2025 preseason predictions for College Football Playoff field, Heisman Trophy winner
Yes, in the coming days-and-weeks, college football will be back for the start of the 2025 season, kicking things off nationwide with a loaded Week 1 that will feature the nation's top two teams, per the US LBM Coaches Poll, playing each other.
Following that matchup will be countless games throughout the following months, which will include some of the top rivalries in college football, ranked showdowns, and more to ultimately determine which teams will end up make the College Football Playoff (CFP) come December.
With the top individual award in college football, the Heisman Trophy, also announced in December, why not make a few preseason predictions surrounding both of those to predict what might happen, as well as to see if the Alabama Crimson Tide will be included?
Here are some preseason predictions for the College Football Playoff field, national champion, the Heisman Trophy winner, and more this upcoming season.
2025 12-team College Football Playoff field
Alabama is likely projected to return to the College Football Playoff this upcoming season after barely missing a year ago. The conference breakdown for the predicted CFP field are four SEC teams, three Big Ten, two ACC, one Big 12, one MWC, and one independent.
2025 College Football Playoff National Championship Game
As for the two teams to make it to the national title game out of that aforementioned field, I'll go with the Big Ten vs. SEC showdown in Penn State and Texas. This matchup would feature an intriguing quarterback showdown between Drew Allar and Arch Manning, as well as countless other college football stars such as Nick Singleton, Anthony Hill Jr., Dani Dennis-Sutton, and Colin Simmons, among others.
2025 College Football Playoff national champion
Led by head coach Steve Sarkisian, Texas has fallen just short of the national championship the last two seasons, as the Longhorns have fallen in the CFP semifinal each of the previous two years. I'll go with the Longhorns to win-it-all this season, which would be Texas' first national championship since 2005.
2025 Heisman Trophy finalists
The predicted Heisman Trophy finalists for later this season included two quarterbacks from the ACC and SEC, as well as a running back and wide receiver both from the Big Ten. None of these four predicted finished in the Top 10 of Heisman voting a year ago, while Manning will be a first-time starter this fall.
2025 Heisman Trophy winner
As for the eventual winner from those four aforementioned finalists, Love certainly has a chance to become Notre Dame's first Heisman Trophy winner this season since Tim Brown back in 1987. Expected to be one of top premier running backs in college football yet again this season, Love is coming off a 2024 campaign in which he led Notre Dame to the national title game by rushing for 1,125 yards and 17 touchdowns on 163 attempts.
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