College Football 2025: ‘The Winds of Change’

My phone is blowing up with texts outlining plans for Fall gatherings across the land. Friends in the SEC, Sunbelt Conference, and Big Ten are all hollering for me to ‘make the tail gate.’ Extra tickets abound all around. The cool thing about America is that you can get tickets to any game you want via StubHub-type secondary markets. You’ll need some Jed Clampett walking around money, though. By the time you factor in travel, accommodations, good tickets, bourbon, and good eating, you’d best budget a couple of grand per weekend. You live once. Just do it.

This season, College Game Day will be blasting out a new rallying cry over the quadraphonics. Remember last year’s anthem from Jelly Roll, ‘Get By’ – I’m still humming it. This year, ESPN’s college football anthem is “Don’t wait, run fast” by Machine Gun Kelly. Seems fitting for the occasion. Give it a listen.

Do you miss the PAC-12? After all their prominent teams reflagged to other circles, most of us forgot all about the PAC12 (Pacific-12). Let’s have a look at where the PAC12 diaspora are congregating these days. Oregon stepped up and ran the tables, but their fellow refugees, USC, Washington, and UCLA forgot to pack their ‘game’ as they all rushed off to the Big Ten. The rest of the Pacific lot took up residence out east somewhere in the ACC. (think Cal Berkeley for a minute). Remember the Grateful Dead concerts at Berkeley back in the ’60s and ’70s. Jerry Garcia’s gone now, and ‘The Dead’ gave way to the Tobacco Road show. A couple of North Carolina’s finest will go on tour at Berkeley in October, thinking, “What a long, strange trip it’s been.” The results of those games won’t matter much, but it’s an oddity worth mentioning.

Winds of Change in the ACC: The Atlantic Coast Conference is desperate to remain relevant. The fear of following in the footsteps of their PAC-12 brethren lingers. Carolina grabbed the spotlight in the offseason by hiring Bill Belichick, and Miami and Clemson are recognized by all as preseason top 10 teams. So far, so good.

Meanwhile, don’t Haight Ashbury when envisioning the Cal students on ‘Strawberry Hill’ rolling smoke while getting bested by Duke in a home conference game. That’s actually a thing now. Yes, Duke and Cal are in the same conference – The ACC. Stay with me. I’m still trying to explain where the PAC12 diaspora are hanging out while rambling on about the ACC. Change and music seem to be the constant themes echoing through these paragraphs.

Interestingly, the following week will see the same fans trying to snap a selfie with Belichick and the lovely Jordan when UNC visits. How about that: “Strawberry Fields Forever”.

Most of us still haven’t gotten over Southern Methodist University (SMU) playing for the ACC title last year. And most of us still don’t know where SMU is … but don’t spend too much brain on it. Know this: 2025 is Dabo’s year.

Clemson will start by accommodating LSU’s string of first game losses and then roll up the remainder of their unranked opponents till Christmas time. That first win will sustain their playoff desires until the CFP selection committee slides them in amongst the 12 playoff contenders. Miami is the ACC’s only other hope for national acclaim. If the ‘Canes’ can show up undefeated in October, then the ACC will have two teams in the playoff picture. So, that’s the ACC in a nutshell, and that’s all I have to say about that.

“Chain Chain Change and more Change:” This season’s big changes center around the amendments to the College Football Playoff Selections. Last year, the 4 conference champions received automatic byes, which allowed Boise State and Arizona State to observe the first round of the playoffs from their couch. Then, they got summarily dismantled and returned to their couch. This year, the four highest-ranked teams receive a bye, and there is no limit to how many teams one conference can get in the playoffs. Lane Kiffin is hoping there is room in the Inn for Ole Miss this year. I hope so, but the SEC eats their own, and competition is tough this year.

There are also a few notable alterations to the rules. The refs aren’t allowing the defense to jump around and lure the offense offside anymore. That’s out. The refs are also finally cracking down on Oscar nominations for fake injuries. Last year’s best coaching trick is also outlawed. If you recall, Oregon beat Ohio State during the regular season by putting 12 men on the field to harass the quarterback during the last seconds of the game. Oregon was penalized, but time was more important than yards. Precious seconds had ticked away, and Oregon won. This year, the zebras will both penalize Oregon and put the time back on the clock. So much for gaming the system, but we did learn that Oregon’s Dan Lanning has a big brain and secured his place amongst the Jedi masters.

Frankly, we hadn’t seen savviness on par with that since Gus Malzahn outsmarted Nick Saban to win the 2019 Iron Bowl with a fake punt ruse. The result – Bama got a penalty – Auburn won, and Saban’s headset went flying. Nick later gave an anecdote about anger management after his granddaughter asked him, “Grandpa, why were you so mad on TV the other day?” Don’t get me wrong, Nick’s the man, but when you outsmart the man, it’s noteworthy. Saban and Bear Bryant are still the standard in our beloved sport.

Keeping the pundits busy in the Off-Season? Let’s spend the next two paragraphs harkening back to the offseason noise. College football really doesn’t take a break. Obviously, UNC’s hiring of Belichick and Jordan kept the tabloids ablaze, but let’s talk NIL ventures. Tennessee’s QB drama with Nico rivaled Carson Beck’s Irish exit from Athens for the biggest front-page news last Spring. The result is that NIL greed probably ruined Niko, setting the stage for little-known Joey Aguilar from App State to run the Vol offense. Carson Beck said bye to Kirby Smart and was last seen chasing a skirt to the U. A month later, his girlfriend left him for some foreign guy – leaving young Beck wandering around the Miami campus. Young love. What’s a guy to do? Carson said, “I may as well stay and play quarterback with the Hurricanes. I don’t seem to have anything else planned this fall.” Reminds me of the Manti Te’o fake fiancée story. Look it up.

Meanwhile, the NCAA stole the headlines during the latter part of the offseason by releasing its vengeance on Jimmy Harbaugh. Sign-stealing is apparently a capital offense nowadays. In August, the NCAA imposed some serious, draconian measures on Big Blue and banned Jimmy Harbaugh from the college world for life. After winning the national title in 2024, Jimmy left the college football scene to pursue a real ring in the show. Looks like the NCAA wants him to stay gone.

Getting back to business: Say what you want about all the weirdness in the off-season, but week 1 of college football is getting everybody excited. There are 4 huge games in the coming week, and there’s even a couple of teams playing out in Dublin, Ireland.

Prognostication: For 15 years, I’ve been predicting that Coach Lee Corso would retire from ESPN’s College Game Day. This year it’s a sure thing. Lee Corso’s swan song will be featured on College Game Day’s season premiere at Ohio State on 30 August. At the end of the show, Coach Corso will don the familiar Buckeye headgear for the final time. However, in typical anticlimactic fashion, the Longhorns will ruin Corso’s prediction. Archie Manning will go on to be the Heisman winner, and Texas will remain in the pole position for weeks to come.

Later that same day, we’ll see two more awesome openers; Clemson will ruin LSU’s hopes at the real Death Valley, and Bama will silence the noise coming from the Florida State quarterback. The following day the Irish will get a dosage of that balmy south Florida life when they invade the ‘The U.’ They’ll survive the heat and host Texas A&M the following week at Touchdown Jesus. After posting 2 wins in 2 weeks against ranked competition, the Irish will relax till the Trojans show up in October.

There will be 12 teams in the playoffs. Look for Texas, Notre Dame, Bama, and Clemson to get byes with Georgia, Tennessee, Miami, Penn State, Oregon, Ohio State, Kansas State, and Boise State rounding out the lot. The Big Ten has won the last two national championships, but look for the SEC to take it this year. Texas, Bama, and Georgia are all well-oiled machines. But don’t tell Dabo Swinney that. Defense wins games, and Clemson might well make it three rings for Swinney.

Epilogue: The portal still needs to be calibrated, but it does provide parity for the sport. Remember what the folks in Nashville (Vandy) did last year. Just ask Bama. We know there will be upsets, and each year we are treated to unbelievable feats of athletic prowess. It’s the greatest story ever played.

So, get your lawn groomed one last time, and then sit back, pour a glass of sweetened tea, and bid farewell to summer. Labor Day weekend ushers in the Fall and signals that College Football has indeed arrived. It’s the best time of the year.