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3 years ago

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1:38 PM ET

Leaders throughout college athletics are considering appointing a chief operating officer of college football who would report to a proposed FBS football governing board, according to a lengthy letter from the LEAD1 Association obtained by ESPN.

The letter was sent this week to every Division I athletic director and eventually members of the NCAA’s Division I Transformation Committee, and the NCAA’s board of directors.

The proposal has been circulated at the highest levels of college football, including the 10 FBS commissioners and College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock, sources said.

The detailed recommendations for the sport’s future governance are the result of months of discussions, which began bubbling this past spring when some of the most prominent voices in college athletics, including Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith, advocated for college football to separate from the NCAA entirely.

Any momentum for that shifted in September, when an overwhelming majority of Division I athletic directors at the annual LEAD1 meetings expressed a strong preference to keep FBS football under the NCAA if can be more streamlined and less bureaucratic.

Following the strong consensus in its fall meeting, LEAD1, which represents the 131 athletic directors in the FBS, established a working group comprised of representatives from all 10 FBS conferences.

According to the group’s proposal, the FBS football governing board would primarily be comprised of people with significant football knowledge, and appointed by their conferences. There would also be a representative from the American Football Coaches Association, along with four independent directors, including at least two former student-athletes — a combination of unbiased people and those who have a players’ perspective, which the Knight Commission has separately been pushing for.

The FBS football governing board would “decide all matters related to FBS football” except for rules related to academics, financial aid and health and safety. While the board would oversee things like officiating, rules and possibly scheduling, many agree there are issues that should remain at the level of university presidents, and the NCAA would remain a legal shield.

The liability issues are at the crux of why most athletic leaders want college football to remain under the NCAA. The NCAA currently has a football oversight committee, but six of the 18 members represent the FCS, and many athletic directors lament they have different challenges that should be dealt with separately.

The COO would be a similar position to that of Dan Gavitt, who is the NCAA senior vice president of basketball. FBS football is currently the only collegiate sport that is governed by the NCAA but runs its own national championship, through the CFP. The NCAA deals with issues such as rules, officiating, concussion litigation and enforcement, but doesn’t have a person like Gavitt at the table when significant decisions about the sport are made. This proposed position would also be on the NCAA president’s leadership team/cabinet.

While LEAD1 doesn’t have the authority to implement any of the recommendations, it’s another step toward changing how the sport of college football is governed as the NCAA undergoes sweeping changes to its own organization, and more power shifts to the individual conferences. The proposal also pushes for NFL to provide financial support, arguing “the NFL reaps the benefits of FBS football serving as its farm system without providing any financial support (and other resources) to the NCAA.”

It’s likely to take weeks to gather feedback, and the proposal would ultimately have to be approved by the Division I board of directors. While there could be some pushback to the plan, there could also be some who want to wait until the NCAA names a president to replace Mark Emmert before making such drastic changes to the sport’s structure. It’s also unclear who needs to vote to officially approve it, as there are differing legal opinions, according to sources.

According to the letter, “Failing implementation of these recommendations, our FBS ADs are in favor of examining options for such decision-making outside of the NCAA.”

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D-backs lose Gurriel to season-ending ACL tear

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2 hours ago

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September 2, 2025

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D-backs lose Gurriel to season-ending ACL tear

  • ESPN News Services

Sep 2, 2025, 05:41 PM ET

The Arizona Diamondbacks placed left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. on the 10-day injured list due to a torn right ACL injured the previous night in a 7-5 loss to the Texas Rangers.

Gurriel was hurt in the sixth inning after he jumped awkwardly out of the way to avoid center fielder Blaze Alexander, who made a diving catch on a line drive by Rowdy Tellez for the third out of the inning.

Alexander was playing his first game in center field as a big leaguer.

Gurriel stayed on the ground for several minutes while medical staff attended to him. The 31-year-old eventually got up and walked to a cart before being driven off the field.

Additional tests confirmed the torn ACL.

Gurriel is batting .248 this season with 19 homers and 80 RBIs.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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Buckeyes seize No. 1; LSU, Canes rise as Tide fall

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4 hours ago

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September 2, 2025

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Buckeyes seize No. 1; LSU, Canes rise as Tide fall

  • Associated Press

Sep 2, 2025, 02:14 PM ET

Ohio State climbed to No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 college football poll on Tuesday, LSU and Miami moved into the top five, and Florida State jumped back into the rankings at the expense of Alabama, which plummeted to its lowest spot in 17 seasons.

The defending national champion Buckeyes received 55 of 66 first-place votes to move up two spots after their win over preseason No. 1 Texas. Ohio State is at the top of a regular-season poll for the first time since November 2015.

The Longhorns dropped to No. 7 as the media voters shuffled the rankings following a topsy-turvy Labor Day weekend. It was only the second time — and first since 1972 — that two top-five teams lost in Week 1 and the first time that four top-10 teams lost.

Only three teams in the Top 25 are in the same spot they were in the preseason poll.

Penn State got seven first-place votes and remained No. 2. LSU, which received three first first-place votes, was followed by Georgia and Miami to round out the top five.

Oregon got the other first-place vote and was followed by Texas, the Clemson Tigers, Notre Dame and South Carolina.

LSU jumped six spots after winning at Clemson and Miami got a five-rung promotion for its victory over Notre Dame.

The biggest movers in the poll were Florida State and Alabama after the Seminoles’ 31-17 victory in their head-to-head matchup.

The Seminoles, who were 15 spots outside the Top 25 in the preseason, are now No. 14. The Crimson Tide fell all the way from No. 8 to No. 21 — their lowest ranking since Bama was No. 24 in the 2008 preseason poll. That was the second of Nick Saban’s 17 teams in Tuscaloosa.

It’s been quite a turnabout for Florida State. The Seminoles were No. 10 in the 2024 preseason, lost their first two games, finished 2-10 and weren’t ranked again until now.

Utah, at No. 25, joins Florida State as the only newcomers to this week’s poll. The Utes are ranked for the first time since last October, when they were at the front end of a seven-game losing streak.

Utah had received the second-most points, behind BYU, among teams outside the preseason Top 25, but the Utes got more credit for beating UCLA on the road than the Cougars received for hammering FCS foe Portland State.

Boise State, which had been No. 25, received no votes following its 34-7 loss at South Florida. The Broncos had appeared in 14 straight polls.

The other team to drop out of the poll was No. 17 Kansas State, which followed up its season-opening loss to Iowa State with a last-minute home win over FCS team North Dakota.

Ohio State is the first team to take over the top spot in the first regular-season poll since Alabama in 2012. It was the biggest jump to No. 1 in the first regular-season poll since USC was promoted from No. 3 in 2008.

Texas’ fall was the biggest for a preseason No. 1 since Auburn dropped to No. 8 in the first regular-season poll of 1984.

LSU has its highest ranking after Week 1 since it was No. 3 in 2012, and Miami has its highest ranking after Week 1 since it was No. 5 in 2004.

South Carolina is in the top 10 in the regular season for the first time since it was No. 8 in December 2013.

CONFERENCE CALL

SEC: 10 (Nos. 3, 4, 7, 10, 13, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)

Big Ten: 6 (Nos. 1, 2, 6, 11, 15, 23)

ACC: 4 (Nos. 5, 8, 14, 17)

Big 12: 4 (Nos. 12, 16, 24, 25)

Independent: 1 (No. 9)

RANKED VS. RANKED

No. 15 Michigan at No. 18 Oklahoma: This weekend’s game will be the first meeting since Oklahoma beat the Wolverines in the Orange Bowl to win the 1975 national championship. Wolverines freshman QB Bryce Underwood gets put to the test in his second start.

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Hold that, Tiger: Kelly asks if Dabo saw 2nd half

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4 hours ago

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September 2, 2025

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Hold that, Tiger: Kelly asks if Dabo saw 2nd half

  • Adam RittenbergSep 2, 2025, 04:07 PM ET

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      College football reporter; joined ESPN in 2008. Graduate of Northwestern University.

While Dabo Swinney isn’t inflating LSU‘s grade for beating his team in Saturday’s season opener, Brian Kelly is ready to give the Clemson coach an incomplete for his evaluation.

Both coaches weighed in Tuesday on how LSU’s 17-10 win at Clemson should be viewed. After trailing 10-3 at halftime, LSU outscored Clemson 14-0 in the second half and finished with significant edges in both total yards (354-261) and first downs (25-13).

LSU rose six spots to No. 3 in the AP Top 25 poll Tuesday, while Clemson dropped four spots to No. 8.

“It was a helluva game, down to the last play,” Swinney said in his weekly news conference. “Right out of the gate. It’s like getting the final exam [on] Day 1 of class. They made a 65; we made a 58. Neither one of us were great.”

Kelly had not won a season opener at LSU before Saturday, and the victory was his first with the Tigers against an AP top-5 opponent.

“I thought we dominated them in the second half, so he’s really a really good grader for giving himself a 58, or he’s a really hard grader on us,” Kelly said in his news conference when told about Swinney’s comment.

“Or he didn’t see the second half, which, that might be the case. He might not have wanted to see the second half.”

Kelly added that LSU is moving on to this week’s game against Louisiana Tech.

“Clemson is a darn good football team,” Kelly said. “That’s a top-notch team, and they’re going to be a team in the hunt for [the] playoff picture. We hope we are, too. But it was only one game. So I don’t know if he’s a hard grader or an easy grader, but I like the way that we played in the second half.”

Clemson visits LSU to open the 2026 season.

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