While the celebrations of Ohio State's national championship win ring out in Atlanta, the rest of college football is formally moving onto the 2025 season.

The focus, now, is taking a trip to Miami next January.

In this initial stage of the offseason, several title contenders—and the early favorites—are no surprise. These programs, such as Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon and Texas, have regularly been top teams lately and have appeared in the College Football Playoff.

Beyond that group sits two more intriguing waves of teams, including a few that reached the CFP or fell narrowly short.

As the inaugural 12-team CFP showed, there's room for breakout teams. But as others aim to follow in the footsteps of Arizona State, Indiana or SMU, we're highlighting 15 of the earliest teams to watch.

Offseason Darlings

The hype train will be storming down the tracks in the SEC.

South Carolina closed the 2024 regular season at 9-3, landing 15th in the final CFP rankings. Early losses to LSU, Alabama and Ole Miss capped the Gamecocks' upside, but they navigated a tough schedule with victories over Texas A&M, Missouri and Clemson, among others. LaNorris Sellers, who returns next season, is one of the nation's best dual-threat quarterbacks.

DJ Lagway, meanwhile, is looking to join Sellers in that conversation. Lagway provided a much-needed spark at Florida, which won its last four games to finish 8-5 with upsets of LSU and Ole Miss. Lagway's growth and a potentially strong defense are appealing.

Texas A&M certainly isn't lacking the resources to build a contender, and Mike Elko oversaw an 8-5 campaign in his debut year. There will be plenty of optimism around the Aggies.

Recent 10-Win Teams

Within this group, the most obvious teams are Clemson and Tennessee. The former won an ACC title in 2024 and returns quarterback Cade Klubnik, while the latter also appeared in the recent year's CFP.

The expanded playoff is ideal for a school like Ole Miss, which has tallied nine-plus victories in three of the last four regular seasons. Although the Rebels fell agonizingly short in 2024 and need to break in a new QB, Lane Kiffin has built a competitive program.

Miami squandered a major chance to break through yet still hit double-digit wins. Bringing in quarterback Carson Beck to replace Cam Ward stabilizes a curious but talented roster.

In three years under Brian Kelly, LSU has notched nine, nine and eight victories in the regular season. While making that final jump, so to speak, is essential, the Tigers have been on the doorstep of the CFP lately.

The Usual Suspects

Ho-hum, Alabama and Georgia. Surprise, surprise.

Until proven otherwise, the longtime SEC powerhouses will be expected to contend. Both of them are looking to new quarterbacks in 2025, but there's an abundance of surrounding talent on both rosters.

Notre Dame faces a similar situation at QB, and the schedule looks a bit more challenging next season. Given that the Fighting Irish just played for a national title, though, some benefit of the doubt is entirely fair.

Penn State is a great example of how a 12-team playoff can benefit a competent program. In the last nine seasons, the Nittany Lions have finished within the Top 12 of the final CFP rankings seven times. They should be a strong contender in 2025 after convincing a bunch of draft-eligible players to stay in college for another year.

The reigning Big Ten champion, Oregon has a transfer-infused roster and what seems like a favorable schedule. The offense is likely turning to Dante Moore, who previously started at UCLA.

The Favorites

Ryan Day's six seasons at Ohio State have all included a top-seven finish in the final CFP rankings. On that alone, the Buckeyes are a contender because they would always make a 12-team playoff.

The roster is losing a ton of seniors, sure, but superstar wide receiver Jeremiah Smith leads the inevitable next wave of talent.

As the Buckeyes aim to secure a Big Ten crown, Texas is likely to enter 2025 as the favorite in the SEC. The hype machine is ready to crank out an offseason of unending love for Arch Manning, who started a couple of games in 2024 when Quinn Ewers was injured.

Manning is the featured name, but the Longhorns should have a tremendous defense once again.

Best of all? Ohio State hosts Texas in Week 1.