Realignment roundtable: Next steps, Notre Dame and unrealistic relegation dreams
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ESPN staff
We’re getting closer and closer to seeing major changes in college football. Houston, Cincinnati, UCF and BYU are all set to enter the Big 12 on July 1. And in the summer of 2024, we’ll see Oklahoma and Texas join the SEC and UCLA and USC will head to the Big Ten.
With those moves set in stone, and surely more to come soon, our reporters discuss what the future of realignment might look like in college football and give their wildest wishes for the sport.
What’s the next domino to fall?
Bill Connelly: The next logical move will come when the Pac-12 figures out the valuations for its next set of media contracts. If it’s competitive enough to what the Big 12 has arranged to pull in, then one assumes the Pac-12 will add two programs — with San Diego State and SMU being the rumored front-runners (and UNLV, Boise State and others still hoping for a shot) — and everything will potentially stabilize for a bit. If the Pac-12’s estimates end up far short of expectation, then I guess we’ll find out exactly how serious the Big 12 is about potentially adding the Colorado–Utah–Arizona–Arizona State quartet of programs. Looming over all of this, of course, is whether the Big Ten decides to expand past 16 programs and add whatever combination of Oregon, Washington, Cal and Stanford is most attractive. But since the Big Ten doesn’t even have a commissioner or a full set of college presidents at the moment, we’ll hold off on wondering about that.
Adam Rittenberg: I agree with Bill in a sense, as the most immediate move could come from the Pac-12 once its media contract — with the existing 10 members — is finally set. But the next major move likely lies with the Big Ten. Although Commissioner Kevin Warren ultimately couldn’t get the league’s presidents on board with additional West Coast expansion beyond USC and UCLA, I’m told there was some support in the room. With Warren taking over as Chicago Bears president on April 17, could a new commissioner with perhaps a stronger presentation convince the Big Ten presidents and chancellors that adding Washington and Oregon makes sense? It’s possible. If it happens, there would be more seismic change around the sport. I don’t see anything happening right away given the importance of getting a commissioner in place and the general flux among the Big Ten president/chancellor group, which existed throughout Warren’s tenure. But once leadership is in place, the Big Ten could be the place to watch again.
Heather Dinich: One lesson learned after about two decades covering college football is that realignment is never over, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the next move wasn’t as seismic as the speculation might indicate. The Pac-12 could add San Diego State and SMU following its next television deal and that could be the extent of the “next round of realignment.” These decisions are made by the university presidents and chancellors, and unless there is a great disparity in revenue, they aren’t going to move their academic institutions, period. The question is, what’s the gap in revenue that would prompt Pac-12 presidents to seriously consider the Big 12? Ten million? Twenty? More? In the Big Ten, are there enough university presidents who would be willing to share the revenue with 18 schools? The Pac-12’s television deal holds the crux of these answers.
Will Notre Dame ever join the ACC or another conference?
David Hale: On good nights, I suspect ACC commissioner Jim Phillips dreams of a call from Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick announcing, “This is the day!” Amid a very uncertain future for the ACC, this would be akin to winning the lottery. All those big revenue issues would be addressed, the future would look bright and all would be right with the world. The small problem here is that it isn’t going to happen. Notre Dame’s contract with the ACC gives the Irish all it needs for its non-football sports and creates no incentive for them to join the ACC in football. With a new expanded playoff, the odds are even lower. And while the contract tethers the Irish, at least to a degree, to the ACC, buying their way out of that deal wouldn’t be impossible should the Big Ten make a particularly lucrative offer. In other words, Plan A for Notre Dame is independence. That’s also Plans B, C and D. And if a time comes where those options are off the table, the ACC is still unlikely to be Plan E.
Rittenberg: Notre Dame will only join a conference once the mythical super league is finally formed, and there’s a clear delineation between the programs competing at the highest level of the sport. I still think that’s another cycle or two away, but Notre Dame ultimately wants to compete for national championships. Until the school’s access to the championship stage is stripped away, it will remain independent in football. Independence means too much to Notre Dame’s identity. But if the sport trends toward some type of breakaway with 30-40 programs, Notre Dame will have to agree to change its status.
Dinich: Swarbrick told me last summer there are three potential reasons why the university would consider relinquishing its independent status: the loss of a committed broadcast partner; the loss of a fair route into the postseason; “or such an adverse financial consequence that you had to reconsider.” Any of those three factors seems highly unlikely anytime soon, and Notre Dame’s independence runs deeper than its football program. It’s a university-wide sense of identity and history, so deeply rooted that not even the news of the pending 16-team SEC and Big Ten was enough to rattle the Irish into change. The 12-team playoff will only help Notre Dame, and Swarbrick was one of the coauthors of the original proposal. If Notre Dame joins a conference, it probably won’t be during this leadership’s tenure.
Are we moving toward a future of just two super leagues?
Hale: The ultimate tipping point may come if and when the courts determine a serious shake-up of the college sports model is necessary. If athletes are deemed as employees, and schools that can spend the most on the best players have a built-in advantage, there essentially becomes no path forward for anyone playing outside the SEC and Big Ten. Regardless of the legal consequences, teams like Florida State, Clemson, Oregon or Washington, which aim to win national championships, would be in a move-or-die situation. Meanwhile, other schools less comfortable with the idea of college football as a semi-pro league might voluntarily opt to leave the mega conferences for something more akin to an Ivy League model. (Or, perhaps, be pushed out down the road. No one ever mentions contraction as an option, but financially, it makes a ton of sense.) As bad as the revenue disparities are shaping up to be right now, there’s only so many new football operations buildings and nutrition centers a school can build for recruiting purposes. But if schools are forced (or allowed) to pay athletes directly, then the correlation between money and wins will get far stronger, and the race to super conferences will be on.
Connelly: I still think the most likely scenario is more of a “power two and light heavyweight three” situation, not unlike what we see in European soccer. Even if the Big Ten and SEC expand beyond 16 schools — which, at this point, feels almost inevitable — there will still be a lot of schools willing and occasionally able to compete with lower budgets. Football is a pretty addictive pursuit, after all, and honestly, a 12-team playoff with spots for six conference champions might turn out to be a saving grace of sorts. Even if the SEC and Big Ten gobble up a majority of at-large bids in a given year, assuring at least five spots for teams outside of those conferences will assure that the rest of FBS, however it looks in the future, will have something to play for.
Dinich: It depends on what you consider “super leagues.” I’d argue the SEC and Big Ten will already qualify for that in 2024. There are too many other respectable FBS programs to try and sort that out, and for many of these university presidents, there is an academic bar that must be met if they are going to agree to bring other universities into their club. NIL will continue to drive a wedge between the wealthiest programs and everyone else, even within their own conferences (see Maryland and Ohio State), regardless of how large they become. Before presidents and conference commissioners think about superconferences, they should prepare to pay players.
What Group of 5 teams can make the jump to Power 5?
Rittenberg: San Diego State is positioned well to join the Pac-12 or Big 12 in the near future. There’s no other available FBS-playing school in Southern California after USC and UCLA’s departures to the Big Ten. San Diego State has had success in both football and men’s basketball, and its new stadium reflects its investment in football and wanting to raise its profile. SMU is more of a projection candidate because of the money around the school. Can SMU follow a TCU-like path to prominence as a Power 5 member? That’s the gamble with a smaller private school, despite an appealing Dallas location. The Big 12 clearly wants to move to the West, so I wonder if Boise State has enough appeal. The long-term football success there definitely helps. Memphis has a lot of ingredients to be in a Power 5 and seems to be getting left behind. The location doesn’t really help, but Memphis has invested in its top two programs. We’ll see if similar investments at South Florida better positions the school for the next round of realignment, after really getting left behind this time around.
Kyle Bonagura: I agree with Adam that San Diego State is the obvious choice. With a new stadium, the still somewhat-recent departure of the Los Angeles Chargers, the size of the market and sustained athletic success, SDSU is a no-brainer. However, they aren’t the only team in California that can make the jump. Fresno State can, too. It’s located in a region of the state with a large population base that doesn’t have great access to any professional teams and already has impressive fan support. With the added resources that would come with being at the Power 5 level, there would be a clear path for FSU to be able to compete regularly with mid-tier Power 5 programs. Especially when considered the Bulldogs are almost always able to compete as things stand.
Hale: “The jump” is really a two-part question. There are certainly programs that could join the Big 12 or ACC or Pac-12 and, within a couple years, field competitive teams. But is there a program out there that would also have a chance to grow into a serious brand — something that moves the needle financially? The additions for the Big 12 (BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF) were about adding the next-best things, not creating true value for a league that just lost two genuine brands. The Pac-12’s flirtations with San Diego State or SMU offer some upside with two programs more than capable of winning, but will they become must-see TV for Oregon or Washington fans when their teams face off? There’s always long-term growth potential with places like USF or North Texas — but that’s a matter of decades, not years. And there are established fan bases for schools like Memphis or Navy, but they’re far from crown jewels that would fetch a hefty TV deal. The truth is, the entire idea of the Power 5 may be irrelevant soon, and the teams that truly move the needle in the big picture do so because of decades of success and fan investment. It’s nearly impossible to create that now at places where it doesn’t already exist.
Connelly: Let’s start with this: Not including one-year FBS member James Madison, there are 10 programs that have averaged a positive SP+ rating — meaning, they’re better than the average FBS team — over the past decade without being a power conference team (or Notre Dame): Boise State, Memphis, UCF, Appalachian State, Houston, BYU, Cincinnati, San Diego State, Air Force and Marshall. Four of those programs just got gobbled up by the Big 12, and SDSU remains the leading candidate to join an expanded Pac-12 if or when the Pac-12 is able to expand. Geography suggests Memphis would be the top candidate if the Big 12 were to decide to expand further, and geography also suggests Boise State might continue to get the short end of the realignment stick. But with the four making the Big 12 jump this year, the list of obvious, high-potential candidates shrank considerably.
What’s the wildest move you would want to see?
Hale: Let’s just erase the blackboard and start from scratch. So many of college football’s ills are driven by the paradoxical influences of modern revenue generation and old-school tradition. TV money will pay Vanderbilt and Illinois more than Florida State or Clemson because of contractual ties from decades (or centuries) ago. The sport is constantly trying to fit square pegs into round holes. So let’s blow it up! If we’re moving toward super leagues, let’s shed the shackles of conference tie-ins from a time when teams traveled by train and build out a league that allows all programs who want to compete a chance to truly do so; that maintains long-standing rivalries that put actual butts in actual seats for the games; that gives players a fair slice of the pie. Oh, and have we mentioned promotion and relegation? How much time to do we have here?
Connelly: Oh, we’re absolutely going to talk about promotion and relegation, time be damned. I’ve spent far too many hours of my life thinking about it not to bring it up at every possible opportunity. We could remodel the entire NCAA ladder, from Division I to Division III, based on a relegation model, and we wouldn’t have to redraft conferences or anything. We set up conference affiliations across the board — the SEC with the Sun Belt, the Big 12 with Conference USA, the ACC with the AAC, the Pac-12 with the Mountain West, the Big Ten with the MAC (and then, the MAC with the Missouri Valley, etc.) — and off we go. The last-place team in the SEC (Vanderbilt) plays the first-place team in the Sun Belt (Troy) for a spot in next year’s SEC! Extra drama! A level of actual merit in power conference membership! Everybody wins with relegation! Except Vanderbilt! Acknowledging that won’t happen, however, what about relegation WITHIN a conference? What about a full-scale Pac-12 and Mountain West merger, where the bottom four teams from one tier trade places with the top four teams from the lower tier each year? Imagine a Pac-12 that trades last year’s dismal Cal, Arizona State, Stanford and Colorado teams for Boise State, Fresno State, SDSU and San Jose State? That’s a better conference! I can’t imagine the money would make sense here, but hey, that’s for money people to figure out! I’m just an irresponsible ideas guy!
Bonagura: Just sitting over here nodding in approval at the promotion-relegation concept. As realignment has shown, there are very few untouchable rivalry games in college football. Life goes on and people move on to whatever is new. So the idea that we need to preserve history for history’s sake is an outdated way to approach the sport. I think it’s best to think about college football’s structure is like this: If we were to start from scratch, what would it look like? Well, obviously, there would be no bowl games. Having mostly meaningless exhibition games at the end of the season doesn’t exist in any other sport. Why? Because it doesn’t make any sense. Let’s get rid of them. Yes, people still watch, but that’s because it’s football on TV and people like watching football on TV. It’s pretty simple. What would make the sport better is to create higher-stakes games at the end of the year — for everyone. Not just the teams at the top. And if a team is threatened with relegation to a lesser-tier conference, those end-of-the-season games carry real stakes. There is much more that would need to be ironed out, of course, but there is so much potential to create a much more exciting, relevant competitive structure.
In Starkville, they stormed the field with cowbells.
In Gainesville, they might soon be storming the castle with pitchforks.
For the SEC’s tale of two cities on Saturday, it was the best of times for Mississippi State and, if not the worst of times for Florida, it was perhaps the moment any hope for a revival under Billy Napier reached its nadir.
It was a Saturday about which much of the college football world offered a collective yawn in advance, but the day delivered its share of highlights and surprises, from Clemson‘s early struggles against Troy, to Baylor‘s rollicking comeback against SMU, to Bill Belichick racking up win No. 1 in college.
But all of that took second billing behind the audacity of the two most unlikely scores in the SEC.
Mississippi State, which had been in danger of being relegated to the title of “new Vandy,” had won just one of its past 17 games against Power 4 competition, but when No. 12 Arizona State rolled into Starkville on Saturday, the Bulldogs were ready.
Quarterback Blake Shapen threw touchdown passes of 48 and 47 yards and, with 30 seconds remaining in the game and trailing by 3, a 58-yarder to Brenen Thompson to seal the 24-20 win.
0:40
Mississippi State upsets Arizona State on game-winning TD
Blake Shapen throws the game-winning touchdown in the final minute as Mississippi State upsets Arizona State.
What followed was utter euphoria unseen in Starkville since they announced the opening of a new Bass Pro Shops. The fans stormed the field, pulled down the goalposts, and, we assume, carried them off to be displayed at the town’s most sacred shrine: the Chili’s off Route 12.
– no context college football (@nocontextcfb) September 7, 2025
Meanwhile, after USF’s go-ahead field goal as time expired knocked off the 13th-ranked Gators 18-16, Florida fans were left to rage against the football gods at their town’s most sacred shrine: the Chili’s off Archer Road.
Last season’s late run that included wins over LSU, Ole Miss and Florida State had offered ample hope that, perhaps, things were finally turning for the Gators. The post-Tim Tebow era has had its highlights, but each was followed almost immediately by a sudden, sharp and occasionally such massive failure that it could only be described as “Zook-tastic.” And so it was with the hope engendered by last year’s four-game winning streak, too.
DJ Lagway struggled to push the ball downfield, Florida was 4-of-12 on third down and the Gators’ defense had no answers for the magic of USF quarterback Byrum Brown, who threw for 263 yards and ran for 66 more.
When the dust settled, Napier was forced to take a hard look in the mirror and ask: “Does anyone remember my LinkedIn password?”
After watching the USF-Florida game, the Department of Labor Statistics has revised Friday’s jobs report from the US adding 22,000 to 22,001 jobs.
– ����️♈️�� (@ADavidHaleJoint) September 6, 2025
Florida still has eight games left against ranked teams, including five of its next six. The lone exception in that run is Mississippi State, which certainly doesn’t look like an easy win now either. A reality in which the Gators finish 2-10 seems entirely possible. Also, the state of Florida hasn’t had a power team finish 2-10 for, like … months.
That Mississippi State, the worst team in the SEC a year ago, could knock off last year’s Big 12 champion would normally be cause for Greg Sankey to drive his car through Brett Yormark’s rose garden while leaning out the window yelling, “Scoreboard!”
That Florida lost to an in-state team from a Group of 6 conference that doesn’t even have its own stadium would be cause for everyone who abhors the SEC’s arrogance to point and laugh and let the air out of Kirby Smart’s tires.
That both occurred on the same Saturday, within hours of each other, is destined to leave us all feeling a bit unfulfilled. Two weeks into a new college football season, perhaps that’s a good thing. That even the mighty SEC feels so uncertain is a reminder that we’ve just begun this story. We don’t yet know who the heroes are, which makes it entirely possible Mississippi State will be one. We don’t yet know which characters will meet with a tragic end, though Napier and Virginia Tech‘s Brent Pry certainly look the part.
If these are the opening chapters of 2025’s Dickens novel, we’re in for a heck of a ride the rest of the way.
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Heisman five | Notes from the road
Week 2 Vibe Check
Each week, the biggest games grab the headlines, but dozens of other performances move the needle in college football, too. We try to capture those here.
Trending up: Illinois’ tournament hopes
Duke outgained Illinois by 19 yards on Saturday but still managed to lose by 26 points, 45-19. It was a nifty statistical trick that can be blamed on a flurry of takeaways by the Illini defense, which converted four Duke fumbles and a Darian Mensah interception into 21 points. After the game, Duke noted the strangeness of the outcome, pointing out that it usually waits until the Elite Eight to waste a strong offensive performance because of too many turnovers.
Trending up: Stern discipline
Syracuse narrowly escaped an upset bid against UConn on Saturday, 27-20 in overtime. Syracuse trailed 14-3 at one point, took a 20-17 lead into the final minute of action, then saw the Huskies tie the game with a 41-yard field goal as time expired. A defensive stand in overtime preserved the win, but head coach Fran Brown was less than pleased with the overall performance, forcing his players to run sprints after the game.
You can tell Fran Brown is not happy after that game. He’s making the entire team run sprints post game right now.@NunesMagician pic.twitter.com/lnNl0U6ULy
– Christian De Guzman (@CTDeGuz) September 6, 2025
Worse, Brown also gave explicit “no iPad for a week” orders and put QB Steve Angeli in timeout until he calmed down.
Trending down: Ill-fitting jerseys
Against Gardner Webb, Georgia Tech nearly repeated the brutal start it endured a week earlier vs. Colorado. In Week 1, the Jackets turned over the ball on each of their first three drives. This time, they fumbled away their first possession and tossed a pick on the next. Tech did rebound nicely for a 59-12 win, but the real disappointment was the lack of the Snuggy Jersey (the jersey roomy enough for the whole family to snuggle up and watch old footage of Paul Johnson’s offense, but versatile enough to wear when returning kicks). Unfortunately, Tech head coach Brent Key was not a fan and banished the jersey for good. It’s now stored in College Football’s forgotten treasures warehouse next to the Turnover Chain, Civil ConFliCt trophy and Houston Nutt.
I need to know more about why the Georgia Tech Punter has a XXL Jersey. Did he forget his? Switch numbers ?? There has to be a good reason for it.
�� pic.twitter.com/tkib90Lxno– Alison Mastrangelo (@AlisonWSB) August 30, 2025
Trending up: Celebrity showdowns
There was plenty of star power on display in Boulder, Colorado, in Week 2 as the Buffaloes welcomed Delaware. On one sideline was Deion Sanders, an NFL Hall of Famer, former two-sport star, reality TV personality and one of the biggest brands in sports. On the other sideline was Delaware, which is the country’s fifth-largest producer of shoehorns. The paparazzi was out in full force hoping to get a shot of Coach Prime or Delaware’s Ryan “Coach Tac-Shaver Infomercial on the CW at 3 a.m.” Carty, but the edge, in the case, went to Sanders. His Buffs overcame a sluggish start, no doubt due to being in awe of all the celebrities on Delaware’s sideline (Judge Reinhold, Teri Polo, the guy who works the overnight shift at the Wawa on Union Street), winning 31-7 behind two touchdown passes from third-string QB Ryan Staub. The Hens, meanwhile, had to settle for drowning sorrows with other A-listers at Elisabeth Shue’s late-night hot tub party.
Trending up: Revenge games
If last week was Florida State‘s coming-out party in a win over Alabama, Week 2 offered the Seminoles a chance to enjoy some sweet revenge. FSU walloped East Texas A&M 77-3, then celebrated by shouting, “That’s what you get for stealing Jimbo Fisher” and “We just scored a point for every $1 million you had to pay him to leave” all while its battered opponents helplessly insisted that, in fact, East Texas A&M is a completely different school than Texas A&M.
Trending up: Participation trophies
Division III Rowan was up 17-14 against Case Western with 2:07 left in the third quarter Saturday when a spate of bad weather rolled through — stand by, we’re Googling “Where is Rowan?” — New Jersey, suspending the action. Both sides waited patiently for four hours, listening, we assume, to Bruce Springsteen’s “The River” album on repeat, before school officials, coaches and the referees mutually agreed, according to Rowan’s press release, to call the game a 17-17 tie. The last tie at the FBS level of college football came 30 years ago when a Wisconsin and Illinois game finished 3-3, leading to the advent of overtime throughout college football and the forward pass in the Big Ten.
Trending up: Cash cows
Earlier in the week, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy lamented all the money Oregon spent to build a winner, only for Ducks coach Dan Lanning to retort with a series of “Yo momma’s so poor” jokes and a 69-3 drubbing of the Pokes on Saturday. Meanwhile, Oklahoma, flush with enough cash this offseason to lure star transfers such as QB John Mateer, held off Michigan, a school whose NIL budget is currently earmarked to pay down NCAA fines and get Connor Stalions that new telescope and fake beard he has been asking for, 24-13. The lesson: Teams are only as good as their players, and good players don’t come cheap. On a totally unrelated note, we just received an email from a deposed oil baron in Oklahoma who just needs our credit card and social security numbers to help secure a fortune, which he’ll happily share with us.
Trending down: Coaching legacies
On Nov. 17, 2007, Nick Saban’s Alabama team lost to Louisiana-Monroe 21-14. On Saturday, Kalen DeBoer’s Alabama team beat Louisiana-Monroe 73-0. The math on this is pretty simple: DeBoer is approximately 10 times as good a coach as Saban.
Meanwhile, Clay Helton made his long-awaited return to Los Angeles, taking his Georgia Southern team to USC, a school that fired him in 2021 despite a .657 win percentage at the school — right in line with the Trojans’ current coach, Lincoln Riley (.651). But on Saturday, Riley and USC rolled to a 59-20 win, proving once and for all that hiring him was absolutely the right call.
Rivalry Rundown
Week 2 isn’t a true rivalry week, but it did feature a number of passionate tilts between old enemies.
Cy-Hawk Trophy
Iowa State defeated Iowa 16-13 and held on to the Cy-Hawk Trophy thanks to a pair of circus catches by tight end Gabe Burkle on a go-ahead fourth-quarter drive.
WHAT. A. GRAB.
Gabe Burkle & the Cyclones are in Iowa territory with 2 minutes left pic.twitter.com/J77SRMFfu2
– Bussin’ With The Boys (@BussinWTB) September 6, 2025
It’s the sixth time in the past seven years of the rivalry in which neither team topped 20 points, and in this year’s incarnation, neither squad managed more than 238 yards of offense.
Iowa State prevailed thanks to the leg of kicker Kyle Konrardy, who booted field goals of 44 yards and 27 yards, as well as a 54-yard game winner.
Iowa threw for 83 yards in the game, a tally Kirk Ferentz frustratingly noted was almost the full length of the field and should’ve been plenty enough to win. Still, as punishment, only the defense and punters were allowed to get ice cream at the Tastee-Freez afterward.
In the past seven games in this series, Iowa’s QBs have combined to complete just 51% of their throws, averaged 4.4 yards per pass, thrown just one touchdown and five picks.
Border Showdown
The hatred between Kansas and Missouri dates back nearly two centuries. The hatred between Kansas and Missouri dates back nearly two centuries, ignited by years of guerrilla warfare during the Civil War and reaching its apex when Chase Daniel engineered a truly epic series of prank calls to Mark Mangino’s house in 2007. But since 2011, when Missouri departed for the SEC, the rivalry had remained dormant — until Saturday.
The renewed ferocity between the two programs was on display early, as Kansas jumped out to a 21-6 lead, only to see Missouri roar back. Beau Pribula threw for three touchdowns in helping the Tigers pull away to a 42-31 win — their fifth straight in the series.
And, as is the customary stakes for the loser of this rivalry, Kansas is now forced to take responsibility for the Kansas City Royals.
Baylor-SMU
What was once a heated rivalry in the old Southwest Conference had gone dormant for the past nine years, but Baylor and SMU renewed hostilities in Dallas on Saturday.
SMU hadn’t won in this series since 1986 — the year before the program received the dreaded “death penalty” for running the country’s best NIL collective — but the Mustangs appeared poised to break the streak, nursing a 14-point lead with less than six minutes to play.
But Baylor didn’t back down, riding QB Sawyer Robertson to two late touchdowns to force overtime, where the Bears won on a walk-off field goal, 48-45. Robertson finished with 440 yards passing and four touchdown throws, then did doughnuts in SMU’s parking lot in a Trans Am with a big gold eagle on the hood, just for spite.
Bayou Bucket Classic
Houston upended in-city rival Rice 35-9 behind 132 yards rushing and two touchdowns from running back Dean Connors. The win means, for the second straight year, Houston retains the Bayou Bucket. But don’t feel bad, Rice. Popeye’s sells a Bayou Bucket with three sides for just $21.99. You really can’t beat that deal.
Under-the-radar play of the week
With five minutes left in the first half, and Kent State already trailing 38-0, center Dustyn Morell delivered a play that perfectly sums up the current state of the Golden Flashes program.
Worst snap in football history
Thank you Kent State pic.twitter.com/tgZ85ATr2Y
– Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) September 6, 2025
Texas Tech scored following the fumble recovery and went on to win 62-14. It’s hard to entirely fault Morell though. He’d been eating caramels before the play and his hands were sticky.
Under-the-radar game of the week
With just 1:43 to go, UMass allowed Bryant — a team that’s just 11 guys who all showed up at the local YMCA wearing Kobe Bryant jerseys on the same day — to march 78 yards and drill a 25-yard game-winning field goal. The Minutemen fell 27-26, the most embarrassing moment in the program’s football history since — we’re guessing last week. The good news for UMass is it’s just a mere 35 days away from playing Kent State.
Heisman five
Arch Manning is currently sitting in his car outside the Heisman House listening to mix tapes and wondering how many touchdown passes a guy has to throw against San Jose State to earn a guest pass for the weekend.
1. Oklahoma QB John Mateer
Against one of the nation’s best defenses, Mateer accounted for 344 total yards and three touchdowns in an Oklahoma win over Michigan, shocking fans throughout Columbus, Ohio, who had no idea such a thing was possible.
2. Utah QB Devon Dampier
After torching UCLA in its opener, Utah beat Cal Poly with ease Saturday, as Dampier accounted for three touchdowns for the second straight week. Unfortunately, because the game happened in Utah, no Heisman voters watched.
3. Florida State QB Tommy Castellanos
One week after running all over Alabama, Castellanos used his arm to torch East Texas A&M, racking up 237 yards and three touchdowns. Normally, the ultraconfident Castellanos would talk a little smack to next week’s opponent to set the stage, but FSU gets Kent State in Week 3 and, honestly, that probably doesn’t feel worth it.
4. Baylor QB Sawyer Robertson
Robertson has thrown for 859 yards and seven touchdowns without a pick through two games — both against upper-tier Power 4 competition. He’s suddenly turning heads among NFL scouts. Also, the drive-thru girl at Whataburger threw in some extra fries the last time he was there.
5. LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier
Nussmeier had a less-than-exciting performance in a 23-7 win over Louisiana Tech, throwing for 237 yards, one touchdown and a pick. It was part of a trend of SEC teams struggling to put away lesser competition Saturday, as Georgia and Texas A&M also waited until late in the second half to secure their wins. At least they’re all not Florida.
Game day notes
In making repeated comments about the disparity between Oregon’s budget and Oklahoma State’s earlier this week, head coach Mike Gundy might have both preempted and prompted what transpired at Autzen Stadium on Saturday.
From kickoff, the Ducks dominated every phase of the game on their way to a commanding 69-3 shellacking of the Cowboys. The way Oregon came out of the gates, stepped on the gas pedal and didn’t take their foot off until they were up 48-3 halfway through the third quarter when they brought in the offensive backups (who still got a touchdown of their own) seemed very purposeful. Not only did the Ducks seem interested in beating Gundy’s team, but also in making a statement.
Oregon did not punt until the fourth quarter (their first punt of the season in two games), and the only drive it had through its first eight that did not end in a score was a turnover on downs in the first quarter. The Ducks had a 59-yard touchdown run on their second offensive play of the game and a 65-yard touchdown pass on their third offensive play of the game. Explosive plays were everywhere at Autzen as the OK State defense provided little to no resistance on the day.
The back-to-back pick-sixes late in the third quarter to take the score of the game from simply overwhelming to outright historic were just salt on the wound. As teams exited the field once the clock hit zero, AC/DC’s “Moneytalks” played over the speakers, fittingly serenading Oklahoma State on its way back to Stillwater.
For the Pokes, it was the kind of performance that might prompt a deeper look at the state of their program. For the Ducks, it was a showcase that showed why, despite losing their starting quarterback, top receiver and elite linemen on both sides of the ball after last season, Oregon still has the depth and talent to be a title contender. — Paolo Uggetti
When Beau Pribula made what he called “an impossible decision” in December to leave Penn State as the Nittany Lions were preparing for the College Football Playoff, he did so to set himself up for days such as Saturday. Pribula left Happy Valley for the opportunity to compete for a starting job elsewhere, quickly landing at Missouri, where starter Brady Cook was out of eligibility.
Coming out of training camp, Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz said the quarterback competition between Sam Horn and Pribula would extend into the season, but Pribula inherited the job by default when Horn was injured on his first snap last week. Pribula shined in that game against FCS Central Arkansas, but considering the level of competition, it was hard to read too much into his performance. This week, it was different. With the rivalry against Kansas renewed, Pribula completed 30 of 39 passes for 334 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions in the 42-31 win. He looked the part of a quarterback who can successfully lead the Tigers into the SEC gauntlet that awaits.
Considering the circumstances of his departure from Penn State, Pribula’s immediate success must come with an extra layer of satisfaction for him. He would have been stuck behind Drew Allar again at Penn State and now has shown the country he, too, can play at a high level. Pribula’s situation in December was a factor in the recent proposal by the FBS Oversight Committee to move the transfer portal window to January, so it will have less overlap with the playoff. — Kyle Bonagura
Exhale, Horns, Arch is all right. A week after a disappointing performance in a 14-7 loss at Ohio State, Arch Manning got off to a bit of a slow start again on a sleepy, overcast, 11 a.m. Austin kickoff. He started 3-of-6 for 11 yards on the Longhorns’ first two drives, including a badly overthrown ball to Ryan Wingo that could’ve been intercepted if the defender had another step.
But on the next drive on third down, Manning got an easy throw and catch to Parker Livingstone, who turned it upfield as a defender slipped and raced 83 yards for a touchdown. By halftime, Manning was on fire and the rout was on, including three straight touchdown passes on three straight attempts, as Texas scored four touchdowns in 4:56 of game time.
But it wasn’t all smooth for Manning. He heaved an ill-advised throw into double coverage under pressure for an interception at the San Jose 13. He fumbled on a sack at his own 1-yard line in the third quarter but recovered it.
But he came back with a 20-yard touchdown run, tiptoeing down the sideline and showcasing the athletic ability that coach Steve Sarkisian said this week he should embrace.
The Longhorns had too many penalties (12-115), a few dropped passes and some protection problems they’ll need to get fixed before SEC play starts. But the defense held the Spartans in check, forced four turnovers a week after not having one against the Buckeyes, and Manning joined Colt McCoy, Vince Young and David Ash as the only Texas QBs over the past 20 years with two or more games of two 20-plus-yard TD passes and a 20-plus-yard TD run.
Sarkisian said he was pleased with the response by a quarterback who could’ve let his competitiveness linger after last week’s disappointment.
“I think he’s hard on himself differently than maybe I’m hard on him, but I’m also trying to ease some of that,” Sarkisian said. “When he gets hard on himself, I try to back himself off of that and try to make sure he’s got the right amount of confidence when he goes and plays because he’s a very talented player.” — Dave Wilson
Illinois eventually resembled a College Football Playoff contender at Duke, but first it reinforced the importance of being opportunistic and finding new ways to win. The Illini were sluggish in the first quarter and for much of the first half. Their celebrated offensive line couldn’t keep Vincent Anthony Jr. and Duke’s pass rushers away from quarterback Luke Altmyer. A Bret Bielema-coached team surprisingly couldn’t run the ball. At times, Illinois didn’t really look ready.
But the Illini found themselves on the right side of the handful of plays that determine outcomes. Duke’s repeated mistakes on special teams and on offense in Illinois’ end of the field were too many to overcome. Any team that is minus-5 in turnovers on its home field has no business winning.
Still, Illinois had to capitalize and did behind Altmyer, whose experience and talent showed up repeatedly. Altmyer completed 22 of 31 passes for 296 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, spreading the ball to a largely new group of wide receivers. Illinois certainly misses Pat Bryant and Zakhari Franklin, but offensive coordinator Barry Lunney Jr. hoped for more explosiveness with this receiving corps and got it, as Hank Beatty, Justin Bowick and others delivered.
Bielema’s championship teams at Wisconsin were built on elite line play and the power run. This Illini squad hasn’t really hit its stride with the run game, and ultimately might be pass-heavy with one of the nation’s more proven quarterbacks in Altmyer and a dynamic group of wideouts. Illinois won’t be able to count on every opponent to make the number of mistakes Duke did, but the Illini now have a track record of taking advantage, which should serve them well during Big Ten play. — Adam Rittenberg
The curse is broken. Matt Campbell and his Cyclones have finally defeated Iowa in Ames for the first time in his tenure. Iowa State’s latest bout with its rival, a 16-13 win, was a nail-biter decided in the final minute as usual.
In securing its first home win over Iowa since 2011, Iowa State has won three of its past four against its in-state foe. Six of the past seven Cy-Hawk winners have scored 20 points or less. It takes a remarkable amount of toughness to survive these low-scoring brawls.
But this might be Campbell’s toughest team yet.
Throughout his tenure, the head coach has fixated on “winning on the margins,” doing all the little things right to overcome any talent deficit and get games into the fourth quarter. These days, the proof is in the results: Iowa State has won eight of its past nine games decided by one-score margins.
Kicker Kyle Konrardy got to be the Cy-Hawk hero yet again, drilling a clutch 54-yard go-ahead field goal in the final two minutes. He got that opportunity thanks to Rocco Becht guiding a 13-play, six-minute drive in the fourth quarter that featured three third-down conversions. Iowa State’s defense finished the job with pass rusher Tamatoa McDonough, a little-known transfer from Yale, slamming Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski down for back-to-back sacks to kill any hopes of a game-winning drive.
“These are milestone moments,” Campbell said. “Our kids, the schedule, what we’ve been up against — real toughness.”
This team had to have the right stuff from the start to pull this off. It took everything the Cyclones had to survive a 24-21 win over Kansas State in Ireland during Week 0. Then they had to come home and figure out how to keep playing their best ball. In many ways, they still haven’t. But what Campbell loves most is the way this Becht-led squad plays with steady resolve, how it can hang in there when things aren’t going its way and keep pushing.
This rivalry win is more proof that this group knows how to win in the fourth quarter — and the Cyclones might be ready to go win the Big 12, too. — Max Olson
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Eli Lederman
NORMAN, Okla. — A week after John Mateer threw for the most yards in an Oklahoma quarterback debut against Illinois State, the transfer passer’s instinctive playmaking highlighted an imperfect performance that helped propel the No. 18 Sooners to a 24-13 win over No. 15 Michigan on Saturday night.
While Oklahoma smothered Wolverines freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood, Mateer completed 21 of his 34 passes for 270 yards with a passing touchdown and an interception. He also finished with a team-high 19 carries for 74 yards, adding a pair of rushing scores on either side of halftime in his second career start for the Sooners.
“You saw what he can do,” Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables said of Mateer. “He falls forward a lot. He’s got great strength and great skills. Tough guy. He’s fearless. He attacks everything without fear.”
Playing behind four new offensive line starters, including freshman left tackle Michael Fasusi, Mateer remained poised against the Michigan pass rush early, connecting on completions of 34, 31 and 21 yards across the Sooners’ initial pair of offensive drives. According to ESPN Research, Mateer finished 8-of-13 with 156 passing yards and a touchdown in blitzing situations Saturday.
Oklahoma opened the scoring on its opening possession via a pop pass from Mateer to wide receiver Deion Burks, who logged a team-high seven receptions for 101 yards. Mateer’s 2-yard rushing score with 22 seconds remaining in the second quarter handed Oklahoma a 14-0 halftime lead, and he used his legs again for a 10-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter.
Mateer’s 19 carries marked the fourth-highest single-game tally of his career and included three runs of at least 10 yards. With his pair of rushing scores, Mateer joined Lamar Jackson and D’Eriq King as the only FBS players to record at least one passing and rushing score in eight consecutive games since 2015, according to ESPN Research, dating to his breakout campaign at Washington State last fall.
“John’s a willing runner,” Sooners offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle said. “He understands what it takes to win. They’re definitely designed QB runs in the game. At the end of the day, you’re just trying to win a football game, and John Mateer is willing [to run]. He probably took a big hit or two tonight. But hopefully all for the good of the team.”
Mateer’s night was not without mistakes. He was intercepted by Michigan defensive back TJ Metcalf in the first quarter after overthrowing tight end Will Huggins. Mateer was nearly intercepted again after halftime, and his third-quarter overthrow in the end zone beyond the hands of tight end Jaren Kanak cost the Sooners seven points as the Wolverines mounted a second-half comeback.
But Mateer’s risk-taking and flair for the extraordinary were also the drivers for Oklahoma in only the Sooners’ third win over a top-15 opponent under Venables. The Sooners led 14-7 early in the third quarter when Mateer shed a tackle in the backfield, rolled to his right and fired a 36-yard strike to wide receiver Isaiah Sategna. Mateer ran in his second touchdown and lifted the Sooners to a 21-7 advantage just two plays later.
“The thing with John, I trust that kid to like no end,” Arbuckle said. “He understands moments and situations. He knows when to take a chance, when not to take a chance. So whenever he lets one rip and puts the ball in what someone may say is a risky situation, whenever he does that, I have the utmost confidence that he’s making the right decision.”
Another one of Mateer’s risks paid off early in the fourth quarter, ultimately launching an 8:27 drive that allowed Oklahoma to drain the remaining minutes and any lingering hope of a Michigan comeback.
Facing second-and-10 from the Sooners’ 38-yard line, Mateer again rolled out and — with Wolverines linebacker Jaishawn Barham bearing down on him — made a daring throw off his back foot into heavy traffic to find Kanak for a 9-yard connection.
“[Kanak] kind of went to the open space and I threw it a little dangerous,” Mateer said. “But he made it happen.”
A timely bit of innovation, Mateer’s throw marked the start of a 16-play, 78-yard scoring drive that effectively iced Oklahoma’s Week 2 victory and showed off the very best of Mateer and what his game-changing playmaking ability can offer the Sooners.
Oklahoma visits Temple in Week 3 before embarking on a gauntlet of an SEC schedule at home against Auburn on Sept. 20.
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