College football strength of schedule rankings for 2025 season

Playing a high-quality schedule in college football is more important now than ever before as the playoff selection committee puts more weight onto teams’ opponents before deciding whether to include them in the final rankings every year.

Which leaves the question: How do you determine a quality schedule? One way is to simply count up the wins and losses of your opponents from the season before.

But that method is far from perfect: the transfer portal, changes in recruiting results, prospects not panning out, injuries, the loss of players who exhausted eligibility or turned pro, all mean that schools are doing major surgery to their rosters just about every offseason.

Plus, there are just the changes that teams organically go through every year as their fortunes improve or worsen from season to season. Not to mention pure luck.

More: AP top 25 preseason college football rankings for 2025

Also, not all wins are created equally, meaning that a team can play an opponent with fewer overall wins but against quality competition, while another team can play a school with more wins but against substandard opposition.

All that said, at this stage of the preseason with no actual tape to watch of teams in their current form against other teams, adding up the Ws and Ls for each team on the schedule is simply the best we can do with the information we actually have.

Who has the easiest schedule of any Power Four team this coming season? That just might be Texas Tech, one of several genuine contenders in the wide-open Big 12 title race, and arguably college football’s most improved team this offseason.

Michigan, two years removed from winning the national championship, isn’t far behind, either, which could put this Big Ten power back in the conversation in 2025.

As expected, the SEC clogs up much of the very top of these standings given the quality of competition in that conference every season: six of the top dozen teams in this strength of schedule rankings hail from the Southeastern Conference, and three of the top five.

Here’s the complete list, from the easiest to the hardest.

College football strength of schedule rankings for 2025 season

136. Northern Illinois — 59-91 (39.3%)

135. Jacksonville State — 61-86 (41.5%)

134. San Jose State — 64-88 (42.1%)

133. Akron — 63-86 (42.3%)

132. Toledo — 67-85 (44.1%)

T-130. Kent State — 66-83 (44.3%)

T-130. Texas Tech — 66-83 (44.3%)

129. Central Michigan — 67-84 (44.4%)

128. Buffalo — 67-83 (44.7%)

127. Michigan — 68-84 (44.7%)

T-125. Hawai’i — 67-82 (45%)

T-125. New Mexico State — 67-82 (45%)

123. Wyoming — 69-82 (45.7%)

122. UL Monroe — 69-81 (46%)

121. Liberty — 69-79 (46.6%)

T-119. South Alabama — 71-81 (46.7%)

T-119. Florida State — 71-81 (46.7%)

118. Fresno State — 71-80 (47%)

117. Navy — 72-81 (47.1%)

T-114. Virginia — 72-80 (47.4%)

T-114. UMass — 72-80 (47.4%)

T-114. Colorado State — 72-80 (47.4%)

113. Bowling Green — 71-78 (47.7%)

112. Missouri State — 73-80 (47.7%)

111. Kennesaw State — 71-77 (48%)

110. Ball State — 74-79 (48.4%)

109. Delaware — 73-77 (48.7%)

108. New Mexico — 74-78 (48.7%)

T-105. Georgia Southern — 74-77 (49%)

T-105. UNLV — 74-77 (49%)

T-105. Cincinnati — 74-77 (49%)

104. Boise State — 75-78 (49%)

103. UConn — 73-75 (49.3%)

102. Western Kentucky — 74-76 (49.3%)

T-100. UCF — 75-77 (49.3%)

T-100. Indiana — 75-77 (49-3%)

99. Baylor — 74-75 (49.7%)

T-97. Kansas — 75-76 (49.7%)

T-97. Virginia Tech — 75-76 (49.7%)

T-91. MTSU — 75-75 (50%)

T-91. Nebraska — 76-76 (50%)

T-91. Wake Forest — 75-75 (50%)

T-91. BYU — 75-75 (50%)

T-91. Missouri — 76-76 (50%)

T-91. Nevada — 78-78 (50%)

90. Coastal Carolina — 75-74 (50.3%)

T-88. Sam Houston State — 78-76 (50.6%)

T-88. Illinois — 78-76 (50.6%)

T-86. Arkansas State — 77-75 (50.7%)

T-86. Tennessee — 77-75 (50.7%)

85. Minnesota — 79-76 (51%)

T-83. Army — 78-75 (51%)

T-83. Utah State — 78-75 (51%)

T-81. Appalachian State — 77-74 (51%)

T-81. Cal — 77-74 (51%)

80. Ohio — 80-76 (51.3%)

79. Temple — 79-75 (51.3%)

78. Louisiana — 77-73 (51.3%)

77. Louisiana Tech — 76-72 (51.4%)

T-74. San Diego State — 79-74 (51.6%)

T-74. Tulsa — 79-74 (51.6%)

T-74. East Carolina — 79-74 (51.6%)

73. Houston — 78-73 (51.7%)

72. North Texas — 79-73 (52%)

71. NC State — 81-74 (52.3%)

70. Washington State — 80-73 (52.3%)

69. Florida Atlantic — 79-72 (52.3%)

68. Ole Miss — 81-73 (52.6%)

67. Rice — 80-72 (52.6%)

T-65. Texas State — 81-72 (52.9%)

T-65. Troy — 81-72 (52.9%)

64. Western Michigan — 82-72 (53.2%)

63. North Carolina — 81-71 (53.3%)

62. Eastern Michigan — 83-72 (53.5%)

T-60. Miami (Ohio) — 82-71 (53.6%)

T-60. Arizona State — 82-71 (53.6%)

59. Oregon State — 81-70 (53.6%)

T-57. Southern Miss — 83-71 (53.9%)

T-57. Vanderbilt — 83-71 (53.9%)

T-55. Tulane — 82-70 (53.9%)

T-55. Alabama — 82-70 (53.9%)

54. Miami (Fla.) — 85-72 (54.1%)

53. Oklahoma State — 83-70 (54.2%)

52. Maryland — 82-69 (54.3%)

51. Charlotte — 84-70 (54.5%)

50. Kansas State — 83-69 (54.6%)

T-48. Georgia State — 83-68 (55%)

T-48. Utah — 83-68 (55%)

46. Georgia Tech — 86-69 (55.5%)

45. UTEP — 85-68 (55.6%)

44. James Madison — 84-67 (55.6%)

43. Pittsburgh — 86-68 (55.8%)

42. Arizona — 85-67 (55.9%)

41. Old Dominion — 83-65 (56.1%)

T-39. Marshall — 86-67 (56.2%)

T-39. Clemson — 86-67 (56.2%)

38. Michigan State — 88-68 (56.4%)

37. Georgia — 87-67 (56.5%)

36. UAB — 86-66 (56.6%)

T-34. Duke — 88-67 (56.8%)

T-34. Notre Dame — 88-67 (56.8%)

33. SMU — 87-66 (56.9%)

32. UTSA — 89-67 (57.1%)

31. Northwestern — 90-67 (57.3%)

T-29. Louisville — 90-66 (57.7%)

T-29. Florida — 90-66 (57.7%)

28. Ohio State — 92-67 (57.9%)

27. USF — 88-64 (57.9%)

T-25. Penn State — 91-66 (58%)

T-25. Stanford — 91-66 (58%)

24. FIU — 82-59 (58.2%)

T-22. Oregon — 92-66 (58.2%)

T-22. UCLA — 92-66 (58.2%)

21. Auburn — 91-65 (58.3%)

20. Colorado — 89-63 (58.6%)

19. Texas A&M — 92-65 (58.6%)

18. USC — 91-64 (58.7%)

17. Boston College — 93-65 (58.9%)

16. Iowa — 93-64 (59.2%)

15. West Virginia — 91-62 (59.5%)

14. Air Force — 92-62 (59.7%)

T-12. Washington — 94-63 (59.9%)

T-12. LSU — 94-63 (59.9%)

10. Iowa State — 93-61 (60.4%)

9. South Carolina — 94-61 (60.6%)

8. Oklahoma — 96-61 (61.1%)

7. Rutgers — 101-61 (62.3%)

6. TCU — 100-58 (63.3%)

5. Syracuse — 102-58 (63.8%)

T-3. Wisconsin — 103-56 (64.8%)

T-3. Mississippi State — 103-56 (64.8%)

2. Kentucky — 102-55 (65%)

1. Arkansas — 106-53 (66.7%)

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College football strength of schedule rankings for 2025 season

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