2025-26 College Football Thread

[Cobra Mgr]

Some thoughts after week 7.............

......Whoosier had Indiana as Ohio State's toughest competition for the Big T1e8n title? Buckeyes final 6 includes Wisky, Penn St, Purdue, UCLA Rutgers & the Big Game. Indy finishes w/Mich St, UCLA, MD, Penn St, Wisky & Purdue. There is a very real possibility both will enter the T1e8n Title game unbeaten. And remember where that game will be played....Indianapolis, less than an hour from Bloomington's campus.

.....Biggest problem for Indiana is becoming the hunted instead of the hunter. I've seen too many times a program comes out of nowhere to rise in the rankings & isn't used to being the game circled on the opponent's calendar. You have to think Penn St will view that game as a chance to salvage something from this disaster of a season. And don't sleep on UCLA, who seem to have vastly improved after making a coaching change..........

......Sticking to the T1e8n, a quiet story is brewing in N'Western. The Wildcats looked like a zero of a program coming off a hazing scandal. But they are a surprising 4-2 & only one loss in conference. Just making a bowl would be a huge accomplishment.......

......Staying in the T1e8n, who thought Wisky, Mich St & Penn St would all be 0-3 & in the cellar of the conference? Bunking w/Purdue & Rutgers? The Badgers are in serious danger of going o-fer in the league. They have already mentioned Indy & Ohio St. But also Oregon, 5-1 Washington, previously ranked Illinois & on the road vs rival Minnesota.........

......Anyone know how long it has been since Nebraska was ranked this far into the year?...........

......Deion Sanders is a good college coach. He brought the Buffs up to respectability. He makes his kids accountable to each other & the school. And fights thru his health problems in order to report to work each day. I don't know why his detractors won't see thru the brashness and acknowledge he is a good leader of young men by deed, mouth & example. If anybody else ran a program like he does, they would be heaping high praise on the dude........

....Who thought @ this point FSU would not have a single ACC win after they had decisively beaten Bama?.............

.........Auburn is running a gauntlet. 0-3 in the SEC. But those 3 losses are to current #4 Tx A&M, #9 Georgia & #14 Oklahoma. The matchups w/ranked teams continues w/#16 Mizzo. That is 4 straight weeks vs teams a combined 22-3. And Auburn's 3 losses were by a combined 23 points. So they are probably better than their record indicates..........

......11 in the coaches poll thought dook should be ranked........Why???...........

.....Wisconsin, Oklahoma St & UNC are the only Power 4 schools yet to reach 100 pts...........

......Carolina went w/Belichek, but they had to know in this day & age of football, quick fixes are not possible if you don't have roster retention. So patience is needed. But Belichek also has to recognize he is in the entertainment business. So while he may not be into tap dancing in front of cameras, people aren't going to pay to see a bad, boring product. Swallow your pride and get creative w/the offense........

.......How many times has Utah & BYU both came into their contest ranked? Can't be many...........

......What is Brian Griese doing now?...........

......Huge game for Lane Kiffin next week. Ole Miss goes to visit Georgia. Mississippi has been trying to run the steps to sit w/the SEC's big dogs on the porch for a while now. I know he has Oklahoma afterward, but this is his opportunity to squarely make Ole Miss a front runner to reach the SEC title game.....

......I've always thought Lane was overrated. But I will give him "credit" for how his job hopping helped his career. "Hot" name coaches often fizzle out after awhile. Because fan bases & boosters don't tolerate losing seasons or even just the wrong kind of loss. They have $ to throw away & don't mind spending $50M to hasten a departure. That was Franklin's buyout. And he got that from Penn St because he was the "hot" name.

Kiffin being quick to go place to place allowed him to remain as the "it" coach until he actually got some skills for the job. He didn't overstay his welcome. He found a place that had some patience & was just happy, for a time, to be relevant. He would not have gotten that @ Tennessee or USC. Thus, he probably would never have had another chance to lead a major Power 4 program..........

.....Good weekend for me sports wise. Hurricanes won twice. Panthers beat the Cowboys. And UNC managed not to lose to the bye...........

[Cobra Mgr]

I don't mind preseason rankings. But I hate that they factor into the present rankings. Always have. I think it is even more an abomination now that they have the transfer portal. How in the world can anyone think they have a handle on how good a team is in that kind of setup?

That is why I've never tried to do a ranking until the season is half way over. You have to see what a team is before you can evaluate them. This ranking I will attempt to do week after week has the following rules......

1. No team with a loss will be ranked ahead of an unbeaten team. No matter the schedule or conference.

2. Once there are less than 5 unbeatens, the rankings will reflect the 12 I think should be in the playoff.

So, for my 1st Top 12 power rankings of 2025.........

1. Miami
2. Ohio State
3. Indiana
4. Texas A&M
5. Texas Tech
6. Ole Miss
7. Georgia Tech
8. Memphis
9. BYU
10. UNLV
11. Navy
12. Bama

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

So, for my 1st Top 12 power rankings of 2025.........

1. Miami
2. Ohio State
3. Indiana

The Athletic neatly flips your top three:


I won't reproduce the whole lengthy article — its rankings and discussion includes 136 teams — but I will share the justification for Indiana at #1:

A week ago, I said Miami, Ohio State and Oregon looked like the clear best teams in the country. Then Indiana, more than a touchdown underdog at Oregon, went to Autzen Stadium and won by 10 points.

As a result, Indiana is No. 1 in The Athletic 136 this week. The Hoosiers are undefeated with the best or second-best win of anyone in the country, and they beat Illinois by 53 points, a better performance than Ohio State had against the Illini. In addition, Miami’s win against Florida State has lost luster after the Seminoles’ latest loss.

Some angry Ohio State fans will now head to the comments section. Miami fans will, too. They’ll say if the teams matched up, Ohio State and Miami would blow Indiana off the field like Ohio State and Notre Dame did a year ago.

Maybe. But let me ask you this: Three days ago, if Ohio State or Miami were going to play at Oregon, how confident would you have been? Would you have felt victory was guaranteed? Or would you have believed the Ducks had a real shot at beating the Buckeyes just like they did a year ago?

A lot of you are probably in that latter camp. So now that Indiana has gone and outplayed Oregon at its place, should you not feel similarly about the Hoosiers? Why does that win have to say more about Oregon than Indiana, other than the fact that it’s Indiana?

Maybe the Hoosiers would lose against the Buckeyes or Hurricanes. They’d surely be a betting underdog. But these rankings aren’t about projection. They’re about what a team has done, and Indiana has done a lot.

People need to get last year’s Indiana out of their heads. This Hoosiers team already has two wins that are far better than any last year’s team had. ESPN’s metrics give Indiana a slightly better strength of schedule (17) than Ohio State (20) and slightly behind Miami (14). The Hoosiers are No. 1 in ESPN’s strength of record measure; the CFP committee will incorporate a similar metric this year, though we’re not sure exactly what their version will look like.

[Cobra Mgr]

Hoosiers have a good argument. I would point to their 1st 3 opponents. Half the schedule is impressive. The other half (Kennesaw St, Indiana St & Old Dominion) are paid for wins.

[Cobra Mgr]

SEC Roll Call Week 7

[Cobra Mgr]

Carson Beck single handedly lost this one 4 Miami. Four picks and should have been 5.

[Amazin69]

How much NIL $$ do you think I could collect if I took the bus downtown and offered to play o-line for the Gamecocks?

Yes, I'm a 62-year-old fatass with a bum knee, but I've got all of my eligibility and I've got to be better than the **** we had on the field today…

[Amazin69]

Mississippi State trailed 23-14 late at Florida, but the Bulldogs drove down and scored with under 3 minutes remaining.

They then forced a 3-and-out, got the ball back, drove to the Florida 28 and…called a pass play, which was intercepted.

And that's how offensive coordinators get fired. (The 4-0 non-conference start, including the upset at Arizona State, should keep head coach Jeff Lebby safe, but losing all three conference games can't be pleasing the folks in Starkville, I wouldn't think…)

[Cobra Mgr]

eh....IDK.....28 yd line is a 45yd fg. Not exactly automatic. How much time was left & did MSU have any T.O.'s left?

[monkeyman576]

Heisman Watch
1. Ty Simpson, QB Alabama(o)
2. Fernando Mendoza, QB, Indiana(+)
3. Dante Moore, QB, Oregon(+)
4. Diego Pavia, QB Vanderbilt(+)
5. Julian Sayin, QB Ohio St(+)

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

1. No team with a loss will be ranked ahead of an unbeaten team. No matter the schedule or conference.

2. Once there are less than 5 unbeatens, the rankings will reflect the 12 I think should be in the playoff.

1. Ohio State
2. Indiana
3. Texas A&M
4. Georgia Tech
5. BYU
6. Navy
7. Bama
8. Georgia
9. Miami
10. Ole Miss
11. Texas Tech
12. Oregon

[Cobra Mgr]

.......Preseason rankings had Texas 1, Penn St 2 & Clemson 4.

.......Clemson just lost their 4th this season. Their 3 wins? Hapless UNC & Boston College. Neither of which has a win vs a Power 4 school & are 0-6 in the ACC. The 3rd is Troy St, a team they were down to 16-3 @ halftime in Death Valley......

......Penn St. just lost their 4th in a row. All within the Big T1e8n. Their 3 wins? Villanova, Florida I'ntl & Nevada. Next week: Ohio St.........

......When you look at the above, Texas 5-2 record may not seem that bad. But every time they play a decent team, it has been a struggle. Versus San Jose St & Sam Houston St, they won by a combined 93-7 score. Vs the rest of their schedule, the score is 94-72. Half of their points this season are due to those 2 blowouts. Based on going OT vs Kentucky, there isn't an easy game remaining on the schedule. Miss St, Vandy, Georgia, Arkansas & A&M. There are probably 2 more losses on the horizon, if not 3 or 4.

Never would have thought these 3 would struggle for bowl eligibility.........

......Red Raiders had an impressive loss seeing as their starting QB was out........

....There were 11 unbeatens coming into the week. Now that was almost cut in half. Carson Beck made sure Miami got its first loss.....UNLV was blown away by Boise St....Texas Tech fell @ Arizona St........UAB fired Trent Dilfer, gave the reins to Chris Mortensen's son, & then gave Memphis their 1st L......Ole Miss thought the game only had 3 periods like hockey & fell @ Georgia.........

......BYU has now beat Utah 4 straight. I'm in tuned to Utah sports talk, but I wonder how that is sitting w/Utes alumni.............

....IDK who should win the Heisman, but I haven't seen a more exciting player this year than Miami FR WR Malachi Toney..........

.......Ohio St has yet to be seriously challenged by any offense this year. And probably won't be this season. Their next 4 are Penn St, Purdue, UCLA & Rutgers. They have given up just 4 td's & 3 fg's in 7 games this year. 41 points total. Put that into perspective: There were 20 teams who gave up 41 or more this week.............

......What happened to Sam Bradford?.................

........Oregon St got their 1st win by beating Lafayette of the Patriot League. UMass & Sam Houston are the only 2 FBS teams left w/o a victory.........

......Trying to understand why Penn St would want Matt Rhule..........

......Trying to understand why programs always look for a big name to replace their coach. Nick Saban wasn't Nick Saban until he became Nick Saban. In other words, do your homework & find the guy who is growing into a giant. And then be patient with them..........

[Cobra Mgr]

Curry College RB Montie Quinn rushes for NCAA-record 522 yards

[Amazin69]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

eh....IDK.....28 yd line is a 45yd fg. Not exactly automatic. How much time was left & did MSU have any T.O.'s left?

It was 2nd down, no time-outs remaining, but about 40 seconds left. They could have run the ball and spiked it on 3rd down, if need be.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

It was 2nd down, no time-outs remaining, but about 40 seconds left. They could have run the ball and spiked it on 3rd down, if need be.

I agree. Run it, spike it, send in the kicker was the better move.

[Cobra Mgr]

Gator fans get their wish. Florida fires Napier.

[Amazin69]

Switch out the rum'n'cokes for champagne in the day-drinking, Gator fans!

Matt Mitchell should have fun with this.

[Cobra Mgr]

SEC Shorts - Battered SEC teams look for answers

[Cobra Mgr]

SEC Roll Call - Week 8

[Amazin69]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

SEC Roll Call - Week 8

The wheel coming off for Carolina was a painfully accurate metaphor.

"Mark Stoops does not deserve to be fired…he deserves to be in prison" was on point, too