Three Boston College Opponents Land in First AP Top 25 Poll: Looking Into Each Matchup

The first Associated Press Top-25 college football poll hit the internet Monday morning, with Texas making history as the Longhorns will open the season ranked No. 1 for the first time in program history.

Texas is No. 1 in the preseason AP Top 25 for the first time, just ahead of No. 2 Penn State.

See where other top teams rank. https://t.co/qXJ5AkXKho
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 11, 2025

Of the initial 25 teams to be selected for the AP poll—which, down the line, plays a major role in the College Football Playoff Committee’s final selections for the college football postseason—three are scheduled to play the Boston College football program.

Those teams are No. 4 Clemson, No. 6 Notre Dame and No. 16 Southern Methodist (SMU).

Take a deeper look at each matchup and where things stand between the Eagles and all three of the programs which are poised to have big seasons, according to the Associated Press.

Clemson at Boston College, Oct. 11, time TBD

The Tigers are one of two teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference to reach the 2024 College Football Playoff in the first edition of the 12-team playoff format—SMU was the other.

Clemson is returning a full cast of major playmakers, notably quarterback Cade Klubnik, the 2025 Preseason ACC Player of the Year, and wide receiver Antonio WIlliams, defensive end T.J. Parker, defensive tackle Peter Woods, and cornerback Avieon Terrell, who all were selected to the 2025 All-ACC Preseason First Team in addition to Klubnik.

Additional notables include offensive lineman Blake Miller (tackle), Walker Parks (guard) and Ryan Linthicum (center), wide receiver Bryant Wesco Jr., and linebackers Wade Woodaz and Sammy Brown.

The Tigers are tested right away this upcoming year with a season-opening contest against the AP’s preseason No. 9 team, Louisiana State (LSU), at home before hosting Troy then traveling to Georgia Tech and North Carolina with a stop at home to face Syracuse in between. Next up is Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Clemson will arguably be the toughest task for BC head coach Bill O’Brien despite playing the Tigers at home, in Alumni Stadium, but the Eagles are known to play up to their opponents’ level when they are considered the underdogs—defeating then-No. 24 SMU in the 2023 Wasabi Fenway Bowl is a good example.

BC is heavily reliant on the run game, which could be an issue considering the strength of Clemson’s front seven, especially in Woods and Parker—both are projected to fall in the first or second round of the 2026 National Football League (NFL) Draft, according to ESPN.

Facing Dabo Swinney’s Tigers, however, does not carry the same weight that an opponent like SMU or Notre Dame will for BC.

The Fighting Irish and BC have carried on the tradition of the “Holy War” every time a matchup arises between the two programs, due to the fact that the two Universities are both prominent Catholic, higher-education institutions in the nation.

As for the Mustangs and the Eagles, that rivalry is just beginning to blossom—and it’s getting feistier as the matchup draws nearer and nearer.

Notre Dame at Boston College, Nov. 1, time TBD

It is difficult to tell how Notre Dame, the reigning 2025 National Champion runner-ups, will fare in 2025 without former starting quarterback Riley Leonard—who transferred from Duke for his final college football season—as its signal caller.

According to Yahoo Sports, the Fighting Irish have still not named a starting quarterback despite narrowing down the choices to two players, CJ Carr and Kenny Minchey.

Leonard’s backup in 2024, Steve Angeli, was viewed as a potential favorite to be the Fighting Irish’s starter in 2025, but the 21-year old redshirt junior had other plans, transferring to Fran Brown’s Syracuse in the offseason to compete in an alternate quarterback competition.

With that being said, Notre Dame possesses who is potentially the most lethal backfield threat in the nation, running back Jeremiyah Love. Love, a junior, is coming off an 1,000-yard rushing season in just his first year as the program’s starting running back. He averaged 6.9 yards per carry in 2024 along with totaling 17 touchdowns on the ground and 237 receiving yards along with two touchdown receptions.

Love is going to be a real problem no matter who the Fighting Irish are facing, and the Eagles lost some of their most-experienced players up front on the defensive side, chiefly defensive end Donovan Ezeiruaku, defensive tackle Cam Horsley, and linebacker Kam Arnold, to the NFL.

With the Catholic connection, there will likely be a massive Fighting Irish following in attendance for the “Holy War” matchup this season at Alumni Stadium, making this an even tougher task for BC despite hosting the game.

Notre Dame does, however, own one of the more difficult schedules in all of the FBS in 2025. The Fighting Irish are slated for contests against Miami, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Boise State, NC State, USC, Navy, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Stanford, which is not a light schedule by any stretch of imagination.

SMU at Boston College, Nov. 8, time TBD

The first time BC and the Mustangs faced one another since 1986 occurred in 2023 during the postseason at Fenway Park in Boston, Mass. SMU was ranked at the time and was the clear favorite to win the matchup despite the loss of its starting quarterback, Preston Stone, to a season-ending injury.

But the Eagles fought valiantly with Thomas Castellanos under center and eked out a 23-14 upset win, which put BC’s fanbase into a frenzy from the fallout of the 2023 season with the bowl-game win as the cherry on top.

Ever since, bad blood has become a defining factor of the BC-SMU football matchup, and Mustangs quarterback Kevin Jennings, who played in the Fenway Bowl loss for SMU, acknowledged there is a rivalry in the making between the two programs when he talked at the podium for 2025 ACC Media Days.

SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings, a dark-horse Heisman candidate who led the Mustangs to a CFP appearance last season, acknowledged there IS a rivalry between @SMUFB and @BCFootball.

SMU visits Chestnut Hill on Nov. 8 in 2025—its second-to-last game of the season. pic.twitter.com/GRgQiUiJUb
— Graham Dietz (@graham_dietz) July 22, 2025

Like BC, the Mustangs are returning a decent chunk of their 2024 starters, including Jennings. SMU boasts one of the nation’s most dominant secondaries, with safety Isaiah Nwokobia at the helm of the unit.

The Eagles will be coming off their matchup against Notre Dame before hosting the Mustangs, which is a turnaround the players will have to be resilient for in order to put up a fight just a week after hosting arguably one of the NCAA’s best.

The AP’s Preseason Top-25 is just an initial ranking, so there could be a slew of changes to the order of the list by the time these matchups come about. But as far as things stand before the season starts, this is easily the hardest two-week stretch on BC’s 2025 schedule.