Jon Joseph

Even with a heavy dose of roster turnover (sound familiar), Montana State is ranked 2nd in the FCS preseason top 25 poll. Last season, Idaho was ranked 4th in the FCS preseason poll and ... FCS Football Rankings - Stats Perform FCS Top 25 | NCAA.com

Thanks, Gat. I think the fine, according to B1G Ten Network coverage, may be closer to $25 million, still a lot of money. Michigan was also hit with recruiting restrictions over the next four seasons. The NCAA appears to be over the nonsense of changing wins into losses. (Thank goodness. Otherwise, as the good Doctor points out, UW fans would rush to claim the 2023-24 championship.) Interesting thoughts on South Carolina. Was this injury proved up by the Gamecocks? Part of the financial hit and four-year prohibition is a result of Jim Harbaugh's escape to the NFL, ala Pete Carroll, and current HC Moore deleting his calls from his cell phone; a/k/a lack of cooperation. I do not want to turn everything that happens in CFB into a B1G versus SEC battle but when I compare these sanctions to what was handed down to Tennessee not long ago, this seems to be over the top. Tennessee, before NIL, and under Jeremy Pruitt, was found by the NCAA to be paying recruits and players on the roster, a direct pay-for-play scheme that resulted in a 'death penalty' judgment for SMU. No doubt paying players before NIL happened was the number 1 no-no on the NCAA's Hit Parade. Paying players to sign with your school directly benefits the payor program. Did Michigan win a game on its way to a title because it stole signs? Would Michigan not have finished the season undefeated? Many who follow CFB were surprised that the NCAA prohibited in-person scouting. (As for cooperation with the NCAA, the Big Ten sat Jim Harbaugh for three games in 2023, on the way to Michigan's title. Tony Petitti and B1G HQ filed a 'brief' on behalf of Michigan with the NCAA that noted the Harbaugh sanctions.) Tennessee was fined $8 million and was hit with recruiting sanctions less onerous than the sanctions handed to Michigan. Yet again, the NCAA seems to hold teams outside of the Southeast to a higher standard. Compare Miami's pay-for-play sanctions to SC's penalties for one player receiving excess benefits. Two decades of academic fraud at UNC were OK with the NCAA because 'regular students' as well as 'student athletes' cheated. How about the time, or lack thereof, it took the NCAA to sanction Oregon for using a third party outside the program to assist with recruiting? No schools in the SEC were using 'runners' to help with recruiting, right? Michigan did avoid a postseason ban, but Michigan, at least in part, will appeal these sanctions first to the NCAA, and after being denied relief by the NCAA, will likely file an appeal in a court of law. One extra game of Moore sitting out is no big deal, but even for a Michigan program, a $20 million-plus fine directly from the football program's revenues and the restrictions placed on recruiting will not be accepted without protest. These sanctions affect not only Michigan but the entire B1G. The NCAA's over-the-top SC sanctions, at the same time the Pac-12 Network came online, did not help the Pac-12's long-term financial viability. Pac-12 fans outside of Troy, happy with SC's sanctions, were penny-wise and pound-foolish. Games and championships matter, of course, but today, money matters equally if not more. I fully expect others on the Forum to disagree with my POV, which is, of course, fine. But the B1G is in a financial race with other conferences, and these IMO over-the-top sanctions on one of the B1G's biggest brand names do not help the B1G conference in any respect. Thanks for the post.

I'm not certain this is a B1G Bold Prediction, but I do agree that OBD will be PO back! Oregon Ducks, Dan Lanning Receive Bold Big Ten Prediction

Thank you, Charles. Nice opening gambit by Chip, but where was the response? IMO, this no-show is on the entire coaching staff from the Chief on down. In addition to Chip's adjustments, equally important IMO was the adjustments Jim Knowles made on defense. Caleb Downs moved up from safety and was a wrecking ball. The O-line that played well against TOSU in Autzen was manhandled in Pasadena. I don't think this happened as a result of strength and conditioning training post-Michigan. It will be fascinating to watch the White Out chess match. Next (Nest?) case. Onward and upward!

6 PM Pacific tonight, the BTN crew visits Eugene. Based on program visits to date, this is well worth watching. Go Ducks!

USC, due to volume, has the No. 1, to date, 2026 recruiting ranking. But what team is mining recruiting gold? OBD, of course! 😍 On3 - The ten teams with the highest percentage of 2026 Blue Chip recruits - 1. OREGON - 88% 2. LSU - 78% / A&M - 78% 4. Georgia - 77% 5. Notre Dame - 74% / Florida 74% 7. Miami - 73% 8. Texas - 71% 9. USC - 69% 😁 10. the Ohio State University - 67% It's nice that a mainstream CFB site recognizes Coach Lanning and friends ' recruiting prowess. How many CFB fans would know that Oregon has the highest number of Blue-Chip recruits to date? The media is all over Oregon commits who decommit, but not when top recruits commit. Win a Natty! Beginning with a roundup of Bob's Cats.

Who in the 🤬invited these guys to the party? Before 2024, we had to go to Pasadena to get our B1G butts kicked 😁.

Man, is that balled-up or what? 😁 The other day, a UNC grad golfing buddy told me there is confusion in Chapel Hill. No one knows if walk-on Jordon Hudson is going to play wide receiver or tight end. 🤔

Hail to the Victors Valiant? No postseason ban, which means sighs of relief coming out of Ann Arbor. Michigan receives NCAA sanctions for sign-stealing: Sherrone Moore suspended three games, hefty fine levied, more Michigan's fine totals @$20 million. Before NIL, Tennessee was fined $8 million for paying players. If you're going to cheat, do it south of the Mason-Dixon.

Thank you, Steven. I like Ross Dellinger's reporting, but there are a few gaps in this article, beginning with the state of Tennessee. The Tennessee legislature passed a law signed into law by the governor that prohibits the enforcement of the House settlement in the Volunteer State. (Freudian slip? I originally spelled it: Hose Settlement 😁) Kentucky's athletic department is now a limited liability company (LLC). Except in very rare cases, damages against an LLC are limited to the assets held by the LLC. The university itself, in theory, will not be liable if its athletic department runs amok. Alabama, among other schools, is holding back NIL information, claiming that doing so would violate the athletes' federal right of privacy. The folks at Bama were not aware of this when their commissioner, Greg Sankey, was touting the settlement. Right? After a short period of rejecting all NIL collective deals, NIL Go, the review committee, after being reminded by the House plaintiff attorneys that this was not the deal, backed off. NIL collectives and deals arranged by and between members of a collective are not, ipso facto, verboten. The House settlement provides that all NIL deals with public companies are kosher, except for public companies found to be 'boosters.' Marketing deals with 3rd parties are not new; what is new is the ability via NIL to share the revenue with the players. In the 12 months from Judge Wilkin's approval of the settlement, $20.5 million is the cap that schools can revenue share with their 'student athletes.' Revenue directly shared with any source cannot go over this limit. Dellinger failed to note this salient fact. So, many of the defendants, the once Power 5 conferences' subsidiaries, their member programs, had no intention of following the terms of the settlement and were actively planning ways of looping holes in the terms of the settlement before its approval. Maybe the Pac-2's Theresa Gould was not aware of this, but the other commissioners? Without a collective bargaining agreement between the athletes and 'management,' however defined, the NCAA and its members will not be granted relief from litigation. The Power 5 conferences and the NCAA could and should have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and found relief from litigation in a federally approved Plan of Reorganization. The House settlement is one more futile attempt by the NCAA to prevent college athletes from being found to be 'employees', even though they are being paid directly by their respective universities. It's simply more NCAA Male Bovine Excrement of Form, as defined by the NCAA over Substance as defined by the world at large, including courts of law. The Emperor has no clothes! Rob Mullens and other intelligent ADs, the leaders of universities, and their legal counsel, cannot see this?

This ranking names OBD's O-line the 4th-best in the conference heading into 2025. Power ranking all 18 Big Ten offensive lines from worst to first Now, Wait a Minute! OBD plays No. 1 Penn State and No. 2 Iowa, so the jury is out before the B1G champ game on 12/6/25. Oregon's O-line gels and plays to its potential, and the starting five could all be drafted in 2026.

Fox names the top 10 B1G football players in 2023. 3 Nits, 2 Bucks, and 2 Ducks - Quack! Who Are The 10 Best Players in The Big Ten Entering The 2025 Season? I wonder what the list will look like on Judgement Day, 12/7/25, when the PO committee releases its final ranking.

It's not how you start, but an entire body of work. A body of work where OBD went 13-0, the only P4 team to do so, and captured a B1G title. Both OTs were drafted, Conerly in the 1st round and Cornelius in the 6th. The O-line was a finalist for the Joe Moore, best college O-line, award. The QB the line blocked for was a Heisman Trophy finalist. Give me this, please, season after season. The Rose Bowl loss stings, but that was a perfect storm team effort from Dan Lanning down to the student managers, coupled with a since-eradicated horse bleep PO format.

The Sports Information Directors' (Coaches) Poll Compared to the Scribes (AP) Poll College football poll analysis. How coaches and AP rankings differ

Another B1G Title in 2025-26. If it happens, Pawallll has promised to leave the US of A. Might I suggest Pyongyang? 😁A perfect fit. Big Ten Football Preview: Third Straight National Title Could Be on the Horizon

The Celtics went for $6 billion. This looks like a steal, right? 🤑

LSU and Miami Playoff MIA? 😁 Preseason Hype or Letdown? Top 10 Teams Most Likely to Disappoint Doubting the Ducks makes me Quack-Up!

Here's what the folks at Penn State have to say about the AP's preseason ranking. Five biggest takeaways from preseason AP Poll

In the even worse category, Stanford's starting quarterback in Week 0, on the road in Honolulu, will be one of the 17 players who transferred in from the transfer portal: 6th-year senior Ben Gulbranson. Ben started three of OSU's last four games in 2024, but left for Stanford knowing that $1.5 million QB Malik Murphy would start this season. A Bing search of Ben finds him still in Corvallis; his transfer to Furd was most certainly not B1G news. Malik is working his way to FCS Portland State after starting a couple of games at Texas when Quinn Ewers was hurt, starting for Duke in 2024 before transferring out, knowing he would lose his job in Durham to a QB transferring in from Tulane, Darian Mensah. For a reported $3 million NIL deal, Mensa(h) was smart to transfer to Duke 😁. Cal had many starters transfer out, especially on offense, due to Wilcox's hiring of former Boise State and Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin as Cal's OC. Heck of a hire when the newbie runs off all of your best players, one reason Wilcox now reports to GM Ron Rivera. Wilcox does not get Cal to a bowl game this season, and if Cal has enough money, Wilcox is likely gone, with the GM also serving as head coach? Perhaps the Bears can use some of that B1G money purloined from the Bruins to buy out the coach? Stanford lost many starters to GM Andrew Luck's firing of Troy Taylor, who is suing Stanford for wrongful termination of his contract. 17 players transferring to Stanford is a record by a good bit. Luck may have conditioned his hire on the administration being willing to admit more transfers out of the portal. Stanford opened -2.5 at Hawaii, now bet down to -1.5. This speaks for itself as to the nadir of Stanford football. Thank goodness OBD caught the last B1G plane out.

And then, there is The Ohio State University - an AP polling fixture - TOSU beats Michigan? Who knew? https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/ohio-state-football-sets-all-time-record-with-latest-ap-poll-drop-leaving-michigan-in-the-dust-for-second-place/ar-AA1KoQGP?ocid=msedgdhphdr&cvid=959287bf7c

Lucky Number 7? Let it be. Historic Trend Says One of These Teams Will Win the College Football Playoff

FWIW - AP Preseason Top 25 Playoff - Sugar Bowl - No. 1 Texas vs. No. 9 LSU at No. 8 Alabama Orange Bowl - No. 4 Clemson vs. No. 12 Boise State at No. 5 Georgia Rose Bowl - No. 2 Penn State vs. No. 10 Miami at No. 7 OREGON Cotton Bowl - No. 3 Ohio State vs. No. 11 ASU at No. 6 Notre Dame The Fiesta and Peach Bowls are the semi-final sites. The championship game will be played in Miami at the 'Dolphins' Stadium. IMO, it's not a good idea to play the title game in an uncovered stadium. Pawalll and Greg Sankey would not be happy about three SEC teams being in the same bracket. The bottom of the bracket sets up as an all-B1G semifinal matchup. Of course, the odds are very much against this being the field the playoff committee gives us on 12/7/25 IMO, a Clemson team lit up by Georgia and Texas last season and with home losses to Louisville and South Carolina, may be overrated. A new DC, Tom Allen, was brought in for a reason: the Tigers D in 2024 was not that good. The two Clemson D linemen the 'experts' are raving about were on the team last season. OBD would have an enticing 1st round matchup against MIA. A win in Autzen would send Oregon to the Rose Bowl, this time against Penn State. However, I think the Ducks return to the PO, but I doubt Miami, with no returning starters at wide receiver, and no matter the value of the car stolen from the starting QB 😁, will break through to PO territory. As I recall, Heisman candidate Dillon Gabriel drove a mini-van. Only four of the 12 teams in the field return the 2024 starter at QB. What teams with many new starters will do the best geling in The Season of Roster Turnover?

Thank you, Charles, for another superb and much-needed editing job. And thank you, and Another OD, for raising the Portal Transfer impact on today's college football rosters. In an era of largely unregulated 'free agency,' roster management is critical to a team's success. Players must be recruited from high school and the portal, and often need to be re-recruited to prevent them from moving on to another program, one that is likely offering more NIL money. Ohio State, with an experienced deep blue Blue Chip Roster, likely would not have won last season's title (Sigh) without Will Howard transferring in from Kansas State to start at QB, and starting Center Seth McLaughlin, and Safety Caleb Downs, transferring in from Alabama. It's another feather in Dan Lanning's and his assistant coaches' hats that Oregon has yet to lose a starting player with remaining eligibility to the portal. 2025 could well be referred to as 'The Season of Roster Turnover.' So many quality teams, Texas, Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia, and others, have to replace players who contributed to their team's success in 2024. What coaching group does the best at slotting in new starters who were on the 2024 roster and arrive as recruits from high school or the portal in 2025 will go a long way toward determining this season's champion. This season presents a new challenge to Coach Lanning and his staff. For the first time in Lanning's four seasons as OBD's head coach, a player with limited starting experience will start at quarterback. Since Dan's hire in 2021 and his first year coaching in 2022, Oregon has led the nation in average points scored on offense. But Heisman-contending finalists Bo Nix and Dillon Gabriel, who joined OBD with a wealth of starting experience, have moved on to the NFL. Charles' terrific comment details the pieces added to Oregon's roster from the portal. Fortunately, the 2025 schedule provides four games, one-third of the season, for Oregon to gel on offense, defense, and special teams before being the guest at a Penn State White Out. Penn State, like Oregon, has a Blue Chip roster, but unlike Oregon, returns many players from 2024 when the Nittany Lions won a record 13 games, and has added players at positions of need, especially at wide receiver, from the portal. This season will test this Oregon coaching staff's acumen like no other in head coach Dan Lanning's time leading the Ducks. Buckle up! 2025 should be a very interesting ride for Oregon and its fans. One point in the article that did not age well. At the time I wrote the article, the B1G and the SEC were in agreement that an expanded playoff field in 2026-27 and thereafter, with 14 or 16 teams, should have four automatic qualifiers from the B1G and four from the SEC. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, duplicitously in my opinion, pulled the new playoff format rug out from under B1G commissioner Tony Petitti. The field will probably stay at 12 teams in 2026-27 and thereafter, unless the SEC agrees to play nine regular-season conference games. No big deal for the B1G that leads all conferences in revenue and net earnings, and will continue to do so with or without the playoff field expanding.

And, LOL! Not at you, of course, but at another great GIF. 😁

Can't have a poll without positive and negative reactions. 5 instant reactions to preseason AP Top 25 poll with the SEC and ranked games galore