Dec 28, 2024; San Antonio, TX, USA; Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders reacts with an official after a play during the second quarter against the Brigham Young Cougars at Alamodome. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images As college basketball reaches its annual crescendo and Major League Baseball takes the first steps of its marathon push toward October, college football’s long road to the kickoff of a new season is only active behind the scenes.
The final week of February and the initial weeks of March bring the opening of spring camps around the nation, and by late April, rosters will be locked in for the 2025 season.
Along with early preparations for another season come the months of anticipation and expectations built up ahead of each campaign. Every offseason brings high hopes for teams that will inevitably falter.
Watch out for these three candidates poised to fall victim to this phenomenon in 2025.
Colorado
From the moment Deion Sanders was hired in December 2022, no program has had more hype disproportionate to its results than Colorado—and that includes the Buffaloes’ solid 2024 season.
Although Colorado finished above .500 and reached a bowl game for the first time since 2020—and in the first full season since 2016—the Buffs’ resume was rather middling. A Week 1 nail-biter against FCS powerhouse North Dakota State, as well as victories over Baylor and Texas Tech, were the high points. However, Colorado avoided Big 12 Championship Game qualifiers Arizona State and Iowa State and was boat-raced in the Alamo Bowl against BYU.
With Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter leaving, Colorado has huge holes to fill both on offense and defense. Quarterback Shedeur Sanders is also headed to the NFL, leaving his coach father to lead a team with another signal-caller behind center for the first time since Jackson State went 4-3 in the spring 2021 COVID season.
Colorado needs a bevy of transfers to fill the gaps in a hurry; otherwise, a first half of the season with BYU, at TCU, Iowa State, and at Utah consecutively could doom the Buffs to the lower half of the Big 12 standings.
Indiana
Nov 9, 2024; Bloomington, Indiana, USA; Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti reacts in the game against the Michigan Wolverines at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images The Hoosiers enjoyed a dream season in Curt Cignetti’s debut campaign, winning 11 games for the first time in program history and reaching the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff.
Indiana also went 1-2 in its final three games, with the two losses coming against the only ranked opponents the Hoosiers faced all season. The 38-15 and 27-17 defeats at Ohio State and Notre Dame were both more lopsided than the final score indicated.
Meanwhile, of the 11 wins, only a 20-15 decision against 7-5 Michigan came against competition that finished the season with a record better than .500.
Cal transfer Fernando Mendoza is coming off a 3,004-yard season passing with 16 touchdowns against four interceptions. He should be a nice fit in Indiana’s prolific offense. However, the physical gap that plagued IU in its losses could leave the Hoosiers as Big Ten also-rans against a much tougher league schedule, which sees early dates against Illinois, Iowa, and Oregon after a Charmin-soft non-conference slate (Indiana State, Kennesaw State, and Old Dominion).
Southern California
Oct 5, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley looks on during the second half against the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Huntington Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images It’s become a tradition as synonymous with the transition from summer to autumn as Labor Day weekend cookouts and Halloween decorations going up way too early: USC heads into a new season with buzz thanks to its recruiting and transfer additions, then falls short of expectations before October.
The Trojans were arguably better than their 7-6 record in 2025, losing games at Michigan, Minnesota, Maryland, and Washington, plus a home overtime loss to Penn State, by a combined 20 points. That, combined with a patchwork lineup rallying to beat Texas A&M in the Las Vegas Bowl, could restart the hype machine for the Trojans once more.
But an exodus in the transfer portal that included a multitude of defensive linemen—already an area of concern for the program—promising running back Quinten Joyner, and big-play receivers Zachariah Branch, Kyron Hudson, and Duce Robinson looms ominously over USC’s second season in the Big Ten.
The Trojans ease into 2025 with FBS newcomer Missouri State, Clay Helton’s return to the Coliseum as head coach of Georgia Southern, and a trip to last year’s Big Ten bottom-feeder Illinois. USC needs that stretch to find its identity; otherwise, a three-game stretch of at Illinois, Michigan, and at Notre Dame could restart that familiar refrain following USC for the better part of 15 years.
