In case you missed last week’s big announcement, things are a little different here at SID Sports moving forward. You see, I’m now leading the Sports Information and Media Relations department (it’s a one-man shop, but still) at Cuyahoga Community College.

This is going to be the first of the articles you can expect in the future. I’ll kick off with a blog-style post with a look inside at something I did in the last week. Then, we’ll get into the Triceratops Report where I’ll link the content I made for my teams. Finally, we’ll close with a typical block of how to follow along with my journey.

Easy, right? Let’s get into it!

In my eyes, a Sports Information Director (SID) isn’t the arbiter of what gets published, how and why. I’m not out to control everything about a department that I had no hand in until last week.

Instead, I want to learn how to tell the story of the teams that I’m covering and promoting now. The administration, like the Athletic Director, is a great place to start on what needs to be said and what the overall messaging is. But, no matter how involved an AD can be in their department, they aren’t in each program every single day.

So, my big goal for the first week of being in the position was to set up meetings with each and every head coach in the department.

To me, the coaches are the ones that are truly leading each program. They’re the ones bringing the players in. They’re the ones that set the tone and lead the team throughout offseason training, in-season practices and gamedays. At this level, they’re the ones setting schedules.

This week, my priority was to get in front of each coach and have a full and earnest conversation with them. Way back when I was a student worker at Bowling Green, taking over my first role leading media relations for swim and dive, one of my mentors pushed for that, telling me “the first thing to do is to get to know the head coach.” And that’s what I did.

Quickly, I struck up a solid working relationship with the coach. We both knew it wasn’t going to last - his program had been traditionally run by student interns and workers and I was about to embark on a different school-mandated internship the following semester - but we worked to ensure that we could provide the best coverage possible for his program.

That relationship led to multiple stories that I had to pass on to my successor, including one about a student-athlete that was overcoming major medical issues during high school to even make it to college, let alone swim.

When I once again took the lead role for a team, this time the Cross Country and Track and Field program at Eastern Michigan, I met with the entire coaching staff within my first week. We discussed things like their image and view of the program, what they liked about what my predecessor did, and what they wanted to see differently in the future. It helped guide my plans on how to cover and structure the program.

Here, at Tri-C, things are different. There is no predecessor. And this is a much longer appointment than a semester or a two-year graduate assistantship.

Armed with my handy notepad, I made appointments with the head coaches of in-season sports, prioritizing the ones that I had started covering. Over the summer, I’ll talk with the rest of the sports to form a more cohesive plan, but getting thrown into the fire means you have to come up with some compromises.

Ahead of the the first games with each team, I met with the head coaches of the baseball and softball programs. We discussed things like what’s currently on the plates for them and their staff that I can take away, such as website upkeep and reporting information.

We also discussed things like social media strategies and marketing materials, but this is a college and, as much as I’d like to just take the reins day one, there is a lot of red tape to get that access. Access that I don’t have as of yet.

But these conversations are the vital first piece of building a successful sports information department. Without knowing the programs, the teams, the coaches, the stories, how can someone effectively cover a team? It’s not possible. With those conversations completed, I now know the workflow the team has. How stats are kept. Who to go for if there needs to be any stat corrections. How to distribute those statistics. And how to distribute anything the coaching staffs need out there.

All important things for an SID to know in order to fill out the content calendar.

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Here’s what I published this week:

• ⚾Gallaher’s big day, havoc on basepaths give Triceratops sweep of Lorain County Community College

• 🥎Phillips hurls no hitter as Tri-C downs Lakeland

• 🏃‍➡️Tricertops Track and Field takes 14th at Sparky Adams Invitational

Check in throughout the week at athletics.tri-c.edu, the official website of Tri-C Athletics. Follow the Triceratops on Instagram at tri_c_athletics, Facebook at Tri-C Athletics, or Twitter at TriCAthletics.

Go Triceratops!

I’ve been talking a lot this year about something “big” that I had in the works that would reshape SID Sports entirely. I mentioned it in my yearly preview piece. I’ve talked about it some with fellow writers. Well, it’s time to announce that big news. This is something that has been in the works since December and now, it’s finally finalized. Officially official, as they say.

Before we get into this, let me say one thing: Thank you. Legitimately and truly, thank you to everyone that has been along for the ride here at SID Sports.

We’ve done a lot here, from covering the death of the PAC-12, to a profile on a flag football gold medalist, to breakdowns of each week of action, to a magazine, awards shows and so much more.

I started this newsletter in 2023 when I left working in college athletics as a tether to that career and life that I left behind. It was a very hard choice for me to step away from working in sports information, but one I made because it the right move at the time. Having this community to talk to, share my experience with, and keep me honest as I tried to stay sharp was invaluable. I can’t say it enough, so I’m just going to say it again: thank you all.

For those that have been around a while, you know I’ve kept one foot in the door of college athletics as I worked in higher education outside of the athletic department. You saw that with last year’s March basketball story and my inside look at working an ESPN+ production.

To cut this tangent off before it gets too far, you could say that SID Sports has been my connection to the career path I wanted to take and always envisioned taking: being a Sports Information Director. Leaving the world of college athletics was hard for me, but undoubtedly the right move at the time. My time away from sports and working in higher education as a whole in student support has been a great, fulfilling time. It emerged as a legitimate career option for me as I looked at the rest of my life. I was laying the ground work to double down on that career path, looking to head back to college for a Master’s in higher education. But that all changes now.

As of today, I’m making a career change. This is no longer a newsletter written by a former SID. Now, I’m a current SID. Today marks my first day as the Specialist, Sports Information & Media Relations at Cuyahoga Community College. Fun fact: I’m also the first SID the college has had at all, let alone full-time.

Being the first SID at Tri-C - as it’s known in the Cleveland area - is going to have my hands full. I’ll be taking over things like statistics, social media, media relations, record keeping and more for all nine of the college’s sports. It’s a huge undertaking to get the department (read: me) to where I want it to be, but it’s one I’m excited for.

So, what does this mean for SID Sports going forward?

Well, I’m sure you noticed the change in branding to Tri-C colors of teal and black. But that’s just a visual tweak.

Obviously, I’m not going to be able to keep writing and covering the topics I have here while working in the field. Even though Tri-C is an NJCAA school - a junior college - I don’t feel comfortable writing about the affairs at other schools while still trying to cover and tell the stories of the athletes at my institution.

That doesn’t mean SID Sports is going away, though. Instead, it means we’ve reached the end of one chapter of SID Sports. It’s been a great, fun ride talking big-time college football. We had some great stories, conversations and fun doing that. There were some series I had planned that I wish you all got to see, but maybe they’ll see the light of day at some other point. Who knows. (If you’re a writer and want some of the series I won’t be able to pursue, hit me up. Some have some work done, others are just ideas)

But, as I’m sure you’ve gathered, this isn’t the end of SID Sports. Instead, think of it as a new beginning.

Here, I’m planning on taking you inside my role and covering tasks, projects and things I do on a day-to-day basis. If something particularly cool or interesting comes up, I’ll write a quick story. Think of SID Sports as more of a professional blog of sorts.

I wouldn’t expect more than a post a week from me most weeks. On Fridays, I’ll send out a weekly a blog-style post about something I did that week and how I did it so you all can get a feel for being inside college athletics and building a sports information department from the ground up. Then, I’ll end with a Triceratops Roundup (yes, that’s our actual mascot name) that includes some links to stories and other things I wrote or created that week.

If there’s something of major interest, I’ll potentially write another article, but for now, expect those Friday morning drops. As I get settled in, they probably won’t be very detailed. But there can still be things to talk about and learn.

With that said, expect the first Triceratops Roundup to come your way next Friday, April 24. I imagine this week will be a lot of training and getting acclimated to the department, so I don’t want to bore you with that information. If anything interesting happens, though, then I’ll write up a post and send it out!

Since I’ll be doing so much work, I also am going to take a step back from the SID Sports social media accounts. If you want to follow along, you can always drop me a follow on Notes and Bluesky, where I’m most active. And I’ll include links to follow along with the official Tri-C channels and platforms at the end of each post.

Again, thank you all for coming along for the ride, I really do appreciate it. Building this newsletter was like a second job (and third, when it came down to getting the Season Preview Magazine out) and it was worth every second.

With all this change, I understand that some of you may not be interested in this new content. I completely understand that. It’s not what you subscribed for. But, I think it will be a unique set of content unlike anything else you can get. Trust me, I tried to find things like this and couldn’t.

I sincerely hope you join me along for this new chapter in college athletics. I’m excited to share this all with you!

You can follow along in real-time at athletics.tri-c.edu, the official Triceratops website. If you’re a social media person, you can find us on Instagram at tri_c_athletics, Facebook at Tri-C Athletics, or Twitter at TriCAthletics.

Go Tops!

And just like that, we’ve reached the final installment of our Fixing College Football series. It’s been a great week sharing my thoughts with you all and I hope you’ve learned something or thought about something that you hadn’t before. After all, we’re trying to be educational here.

But, we’ve covered a lot this week. We’ve redrawn all the conferences. We’ve set up a 24-team playoff and moved the bowls to the beginning of the year. We’ve completely scratched the old calendar and moved things around, including fully killing Spring Ball. We’ve limited the transfer portal - with some conditions - heavily penalized tampering and made agents register. We even had a CBA signed.

Today is the big money day. After all, it’s media deals that bring in the most cash. And it’s time to fix those.

Media on Capitol Hill

We’ve gone a long way without talking about Congress, haven’t we? Well, we mentioned it yesterday, but that was an aside. Now they get their own header.

That’s because, more than any other part of college football we’ve discussed, media rights and the rules governing them come from the federal government. The NCAA can make as many rules as they want, but if it doesn’t abide by federal laws, it won’t matter.

That means it’s time to change laws! Hey, I promised a wide-ranging overhaul of college athletics, didn’t I?

We’ll take a look at a few legal issues, but the most of if lands in the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961. This Act was monumental in the sports broadcasting scene, allowing leagues to pool media rights to sell instead of individual teams having to negotiate with local networks. That paved the way for league-wide deals like the ones the NBA and NFL have earned billions and billions of dollars off of. Only MLB still has teams hold their individual media rights. Well, that and college athletics.

Currently, college programs hold their own media rights. It’s why Notre Dame has a deal with NBC to hold their broadcasts on the network. All non-Notre Dame teams pool their rights with conferences as a part of their membership, with the deal stipulating that the league’s media package be sold together.

But the NCAA can’t go further with making those deals. If they did, the organization would be open to a massive antitrust suit from whichever network, streaming service or broadcaster was left out in the cold.

And that’s where the Sports Broadcasting Act comes into play, because it exclusively granted those media pooling rights to MLB, the NBA, NFL, and NHL. The NCAA and its member schools were not included in that antitrust exemption, so they have to play by the old rules.

There’s been a lot of talk about reforming the Sports Broadcasting Act in recent years, simply because it is so out-dated. It’s based around TV in 1961, long before the advent of cable, RSNs, and, more importantly, streaming. Plus, some people are seeing dollar signs when looking at potential revenues.

Texas Tech booster, billionaire and constant commercial presence Cody Campbell has been calling for an amendment for the SBA to pool all 136 - now 138 - teams’ broadcast rights into one package. He and his group claim up to $6 billion of additional money could come from these pooled media deals.

But, as always, there’s strife in the sports world, as the Big Ten and SEC sent a letter to Congress saying they don’t need the SBA amendments and are actually doing quite fine on their own, as they’ve nearly matched the NBA’s media deal between just the two leagues.

And, of course, there’s the always present and somehow on life support SCORE Act that includes provisions that amend the SBA - and outlaw college athletes being seen as employees. That, however, seems to be dead in the water and Tommy Tuberville of all people has a sensible bill to follow.

Long story short, there is a lot to consider, and that’s not including just plain old antitrust law.

The solutions

I think we can agree on one thing: it’s incredibly difficult to watch all the college football you want. And increasingly small number of games is available on network television and more and more games are being put behind paywalls with ads and questionable viability.

Something has to give.

In our new ecosystem we’ve pieced together the last four days, there’s been a lot that’s been fixed. But this might be the hardest issue we’ve tackled simply because of its scope. We’re talking billions of dollars that will completely fund all the athletic programs. We can’t mess this up.

So, after plenty of consideration, I am not going to have the SBA amended to include college athletics. I feel like that level of antitrust exemption can pose a problem for such a large organization like the NCAA. After all, I have the final say in any decisions in this hypothetical.

We’re going to pool the media deals on the conference level still. But, each conference can only have one media partner.

Just look at the Big Ten’s media deal. It sends games across FOX, CBS and NBC’s networks and streaming platforms. An Ohio State fan, like my family, may one day be on FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff, then next week play a Peacock exclusive, then on CBS the next week, all for a daytime battle with Northwestern to be placed on Big Ten Network. For our fans with cable access, the FOX and CBS games aren’t too bad. If you don’t have cable and rely on streaming, that’s three different subscriptions to watch three different games.

And that’s not going into how hard it is to see a Group of Six game.

Here, we’re going to have one media partner per conference. Boom, all the Big Ten games are on FOX. Easy, right?

As more media companies get involved with sports, we have a wide range to choose from. We have the old reliables - CBS, NBC, FOX, ESPN. They’ll be big players. Streamers like HBO/Turner, Amazon Prime and Netflix are trying to get more sports. Even other networks like The CW are getting in on it. For those at home, that’s eight different media partners that already carry live sports.

With 13 conferences and a host of independents, we can limit networks to have two conferences at most, that way they don’t dilute the market too much. Or, if we keep one conference to one network, more inventive things like the Mountain West’s partnership with Kiswe, or YouTube, which dipped its toes in broadcasting in recent years, could be beneficial.

To boil this down into one list, here’s the rules for conferences:

• Conferences can get one media partner

• All the league’s games are streamed on that media partner

We’ve also got some rules for media partners, just to make things even:

• Media partners can sign one FBS conference. If they want to add more sports content at lower levels, by all means.

• For non-conference games, both media partners will be made available.

Yes, that last point is going to be tough. Especially as an SID, having two broadcasts being run at the same time has disaster potential. But, a simulcast is a possibility where the home team’s media partner produces the broadcast and the visiting team just sends their commentary crew.

Either way, those games need to be made available for the visiting team’s fans on their media platform.

This should make watching your team’s games super easy. I would love for a all-inclusive college football subscription, but I don’t see how that won’t violate antitrust laws unless we amend the SBA.

Check out the rest of the Fixing College Football Series!

Part 1 - Realigment

Part 2 - The Postseason

Part 3 - The Calendar

Part 4 - Governance

Part 5 - Media Rights

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Have any questions, ideas, article pitches, or information? With the new Substack features, you can directly message me! Hit the button below to send me a message, or reach out via email to griffin@sid-sports.com, or find us on your favorite social media platform like Facebook, Instagram, Substack Notes and Bluesky.

Welcome back to the fourth of five editions on how I, a lowly college football newsletter writer with a sport management degree and experience working in higher education and college athletics, would build my perfect college football world.

We’ve already looked at conference realignment, the postseason, and the overall calendar earlier this week. Today, we’re going to make all the nation’s lawyers upset.

That’s right, it’s time for governance. Everyone’s favorite part of college athletics. There isn’t a fun way to break this up to make it easier, so we’re just going to start hitting details and bulldoze our way through the NCAA bylaws to make things better.

NIL and payments

This is, obviously, the hot button issue. One of the ones people feel the strongest about. Should these athletes be paid?

Unequivocally, the answer is yes. And they are going to continue to get paid.

I may be in the minority, but I feel that the current set-up in terms of payment isn’t that bad. We’re going to keep it.

Revenue sharing between schools and athletes are going to continue. I think the revenue sharing cap is a good thing as well. It doesn’t completely open up the field for parity, but it helps so that the mega spenders like Alabama and Ohio State and Texas don’t fully outpace the smaller teams.

I also think that having third-party NIL deals go through a clearinghouse like NIL Go is a good move. Sure, it outsources some of the regulatory teeth the NCAA has, but it allows for clear investigations and rules. Even with some hiccups in the NIL Go system and College Sports Commission, CSC CEO Brian Seeley has been willing to adapt to find the best system possible.

To me, that is a sign of a good, working system. Willing to adapt to how the landscape is changing, but still trying ensure that teams aren’t fully trying to circumvent the cap on revenue sharing. They will, don’t get me wrong, but keeping the more egregious examples in check is paramount for this to succeed.

Transfer portal and eligibility

From one hot-button issue to the next, let’s tackle the transfer portal and eligibility requirements.

Currently the rules are a mismash of nonsense with no way to enforce them. We’ll get into this a bit later with how everything will be governed, but we need firm rules.

We’ll start with eligibility. We can’t have players playing on indefinitely with no end in sight. Look, I’m all for players getting multiple degrees and furthering their education. There are plenty of athletes that are getting Masters’ degrees in this new system.

But, if we’re being realistic here, most athletes are trying to have as little of the “student” part as possible. And having careers go on and on indefinitely is not a way to promote better education in these higher education institutions.

So, I’m rolling with the flat five-year plan where athletes get five years of eligibility and that’s that. They can play every game of five years if they want, but once they hit five years, that’s the end of the line. It doesn’t matter if they played in junior colleges, or were set to be on a video game cover. Rules are rules.

As for the transfer portal, we’ll also reign in that a bit. Players will get one transfer in their undergraduate career that is completely penalty-free. They can just move schools like they can now. Players can also transfer penalty-free upon graduation, provided they still have eligibility remaining.

For that graduation-related transfer, it is not capped at one move. If a student graduates with their Bachelor’s in three years, they can transfer. Say they’re in a pathway program that leads to an accelerated Masters’. Boom, another transfer. Sure, it can open up loopholes where athletes may pursue a two-year Associate’s degree to transfer early, but it also then has the player earning a degree. Graduation success rates are important to continue to further the educational values of each institution and their students, and athletes are no different. If anything, this incentivized education for some athletes that are just looking for playing time.

Athletes will also maintain the ability to transfer in the event of a head coaching change, because if coaches can move at will, so too can their players.

And, we’ll clarify that players are able to enter their name into the transfer portal without any penalty. It’ll be the actual process of completing a transfer that would be regulated.

These rules are pretty rigid, though, and in the interest of being student-focused - something I strive for in my position and I firmly believe anything related to higher education should be - we have to account for the various circumstances that will come up.

That means Hardship Waivers are here to stay. It allows students to apply for an exception to either eligibility or transfer rules. They would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by an oversight committee, with one Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) from each conference and independent forming the committee. Any conference with a tie to the student - be it their current conference or one they are looking to transfer into - would have to recuse themselves.

Then, the convened committee - ideally 13 members - would listen to the application for the waiver. They would then determine if the athlete’s circumstances did significantly impact their participation for the season and, if so, would award another year of eligibility to an athlete.

Things that may get approved are season-ending injuries suffered early in the season or in training camps, unsafe environments within programs, being a caregiver to a family member with a major disability or illness, or others like that. Essentially, we’re looking for something that came up outside of the athlete’s control.

For once, Dabo Swinney seems to have a good idea as he detailed a very similar outlook on the portal. In this case, Dabo is right.

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Agents/tampering

We’ve all seen it at this point, pretty much every student-athlete has an agent helping them through the portal, NFL, and on NIL deals.

But did you know that anyone can be acting as an agent on behalf of an athlete?

They don’t even have to be registered anywhere as the player’s agent. These people can just start talking on behalf of players and schools, potential NIL connections and coaches have to listen to them.

Already, we’ve seen issues with this system. Two high profile quarterbacks, Nico Iamaleava and Demond Williams Jr., received advice from a non-agent that threw them into uncomfortable situations and led the internet to turn on them. Even more concerning was the fact that Williams had an actual agent, who he elected to ignore.

We can’t stop things like that. There will be people in the ears of most players that may not have the player’s best interests in mind.

However, we can curb the faux-agents that are running amuck as of late.

Looking at professional leagues, the Players’ Associations have rules that agents have to follow. I looked at the NFLPA and NBAPA in particular, who have education requirements, an application and tests to become certified with the Players’ Association as an agent, and requirements to maintain eligibility.

I feel like that would be a huge step in the right direction to ensure that only real, licensed agents are able to be leading these discussions for players. We can go even further and follow the NBAPA’s lead by establishing an agent database for players to find an agent in.

We’d also work to add more tampering rules. The narrower eligibility for a player to transfer helps with that, but the NCAA Division I Oversight Committee actually has a pretty good framework to stop schools from abusing that one-time transfer that is in our new system. And, I think it would be a huge benefit for the real-life college athletics world, but it’s just a proposal that hasn’t been decided upon yet.

These rules would have to define what tampering is, but for our purposes we’ll go simple. Tampering would be contacting a player enrolled at another school that does not have their name in the portal. Easy, right?

The Oversight Committee’s proposal includes plenty of potential penalties for tampering, including:

• Up to a six game suspension for a head coach if anyone in the program is convicted of targeting that includes both on-field and administrative duties;

• A fine of 20% of the football budget;

• A reduction of five roster spots for the next season.

These are some hefty penalties. Pairing those with much more limited options to even tamper would make everything move smoother in my eyes.

Tiny tweak

And, because everyone hates this, there's one more thing to change: we're ending the commercial-play-commercial. Once a drive starts, unless there’s a timeout, the drive will finish without any TV timeouts.

How will this work?

These are some massive changes, so we have to have something that will be able to enshrine these rules and ensure that they can be followed.

To me, there’s only one path: a Collective Bargaining Agreement.

I’ve talked about a CBA in the past and reached out to some contacts in the sports world to gauge the temperature for the idea. Surprisingly, nobody was willing to put any major opinion on record, with most saying that the environment was too volatile now to consider something that drastic.

After all, that would likely have student-athletes certified as university employees.

But, if the schools are willing to budge on that, there are plenty of school-friendly protections, such as the limited transfer rules.

Putting a CBA in place where the deal is collectively bargained between the players and school representatives is the only way for a deal to work like this in practice. But, because this is fantasyland, we’ll just assume it went off without a hitch.

Sure, we’d have the threat of labor issues in the future, like we’re seeing with the MLB now, but it would put the sport on much more secure footing. The constant strain of lawsuits would be nullified as the CBA would be clear about all these points. It also keeps college athletics away from politics, which could be a recipe for disaster as different administrations value different things and constantly take a wrecking ball to undo what the previous administration did. Just save us the mess and sign the CBA.

I’d also like to see sport-specific administrators take over the governance at the NCAA level in concert with CSC. Would that be a commissioner or a board of commissioners? That’s up to whoever presents the best option to be knowledgeable, yet impartial. All the sport administrators would report to NCAA president Charlie Baker, allowing him to guide the big-picture strategy of the NCAA.

So, we’ve got three major tenets to help fix the off-field products. Tampering? Nullified. Agents? Fixed and certified. NIL? Regulated but still accessible.

There’s one big thing left to cover that I know most sports fans are upset about: media deals. Let’s close the book on our new college football world tomorrow by fixing the media deals and financials on the conference and institution level.

Check out the rest of the Fixing College Football Series!

Part 1 - Realigment

Part 2 - The Postseason

Part 3 - The Calendar

Part 4 - Governance

Part 5 - Media Rights

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Have any questions, ideas, article pitches, or information? With the new Substack features, you can directly message me! Hit the button below to send me a message, or reach out via email to griffin@sid-sports.com, or find us on your favorite social media platform like Facebook, Instagram, Substack Notes and Bluesky.

College football is an interesting sport. One full of pageantry, tradition and anachronisms. Some for the better and some for worse.

The biggest of these anachronisms is the schools clinging to keeping college athletics tied to education. And that makes sense on the surface - they are, after all, sponsored by higher education institutions and made up of players that attend courses at that institution and maintain an academic eligibility. Players getting paid doesn’t change that, but it does draw the attention away from the student-athlete part and makes it more of just an athlete that happens to go to school.

You may not have noticed, but there’s been a conscious change in messaging here at SID Sports to move away from the student-athlete title and just label our players as “athletes.” Not to get too into the weeds, but I made that choice to better reflect the modern college athletics society. These are not amateur athletes anymore, at least in college football. They are paid like professionals, raking in thousands of dollars at even the lowest levels of the FBS.

Why am I talking about this change in messaging in a newsletter that’s supposed to be addressing the college football calendar? Because I’m about to make some claims that may be divisive for some: I’m basing this around the academic calendars.

Gasp! That’s right, I’m doubling down on that point. Are these athletes paid like professionals and, in almost every case, hoping to go pro in their sport rather than achieve a degree? High-academic schools like Harvard, Yale, Rice, and Stanford nonwithstanding, yes. But they are still getting an education and have to maintain academic eligibility.

I don’t think I’ve talked much about my personal life or professional life here, aside from my former SID career, but I work in higher education as an advisor to students. I strongly believe in the value of education and believe that everyone should have access to all levels of education (that’s an issue for a different time and different place). And I believe that athletes should have to maintain their academic requirements to work towards a degree.

That means we’re going to build this around the academic calendar and at least attempt to balance athletic and academic success here. It is, after all, still college athletics.

Gamedays

First off, we’re going to establish a few things. In my realignment piece, we talked about making the conferences make more sense based on historical rivalries, geography and things that just plain make sense. It also features 10-team conferences, meaning each team would play a nine-game round robin conference slate.

We’re keeping to the traditional 12-game season, so that means three non-conference games and nine in-conference games. While I tried to preserve some rivalries, there will be yearly battles between teams out-of-conference that would take up a non-conference slot like Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate (Georgia-Georgia Tech), El Assico (Iowa-Iowa State), the Florida Triangle of Hate (Florida-Florida State-Miami), and others.

I’ll also require that each team play an FCS opponent each year - but just one. Will that often notch a win for each of our 138 FBS programs? You bet, but it also lets some money trickle down to those smaller schools. These buy games - or body bag games, depending on who you ask - are essential to lower-level programs in balancing their budgets, oftentimes with a cool six-to-seven figure payout for one game. I’ll also implement traditional Power Four teams playing one traditional Group of Six team for similar budgetary reasons.

We also had the note from yesterday about (semi-)traditional bowl games replacing Week Zero/One non-conference matchups. In my eyes, these are neutral site games that are simply designed to be the best matchup it can be. No conference tie-ins and full autonomy for schools and bowls to come up with the wackiest, zaniest, most fun games possible.

With those three things in mind, let’s take a look at an example schedule for our reigning national champion, Indiana:

• Conference Games: Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin

• Buy Games: Illinois State (FCS), Northern Illinois (G6)

• Week Zero/One Bowl: Penn State

Not a bad 12-game slate, is it? Sure, it’ll put strain on some of our independent schools, but most are located in the Eastern side of the country and can play each other each year. The service academies already do. Navy and Notre Dame have a longstanding series. Penn State hasn’t had to play schedule gymnastics too often, but a yearly game against Notre Dame and some fill-in options wouldn’t be too hard to find.

When?

Let’s take a second to recap what we’ve discussed so far across our two previous parts of this series. 1) Nine-game conference schedules in a round robin format, 2) 16-team playoff. That’s a bit of a departure from the normal calendar, so let’s get into it.

First, we’re moving the season’s start up a week to the current Week Zero. That means the last weekend in August is the first game of the season - oftentimes a week or two after students arrive on campus for their Fall semesters. The new “Week Zero” would be the second-to-last weekend in August for teams with major travel instances, like Hawaii and their home opponents. They deserve an extra bye week.

We’ll keep the duration of the regular season the same 15 weeks it is now, meaning the weekend before Thanksgiving is the end of the regular season.

Yes, it pains me to move rivalry up a week, as I feel like Thanksgiving Weekend is a perfect time for that. It’s a time of celebration and nothing is more celebratory than putting a smackdown on your season-closing rival. I choose to ignore that any other outcome can come from the game.

But, it also provides a bit of a benefit here. Namely, because Thanksgiving weekend sees all colleges closed and students on break. Not anymore, as campus will be packed for those rivalry matchups. Has the atmosphere at a Michigan-Ohio State, or a Clemson-South Carolina been lacking in the past? Absolutely not. But still, the packed campus without holiday-contingent travel nightmares should make the weekend smoother and allow the games to shine through.

For this upcoming year, that would mean that the season would start with Week Zero August 22 and the season would start in earnest August 29. November 21 would be the closing line of the regular season.

As is tradition, we’ll slot Army-Navy into Thanksgiving night, because nothing says American holiday weekend quite like supporting the troops in a triple-option slog on some cold, rainy NFL field.

So, moving to the postseason. As we’ve discussed in the postseason edition of this series, there are no conference championships due to the round-robin format, and the 24-team playoff will run five weeks.

Army-Navy won’t go head-to-head with the playoff, as the service academy battle is reserved for Thanksgiving night (the executive order being floated by President Trump to prevent other football games from going against Army-Navy, including the NFL, would help with this, provided it’s enforceable). But, the first round of the new playoff would commence the same weekend as Army-Navy. The eight top seeds would earn a much-needed bye, putting further emphasis on performing well in the regular season.

To recap, here’s how our season calendar would look for 2026:

• August 22 - Week Zero Bowls

• August 29 - Week One Bowls

• November 21 - Rivalry Week and close of regular season

• November 26 - Army-Navy (Thanksgiving Night)

• November 28 - Round 1 of the CFP (Campus Sites)

• December 5 - Round 2 of the CFP (Campus Sites)

• December 12 - CFP Quarterfinals (Rotating Bowls)

• December 19 - CFP Semifinals (Rotating Bowls)

• January 1, 2027 - CFP Championship at the Rose Bowl

Championship teams get a bye heading into the CFP Title Bout, just like the NFL does for the Super Bowl participants. No, I’m not shoving in a CFB Pro Bowl because nobody cares about that just like nobody cares about the NFL’s Pro Bowl.

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The Recruiting Calendar

Well, the season schedule worked out really well, didn’t it? Almost like it’s not hard to structure a season around an academic calendar (yes, I recognize it is, let me have this moment).

But now we get to the most polarizing topic - the portal. We’ll dive into the portal in full tomorrow, so we’ll just stick to the calendar here.

Ahead of the 2025 season, the NCAA moved to a single winter portal window that runs from January 2-16. For once, they made the right move. Well, the right move in a vaccuum.

Remember at the beginning of the post when I told you that lining up with the academic calendar and prioritizing education even a little bit isn’t a bad thing? It’s time to bring that back.

To be a full-time student eligible for athletic competition, players would have to maintain full-time enrollment for two of the three semesters. Yes, semesters. Get off the quarter system, Notre Dame. It doesn’t help anyone.

The Fall semester isn’t going to be impacted at all, because it’s almost in line with the new regular season I proposed. When do most semesters start? Late August or early September. When would the 2026 season start with this new calendar? August 22 for Week Zero - hopefully with home games at campuses already packed with students - and August 29 in earnest. Semesters are generally around 16 weeks long, which runs until - you guessed it - December 12ish.

With this new schedule, college football’s home seasons almost perfectly line up with a typical semester schedule. First round playoff games will have campus full of students and packed houses. It’s about time we prioritized the student experience a bit. The next week, which is often finals time, still has campus sites teeming with excited students ready to cheer off that nervous post-finals energy. Then, when the semester comes to a close and students head back to wherever they call home, the rotating bowls take over.

But this section header isn’t about that. It’s about the recruiting calendar. So, let’s look at recruiting with that academic calendar focus in mind.

Most Winter semesters will start around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so the early to middle part of January. Guess when the transfer portal’s only window is? You’ve got it: January 2-16.

That’s a completely asinine schedule that leaves next to no time to even consider academics, let alone prioritize them. I work as an academic advisor in my real job. I spend my days helping students chart their academic success over their programs. I also look at transfer credits for incoming students. And boy is that a tight window to try to orchestrate a transfer.

Yes, paying players has made it easier without having to worry about financial aid-related hiccups. But you still have to consider what classes transfer, how the course schedule lines up with practices and games, what program you’re going into, and more. The current system makes that nearly impossible.

So, we move the transfer portal to the end of the Spring semester. Let’s say, May 1 as a general opening date with it closing May 15 to keep the window the same length of time.

That allows student athletes to actually take a semester’s load of classes. It can cut down on the amount of academic-related issues involved in transferring. It also helps give opportunities to incoming freshman recruits.

Those that were around in the aughts and 2010’s know the draw of the recruiting cycle. The ceremonies with a prospect raising their hats. The mixtapes. The pure aura - to borrow a word from the youngin’s - of what recruiting was in that era. I want to try to bring that back.

To do that, we’re keeping the high school recruiting window the same. Early Signing Day will come in early December. The first Wednesday in February will be National Signing Day. But only for high school prospects.

That gives us two main times where talent comes into programs and only one that leaves. Sounds simpler, right?

But, you may ask, what about Spring ball and camp? There’s been a lot of chatter about moving to a more NFL-style OTA camp instead of the current model. And frankly, that makes the most sense to me.

Remember, NCAA rules say you only have to be a full-time student for two semesters to be eligible to participate in athletics. For most athletes across all the schools I’ve worked at - five now - they take summers off. Why not have camp in the summer?

We can still have Spring ball and Spring camp for the high school early enrollees, just like the NFL has rookie minicamp. That should bring more of an emphasis on development that traditional fans have been craving, instead of folks like Cody Campbell opening their wallet and funding a playoff team.

The Calendar

With all of this said, the calendar would look like this for 2026:

• December 5, 2025: Early Signing Day (2026 incoming HS recruits only)

• February 4, 2026: National Signing Day (2026 incoming HS recruits only)

• March-April: Schools determine freshman camps

• May 1, 2026: Transfer Portal opens

• May 15. 2026: Transfer Portal closes

• June-July: Schools determine full-squad camps

• August 22, 2026 - Week Zero Bowls

• August 29, 2026 - Week One Bowls

• November 21, 2026 - Rivalry Week and close of regular season

• November 26, 2028 - Army-Navy (Thanksgiving Night)

• November 28, 2026 - Round 1 of the CFP (Campus Sites)

• December 5, 2026 - Round 3 of the CFP (Campus Sites)

• December 12, 2026 - CFP Quarterfinals (Rotating Bowls)

• December 19, 2026 - CFP Semifinals (Rotating Bowls)

• January 1, 2027 - CFP Championship at the Rose Bowl

Does it fix all of our problems? No, of course not. There’s still overlap between Early Signing Day and the Playoff, after all. But come on, you can’t look at that and tell me that the current system is better than this.

If we pair this with the realignment from Part 1 of the series and postseason format in Part 2, I think we have an infinitely more interesting system than the NCAA is currently trotting out.

But, all this can only be achieved with the total overhaul we’ve been discussing. And, we’re not done.

Check this space tomorrow for how to fix the rule book.

Check out the rest of the Fixing College Football Series!

Part 1 - Realigment

Part 2 - The Postseason

Part 3 - The Calendar

Part 4 - Governance

Part 5 - Media Rights

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Have any questions, ideas, article pitches, or information? With the new Substack features, you can directly message me! Hit the button below to send me a message, or reach out via email to griffin@sid-sports.com, or find us on your favorite social media platform like Facebook, Instagram, Substack Notes and Bluesky.

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Welcome back to Day Two of Fixing College Football! If you weren’t repulsed by my idea of taking a sledgehammer to the current college conference alignments, I’m happy to have you. If you were repulsed, please see yourself to yesterday’s comment section where I’ll happily debate you.

But conference realignment and all that is all blegh. It’s been talked about. It’s essentially one of the founding points and the death of the PAC-12 was the articles and essays that got SID Sports rolling in full. Realignment has a special place in my heart where dueling love and hate emotions duke it out to see if the impact it’s had on this newsletter can even come close to outweighing the damage it’s done to college football.

With that said, now feels like a perfect time to build on that conference realignment post, no?

If you’re new here, I’m a former Sports Information Director (SID) that’s been rambling on about pretty much anything relating to college football and college athletics as a whole. Some people have told me they’ve learned things and enjoyed the newsletter, so we always have that to hang our hats on.

Why am I telling you this? Well, mostly so you know that I at least have an understanding on how the current system works before completely and utterly demolishing it.

Speaking of sledgehammers, let’s recap that conference realignment article again:

• Conferences are now regional, focusing on historical matchups and rivalries with geography in mind.

• Conferences are bound to a 10-team maximum and nine conference game slate.

• There are 13 conferences and eight independent schools.

Got it? Good, let’s get into the postseason and how everything is going to line up to crown our ultimate college football champion in the future. College Football Playoff Executive Committee? Your future playoff format is here, I have a very modest consulting fee.

Crowning Conference Champions

Before we get too into the weeds here, let’s preface one thing: I’m not talking dates, times or scheduling here. That’s for next week’s entry in this five-part series.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I want to say that I love the college football postseason. The bowl system is so incomprehensibly wacky that it’s perfectly emblematic of college football. Yes, the Playoff gives us a true champion, which I believe is what the sport was missing all along in the poll-led and BCS eras. And, expansion is correct. Everyone in the FBS deserves a seat at the table. Who cares that Luke Fickell’s Cincinnati got decimated in their lone playoff bid? They earned their spot. What would’ve happened if Scott Frost 1.0 UCF got in chasing their perfect season? Who knows! But it would’ve been fun.

Now that that’s all covered, it’s time to get into the first of our post-season changes. Conference Championships.

Meaning, no more Conference Championships. Now, this isn’t some mockery of the system like what Tony Petitti is trying to push as play-in-games for some massively expanded playoff. More like it doesn’t need to happen.

As I laid out in my conference realignment piece, we’re playing round robin style nine-game conference slates. Every year, each team will see the other teams in their conference. So, it should already be settled on the field, right? No need for a conference championship?

That plays into our schedule changes, but that’s more an issue for next week.

But Griffin, you may ask, what about if the wrong team wins? Too bad. Should’ve won on the field. If it’s the Big Ten and Indiana goes unbeaten but Ohio State is polling better, who cares? Ohio State should’ve beaten the Hoosiers and needs to stop whining.

Ties, though, can happen. And I’m not about to co-champ our way here. Instead, we’re going to tiebreaker city, everyone’s favorite part of the massive conferences. It’ll be simpler, though, than now simply because everyone’s already played each other. And, since we’re deciding conferences based on conference record, ties are likely to happen.

Tiebreakers would go as follows, in order:

1. Head-to-head matchup

2. Win percentage against next highest ranked team, proceeding through the standings

3. Coin toss

Yeah, I couldn’t come up with anything better than that. But still, forcing everyone to play each other each year should settle things on the field and not require so many tiebreakers like we see now.

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The Playoff

With Conference Championship week dead in the water, how about turning our attention to the playoff?

Like I mentioned earlier in this article and in yesterday’s piece, expanded playoffs are better. It gives more teams a chance to win. Everyone gets a seat at the table. But we have to be careful to not expand it too far (looking at you, Big Ten).

So, we’re going with a 24-team model that mirrors the FCS playoff format. Is that larger than now in our current 12-team format that I’ve called the best way to run the playoff? You bet it is. But, in this new world, it’s a better fit.

But why expand to 24? In all honesty, it brings the FBS in line with every other major tournament. The NCAA has always said they want to have roughly 20 percent of participating schools involved in the postseason tournament. That’s how we have 68 teams in March Madness and why NCAA president Charlie Baker is looking to expand. 20 percent of the 138 FBS programs leaves us with 27.6 teams, but the 24-team bracket makes more sense with the state of the game than going up to 28.

To get our 24 teams, we’d have each of the 13 conference champions guaranteed a spot. The remaining 11 slots would be open to at-large bids, be it from any conference or Independents.

If you thought 24 teams was a departure, hold onto your butts. To seed and choose the 11 at-large teams, I’m bringing back the BCS computers. If we’re really being honest with ourselves, the computer system wasn’t the problem in the BCS era. It was the fact that only two teams got rewarded for doing well and played in a one-off championship game. Having the BCS computers wade through the mess of each college football seasons to find the best teams is much better to me than having a bunch of dudes in a room duke it out and try to see which team should get in with wildly varying criteria. We don’t have to listen to Kalen DeBoer try to convince the world that his three-loss Alabama that lost to Vanderbilt and a bad Oklahoma should get into the playoff over a two-loss SMU, with one of those losses coming in the ACC Championship game. Instead, the computers have a set formula that spits out the best teams.

We’re also going straight seeding here, so no convoluted bye process to confuse everyone and make things worse.

With that, it’s time to look at the bracket, which is an adjusted version of the FCS playoffs. The top eight seeds, which will be determined by committee votes - see, we’re not only looking at computers here! - will all earn byes. The remaining 16 teams will play in Round One at campus sites, which will be hosted by the higher seed. Round Two would include a full re-seed, with the lowest remaining seed heading to the Number One seed and so on and so forth. Round Two would also be hosted at campus sites.

The Quarterfinals and Semifinals would be played at rotating bowls, mostly the New Year’s Six - Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Peach Bowl, Cotton Bowl, and Fiesta Bowl - with one additional entry: the Sun Bowl. The game has been played annually since 1935, has a great venue in El Paso, Texas and provides a great atmosphere for a major college football game. It makes sense that it fits in here.

And, to cap it all off, we’re leaning into the pageantry and tradition of college football. National Championship. January 1. The Rose Bowl. Book it.

How that works with the schedule? Come back tomorrow.

Oh, and we’re bringing back the BCS Crystal Ball trophy because look at this perfection:

Using the simulated BCS rankings from Twitter user BSCKnowHow and SP+ for teams not ranked by the BCS computers, here’s how the bracket would’ve looked with our realignment last season:

Is this perfect? No way. None of these teams played the schedule they would’ve in the new conferences (see: Part 1) or new scheduling requirements (see: Part 3). But, it gives us an approximation of what this new system would look like.

The top eight teams earned byes, and all of them likely deserved it (my disdain for the 2025 Oklahoma team remains). For the first round matchups, the bottom team will be hosting. Are there some blowouts? You bet. But those teams would’ve won their conference and played their way into the dance. They deserved it, just like the ASUN champion deserves a spot in March Madness.

Bowling For Glory

Bowl Season isn’t dead in the water, though. We’re still going to have the traditional bowls that you expect. Just, not at the time you’d expect.

Raise your hand if you’d tune in to watch the Allstate Kickoff Game without knowing who’s playing in it? What if it’s branded as the Duke’s Mayo Bowl?

That’s right, I’m stealing a suggestion from friend of the newsletter to move the bowls up in the season. Instead of having the bowls come in the postseason, with opt-outs and lacking attendance threatening to kill them, not to mention the postseason being overshadowed by the playoff itself, how about they take a new place as important once again.

That should allow matchmakers to start to build up interesting non-conference matchups that we couldn’t enshrine in the regular season. Why not have some former conference rivals duke it out for Pop Tarts glory?

To me, this means more geographical scheduling and more intent scheduling. The Bahamas Bowl is going to go by the wayside because 1) there are no college football fans in the Bahamas, 2) it’s stupid expensive for teams to go over there, and 3) who wants to coordinate getting passports for everyone?

Instead, I’m pulling on my commissioner’s cap and forcing fun into these games. The 67 Ventures Bowl? Boring. The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl? Stunning. Even better, let’s move it to the Kibbie Dome because this is America and we have fun here. GameAbove Sports Bowl? Yawn. Instead, we have the Pop Tarts Bowl.

Get the gist? We’re spurning away the boring sterilized environments and looking for fun. Give me the wacky chaos of a Pop Tart opting out of their ritualistic sacrifice to make fun of a team opting out any day of the week. Give me various foods from mayonnaise to french fries poured on coaches. Bowl games are fun. Bowl games are crazy. We need more of that in college football.

That’s not to say everything has to be a food-based sponsor. The Gasparilla Bowl does a wonderful job playing into the Tampa pirate motif that’s made even better by it being played in Raymond James Stadium. Think fun. Think getting kids interested. Think what will do well on social media.

Now, we’ve got our postseason. The new 24-team playoff and a more fun-oriented bowl season. I’ll see you tomorrow to go over what the calendar as a whole, from kickoff to recruiting, will look like in this alternate universe.

Check out the rest of the Fixing College Football Series!

Part 1 - Realigment

Part 2 - The Postseason

Part 3 - The Calendar

Part 4 - Governance

Part 5 - Media Rights

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Have any questions, ideas, article pitches, or information? With the new Substack features, you can directly message me! Hit the button below to send me a message, or reach out via email to griffin@sid-sports.com, or find us on your favorite social media platform like Facebook, Instagram, Substack Notes and Bluesky.

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If we look past the typical rivalry arguments and the old adage of “billable hours remain undefeated,” there’s one conversation that will always, no matter what happens to college athletics, that will always be relevant. One question that someone, likely many someones, will ask no matter what. “How do we fix college football?”

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about that very same question. What’s wrong with the sport? How do we get back to what made college football truly special? And how does that happen without putting the genie back into the bottle with NIL and compensation rights?

The easy answer is it’s impossible. There will always be people that are unhappy. But, that’s for people with bigger brains and bigger degrees and bigger wallets than mine to solve.

So, I’ve been tinkering with this for a long time. It really comes back to late 2024, when friend of the newsletter (subscribe to Colin if you haven’t already!) pitched an idea to me. What is my fantasy idea? How would I tackle the superleague pitches getting tossed around?

Well, it only took me a year and a half, but here it is. At least, Part One of it.

I’m going to pitch you, my friends, a vastly different world of college athletics. Of course, we’ll focus on football, but to fix college football as a whole, we also have to look at the entire structure of college athletics. Over the course of this week, with five individual articles tackling five major problem areas in college athletics, we’ll hopefully come out on the other side with the perfect blend of past and present. Tradition and innovation. Everything we love about college football and none of the bad stuff.

We’ll start here, with the easiest to digest of the bunch. The on-field product. Or, to be more specific, realignment.

That’s really where it all went wrong for most of us, right? The death of the PAC-12. The ACC spanning the entire contiguous United States. The Big Ten featuring much-acclaimed rivalries like Rutgers-UCLA and Washington-Maryland.

So, to kick off a week of fixing college football, let’s start at it’s simplest. It’s time to redraw the conferences so they make sense.

The Methods

Before we get into the conferences, I wanted to discuss how I went about creating these conferences and the rules we’ll see over all of the leagues.

First off, let’s start with the Playoff. Yes, I’m expanding it to 16 teams. But please, hold onto your pitchforks. That will be looked at in depth next week.

But, even further is the fact that adding more conferences makes the 16-team structure make more sense.

How, you may ask? Because I’m setting limitations on each conference. Namely, each league must have 10 teams and play a full round robin nine-game slate. That means you’ll see everyone in your league each year.

With 138 teams in the FBS ranks - I’m not relegating anyone to the FCS or pulling up any FCS teams - that means we’ll have 13 conferences and eight teams that have been historically independent or just don’t fit into a league. We’ll get into the postseason tomorrow in full, but long story short, we’re moving to a 24-team dance with autobids for each and every conference.

You may also be interested in how I set up the conferences. Easy - I looked to the past. Most of the leagues you see here are structured in historical truth, where the teams spent most of their time in the FBS. I emphasized location - take that, modern NCAA! - and tried to preserve rivalries. However, there are still some primarily non-conference rivalries that would take place. I’ll note those in each league.

So, with all that covered, let’s get into the leagues.

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We’ll start on the Atlantic coast where the ACC’s footprint has shrunk vastly. Instead of journeying out west or into Kentucky, the conference sits in the Carolinas, Maryland, Georgia and Florida. Not too bad, right?

This league is likely going to have the same parity and madness we see now all over the place. Clemson and Florida State have slipped. Duke and Georgia Tech look like sustainable programs. How do Maryland and South Carolina look in this more more balanced league? Will Virginia be able to capitalize? What about mid-tier programs like NC State and Wake Forest. And, finally, would Bill Belichick be able to build North Carolina into a strong contender here?

Rivalries are paramount in this league, though we do lose the Commonwealth Cup (Virginia-Virginia Tech) to non-conference status. Duke-North Carolina is here, as well as North Carolina-NC State. The Palmetto Bowl (Clemson-South Carolina) gets pulled into a conference game and a potential rivalry between UNC and South Carolina can get built up.

Long story short, I expect this to be a very parity-driven league with dynasties hard to come by. But, it should still be one of the nation’s better leagues.

Yes, this one is still a conglomeration of random, far-flung teams. But the American has been surprisingly stable since the downfall of the Big East.

In all reality, this is essentially the modern American trimmed down. Still, the top level of Memphis, North Texas, South Florida, Tulane, UCF and UTSA will be great. I assume at least one playoff-worthy team would come from that group each year.

Sure, there are plenty of other tried and true rivalries for these programs, but they still have some hate to give here. The War on I-4 (South Florida-UCF) is back on the docket. The Battle for the Bones (Memphis-UAB) also remains one of the nation’s most interesting in-conference trophies to battle over.

All hail the Big East!

I know it’s getting tired at this point to resurrect the Big East, but come on, look at this beauty!

The Backyard Brawl is a conference game. Cincinnati-Louisville can reignite their dormant rivalry. UConn, which has improved a ton as of late, gets a conference home. Syracuse and Boston College continue to vie for Northeastern supremacy.

Miami instantly jumps into the main leader here, but there are interesting schools below them. Pittsburgh has flashed top-level talent in recent years. Fran Brown’s Syracuse has played spoiler when they have a healthy quarterback. Virginia Tech looks to be on the upswing with James Franklin leading the way.

Another parity driven league here, albeit one with a clear top dog in Miami. But the Canes can most certainly be dethroned here.

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There isn’t much to change in this long-storied league. Let’s go back to the basics (sorry, UChicago).

Most importantly, we’re done with the Leaders and Legends and East and West and other shenanigans. Let’s focus on down to earth, smashmouth, Midwestern ball with corn-fed boys bulking up each line and field position battles taking the place of scoreboard duels.

Well, maybe not as Indiana, Ohio State and Michigan are very much looking to light up the scoreboards every time they step on the field. But this is still one of the nation’s top leagues.

To me, moving to a nine-game slate in this league is pure torture. That means a trip to Kinnick every other year. Purdue can pull more Ross-Ade voodoo on top-level teams.

But it’s also going to make it tougher for upstart programs. Part of Curt Cignetti’s immediate success at Indiana came from the Hoosiers getting an admittedly weak conference schedule. It got the program going and winning, then Cignetti turned the corner and built them into an elite program.

The bottom tier here - Purdue, Northwestern, Wisconsin in recent years - is still very bad. But upstart teams have to face the big boys every year like Ohio State and Michigan and Indiana. That’s going to be tough.

It’s time to revive some Big Eight hate.

There’s eight teams here that have tons of hatred for each other and then two seemingly random additions in Arkansas State and Northern Illinois. Yeah, they’re definitely random and picked because they don’t really have traditional conference homes. So they land here.

But my goodness look at the rivalries. Bedlam revived. The Border War (Kansas-Missouri) back on the docket. Colorado-Nebraska is now a yearly fixture. Nebraska-Missouri makes its return. There’s so much pent up hatred here.

And that’s ignoring long-standing rivalries like the Sunflower Showdown (Kansas-Kansas State) that remain here.

So, yes, Arkansas State and Northern Illinois are being thrown to the wolves (penance for leaving the MAC? You decide), but isn’t ritualistic sacrifice to exponentially increase the levels of pettiness and hatred in the Great Plains what college football is all about?

In terms of postseason, there isn’t much playoff hype here. Missouri and Oklahoma have been competitive as of late. Kansas State and Iowa State routinely compete for the Big 12 Championship. Colorado and Nebraska have been building. Right now, I think Oklahoma runs the show for a bit, but what’s stopping any of the other schools from turning this into a slog that goes down to the wire?

Here’s where we start getting fanatical. Some of these teams have never played in the CUSA, but the footprint is consolidated to mostly the Northeast.

Look at this list and tell me that these teams don’t belong in a league together. Go on, do it. That’s right, you can’t.

No, there aren’t a ton of rivalries here, but bad blood can be built. We do get some like the Battle of the Blue Ridge (Liberty-James Madison), the Royal Rivalry (James Madison-Old Dominion) and Coastal Carolina-Liberty, but there can be more.

Who say Appalachian State can’t hate Charlotte or Marshall? Who says that Temple and Delaware can’t learn to despise each other? Surely not I.

Though, this conference is going to be dominated by James Madison from the jump. Lock the Dukes into the playoff each year.

Three states. 10 teams. Under 100 fans in the stand. This is MACtion.

You don’t need to mess with perfection.

Do I expect a MAC team to make a run into the playoffs? Absolutely not. But I do expect Toledo to blow whatever talent advantage they have and finish at or near .500 overall. I do expect the Michigan MAC battle to be some of the ugliest, most disgustingly amazing football you’ve ever seen. I do expect the thousands of posts about Eastern Michigan’s gray field making people think their TVs are in black and white. I do expect Miami and Ohio to battle for southern Buckeye State supremacy. I do expect Ball State to be hated by pretty much everyone in the conference because they force everyone to travel to Funcie, Indiana. And I do expect this to come down to the wire each and every season.

Oh, and Midweek MACtion is protected as a national treasure. Get that weekday CUSA garbage out of here.

This is a more historical interpretation of the Mountain West, meaning the Holy War is relegated here instead of the Big Eight or PAC-10.

And, obviously, the Holy War is going to headline this league. Early on, I expect the Utah-based rivalry to be the proxy conference championship.

But what about Boise? The Broncos have been good and building up. San Diego State and UNLV have high upsides and massive markets of Las Vegas and San Diego that they can sell. Colorado State has been considered a high-potential program with significant investment into its facilities and now coaching staffs.

Rivarly wise, it isn’t all the Holy War. The Border War (Colorado State-Wyoming), Bridger’s Battle (Utah State-Wyoming) and Battle for the Oil Can (Fresno State-San Diego State) remain.

Just like with the Big Ten, there was no reason to mess with this conference. Too bad Larry Scott and George Kliavkoff missed that memo.

You have a compact footprint, quality programs and rivalries galore here. Every one of these schools have their most hated rival in the league. Sure, some pivotal non-conference rivalries like Notre Dame-USC are gone, but none of these teams have built enough of a relationship with their new leagues to have new rivals.

The fan bases all seem to still hate each other. And you bet they’re going to hate each other even more after being forced back into the same league so many of these teams built to destroy.

It’s the SEC. You know what that means. After all, it just means more.

Some of the fat has been trimmed off so it’s a true Southeastern conference. More importantly, look at how that conference schedule is going to look. No more weak slates, it’s time to put up or shut up in the SEC.

But seriously, can you think of a rivalry we lost by going to this format? I can’t. Couple that with everyone having to play each other and we’ll see that true SEC meatgrinder so many southern fans talk about.

Again, some teams may not have played in this conference previously. But the Florida, Georgia, Alabama footprint makes sense (sorry, Western Kentucky for the travel times)

I grouped Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee together since the two rivals never seem to part ways. But the rest of these teams make up a fun footprint. Are they the best? No, this would probably end up being one of the weaker leagues. But I think seeing Georgia Southern, Jacksonville State and Western Kentucky duke it out for the title would be a lot of fun.

Oh yeah, toxicity is so back!

Rivalries are aplenty in the remade SWC with a battle for Texan domination the key selling point.

Sure, Red River would have to be a non-conference game, but old-fashioned rivalries are reunited in hate. The Lone Star Showdown (Texas-Texas A&M), Battle of the Brazos (Baylor-Texas A&M), Battle for the Bayou Bucket (Houston-Rice), and the Battle for the Iron Skillet (SMU-TCU) are all here.

I’d imagine Texas and Texas A&M would be the championship matchup, but you can’t say that someone like Houston, SMU, TCU or Texas Tech wouldn’t be able to compete for that?

All hail regional hate groups masquerading as conferences.

Now that the actual WAC is dead in the water, it’s time for it to reborn. And, in true WAC fashion, this is a weird grouping.

We’ll start off with the three Louisiana schools, which we’ve detailed about their hatred, especially Louisiana Tech and Louisiana-Monroe. But the rest of these schools have had footholds in the WAC before and it should be a balanced league. Rivalries like UTEP-New Mexico State will make it fun and who doesn’t love a trip to Hawaii?

In all reality, this won’t be a great league. But it has plenty of chaos opportunities.

Our final grouping is our eight leftovers, the Independents.

The two FBS newcomers, North Dakota State and Sacramento State, land here because they have no historical ties to any conferences or leagues we’re establishing here. North Dakota State is a longtime Summit League member for all sports aside from football, which resides in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. They have no rivalries to protect. Ditto for Sacramento State, which has been nomadic with their longest conference stint being almost 30 years in the Far Western Conference from 1954 to 1982.

The three service academies make sense. They’ll probably play a lot of regional teams and, obviously, get each other for the Commander-in-Chief Cup series. Notre Dame has always been independent, of course they’ll stay here like that.

Penn State is a little stranger for our new to college football fans, but the Nittany Lions were longtime independents before joining the Big Ten. With the 10-team limit, sending Penn State back to independence made the most sense.

And, our final program, UMass? Yeah, they’ve spent pretty much their entire FBS life as Independents aside from a brief flirtation with the MAC as a football-only affiliate when they made the jump and again this past season. With their only history coming as independents, they’ll head back that way.

With that, we’ve gotten our base realignment set. Tomorrow, we’ll delve into the postseason format and how to make it fair and balanced. And, as always, dive into the comments to tell me how wrong I got this and how I screwed over your favorite team.

Check out the rest of the Fixing College Football Series!

Part 1 - Realigment

Part 2 - The Postseason

Part 3 - The Calendar

Part 4 - Governance

Part 5 - Media Rights

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A normal college football season is 12 regular season games. When you add in a possible conference championship and CFP runs, you can potentially amass 16 total games. Which Indiana, of all schools, became the first to go completely undefeated.

But at the Group of Six ranks? 14 seems like a pretty hard cap right now based on how the three entrants from those conferences have done in the 12-team era.

So how does Louisiana Tech currently have a 20-game regular season slate?

I mean, just look how ridiculous that looks. 20 games? Heck, the Bulldogs have two contests scheduled for November 7 and you best believe they’re not going to go split-squad across the state of Alabama.

But if you look at the official Louisiana Tech website, you’ll see a much more standard 12-game slate. So what gives?

Conference brawl

No, Louisiana Tech is not about to play 20 football games in a season, including two split-squad games and a game roughly every four days.

You might remember last offseason that Louisiana Tech started the process from moving from Conference USA to a much better fit in the Sun Belt, bringing back one of the most toxic unknown rivalries. Yeah, this is all because of that.

Right now, Louisiana Tech is caught between two conference homes. The deal with their new home, the Sun Belt, wasn’t set to start until “no later than July 1, 2027,” according to the league’s news release at the time.

Last time I checked, the calendar still reads 2026. So what gives?

Behind the scenes, the school informed their previous home, Conference USA, that they wanted to start their membership in the Sun Belt in the 2026-27 academic year. Not the 2027-28 year that was mentioned in the press release. There is a problem with that, though. Conference USA requires 14 months of notice for departing schools. With membership changes finalized on July 1 of each year and the move announced July 15, 2025, we’re at just 12 months.

Too bad, so sad for the Bulldogs. But this is college football and we can’t take things like this lightly. To the courtroom we go!

That’s right, Louisiana Tech filed a lawsuit against Conference USA in an attempt to force their way out of the league. Of course, they could’ve worked out a settlement where the departing LTU would pay CUSA to break the deal. But that makes way too much sense.

More on the Louisiana Tech move to the Sun Belt:

Stacking billables

There’s a common refrain among college athletics: Billable Hours remain undefeated. Boy are they racking up points now.

According to reporting by The Athletic, the crux of Louisiana Tech’s argument is that moving leagues to the Sun Belt would be a net benefit for all the student athletes, particularly because there would be shorter travel. Which is true. There are already two other Louisiana-based schools in the league in Louisiana and Louisiana-Monroe. They won’t have to travel to far-flung school such as New Mexico State (930 miles) or Delaware (1,222) miles. Instead, the longest trip in-division will be to Troy (434 miles).

I think we call can agree that’s a much better situation for the student-athletes. But, rules are rules and bylaws are bylaws.

The case got much harder as Louisiana Tech continued to argue that the CUSA could not withhold NCAA distributions from the school and that the CUSA should be barred from including Louisiana Tech in future schedules.

That argument didn’t fly, and a judge denied Louisiana Tech’s appeal for a temporary restraining order.

Remember when I said billable hours kept stacking? Yeah, it’s time for more lawsuits!

Without the provision that the CUSA could not include Louisiana Tech on their schedules, both leagues released their 2026 football conference slates with the Bulldogs playing a full schedule. That is how we’ve ended up at 20 games.

What’s next?

More lawsuits.

In response to the dual scheduling fiasco, the University of Louisiana System filed another suit against the CUSA.

Court filings obtained by the Lincoln Parish Journal showed that Louisiana Tech informed the CUSA of their intent to move to the Sun Belt July 1, 2026. But, as we’ve discussed, that still falls outside of the 14-month window the conference requires for departing members.

The case, originally filed in Lincoln Parish with a March 19 docket date, has been postponed and a judge granted a request from Conference USA to move the case to federal court. No new date has been set.

Obviously, that will be the immediate answer to what is next. But, what actually will come from this case?

In the immediate term, Louisiana Tech is still bound to the media deal with Conference USA, so that schedule would stand. It would constiute a major breach of contract for the school to spurn that deal and force their way into the Sun Belt. Plenty more lawsuits would follow.

You may remember a similar situation when three CUSA schools - Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss - departed for the Sun Belt in 2022. The timeline is a lot tighter in Louisiana Tech’s case - a shade over three months until the move compared to 10 months for the others - but precedent is in the Bulldogs’ favor.

All three of those departing schools filed suits in state courts to force the early move. All three won their cases. Could Conference USA pulling the case to the federal level impact the result? It’s possible, but precedent is hard to ignore.

In all reality, I think that a settlement will come about at some point in the process and the two will just go their separate ways. A prolonged legal battle seems against the interests of both organizations.

But who knows? This is college football, after all.

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It’s not the offseason if we didn’t talk realignment, is it?

My last story was on a move that I like a lot: North Dakota State to the Mountain West. To make a long story short, I think the Bison are well-positioned to make the jump to the Mountain West and could be a huge piece in building the league’s relevancy.

But there was another realignment move that hasn’t been met with that same excitement. And one that I, as an unofficial Ambassador of MACtion, feel uniquely set to talk about.

That’s right, it’s Sacramento State joining the Mid-American Conference as a football only member. Yes, you heard right, that’s Sacramento State in Sacramento, California. Joining the Mid-American conference.

The worst part? It kind of makes sense.

More on the North Dakota State move to the FBS:

National MACtion

To start, let’s take a look at what’s going on for the Hornets in joining their new league.

Sacramento State is entering into the league starting this season as a football-only member. Their other sports will still reside in their Big West home and the gridiron Hornets will get acclimated to small, regional airports across the Midwest and Northeast.

If we put geography aside - a common refrain in the modern college football universe - Sac State fits well as a MAC school. They’re a public, state-funded school like the rest of the league. They’ll fit in right around the top of the league in enrollment, with both the University at Buffalo and Sacramento State having around 31,000 students.

It’s the financials that make up the bulk of the deal.

The Hornets will pay $18 million to the league for membership, with an additional $5 million fee going to the NCAA for FBS membership, bringing the Sacramento State final bill to $23 million. Of that $18 million due to the MAC, $6 million has to be paid up-front for membership to become official.

Sac State is also going to forgo any media distributions across the five-year pact that ties the Hornets to their new conference home. Even more, all the air travel for teams heading to Sacramento will be on the Hornets’ dime.

Let’s look at the obvious: the Mid-American Conference now stretches from Amherst, Massachusetts to Sacramento, California. That’s absolutely silly, but it isn’t new to this conference at all.

Twice in the past, the MAC welcomed far-flung teams moving up from the FCS ranks on short terms as football-only members. Most recently, the league was the first conference home for UMass as the Minutemen moved up to the FBS in 2012. All told, prior to hitting the independent ranks, UMass spent four seasons in the MAC, amassing a 8-40 record over that time frame. Yikes.

(Side note: The first FBS game I attended was a battle between Bowling Green and UMass during this timeframe. MACtion runs in my blood)

I think a more apt comparison for Sacramento State’s entry to the MAC is when the league decided to hit the Sunshine State by being the first FBS home for the University of Central Florida, better known as UCF. In 2002, the Knights joined the MAC as a football-only member. This was before the Midweek MACtion that we’ve all come to know and love, so the previously independent UCF benefited greatly from the scheduling stability that being in a conference provided. Like UMass’s first stint in the league, the Knights weren’t very successful despite a 7-5 showing in their first season, going 3-20 across their next two seasons before finding a better fit in Conference USA.

Upsides and downsides

Surprisingly, the MAC hasn’t always been focused on like-minded public Midwestern schools. UMass and UCF showed that.

Looking deeper at those moves, we see that the MAC has always prioritized media markets. UCF is based in Orlando, which ranks as a top-15 media market. Sacramento ranks as the 20th largest market, bringing more eyes on the conference. UMass stands out, as Amherst is far enough away from Boston that it doesn’t count towards that market, but it gave the conference a foothold near the 10th largest market.

Even more, the financial boosts for the conference for admitting Sacramento State is massive. The MAC is a criminally underfunded league, in part because of that midweek MACtion that we’ve all come to know and love. That deal, signed in 2014 and running through the 2026-27 season, nets the league about $8 million annually. That breaks down to just $600,000 for each of the member schools.

Sacramento State’s cash infusion into the league couldn’t come at a better time, with costs soaring due to revenue sharing and rapidly increasing coaching salaries and a media rights deal that is keeping the league at the FBS’s bottom rungs. The $6 million paid up-front to the MAC equals just over $450,000 for each of the league’s 13 members. That’s a massive payday to support those teams.

For the league, this is a no-brainer. If you want to compete on the big stage, you need cash. The MAC doesn’t have that. It’s just a fact of life at this point. Sacramento State has that and is willing to pony up that cash to make it happen. Travel costs? Doesn’t matter, the Hornets’ card will cash. Diluting the league? Possibly, but you can’t argue when you’re offered a bonus worth 75 percent of your annual salary.

It’s on Sacramento State’s side that it doesn’t make as much sense.

For one, the MAC, as much as it hurts me to say, is not a premier conference. If I’m being realistic - again, this hurts me - the league is right with Conference USA in terms of afterthoughts. SP+ pegs the bottom of the league as mid-tier FCS teams. What is Sacramento State hoping to get out of this?

More pointed, they just wanted the FBS jump to happen. Their previous Sac-12 effort to gain entry into the FBS and remade PAC-12 in Fall 2024 fell apart because the financial support was nothing more than handshake deals contingent on the school joining the PAC-12. When that didn’t immediately happen, the money never exchanged hands and the reported $35 million NIL budget evaporated into a run of the mill budget for a well-supported FCS program. Then, they applied for a waiver to compete at the FBS ranks as an independent when they left the Big Sky to the non-football Big West, which the NCAA shot down.

The move to the MAC finally fulfills that goal to get Sac State to the FBS. Hang your hat on that, Luke Wood.

It’s a well-deserved feather in the Sacramento State president’s cap, but he’s got a lot to work on in terms of the actual benefit of the move to the university. Wood posted a list of major benefits to the school on his Twitter account:

The first makes sense. These buy game guarantees are a huge piece of the MAC puzzle. Each year we see schools like Kent State, which has a particularly shoe-string budget, play multiple buy games. Friend of the newsletter Matt Brown over at Extra Points found that multiple MAC schools are earning over $3 million annually in football buy games, so the finances check out.

Getting more exposure on the national broadcasts - midweek MACtion anyone?! - and in EA’s CFB titles is a huge benefit. Especially for a president that seems like a staunch front porch believer.

For those that aren’t familiar with the Front Porch principle, it’s the idea that the athletics department serves as a front porch, or introduction, of the public to the school. I’m sure you know many of the larger schools in your area. But think of the random ones that you know about in far-flung areas of the state. I live in MACtion country and I’m talking about Sacramento State here, so it works.

With that raised awareness due to athletics, the front porch idea takes it further, with that increased awareness leading to more applications and admissions for students not in the university’s targeted area. The biggest example of this is the jump in enrollment at the University of Alabama during Nick Saban’s tenure. UCF saw an 11 percent increase in applications following the football team’s perfect 2017 season and claimed national championship.

It’s clear that’s what Wood is hoping for, that increase exposure leads to more students. But it’s the revenue piece that concerns me.

On the surface, using the additional athletics revenue to supplement academics, as Wood lays out in his fourth point, is a great idea. But relying on that revenue is where things look shaky.

For one, that $975 million of economic impact came out of left field. Remember how I said the MAC is criminally underfunded? The entirety of the conference’s media deal, from start to finish, is just $100 million. Where is this number coming from?

Fellow Substacker dug deep into this at CBS Sports, talking to the CEO of the consulting firm that did the study for Sacramento State leading to those numbers. And, shockingly, he had no idea where they came from. They didn’t appear in the report, with the CEO of Collegiate Consulting telling Johnson that the $975 million overall impact amount was mischaracterized, as the data provided was not designed to be taken over the course of the five-year deal. The numbers on broadcasts were seemingly conjured out of nowhere, taking a look at what the highest valued MAC broadcasts were and basing it off of those numbers. You know, numbers that included a Toledo bowl win over Pittsburgh in 2024.

And all that ignores the fact that Sacramento State, as part of the FBS rules for moving up to the highest division, is ineligible for postseason play for its first two season, barring any waivers or massive changes.

To me, this side of things all reeks as empty promises. It’s clear that Sacramento State has the money to make it work and hold up their end of the bargain to the MAC, Brown reported that the Hornets’ budget last season would put them as a mid-tier MAC program, but past that there are serious concerns.

Is this sustainable? I don’t know. But the amounts that this move was based on for Sacramento State are just a mirage that mean nothing in the real world.

So yes, there is some sense in this wildly confusing realignment move. Sense for the MAC, at least. For Sacramento State, there’s a long and winding road ahead.

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There’s a void in college football west of the Mississippi. Someone has to step up to fill that gap.

That void, of course, is that there isn’t a premier athletic conference - especially on the gridiron - since the PAC-12 nearly went belly-up in 2023. Now, we have two Group of Six leagues vying for the title and the attention of western-based college football fans.

For one, the PAC-12 is back, but only in name only. It’s a collection of the two surviving original PAC-12 members - Oregon State and Washington State - and a host of successful former Mountain West teams like Boise State. They also added Texas State because hey, someone has to be the eighth team, right?

On the other hand, the Mountain West has survived the raiding and lawsuits from the PAC-12 and is now contending for that title.

And, while the new PAC-12 has its iconic shield logo, might the Mountain West be better positioned for success long-term?

Membership

The biggest news of the weekend - well, aside from the Super Bowl and Olympic games - was that FCS superpower North Dakota State has joined the Mountain West as a football-only member, bringing the league to 10 teams total. The Bison will start competing in their new conference home this season.

One thing’s clear, North Dakota State did all it could do in the FCS ranks. The Bison have won 10 of the last 15 FCS national titles. They’re 9-5 against FBS competition since coming up to the FCS ranks in 2004. They held an FCS-record 39-game winning streak from 2017 to 2021 that shattered their old record of 33 consecutive wins, set from 2012 to 2014.

Heck, the Bison almost were ranked in the AP Top 25 as an FCS program in 2016, finishing two spots away from being the first FCS team included in those rankings.

We’ve seen success with teams moving up from the FCS ranks previously, with James Madison posting winning seasons in each of their four years of FBS competition and making the College Football Playoff last season, Kennesaw State winning the CUSA title in just their second year of FBS competition, and Missouri State earning a bowl bid their first year in the FBS ranks.

It’s not hard to envision North Dakota State reaching or exceeding James Madison’s lofty marks. The Bison ended the season ranked 65th in SP+, which would rank them as the Mountain West’s top program and 16th best Group of Six team. They ranked 45 places higher than second-place Tarleton State.

So no, this is not your typical FCS to FBS move. This is a major coup for the Mountain West. Though the Bison won’t be able to compete for a conference crown their first year due to NCAA regulations, North Dakota State will be the favorite to post the best record in conference play.

But, if we compare the Mountain West and PAC-12’s membership, who really wins?

Let’s do a side-by-side comparison of last year’s SP+ rankings based on the members this upcoming season. We’ll list the PAC-12 team first with their SP+ rank in parentheses, then the Mountain West program:

1. San Diego State (43) | North Dakota State (65)

2. Washington State (61) | Hawaii (69)

3. Boise State (64) | New Mexico (74)

4. Texas State (66) | Air Force (82)

5. Fresno State (67) | Wyoming (113)

6. Utah State (80) | Nevada (112)

7. Colorado State (132) | San Jose State (125)

8. Oregon State (134) | Northern Illinois (136)

And that’s without counting what could go down with future membership, which we’ll get into later.

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Behind the scenes battles

There’s no way around it, money determines college football’s power structure. The more money you have to invest in players, staff and facilities, the better your team will be.

It’s nearly impossible for us to see what NIL budgets or revenue sharing ability would look like, so we’ll focus on the main income source for college athletics programs: media deals. The thought process is simple, whoever makes the most money has the most cash to spend. Makes sense, right?

The PAC-12 sold its incoming members on the fact that they would be able to net a top of the market Group of Six media package to position the entire league better than their previous home. They didn’t get that. Instead, the San Diego Union Tribune’s Jon Wilmer is reporting that the PAC-12 media rights deal will net around $6 million annually for each member school.

That puts the PAC-12 second in average media rights payments per school, behind the American’s $6.94 million. That didn’t seem to be according to plan, as Utah State athletic director Cameron Walker told Cache Valley Daily, “The few years in the [media deal] are a little lean. Not worse than where we were, but a little leaner than maybe we anticipated.”

And he’s right, the new PAC-12 deal brings $2 million in additional revenue over what the previous Mountain West deal provided each school. But it’s clear that the new PAC-12 and the media market viewed the league’s structure differently. The schools that ditched the Mountain West were doing so to trim the fat from the league, so to speak, and cut ties with their more budgetary constrained contemporaries.

An extra $2 million for schools of this size is nothing to sneeze at, don’t get me wrong. But a leaner media rights deal coupled with the exit payments that the departing schools have to pay the Mountain West makes this deal look a lot worse for wear.

And now, we have a direct comparison as the Mountain West has come to a deal of their own based on their new membership.

The leagues invite the comparison on their own, as both are going to go head-to-head with various games broadcast on CBS and The CW. But we’re not here for the broadcast schedules, we’re here to talk dollars.

The Mountain West deal comes in much leaner, with conference commissioner Gloria Nevarez confirming to The Athletic’s Chris Vannini that the payout for the legacy Mountain West teams will not change from their previous $3.5 million annual amount. To Nevarez, that was a big sticking point - that the conference not lose any money with their next media home.

On the surface, that’s a clear win for PAC-12 supremacy west of the Mississippi - the league has more than doubled what the Mountain West is raking in. Pair that with the guarantees that every PAC-12 football game is going to be broadcast on linear television, while only 40 Mountain West games will see linear TV, and you have a clear PAC-12 win.

Or do we?

As the title of this article reads, the Mountain West is gambling on itself. They believe there are routes to increase that media payout and find creative ways to pocket more income for the member schools.

Put it on black

No, the conference isn’t literally getting into gambling - that’s something you would see me decrying as I have other gambling-related issues on this platform.

But they are betting on themselves to punch above their weight.

The first is that the Mountain West is launching a new streaming home for all their sports, televised or not. The league’s announcement of their new deal included a tidbit about a new direct-to-consumer app launching in July ahead of the upcoming athletic season in partnership with Kiswe.

Kiswe, for those that haven’t heard, is a company specializing in hosting and delivering reliable end-to-end streaming directly to consumers. They’ve partnered with other sports teams, such as the Utah Jazz, Utah Mammoth, New Orleans Pelicans and more, in addition to other creator-driven events like YouTube duo Rhett and Link’s Good Mythical Evening events, various Smosh livestreams, and even livestreamed concerts for notable acts like Black Sabbath, KISS and Queen with Adam Lambert.

All that’s to say, Kiswe will be a clear improvement over the current Mountain West app, which doesn’t have the best reputation to say the least. But, at least it’s free for the non-televised games.

That’s going to the wayside, as the new Mountain West App, launching in July, will reportedly have two payment tiers, with both annual and monthly subscriptions available.

The app can also be bundled into an Amazon Prime subscription, making all games native to the Prime streaming ecosystem, and will be available on all forms of smart TV operating systems like Roku, the Google Play Store, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and more.

With the app a direct-to-consumer one, any subscriptions will be direct revenue generated for the conference and distributed amongst its members. With that being said, an app alone like this is not enough to narrow the gap between the Mountain West and PAC-12.

That, my friends, will have to come on the field.

Final frontier

Remember those SP+ rankings we looked at earlier? It’s time to get back into actual on-field competition instead of the money behind realignment moves.

When finalizing membership, the two leagues took drastically different paths to get to their eight plus teams.

The PAC-12 went for more established brands, focusing on bringing on Gonzaga as a non-football member and pursuing Group of Six stalwarts like Tulane and Memphis to round out their eight-team block. They ended up getting spurned by those schools and settled on Texas State, which has the makings of an up-and-coming school.

The Mountain West, on the other hand, prioritized geographical fits. They added UTEP as a full member and granted all-sport membership to Hawaii. Non-football members Grand Canyon University and UC-Davis bring one of the largest alumni networks in the nation and a foothold in the UC system, respectively. Northern Illinois was a add of opportunity, with the Huskies filling out the football roster and adding a new market area.

But the biggest swing was the one we looked at earlier that caused this entire article to get written - North Dakota State.

For a moment, let’s take a look at some of the more successful Group of Six schools in the past few years. Boise State earned a bye in the first 12-team playoff field, and justifiably so. The Broncos were very, very good. They’ve also been very good for most of the 2000’s, with highlights such as their Fiesta Bowl upset of Oklahoma.

Tulane came out of relatively nowhere under Willy Fritz to take a Sugar Bowl win over USC. When Fritz departed for Houston, Jon Sumrall took the Green Wave even further, earning them a spot in the college football playoff.

Finally, we have James Madison. They competed immediately upon joining the FBS ranks four seasons ago, and netted their first Sun Belt title and College Football Playoff appearance this past season.

When I think of North Dakota State, I think of James Madison. In fact, I think the Bison could be even better. Like James Madison, the program has a strong culture and environment of winning. 10 of 15 FCS national championships will do that to a program. Like James Madison, the Bison have operated like a FBS team for a not insignificant period of time and are betting on themselves to do even bigger things on the bigger stage.

I think they can do it. The Bison waited to make the move until they felt like they could compete in this new league, according to associate athletic director for development Derrick Lang in an interview with CBS Sports. They felt like they hit that in the move to the Mountain West.

Let’s take all that and boil it down into one big point for each league. The PAC-12 was chasing brands. The Mountain West was chasing potential.

That potential is what the league has to hope pans out to overtake the PAC-12. If North Dakota State competes early and follows a JMU-like path - let’s be realistic and say it takes six years for the Bison to fully break through like the Dukes last season - that could be a big boost for the league as a whole.

The CFP pays out lump sums of incentive cash to conferences based on appearances in the playoff, with $4 million for any school that earns a bid and another $4 million for schools making a quarterfinal appearance, according to Front Office Sports.

Is it unrealistic to think that North Dakota State might have a better shot to compete for that CFP cash than the PAC-12? Right now, it might be. But, if the Bison are able to raise the league up and start competing for a CFP bid, that could be a major cash infusion.

Is it a long way away? You bet. But, the Mountain West is starting to try to compete to be the top Group of Six conference. And, they may have the inside track for some other big hitters.

UC-Davis, as mentioned earlier, is an FCS powerhouse. The Aggies have made consecutive FCS Quarterfinal appearances and have earned a Top 25 ranking in 32 consecutive weeks. However, it isn’t looking like the Mountain West will sway the Aggies, as UC-Davis released a statement reaffirming their Big Sky football membership following North Dakota State’s move to the Mountain West.

The Dakota schools - South Dakota State, in particular - have traditionally always stuck together dating back to the start of the Dakota Marker rivalry when the two state schools in the Dakotas forged a relationship to move from the Division II ranks up to then-Division I-AA. They’ve played annually since then, and the allure of jumping along with their rival may come in the future. For now, there isn’t any speculation on the Jackrabbits also making the jump.

The same can be said for other FCS powerhouses, like North Dakota, South Dakota and the Montana schools. There isn’t any buzz, but if Connelly’s SP+ rankings are to be believed, they would greatly overhaul the bottom of the conference.

Right now, the PAC-12 is in a clearly better point with their media deal and higher-level membership. But the Mountain West is making a strong play. Who’s to say how it will shake out in the next five, 10, 25 years?

Either way, the Mountain West is worth monitoring.

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I’m sure you’ve heard many a newsletter, article, coach, podcaster or anyone claim that the modern college football era is the “wild, wild west.” There’s no regulation. Players come and go as they please, always chasing the next paycheck. Boosters like Cody Campbell are touting the NIL budget that they’re spending on players. Routinely, you see rosters valued at much higher than the supposed $20.5 million cap that was established in the House v. NCAA settlement for revenue sharing.

But, things might be changing. This offseason is becoming a major inflection point on how this will all work and operate going forward.

It’s not like NIL-related disputes are anything new. We saw Matthew Sluka opt out mid-season at UNLV in 2024 due to an NIL-related dispute. Sluka later ended up withdrawing from UNLV and using his redshirt that season before transferring to James Madison where he saw limited action in an early-season two quarterback scheme alongside Alonza Barnett III. Sluka’s dispute with UNLV, though, hinged on a verbal agreement, so there was no contract or anything in writing that could lead to a legal battle. He just withdrew and that was that.

The same cannot be said of Jaden Rashada, who was the first major NIL-related dispute. Rashada alleged that Florida’s then head coach, Billy Napier, and his staff promised him a NIL deal in excess of $13 million that was never intended to be honored. Rashada and his representation sued Napier, a staffer and a major booster, alleging fraud in the purported NIL deal to entice him to join the university under false pretenses. The case has a tentative trial date for this summer.

More on the Rashada suit:

Until this offseason, that was the major extent of the NIL and player payment issues. Then, House v. NCAA came in and opened up direct revenue-sharing between universities and athletes based on media rights and other Name, Image and Likeness provisions.

Now that the season has come to a close, all the attention is on the off-field matters like the transfer portal, recruiting and business-related topics of roster construction. With a year of the House settlement under everyone’s belts, it’s supposed to get easier, right?

Wrong.

Everything kicked off with then-Missouri defensive end Damon Wilson II getting handed a lawsuit from his former school, Georgia, seeking $380,000 in damages due to his entering the transfer portal at the end of the 2024 season, per The Athletic.

We saw almost the same thing play out months later when Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. indicated his intent to enter into the transfer portal, only for Washington to refuse to post his name into the portal, citing a signed contract between the Huskies and Williams indicating Williams would return for 2026. The mess that followed included Williams’s agent dropping him before Williams ultimately pulled his name from the portal and returned to Washington.

It seemed like an early win for contract enforcement. Enter Darian Mensah. On the last day the portal was open for players to enter their name in, Duke’s quarterback tossed his hat into the ring with his eyes likely on South Beach and Miami. Ahead of the final posting deadline to enter players into the portal, Duke sued their quarterback alleging a breach of contract. The contract stipulated all disputes head to arbitration, according to Front Office Sports, but Duke filed the lawsuit seeking an injunction to prevent Mensah from even entering the portal.

With the lawsuit pending, Mensah was ruled to be able to enter into the portal, but he would be unable to sign until a judge ruled on a possible injunction. Mensah and Duke would settle just under a week later and the quarterback has since enrolled at Miami.

That quick fire recap shows that this is a major issue that isn’t going away: NIL and revenue sharing contract disputes are here to stay.

Looking at the deals (again, I am not a lawyer, nor did I attend law school aside from an undergrad and graduate-level sport law class), I see two main things popping up.

First, the suits about compensation. That’s what we saw with Sluka and Rashada and was the more typical issue pre-House. These ones, for all intents and purposes, are typical contract-related suits. What was promised and agreed upon in the deal? Were those compensation amounts honored? For Sluka, everything was verbally agreed upon and unenforceable, so there was no legal recourse. Rashada’s suit has continued because of the evidence of unfulfilled promises.

The others fall in the second category of schools attempting to use revenue sharing contracts to lock athletes into competing at their schools. This form is more what I’m interested in.

As reported in Extra Points by guest poster Kristi Dosh, there are serious issues with schools pursuing that. Dosh analyzed three revenue sharing contract templates from Minnesota, Purdue and Washington to see what provisions were common across them. In terms of entering students into the transfer portal, Dosh noted that only Purdue had a provision allowing the school to deny entering an athlete into the portal and that the athlete cannot accept any revenue sharing or NIL funds from their new school for the duration of the contract. Dosh did state that, “although my interpretation is that the Washington and Minnesota contracts effectively accomplish the same thing, the wording isn’t as clear and explicit as Purdue’s.”

Even worse, though, is the exact copy of Williams’s contract that was published by the Seattle Times. Section 8 of the deal states that “The Parties understand and expressly agree that the Consideration is not provided in exchange for the Student-Athlete’s commitment to participate in the Institution’s Intercollegiate Athletics Program (i.e., not ‘Pay-for-Play’).”

Hmm, that’s not what Duke and Washington were trying to do. In fact, the contract explicitly states that it is not a pay-for-play deal and the contract does not compel the athlete into participating in their sport at their university.

So, how were Duke and Washington able to start to pursue legal avenues with that contract? Your guess is as good as mine.

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Now we’ve reached the big question time: what does this mean going forward?

Unfortunately, I don’t have that answer. Nor do I think anyone does, if we’re being honest.

One thing is clear to me: schools will not be able to legally enforce these revenue sharing deals to keep athletes in their programs. The contracts, provided they follow a similar template to the one the Big Ten distributed and used by Washington, explicitly state that is not the case with a “No Pay-For-Play Clause.”

So what’s the other option, then? In my mind, that’s collective bargaining.

Now, let’s take a step back. Collective bargaining? That’s a phrase with a lot of oomph and energy behind it. It means even more fundamental changes to how college athletics operate. It will most certainly alienate more traditionalist fans as the college athletics landscape further takes the form of a professional league.

But it also may be our best shot and making this thing work going forward.

Let’s dispel some major qualms first and foremost. First, a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) does not inherently make college athletes employees of their university. Certainly, a CBA could make that happen, but it is not a requirement. Yes, it would mean that college athletes across a plethora of sports in massively different situations across all 50 states would have to organize. But we saw the athletes organize for something like EA’s College Football series, where the athletes joined a collective led by One Tree Partners to sign their rights en masse to be included in the game. Second, it isn’t going to mean that athletics are splitting off from colleges. Athletes will almost assuredly need to maintain academic progress standards and schools will be judged by graduation success rate and other academic standards.

Also, a CBA is light years away. Well, maybe not light years, as college athletics have been moving at roughly the speed of light since this newsletter launched in 2023. But there is already groundwork being laid.

AthleticDirectorU, a site aimed at empowering the up-and-coming future athletic directors, has already looked at what a CBA would be. And they assessed that a CBA would resolve many of the issues that are current there. Just opening up a collective bargaining process allows the athletes to have a say in the matter. It cuts down the amount of lawsuits exponentially because the athletes won’t be trying to go against a system they feel is treating them unjustly, or schools won’t be trying to bind athletes to their programs to keep fan interest afloat. Instead, both sides will have ownership of the college athletics landscape.

We’ve even seen a draft of a CBA floated around by Athletes.org, who is seeking to be the first multi-school union of sorts. They’re doing things like Athlete Report Cards, which rank schools based on how their athletes feel about how the department values and takes care of them, similarly to the NFLPA’s Report Cards on each franchise. With a board that has plenty of sports labor experience, including backing from the presidents of the NBAPA, NFLPA and WNBAPA, they’re probably the best suited to pursue this route.

A 38-page draft of a CBA has been published by the Athletes.org team in hopes of starting conversations about organizing and collective bargaining between schools and athletes. It includes provisions such as:

• Establishing firm transfer portal and tampering rules;

• Establishing an Injured Reserve that would further protect athletes with long-term injuries, including ones that end a playing career with continued grant in aid and medical access;

• Giving all athletes five years of post-graduation medical coverage for those that do not go on to play professionally;

• A maximum of five years’ eligibility from the athlete’s first enrollment.

Reading through the entire document, it’s not a wild ask from the players. Some of these provisions, like the post-graduate medical coverage, is already done by some schools. Notre Dame, for example, offers their athletes medical coverage for 10 years following graduation.

But, most importantly, it creates a level playing field. There’s just one document and ruling that schools, agents, athletes, and governance organizations have to follow. It removes the patchwork nonsense we have now of the NCAA bylaws and the Alston ruling and the House settlement and hundreds of other far-flung documents that compliance officers have to keep in mind nowadays.

With that comes greater opportunities for enforcement and we wouldn’t have to figure things out on the fly like athletic departments have since House. And, it will, as I already mentioned, cut down the flow of lawsuits.

We’ve already seen lawsuits mounting based on the actions of players and schools in a post-House world. We don’t know how the current enforcement will be, as the newly made College Sports Commission has begun their first investigation into LSU. The new oversight organization is being tight-lipped, and all we know is that the investigation is not into the football team and is looking at unreported NIL deals.

That all would be continued under the CBA, provided similar terms to the one published by Athletes.org is agreed upon.

Like I said, a CBA is far away. Athletes.org only represents around 5,000 total athletes. Other organizations, such as the College Athletes Players Association and their 17,000 members, and other campus-led efforts have the athlete base fractured. For meaningful collective bargaining to occur, a majority of the NCAA’s over 550,000 athletes would have to organize under one roof. That’s a massive undertaking that’s unlikely.

But what alternatives are there? Legislation has stalled and has barely gotten off the floor. The House vote on the SCORE Act was canceled and not rescheduled. President Trump seems more focused on executive orders regarding the Army-Navy game than the promised one to overhaul college athletics. The SAFE Act hasn’t gotten out of committee. The NCAA is waiting for the federal government to come in and decide how this all works. Something has to give.

With all of this, it’s clear the legal battles are going to continue onward. Each school has a different contract and a different interpretation of the contract that they have athletes sign. And, without collective bargaining, there isn’t much that is going to change.

But, I can’t end this massive edition on a note like that. We have to have some answers, right? Well, here’s what I’m left with.

First, the lawsuits will continue. We haven’t even covered things like eligibility, redshirts and other suits that are coming down the pipe. But I’m closely watching what happens in the Damon Wilson-Georgia case to see if transferring athletes will need to pay damages for breaking contracts with their prior schools.

Second, things are being reigned in. With these revenue sharing contracts having specific clauses on termination, it’s clear that there are repercussions for breaking these deals. While they can’t explicitly force an athlete to stay at a school, we can see a situation like with Demond Williams Jr. at Washington where staying may be in the athlete’s best interest. And, the College Sports Commission is embarking on their first investigation. Seeing how they handle it and how they seek to keep programs on-point will tell a lot about where we’re going in the future.

So, yes, the NCAA and its schools are getting their teeth back. They’ve netted a win in the Williams saga, but were dealt a loss in the Mensah saga. That’s still a better rate than months prior. We’re approaching a balance that feels more sustainable. There’s just going to be a lot of uncomfortable things in the meantime.

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Let me start this with a note: yes, this is outside of what I normally cover. But, it’s also the Olympics so I get to take some time away from football and look at the world’s biggest athletics gathering.

At this point, you’ve heard it. You’ve seen it. When I worked full-time in college athletics, I was a Sports Information Director. But I didn’t fully focus on football. No, I actually spent most of my time on Olympic sports. Track and field. Cross country. Swimming and diving. Heck, even basketball and ice hockey count.

In our American culture and zeitgeist, the Big Four sports get all the attention, but it’s really a big three: football, baseball and basketball. Of course, we’re talking about the NFL, MLB and NBA here. Sure, we all love college football here, but how many of your water cooler conversations are about if the playoff committee correctly pegged your team as a future national champion and your rival as a fraud? No, it’s about how your local big team did over the weekend.

We’re starting to see the stranglehold of those big three leagues breaking, which is good. I’ve always been a strong proponent that more sports are better. The WNBA is shattering TV records. Their offseason counterpart, Unrivaled, just set the largest crowd for a professional women’s basketball regular season game in American history this week. Nebraska volleyball continues to set records, this time with the largest indoor crowd in NCAA volleyball history this September.

More sports are better. It showcases more athletes and more stories to the public. More sports, after all, mean more of the things that make sports special. More nail-biting contests. More emotions. More triumphs. And more stories.

And there’s no better time to jump on that train than during the Olympics. With opening ceremonies later today at 2:30 p.m. Eastern and re-aired at 8 p.m. Eastern, the 2026 Winter Olympics will be in full swing. But competition started on Wednesday and has already been a great watch.

If we look at the Big Four sports in America - basketball, baseball, football and ice hockey - there’s one big marquee event at each Olympics that most people will tune in to watch. For the Summer games, it’s basketball, where anything other than a gold medal is a disappointment. For the Winter games, it’s hockey. Especially now that the NHL has allowed its players to compete in the Olympics for the first time since 2014.

And those are great watches. But if you only focus on those big, marquee events, you’ll miss out on some magic.

Just look back at the magic of the 2024 Paris Olympics. We were introduced to characters like the Pommel Horse guy Stephen Nederoscik and the Turkish Assassin in addition to seeing the utter dominance of Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky displayed yet again on the world stage.

This year will be no different. And while, yes, the Jamaican Bobsled Team will be back with three sleds, there are other stories to watch. There’s American figure skater Ilia Malinin, better known as the “Quad God,” seeking to put his stamp on the games. There’s the return of Lindsey Vonn to the slopes. There’s the Filipino curlers.

And those are just the storylines I knew off the top of my head. No doubt, we will be introduced to a plethora of other characters, teams and stories that encapsulate sports.

So, as the Olympics kick off in full, I recommend you turn on something you don’t know. Find a random athlete - maybe not even from your country - to follow and support. Open your mind to some new sports. Don’t know the rules? That doesn’t matter. Just follow along. The announcing team will clue you in on the details you need to know. After all, sports are fun, right? So kick back and have some fun.

But, this wouldn’t be an SID Sports newsletter if I didn’t get into some business or media topics, so here we are. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

36 percent of the U.S. athletes you’ll see compete in Milan Cortina are NCAA-affilated athletes. Of those athletes, 27 conferences and over 50 schools have an alumnus or current athlete heading to the Olympic games.

We’ve seen and talked about Olympic sports cuts post-House settlement here often. In fact, I’d venture that collegiate Olympic sports were never on such precipitous footing as they are now.

Something has to give. And we can talk until we’re blue in the face about whether and equal or equitable revenue sharing split is better or moral, or if Title IX needs to step in on these revenue sharing deals or NIL deals, but that is massive institution-level things that are being sorted out by the federal government because the NCAA and its member schools are waiting for the government to govern them instead of doing it themselves.

Instead, let’s take some of the power into our own hands. Start supporting an Olympic sport. If you’re someone that doesn’t like the current state of college athletics with dollar signs being posted everywhere, Olympic sports are your spot. These athletes are unlikely to receive NIL deals, let alone meaningful revenue sharing. Sure, that may be different in the case of ice hockey or basketball, but how much money do you think the cross country teams or volleyball teams or rowing teams or lacrosse teams are getting?

They need attention. They need support. Monetary support, sure, but more often, they need people to just care. Follow along with a season and you’ll find some athletes that truly, deeply care about their craft. Most times, these schools at lower levels are offering partial scholarships and athletes are excelling in school.

But, more importantly, these athletes are interesting. They have great stories and are great people.

So, for the first time ever, I’m giving some homework to you, my friends reading along. Watch the Olympics. Find a sport that you have never seen before and just take it in. Find something that’s not hockey or snowboarding or the “popular” sports and just let it play. Then, find an Olympic sports team at your alma mater or favorite college and follow along with their season.

I promise you won’t be disappointed.

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Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the College Football Playoff will look a little different next year.

That’s right, for the third time in as many years, the Playoff has been tweaked once again by the College Football Playoff Management Committee. Despite staying at 12 teams, instead of the 16-team or 24-team proposals being bandied around, the field will look fundamentally different than before.

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What changes were made?

The big one was yet another revision to the automatic bid system, where instead of the top five conference champions, the four Power Four champions will automatically get a seat in the playoff. That would include 8-5 Duke, for those at home, instead of James Madison.

But the Management Committee didn’t stop there. They also gave an auto-bid to conference-less Notre Dame, provided the Fighting Irish finish within the Committee’s top 12 teams. Notre Dame would’ve jumped Miami - who nearly won the National Championship - for the final spot.

Of course, that’s not all. In a little-seen part of the Memorandum of Understanding that’s guiding the playoff now, the Group of Six bid also gets shaken up. Now, it’s just the highest rated Group of Six team and conference champion status doesn’t matter.

Wait, how did this happen?

That, my friends, is a great question.

Most of the changes come from the signed Memorandum of Understanding that I mentioned earlier. This was signed by the members of the CFP Executive Committee - the 10 conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua - during the December 2024 negotiations to extend the playoff’s media rights deal with ESPN through the 2031-32 season.

This Memorandum of Understanding essentially granted the Big Ten and SEC full autonomy to dictate the future of the playoff, with the other eight conferences and two independents along for the ride. With the two league commissioners, Tony Petitti for the Big Ten and Greg Sankey for the SEC, in a stalemate on the future playoff formats, that means nothing aside from that Memorandum of Understanding can be agreed upon.

So what does this mean going forward?

Well, it places a premium on the conference championships now, as it’s guaranteed that the Power Four champions get a seat. With how the ACC played out this year, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that any of the Power Four leagues has a surprise champion like that.

I don’t think the Group of Six bid changing from a fifth champion to the highest rated one will have much of any impact. If we’re being honest, the highest rated Group of Six team will be the highest rated one 99 percent of the time. I can’t think of a time where that wasn’t the case. Both Boise State and Tulane would’ve gotten bids the past two seasons and they were the clear best of the Group of Six.

To me, the biggest thing is the Notre Dame bid. With signs of strife between the Fighting Irish and ACC and Notre Dame being left on the outside, it seemed like there would’ve been momentum for the Irish to finally join a league. No more. Now, Notre Dame can sit back and snipe bids away from other teams, potentially someone who loses a conference championship game.

If any of these changes are going to cause some major discourse in future seasons ,it’s that one. Not just because it’s Notre Dame, but because one school gets such an infinitely preferential treatment embedded in the operating documents of the College Football Playoff.

Make no mistake: the Notre Dame automatic bid is going to cause problems. But, that’s not the biggest problem in this new playoff format. Instead, it’s the fact that nobody can leave it alone.

The BCS was plagued with the same issues, including constant tweaking of the formulas to ensure the “right” teams were getting into the championship game. Now, with more teams in the field, we’re doing the same things. Stop. It’s time to let the format play out for some time and see what changes actually need to be made.

That’s not to say that we shouldn’t be proactive and make changes that are necessary. I don’t think you’ll hear anyone say the move to straight seeding wasn’t an improvement over what the first 12-team bracket had. But what does enshrining a pro-Notre Dame clause fix? The fact that the Irish got left out this year? It wasn’t that, because the Memorandum of Understanding was signed before this season.

We can talk about solutions all we want, but it’s clear the Big Ten and SEC want to maintain the status quo and consolidate money towards their two leagues. That’s what we see in the change to eliminate performance-based payouts and instead moving to flat payouts of 29 percent of the CFP revenue to the Big Ten and SEC, 17 percent to the ACC, 12.5 percent to the Big 12 and roughly 10 percent to each of the remaining leagues.

If this seems like an incredibly pro-Big Ten and SEC deal, that’s because it is. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed after major instability where the two leagues gobbled up any valuable team and threatened to split off into their own superleague. The remaining eight conferences made this deal because they thought it would save the way college football was structured.

That’s still a concern for sure, but the Big Ten and SEC may wield too much power. Who knows. Either way, it’s time to stop tweaking and just let it play out. At a certain point, we have to stop the obsession over picking the right teams or the best teams or the most deserving teams. Just lay out a criteria and allow teams to reach it. That way everyone knows what the end goal is and how to get there.

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Hello everyone and welcome to the offseason! The season has fully come to a close and it’s time to shift from the on-field topics to a more off-field focus. If this is your first offseason with SID Sports, expect less posts, but more thoughtful ones. I’ll generally post once a week on Wednesdays and have the potential for a second post if there’s any noteworthy breaking news. I already have a couple of posts in the works, as well as a new series that will likely premier soon.

Without a doubt, this season was unlike any other on SID Sports. That started off with the Season Preview magazine I released ahead of kickoff, with 336 pages and over 125,000 words looking at every aspect of the season to come. And then we were treated to the most chaotic season since the advent of the playoff.

What a year it was!

With that said, it’s time to see if we were actually any good at prognosticating and predicting what was to come (spoiler alert: not really). And, I’ll also crown the biggest CFB ball-knower that took part in the voting!

For those of you new to the newsletter, welcome in! Below are links to the two materials I’ll be looking at: the Season Preview magazine and my article details three teams I expected to over-perform and three I expected to under-perform.

With that covered, let’s start with the Risers and Fallers!

Risers and Fallers

Like I mentioned above, I detailed three teams I thought were going to improve where I projected them and three I expected to finish below expectations. We’ll go through all of them, going in the same order as I did initially.

Texas A&M

The offense already showed it can hang with anyone, annihilating any form of rush defense they came across. With reports of [Marcel] Reed’s passing vastly improving, even if you read between the camp propaganda, Texas A&M may have it’s most dangerous quarterback this side of Johnny Football.

Verdict: Overperform. SEC Championship buzz and an at-large CFP appearance.- Risers and Fallers, August 27, 2025

This is my big victory lap, I had Texas A&M as a team with playoff aspirations moreso than most other outlets I saw. And Marcel Reed did turn into one of the Aggies’ most dangerous quarterbacks, even garnering Heisman hype for a few weeks. I put a lot of hope in the Texas A&M defense, though, and that didn’t really work out. Plus, that verdict hit the nail on the head, didn’t it?

Georgia

I’ve got very serious questions about this Georgia team. It starts with quarterback and Gunner Stockton…Without a big-time rushing threat like those great Georgia teams had, I don’t see this iteration of the Dawgs posing much of a threat on offense compared to other title contenders.The defense is one I’m feeling okay about on faith alone. There’s some stars like K.J. Bolden, but I’m not struck by fear. Perhaps it’s just with how good those dynastic defenses were, but I’m underwhelmed writing this. It feels like the Dawgs got to this point on name alone. To me, that’s a recipe for disappointment.

Verdict: Underperform. Finish the season ranked in the 20s range with more losses than you’re accustomed to.

For every hit, there’s a miss. Gunner Stockton looked great, even without the big rushing threat I was hoping for. But Nate Frazier and Stockton himself played well. And the Dawgs’ defense was strong. Oof on that verdict, though, as Georgia won the SEC and a bye in the playoff.

Kansas

The X-factor here is [quarterback Jalon] Daniels’s health. If he stays standing, look out. Kansas can hang with anyone and show the nation what they’ve missed out on. A strong front seven will allow Kansas to control games, and by that logic, allow Daniels to be the deciding factor. He’s got the talent to take over. I think he’s going to do that more this season and surprise everyone.

Verdict: Overperform. Battling for a trip to Jerryworld and the Big 12 title - and CFP bid by extension - until the very last second.

So Kansas didn’t really pan out either. They finished under .500 again at 5-7 and didn’t compete for the Big 12 championship for a second. And that’s with Daniels being healthy the entire season too! I guess I didn’t account for the fact that the Kansas defense was as porous as a sieve and there was no hope for Daniels to keep up.

SMU

Maybe it’s because [head coach Rhett] Lashlee is an offensive mind, but I think the fact that SMU’s defense was absolutely lights out last year is lost on many people. It wasn’t the offense that took the Ponies to the playoff - it was the defense. They ranked seventh in EPA allowed and 15th in success rate allowed. It was a true breakout.

But is it sustainable? Only two full-time starters return. The transfer class is solid, especially in the secondary with corner Nyland Green, but I don’t think it can do enough. Regression is clearly in the cards here, but how much regression? In my eyes, too much for the offense to overcome.

Verdict: Underperform. Fall out of the ACC race by Week 11 due to some last-second blunders against sub-.500 conference foes (looking at you, Boston College).

Harsh, but true. Especially since Mustangs quarterback Kevin Jennings actually improved his numbers from last season. But the 2024 SMU defense was the real stars of the show and, as I pointed out, they wouldn’t have enough to make a return trip to the playoff without that standout defensive play. However, SMU was in the thick of the ACC race and didn’t have a blunder like I predicted, though tiebreakers sent 7-5 Duke to the ACC Championship instead of SMU so maybe that counts in a roundabout way?

Iowa

I feel like I’ve been saying it since the start of this newsletter way back in January 2023 - all Iowa needs to compete is a decent quarterback. Just show me average and I’ll see a true title contender, both in the Big Ten and beyond.

Ladies and gentlemen, Iowa has found that quarterback. Mark Gronowski from South Dakota State is bar none, the best quarterback to take the field in Iowa City that I can remember. He won the 2023 Walter Payton Award as the FCS’s best player. He comes with over 10,000 career passing yards and 93 touchdowns. Seven was his highest interception total in a season, with 15 as his lowest passing score output.

Verdict: Overperform. A trip to Indianapolis is a serious possibility when the Hawkeyes upset Oregon in early November.

Gronowski didn’t turn out to be that guy. He was largely ineffective in the passing game, as all Iowa quarterbacks seem to be. But hey, at least Iowa kept that Oregon game close? Even if Iowa upset Oregon, there was no way they were supplanting either Indiana or Ohio State in Indianapolis.

Miami

…you have to consider [quarterback Carson] Beck’s injury that kept him out of Spring camp and limited his reps in the Fall. He’s still learning this system and his receiving corps. A receiving corps that’s also recovering from a host of injuries. The running game is suspect without a proven leader, but a strong line should help the offense move.

Verdict: Underperform. Questionable game management, a hot-and-cold offense and a shaky defense drop the Canes to single-digit wins and out of the ACC race by the time the CFP is pushing out polls.

Time to eat some crow, isn’t it? To be fair, Miami was out of the ACC title race by the time polls came around, but the Canes rattled off a stellar end to the season, plucked a playoff bid from Notre Dame and almost won the whole thing. Granted, it was more because of their defense than Beck’s play, and tailback Mark Fletcher Jr. took over in the stretch run to establish the run and be the team’s proven leader.

That was fun, wasn’t it? Now, let’s delve into the Season Preview magazine in full. Since there was so much in there, I’m going to just quick hit a few interesting notes here.

• My initial top 10? Clemson, Texas, Ohio State, Penn State, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon, LSU, Notre Dame, Miami. Of that group, half missed the playoffs and two (Penn State and LSU) fired their head coaches. National champion Indiana clocked in at 24th.

• Of my preseason bracket, only Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon, Miami and Alabama made the field. I called Miami getting in at 10, for whatever that counts for.

• My Hot Seat Roundup of coaches likely to be fired had 16 names on it. Eight of those - Sam Pittman, Mark Stoops, Brian Kelly, Brent Pry, Hugh Freeze, Justin Wilcox, Mike Gundy and Trent Dilfer - all got the can. Two others- Luke Fickell and Mike Norvell - will be on that seat again heading into 2026. I’ll call a 50 percent hit rate on firings and 63 percent hit rate on hot seat levels a win. Notable coaches that have played their way off the list are Virginia’s Tony Elliott and Old Dominion’s Ricky Rahne.

• Of the Player of the Year voting, only Jeremiah Smith (first in SID Sports, sixth in Heisman) and Jeremiyah Love (fifth in SID Sports, third in Heisman) received Heisman votes.

• Utah was named Team of the Year, which is used to gauge which team will surprise and make the biggest run. The Utes did not make the College Football Playoff and likely wouldn’t have the same votes in a postseason poll.

• Of the three postseason Player of the Year awards held at SID Sports - overall Player of the Year, Offensive and Defensive, none of the three winners earned any votes in the preseason polling for the awards.

Snippets of truth

Here are a few of my favorite takes - both good and bad - sprinkled throughout the magazine:

Alright, I’ll admit, I bought into some of the Jackson Arnold hype. But come on, “limitless potential?” Arnold looked barely pedestrian when he had the offense and Daniels wasn’t much better. Deuce Knight would’ve been the guy if Freeze stuck around, but the Tigers are turning to Byrum Brown to lead them closer to glory.

At this point, I’m legally required to put a BGSU note, right? And boy, was I right about Gideon Lampron. The junior was a menace, with 119 tackles, 2.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and a pass defensed. He’s since transferred to Colorado and will be an elite linebacker there.

“It’ll be tough sledding for whoever wins the job?” Bear Bachmeier had no such tough sledding. As a true freshman, Bachmeier balled out and had the Cougars on the doorstep of the College Football Playoff. Serious miss here.

Listen, it’s easy to clown on picking Clemson as the top team in hindsight, but I stand by that take. Especially considering their defensive line. Who could’ve foreseen all four of these guys underperforming? Sure, Heldt dealt with injuries throughout the season, but there was no reason fro Woods and Parker in particular to not wreck any line they came across.

Hawaii’s Alejado may have eclipsed his four high school picks with nine as a freshman, but the undersized lefty was dynamite. He’s a big reason why the Rainbow Warriors may become trendy picks to compete in the new Mountain West next season. And, yes, things certainly got fun again in Honolulu.

How’s a ranked nine-win season for a second year jump? Willy Fritz delivered in a big way in his second year at Houston and has the Cougars ready to compete. His offense made Conner Weigman look like a quality quarterback and Fritz signed the highest rated recruit in Houston history in five-star quarterback Keisean Henderson. The clock may be ticking, but Fritz is well ahead of the sands of time.

The Calgorithm was thrown to the wayside by W1ndiana and Fernando Mendoza. Cerebral is certainly a way to describe it and he remained one of the nation’s most efficient passers in Shanahan’s offense. Except, nobody could’ve guessed it would’ve gone from Mendoza being one of the nation’s most underrated passers to Heisman winner. And did I really say he wouldn’t be as explosive as Kurtis Rourke?

When you consider the fact that pretty much all of these players missed significant time last season, you can see how Iowa State wasn’t able to hang in the Big 12 race. Injuries suck.

Yeah, I’m hiding my face in shame at this take on future CUSA Champion and 10-win team, Kennesaw State.

Injuries derailed Brown’s season, but the Louisville rushing attack was the only strength for the team while Miller Moss struggled. They were surely a “dynamic” attack.

I’ll take the L here on my most repeated take leading into the season. Moving along.

Considering Missouri State finished middle of the table in the CUSA and earned a bowl bid, Bead and I were right.

You could certainly trust Colton Joseph in 2025 and the quarterback is still a budding star. Too bad he’s off to Wisconsin now, where transfer quarterbacks go to die.

As it turns out, no, he could not. Sam Houston finished last in Conference USA with only one win in-league.

Byrum Brown was healthy and an absolute star for the Bulls. That early season run that had USF in the playoff conversation was magical. Too bad they faded down the stretch, but the Bulls were fun the entire time.

Keeler and the Owls didn’t complete a full turnaround immediately, but the Owls did a lot better than anyone expected at 5-7. There’s momentum in Philadelphia for the first time in a long time.

We’ll end here on a Texas Tech two-for-one. Who could’ve guessed that defense would be that good? Surely not I.

Crowning the top ball-knower

Finally, we have the award you’ve all been waiting for. Crowning the Substack creator that is the biggest ball-knower. Way back in July, I put out a call for creators to fill out a ballot with the preseason awards as well as ranking each conference top to bottom. Since we’ve already established nobody hit on any of the awards, we’re going to look at conference scoring.

Here’s how I came up with the numbers:

• 3 points for selecting the correct champion

• 2 points for selecting a conference championship participant as a top-two team

• 1 point for selecting the team in the correct final standings point.

For teams that finished in a tie, the point was given. For example, the ACC had a five-way tie for second place. If a voter pegged any of those teams in that range of 2-6, they got the point. Make sense? I hope so.

Also, for some reason, I never voted in my own poll. Whoops. So, we’re just ranking the top ball-knowers of the guest voters.

1. - 49

2. - 45

3. - 44; - 43

4. - 42; - 42

5. - 41

6. - 40; - 40; - 40

7. - 38

8. - 36

9. - 33

10. - 32

11. - 31

12. - 27

Congrats Lane on being the official SID Sports Top Ball-Knower! Drop Lane a follow if you haven’t already!

And, some final stats on how our panel voted for statheads like myself out there:

• Only one voter, Ian Boyd, called Duke winning the ACC Championship. Boyd repeated that by flying solo and picking Western Michigan to raise the MAC Championship. He’s actually the only one to peg either of the two championship contending teams in either conference.

• Boise State (13) was our most-selected conference champion.

• Andrew Mintner was the only one to call the Indiana Big Ten Championship. All but three had Ohio State making the trip to Lucas Oil Stadium, most commonly against Penn State (10) or Oregon (6).

• As expected, the Big 12 was a crapshoot. Congrats to Lane Fobbs and Tyler Schuster for buying into the Texas Tech hype!

• CUSA champion Kennesaw State received zero championship votes. In fact, the Owls were picked last in the conference in 63 percent of ballots.

• Only two voters picked Georgia to win the SEC crown, VP and Lane Fobbs. Nine others had the Dawgs finishing second in the conference, though, so it wasn’t an entire miss.

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In 1894, the Yale Bulldogs were the nation’s best team, becoming the first to win a national championship on the back of a 16-0 record. They were fresh off a tenure led by the immortal Walter Camp and, beating a collection of Ivy League schools and local athletic clubs made up of post-graduate, non-professional players, became the high water mark.

The next year, the forward pass was invented.

Four years after that, football would travel out to Bloomington, Indiana, where a local school competed as an independent for their first season, notching a 6-2 record before the turn of the 20th century. What may have been a promising start instead disintegrated as that local college, Indiana University, joined the Western Conferencce and then, ultimately, the Big Ten, where they were immediately relegated to the basement of the league. Heading into 2025, the Hoosiers racked up a record of 482-715-2, making them the losingest program in college football.

What does Indiana, a program long-marred by their inability to win on the gridiron, have to do with the 1894 Yale Bulldogs? As of Monday night, they’re the only two programs to reach the 16-0 National Champion mountaintop.

At this point, I’m sure you’ve heard a ton of stats from myself and other sources across the internet of what’s transpired in the past two seasons. But those are important, so let’s go rapid fire here.

Since head coach Curt Cignetti took over the program ahead of the 2024 season, Indiana has:

• Climbed out of the all-time losses basement (Northwestern now has the most all-time losses);

• Gone 27-2 in two seasons, the second-most wins in two seasons in the modern era behind the 2021-22 Georgia Bulldogs’ 29;

• Earned the program’s first ever AP No. 1 and CFP No. 1 rankings;

• Won their first bowl (Rose Bowl) since 1991;

• Won their first ever Rose Bowl;

• Recorded the only two 10+ win seasons in program history;

• Doubled the program’s bowl winning totals from three to six;

• Won the Big Ten for the first time since 1967;

• Made their first College Football Playoff appearance;

• Won their first ever Heisman trophy (quarterback Fernando Mendoza);

• Won their first ever National Championship, becoming the first new champion since Florida in 1996

Have we ever seen anything like this? Definitely not in my lifetime, but I honestly can’t think of anything throughout history that equates to this.

Indiana’s Journey

We can run through the entirety of Indiana’s history, but it’s all more of the same. Just check out their all time records by season. Especially since joining the Big Ten, it’s a full list of losing seasons with a sparse winning season or bowl appearance tossed into it.

There was a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel in the COVID-impacted 2020 season, when then-coach Tom Allen guided the Hoosiers to a 6-2 record in the shortened campaign and had Indiana ranked a then-program record 10 consecutive weeks. Allen’s work that season earned him both the national and Big Ten Coach of the Year awards.

But that light quickly faded into the void as Indiana plummeted following the departure of offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer and quarterback Michael Penix Jr. suffering a plethora of injuries to end his 2021 early.

To me, the Tom Allen era was emblematic of Indiana as a whole. They had a great season under extraordinary circumstances that seemed like they were building on hype and the program was pointed upwards. Then it all came crashing down.

What was once filled with promise ended with three consecutive losing seasons, each one more painful than the last. Allen signed a lucrative extension following the 2020 breakthrough that left Indiana on the hook for a $20.8 million buyout that was negotiated down to a $15.5 million settlement once he was fired following the 2023 season.

By all reports, Allen was a great character guy for Indiana and loved his time in Bloomington. But results matter in this game, and Allen wasn’t getting those. After a promising start, he went 9-26 and 3-24 in conference play over his last three seasons. Indiana had cratered once again.

The Savior

The financial commitment to firing Allen was a bit shocking for an outside observer of Indiana football. I even pointed it out in October of 2023 on this newsletter, saying that “the only thing saving him: a $20 million buyout. That drops to $8 million in 2024, so it’s plausible that Indiana keeps him around for another year.”

To pat myself on the back, I did follow that up with a borderline prophetic (okay, maybe that’s a stretch) one-liner

Invest in football, Indiana did.

But their biggest move wasn’t a financial influx of cash - that would come later. No, it was to make a very Indiana hire, bringing on a Group of Five coach that has a ton of experience, but nothing at the big level. Surely those wins could translate, right?

Boy, did they. Because that coach was Curt Cignetti.

I’m not going too in-depth on Cignetti’s path to the mountaintop of college football - that’s for another day and another week’s article - but Cignetti’s hiring is where this all kicks off. And in true Indiana fashion, it wasn’t a much-ballyhooed hiring. Sure, it was noted that he was a good fit for Bloomington and Indiana, and his age was a concern, but it was noted that Cignetti had won everywhere he’d been.

Would that translate to Indiana?

Well, bringing along his two coordinators helps. And 13 high-level players from James Madison. Guys like D’Angelo Ponds, who is now a three-time All-American. Or Mikail Kamara, who blocked the Miami punt in the National Championship. Or Kaelon Black, who had 79 yards in the National Championship. Or Aiden Fisher, the leader and lifeblood of the defense. Or Elijah Sarratt, who now has his name all over the Indiana receiving leaderboards.

In his first season at the helm, Cignetti led Indiana to what was the best season at that point in program history. On the back of a solid transfer class headlined by those JMU guys and other unheralded transfer prospects like Ohio’s Kurtis Rourke, the Hoosiers raced into national prominence. They were a justifiable entrant into the first 12-team CFP field, but weren’t competitive on a chilly day in South Bend for the state title.

But then, 2025 happened. Indiana morphed from a plucky upstart into the Death Star that Nick Saban’s retirement left vacant.

They started shoving teams into lockers, taking ranked foes behind the woodshed and beating them with a belt why repeatedly asking the “Hoosier daddy?” Just ask Illinois. Sure, there were some near misses, like at Penn State, but then Indiana wideout Omar Cooper Jr. pulled out one of college football’s most memorable catches in recent history.

Just look at the National Championship preview where I laid out how dominant the Hoosiers were during the playoff. Up until the national championship, the Hoosiers were a juggernaut. Quarterback Fernando Mendoza had more touchdowns (8) than incompletions (5) and the Hoosiers had an astounding +69 scoring margin. They’re the only team to figure out how to compete out of a bye week.

And then they did it. It was an all-timer of a game, but Indiana reached glory. They raised the College Football Playoff National Championship trophy and celebrated with everyone in Bloomington. They were the best team in college football. And it was the best turnaround in college football history.

Turning around

Yes, that last line was a bold claim, but one I’m prepared to back up. Let’s take a look at some other notable turnarounds in college football and see who can compare to what Indiana just pulled off.

2013 Auburn

Just two years prior, Cam Newton won Auburn a national championship in a 14-0 season. The next year? 3-9 and 0-8 in SEC play. The Tigers entered the season unranked and had no expectations, but went on to win eight consecutive games to close the regular season, capped off by Chris Davis’s Kick Six. Auburn made it to the National Championship, where they fell to the Jameis Winston-led Florida State Seminoles.

Verdict: Indiana. After all, the Hoosiers won the whole thing.

2003 USC

Following two consecutive non-winning seasons - 5-7 in 2000 and 6-6 in 2001 - the Trojans authored a stunning reversal of fortunes. With stars like Carson Palmer and Troy Polamalu headlining the 2002 team, USC rocketed up to 11-2. Then, the young guns like Matt Leinert and Reggie Bush took over and USC went nuclear, with back-to-back national championships in 2003 and 2004 and a 34-game winning streak.

Verdict: Indiana. While USC went higher over multiple national championships, the Trojans already had 11 titles in their halls. Indiana, on the other hand, entered the season with the most losses of any FBS program and no national championship appearances.

2017 UCF

If you want the full story here, my friend has a great write up that I’ve linked below. But, the gist of it is a story most of us have heard. UCF was 0-12 when Scott Frost took over the program. He led the Knights to 6-7 in his first season and then UCF raced to 13-0 with a Peach Bowl win over Auburn to cement their National Championship* season.

Sports Passion Project

2017 UCF: College Football’s Final Split Championship

Welcome back to my Sports Passion Project everybody…

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8 months ago · 10 likes · 2 comments · Robbie Marriage

Verdict: Close, but Indiana. After all, trophies are more important that asterisks.

Okay, so maybe college football doesn’t have the Cinderella story to compare. But is Indiana the greatest turnaround in modern sports?

In all the research I did for this piece, there was only one that truly stood out to me as a competitor to what Indiana has done over the past two seasons. And it’s one that I, frankly, didn’t know much about: Leicester City.

Following a 10-year hiatus, the footy club returned to the Premier League ahead of the 2014-15 season. They were near relegation the entire season before winning seven of their final nine matches to stave off the dogs. The next year, Leicester City went on a run that is the closest comparison to Indiana in modern sports history: 23-12-3 and capturing England’s top football (soccer) championship.

So, that’s it. To even find a comparison of what just happened, you have to go across the pond to England to even find a comparison.

This is the greatest story in college football. And Indiana’s just getting started. The Hoosiers are losing most of their starters, but rank seventh in the 247Sports’s transfer portal class rankings, reloading with stars like Josh Hoover, Nick Marsh, A.J. Harris, Joe Brunner and more. Cignetti’s Death Star is now operational.

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Everything, every single second, every single snap, every single preseason rep and every single personnel change led to this point. The College Football National Championship.

I’ve said throughout the season that this was the most parity-driven season in recent memory. Certainly since SID Sports started covering the sport. And here we land with two improbable heavyweights ready to battle it out in a game full of interest, intrigue and, hopefully, great football.

On one side is the home team. Well, actually, the visiting team, but you get the point. The Miami Hurricanes have overcome the Mario Cristobal stigma of underachieving and blowing promising seasons to return to their first National Championship since 2001, and one in their home stadium at that. Miami also represents the first team seeded in the double-digits and first two-loss team to make the CFP National Championship.

On the other side is college football’s newest, most unlikely juggernaut, the unbeaten Indiana Hoosiers. Indiana represents the possibility to be the nation’s first modern-era 16-0 National Champion and a win would put a permanent stamp on this being the biggest, best, fastest turnaround in college football history.

So yeah, there’s a lot at stake here besides one shiny trophy and a banner that will live forever.

In case you haven’t seen one of my single-game previews before, I do it a little differently than most folks. Instead of writing up a big preview of how I think the game’s going to go, I take a nod to my old SID roots and provide you a bunch of notes for each team. Then, you get all the information about both teams to be the most informed as possible for tonight’s contest.

The Tale of the Tape

Matchup: 1 Indiana Hoosiers (15-0) v. 10 Miami Hurricanes (13-2)
When?: Monday, January 19 | 7:30 p.m. ET
Where?: Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida
TV: ESPN and ESPN App | Broadcast Team: Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Holly Rowe and Molly McGrath
Radio: ESPN Radio and Sirius XM | Broadcast Team: Sean McDonough, Greg McElroy, Ian Fitzsimmons, Quint Kessenich

Series History: Even, 1-1. Last meeting: 28-14 Indiana win, October 24, 1964

Indiana Offense v. Miami Defense

• Scoring: Indiana 42.6 (2nd) v. Miami 14.0 (5th)

• Total Yardage: Indiana 461.0 (11th) v. Miami 292.6 (11th)

• Net EPA/play: Indiana +0.15 (4th) v. Miami -0.07 (14th)

• Success Rate: Indiana 52.8% (3rd) v. Miami 39.4% (29th)

• Passing Yardage: Indiana 242.5 (52nd) v. Miami 206.1 (45th)

• EPA/pass: Indiana +0.27 (4th) v. Miami -0.15 (15th)

• Passing Success Rate: Indiana 52.8% (3rd) v. Miami 39.4% (30th)

• Rushing Yardage: Indiana 218.3 (12th) v. Miami 86.5 (6th)

• EPA/rush: Indiana +0.07 (32nd) v. Miami +0.04 (79th)

• Rushing Success Rate: Indiana 46.4% (13th) v. Miami 39.5% (37th)

• Sacks Allowed v. Sacks: Indiana 22 (34th) v. Miami 47.0 (1st)

Miami Offense v. Indiana Defense

• Scoring: Miami 31.6 (30th) v. Indiana 11.07 (2nd)

• Total Yardage: Miami 409.2 (40th) v. Indiana 260.9 (4th)

• Net EPA/play: Miami +0.14 (14th) v. Indiana -0.07 (29th)

• Success Rate: Miami 43.8% (37th) v. Indiana 38.7% (18th)

• Passing Yardage: Miami 254.6 (36th) v. Indiana 185.9 (23rd)

• EPA/pass: Miami +0.17 (10th) v. Indiana -0.08 (29th)

• Passing Success Rate: Miami 49.0% (10th) v. Indiana 39.2% (29th)

• Rushing Yardage: Miami 154.6 (72nd) v. Indiana 75.0 (2nd)

• EPA/rush: Miami -0.04 (98th) v. Indiana -0.06 (23rd)

• Rushing Success Rate: Miami 39.1% (100th) v. Indiana 37.9% (25th)

• Sacks Allowed v. Sacks: Miami 19 (16th) v. Indiana 45 (2nd)

Want to talk about tonight’s game? SID Sports is hosting a chat for all subscribers! If you have the Substack app, just select the button below around kickoff and talk with me and other readers about what we’re seeing.

1 Indiana Notes

• A win would make Indiana just the second 16-0 team in college football history, joining the 1894 Yale Bulldogs as the only teams to accomplish that feat. This also represents Indiana’s first ever National Championship appearance. A win would give college football its first first-time champion since Florida in 1996

• So far on the Hoosiers’ dominant playoff run, Indiana has scored 94 total points (47 per game), racked up 770 yards of total offense (385 per game) and has an astronomical combined +69 scoring margin. That’s against Alabama and Oregon, by the way.

• Heisman winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza will return home for the biggest game in his career. Mendoza attended high school at Christopher Columbus High School, just 30 minutes south of Hard Rock Stadium. He has never played in the building before.

• Mendoza has somehow topped his Heisman winning regular season, putting up video game numbers that are rivaling Joe Burrow’s magical 2019 season. In just the College Football Playoff, Mendoza has more touchdowns (eight) than incompletions (five) and has yet to throw an interception. Looking at his entire season, Mendoza has five games with more touchdowns than incompletions. No other quarterback has accomplished that feat more than twice since 2000.

• Indiana will deploy a stable of strong running backs to hopefully tire out the Miami front. Roman Hemby will be the leader, as the senior has become the 20th Indiana tailback to top 1,000 yards rushing. But you can’t discount Kaelon Black, fresh off a two-touchdown Peach Bowl and with a touchdown in five of his last seven contests.

• Mendoza has one of the best receiver duos to target in Biletnikoff finalists Elijah Sarratt and Omar Cooper Jr. The duo rank first (Sarratt - 15) and second (Cooper - 12) in touchdown receptions in the Big Ten and both rank within the top five most career receiving scores in Indiana history. They’re rangy guys with serious big play potential that can break the game open at any second.

• The biggest revelation in the playoff has been Charlie Becker’s ascension into stardom. Becker was already putting together a stellar season, ranking ninth in the nation with 1.02 EPA/target, but he’s taken it to a new level as of late. He’s scored in each of Indiana’s playoff after topping the century mark in Indiana’s final regular season affair and in the Big Ten Championship.

• The tight end passing game won’t be too big for Indiana, with Riley Nowakowski mostly serving as a safety valve while the Hoosier wideouts work. He did earn second-team All-Big Ten honors, though, as a strong blocker.

• You don’t see a bunch of linemen earning an award, but that’s how it went when Pat Coogan hoisted the Rose Bowl MVP trophy for the Hoosier offensive line. They’ve been Joe Moore Award semifinalists each of the past two seasons and are allowing the offense to work with plenty of time. The Hoosiers have only allowed 1.47 sacks per game, ranking 34th in the nation.

• It may not be as star-studded as the Miami front, and the loss of Stephen Daley, who posted at least 0.5 tackles for loss in 11 of his 13 games played, hurts the Hoosiers. But, Mikail Kamara has been outstanding, per usual. He’s the Big Ten’s pressure king and ranks eighth among Power Four edge rushers with 58 total pressures. Daniel Ndukwe was the next man up after Daley’s injury and delivered big-time, with two sacks, a forced fumble and a blocked punt against Oregon in the Rose Bowl.

• Indiana’s linebackers are likely the nation’s best. Aiden Fisher is healthy again and has a career-best 9.5 tackles for loss. Sophomore Rolijah Hardy is backing up his elite play level with 2.0 sacks and seven tackles in the Big Ten Championship and ranks seventh in the league with 8.0 sacks.

• You don’t see a player get a body of water named after him, but D’Angelo Ponds isn’t a normal player. Though undersized, the Florida native picked up his third consecutive All-American award as the sixth best coverage corner in the Power Four, per Pro Football Focus. He single-handedly took over the Peach Bowl and Rose Bowl, with a pick six on the first offensive snap of the game of the Peach Bowl and a forced fumble in the Rose Bowl. His running mate, Jamari Sharpe has a nose for the ball as a tough tackler, forcing two fumbles this season.

• The true secondary power comes in the safety room. Louis Moore is a coverage nightmare, with six picks this season. Rover Amare Ferrell will be all over the field, hot on Moore’s tail with four picks of his own and stellar tackling.

• Kicker Nico Radicic is near-automatic, with a program-record 16 consecutive made field goals. He’s also the third Hoosier to make at least 100 consecutive extra points.

10 Miami Notes

• For the first time in the BCS and CFP era, the National Championship will be played at one of the participants’ home stadiums. The Hurricanes have played well in Miami Gardens under Cristobal, going 18-3 at home over the last three seasons and 7-1 in 2025.

• Miami will be without starting cornerback Xavier Lucas for the first half after the super-senior was called for targeting in the second half against Ole Miss in the Fiesta Bowl.

• Expect the Canes to try to start hot. In their past eight games, Miami has outscored their opponents 30-3, while holding their last four foes scoreless in the first frame.

• Quarterback Carson Beck is the leader of the offense. He’s one of 64 quarterbacks to top the 10,000 career passing yard mark this century and Beck holds the fourth-highest completion percentage among those players. Beck’s 37-5 record as a starter - four years at Georgia, one at Miami - is the best winning percentage among active players. Against high-level competition, Beck has been outstanding, posting a career 154.4 passer rating against AP Top 25 teams, trailing only Baker Mayfield (162.9) since 2000. His 2025 passer rating against AP Top 25 foes of 160.6 trails only Fernando Mendoza.

• Beck hasn’t been the catalyst for the offense during the playoff run, though. That’s been tailback Mark Fletcher Jr. Fletcher has 395 rushing yards so far in the Miami playoff run, just 81 shy of Ezekiel Elliott’s 2014 record for rushing yards in a single CFP. Throughout his career, Fletcher’s 459 postseason rushing yards are the second-most of any ACC player since 2000.

• There’s no question the best freshman player in the nation - it’s Malachi Toney. The diminutive wideout, nicknamed “Baby Jesus,” is Miami’s leader in all-purpose yards, catches, receiving and punt return yards. His five grabs in Miami’s first CFP game against Texas A&M put Toney as the Miami single-season reception leader. But Toney isn’t the only threat on the outside. Transfers C.J. Daniels and Keelan Marion are lighting up the stat sheets as well. Marion is the Miami deep threat, with seven of his nine touchdown catches coming on completions of 30 yards or longer. Daniels is the leader of the room and a steady presence for Beck to find on the outside.

• Mario Cristobal, a former Miami offensive lineman himself, has built his Canes to dominate in the trenches. On the offensive side of the ball, that means overwhelming opponents with a line that averages 336 pounds. The unit is anchored by star right tackle Francis Mauigoa, Jacobs Blocking Award winner as the ACC’s top offensive lineman. The unit is one of just eight teams that have had the same five starters across the entire year. That continuity has led to Miami allowing only 73 negative plays across all 15 games - the fewest among CFP competitors.

• That dominance extends to the defensive line, but it’s new defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman that’s really made an impact. Since arriving ahead of this season, Hetherman has turned around the Canes defense. Miami jumped from 70th in points allowed all the way up to fifth, earning Hetherman a Broyles Award nomination and making Miami one of just eight programs to improve their points allowed by over 10.0 points over one season.

• It helps when you have a menacing front seven like Hetherman has. Edge rushing duo Rueben Bain Jr. and Ahkeem Mesidor both earned All-ACC First Team bids and rank within Pro Football Focus’s top five in edge rusher grading. Bain in particular has been a menace, with 5.5 tackles for loss, four sacks and a blocked field goal so far this playoff. As a unit, Miami’s defensive line is generating Havoc on 12.97 percent of snaps, the 10th best mark in the nation.

• Hetherman has a perfect blend of an attacking front seven and a ball hawking safety. Even down Lucas for the first half, the Canes are going to make life difficult on the Heisman winner. Defensive back Keionte Scott has been dynamite since returning from injury, with 3.0 tackles for loss and two sacks this playoff in the box safety role. Bryce Fitzgerald is a ball hawk of the highest regard, with two picks in the narrow victory over Texas A&M tying the senior for the Power Four lead with six interceptions.

• Despite some struggles on a windy day in Bryan-College Station, Miami has a hyper-efficient field goal unit. Since Cristobal’s hiring, Miami is the most accurate Power Four team on field goals, converting at a 85 percent clip. Carter Davis has been effective all season, with only two misses on the season aside from his nightmare game against Texas A&M. Davis did, however, miss a kick in the Cotton Bowl against Ole Miss last round. If Davis falters further, expect Mario Cristobal to turn to veteran kicker Bert Auburn, who has made massive kicks in his career prior to Miami.

Keys to the Game

Indiana: Force Carson Beck into mistakes. Each of Miami’s losses have been marred by Beck’s mistakes, but as we’ve discussed, the senior has been very good this playoff run. Indiana’s defense should suffocate the Miami rushing attack, even if Mark Fletcher Jr. has gone nuclear down the stretch. If the talented secondary - namely D’Angelo Ponds and Louis Moore - can get in Beck’s head, Indiana can route the Canes.

Miami: Get pressure on Fernando Mendoza. Indiana’s offense has struggled at times when the opposition is able the get past the line. We saw it when Ohio State was able to force Mendoza’s worst game of the season behind Kenyatta Jackson and Caden Curry. Indiana struggles under pressure, and they’ll have their hands full with the Miami front seven, especially Bain and Mesidor.

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I don’t love starting off a piece by apologizing, but yes, I’ve missed out on more than a few posts and haven’t posted much during the playoffs to this point.

For that, I’m sorry. But, I was burnt out and needed a long break to get my bearings back. And, now entering a very busy season at my actual work, posting is going to be sporadic here until the end of the month. I won’t make any promises on content, but expect at the very least some coaching stuff and playoff previews.

Now, with that out of the way, let’s get onto the good stuff. We had a great year at SID Sports in 2025 and I’m eternally grateful for everyone that’s been along for the ride and made SID Sports a part of your daily routine. Still, to this day, I’m floored by the amount of people that apparently value what I have to say on the internet.

So, it’s time to take a look at 2025 and a look ahead at 2026 to see what’s coming down the pipe.

2025 Recap

As, by now I’m sure you all know, I’m a stat head. So why don’t we take a look at some stats?

• Subscribers up 63.4 percent

  • Jan 1, 2025: 174

  • Jan 1, 2026: 284

• Total Views up 74.6 percent

  • CY 2024: 17,800

  • CY 2025: 31,000

Absolutely wow. I can’t begin to say how much this growth means to me. You all are amazing. Thank you so much for this.

I never expected this newsletter to take off like it has, but we’re getting traction now. That’s because of you all reading and liking and commenting.

Now comes the time where I, as a content creator, beg you to share the newsletter as much as possible. Like a post? Share it far and wide. Let people know. SID Sports is a free newsletter and I have no plans of sticking the content you all love behind a paywall anytime soon. This newsletter exists on the two above stats: subscribers and views. I’m not looking at dollars and cents, I’m looking to see what you all want to see more of and topics I’m interested in covering.

Sure, most of those views are from the typical content you’ve seen from me in the past three years: Games of the Slots, Rankings, Coaching Updates and more. But we also launched two new massive projects.

The first was the big ticket winner: the SID Sports Season Preview Magazine. It was the culmination of months of work and, clocking in at over 125,000 words, a true labor of love. Yes, there are plans to make it a yearly installment.

The second was Historical Portal, a six-part series on college football’s biggest what-if’s. And, honestly, that was one of the most fun things for me to write. It gave me a chance to blend fiction with research and storytelling that you don’t see often in this world.

Those projects did great numbers, but I want to focus on the biggest of big tickets. What were the five biggest posts of the year?

• College Football 26 realignment ideas

  • For some reason, this article has been my top viewed two years in a row. Maybe we need to do more fun things like this? I might have something like that in the works, if that’s the case.

• SID Sports 2025 Season Preview

  • We’ve already talked about this one, but I was surprised to see that it didn’t top out the levels. It was, though, the most-liked post by a wide margin. Oh well, we’ll have to make it better for next year!

• Historical Portal: A Vision Becomes Reality

  • Historical Portal was very well received, but the hypothetical of Penn State joining the Big 12 in 1982 was a bit of a surprise, mostly outperforming the rest of the bunch.

• Historical Portal: The game that changed everything

  • The series-launcher of Historical Portal absolutely blew up on Reddit and was our second highest-viewed post of the year. And, if we’re being honest, it was the main inspiration for the series as a whole.

• Is the College Football Playoff broken?

  • Our most recent entrant got shared a ton and has basically spawned a new spin-off series for me. At this point, I’ve teased it enough, but I’m sure you can read between the lines and see what’s coming down the pipe when we hit the offseason.

I also joined in on a ton of collaborations, hosting a ton of writers in the Season Preview and hosting the 2025 Substack College Football Awards - which narrowly missed the cut behind the CFP post - once again.

All that, and we haven’t even mentioned that I’ve started popping up on podcasts near you. has been kind enough to host me on his more than a few times to talk coaching carousel, House settlement, transfer portals and more. I’ve also hopped on a few one-off shows.

All that’s to say, the 97 posts I sent you all in 2025 were the result of a lot of work and a true labor of love.

I love the community we’ve built here. I’m so thankful for all of you for making this a great year on the newsletter front. It feels like SID Sports is truly becoming something special.

But that’s enough waxing poetic about posts gone by. It’s time to take a look at what’s coming in the future.

Looking to 2026

You hear this tossed around a lot, but I really and truly mean it in this case: 2026 is going to be a massive year for SID Sports.

I can’t get into it right now, because so much is up in the air, but there’s an opportunity things change here in a big way. Whether it’s an improvement or not for the newsletter is one thing, but it’s an opportunity and something I’m very excited about. Again, nothing is for certain and I’m planning to go on business as usual.

As I’m sure you’ve guessed, there are going to be constants on this newsletter. The Coaching Carousel updates will keep coming. Games of the Slot aren’t going anywhere. Rankings are a given. The culmination of the year - the Substack College Football Awards Show - will be bigger and better.

Some new things, like the Season Preview Magazine, are likely to come into the new year. I’ve already started tweaking and envisioning how that looks going forward.

But, more than anything, I need to revamp some of what is done here. While I enjoyed writing and covering every inch of the sport this Fall, it drained me. There were multiple weeks that went by and I didn’t post. Burnout was a constant battle.

So, for 2026, I’m going to be tweaking the existing content some to make it more efficient and engaging. Don’t worry, this isn’t some major rebrand into clickbait nothing-burger posts. Just making the load a little lighter.

It’s going to be a bit of a balance, but I truly believe that I’ll figure it out.

But, with that said, I can’t make any decisions on good conscience without hearing from you all. So, I’ve crafted a survey for you to give your input on. It shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes if you’re really taking your time. I appreciate everyone that will take the time to fill it out and I’ll really, truly take the feedback into account.

Start Survey

In conclusion, I am awestruck each time I open the dashboard for SID Sports and see the numbers coming in. Really and truly, thank you all from the bottom of my heart for reading this newsletter. What started as a way for me to cosplay as continuing my SID career has blossomed into a special collection of readers, writers and individuals. Thank you, each and every one of you.

I’m excited for what 2026 has in store. It may be a massive departure from the content I’ve published in the past. It may be a natural evolution from where we are now. But it won’t be the same. I hope you stay along for the ride.

Yet another era has started for college football: The private equity era. After the Big Ten floated a deal that has yet to come to fruition, the Big 12 has pursued a similar deal of their own. The first deal has officially gone through, with the University of Utah signing a pact with private equity firm Otro Capital.

This isn’t the first time we’ve talked private equity deals here. We covered the Big Ten’s deal, and an overview of private equity when it was first trying to break onto the scene. But this is different. Now we have an actual deal to look at and a guidepost for universities and conferences to compare their deals to in the future.

More on Private Equity:

The Deal

On the surface, like many of these seismic college football moves we’ve seen since the founding of this newsletter nearly three years ago, this is a simple deal. Utah has partnered with Otro Capital for a deal that is estimated to bring around $500 million into their athletic department.

But nothing is simple, is it?

To facilitate this deal, Utah is spinning a portion of their athletic department off into Utah Brands & Entertainment, LLC, which is owned primarily by the University of Utah Foundation. This new company is what Otro is investing into, not the overall athletic department.

Luckily for us, Utah president Taylor Randall and athletic director Mark Harlan penned an open letter to fans explaining the move, so we don’t have to delve through so much subterfuge to get to the bottom of what’s going on here.

According to Randall and Harlan, Utah Brands & Entertainment, LLC will focus on further growing the “University of Utah brand” by “overseeing, optimizing and enhancing the fan experience, corporate sponsorships, ticketing, event-related revenues and campus-wide university trademarks and licensing.”

The new company will be chaired by Harlan and the university’s foundation will appoint “a majority” of the board of directors. Reading between the lines, I assume Otro Capital will have a seat on the board of directors due to their financial investment.

More importantly to most outside observers, Randall and Harlan made it very clear that Utah “is not selling parts of our Athletics Department, ceding operational control to a third party or relinquishing control of any facilities.”

The deal includes a five to seven year exit opportunity and the university maintains the ability to buy out Otra Capital’s stake in the new LLC. Otra Capital will receive a yet unknown percentage of the company’s annual revenue.

Why make the deal?

At this point, the budgetary concerns raised by the House settlement and subsequent payments, paired with ballooning coaching costs and student enrollment decreasing across the nation have athletic departments scrambling to find new revenue streams.

We’ve seen multiple other schools break off the athletic department to try to find more revenue away from siphoning cash away from the rest of the university. Kentucky was the first to make the move to separate the entire athletic department into a separate LLC, which seems to be the model Utah is following, just with keeping most of the actual operational pieces of the department under the university’s umbrella.

The why behind this deal is as simple as it comes: it gives Utah the least invasive access to a new revenue stream. Otro Capital gets a seat at the table, but reporting around the deal has made it clear that Utah retains all the power on how the athletic department is run, from scheduling to facility management to coaching contracts and everything else.

Ultimately, the Utes likely had to choose between the two main revenue generation methods we’ve seen pop up recently: a private equity deal like this or expand fees.

Student fees are growing across the nation, and some schools are increasing fees to supplement their athletic department. Now, before you get your pitchforks out, I don’t konw of any institution that competes at the NCAA level regardless of division that doesn’t have some form of mandatory athletic fees. I attended two Mid-American Conference schools - both had mandatory athletic fees. I’ve worked in financial aid and billing for a NJCAA junior college - it had mandatory “recreation fees” that supported the small athletic department and facility upkeep.

James Madison is making a lot of news, not just for becoming the second Group of Six school in the playoff field this year, but because of their astronomical athletic fees that support the Dukes. A student at James Madison pays $2,456 per semester in support of the athletic department. That’s not even the highest in Virginia, as FCS program VMI takes the cake at $4,186 per student. If we put that into perspective, a JMU student’s $2,456 fee payment per semester is more than four times the amount a student that attended all of the other 11 CFP entrants would pay.

James Madison is, understandably, taking a lot of heat for passing along the cost to all university students. Utah could’ve gone that route, but decided to go with this instead.

And yes, you can always try to get more donors. That’s the easy solution to any of these problems. Except that’s not easy, as any Division I school will already have a dedicated wing of the athletic department focused on finding and activating those donors to boost the budget. But you can only go back to that well for so long and most schools don’t have a Cody Campbell to call on.

Reaction and fallout

Admittedly, I’m a bit surprised as to how loud both sides are on this, decrying it as the worst thing to ever happen to college athletics, while some praise it as the bold step into the future.

For what it’s worth, NCAA president Charlie Baker called Utah’s deal a “really well-thought-out and really well-designed” move at Sport Business Journal’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum. He specifically pointed to Utah maintaining all operational control and keeping Otro Capital on for a set period of time instead of taking a down payment up front.

Others are pointing to deals like this as a band-aid for a growing spending problem, saying that universities shouldn’t be pursuing deals like this to be fiscally responsible, but should instead be looking at how to balance their budgets.

The one reaction that caught my attention was from Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-Washington), who filed the Protect College Sports from Private Equity and Foreign Influence (PROTECT) Act in October. Baumgartner, who you can tell is against the idea from his bill’s name, floated the idea that Congress should take a look at the tax exempt status of schools making deals with private equity corporations.

Which makes sense. Why does Utah Brands & Entertainment, LCC get the benefits of being tax exempt when it’s not a non-profit institution, but instead a for-profit, possibly publicly traded company? After all, the idea that Utah donors and boosters could purchase shares of the new company has been confirmed by CBS Sports’s Carter Bahns.

If that came to pass, it would be yet another massive overhaul to athletic departments across the nation that would throw almost everyone making these deals into a nasty budgetary nebulous phase that would certainly threaten the department as a whole.

More immediately, the PROTECT Act is being actively worked on by the House Education and Workforce Committee, though there is no time frame for when the bill could be advanced. The bill seeks to amend the Title IV Program Participation Agreement to prohibit private equity firms from investing into athletic departments and conferences. It does allow exemptions for donor gifts, routine marketing sponsorships and traditional bank loans, provided there is no media rights or control included.

Obviously, as with any bill, we’ll be talking about and potentially hearing about this for years. The SCORE Act, after all, is still on the table.

More immediately, the question turns to is anyone going to follow Utah’s path? And I think the answer is most assuredly yes. College athletics is a copycat game. All it takes is one - especially with a deal that earns the praise of the NCAA president - to open the floodgates. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the conference-wide deals the Big Ten and Big 12 have been working on get approval in the coming weeks.

But there’s also a lot of unknowns here. Will other schools fight to maintain full control like Utah? Will a conference like the Big Ten potentially give the boot to members that don’t sign on? Will private equity firms try to exact more control and more revenue and strong-arm schools into poor deals?

Concerns are valid. But, looking deeper than the headlines, it seems like Utah did their homework. This is a solid deal to bring some cash to athletic department. But, make no mistake, they did open Pandora’s Box that may create more problems than solutions.

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Bowl season is already upon us, with the Bucked Up LA Bowl coming over the weekend with a resounding Washington win over Boise State.

Now, it’s time to break down each of the bowl games coming down the pipe this week. Today, you’ll get the non-playoff bowls previewed and an idea of if it’s worth a watch, or something to skip. Friday will have full previews for the four first-round playoff matchups.

And, don’t think you’re missing the coaching carousel update. That’ll hit your inboxes on Thursday morning.

So, without further ado, let’s talk about who’s actually playing in the bowls instead of moaning about Notre Dame passing on the Pop Tarts Bowl and their complete disdain for the tradition and heart of the sport. As always, all times are in Eastern.

IS4S Salute to Veterans Bowl

Troy (8-5) v. Jacksonville State (8-5) | December 16, 9 p.m., ESPN

Both teams came up short in their conference championship races, but that can be a double-edged sword. Sure, the Trojans and Gamecocks couldn’t pull out a conference championship win, but they were both good enough to make it! There is a strength-on-strength matchup at play here that I think is going to be a ton of fun in the Jacksonville State offense against the Troy defense. Troy struggled against the better offenses they faced this year, and Gamecock tailback Cam Cook may be the best individual player Troy has seen since their loss to Clemson, and that depends on how you view the Tigers as a whole.

Worth a watch?: Depends if you’re staying up or further west. If so, watching Cam Cook cook is always a pleasure.

Check out how Cam Cook rated in Substack college football creators’ eyes for the Group of Six Player of the Year and tons of other awards!

StaffDNA Cure Bowl

Old Dominion (9-3) v. South Florida (9-3) | December 17, 5 p.m., ESPN

Raise your hand if you know who two of the most dangerous Group of Six offenses are? That’s right, it’s Old Dominion and South Florida. Granted, it’s been hamstrung a bit. Neither quarterback - Colton Joseph for ODU and Byrum Brown for USF - will play. But that levels the playing field, doesn’t it? Even without their star quarterbacks, both offenses have a ton of firepower and neither team has a defense that seems willing to make any plays. Plus, it’s not like Brown won’t be there. He’s going to be an assistant coach for the game. When’s the last time you can remember an active player taking an official assistant coaching role for a bowl game? If you can remember, tell me please, because I couldn’t find any record of that.

Worth a watch?: You bet. This one has major shootout and fireworks potential.

68 Ventures Bowl

Louisiana (6-6) v. Delaware (6-6) | December 17, 8:30 p.m., ESPN

Sure, the game doesn’t look great on the surface, with two Group of Six teams sitting at .500 rolling into Mobile, Alabama. But the 68 Ventures Bowl and its predecessors at Hancock Whitney Stadium have been a breeding ground for chaos and wild scenarios. Think the Bowling Green fake punt last year. Or the postgame brawl between Eastern Michigan and South Alabama - who played a bowl in their home stadium. There’s some talent on the field, especially in the Delaware offense and the great play by quarterback Nick Minicucci, while Louisville has a varied attack with plenty of playmakers on both sides of the ball that can make an impact.

Worth a watch?: If you like G6 football and wild nonsense, I’m confident this game will have some. Otherwise, it’s worth a skip if you hate fun.

Xbox Bowl

Missouri State (7-5) v. Arkansas State (6-6) | December 18, 9 p.m., ESPN2

Missouri State will be without head coach Ryan Beard, who is off to Coastal Carolina. That shouldn’t discredit this great game. It’ll be the end of the career of the Sun Belt and Arkansas State all-time career receiving yards leader Corey Rucker, and the Red Wolves have quarterback Jaylen Raynor as the biggest star of the game. Missouri State isn’t hurting for talent either, with quarterback Jacob Clark immediately acclimating to the competition level in Conference USA and putting up an outstanding season, alongside his tailback, Shomari Lawrence. I’m interested to see how the Bears handle the Arkansas State offensive line, which has two legit maulers in Ethan Hassler and Cody Sigler.

Worth a watch?: Yes. Despite the records, this game has everything. Including the recipe for a nailbiter.

Myrtle Beach Bowl presented by Engine

Kennesaw State (10-3) v. Western Michigan (9-4) | December 19, 11 a.m., ESPN

If both teams don their yellow uniforms, paired with the Surf Turf, this game may be the one that makes your eyes bleed. It also may be the most evenly-matched game this week. Two conference champions are pitted against each other, each with a star dual threat quarterback (Amari Odom for KSU and Broc Lowry for WMU). Both have a disruptive edge rusher ready to take over the game (Elijah Hill’s nine sacks for KSU and Nadame Tucker’s 14.5 sacks for WMU). Both have coaches that were just named their conference’s coach of the year for leading stunning turnarounds. Jerry Mack even picked up multiple points in the Substack Coach of the Year polling. Both programs have an identity they want to lean on, but can let their quarterbacks turn it loose and win them the game. Or let the defense work. Or do anything else.

Worth a watch?: 100 percent. I think this is the best game of the bunch on the surface.

Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl

Memphis (8-4) v. NC State (7-5) | December 19, 2:30 p.m., ESPN

This one’s for the folks that can’t stand Group of Six football. I hope you’re happy with hating fun, because boy are you missing out. At least you get your token Power Four team in NC State here. Both teams have offenses that can hang points on the board behind their dual-threat quarterbacks, Brendon Lewis and C.J. Bailey, respectively. Though, granted, Memphis is on a three-game skid after a strong start to the year and NC State has proven to have a knack for pulling really solid games out of seemingly nowhere, upsetting Georgia Tech and Virginia while getting annihilated by Notre Dame, Pitt and Miami. Who knows which Wolfpack show up on Friday?

Worth a watch?: Sure. It’ll have some offensive fireworks and shootout potential is here for certain. It also has the potential to turn one-sided in the snap of your fingers.

Lower-Level Games of Note

This is a new entrant to our weekly bowl previews, as there are plenty of quality lower-tier games still being played. Let’s break some down in quick hits:

Johns Hopkins at Wisconsin-River Falls | December 20, 1 p.m., ESPN+
UW-River Falls is heading to their first ever DIII Semifinal game in the best season in school history. On the other side of the gridiron will be the 12-1 Johns Hopkins Blue Jays, who have been in this spot more often than not. The Falcons will look to take to the air one week after DIII’s leading passer, quarterback Kaleb Blaha, passed for 407 yards in the coldest game on record at Ramer Field. The Blue Jays have tailback Geoff Schroeder, who ranks tenth in the DIII ranks with 1,325 rushing yards.

Harding at Ferris State | December 20, 4 p.m., ESPN2
The Division II National Championship is on the line. Both teams enter a perfect 15-0. They were ranked the top two teams in the nation heading into the season. These are two heavyweights. Ferris State has outscored their opposition 222-84 in the tournament and returned starting quarterback Wyatt Bower last week. Harding sits just 141 yards away from being the first ever 7,000 yard rushing team in college football history across all divisions. Think that’s a stretch? They ran for 389 yards last week and tailback Andrew Miller sits at 1,977 yards on the season.

Montana at Montana State | December 20, 4 p.m., ABC
The Brawl of the Wild hits the FCS Semifinals, with the winner heading to Nashville for the FCS National Title game. Last time the two met was a 31-28 win for Montana in a game that was hard-fought and close the entire way. Rivalry hate and a spot in the national championship may make this the best game you’ll see all week. Don’t miss it.

John Carroll at North Central College | December 20, 4:30 p.m., ESPN+
John Carroll had snuck past Mount Union in double overtime and just took an eight-point win over Berry College. The Blue Streaks have a great quarterback in Nick Semptimphelter, who ranks ninth in passing yards in the DIII ranks. Oh, and the JCU defense only allows 13.38 points per game. North Central’s is even better, allowing just 9.23 points per game as the top Division III defense there is. And they’re using a balanced attack to score 50.0 points per game. No, that is not a typo.

Illinois State at Villanova | December 20m 7:30 p.m., ESPN2
Our other FCS Semifinal includes two teams that most fans may not know. Illinois State pulled off an upset for the centuries by beating North Dakota State in the Fargodome two rounds ago, then taking care of UC Davis. The Redbirds are red hot behind a potent offense led by quarterback Tommy Rittenhouse. Villanova has won three straight playoff games, including a 52-7 rout over Harvard. Linebacker Shane Hartzell may be one of the FCS’s most disruptive defenders.

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Hello everyone and welcome to the 2025 Substack College Football Awards Season!

As time keeps passing, more and more great content creators are joining Substack, pushing out all kinds of amazing sports and college football content. And, just like last season, I decided to poll as many as possible to figure out who should actually win some awards for their play this year!

If you want a full breakdown of who voted on these awards and what they bring to the table, head to the bottom of the post. Plus, you might just find some new content creators to subscribe to!

For all of these awards, voters were able to put their top three choices. Points were then awarded on a ranking basis, meaning the first place vote on a ballot netted a player three points, second place two points and third place one point. Then, the results were tabulated and added together with the highest point total taking the prize!

Finally, voters had the option to abstain from any votes and didn’t have to use all three spots on the ballot, which is why you’ll see point totals differ in some places.

Voting Totals: Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt (21); Fernando Mendoza, Indiana (18); Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame (8); Julian Sayin, Ohio State (6); Jacob Rodriguez, Texas Tech (6)

Many of our voters - and national media - pegged this as a wide open Heisman race. Apparently not in our case, as only five players received votes from the panel. And there was a clear top-two: Diego Pavia and Fernando Mendoza.

Ultimately, it was the diminutive Pavia that claimed the top spot as the nation’s best overall player. And looking at his stats, it makes sense. 3,192 passing yards, 27 touchdowns, 8 interceptions, and a 87.7 QBR that ranked fourth in the nation. He also was effective on the ground, turning 152 carries into 826 yards and nine touchdowns.

All year, Pavia put Vanderbilt on his back, willing them into the playoff picture until the very last second. But that’s enough from me, let’s hear from our panel:

“Pavia meant the most to his team this season. He leads all Heisman finalists in all-purpose yards and made program history, leading them to 10 wins for the first time. He was the main reason the Commodores have the 1st-ranked offense in F+, and, without him at quarterback, Vanderbilt likely doesn’t even make a bowl game.” - Damian Ortega

“No player meant more to his team’s success than Diego Pavia. Nobody had Vanderbilt winning 10 games this year. Pavia was responsible for 36 TDs and led the team in rushing. Normally, everyone is going to take the best quarterback on the best team, but I am not doing that. Pavia has not only changed the entire culture at Vanderbilt, but the future of recruiting and resources. If he didn’t have two abysmal turnovers in the Red Zone against Alabama, he would be an absolute slam dunk to win the Heisman. “ - Andrew Mintner

Voting Totals: Curt Cignetti, Indiana (24); Clark Lea, Vanderbilt (8); Jason Eck, New Mexico (8); Joey McGuire, Texas Tech (7); Jerry Mack, Kennesaw State (4); Brent Venables, Oklahoma (3); Kirby Smart, Georgia (2); Bob Chesney, James Madison (2); Terry Smith, Penn State (1); Jon Sumrall, Tulane (1); Brent Brennan, Arizona (1)

We’ve done this for two years in a row. Both years, Curt Cignetti was named the best coach in the nation. I guess a 24-2 record at Indiana - who had the worst Power Four winning percentage prior to Cignetti’s arrival - is good enough to do that.

“Mendoza and Cig will always be tied together. They should both be award recipients, too.” - Colin Cerniglia

“Curt Cignetti has rewritten the blueprint and expectations for new head coaches with what he’s done at Indiana. Terry Smith is somewhat of a homer pick, but what he took over at Penn State and how that team fought against Indiana and closed out with three wins, is pretty remarkable. He could have easily lost that entire locker room, especially when it appeared James Franklin already had. Also, if Lane Kiffin wasn’t the worst person alive, he would have probably been No. 1 or No. 2. “ - Brian Lennon

“I don’t know if any coach has ever won two years in a row, but if anyone deserves it, Cignetti does for winning the Big Ten against the defending national champions.” - Damian Ortega

“Only Cignetti could have led the hapless Hoosiers to one of, if not the greatest, turnarounds in college football history.” - Adam Firebaugh

Voting Totals: Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt (16); Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame (13); Fernando Mendoza, Indiana (8); Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State (5); Julian Sayin, Ohio State (3); Cam Cook, Jacksonville State (2); Kewan Lacy, Ole Miss (1); Ahmad Hardy, Missouri (1); Makai Lemon, USC (1); Joe Fagnano, UConn (1)

We already talked about how transcendent Diego Pavia was this season. One of our voters summed it up best, though he did not cast a first-place vote for Pavia;

“Win the Heisman, gotta win this, too.” - Colin Cerniglia

Voting Totals: Jacob Rodriguez, Texas Tech (23); Caleb Downs, Ohio State (6); David Bailey, Texas Tech (5); Reuben Bain Jr., Miami (4); Rolijah Hardy, Indiana (3); Mansoor Delane, LSU (2); Cashius Howell, Texas A&M (2); Sonny Styles, Ohio State (1); Caden Curry, Ohio State (1)

Just one defender showed up on our Player of the Year polling, which makes sense for Texas Tech’s Jacob Rodriguez to win the Defensive Player of the Year award.

And Rodriguez deserved it. He was all over the field and one of the clear most impactful defenders in the nation. But our panel had that covered, with Rodriguez running away with the award.

“Realistically, I could have put three Texas Tech players on this list. I will list Jacob Rodriguez’s stats vs Power 5 competition: 2nd in tackles, 22nd in TFL, 20th in passes defended, and 1st in fumbles forced. This defense is terrifying and his versatility is the main reason. “ - Andrew Mintner

“The mustaches may be the best money can buy, but they were worth every penny for the Red Raiders.” - Brian Lennon

“Texas Tech’s defense was chock-full of studs, but Jacob Rodriguez was the most impactful defensive player this season. The senior linebacker compiled eye-popping turnover and tackle numbers on a defense that ranks among the nation’s best.” - Damian Ortega

Voting Totals: K.C. Concepcion, Texas A&M (9); Kaden Wetjen, Iowa (7); Kansei Matsuzawa, Hawaii (8); Tate Sandell, Oklahoma (6); Ryan Barker, Penn State (3); Kole Wilson, Baylor (3); Billy Gowers, Hawaii (2); Cole Maynard, Western Kentucky (1); Patrick Durkin, Tulane (1); Dante Atton, Temple (1); Sahmir Hagans, Duke (1)

Few players had a larger impact on the special teams game than K.C. Concepcion. The junior speedster was an elite return man, turning more than a few games on their head with the blink of an eye.

Concepcion had 24 punt returns for 460 yards and two touchdowns, with a long of 80 yards.

Voting Totals: Drew Mestemaker, North Texas (22); Cam Cook, Jacksonville State (10); Byrum Brown, South Florida (3); Alonza Barnett III, James Madison (3); Jake Retzlaff, Tulane (3); Wyatt Young, North Texas (2); Red Murdoch, Buffalo (2); Chris Johnson, San Diego State (2); Wayne Knight, James Madison (2); Nadame Tucker, Western Michigan (2); Skyler Bell, UConn (1); Joe Fagnano, UConn (1)

With how much Drew Mestemaker has been the talk of the town, could it really have been anyone else?

North Texas’s offense was a revelation all season, averaging nearly a 50-burger through the regular season. Sure, he wasn’t much of a rushing threat, but when you lead the nation in passing yards and can be relatively unstopped, you’re the best Group of Six player. Let’s hope North Texas can hang onto him.

“Drew Mestemaker as a freshman recorded 4,129 passing yards (leads FBS), 31 TDs, and 7 INTs. North Texas’s future is bright.” - Andrew Mintner

Voting Totals: Fernando Mendoza, Indiana (20); Julian Sayin, Ohio State (16); Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt (13); Drew Mestemaker, North Texas (3); Haynes King, Georgia Tech (1); Joe Fagnano, UConn (1)

Diego Pavia may be the best player of the year, but Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza takes the cake as the nation’s best pure quarterback.

Mendoza’s season with the undefeated Indiana Hoosiers may be more impressive than Pavia’s, edging him out for the third best QBR at 88.4 to go along with his 2,980 yards, 33 touchdowns and only eight interceptions. He was effective as a rusher too, adding 240 yards and six touchdowns.

“I question Mendoza’s pro prospects, but at the same time, he reminds me a lot of Joe Montana.” - Brian Lennon

Voting Totals: Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame (22); Ahmad Hardy, Missouri (12); Kaytron Allen, Penn State (4); Cam Cook, Jacksonville State (3); Emmett Johnson, Nebraska (2); Kewan Lacy, Ole Miss (2); Caleb Hawkins, North Texas (1); L.J. Martin, BYU (1)

Love is in the air, as Jeremiyah Love finally notches an award win of his own as the nation’s top running back. The junior tailback was the most dangerous weapon on the Notre Dame offense, with stunning efficiency to go with his gaudy counting totals. In the end, that breaks out to 199 carries for 1,372 yards and 18 touchdowns - good for 6.9 yards per carry.

Love was undoubtedbly one of the most dangerous weapons - let alone running backs - in the nation.

“Love’s total production on the ground was remarkable, even though he shared the backfield with Jadarian Price. It speaks to how efficient he was all year at 6.9 YPC.” - Damian Ortega

“If you do not have Jeremiyah Love at the top of this list, you should throw that ballot in the trash. 4th in overall rushing yards with 50-80 less attempts than those in front of him. As a football community, we have been robbed to watch him in the playoffs but I digress.” - Andrew Mintner

Voting Totals: Makai Lemon, USC (16); Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State (15); Elijah Sarratt, Indiana (5); Skyler Bell, UConn (5); Carnell Tate, Ohio State (4); Beau Sparks, Texas State (2); K.J. Duff, Rutgers (1); Omar Cooper Jr., Indiana (1); K.C. Concepcion, Texas A&M (1)

WRU has been dethroned, as USC’s Makai Lemon barely edged out Jeremiah Smith by just one vote. And, as an all-around receiver, Lemon deserves the praise.

He was the top target in one of the nation’s most dangerous offenses, with 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns all while averaging 14.6 yards per catch. Not to be a one-trick pony, but Lemon also showed his versatility with two rushing scores, even if he didn’t rack up large amounts of rushing yards.

“Makai Lemon firmly established himself as USC’s go-to playmaker and offensive centerpiece. Despite his size, Lemon’s combination of route-running, contested-catch ability, and consistency made him the most complete wide receiver in the country.” - Damian Ortega

“Makai Lemon may have saved Lincoln Riley’s job, especially if he can recruit more receivers to perform like Lemon did this year.” - Brian Lennon

Voting Totals: Eli Stowers, Vanderbilt (20); Kenyon Sadiq, Oregon (12); Michael Trigg, Baylor (8); Tanner Koziol, Houston (3); Charlie Becker, Indiana (2)

The clear-cut top-level tight ends really separated themselves this year, with only four players receiving votes. And the bulk of those went to Stowers.

As Pavia’s top target this season, Stowers was and elite vertical threat working from the tight end position. He hauled in 62 catches for 796 yards and four touchdowns. Those stats may not be the most eye-popping on the surface, but when you consider his solid blocking prowess to get Pavia and Sedrick Alexander free and his 12.4 yards per catch, you get the nation’s top tight end.

Voting Totals: Utah (12); Indiana (11); Iowa (10); Oregon (8); Notre Dame (3); Georgia (2); Texas Tech (2); Miami (1)

This year, we made one tweak to the awards style: going with offensive line units instead of overall players. Think like the Joe Moore Award works.

There’s a lot of things I can say about the Utah offensive line’s work this year, but I think Andrew Mintner summed it up best:

“Utah might surprise you at the top of my list, but they are the only team to rank top 10 in overall yards before contact/rush attempts (first overall) and in overall pressure percentage allowed (seventh). This team will be dangerous again next year. “ - Andrew Mintner

Voting Totals: Rueben Bain Jr., Miami (9); John Henry Daley, Utah (7); David Bailey, Texas Tech (6); Nadame Tucker, Western Michigan (4); Kenyatta Jackson, Ohio State (3); Cashius Howell, Texas A&M (3); Ahkeem Mesidor, Miami (2); Caden Curry, Ohio State (2)

This was our most varied and contentious voting with so many solid players netting votes.

For a solid part of the season, Bain was perhaps the best player in college football. Sure, the offense picked up some slack as the season went on, but Bain was double-teamed and schemed around all year. He still found ways to be disruptive.

Sure, his stats don’t tell the full story - 19 tackles, 4.5 sacks, one forced fumble and one interception - and his teammate Ahkeem Mesidor outplayed Bain on the stat sheet. But that doesn’t account for the double-teams and free rushes Bain opened up for the rest of the Miami defense. He was, after all, the top rated edge rusher by PFF this season.

Voting Totals: Jacob Rodriguez, Texas Tech (21); Arvell Reese, Ohio State (4); Sonny Styles, Ohio State (4); Gideon Lampron, Bowling Green (3); Owen Long, Colorado State (3); Caden Fordham (2); Mac UIhlein, Northwestern (2); Rolijah Hardy, Indiana (2); David Bailey, Texas Tech (2); C.J, Allen, Georgia (2); Anthony Hill, Texas (2); Jack Kelly, BYU (1)

Yeah, Rodriguez ran away with this one, too. Let’s recap his stats, shall we?

117 total tackles. 11.0 tackles for loss. One sack. Six passes defensed. Four interceptions. Seven forced fumbles. Two fumble recoveries.

My goodness, good luck scheming around him during the playoff.

“Rodriguez is Texas Tech’s do-it-all linebacker who’s seemingly capable of doing anything, and he proved it time and time again all season long. He’s a big reason why the Texas Tech Raiders are in prime position for a national championship run.” - Adam Firebaugh

“Every Texas Tech game I watched, it seemed like Jacob Rodriguez was intercepting a pass, forcing a fumble or recovering a fumble. A playmaker on defense like none I’ve seen in years.” - Brian Lennon

Voting Totals: Caleb Downs, Ohio State (10); Leonard Moore, Notre Dame (9); Louis Moore, Indiana (8); Mansoor Delane, LSU (8); Brice Pollock, Texas Tech (2); Chris Johnson, San Diego State (2); Devon Marshall, North Carolina (1); Dillon Thieneman, Oregon (1); Ellis Robinson IV, Georgia (1)

Four players - all talented - were within two points of taking the crown here. After finishing runner-up last season, Ohio State’s Caleb Downs takes the crown this year.

Under the watchful eye of Matt Patricia, Downs posted his best season yet, finishing top-10 in Heisman voting as the only full-time defender to finish that high (Jacob Rodriguez has moonlighted on offense).

The junior safety has 40 tackles, 5.0 tackles for loss, one sack, two interceptions, a pass broken up and a quarterback hurry this year. Like Bain, his stats may not be the most impressive, but his presence on the field forces offenses to adapt to where he lines up and what he’s doing. He’s one of the few players in the nation that can turn a game on a dime with just their positioning, let alone when he can take over a game.

And, he’s doing all this as a safety. The other three contenders for the best defensive back award? All boundary corners that live on an island. Not Downs, who roves around the field with the sole purpose to wreak as much havoc as possible.

The Voters:

• , - Griffin is a former SID that specializes in the national coverage of college football and some of the behind the scenes business happenings of college sports. From rankings, to Games of the Slot, to the SID Sports Season Preview Magazine, SID Sports has you covered with all things college football.

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• , - One third of the SZD team, Alex is a Los Angeles-based writer whose portfolio includes work in Slate, The Atlantic, GQ, FiveThirtyEight, The Guardian, Men’s Journal, The Ringer, VICE, Baseball Prospectus, and more. His work covers the sprawling landscape of college football, business, and much more.

• , - Tyler, a card-carrying member of the hating community, is a former football player himself and a huge fan of the sport. Be sure to follow Tyler for some comedic takes on what’s going on across the sport, as well as gambling and watching insights.

• , - Colin is a positive, fun-loving Penn State homer that loves to write about his Nittany Lions. You can also catch Colin writing about baseball for Yardbarker and Kings of Kauffman and keep an eye out for his upcoming rock ‘n’ roll novel, Papilo.

• , - Brian is one third of the Tailgators Setup podcast and the host of the show. A Penn State fan through and through, Brian will discuss and breakdown what you can expect to see from the top teams in their next game. You’ll only notice the tiniest pro-Penn State bias, I promise.

• , - The resident college football expert of Tailgators Setup, John is the guy in the know for listeners. A huge Florida fan, John’s SEC affinity balances well with Gary and Brian’s Big Ten fandom and makes sure the show covers all angles.

• Brett Gibbons, - What better journey to go on than to see all 136 FBS stadiums? Gibbons is doing just that, with over 100 visits completed and documenting his trips on his Substack and social media. Gibbons also contributes TheLines, Lineups, Fansided and TCU on SI.

• , - Damian brings a west coast focus to college football, picking each game each week and giving out betting tips to readers. If you want sharp CFB insights focusing on the Pacific coast - Fight on Picks is for you!

• , - Sports isn’t just about what happens on the field. It also factors into its own culture and the American zeitgeist as a whole. Adam is here to be your guide through the cultural side of college football and how it impacts the nation - and fan bases - at large.

• , - The resident advanced stats guy, Andrew has his patented Mintner Method to take a look at how stats dictate games are going to play out. He gives great previews to each and every week’s games and tosses in some betting tibdits for those that are more gambling-inclined.

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