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The 2026 college football season is finally here. Let this be your study guide.

It’s been a long offseason since Indiana claimed a shocking national championship. What happened in the offseason, what’s new and what do you need to know about all 138 teams? We pulled bits of news, analysis and rankings from months of The Athletic’s coverage together in one place to help.

What you need to know

1. The season already started last weekend! “Week 0” as a concept is on its last legs, but we were treated to eight Football Bowl Subdivision games last Saturday, including Bill Belichick and North Carolina upsetting TCU in college football’s latest foray into Ireland and USC fans abstaining from Week 0 (or perhaps staying away from extreme heat) at a sparsely attended win over San Jose State.

2. Our first full week of college football is here. Week 0 was the preamble. Week 1 is a five-day marathon that extends from Thursday (headlined by Colorado-Georgia Tech) to Friday (Miami-Stanford) to a full Saturday (Clemson-LSU) to Sunday (Notre Dame-Wisconsin at Lambeau Field, Ole Miss-Louisville in Nashville) to Monday night (Florida State-SMU).

3. Who’s eligible to play college football? It’s complicated. After the NCAA instituted new rules giving (and limiting) players to five years to play five seasons, many players in the Class of 2022 have filed lawsuits to obtain an extra year. A few have been granted, but the NCAA has also won some court battles. Most names you probably don’t know. Most controversially, the list includes a few players who have been in NFL training camps this summer and are trying to join Lane Kiffin at LSU. Those players are heading to court in Louisiana with the SEC and NCAA on Thursday.

Three storylines to watch: Indiana, Arch and Kiffin

Stewart Mandel

4. We can stop calling players “true” or “redshirt” freshmen. It’s now five years to play five seasons, which means no more decisions about holding freshmen back to preserve eligibility. Expect some career records to be shattered in coming years.

5. Targeting penalties have been tweaked: A player ejected for targeting in the second half of a game no longer has to sit out the first half of the next one, unless it’s their second offense (in which they’ll miss the first half of the next game) or third (miss the entire next game).

6. You may remember Texas Tech mega booster Cody Campbell and the inescapable “Save College Sports” commercials from last season. You’ll now be hearing plenty from Nick Saban about the Protect College Sports Act, which has support from senators on both sides of the aisle but has yet to be voted on after taking awhile to get the Big Ten and SEC on board ahead of the summer recess. If passed, the bill would dial back unlimited, unrestricted transfers to previous NCAA standards, which allowed each athlete to be immediately eligible one time after transferring. It would also enshrine the NCAA’s recently passed age-based eligibility rule, which gives athletes a five-year window to compete and eliminates most exceptions.

7. A big part of the appeal of returning to college for players? Money. Though the House v. NCAA settlement dictated that colleges could share a maximum of about $21 million with athletes across all sports, top spenders are spending more than twice that on football rosters alone by facilitating name, image and likeness deals. Wisconsin, which hasn’t finished ranked since 2019, has a roster being paid north of $25 million. Others like Ohio State, Notre Dame, Texas and Texas Tech could be knocking on the door of $50 million.

8. Standout Power 4 players are making seven figures. Most good starting quarterbacks in the Power 4 conference are in the $1 million to $4 million range, according to reporting by The Athletic’s Sam Khan Jr. Some are commanding more. Even high school senior running back David Gabriel Georges is expected to earn $2 million per year when he arrives at Tennessee next year. Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith said he was told he could earn over $10 million if he entered the transfer portal.

9. Revenue sharing is leading to schools finding new ways to make money. Say hello to jersey patches this season. Not all jerseys have sold space to advertisers (yet), but among the biggest paydays, Notre Dame has signed up SoFi for up to $20 million annually and Ohio State has added Chase Bank for about $17 million.

10. You’ll see more sponsors on the field too — like Monster Energy in the Big 12. The conference partnership is reportedly worth about $20 million annually and includes co-branded patches for football and men’s and women’s basketball, along with field and court logo branding. Big 12 schools are expected to receive $1 million each.

11. The SEC is now fighting LSU, but first came the Big 12 vs. Texas Tech. A big-money player you won’t be seeing this fall? Cincinnati transfer Brendan Sorsby, who was set to make about $4 million with the Red Raiders. Texas Tech fought to keep Sorsby eligible after he admitted placing more than 9,000 wagers, including bets on Indiana while a member of the team, but amid severe backlash, he opted to prepare for the NFL in 2027 instead after the league didn’t hold a supplemental draft.

12. Texas Tech, now playing a villain role in the eyes of many, will turn to quarterback Will Hammond, who tore his ACL during a season in which the Red Raiders won their first Big 12 title and achieved their first top-10 finish. Texas Tech also opted for more controversial insurance: ex-Boston College and Florida State QB Tommy Castellanos, who was granted an injunction to return for an extra season.

13. The College Football Playoff still has 12 teams, but the Big Ten (now supported by the ACC and Big 12) is continuing to push for future expansion to 24.

14. Some Playoff rules did change. Notre Dame needs to finish in the top 12 for an automatic bid. Last year, the Irish were dramatically left out on the final day with a No. 11 ranking. Now, they’d be in automatically.

15. Power 4 conference champions get auto bids to the CFP. Previously, bids went to the five highest-ranked conference champions. Two Group of 6 champions got in last year because Duke won the ACC with an 8-5 record. Now the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC are guaranteed spots for their champions.

16. A Group of 6 team will make the Playoff, but it doesn’t have to win its conference. An automatic bid goes to the highest-ranked team from the American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12 and Sun Belt.

17. The Pac-12 is back. Oregon State and Washington State were left behind in conference realignment but are now joined by Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State from the Mountain West and Texas State from the Sun Belt in the reshaped conference.

18. There are 138 FBS teams. Welcome to FCS superpower North Dakota State, which joined the Mountain West, and Sacramento State, which is expanding the Mid-American Conference from Massachusetts to California.

19. Other realignment moves to know: Louisiana Tech replaced Texas State in the Sun Belt, leaving Conference USA. And the Mountain West added UTEP from Conference USA and Northern Illinois from the MAC.

20. The Sun Belt is the only conference broken into divisions. Every other league sends its top two teams to its conference championship.

21. The ACC changed its tiebreakers after Duke won a five-way tie to play Virginia in Charlotte last year. Head-to-head matchups will remain the top tiebreaker, followed by winning percentage, but subsequent tiebreakers involving three or more teams will be settled by which team ranks highest in Sport Source Analytics’ Team Success Ranking, which is one of the metrics used by the College Football Playoff committee. This would have sent Miami to the ACC title game last year.

22. ACC teams are now playing nine conference games … mostly. Due to preexisting nonconference contracts, five schools (Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech and UNC) are still playing eight games this season.

23. The SEC is also playing a nine-game schedule, joining the rest of the Power 4. Not all coaches are happy about this. Expect even more strength of schedule arguments involving 9-3 teams in the Playoff race.

24. There are 35 non-Playoff bowl games. Welcome to the Puerto Rico Bowl, which debuts on Dec. 22, and welcome back the Poinsettia Bowl, which will be played on Dec. 23 in San Diego for the first time since 2016. Gone are the Bahamas Bowl, LA Bowl and Detroit’s GameAbove Sports Bowl.

25. The national championship game will be on Jan. 25 in Las Vegas. CFP semifinals are at the Orange (Jan. 14) and Sugar (Jan. 15) bowls, and quarterfinals are at the Fiesta (Dec. 30) and Rose, Peach and Cotton (Jan. 1). The No. 1 seed now gets to pick its preferred bowl sites, followed by the No. 2 and 3 seeds.

26. The transfer portal window has been reduced to 10 days and is expected to open Jan. 4.

27. Northwestern opens its $875 million new stadium on Oct 2. Penn State will be the first visitor to the new Ryan Field, which has a student section without seats.

28. Circle Nov. 7 on your calendar. The biggest Saturday of the season features seven games between teams ranked in the preseason AP poll: No. 2 Oregon at No. 1 Ohio State, No. 3 Georgia at No. 9 Ole Miss, No. 13 Alabama at No. 11 LSU, No. 5 Texas at No. 25 Missouri, No. 18 Penn State at No. 17 Washington, No. 14 BYU at No. 21 Utah and the highly anticipated rematch between No. 7 Miami and No. 4 Notre Dame in South Bend. (There’s also Michigan-Michigan State and Oklahoma-Florida.)

29-33. Circle these other five games, among many others:

  • No. 1 Ohio State at No. 5 Texas on Sept. 12. The second leg of last year’s opener, which the Buckeyes won in a defensive slugfest. It’s the nightcap to a day that begins with No. 10 Oklahoma at No. 16 Michigan.
  • No. 11 LSU at No. 9 Ole Miss on Sept. 19. Lane Kiffin returns to Oxford to face his old team — you know, the one he left in the midst of a Playoff run — and an angry mob of Rebels fans.
  • No. 3 Georgia at No. 13 Alabama on Oct. 10. Alabama and Georgia split two games last year and have met in four of the past eight SEC title games.
  • No. 5 Texas vs. No. 10 Oklahoma on Oct. 10. The Red River Rivalry decided a lot of Big 12 titles. Could it decide the SEC?
  • No. 1 Ohio State at No. 6 Indiana on Oct. 17. A rematch of last season’s Big Ten title game, when Indiana defeated Ohio State for the first time since 1988 on its way to a 16-0 national title run.

34. Don’t circle these games — they’re not happening for the first time in a long time: Florida-LSU (first time not being played since 1970), Ohio State-Penn State (1992), Georgia-Tennessee (1991), Florida-Tennessee (1989), Oregon-Oregon State (1944) and Notre Dame-USC (played every year since 1926 except for COVID-19 and World War II pauses).

35. Rivalry Week starts Nov. 26 with TCU at No. 12 Texas Tech on Thanksgiving. No. 5 Texas at No. 8 Texas A&M is on Black Friday, No. 16 Michigan at No. 1 Ohio State headlines Saturday, Nov. 28. And, of course, don’t forget about Army-Navy two weeks later in East Rutherford, N.J.

Who you need to know

36-43. Sam Khan and Antonio Morales identified eight Tier 1 quarterbacks when ranking all 138 projected starters in July:

  • Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss. Chambliss was largely unknown at this time a year ago, a D-II transfer slated to back up Austin Simmons (who’s now at Missouri). Instead, he became one of college football’s best, leading the Rebels to the Playoff semifinals. He appealed for and won an extra year in February.
  • Dante Moore, Oregon. Moore likely would’ve been a first-round pick had he declared for the NFL Draft. But he’s back, and there was little argument about him being the top quarterback in the Big Ten and one of the best in college football.
  • CJ Carr, Notre Dame. The grandson of Hall of Fame coach Lloyd Carr, who led Michigan to the 1997 national title, CJ Carr has all the tools, and he’ll be asked to shoulder more of the load this season after Notre Dame lost its two first-round running backs, Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price, and four of its top five pass catchers.
  • Darian Mensah, Miami. Mensah played in a conference championship game at Tulane in 2024, won a conference title at Duke in 2025 and, after a last-minute transfer portal entry, should be in position to win another ACC title at Miami, which has surrounded him with a great supporting cast.
  • Julian Sayin, Ohio State. As a first-time starter, Sayin was the most accurate quarterback in college football and a Heisman finalist who led the Buckeyes to the Playoff. But there’s a wide range of opinions as to whether Sayin is an elite quarterback or a product of Ohio State’s system and the talent around him.
  • Drew Mestemaker, Oklahoma State. The former walk-on turned FBS passing leader in 2025 followed coach Eric Morris to Stillwater after a 12-2 season. The step up in competition from the American to the Big 12 isn’t viewed as too daunting by those we spoke with, and it helps that he’ll have his same head coach, play caller and position coach, plus 18 former teammates.
  • Arch Manning, Texas. The nephew of Peyton and Eli and grandson of Archie elicits a range of opinions. Most acknowledge that his physical tools are top-notch, but the rest is up for debate. Last year’s slow start was equal parts Manning’s growing pains and a struggling offensive line. He’s still viewed as a high-end NFL Draft prospect, but can he be more consistent?
  • Sam Leavitt, LSU. After a breakout 2024 at Arizona State, Leavitt’s final season in Tempe was cut short by a foot injury. But he’s viewed as one of the most talented QBs in the country when he’s 100 percent. Some raised concerns about how he exited Arizona State, and an SEC front office staffer questioned Leavitt’s production given his talented supporting cast. Will he thrive under Lane Kiffin?

44. Josh Hoover is replacing Fernando Mendoza at Indiana. Curt Cignetti turned Mendoza into the Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 pick after he transferred from Cal. Now it’s Hoover’s turn at IU after he threw for 9,629 yards over four years at TCU — with a few too many turnovers, according to his former coach, Sonny Dykes.

45. Houston (Keisean Henderson) and Vanderbilt (Jared Curtis) signed the top two quarterback recruits to stay in their home cities, but Tennessee’s Faizon Brandon is the most prominent freshman to win a starting QB job for Week 1. The Volunteers were unable to secure a veteran quarterback in the transfer portal, giving the five-star prospect from Greensboro, N.C., a shot to play as a freshman. He ended up beating George MacIntyre for the role.

46. The most prominent preseason quarterback battle was at Alabama, where sophomore Keelon Russell beat Austin Mack for the job. Russell is inexperienced but has potential to shoot up quickly from No. 33 in our QB Tiers if he can break out under coach Kalen DeBoer, who received a raise to $12.5 million despite a Rose Bowl thumping at the hands of Indiana.

47. Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith is the best player in college football. Despite getting the lion’s share of attention from opposing secondaries, the No. 1 recruit in 2025 has caught 163 passes for 2,558 yards and 27 touchdowns in two seasons. He’s No. 1 in our top 100 players, No. 2 on the Freaks List and No. 1 on Dane Brugler’s NFL Draft board.

48. South Carolina receiver Nyck Harbor is college football’s most freakish athlete. Again. Harbor was the first back-to-back No. 1 on Bruce Feldman’s annual Freaks List in 2023-24. It took a generational talent like Smith to bump him from the top spot, but Harbor is back at No. 1. To be this big and this blazing fast is truly rare. NFL scouts who came through Columbia this offseason measured him at 6-foot-6, 243 pounds with over 35-inch arms. His wingspan is 82 1/2 inches. He ran a 10.1 in the 100 and 20.20 in the 200 for the Gamecocks track team, where he’s competing in the NCAAs against runners 60 and 70 pounds lighter than him.

49. Notre Dame cornerback Leonard Moore is the nation’s top defensive player. Moore has all the desired traits of an elite cornerback. He has good size and length, is sticky in coverage, anticipates well and has terrific ball skills. He’s No. 2 in our top 100 players and No. 2 on Brugler’s draft big board.

50-59. Smith and Moore are the top two players in our top 100 players. Here are the next 10 non-quarterbacks you need to know:

  • Colin Simmons, edge, Texas. Simmons is synonymous with speed and has been a menace to opposing backfields since arriving in 2024. The junior led the SEC with 12 sacks last year.
  • Malachi Toney, WR, Miami. Toney — who’s 5-11, 192 — might be the best pound-for-pound player in the game. He led the nation with 109 catches and is a dangerous punt returner.
  • Dylan Stewart, edge, South Carolina. Stewart has freaky athletic ability. A nagging back injury last season kept his snap count well below that of other top edge rushers, but he was still plenty productive with 37 pressures and 12 tackles for loss.
  • Carter Smith, OT, Indiana. Getting Smith, a 2025 consensus All-American, back for one more year was a huge boost for the Hoosiers. He has a ton of experience and allowed only nine pressures in 483 pass-blocking snaps.
  • Cam Coleman, WR, Texas. Coleman’s 2025 statistics (56 catches, 708 yards, five TDs) weren’t jaw-dropping at Auburn, but quarterback play had a lot to do with that. Now he’ll be Arch Manning’s top target. He’s our top-ranked transfer.
  • KJ Bolden, S, Georgia. Bolden is a model of versatility, taking significant snaps at safety, in the slot and in the box while also playing on multiple phases of special teams — and doing it all with speed and aggression.
  • Jordan Seaton, OT, LSU. The five-star recruit took a huge step forward last season at Colorado after an up-and-down freshman year. He has the gifts; now he must continue to polish his game as he prepares for SEC pass rushers.
  • Will Echoles, DL, Ole Miss. The first-team All-SEC pick had more pressures than any other defensive tackle in the Power 4.
  • Charlie Becker, WR, Indiana. Becker was mostly a special teams presence until a midseason injury opened the door for him last season. He put together 100-yard receiving performances against Penn State, Wisconsin and Ohio State, then made highlight-reel catches in the CFP.
  • Kewan Lacy, RB, Ole Miss. Lacy was third in the FBS with 1,567 rushing yards. He’s an explosive back who has home run speed, can elude defenders in the open field, is physical in short yardage and is an effective receiver.

60. Arch Manning has more help. Texas missed the Playoff after starting No. 1 in the polls last summer. Why might it deliver on the hype now? Start with adding five of our top 21 transfers: No. 1 Cam Coleman (WR, Auburn), No. 9 Melvin Siani (OT, Wake Forest), No. 11 Rasheem Biles (LB, Pitt), No. 14 Hollywood Smothers (RB, NC State) and No. 21 Raleek Brown (RB, Arizona State).

61. But LSU signed the No. 1 transfer class. Lane Kiffin’s first portal class at LSU gets the highest marks for the big fish he reeled in. The Tigers landed a star as their 2026 quarterback (Sam Leavitt from Arizona State) and their QB of the future (Husan Longstreet, a Class of 2025 five-star recruit from USC). Tackle Jordan Seaton (Colorado) was an All-Big 12 selection; edge Prince Umanmielen led Ole Miss in sacks; and safety Ty Benefield started 33 games at Boise State.

62. Indiana also won big in the portal. Beyond Josh Hoover, Nick Marsh (Michigan State) is an explosive receiver to pair with the returning Becker. Rebuilding the defensive line was a must, and landing Tobi Osunsanmi, his Kansas State teammate Chiddi Obiazor and Notre Dame defensive lineman Joshua Burnham can do that. More than half of IU’s transfer class has double-digit career starts, while the Hoosiers lost just one player to the portal who started games in 2025.

63. Curt Cignetti is the most interesting person in college football. Indiana, known two years ago as the sport’s biggest loser, now having claim to perhaps the most legitimate championship ever? Doing so largely on the strength of a transplant of coaches and key players from James Madison to IU? Encountering arguable disrespect at this moment with its preseason No. 6 ranking? The wonder of this story of the program and its journeyman 65-year-old architect remains difficult to overstate.

64. Kirby Smart joins Curt Cignetti as college football’s two Tier 1 coaches in Chris Vannini’s annual assessment. Since winning consecutive national championships, Georgia has gone three seasons without a CFP semifinal appearance, but those three years still include back-to-back SEC titles and another SEC title game appearance. Smart has Georgia on a lot sturdier ground than Clemson under Dabo Swinney, the two-time title winner who dropped from Tier 1.

65. Lane Kiffin has made himself the main character — or perhaps the main villain — of college football. So how good is LSU’s $13 million coach, who left Ole Miss before the Playoff and has yet to win a power conference championship? He claims LSU is “just different,” but after years of rebuilding his reputation, last November’s heel turn and this summer’s attempt to raid NFL training camps has many back to rooting against the 51-year-old to get over the hump and win a championship.

66-81: There are 16 other new Power 4 coaches, as evaluated by Stewart Mandel in the winter:

  • Bob Chesney, UCLA. He’s won in Division III, Division II, FCS and most recently the Sun Belt, where he took JMU to the Playoff. No reason to think that ends in the Big Ten.
  • Kyle Whittingham, Michigan. Michigan got the coach it needed to stabilize a program mired in scandal after the firing of Sherrone Moore. He brings two decades of head-coaching experience at Utah and two accomplished coordinators with him. The lone concern: At 66, he’s unlikely to be a long-term hire.
  • Jon Sumrall, Florida. After going 23-4 with two Sun Belt titles at Troy, Sumrall moved up to the American and took the Green Wave to the CFP in his second season despite losing his biggest stars from the year before. The former SEC assistant is well prepared.
  • James Franklin, Virginia Tech. While he never fully ascended to the top at Penn State, Franklin still averaged 10 wins a year in 10 full seasons. He found an ideal landing spot at Virginia Tech, which is fully capable of winning conference championships but without the suffocating pressure of Penn State.
  • Matt Campbell, Penn State. A clunky search process ended with a solid hire. Campbell led longtime loser Iowa State to the winningest run in school history, and he’ll have considerably more resources and recruiting cachet behind him in Happy Valley.
  • Collin Klein, Kansas State. It’s no surprise K-State brought back its former Heisman finalist and offensive coordinator. He’s a protégé of both the legendary Bill Snyder and successor Chris Klieman. It’s impossible to say how Klein, 36, will fare as a head coach, but the fan base would have been bummed if it wasn’t him.
  • Morgan Scalley, Utah. There’s no external candidate Utah could have hired who knows the place better than its former All-American defensive back, who had been Whittingham’s defensive coordinator since 2016 and was the coach-in-waiting.
  • Will Stein, Kentucky. Dan Lanning’s previous young OC, Kenny Dillingham, became the head coach at his alma mater, Arizona State. Stein is a 36-year-old Louisville native returning to his home state after coaching Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel and Dante Moore. Kentucky could benefit from having an offensive mind.
  • Eric Morris, Oklahoma State. The Cowboys need a spark after spiraling into the abyss in Mike Gundy’s last two seasons. Enter Morris, a proven offensive coach who took Incarnate Word and North Texas to double-digit wins while mentoring star QBs Cam Ward and Drew Mestemaker.
  • Tosh Lupoi, Cal. The former Cal D-lineman and Nick Saban assistant continues the recent trend of coaches returning to their alma mater. His West Coast recruiting experience will come in handy, and he kept rising star quarterback Jaron Keawe-Sagapolutele.
  • Jimmy Rogers, Iowa State. He’s only been a head coach for three seasons, but Rogers won an FCS national title at South Dakota State and kept Washington State afloat after it got pillaged when Jake Dickert left.
  • Pete Golding, Ole Miss. AD Keith Carter made the best possible short-term move in promoting Golding, who emerged from the Kiffin soap opera to lead the Rebels to the CFP semifinals. But those two games with Kiffin’s holdover staff don’t tell us much as to how well the 41-year-old will run his own program.
  • Pat Fitzgerald, Michigan State. Fitz and his alma mater, Northwestern, reached a settlement in a wrongful termination lawsuit. He previously led the Wildcats to their best decade in the 2010s, which included three 10-win seasons. But he went 3-9 or worse in three of his last four seasons, including 1-11 in 2022. And he was out of coaching for three years while the sport turned upside down. Seems risky.
  • Alex Golesh, Auburn. The former Tennessee offensive coordinator did an admirable job turning around a downtrodden USF program. But he’s been a head coach for three seasons and peaked at 9-3. Perhaps he can hit the ground running by bringing stud QB Byrum Brown with him.
  • Ryan Silverfield, Arkansas. After whiffing on two other coaches (Sumrall and Golesh) from the same conference and an alum (Rhett Lashlee), Arkansas turned to Silverfield, who never finished higher than third in his six seasons in that conference. He did post double-digit wins in 2023 and ’24, but he could never quite land the plane.
  • Tavita Pritchard, Stanford. General manager Andrew Luck’s eight-month search culminated in hiring his former Stanford teammate. It’s a curious move given Pritchard, 38, was the OC under David Shaw when the program began its backslide. But he knows the challenges of recruiting and coaching at Stanford.

82-86. Plenty of coaches are on the hot seat, even after a historically active carousel last year. Here are five of note from Bruce Feldman’s temperature check:

  • Bill Belichick, North Carolina. The greatest coach in NFL history had a horrible first season in Chapel Hill. He was hired for $10 million a year to replace Mack Brown, but the Tar Heels finished 4-8 and became the laughingstock of the sport. That’s in part due to all of the dysfunction surrounding the program, most notably with general manager Mike Lombardi, who’s on administrative leave. UNC temporarily cooled the chatter by beating TCU in Week 0.
  • Mike Norvell, Florida State. The 44-year-old has won 76 games as a college coach and led the Seminoles, who were spinning their wheels before he took over, to 10-3 and 13-1 records just a few years back. He is again trying to dig FSU out of a deep hole. A disastrous 2-10 campaign in 2024 was followed by a slightly better season last fall, when FSU began 3-0 and upset No. 8 Alabama but stumbled to 5-7.
  • Lincoln Riley, USC. Riley is 91-28 as a head coach and has produced teams that have finished in the top 20 in seven of his nine seasons. He got off to a fast start at USC, going 11-3 with Heisman winner Caleb Williams after taking over a program in disarray. But the Trojans sputtered the next two seasons, going 9-9 in Big Ten play. The fan base and a lot of the former players have become very frustrated. They’ve made big financial commitments to NIL and for a massive facilities upgrade.
  • Luke Fickell, Wisconsin. The former Ohio State defensive lineman had an amazing run at Cincinnati, getting the Bearcats into the Playoff when it was only a four-team field. He has struggled to get any traction in Madison in three seasons, going from 7-6 to 5-7 to 4-8 as he has pivoted from an initial miscalculation in trying to get the Badgers’ offense right.
  • Dave Aranda, Baylor. Aranda’s record is 36-37, but his Bears have been wildly inconsistent: They went from 2-7 in his first season to 12-2 and finishing No. 5 the following year. Then it was back to 6-7, down to 3-9 and back up to 8-5 before failing to get bowl eligible last fall at 5-7. The hope is Florida transfer QB DJ Lagway is primed to break through.

87-93. Seven teams separated from the pack in preseason rankings, whether it’s the AP poll, the coaches poll or Chris Vannini’s The Athletic 138. Here’s how Vannini assessed and ranked them:

  • Indiana: The defending national champs are disrespected by their No. 6 ranking in the preseason coaches and AP polls. Would that have happened if a different logo were on the helmet? Additions like running back Turbo Richard and receiver Nick Marsh will help new quarterback Josh Hoover. The Hoosiers remain the team to beat.
  • Ohio State: The Buckeyes will be in the mix as always with so much talent, but I have some questions about a defense that lost so much and an offense that struggled in the biggest games a year ago.
  • Georgia: The defense and running game should return to form. I just wonder whether the Dawgs can find the explosive plays they lacked in 2025.
  • Oregon: The Ducks might have the best quarterback and defensive line in the country. Six of Dan Lanning’s eight losses as a head coach have come against teams that played for the national title. The pieces are here to get over the hump.
  • Notre Dame: The Irish return the most production in the FBS and may have the best defense, but will enough playmakers emerge at running back and receiver? Another weak schedule leaves little room for error.
  • Texas: Probably the highest ceiling in the country if Arch Manning, Cam Coleman and company can put it all together. But we saw last year’s floor turn out to be lower than expected.
  • Miami: The Canes might be better at quarterback and the skill positions than their CFP runner-up squad, but they lost a lot in the trenches.

94. Miami is the clear ACC favorite. The Hurricanes have yet to win the ACC since joining in 2004, but Austin Mock’s model gives them a 55 percent chance over SMU (14 percent) and Louisville (8 percent). Stewart Mandel likes the Hurricanes, as do 71 percent of our staff voters.

95. Ohio State, Indiana and Oregon are in a three-way fight atop the Big Ten. The Buckeyes (36 percent) lead the Hoosiers (24 percent) and Ducks (22 percent) in Mock’s model. Mandel likes Indiana to repeat, but 58.1 percent of our staff picked Oregon.

96. Texas Tech is favored to repeat in the Big 12 by Mock’s model (51 percent) and our staff (51.6 percent). Mandel thinks BYU will avenge last year’s Big 12 title loss.

97. Texas and Georgia are the most common SEC picks. Mock’s model favors a third straight Georgia (28 percent) championship, ahead of Texas (20 percent), while Mandel and 48.4 percent of our staff picked Texas

98. The Group of 6 race for a CFP bid appears to be wide open. Don’t expect two to get in again after Tulane and James Madison did so last year. Mock’s model projects Navy (10 percent), JMU (10 percent), Boise State (9 percent) and USF (9 percent) as the favorites. Boise State got 35.5 percent of our staff vote, including in Chris Vannini’s G6 picks.

99. Who will win the Heisman Trophy? Predicting the Heisman race is notoriously challenging. Notre Dame QB CJ Carr was the No. 1 pick in our Heisman draft. Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith (25.8 percent) edged Oregon QB Dante Moore (19.4 percent), Carr (16.1 percent) and Texas QB Arch Manning (12.9 percent) in our staff vote. And Moore was the top pick among coaches surveyed by Bruce Feldman.

100. Who will win the national championship? Again, it depends who you ask. Mock’s projections give the edge to Ohio State (14 percent) over Notre Dame (11 percent), Oregon (10 percent) and Georgia (10 percent). Our staff favors Notre Dame (41.9 percent) over Ohio State (16.1 percent) and Oregon (16.1 percent) — a third of the coaches surveyed by Feldman picked Oregon, too. When our co-hosts of “The Audible” filled out their brackets, they all went in different directions: Indiana for Mandel, Notre Dame for Feldman and Texas for Ralph Russo.

We’ll find out Jan. 25 in Las Vegas. Enjoy the games.