25 compelling storylines, teams, coaches, players that will dominate the 2025 college football season

The effects of all the off-field drama seemed to pile up in college football heading into the 2024 season, and frankly, it seemed a little overwhelming. Conferences were unrecognizable; the College Football Playoff had tripled in size; and the rampant nature of the transfer portal and NIL had turned the sport into non-stop free agency. If you have been following and loved this sport for a long time, it was okay to feel a bit uneasy about the state of the game.

But then you woke up on that first Week 1 Saturday and laid out a schedule of the games you wanted to watch, the snacks you wanted to enjoy and picked the teams you thought might win. Maybe you had tickets to a home game and were already in town with family or friends to go back to the hallowed cathedral of sports that is a college football stadium. The games started, we overreacted to results, yelled about rankings and got right back to it the following Saturday, elated to be in the midst of another fall in college football.

College football rankings: Texas leads the way, Penn State tops Ohio State in preseason CBS Sports 136

College football is the most human sport in America and its popularity and survival -- seemingly against all odds -- comes from our desire for those fall Saturday traditions. And there's no doubt that our traditions have been hurt by conference realignment, the transfer portal and more of the "modernization" that has come in recent years. But when tens of thousands of fans gather in places where many spent their own childhoods or young-adult years, the amateurism that still exists is our willingness to participate in this sport, not just without pay, but often at a cost. Fans are doing it for the love the game, still, and that shared experience is unlike anything else you're going to find in sports.

Speaking of traditions, it's a great honor to get this season started writing 25 storylines for the 2025 season, as this was previously a tradition carried out by Dennis Dodd. Working with Dennis over the past 15 years was an incredible honor, and seeing his passion for the sport remain unchanged as he saw it morph during decades on the beat remains an inspiration I carry forward. We didn't copy all of the Doddfather's format in this year's iteration of the story, but we maintained the spirit as best we could.

This is no guarantee that every game in Week 1 will be great, but on paper, we already have one of the best slates of high-profile matchups that we have seen in the history of college football. We won't know the official historical comparisons until the AP Top 25 poll is released on Monday, but if we are to use the Coaches Poll as a reference, we could be heading for some pretty rare company when it comes to highly ranked nonconference showdowns in one weekend.

First, if Texas and Ohio State are the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country, like they are in the Coaches Poll, it will be the first regular season nonconference matchup between No. 1 and No. 2 since 2006 and the first time a reigning champion has faced a top-five opponent in its season opener since 1988.

Now, let's add in the rest of the Week 1 slate with No. 5 Notre Dame playing No. 10 Miami and No. 6 Clemson hosting No. 9 LSU. Again, we would need all these rankings to hold as top-10 rankings in the AP Top 25 poll, but if they do, we are talking the most loaded weekend since the 1940s.

According to CBS Sports Research, the last time three regular season nonconference games played between top-10 teams in the AP poll was November 1945. That is the only weekend in college football history, so far, to feature three regular season nonconference games between top-10 teams. The last regular season weekend with three AP top-10 matchups of any kind was November 2017, and the last regular season weekend with multiple top-10 matchups was in October 1990.

Steve Sarkisian has built up Texas the right way. Arriving after a stint in Tuscaloosa with Nick Saban, Sarkisian had full knowledge of what it would take to compete in the SEC and worked tirelessly to put the right staff in place and build up a recruiting pipeline of elite talent in the blueprint of the SEC's top programs. After setting new school records for NFL Draft picks in 2024 (11) and 2025 (12), it's become clear that Texas has paired high-end development with elite recruiting to truly take on the role of SEC heavyweight. The wins have come, too, with back-to-back appearances in the College Football Playoff semifinals and 25 wins across the last two seasons with a 15-2 record in conference play. This is Year 5 for Sarkisian at Texas, and we're no longer wondering when Texas will be back because Texas already arrived and took someone's spot in line on the march to the mountaintop.

Now here comes Arch Manning, one of the brightest quarterback prospects of the last decade and one of the shiniest stars the sport has seen in quite some time. It's easy to forget that Manning has been on campus in Austin for 30 months, spending the last two years as a backup to Quinn Ewers with a couple of starts in his absence and some situational snaps as a change-of-pace option. Manning's talent and tools are rightfully worth getting excited to see, but the weight of his name and a pressure-packed season for the Longhorns brings a whole other level of scrutiny. This isn't just being the Texas quarterback in a normal season, because few seasons have carried expectations quite like 2025, which already has seen the Longhorns be ranked No. 1 in the preseason Coaches Poll for the first time in program history. What's even better is how Texas gets to put that No. 1 status on the line right away as the headliner of that all-time opening weekend.

Ohio State coach Ryan Day looked much more relaxed around Big Ten Media Days this year, because while he wasn't sporting a national championship ring he certainly carried himself with the confidence of a man who is one of just three active coaches with a title. Rallying the Buckeyes back from a loss to Michigan to winning it all will be one of the great stories of the College Football Playoff era, especially coming in the first year of the 12-team format. Ohio State beat the No. 2, No. 3, No. 4 and No. 9 teams in the final AP Top 25 poll in the playoff, making it one of the most impressive months of football in the sport's history.

The Buckeyes start 2025 in their familiar position of national title contender, but with a reloaded roster and two new coordinators. With all the turnover, not winning the national championship could be forgiven, because after all we don't see programs go back-to-back that often in college football. But what might not be forgiven is another loss to Michigan. Day is 1-4 against the Wolverines and 69-6 against everyone else, setting up one last test for the Ohio State coach to relieve some of the pressure he faces in Columbus. It's like there's four seasons ahead for Day and the Buckeyes: the opener against Texas, the next 10 games, the Michigan game and then whatever lies ahead in the postseason.

Every single season since 2014, either Alabama or Georgia has played for the SEC championship. They've played against each other in Atlanta three times in that stretch, and only once was the SEC title not won by either the Crimson Tide or the Bulldogs. And while Georgia continued that streak by besting Texas in overtime last season, neither of the SEC's two premier programs were happy with the way the season ended.

Georgia may have won the SEC for the third time under Kirby Smart, but to have the Bulldogs offer up a one-and-done showing in the College Football Playoff limited the amount of time that title could be celebrated. If you find it hard to drum up sympathy for a Bulldogs program that went 42-0 against everyone not named Nick Saban for three seasons (2021-23), it's understandable. But while an SEC title was won last year, there were more losses (3) than any season since 2018 and a sour finish in the playoff. Will there be a bounce back to form in 2025 with a bit of a roster reset? Or is dominance no longer the norm for an SEC that hinted at real parity with its results last season.

Alabama's situation is certainly different in that last season's disappointments were saddled with getting used to not having Saban on the sideline. So any conversation about expectations following a 9-4 campaign are likely coupled with some existential dread that the run is over, even if Kalen DeBoer showed moments where the Crimson Tide still flexed their muscles as one of the top programs in the sport. The issue with Alabama was consistency, and the inability to stack success without a setback prevented the Crimson Tide from playing for an SEC title and competing in the College Football Playoff. Alabama, like Georgia, has to hate the way last season ended and will be itching to get on the field with its new roster and a fresh slate. If they bounce back, it will be celebrated but largely accepted. If the Tide cannot defend their spot at the top of the mountain, it will be a bigger story, and one that will demand week-by-week check-ins throughout the year.

North Carolina shook the college football world with the hire of Bill Belichick, and now after a wild offseason that included plenty of off-field discussion we are getting close to the first-ever game with the six-time Super Bowl winning head coach leading a college team. Belichick, along with general manager Michael Lombardi and a staff that includes two sons and plenty of NFL influence, have made it a mission statement to make North Carolina the "33rd team" of the NFL, using a pro model for evaluation, preparation and practice. The Tar Heels have more than 70 players on the team that weren't in Chapel Hill in 2024, so if we're using an NFL approach this will be the most amount of free agents that Belichick has ever had to assimilate into his program, which again has just barely taken root after eight months on the job.

So what should we expect? Belichick has followed NFL models of evaluation when it comes to seeking out size along the lines of scrimmage, and the Tar Heels are indeed bigger in the trenches. North Carolina continued to be active in the transfer portal even after spring practice, which is where Gio Lopez arrives from South Alabama with a chance to be the team's starter when they kick off the season on Labor Day against TCU. The schedule, especially in ACC play, is favorable, but the question marks are numerous when it comes to if and how quickly a locker room of college players will have full buy-in to this approach of coaching. Belichick and Lombardi got a lot of big guys, but are they right guys? They are preaching physicality and toughness in fall camp, but does the team have the explosiveness to keep up in a modern college game that can require skill on the perimeter? Good work in the 2026 recruiting class suggests this is just the starting point for a staff that's got more than Year 1 in mind, but those Super Bowl rings become slightly less meaningful to the conversation once we get actual college results starting on Sept. 1.

Penn State has the look of Michigan in 2023 or Ohio State in 2024, loaded up with veterans who have been chasing the big-time breakthrough and decided to stay back for one more season instead of moving on to the NFL. Drew Allar is entering his third year as the starting quarterback, and now thanks to some savvy work in the transfer portal he's got arguably the best group of wide receivers he's had since his ascension to QB1. The defense has the next heir apparent to the heir apparent, as the loss of Abdul Carter only has the attention sliding down the line to Dani Dennis-Sutton. Oh yeah, and while Penn State lost another defensive coordinator (basically an annual tradition at this point) the team was able to lure in Jim Knowles fresh off his work with rival Ohio State in the Buckeyes' title run.

Ohio State is reloading after the national title, Oregon is reloading after the Big Ten title and Michigan continues to rebuild, now around a freshman quarterback in Bryce Underwood.

Everything, it seems, is coming up Penn State. So if James Franklin and the Nittany Lions can't have that big breakthrough this year, will it ever happen?

Common sense says "never say never" but college football has never been based on common sense. Penn State hasn't finished as the No. 1 team in the country since 1986 and hasn't won the Big Ten since 2016. This is a program with five top-10 finishes in the last nine years and one of the most consistently successful programs of the College Football Playoff era, but until last season Penn State had not yet logged a CFP appearance. Now the core group from a team that not only make the playoff but won twice and came a few plays away from the title game is back. That kind of unique motivation and buy-in is hard to replicate and can be a difference-maker in this transactional era of college sports. Penn State should absolutely be a playoff team in 2025, but how this year's team will be judged will forever be decided by whether or not they are playing on the last Monday night of the season.

When coaches talk about being a "development program," they are often speaking from a position of not recruiting at a high level and using their in-house development to get old, stay old and make the most out of that experience to close the gap with more "talented" teams. But what if there was a developmental program that got players who are highly-recruited, developed them into being the best versions of themselves and used the modern NIL rules not to recruit their replacements but retain their talents. That would seem like the best of both worlds, right?

Dabo Swinney claimed for years that his lack of transfer portal activity was a belief in the players he had recruited to Clemson. Now, after a brief hiccup in a historic run, the Tigers have a roster loaded with NFL talent that's gotten a taste of playoff football and returns hungry to reach the top of the mountain once again.

This Clemson team checks all the boxes that title-contending teams in 2016, 2018 and 2019 did, with first-round draft talent along the defensive line, one of the top quarterbacks in the country and a good mix of upperclassmen and younger breakout stars to push the competitiveness in the program. Quarterback Cade Klubnik has gotten better since his first career start but also improved from the first game of the season to the last in 2024. If his progression continues he'll be in the conversation as one of the most outstanding players in the country, thanks in part to a loaded wide receiver room that could be the difference when it comes to stressing the best defenses in the country. Speaking of defense, that defense brings back plenty of starters from a group that got pushed around a few too many times in 2024, which is why Dabo brought in Tom Allen from Penn State to be the new defensive coordinator. Described by Swinney as a "bowling ball of butcher knives" on the practice field, Allen has been tasked with improving fundamentals like open-field tackling to the Tigers defense is delivering results that fall in line with their talent level.

Because Clemson was in the College Football Playoff every year from 2015-2020 and played for the national championship four times (winning twice), the last couple of years have felt like "down years." But this is still a program that has won double digit games every season but one since 2011 and now is set for a step forward, which for their standard is getting right back in the mix for the national title.

When Josh Heupel said that no one is bigger than the "Power T," he was making a statement that reflected poorly on Nico Iamaleava and doubled down on Tennessee's position in what was widely viewed as a holdout at the end of spring practice. Iamaleava hit the transfer portal, immediately becoming the highest-rated player of the winter or spring portal windows, and he eventually landed at UCLA. Tennessee supplemented the loss in the quarterback room by adding former Appalachian State and spring-time UCLA quarterback Joey Aguilar, who in being pushed out by Nico's arrival now becomes the "team-first" character in the story of Tennessee's season for many Vols fans.

Just like any high-profile breakup, we will be judging how Tennessee is fairing without Nico and whether the quarterback is finding success without the Vols at nearly every turn. If Nico can find production that matches his potential at UCLA, then he's been able to bounce back from the drama and retain his status as a certified pro prospect. But if Tennessee is again an SEC and CFP contender, even without the well-compensated quarterback, then the Vols will claim victory in the breakup.

Deion Sanders brought good news to the table when he addressed the media alongside his medical team at the start of fall camp, revealing that he had undergone surgery to remove a cancerous tumor on his bladder and has been cleared in his recovery. The Colorado football program supported him through this offseason battle, which kept him away from Boulder, and now Sanders has become a spokesperson for health screenings among his many callings given the spotlight he's commanded since he was a young two-sport star.

Hearing Sanders' commitment to the program, which included his decision to opt for surgery instead of treatment that could keep him away from the team in 2025, inspires confidence in what he and the staff have been working towards since the departure of his two sons, Shedeur and Shilo, as well as Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter. Sanders brought two quarterbacks, Liberty transfer Kaidon Salter and blue-chip quarterback Juju Lewis, to Big 12 Media Days to spotlight their battle to be Shedeur's successor, and the loss of not just Hunter but multiple NFL receivers has Colorado pivoting to being a team that might lean on defense and the run game a bit more to power wins in 2025.

Year 1 of an expanded, 16-team Big 12 delivered on commissioner Brett Yormark's promise of being one of the most competitive leagues in the country. After all, nothing highlights the close margins and tight nature of the Big 12 than a four-way tie for first place in the Big 12 standings and nearly double that number of teams that had a chance to make the conference title game in the final weeks of the season. Looking at the final standings compared to the preseason poll was like a funhouse mirror, as preseason favorites like Utah and Oklahoma State failed to even make a bowl game while Arizona State went from 16th in the predicted order of finish to winning the league and making the College Football Playoff.

But have things calmed down now? Is the Big 12 really going to be another chaos conference that requires a cryptex to figure out the tiebreakers? Because there's a growing sense that there is a top tier, with the Sun Devils defending their crown against the likes of Kansas State, Texas Tech, Utah and even Baylor. It does still look like a league where anyone could get taken down on a given Saturday, but in terms of the big picture it's a league that has possibly settled into tiers (famous last words, I know).

Speaking of Arizona State, Kenny Dillingham's team will be in the spotlight as one of the teams that came from under the radar to crash the first-ever edition of the 12-team College Football Playoff. Both the Sun Devils and Indiana were 3-9 in 2024, had coaches who were in their first or second year on the job and proceeded to run off 11-win seasons that stand out as some of the most remarkable year-to-year turnarounds in the modern era. The Sun Devils did it surviving the ups and downs of the Big 12, but Indiana got in with via an at-large bid after going 11-1 in the regular season with the only defeat coming to Ohio State in Columbus.

The challenge, as both Dillingham and Indiana coach Curt Cignetti have detailed extensively, is battling complacency. The Hoosiers are moving from the hunter to the hunted, but even with a target on their back Cignetti points out that maybe they still want to hunt too. These are programs that have to remain hungry to avoid letting 2024 be a one-year flash and instead make it a building block for annual contention. In that sense maybe it's the year after a breakthrough that can be the most impactful, and both Arizona State and Indiana are hoping to make it count with another strong showing rather than a return to the three-win world they previously occupied.

After pushing Oregon to the brink in Week 2 and then stacking win after win in the Mountain West, Boise State took a little bit of the drama out of the race for the fifth automatic bid to the College Football Playoff. In fact the Broncos were so successful they finished the regular season not as the fifth-ranked conference champion but the No. 3 seed finishing ahead of the champs from the Big 12 (Arizona State) and ACC (Clemson).

Maybe Boise State can repeat its impressive showing, this time getting its toughest test against Notre Dame in early October, but if not we could see a much more wide-open competition between the champions of the Mountain West, American, Sun Belt, MAC and Conference USA. Teams like Army, Navy, Tulane, Memphis, Liberty, James Madison, Louisiana and Toledo are hoping that their pursuit of a conference title in 2025 will be paired with the same opportunity that Boise State got last year: a seat at the table competing for a national championship that will be decided on the field.

If Oregon's 2024 campaign is only analyzed through the perspective of the Big Ten, it's quite possibly the most impressive debut for any team in a major conference in the 21st century. The Ducks spent eight weeks at No. 1 in the country and beat Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State on the way to claiming the Big Ten title. If the season stopped on Dec. 31, Oregon would have logged arguably the best season in 130 years of Ducks football.

But the season didn't stop on New Year's Eve, and on New Year's Day the Ducks dream season quickly spiraled into a nightmare. Four touchdowns of 40+ yards helped power a 34-0 first-half lead for Ohio State, and with that Oregon's season was over. While the college football world followed the Buckeyes on the rest of their title run, the Ducks returned to Eugene to begin reloading for another run at the playoff success that was so quickly taken away. It'll be a new team, now with Dante Moore stepping into the quarterback role that had been held down by Dillon Gabriel and Bo Nix, but still a program that experienced a transformative season at the top of the sport. Oregon had been knocking on the door of big-time success under Dan Lanning in his first two seasons at the helm, and now after being the best team in the regular season the 2025 squad will seek to take the next step in the playoff.

USC football has 11 claimed national championships combined across five different decades, yet it seems like the Trojans are flying a little bit under the radar heading into Lincoln Riley's fourth season at the helm. The inconsistency of results during the 2010s can be blamed for why fans don't think of USC as often as they did in the 2000s, when Pete Carroll ran off seven-straight top-four finishes with two national titles, but this is still a house with good bones that can shine with a few fix-ups.

Riley has spent considerable time and energy putting the people in place to lead those changes, including new hires this offseason in the personnel office and the strength program. Those hires are helping modernize a program that needed to close the gap with the top teams in the country and allowed Riley to get back to the nuts and bolts of getting the team ready to compete for a Big Ten title. USC was 6-6 in the regular season last year, which explains why this year's team is getting overlooked, but the team was rarely out-classed and answered the challenge against playoff teams Penn State and Notre Dame. USC's win total has dropped every year since Riley's first, so we're either about to see a big bounce back or start some tough conversations about the future in L.A.

The SEC has not had a team even play for the national championship in either of the last two seasons, and while the talent level for the league as a whole has not dipped there was an absence of award-winning quarterback play last year. The conference had no All-American quarterbacks in 2024 and didn't receive a single Heisman Trophy voting point at the position, which is a sharp contrast from the SEC claiming four Heisman wins in a five-year run with three of them being quarterbacks (Joe Burrow in 2019, Bryce Young in 2021 and Jayden Daniels in 2023).

But the story gets even better than just looking for a bounce back at the position, because while much of the sport is looking for plug-and-play quick fixes at quarterback through the transfer portal, each of the top seven teams in the SEC title odds have a quarterback they recruited and signed out of high school. That kind of "home cooking" development sets up for an exhilarating SEC championship race with quarterbacks who are either returning starters (Garrett Nussmeier, DJ Lagway, Marcel Reed) or backups stepping into the starting role (Arch Manning, Gunner Stockton, Ty Simpson, Austin Simmons). Throw in South Carolina's LaNorris Sellers, who might be one of the top NFL Draft prospects at the position, and it seems highly unlikely we don't see at least one of those SEC quarterbacks make it to New York City as a Heisman Trophy finalist at the end of the season. Speaking of the Heisman Trophy …

A quick look at the Heisman Trophy odds board top 10, according to FanDuel Sportsbook:

• Arch Manning, Texas QB (+700): It's hard to go wire-to-wire as the Heisman favorite but if Manning leads the Longhorns to a win in the opener against Ohio State these odds are only going to get smaller.
• Cade Klubnik, Clemson QB (+900): Arguably one of the most experienced and productive quarterbacks in the country, Klubnik is now in Year 3 with OC Garrett Riley and looking to build on the development he showed throughout the 2024 season.
• Garrett Nussemeier, LSU QB (+900): If Nussmeier cleans up the interceptions, there's no ceiling on what he, and LSU, can accomplish in 2025.
• Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State WR (+1100): There's not much of an argument that Smith is pound-for-pound one of the best players in the country at any position, but getting Heisman voters to avoid a quarterback for two straight years could be a challenge.
• Ty Simpson, Alabama QB (+1600): The return of offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, a loaded offensive line and another year of development for star sophomore Ryan Williams all sets up to help Simpson, the multi-year backup to Jalen Milroe, have his own breakthrough season in 2025.
• LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina QB (+1700): The playmaking, pocket presence and physical tools that Sellers showed in his first year as a starter have gotten the attention of the NFL Draft scouts. Now if he backs it up with another season of playoff contention it will give him a great shot at being in the mix for the Heisman.
• Carson Beck, Miami QB (+1800): Cam Ward was a Heisman finalist playing in Shannon Dawson's offensive system last season, and that production had to be a selling point to bring in Beck, who's back in action after offseason elbow surgery. Beck was a top-three quarterback in the SEC in each of his two years as a starter, so the tools are there for him to thrive with his new team.
• Drew Allar, Penn State QB (+1800): For two years Allar has been one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the country, but now the next step is taking over in Penn State's biggest games of the season. Allar has 35 touchdowns to five interceptions against unranked opponents, and 14 touchdowns to five interceptions against ranked opponents over the last two seasons.
• Julian Sayin, Ohio State QB (+2000): The only true newcomer to this group, Sayin's success is undeniably linked to Ohio State's success. If the Buckeyes field a dynamic and dominant offense with Sayin as the key operator, he's going to get some Heisman Trophy buzz. The question, at least from a Heisman handicapping perspective, is whether his star will shine bright enough to avoid being the Robin to Jeremiah Smith's Batman.
• Sam Leavitt, Arizona State QB (+2000): The face of Arizona State's Cinderella run in the Big 12, Leavitt will need to back up last year's success to have a chance to get the attention of Heisman voters.

The Iowa head coach was extremely blunt and honest last month about how long it's been since the team could feel good about the quarterback position going into the season, but South Dakota State transfer Mark Gronowski has provided some relief in that area. Not even offseason surgery could calm the excitement for what Gronowski, a two-time FCS national champion, was going to bring to the Hawkeyes offense, bringing into focus the idea that Iowa might be poised for (gasp) back-to-back years averaging more than 25 points per game.

But in the lead-up to the season we have also gotten a look into Ferentz's own view of where he sits in his coaching career. The 69-year old is still under contract through the 2029 season and said earlier this offseason he expects to sign another contract extension since constantly re-upping deals is "the world we're living in." When it comes to projecting job openings, industry insiders typically start with hot seat situations but also monitor potential retirements. If we're to believe Ferentz, the Iowa job won't be opening up any time soon.

Okay, now it's time for the actual hot seat talk. These are the coaches that are on the hottest seats according to our super scientific poll of CBS Sports experts this offseason. The ratings go from 0 (untouchable) to 5 (win or be fired).

Following in the recent tradition of coaches returning to their alma mater and/or former stops, West Virginia reached out to Rich Rodriguez to arrange a return after a successful stint guiding Jacksonville State from the FCS into Conference USA all the way to a conference title. Rich Rod's return has come with some generational divides (we've almost filled out a punch card with references to TikTok in press conferences) but also the challenges of rebooting a roster in the transfer portal era. According to 247Sports the Mountaineers have welcomed more than 50 players in from the transfer portal, and now it's Rodriguez's job to get this group of mercenaries to buy in to his brand of football. The nostalgia will be electric, especially with another edition of the Backyard Brawl against Pitt early in the season, but whether the message translates will be a key question to answer when it comes the team's competitiveness in the Big 12.

The campaigning and politicking during spring meetings and media days was fairly exhausting when it comes to the College Football Playoff. And while the format has already undergone one change for 2025, going with straight seeding instead of automatic byes for conference champions, there is a push for more change in terms of how the selection committee considers strength of schedule when ranking teams. Any push for "more data" or "different metrics" can be translated simply as asking for loss forgiveness, as conferences claim that life in their league is worth different treatment based on membership alone. Whether the pursuit of that politicking pays off will be obvious when the committee starts to release their rankings later in the season, because the truth is members are flooded with so many numbers it becomes impossible to concentrate on any one category.

We have pushed this storyline towards the end of our list because it has the least impact on the 2025 season, yet a looming deadline will make the debate for the playoff's future format a constant presence until a decision has been reached. According to executive director Rich Clark, the CFP decision-makers have until Dec. 1 to choose a format for the playoff's next contract, which begins with the 2026 season. And while there have been times in the last eight months when momentum has seemingly pushed us closer to a 14-team or even 16-team model, we are now told every option is on the table.

Conferences are fighting over whether there should be automatic bids per conferences or more at-large spots, and there are both 14-team and 16-team proposals on the table that could be pushed to the side if the group decides to remain at 12 teams with the current 5+7 format with five conference champions, seven at-large bids and straight seeding. After numerous meetings at locations that make most of us envious, there is a desire to see some action. But if the playoff delivers a product everyone loves in 2025 and they don't change it we might not hear too much bickering.

The University of Michigan continues to go through the NCAA enforcement process, defending itself and the program's future against the allegations stemming from the sign-stealing scandal. The school already had its hearing with the Committee on Infractions earlier this summer, and among the actions taken to address the concerns is that we will see head coach Sherrone Moore serve a two-game suspension during Week 3 (Central Michigan) and Week 4 (at Nebraska). That suspension adds to a lengthy list of self-imposed punishments that have piled up from the sign-stealing and recruiting violations from the last five years, but rival fans continue to clamor that the debt to society has not yet been paid. If the NCAA attempts to drop a hammer that impacts the recognition of Michigan's national championship, it would be the most impactful action taken by the enforcement department in quite some time.

Back in April, the NCAA passed a new rule changes hoping to curtail faking injuries. Starting this season, if medical personnel enter the field to evaluate an injured player's health after the ball is spotted for the next play, that team will be charged a timeout. If the team is out of timeouts, they will instead be called for a five-yard delay of game penalty.

In practice the rule should work because the ball is not likely to get spotted by the officials if a player if obviously injured on the play. Those situations would involve an official timeout and medical personnel getting called onto the field. This rule is aimed at penalizing the situations where up-tempo offenses are rushing to the line and defenders drop to the ground to prevent them from snapping the ball and allow substitutions. Now whether the rule is manipulated or enforced efficiently is yet to be seen, but it will be scrutinized if it plays a role in a high-profile game or outcome.

File this one away for December in the folder of "Storylines We Hope Aren't A Thing." But given the transactional nature of modern college football and the timing of the transfer portal windows, it is possible that a player threatening to "hold out" of a big-time game for more money or a different deal breaks contain and becomes a national story. These situations have already been rumored and referenced in reporting, but to this point issues mostly get resolved to the point where a star player hasn't missed a game of consequence over a contract dispute.

• Alabama Over 9.5 wins
• SMU Over 8.5 wins
• Ole Miss Over 8.5 wins
• Nebraska Under 7.5 wins
• USC Over 7.5 wins
• Boston College Under 5.5 wins
• Arizona Under 5.5 wins
• Utah State Over 4.5 wins