Travis Kelce will catch the rock. But will he present one to his lover?
The hoodie is back. But how long will it take Bill Belichick be for Chapel Hill?
Paige Bueckers will take the lead. But will she lift them in Dallas?
A first look at 2025 reveals a year that could zigzag right past it, and one that’s about as difficult to pin down as that of a former Green Bay Packers quarterback. career plans.
Stick with it, though, and you’ll be surprised – pleasantly or not.
With that, USA TODAY Sports reporters and editors offer their bold predictions for the year ahead, heavy on the usual (LeBron speech) and the unusual (King Kirk Herbstreit?):
2025 in sports predictions
(via USA TODAY Sports staff)
— LeBron James will retire: After celebrating his 40th birthday and finally realizing his dream of sharing an NBA court with his son Bronny, the future Hall of Famer will decide to leave at the end of the season.
— Arch Manning will win the Heisman Trophy: And, in doing so, become the first Manning to do so. (Archie, Peyton and Eli were all finalists at some point in their college careers but never won.)
— Paige Bueckers doesn’t end up with the Dallas Wings: Just as Caitlin Clark was a foregone conclusion to be the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, Bueckers is the gift for the No. 1 pick in 2025. But Dallas isn’t exactly a top WNBA destination, and Bueckers is one of the few players with the power to say she doesn’t want to go. The question will be whether that means she stays at UConn for a sixth year (she has another year of eligibility due to COVID and injuries) or if it forces a trade.
— Mets to miss playoffs after committing $765 million to Juan Soto: Soto will have a great first season in Queens, but the Mets can’t recapture the magic of 2024 and finish third in the NL East with a shaky pitching staff — in the first of the 15-year contract hitter.
— The Detroit Lions will FINALLY make it to the Super Bowl: But then losing to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, who would become the first team in the Super Bowl era to complete a three-peat.
— Bill Belichick will return to the NFL: A moderately successful first season at North Carolina will put Belichick back on the radar of NFL teams, and he’ll decide that the necessary politics of college football just aren’t for him.
— Aaron Rodgers retires, then returns to play: He couldn’t be more like Brett Favre if he tried. After his stint with the Jets didn’t work out, Rodgers called time on his career… until a team came calling and he missed being in the spotlight.
— Michael Vick and Norfolk State beat Rutgers: In his first year as head coach, Vick and the FCS Spartans earn a shocking road victory against a Big Ten opponent. The name of the former No. 1 overall pick is starting to get thrown around for every major job opening.
— LeBron James retires after being traded to the Cavaliers: …Who he helps win his second NBA championship.
— Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce announce their engagement: This sparks hysteria among the dads, Brad and Chad (and Tony Dungy), who are furious that they have to keep seeing the pop superstar for 20 seconds during a 3 1/2 hour game.
– Mikaela Shiffrin wins her 100th World Cup victory: An unfathomable mark that will probably never be equaled. (That’s not an exaggeration; she’s 99 years old.)
— Bill Belichick’s North Carolina Tar Heels will play a bowl game in a baseball stadium: It would be the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium or the Fenway Bowl in Boston – much like the conclusion to almost every UNC football season. Head to 161st Street…
— The Los Angeles Dodgers win 117 games: One more than the Seattle Mariners record in 2001 and 17 as, you know, the jersey number of this guy who will return to the mound in 2025.
— Nobody cares about the Club World Cup: Taking place in the United States a year before the 2026 World Cup, FIFA made sure to reverse engineer its new tournament to include (by snatching the last few dollars) Lionel Messi, almost 38, and features a eye -a $100 million prize for the winning team. But the 32-club showcase continues in front of largely disinterested U.S. stadiums, with top players complaining about more money-grabbing games added to a schedule devoid of an offseason.
— Coach Prime sparks QB controversy: Deion Sanders signs a long-term contract at Colorado, but a quarterback controversy erupts in his first season without his quarterback son Shedeur, who goes No. 1 in the NFL draft. Blue-chip QB recruit Julian Lewis came to Boulder to play right away. Liberty also transferred Kaidon Salter, who has one year of eligibility remaining. What is Coach Prime doing about it? He plays both and the Buffaloes secure a playoff spot.
— No MLS Cup for Messi: Lionel Messi has won 46 trophies for club and country, but one major honor eluded him after two seasons in the United States: the MLS Cup. And, in 2025, Messi and Inter Miami will fail to win Major League Soccer’s biggest prize.
— The Chiefs do not win the third consecutive Super Bowl: Since Lombardi’s Packers failed to win three consecutive NFL titles, one of those championships came before the advent of the Super Bowl. Much better teams than this year’s Chiefs – I’m thinking of the 1994 Dallas Cowboys, the 1990 San Francisco 49ers, the 1976 Pittsburgh Steelers, the 1974 Miami Dolphins – couldn’t do it. Kansas City will be the last to fall short of Super Bowl glory.
– South Carolina women win another basketball title: The Gamebacks come one after the other, the program’s third championship in four years
— Phil Jackson to the rescue: Phil Jackson comes out of retirement to solve the Lakers’ problems. LeBron James says the triangle is his least favorite shape. They opt for a hex-inspired attack, and madness ensues.
— Woj does not bomb: The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team reached the Final Four for the first time since 1970 for a very obvious reason: Adrian Wojnarowski made all the right choices in his first year as the team’s general manager.
— After missing the 2024 WNBA season, two-time MVP Elena Delle Donne returns with a vengeance: Delle Donne teams up with Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston in Indiana after Fever pulled off a massive sign-and-trade with the Washington Mystics.
— Herbstreit perfects the CFP format: Tired of criticism about which teams should make the College Football Playoff, the selection committee decides to let ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit pick the teams instead. It removes the draft rules and fills the bracket with Ohio State, Colorado and 10 Southeastern Conference teams based on the strength of their schedule (not wins). All first round matches then go to overtime. But criticism of the selection process hasn’t subsided, prompting Herbstreit to blame fringe fans and social media for ruining college football.
— Liverpool wins the English Premier League: Five years after COVID spoiled celebrations of the club’s first title in three decades, Liverpool are battling a late surge to win the league in their first year under Arne Slot.
— Tyler Reddick wins the Daytona 500: In the midst of their antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR, 23XI Racing co-owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin take another plunge into the auto racing series when their driver Tyler Reddick kicks off the 2025 season by winning the NASCAR’s most iconic race, the Daytona 500.
– Ethan Holliday joins his brother as No. 1 pick in the MLB draft: Three years after Jackson hit the road in Baltimore, the Nationals selected Ethan No. 1 in 2025. THE son of All-Star Matt Holliday join the Mannings as the only brothers to be ranked first overall.
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