Jon Joseph

Michigan fans are calling NCAA HQ to see if Sherrone Moore's suspension can be extended. 🙃

Clemson: Take no prisoners! Leave no crumbs! 35 - 3 at half-time over the GOAT (?) and UNC. Perhaps the UNC AD should have checked Billy's record without Tommy before handing him $10 million a year? Oh, plus a couple of more million for Billy's boys and bosom buddy GM Lombardi? But off the field, there's been no embarrassing behavior, right?🤪

First, make sure to read Darren Perkins' excellent and humorous Bye Week article. Three FBS teams have not trailed in a game to date. Miami, Maryland, and Texas Tech. All three teams have challenging games today: No. 3 Miami (- 4.5) at No. 18 FSU; No. 11 Texas Tech (-11.5) at 5-0 Houston; and No. 32 Maryland (+6.5) hosting UW. Maryland is often undefeated in September, then October happens. Mike Locksley is 0-9 coming off a bye week and playing a Big Ten opponent. Long trip East for UW after battling with Ohio State in Seattle last Saturday. Terps vs. the Huskies will likely be the closest Big Ten game of the week. Penn State at UCLA, Michigan State at Nebraska, and Illinois at Purdue should be wins for the visiting teams. Home teams should prevail in Wisconsin at Michigan, Minnesota at Ohio State, and the Louisiana-Monroe Wart Hogs (!) at Northwestern. The only Top 25 vs. Top 25 games today are No. 3 Miami at No. 18 FSU, and No. 16 Vanderbilt (+10.5) at No. 10 Alabama. ( Hmmmm. I recall one loss, FSU defeating one loss Bama, no?) The one Top 25 team in action last night, No. 23 BYU, defeated Rich Rod and West Virginia. A lesser slate of games than Week 5, but strange things happen in CFB when least expected. Enjoy and get ready to Lite Up Cig!

Sports Illustrated's balanced look at the issue of private capital. Arguments pro and con are well expressed. SIInside the Big Ten’s Private Capital Gamble: What It Mean...The conference is weighing a $2 billion deal that could reshape revenue, control and the future of college athletics.

Wouldn't It Be Nice - 😍 Why Oregon’s Dante Moore could be the next Marcus Mariota...Oregon QB Dante Moore shined in a double-OT win at Penn State. Could he follow Marcus Mariota’s path and become the Ducks’ next Heisman winner?

ESPN's Bill Connelly on CFB Week 6 - ESPN.comBama's shot at revenge, high stakes in the ACC and the 29...Can Vanderbilt do it again? Can Virginia sustain its success? And what's next in the Big 12?

Maybe it's a trap? 🤢 https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-playoff-race-2025-alabama-vs-vanderbilt-leads-week-6-slate-trap-games-await-ranked-teams/?ftag=SNL-04-10aaa0b&ET_CID=479713&ET_RID=52482716

Reining In NIL, Maybe? Schools can no longer guarantee 3rd party collective NIL deals. The NIL deal reviewer, NIL Go (Don't Go NIL?), was waiting on this ruling before reviewing a backlog of NIL deals. Reminder: NIL deals with public companies not found to be 'boosters' are all good. Saturday BlitzThe NCAA finally adopted changes to help police NIL dealsThe world of College Football continues to trend closer to the NFL and professional ranks than we've ever seen before as significant changes continue to impact

HUH? I guess Peewee and Tiny Tim, and Miss Vickie were not available? On3ESPN College GameDay announces guest picker for Vanderbil....

Clemson and UNC fans can relate to the flip side: I Wonder if I Care as Much. 🙃

Darren, thanks again for the terrific article. BTW, Miami and Mari-oh-oh are 0-4 in the last four road games vs. ranked opponents. This week, Miami has to travel farther than 30 miles from campus. Week 5 served up CFB caviar, filet mignon, and Dom Perignon. This week looks like a cold burger, soggy fries, and a flat Coke from the McDonalds Drive-Thru. 😁But these are the kind of weeks when strange CFB stuff happens.🤬 In addition to your rundown of this week's games, here are a few more from On3's Josh Pate. I liked your take on the Dabo Donut Holes vs. the 33rd NFL team. UNC's play is the only thing making the Cleveland Brownies look good. Nevertheless, Gabe, Blow Your Horn! On3Upset Alert: Which college football teams could be in dan....

Thanks, Darren, for another most enjoyable read. It isn't easy putting together a schedule for 18 teams that cover four time zones. Seeming inequities in scheduling will happen. But compared to playing eight B1G teams in a row without an idle week, this year's schedule is a piece of cake. Every team and its fans have scheduling beefs. Ohio State and its fans feel dumped on having to kick off so often at noon. IMO, both teams being idle the week before playing one another is not hurting one team or the other. The only egregious game on the schedule is having to play Minnesota on a Friday night after playing at Iowa. However, this gives OBD one more day to prepare for USC. The B1G did not schedule OBD's game against Beavis in Week 4. Oregon, like Penn State, could have avoided playing a game in Week 4. Maybe this is a reason why OBD's D ran out of gas in the 4th quarter, but a win cures all concerns. One of the very few times I have been disappointed in Dan Lanning is his joining the LA crowd, beefing about rather than embracing the challenge of the schedule. Four of 18 teams are located in the Pacific time zone. Scheduling stuff is going to happen. Don't Let Mendoza Cross the Line! Put Out That Cig!

Friend Solar, there is risk, of course. However, with a 95% equity stake in Big Ten Enterprises, I believe Tony Petitti and his advisers have mitigated the risk. How is a 5% stake holder going to call the shots? I also note that Microsoft, Google, and Apple start ups were all funded with private equity. The financial world opined that Microsoft and its idea of personal computers would never work. Microsoft came close to taking down IBM. If this deal happens as was the case with the Big Ten Network, others will follow suit.

Gat, I'm not saying anyone's concerns about a new enterprise aren't warranted. But how does a 5% equity holder tell the other 95% what they have to do? The format of the newly formed Big Ten Enterprises will own 95% of the equity. In 2007, B1G commissioner Jim Delaney had an idea. The conference would start its own network dedicated solely to the broadcast and coverage of a single conference's athletics. He convinced Fox to provide 61% of the new venture's start-up capital. Delaney, the Big Ten, and Fox were laughed at and skewered coast to coast over an insane idea that would be a disaster for the conference and Fox. I'm pretty sure Jim, the B1G, and Fox got the last laugh.

A $40 billion valuation. $2 billion for 5% which reverts to the conference in 2047. The conference retains management of its own affairs. How does a 5% owner of a to-be-formed Big Ten Enterprises have the power to run and ruin the conference now or in the future? It doesn't. The goal is to keep the conference together and not have to look at partnerships with teams from other conferences to raise the operating cash to compete for championships. To have the money on hand to avoid draconian cuts to athletic departments and non-revenue sports. I, too, have worked with private equity businesses. I'm certain Tony Petitti has worked with private equity. They have their valuation experts, and so does the Big Ten. This has been a protracted negotiation. Petitti and his advisers did not fall off the last pumpkin wagon coming through town. They are not going to give control and the future of the conference away. How else do the critics of the proposed transaction plan on raising additional operating funds? The choice is the same choice every business enterprise in growth mode faces: incur debt or sell a slice of equity. The sports inventory has already been leveraged, and the Big Ten has secured the best return of all the competing conferences. The predicate, as Mike West noted above, that many people refuse to recognize: college athletics is big business. The B1G is the biggest in the industry. IMO, selling a small slice of equity for a fixed time is much more favorable than incurring long-term debt, and the goal of holding the conference together is worthwhile. A goal a conference commissioner should see as Job One.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner! We're No. 1! Ranking the 10 Biggest College Football Winners of September

Concerns noted and understood. However, the proposed deal gives the investor(s) only a 5% stake in the to-be-formed Big Ten Enterprises through 2046. If $2B buys 5% for a fixed term only, the conference, through 2046, is valued at $40 billion. Tony Petitti, the Big Ten, and the conference's investment bankers will not be hosed over. The conference retains all of its governance rights. After 2046, the investor(s) one twentieth interest ends.

I get your well-made point. But CFB is a hard beast to kill. According to Fox Media Analytics president Mike Mulville, CFB viewership is up 19% year to year and 36% over the last five years. Even amongst all of the free agent transfer portal chaos and pay-for-play concerns, CFB is a growth industry.

$2 billion for media rights extension through 2046? For 100% of the media rights. Are the B1G media rights now pledged by all member schools through 2036, with the current media deal expiring in 2030? On the surface, the deal appears to be thin, no? Future media deal projections estimate each school receiving up to $100 million a year in revenue distributions beginning in 2031. If the new deal runs through 2036, that's $600 million a member, $10.8 billion total. But, wait a minute ... As Pete Thamel's article on ESPN notes, the equity share payment to each member would be tiered; Northwestern would not receive the same share as Ohio State. And the entity infusing the capital would own 5%, one twentieth, of Big Ten Enterprises. The conference would remain in control of its business affairs. Now, the potential deal makes more sense. I trust Petitti and the Big Ten's investment bankers not to get taken advantage of. So-called 'Expert Journalists,' excluding Pete Thamel, whose article is explanatory rather than critical, opining that this is another bad idea from the B1G, are again clueless. (We will see an AQ PO format and PO expansion, probably sooner than later.) Tony Petitti's goal is to keep the Big Ten together as a holistic enterprise; no need to form a Super Conference. No need to leave any program behind, while also taking into consideration that not all members, when it comes to the bottom line, are equal. Coming from a media background, another likely goal of Petitti is to own and control Big Ten broadcasts, including when football games kick off. The B1G and other big-time college sports conferences and teams will continue to seek out new revenue sources. As the conference with the most revenue, the B1G is in the driver's seat.

Thus, OBD or TOSU's 1st loss will happen on 12/6/25 in Indianapolis in the B1G champ game. If this were to happen, the winner would have a 1st round PO bye, as would the loser. The winner plays in the Rose Bowl against the winner of the No. 12 seed at the No. 5 seed, and the loser likely plays in the Cotton Bowl against No. 7 at No. 10, or No. 11 at No. 6.

REFUND!

Trojans Wire - Dante Moore is the best QB in CFB! WOW! I have to keep reminding myself that Dante is but 20 years old! https://trojanswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/trojans/football/2025/09/30/usc-football-again-middle-pack-big-ten/86432632007/?utm_source=smg-trojanswire-strada&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SM

Week 5's Top 10 most-watched games. 20 teams - 7 SEC, 6 B1G, 4 ACC, 2 B12, 1 Independent. On3College Football TV Ratings: Top 10 most-watched games of.... OBD is a B1G draw. Another good showing for the SEC and ABC/ESPN. Notre Dame, again, shows why it is expansion candidate No. 1 plus.

This will be the NFL's 40th game played in London. Want to wager a Bob and a Quid? Browns +3.5. AP NewsBy the Numbers: After mudfest in 2007, NFL's game count i...The NFL will reach a milestone Sunday when the Minnesota Vikings face the Cleveland Browns at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Gabe, Blow Your Horn! In London? Hopefully, the site of Gabe's 1st start will one day be the answer to a trivia question. 👌👍😁 AP NewsRookie Dillon Gabriel named Browns starting QB after Joe...Rookie Dillon Gabriel will get his first NFL start on Sunday when the Cleveland Browns face the Minnesota Vikings in London.