College Football Off Season 2026

[Sparty]

7 minutes ago, Irishman said:

I hope this works out for him, but man, to be in 4 programs in 4 years is a bit much. I would like to see restrictions on how often you can use the portal put in place. 

 

 

Agreed.  And amount of years. Total at any level. 

[Coach Nowlin]

Looks like Professional Collegiate Athletes can now play in 9 football games and still retain their Red Shirt year vs just 4

off to committee for approval 

[Bash Riprock]

2 minutes ago, Coach Nowlin said:

Looks like Professional Collegiate Athletes can now play in 9 football games and still retain their Red Shirt year vs just 4

off to committee for approval 

Read that....what are your thoughts??  That's 3/4 of a regular season.

[Coach Nowlin]

My thoughts are to continue to blame the NCAA and their HUGE ROLE in all of this current state 

Wish they would just go to 5 years and call it a day 

No more medicals, no more red shirts 

You have 5 years from Day 1 on campus 

[Irishman]

75 new commitments for next season.....just wow

 

 

 

 

7 hours ago, Coach Nowlin said:

Looks like Professional Collegiate Athletes can now play in 9 football games and still retain their Red Shirt year vs just 4

off to committee for approval 

Add to it that as of the start of this school year, juco years no longer count either. 

[Irishman]

Crazy sequence of events. Dylan Raiola commits to Oregon, but Dante Moore decides to stay another year at Oregon. 

 

This is pretty funny though. 

 

 

[Coach Nowlin]

12 hours ago, Irishman said:

Crazy sequence of events. Dylan Raiola commits to Oregon, but Dante Moore decides to stay another year at Oregon. 

 

This is pretty funny though. 

 

 

Dante Moore had 7.5 MILLION reasons to not go to the JETS 

[Irishman]

9 minutes ago, Coach Nowlin said:

Dante Moore had 7.5 MILLION reasons to not go to the JETS 

It's crazy now......leavitt is getting paid more now to play college football than Shedeur Sanders is to play pro football. No chance Moore makes more money going to the Jets compared to staying. Even crazier is he was like a top 5 draft pick. I have to admit while this is all unsustainable, the chaos provides plenty of entertainment. 

[Coach Nowlin]

Yup:    That is why I listened to the entire 1 hour Ravens Owner Presser 

 

He literally said, "I have no idea how these college coaches are dealing with this nonsense of NIL".   

Basically called it laughable system 

 

[Bash Riprock]

18 hours ago, Irishman said:

Crazy sequence of events. Dylan Raiola commits to Oregon, but Dante Moore decides to stay another year at Oregon. 

 

This is pretty funny though. 

 

 

How is this going to work out?  One is going to be a highly paid backup QB for Oregon??  Did Raiola sign?  How much?

[Irishman]

27 minutes ago, Bash Riprock said:

How is this going to work out?  One is going to be a highly paid backup QB for Oregon??  Did Raiola sign?  How much?

Looks like Raiola is making somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 Million. But he still has a redshirt year available, and would likely use that next season. 

[Bash Riprock]

48 minutes ago, Irishman said:

Looks like Raiola is making somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 Million. But he still has a redshirt year available, and would likely use that next season. 

Wow....$2M to sit and watch in the college ranks.  I bet after starting for Nebraska, he didn't originally envision going to Oregon and sitting for a season.  I could be wrong....

[Irishman]

8 minutes ago, Bash Riprock said:

Wow....$2M to sit and watch in the college ranks.  I bet after starting for Nebraska, he didn't originally envision going to Oregon and sitting for a season.  I could be wrong....

He definitely jumped the gun. He was sure that Moore was turning pro. I would not be surprised to see him try to get out of his deal with Oregon. 

[Irishman]

 

 

[23andCounting]

Indiana and Notre Dame are making statements that they could potentially be the best two teams in the country next year. Both teams are checking boxes. Great coaching, key returning players, strong portal transfers, strong recruiting class. 

Indiana's biggest challenge will be duplicating the hunger they had in their first two seasons under Cignetti. They have better players now, but will they have the same hunger and chip on their shoulder that the guys from James Madison had? Something tells me that Cignetti will keep Indiana at the top of the rankings all through the 2026 regular season leading up to the playoffs. 

Notre Dame returns their top eight defenders from a defense that was playing as good as anyone in the country not named Indiana. Couple that with the return of CJ Carr and the insane amount of talent they brought in at the WR position, what's keeping this team from being Indiana's number one contender for college football primacy? We all know they will be playing with a massive chip on their shoulder. And the schedule SCREAMS undefeated. Miami as NO shot next year in South Bend. 

I said it here, I said it now, so keep this receipt. Indiana and Notre Dame will end the regular season ranked #1 and #2. I have more confidence in Notre Dame in this than I do Indiana. The likelihood of IU having a hiccup along the way due to their schedule seems more likely than that happening to the Irish. That could throw off my prediction of them finishing one and two, but not my prediction that they'll be the best two teams in the country when it's all said and done. 

 

[Bash Riprock]

4 hours ago, 23andCounting said:

Indiana and Notre Dame are making statements that they could potentially be the best two teams in the country next year. Both teams are checking boxes. Great coaching, key returning players, strong portal transfers, strong recruiting class. 

Indiana's biggest challenge will be duplicating the hunger they had in their first two seasons under Cignetti. They have better players now, but will they have the same hunger and chip on their shoulder that the guys from James Madison had? Something tells me that Cignetti will keep Indiana at the top of the rankings all through the 2026 regular season leading up to the playoffs. 

Notre Dame returns their top eight defenders from a defense that was playing as good as anyone in the country not named Indiana. Couple that with the return of CJ Carr and the insane amount of talent they brought in at the WR position, what's keeping this team from being Indiana's number one contender for college football primacy? We all know they will be playing with a massive chip on their shoulder. And the schedule SCREAMS undefeated. Miami as NO shot next year in South Bend. 

I said it here, I said it now, so keep this receipt. Indiana and Notre Dame will end the regular season ranked #1 and #2. I have more confidence in Notre Dame in this than I do Indiana. The likelihood of IU having a hiccup along the way due to their schedule seems more likely than that happening to the Irish. That could throw off my prediction of them finishing one and two, but not my prediction that they'll be the best two teams in the country when it's all said and done. 

 

I hope you are right, but IU's schedule next year will be even more of a challenge with North Texas, Ohio State, Michigan, Washington, and USC on the schedule.  Minnesota, Northwestern and at Nebraska won't be cakewalks either.  Chocked full of playoff and 2025/26 bowl winners in 2026.  

[23andCounting]

2 hours ago, Bash Riprock said:

I hope you are right, but IU's schedule next year will be even more of a challenge with North Texas, Ohio State, Michigan, Washington, and USC on the schedule.  Minnesota, Northwestern and at Nebraska won't be cakewalks either.  Chocked full of playoff and 2025/26 bowl winners in 2026.  

They'll also have a higher concentration of talent. Does that mean anything? I'm not sure yet. Do you prefer a 2-star who's been in your program for four years who gives 100% of himself? Or do you prefer the 4-star, in his first year with the program, who's only 95% all-in? The difference in the 5%, in my opinion, is the hunger to prove doubters wrong. 

Also saw where Notre Dame has nine 5-star recruits on their roster. That's a first in program history. I like the Irish to win every one of their games by double digits this next season. 

Edited January 16 by 23andCounting

[Bash Riprock]

 

[Irishman]

The math ain't mathin' 

 

 

[PDB26]

10 hours ago, Bash Riprock said:

I hope you are right, but IU's schedule next year will be even more of a challenge with North Texas, Ohio State, Michigan, Washington, and USC on the schedule.  Minnesota, Northwestern and at Nebraska won't be cakewalks either.  Chocked full of playoff and 2025/26 bowl winners in 2026.  

I'm not going to say that IU's schedule is easier next year, but going to Autzen, Beaver Stadium, and Kinnick gives the '25 schedule a different feel to me. Unless next year's team isn't up to Cignetti's standard, Northwestern and Minnesota at home will be a splattering. Similarly, I would expect IU to embarrass SC and Nebraska even if they're only as good as they were in '24. 

[Bash Riprock]

7 hours ago, PDB26 said:

I'm not going to say that IU's schedule is easier next year, but going to Autzen, Beaver Stadium, and Kinnick gives the '25 schedule a different feel to me. Unless next year's team isn't up to Cignetti's standard, Northwestern and Minnesota at home will be a splattering. Similarly, I would expect IU to embarrass SC and Nebraska even if they're only as good as they were in '24. 

I look at the cumulative strength week in and week out. Bet the overall SOS for the regular season even stronger than this season. I’m not saying this season easy or that an individual matchup wasn’t more challenging. 

[Irishman]

Miami basically saying F you to the ACC.

Remember the ACC said Miami did not have to share the playoff cash with the other conference teams, the first conference to do such a thing. 

 

[Irishman]

1 hour ago, Irishman said:

Miami basically saying F you to the ACC.

Remember the ACC said Miami did not have to share the playoff cash with the other conference teams, the first conference to do such a thing. 

 

Also remember the effort that the ACC put into promoting Miami to ensure they made the playoff. And this is Miami’s way of saying thank you? 
They had the reputation of being the dirtiest program back in the Jimmy Johnson era. Does this set them up as the dirtiest in this free for all era? 

[23andCounting]

1 hour ago, Irishman said:

Also remember the effort that the ACC put into promoting Miami to ensure they made the playoff. And this is Miami’s way of saying thank you? 
They had the reputation of being the dirtiest program back in the Jimmy Johnson era. Does this set them up as the dirtiest in this free for all era? 

This makes the wild wild west look tame. It's just a matter of time before congress steps in. I'm not overly confident in congress when it comes to fixing anything really, but I do think they can help the s*** show that's the NCAA in it's current form. In fifteen years, we'll look back saying, "remember what it was like in 2025?"

[Irishman]

Getting all psychological here…….the part of the brain where decision making occurs does not fully develop until a person is about 22 years old. Adult brains access the frontal lobe to do so. Prior to that, the temporal lobe is where kids and teens access theirs. We are putting kids in positions to make grown up decisions that can impact them for years to come. With no control whatsoever regarding agents, many of these players have been manipulated into entering the portal with promises of big paydays. I am sure that parents and guardians played a big part for many of them as well. So many of them now are likely just left out of the game.