Greg McElroy names ‘CFP or bust’ coaches, teams entering 2025

Every team wants to be in the College Football Playoff once kickoff comes in the fall. However, according to Greg McElroy, there are four teams that need to be in it this year for their seasons to be successful ones.

McElroy noted four teams, a pair apiece in the SEC and the ACC, and their coaches who would be playoff-or-bust to him in 2025 on ‘Always College Football’ last week. That’s while fully knowing that, with only a dozen spots, some of these teams won’t be in that field in the end.

“It’s probably a little bit unfair, right,” McElroy admitted. “There’s 12 teams that make the College Football Playoff every single year and those are the teams right now that are at the top of the sport.”

First up for McElroy was his alma mater with the Alabama Crimson Tide. This isn’t too noteworthy as the expectation is contention in every season in Tuscaloosa. That said, since they didn’t during his debut, Kalen DeBoer will be expected to get ‘Bama back into the CFP.

“I think Kalen DeBoer walked into a situation last year that was a lot more difficult than people realize. No one wants to acknowledge that because people just look at the amount of stars that were on the roster and the star ratings of all the players, and the amount of guys that came back with some production in the past and people are going to look at his situation and say, ‘Well, he inherited a great roster and, look, they regressed from a win-loss standpoint’. Yeah, that’s accurate. So, the perception of Alabama’s roster was different than the reality but you’re not going to change the perception overnight,” McEloy said. “People still believe that Alabama has more talent than anybody else in the sport. I would tell you they don’t but it doesn’t change the fact that Kalen DeBoer enters year number two with immense pressure.”

“I’m going to put him in the playoff-or-bust category because, when you’re looking at it through the lens of the Alabama fan, I think they view any season in which they don’t make the playoff as a massive failure, understandably, especially when you take into account the success that they’ve had dating back to 2008,” said McElroy.

LSU was up next for McElroy in a key year for Brian Kelly. This was in part affected by what his former program is doing in their new tenure in South Bend as compared to what he’s doing in his current one in Baton Rouge. Still, even if the Fighting Irish hadn’t done what they did, McElroy would still feel this way considering what all that the Tigers will have on their roster.

“Now, part of this pressure was felt a little bit by the breakthrough that Notre Dame had last year. And I’m not saying that his previous destination has anything to do with his current job status. But, when you see Brian Kelly leave, citing the challenges at Notre Dame to win a national championship to go to LSU where it might be a little bit easier path to win a national championship just based on the fact that the three previous head coaches all won one? It probably looked a little bit like, well, Brian Kelly is taking a job that’s going to get him there faster. And then Marcus Freeman goes on to take Notre Dame within one game of winning the national championship,” McElroy said.

“You look too at what Brian Kelly has coming back this year – improvements are hopefully being made on defense, they’ve adequately addressed the receiver position in the portal, they have a tremendous quarterback. They do have to replace a couple pieces on the offensive line but, you look at what LSU has returning? They have as few question marks as just about anybody not named Texas in the SEC,” McElroy said. “I think this year for LSU is playoff-or-bust. They make the playoff? Good year. They miss the playoff? Feels like a real disappointment, doesn’t it.”

The Miami Hurricanes were the next for McElroy. The ‘U could’ve kept themselves off this list had they finished their past season better and stayed in the playoff standings. Since they didn’t, though, they’ll be asked to make a return on those investments in this season now instead.

“We will include Mario Cristobal. That might feel a little aggressive, especially after last year’s ten-win campaign. But they’ve been slowly building and building and building and building to the point now last year where I felt like, last year, they’d get over the hump. I thought last year was the year they’d win the ACC. Really believe that. I thought, with where Clemson was, where Florida State was…it felt like last year was the year for Miami to really make it,” McElroy said. “Well, they had it on their racket going into the final game of the regular season. They win that game against Syracuse, a good Syracuse team I might add? They win that game, they win the ACC, they’re in the College Football Playoff – even if they lose the ACC Championship.”

“It’d be really interesting, I think, to see what happens with Mario Cristobal in the event in which they come up short yet again. There’s been a significant contribution again in NIL. They went out and got one of the top transfer portal quarterbacks you can find in the country in Carson Beck. I think a lot of people are probably looking at Miami thinking there won’t be much drop off from Cam Ward and what they had last year offensively to what they might have this year if Carson Beck can get back to playing the way he did in 2023,” said McElroy. “So, pretty optimistic about Miami, kind of flying under the radar but, with the resources that Mario Cristobal has been given and just how close they came last year, I think anything less than a playoff appearance this upcoming season would be a pretty big disappointment.”

Finally, the Clemson Tigers, who made the playoff last year for the first time in four seasons, round of the list for McElroy. That’s with this fall being one that their program has been waiting on and preparing themselves for for some time now. Not making it back in now, with what he feels is a better team of theirs, would be a big miss for them.

“Finally, in the playoff-or-bust category? It’s Dabo Swinney…I think, Dabo Swinney? This is the year they’ve had circled. This is the one,” said McElroy. “This is the one they’ve circled dating back to when they went and got Cade Klubnik. Got him, put him into the lineup a little bit as a freshman. The he became the starter year two, wasn’t a great year. They made massive additions in the coaching staff by going out and getting Garrett Riley a couple years ago from TCU…By going out this past year and getting Tom Allen from Penn State to be their defensive coordinator. They’ve been able to retain a lot of their talent that they’ve developed and cultivated over the years. And, guess what? Dabo went out to the portal for the first time this year and really made it a priority to land some guys at positions of need.”

“I think anything less than the playoff this year for Dabo Swinney would be a massive disappointment, I believe. Look, they made it last year. Last year’s team wasn’t as good as this year’s team is probably going to be. It’s the way I see it. People might see if differently but I am a huge believer in Clemson this year. And, if they don’t make it on the year that Dabo Swinney has had circled, citing the importance of high school recruiting, home-grown talent, creating a culture? If they can’t break through this year, that would be a real, real bummer,” McElroy said. “I’m very bullish on them. I don’t think it’s going to happen but there’s pressure being felt right now in Clemson to perform here in ’25.”

The reality is, with the way the playoff is currently constructed, it’s unlikely that all four of these teams will be in and, with that, at least one of them will have a ‘bust’ of a season to McElroy. It’s now about who among the Tide, Tigers, Hurricanes, and Tigers succeed and don’t in earning spots in the next edition of the College Football Playoff.