Which teams are the most QB-needy for 2026? Here are 11 teams that are in the market
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Eli Lederman
Official visits are set, commitments dates are locked in, and the busiest stretch of college football’s annual recruiting calendar is upon us. If the trends of last year’s cycle — when 43% of ESPN’s top 300 prospects sealed their final commitments between June 1 and Aug. 31 — are any indication, the bulk of the 2026 recruiting class will sort itself over the next three months.
However, while the latest cycle is just about to take off in earnest, the top end of the 2026 quarterback class is largely settled already, at least for the time being. Following Jared Curtis‘ May 5 pledge to Georgia, all four of the nation’s five-star QBs and 14 of the 18 passers ranked inside the 2026 ESPN 300 are committed, leaving four blue-chip prospects still on the board:
Despite that scarcity, there are a handful of top programs across the country still working hard to land a 2026 quarterback. Which teams remain the most QB-needy on the recruiting trail as of late spring? We broke them down by tier, from the schools that have to land an elite passer in 2026 to others expected to be active in the QB market, and a few more who could join in this summer.
Jump to a section:
Need to land top QB | Teams to remain in QB market
Don’t need, but might grab | Lingering questions
Tier 1: Need to land a top quarterback in the 2026 class
In his sixth full-recruiting cycle with the Seminoles, coach Mike Norvell is still waiting for his quarterback pipeline to take off. The January decommitment of four-star recruit Brady Smigiel (No. 45 in the 2026 ESPN 300) marked the latest blow to the program’s future plans at the position. Four months later, Florida State’s efforts to land an elite 2026 passer hinge on a pair of priority targets: four-star Landon Duckworth and Oklahoma commit Jaden O’Neal.
Duckworth, a dynamic playmaker who accounted for 51 total touchdowns as a junior last fall, is a precise fit for the mold of a dual-threat quarterback that first-year Seminoles playcaller Gus Malzahn has traditionally relied on over the years. While Ole Miss has established itself as the clear leader in Duckworth’s process this spring, the 6-foot-3, 195-pound prospect from Jackson, Alabama, knows Norvell’s history of producing high-scoring offenses and was previously recruited by Malzahn at UCF. Florida State will get its next chance to woo Duckworth when he arrives for an official visit on June 13.
O’Neal has been committed to Oklahoma since June 24, 2024. But following a coordinator change amid the Sooners’ pursuit of a second quarterback in the 2026 class, ESPN’s seventh-ranked pocket passer enters late spring as a prime flip candidate. O’Neal (No. 113 overall) took unofficial trips to Florida State and Auburn this spring while entertaining interest from Georgia, and he’ll see the Seminoles again for a multiday official visit starting on June 15.
Florida State has gotten just 10 combined starts from the four high school quarterbacks it signed across five classes from 2020-24, and only one of those passers — redshirt sophomore Brock Glenn — still remains on the program’s roster. Can Norvell & Co. get it right in 2026 with Duckworth or O’Neal?
The Tigers didn’t sign a quarterback in the 2025 cycle after Bryce Underwood’s stunning flip to Michigan last November. Even with the offseason addition of Mississippi State transfer Michael Van Buren, the program’s future depth behind Garrett Nussmeier in 2025 is thin, and coach Brian Kelly and his staff have worked hard over the past sixth months in pursuit of a quarterback for the Tigers’ 2026 class.
LSU circled back with five-star prospects Dia Bell (Texas commit) and Keisean Henderson (Houston) and four-star Arizona State pledge Jake Fette (No. 158 overall) earlier this year to no avail. The Tigers were also heavily involved in the recruitment of four-star recruit Jonas Williams (No. 156 overall) prior to his February flip from Oregon to USC. Navigating a narrowing quarterback market, the Tigers have now turned their attention to four-star recruit Bowe Bentley (No. 262 overall), one of the cycle’s top risers this spring after he led Celina (Texas) High School to a 16-0 finish and a 4A state title as a first-year starter last fall.
Bentley landed more than a dozen Power 4 offers before trimming his list of finalists to Georgia, LSU and Oklahoma in late March. Following Jared Curtis’ May 5 pledge to Georgia, Bentley’s recruitment is down to the Tigers and Sooners, and the stage is now set for a critical stretch that will see Bentley travel to LSU (May 30) and Oklahoma (June 6) on back-to-back weekends as he reaches the closing stages in his recruitment. Bentley is LSU’s best chance at grabbing a top QB.
Like LSU, Ole Miss went without a quarterback signee in the 2025 class, but it was not for lack of trying, most notably through the program’s late-fall efforts to flip in-state four-star Deuce Knight from his Auburn pledge. After missing out on one coveted dual-threat passer a year ago, could coach Lane Kiffin manage to land another in the 2026 cycle?
The Rebels have certainly laid the groundwork this spring, centering Duckworth — ESPN’s second-ranked uncommitted quarterback prospect — as the potential cornerstone of Ole Miss’ 2026 class during a pair of unofficial visits with the program this spring.
Kiffin and Rebels offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. have sold Duckworth heavily on his fit in the program’s offensive scheme and their development of former quarterback Jaxson Dart, another mobile passer who emerged as a first-round NFL draft pick after three seasons at Ole Miss. As Duckworth prepares for a slate of spring official visits to Auburn, South Carolina, Florida State and Ole Miss, Kiffin and the Rebels hold a definitive lead in his recruitment.
Redshirt sophomore Austin Simmons will take over starting duties with three years of remaining eligibility this fall. Ole Miss’ current quarterback depth includes a pair of talented underclassmen, too, between former ESPN 300 signee AJ Maddox and Oklahoma State transfer Maealiuaki Smith. But there’s a reason why Kiffin and his staff are so invested in Duckworth, who would mark the program’s highest-ranked quarterback signee since Matt Corral in 2018.
Tier 2: Programs that will remain active in the QB market
Auburn
After finishing 71st nationally in scoring last fall, the Tigers renovated their quarterback room during the offseason with transfers Jackson Arnold (Oklahoma) and Ashton Daniels (Stanford) and Knight, the talented freshman they pried away from Notre Dame last fall.
Knight, No. 40 in the 2025 ESPN 300, is viewed as a future starter at Auburn. But his arrival has not kept the program from pursuing quarterbacks in the 2026 class. The Tigers hosted O’Neal, the Oklahoma pledge, for a visit earlier this spring and stand among the challengers to Ole Miss in the chase for Duckworth, who will take his official to Auburn on May 30.
Liberty transfer Kaidon Salter presents an experienced stopgap in 2025, but the Buffaloes secured their heir apparent to Shedeur Sanders with the flip of five-star quarterback Julian Lewis from USC last November.
Still, Colorado has maintained a presence on the 2026 quarterback trail this spring. The Buffaloes were finalists for three-star Mississippi State pledge Brodie McWhorter, four-star Michigan State commit Kayd Coffman and three-star recruit Luke Fahey among their most recent offers. Most prominently, Colorado remains as one of seven schools in the mix for four-star pocket passer Oscar Rios (No. 193 in ESPN 300), who will close a busy run of spring officials with a trip to see coach Deion Sanders and the Buffaloes on June 20.
No program is garnering more attention in 2025 than the Tar Heels, and North Carolina’s quarterback recruiting is a key subplot in coach Bill Belichick’s first full cycle with the program following Zaid Lott’s flip to Syracuse in March.
Belichick, whose contract stipulates access to $13 million in revenue sharing dollars, has money to spend on his roster. The Tar Heels have already missed on a pair of big swings with top-100 quarterbacks Curtis and Smigiel, but Duckworth remains a realistic option who could still schedule an official visit with the program over the next month. North Carolina did beat out Auburn for three-star, dual-threat Travis Burgess.
Oklahoma
A once-settled Sooners quarterback situation in the 2026 class could see a few twists and turns before all is said. O’Neal, who committed last June under former offensive coordinator Seth Littrell, remains the top-ranked member of Oklahoma’s incoming class while the Sooners’ staff are now full-throttle in their pursuit of Bentley, whose recruitment could be wrapped up within the next month following his pair of official visits.
All of that fits the program’s plan to add two passers in the 2026 cycle under first-year coordinator Ben Arbuckle. But will it play out so seamlessly? A commitment from Bentley could be the ultimate nudge that prompts O’Neal to jump elsewhere. Conversely, if Bentley lands with LSU, keeping O’Neal on board will be more important than ever. Of course, there’s also the disaster scenario for Oklahoma where Bentley commits to LSU and O’Neal flips elsewhere this summer, sending OU back to the drawing board in the 2026 quarterback class with rising three-star prospect Matt Ponatoski among the passers the program has kept in touch with this spring.
South Carolina
The rise of LaNorris Sellers and the addition of a once-prized talent in Ohio State transfer Air Noland gives the Gamecocks security in the medium-term. However, South Carolina’s efforts in the 2026 quarterback class over the first half of this year suggest coach Shane Beamer knows he needs to add another passer this cycle.
The Gamecocks were among four top contenders for Curtis in January before the nation’s No. 1 overall quarterback cut his recruitment to Oregon and Georgia. The program made Smigiel another priority target and made a late push in April before his commitment to Michigan. Those misses have turned the Gamecocks’ attention back to Duckworth, who previously spent 10 months in South Carolina’s 2026 class before reopening his recruitment last June. Duckworth will return to campus for an official visit next month, where Beamer and the Gamecocks would secure a major recruiting victory if they manage to pull him back into fold amid interest from Ole Miss, Auburn and Florida State.
Tier 3: We don’t need a 2026 QB, but we still might go get one anyway
The Class of 2025 addition of five-star passer Keelon Russell, No. 2 in the 2025 ESPN 300, not only diminishes the Crimson Tide’s need for a quarterback in this cycle, but might also be working against the program’s ability to land one in 2026. Such are the lofty expectations surrounding the dynamic Russell and his future at Alabama.
The Crimson Tide do appear to be ramping up their efforts on the quarterback trail, though. After keeping in touch with Houston pledge Keisean Henderson and eventual Penn State commit Peyton Falzone (No. 236 in ESPN 300) this spring, Alabama extended offers to Ponatoski, ESPN’s No. 27 pocket passer, and three-star Iowa State pledge Jett Thomalla last week. While Kalen DeBoer & Co. might not be battling at the upper reaches of the 2026 quarterback class, there is motivation within the program to continue its pipeline at the position in this cycle.
Ohio State
Between projected 2025 starter Julian Sayin and five-star 2025 signee Tavien St. Clair, the defending national champions are already well-stocked on young quarterback talent. The commitment of coveted 2027 passer Brady Edmunds adds another layer of security to the Buckeyes future at the position.
However, the Buckeyes haven’t been entirely quiet around the current quarterback class, notably hosting top uncommitted passer Ryder Lyons (No. 50 in ESPN 300) and Bentley for visits earlier this spring. More recently, Michigan State commit Kayd Coffman spent a day on campus with the Ohio State staff last month, though the Buckeyes have not yet formally offered ESPN’s fifth-ranked dual-threat prospect. Expect Ohio State to linger as a potential flip contender for multiple prospects across the country from now to the early signing period.
Oregon
Coach Dan Lanning and the Ducks did everything they could to sway Curtis before the five-star passer returned to his place atop Georgia’s 2026 class earlier this month. Multiple years of remaining eligibility for Dante Moore and Austin Novosad, coupled with the arrival of four-star freshman Akili Smith Jr. mean Oregon could comfortably go without a quarterback signee in 2026, but the program’s movements on the trail this spring suggest that won’t be the case.
The Ducks are among the long line of programs to check in with Henderson, the five-star Houston commit this spring. More pressing, the program remains firmly in the mix for Lyons, the four-star passer who will take officials with BYU, Oregon and USC in June. Given the Ducks’ eligibility cushion at quarterbacks, Lyons’ plan to enroll in 2027 following a one-year mission trip won’t be an issue for Oregon. If the Ducks miss on Lyons, then Ponatoski — a two-sport star from Cincinnati who intends to play baseball in college — could emerge as a primary target.
Lingering questions for the 2026 quarterback class
What happens if Jaden O’Neal decommits from Oklahoma?
Plenty of drama could still unfold within the 2026 quarterback class from now to the early signing period. But as things stand, O’Neal appears to be the most likely candidate to flip.
If O’Neal eventually pulls his pledge from the Sooners, he’ll immediately emerge as one of the top available quarterbacks in the 2026 class with previously interested parties like Auburn and Florida State primed to pounce on his availability. Depending on other outcomes across the quarterback class, there could be a number of other programs — LSU, North Carolina, Ole Miss, Oregon — primed to enter the race, too. As for Oklahoma, the scale of damage surrounding O’Neal’s exit would be entirely dependent on where Bentley lands and how open his recruitment might remain if the four-star recruit commits to a program other than the Sooners.
Can anyone flip Keisean Henderson?
No program has shown more faith in Henderson’s ability to play quarterback at the college level than Houston, and the five-star has continued to recruit on behalf of the Cougars this spring while remaining fully locked in with his May 2024 commitment to the program.
However, as long as the likes of Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Ohio State and Oregon are maintaining contact with Henderson, the door will be open to a potential flip. The noise around Henderson’s recruitment has been quiet this spring, but that could certainly change in the coming months, especially if QB-needy programs such as Florida State, North Carolina and LSU miss on other top targets this summer and intensify their efforts with the athletic playmaker from Spring, Texas. Henderson’s recruitment will be one to watch Houston work to hang on to the highest-ranked pledge in program history.
Who are the most intriguing uncommitted, non-ESPN 300 quarterbacks?
The collection of quarterback talent in the 2026 class extends beyond the ESPN 300, and history shows that star ratings and prospect rankings are always perfect predictors of future success. So which relatively unheralded quarterback recruits could emerge as key targets in this cycle?
Ponatoski is one prospect generating significant interest this spring after throwing for more than 4,000 yards with 56 touchdowns last fall. Aided by his two-sport ability, Ponatoski now counts Alabama and Oregon among the prominent newcomers in his recruitment and also holds significant interest from Arkansas, Duke, Georgia Tech, Kentucky and Texas A&M, among others.
Nathan Bernhard, ESPN’s No. 14 pocket passer, flirted heavily with Michigan before he committed to App State last month after the Wolverines landed on Smigiel as the program’s 2026 quarterback. Indiana Hoosiers, Maryland Terrapins, Michigan State and Penn State all entered the mix for Bernhard earlier this spring, and he could emerge as a prized flip candidate later in the cycle for Power 4 programs still looking to secure a quarterback pledge.
Three-star prospect Femi Babalola is another quarterback gaining attention ahead of the busy summer recruiting period. Among more than a dozen Division I offers, NC State, Boston College and Tulane rank among Babalola’s leading contenders while Arizona, Georgia Tech, Maryland and Virginia Tech have all offered ESPN’s No. 18 pocket passer this spring.
Developments around Burgess, the Auburn, North Carolina and NC State target, will have ripple effects across the 2026 quarterback class. Three-star passers Romin Seymour, Laird Finkel and Jarin Mock are another trio worth keeping an eye on this summer.
Between Archie, Peyton, Eli, and now, Arch, the Mannings have been a part of America’s football consciousness for nearly 60 years. Only one of the family’s college football rivalries, however, has included a spelling test, years of shade, and has spanned generations.
Within that lore, holding a spot that goes beyond merely an opponent, are the Florida Gators. First as haters-in-chief, then as part of the redemptive end to the family’s first college football run, Florida was there.
While Archie Manning never played Florida in three seasons with the Ole Miss Rebels from 1968-70, the Mannings are 2-3 as starters against the Gators. On Saturday, Texas Longhorns QB Arch Manning, with a lot of family history behind him, takes his turn in The Swamp (3:30 ET, ESPN).
It will be the next entry in what was once a salty family vs. school rivalry that featured an all-time hater.
A brief history lesson
The current Cheez-It Citrus Bowl was previously the Capital One Bowl and, before that, just the Florida Citrus Bowl. While the Orlando-based game annually hosted top-10 teams and was where the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets beat the Nebraska Cornhuskers to earn a share of the 1990 national title, it is a tier under the major bowl games. Secondly, this Manning-Florida rivalry began in the era before the BCS, let alone the College Football Playoff and the nascent days of conference championship games. So, one loss could doom a season, or at the least, keep a team from a conference title and a major bowl.
Arch Manning might already know this, but it’s important to the lore of this rivalry and will make sense later.
The visor’s world
Peyton Manning’s recruitment was a big deal. His father’s legacy in the SEC combined with Peyton’s ability made his college decision one of the biggest recruiting decisions ever in the sport. By the time Peyton landed with the Tennessee Volunteers in 1994, Steve Spurrier was going into his fifth season at his alma mater.
The Gators would win five of the first six SEC championships. That’s what Peyton Manning was stepping into. The Tennessee-Florida rivalry would become the SEC’s biggest game for much of the 1990s. Between 1990 and 2000, eight of the 11 meetings would be top-10 matchups.
Manning wasn’t a part of the Vols’ 31-0 loss to No. 1 Florida in 1994. In the 1995 game, Manning and the Vols bolted out to a 30-21 halftime lead only to see Florida outscore Tennessee 41-7 in the second half and lose 62-37.
“It’s a 60-minute game. They don’t stop the game after 30 minutes,” Florida tackle Mo Collins said after the game.
The refrain would be played more than “Rocky Top.”
Manning was solid in the game, going 23-of-36 for 326 yards and two scores. The problem: Florida’s Danny Wuerffel was better. He threw for 381 yards and six touchdowns.
It would be the only game Tennessee would lose that season, but it would keep the Volunteers out of the SEC title game and relegate them to the Citrus Bowl. An amazing Manning performance in an excruciating loss to Florida and a less-than-satisfying bowl trip.
Before the 1996 game, the trash talk went wild.
Florida defensive lineman Tim Beauchamp all but guaranteed victory.
“They look vulnerable, very vulnerable,” Beauchamp said before the game. “… It should get pretty ugly.”
Beauchamp also took a shot at Manning. “He gets rattled,” Beauchamp said.
Archie Manning offered advice to his son ahead of the game, saying “spend the week with a smirk on your face, have some fun,” Sports Illustrated reported at the time.
When the game between the No. 4 Gators and No. 2 Volunteers began, that smirk might have turned into a grimace. Florida went for it on fourth down on its first series and scored on a 35-yard touchdown pass. Manning was intercepted on Tennessee’s first series. He was intercepted once more in the half and the Gators built a 35-6 lead at the break.
Manning, who attempted 65 passes in the game, would lead a second-half rally. He threw for a school-record 492 yards and four touchdowns but also had two more interceptions, which came at the goal line when Tennessee was threatening to score.
“We would’ve liked to have been accused of running up the score, but it didn’t work out that way,” Spurrier said after UF held on for a 35-29 win.
The Gators would go on to win the SEC, go to the Sugar Bowl and win their first national title. Tennessee was off to the Citrus Bowl. Wuerffel, the first of many QB foils for Manning, threw for just 155 yards in the game against Tennessee, but had four touchdowns and, crucially, no interceptions. He would go on to win the Heisman Trophy that season as well.
How do you spell Citrus?
Just a reminder — the “Head Ball Coach” loved hating on his team’s rivals. Spurrier surely meant what he said about running up the score on Tennessee in 1996. In 1994, he called Florida State “Free Shoes U” for allegedly failing to monitor agent activity. He called Ray Goff, who coached the Georgia Bulldogs from 1989-1995 and never beat Spurrier, “Ray Goof.”
In 2015, after a fire at Auburn’s library destroyed 20 books, Spurrier said “the real tragedy is that 15 hadn’t been colored yet.”
“He’s the needler champion of the world,” former FSU coach Bobby Bowden told Mark Schlabach in 2014.
Give him a national title (that came in a rout of rival FSU) and a summer booster tour and he could be in his hating bag like he was when he uttered his most famous barb.
“You can’t spell citrus without U-T.”
The brevity. The sass. The deeper, historic context. It was Spurrier’s masterpiece of hating on Tennessee.
He also had something for Manning, who had announced he was returning for his senior season, as well.
“I know why Peyton came back for his senior year,” Spurrier said. “He wanted to be a three-time star of the Citrus Bowl.”
Despite being a No. 3 vs. No. 4 matchup, it wasn’t the wild shootout the previous two games had been. Manning was 29-of-51 for 353 yards and three touchdowns, but he also threw two picks. The Gators again shredded the Vols’ defense. Fred Taylor ran for 134 yards and Florida QB Doug Johnson threw three touchdowns in the Gators’ 33-20 win.
That was it. Manning would never beat Florida. He lost five games as a college starter. Three came to the Gators. Tennessee would go on to win the SEC in 1997 only to be crushed in the Orange Bowl by the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Ironically, due to losses to Georgia and LSU, Florida would land in the Citrus Bowl.
“It bothers me that we never did beat Florida, but hey, I can’t control the way other people view Tennessee or view my career,” Manning said after the game. “I’m sure Coach Spurrier will go make a few more jokes. That’s fine. He’s got a good ballclub.”
Eli’s coming
In the moments after Peyton Manning’s last game against Florida, Archie Manning was feeling the weight of watching his son’s very public athletic struggles.
”Everybody talks about how great and wonderful it is to be at all the games and see your son playing. But I’ll tell you something: It ain’t all it’s cracked up to be,” Archie Manning told The New York Times afterward.
”Sometimes I wish someone would just knock me out and tell me what happened when it was over. This wasn’t fun.”
Five years later, in 2002, Peyton Manning was going into his fifth season with the Indianapolis Colts, and Spurrier was about to start his ill-fated tenure as an NFL head coach. After being turned down by then-Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan and then-Oklahoma Sooners coach Bob Stoops, Florida hired Ron Zook, a longtime assistant in college and the NFL, to replace Spurrier.
After choosing the Ole Miss Rebels, his father’s school, and becoming the starter as a sophomore in 2001, this is what Eli Manning was stepping into for his first crack at the Gators in 2002.
While the game featured two eventual Heisman Trophy finalists and Super Bowl QBs in Manning and Florida’s Rex Grossman, it was not an aerial bonanza like those in which Peyton played.
Manning was 18-of-33 for 154 yards and no touchdowns, and Grossman was 19-of-44 with two touchdowns and four interceptions. One of those picks was returned for the winning touchdown.
The 2003 game allowed Manning to exact a bit of vengeance on his family’s nemesis. It would also mean a return to The Swamp for the Mannings. Following Peyton’s last game there, Archie Manning claimed he’d never go back. But he was there nonetheless.
“[Archie] had one last trip and he got to end it on a good one,” Eli Manning said after the game.
In the 20-17 Ole Miss win, Manning threw for 262 yards and led a 50-yard scoring drive to win the game. The lore of the family history and status of the Gators was, perhaps, not lost on Eli Manning who got a shot on Florida afterward.
“That team is beatable,” he said after the game. “They’re really not the team they were a couple of years ago when they had [Danny] Wuerffel and all of those other guys.”
That Manning ended 2-0 against Florida.
Next Manning up
Prior to the 2025 season, when Arch Manning was the preseason favorite for the Heisman, Spurrier found a little more hating in his heart.
“They’ve got Arch Manning already winning the Heisman,” Spurrier said on the “Another Dooley Noted” podcast. “My question is, if he was this good, how come they let Quinn Ewers play all the time last year? And [Ewers] was a seventh-round pick.”
Spurrier might have been right. Prior to putting up huge numbers against Sam Houston State, Manning was 124th out of 136 QBs with a 55.3% completion rate and struggled in his only other road start at Ohio State. On the other side, Florida is 1-3 after starting the season ranked No. 15 in the AP, and head coach Billy Napier is on the hot seat.
Saturday will mark 22 years to the day since a Manning played the Gators. While Arch Manning has not yet met the preseason hype, he will have his chance to continue the family winning streak and another rancorous chapter to the rivalry.
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Mark Schlabach
OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said “dynasties are over” in the SEC after the league added Oklahoma and Texas and recently announced it will play a ninth conference game starting in 2026.
Kiffin, whose Rebels (5-0) are ranked No. 4 in The Associated Press Top 25 poll after last week’s 24-19 victory against LSU, said name, image and likeness rules and the transfer portal have also leveled the playing field in the 16-team SEC, making it harder for programs to stay on top.
He said SEC programs will no longer be able to stockpile talent as former Alabama coach Nick Saban did while winning six national championships from 2007 to 2023 and Georgia coach Kirby Smart did when capturing back-to-back CFP national titles at his alma mater in 2021 and 2022.
“In my opinion, the dynasties are over,” Kiffin told ESPN on Wednesday. “Alabama with Coach Saban and then Kirby at Georgia, where they had those rosters year in, year out and there would be a bunch of wins by 30 points in the conference, those days are done.”
Kiffin was Alabama’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2014 to 2016, helping the Crimson Tide finish 14-1 and beat Clemson 45-40 in the CFP National Championship after the 2015 season.
“When I was at Alabama, they’d be like, ‘Go watch the outside linebackers,’ and there’s six of them over there that are first-round picks,” Kiffin said. “That’s not going to happen anymore because if they don’t play, then they’re going to leave. They can’t keep them all anymore.”
Under the SEC’s new schedule, teams will play three annual opponents to maintain traditional rivalries, and the remaining six games will rotate among the other 12 league members, so programs will face each other at least once every two seasons. Teams are also required to play at least one quality nonconference game against a school from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Notre Dame every season.
Kiffin, who is 49-18 in six seasons at Ole Miss, said he didn’t want the SEC to add a ninth conference game, which was done to increase revenue, improve fan experience with an additional game against a quality opponent and get the league in line with the Big Ten’s scheduling model.
“You’re going to have really good teams going 8-4 because we’re going to play nine conference teams, including five on the road,” Kiffin said. “The conference has never been this balanced, and it never used to have Texas and Oklahoma, two top-10 teams and two of the hardest places in the country to play.
“My concern for the programs and for the coaches is that fans aren’t going to be able to get used to the numbers being different, the wins and losses. If you’re a program that’s used to being a nine- or 10-win team and you go 7-5, your fans are going to think the team is terrible and the coach is terrible. But you might have lost four road games at Georgia, Florida, LSU and Alabama.”
Vanderbilt, traditionally the SEC’s worst program, went 7-6 last season and upset No. 1 Alabama 40-35. This year, the Commodores are 5-0 and ranked 16th heading into Saturday’s game at No. 10 Alabama (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC).
Commodores coach Clark Lea has relied heavily on the transfer portal to rebuild his alma mater’s roster, including bringing in star quarterback Diego Pavia and tight end Eli Stowers from New Mexico State in 2024.
Mississippi State went 7-17 in the two seasons after former coach Mike Leach’s death in December 2022, including 2-10 under current coach Jeff Lebby in 2024. The Bulldogs brought in 31 transfers with 168 career starts before this season. They are 4-1 and upset then-No. 12 Arizona State 24-20 on Sept. 6.
“If a team in the bottom half is down for a couple of years, they won’t stay down for long anymore because they can go buy and fix their problems,” Kiffin said. “There are so many kids that want to play and go to the portal. They want to play in the SEC, so they’ll go to what you would maybe call the bottom-tier programs. They’ll fix their problems and won’t stay bad.”
Going forward, Kiffin hopes more weight will be put on schedule strength and other analytics when teams are picked for the College Football Playoff. The CFP announced on Aug. 20 that enhancements were made to the tools it uses to “assess schedule strength and how teams perform against their schedule,” including adding “greater weight to games against strong opponents.”
Kiffin said he would have preferred that SEC teams play an annual game against a Big Ten opponent, rather than another conference game, to produce an additional data point that might have differentiated SEC teams from one another.
“It can’t be these people deciding who gets in the playoff,” Kiffin said. “We’ve got to get back to analytics and computers. Baseball and basketball have the RPI where they take into account margin of victory, who you play, where you play and all of that.”
Last season, Kiffin criticized the CFP selection committee for taking Indiana and SMU over three SEC teams that went 9-3: Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina. The Rebels thumped No. 3 Georgia 28-10 at home but fell to unranked Kentucky 20-17 at home and Florida 24-17 on the road.
“Are you better than the 10-2 Big Ten team or ACC team? Well, you took away 16 nonconference games, so you really don’t know,” Kiffin said. “It’s just like the records in college football are so burned into our heads that 11-1 is so much better than 10-2 and so much better than 9-3, but it’s so different because you’re in these different conferences.”
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Adam Rittenberg
Penn State starting linebacker Tony Rojas will be sidelined long term because of an unspecified injury sustained in practice this week.
Rojas, a junior from Fairfax, Virginia, is tied for the team lead in tackles for loss with 4.5 and ranks second with 25 tackles. He became a starter last season, finishing with 58 tackles, 6 tackles for loss and 3 interceptions, returning one for a touchdown in a College Football Playoff first-round win against SMU.
Penn State did not specify how long Rojas would be out.
Nittany Lions coach James Franklin said Wednesday that senior Dom DeLuca will get increased playing time in Rojas’ absence, and the staff is discussing how to possibly use freshmen Cam Smith and Alex Tatsch.
“What’s helpful is we have these Sunday scrimmages, so we’ve had a chance to evaluate those guys each week,” Franklin said. “Early on, Tatsch was getting a little bit more time with the varsity. We’re giving Cam an opportunity now as well.”
Rojas played much of last season with a left shoulder injury, and underwent surgery following Penn State’s CFP run.
The seventh-ranked Nittany Lions, who lost their first game last week against Oregon, visit winless UCLA on Saturday.
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