Stanford Football Projected for Slight Improvement in 2025

We're still a couple of months away from Stanford football season officially beginning, but now is the time for the prognostications to begin. Over at ESPN, they released their projections for the ACC earlier this week, and while they still had the Cardinal near the bottom of the conference, they weren't quite all the way there, and they also gave Stanford a much needed record boost.

According to the projected standings, they have Stanford finishing with a 4.7-7.3 record. Heck, even if you round down that's an improvement over the past four seasons, and is certainly the direction the program is looking to head in. While it may not be the boost that fans are hoping for, it would signal that the program is on the right path under GM Andrew Luck.

They also use another statistic, FPI, which is defined as "Football Power Index that measures team's true strength on net points scale; expected point margin vs. average opponent on neutral field."

In essence, if the Cardinal played an average team at a neutral site, here is what FPI thinks of them. Stanford came in ever so slightly in the positive with a 0.8. The one team ranked behind them, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, hold a -5.7. Unfortunately, Wake Forest is not on Stanford's schedule this season.

The team just ahead of the Cardinal in this metric, the Virginia Cavaliers, are on the schedule, however. They ranked No. 15 in FPI with a 1.2. On paper (or computer screen) this matchup should be pretty close, though FPI is more for facing an average opponent on a neutral field, and this will be a similarly ranked opponent in Virginia.

This could be a big statement game for Stanford to set themselves apart on Saturday, September 20.

As for the program's other conference games, Boston College ranks No. 8 with a 4.1 FPI, though they also rank No. 50 in the Football Power Index vs. all FBS teams. Stanford is ranked No. 64. This is another game that could show us something about the football team this year, and it comes the week before the Virginia game.

Coming off those two matchups, Stanford will face San Jose State on Saturday, September 27, and will hopefully pull out a win this time around, because the following game (after a bye week) they'll face one of the toughest opponents in the ACC, SMU. They have an FPI rating of 12.1 and are ranked No. 20 against all FBS programs.

After a 2-10 season in 2024, Florida State is expected to bounce back a bit, as they're ranked as the No. 7 team in the ACC, just ahead of Boston College. They're No. 48 overall, so this could be another one of those games that a well-oiled Stanford squads could be dangerous in. It's also the Reunion Homecoming game, and is set to take place at home for the Cardinal.

No. 1 in the ACC Miami and No. 12 Pittsburgh follow that one, with Miami an away matchup, and Pitt back at home. Then it'll be time to face former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and UNC, who are ranked No. 51 on the big scale, and No. 9 (just behind BC) in the ACC.

California (No. 13) rounds out the rest of the conference schedule, and they hold a FBS rank of No. 60. Yet another game that Stanford should have a pretty decent shot in. The season wraps up with a game against Notre Dame at Stanford on Saturday, November 28.

While these are preseason rankings and we still have a lot to learn about the roster, how it'll function, who fits where, and new head coach Frank Reich's plans for this program in 2025, this schedule has plenty of games in which the Cardinal should be competitive in. The biggest question will be how the players respond to Reich.

While he has NFL head coaching experience, it's also known that he's only going to be around for one season while Stanford conducts their nationwide search for its next head coach. There are questions surrounding the program, but there should also be some cautious optimism with this group, too.