Which college football teams have the toughest schedules in 2025? LSU, Oklahoma and Wisconsin lead the way
With imbalanced scheduling thanks to power conference expansion, some teams are facing an extremely bad draw this season. Schedules like what Purdue, Syracuse and UCLA have in the coming months are why you can't judge a college football team solely on its win-loss record.
Here are eight teams with the toughest schedules this season. A playoff berth for a team like LSU or Oklahoma would be well-earned in 2025.
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Arkansas Razorbacks
Sam Pittman may need a winning season to keep his job in Fayetteville. And a winning season looks really difficult for the Razorbacks.
Arkansas' over/under is 5.5 wins thanks to another tough draw and a non-conference schedule that's one of the toughest in the SEC. The Razorbacks travel to Memphis on Sept. 27 and then host Notre Dame a week later. The Tigers are a potential playoff team if they win the AAC.
In the SEC, Arkansas travels to Ole Miss, Tennessee, LSU and Texas while getting Texas A&M and Missouri at home. That's six teams with at least 10 wins in 2024 on the schedule this year along with two potential SEC title game contenders in the Aggies and the Tigers from Baton Rouge.
LSU Tigers
No offense to Arkansas, but the Razorbacks currently don't stand out on LSU's 2025 schedule. The Tigers open the season on the road at Clemson, a team that should be one of the top favorites to win the national title.
It's imperative LSU gets off to a good start. The Tigers have lost their first game of the season in each of the past five seasons since going undefeated in 2019. That stretch includes two straight losses to Florida State in 2022 and 2023 and a loss to USC to start the 2024 season.
Florida visits Tiger Stadium in Week 3 and the schedule also includes trips to Ole Miss, Alabama and Oklahoma along with home games against South Carolina and Texas A&M.
Mississippi State Bulldogs
When you're at the bottom of the SEC, you're automatically facing one of the toughest schedules in the country. And it's hard to see how Jeff Lebby is going to get the first conference win of his MSU coaching career in 2025 without a massive upset.
The Bulldogs' home schedule features games against Tennessee, Texas, Georgia and the season-ending rivalry game with Ole Miss while the road slate has trips to Texas A&M, Florida and Missouri. Oh, defending Big 12 champion Arizona State also comes to Starkville as part of a home-and-home series between the two schools.
Good luck, Bulldogs fans.
Oklahoma Sooners
We're high on Oklahoma ahead of the 2025 season. The Sooners offense should be much, much better with offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and quarterback John Mateer arriving from Washington State. The defense was really good in 2024 and should be again in 2025. It just couldn't make up for the deficiencies at quarterback and injuries elsewhere on the offense a year ago.
If Oklahoma is a playoff contender this season, it will be on the right side of any and all strength of schedule arguments barring a lot of surprises. The Sooners host Michigan in Week 2 and their final seven games of the season are a gauntlet. After the annual rivalry game vs. Texas in Dallas, Oklahoma plays at South Carolina, Ole Miss, at Tennessee, at Alabama, Missouri and LSU to end the season.
Purdue Boilermakers
Barry Odom's rebuilding job at Purdue is going to take a little bit. The Boilermakers were perhaps the worst power conference team in the country in 2024. Their only win came in Week 1 against FCS Indiana State.
With games against Ball State and Southern Illinois to open the season, Purdue should start 2-0. From there, it gets rough. Purdue hosts USC and then visits Notre Dame before September is even over. October includes a home game vs. playoff sleeper Illinois and November looks rough. The Boilermakers open the month with back-to-back games against Michigan and Ohio State before ending the season against Washington and Indiana.
Syracuse Orange
The Orange had an incredibly strong 10-3 record in Fran Brown's first season at the helm. Getting to double-digit wins in 2025 will be an even bigger achievement with an offense that's almost entirely brand new.
Syracuse opens the season in Atlanta against Tennessee and visits Clemson in Week 4 before finishing September against a Duke team that won nine games in 2024. In addition to that trip to Death Valley, Syracuse also goes to SMU, Georgia Tech, Miami and Notre Dame. That's an incredibly daunting road schedule and the home schedule isn't a cakewalk either. The Orange also get Pitt, North Carolina and Boston College at the dome in ACC play.
UCLA Bruins
The Bruins' first season in the Big Ten ended at 5-7. It was also DeShaun Foster's first year as head coach after Chip Kelly's departure to Ohio State.
If UCLA gets back to a bowl game in 2025, the Bruins will have probably pulled an upset or two over the course of the season. UCLA hosts Utah — a favorite in the Big 12 after a down year in 2024 — to open the season and has a sneakily tough game at UNLV in Week 2. The Rebels made the Mountain West title game in 2024.
From there, the schedule includes Penn State, Ohio State, Indiana, Nebraska, Washington and USC. That's three teams from last year's College Football Playoff and three others who have hopes of being in the mix in the Big Ten title race.
Wisconsin Badgers
The Luke Fickell era at Wisconsin has resulted in 12 wins in two seasons. Six wins in 2025 could be a massive accomplishment.
Wisconsin may have the toughest schedule in college football in 2025. The Badgers visit Alabama in Week 3 after getting obliterated at home by the Crimson Tide in 2024. And Wisky's Big Ten schedule is flat-out rough. Wisconsin visits Michigan, Oregon and Indiana, and hosts Ohio State and Illinois. If that's not bad enough, the Badgers end the season with a game at Minnesota. The Gophers have won three of the last four rivalry contests.
It could be a really rough season in Madison.
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