The Original
College Football Czar
2023 Season Preview
a sports publication from The Shinbone
by Daniel Clark
Welcome to the 2023 season preview issue of The College Football Czar, a seasonal sports publication by the author and editor of The Shinbone. In the coming months, you will find weekly analyses of upcoming college football action posted at this site. To find out more, please consult the Ground Rules.
This issue contains the Czar's rankings for all 133 teams in Division I-A football, as well as conference preview capsules, potential upsets to watch for, bowl projections, and a guide to help you locate head coaches and starting QBs on the move. Most importantly, it includes early nominees for the Lardhead of the Year Award, which the Czar never gets around to actually awarding, but for which he dispenses nominations promiscuously.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
COACHING
MOVES
New coach ..... arriving
at ..... previous position ..... former coach
Kenny Dillingham ..... Arizona
State ..... off. coord. Oregon
..... Herm Edwards
Hugh
Freeze ..... Auburn ..... head
coach Liberty ..... Bryan Harsin
Tim
Beck ..... Coastal Carolina ..... off.
coord. Nc State ..... Jamey Chadwell
Biff Poggi ..... Charlotte ..... assoc. HC Michigan ..... Will Healy
Scott Satterfield ..... Cincinnati
..... head coach Louisville .....
Luke Fickell
Deion Sanders ..... Colorado .....
head coach Jackson St. (D I-AA)
..... Karl Dorrell
Tom Herman ..... Florida Atlantic
..... off. analyst Chicago Bears
..... Willie Taggart
Brent
Key ..... Georgia Tech ..... OL
coach/interim HC Georgia Tech ..... Geoff Collins
Kenni Burns ..... Kent State ..... RB coach Minnesota ..... Sean Lewis
Jamey Chadwell ..... Liberty ..... head coach Coastal Carolina ..... Hugh Freeze
Jeff Brohm ..... Louisville ..... head coach Purdue ..... Scott Satterfield
Zach
Arnett ..... Mississippi St. ..... def.
coord. Mississippi St. ..... Mike Leach
Brian Newberry ..... Navy ..... def. coord. Navy ..... Ken Niumatalolo
Matt Rhule ..... Nebraska ..... head coach Carolina Panthers ..... Scott Frost
Eric Morris ..... North Texas
..... off. coord. Washington St.
..... Seth Littrell
David Braun ..... Northwestern ..... def. coord. Northwestern ..... Pat Fitzgerald
Ryan Walters ..... Purdue ..... def. coord. Illinois ..... Jeff Brohm
Alex Golesh ..... South Florida ..... off. coord. Tennessee ..... Jeff Scott
Troy
Taylor ..... Stanford ..... head
coach Sacramento St. (D I-AA) ..... David Shaw
G.J.
Kinne ..... Texas State ..... head
coach Incarnate Word (D I-AA) ..... Jake Spavital
Kevin Wilson ..... Tulsa ..... off. coord. Ohio St. ..... Philip Montgomery
Trent Dilfer ..... UAB ..... head coach Lipscomb Academy HS ..... Bryant
Vincent
Barry Odom ..... UNLV ..... def. coord. Arkansas ..... Marcus Arroyo
Lance Taylor ..... Western
Michigan ..... off. coord.
Louisville ..... Tim Lester
Luke Fickell ..... Wisconsin .....
head coach Cincinnati ..... Paul
Chryst
ROLLING
HEAD WATCH
The following coaches will have a
difficult time hanging onto their noggins through the 2023 season:
Justin Wilcox, California -- The Golden Bears go up-tempo in an attempt to pump some life into a moribund offense, which has never been better than tenth in the Pac 12 during the coach's six-year tenure. Former Texas State head coach Jake Spavital steps in as offensive coordinator, where he welcomes young, undersized TCU transfer Sam Jackson at quarterback. Three years ago, this might have sounded somewhat exciting, but now it just smacks of desperation. Even when Wilcox has had winning seasons overall, he has never fared any better than 4-5 in conference play. Last year's 4-8 campaign included an overtime loss to a Colorado club that was utterly uncompetitive in its other eleven games. The former Oregon safety was forced to dump fellow UO alumnus Bill Musgrave from his staff to make way for these offensive changes, but is it too late to teach an old duck new tricks?
Dana Holgorsen, Houston -- The former West Virginia coach once known on these pages as the Medusa of Morgantown showed his ugly side early last season, in bizarre postgame remarks in which he declared himself not to be responsible for his players' mental mistakes. If Holgorsen doesn't feel that he's in control of his team, maybe that's because of the way he let quarterback D'Eriq King dictate terms to him when the two of them were at UH in 2019. After a bad start to the season, King decided to redshirt himself so that he could retain a year's eligibility, which he later opted to spend at the University of Miami. The Cougar coach has had two successful seasons in a row, but if he does not meet the raised bar in his return to Big XII competition this season, it may be time to look for someone who can still handle a big-league program.
Tom Allen, Indiana -- The seventh-year head Hoosier hasn't expended all the good will he built up during New Year's bowl appearances to finish the 2019 and 2020 seasons, but he might by the end of a third unsuccessful campaign. In 2021, Allen's offense averaged only 9.8 points per game in conference play, while compiling an 0-9 Big Ten record. An improved 2022 season still included a seven-game losing streak. The upgrade on offense came courtesy of former Missouri QB Connor Bazelak, who now prefers the grass on the other side of the fence, at Bowling Green.
Danny Gonzales, New Mexico -- In all fairness, this program was in a state of decay after its last three years under Bob Davie, but former UNM punter Gonzales is now facing fourth down himself, after failing to show improvement in his first three seasons. He enters the 2023 season on a 15-game Mountain West Conference losing streak, which has included two losses to UNLV. Following this year's opener at Texas A&M, the Lobos have an excellent chance for a three-game winning streak, against Tennessee Tech (I-AA), New Mexico State and Umass. If this soft schedule can't significantly improve the coach's .226 winning percentage, it's time to give up and admit that they've taken yet another wrong turn in Albuquerque.
Thomas Hammock, Northern Illinois -- After leading the Huskies on a remarkable turnaround in 2021, the coach was signed to a contract extension. Since the 2022 season went to mush, the athletic director might be feeling like an Iditarod. Once former Michigan State QB Rocky Lombardi went down with a leg injury, winning was hardly a thing for NIU, let alone the only thing. The real disappointment was on the defensive side of the ball, where Hammock's team was hung out to dry for more than 3,000 passing yards. Entering his fifth season with a record of 17-27, how long can Hammock rest on the laurels of his lone winning season?
Dino Babers, Syracuse -- One might think a 7-6 season would have bought the eighth-year coach a little time, but he still has a record of only 36-49 with the Orange, a program that could feel renewed pressure in the ACC's merit-based revenue system. SU started the 2022 season 6-0, before losing six of its last seven, including a Pinstripe Bowl defeat against Minnesota. So it's not as if the coach will be riding a wave of fan excitement going into this season. If Babers' boys don't go 4-0 against a typically tepid nonconference schedule, he may not survive a conference-opening gauntlet consisting of Clemson, North Carolina and Florida State
Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M -- The sixth-year Aggie coach, who had amassed an incredible 83-23 record at Florida State, now seems to think he can obtain legendary status by association, by picking feuds with more successful coaches in the SEC. A 39-21 record in his current position may sound respectable enough, but the ampersanders had expected him to make them perennial national contenders. Yet Fisher has not led them to a single 10-win season, falling to a career-low 5-7 in 2022. Returning to a winning record this year shouldn't be hard, having settled on steady QB Conner Weigman midway through last season, and facing a nonconference schedule consisting of a meandering Miami team, along with New Mexico, Louisiana-Monroe and Division I-AA Abilene Christian. Simply breaking the .500 barrier isn't nearly good enough, however, at a program that once fired longtime coach R.C. Slocum, who never had a losing season during a 123-47-2 career.
QB TRANSFER TRACKER
Name ..... arriving at
..... previous team ..... starting status
Tyler Buchner ..... Alabama ..... Notre Dame ..... contested
Drew Pyne ..... Arizona State ..... Notre Dame ..... likely
J.T. Shroud ..... Arkansas State ..... Colorado ..... likely
Payton Thorne ..... Auburn ..... Michigan State ..... likely
Connor Bazelek ..... Bowling Green ..... Indiana ..... contested
Kedon Slovis ..... Brigham Young ..... Pitt ..... certain
Sam Jackson ..... California ..... TCU ..... certain
Emory Jones ..... Cincinnati ..... Arizona State ..... likely
Graham Mertz ..... Florida ..... Wisconsin ..... contested
Casey Thompson ..... Florida Atlantic ..... Nebraska ..... contested
Mikey Keene ..... Fresno State ..... Central Florida ..... contested
Davis Brin ..... Georgia Southern ..... Tulsa ..... probable
Donovan Smith ..... Houston ..... Texas Tech ..... contested
Luke Altmeyer ..... Illinois ..... Ole Miss ..... likely
Tayven Jackson ..... Indiana ..... Tennessee ..... contested
Cade McNamara ..... Iowa ..... Michigan ..... certain
Jordan McCloud ..... James Madison ..... Arizona ..... contested
Devin Leary ..... Kentucky ..... Nc State ..... certain
Hank Bachmeier ..... Louisiana Tech ..... Boise State ..... probable
Jack Plummer ..... Louisville ..... California ..... likely
Jake Garcia ..... Missouri ..... Miami ..... contested
Brennan Armstrong ..... Nc State .... Virginia ..... probable
Jeff Sims ..... Nebraska ..... Georgia Tech ..... likely
Brendon Lewis ..... Nevada ..... Colorado ..... likely
Dylan Hopkins ..... New Mexico ..... UAB ..... certain
Chandler Rogers ..... North Texas ..... La.-Monroe ..... contested
Sam Hartmann ..... Notre Dame ..... Wake Forest ..... certain
Spencer Sanders ..... Ole Miss ..... Oklahoma State ..... contested
D.J. Uiagalelei ..... Oregon State ..... Clemson ..... likely
Phil Jurkovec ..... Pitt ..... Boston College ..... probable
Hudson Card ..... Purdue ..... Texas ..... certain
J.T. Daniels ..... Rice ..... West Virginia ..... certain
Malik Hornsby ..... Texas State ..... Arkansas ..... likely
Collin Schlee ..... UCLA ..... Kent State ..... contested
Kyron Drones ..... Virginia Tech ..... Baylor ..... contested
Tanner Mordecai ..... Wisconsin ..... SMU ..... certain
WHAT'S
NEW IN 2023
* Rule changes for 2023 -- For starters, the clock will no longer be stopped for first downs, other than to move the chains, except in the last two minutes of each half. This is the latest dastardly trick to take some of the football out of the game because all of the not-football has become so time-consuming. The College Football Czar maintains that the length of college football games, or any other sport except for test match cricket, is not an issue. Keeping the clock running on out-of-bounds plays will undoubtedly shorten the games, but it does nothing to affect pace of play, which is the real issue. Pace of play will be helped, however, by a long overdue rule prohibiting a team from calling consecutive timeouts during the same stoppage of play. Now if only they'd eliminate timeouts in overtime, put a time limit on replay reviews, and actually resume delayed games after 30 minutes with no lightning instead of waiting for the rain to stop, we might be getting somewhere.
* Pac 12 packs it in -- As of 2024, Washington and Oregon will now join USC and UCLA as new members of the Big Ten, while Utah, Colorado and both Arizona schools become members of the Big XII (the numerical nomenclature having become irrelevant long ago). By all appearances, it was the Pac 12's inability to sign a national TV contract that caused the majority of its members to flee. Perhaps there were some Silicon Valley coffeehouse types in the league office who imagined that a carriage deal with Apple-plus would have been a big victory, but in the real world, it just wouldn't have provided the Pac with either the money or the exposure it needed to survive. The four remaining teams, Washington State, Oregon State, Stanford and California, would understandably like to remain in a power conference, but a merger with the Mountain West wouldn't be a bad move at this point.
* Power moves -- The defections of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC don't occur until 2024, but in the meantime, American Athletic Conference members Cincinnati, Houston and UCF have bolted for the Big XII, where they will be joined by former Independent BYU. The AAC has responded by pilfering Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, UAB and UTSA from Conference USA to expand to fourteen teams. The decimated C-USA has become desperate enough to invite New Mexico State, along with newly minted Division I-A teams Sam Houston and Jacksonville State. It does pick up a potential powerhouse, however, in ex-Independent Liberty.
* Parity (maybe) -- Six of the top seven teams from last season's final rankings are breaking in new starting quarterbacks this year. This could clear the way for more than one surprise team in next year's final four, and increase the value of conference rivalries like Clemson-Florida State and Washington-Oregon. Nevertheless, it does not appear likely that a group-of-five team will contend for the CFP, which should come as no surprise, because three of the best teams from the best group-of-five conference have now joined the Big XII.
* A more portable portal -- In an overdue attempt to impose some definition on its transfer rules, the NCAA has reduced portal eligibility to one 45-day window during the spring, and one 60-day window starting the day after the CFP participants are announced. It's an improvement, but the College Football Czar fails to see any justification for opening the portal before the entire season is over. By waiting only until the final four is announced, The Powers That Be Stupid are still encouraging players to transfer before their bowl games. Naturally, any player who has decided to transfer wants to do so at the earliest possible moment, so that he doesn't miss out on any opportunities. The Czar finds it very difficult to believe this is not an intentional act of sabotage, meant to clear the way for a gigantic postseason tournament by euthanizing the bowls.
* Big Ten turns to new networks -- Starting this season, Big Ten games will no longer air on the Disney Family of Diddlers. Instead, the league has signed contracts with NBC and CBS, to go along with its existing deal with Fox. In Week 1, for example, the Ohio State-Indiana will be carried on CBS, and Penn State will host nonconference foe West Virginia on NBC, with the rest of the games being carried by FS1 and BTN.
* No non-football nights -- Starting in Week 7, there are college football games Tuesday through Saturday, with the NFL taking over on Sunday and Monday. Sounds great, but is it? By now, we're used to late season MACtion, when the bulk of the Mid-American Conference games are played on Tuesday and Wednesday. With the group-of-five conferences struggling for national exposure, the Sun Belt and Conference USA have now joined the weeknight parade. Selfishly speaking, the College Football Czar is all for this, but he's skeptical that most fans will even be conscious of the existence of these early-week games. Thursday night football works because it's an early kickoff to the weekend, making Friday at work go by a little more happily for college football fans. A Tuesday night game between Florida International and UTEP just doesn't have that same effect.
WHAT'S
NOT NEW
* Plus-one remains in place, for now -- The current system, tragically mislabeled a four-team "playoff," but
really just a one-game addendum to the bowl season, still exists for this
season. Next year, there will be an
expanded 12-team playoff format, which, contrary to everything you've heard
from almost everybody in the sports media, will be an atrocity. In December of 2024, there will be four
first-round games a week before Christmas, with the top four seeds having a
bye. The quarterfinals will be played on
Christmas week, using traditional bowl games kind of like shell corporations. Ditto that for the semis a week later, with
the championship continuing to be played too long after the other games have
ended. The bowl games that are
interspersed with the playoffs will obviously become devalued, and will
eventually shrivel and die. The
postseason of college football will thus become the same as it is in every
other sport, which, in comparison to what Bowl Week used to be, will totally
stink.
In addition, there will be the
potential for a team to play as many as 17 games, which will prompt discussions
about whittling back the regular season, perhaps from 12 games to 10. The College Football Czar is guessing that
either one of two things will then happen.
Either many smaller programs, unable to withstand the loss of revenue,
will downgrade or eliminate their programs, or else everybody's season will be
extended by the creation of a series of obscure, lower-echelon tournaments,
just like in basketball.
Furthermore, most of the playoff
games will themselves be terrible. The
prevailing but illogical viewpoint is that players will never opt out of the
playoffs the way they do bowl games, but this only applies to players on the
elite teams, and only for as long as the stigmatization in their cases remains. When we have teams 5-12 playing in the first
round, it may be that everybody on the #5 team sticks around, thinking that
they stand a chance of winning the championship, but players on the #12 team
will be under no such illusion. If they would
abandon their teammates for fear of being injured in one postseason game, then
what about the prospect of playing in as many as four? What we're likely to see is many replays of
last year's Citrus Bowl, in which an already overmatched Purdue team had QB
Aidan O'Connell opt out, along with the nation's second-leading receiver,
Charlie Jones, and star tight end Payne Durham.
The resulting 63-7 slobberknocking by LSU provides a glimpse of the
future of the CFP.
Surely, it won't come to this, you
might think. There must some kind of a
totally sensible plan to deal with these ramifications. The Czar is totally confident in answering
no, there's not. The Powers That Be
Stupid still don't see it coming. That's
because the move toward a college football playoff has been emotionally driven
from the start. Nobody who has been
agitating for it over the past several decades has ever bothered to think it
through beyond step one.
* Nothing done about NIL -- Only now, less than a month before football season, is the NCAA promising to issue rules governing name, image and likeness compensation for college athletes. Among other things, it intends to create a standardized contract, and devise disclosure rules for companies and collectives that offer NIL payments. No word yet on any specific anti-tampering provision. Until that exists, college sports basically have free agency with no restrictions whatsoever. Maryland QB Taulia Tagovailoa recently claimed that an unidentified SEC school offered him $1.5 million to transfer. If he's telling the truth, and the College Football Czar sees no reason to doubt him, the NCAA should demand to know immediately which school that was. NIL payments are supposed to be endorsements paid by the businesses that are using the players' names, images and likenesses. They were not intended (at least by anyone who was willing to admit it at the time) to be direct payments from the universities to the athletes for their services.
* Weak Zero -- Once again, the
college football season begins with a reverse-anticlimax, with seven games on
August 26, most of which are bound to be lame.
It begins with traditional foes Notre Dame and Navy facing off in the
Emerald Island Classic in Dublin, the slumping Midshipmen finding themselves in
a state of transition since the firing of Ken Niumatalolo. The next game of the day at least includes a
curiosity factor, with Division I-A newcomer Jacksonville State hosting
UTEP. Ohio at San Diego State has the
makings of an entertaining battle between small conference contenders, but the
other four games are bound to be a letdown.
The real shame of it is that Week One won't be tremendously much better.
* That wretched song still won't go
away! -- You know the one to which
the Czar is referring. Nuff said.
* College GameDay drags on -- Say what you will about Lee Corso's
continued presence on the show, but he's doing what he was born to do, and the
fans love him, even if it does become difficult watching the infirm 87-year-old
struggle through. The only tolerable studio
show on ESPN might no longer be when the coach is gone, and it doesn't help
that the network has laid off GameDay contributors David Pollack and Gene
Wojciechowski. Last season, the show
added former NFL punter and pro rassler Pat McAfee, who had previously been
with (ugh!) Barstool Sports, the home of blowhards who beg too
desperately for unwarranted attention.
Of course, that's exactly what
they've hired McAfee for, which is actually unfair to him, because it has
placed him in the position of appearing to push Corso out of the spotlight. Furthermore, the Disney Family of FUBAR inked
him up to a five-year, $85 million contract just as it was letting many other
on-air personalities go. So, fans now
perceive him not only as the heartless nemesis of the declining Coach Corso,
but also as the man who indirectly fired Suzy Kolber, among others. This is the guy the fans are supposed to be
yukking it up with from now on, and already a lot of them are disinclined to do
so. The network has set McAfee up to
fail, inasmuch as anybody could be considered a failure at $17 million a year.
LARDHEAD
OF THE YEAR AWARD NOMINEES
* Deion Sanders -- The former
Jackson State skipper, now at Colorado, pronounced himself "ashamed" of the 31
NFL teams that did not draft any players from historically black colleges and
universities (HBCUs), mostly meaning those from the SWAC and the MEAC. Of course, these are Division I-AA
conferences, and it is not the norm for NFL teams to draft players from
divisions lower than I-A. Altogether,
Division I-AA accounted for only 10 of the 259 players drafted in 2023, one of
which was cornerback Isaiah Bolden, whom Sanders coached at JSU. There's nothing unusual about this, and yet
the coach's obvious implication was that those 31 NFL general managers are
somehow racist. One might think that
Sanders, who has been the subject of equally ludicrous criticisms because he
left an HBCU for a better job, would know better. Surely he does, but he's throwing others to
the Wokemonster in hopes that it will eat him last. That ought to buy him all of about eleven
minutes.
* San Diego State -- The Aztecs appeared to have given the
Mountain West Conference notice that they were withdrawing from the league,
only to come back three weeks later and say "never mind." The way it unfolded
is that SDSU had requested an extension to the June 30 deadline for withdrawal,
after which the exit fee would double from $17 million to $34 million. The school wanted to buy this time in order
to see if it would receive an offer to join the Pac 12, which it didn't. The MWC says it took that request as a
"notification of departure," meaning that the Aztecs cease to be a league
member after this season. The only
consolation is that SDSU did not succeed in joining a conference that proved to
be in the process of disintegrating anyway.
It was only two years ago that this program was in serious danger of
disbanding. One might have thought it
would be content with the semblance of stability that is provided by the MWC.
* The Pac 12 -- for not jumping at the chance to accept
SDSU, and reestablish a presence in Southern California, at a time when it was
trying desperately to negotiate a new national TV contract.
* Every announcer who uses the phrase
"mano a mano." -- It means "hand
to hand," but anybody who uses it in this context obviously thinks it means
"man to man." Where did these guys learn
Spanish, from instructional tapes narrated by Fred Sanford?
* The ACC -- There was a period of about 36 hours this past spring when it looked
like this league might be in danger of imploding. In a way, the College Football Czar wishes it
had, just so we wouldn't have to put up with its crap anymore.
After all the sports cancelations
that were caused by Covid, fans were so starved for their return that many of
us had been watching bad Korean baseball before work every morning. By all rights, with all of us still largely
confined to our homes, televised sports should have enjoyed unprecedented
popularity when they finally came back.
Instead, in the wake of the George Floyd riots, all professional sports,
and to a lesser degree the NCAA and certain college sports conferences, decided
that they had a captive audience on which to inflict a merciless stream of
hateful anti-American propaganda, complete with traditional Communist
imagery. Rather than triumphantly
returning to satisfy consumer demand, they took it as an opportunity to show
their contempt for us, as if they imagined themselves rubbing our noses in our
own doody.
The Czar, as you can probably tell,
is forever embittered by the experience.
He will probably never watch the NFL again, he basically considers the
NHL and Major League Baseball to be on probation, and the NBA might as well
have officially become a province of Red China by now. Most odious was Major League Lacrosse, whose
season-ending tournament was the only sporting event taking place at one point
during the shutdown. The league actually
segregated the national anthem, ordering the nonwhite players to stand five
yards apart from the white players in a vague protest against our country that
it did not seriously try to explain. In
an example of what one might call "athletic justice," the league folded shortly
thereafter.
College football was spared to some
degree by the fact that most of the players did not buy into the
propaganda. When given a chance to vote
to poison their games with "social justice" messaging on their uniforms, the
vast majority of them opted instead for benign statements of unity, which were
diametrically opposed to the divisive fomentations in which they'd been
encouraged to immerse themselves. Most
of the conferences, however, behaved disgracefully, and the ACC in particular
seems determined never to let it end. If
it were up to the leaders of this league, the rest of the country would be
reliving the year 2020 in perpetuity.
In a raw exercise in totalitarian
mind control, several leagues including the ACC produced public service
announcements in which head football coaches declared their fealty in hostage
video fashion, staring blankly into the screen while reciting left-wing
political talking points with all the conviction as if they were reading the
ingredients from a can of Beefaroni.
"Potassium chloride, social justice, sodium phosphate, equity, xanthan
gum ...")
It could be even worse. In soccer, the ACC instructs its players to
kneel before every game, during a moment of silence for "social justice." The fact that they don't do it during the
national anthem isn't much of a concession, either. They're behaving like a young boy who sits in
the back seat of the car holding his finger an inch from his sister�s face, and
saying, "I am not touching yoooouu."
The Czar does not expect the ACC to
ever apologize to United States of America, but the least it could do is knock
off this nonsense and move on. Whatever
market may have once existed for this countercultural mindbarf has dried up by
now. Colin Kaepernick has admitted that
his motivation all along has been that he is a Marxist. Almost nobody outside of the media is able to
detect a single redeeming quality in Megan Rapinoe. The WNBA fan base consists almost entirely of
Robin Roberts. It's over. Time for those in charge of the ACC and its
member institutions to put down their raised fists and start behaving like
people, if they can.
THE
CZAR DECREES ...
If the College Football Czar could
issue proclamations changing college football, these are some examples of what
those would entail:
* Put a cork in the portal -- There isn't anything illegal about the way
first-year Colorado coach Deion Sanders used the transfer portal to accelerate
the rebuilding of his program, but there should be. When he first met his new team, he told the
players in no uncertain terms that the vast majority of them were unworthy, and
that if they knew what was good for them, they would transfer immediately. Dozens of them did, and have since been
replaced with incoming transfers. The
purpose of the transfer portal is to give the players additional opportunities
to further their careers, not for coaches to purge their teams of their
predecessors' leftovers. The likelihood
of Sanders' approach having some degree of success will only encourage other
coaches to do the same. To end this
trend before it gets started, the NCAA should place a limit of ten incoming
portal transfers per season per team.
* B real about HBCUs -- The liberal sports media continue to
perversely pine away for the heyday of HBCU football, seemingly oblivious to
the fact that it never would have been in the first place, but for
segregation. The reason you don't see a
lot of great players at schools like Grambling and Alcorn State anymore is that
they're going to LSU and Alabama instead.
This battle has been over for half a century now. Bear Bryant won, and George Wallace
lost. Who could possibly want to pretend
it had turned out another way?
Shallow, self-congratulatory
cowards, that's who. People who want to
prop up the facade of a threat that's long since been beaten into submission,
so that they can make a chest-puffing show of standing up to it, while risking
nothing. To these people, the reason for
the decline of HBCU football cannot be that black college football players in
the South have far better options today.
No, it must be instead that unidentified sinister forces are holding the
HBCUs down.
In fact, the HBCUs receive
preferential treatment when compared to the rest of Division I-AA. Heck, the NFL even has a whole separate
annual combine set aside specially for them.
In addition to the weekly late-night replays on ESPNU, these schools
play their championship game every year on ABC. They call it the Celebration
Bowl, and the media talk about it as if it were a legitimate bowl game, on par
with the Division I-A postseason. This
year, they are the only I-AA conferences to have nationally televised games
during either Week Zero or Week One. Not
even the Ivy League is so privileged, let alone those Division I-AA conferences
that are clearly better than the SWAC and MEAC, like the Missouri Valley
Conference, the Big Sky and the Colonial Athletic Association.
But never fear, you downtrodden
HBCUs; the heroic sports media are here to save you. How?
By talking, and talking, and talking.
Annoyingly. Incessantly. Self-servingly. It's what they do.
* Conduct a review of unsportsmanlike
conduct -- Although college football
clearly takes unsportsmanlike conduct more seriously than the NFL does, there
is still far too much of it that's not being called. Meanwhile, players are getting flagged for
actions that are not unsportsmanlike, because they are specifically proscribed
by the rule book. The College Football
Czar doesn't believe in having unenforced rules, so he suggests repealing
prohibitions against spiking the football, and high-fiving fans in the back of
the end zone. When a player spikes the
ball in the direction of an opponent, the officials would still have the
latitude to penalize him for taunting.
Otherwise, save the flags for the
straw hat and cane routines in the end zone, the high-stepping, the posing, the
"don't call this a throat slash" motion, and basically anything that some
rumpheaded announcer would mischaracterize as "fun." There's no reason for this to be complicated. If a player's conduct is unsportsmanlike, it should
draw an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
If not, it should not.
* Keep terminology on-target -- The College Football Czar can only conclude
that the NCAA is deliberately obscuring the definition of targeting in order to
give the officials cover. The Czar knows
what the head is, and he knows what the neck is, but what in blazes does "the
head and neck area" mean?
Obviously, this must encompass some part of the body other than the head
and neck, but what? Is the collarbone
part of the head and neck area? What
about the upper part of the sternum? The
entire point seems to be to make controversial replay rulings difficult to
dispute.
* If you've opted out, then get out!
-- UAB running back DeWayne McBride
led the nation in rushing during the regular season, but then he quit on his
teammates shortly before their bowl game.
Just to be doubly selfish about it, he didn't make up his mind until
after he had traveled with the team to the Bahamas. No way should this ever happen. Participating in a bowl game should not be
considered optional in the first place, but if a player is going to abandon his
teammates, at least he has the responsibility to do so before tagging along for
a free vacation. If not, he should have
to refund the team for the cost of the air fare, hotel and other expenses. The only justice to come out of the situation
was that he was surpassed in rushing yardage by Brad Roberts of Air Force, who
helped carry his team to victory in the Armed Forces Bowl. Well, that and the fact that McBride lasted
until the seventh and final round of the NFL draft. Had he taken advantage of the national
exposure of a bowl game to showcase himself, perhaps there wouldn't have been
15 other running backs picked ahead of him.
* Revive the rooski -- No, the Czar is not talking about conducting
a seance at Lenin's Tomb. He is
referring of course to the fumblerooski, the trick play in which the
quarterback places the ball on the ground and pretends to run a play in one
direction, only for an offensive lineman to pick it up and start rumbling
around the opposite end. The NCAA
prohibited it in 1993, and college football fans from that era are still
wondering why. Each team is trying to
deceive the other on literally every play.
If the fumblerooski can't be allowed, then what about the halfback
option, or the tackle eligible? You hear
a lot of gasbag analysts on TV complaining about taking the fun out of the game
whenever rules against unsportsmanlike conduct are enforced, but a player
behaving like a posterior pickle in the end zone is not fun. The fumblerooski was fun.
* Banish the Barstool Arizona Bowl -- In a misguided attempt to be trendy and
cool, the NCAA allowed last year's Arizona Bowl to be streamed exclusively on
Barstool Sports, which, thankfully, means very few fans were exposed to
it. The College Football Czar has since
watched the video on YouTube, and he found that as unconventional football
broadcasts go, this made Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football seem like a
stroke of genius.
As anyone should have expected,
Barstool was bent on making itself, and not the postseason football game
between Ohio and Wyoming, the center of attention. The announcing crew
consisted of Barstool founder Dave Portnoy and another pointlessly
argumentative commentator, a gambling-obsessed, lisping weirdo on play-by-play,
and two open mic night rejects as sideline reporters. The five of them combined for a grand total
of no idea know how to even watch a football game, let alone relate it to their
audience.
The experience was roughly the same
as watching the game in a bar, surrounded by obnoxious pipsqueakers from whom
you can't wait to get away. When the
three booth announcers weren't blathering about the betting line, they were
accusing each other of bias, or calling the players, coaches and officials
stupid. At one point, one of the
sideline reporters exhausted about three minutes snickering at a player who was
wearing uniform #69. If that's the kind
of hilarity you like to have intruding on your attempt to enjoy a college
football game, then Barstool Sports is for you.
And you deserve it!
TEAM
RANKINGS, 1-133
1. Georgia (SEC) |
41. Troy (SB) |
81. N. Texas (AAC) |
121. Georgia So. (SB) |
2. Michigan (B10) |
42. UCLA (P12) |
82. Vanderbilt (SEC) |
122. NM St. (CUSA) |
3. Texas (XII) |
43. Minnesota (B10) |
83. Memphis (AAC) |
123. UNLV (MW) |
4. Ohio St. (B10) |
44. Boise St. (MW) |
84. N'western (B10) |
124. Texas St. (SB) |
5. Alabama (SEC) |
45. E. Carolina (AAC) |
85. Va. Tech (ACC) |
125. Sam Hstn (CUSA) |
6. Clemson (ACC) |
46. Ga. Tech (ACC) |
86. So. Miss (SB) |
126. Old. Dom. (SB) |
7. USC (P12) |
47. BYU (XII) |
87. C. Florida (XII) |
127. Akron (MAC) |
8. LSU (SEC) |
48. Wash St. (P12) |
88. UAB (AAC) |
128. N. Mexico (MW) |
9. Florida St. (ACC) |
49. FL Atl. (AAC) |
89. Colorado (P12) |
129. Charlotte (AAC) |
10. Tennessee (SEC) |
50. Miami (ACC) |
90. Ball St. (MAC) |
130. ULM (SB) |
11. Penn St. (B10) |
51. Mich. St. (B10) |
91. Kansas (XII) |
131. FL Int'l (CUSA) |
12. Oregon (P12) |
52. Air Force (MW) |
92. Hawaii (MW) |
132. Ark. St. (SB) |
13. Kentucky (SEC) |
53. Cincinnati (XII) |
93. Miami OH (MAC) |
133. Umass (Ind.) |
14. N. Carolina (ACC) |
54. Arizona St. (P12) |
94. Uconn (Ind.) |
|
15. Wisconsin (B10) |
55. Ohio (MAC) |
95. Navy (AAC) |
|
16. Notre Dame (Ind) |
56. W. Forest (ACC) |
96. SJSU (MW) |
|
17. Utah (P12) |
57. UTSA (AAC) |
97. Kent. St. (MAC) |
|
18. Tulane (AAC) |
58. Wyoming (MW) |
98. ULL (SB) |
|
19. Ole Miss (SEC) |
59. Purdue (B10) |
99. Rice (AAC) |
|
20. Washington (P12) |
60. Louisville (ACC) |
100. Buffalo (MAC) |
|
21. Oklahoma (XII) |
61. Missouri (SEC) |
101. Army (Ind.) |
|
22. Maryland (B10) |
62. Illinois (B10) |
102. App. St. (SB) |
|
23. Nc State (ACC) |
63. Boston Coll (ACC) |
103. No. Illinois (MAC) |
|
24. Auburn (SEC) |
64. Arkansas (SEC) |
104. UTEP (CUSA) |
|
25. Iowa (B10) |
65. Iowa St. (XII) |
105. Tulsa (AAC) |
|
26. TCU (XII) |
66. Florida (SEC) |
106. Bowl Grn (MAC) |
|
27. Marshall (SB) |
67. Baylor (XII) |
107. California (P12) |
|
28. Oregon St. (P12) |
68. Arizona (P12) |
108. Utah St. (MW) |
|
29. W. Kent. (CUSA) |
69. SDSU (MW) |
109. Jax St. (CUSA) |
|
30. Kansas St. (XII) |
70. Stanford (P12) |
110. W. Mich. (MAC) |
|
31. Fresno St. (MW) |
71. Rutgers (B10) |
111. J. Madison (SB) |
|
32. Okla. St. (XII) |
72. W. Virginia (XII) |
112. Temple (AAC) |
|
33. Pitt (ACC) |
73. Syracuse (ACC) |
113. C. Carolina (SB) |
|
34. SMU (AAC) |
74. E. Mich. (MAC) |
114. La. Tech (CUSA) |
|
35. Toledo (MAC) |
75. Miss. St. (SEC) |
115. S. Alabama (SB) |
|
36. Texas Tech (XII) |
76. Indiana (B10) |
116. Colo. St. (MW) |
|
37. Duke (ACC) |
77. S. Florida (AAC) |
117. Liberty (CUSA) |
|
38. S. Carolina (SEC) |
78. Houston (XII) |
118. Georgia St. (SB) |
|
39. Nebraska (B10) |
79. Virginia (ACC) |
119. C. Mich. (MAC) |
|
40. Texas A&M (SEC) |
80. Mid Ten. (CUSA) |
120. Nevada (MW) |
|
CONFERENCE
CAPSULES
American Athletic Conference
Outlook: With the departures from this league to the Big XII,
nobody among the teams that remain would be cocky enough to refer to it as a
"power six." The downgrade should benefit
ECU, which would not have competed with Houston, Cincinnati and UCF in its way,
but now has an outside shot at a conference title. The College Football Czar realizes the
popular perception is that UTSA will step in and immediately take over its new
conference, but the Roadrunners simply aren't reliable enough on defense. Narrow, shootout victories in Conference USA
simply do not translate into the same thing in the AAC.
Atlantic Coast Conference
Outlook: The Paw Boys are poised to return to the CFP for the
first time since 2019, after compiling a record of 31-8 in three years
since. FSU is the reigning defensive
power in this league, however, and could easily overtake the Tigers, with a big
season from tailback Trey Benson. Don't
expect a lot of surprises further down the standings, with a general dearth of
offense among the former members of the Big East.
Big Ten Conference (east division)
Big Ten Conference (west division)
* projected conference champion
Outlook: As much as the Czar dislikes the demise of divisions,
this conference shows why other leagues have thought it necessary. For the second year in a row, the top three
teams all reside in the East division, setting up the possibility of another
unwatchable Big Ten championship game, if Wisconsin happens to get upended in
the West. Ex-Michigan QB Cade McNamara's
a band-aid on an Iowa offense that's got bigger problems.
Big Twelve Conference
Outlook: With Texas and OU departing for the SEC, it is the
mission of the other 12 teams to stop them from dominating this conference in
their final season. Good luck. The Big XII has been talking a big game
lately, but it's debatable whether this will still be a power conference once
the Horns and Sooners are gone. With the
pending addition of Colorado, the league is basically betting its future on
Deion Sanders. The Horned Frogs pulled
out a lot of close games last season, largely because of the character of QB
Max Duggan, who is gone. The additions
to this conference from the AAC are valuable primarily from a media standpoint,
with three metropolitan areas and the nation's massive Mormon population joining
the Big XII fan base. It will be a
couple years before any of those teams is competitive, however.
Conference USA
Outlook: This is without a doubt the weakest conference in major
college football since the Division I-A and I-AA designations were created in
1978. The good news for newcomers Sam
Houston and Jax State is that they should be immediately competitive. WKU should be king of the hill, with QB
Austin Reed's return from halfway through the transfer portal. This not-so-stacked deck has been dealt a
wild card in new member Liberty, which has hired away Coastal Carolina coach
Jamey Chadwell and his innovative shotgun triple-option game.
Independents
Outlook: Another Fighting
Irish tradition has bitten the dust, as the golden domers have joined everybody
else in wussifying their schedule. This
year, they actually beat up on a lower-division team, Tennessee State, in
addition to MAC opponent Central Michigan.
The West Pointers are headed in a new direction with a shotgun-based
offense, because last year's tightening of the rules against cut blocking made
it too tricky for them to run their traditional triple-option game. If Massachusetts has no intention of
expanding its stadium capacity, it will never get quality home games, and might
as well join Idaho in stepping back down to Division I-AA.
Mid-American Conference (east division)
Mid-American Conference (west
division)
* projected conference champion
Outlook: It looks like a
likely championship game rematch, with Toledo and Ohio on collision
course. The Eagles won't wait another 45
years for their next bowl victory. That
WMU road schedule consists of Syracuse, Iowa, Toledo, Miss. St., Ohio, EMU and
NIU.
Mountain West Conference
Outlook: This league offers
no apparent contender for a New Year's Six bowl bid, but there should still be
some enjoyable competition among its top five teams. As far as the MWC is concerned, this is the
Aztecs' final season in the conference, but that could quickly change. The College Football Czar suspects that
re-adding SDSU would be a condition of any expansion that includes one or all
of the remaining Pac 12 teams.
Pac 12 Conference
Outlook: This season,
presumably the last for this conference, is going to feature lots of hard
feelings being played out on the field on a weekly basis. Especially hostile will be the season-ending
Oregon-OSU and Washington-Wazzu games, unless the Beavers and Cougars have also
been accepted into a power conference in the meantime. The Trojans stand the best chance of seeing
their way into the CFP, but they face a foreboding second-half schedule that
includes Notre Dame, Utah, Washington and Oregon. In 2022, the Huskies relied heavily on an
overwhelming offensive line, but one that must replace three starters before
battling Boise State in this year's opener.
Southeastern Conference (east division)
Southeastern Conference (west division)
* projected conference champion
Outlook: The College
Football Czar had not intended to pick UGA to three-peat, but the defending
champs are still as strong a team as anybody, and its schedule is far more
favorable than those of Alabama and Ohio State.
The revamped Bama backfield hasn't got much time to settle in before a
Week 2 battle with Texas. The hiring of
Hugh Freeze may give one pause, but he succeeds on the field everywhere he
goes, and should make Auburn immediately competitive again in the West
division. Don't let the draft positions
of last year's shallow QB crop fool you; Leary replacing Levis at UK is an
upgrade.
Sun Belt Conference (east
division)
Sun Belt Conference (west
division)
* projected conference champion
Outlook: It could be a runaway in each division, with
the Herd and Trojans primed to power their way through to the title game. CCU tries to snap a three-game losing streak
on a Week 1 road trip to UCLA. A weak
cross-divisional schedule gives ULL a chance to return to contention.
BOOBY-TRAP
BALLGAMES
The College Football Czar has no
idea who he will end up picking to win the following games, but he highlights
them now as possible upsets which threaten to ensnare some of the nation's most
prominent programs. The favored teams appear in bold face.
Sept. 2
South Alabama at Tulane -- The Green Wave might have enough trouble just handling the expectations after last season, but they've also got to find a replacement for outstanding RB Tyjae Spears (now a Tennessee Titan). That makes this opener, against the nation's #4 rushing defense from a year ago, a particularly tricky one. The Jaguars scored big road wins last season against La.-Lafayette and Southern Miss, and came within one inexplicable fake field goal attempt of upending UCLA in Pasadena.
Sept. 9
Utah at Baylor -- The slow starters from Salt Lake City have lost 5 of their last 7 September road games, and the Waco kids will have likely won their opener, putting their 2022 season-ending skid behind them. The Utes always have excellent tight ends, but the absence of the opted-out Dalton Kincaid was devastating in last year's Rose Bowl bruising from Penn State, and Brant Kuithe missed the last nine games of 2022 with a knee injury.
Sept. 16
TCU at Houston -- The Horned Frogs, having opened with home games against Colorado and Division I-AA Nicholls Don't-Call-Us-A-State, risk deceiving themselves into thinking this season will be a continuation of last one. The team from Fort Worth went 13-2 in reaching last year's CFP title game, but nine of those wins were by ten points or fewer. It just won't take that much of a fall for them to become a second-echelon team in the Big XII. UH quarterback Donovan Smith, a transfer from Texas Tech, seems like a natural fit in Dana Holgorsen's offense.
Sept. 23
Iowa at Penn State -- The Nittany Lions' 2023 schedule could hardly have set up more favorably for them, including the fact that they get their toughest cross-divisional opponent at home. Wherever they have to face the Hawkeyes, it will be a challenge, though, as the powerful PSU ground game collides with a defense that held 7 of 13 opponents to 10 points or fewer a year ago. The U of I has imported some O this year, in the form of former Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara, who led his Wolverines to victory in this same stadium in 2021.
California at Washington -- If the recalibrated Cal offense ever kicks into gear as planned, it ought to do so by this point in the season. On the other side of the ball, the prolific Penixjr and pals appeared pedestrian in last year's 28-21 trudge past a Golden Bear defense that ranked last in the Pac 12 against the pass. These teams have split their past four games, with each of them decided by seven points or fewer.
Sept. 30
Georgia at Auburn -- Does it seem like the value of Stetson Bennettiv is still being underestimated, even now that he's gone? Whoever emerges as the new starter at UGA will face his first road test at AU, following four consecutive games between the hedges. The cupboard isn't quite bare in Tigertown, but even if it were, incoming coach Hugh Freeze has brought with him a whole fridge full of transfers, including former Michigan State QB Payton Thorne.
Oct. 7
Michigan at Minnesota -- The Wolverines have simply got things far too easy against a nonthreatening five-game September slate, but will their Michigan motors survive whatever the Golden Gophers have got waiting for them under the sod of Huntington Bank Stadium? Conventional wisdom says the radiant rodents won't be as tough on defense as the unit that ranked eighth nationally a year ago, but the College Football Czar suspects that by midseason, a lot of those second-year players won't be so soph.
Alabama at Texas A&M -- The Conjunction Boys beat Bama in College Station two years ago, and they put up quite a tussle in Tuscaloosa last season. Depending on how their first two SEC games have gone, the ampersanders could be playing for Jimbo Fisher's job, in which case they may repeat their performance from their 2022 finale, a victory over West division champion LSU. We don't yet know who will be behind center for the pachyderms, but he'll be facing an A&M defense that ranked #1 nationally against the pass.
Oct. 28
Pitt at Notre Dame -- In between blockbuster games against USC and Clemson, the Fighting Irish face a familiar foe that they have beaten six times in their past seven meetings. Normally, one might think a bye leading into this game would benefit the golden domers, but the Czar thinks it only provides an additional opportunity to take their eye off the opponent in front of them, by using that extra week to work on lots of gadgets to throw in the path of the Paw Boys in their subsequent game. New ND quarterback Sam Hartman arrives as a transfer from Wake Forest, where Pat Narduzzi's defense victimized him for four INTs and five sacks in the 2021 ACC championship.
Nov. 11
Georgia Tech at Clemson -- In another one of those sneaky sammich games, the Tigers take on Tech in the middle of a three-game homestand, between battles with Notre Dame and North Carolina. Throw in a regular season finale at South Carolina, and Dabo Swinney's squad is facing an obvious letdown threat against GT. On their last trip to Death Valley, in 2021, the Yellowjackets allowed only 284 yards in a defensive slugfest from which the Son of Clem escaped by a final of 14-8. With an improving offense under new coach Brent Key, they no longer have to come out on the wrong end of games like that.
BOWL
PROJECTIONS
Just for fun, here are the Czar's
projections for this season's bowl matchups.
He'll have to wait until much later to predict who actually plays and
who doesn't.
Bowl ..... Date
..... Matchup ..... Projection
Rose ..... Jan. 1 ..... Semifinalist
vs. Semifinalist ..... Michigan vs. Texas
Sugar ..... Jan.1 ..... Semifinalist
vs. Semifinalist ..... Georgia vs. Ohio St.
CFP Championship ..... Jan. 8 .....
Rose winner vs. Sugar winner ..... Michigan vs. Georgia
Bahamas ..... Dec. 16 ..... CUSA vs.
Sun Belt ..... UTEP vs. Ball St.
New Orleans..... Dec. 16 ..... Sun
Belt vs. CUSA ..... W. Kentucky vs. Marshall
Cure ..... Dec. 16 .....
Group-of-five ..... La.-Lafayette vs. Kent St.
New Mexico ..... Dec. 16 ..... CUSA
vs. MWC ..... La. Tech vs. Wyoming
LA ..... Dec. 16 ..... Pac 12 vs. MWC
..... Arizona St. vs. Boise St.
Independence ..... Dec. 16 ..... Big
XII vs. Pac 12 ..... Texas Tech vs.
Washington St.
Myrtle Beach ..... Dec. 18 ..... AAC/
MAC/Sun Belt ..... Memphis vs. Appalachian St.
Frisco ..... Dec. 19 .....
Group-of-five ..... UTSA vs. Fresno St.
Boca Raton ..... Dec. 21 ..... Group-of-five* ..... UAB vs. Uconn*
Gasparilla ..... Dec. 22 ..... AAC
vs. ACC ..... S. Florida vs. Cincinnati
Birmingham ..... Dec. 23 ..... AAC vs. SEC* ..... Tulane vs. Brigham Young*
Camellia ..... Dec. 23 ..... MAC vs.
Sun Belt ..... Ohio vs. Southern Miss
Armed Forces ..... Dec. 23 ..... AAC
vs. CUSA ..... SMU vs. Middle Tennessee
Famous Idaho Potato ..... Dec. 23
..... MAC vs. MWC ..... Miami OH vs. Air Force
68 Ventures (Mobile) ..... Dec.
23..... MAC vs. Sun Belt ..... Toledo vs. Troy
Las Vegas ..... Dec. 23 ..... Big 10
vs. Pac 12 ..... Nebraska vs. UCLA
Hawaii ..... Dec. 23 .....
MWC/CUSA/AAC ..... N. Texas vs. Hawaii
Quick Lane ..... Dec. 26 ..... Big
Ten vs. MAC ..... Illinois vs. Buffalo
First Responder ..... Dec. 26 .....
AAC/ACC/Big XII ..... Navy vs. Baylor
Guaranteed Rate ..... Dec. 26 .....
Big XII vs. Big Ten ..... Iowa St. vs. Purdue
Military ..... Dec. 27 ..... ACC vs.
AAC ..... Louisville vs. Florida Atlantic
Duke's Mayo ..... Dec. 27 ..... ACC
vs. SEC..... Miami vs. Missouri
Holiday ..... Dec.27 ..... ACC vs.
Pac 12 ..... Nc State vs. Washington
Texas ..... Dec.27 ..... Big XII vs.
SEC ..... TCU vs. Texas A&M
Fenway ..... Dec. 28 ..... ACC/Notre
Dame vs. AAC ..... Wake Forest vs. E. Carolina
Pinstripe ..... Dec. 28 ..... Big Ten
vs. ACC ..... Michigan St. vs. Georgia Tech
Pop Tarts (Orlando) ..... Dec. 28
..... Big XII vs. ACC ..... Kansas St. vs. Pitt
Alamo ..... Dec. 28 ..... Big XII vs.
Pac 12 ..... Oklahoma vs. Utah
Gator ..... Dec. 29 ..... SEC vs. ACC/Big Ten ..... Ole Miss vs. N. Carolina
Sun ..... Dec. 29 ..... Pac 12 vs.
ACC ..... Duke vs. Oregon St.
Liberty ..... Dec. 29 ..... SEC vs.
Big XII ..... Oklahoma St. vs. S. Carolina
Cotton ..... Dec. 29 ..... At-large vs. At-large ..... USC vs. LSU
Peach ..... Dec. 30 ..... At-large
vs. At-large ..... Alabama vs. Florida St.
Music City ..... Dec. 30 ..... SEC
vs. Big Ten ..... Auburn vs. Iowa
Orange ..... Dec. 30 ..... At-large
vs. At-large ..... Clemson vs. Penn St.
Arizona ..... Dec. 30 ... MWC vs. MAC
..... San Diego St. vs. E. Michigan
ReliaQuest (Tampa) ..... Jan. 1 .....
SEC vs. Big Ten ..... Kentucky vs. Maryland
Citrus ..... Jan. 1 ..... Big Ten vs.
SEC ..... Wisconsin vs. Tennessee
Fiesta ..... Jan. 1 .... At-large vs.
At-large ..... Notre Dame vs. Oregon
* At-large bid opens due to lack of eligible team to fulfill commitment