This article was originally published on www.si.com/fannation/college/cfb-hq as College football's biggest surprise teams in 2025, per Phil Steele. Like life itself, college football is full of surprises, upsets, teams that should have been great but flopped, and should have been terrible but made a run, and the 2025 season should be no different.

College football may be a sport dominated by blue blood powers, but the programs atop the sport can still change in an instant, especially in the transfer portal era. Think about the 2024 College Football Playoff.

As much attention is rightfully paid to quarterbacks, a signal-caller's job is less complicated when he's throwing to a star receiver.