College football season now guaranteed a happy ending, plus it's portal time

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In the first two years of the 12-team Playoff era, teams with first-round byes went 1-7. But five of those seven were underdogs or tiny favorites anyway, and the lone winner just humiliated Alabama by 35 in easily the greatest moment in program history (so far). So I think it’s a wash.

Either way, college football has joined the NFL and MLB debates on whether it’s bad or good to get a free pass to the second round. Happy New Year!{{/ifContains}}

Absolute Cinema: What a fresh final four

The best story still on the table in this college football season is pretty obvious, because it’d be one of the best stories in American sports history: the ever-hopeless Indiana Hoosiers (38-3 vs. Alabama in yesterday’s Rose) winning it all for the first time ever, almost literally out of nowhere.

But most of us can agree it’d feel nearly as good, if more of an LMAO kind of good, to see Ole Miss (39-34 vs. Georgia in the Sugar, a game-of-the-year contender) spite Lane Kiffin by winning the Rebels’ first title since their 1962 claim, right? Based on their scores in games against Georgia, maybe they’re better without him anyway.

If neither of those happen, we could have a far worse consolation moment than Oregon (23-0 vs. Texas Tech in the Orange) getting its first ring after several cruel near-misses during its decades-long rise. These relentlessly aggressive Ducks are never boring. Either Indiana or Oregon would be FBS’ first new national champion since 1996 Florida.

Five-time champ Miami (24-14 vs. Ohio State in the Cotton) is the closest thing to a historical ringer here, but anyone who remembers the 1980s or 2000s could honor a sixth by regaling the youths about the Hurricanes of yore. Plus, the championship’s in Miami. Imagine the Canes vs. Fernando Mendoza, whose high school is across town from Hard Rock Stadium.

Look at those four teams. There’s no evil empire left. The Hoosiers and Rebels just knocked out the Tide and Dawgs. Miami handed Ohio State the biggest upset in Playoff history on Friday. Anyone still mad at, I dunno, Clemson can rewatch the Pinstripe Bowl. Brian Kelly’s unemployed, not that he ever won anything big anyway. The vibes are immaculate.

Remember when guys with big microphones told you the NIL era would permanently entrench college football’s uppermost layer, ensuring nobody new ever got to do anything cool? Are those guys ever right about anything?

Now look at us. Those of us without teams still in this fight: We can’t lose. This is gonna rule. Though, yes, America’s primary team is from Bloomington.

Title odds, per Austin Mock’s projections: Peach Bowl opponents Indiana (35 percent) and Oregon (29 percent) lead, with the Fiesta’s duo splitting the rest. The Hoosiers are football championship favorites. Say it until you can believe it’s real. (BetMGM opening lines: Indiana -4 and Miami -3.)
Since the Sugar Bowl ended late, you gotta catch up on everything that happened in the final minute. Trinidad Chambliss heroics and Rebels kicker Lucas Carneiro nailing his third bomb of the night were the sensical parts. After that, Georgia’s desperate kick return resulted in a safety. Confetti fell. But the refs put a second back on the clock, the Dawgs recovered an onside kick, Ole Miss again thought it’d won, Georgia ran around for a while and then the Rebels finally won. Entertainment!
So much about Ohio State’s season now feels telling in hindsight. All those nondescript gimmes against overmatched teams. **The annual Ryan Day consternation is here, one month later than usual.
**
Despite all the (justified) game-management jokes in the world, Miami’s here because of Mario Cristobal.
Texas Tech’s big-money season (there’s the money mention again) looked like it was about to go down as a total success, regardless of what happened yesterday. Getting shut out changed that.
“The Audible,” up late last night: Indiana has no interest in being a mere Cinderella.

Hey, side note: Remember all those takes about JMU’s 17-point loss to Oregon in Round 1? How it allegedly proved the entire G5 should go join the NAIA or something?

Unlike the Big 12 champions yesterday, the Dukes managed to score on Oregon. Got 34 points, in fact. (And no, they weren’t all against backups. I saw Dante Moore still throwing, late in the fourth.) JMU outrushed Alabama’s two-game Playoff effort by 135 yards, too. Is Joel Klatt gonna express condescending sympathy for the Crimson Tide, one of the most helplessly outmuscled teams in Playoff history?

A year prior, various SEC figures slammed Indiana for getting humbled by Notre Dame in an opening-round game, allegedly having stolen a spot from a three-loss SEC team. Anyway, that conference then got swiftly erased from last year’s Playoff as supposed snubs Bama and South Carolina lost their bowls.

In both years of the 12-team era, to issue a bold proclamation based on the first couple results has meant looking kind of silly just a few days later. It’s OK to let things happen.

Quick Snaps

🅾️ For much of this season, college football’s highest-rated team was Ohio State, while the lowest-rated team in Division III was just two hours away: Oberlin, which went an emphatic 0-10. Guess which team had more fun? (Fun fact: The Yeomen were also the last Ohio team to beat the Buckeyes in football, getting it done in 1921.)

🏆 Coaches on two different sides of yesterday’s ledger:

“This is a playoff, and in my opinion, should’ve been played in Lubbock, Texas.” Dan Lanning’s right, even though it would’ve made things tougher on his Ducks yesterday. (Maybe not 23 points tougher.)
Elsewhere, Kirby Smart saying the Sugar Bowl felt at times like a road game wasn’t sour grapes. Giving every top seed a home game, even at the expense of those apparently risky byes, will surely be part of somebody’s case for a 16-team Playoff.

📺 The NFL had 84 of 2025’s 100 most-watched TV events, per Sports Business Journal. College football was the second-biggest presence, with half of the other 16. Bet 2026 started hot, too.

Still Alive: Welcome to the all-at-once portal era

Because there isn’t enough going on, today is the first day of 2026’s only football portal period, lasting through Jan. 16. In the previous world, a 30-day December window was followed by 15 days in April. Now there’s only one shot to get it right.

“This is a new deal for all of us. You can’t fix it again in May if you mess it up. We have to be great during these 14 days and be efficient with our time and resources. If you miss on a kid, you can’t fix it. Our kids’ and coaches’ lives will be determined by these next 14 days.”

That’s Tulsa head coach Tre Lamb, explaining part of the thinking behind the Portal House. In a five-bedroom, Xbox-laden house near the Golden Hurricane’s campus, Lamb’s staff will host visiting prospects day and sometimes literally night. The viral-friendly experiment might sound like a gimmick, but it’s kind of the opposite:

“You’re saving money because you’re not taking guys to Ruth’s Chris and Polo Grill every night where it’s $2,000-$3,000 dinners every single night. … You’ve got $180,000 in your recruiting budget. We would rather bring guys to campus and to this house.”

If this works well, expect it to be copied once the portal re-opens … in 2027. More here.

As for the big names to know:

Probably gonna link to this another time or two, so you might as well just have it open: 2026 transfer QB rankings, to be updated with destinations and more names. As noted, Cincinnati QB Brendan Sorsby could be this cycle’s money man.
Top five portal players at each non-QB position. Highest upside: Auburn WR Cam Coleman. Best name: NC State RB Hollywood Smothers. Most decorated: Utah edge John Henry Daley, potentially a major get for Kyle Whittingham’s Michigan.
In those two links, No. 7 QB Rocco Becht and five of those 50 non-QB players are all leaving Iowa State. Would’ve been Big 12 contenders, now following Matt Campbell to Penn State?

More portal next week, and more on the site until then.

January Madness: SEC’s bowl record matters as much as you want

The SEC’s mark in this season’s postseason games against non-SEC teams: 2-6. Average score against ACC, Big 12 and Big Ten teams: 27-20.

Neither of those two wins merits much bragging, either. Ole Miss won a home Playoff game against an 11th-seeded Tulane team that it’d already beaten in the regular season, and No. 13 Texas beat an interim-coached No. 18 Michigan 41-27 in the Citrus.

Otherwise, it was a lot of stuff like No. 23 Iowa winning 34-27 in Tampa, putting to rest talk of No. 14 Vanderbilt having been a Playoff snub.

The SEC has failed the likes of whoever sponsors the Music City Bowl these days (Illinois 30, Tennessee 28). How much does that matter? Two simultaneous truths:

Bowl results have always said dubious things about how good any particular team might be. In the modern era, that’s due to opt-outs and coaching changes, but it’s been a thing for decades. The polls didn’t unanimously start counting bowls toward national titles until the 1970s. Even a decade ago, when rosters were quaint in their stability, teams in bowls simply did not behave like themselves. Ask anyone who’s ever worked with computer power ratings. So the SEC’s ugly winter (and mere 13-11 record across the previous two postseasons) might not accurately reflect team quality.
But if the SEC’s gonna talk our ears off about its depth, it has to dominate, regardless of context. It had a mostly good non-con during this regular season, which mostly backed up this summer’s schedule-strength PR. Thing about PR, though: You don’t get to choose which games the public ignores. Football still happened this past week. We saw it.

Tonight, we’ll see if 5-7 Mississippi State can impress in the Mayo Bowl against 8-4 Wake Forest. Very funny to consider how many serious narratives hinge on which coach takes a mayo dump to the skull.

After that, if the Rebels win the national championship, these things will become mere fun facts. But if they don’t reach the title game, these things will be especially fun facts for those who enjoy SEC schadenfreude.

Other bowl note: Citrus Bowl star Arch Manning’s probably about to be a two-time offseason Heisman favorite. First to pull that off without winning it in the meantime since … a former Citrus Bowl star named Peyton? (Trevor Lawrence was really close to doing it.)

That’s it for today. Just nine games left, including today’s four bowls on the watchability calendar below. Don’t forget Sunday’s Division III championship in Canton, Ohio’s Stagg Bowl (three-trophy dynasty North Central vs. high-scoring upstart Wisconsin-River Falls) and Monday’s FCS title game in Nashville (10.5-point BetMGM favorite Montana State vs. road warrior Illinois State). See you Tuesday.

RETRUI