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Heel Tough Blog: Tar Heels Named a CFP Team for 2025 by ESPN

Writer's picture: Anthony PagnottaAnthony Pagnotta
Dylan Buell-
Dylan Buell-

The ACC just released their conference's full schedules for the 2025 season and there are already some predictions rolling in for what the College Football Playoffs may look like next year.


ESPN’s Bill Connolly put together the way-too-early playoff predictions for this year on Monday morning based off of the way-too-early Top 25 that fellow ESPN college football writer Mark Schlabach put out and while there were a lot of familiar faces, there was one that was particularly surprising.


While Louisville being the ACC champion is certainly a bit of a shock, the bigger shock is the Tar Heels, who are projected to make the field by Schlabach as the final at-large team. They are projected to head on the road to take on the Texas Longhorns in the first round of the playoffs where they are expected to be eliminated.


So the question is, how realistic is this? Even with Bill Belichick on the sideline, this feels like it might just be asking a little too much. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible, though. With a great football mind like Belichick, just about anything is possible, but it is hard to expect this as a Tar Heel football fan.


The reality is, the Tar Heels have a schedule that sets them up to have a very successful season. The team avoids the trio of Louisville, Miami and SMU, meaning they only have to face one of the four teams that many expect will compete for the conference title this season. While that should allow them to be competitive in the ACC race, the team does still have to face Clemson at home and take road trips to Syracuse and NC State that will prevent us from believing they actually make it to the CFP in Belichick’s first season.


So where exactly should the expectation level be for Tar Heel fans then? 9-3 feels like the safest spot to set expectations, especially with a lot of the roster returning from last year and the quarterback spot being in the state that it is in right now.


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