Prominent CFB analyst sees the LSU Tigers closer to the middle pack of the SEC than a legitimate championship contender in 2025

For the first time in several years, the SEC conference feels as wide open as it ever has been. It promises to be an extremely interesting 2025 college football season with a ton of twists, turns, and volatility, and the SEC could exemplify that perfectly. You can thank the effects that NIL and the Transfer Portal have had to create a much higher level of parity. 

Heading into the season, there are a lot of high expectations for head coach Brian Kelly and the LSU program entering year four. Coach Kelly’s squad has done some good things over his three seasons in charge, but they need a breakthrough year in Baton Rouge soon. The program has invested heavily to make that jump happen. 

During this past offseason, LSU invested a ton into the Transfer Portal, something we haven’t seen much of under Coach Kelly thus far. Some of their top acquisitions included wide receivers Barion Brown and Nic Anderson, pass rusher Patrick Payton, cornerback Mansoor Delane, and offensive linemen Josh Thompson and Braelin Moore. With a lot of money and effort invested, it has only made the 2025 season that much more important. 

Most believe that the Tigers will indeed take a massive step forward in 2025. There are several that have predicted they will make a playoff run, and others who even believe they have the talent to win the conference. The expectations are extremely high, and potentially daunting. 

Those expectations aren’t quite as high for college football analyst Josh Pate, who released his SEC rankings heading into the 2025 season. On that list, LSU was sixth of that group of 14, finishing with a projected 8-4 overall record. That was behind Alabama, Texas, Florida, Georgia, and Texas A&M in the hierarchy of the conference. That 8-4 record would match Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ole Miss, and Missouri on that list.