Jon Joseph

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

10 Preseason Storylines from Yahoo Sports 10 biggest storylines for the 2025 college football season

The AP Poll began its ranking of college football teams in 1936. This is the closest margin between the 1st and 2nd-ranked teams in the history of the poll.

Pawallll! Only 10 SEC teams ranked! Call Greg Sankey and his It Just Means More cops! Six B1Gs ranked, plus USC, Nebraska, and Iowa in Others Receiving Votes. If this ranking, which it won't be, were the PO committee's final ranking on 12/7/25, it would be a Day of Infamy for No. 12 Illinois, bumped out of the PO field by No. 25 Boise State. This would have B1G commissioner Petitti staying with automatic qualifiers if the PO is to expand. No. 7 OBD would open at home against No. 10 Mari-Oh-Oh and his Canes. 😁 As Gat noted above, it's a Power 2 world with the 4-ranked teams B12 (proving the rankings go too deep), and the 3-ranked ACC teams trying to hold on. 1st time for Texas to be ranked No. 1 in the preseason AP Poll and the 1st time the No.1 ranked team is not the favorite in its opening game.

Locksley went way over the coach-speak line at B1G media days when he said he lost the locker room in 2024, over NIL paid players lording it over the 'peasants.' The only thing Maryland has done of football note happened in 1962, when Maryland coach Lee Corso brought in an African American transfer, Darryl Hill, from the Naval Academy and integrated the ACC. Iowa QB Gronowski was raised in Illinois, but he played at and transferred in from South Dakota State. The only reason I note this is because Lincoln Kienholz, who grew up in South Dakota where he was all-state in football and baseball, is in a battle with Julian Sayin for the starting QB job at Ohio State. (Or at least a battle to make it harder for Sark to game plan?) Two B1G starters with ties to South Dakota would be unique. Only 11 more days before CFB kicks off in Dublin, Ireland. 😍

Thanks, David, for another terrific article that helps whet the appetite even more with the start of the 2025 season, which thankfully, is now on the horizon. With an 18-team mega conference with only one permanent opponent, the Other School Up North, rivalries are more difficult to develop and maintain. Even in the old/real Pac-12, with the addition of CU and Utah, and the USC, UCLA, California scheduling agreement, the rivalries with the LA schools did not seem the same without annual matchups. B1G commissioner Tony Petitti and B1G HQ are reviewing the schedules for all sports to see if travel can be reduced, particularly travel to and from the West Coast. The travel burden is more of a concern with sports other than football, but we could see the LA schools being added as permanent opponents in football, which would add at least one more season of games before playing all of the Big Ten teams. With three of the B1G's five Blue Chip Roster teams in the Eastern time zone, I doubt that we will see a return to divisions in football, but divisions could make sense for all of the other sports with a Western Division of the West Coast schools and five of the Central time zone's Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Northwestern. The conference has done a good job of alleviating travel, with no two-time zone away games, but it cannot eliminate all situations that favor one team over the opponent. This season, OBD is on the road at Iowa playing on Saturday before returning home to play Minnesota on Friday night. And the Gophers do not play the previous weekend. If the opponent were Ohio State, Penn State, or Michigan, there would probably be more furor over this scheduling quirk. Yes, OBD is 2-10 versus the Buckeyes, but according to many Bucks, the Rose Bowl beat down on the way to the title was their favorite game. And OBD and Ohio State are frequently going against one another in recruiting top talent. Michigan should be on OBD's rivals' radar. Michigan is the USC of the B1G. 'We don't play on Friday nights because we don't want to, and we are Michigan.' Seasons when OBD is scheduled to play all of its 'rivals' are rare. In 2027, Oregon plays Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, and UW, plus Nebraska, Iowa, and UCLA, but no USC. This schedule is a recipe to brew rivalries, but who in the heck would want to do this every season? Thanks again, David, and Bob Them Cats!

The most relevant poll before the release of the football committee's first ranking, the AP Poll, is out. Because of a computer blip, I cannot link the top 25 plus others receiving votes, OTR. The Top 12 - 1. Texas/ 2. Penn State/ 3. Ohio State/ 4. Clemson/ 5. Georgia/ 6. Notre Dame/ 7. OREGON/ 8. Alabama/ 9. LSU/ 10. Miami/ 11. ASU. 12. Illinois If these rankings were the committee's final rankings on 12/7/25, Penn State and Ohio State would both have 1st round byes. OBD would open against Mari-Oh-Oh and the Canes in Autzen 😁. Illinois would be knocked out of the PO field by No. 25 Boise State. Greg Sankey wonders why only 10 SEC teams are ranked? Independent Notre Dame, and G5 Boise State are ranked. 6 B1G teams are ranked with USC, Nebraska, and Iowa among others receiving votes. 4 B12 and 3 ACC teams are ranked. 6 B1G teams may be ranked in the committee's final top 25. 10 SEC teams with 3 teams playing 10 P4 opponents could be ranked, which would sustain the B1G wanting PO automatic qualifiers.

When you are not supported from the top of the administration on down, and your AD can make terrible hires and not be removed, when it's not cool (or whatever today's word is) for students to attend football games, you will not have a winning program. Today's students are tomorrow's boosters. If they are not fans today, the money needed to sustain excellence will not be there.

My comment on Canzano's site: Michigan does not play at Central Michigan. Ohio State does not play at Bowling Green. Penn State does not play at Slippery Rock. Oregon should not play in Corvallis. Do not schedule Beavis. Never schedule Boise State. Without playoff automatic qualifiers, open every season in Autzen against Portland State and hand the in-state Vikings a check. In their championship seasons, Michigan and Ohio State played no P4 opponent out of conference. Penn State is following this model in 2025. Everyone is excited over Texas at Ohio State, Michigan at Oklahoma, Notre Dame at Miami, and LSU at Clemson, and I get this. But four of these ranked teams will have a loss after Week 1. The last time a 3-loss team made the BCS, 4-team, or 12-team playoff field as an at-large team was never. So, the losers had better be conference champions, not you, Notre Dame, or go 11-0 the rest of the way. 3-loss Clemson was ranked No. 16 by the Committee in the final poll of 2024, but made the field because Miami choked against Syracuse, and Clemson held on to defeat SMU, and automatically qualified as the ACC champion. (BTW, since 1984, no team ranked lower than 15th in the final regular season poll has won a championship the following season.) Mega-Conference conference schedules vary greatly in strength of schedule. We'd all like to see more B1G against SEC nonconference games, and this is one of the reasons Tony Petitti wants an expanded playoff field with automatic qualifiers. Without AQs, tough out-of-conference games are not worth the playoff candle.