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The best thing about the new year — besides champagne toasts, the parades and sunsets over the Rose Bowl — is the opportunity to wipe the slate clean, hit the reset button and begin anew.
It’s a fresh start no one in sports needs more than the ACC.
It’s not as if 2024 was a total disaster for the conference. NC State basketball fashioned a feel-good story by coming out of nowhere to win the ACC tournament and advance to the Final Four. The ACC tied a College World Series record by filling half the bracket in Omaha. And SMU earned an at-large bid into the College Football Playoff in its first league season.
But perception is reality.
And with the national perception of the conference already smoldering in the dumpster, its detractors have been only too happy to pile on after a historically bad finish to the year in which the ACC went 2-14 in its basketball “Challenge” against the SEC and 2-11 in football’s postseason, including double-digit Playoff losses by both Clemson and SMU.
Even though extenuating circumstances have contributed to several of the bowl losses, including injuries, mid-game opt-outs and a couple of highly questionable calls, the optics of the league’s dismal performance paint a dismal picture.
It’s a gloom that can only be brightened by the dawn of a new year and the fresh start it brings.
With that in mind, here are 5 reasons to be optimistic about ACC football in 2025:
5. Bill Belichick’s influence on North Carolina
UNC has often been called a sleeping giant because of its facilities, resources, location and reputation. But as of yet, no one has found the secret to awakening it. But that might finally be ready to change. What better way of rousting a giant from its slumber than by bringing in a giant to do it?
And there’s no one bigger in the coaching profession than Belichick.
The former New England Patriots legend has brought his hoodie and his 6 Super Bowl rings to Chapel Hill in hopes of elevating the Tar Heels to the top of the college football food chain. His effort will be aided greatly by the kind of financial commitment necessary to compete at the highest level. A good portion of that money will have to be used on upgrading a roster from the one that stumbled to a 6-7 record under Mack Brown in 2024 and lost top playmaker Omarion Hampton to the NFL Draft.
Belichick’s arrival has already attracted the kind of national attention usually reserved for UNC basketball, and it has put the program on the radar for high-end transfers it might not otherwise have gotten. Though hiring a 72-year-old coach with no previous college experience is a gamble that could flame out spectacularly just as easily as it pays off, it guarantees that the Tar Heels will be a team everyone around the country will be watching come September.
4. SMU isn’t going anywhere
Don’t be so fast in dismissing the Mustangs as a 1-year wonder aided by a favorable schedule that avoided the ACC’s best teams and caught Florida State in an unexpected state of disarray. There’s no reason to believe they’ll suffer a major dropoff — if any at all — in 2025.
Coach Rhett Lashlee is a proven winner who has taken his team to conference championship games in each of the past 2 seasons (in 2 different conferences). He received a contract extension and a raise, persuading him to stay in Dallas rather than entertain offers from other schools. And his program has raised its recruiting profile by becoming “America’s Team” in the days leading up to the Playoff selection show.
There are plenty of holes to fill, especially with 1,000-yard rusher Brashard Smith and the pass-rushing duo of Elijah Roberts and Jahfari Harvey out of eligibility. But with dual-threat quarterback Kevin Jennings among those already committed to returning, there’s a solid foundation upon which to build another successful season.
3. Jeff Brohm is just getting started at Louisville
Brohm was hailed as a conquering hero when the former Purdue coach was hired by his alma mater in December 2022. Two seasons into his tenure, the former Cardinals quarterback has delivered on the promise. He followed up a 10-win debut that included a trip to the ACC Championship Game by going 9-4 this season, including a dominating win against Clemson at Death Valley.
The key to his immediate success has been his deft use of the transfer portal. Brohm’s first team was stocked by the addition of 25 veteran free agents. When the majority of them left, he went out and found 27 more additions to replace them.
Brohm has had especially good luck with his quarterbacks, which shouldn’t come as a surprise considering his background as a player and offensive guru. Jack Plummer threw for 3,200 yards and 21 touchdowns in 2023. Tyler Shough posted nearly identical numbers this season. So it’s a reasonable assumption that his latest pickup, Southern Cal transfer Miller Moss, will keep up the tradition.
Combined with 1,100-yard rusher Isaac Brown, the ACC’s Offensive Rookie of the Year, and a new crop of transfer talent, Louisville should be among the top contenders for the conference title and its automatic Playoff bid.
2. Syracuse is trending upward
Like a winter squall rolling off Lake Ontario, Fran Brown stormed into Syracuse and announced his presence with authority. The former Georgia assistant injected an immediate jolt of energy into a perpetually stagnant program with his infectious enthusiasm and vision.
And he didn’t just talk a good game.
Within a month of his arrival, he attracted a franchise quarterback in Ohio State’s Kyle McCord, 3 transfers who came with him from Georgia, where he coached defensive backs, and Syracuse’s highest-rated freshman class (No. 37) since the current rating format came into existence. He then parlayed all that talent into a 10-3 team that earned victories against ranked opponents UNLV and Miami and ended on a 4-game winning streak.
Carrying momentum over from one season to the next is never a given, as Virginia Tech learned this year, But even with a more challenging schedule that includes dates against Tennessee, Notre Dame, SMU and Clemson, Brown’s reputation as one of the nation’s top recruiters and the potential return of McCord, who has petitioned the NCAA for an additional season of eligibility, have the Orange positioned to take another step forward in 2025.
1. Clemson is ready to roar again
Picking the Tigers to win the ACC and position itself to earn a spot in the College Football Playoff is nothing new. It’s an annual occurrence. But unlike the past few seasons in which Dabo Swinney’s teams have faded onto the fringes of national relevance, 2025 promises to be different.
Virtually everyone of significance from this year’s league champions has announced his decision to return. It’s a list that starts with quarterback Cade Klubnik, who finally realized his 5-star potential by throwing for 3,639 yards and 36 touchdowns and will start the year as a legitimate Heisman contender. His top 3 receiving threats, including fantastic freshmen Bryant Wesco Jr. and T.J. Moore, are also returning, as are ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year Sammy Brown and star pass rushers T.J. Parker and Peter Woods.
On top of that, Swinney has broken with his long-standing tradition and begun taking in transfers. The first 2 are Purdue edge rusher Will Heldt and Southeast Missouri State receiver Tristan Smith. Clemson’s better-late-than-never entry into the portal doesn’t necessarily signal a change in culture for Swinney and his program. But it is an acknowledgment that to keep up with the rest of college football, at least some changes had to be made.
The Tigers were going to be picked to win the ACC again next season no matter what. That selection will be a lot more relevant now that those changes have finally begun to happen.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
