2025 California Football Predictions: Golden Bears Ranked 54th in RJ Young's Ultimate 136
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Aug. 10, 2025 9:10 p.m. ET
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This isn't your average college football ranking.
My Ultimate 136 is a set of rankings that is fluid, but it's my job to look ahead and make a claim for all FBS teams based on what I know and why I know it. Here are the three pressing questions I started by asking when putting together this list:
Who do I think is good?
Why do I think they're good?
What are the chances they will finish above or below my expectations?
Here is a look at where California lands in my Ultimate 136.
Team ranking: 54
Last year's ranking: 68
Top player: LB TJ Bush Jr.: First on team last season for Liberty with 9.5 TFL and 5.5 sacks; 14 games as a true freshman for Liberty in 2023, career totals of 32 tackles, 7 TFL and 2 sacks.
[Cal's 2025 schedule]
RJ's take: Devin Brown might give head coach Justin Wilcox a bit of what he lost in Fernando Mendoza to Indiana. But the Brown we saw at Ohio State did not look like the highly-touted recruit we saw out of Corner Canyon High School. And that's why 5-star and true freshman Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele might end up taking over at some point for the Golden Bears at QB.
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But this team will be defined by what it lost in the transfer portal rather than what it gained: RB Jaydn Ott is at Oklahoma. Tight end Jack Endries is at Texas. Wide receiver Nyziah Hunter is at Nebraska. Still, that's not as bad as it could be because Cal's schedule is sawft.
There isn't a preseason top 25 opponent on it! And to make the point as clear as the sky above the Pacific Ocean on a cloudless day, here's the schedule in its entirety:
AUG 30 at Oregon State
SEP 6 Texas Southern
SEP 13 Minnesota
SEP 20 at San Diego State
SEP 27 at Boston College
OCT 4 Duke
OCT 10 OPEN DATE
OCT 17 North Carolina
OCT 24 at Virginia Tech
NOV 1 Virginia
NOV 8 at Louisville
Nov 15 OPEN DATE
Nov 22 at Stanford
Nov 29 SMU
Now, look at that and tell me Wilcox can't find Cal's first double-digit winning season since 2004.
[Check out RJ Young's Ultimate 136 College Football Rankings here]
California Win Total Odds: Over 5.5 (+116) Under 5.5 (-142)
Have an issue with my rankings? Think your alma mater is too low, or your school's rival is too high? Get at me on X, @RJ_Young , and I'll select my favorite tweets and respond to them in a future article.
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him at @RJ_Young.
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