In 2024, Syracuse football was one of the biggest - and most pleasant - surprises in the Atlantic Coast Conference, as head coach Fran Brown notched a 10-3 record and a top-20 national ranking in his first campaign on the Hill.
What's to come of the ACC in the upcoming 2025 season? That's to be determined, but the next term is inching closer, with summer workouts here, followed by preseason camp and then the Orange's season opener in late August, against Tennessee in Atlanta.
For the 'Cuse, the team has a lot of key players to replace in 2025, on both offense and defense. The team, on paper, also has a brutal schedule, and some prognostications are forecasting Syracuse football to win fewer than five or six games, and not make a post-season bowl in 2025.
Of course, that's why the games are played on the field. Still, recently, a few experts gave their predictions on the the ACC champion in 2025, as well as which league members would make the 12-team College Football Playoff.
Is Syracuse football going to be a significant contender in the ACC this coming season?
Top college football analyst Greg McElroy of ABC and ESPN, per an article from On3's Sam Gillenwater, recently opined that he thinks Clemson will likely repeat as the ACC champion in 2025. A season ago, Clemson knocked off SMU to win the ACC and clinch a berth in the CFP.
SMU also played in the CFP a stanza ago. Miami was poised to make a run at the College Football Playoff, too, but the Hurricanes slumped down the stretch, and that included a thrilling 42-38 comeback victory by Syracuse football over Miami at the JMA Wireless Dome in the 2024 regular-season finale.
Earlier this month, Athlon Sports also predicted Clemson to win the ACC, with Miami and then SMU rounding out the top three. The Orange, meanwhile, is forecast to finish at No. 13 in the league, which has 17 members in football.
Also via On3, Athlon Sports has predicted the 12-team CFP at the end of the 2025 season. Clemson checks in as the No. 3 seed, and Miami is the No. 11 seed. Notre Dame, which was the CFP runner-up in 2024 and is an ACC member in most sports but operates as an independent in football, arrived as the No. 7 seed.
Athlon Sports has No. 1 seed Texas out of the Southeastern Conference beating No. 2 seed Penn State from the Big Ten Conference in the CFP national championship contest. If that were to occur, former Syracuse football star wide receiver Trebor Pena, who transferred to Penn State, would get to play for a national title.
What do you think, 'Cuse fans? Can Syracuse football, in 2025, compete for an ACC crown and an invite to the 12-team CFP?