Early Look at ODU Football's 2025 Opponents

By David Asbury

A Slightly Easier Gauntlet? 

The 2024 season just ended and the 2025 season is still a long way from today.  The Sun Belt has not released its' 2025 football schedule but we should already know the teams Old Dominion will face.

According to SBC rules, each of the conference's 14 programs play one home game and one away game against a cross-divisional foe each season—and will play every team in the opposite division at least once every four years.  ODU is entering its' fourth season in the conference.  In the past three seasons, it played five of the seven SBC West teams including Arkansas State twice.  Accordingly, to comply with the conference rule, it must play the two teams it has yet to play; the ULM Warhawks and the Troy Trojans.  ODU negotiated its' non-conference schedule years ago and ODU plays its' six divisional foes every year.  Given that, this is what we are left to assume with very high certainty as the ODU football schedule for 2025.

ODU's 2025 Opponents: 

• Non-Conference
  • 8/30 - @ Indiana 
  • 9/6 - NC Central (FCS)
  • 9/13 - @ Virginia Tech
  • 9/27 - Liberty 
• SBC West
  • ULM (TBA)
  • Troy (TBA)
• SBC East
  • @ Marshall 
  • @ Georgia Southern
  • @ JMU
  • App. State 
  • Coastal Carolina
  • Georgia State

The non-conference schedule actually looks slightly easier than last year's.  Primarily because it contains a cupcake FCS team in NC Central from the MEAC.  The Eagles were a good MEAC team who finished with an 8-3 record.  But still, the MEAC is not considered a tough FCS conference and therefore the Eagles should not stand much of a chance. The Monarchs are 8-0 against FCS teams since moving up to FBS.  However, the rest of the non-conference schedule is as tough as it always is.

Okay, so FCS teams are not always easy. The Monarchs just squeaked by Texas A&M-Commerce (now called East Texas A&M) 10-9 in 2023.  Photo courtesy of CB Sports Photography.

The Monarchs face two good P4 teams on the road.  The Monarchs are 2-4 against the Virginia Tech Hokies and have yet to defeat them in Blacksburg.  Meanwhile, a familiar Curt Cignetti quickly rebuilt Indiana and had a Cinderella season with only one regular season loss and a playoff berth.  Cignetti is also 2-0 against ODU from his time as JMU's head coach.  Both P4 games are likely to be the toughest teams on the schedule. 

Finally, Liberty has been the top team in Conference USA since it joined that league.  The Monarchs are 1-4 against the Flames and have not defeated them since 2013 when both teams were FCS.  So, outside of the FCS game, it is a challenging onslaught.  Rahne has gone 1-3 in non-conference play in each of his four seasons at ODU.  He needs to ensure that does not happen in 2025 and at the very least go 2-2 before playing conference foes.

Rahne is 1-2 against Virginia Tech, most recently losing to the Hokies 17-37 in 2024 but did defeat them in 2022 in Norfolk.  Photo courtesy of CB Sports Photography.

The cross divisional games appear much easier though.  ULM has been a basement dweller in the Sun Belt for over decade.  Last season they started very strong going 5-1 but ultimately missed a bowl game and finished 5th in the SBC West.  Troy was a very good team and won the Sun Belt Championship in both '22 and '23 but had to rebuild in 2024 under new coach Gerard Parker.  They are coming off a disappointing season finishing 6th in the SBC West.  At this stage, we just do not know if Troy will be rebuilt yet or if Parker bit off more than he can chew in the Deep South.  Either way, both teams look like easier competition than the Western teams the Monarchs defeated last season.

Since joining the Sun Belt, ODU has an impressive 5-1 record against the Sun Belt West.  South Alabama is the only Western team to defeat the Monarchs back in 2022.  Photo Courtesy of CB Sports Photography.

Finally, the divisional games will, of course, be tough.  The only down team from the SBC East is Georgia State, who should be improved now that head coach Dell McGee has more time to build his team and had a very impressive 2024 recruiting class.  Then it is a gauntlet of good teams as usual with App. State and Coastal at home while JMU, Marshall and Georgia Southern are played away from Norfolk. 

Last season, the Monarchs were only 2-4 against SBC East opponents.  Needless to say, the Monarchs have to do better here.

There are reasons to be hopeful though.  Marshall and App. State are both going through some major rebuilds with new head coaches and may have a down rebuilding year.  Whereas ODU defeated Georgia Southern in the past two seasons and Southern's Clay Helton is probably just unable to ever coach a good defense.  The SBC East is not an insurmountable mountain to climb.  The Monarchs are absolutely capable of climbing it to be Kings of the East.  Their main opposition to that might actually be the damn Vassals again.

ODU is 1-1 at Bridgeforth Stadium against rival JMU. Last time ODU played there, they lost to Curt Cignetti's squad 30-27. Photo Courtesy of CB Sports Photography.

Overall, the schedule should actually be a little bit easier.  For starters, having an easy FCS team on the schedule should do wonders for the team.  Not only do those games usually lead to an easy win, they also allow the team some real game time experience to help it improve in-season before facing tougher competition.  Second, the SBC West opponents should not cause any fear.  Finally, it is unclear how fast App. State and Marshall can rebuild themselves after the significant roster turnover.  The schedule is fun, tough, but unlike last year not too tough.  It should be a fun season with a lot of potential once it finally rolls around.