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Jackson's bold predictions for Conference Championship week of the 2025 college football season, including picks for Georgia, Indiana, Texas Tech, Duke, and North Texas.
The college football regular season has concluded, which means it's time for conference championship week! Yes, you can argue the expanded College Football Playoff has diminished the importance of these title games to some extent. Still, some schools are playing for potential playoff spots, and you never know what the CFP committee will do as a reaction to this slate of games.
If you're in the championship game, you might as well win it versus underselling the importance, right? Most importantly, it's another week of college football, and we don't have many left. So let's enjoy!
First, let's dive into five bold predictions for conference championship week, including picks for the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, and American Conference title games.
Georgia Beats Alabama by 10+
Spread: Georgia -2.5
Kirby Smart is arguably the greatest active coach in college football, and many have deemed him the next iteration of Nick Saban. He's won two College Football Playoff National Championships and three SEC titles, but his Achilles heel has been Alabama, even after the departure of Saban. Smart is now 1-7 against the Crimson Tide all-time, including 0-2 against Kalen DeBoer's Alabama team. This season, Alabama snapped Georgia's 33-game home winning streak.
But this one will be different, right? I think so.
Despite the Bulldogs' lackluster showing against Georgia Tech last week, the team overall looks much improved compared to its September form. Gunner Stockton has come on as arguably the best QB in conference play, and Georgia's defense, which surrendered 41 points against Tennessee, has tightened up. Overall, Georgia is a much better and well-rounded team than it was early in the year.
Conversely, Alabama still has no ground game, and its offense overall hasn't looked right since the November 8 meeting with LSU. If Georgia can force a turnover or two, I think it has the recipe to hand Alabama a decisive loss
Indiana Ruins Ohio State's Undefeated Season
Spread: Ohio State -5
Ohio State had as close to a perfect regular season as you can dream of. The Buckeyes barely trailed in their 12 games, and they hardly faced any adversity. They allowed just 8.5 points per game this season, and no opponent scored more than 16 points. 10 of 12 opponents were held to 10 or fewer points. Yeah, it's been that good for Matt Patricia. On offense, we already know the team is loaded all over the field.
Will the lack of adversity and laughably bad conference schedule come back to bite the Buckeyes? Yes, and no. I'm picking Indiana to win here, but Ohio State still has everything it wants ahead of them with a win or a loss here.
Indiana is, by far, the best team Ohio State has seen up to this point. The Hoosiers cannot match the Buckeyes in the talent department (it's still not even close), but somehow, Curt Cignetti has his team playing and performing like a roster of five-star recruits. Talent aside, Indiana is the most well-coached team in the country, and that still counts for something, right?
Julian Sayin and Fernando Mendoza are the only two FBS QBs with 30+ passing touchdowns and 5-or-fewer interceptions this season 🔥
Who will have the bigger game Saturday? pic.twitter.com/OjAd8R6cb4
— Big Noon Kickoff (@BNKonFOX) December 2, 2025
I've doubted Indiana plenty, but the 10-point win in Eugene should give us confidence that they can hang here.
Texas Tech Beats BYU by 20+ Again
Spread: Texas Tech -12.5
Yes, Kalani Sitake's reported flirting with Penn State could be a distraction for the Cougars, but this prediction is unrelated to that. Sitake is reportedly staying put, so it should not be a significant factor.
We saw Texas Tech dominate BYU last month in Lubbock, and it was not just some kind of heroic performance for Texas Tech and a rough showing for BYU. That result just showed us exactly who Texas Tech is, and that's a legitimate contender to make a deep playoff run.
Among Big 12 teams on a per-game basis, the Red Raiders rank first in total yards (489.2), second in passing yards (295.6), third in rushing yards (193.6), first in points (43.2), first in total defense (258.9), fourth in passing defense (190.0), first in rushing defense (68.9), and first in points allowed (11.3). This team has no weaknesses, and it can expose your weaknesses with ease.
That's a catch on Sundays, folks 🔥#SCTop10 | 📺 ESPN pic.twitter.com/fkI1O0VtQE
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) November 29, 2025
Unless BYU converts into a high-powered passing attack out of nowhere, it's tough to find a path toward victory or even staying competitive. And although Texas Tech wants to stay healthy heading into the College Football Playoff, they are going to try to put up style points in search of a first-round bye.
BYU has willed its way to victory this season with a hard-nosed style and attacking defense. But Texas Tech is simply a tier or two above.
Duke Wins ACC Title, Creating More CFP Chaos
Spread: Virginia -3.5
Who predicted the Virginia vs. five-loss Duke matchup in the ACC title game this preseason? Duke winning is inevitable to create chaos for the College Football Playoff committee, right? That's a fun narrative, but there's reason to believe the Blue Devils can pull this off.
Standout sophomore quarterback Darian Mensah gives the Blue Devils a shot in any game, but he happened to put on his worst performance of the season in the matchup with the Cavaliers. Mensah threw for just 213 yards (second-lowest this season) and completed a season-low 51.4 percent of his passes, throwing just one touchdown.
Of course, Virginia's defense had something to do with that, but the unit hasn't performed at a high level against other upper-echelon offenses. Its defense surrendered 33.3 points per game and 437.6 yards per game in matchups against NC State, Louisville, and Florida State. Its defensive numbers are inflated by matchups with Coastal Carolina, William & Mary, Stanford, Washington State, North Carolina, and Virginia Tech.
Duke's poor offensive showing and Virginia's great defensive showing in Durham looks more like an outlier than what we should expect to happen in Charlotte. The Hoos have found a way to win close games, and that matters. But the overall profile of the team is not one that gives me a lot of confidence. At his best, Mensah is the best player in this game, and I'm calling for him to put on a much better performance on the biggest stage of his football career thus far.
Darian Mensah showing off the wheels 😈 pic.twitter.com/DUlNATxahr
— Duke Football (@DukeFOOTBALL) November 29, 2025
If you're a neutral fan, you likely want to see this play out just to cause chaos.
North Texas, Tulane Combine for 80+ Points
Game Total: 66.5
Both Eric Morris (Oklahoma State) and Jon Sumrall (Florida) are headed out of the American Conference after this season. It's only right for this to be an all-time classic conference championship shootout. The projected game total is already at a whopping 66.5 points. Let's take it a step further.
Both teams are competent on defense, and North Texas has the advantage on offense, but a QB matchup between Drew Mestemaker and Jake Retzlaff is one of the best non-Power 5 signal-callers duels you'll see. And when either quarterback gets hot, they're tough to spot. The precedent for each team to give up a ton of points is already there. North Texas allowed South Florida to score a whopping 63 points, while Tulane gave up 45 to Ole Miss (excusable) and 48 to UTSA (not so much).
Drew Mestemaker’s 608 passing yard performance pic.twitter.com/o3Ph2p5AwX
— NFL Draft Files (@NFL_DF) November 1, 2025
The record for the highest-scoring conference championship game is from this conference in 2017, when UCF and Memphis combined for 117 total points. I'm not saying this game will challenge that, but it would be cool if it did!
