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USA Today
4 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Massive College Football Playoff expansion risks diluting sport's unique regular season
Earlier in the offseason, Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule joked that the College Football Playoff should expand to 40 teams. But at SEC media days, Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz suggested the playoff should expand to 30 -- and he didn't appear to be joking. Of course, either program could really benefit from expansion. Nebraska has only made one bowl game since 2016. The Tigers, however, did make a New Year's Six game before the playoff expanded to 12 teams this past year, winning against Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. Here are Drinkwitz's comments: "Now you've got 30 teams, 30 teams. Now you're talking about an opportunity for 30 teams, 30 fan bases to be excited and engaged, engaged in giving revenue. You've got 30 teams with players who have access to compete for a championship,' Drinkwitz said. 'So, for me, I think that makes a lot more sense.' No -- just, no. College football is (or was) the best sport in the world. The big differentiating factor from others is that the regular season, in and of itself, was a playoff, or a play-in. You could afford to lose one in the four-team College Football Playoff era, and even then, it depended on who you lost to. With the expansion to 12, one team (OSU) entered the playoff with two losses (one to unranked, five-loss Michigan); the other participant, Notre Dame, lost at home to Northern Illinois early in the season. During the four-team era, both would, essentially, be disqualified. However, both got in, made runs, and got into the final game. Some would argue that that means expansion was necessary. I disagree. The results in-season need to mean something. And giving teams multiple mulligans dilutes the importance of the College Football Playoff and the national championship. Note, this isn't just preserving Michigan's 2023 win -- the 2016 and 2018 teams very well could have won it all (especially the former) if the playoff had been expanded. However, in-season results meant something, and the Wolverines were on the outside looking in. And, in my opinion, rightly so. To allow more and more teams in to compete to win a national championship lessens the importance of the regular season. It also lessens the significance of making the playoff. When it was four teams, it meant something, being able to hang that College Football Playoff insignia in your building. Like bandied about in the movie, The Social Network, exclusivity means something. But to keep expanding to let teams in that couldn't make the four-team iteration dilutes the product. Yes, some teams found success in the first year of the 12-team version. Some expected (like Ohio State), others got in for the first time (Penn State, SMU, Boise State, etc.). While that was certainly a special moment for the latter teams, and their fan bases were more excited, does that make the product of college football better? I'd argue, no. Be better in the regular season, make the climb -- that's what makes a season special, not just going on a late run against what might be more favorable matchups. In the 1980s NBA, the Lakers had to overcome the superior Celtics. Once they had, the Pistons had to overcome the superior Lakers. Once they had, the Bulls had to overcome the superior Pistons. There's something to be said about the climb, and while there can still be a climb, the bar for entry even with 12 teams is too low. Michigan fans will tell you that making the four-team playoff after being on the outside looking in made the 2021-23 run particularly special. 2021 was unexpected, 2022 was expected but finished in disappointment, but 2023 -- the national championship year -- came with overcoming Alabama and then Washington. I don't think a single Wolverines fan would trade that run for getting additional chances in 2016 or 2018. So, this isn't even just an argument about 30 teams as Drinkwitz suggests -- this is an argument that even 12 teams is too much. 30? That's just insane. And considering that there's talk, already, of expanding from 12 to 16, someone needs to put a stop to this, because a 30-team playoff, honestly, isn't terribly unrealistic considering the trajectory. Yet, with programs desiring shortcuts, greed at the top of the sport, and people running things that don't seem to understand what makes the sport special, we're teetering on the brink of losing college football and its unique system that differentiates it from everything else in the world. We need fewer teams in the College Football Playoff -- not more.
USA Today
4 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Where Tennessee football is predicted to finish in 2025 SEC standings
2025 will mark the fifth football season for Tennessee under head coach Josh Heupel. He has compiled a 37-15 (20-12 SEC) record with the Vols from 2021-24. Heupel guided Tennessee to its first College Football Playoff appearance in program history last season. He is also 2-2 versus both Alabama and Florida. 'Embarking into year five, as I was getting ready for today, I really rewound back to year one and how myself and our staff came to Tennessee and the adversity in which we took the program over,' Heupel said at SEC media days. 'I'm really proud of what we've done, from roster management to some of the recruiting things we've had to deal with. It's how I know our best is in front of us. What has crippled other programs in the past, University of Tennessee and our football program has been able to flourish. You look over the last three years, 30 wins, the most wins in Tennessee in the stretch of three years of Tennessee football since the late '90s, if you look at the College Football Playoff, New Year's Six bowl wins, you look at what we've done in the NFL draft. The best stretch of NFL draft picks in Tennessee in over two decades. "While we've been able to have that success on the field, players have done an unbelievable job inside our community. Each year we've set a team GPA record in the history of Tennessee football. I'm extremely proud of what our staff and our players have done here in a short amount of time." Following SEC media days, media members voted on the order of finish for league teams in 2025. Tennessee is predicted to finish in ninth place. Texas is projected to win the SEC and Georgia is second. Follow Vols Wire on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).
New York Times
03-06-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Why does the Big Ten want four automatic CFP bids? The league's case has a long history
Five months after winning its second consecutive College Football Playoff national championship, the Big Ten has emerged bruised and battered from the process of proposing automatic qualifiers for an expanded CFP beginning with the 2026 season. The Big Ten has for months recommended a CFP plan that would give four automatic bids to itself and the SEC, two each to the ACC and Big 12 and one for the top conference champion from the other six leagues (4+4+2+2+1). If the size of the postseason expands from 12 to 16, as almost all stakeholders expect, the format allows for three at-large selections to make the field. Advertisement Other conferences have come out against it, strongly so in some cases. The ACC and Big 12 are in lockstep with a '5+11' plan, which would give the five highest-ranked conference champions and 11 highest-ranked at-large teams entry into the Playoff. The SEC appears to be trending in that direction, too, after commissioner Greg Sankey supplied media with a multi-page breakdown of his league's strength-of-schedule prowess last week. No longer wounded by their 1-5 record against the Big Ten during the 2024-25 postseason, Sankey and SEC officials have successfully flipped the narrative. The Big Ten now looks like the arrogant bad actor hell-bent on enriching itself at the expense of its competition and the sport. Despite the Big Ten's prolonged silence on this topic and others, people in and around the league have expressed that's not the case. The Big Ten is willing to budge on guaranteed CFP qualifiers, but the uneven number of conference games among the power leagues gives the Big Ten pause on allowing a selection committee to wield the power of placing 11 at-large teams in the CFP field. The Big Ten and Big 12 play nine league games; the SEC and ACC play eight. Thirteen of the Big Ten's 18 teams compete against at least 10 power-conference opponents in 2025; 13 of the SEC's 16 teams face only nine power-conference teams. Unless the SEC moves to nine league games, don't expect the Big Ten to move on wanting guaranteed CFP slots. There's too much scheduling variance. The Big Ten has historical grounds to distrust a system that was supposed to reward strength of schedule and other concrete metrics and instead leaned into subjectivity to make prior selections. In July 2015, former Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany brought out slides and unveiled his '1910' scheduling plan, designed to make his conference champion competitive for the four-team CFP. The numbers represented one title game, nine league games, one intersectional power-conference opponent and no contests against Football Championship Subdivision competition. Delany believed his strategy would position the Big Ten well for its best team to earn a CFP spot and for non-champions to make New Year's Six bowl games. Advertisement 'I think that's responsive to what the College Football Playoff committee is looking for,' Delany said at the time. 'We think it's what our fans want. We think it's what our players want. And we think it's what the College Football Playoff committee wants.' Delany found out he was wrong, and he was furious. In 2017 and 2018, Big Ten champion Ohio State missed the CFP. It played nonconference games against Oklahoma in '17 and TCU in '18. The 2017 Buckeyes beat No. 6 Wisconsin, No. 9 Penn State and No. 16 Michigan State, but they finished fifth, behind Alabama, which beat only two teams that made the final rankings (No. 17 LSU, No. 23 Mississippi State) and didn't win its division. Considering Alabama won the national title that year, that was more of a disappointment than a snub to Delany. But in 2018, the committee disregarded the strategy with stakes one rung below the Playoff. In the final CFP rankings, Florida came in at No. 10 with LSU at No. 11 and Penn State at No. 12. All three teams were 9-3, but the SEC teams moved up to New Year's Six bowls. Again, the strength of schedule disparity chapped Delany most. Florida played four nonconference games: two FCS opponents, Colorado State (3-9) and Florida State (5-7). The Gators' three losses came by an average of 17 points. Penn State played three nonconference games, including one against ACC Coastal Division champion Pittsburgh and 11-2 Appalachian State. Penn State's losses came to 13-1 Ohio State, 10-3 Michigan and 7-6 Michigan State. Yet Delany felt the committee ignored nonconference scheduling when stacking those teams. 'The actual language in the founding document says, 'When comparing teams with similar records and similar resumes, should look at strength of schedule as well as winning conference championships,'' Delany said in 2019. 'I'm not sure that the strength of schedule or the conference championship has been adequately rewarded, in my personal view.' Advertisement The recent disagreements over selection criteria for the 12-team CFP date to what transpired in 2017 and 2018. Last year, Indiana finished 11-1 in the regular season, but a trio of 9-3 SEC teams barked about scheduling when the Hoosiers earned a CFP spot over them. Indiana's overall strength of schedule metrics were weak, but by the end of the postseason, it was the only team in the nation to play both the 2023 (Michigan, Washington) and 2024 CFP finalists (Ohio State, Notre Dame). The Hoosiers were one of just two Big Ten squads to face only nine power-conference opponents last year, but the trio of SEC teams had also played just nine power-conference teams. The nine-game schedule matters to the Big Ten because of the risks involved — it creates one extra loss for half the league compared to the SEC. Ohio State's lone conference losses in each of the 2017 and 2018 seasons came at West Division schools. Had the Big Ten played only eight league contests those years, Ohio State might not have traveled to those venues. Although the push for four guaranteed slots appears self-serving, out of the Power 4 leagues, only the Big Ten would have seen its number of CFP participants drop in the last four years with that plan compared to the 5+11 model, based on each power conference's current composition. With the 5+11 plan, the Big Ten would have qualified 20 teams, one more than the SEC (19), while the Big 12 and ACC would have 10 and nine, respectively. In a 4-4-2-2-1 model, the SEC and ACC numbers would stay the same, while the Big Ten's would drop by two and the Big 12's would rise by two. In a 5+11 plan, the SEC would have had three qualifiers in 2021 and '22 but seven in '23 and six in '24. Without uniform scheduling, Big Ten officials are concerned that an open 5+11 plan would cause more schools to ease up on their nonconference slates rather than play other power-conference schools; one recently called it a 'race to the bottom.' With guaranteed spots, nonconference games would have little impact on CFP qualification. Without guaranteed spots, teams may protect their records and not risk playing high-level nonconference games. Lastly, without divisional play in a larger conference, Big Ten officials believe guaranteed slots provide more teams with a major goal, especially if the Big Ten (and possibly the SEC) added two play-in games to decide some of its spots in a 16-team CFP. Had that format taken place last year, Indiana would have played Iowa and Illinois would have played Ohio State in December with CFP berths at stake. 'I love that,' Illinois coach Bret Bielema told The Athletic this spring. 'It makes all the games meaningful.' Advertisement The Big Ten and SEC have control over the next CFP era, so it's up to them, with consultation from other conferences, to find the best path forward. But until the Big Ten's scheduling concerns are met, don't expect it to fold anytime soon on its desire for guaranteed CFP bids. (Photo of Ohio State's 2017 Big Ten title game win: Joe Robbins / Getty Images)
USA Today
01-06-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Iowa football legend among top 25 coaches of the 21st century
Iowa football legend among top 25 coaches of the 21st century As the 2025-26 college football season is just around the corner, The Athletic's Chris Vannini ranked the nation's top 25 head coaches of the 21st century, with Iowa's Kirk Ferentz making the list among the sport's elite names. According to Vannini's rankings, Ferentz was named as the No. 22 coach on the list. Vaninni shared that the Iowa legend's consistency is underrated amongst other coaches of his stature. Ferentz will pass Woody Hayes as the winningest coach in Big Ten history with two more victories. His consistency is underrated, reaching bowl eligibility in 23 of the last 24 seasons with five top-10 finishes. The Hawkeyes have had five Top 25 finishes in the last seven seasons but no top-10 finishes since 2015. - Chris Vaninni, The Athletic. Regarding the accomplishments that allowed the Hawkeyes' head coach to reside in the No. 22 slot, Vaninni listed Ferentz's two Big Ten championships, five top-10 finishes, three BCS and New Year's Six bowl appearances and eight double-digit-win seasons as evidence to support his ranking. Ferentz took over the head coaching duties in Iowa City in the 1999 season following the illustrious career of College Football Hall of Fame coach Hayden Fry, who retired after a 143-89-6 record over 20 years with the Hawkeyes. Despite struggles in the early years of Ferentz's tenure at Iowa, the Hawkeyes' program eventually found even ground and has now evolved into a well-respected program that has continuously developed NFL-ready talent year after year. Ferentz's recent success with the Hawkeyes also places Iowa in an elite group of programs that have recorded at least eight wins in each of the last 10 seasons, joining Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, and Ohio State. Concerning how other Big Ten coaches fared in the rankings, 10 of the top 25 names listed either currently coach or were formerly involved with a program in the now-18-member Big Ten conference. That lists includes, former Oregon and UCLA coach Chip Kelly at No. 24, former Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio at No. 21, current USC coach Lincoln Riley at No. 20, current Penn State coach James Franklin at No. 15, current Ohio State coach Ryan Day at No. 11, former Washington head coach Chris Petersen at No. 10, former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh at No. 8, former Ohio State coaches Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer listed at No. 7 and No. 2 respectfully, with former USC coach Pete Carroll between the two Buckeyes at No. 3. Due to the recent criteria alteration for induction into the College Football Hall of Fame, former Texas Tech, Washington State, and Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach is eligible for a posthumous entry. Ferentz's 59.8% all-time win record would make him eligible for immediate consideration upon retirement. With Iowa preparing for its upcoming 2025-26 season over the summer, could a particularly successful season in Iowa City constitute a higher ranking for the Hawkeyes' winningest head coach among his peers? Fans can make that judgment once Iowa's season begins on Aug. 30, when the Hawkeyes host Albany from Kinnick Stadium at 5 p.m. CT on FS1. Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes, and opinions. Follow Scout on X: @SpringgateNews
USA Today
09-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Brian Kelly's top five offenses: Here are Kelly's top units from his 21-year FBS career
Brian Kelly's top five offenses: Here are Kelly's top units from his 21-year FBS career LSU football head coach Brian Kelly has coached FBS football for 21 years. After a successful tenure at the D-II ranks, he took over Central Michigan in 2004. From there, Kelly went to Cincinnati before landing at Notre Dame. LSU hired Kelly at the tail end of 2021 and Kelly is set to begin year four with the Tigers in 2025. In his 21 years, Kelly has won 195 football games. A national title has eluded Kelly, but he's led teams to several playoff and New Year's Six bowl appearances. You don't win that many games without good offense, especially in the 21st-century version of college football. Kelly has been a head coach since 1991. He's not a guy with an "offensive" or "defensive" background. He's your classic football coach, involved with both sides of the ball. But today, we'll look at Brian Kelly's top five offenses through the years. 5. 2024 LSU Tigers Coming in at No. 5 is Kelly's most recent offensive unit. LSU's 2024 offense took a step back from the gaudy numbers we saw in 2023, but that was expected with the loss of Jayden Daniels, Malik Nabers, and Brian Thomas Jr. Joe Sloan was in his first year calling the plays after Mike Denbrock left for Notre Dame. Despite the losses, the Tigers still finished the year No. 11 in ESPN's offensive SP+ rankings. QB Garrett Nussmeier has one of the most talented arms that Kelly has ever coached. Nussmeier put on a show in the second half of LSU's upset vs. Ole Miss and looked like an elite QB over LSU's final three games. The 2024 unit struggled to run the ball, but RB Caden Durham finished the campaign with over 1,000 total yards. Kyren Lacy and Aaron Anderson led a talented wide receiver group and left tackle Will Campbell is slated to be a first-round pick. 4. 2017 Notre Dame Fighting Irish LSU fans got to meet Kelly's offense in 2017. The Fighting Irish capped their year off with a win over Ed Orgeron's LSU in the Citrus Bowl. According to Sports Reference OSRS rating, the 2017 Notre Dame offense was the ninth-best unit in the country. Notre Dame's 7.99 yards per play ranked No. 14 in FBS, but the rushing attack was lethal, ranking No. 3 nationally in yards per carry. Running back Josh Adams was the centerpiece, racking up 1,430 yards. The Irish didn't have a single standout at WR, but it was a talented group that featured Chase Claypool and EQ St. Brown. Quarterback Brandon Wimbush completed less than 50% of his passes, but averaged 13.8 yards per completion. 3. 2015 Notre Dame Fighting Irish The 2015 Notre Dame offense ranked No. 7 nationally in yards per play and scored 34.2 points per game. The defense was pretty good too and Notre Dame finished No. 11 in the AP Poll after losing to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. Kelly had one of his most talented QBs with Deshone Kizer leading the way. Kizer went on to be a top-60 overall pick in the NFL draft and was highly regarded as a college passer. The Irish boasted a strong RB duo of CJ Prosise and Josh Adams, resulting in ND ranking No. 9 in yards per rush. Notre Dame's overall yards per play mark was also good enough to rank top 10 in the FBS. Wide receiver Will Fuller added an explosive threat on the outside, racking up 1,258 yards and 14 touchdowns while averaging over 20 yards per catch. 2. 2009 Cincinnati Bearcats Kelly doesn't get the Notre Dame job without his 2009 Cincinnati offense. The Bearcats unit was one of the best in the country on its way to a Sugar Bowl appearance. Cincinnati averaged 7.0 yards per play, which ranked No. 2 in FBS. The passing attack was prolific, averaging over 300 yards per contest. The Bearcats ranked fourth in OSRS and QB Tony Pike tossed 29 touchdowns. Wide receiver Mardy Gilyard totaled 1,191 yards on the year. Gilyard, along with WR Armon Binns, combined for 22 scores. The passing attack was the main event, but running back Isaiah Pead averaged 6.7 yards per rush and finished the year with over 1,000 total yards. This offense scored 40+ points on six occasions. 1. 2023 LSU Tigers No. 1 is no surprise. The 2023 LSU offense wasn't just the best of Brian Kelly's coaching career, it was one of the best in college football history. LSU posted a 20-yard play rate of 12.7%. That was the best mark in the country by a wide margin. LSU averaged 8.4 yards per play and led FBS In yards per pass and yards per carry. It was complete dominance across the board. Quarterback Jayden Daniels put up historic numbers and Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr. will go down as one of the best receiving duos in college football history. LSU led the country with 45.5 points per game, but a lackluster defense cost Kelly and LSU a chance at a playoff appearance and a national title run. Regardless, this unit is the best of Kelly's career.
