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Wyoming finished with its worst SP+ ranking since 2015, San Diego State had its worst since 2013. At 59th, Boise State had its worst ranking since 1998. At 126th and 128th, Colorado State and Hawaii had their worst since 1981 and 1976, respectively. Nevada hadn’t ranked worse than 125th since 1933. New Mexico had never ranked as low as 130th. Only two Mountain West teams saw their rankings improve in 2022 (San Jose State and UNLV … which fired its coach?), and five teams fell by at least 30 spots. (Nevada fell by 74.)

It wasn’t a great year for the Group of Five conference out west, in other words. In its 18-year existence, the MWC had never finished with an average SP+ ranking worse than 87.7, and it was 97.7 in 2022. The conference had four new head coaches (all of whom oversaw regression) and the worst returning production averages in the country by far, and while its two division champions (Fresno State and Boise State) both flashed upside, they also both battled quarterback injuries and overall inconsistency.

A rebound isn’t guaranteed in 2023, but there are reasons for hope. In the Mountain Division, Boise State has its QB situation figured out and boasts one of the conference’s higher returning production averages. Wyoming went from near the bottom of the returning production list to near the top. Air Force returns the bones of an outstanding defense, the injury bug has almost no choice but to be kinder to Utah State, and both Colorado State and New Mexico have enough potential at quarterback to make them candidates for overachieving projections.

Last year was a nadir. Let’s talk about what we might see this fall.

The MWC ditched divisions and will send its top two finishers to the conference championship game this fall, but for the sake of this two-part preview we’ll break them into division-shaped batches. Let’s preview the MWC Mountain!

Every week through the offseason, Bill Connelly will preview another division from the Group of 5 and Power 5 exclusively for ESPN+, ultimately including all 133 FBS teams. The previews will include 2022 breakdowns, 2023 previews and burning questions for each team.

Earlier previews: Conference USA, part 1 | Conference USA, part 2 | MAC East | MAC West

2022 recap

Boise State had the good sense to time its funk for before conference play. That made the difference in an uneventful Mountain race. After a dire 27-10 loss to UTEP in Week 4, second-year head coach Andy Avalos fired offensive coordinator Tim Plough and replaced him with former BSU head coach and NFL offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter. Quarterback Hank Bachmeier entered the transfer portal, so Koetter called plays for freshman Taylen Green instead.

It worked. BSU went 8-0 in MWC play, winning the division by three games over Air Force (which had suffered its own funk at the beginning of conference play), Wyoming (whose offense faltered terribly late in the year) and Utah State (who went 4-0 in one-score games to eke out bowl eligibility). Colorado State and New Mexico, meanwhile, went a combined 5-19 overall, 3-13 in conference.

2023 projections

Former BSU quarterback and Missouri assistant Bush Hamdan takes over as offensive coordinator in Boise, but Green returns, as do eight other offensive starters. The Broncos’ defense is dealing with turnover, but with Air Force starting over offensively and everyone else playing catch-up, the Broncos start out as a clear favorite. That makes sense considering, well, they’ve won five of the last six Mountain crowns. If there’s a monkey wrench in their plan to make it six of seven, however, it might be the Air Force defense.

Burning questions

Which of last year’s three Boise States takes the field in 2023? For some teams, SP+ draws a pretty good bead on you from the start. For others, it’s chasing a moving target all year. Boise State fit into the latter category.

Boise State vs. SP+ projections in 2022

First four games: underachieved by 14.4 PPG (-8.3 on offense, -6.1 on defense)

Next four games: overachieved by 13.5 PPG (+9.0 on offense, +4.5 on defense)

Last six games: underachieved by 3.7 PPG (-0.1 on offense, -3.6 on defense)

The Broncos were projected 35th to start the season, but they got trounced at both Oregon State and UTEP and fell as low as 81st. The post-UTEP offensive changes took hold nicely, however, and they beat four MWC opponents, including Fresno State and San Diego State, by an average of 36-14 to climb back toward the top 50. But down the stretch, the offense played to projections while the defense slipped.

I figure we can assume good things from the offense. The experience levels are massive, and for a freshman who wasn’t even supposed to play, Green really was outstanding. He rushed for more than 100 yards three times and threw for more than 200 yards six times, and BSU averaged 32.5 points per game when he started and 22 when he didn’t. The combination of Green and 1,100-yard rusher George Holani gives the Broncos the best backfield in the MWC, and Green will have sure-handed slot man Latrell Caples and a seasoned receiving corps at his disposal too. The line must replace three regulars, including John Ojukwu, the latest of many awesome BSU left tackles, but it returns four players with solid starting experience. Right tackle Cade Beresford is particularly strong.

It’s hard to know what to make of the defense, though. The Broncos finished a lofty 28th in defensive SP+ because of early-season prowess and dominance of bad offenses, but they suffered increasing glitches late, then lost nine of the 18 players who saw 250-plus snaps, including four of the top five in an aggressive secondary.

Avalos is an outstanding defensive coach — it’s been a while since he was associated with a bad defense — and seems to work well with coordinator Spencer Danielson. They still have play-makers in linebacker DJ Schramm and edge rusher Demitri Washington, and sophomore linebacker Andrew Simpson could become a star soon. But depth could be an issue in both the front and back unless some transfers (three on the line, one four-year plus two JUCOs in the secondary) click. If BSU still fields a top-40 defense, the Broncos will be far and away the division favorite. But attrition can catch up to you at times.

Can Air Force keep this run of incredible defense going? At a school that can’t redshirt players (and, in recent times, hasn’t been able to take advantage of the NCAA giving everyone an extra year of eligibility), Air Force coach Troy Calhoun has been a bit limited by experience — sometimes his team has it, and sometimes it doesn’t. From 2012 to 2019, Calhoun’s Falcons suffered four losing seasons and won double-digit games three times, depending in part on the level of turnover they had suffered the year before. But starting in 2019, the program began taking on a different, almost reliable look.

Air Force’s average SP+ rankings

Calhoun’s first 12 years (2007-18): 67.9 overall, 60.7 offense, 68.8 defense

Calhoun’s last four years (2019-22): 47.8 overall, 90.3 offense, 16.8 defense

The Falcons have won at least 10 games in each of their last three full seasons, and their defense has been just about the best in the Group of Five. They benefit from the way their offense slows games down — it doesn’t score as many points as it used to, but it exposed the defense to the fewest number of plays and drives per game last season. But when the defense is on the field, it dominates. The Falcons were ninth in rushing success rate allowed in 2022 despite size disadvantages up front, they rushed the passer well when opponents were behind schedule, and they played brilliant red zone defense, allowing just a 43% red zone touchdown rate (fourth in FBS).

After years of winning games by frustrating the opposing defense with its option attack, Air Force now wins games by frustrating foes’ offense even more. And its defensive dominance continued after losing coordinator John Rudzinski to Virginia last season. Veteran Brian Knorr, a former Air Force quarterback, took the reins and kept the momentum going — and with a pretty young unit, to boot. Of the 13 defenders with 250-plus snaps, nine return, including 260-pound play-making tackles Peyton Zdroik and Jayden Thiergood up front and most of the secondary.

The Falcons should have another outstanding defense in 2023, but the offense has indeed slid backward a bit in recent years and now faces an overhaul. Quarterback Haaziq Daniels and 1,700-yard rusher Brad Roberts carried the ball a combined 471 times (not including sacks) last season, and both are gone. So are three of the next four leading rushers and both of the players who caught more than three passes in this run-heavy attack. The line could be a saving grace — it returns all but one regular, including three all-conference contenders in tackles Everett Smalley and Kaleb Holcomb and guard Wesley Ndago. But fullback John Lee Eldridge III will be the only familiar face touching the ball in 2023, and this was already an offense that has seen diminishing returns in recent years. The defense can carry a ton of the burden, but it has to get at least some help.

Can Wyoming field a merely decent offense at some point? Aside from geography and elevation, Wyoming and Air Force don’t have a lot in common — different recruiting aims, different budgets, different just about everything. But they have been similarly lopsided in recent years. Since 2017, Craig Bohl’s Wyoming program has gone .500 or better in every (full) season because of a brilliant defense that has averaged a 33.3 ranking in defensive SP+. Bohl has beautifully rebuilt the defensive culture he established at North Dakota State, and the Cowboys have benefited from it.

They have yet to win more than eight games in a season, however, because in that same span the offense has averaged a grotesque SP+ ranking of 115.7. As with Air Force, they chew up clock with a slow tempo, and they run the ball effectively at times: The trio of Titus Swen, Dawaiian McNeely and D.Q. James averaged 24 carries per game and 5.6 yards per carry last year. But when the Cowboys fell behind schedule, the drive ended. They were 118th in passing downs success rate. Quarterback Andrew Peasley completed just 52% of his passes with a 10-to-9 TD-to-INT ratio and a No. 112 Total QBR ranking.

The defense slid a bit in 2022, in part because of inexperience. That could go from liability to asset this fall: Of the 16 players who saw at least 250 snaps, 13 return, and 10 were either freshmen or sophomores last fall. Nine players made at least four tackles for loss, and eight are back. The Cowboys still ranked a solid 66th in defensive SP+ and defended the pass beautifully. The line was particularly young, however, and the run defense struggled; they ranked 94th in rushing success rate allowed and, shockingly for a Bohl defense, 125th in tackle success rate.

If inexperience was the main issue (and it probably was), the front seven should rebound, and this could easily be another high-level defense. The question, then, is whether anything will ever change on offense. Peasley returns, as do McNeely and James, and Northern Illinois transfer Harrison Waylee should take Swen’s place pretty well. The offensive line is huge: Five returning regulars average 6-foot-5, 312 pounds. Bohl clearly desires conservatism and physicality over everything else on offense, and that’s fine. But you still have to be able to throw the ball occasionally, and Wyoming wasn’t even good at that when Josh Allen was behind center.

This is a 10-win defense paired with a three-win offense. Annual bowl eligibility is a pretty incredible thing in this job, but Bohl’s success has also revealed his program’s limitations. It’s not too late for Wyoming to evolve — or for Bohl to maybe climb aboard the fourth downs bandwagon (Wyoming went for it on only 6% of fourth downs last season, lowest in FBS) — but it’s hard to believe that might happen.

What does a stable Utah State look like? The only predictable thing about a recent Utah State football season has been that it’s probably going to be completely different than the one the year before.

2017: 6-7 record, 81st in SP+
2018: 11-2 record, 16th in SP+
2019: 7-6 record, 73rd in SP+
2020: 1-5 record, 121st in SP+
2021: 11-3 record, 62nd in SP+
2022: 6-7 record, 114th in SP+

That’s five straight years with at least a five-game change in the win total and at least a 48-spot shift in the SP+ rankings. The Aggies have averaged seven wins per year in this span, with a ranking in the 70s, but they’ve only won seven games or finished in the 70s once.

The good news, as it were, is that USU can’t sink another 48 spots in SP+ this year — I guess that means the Aggies will rise again despite poor SP+ projections.

In 2021, Blake Anderson led the Aggies to a Mountain West title in his first season in charge. They were one of the most fortunate teams in the country — they were only 62nd in SP+, and the combination of close wins (4-0 in one-score games) and blowout losses made them a major 2022 regression candidate even though they looked really good late that season.

Sure enough, they got worse. And then injuries took a major toll. Only three defenders started all 13 games, and the offense, stable by comparison, still lost quarterback Logan Bonner early in the season and had to start redshirting freshman Bishop Davenport for one game as well. That the Aggies only fell from 55th to 78th in offensive SP+ was encouraging, though they’ll be attempting a rebound with four new offensive line starters and without 1,100-yard rusher Calvin Tyler Jr. or 900-yard receiver Brian Cobbs. Leading passer Cooper Legas and Davenport both return, but the rest of the offense is fighting massive turnover.

The defense should benefit from a kinder injury bug and boasts some solid veteran play-makers in linebackers AJ Vongphachanh and MJ Tafisi, tackle Hale Motu’apuaka and corner Michael Anyanwu. But three of last year’s top four linemen are gone, as are three of the top five defensive backs. That Anderson signed five JUCO DLs and four JUCO DBs tells you he was pretty concerned about those units. And he probably should have been: Even with injuries, the fact that they fell from 55th to 123rd in defensive SP+ was alarming. Anderson brought in veteran coordinator Joe Cauthen to help stem the tide. If he wants another huge surge forward, these changes need to take root quickly.

Who digs out of this rut first, Colorado State or New Mexico? It just feels like Colorado State should be good at football. The Rams took a massive step forward during the Sonny Lubick era in the 1990s and 2000s (they were ranked for part of every season from 1997 to 2003 and bowled 15 times between 1994 and 2017), their new stadium (Canvas Stadium) is gorgeous, they’ve been vaguely associated with Big 12 and Pac-12 expansion rumors through the years, and we’ve watched them beat power-conference rival Colorado early in the season plenty of times — seven times from 1999 to 2014, in fact.

Anything positive you can say about the Rams program, however, has an expiration date attached. CSU has been downright bad for half a decade now. Since 2018, it has gone 14-36 with an average SP+ ranking of 110.8. That’s better than border rival New Mexico (12-43 with an average ranking of 118.2), but not by much. That beautiful new stadium in Fort Collins? The Rams are 12-21 in it. That includes a 2-3 record against FCS teams, the last two of which have beaten them by a combined 83-33. At least New Mexico has the excuse of a lower budget and a state with far fewer FBS recruits!

Last year, Colorado State replaced Steve Addazio (4-12 in two seasons) with Nevada’s Jay Norvell. He loaded up on transfers — including many from Nevada — in an attempt to hit the ground running. Instead, CSU’s offense disintegrated, and the Rams began the season with four losses by an average of 41-11. The defense was mostly solid in conference play, and CSU somehow managed to go 3-5 in the MWC despite never scoring more than 17 points.

With the defense returning eight starters, the Rams could be set up to solidify last year’s gains. Sophomore quarterback Clay Millen returns as well after completing 72% of his passes last season. Unfortunately, if he wasn’t completing a deep ball to Tory Horton, the offense was accomplishing absolutely nothing.

Horton needs more skill corps support, and Millen has to hope that a completely turned-over offensive line — seven of last year’s top nine are gone, replaced by three small-school transfers and three JUCOs — somehow solidifies. It doesn’t usually work that way, but at least last year’s line was really bad, so the bar isn’t very high.

The only FBS offense that graded out worse than CSU’s? New Mexico’s. The Lobos have ranked dead last in offensive SP+ for two straight years; fourth-year head coach Danny Gonzales inherited a pretty dire situation from Bob Davie in 2020, but his only upgrades have come on defense where his former mentor, Rocky Long, coordinated a solid unit for each of the last two seasons. Long is off to Syracuse, however, and of the 15 defenders who saw at least 250 snaps in 2022, only five return. New coordinator Troy Reffett has his work cut out for him.

If Gonzales is to create fourth-year improvement, a completely remodeled offense will have to improve significantly. The offensive coaching staff, now led by coordinator Bryant Vincent (formerly of UAB), is almost completely new, and if there’s hope it comes from the fact that Vincent brought former UAB quarterback Dylan Hopkins with him. Hopkins isn’t amazing, but he has ranked 55th and 70th in Total QBR over the last two seasons; UNM hasn’t had a quarterback rank higher than 118th in the Gonzales era. The offensive line is loaded with experience, if nothing else, and the skill corps could get a boost from an influx of transfers.

Neither Colorado State nor New Mexico have ranked higher than 84th in offensive SP+ since 2017. Both teams have intriguing quarterbacks, but both also have depth charts that took huge hits in key areas. The potential for defensive collapse is high enough at UNM that I guess I trust CSU to perform better this season. But “better” is relative.

My 10 favorite players

QB Taylen Green, Boise State. With the right play-calling and decent injuries luck, Green has 3,000/1,000 (passing and rushing yards) potential. He’ll have a wonderfully experienced skill corps around him this fall too.

RB Nathaniel Jones, New Mexico. Considering the degree of difficulty (that’s a polite way of saying he got little help), the fact that Jones gained 10-plus yards on 14% of his carries and averaged 2.7 yards per carry after contact suggests he could do big things with a better supporting cast.

WR Tory Horton, Colorado State. Like Jones, Horton produced intriguing numbers with minimal help. He posted five games with more than 125 receiving yards and averaged 15.9 yards per catch even though opponents knew he was the only guy they needed to stop.

RT Everett Smalley, Air Force. Even in college, you can find plenty of mammoth offensive tackles, 6-foot-6 or taller and 315 pounds or heavier. The best tackle in the MWC, however, might be Smalley. At 6-foot-3, 260. He’s the best run-blocking tackle, anyway.

C Nofoafia Tulafono, Wyoming. The 325-pound junior from Victorville, California, earned second-team all-conference honors from PFF last season after producing a blown block rate of just 0.7%. He allowed zero pass pressures.

DE Mohamed Kamara, Colorado State. The CSU defense had to be perfect for the Rams to win games last year, and while Kamara was good all season (17 TFLs, 8.5 sacks, 12 run stops), he was even better in their victories. As valuable a defender as you’ll find.

DE Braden Siders, Wyoming. As a redshirt freshman on a line desperate for new playmakers, Siders stepped up, compiling 13 TFLs, 7 sacks and 11 run stops. He even looked good dropping into coverage. Just imagine what he might do with experience!

DT Hale Motu’apuaka, Utah State. In two years as a major player in Logan, Motu’apuaka has improved as the season has progressed – 9.5 of his 16 TFLs have come after Nov. 1. Is this the year he hits the ground running?

LB Bo Richter, Air Force. With last year’s top two OLBs gone, more will be asked of the senior from Naperville, Illinois. Considering he had 7.5 TFLs in just 326 snaps last year, a starter’s load might result in massive production.

S Rodney Robinson, Boise State. One of the smallest safeties you’ll see (5-foot-8, 185 pounds) is also one of the best. He picked off three passes, made a pair of run stops and lined up everywhere from cornerback to inside linebacker.

Anniversaries

In 1958, 65 years ago, Air Force finished sixth in the polls … in its second season. In 1955, the Air Force fielded its first official football team, one that lost to the Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma freshman teams by a combined 113-12. Three years later, the Falcons beat the Colorado varsity team, 20-14. In just their second year at the major college level, they went an incredible 9-0-2, beating a pair of Big 8 teams (CU and Oklahoma State), tying both No. 8 Iowa early in the season and No. 10 TCU in the Cotton Bowl and finishing sixth in the AP poll. It was Ben Martin‘s first season in charge, and he would lead the team to another major bowl appearance and ranked finish in 1970.

In 1993, 30 years ago, Colorado State hired Sonny Lubick. I can say whatever I want about Colorado State’s potential, but the Rams had shown very little of it before Lubick’s arrival.

Lubick’s career had already been ridiculously unique — he spent most of the 1960s at the high school level in Montana and, in the 1980s, had served as both an offensive coordinator (at Colorado State) and national title-winning defensive coordinator (at Miami) — and he completely transformed the CSU program. The Rams had bowled just twice ever, but he had them in the Holiday Bowl by his second season, and his tenure finished with nine bowl appearances, six conference titles, three ranked finishes and, eventually, his name on Colorado State’s Sonny Lubick Field.

In 1998, 25 years ago, New Mexico replaced Dennis Franchione with Rocky Long. Franchione had been the school’s best hire in decades, eventually lifting the Lobos to a nine-win season and their first bowl appearance in 36 years in 1997. He left for TCU, but Long, UCLA’s irascible and innovative defensive coordinator, took the program even further. After a short adjustment period, Long’s Lobos went to five bowls in six years (2002-07) as he perfected his 3-3-5 defense, beating Texas Tech, Missouri, Baylor and Arizona (and shutting out Colin Kaepernick and Nevada) in the process. He left after a 4-8 stumble in 2008, and UNM has bowled only twice in the 14 years since.

In 2008, 15 years ago, Kellen Moore took over behind center for Boise State. The Boise State story was already one for the history books before Moore arrived from the small town of Prosser, Washington. After rising from the FCS ranks in the 1990s, the Broncos had already enjoyed three straight ranked seasons from 2002 to ’04, and they had already pulled off the great unbeaten season of 2006, complete with a win in one of the best bowls of all time.

The Moore era was the golden era, however. From 2008 to ’11, he threw for 14,667 yards with a 70% completion rate and 142 touchdowns, and the Broncos beat Oregon (twice), Georgia, TCU, Virginia Tech, Oregon State and Arizona State on their way to a combined 50-3 record with poll finishes of 11th, fourth, ninth and eighth. If a 12-team CFP would have been in existence in these years, the Broncos would have been a genuine title threat. They were incredible. So was Moore.

In 2013, 10 years ago, Utah State began Mountain West life in fine form. It’s important to play good football. It’s even more important to play well at the right time. After a lengthy run of poor form — the Aggies averaged just 3.2 wins per season from 1998 to 2008 while bouncing among the Big West, Sun Belt and WAC – Utah State began to improve rapidly under Gary Andersen. In 2011, they enjoyed their best season in 18 years (a 7-6 campaign) … just in time to jump to the MWC with San Jose State as the WAC fell apart. Other WAC programs weren’t so lucky: New Mexico State and Idaho, which had just gone a combined 6-19 in 2011 (and would go 2-22 in 2012), ended up without a conference, and Idaho ended up dropping to FCS.

Utah State kept playing well too. The Aggies went 11-2 and finished 16th in the AP poll in 2012, then went a combined 19-9 with a MWC championship game appearance under Matt Wells (Andersen had left for Wisconsin) in their first two seasons in their new conference. Despite 2022’s stumble, they’ve enjoyed three ranked finishes and 10 bowls in their last 12 seasons after recording just one of the former and four of the latter in their entire pre-2011 history.

In 2018, five years ago, Wyoming gave Josh Allen to the NFL. It’s worked out pretty well for everyone involved.

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Stanford hires former Nike CEO Donahoe as AD

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Stanford hires former Nike CEO Donahoe as AD

  • Seth Wickersham

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    Seth Wickersham

    ESPN Senior Writer

    • Senior Writer for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine
    • Joined ESPN The Magazine after graduating from the University of Missouri.
    • Although he primarily covers the NFL, his assignments also have taken him to the Athens Olympics, the World Series, the NCAA tournament and the NHL and NBA playoffs.

Jul 31, 2025, 11:10 PM ET

Stanford has hired former Nike CEO John Donahoe as the school’s new athletic director, the university announced Thursday.

Donahoe, 65, will arrive in the collegiate athletic director space with a vast swath of business experience, as Stanford officials viewed him as a “unicorn candidate” because of both his business ties and history at the school. Stanford coveted a nontraditional candidate for the role, and Donahoe’s hire delivers a seasoned CEO with stints at Nike, Bain & Company and eBay. He also served as the board chair of PayPal.

He also brings strong Stanford ties as a 1986 MBA graduate. He has had two stints on the Stanford business school’s advisory board, including currently serving in that role.

“My north star for 40 years has been servant leadership, and it is a tremendous honor to be able to come back to serve a university I love and to lead Stanford Athletics through a pivotal and tumultuous time in collegiate sports,” Donahoe said in a statement. “Stanford has enormous strengths and enormous potential in a changing environment, including being the model for achieving both academic and athletic excellence at the highest levels. I can’t wait to work in partnership with the Stanford team to build momentum for Stanford Athletics and ensure the best possible experiences for our student-athletes.”

Donahoe replaces Bernard Muir, who announced in February that he was stepping down after serving in that role since 2012. Alden Mitchell has been the school’s interim athletic director.

The hire is a head-turning one for Stanford, bringing in someone with Donahoe’s high-level business experience. And it comes at a time when the athletic department has struggled in its highest-profile sports, as football is amid four consecutive 3-9 seasons and the men’s basketball team hasn’t reached the NCAA tournament since 2014.

In hiring Donahoe, Stanford is aiming for someone who can find an innovative way to support general manager Andrew Luck and the football program while also figuring out a sustainable model for the future of Stanford’s Olympic sports.

“Stanford occupies a unique place in the national athletics landscape,” university president Jonathan Levin said in a statement. “We needed a distinctive leader — someone with the vision, judgment, and strategic acumen for a new era of college athletics, and with a deep appreciation for Stanford’s model of scholar-athlete excellence. John embodies these characteristics. We’re grateful he has agreed to lead Stanford Athletics through this critical period in college sports.”

Stanford’s Olympic sports remain the best in the country, as Stanford athletes or former athletes accounted for 39 medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics. If Stanford were a country, it would have tied with Canada for the 11th-most medals. Stanford has also won 26 of the possible 31 director’s cups for overall athletic success in college, including a 25-year streak from 1995 to 2019.

School officials approached Donahoe in recent weeks about the position, with both Levin and former women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer among the chief recruiters. Donahoe has a long-standing relationship with both, as he maintained strong ties to the school throughout his career.

Sources said Luck will report to Donahoe. Luck spent time with him in the interview process and is excited to work with him, sources said. It’s also a change from the prior structure, as upon Luck’s hiring he had been slated to report to Levin.

“I am absolutely thrilled John Donahoe is joining as our next athletic director,” Luck said in a statement. “He brings unparalleled experience and elite leadership to our athletic department in a time of opportunity and change. I could not be more excited to partner with and learn from him.”

Stanford is set to begin a football season in which it is picked to finish last in the 17-team ACC. Former NFL coach Frank Reich is the interim coach, and both sides have made clear this is a definitive interim situation and that he won’t return after the 2025 season.

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Iowa State extends Campbell, bumps pay to $5M

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  • Max OlsonAug 1, 2025, 04:59 PM ET

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    • Covers the Big 12
    • Joined ESPN in 2012
    • Graduate of the University of Nebraska

Iowa State and coach Matt Campbell have finalized a contract extension through 2032 after the winningest coach in program history led the Cyclones to their first-ever 11-win season in 2024.

Campbell will earn $5 million per year in total compensation, according to a copy of the contract obtained by ESPN on Friday. The three-time Big 12 Coach of the Year honoree took a discount on the deal, sources told ESPN, to ensure that his staff salary pool increased and to allow Iowa State to allocate an additional $1 million to revenue-sharing funds for its football roster.

Campbell earned $4 million in 2024 while leading the Cyclones to a Big 12 championship game appearance, an 11-3 record and a No. 15 finish in the AP poll. He’s entering his 10th season in Ames and has won a school record of 64 games during his tenure.

Colorado coach Deion Sanders will be the Big 12’s highest-paid head coach this year at $10 million after landing a five-year, $54 million contract extension in March. Campbell’s new salary will not rank among the top five in the conference, but he prioritized maximizing Iowa State’s ability to invest in its football roster following a historic season.

Campbell, 45, told ESPN in July at Big 12 media days that “probably our top 20 guys took a pay cut to come back to Iowa State” for 2025, relative to what they could’ve earned in NIL compensation by entering the transfer portal.

The head coach’s deal includes performance incentives based on the Cyclones’ regular-season record, starting at $250,000 for seven wins and climbing to $1.5 million for a 12-0 season. He’ll earn at least $100,000 for a Big 12 title game appearance and up to $500,000 for a Big 12 championship. The deal also permits him to distribute up to $100,000 of his performance incentive earnings each year to his football staff.

If Campbell accepts another Power 4 head coaching job before the end of his contract, his buyout would be $2 million. He would not owe liquidated damages if he departs for an NFL coaching opportunity. Campbell interviewed with the Chicago Bears in January during the organization’s head coaching search.

Campbell surpassed Dan McCarney as the program’s winningest head coach last season and has led the Cyclones to bowl games in seven of the past eight seasons, including a Fiesta Bowl victory and a top-10 finish in 2020.

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What you missed from college football recruiting this summer

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August 2, 2025

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What you missed from college football recruiting this summer

  • Eli LedermanAug 2, 2025, 07:33 AM ET

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      Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.

The busiest 60 days of the annual recruiting calendar are officially behind us. And while another four months still remain before the December early signing period, college football’s top programs have already wrapped up the majority of their business in the 2026 cycle.

Per ESPN Research, a total of 155 prospects in the 2026 ESPN 300 made commitments in an avalanche of summer recruiting business from June 1 to July 31. In the wake of that, only 16 uncommitteds remain in the ESPN 300 as of Saturday morning. Within that group are just nine top-100 recruits, with five-star defensive end Jake Kreul, No. 2 running back Savion Hiter and No. 2 defensive tackle Deuce Geralds among those expected to come off the board in August.

More settled by this point of the cycle than any other in recent memory, college football’s 2026 class is unfolding against the backdrop of yet another moment of change in the sport. The House settlement and earliest ebbs of college athletics’ revenue sharing era have already shaped the 2026 cycle, and their effects will continue to ripple across the class until February’s national signing day.

As the recruiting trail prepares to take a (relative) back seat to fall camp practices, here’s a look at how the cycle played out this summer and what could come next for the class of 2026:

Revenue sharing and a new era in recruiting

The House settlement, which now permits schools to pay their athletes directly, among other sweeping changes, officially took effect July 1.

But according to personnel staffers, agents, recruits and parents surveyed by ESPN this month on the condition of anonymity, byproducts of college football’s new reality and the initial revenue sharing cap of $20.5 million across all sports have been steering the 2026 cycle for months. “In the past, collectives would always say we’re only going to offer what we know we can pay you,” a player agent told ESPN. “Now programs know what the budget will be, and harder numbers were discussed earlier than usual. The ability for programs to get those numbers out there early was huge.” As schools prepared roster budgets and braced for post-settlement oversight this spring, a number of Power 4 programs began front-loading their 2025 rosters in the lead-up to July 1.

In some cases, that meant negotiating updated, pre-settlement contracts with transfers and current players, deals that will not count against the post-July 1 revenue share cap. In others, sources told ESPN that programs and collectives found workarounds on the recruiting trail, doling out upfront payments as high as $25,000 per month to committed recruits in the 2026 class, primarily through advantageous high school NIL laws that exist in states such as California, Oregon and Washington.

Those front-loading efforts helped several programs jump out to fast starts in the 2026 cycle. Per sources, the impending arrival of revenue sharing also played a significant role in speeding up the 2026 class this spring. With programs in position to present firmer financial figures, a flurry of elite prospects committed to schools on verbal agreements before July 1.

“People rushed to get deals done pre-House,” a Power 4 personnel staffer told ESPN. “You know there’s only so much money available, and schools let kids know that. The first one to say yes gets it.”

Friday loomed especially large in the short-lived history of the House settlement.

Per the settlement, Aug. 1 was the first official date rising seniors could formally receive written revenue share contracts from programs and NIL collectives, the latter of which will now operate under looser regulation from the newly founded College Sports Commission, per a memo sent to athletic directors on Thursday. Put another way, Aug. 1 was the first day committed prospects and their families could officially learn whether terms they had agreed to earlier this year were legit.

“We’re going to see how serious these schools are,” said the parent of an ESPN 300 quarterback. “I think we might see some kids decommit and find new schools this fall.”

Across the industry, sources believe programs will, for the most part, deliver on the verbal agreements. Multiple agents and personnel staffers told ESPN that a number of programs have also generally ignored the Aug. 1 stipulation across the spring and summer, presenting frameworks of agreements to prospective recruits or flouting the rule entirely. Another question hovering over the months ahead: How much will these agreements do to contain the annual shuffle of flips, decommitments and late-cycle drama in the 2026 class?

“These deals should keep things more in check,” another Power 4 personnel staffer said. “But I’m not naive to think some won’t flip. There’s some snakes out there.”

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No. 1 overall prospect Lamar Brown commits to LSU

No. 1 overall prospect Lamar Brown stays home and commits to play for the LSU Tigers.

Where do things stand with the 2026 five-star class?

Oregon offensive tackle commit Immanuel Iheanacho, No. 13 in the 2026 ESPN 300, initially planned to announce his commitment Aug. 5. But, like many of the 2026 five-stars who entered late spring still uncommitted, Iheanacho felt the heat of an accelerated market in June.

“There were a couple of schools I was looking at that asked me to commit early, really wanting to get me in their class,” Iheanacho told ESPN. “Oregon didn’t rush me at all.”

Even so, Iheanacho eventually shifted his commitment timeline forward more than a month. ESPN’s second-ranked offensive line prospect picked the Ducks over Auburn, LSU and Penn State on July 3, landing as one of 11 five-star recruits to commit between June 14 and July 20.

As of Saturday morning, only one of the record 23 five-star prospects in ESPN’s class rankings for 2026 remains uncommitted. LSU secured a class cornerstone and the highest-ranked pledge of the Brian Kelly era in No. 1 overall recruit Lamar Brown on July 10. Meanwhile, Florida (McCoy) and Texas A&M (Arrington) each landed a top-15 defender, Ojo landed a historic deal with Texas Tech, and Texas closed July with the most five-star pledges — four — in the country.

With Kreul, the skilled pass rusher from Florida’s IMG Academy nearing a decision from among Ole Miss, Oklahoma and Texas, ESPN’s 2026 five-star class could be closed out before Week 0.

No matter how it plays out from here, the cycle’s five-stars are already historically settled. As of Saturday morning, 95.6% of the five-star class is committed among 14 schools across the Power 4 conferences. Per ESPN Research, it’s by far the highest Aug. 1 five-star pledge rate in any cycle since at least 2020. Just over a decade ago, only six of the 20 five-stars (30%) in the 2015 cycle were committed on Aug. 1, 2014; nearly half the class committed after New Year’s Day.

Highest rate of five-star pledges by Aug. 1 since the start of the 2020 cycle

  • 2026: 95.6%

  • 2024: 76.1%

  • 2025: 72.7%

  • 2021: 66.6%

  • 2020: 58.8%

A number of factors — the early signing period, NIL, transfer portal, new rules around recruiting windows and on-campus visits — explain why elite recruiting continues to inch further and further from the traditional February signing day. Amid the fallout of the House settlement, the latest five-star class seemingly received another nudge this summer.

What’s left for the 2026 QB market after summer moves?

The last major quarterback domino in the 2026 class fell July 18 when four-star Landon Duckworth (No. 178 overall) committed to South Carolina. More than four months from the early signing period, the quarterback market in 2026 is effectively closed.

After Ryder Lyons (BYU), Bowe Bentley (Oklahoma) and Jaden O’Neal (Florida State) found homes in June, Duckworth was the last uncommitted ESPN 300 quarterback. Further down the class, several major programs across the Big Ten and SEC dipped into the flip market or outside the top 300 to secure their 2026 quarterback pledge(s) this summer.

Notable quarterback moves since June 1:

Oregon ended its monthslong chase for a quarterback pledge June 25 with former Boise State commit Beaver. One of the cycle’s top summer risers after a standout Elite 11 finals showing, Beaver landed with Ducks coach Dan Lanning and offensive coordinator Will Stein over interest Alabama, Auburn, LSU and Ole Miss in whirlwind, 13-day rerecruitment.

Alabama has five-star freshman Keelon Russell. But still repairing the program’s quarterback pipeline under coach Kalen DeBoer, the Crimson Tide added two pledges this summer between Thomalla — an Iowa State flip — and Kaawa. Across the state, Auburn and coach Hugh Freeze made their move June 26 flipping Falzone from Penn State before Ohio State (Fahey) and Kentucky (Ponatoski), another pair of quarterback-needy programs, landed pledges in July.

For now, the quarterback class is settled and only so many major programs are still searching in 2026.

Among the 68 Power 4 programs and Notre Dame, only 10 reached August without at least one pledge among the 106 quarterback prospects rated by ESPN: Colorado, Georgia Tech, LSU, Iowa, Iowa State, Maryland, Stanford, UCLA, Virginia Tech and West Virginia.

Who might still be looking within that group?

Colorado (Julian Lewis), Maryland (Malik Washington) and UCLA (Madden Iamaleava) each signed a top-300 quarterback in the 2025 class. With all three programs in the midst of roster rebuilds, none is likely to make a serious push at the position this fall.

With Garrett Nussmeier out of eligibility in 2025, and after the LSU lost No. 1 overall recruit Bryce Underwood to Michigan last fall, the Tigers remain a program to watch in the coming months.

What did ESPN’s top five classes do this summer?

The Trojans got the bulk of their work done on the trail this spring and began June with the most ESPN 300 pledges of any program nationally. That remains the case as USC has bolstered its top-ranked incoming class with five more ESPN 300 pledges over the past eight weeks, adding defenders Talanoa Ili (No. 54 overall), Luke Wafle (No. 104) and Peyton Dyer (No. 269), a July 4 pledge from No. 3 wide receiver Ethan “Boobie” Feaster (No. 25) and the commitment of highly regarded four-star offensive guard Breck Kolojay (No. 198) on Friday.

Can USC hold on to secure its first No. 1 class since 2013? Time will tell. Sources told ESPN that the Trojans’ biggest moves in the cycle are likely finished while the program continues to target the tight end and safety positions, but there’s still time for plenty more to unfold this fall.

The Bulldogs went for volume and quality this summer, collecting 19 commitments including 12 from inside the ESPN 300. Georgia continued to build around five-star quarterback Jared Curtis with five-star tight end Kaiden Prothro, top-50 offensive tackle Ekene Ogboko, running back Jae Lamar and pass catchers Brayden Fogle and Craig Dandridge. On the other side of the ball, defensive backs Justice Fitzpatrick, Chase Calicut and Caden Harris, and defensive tackle Pierre Dean Jr. rank among the newest arrivals in an increasingly deep Bulldogs defensive class.

Georgia’s summer wasn’t without a few major misses. Losing out to Texas on No. 1 outside linebacker Tyler Atkinson — a priority in-state target — stung. Top running back Derrek Cooper’s subsequent pledge to the Longhorns marked another blow, as did wide receiver Vance Spafford‘s decision to flip to Miami in late June. But the Bulldogs are loaded up once again on top during this cycle and will hit the fall in line to secure the program’s 10th straight top-three signing class for 2026.

The Aggies landed a key local recruiting win over Texas on June 17 with a commitment from No. 5 running back K.J. Edwards, the state’s No. 6 prospect in 2026. But Texas A&M’s summer of recruiting was defined on defense, where coach Mike Elko is building another monster class.

Five-star athlete Brandon Arrington, who will play defensive back in college, became the program’s top-ranked 2026 pledge on June 19. Behind him, the Aggies have added top-150 defenders Bryce Perry-Wright, Camren Hamiel and Tristian Givens, and top 300 linebacker Daquives Beck since June 1 to a defensive class that features nine ESPN 300 pledges.

Even after narrowly missing on top defenders Lamar Brown (LSU) and Anthony Jones (Oregon) in July, Texas A&M holds one of the nation’s deepest classes and appears poised to contend later this year for its first top-five class since the Aggies went No. 1 in 2022.

It was a five-star bonanza for coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns this summer.

It began with a late-June pledge from Oregon decommit Richard Wesley, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive end. From there, Texas went on to secure its latest pair of recruiting wins over Georgia last month, swooping in to land Atkinson on July 15 before earning Derrek Cooper’s commitment five days later. With No. 1 quarterback Dia Bell already in the fold, the Longhorns have as many five-star pledges in 2026 as the program signed across 11 classes from 2011 to 2021.

Top-50 offensive lineman John Turntine III marked a key addition July 4, and the Longhorns got deeper on defense with commitments from cornerback Samari Matthews and former Georgia defensive tackle pledge James Johnson. But the five-star moves have been the story for Texas this summer, and Sarkisian & Co. might not be done yet with the Longhorns heavily in the mix for Jake Kreul, the last remaining five-star in the 2026 class.

After a productive spring, the Irish landed five ESPN 300 pledges after June 1, plugging the few remaining holes in the program’s 2026 class with a series of elite high school prospects.

Notre Dame landed its top two defensive back commitments within hours of each other on June 20 with pledges from cornerback Khary Adams and Joey O’Brien. On June 26, the Irish secured their highest-ranked tight end commit since the 2021 class in four-star Ian Premer. And in early July, Notre Dame bolstered its wide receiver class with an infusion of talent and NFL pedigree, adding Kaydon Finley (son of Jermichael Finley), Brayden Robinson and Devin Fitzgerald (son of Larry Fitzgerald).

Notre Dame’s trip to last season’s national title game arrived amid the program’s steady rise on the recruiting trail under coach Marcus Freeman. That has continued in 2026, where the Irish are poised to sign more ESPN 300 pledges — 17 — than in any cycle since at least 2006.

Five programs poised to push for a top-five finish this fall

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 6

Only one program can match USC’s count of nine top-100 pledges in 2026: Alabama.

The Crimson Tide’s second class under coach Kalen DeBoer boomed in June and July as the Crimson Tide secured a slew of commitments on defense with five-star safety Jireh Edwards (No. 23 overall), No. 3 outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 30) and defensive ends Nolan Wilson (No. 53) and Jamarion Matthews (No. 92). Priority in-state offensive targets Ezavier Crowell (No. 31) and Cederian Morgan (No. 47) marked two more key additions this summer.

Alabama whiffed on another major in-state recruit Thursday when four-star outside linebacker Anthony Jones, the state’s No. 1 prospect in 2026, committed to Oregon. Jones represented one of the last elite targets on the Crimson Tide’s board. But Alabama has already flipped four Power 4 commits this summer and could continue to climb this fall as long as DeBoer and his staff remain active within the class from now to the early signing period.

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 11

LSU enters the month with ESPN’s No. 1 overall recruit, a five-star wide receiver in Tristen Keys (No. 10 overall) and 10 total ESPN 300 commits in the program’s incoming recruiting class.

How can the Tigers climb into the upper reaches of the 2026 cycle this fall? First and foremost, they have to hang onto Keys, ESPN’s No. 3 wide receiver. He has been committed to LSU since March 19, but that didn’t keep him from taking multiple official visits in the spring or shield him from serious flips efforts from Miami, Tennessee and Texas A&M this summer.

The Tigers’ battle to keep Keys could stretch all the way to the early signing period.

Sources expect LSU to ramp up its own flip efforts with in-state safety and Ohio State pledge Blaine Bradford (No. 34 overall) in the coming months. The Tigers are also finalists for Deuce Geralds and remain top contenders in the recruitments of offensive linemen Darius Gray (No. 73) and wide receiver Jase Mathews, both of whom are set to commit in August. LSU can’t be counted out from renewing its work in the 2026 quarterback this fall, either.

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 7

The defending national champs had a relatively quiet summer atop the 2026 cycle, adding only four ESPN 300 pledges highlighted by the in-state pledges of outside linebacker Cincere Johnson (No. 82 overall) and running back Favour Akih (No. 160). Fahey, ESPN’s No. 28 pocket passer, will pad Ohio State’s future quarterback depth after Air Noland‘s offseason transfer, too.

One priority target who could help push the Buckeyes over the edge is four-star prospect Bralan Womack (No. 32). Ohio State has been consistent a leader in the recruitment of ESPN’s No. 3 safety through the spring and summer, and coach Ryan Day & Co. will have to hold off late pushes from fellow finalists Auburn, Florida and Texas A&M from now until Womack’s Aug. 22 commitment date. The Buckeyes also remain involved in the recruitments of No. 2 running back Savion Hiter and Darius Gray, the nation’s 10th-ranked offensive lineman.

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 8

Wolverines coach Sherrone Moore has filled out his class with nine ESPN 300 pledges since June 1, headlined by top-100 defender Carter Meadows (No. 88 overall), who trails only quarterback Brady Smigiel (No. 44) among the top prospects pledged to Michigan in 2026.

Who could be next for the Wolverines? Michigan are finalists for ESPN 300 defenders Davon Benjamin (No. 63) and Anthony Davis Jr. (No. 299) with each set for a decision Saturday. More prominently, the Wolverines remain focused on Hiter (No. 24 overall), a top priority for the Michigan staff this summer whose commitment date is set for Aug. 19. The Wolverines also continue to be linked with Syracuse wide receiver pledge Calvin Russell (No. 28). ESPN’s No. 4 wide receiver closed a narrowing process with a commitment to the Orange on July 5, but sources expect Michigan and Miami to remain involved with Russell this fall.

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 10

No. 2 outside linebacker Anthony Jones committed to the Ducks on Thursday, joining five-stars Immanuel Iheanacho and Jett Washington in a string of high-profile pledges for Oregon this summer.

Insiders believe the Ducks have backed off at the very top of the 2026 class after spending in the 2025 cycle, but Jones’ pledge could be the first move in a late-summer surge for coach Dan Lanning. Oregon is viewed as the front-runner for both Deuce Geralds and Davon Benjamin as the pair of top-65 prospects prepare to announce their commitments Saturday afternoon. If the Ducks land both, Lanning & Co. could be in position to sign another top-five class by December.

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