Jon Joseph

Good call. In 2025, SC did not lose a home game, including wins over Iowa and Michigan. Three road losses came at Illinois, Notre Dame, in a torrential rainstorm, and at Oregon, 27 to 42, but only 13 to 14 in the 2nd half. With Notre Dame off the schedule and even with a home game vs Ohio State, the game against Oregon is job No. 1 for Riley and company.

Next Week's PO Poohbahs Meeting in Chicago could see a PO expansion breakthrough. https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-playoff-expansion-16-24-team-formats/

What do the schedules say? Will 2 losses mean a PO bid? https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2026/08/04/cfp-bracket-prediction-college-football-playoff-rankings-top-25-preseason/91068181007/?utm_source=usat-path-to-playoff-nletter76&utm_medium=email&utm_campaig

Five teams that could have been ranked include two 2026 opponents, Boise State and Illinois. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2026/08/04/college-football-rankings-preseason-poll-top-25-snubs-2026/91067815007/?utm_source=usat-path-to-playoff-nletter76&utm_medium=email&utm_ca

The Hoosiers Were Hosed! And the SEC is Overrated. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2026/08/04/college-football-rankings-coaches-poll-top-25-indiana-notre-dame-hot-takes/91062358007/

Overrated! https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2026/08/04/college-football-rankings-top-25-poll-most-overrated-teams-2026/91067845007/

USA Today's thoughts on the top 25 - https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2026/08/04/college-football-rankings-top-25-coaches-poll-preseason/91067938007/?utm_source=usat-path-to-playoff-nletter76&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sportsgr

Agreed, LH. When the current scheduling format concludes in 2028, I hope that B1G HQ will have the four West Coast teams playing every season. If this means one more season to play every Big Ten opponent twice, so be it. One fewer trip to the Central or Eastern time zone for the 'Pac-4' and one fewer B1G team having to trip West.

Reviewing the Bidding - 9 SEC teams, 6 in the top 12. 8 Big Ten Teams, 3 in the top 12. 4 B12 teams, and 3 ACC teams, and No. 5 Notre Dame. No.7 Miami would be the ACC's sole PO participant (sorry, Coach Narduzzi😁), with Notre Dame the PO 5th seed. Think this would Just Mean More to Greg Sankey? No. 12 Texas Tech, the only B12 participant, would knock No. 11 Alabama out of the 12-team field. 12-seed G6 No. 35 Boise State would also add to Bama's misery and help to keep 13 LSU out of the PO. Please, football gods, let this happen! 😇 With eight teams ranked, the Big Ten is only one off the SEC's nine teams ranked. But here's the rub: five SEC teams are ranked between No. 6 Indiana and No. 14 USC. On the field, over the last two seasons in particular, the middle of the SEC has not been superior to the middle of the Big Ten. The coaches don't get this. And based on two seasons of PO committee rankings, neither do the members of the committee. SEC-centric ranking is the main reason Tony Petitti and the Big Ten insist on a 24-team PO field. The B1G will not budge from this number of PO participants. Especially when Petitti's format no longer includes automatic qualifiers. The ACC, B12, and Notre Dame back the Big Ten PO format; the SEC, carrying ESPN's exclusive broadcast bucket of water, wants a 16-team field, and why not? In 2025, a 16-team PO field would have included 7 SEC and 3 Big Ten teams. No. 16 USC would have been knocked out by G5 Tulane. Overrated IMO: No. 8 Texas A&M, no 2025 wins over an SEC team that won more than six games and a PO home loss. No. 9 Oklahoma. Shut down by 3-loss Texas, and also shut down in a 1st-round PO game loss to a 3-loss Bama team. No. 11 Alabama. One starting player returns on offense, and the starting QB will have no experience as a starter. No. 18 Tennessee. Why are the Vols, whose QB will have no starts, ranked ahead of a UW team with an experienced returning QB? No. 25 Missouri. Thrown into the top 25 for lack of a better idea? In 2025, these Tigers did not defeat a team with a winning record. Others Receiving Votes of interest to Oregon: 29 Illinois, 35 Boise State, 36 Oklahoma State, and 41 Nebraska. If CFB, like CBB, used a Quad System to value wins and losses, there would be 34 teams in Quad 1, and Oregon would play these Quad 1 opponents: No. 1 Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio; 14 USC in LA; 16 Michigan; 19 Washington; and 29 Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. The home opener vs 35 Boise State is a game against the highest-ranked G6 team and what would be the top-ranked Quad 2 team. With the game being played on the road in Stillwater, Oklahoma, the game vs 36 Oklahoma State would be a CBB Quad 1 game. The Coaches Preseason Poll Playoff. 1. Ohio State vs 9. Oklahoma at 8. Texas A&M 4. Texas vs 12. Boise State at 5. Notre Dame 2. Oregon vs 11. Texas Tech at 6. Indiana 3. Georgia vs 10. Mississippi at 7. Miami I do not want to hear the same stuff we heard in 2025 from SEC-centric (expletive deleted 🤬) Dixiecrats. A two-loss Oregon will not be on the bubble but will be a PO team. Beat Boise!

O - O 😍 Ohio State is No.1 and OBD 2nd! On3College Football Rankings: USA Today reveals Preseason Co....

O-O - The Preseason Coaches Poll is Out - Ohio State No. 1 and Oregon 2nd. On3College Football Rankings: USA Today reveals Preseason Co....

SC is the biggest brand on the West Coast, and whether it's correct or not, SC is The West Coast football Blueblood and the only team other than Oregon in the Pacific and Mountain time zones with a Blue Chip Roster. Now that SC has upped its recruiting game and portal-picking prowess, SC is Oregon's top West Coast competitor for talent, especially SoCal talent. Outside of the Eastern time zone, SC is Oregon's B1Ggest challenger for a spot in the PO. 9/26/26 in LA is a program-defining game for SC and a game Dan Lanning knows he needs to win to continue Oregon's West Coast supremacy. The number of eyeballs on the SC game will dwarf those for all other 2026 games, except the 11/7/26 game against Ohio State in Columbus, with a good chance that GameDay and Big Noon will be in town. I think the game will kick off at 7:30 Eastern. The biggest SEC game on 9/26/26 is Texas at Tennessee, scheduled to be broadcast at Noon Eastern. Current Odds - Oregon -5.5 - Over/Under 58.5 Great topic, thanks.

Oregon, not Ohio State, would be Troy's 2026 statement win. https://trojanswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/trojans/football/2026/08/03/dan-lanning-no-reason-distrust-oregon-usc-respond/91115792007/

When it comes to 🤑, the Power 2 are best of frenemies. https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football/article/the-big-ten-and-sec-already-owned-college-football-now-theyre-running-roughshod-on-capitol-hill-153711594.html

31 teams (!) with a chance of being in the 2026 PO field - https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/49465229/college-football-playoff-31-teams-make-cfp

Polly went to the market and dropped these odds. 😁 Five and dime for OBD. 5th best odds to win it all at 10% On32026 National Championship Polymarket odds entering colle...At Polymarket, traders are already taking positions on which program will win the national championship in 2026.

Of course, there are always repercussions. Good news for Indiana State with the potential to take the bus and earn a $1 million-plus body bag check. On3Notre Dame-Indiana home-and-home series canceled as Irish...Notre Dame and USC are renewing their rivalry. As a result, the Fighting Irish and Indiana will no longer play in 2030 and 2031.

Four-year series starting in 2030 after Notre Dame agreed to play the games earlier in the season. Not many traditions are left in CFB. I'm glad this series is back. 2030? Will Marcus Freeman be coaching in the NFL? Will Linc be missing from LA? 2030 through 2034, how often will Oregon be scheduled to play SC? I'm hoping that after the current B1G schedules conclude in 2028, the four West Coast teams will play one another every season. On3USC, Notre Dame renew rivalry with series beginning in 2030The USC-Notre Dame rivalry is officially back. USC announced Monday that it has reached an agreement with Notre Dame.

NCAA responds to the amended ruling. On3NCAA responds to Colorado judge's clarification on class-...The NCAA has responded to a Colorado judge's clarification on the class-wide injunction of the age-based eligibility model.

USC and Notre Dame will play a four-game series beginning in 2030. Notre Dame blinked and agreed to play SC in the season opener. SuperWest SportsUSC and Notre Dame to renew rivalry in four-game series b...USC and Notre Dame will renew their storied rivalry and compete once again for the Jeweled Shillelagh beginning in 2030.

The USA Today Coaches Poll will be released tomorrow, 8/4/26, at Noon Eastern on YouTube.

Thank you, David, for another terrific article. I'm surprised Dan Lanning didn't melt down in December of 2025. His DC and OC were off to HC jobs and had to keep the recruits pledged to Cal and Kentucky intact and keep the players they wanted to retain out of the portal. Will and Tosh were not encouraging players to remain at Oregon for another season and continue to play for their DC or OC. Dan also had to keep the 2026 class in place, try to retain all of the players he wanted to keep on the roster, and bring in the portal players he wanted. This while preparing for a 1st-round PO game against JMU and then dealing with the logistics of playing the next round in Miami. 🤪 A Coach Crazy-making calendar. The Big Ten wanted the portal closed until the playoffs concluded. But the B1G's logical proposal was rejected. Sound familiar? The CFB calendar penalizes the top teams, which makes no sense. The Protect College Sports Act would provide relief. Like the NFL, there would be restrictions on 'free agency,' penalties for poaching players and coaches before the end of the season, and no coach could be hired by another team before the conclusion of the playoffs. A 24-team playoff and the additional games are in the valuation process. There is no reason to expand the field if the games are not worth the candles. If the price is right, this will bring an end to conference champ games, which college coaches (except Mario 🙃) would be happy to see disappear. With a 1st-round bye, a team has to play 15 games to win it all. 16 games if you do not have a 1st-round bye. No coach whose team is a lock for the field wants to play an extra game against a motivated, quality opponent. A 2025 B12 champ game knocked 12-2 BYU out of the playoffs. (Of course, 10-3 Bama's champ game loss to Georgia didn't count. 🤬) Indiana went 16-0 with a mature roster and all assistant coaches on deck. The Hoosiers were able to overcome injuries, including a bizarre post-champ-game injury to Indiana's best DL player, but no position group was devastated, and no top backups left for the portal. It takes skill and luck to win it all. In the champ game, the Miami kicker bounced a FG try off the goalpost. An extra point try by the Indiana kicker hit the upright and bounced through the goalpost. And a special teams blocked punt for a TD was critical to the Indiana win. It will take skill, luck, and overcoming ridiculous waits between games for OBD to play for it all in Las Vegas on 1/25/27. Thanks again, David, and Beat Boise!

The Judge clarifies and limits her 5-for-5 eligibility ruling. Agents cannot be happy. 😍 AP NewsJudge clarifies NCAA eligibility order, which could blunt...The judge who granted the right to play another year of college sports to some athletes whose eligibility ran out last school year issued a new order to make clear that does not include football playe

The SEC, where being 2nd Hertz so bad. 😁

DanL, redshirts have been torn up and tossed away. No more redshirts in college athletics. You have five years of eligibility beginning with the earlier of when you enroll or turn 19 years of age. There are exceptions for military service and religious missions. Injured? Too bad because injuries will not extend your eligibility; we'll see if this holds up. The Protect College Sports Act includes antitrust protection for the 5 & 5 eligibility rule.