After one month, this wild and odd year in college football continues to be extremely unusual and unpredictable.
This is the last season for the Pac-12. One contingent of its members are defecting to the Big 10. A second group are going to the Big 12, which is also undergoing major changes as Oklahoma and Texas are going to the SEC.
Even minor conferences like the AAC have teams moving in and out, while the Big South and OVC have merged, at least for football purposes.
Next season the College Football Playoff is supposed to expand to 12 teams, but right now no one is sure how that’s going to work. There’s also a question of whether a new conference will be designated as a Power group once the Pac-12 is formally disbanded, if indeed it is.
There are rumors floating around about a possible joint venture between the remaining couple of Pac-12 teams and the Mountain West conference to form a new, as yet unnamed, group.
In the meantime, there are also plenty of unconfirmed rumors about more conference relocation.
Florida State is reportedly unhappy about new teams coming into the ACC, and pondering a possible shift to the SEC along with North Carolina. There’s always the specter of Notre Dame, which remains the only major independent capable of challenging for the national title.
Another unresolved issue concerns the question of name, image and likeness (NIL) money, and its impact on recruitment. Several major college coaches are claiming that schools are offering blank checks to recruits, bolstered by boosters providing undocumented assistance.
Because there are no set limits or rules from state to state regarding the practice, some schools can establish huge ties with companies while others are limited by location or size.
Then there’s the transfer portal, which has enabled some schools like Colorado to transform almost irs entire roster on the fly within a season. Deion Sanders has become for some the essence of everything wrong with the new system, as he almost totally dismantled the previous Colorado roster using the portal. Others see him as the essence of freshness and change, someone cleverly using the rules to reshape a one win team. Colorado has already been able to reap fiscal dividends by selling out its home schedule and attracting some of the largest TV audiences for its games in decades.
Granted, the last two weeks have been rough, as it has been shown in games against Oregon and USC that the Buffalos still have major weaknesses in both lines and defensively. But they’ve provided a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the early college season.
It’s also unclear one month in whether any dominant squad exists on the college scene.
Number one Georgia has already barely escaped twice, just edging Auburn last Saturday in the final six minutes. Perennial contender Alabama has lost once, and is far from unbeatable. LSU, reputed before the season began to be a contender, has already lost twice and is out of contention.
Out West, the Pac-12 has had at one point eight teams in the Top 25, but now that conference play has begun, the teams are beating each other up, which lessens the chances of more than one making it through unscathed.
Oregon and USC seem the best, and probably one of that pair will emerge in the four team playoff.
The Big 10 has three Top 10 teams, and the usual question looms can anyone beat Ohio State and Michigan. Penn State has the best defense in James Franklin’s tenure, and faces OSU on October 21, then Michigan in November at home.
No matter what happens over the next three months, one thing is certain. This college football season will be one for the books, no matter who emerges as the ultimate champion.
