Seen 'em all – 136 FBS teams in action! In 2025, we finished with the CFP Championship game, Indiana 27 Miami 21. Now, we're up to 740 games since 1979. Capture our unique, fun, life-long adventure in my book on Amazon.com: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun and the Ugly. Our journey continues into the 2026 season! Click on our 2026 Schedule below to follow us to exciting, competitive clashes we'll attend this season!
Spadora on Sports Podcast Interview with Steve Koreivo of Collegefootballfan.com
College football analyst Steve Koreivo gives Spadora the details of his unique blueprint to structure a 24-team College Football Playoff (CFP) by restructuring the entire Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) by proposing to divide the division into two tiers, “FBS-I” and “FBS-II,” featuring 64 programs in the top tier playing specialized regional schedules. To accommodate the larger bracket without adding games to the calendar, Koreivo’s plan eliminates traditional conference championship games in favor of a uniform “Tie-Breaker Week”. This system ensures parity and clear on-field results, ultimately qualifying the top three teams from eight newly aligned regions to compete for the national title.
Read more details regarding our “two” 24-Team CFP Proposals
My goal persists on making college football more competitive, fun and interesting for players, schools and fans of this great sport. 138 FBS programs exist today. Do all have shot at playing for one national championship? Of course not! The current system eliminates over seventy teams among the Group of Six teams before the season even starts. The Power Four already manipulates the system to their advantage. Read how my plans work to make college football more entertaining and exciting than it is today.
Read more fun history of many games attended our first 42 Seasons!
If you haven’t already, please click on the title about this life-long adventure: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun, and the Uglyon Amazon.com. Among 740 college games attended to date now, we’ve seen all 136 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams play in person at least once. In 2026, in case you aren’t aware, North Dakota State and Sacramento State join the FBS this season. “Fifty Years” tells our story of how we got to attend our first 652 games!
Read the reviews on the book page and order your copy today. If you’re trying to follow NILs and transfer portals, read what we predicted in 2023. Hopefully, you’ll understand how much we love this sport and what we propose for it to survive successfully. In addition, we offered solutions to issues occurring that we anticipated when we wrote Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales.
Please buy your copy today and read about the many great memories captured. Maybe some will bring back some of the same memories you encountered when we did. And to us this isn’t a job. It’s our lifelong adventure!
Lebanon, TN – As we approach our 2026 season that starts one month from today, before we delve into aspects all fans can agree on or disagree with, we present our 2026 Cheerleader Edition I. We can all agree that it’s something that fans attending games in-person all enjoy as an essential part of the game. Cheerleaders carry on the traditions of college football. They also remind us that the college game exists for the young at heart!
Fans watching from home can change channels to watch other games. Or, they watch the same insurance commercials they wanted to avoid on the previous network break. They can run to the Fridge or hit the head. Though we tolerate way too many breaks-in-the-action as ticket-buying fans, we absolutely enjoy observing sideline entertainment to fill the voids instead. As the late, great ABC broadcaster Chris Schenkle espoused back in the 60s and 70s: “College football! What better way to enjoy a Saturday afternoon?”
Talk, talk, talk…we want action!
In the next few weeks, we will offer preseason insight for games we will attend, teams we will see, and key players and coaches we look forward to keeping an eye on. The intricacies of preseason predictions and expectations of the upcoming season, not only ours but those of others, derive from opinions, guesses and hopes. Over-hyped media marketing departments who offer too much airtime can and will be challenged by many. They certainly stir the interest to follow this great sport, but in reality, what do they all really know? So, before we get into some of our preseason analysis over the next few weeks that can be criticized, considered or ignored, let’s focus on something college football fans can all agree on that we can enjoy together. Let’s admire the spirit of the lovely ladies cheering their teams on through thick and thin along the sidelines.
Our 2026 Cheerleader Edition I prepares us for a Fun Fall of College Football
We have photographed plenty of action over many past seasons in 43 states. We look forward to seeing more spirited activities along the sidelines everywhere to be recorded for our future game reviews and for future Collegefootballfan.com College Cheerleader editions! We will capture more sideline highlights among 30 games we plan to attend. Since we’ve seen 136 FBS schools and many among the FCS as well, we finally figured the best order to present our Collegefootballfan.com 2026 Cheerleader Edition I. It makes sense to present alphabetically by school.
We’ve chosen the best of the best pictures we’ve photographed for most of the schools seen the past 47 years. Some schools we’ve seen play many times. Some we witnessed only one or two times. We reminisce about our many game memories and throw in some thoughts for future plans in our captions. Most likely, you’ll just enjoy perusing our historic sideline, pictorial, collection of many fantastic Cheerleaders entertaining for their fans’ enjoyment! Let the games begin!
Teams one through five: Into the Wild Blue Yonder and Over Hill and Over Dale
TheAir Force Academy Dance Team performed in the parking lot prior their exciting win, 35-28, over Utah State in 2015. We visited Colorado Springs for our first and only time.Also, against Utah State but in 2022, we watched Alabama destroy the Aggies in Tuscaloosa, 55-0, our first and only time there also. It made The Crimson Tide Cheerleaders very happy!Appalachian State battled Troy in the 2023 Sun Belt Championship game. They fell, 49-23. Trojan HC Jon Sumrall takes over in Florida in 2026. The Gators hired a great new head coach!Arkansas cheerleaders had lots to be happy about after the 2022, three-overtime, Liberty Bowl win over Kansas, 55-53. They still looked pretty even in sweats!Army West Point’s cheer squad gathers before traditional Air Force game in our 2026 Cheerleader Edition I back in 2016. Fired up before this one, but they fell against their second biggest rival, 31-12, at home in Michie Stadium.
Teams six through eleven: From the Music City to Shuffling off to Buffalo
You think the Auburn Tiger mascot, Aubie, attracted the wrath of this Auburn Cheerleader? You should have seen what AU did to Purdue in the meantime. They destroyed the Boilermakers in the 2018 Music City Bowl in Nashville, 63-14! We left at the half and enjoyed better action on Broadway with Auburn friends.Austin Peay enters 2026 Cheerleader Edition I here as our first FCS school. The Governors’ cheer squad performs during their team’s 31-20 win over Eastern Kentucky at home in Clarksville, Tennessee.These Baylor Bear Cheerleaders performed at the Happiest Place on Earth during the 2015 Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando. Their team beat North Carolina, 49-38. Running backs played in place of injured QBs the entire game and won without throwing a pass.Boston College joins our 2026 Cheerleader Edition I in 2019 at The Birthplace of College Football, New Brunswick, NJ. They whooped it up with their Eagles defeating the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers, 30-16.Brigham Young women perform during a big, 66-49 win for their 19th-ranked Cougars over Virginia in 2021. We plan to return to Lavelle Edwards Stadium in Provo in the future to capture more picturesque scenery surrounding the stadium as well as who’s within.In 2016, Buffalo Bulls Cheerleaders flipped over their 23-20 OT upset over Army at home in Broadview Stadium in Amherst, NY.
Our 2026 Cheerleader Editon I continues: Cincinnati to The First State
Cincinnati Bearcat cheerleaders strut their stuff during their team’s 35-20 win over Houston in the American Athletic Conference championship of 2021. The Bearcats went on to play in the CFP semi-final where they lost to Alabama, 27-6. They finished 13-1.This one very astute Clemson Cheerleader made our day making eye contact with our camera as her Tigers defeated Louisville, 31-16, at Memorial Stadium in 2022. Fellow Juniata alumni Dave Bender, Roger Arnold and I attended compliments of Dave’s brother Dick, who retired this past year as a long-time, assistant basketball coach of the Tigers.The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers didn’t let us down in our first and only game at Brooks Stadium in Conway, SC. The Chants belted the Georgia Southern Eagles, 28-17, at home in 2017. They posed a warm welcome to add to our 2026 Cheerleader Edition I! Would also love to get back to attend a game near Myrtle Beach eventually when the weather and water are still warm.Before last season when Delaware joined the FBS, they competed as a top FCS program in the Colonial Athletic Conference. In Newark, Delaware in 2018, their ladies cheered them on as they defeated Elon in a key FCS game, 28-16. In 2026, we’ll watch the Fighting Blue Hens play Vanderbilt in Nashville on September 12.In 2016, the Delaware State Dance Team performs in the inaugural First State Game against sister school University of Delaware. DSU joins our 2026 Cheerleader Edition I as our first Historically Black College/University (HBCU). The Fighting Blue Hens trounced the Hornets, 56-14. DSU never defeated UD since and probably never will. UD moved up to the FBS.
Wrapping up 2026 Cheerleader Edition I, but Edition II on the way
These girls enjoyed a great 2024 for the Duke football program. This opening evening in August they defeated FCS Elon, 26-3. In October, we watched them beat Middle Tennessee on the road, 45-17. In October in Durham, they defeated Florida State under our watch, 23-16, for the first time in 22 years! Under HC Manny Diaz, they finished 9-4. You Go, Girls!To finish a disappointing 4-8 season, in 2025 we watched the Gators put away archrival FSU (5-8), 40-21, in the season finale for both teams. The Gator cheering squad didn’t let up that night! We believe they have a lot to look forward to in 2026 with new HC Jon Sumrall at the helm.The Florida State Seminole Dance Team started their 2024 season opener with high kicks following a 13-1 season. It ended with too many transfers and a 63-3 drubbing by Georgia in the Orange Bowl. This evening got 2024 off to a horrendous start with a 28-13 loss against BC at Doak S. Campbell Stadium. They finished the season with a record of 2-10. HC Mike Norvell sits on a hot seat this season. We’ll see the Noles open at home on August 29 hosting New Mexico State. It may get hotter in Tallahassee than we initially expected.In 2017, we followed Georgia Tech to Virginia’s Scott Stadium in Charlottesville for our first and only time. Despite Tech’s 40-36 loss in the rain, unlike the drenched GT cheering squad, my son Eric and I sat in the very last row of Scott. Only the last few rows in the stadium were covered by an aluminum awning. Sometimes it pays to buy tickets in the cheap seats. It did here!The Houston Cougars defeated Tulsa, 41-26, this Thursday night in 2018 at TDECU Stadium while on a business trip in Texas. They won four of their first five games and then their next four. However, they lost their last four of five games. They suffered a 70-14 beat down by 11-2 Army in the Armed Forces Bowl at Fort Worth. The Cougarettes made the evening very entertaining. Fun game atmosphere at TDECU!Go when you can.
More pictures on the way!
Note we’ve only gotten up to “H” in our 2026 Cheerleader Edition I! We’ve displayed lot of pulchritude (look it up) here already. We have a lot more to offer. Would you rather see more or read about stats and season predictions that will be somewhat intelligently thought out? But most likely wrong. As my grandmother used to say, “That’s the way the ball bounces!” And in football, that’s not just a cliche’. We’ll have some more to say about the upcoming season, but we enjoy sharing some of the fun at football games enjoyed for decades. 2026 Cheerleader Editon II arrives in a few more days. A few more editions will follow that!
Enjoy our captions? Read more fun history of many games attended our first 42 Seasons!
If you haven’t already, please click on the title about this life-long adventure: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun, and the Uglyon Amazon.com. Among 740 college games attended to date now, we’ve seen all 136 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams play in person at least once. By the way, in case you aren’t aware, North Dakota State and Sacramento State join the FBS this season. “Fifty Years” tells our story of how we got to attend our first 652 games!
Read the reviews on the book page and get your copy today. If you’re trying to follow NILs and transfer portals, read what we predicted in 2023. Hopefully, you’ll understand how much we love this sport and what we propose for it to survive successfully. In addition, we offered solutions to issues occurring that we anticipated when we wrote this book.
Please buy your copy today, enjoy it, and read about the many great memories captured. Maybe these will bring back some of the same memories you encountered when we did!
Lebanon, TN – Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) combined to introduce the Protect College Sports Act (PCSA) to preserve and improve intercollegiate sports by offering clear rules and regulations. They start wheels in motion to many good and much needed legislation to prevent college sports from spiraling out of control into something other than competition for “student-athletes’ in college. Their good intentions start in the right direction, but questions and challenges lie ahead to make this work.
The PCSA goes for approval in front of legislators from both political parties which don’t cause too much concern. The real challenge lies along the lines of legislators and what particular universities in their states will they stand for within them. Will a Louisiana representative think in terms of how it will just benefit LSU, or will the rep also see the benefits equally for Louisiana University, Louisiana Tech, and UL Monroe? The same question lies ahead for states such as Texas, California, Ohio, Michigan and Florida among others. Constituents’ interests, current budgets and media followings differ regionally within each state.
Ultimate and worthy goals
The proposed bill calls for the protection of athletes’ rights and health, preservation of athletic competition among all sports, maximization of college athletic opportunities, and bringing stability to sports for all universities offering Division 1 programs to student-athletes. They plan to codify athletes’ rights by laws to support Olympic and Women’s sports while still allowing football and basketball programs to grow to earn more revenue to support these endeavors. The PCSA looks to amend the Sports Broadcasting Act to enhance revenues to support these programs.
They also look to control spending, preserve NILs (Name, Image and Likeness contracts) with better controls and promote revenue sharing with Women’s and Olympic (non-revenue sports) for long-term sustainability. Senator Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri) sees college sports on the “brink of collapse” due to “unlimited transfers, out-of-control eligibility, and rising costs.” The PCSA looks to address these for true sustainability of college sports.
Former Auburn QB TJ Finley (1) seen here against Penn State in 2022 became the PCSA poster child of the transfer portal. He had transferred from LSU. In subsequent seasons, we saw him start as QB at Texas State and Western Kentucky. After those he transferred to Tulane, was released, and played for Georgia State last season. In 2026, he’s at FCS Incarnate Word. To paraphrase John Belushi’s Animal House quote, ‘…seven years of transfer portals! Right down the drain?” What’s next for Finley?
Our proposal for two FBS platforms now makes even more sense with the PCSA
In this analysis, we reviewed specific topics and came up with concerns and questions. Not that any of these issues should not be addressed. We see challenges going forward though, that all parties will not agree to. Some issues have only been addressed in the PCSA. However, in fairness to all college students and not just student-athletes, more of the PCSA should go under even further review in lieu of high college costs other families face.
The best objective overall makes PCSA federal law so that anti-trust exemptions for FBS sports can be applied. This terminates the many lawsuits that continuously challenge laws attempting to make everything equal for all 138 Division 1 football programs. On the other hand, we see viable openings in this Act that will still make our proposals to divide the FBS into two that will be beneficial and conducive to the proposed PCSA.
The Goal of “More revenue” does not translate to “Equal revenue”
State laws can no longer supersede nor challenge federal PCSA laws. That should allow for fairness and the proverbial level-playing field on gridirons across the United States. On the other hand, we still see our proposal a step further in the right direction. Large budgetary differentials will remain among 138 football programs. We don’t see the goal of “More Revenue for Every Participating School” resulting in all 138 football suddenly having equivalent budgets and revenues. The University of Texas is not going to give up its current $331.9M revenue stream. And of course, we don’t see how the University of Louisiana -Monroe will ever increase its current revenue of $18.2M to match Texas!
Below, we identify key highlights of the PCSA and follow up with questions and concerns. Many of these I addressed in my book, Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales; The Good, the Fun and the Ugly. Though our predictions in 2023 fell pretty much on target to what has been happening, and we made a proposal stating federal intervention will probably be necessary. It’s come to that. Now there is clarity on what the fed intends to do. We analyze their proposals and figure out the challenges and possibilities that now lie ahead.
PCSA Major Goal I: Protect Athletes
Federal Right to Earn compensation for NILs: a “strong” national standard will be proposed to pre-empt various state laws. First of all, we don’t have an issue with compensation for all student athletes who contribute to the revenue sharing of the income. However, a $20.5M ceiling was established to compensate all 138 teams to provide money to their players. However, NILs go above and beyond that limit.
What does “strong” mean in this definition? Very vague. Is it based on market laws of supply and demand? Whoever offers an NIL wants to get the greatest benefit of exposure to their brand name. They intend to give the most money to the player(s) who provide the biggest “bang for their bucks.” What FBS teams will benefit from this? Don’t want to beat this comparison to death, but that player and the NIL money will go to the likes of Texas, not UL Monroe.
Set NIL contract requirements to protect student athletes. Key terms to be included like what the player must do under contract and how much they will be paid. Does or will this contract obligate the student to play at this school only? Or is this transferable wherever he goes? Does this prevent a player from transferring if he gets a better offer? Read on later under next heading. Sounds like there is some conflict in PCSA law here already. We like that fact that this will attempt to cut down on transferring and give a team players to build on. However, not sure if this holds unless contracts are done only on an annual basis. Are donors, schools and players (of course lawyers, too) all going to be on the same page regarding this?
Agent rules to protect Athletes from Exploitation
Requires agents to register with a state. Thought this was a federal mandate. Agents will represent their clients across state lines, or is that not allowed now? They must be certified to represent a student athlete. Agent fees capped at 5%. Prohibits fraudulent registration information. Prohibits agents from misrepresenting NILs deals to entice student athletes to enroll or transfer. Athletes can bring cases against “unscrupulous” agents to court.
Should we assume 5% annually, over the course of the contract. Can players change agents? It states that an agent cannot misrepresent an NIL deal to entice or enroll. However, it doesn’t prevent an agent from offering a legally, advantageous deal to a player already under contract as required above. Players can bring an “unscrupulous agent” to court. What if an athlete or member or his family contacts another agent? Can he seek a better deal than the one he is already obligated to? Players and parents already seek to leverage what they have. It’s happened already. Can an agent take an “unscrupulous” party to court in violation of an existing contract?
Ten-year Scholarship Guarantee
The PCSA guarantees scholarships for ten years after eligibility, so athletes can complete their degrees. Ensures they will not lose a scholarship because of injury or “athletic performance.”
Regarding first sentence: we assume “after eligibility” means from high school graduation or when the student turns 19. New eligibility rules require a full five years from those dates, whichever comes first. Nice, but on the other hand, these players should have more money coming out of college that when they started. They basically had steady employment and some even earned millions of dollars based on NIL contracts.
After five years, if they still want to pursue a degree, they should submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). All other students seeking to earn a degree must do this. After at least five years of gainful employment by a school or schools and not yet earning a degree, they squandered the educational financing offered to them. With their earnings, let them be adults and apply like anyone else with the funds they should have saved. Chalk it up to a lesson on life.
Regarding the second sentence pertaining to “athletic performance,” we see an issue. What if the student enters a transfer portal and ends up no longer playing a sport. Is that considered losing a scholarship due to athletic performance? They took a chance and found out that no one thought their talents deserved an athletic scholarship. Do they, or don’t they, deserve more financial help from a former college? They decided to leave. Will they expect compensation from any school that refused to accept them to play for their team?
Health and Safety Protections while attending school
D-1 schools (we assume this includes FCS programs?) provide medical coverage including second opinions and end-of-eligibility medical exams. Mandates safety standards enforced by independent (non-school affiliated) officers. They implement safety standards and report suspected violations (to NCAA H&S department, we assume). Avoids second-guessing of students’ well-being to play if injured. Schools directed to prevent mental and sexual abuses.
Perfectly clear from here. As written, the protection crosses all certified sports for men and women participating in all D-1 programs. Again, assuming this includes FCS as well as FBS programs.
FCS programs like Montana State and Illinois State playing 15-16 games this year for the FCS Championship play with as much risk to health as do FBS programs.
Healthcare beyond playing careers
Requires five years of post-eligibility medical coverage for sports-related injuries. Implements a $60M trust fund to help “schools with demonstrated financial need” to cover post eligibility medical coverage. Emphasizes concern for long-term trauma like chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) which has come to light in recent years. Funding for this will be provided by revenues from the Sports Broadcasting Act (SBA) which anticipates more funding for college sports.
Makes sense no doubt. However, take note that the language reinforces our proposal that based on budgets (“schools with demonstrated financial need”), that there exist distinctions among FBS schools indicating that all 138 FBS programs are not financed equally. Not for medical coverage, nor for coaching salaries, facilities, scholarships, supplies and many other costs to fund football programs on an equal basis. It acknowledges that a vast financial divide exists among all these schools. The PCSA acknowledges that right here. The anticipation of increased funding from the SBA would also benefit from our proposal to break up the FBS supporting two 24-team playoff formats for two separate national championship for FBS-I and FBS-II that we propose. It means more competitiveness, thus more media coverage, and thus more money for all.
PCSA provides Clear Eligibility and Transfer Rules to participate
Five years of eligibility begin after high school graduation or on the student’s 19th birthday. Exceptions for military service, religious service, pregnancy or other approved circumstances. Guarantees one transfer without the loss of a year’s eligibility. A second time? This requires a player to sit out a year except in special cases. Discontinuation of a sport, sexual assault or sexual harassment present such. However, someone’s always looking for another loophole.
Regarding five years eligibility, where does junior college playing time or years playing D-2 or D-3 come into consideration? A 20-year-old joins a D-1 program from a lower division. Does he get five more years to play? Somewhat facetious here: what if academics force a player to make up for a failing GPA at a junior college for a year? Does that count for one of the five years at the D-1 level? Second time? We thought the goal was to hinder the transfer portal somewhat.
Will one year of sitting out deter this further? Also, will players be allowed to still transfer again if the Head Coach decides to go elsewhere? That seems a bigger issue. That decimates improving Group of Six schools as reported in our previous blog,” Why break up the FBS? SIX BIG REASONS.” If that move causes a player to follow and make a second transfer, will he need to commit to sitting out? We figure he should, but surely this will be challenged eventually – is commitment to school or head coach?
PCSA Major Goal II: Expanding revenue to benefit schools, athletes and fans
These highlight the primary goals our two-division FBS proposal supports!
More Revenue for every Participating School
All schools join collectively to create leverage and negotiate media rights like professional sports leagues do. This extends anti-trust protection to college sports to avert legal challenges by state laws.
Reinforces our goal to establish FBS-I and FBS-II. FBS-I will have the initial advantage for more money. However, collectively the two entities can join together for more leverage. If they can’t, FBS-II could gain more leverage as the 24-team playoff format consists of six lower revenue conferences. They’ll begin to draw more media interest over a short time. They must demonstrate that the competition for a national championship at this level can also create a very interested college football audience. Definitely not as big as FBS-I, but they have more room to grow if the prove themselves.
“No school or conference is forced to join.” Existing media contracts cannot be revoked.
Despite the current contracts heralded by the SEC and Big Ten (read below next heading), there may be a way to circumvent this. Our proposal builds along the lines of Power Four conferences and Group of Six Conferences separating. The big impact of our proposal will be upon the lone FBS Independent, Notre Dame. If all other teams vie for our eight division plans, that will dictate somewhat equalized scheduling for all. The Irish may be on the outside looking in. Not our intention at all. With a goal to gratify 138 teams though and not just a handful, the Irish will literally have do decide if they want to play ball under these circumstances. This voluntary participation rule was definitely developed with Notre Dame in mind. Will they still have their exclusive television contract? Probably.
PCSA Specifically Prevents a Big Ten-SEC Super League
Of course, these conferences are the two major detractors to the PCSA altogether. The Protect College Sports Act specifically states it bans any conference that exceeded $1 billion in fiscal year 2025 from “merging with, consolidating with, or acquiring other conferences’ assets, media rights or membership.” Right now, these two combined threaten to control college football with all the power they could attain by combining their total revenue. The fed sees this clearly.
Already, both lobby state legislators of member states to favor their wishes. As asked previously, can the politicians favor the big programs while shunning the needs of the lower state financed schools in their respective states? Probably can, but this favoritism would widen the differences among the upper and lower 138 members. This destroys college football for many schools, players and fans alike.
Remember our two-division FBS proposal!
Our model proposed in our article in our blog dated June 9 entitled, “All player bets off for now: back to update the Two-championship FBS plan,” shows how we would set up eight divisions of eight teams each. We prioritize history and geography as primary guidelines assimilating the various divisions. Every two years after each team has completed the home and home series, we review and determine if the four of the lowest FBS-I schools have raised their level of play in FBS-II and can replace four teams with the lowest records during the two previous years in FBS-I.
In Notre Dame’s case, in division play they’d face the first two years would theoretically include Illinois, Indiana, Michigan State, Michigan, Northwestern, Ohio State, and Wisconsin. Their other five games would be against teams from the seven other divisions. All would be ranked from first to eighth and selected by some pre-determined algorithm. An amendment to be considered proposes for teams to agree on maintaining some traditional rivalries. Notre Dame could commit to playing USC and Navy annually, for instance, if approved. Same goes for all other schools, but we can cross that bridge if we ever come to it. That’s not so bad, is it? All those division foes play ND traditionally or within driving distance for fans near campus and alumni in nearby states.
On this play, Texas State WR Donerio Davenport snags a TD pass for the Bobcats in their 52-44 win over the South Alabama Jaguars in their 2023 Sun Belt clash. Will these two G6 programs get the same considerations from their state legislators with the PCSA as the Texas Longhorns and Alabama Crimson Tide?
A move back to Regionalism
Protects traditional rivalries on schedules to assure fans still see their team play their arch-rivals.
Our Two-championship system not only assures this. Look it over in the previously-mentioned article. This even goes beyond that. It allows many division away games to be attended by visiting fans. It also helps in recruiting local athletes who want to play in front of local family and friends as often as possible. Such schedules create effective recruiting tools.
PCSA Prohibits Mid-season Coaching transitions
Precludes head coaches and other staff members from leaving before the season for their current team concludes, potentially into a bowl or CFP season, to take over another FBS program during the same season. They cannot get involved in recruiting, roster management, coaching hires, NIL offerings, or game plan functions until the season comes to a close the day after the College Football Playoff Championship game.
Agreed, but if a coach like James Franklin gets canned in mid-season, they need to clarify if the same rule applies. Would it be fair for Virginia Tech in this case or any other school to get an early jump into the next season. Also, we’d like to see ridiculous buy-out contracts of released coaches addressed.
Who else can get canned for not meeting employer expectations and receive tens of millions of dollars? We even question that with corporate CEOs. This needs to be capped at some point. Granted these are vital positions they fill at universities, but these rewards for not meeting standards are not viable. The argument is this is how schools attract the best coaching talent. If it doesn’t work out that way though, why should the inefficient profit so highly? They fell short of targeted expectations. Send them away with a package they can survive on until their next stop. Don’t let them hold a college football program for ransom.
It’s one thing to delegate to your assistants during a time-out, but does it make sense for PSU Head Coach James Franklin not to work with his players during a critical time-out as shown here in the third period of PSU’s 2023 24-15 loss against Michigan? He did the same the following season vs. Ohio State. Will he also avoid pressure situations the same way at Virginia Tech?
Read our Great History of Games among our First 42 Seasons!
If you haven’t already, please click on the title about this life-long adventure: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun, and the Uglyon Amazon.com. Among 740 college games attended to date now, we’ve seen all 136 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams play in person at least once. By the way, in case you aren’t aware, North Dakota State and Sacramento State join the FBS this season. “Fifty Years” tells our story of how we got to attend our first 652 games!
Read the reviews on the book page and get your copy today. If you’re trying to follow NILs and transfer portals, read what we predicted in 2023 and more. Hopefully, you’ll understand how much we love this sport and what we propose for it to survive successfully. In addition, we offered solutions to issues occurring that we anticipated when we wrote this book. Please buy your copy today, enjoy it, and read about the many great memories captured. Maybe these will bring back some of the same memories you encountered when we did!
Lebanon, TN – During our 2026 schedule, Collegefootballfan.com’s webmaster Steve Koreivo will be featured on the nationally syndicated podcast, “Spadora on Sports.” During previous seasons, Pete Spadora featured Collegefootballfan.com interviews on his radio program based out of Syracuse, NY, “Spadora on Sports,” during Steve Koreivo’s travels to numerous games over several years. Pete seeks to broaden his audience with national podcasting with the same name, “Spadora on Sports.” He has 35 years of in-depth interview history with sports personalities and administrators from the sports and entertainment world.
During 2026, we look forward to doing some preseason and in season podcasts with Pete to discuss some of the major topics and issues pertaining to college football. We’ll also report on our travels and perspectives to different games we will be attending in the upcoming season. We look forward to sharing our insights and experiences with Pete over the course of the upcoming season. Look for upcoming announcements when Collegefootballfan.com interviews will be schedule on Spadora on Sports.
Television scheduling dictates changes prior to the start of college football to be sure to cover dates and time slots effectively for effective media and advertising exposure. Early in every season, we announce our “Tentative Schedule” knowing that changes will likely occur. Basically, our Tentative schedule release confirms our most desirable “Wish List.” That’s ok by us, and often these changes enhance our original plans. We realize college schedules aren’t really final until the broadcast network, specific date and time slot for each individual game appears on each team’s schedule.
We’ve learned we can depend on the initial date or at least the weekend of an ideal announcement. Then, we’ll pen those games into our schedule if they offer us primary interest(s) at that time. Example: a Thursday or a Friday game combined with a convenient Saturday contest; or a Tuesday/Wednesday, back-to-back games opportunity. The time slots announced can make things tricky due to travel schedules. Especially if and when the possibility exists of trying to see two games on the same day.
Nothing drastic; we’re flexible.
Perusing 2026 schedules regularly in the preseason, we catch some changes impacting our initial plans. For instance, we had Ohio U. at Akron slated Tuesday, November 3, and Central Michigan at Eastern Michigan the next evening in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Not great teams, but pretty good matchups of teams with comparable talent and quality. Our primary interest here derived to attend two college stadiums for the first time – one of our various goals to attend all 138 FBS venues. The second game relocated from EMU’s Rynearson Stadium to Detroit’s Ford Field. No interest here to attend that venue. What else to do? Nothing else of interest to us that night. Cancelled both games. Save MAC opportunities for future seasons.
Calling out our audibles!
Well with another target to try to finish 2026 at 770 games, we came up with two new plans. The week prior to this, we already plan to attend a good, local, Tuesday night CUSA game, Delaware at Western Kentucky. The following night, we originally planned to skip Kennesaw State at Middle Tennessee in nearby Murfreesboro. MTSU just lacks in atmosphere when it comes to football games at Floyd Stadium. We see HC Derek Mason on his last leg there after two 3-9 seasons and not much optimism for 2026. With a new president to take over MTSU for Sidney A. McPhee at the end of the year, we figure his replacement will be looking to make his mark to upgrade the downtrodden Blue Raider football program. We also save on two nights of hotels and extra travel time and money.
In 2024, we watched MTSU (3-9) defeat Kennesaw State (2-10), 14-5. We expect the result of this match on our 2026 schedule to be much different.
We kept our 2026 schedule options open
On the other hand, we admire what HC Jerry Mack has done in one season for KSU. We’re interested in seeing how well his squad adapts to key losses. In the transfer portal after last season’s CUSA, 10-4, championship season, they fell hard at key positions. We’ll attend this one now. In addition, we cancelled out on two MACTION games. We’ll make a run to another Mid-American Conference (MAC) game of interest. On Tuesday, November 17, pending any major snowstorms on the way, we will venture up to Kalamazoo, Michigan.
There, the Western Michigan Broncos, a favorite to win the Mid-American Conference this season, hosts cross-state rival Eastern Michigan at Waldo Stadium. It’s our first-time there; a potential G6 member for the CFP; and a rivalry meeting – three things that interest us. Also, we admire EMU Eagle HC Chris Creighton. He’s achieved a career record of 200-129 and has improved this doormat of a program in recent years. In addition, WMU’s HC Lance Taylor has taken the Broncos to a 10-4 record in three years. He may find himself targeted to upgrade to a Power Four program.
Second times around
As a matter of fact, we’ve seen both of these teams each play only once. Both games resulted in very ugly losses for these two. At a night game in September 2003, we watched the lifeless Eagles get stomped by Maryland, 45-3. Two years later in September at Blacksburg, Virginia, the Broncos fell in the largest margin of victory in our history, 63-0, against Virginia Tech. I say both teams owe us a very competitive game in Kalamazoo!
Timing for us is everything
Patience pays off for us in another “wish list” opportunity. We just didn’t expect clarification so early. In one of our potential two-games on one-day dates on our initial 2026 schedule, we penciled in Saturday, November 14. Washington State in Pullman, Washington and the University of Idaho (Big Sky FCS) in Moscow, Idaho lie only 10 miles apart. To our delight, the Big Sky just announced all conference game time kick-offs. We sat back knowing that Colorado State would visit the WSU Cougars that evening in Martin Stadium at 7:30 PT in a new PAC-12 contest. The Big Sky just slated UC Davis, a top FCS contender, to play the Idaho Vandals in the Kibbie Dome at 1 pm that afternoon!
We’re in for both games now with time to spare plenty of travel time between the two campuses. Both schools offer us first-time venues. Idaho, who completed our initial goal to “see ‘em all” when they played in the FBS which consisted 119 teams at the time. They and Nevada became our No. 118 and No. 119 teams to accomplish that goal. The FBS totals 138 teams today. Idaho, now back in the FCS, made the playoffs three years prior to 2025. Weather will not be an issue game-time in November, as the Vandals host the Aggies indoors.
Balancing our goals this season
Regarding another goal of ours to see a game played in every state (not Alaska – no teams), we will be adding the state of Washington to our list. Should record our 44th state in Pullman. It will be our second game in Idaho not just ever, but for this year as well. We will be attending a game at FBS Boise State for the first time on October 31. The Broncos of “Blue field fame” will host Texas State in another new PAC-12 game this season. Looking forward now to two games on November 14 now and two trips to Idaho on our 2026 schedule!
We watched Texas State (in maroon and gold) defeat South Alabama in a 52-44 battle among other Sun Belt teams in the past. Now, we’ll see them play at Boise State, both new members of the PAC-12 conference.
Read our Great History of Games among our First 42 Seasons!
If you haven’t already, please click on the title about this life-long adventure: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun, and the Uglyon Amazon.com. Among 740 college games attended to date now, we’ve seen all 136 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams play in person at least once. By the way, in case you aren’t aware, North Dakota State and Sacramento State join the FBS this season. “Fifty Years” tells our story of how we got to attend our first 652 games!
Please buy my book and submit a Review!
Read the reviews on the book page and get your copy today. If you’re trying to follow NILs and transfer portals, read what we predicted in 2023 and more. Hopefully, you’ll understand how much we love this sport and what we propose for it to survive successfully. In addition, we offered solutions to issues occurring that we anticipated when we wrote this book. Please buy your copy today, enjoy it, and read about the many great memories captured. Maybe these will bring back some of the same memories you encountered when we did!
Lebanon, TN – Following up on our proposal to create two divisions from among 138 existing Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football programs, our perusal of preseason publications provides plenty of ammunition to break up the FBS into two distinct divisions. Just read the previews among the 70 teams playing in the Group of Six (G6) plus one Independent, Connecticut. Compare these previews to those of the 68 Power schools. You don’t have to read them all. However, just read our sample based on the 29 FBS programs we plan to witness on our annual road trip this year. Clearly, it makes sense to break up the FBS. The reasons are to give more teams and fans better college football. The Six non-power Conferences (G6) deserve to play for a separate championship of their own.
As presented in Collegefootbalfan.com’s post of June “To the Delight of Many: Making the 24-team Playoff Format Work,” our analogy compared college football to being as diverse talent-wise as all 232 professional baseball teams in North America. Consider the Dodgers and Yankees playing against competition deep within the depths of Class A minor League baseball. One can imagine the dilution of such competition. The best talent resides primarily among the elite top where the most money is made.
Power Four vs. Group of Six
Our review of the 70 teams outside the Power https://collegefootballfan.com/2025-schedule/Four Conferences (P4) not only indicates a deep talent divide between P4 and G6 programs, it shows that the G6 has become mere feeder programs to the P4. How can the lower 70 compete with upper 68? Especially when the best talent will be drawn from G6 to P4 teams? It occurs at the conclusion of every season through the transfer portal? There’s continuous talk of change. However, don’t depend on politicians representing constituencies of 138 football programs to agree on fair solutions for all.
Media focus on the upper echelon
Offseason college football news primarily exalts signings of the best high school players available. Their propensity also shells out offers regarding transfers of the best available players from FBS programs available through the transfer portal. Notre Dames’ Blue and Gold Magazine reported recently that the Irish led the nation in the total amount of five-star and four-star-recruits coming to South Bend – 17. Florida, Texas A&M, Miami (F.), Michigan and Oklahoma followed with 16,15, 14,13, and 13 respectively.
In addition, Notre Dame picked off two Wide Receivers from Ohio State, Mylan Graham and Quincy Porter. Florida shored up its O-Line with two Penn State transfers. A&M hauled in O-Line talent to replace three starters from among SEC foes – Alabama, LSU and South Carolina. Of course, Miami’s big move replaced starting QB Carson Beck with QB Darian Mensah fresh off leading Duke to a breakout season. Mensah went to Duke via the transfer portal after a successful season at G6 Tulane.
We finished 2025 seeing Miami fall, 27-21, in the CFP championship to Indiana. We see them this season at Wake Forest without QB Carson Beck, some key OL and some key defenders from that game. Darrien Mensah of Duke replaces Beck for the Hurricanes.
So much for competing and developing such programs to ever challenge for a national championship let alone a conference championship. Some of the lower-ranked schools though may get a player or two from among the top CFP contenders. However, the reality is that these players come in with little or no playing experience. They ended up playing behind better qualified players on the depth charts among the best. Maybe some such new talent can provide a boost. On the other hand who knows if a former bench player turns out to be a boon or a bust?
If they do perform well, however, they may not stay around much longer until rules possibly restrict all players to transfer just once. The top teams stay at the top because they feed on lesser programs by relieving them of their most talented players. Of course, this doesn’t prevent them for scheduling the lesser teams they draw their new talent from either. These examples certainly solidify the proposal to break up the FBS.
We’re not called Collegefootballfan.com for nothing
We attend as many games as possible every year. Our budget, travel time, and self-imposed goals like attending a game in every FBS stadium eventually, and returning annually to some venues to see our favorite teams play, does not mean we attend only the best teams play every week. We do try to find good, competitive games as much as possible. This year, we’ll see Miami at Wake Forest, Auburn at Georgia, USC at Penn State, Texas State at Boise State, Kentucky at Tennessee, and Army vs. Navy for our 21st time. We’ll see at least six teams ranked among most preseason Top 25’s.
Going to Boise will be our first visit to Albertsons Stadium. My wife, “St. Laurie,” even looks forward to attending a game played on the “blue field.” Wake, Auburn and Penn State fall among our traditional visits with long-time connections as does the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. Aside from these plans, we slide into some lower echelon contests in the hopes of at least seeing competitive games between programs of comparable talent.
Arkansas State QB Jaylen Raynor takes off for a 42-yard run to set up the Red Wolves touchdown in the fourth quarter against South Alabama in Mobile. We found the competitiveness between these two G6 Sun Belt teams. Arkansas State (7-6) triumphed over 4-8 USA, 15-14.
Group of Six: 18 teams from four G6 conferences on our slate
We perused three preseason publications to make our first assessments of all the teams we’ll see in action during the 2026 regular season. These include Phil Steele’s 2026 College Football Preview, Athlon Sports 2026 College Football Preview, and The Sporting News 2026 College Football Preview. From among all their respective previews, they basically reinforce our premise that all 138 college football programs just don’t belong playing for one national championship. Break up the FBS! Below, our analysis offers the highlights of the post-season lowlights among lower-ranked FBS teams to appear on our 2026 slate. In addition, we also provide similar analysis regarding one team that played on our schedule the past two years.
Many bowl games aren’t rewards originally intended
With 35 non-CFP bowl games in the post season, 70 teams among 126 teams not in the CFP will play in post-season games. That means 55% receive a “bowl bid” with final records of 6-6, 7-5, or 8-4 or even worse records. They primarily fill air time for televisison networks. Win totals also include those against teams not eligible to even play a bowl, namely FCS teams. Sorry, we don’t consider all of these records as benchmarks of great success.
Thirty of those games confirm mediocrity at best. Can be entertaining television, but as stated in the past, in reality these are “consolation games.” Even when a 6-6 team defeats another 6-6 team, the winner gets a trophy? Rewards for finishing among the top 47+ teams of all 138. Sometimes there are fine lines of success despite the final records. So, when publications predict a team will vie for a bowl game, it no longer distinguishes a unique achievement like finishing among the Top 20 best teams as in previous decades. Below, we preview expectations of G6 programs on our 2026 slate that lend justification to our objective to break up the FBS. In general, they are long-shots to ever earn the one G6 bid to the CFP.
Illinois defenders including LB Dylan Roziek (28) take down Volunteer RB DeSean Bishop (18) in the 2025 Music City Bowl. In the future, more SEC and Big Ten teams like these could get a shot to play for the CFP title in a 24-team format. G6 teams deserve the same. Break up the FBS!
New Mexico State opens at Florida State
HC Tony Sanchez leads the Aggies into 2026 season with a 7-17 record the last two years (4-8 in 2025). He brings an overall HC record of 27-57. We see NM State open at Florida State. Questions abound at QB with transfer Trey Hedden from a 6-6 FCS Furman squad. Same goes for Junior College (Juco) transfer, Kalani McCleod. O-line Protection waned last season and the ground game averaged only 2.6 yards per carry. They brought in transfers upfront from programs like FCS Columbia, FCS Western Illinois and Stanford. None played for dominant offensive programs.
Sanchez brought in RBs James Jones from FCS Delaware State and Terrell Washington from Iowa. Washington seeks a second chance after gaining 182 yards in three seasons for the Hawkeyes. Best receiver Donovan Faupel headed to Arkansas. On defense, biggest import came in Safety Tayden Barnes who returns after transferring to Cincinnati last season.
Only 10 starters return. The offense looks like it will continue to struggle. Question the 26 transfers and note that they don’t come in from winning programs. How much good experience they bring should not build a lot of optimism. Four Juco and only six high school players come in. Doesn’t seem like a formula to challenge for a championship in the short-term or long. Despite Florida State’s recent struggles, the outcome of this game will not only indicate how well this season goes for NMSU, but how the Aggies compare to middle range P4 FBS teams overall. What is their chance of finding another QB like Diego Pavia? And keeping him? Break up the FBS.
University of Alabama-Birmingham hosts staunch Navy
We’ll see the Blazers host a pretty good Navy team. USNA returns stalwart senior leadership which all the academies can use to their advantage in the future. They’ll keep and develop many players for four years now as opposed to teams seeking transfers. They can lose players to transfer the first two seasons. Beyond that they’ll generally have a pipeline filling voids with juniors and seniors stepping up. The academies don’t accept portal transfers. Even more importantly, with many FBS teams recruiting portal transfers instead of high school recruits, the Midshipmen and Cadets of the other two FBS service programs find more high-quality football players interested in joining their ranks.
UAB has a tough challenge ahead. Former OC Alex Mortensen replaces HC Trent Dilfer, former NFL QB and Lipscomb Academy HC who leaves an 11-26 record back at UAB. Mortensen takes his first crack as a HC. The Blazers lose their starting QB, three top RB’s and 3 WRs from last year’s 4-8 edition. Only two starters return on offense and none on defense. QB Ryder Burton returns as probable starter with only two starts under his belt from last season. That includes a big upset against Memphis.
RB departures will be compensated for with RBs from Coastal Carolina (6-7) and UL Monroe (3-9). Of course, the big portal name came in the form of 6’1”, 235 lb. Rod Robinson from Georgia. How will 221 yards in three years at Athens translate behind a line with two returning starters, a red shirt, an FCS Monmouth (NJ) transfer, and a Colorado transfer who played in two games last year?
Questionable transfer quality
Defensively, new DC Todd Grantham brings three transfers in with him from 1-12 Oklahoma State. DE Blanc Gold comes in from FCS Morgan State. A few players join the defense from a beleaguered 2-10 Boston College program. In summary, you can get players through the transfer portal, but there’s lot of work that needs to get done here. There just doesn’t appear to be enough talent around for 138 teams to all compete for one national championship. It’s not reality. For this reason, break up the FBS!
Navy DE Landon Robinson sacks Blazer QB Jacob Zeno on fourth down to take ball over on downs in 2024. Look for Robinson with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2026, and we’ll see Navy visit UAB once again. Break up the FBS and we get to see more pro talent play for another college football championship.
Southern Mississippi takes on Tulane
After a Friday night game with Navy at UAB, we travel to New Orleans to see the Golden Eagles visit Tulane. A team one year removed from a CFP Championship game. This will be our first visit to the Tulane campus. The Green Wave has also been removed from HC Jon Sumrall and a slew of talent that left new HC Will Hall with only three returning starters on offense and four on defense. The former Tulane passing game coordinator coached Southern Miss for four years. He garnered a 4-15 record his last two seasons there.
Previous Southern Miss HC Charles Huff left behind a 7-6 record from a year ago to take over at Memphis. You think Tulane took a hit? A lot of defensive talent left the Eagles to join Huff, leaving only one starter remaining in Hattiesburg. New HC Blake Anderson, former Eagle DC and former HC at Utah State, will probably lean on junior QB John White who’s thrown 32 passes in his career, or rely on former NIU starter Ethan Hampton with 1,600 passing yards to his credit. WR Grant Page steps up after 281 yards last year. AJ Little played for UT Chattanooga. Small, talented but inexperienced receivers arrived from Illinois and Penn State. A running back from 0-12 UMass (no. 138 overall), of all places, showed up in Brandon Hood (368 rushing yards) to play for the Eagles.
P4’s take the best from among the portal; G6’s gets the rest
Defensive talent comes from programs like UCF, Ole Miss, Stetson, SE Missouri, Akron, Kansas and Alabama, However, none bring a wealth of experience. Looks like guys still wanting to play, but they just couldn’t make it where they were. The Golden Eagles have a long way to go. Thus far, this is only previews teams playing on our schedules this season. Think of among all 70 G6 programs of how many face similar consequences looking for available talent to plug in holes while trying to compete for the one FBS championship playoff bid for G6 conferences.
North Texas State arose mightily before potential big fall
Finishing with a 12-2 season a year ago, 7-1 in the American and falling short of the CFP in a championship loss to Tulane, third-year HC Eric Morris took off to take over rock-bottom, P4,1-12 Oklahoma State. With the Mean Green’s 2025 FBS-leading offense averaging 512.4 yards per game and 45.1 points per game, Morris absconded with key players. He left the NTSU offensive cupboard bare without any returning starters. Among them, he took play-making QB Drew Mestemaker, WR Wyatt Young (70 catches, 1,264 yards, 10 TDs), and leading RB Caleb Hawkins (1,434 yards and 25 TDs). Entire starting O-line, gone! This is wrong. Break up the FBS.
New HC Neal Browm steps in after serving as HC at Troy and WVU. He hired DC Matt Powledge of Baylor. He brings some fresh transfers with him to fill in defensive voids. Brown looks to replace Mestemaker’s stats with UCF transfer Tayven Jackson, or returning Chris Jimerson. Both possess little college experience under center. At WR, Brown has choices among inexperienced returners, and transfers from Utah, Oklahoma, Cal, Houston, Dartmouth and D2 Black Hills State. Key transfer at RB will be depended on in Jaheim White who played for Brown in ’23-’24 at WVU. The new line consists of transfers from Georgia Southern, a Missouri guard with three starts, a Texas OT with 23 games over four years, and another with five starts at WVU and Mizzou. One redshirt returner joins them.
Success – detrimental to G6 programs confirms the need to break up the FBS
Brown has his work cut out ahead of him to get this team to jell quickly as it enjoyed a prior incredible season to be compared to. They won’t want to disappoint. We see them play as Navy’s homecoming opponent in October. The Mids seek revenge while the Mean Green seeks what the Mids already have – cohesiveness. The NTSU message is to be careful of what happens after an FBS program overachieves.
You may lose your HC, your best players through the transfer portal, and it’s back to square one. New coaching staff, new players on short notice. Short-term success does not guarantee any continued long-term success among Group of Six schools. A primary reason the break up the FBS! Maybe limiting the number of transfers to only one by every player and rethinking the rule to allow all players to follow their HC on his next career move needs consideration. Who’ll be making these decisions? Player commitments seem to benefit a coach’s career whatever he decides to do, not a university’s football program. Break up the FBS and limit the transfer portal. Determine who the players should be committing to – a coach or a particular college football program? Sorry, Indiana. It was fun though.
Another G6 humiliation – Kennesaw State
Last season, we watched first-year HC Jerry Mack turn around the Kennesaw State Owls of CUSA after a 2-10 season into a 10-4 success. We watched them win the CUSA title game over Jacksonville State, 19-14, only one season after seeing them get hammered by Jacksonville State, 63-24. Disappointingly, the Owls got drubbed by Western Michigan in the Myrtle Beach Bowl, 41-6, last year. However, that didn’t stop other programs from ran-sacking the KSU roster based on the newly developed success by Coach Mack.
Two returning QBs bolted to Tulsa and Syracuse respectively. Freshman Elijah Hill, who led CUSA with nine sacks, transferred to Kansas State. CB JeRico Washington took his talents to Boise State. Mack went to the portal and pulled in Syracuse QB Rickie Collins from Syracuse. After leaving LSU, he struggled last season for the Orange (3-9) connecting for only 53.5% through the air. Only six TDs and ten INTs. Reports figure he will play better against lesser than ACC competition (message: break up the FBS).
G6 programs “tread water” to remain in the game
To better support Collins, Mack brought in four physically huge transfers. For adequate protection, he signed them from FCS Central Connecticut, Middle Tennessee (3-9), FCS Elon, and a TE from Southern Miss to join transfers on the line from South Florida and Florida International the previous season. All come from other G6 programs or lower. No significant sign of major talent upgrades. Again, such transfers may keep Kennesaw competitive in CUSA, but they just don’t indicate improved talent to catapult them into CFP contention.
Jacksonville RB Cam Cook (4) led the nation in rushing with 1,659 yards and had 16 rushing TDs. He averaged 131.75 yards per game. The Owls held him to just 78 in this contest. Cook goes to play for WVU in 2026. The Kennesaw Owls won CUSA and looked to replace many players as well. G6 teams go heavy into the portal to avoid significant losses of talented, key players.
G6 – one CFP bid for all
Admittedly, some of the lowest ranked G6 teams adorn our 2026 slate. On the other hand, some of the strongest G6 teams appear ahead of us as well. Boise State ranks among Top 25 polls and looms as a favorite to represent the G6 as their one bid in the CFP. Last year, the G6 qualified two in Tulane and James Madison, and what happened? Both head coaches Jon Sumrall and Bob Chesney moved on along with their key players to Florida (SEC) and UCLA (Big Ten), to leave programs behind in bigger holes to climb back out of.
Navy, Delaware, Western Kentucky, Army, Memphis and Texas State on our 2026 schedule loom as potential challengers for respective conference championships and thus, potentially, the one CFP bid available for all 70 G6 programs. UNLV, ND State, UTSA, New Mexico, Jacksonville State, Miami O, Western Michigan, San Diego State, JMU, Air Force, Old Dominion and Troy all get consideration for significant winning seasons. And of course, just like at the P4 level, some programs will surprise all “the experts.” Part of the great fun of college football.
Break up the FBS!
The great disappointment in this summary comes down those among 70 football programs with decent records that mostly don’t currently share the same revenue statures nor talent acquiring capabilities as the top 68 P4 programs. It’s to the detriment of these programs and in reality, all college football fans, that we miss out on a potential playoff format consisting of teams like these to play for another college football championship. Look at 20 teams among the G6 previously mentioned here. Amongst each other, they are all competitive.
There could be great games and added excitement to post-season college football if they all battled in a 24-team CFP of their own. Rather than each playing one insignificant “bowl game” for a trophy against superior or inferior competition for the benefit of television viewership, just think how great his would be if 24 of these teams competed amongst each other for a second FBS-II championship! This could add to even more excitement for more great college football. Divide the FBS into two divisions, and let’s have playoffs for championship games for two distinct levels of Football Bowl Subdivision competition. For the best of 138 college football programs, break up the FBS! Two divisions. Two playoff championships. The FCS, Division-2 and Division-III already do. Add 70 more teams to have the same opportunity.
Read our Great History of Games among our First 42 Seasons!
If you haven’t already, please click on the title about this life-long adventure: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun, and the Uglyon Amazon.com. Among 740 college games attended to date now, we’ve seen all 136 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams play in person at least once. By the way, in case you aren’t aware, North Dakota State and Sacramento State join the FBS this season. “Fifty Years” tells our story of how we got to attend our first 652 games!
Read the reviews on the book page and get your copy today. If you’re trying to follow NILs and transfer portals, read what we predicted in 2023 and more. Hopefully, you’ll understand how much we love this sport and what we propose for it to survive successfully. In addition, we offered solutions to issues occurring that we anticipated when we wrote this book. Please buy your copy today, enjoy it, and read about the many great memories captured. Maybe these will bring back some of the same memories you encountered when we did!
Illinois State WR Dylan Lord enroute for a 20-yard score to tie Montana State in the FCS Championship game, 28-28. Both teams won four games in a 24-team format. Let 70 G6 teams compete for the same!
Lebanon, TN – Before continuing to promote this idea for a Two-championship FBS plan for which a lot of “likes” were received, why does any Court of Law think that young college players betting on games their team or any other college team participates in makes any sense? Nothing but catastrophes await, legal and otherwise if this remains intact after appeals. When fans already suspect a fix is in, they can’t blame it just on the officials anymore. However, bet that they will consider suing the players.
Baseball suspended pitchers on bets regarding a simple ball or strike call in an organized crime scheme. Players made tens of thousands on some such insignificant wagers like these. The great baseball player Pete Rose bet on his team, got suspended from Major League Baseball for life and was denied entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame despite his stellar career.
Example of one scary scenario
How about bets on complete or incomplete passes in a college game? Fear the day that a college player gets caught on betting against his own team. Figure a struggling team trails against an undefeated team. Maybe the QB on the underdog wants to get his head coach fired.
The starting QB makes sure his passes go awry so his team can’t cover the spread to make a few extra bucks directly. What does he care about other than collecting his winnings? It’s now even more about “the Money.” Some grown-up has to lecture that Judge. Let’s hope this decision gets reversed. This could get ugly early and often.
Now on to shedding more light on competitive college football
As posted previously in “To the Delight of many, making the 24-team CFP format work,” it makes no sense for 138 college football teams to play for one national championship. The disparity of talent among so many teams is humungous. Read the analogy on this last post by clicking on the post title. Think of the quality and quantity of quarterbacks alone. If every FBS program possesses four or more QBs on its roster, there are at least 452 ready to step in every season. In reality, probably over 600 FBS QBs fill rosters during any year.
The best go on to the NFL. How many? Three QBs on 32 teams equals 96 QB playing on Sundays. Not all of them turnover in three to five years. Some play as long as over 20 seasons now. The best stay and play. The point is that the majority of 452+ FBS QBs will never ever be considered good enough to play in the NFL. This demonstrates the disparity of quality quarterback play among 138 college football programs.
QB Joe Burrow rode the bench at Ohio State for three years before we saw him lead the LSU Tigers in the 2019 CFP semi-final. LSU won 63-24. Hard to imagine him waiting to play for all those years if NILs and transfer portals were like they are today.
Easily determining how to create the Two-championship FBS plans
Just the same way the teams, schools, conferences, coaches and everybody else, including the “athletes” now, make sports decisions. It’s only about the Money, of course! In an analysis of all 134 FBS programs competing in 2024 done by The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, it presented a database revealing four key statistics for most of the FBS programs. Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications published the results.
In this analysis, the report shows the revenues, expenses, the number of varsity sports programs and the numbers of athletes supported by each school’s athletic department. Note that large private universities like Notre Dame, the University of Southern California, The U of Miami and others legally choose not to divulge their revenues and expenses. Assuredly, however, these programs earn significantly more than the $100 million revenue floor chosen to establish a minimum budget qualification process. Our strategy reviewed the revenues and expenses for all 138 schools to determine what programs qualified for among the top 64 to participate in the new proposed FBS-I.
Leaders and cellar dwellers in all conferences
In 2024, the University of Texas topped all athletic programs in revenue with $332M. UL Monroe fell in at the bottom with only $18.2M in earnings. Talk about vast disparity in vying for one common national championship! Do the simple math regarding financial disparity. Among conferences, The Knight Commission reported $2.592 Billion in revenues earned by the Southeastern Conference (16 teams) to lead all FBS conferences. Conference USA sat with the least with $299.7 Million in revenues (12 teams). Understood, but does this seem fair for these two entities to compete for a common national championship? And to think that each SEC team played at least one Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) opponent on their schedule annually for many years. Respective FCS budgets probably fall below ULM’s. The SEC finally decided to terminate this practice at their spring meeting in Miramar, Florida last month.
Also, according to revenues and expenses to fund these FBS programs, among ten FBS conferences reporting in 2024, only four of the ten turned profits. Of course, within each, there were winners and losers among members. And again, financial reports by private institutions remained unavailable and are probably not included in the conference totals.
“Magic numbers” help create college football parity in Two-championship FBS play
As suggested in Collegefootballfan.com’s previous article, to configure a plan to support two 24-team playoffs for “FBS-I” and “FBS-II,” 64 team made the most sense to play a full season of 12 regular season games – seven against common Region foes and five against foes from the other seven regions. At least for FBS-I. Please click here for more details about the original proposal.
The top 64 programs with the most money play one another to finish in the top three of their respective divisions. No conference championship weekend needed. Instead, we propose a “Tie-Breaker Week” to determine outright the top three teams in each region. All go on to play in the 24-team playoffs. Format provided in the article.
A few factors considered beyond The Money
In the final analysis of the existing138 teams, using budgets, geography and histories of conference rivals, whittling down the 138 to 64 presented some difficulties. With 74 college football programs remaining, keeping only 64 would leave too many programs outside of FBS-II. So, what would I do if I had some say as a college football “Guru” (come on, give me some credit for attending 740 college football games played by every FBS program and some beyond since 1979), or at least an NCAA committee member? Put all of the remaining 10 in the FCS? No, that doesn’t make any sense.
Maybe an opening for the sake of some traditions
Chopping only two from the lot would leave 72 programs for FBS II consumption. That division would also consist of eight regions. Therefore, in this case, each would be comprised of nine teams. FBS-II would play eight regional foes and four games among the other seven regions. This can all be determined by some computer algorithm. It could include some teams contracting to play one another to resume old rivalries over the years blocked by proposed FBS-I vs FBS-II rules. For instance, Oregon vs Oregon State, Washington vs Washington State, and Navy vs Notre Dame could be allowed annually. Again, only after further analysis of scheduling limitations and parity issues, that could be considered.
In this two-championship FBS plan and eight region conference format, rivals like Florida and Florida State will still get to play one another every season. This rivalry becomes even more intense. The game could be for a bid into the proposed FBS playoff format for both.
Sorry, but someone needs to make some decisions, might as well be…
As “Guru,” I believe that the first decisions made will be received well even by three schools impacted directly. First, eliminate one $100M+ revenue athletic program, Connecticut. No disrespect, but most of their revenue comes from their great basketball program. Football was on the rise under HC Jim Mora, but he’s moved on to Colorado State. They’re not worthy for top tier consideration among 64 top FBS football programs. They fit well in FBS-II. Of course, if basketball, they’re among the top programs.
On the other hand
UMass – Read about this in my book, Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun and the Ugly. The Minutemen just can’t seem to cut it in the FBS. In 16 seasons of FBS football, they have won just 26 games. No disrespect. In “Fifty Years,” the upside to stepping down comes to light. The University of Idaho struggled the same way at this level. The Vandals rejoined the FCS. They resumed old rivalries on a geographical basis. Idaho plays schools they can recruit effectively against and compete with as equals annually on the field.
They left the Sun Belt in 2018 to join the powerful Big Sky Conference of the FCS. In 2022, 2023 and 2024, they earned bids to the FCS playoffs. Also, they cut costs in travels to many distant games to play as a patsy for Top 20 teams. UMass can go back and do the same against teams like New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Maine. Nothing wrong with that. They won the FCS National Championship in 1998.
In the FBS, UMass scheduled the likes of Hawaii to get enough games every season. Of course, they had to venture all the way out to Hawaii in return. FBS play can be costly financially for low income FBS programs. Going back to the FCS will negate those costs by playing more programs within shorter distances.
Sorry Warhawks; your time is up!
The other team designated to go to the FCS is aforementioned UL Monroe. The lowest budget among all FBS schools by far at $18.2M in revenues justifies this decision enough. Louisiana Tech is not far off (compare these two to LSU). Tech earned $22.8M in 2024 followed by Northern Illinois at $29.2 M. Then others come in at over $32M at the least.
On top of that since 1994, when the Warhawks stepped up into the highest level of D1 football, they’ve achieved only one winning season – 8-5 in 2012. That season, they fell in their only post-season appearance to Ohio U., 45-14, at the Independence Bowl in nearby Shreveport. Four times, they finished 6-6 for their next best. It’s been a dismal 31 years for UL-Monroe in the FBS. The NCAA could welcome them into a more competitive situation among FCS conferences.
Starts with Money, but Performance matters here, too.
Of the 68 teams evaluated eligible to play in FBS-I, the goal comprised to maintain a total of 64 (eight regions of eight teams). In this example, the bottom four derived from their 2025 records only. This infamous “Final Four” came down to Oklahoma State (1-11), Arkansas (2-10), Boston College (2-10), and Purdue (2-10). No tie breakers necessary at the end of 2025. These ‘big spenders” rendered the four worst FBS records of all in 2025 among the well-heeled 68. They would drop to the FBS-II in 2026 to determine the 64 teams left to compete in FBS-I Division for the next two seasons.
Next step: A “German Soccer model”
Over my Purchasing career of 40 years including many working for large international chemical companies, I met with, got to know and visited many people from Europe. One German colleague I got to know well not only settled in the US and married a Central Michigan grad, his brother attended LSU and both became avid American football fans. On a trip together in Germany, he talked about his favorite soccer team. I knew little about German soccer, but I did learn something interesting.
His favorite team from his city, played in a lower league than some for the more well-known soccer clubs in Germany. Not really considered a minor league team by our baseball standards. He explained a system where every few years, a review was done regarding where all teams finished within their leagues. The most successful ones at the lower level would be able to join the upper level replacing some of the less competitive teams. They would switch places. A winning season at the lower level was rewarded with a promotion to play at the higher level. I don’t recall the exact trigger they used but envision something like that similar here.
Not a perfect solution, but consider the Two-championship FBS plan for Fun and Fairness
Below, takes a look at the two-championship FBS divisions determined after final analysis to select the top 64 teams qualified financially. The eight region members of each in FBS-I were derived next with geographic and historical considerations. In most cases, each has some of their prime, long-term rivals competing in their designated region. Also, don’t forget, each will play other teams from the other five regions annually. This can be done on a rotating basis, or like the NFL, non-conference or inter-regional games can be based on some kind of format determined on the annual final standings of all teams within each region. That would need to be determined by smart people using computers in the NCAA administration. Not a Guru, or this one any way.
FBS-I
Region 1
Region 2
Region 3
Region 4
Region 5
Region 6
Region 7
Region 8
Maryland
Clemson
Alabama
Cinn
ILL
Baylor
BYU
Ariz St
Penn St
Duke
Auburn
Kentucky
IND
Houston
Colorado
Arizona
Pitt
Ga Tech
Florida
Louisville
Mich St
Okla
Iowa
Cal
Rutgers
NC State
FSU
LSU
Michigan
SMU
Iowa St
Oregon
Syracuse
North Carolina
Georgia
Minn
Notre Dame
TCU
Kansas
Stanford
VA Tech
South Carolina
Miami (F)
Mizzou
N’west
Texas
KSU
UCLA
Virginia
UCF
Miss St
Tenn.
Ohio State
Texas A&M
Nebraska
USC
WVU
Wake Forest
Ole Miss
Vandy
Wisc.
Texas Tech
Utah
U of Wash.
FBS-II: more challenging, but final result seems acceptable
The challenge here was to maintain an eight-region format to enable a 24-team playoff. To do this for FBS-II, nine teams needed to be selected for each region. A little more stretching and manipulation required to configure some of these. See what you think. Also, consider changes to come based on the “German soccer model.” Initial suggestion: review every two years. This not only avoids a sudden “one-hit wonder,” it also allows all teams to play a home-and-home series. After the second season, new non-region opponents are scheduled.
Arkansas probably won’t like playing mostly non-SEC teams. On the other hand, their team has to improve from 2-10 to move back to the FBS-I level to get back at some of them.
If one of the four teams in red below, identified because of their upper financial status, posts two winning seasons in a row, they get to move up into FBS-I. That year, they will replace the lowest seeds in FBS-I by record to switch with. In some cases, to offer geographic and historic preferences, some teams may be required in FBS-II to change regions. A little complex, but not impossible to determine. Changing regions that affect schedules could lead to some variety in scheduling which fans may appreciate.
FBS II: Eight regions but nine teams in each; four flex teams eligible for FBS-I
Region 1
Region 2
Region 3
Region 4
Region 5
Region 6
Region 7
Region 8
Army
App St
Akron
Ball State
Jax St
Ark St
Air Force
Fresno
BC
Charlotte
BGSU
CMU
Kenn
Arkansas
Boise
Hawaii
Delaware
Coastal
Buff
EMU
LA Tech
NTSU
Col St
Nevada
ECU
FAU
Kent
Mo State
Louisiana
Ok ST
NDSU
Ore St
Navy
FIU
Marshall
MTSU
So Ala
Rice
New Mex
Sac St
ODU
GA South
NIU
Memphis
So Miss
SHSU
NM State
SDSU
Temp
GA State
Miami O
Purdue
Troy
Tulsa
Utah St
SJSU
UConn
JMU
Ohio
WKU
Tulane
TXST
UTEP
UNLV
USF
Liberty
Toledo
WMU
UAB
UTSA
Wyo
Wash St
Voice of College football’s most Dedicated Fan
Of course, these are ideas from nobody more than an avid college football fan of the entire sport, not just one team. 740 games to date and every FBS team seen in action at least once; FCS, D-2 and D-3 teams also in our 47-year history and more this upcoming season.
Basically, a major overhaul like this needs a boost with somebody from the 30,000-foot level and not those among the weeds seeking changes. These ideas can hopefully open some eyes to help improve this great sport so many enjoy. A lot to digest here. Think about these. Now, let me go talk some sense into that Judge!
Read our Great History of Games among our First 42 Seasons!
If you haven’t already, please click on the title about this life-long adventure: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun, and the Uglyon Amazon.com. Among 740 college games attended to date now, we’ve seen all 136 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams play in person at least once. By the way, in case you aren’t aware, North Dakota State and Sacramento State join the FBS this season. “Fifty Years” tells our story of how we got to attend our first 652 games!
Read the reviews on the book page and get your copy today. If you’re trying to follow NILs and transfer portals, read what we predicted in 2023 and more. Hopefully, you’ll understand how much we love this sport and what we propose for it to survive successfully. In addition, we offered solutions to issues occurring that we anticipated when we wrote this book. Please buy your copy today, enjoy it, and read about the many great memories captured. Maybe these will bring back some of the same memories you encountered when we did!
Enough serious chatter about a two-Championship FBS plan or judges’ stupid decisions impacting our great game. Can’t wait to put together our pre-season Summer Cheerleader collection!
Lebanon, TN – In this proposal, 48 teams, not 24, compete for two separate championships. Why not? Right now, 137 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) programs compete for one national championship. How many NFL teams compete for the Super Bowl? Only 32. And can or do all 137 college football teams compete at the same high level with equally, talented, motivated and well-coached players at the same high level? Evidently, no!
Consider this: do the top 137 professional baseball teams in North America compromised of players from all over the world compete at the same level? Of course not. Do the New York Yankees and Los Angelas Dodgers compete for the same national championship against the Biloxi Shuckers of Double A or the Lansing Lugnuts of High A Minor League baseball? They don’t. However, if you total all the professional baseball teams from the top of the majors to the depths of their farm systems, you see how talent is dispersed from top teams down to the bottom. In this, don’t consider the experience factor. Just realize all are qualified to be paid to play the game professionally.
College Football Talent Disbursement
So why should fans accept the standards of Alabama and Ohio State to compete against perennial strugglers like UMASS and UL Monroe for a common national championship? Annually, teams like Georgia, Penn State and Iowa have the Minutemen to visit. UMASS goes for a big check. The hosts anticipate a highly attainable win. The past few years, ULM visited Alabama (twice), Texas (twice) and Ole Miss. You know who won. Who do you think would win 99 (or more) out of one hundred meetings if this continues into the next century?
The point? Why bother? That’s not what athletic competition is supposed to be about. No doubt about it now, it’s only about money. Buy a victory to make more money. One more win looks good on paper than does one more loss. Instead of paying relatively big bucks (from programs with millions) to invite a willing lamb to a slaughter, they should be required instead to compete with teams that have more comparable budgets with a better chance to pull an upset.
In November 2018, we attended Liberty at UMASS. Neither team could have qualified for a bid in a 24-team CFP Format, but they played as equals. UMASS triumphed, 62-59!
With the most money attaining top talent, the best play the best
Compete for better wins to recruit the best players to generate even more income. From this college fan who’s attended 740 college football games since 1979, I find the most entertaining games, in person or on the big screen, come between two equally “competitive” teams, not meaning only the “best of the best.” Teams playing among others in the lower echelon of the existing 137 FBS programs offer entertaining games as well.
Rather than schedule an expected, non-competitive anticlimactic blow-out, why can’t we demand games between teams with comparable talent as the standard? If anyone’s best reason is to help fund the lesser teams’ budgets, donate money. Are these truly donations with best intentions? Instead, designate it from a contest that raises more revenue by playing a more competitive opponent. Read on!
Not only can this and should this be done, but the 24-team College Football Playoff (CFP) option improves to become a more competitive and profitable football festival. On top of that, for college football fans, this proposal will double football pleasure with two separate and potentially equal college football championships. Why not?
Begin with the Money, Like it or Not: for a Successful 24-Team CFP Format
Every Head Coach, Athletic Director, and University President insists their program needs more money to support its football program. If monetary demands for Name, Image and Likeness (NILs), already out of control, remain as they are, they become a growing focus. Also consider top coaching salaries, potential coaching buyouts, football facility infrastructure, growing rosters, health care costs and other financial needs to support a successful FBS program. So, how can 137 existing FBS college football programs rake in the necessary amount of money to fund their programs? Will they share equally? They don’t now…
Let me start this controversy to make the 24-team CFP Format Work
Not only with pleasure, but going forward I’ll propose plans to make college football better than ever. I’ll break this down with changes that football fans and its leadership might not like at first glance. However, consider ALL the positive results in the end if implemented.
I consider myself at traditionalist when it comes to college football. Entering my 47th season of attending a full slate of games, I’ve struggled with many of the recent changes. However, for my love of the competition displayed on the playing field, I’ve rolled with the punches. I want to see this game thrive and not fail. I hope my changes will improve the game. I’m even more intent to bring the sport more in line with what traditionalists like me would like to resurrect.
Our 740th game ended with Indiana in victory formation against Miami in their 27-21 championship win. We also attended the Capital One Orange Bowl and Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. We propose more games in a 24-team CFP format to make college football more exciting!
Two FBS Divisions – Two Championships
Of 137 FBS college football teams, only one wins a championship. In the NFL, one wins among 32 teams. In major League Baseball, one among 30 wins The World Series. Thus far among 137 functioning college football programs, in reality only four, twelve, now possibly 16 or possibly 24 get to compete for a national championship. All depends on pending changes to the current format of 12. Using a budgetary cut-off, I propose to take 64 FBS programs with the highest football budgets (revenues) in the NCAA and separate them from the other 73 programs (subject to change). Call the high budgets group for comparative purposes, “FBS-I”. The remaining teams form “FBS-II.”
Of the wealthiest 64, create eight conferences of eight teams each. Arrange these conferences based on geographic and historic familiarity. During the regular season, currently Weeks 0-13, each team will play all seven conference members and five teams from among their other seven respective FBS conferences. Schedules can be slated on a rotating basis annually. Doesn’t have to be, but just a suggestion. No more picking weakest options perennially to gain an advantage in the final win column. On the other hand, rivalries can be contracted long-term. For instance, Army-Navy-Air Force games for the Commander-in-Chief Trophy; revitalizing Notre Dame vs. USC; Washington vs. Washington State; or any other traditional rivalries lost on the recent conference realignments. All game results will count in the final standings of each conference.
Play Games with Somebody Your Own Size!
No more scheduling “Group of Six” foes nor Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) teams. Only FBS-I teams line up on all FBS-I schedules. Only FBS-II teams play on all FBS-II schedules. From Week 0-13 as set up now, every team plays 12 games and gets two bye weeks. On Week 14, instead of Week 15, Army and Navy play in their traditional regular season finale. All 135 remaining teams have a bye to prep for potential post-season contests.
Week 15: The New and Exciting Tie-Breaker Week
Instead of Conference Championships, Week 15 determines the final top three teams from each conference of both FBS-I and FBS-II to determine their 24-team playoff entrants. Remember, 73 other programs (at least for now) compete in FBS-II. Same schedule format. Same weekly 0-13 schedule, two byes and same goal – 24 teams in the FBS-II playoff. When the regular season ends, among all 16 conferences, there will be ties for first, second and third place. Tie-breaker Week pits all teams in games playing for the three top positions, only if and when necessary. If any or all of these standings have clearly been determined in the final regular season standings, these teams get byes on Week 15.
Among 16 different conferences, play-in games offer excitement all weekend. TV networks will gladly feature critical games for college football fandom. Think of the first Thursday of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Multiple networks can broadcast games at different kick-off times so fans can catch the best finishes throughout the day.
2025: A Timing example
These games, if slated for the previous 2025 calendar would have been played on the weekend of December 11-12 when ArmyNavy weekend was played. Now, that gets moved up a week to December 5. After Tie-breaker Week, the First Round opens on Week 16. Like the current FCS play-off schedule featuring 24 teams, the top eight in this model, all eight conference winners in both the FBS-I and in FBS-II, each receive a bye. The eight first round games will be played among the second and third place finishers of all eight conferences. Pairings can be based on records, head-to-head results from regular season competition, teams not yet played from other conferences, “official polls” if any still exist, computer rankings which can generally be ignored, either a human or robotic selection committee, or whatever combination or criteria the NCAA decides on.
Much controversy regarding bracketing gets nullified because the choices for the top three seeds have already been established. The conference selections end up with a clear-cut number one, two and three for each after Tie-breaker Week to determine the 24 playoff teams. The media can still stir controversy to figure or debate who gets paired with whom. It wouldn’t be a college sport without pundits providing their “expertise” for lively televised discussions.
On January 6, 2026, Montana State defeated Illinois State, 35-34, in Nashville for the FCS Championship. It demonstrated how a 24-team CFP playoff format can be achieved successfully.
Competitive Games Weekly right up into Two Grand Finales!
Week 17 (last season – December 25-26) welcomes the Second Round. Week 18 (three days including New Year’s Eve) brings Quarterfinal games between the eight surviving teams from the original 24. Traditional Holiday Bowl traditions continue with best teams each year vying for national championships. Week 19 offers the two Semi-final games for FBS-I and FBS-II. On Week 20 (January 17 a year ago), the 24-team CFP format comes to a head with two national championship games.
Play-off between those two? No. It’s already been established that the Big Money FBS-I programs retain a significant advantage over FBS-II. Would the FCS champ play the winner of that? Of course not. Or possibly D-2 play against D-3? No. Never have, never should. From the beginning, these are all distinct levels of college football talent that are differentiated primarily by monetary budgets.
Side Benefits from the 24-team CFP Format
The timing of the final games played in mid-January fall in line before the two-week window opening the transfer portal, like it or not. Just so happens to be the way it is right now. That’s an article to address in a totally different and more difficult discussion.
How about opt-outs for post-season play? The beauty of this offers a tremendous side-benefit. If 48 college football programs each get a shot to enter playoffs for a national championship, how many true teammates are going to say, “No, I’m opting out. I’m not interested in winning a national championship.” Some teammate! He exposes his true colors for future opportunities.
Media Revenue for Play-off teams and beyond
To be fair to all competitors in my proposed 24-team CFP formats, all games will have to be played only on Friday nights or Saturdays. Winners need a week to prep for their next opponent. Television networks will still be looking to fill weekday prime-time programming voids. Fans will be still scrolling for games all those other evenings when there’s little more among hundreds of other media options to watch something of interest.
Other teams with decent records at least hovering at .500 or better will still be willing to consider playing a game in this age where “everybody gets a trophy.” After the season, each program needs to commit if it wants to participate in an available post-season game. In fact, even if they have no wins. They can announce their interest after their regular season ends outside the top three in their conference.
Next, a designated committee will analyze the records to schedule post-season games. Basically, seven-game winners play seven game winners, six-game winners play six- game winners; five vs. five, etc., etc. Flip a coin to determine home team if there is not a pre-determined site for a televised game. Let the Networks bid for the games they want to fill time slots for pre-contracted sponsors. “0-12 State plays 0-12 Tech in the “‘Tidy Consolation Game’ sponsored by the Tidy Bowl Man!”
Another proposed, but hopefully non-controversial change
As brought to light in that last sentence, not every post season game should be considered a “bowl game.” Instead, call them “Consolation games.” I abhor hearing TV guys tell us that this team or that “plays nine bowl teams from last year on this year’s schedule.” In this proposal, a CFP bid represents an award to play for a national championship. These other teams get the privilege to practice as do their future opponents to improve and to play another game – in front of whatever loyal fans they still have and on television as a “consolation” prize. It shouldn’t be considered an award for an outstanding season. Because it’s not among 64 or 73 other teams in the same division!
The final impacts to ponder for the 24-team CFP Format
In my proposal, 48 current FBS programs get to play for one of two national championships. Fans and TV networks can enjoy more competitive games throughout the regular season. Many competitive post-season games will entertain will be played with purpose than ever before. Two national champions get crowned – FBS-I and FBS-II. Two totally different levels of competition get rewarded. The three best teams from 16 different yet competitive conferences enter the play-offs. Opt-outs should minimize.
December playoff games lead to relatively great bowl line-ups on New Year’s. The Semi-finals and Finals play to the end by mid-January. The transfer portal opens and closes for two weeks after the season. Maybe there will be less movement. Maybe the rules will change, or maybe players will want to stick with their current team for another shot to win it all. Of course, it depends on whether other programs can entice them with more money.
Consolation, post-season games still get played on weekday nights in December and January for Networks and fans both looking to fill in TV viewing with more college football. More money for more teams? That depends on distribution between FBS-I and FBS-II teams as two separate entities. In the future, maybe there would be more lucrative opportunities offered to the latter through competitive broadcast rights.
740 Games Attended and Still Counting!
Since this is currently the way college football is going – primarily for the money – again, like it or not. However, this proposal addresses a lot of this. As a fan who’s already attended 740 games in person and counting, I want to see this great pastime survive, and not just for this one particular reason.
Read our Great History of Games among our First 42 Seasons!
Click on the title about this life-long adventure: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun, and the Uglyon Amazon.com. Among 740 college games attended to date now, we’ve seen all 136 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams play in person at least once. This tells our story of how we got up to the first 652!
Read the reviews on the book page and get your copy today. If you’re trying to follow NILs and transfer portals, read what we predicted in 2023 and more. Hopefully, you’ll understand how much we love this sport and want we propose these changes for it to survive successfully. In addition, we offered solutions to issues occurring that we anticipated when we wrote this book. Please buy your copy today, enjoy it, and read about the many great memories captured. Maybe these will bring back some of the same memories you encountered when we did!
The Wake Forest Dance Team performing at halftime in the Demon Deacons win over the UNC Tar Heels last season. We’ll see the Deacs host Miami on September 18. Before the season begins, come back for our pre-season analyses and pre-season Cheerleader Edition!
Lebanon, TN – Four months from now on August 29, we start to celebrate our 47th season of another full slate of college games including our 750th! In so many ways, this season gives us much to celebrate and be thankful for. Our 47th kicks off on a very special date personally. On August 29, that will be my 70th birthday. Still going strong to pursue this lifetime adventure. Thanks!
In October, we will celebrate our 750th game over two football weekends! 2026 starts with New Mexico State at Florida State in Week 0 without the threat of any hurricanes (not the Miami U type, of course). Lots of questions about the Seminoles entering this season once again. HC Mike Norvell is already on the hot seat after the last two seasons with no bowl games and a 7-17 record. The Aggie’s mirror the same record, but not against Power Five competitors.
Primary goals: Competitive games and new game destinations
Reviewing our 47th season of college football, right now only four teams scheduled rank in ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25. Two play one another, but that doesn’t concern us. Between August 29 and January 27 at the CFP championship in Las Vegas, those rankings will be totally dismantled. They already are. In our scheduling strategy every year, we plan to attend a competitive game every weekend as best we can. Luckily, that works out more often than not.
With ulterior goals to reach within our life-long adventure, we align finding competitive games at all FBS venues, especially where we have not yet attended. We also seek games in states we have yet to see a game at any level of college football (last year we attended a D-3 game in Vermont, the highest level of college football played there).
In 2025, we opened our season with two games in the state of Oregon. First to see the Ducks host Montana State in Autzen Stadium followed by Cal visiting Oregon State at Reser Stadium. Our first trip to Oregon ever.
Moving targets
Now that North Dakota State joined the FBS, of 137 such stadiums now, we’ve attended games in 102. Plans for our 47th season include six new FBS stadiums and two new in the FCS. Of all fifty states (we insert Washington, D.C. in place of Alaska with 0 football), we’ve attended games in 43 so far. We add three more this year if all goes as planned – Nebraska (vs. Maryland), Idaho (games at Boise and at Idaho U.), and the state of Washington (Washington State vs. Colorado State).
Conference clashes highlight 2026
Always seeking competitive edges, starting with three weeks of non-conference games, we try to avoid intended mismatches where Power Four teams find lesser programs to pay for an anticipated, automatic win. I’d say we have chosen three pretty good ones those first three weeks to at least see some interesting games. After those, we’ve scheduled mostly conference conflicts hoping to see results in close-fought, meaningful battles.
Among these, we’ll see two Big Ten games (one: USC at Penn State), two SEC games (2nd one: Kentucky at Tennessee), two brand new Pac-12 games (Texas State at Boise and at CSU at WAZU), two weeknight MACtion games, five American Athletics among key contenders, and one ACC contest featuring Miami on the road. The two MACtion games conveniently come back-to-back evenings by visiting Akron (vs. Ohio U.) and Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti (vs. Central Michigan). Link here to view our entire 47th season slate or read further on for more details before you do.
Among conference classes last season, we watched Arkansas State defeat South Alabama, 15-14. Also, took a trip to visit the USS Alabama Battleship Monument in Mobile. No Sun Belt games on tap for our 47th season unless we attend the championship game.
We love catching FCS games
Even at the FCS level, in Week 1 following Week 0 (trying not to confuse anyone) at Florida State, we see a new conference opener – Tennessee Tech at UT Chattanooga. Tech (11-2 last year) joined the Southern Conference this year and last year’s 41-17 win over UTC should supposedly give the Moccasins (5-7) more incentive. After a Friday night meeting with Miami at Wake Forest on September 18, we will head to East Tennessee State to see Buccaneers at home for the first time. They will host a United Athletic foe, the West Georgia Wolves, first time FCS team for us. They finished with an 8-3 record a year ago. Played in Johnson City, the game breaks up our drive on the way back home to add another notch to our history.
In November, if timing is right, we see Big Sky foes UC Davis at Idaho in the Kibbie Dome. Moscow, Idaho lies a short distance from Pullman, Washington were the Washington State Cougars meet the Colorado State Rams in a new Pac-12 bout. Waiting for kick-off times to be announced to make this work. Finger crossed.
Other regular season games of note in our 47th season
In Week 3, Vanderbilt will be adapting to life without QB Diego Pavia the last two years. Visiting foe Delaware, a favorite FCS team of ours for many seasons, comes to Nashville in its second season as an FBS competitor. We will see Navy play four times this season. First, the Midshipmen play on the road Friday, September 25 at Alabama-Birmingham for our first of five American Athletic games. The next day, we travel to New Orleans to see Tulane at home in Yulman Stadium for the first time.
The Green Wave will host the Eagles of Southern Mississippi. On October 24, we will see the Navy host North Texas State for their Homecoming. And we’ll return there to see them in a traditionally key A.A. match on November 21 against Memphis. Of course, once again, we will see Navy meet Army for our 21st time in the greatest college football rivalry of all at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, NJ on December 12 to cap our 47th season in Week 15.
Our 750th game plan celebration covers two weeks
Officially, our 750th game comes on October 17th when Georgia hosts Auburn in Athens. Aside from Army-Navy in 1972, Georgia at Auburn introduced me to big-time, modern day, D-1 college football in 1978. My good friend, Charlie Murren, from the local YMCA where we worked out together in New Jersey, invited me and another friend, Al Di Vite, to join him for that game in late November. Conveniently, my school, Juniata College, was on trimester break that week. Had a great time: rolled Toomer’s Crossing, toured the Auburn locker room, attended the War Eagle Supper Club where the Bellamy Brothers played that night, partied with Charlie’s Auburn friends.
Shockingly, Al and I were greeted kindly by a total “knock-out” the day after the game after breakfast. Never happened back in Jersey – great memories overall you can read about in my book, Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun and the Ugly. Still friends to this day, Charlie, now a very successful industrial contractor, is hosting us and a bunch of his Auburn classmates for a good time that weekend.
Navy football – 46-45 entering our 47th Season
A week later, I return to Annapolis with about 18 friends who have traditionally joined together to attend games there for about the past 12 years. We’re extending the 750th celebration to the 751st game. There, we’ll tailgate with a bunch of friends I attended the Academy with prior to transferring on to Juniata College. At USNA, I found there was no hope for me to understand calculus. Good thing! In my lifetime, I had no reason to learn it to be successful in my business career or any place else.
Last season, we watched Navy defeat Air Force in Annapolis, 34-31. That and the 17-16 win over Army gave them the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy. We’ll see two games at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium this year and the Army game in The Meadowlands.
Beyond regular season
In week 14 of this great 47th season, we will find a conference title game to attend at some convenient location. The past two years, Jacksonville, Alabama worked out well with the ConferenceUSA championship game played on Friday nights. The Sun Belt and the American Athletic also play theirs that weekend. We’ll plan to go somewhere. Army Navy, as mentioned previously, reigns the following weekend on December 12. A playoff game at some NCAA level will be attended on December 19. Hopefully somewhere conveniently within driving distance (last year D-3: Trinity of Texas at Berry College in Georgia).
Christmas always presents a bye week for us. After that, looks like the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl CFP quarterfinal on New Years Day. The Music City Bowl date has yet to be announced in Nashville, but the FCS championship comes back to First Bank Stadium on Vanderbilt’s campus on January 9. On January 14, on to Miami for the CFP Capital One CFP Orange Bowl semi-final at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. CFP Championship game in Vegas? Not sure yet, but we will explore the possibility.
Read our great history of games attended during our first 42 Years!
Click on the title about this life-long adventure: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun, and the Uglyon Amazon.com. Among 740 college games attended to date now, we’ve seen all 136 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams play in person at least once. This tells our story of how we got up to the first 652!
Read the reviews on the book page and get your copy today. If you’re trying to follow NILs and transfer portals, read what we predicted in 2023 and more. You’ll see we know what we’re talking about. In addition, we offered solutions to issues occurring that we anticipated when we wrote this book. Get it, enjoy it, and read about the many great memories captured. Maybe these will bring back some of the same memories you encountered when we did!
Before we start our 47th season, we not only provide you with pre-season previews, but we’ll post our pre-season Cheerleader edition! Check us out regularly!
Lebanon, TN – Luckily for us, the schedules we plan in advance each season not only offer us opportunities to see games played by teams competing for the CFP championship, but they also allow us to see many of the top players competing to make it into NFL. During the 2025 season, we attended 27 games. We witnessed 33 of 136 FBS football programs. In addition, we attended games played among the lower levels of the FCS, D2 and D3. Some feature pro potential prospects as well – especially at the FCS level. You never know where the pros find their best among the best of top college players.
In addition, don’t forget, we put together a similar slate every season. As an example, for the last four seasons, we’ve attended 105 college football games. In some cases, due to Covid in 2020, some of these players have been playing for six years! Some played even more (but this has to stop). We’ll take it for what it’s worth now. Click here to find out the teams, the dates, the final outcomes and where we caught the action.
When we peruse the draft, we find we watched some players in action as far back as their freshman seasons. Maybe four years as a starter indicates a player will most likely be playing football on Sundays. We go through our game photo files, and sometimes we catch a top player just starting out. Who could have known that four years later the NFL would draft them?
We just click away and post the best of our best
Taking photos is just part of the fun of this unique, 47-year college football adventure. Generally, in our goal, we try to capture good action photos from our seats wherever they may be for our weekly game review. We don’t always get the best shots. Camera issues, distances, poor lighting, fan interference, absence of injured players, bad aim or bad timing cause us to miss good shots or delete many unusable photos. We keep those we feel may be used for some purpose later. Sometimes we have no idea until draft season we find we have something we can use. Luckily, we’ll capture a play that documents that we did see a potential pro play in college. Especially before anyone else becomes familiar with him.
Sometimes, better lucky than good
So, what you will see generally is our random collection gleaned from many photos. Some we use in our weekly game reviews. Some we just keep on file. We probably should delete more, but it’s too tempting. We don’t know if we may have captured some obscure lineman or freshman player that may eventually become a household name some day! One such photo we have below shows an FCS Defensive Linemen playing his freshman season in a playoff game. Who knew then that he was destined to get drafted in the Fourth Round of 2026? Also, we definitely save too many photos of sideline action for our preseason Cheerleaders edition. Can’t complain, however.
Vanderbilt Cheerleaders 2025!
Top players recorded in action for 2026
To provide you with our interesting takes and the fun of who we’ve witnessed and where they are going, our report breaks down our analysis by position. Just click the Heading of each position title to link to our original draft preview of each player in that category. A brief draft synopsis follows under each title heading below. Afterward, we provide a photo or photos of players we didn’t include in previews.
In addition, we’ll also show you who may have fallen beyond all 257 players drafted. Already, some have been caught by the net of free agency. They still have their chances. In one case, a certain Top QB is still hanging out in limbo as we predicted. Also, we not only captured Mr. Irrelevant at No. 257, but we also photographed No. 256. Both landed with the same team! The competition remained fierce until the end to make it to the next level. We have “Photo Finishes” of the last of top players drafted vying for a roster spot among all 32 NFL teams for 2026.
At the start of the draft, regarding the first 11 players selected, we saw all of them play in games the last few seasons. Of all 32 players selected in Round One, we witnessed 24 in action going back to 2022. Then, No. 31 DE (EDGE) Keldric Faulk played for Auburn as a freshman against Maryland in the Music City Bowl.
Based on the order players were chosen, we attended games played by the top Quarterback; the top six among the first eight RBs selected (mostly beyond Round 5); the five top EDGE players; the best CB overall; the two best OTs drafted; two best Guards; the top TE and best Safety selected this year. Only our prediction of Oregon OG Emmanuel Pregnon being selected in Round One fell further in this draft. Pregnon waited until the third round at No. 88 with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Still, not bad at all.
Our biggest surprise amongst First Round picks: Georgia Tech G Keylan Rutledge went to the Texans at No. 26. Here, we saw him in action for Middle Tennessee (77) against Louisiana Tech in 2023 before he transferred to Tech.
No doubt we had No. 1 QB and overall, first pick Fernando Mendoza of Indiana. No brainer, like everyone else, going to the Raiders. Never saw QB Ty Simpson because we haven’t seen Alabama since Bryce Young. However, in 2023, we watched his father Jason coach UT Martin to 38-31 win over Missouri State. QB Carson Beck, who we watched play for both Georgia and Miami, went as the next QB, but not taken until No. 65 starting Round 3. Slim pickings for our QB sightings after him. The Steelers surprised us at No. 76 picking Penn State’s Drew Allar. Thought he’d go later as he has potential but needs better coaching. How does he compare to second year QB Will Howard? Will Aaron Rodgers return to help with his development? Can he?
Injuries and Free Agency impact QBs
We read reports that teams would be more forgiving in regard to LSU’s Garett Nussmeier’s injuries last season. Instead, he fell down to Round Seven at No. 249 to Kansas City. A lot here depends on Patrick Mahomes recovery evidently. At least Nussmeier got drafted. So did North Dakota State’s Cole Payton at No. 178 (Eagles, surprised based on Carson Wentz) and Arkansas’s Taylen Green at 182 (Browns). However, Nate Altmyer of Illinois, Tennessee’s Joey Aguilar, BYU’s Jake Retzlaff, and Jalen Daniels all penned into free agent signings.
On the other hand, Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia has not signed on with anyone as of this report. Seems like the No. 2 Heisman vote-getter is learning the hard way about humility after bashing writers for his second-place finish to Mendoza. His short stature poses one obstacle, but this matter may also make it difficult to attain a shot at the Canadian Football League.
In 2024, Boston College QB Thomas Castellanos looks down field against Florida State. In 2025, he transferred to FSU. Undrafted now, supposedly he’s under consideration as a free agent by the Dolphins and Titans, but at wide receiver, not at QB.
Fans can understand why Notre Dame’s Jerimiyah Love went at No. 3 in the draft. If any team needed talent at that position next season, get it quickly. We not only saw him play, but we also saw the second RB play and go at No. 32. And what does it say when No. 2 played in the same backfield as No. 1? After Love went to Arizona, ND’s Jadarian Price went to Seattle.
NIL or NFL money?
We made a mistake here in one prediction. In this era of NIL money, this flew under our radar. We figured Cam Cook of Jacksonville State would be right up there with 1,695 yards and 16 TDs in 2025. Instead, he followed his former Head Coach Rich Rodriguez who left JSU in 2024 for West Virginia. Does Cook really need now to prove himself against Big XII competition? He may have missed his mark by not going into this year’s draft where the competition among good RBs waned. Who knows? Maybe WVU made him a better offer than the NFL could. On the other hand, more and better RBs could enter the draft in 2027.
After the two Fighting Irish backs fell into line in Round One, another RB did not get called until Indiana’s Kaelon Black at No. 90. Of course, we watched him perform three times. The Chiefs picked up Nebraska’s Emmett Johnson at 161, and then our featured backs before the draft got on a roll. PSU’s Nick Singleton at 165 to Tennessee; his teammate Kaytron Allen to Washington at 187; Demond Claiborne of Wake Forest to Minnesota at 198. Adam Randall of Clemson fell between our two Nittany Lions.
We thought this RB would get drafted as a potential WR
However, much to our surprise and happiness, a favorite of ours fell into place at No. 230 with the Steelers. We’d seen him play seven times. Not so surprised that he got selected late but surprised they drafted him as a running back. Navy’s Eli Heidenreich primarily played a role more as a slotback for the Midshipmen. His fellow teammate and Mt. Lebanon (PA) HS classmate, FB Alex Tecza, carried more of the USNA running duties. Eli tallied 109 catches for 1,994 yards and 16 receiving touchdowns, Navy receiving records. On the ground, he carried 169 times for 1,157 yards and seven rushing touchdowns. If he plays for the Steelers, he’s obligated to extend his military service to ten years in the US Marine Corps. We hope he enjoys as much success as did former Navy WR Phil McConkey did with the NY Giants! Go Navy!
Many of our top collegiate sightings headed east bound to the next level of Sunday shenanigans. Oregon TE Kenyon Sadiq landed with the NY Jets at No. 8 and Indiana WR Omar Cooper landed at JFK Airport right behind him at No. 30. Vandy TE Eli Stower went to Philly at No. 53 overall. New Giant HC John Harbaugh traded up to get Notre Dame WR Malachi Fields. He flew into Newark Liberty to join the NY Giants at No. 74. Fighting Irish TE Eli Raridon whisked by his teammate on the way to Logan Airport in Boston to join the Patriots in Round 3 at No. 95. Another Mendoza target, WR Elijah Surratt headed to Baltimore to play for Harbaugh’s former team and hook up with Lamar Jackson’s passes as pick No. 115.
Pass catchers on different routes
North Dakota State WR Bryce Lance, the second FCS player chosen in 2026, broke the east bound flight mode and headed south to play indoors with the New Orlean Saints. Mendoza’s TE Riley Nowakowski found his way east but not as far as the others landing in Pittsburgh. the Iron City, at No. 197. WR CJ Fields of Miami, the last in our pre-draft WR/TE photo collection to get selected, flew way off course from his predecessors. He headed west to LA after getting nabbed by the Rams at No. 197 in Round 6. Our long shot, Tennessee TE Miles Kitselman, failed to get drafted. He’s taking the free agent route. He’s driving his way north up I-75 from Knoxville to Detroit.
Utah TE Dallen Bentley was last seen by us breaking up traffic down field in November 2024 in a win against Central Florida in Orlando. Selected next to last at No. 256, he’s headed to Denver. He can consider three routes to drive there in about eight hours. Needs to bring his car since he plans to stay.
Best Top Players of all our Top Players – Offensive Linemen
Our pictures from our draft preview tell the whole story. In Round One, we featured five pictures of nine Offensive Linemen selected in day one. And we added No. 26, Keylan Rutledge of Georgia Tech selected by the Texans as mentioned previously. He played in a game we attended at Middle Tennessee State. OT Max Iheanachor of Arizona State also competed against Texas in the 2024 Peach Bowl we attended. However, the pictures are out of reach to recognize him from our upper deck perspective. Selected No. 21, he joins the Steelers.
We highlighted No. 9 Fano of Utah (Browns), No. 10 Mauigoa of Miami (Giants), No. 14 Ioane of Penn State (Ravens), No. 17 Miller of Clemson (Lions), No. 26 Rutledge, and No. 28 Lomu of Utah (Patriots). Outstanding! All these picks have much game experience entering the NFL. In Round 2 came C Jake Slater of Florida (Chargers). In Round 3 followed fellow Gator No. 86 Austin Barber (Browns). As previously mentioned, Emmanuel Pregnon of Oregon fell in at No. 88 (Jaguars). PSU OT Drew Shelton followed in Round 4 at No. 112 (Cowboys). Also in Round 4, scouts overlooked Auburn Junior C’s Conor Lew’s season-ending injuries and selected him at No. 128 (Bengals).
Strong O Line players continue late in 2026 draft
In Round 6, the Bengals picked another one of our featured top offensive Linemen at No. 189, C Brian Parker II, from the Blue Devils’ record -setting offense. At No. 192, Fighting Illini OT JC Davis made the cut (Giants). At 194, the last selection of our featured linemen came into the fold. National Champion Indiana C Pat Coogan goes to help bolster the Titans’ O Line with his leadership skills. Two remaining players we highlighted found paths to continue through free agency. The Chargers expect Oregon Duck OT Isaiah World to fully recover from his torn ACL to make their roster. Notre Dame G Aamil Wagner also heads to Tennessee to prove his worth to bolster the Titans up front.
Same photo, different focus. We missed a Fourth Rounder along the way. Boston College OT Jude Bowry (71) blocks against Florida State in the Eagles 2024 opening win in Tallahassee. He joins the Bills at No. 102.
Top players supposed to bring heat and stuffing to NFL defenses
Between the O Line talent displayed previously and who we witnessed along the defensive fronts these past few years, battles in the Sunday trenches should be amazing! We saw five First Rounders taken from the EDGE alone. Three highlighted in our preview: Bain of Miami at No. 15 (Buccaneers), Hurricane teammate Mesidor at No. 22 (Chargers), and Faulk of Auburn at No. 31 (Titans). In Round 2, Derrick Moore of Michigan was taken at No. 44 by the Lions for a relatively short commute from Ann Arbor to Detroit. Then Texas Tech Red Raiders stepped up. DT Lee Hunter got in at No. 49 (Panthers) followed by teammate EDGE Romello Height selected at No. 70 (49ers).
In Round Four, DT Darrel Jackson of Florida State got notified the defensive fray moving along at No. 103 (Jets). Later, analysts pointed out that Jackson became the only Seminole to be selected this season. Next, however, came our biggest surprise of all. Amongst players seen but not expected high on our radar came a relative unknown. At No. 104, the Cardinals surprisingly selected DT Kaleb Parker of Southeastern Louisiana, the first selection from among any FCS program in the 2026 draft. Bingo! We got him in our files.
We’ve loved college football playoffs for years
In 2022, we attended an FCS playoff game at Bobby Bowden Field at Samford University. The Bulldogs hosted the SELU Lions in the first round down in Homewood, AL. The home team won a thrilling game in OT, 48-42. Click here to read all about it! Why we love attending college football games so much. We watched Parker play then as a freshman – a DT playing in jersey No. 2. Oh sure! We could see that his kid was hell- bound for the NFL! Just kidding. However, I made a note to keep an eye out in the future for Lion Soph S Jake Henderson. Nothing noted online, but you never know.
Who knew? In 2022, we caught NFL bound freshman DT Kaleb Proctor of the Southeast Louisiana Lions (2) in a playoff game against Samford. Never know where the NFL finds their best talent. Best wishes with the Cardinals in Arizona.
After SE Louisiana: Penn State, Duke, Indiana, etc.
After Kaleb, EDGE Wesley Williams of Duke came up at No. 119 (Panthers). Right behind at No. 120, Dani Dennis-Sutton of PSU followed (Packers). Other DEs and DTs like Trey Moore of Texas, DT Nick Barrett of South Carolina and Joshua Josephs of Tennessee had played before us and filled pro rosters. We just couldn’t capture them in pictures. Others we did feature on our pictorial preview move on to the pros, but not as draftees. Florida EDGE Tyreak Sapp (Browns) and Indiana ED Mikail Kamara (49ers) carry impressive credentials. They got picked up as free agents. For a complete list of players finding their way to make it to the pros through free agency, click here.
Navy ties 70-year old record
In the Seventh and final round before the Steelers selected Navy RB Eli Heidenreich at No. 230, at No. 226 the goal was set by the Cincinnati Bengals. They selected Navy DT Landon Robinson, American Athletic Defensive Player of the Year and a three-time selection of Bruce Feldman’s Freak List. Possibly a stretch here with his height and short arms detrimental in the pros, he can possibly make up for that with fierce competitiveness (he is from the Naval Academy, of course) and his athleticism. With Heidenreich selected four spots later, USNA sported two draft picks for the first time in 70 years.
New Law could help Academy football long term
This could be beaten in the future with a new policy enacted through Congress presented by strong Academy football supporter, President Donald J. Trump. Each military academy (Army, Navy and Air Force, maybe Coast Guard, too?) can now have up to five players selected in the NFL Draft. That came somewhat to the chagrin of Academy alumni who stand by the academies’ primary mission to graduate military leaders. Now, the policy requires though that any graduate heading into the NFL must commit to ten years of active military duty to compensate for the five required by all graduates. With NIL money attracting players from one program annually to another, Navy friends say that more quality high school football players (3–4-star level) consider the academies. There’s a plethora of talent coming out of high schools not being recruited among traditional powerhouse programs. Full speed ahead, Navy!
Navy NT Landon Robinson (96) and Mid teammates try to block a field goal attempt in their 17-16 win where the Brigade of Midshipman sang their alma mater second. Winners of this game always do.Duke EDGE Wesley Williams (97) makes an impact here against Troy in the Blue Devil victory at the Birmingham Bowl in 2023. The Jaguars selected him as the 19th player in Round Four.
LSU CB Mansoor Delane jumped right in at No. 5 overall (Chiefs) and Oregon S Dillon Thieneman got grabbed at No. 22 (Bears) in the First Round. In Round 2 at No. 44, Texas Tech LB Jacob Rodriguez who won every collegiate defensive award on the planet finally got beamed up (Dolphins). It continued with Indiana CB D’Angelo Ponds entering at No. 50 (Jets). Illini LB Gabe Jacas unexpectedly got categorized as another EDGE at No. 55 (Patriots). Texas LB Anthony Hill, Jr finished Round 2 among our preview pictorials at No. 61 (Titans). Round 3 swooped up LSU S A.J. Halucy at No. 78 (Colts). Our next best didn’t get called on again until the middle of Round 4.
Miami CB Keionte Scott filled in at No. 116 (Buccaneers). Texas CB Malik Muhammad went at No. 124 (Bears). LB Bryce Boettcher, the renowned leader of the Oregon Duck defense finished out our Fourth going at No. 135 to help that defense (Colts). In Round 5, Texas S Michael Taafe went at No. 158 (Dolphins). Not until Round 6 at No. 215, did we see another featured selection taken until LSU LB Harold Perkins got the call (Falcons).
Another surprise pick in our hindsight
In Round 7, after the thrills of seeing Midshipmen Robinson and Heidenreich drafted, another pleasant surprise occurred. At No. 240, Middle Tennessee Blue Raider LB Parker Hughes got called up (Jaguars). Having had MTSU tickets for two seasons prior to 2025, we only attended one game in Murfreesboro to see Missouri State visit last season to become our 135th FBS team. I gladly realize now that we got to see a future NFL draft choice in action there as well!
Draft pick No. 250, MTSU LB Parker Hughes (9), fights through Missouri State blockers in a hard-fought 22-20 CUSA win by the MSU Bears. He joins the Jaguars of Jacksonville looking to shore up their defense.
Broncos save their best for our last
After No. 240, Indiana LB Aiden Fisher went at No. 243 (Texans). With three picks remaining for the Broncos, they capped our draft on a high note. With No .246, they selected DB Miles Scott seen by us twice for Illinois. Ten picks later, the Broncos had the final two draft choices. With the first, they picked our aforementioned Utah TE in action, Dallen Bentley, against UCF. Of course, with the final pick of the draft, the Broncos chose the legendary and traditional “Mr. Irrelevant.” Bingo again! We saw him play – LB Red Murdock of the Buffalo Bulls.
What an unforgettably fun draft this was for us. Attending those CFP games for us really paid off. Come back and visit us after Friday, May 1. We’ll publish our 2026 schedule. We think it’s going to be even better than what we experienced last season!
And for more information and details about the careers of all these college players we watched now getting their shots at the pros, click here to Link on to NFL Buzz.
“Mr. Irrelevant,” the last player selected in the draft, LB Red Murdock of Buffalo charges in at left past Miami (Ohio) ball carrier at Oxford, Ohio in November 2023. One analyst reported that Murdock is highly aggressive in nature, but he sometimes shows tendencies to overrun plays. We snapped a perfect example of that right here!
Read our great history of seeing great college players who excelled in the Pros!
Click on the title about this life-long adventure: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun, and the Uglyon Amazon.com. Among 740 college games attended to date now, we’ve seen all 136 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams play in person at least once. This tells our story! Among them, you’ll pry into collegiate lore regarding the likes of Willie Gault, Dan Marino, Randy Moss, Eli Manning, Ezekial Elliot, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson and many more.
Read the reviews on the book page and get your copy today. If you’re trying to follow NILs and transfer portals, read what we predicted in 2023 and more. You’ll see we know what we’re talking about. In addition, we offered solutions to issues occurring that we anticipated when we wrote this book. Get it, enjoy it, and read about the many great memories captured. Maybe these will bring back some of the same memories you encountered when we did!
Lebanon, TN- We finish up our 2026 draft analysis among players we witnessed in action the last few years as LBs, DBs, and even PKs. Our Linebacker corps comes as one position lacking in quantity more than any other we can think of this season. Players performing in the Secondary stand out a bit more. Regretfully in both cases, camera distance, lighting and/or just bad timing limited some of the opportunities we had to capture some of the best. Substituting from a point-and-shoot (kid at Indiana game laughed at me) to a cell phone at a distance results in lower quality pics from a distance. Need a better back-up in the future.
Twice in recent years, we actually had camera malfunctions when we attended Ohio State at play. Once was due to a dropsy on my part. With that, lost out on photo shots of LBs Arvell Reese and Sonny Styles who will both go in the first round most likely. Same goes for top Safety in this year’s draft, Caleb Downs. Neither CBs Jermod McCoy nor Colton Hood of Tennessee could be seen anywhere in our file photos from this year’s Music City Bowl. We saw Toledo play in 2024. Against Ohio, another top draft selection at Safety, Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, missed that game with an injury that knocked him out for the season. However, we did capture top CB Mansoor Delane of LSU featured in our overall top players’ previews.
The art of tackling on the decline
Reading many critiques of individual players scouting reports, many assessments allude to LBs and other defensive position lack of consistent tacking abilities. Surprised that there is surprise here. Noting that in recent years, college players enter college programs bigger, stronger and faster. However, the detriment here becomes focus on avoiding injuries to prevent lost playing time. Schools don’t seem to allow enough contact in practice to improve tackling.
Players today rarely hit other teammates in practices today. Sometimes devices substitute for live play that don’t truly emulate the true form of a ball carrier. The only true experience these players have derived after three or more years of college football is the true experience of an actual game. Are high school practices much different today? Players don’t get as many practice reps as they used to on the practice field. Understandably, the pros do the same thing to avoid injuries. It’s a difficult dilemma today for football at all levels. Damned if you do practice tackling and damned if you don’t. Not sure if there is any surefire answer to improve tackling practice methodology.
And just for kicks, we’ll throw in some PKs
Normally, when we take a photo of a place kicker in action, we hope we’re going to capture a block or an action shot as good as this one below regarding a blocked punt attempt by U of O against MSU below.
In WEEK ONE, Oregon deflected a punt and blocked a punt for a 31-0 first half lead. MSU PK nailed this field goal but look at the effort by this Oregon special teamer to block it! We looked for the possibility again when taking this picture.
With the pictures of PKs after LBs and DBs, you can see optimism turns out mostly futile. However, in these cases, we took a few of kickers that we think pose some interest to NFL teams. They may not get drafted, but often PKs eventually get the call from some desperate team at some point. Florida PK Trey Smack may be the best sought after. Regretfully, we missed a photo op with him. Surprisingly, unexpected, continued success turns into long-term, noteworthy careers in the NFL. Take note!
To kick things off, we start with LBs
Texas LB Anthony Hill (0) fights off block to stop Cam Skattebo in 2024 Peach Bowl. Probably going in the second round, Hill led UT in tackles that season with 107. He totaled 69 tackles, 7 TFLs, 4 sacks, 3 forced fumbles and 2 Picks. This season ended with an injury after ten starts. He made 2nd team All-American. Oregon QB Dante Moore runs to evade Bednarik Trophy Winner Joshua Rodriguez (10) in first half action of Orange Bowl. Started at Virginia at QB. Transferred to Tech as walk-on. In 2025, unanimous All-American LB, Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, Bednarik, Butkus, Nagurski, and Lombardi awards.Illini LB Gabe Jacas (7) plugs up middle here against Indiana. He led the Big Ten with 11 sacks in 2025 and recorded 13.5 sacks and three forced fumbles. Power rusher but questions persist on tackling capabilities.Oregon LB Bryce Boettcher (28) closes in for a stop against Texas Tech RB in the Capital One Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day. He transitioned successfully from DB to LB at Oregon. His coverage skills are great. But reports question capability to step up against superior Pro O Linemen vs. the run. His size and short arms fit best in passing situations only. Second Team B1G past two seasons.LSU LB Harold Perkins Jr. (7) fights to cut off Vanderbilt RB in loss to the Commodores in 2025. As a Frosh, recorded 72 tackles followed by 75 next season. A knee injury sidelined him in 2024. His 2025 numbers fell to 56 tackles during 12 games. Undersize at 6’1″, 223 lbs. Looks like free agency at best.
Best of DBs
Oregon Safety Dillon Thieneman (31) stands out as one of the first-round defensive backs we saw in action entering this year’s draft. After one season at Purdue and two at Oregon, he accumulated 300 tackles and eight INTs. In 2025, he won All-Big Ten and All-American Honors.LSU S AJ Halucy stops Vandy WR for a short gain. Scouting reports say he has impeccable timing and recognition to anticipate plays. All-SEC First Team in 2025. 89 tackles and three INTS. Three years prior at Houston. First Team All-Big 12 in 2024.Texas Safety Michael Taafe (16) stops Arizona State WR in 2024 Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl CFP game. Earned 2nd Team AP All-American Honors with 78 tackles, two sacks, two INTs and 10 break-ups. In 2025, 70 tackles and 2 INTs in 10 games before breaking thumb. Top grades among safeties against stiff competition. Great communicator for any secondary. Indiana CB D’Angelo Ponds (5) best be remembered by us and all IU fans for his Pick Six return to open the scoring against Oregon in the 56-22 Peach Bowl CFP semifinal victory. Named Defensive MVP there and in Rose Bowl. 5’8″ tall, but many positive essentials overcome height. Played 40 games at James Madison and IU. Six INTs, four defensive TDs and two blocked punts for TD returns. Miami CB Keionte Scott (0) shown in coverage against Indiana in CFP Finale. Transferred after injury at Auburn. In 2025 ,64 tackles, five sacks, 13 TFLs and two pick sixes. Scouts designate him as nickel CB. Blitzes and covers well. Needs to improve tackling skills as mentioned before.
PKs: just for kicks
In 2024 at our first game at Wyoming, we captured BYU PK Will Ferrin practicing right in front of us. He converted 23 0f 30 FGS, four of six from 50+ yards. He can boot kick-offs through the end zone, but BYU utilized short and directional kicks as part of their strategy which should translate well in the NFL with its current rules.Oregon’s Atticus Sappington delivers for three against Texas Tech in this past Orange Bowl. Booted 19 of 24 FGs and made 51 of 51 PATs. Ten of 13 from 40+ yards. Two for two from over 50 yards. 47 of 71 kick-offs went for touchbacks.
Read our great history of seeing great college players who excelled in the Pros!
Click on the title about this life-long adventure: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun, and the Uglyon Amazon.com. Among 740 college games attended to date now, we’ve seen all 136 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams play in person at least once. This tells our story! Among them, you’ll pry into collegiate lore regarding the likes of Willie Gault, Dan Marino, Randy Moss, Eli Manning, Ezekial Elliot, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson and many more.
Read the reviews on the book page and get your copy today. If you’re trying to follow NILs and transfer portals, read what we predicted in 2023 and more. You’ll see we know what we’re talking about. In addition, we offered solutions to issues occurring that we anticipated when we wrote this book. Get it, enjoy it, and read about the many great memories captured. Maybe these will bring back some of the same memories you encountered when we did!
