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Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
College Football Playoff format debate is impacting Ohio State's future scheduling
LAS VEGAS — Ohio State football's future nonconference schedules are littered with marquee opponents. Not only do the Buckeyes begin a home-and-home series with Texas this year, but they are due to meet other Southeastern Conference blue bloods over the next decade. There's Alabama in 2027 and 2028, followed by Georgia in 2030 and 2031. Ohio State is putting off scheduling more games against schools from the other power conferences as the College Football Playoff format remains in flux after this season. At issue is the uncertainty surrounding automatic bids. While Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti has pushed for a further expansion of the bracket to 16 teams as part of a model that would reserve four spots for the league's teams and another four for the SEC, the plan has not gained approval ahead of a Dec. 1 deadline needed to take effect in 2026. As debate continues, Ohio State is waiting to see how it unfolds before adding more premier programs. Its only recent scheduling activity included adding service academy Navy and Youngstown State, a member of the Football Championship Subdivision, for 2029. 'There's no reason to schedule until you have clarity,' Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork said. 'You could say we're in a holding pattern.' The Buckeyes' preference is for Petitti's plan to be adopted, giving them more leeway to include a Power Four school as part of their nonconference schedule. During his turn at Big Ten media days on July 22, Ohio State coach Ryan Day expressed a preference to play 10 games against power conference schools, including nine as part of the Big Ten schedule and another out of conference. The lack of automatic berths, though, makes the prospect of a 10th game against a power conference program less appealing. 'If we're not going to do that, I don't think it makes sense to do that,' Day said. 'You have your nine conference games and schedule other nonconference games that aren't in the Power Four.' The anticipated series with Alabama and Georgia figure to be safe. 'What's scheduled is scheduled,' Day said. In an interview with The Dispatch last week, Bjork said, 'We anticipate that sticking.' But nonconference schedules into the 2030s could look more like last year when the Buckeyes lacked a headliner in early September, facing teams from the Mid-American and Sun Belt conferences to open the season. It would be a shift in philosophy. Since the Big Ten moved to a nine-game conference schedule in 2016, Ohio State has only twice in nine seasons put together a three-game nonconference scheduled that lacked at least one Power Four program or Notre Dame. 'Until there's continuity between conferences, if you're in the Big Ten, it would make no sense to have anything other than a case to have four automatic qualifiers and an expanded pool of teams,' Day said, 'because when you play nine conference games, it's not the same as someone who plays eight conference games. If you're going to be compared against that, it's just not the same.' While the Big 12 also plays nine conference games, the ACC and SEC have long had schedules that feature eight conference games. The potential of automatic bids is a way to mitigate the discrepancy in conference schedules and afford the Buckeyes a level of protection to pursue more aggressive schedules outside the Big Ten. Since the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2014 first implemented a playoff format to crown the national champion, beginning with a four-team field before moving to a 12-team bracket last season, the selection committee has heavily weighed wins and losses on teams' resumes. No team with two or more losses made the four-team playoff in 10 seasons. The counting of losses by the committee adds risk to the high-profile nonconference games. 'If it's just about how many games you win and the goal is to be 12-0 or 11-1, those games will go away,' Bjork said. The prospect is not especially alluring. Day described the upcoming season opener against Texas as 'great for college football.' 'How excited is everyone going to be across the country to watch this first game?' he asked. But similar series could become endangered at Ohio State without automatic playoff bids or at least some scheduling continuity across the sport. 'You don't want those to go away,' Bjork said. 'That's been our mantra. We don't want those to go away. Let's hope they don't.' Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Email him at jkaufman@ and follow along on Bluesky, Instagram and X for more. Get more Ohio State football news by listening to our podcasts This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: CFP format debate is impacting Ohio State football's scheduling
Washington Post
14 hours ago
- Sport
- Washington Post
Penn State blocking out noise of big-game losses, has focus on another run to playoff
LAS VEGAS — New year, new slate, no outside noise. That's the mantra in Happy Valley, despite James Franklin being saddled with a 4-20 mark as coach at Penn State against teams ranked in the AP Top 10. 'Coming to Penn State, I came here to win Big Ten championships and win a national championship,' Penn State safety Zakee Wheatley said Wednesday, the second of three Big Ten media days. 'The beginning of every year, that's expectations. Whatever happens, happens. But that's how I go into the season every year. 'Coach Franklin does a great job of making sure we're laser focused on the task at hand.' Right now, the task is to open camp with a fresh mindset and zero in on the season opener against Nevada on Aug. 30. Forget his collective 101-42 mark at the helm or the two College Football Playoff victories before falling to Notre Dame in last year's national semifinal. As Franklin enters his 12th season leading the Lions, with 10 trips to the postseason in 11 years, the 53-year-old never seems to escape the narrative of losing big games. Nittany Lions fans might be happy to know Franklin feels he has the best combined personnel he's ever had at Penn State, from players and staff, to depth, to talent and experience. 'We're very excited about that,' Franklin said. 'There's a ton of conversations that are happening nationally. We embrace that. We've earned that based on what we've been able to do and what we've got coming back. 'We were a game away from playing for the National Championship, and you could actually make the argument a drive away from playing for the National Championship, but it didn't feel that way, right? Because the expectations at Penn State are really high. We embrace that.' Wheatley, a fifth-year senior, agreed, saying it's the best atmosphere he's been around since landing on campus. 'The amount of film work and amount of extra work being put in, the energy around the building right now is electric,' said Wheatley, whose 16 tackles in the Orange Bowl against Notre Dame tied for the third-most recorded by a Penn State player in a postseason game. 'With the amount of veteran guys we got coming back and leadership we got going on, it kind of flows from freshmen to seniors. Everyone feels good right now.' Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell wasn't sure what could be tougher: the Badgers' upcoming schedule or the ride-along in an F-16 fighter jet at Nellis Air Force Base he's scheduled to take Thursday. 'The immediacy of the now, the ride-along is going to put more pressure on my body,' Fickell said, laughing. 'But in the long run, the schedule is going to take more years off my life.' In a friend-of-a-friend situation involving a former player, Fickell's butterflies were aflutter as he talked about taking to the skies over southern Nevada with a fighter pilot. 'I know what my body's going to feel like when I'm all said and done,' Fickell said. Among those on Wisconsin's schedule this year are Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State and Oregon. 'There's nothing harder than what's in front of us,' he said. 'We understand that, but we're not going to shy away from it, either.' Maryland coach Michael Locksley displayed a bit of vulnerability, revealing he lost his locker room after the Terrapins finished 4-8 in his sixth full season with the program. It marked Locksley's first losing record since the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. He had navigated Maryland to three straight bowl appearances while winning at least seven games each of those season. He said the new world in which players get paid created divisions in the locker room. 'We had 'haves' and 'have-nots' for the first time in our locker room,' Locksley said. 'The landscape of college football taught me a valuable lesson: Continue to educate players on the importance of what playing for something bigger than yourself is all about.' The Terrapins open their season at home on Aug. 30 against Florida Atlantic. As Northwestern awaits the renovation of Ryan Field, being upgraded to a state-of-the-art venue in time for the 2026 campaign, the Wildcats return to the 12,000-seat Martin Athletic Facility for a second straight season. 'Who else gets to play on a lake in college football?' asked incoming quarterback Preston Stone, who transferred in from SMU . 'It's unbelievable, it's an incredible opportunity for us to get to play in a unique environment.' Ticket prices on the school's website range from $94 to $413 for the home opener against Western Illinois on Sept. 5. One week later, against Big Ten foe Oregon and with Fox Sports' Big Noon Kickoff in town, ticket prices trickle upward in the range of $156 to $670. 'I think where we landed was the perfect solution and perfect bridge,' Northwestern coach David Braun said. 'It's unique, it's intimate. It allows our guys to have a level of consistency in terms of where they're playing for all their home games. Allows for our students to engage. And then you bring the element of, I mean, you are on one of the most prime pieces of real estate in the entire country, right on Lake Michigan. Beautiful fall day, Big Ten football, it's pretty special.' ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: and
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Oregon's Dan Lanning has his own idea to fix the College Football Playoff: Get rid of byes
LAS VEGAS — There's a lot going on in college football these days. There's a disagreement over the College Football Playoff format, debate over athlete compensation rules and uncertainty on the future of the transfer portal. But if Dan Lanning could change one thing, it wouldn't be associated with any of that. 'College football season should end Jan. 1,' the Oregon head coach told Yahoo Sports in an interview from Big Ten media days on Wednesday. 'That solves a lot of the problems that exist.' Shifting up the college football season — long a discussion point among college administrators — would result in what Lanning says will be a more condensed playoff, one spread across five weeks instead of seven, and one that does not, he said emphatically, include long byes for teams. After last season, he's done with those. His No. 1-seeded Ducks had 25 days off before a 41-21 loss to eighth-seeded Ohio State in the quarterfinals. 'All four teams that had a bye lost. There's something to that,' Lanning said. Lanning and three Oregon players spun through Day 2 of the three-day Big Ten football media days here on Wednesday as the defending conference champions and a team predicted to finish toward the top of the league again this year despite a host of departures and plenty of new faces (Oregon had 10 players drafted, including veteran quarterback Dillon Gabriel). [Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season] The Gabriel-led 2024 version of the Ducks romped through last season undefeated, beating Ohio State in a thriller at home and knocking off Penn State in the conference title bout. And then, in a stunning display at the Rose Bowl, they fell behind 34-0 to the Buckeyes in the rematch. While Ohio State was an 'unbelievable team,' Lanning said, it's pretty clear what happened. One team had a month off and the other had played the weekend before in the first round of the playoffs. Perhaps long, extended off time isn't such a positive. 'You saw a team that wasn't resting and a team that was,' Lanning said. 'In the second half, we were a much different team, but it was too much to overcome. So if there's anything that I would change, it's playing these games faster and sooner. College football belongs on Saturday, not the NFL.' Lanning's shot toward the NFL is a reminder of the growing animosity between those in college sports and the NFL, which continues to encroach on days traditionally reserved for college football. He's far from alone in this. The NFL began long ago playing games on Thursdays, normally exclusively for college football. Two years ago, they started to play on Black Friday, too. And starting the third Saturday in December, the league plays games on Saturdays in what's become a complication for college's new, expanded playoff. In fact, the two of the four first-round games competed with NFL games last December and both semifinals in January were scheduled on weekdays to avoid a head-to-head with NFL weekend playoff games. 'Look at Major League Baseball,' Maryland head coach Mike Locksley said. 'They spend $900 million on minor league baseball as a development league. The NFL is getting us for free. When I grew up, Thursday night used to be college football. Now it's two NFL games.' But back to Lanning. His idea of moving up college football's playing season is a long-discussed issue that may solve, as he says, several matters. Ideally, he believes college football should turn Week Zero into Week 1, shifting up the entire season by a week (conference championship games would presumably move to Thanksgiving weekend). The playoff could begin on the first or second weekend of December, the national semifinals would fall on New Year's Day and the championship game would be back in early January instead of Jan. 20 as it was last year (it's Jan. 19 this season). Conceivably, the first two rounds of the playoffs could be unencumbered — without competition from NFL games. And the postseason will mostly be completed by the time the new, single transfer portal period is established (the expectation for that is early to mid-January). 'It solves a lot, whether it's the portal being open during the season or what,' Lanning says. 'I just wish we played a similar playoff to every other model that exists in every other sport where you play every Saturday and you get knocked out. There might be byes, but it's not going to be more than 14 days off as opposed to what we had this past season.' Not long ago, College Football Playoff leaders seriously discussed the prospect of shifting up by a week the entire regular season. In fact, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said two years ago that a Week Zero shift should be considered. 'I don't know that anybody's ready to say we can't do it or we can do it,' he said then. However, since Phillips uttered those words, conversations around the prospect have faded. College leaders begrudgingly made the decision to take on the NFL head-to-head with those two first-round playoff games in December. These weren't just any ho-hum NFL games. The 1 p.m. kickoff, on NBC, was the Texans versus the then two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs and quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The 4:30 p.m. kickoff, on Fox, was one of the most attractive division rivalries of the last 20 years: Steelers vs. Ravens. 'They purposely scheduled aggressively against us,' one college football executive told Yahoo Sports then. But moving up the entire season is no easy task. There are long-term game contracts that would need adjusting, such as with venues for conference championship games. Normally played on the first weekend of December, title games would kick off Thanksgiving weekend to allow for, at the very least, an agreed-upon 12-day period between the final league title game and the first playoff game. There are plenty more hurdles, like convincing your primary network partner to go along with this. Over the last two years, ESPN executives have expressed to some CFP leaders their concern over how such a move would impact television windows around the holidays. More than 50 FBS games are played during the Thanksgiving week, many of them drama-filled rivalry meetings, like Auburn-Alabama, Michigan-Ohio State and Florida State-Florida. These are rating giants on a holiday week, generating eye-popping figures. If the schedule is shifted up, Thanksgiving week would feature just nine games, and while all of them are conference championships, five of those involve only Group of Five programs. That's not to mention the shifting of the traditional opening weekend, also built around a holiday (Labor Day). However, during Division I conference commissioner meetings last month in Asheville, North Carolina, administrators re-examined making Week Zero a permanent playing date for college football teams, but without moving up the entire season. It would provide an additional bye week for teams. For now, schools wanting to play on Week Zero must be granted a waiver by NCAA governance committees. Lanning would love to see that end, and for Week Zero to become Week 1, no more playoff byes and a postseason that ends before mid-January. 'If anyone ever asks me what's the one thing I could change in college football,' he said, 'it's always that.'
Fox Sports
15 hours ago
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Nebraska's Matt Rhule: 'It Wasn't a Good Job, But It's the Right Job'
Scott Frost recently called coaching the Nebraska Cornhuskers the "wrong job" for him during Big 12 Media Days. Reflecting on his time at his alma mater, Frost – who returned for his second stint at UCF – said the biggest lesson he learned was not to take the wrong job. Current Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule was asked about those comments on Tuesday. While he didn't disagree that the program wasn't in a great position when he arrived, he made it clear he still sees Nebraska as the right job for him. "This wasn't a good job," he said during the Big Ten Media Days. "But we've made it a good job, and we're about to make it a great job. This will be one of the best jobs in the country." Rather than criticize Frost, Rhule showed respect. "I have a ton of respect for Scott," Rhule said. "And I've always been very empathetic for what he went through, because this was his home. If you guys fire me tomorrow, I'm just going to go back to Cape May and sit on the beach — go back to where I'm from. But this was his home." Rhule pointed out that the program he inherited was in bad shape and behind on everything. "There was no NIL when Scott was here, no new facilities," he said. "I walked into a better situation." Frost was fired three games into the 2022 season, finishing with a 16-31 record across four and a half seasons at Nebraska, never reaching a bowl game. His legacy, however, as a 1997 national champion quarterback is still present in the program. Rhule noted that Nebraska placed a large photo of Frost as a player in its facility this offseason. When asked what comes next if Nebraska starts winning under his leadership, Rhule responded, "Sometimes recruits will say, 'Coach, if you win, what are you gonna do?'" he said. "I'm gonna stay right here. The only thing I ever think about is getting a lake house at one of these lakes in Nebraska I keep hearing about." Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account , and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily! recommended Item 1 of 3 Get more from the College Football Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more in this topic
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Oregon's Dan Lanning has an idea to fix the College Football Playoff: Get rid of byes
LAS VEGAS — There's a lot going on in college football these days. There's a disagreement over the College Football Playoff format, debate over athlete compensation rules and uncertainty on the future of the transfer portal. But if Dan Lanning could change one thing, it wouldn't be associated with any of that. 'College football season should end Jan. 1,' the Oregon head coach told Yahoo Sports in an interview from Big Ten media days on Wednesday. 'That solves a lot of the problems that exist.' Shifting up the college football season — long a discussion point among college administrators — would result in what Lanning says will be a more condensed playoff, one spread across five weeks instead of seven, and one that does not, he said emphatically, include long byes for teams. After last season, he's done with those. His No. 1-seeded Ducks had 25 days off before a 41-21 loss to eighth-seeded Ohio State in the quarterfinals. 'All four teams that had a bye lost. There's something to that,' Lanning said. Lanning and three Oregon players spun through Day 2 of the three-day Big Ten football media days here on Wednesday as the defending conference champions and a team predicted to finish toward the top of the league again this year despite a host of departures and plenty of new faces (Oregon had 10 players drafted, including veteran quarterback Dillon Gabriel). [Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season] The Gabriel-led 2024 version of the Ducks romped through last season undefeated, beating Ohio State in a thriller at home and knocking off Penn State in the conference title bout. And then, in a stunning display at the Rose Bowl, they fell behind 34-0 to the Buckeyes in the rematch. While Ohio State was an 'unbelievable team,' Lanning said, it's pretty clear what happened. One team had a month off and the other had played the weekend before in the first round of the playoffs. Perhaps long, extended off time isn't such a positive. 'You saw a team that wasn't resting and a team that was,' Lanning said. 'In the second half, we were a much different team, but it was too much to overcome. So if there's anything that I would change, it's playing these games faster and sooner. College football belongs on Saturday, not the NFL.' Lanning's shot toward the NFL is a reminder of the growing animosity between those in college sports and the NFL, which continues to encroach on days traditionally reserved for college football. He's far from alone in this. The NFL began long ago playing games on Thursdays, normally exclusively for colleges. Two years ago, they started to play on Black Friday, too. And starting the third Saturday in December, the league plays games on Saturdays in what's become a complication for college's new, expanded playoff. In fact, the two of the four first-round games competed with NFL games last December and both semifinals in January were scheduled on weekdays to avoid a head-to-head with NFL weekend playoff games. 'Look at Major League Baseball,' Maryland head coach Mike Locksley said. 'They spend $900 million on minor league baseball as a development league. The NFL is getting us for free. When I grew up, Thursday night used to be college football. Now it's two NFL games.' But back to Lanning. His idea of moving up college football's playing season is a long-discussed issue that may solve, as he says, several matters. Ideally, he believes college football should turn Week Zero into Week 1, shifting up the entire season by a week (conference championship games would presumably move to Thanksgiving weekend). The playoff could begin on the first or second weekend of December, the national semifinals would fall on New Year's Day and the championship game would be back in early January instead of Jan. 20 as it was last year (it's Jan. 19 this season). Conceivably, the first two rounds of the playoffs could be unencumbered — without competition from NFL games. And the postseason will mostly be completed by the time the new, single transfer portal period is established (the expectation for that is early to mid-January). 'It solves a lot, whether it's the portal being open during the season or what,' Lanning says. 'I just wish we played a similar playoff to every other model that exists in every other sport where you play every Saturday and you get knocked out. There might be byes, but it's not going to be more than 14 days off as opposed to what we had this past season.' Not long ago, College Football Playoff leaders seriously discussed the prospect of shifting up by a week the entire regular season. In fact, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said two years ago that a Week Zero shift should be considered. 'I don't know that anybody's ready to say we can't do it or we can do it,' he said then. However, since Phillips uttered those words, conversations around the prospect have faded. College leaders begrudgingly made the decision to take on the NFL head-to-head with those two first-round playoff games in December. These weren't just any ho-hum NFL games. The 1 p.m. kickoff, on NBC, was the Texans versus the then two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs and quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The 4:30 p.m. kickoff, on Fox, was one of the most attractive division rivalries of the last 20 years: Steelers vs. Ravens. 'They purposely scheduled aggressively against us,' one college football executive told Yahoo Sports then. But moving up the entire season is no easy task. There are long-term game contracts that would need adjusting, such as with venues for conference championship games. Normally played on the first weekend of December, title games would kick off Thanksgiving weekend to allow for, at very least, an agreed-upon 12-day period between the final league title game and the first playoff game. There are plenty more hurdles, like convincing your primary network partner to go along with this. Over the last two years, ESPN executives have expressed to some CFP leaders their concern over how such a move would impact television windows around the holidays. More than 50 FBS games are played during the Thanksgiving week, many of them drama-filled rivalry meetings, like Auburn-Alabama, Michigan-Ohio State and Florida State-Florida. These are rating giants on a holiday week, generating eye-popping figures. If the schedule is shifted up, Thanksgiving week would feature just nine games, and while all of them are conference championships, five of those involve only Group of Five programs. That's not to mention the shifting of the traditional opening weekend, also built around a holiday (Labor Day). However, during Division I conference commissioner meetings last month in Asheville, N.C., administrators re-examined making Week Zero a permanent playing date for college football teams, but without moving up the entire season. It would provide an additional bye week for teams. For now, schools wanting to play on Week Zero must be granted a waiver by NCAA governance committees. Lanning would love to see that end, and for Week Zero to become Week 1, no more playoff byes and a postseason that ends before mid-January. 'If anyone ever asks me what's the one thing I could change in college football,' he said, 'it's always that.'
