Phil Steele Releases Strength of Schedule Rankings: Where Does Georgia Tech Rank?

The 2025 college football season is a little over two months away, and leading up to the season, one of the most interesting teams for 2025 is Georgia Tech. After back-to-back seven-win seasons, it seems like Brent Key's program might be ready to break through in a bigger way. Since taking over as the head coach, Key has put together two impressive seasons of wins over ranked teams and has added more talent to the roster. With enough returning experience, coaching stability on the offensive side of the ball, a talented transfer portal and high school recruiting classes, and a favorable schedule, some are projecting Georgia Tech to be among the ACC's top teams.

Phil Steele is one of the top analysts in the game, and his preseason magazine is always a must-read during the offseason. Steele has Georgia Tech as a top five team in the ACC heading into the 2025 season and ranked their schedule among the top 50 most difficult in the nation, coming in at No. 42. The Yellow Jackets annually have one of the toughest schedules in the country and 42nd is unusually low for them, which is one of the reasons some national analysts think they can be a factor in the ACC race this season.

Syracuse is projected to have the toughest schedule in the ACC and the 5th toughest in the country.

Here is how he sees the ACC playing out:

1. Clemson

2. Miami

3. SMU

4. Louisville

5. Georgia Tech

6. Duke

7. Virginia Tech

8. Pittsburgh

9. Boston College

10 Florida State

11. NC State

12. Syracuse

13. North Carolina

14. Virginia

15. Cal

16. Wake Forest

17. Stanford

In a recent article, CBS Sports analyst Chip Patterson gave a best and worst case scenario for the Yellow Jackets in 2025:

"Best case 9-3: The Yellow Jackets play a big role in the ACC Championship race with an impressive stack of conference wins. Whether Georgia Tech's 9-3 will be good enough for at-large contention in the CFP comes down to its games against Clemson (in September) and Georgia (in November), but even flirting with nine wins requires another strong year from the quarterback position and more clutch performances in close games.

Worst case 5-7: Georgia Tech faces a six-game stretch -- from Virginia Tech on Oct. 11 to Pitt on Nov. 22 -- where each matchup could be a one-score game based on current projections. If the Yellow Jackets go 2-4 during that run, they could enter the final week of the season needing a win just to reach bowl eligibility, rather than trying to solidify a playoff case."

While this is the most favorable schedule that Georgia Tech has had in a long time, they are not likely to be double-digit favorites in any games aside from Gardner-Webb, Temple, and possibly Wake Forest. The seven games against Virginia Tech, Duke, Syracuse, Pitt, Boston College, NC State, and Colorado are going to be games where Georgia Tech is either slightly favored or potentially a slight underdog. Most will be focused on the two major games against Clemson and Georgia, but winning those toss-up games is going to be essential for the Yellow Jackets this season, and they have to avoid stubbing their toe.