rusher and three leading receivers from 2024. 

Winner: Arizona State

RJ Young: Iowa State vs. Kansas State

Farmageddon! While the Wildcats and Cyclones have played each other every year since 1917, they’ve only been championship-caliber teams simultaneously over the last five years. And this year, the two most underrated coaches in the Big 12 have outstanding QBs in Iowa State’s Rocco Becht and Kansas State’s Avery Johnson to lead them into a year when there isn’t a team on either program’s schedule it can’t beat — including each other on August 23.

Matt Campbell has helped Iowa State reach new levels, but he has yet to win a Big 12 title. (Photo by David K Purdy/Getty Images)

In his first season as a starter, Johnson set the program record for passing TDs (25) while passing for 2,712 yards and rushing for 605 yards alongside seven rushing scores. He’s one of just four QBs to pass for 2,700 yards and rush for 600 yards in the Power 4 last year. Becht, who threw for 3,823 yards with 33 TDs, will be on the short list of players who can make a play for the league’s best offensive player in 2025.

While the Big 12 figures to be just as tough this year as it was last year — with four teams finishing tied for first place — that tiebreaker win between the two could lead to this matchup never occurring in the postseason. But their trajectories lead me to believe they could be the last two standing at the end of the Big 12 season.

Winner: Iowa State

3. Who will play in the 2025 SEC Football Championship Game and who will win?

RJ Young: Texas vs. Georgia

Alabama took a step back. Texas took another step forward. With the Longhorns’ appearance in the SEC Championship Game and the College Football Playoff, they proved they belong at the top of the SEC conversation. Entering the Arch Manning era on the Forty Acres, Texas is the unanimous No. 1 team in the country. While that might change over the course of the season, the only game the Longhorns will play this season where they might be an underdog is at Georgia, where the Bulldogs have been undefeated since October 2019.

With a new QB in Gunnar Stockton, Georgia will have a little growing up to do. But Kirby Smart’s program has been one that is perennially there at the end when it comes time to not just discuss who might win the SEC title, but who might win the national title. They’ve been there. They’ve done that. In the CFP era, they are a known commodity in the upper echelon of the postseason, and Texas is chasing what Georgia has won twice since 2021 — the national title.

Winner: Texas

Michael Cohen: Texas vs. Alabama

To some extent, nearly everything about Texas’ season hinges on the performance of quarterback Arch Manning, the highly touted first-year starter with NFL royalty in his bloodlines. His grandfather, Archie Manning, was a two-time Pro Bowler with the New Orleans Saints. His uncles, Peyton Manning and Eli Manning, combined to win four Super Bowls and five MVPs. Even his father, Cooper Manning, the only wideout in the family, was committed to Ole Miss before he was diagnosed with spinal stenosis and swiftly ended his playing career. Arch Manning was the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2023 recruiting class but spent the last two seasons developing behind starter Quinn Ewers, who guided the Longhorns to back-to-back College Football Playoff semifinals. If Arch Manning is as good as everyone believes him to be, then Texas should be squarely in the mix for both an SEC Championship and a national championship alike. 

But even if he’s not quite that good, if the otherworldly expectations associated with his family name prove a touch too lofty, Arch Manning will still receive plenty of help from a Texas defense that should be among the best in the country. The Longhorns return seven starters and defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski from a group that finished third nationally in both scoring (15.3 points per game) and yards per game (283.4) last season. There could be upwards of three All-Americans on that side of the ball alone in edge rusher Colin Simmons, linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. and safety Michael Taaffe. 

Arch Manning and the Longhorns received the No. 1 overall ranking in the first AP Top 25 poll (Photo by CFP/Getty Images)

For Alabama, meanwhile, there is plenty of pressure on second-year head coach Kalen DeBoer after he only won nine games in 2024 and fell short against Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl, snapping the program’s streak of 16 consecutive seasons with at least 10 victories. But there are reasons to believe a Crimson Tide offense that slipped to 56th nationally in passing and 47th nationally in rushing can rebound this fall, even after losing starting quarterback Jalen Milroe to the NFL. The first is DeBoer’s reunion with offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, who spent last season in the same role with the Seattle Seahawks. Grubb was DeBoer’s sidekick and playcaller at Washington when the Huskies reached the national championship game in 2023 — shortly before DeBoer accepted the job at Alabama — and the two have worked together for nearly 20 years at various locales. That kind of synergy for the Crimson Tide’s offensive braintrust shouldn’t be overlooked. 

The second reason for optimism is that DeBoer and Grubb will be tutoring a new starting quarterback in Ty Simpson, who is anything but new to college football. Simpson was a highly regarded five-star prospect in the 2022 recruiting cycle who waited his turn behind NFL-bound quarterbacks Bryce Young and Milroe. He’s entering his fourth year at Alabama and should bring plenty of maturity to the Crimson Tide’s offense despite his lack of starting experience. That he’ll be throwing to one of the best young wideouts in college football in teenage phenom Ryan Williams (48 catches, 865 yards, 8 TDs as a freshman in 2024) certainly doesn’t hurt.

Winner: Texas

4. Who will play in the 2025 ACC Football Championship Game and who will win?

Michael Cohen: Clemson vs. Miami

With three teams in the top 16 of the preseason AP Poll, which was released earlier this week, the 2025 campaign is a critical one for the ACC as the conference searches for its foothold in a landscape increasingly dominated by the Big Ten and SEC. Five long years have passed since the ACC last won a College Football Playoff game on Dec. 28, 2019, and the downtrodden period since then included three consecutive seasons when the league couldn’t so much as muster a single participant. Even when the ACC has qualified for the playoff, the results in recent years weren’t much better. Clemson and partial member Notre Dame lost their semifinal matchups by 38 combined points in 2020, while the Tigers and SMU lost their first-round games by 42 combined points in December. 

The conference would be in even worse shape were it not for Clemson, which has won eight of the last 10 ACC titles and has more playoff appearances than everyone else in the league combined during that span. Head coach Dabo Swinney’s team is once again the preseason favorite to win the league after bringing back 16 starters from the group that lost to Texas. Everything revolves around star quarterback Cade Klubnik, who threw for 3,639 yards, 36 touchdowns and only six interceptions in 2024 to cement himself as one of the sport’s best players. His numbers should soar again this fall with all three leading receivers back for another year: Antonio Williams, Bryant Wesco Jr. and TJ Moore, a trio that combined for more than 2,200 yards and 21 touchdowns. Four of five starters along the offensive line return as well, including all-conference performers Blake Miller at right tackle and Walker Parks at right guard. There’s no reason to think the Tigers won’t be among the more explosive offenses in the country. 

Cade Klubnik returns to Clemson as one of the top quarterbacks in the nation. (Photo by David Jensen/Getty Images)

Based on talent alone, Miami should be the team most likely to challenge Clemson in this year’s ACC race. Head coach Mario Cristobal has paired three consecutive top-15 recruiting classes with three consecutive top-10 transfer portal classes to assemble one of the sport’s most talented rosters. The marquee addition was former Georgia quarterback Carson Beck, who reportedly signed an NIL agreement worth at least $4 million. His task of replacing Heisman trophy finalist and eventual No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward won’t be easy, especially since the Hurricanes lost every skill position starter from the highest-scoring offense in the country. 

But the biggest story surrounding Miami’s offense remains the health of Beck, who suffered a season-ending elbow injury during last year’s SEC Championship game amid what was already an up-and-down campaign. Beck threw a conference-high 12 interceptions last year — which doubled his total from the previous season — but he also played incredibly well down the stretch by tossing 11 touchdowns and zero interceptions from Week 12 onward, vaulting himself into the upper echelon of transfer quarterbacks. If Beck is healthy and effective, the Hurricanes should reach the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history regardless of whether they win the ACC. 

Winner: Clemson

RJ Young: Clemson vs. Miami

While the Hurricanes have not won a conference title in 22 years and fell one win short of competing for their first in the ACC since 2017, they’re getting closer with Mario Cristobal as head coach.

They’ve steadily improved under Cristobal, going from 5-7 in 2022 to 10-3 in 2024. With Beck behind center, the Hurricanes have yet another chance to earn entry into the CFP if Cristobal and his game-management don’t get in the way like it has in the past. It might take an ACC title for Miami fans to let go of how Cristobal’s team collapsed in the final four minutes of their loss to Syracuse last year. There needs to be a new boss in the backfield, and it’s likely to be Jordan Lyle, who averaged 7.4 yards per carry and needed just seven carries to go for 115 against Wake Forest last year.

The Hurricanes imploded against Syracuse last year, and that kept them out of the title game. I don’t think that’s likely to happen again. However, Dabo Swinney’s Clemson program has run that league almost from the moment he became head coach. Since 2011, the Tigers have won the ACC title nine times and added two CFP national titles. With Heisman-hopeful Cade Klubnik at QB and two outstanding defenders in T.J. Parker and Peter Woods helping Klubnik and the offense hold serve against class competition, there’s not just the expectation that Clemson can win the ACC title, but that the Tigers can win the national title, too.

Winner: Clemson

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him at @RJ_Young.

Michael Cohen covers college football and college basketball for FOX Sports. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.

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