Forty names, games, teams and details that make college football news, where Last week’s helmet contrast in the Western Kentucky-Delaware game was a record. First trimester: The disappearing difference between the hero and the tramp. Second trimester: The collapse and potential rebuilding of the state of Florida.
Third Quarter: The 10 Main Characters of Decision ’26
The first College Football Playoff rankings will be released Tuesday night, alongside tallies from lesser voters across the country. Which means it’s time for sport to venture into its version of campaigning. The Dash looks at the people who will carry the greatest weight in the weeks between now and Selection Sunday.
Hunter Yurachek (21)Arkansas athletic director and CFP selection committee chairman
When 2025 Chairman Mack Rhoades took a leave of absence at the end of the season, Yurachek earned a promotion to the battlefield, arguably the worst job in sports, having to explain the committee’s logic on live television and in a subsequent media call. Now he’s in the hot seat again.
Having already done simulated selection exercises, here’s the difficulty inherent in this task: after two days of going through resumes and looking at numbers, your brain is pretty scrambled. The resulting ranking may make sense, but trying to explain exactly how the sausage got put in the casing and onto the tray is not easy. Especially when the questions can come from very specific interests…Why is Houston ranked behind Tennessee?– it may not be a priority at that time.
That said, the chair of the committee has given some pretty absurd answers over the years. Notable from Yurachek last year: His tortured explanation of how Alabama barely managed to get past 5-7 Auburn leapfrogged the Crimson Tide past Notre Dame.
“It’s just Alabama in a road rivalry game. Auburn has been an extremely difficult place to play for many teams this year, like Georgia and Vanderbilt, and the committee gave Alabama some respect for winning that game, coming out early 17-0. The game ended tied again, and Alabama made a courageous call late in the game to go for it on fourth-and-2, then get a turnover late in the game. committee just felt it was enough victory, by one metric, to push Alabama past Notre Dame.
The problem: Auburn was 3-4 at home last season, and its game against Vanderbilt was on the road. Crediting Alabama with “grit” for a fourth down also doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that should affect a team’s playoff seeding.
Problems tend to arise when the committee chair: A. talks too much, B. tries to sound like a football guy, and C. cites something that shouldn’t matter for rankings. Best general answer to most questions: “The committee believes that Team X’s resume merits this particular ranking.” »
Good luck, Hunter.
Greg Sankey (22 years old), SEC commissioner
The drumbeat of strength of calendar started from Just Means More territory. An email was sent out last week by the conference noting the league’s 10-2 record against other Power 4 conferences and strong standing in various ESPN metrics. Arrogant? Maybe. Accurate? Without a doubt.
The SEC has put together by far the best non-conference results of any league. (Unfortunately, the sample size is quite small, since all Power 4 teams would rather play Kent State and Samford than multiple non-conference games against each other.) The middle and lower levels of the league are probably as good as they’ve ever been, but what about the top?
The committee’s toughest task will be ranking the SEC’s multiple-loss teams (there are eight, either 6-2 or 5-3) and deciding where they stand relative to the rest of the sport. Expect to see Sankey appear on The Paul Finebaum Show several times over the coming weeks to reinforce the discussion points.
Tony Petitti (23 years old), Big Ten Commissioner
Luckily, we can wait until next year for Petitti to explain why 4-4 Penn State is a perfect candidate for the No. 23 seed in the very exciting 24-team playoffs. But here and now, he (or his team) will likely do his own lobbying for more than three deals. At this rate, though, the best argument the conference makes is to build on past results: winning three straight national championships with three different schools. As it stands, the third-ranked team in the league has a major quarterback problem (see below) and the fourth-ranked team has traded a game against Notre Dame in favor of a non-conference slate consisting of San Jose State, Louisiana and Fresno State.
Luc Fahey (24)Ohio State quarterback
And by extension, coach Ryan Day and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. To be clear, Fahey was not the Buckeyes’ biggest problem in their failed performance at USC on Saturday. His first college debut was pretty good: the freshman made no catastrophic mistakes and never seemed overwhelmed by the stage. This was more of a factor in defensive breakdowns and critical pre-snap penalties on the offensive line.
But if Ohio State’s resume reads 0-1 in terms of which team it could field in the postseason, it will probably have to win – and the rest of the defenses Fahey will face are tougher. In terms of yards allowed per play, USC ranks 14th in the Big Ten; the next opponents are Oregon (10th), Northwestern (12th), Nebraska (seventh) and Michigan (third). Fahey and his teammates must continue to improve in November or the preseason No. 1 team could miss the playoffs.
Corey Hetherman (25 years old), Miami defensive coordinator
The No. 1 team in the country has a growing weakness, and it’s Hetherman’s side of the ball. The Hurricanes have given up 93 points and more than 1,200 yards in their last three games against teams led by Billy Edwards Jr. (North Carolina), Holden Geriner (Pittsburgh) and Ashton Daniels (Florida State). Miami is 89th nationally in pass defense efficiency against FBS opponents. To land a potential No. 1 seed, the Canes may have to beat everyone between now and Selection Sunday.
They can lose to Notre Dame on Saturday and still make the playoffs. A second loss could make things dicey. Wake Forest’s win does a lot of heavy lifting on an otherwise unremarkable resume.
Mike Shanahan (26 years old), Indiana offensive coordinator
No highly ranked team has a more demonstrable problem than the Hoosiers’ quarterback play. Josh Hoover played injured and was ineffective. It’s unclear which of these two factors led seventh-year backup Grant Wilson (who began his career at Fordham in 2020) to take over in the second half of the last big breakout, against Minnesota. But this week’s opener will be key to Indiana being healthy or improving at the position.
The Hoosiers have averaged 17.8 points over the last four games, compared to just 14.3 in regulation. Their defense and ingenuity have led to wins in three of those four games, but they walk on the knife’s edge in every game. A former Irish Gaelic footballer’s 60-yard field goals are not a plan for sustainable victory.
Joey McGuire (27 years old), Coach Texas Tech
McGuire switched quarterbacks after being routed at Cincinnati and got the desired result from dual-threat backup Thomas Castellanos: 117 rushing yards, 144 passing and three touchdowns in a bounce-back win over Arizona. The next opponent, West Virginia, has a horrible run defense, so this should also be a Castellanos game. Ultimately, though, does McGuire go back to starter Will Hammond? Or have the Red Raiders reinvented their offensive identity on the fly for the rest of the season? With a 7-1 record and no games against BYU or Utah, there is a path to the Big 12 title game and a return to the CFP. But a second loss could easily put Tech on the wrong side of the bubble.
Intelligent Kirby (28 years old), Georgia coach
Smart could hold the fate of several teams in the SEC bubble in his hands. He has already put Florida 5–3 in jeopardy with a resounding Saturday. Next is 6-2 Mississippi, followed by 6-2 Missouri and 5-3 South Carolina. If any of them upset the Bulldogs, it could be the quality win that propels them into the group. If they all lose to Georgia, the SEC’s hopes of getting four or more bids could take a hit.
Marcus Freeman (29 years old), Notre Dame coach
After last year’s snub, the theme was “Leave No Doubt.” After the close defeat against BYU, doubt remains. That raises the stakes on an already highly anticipated matchup Saturday against No. 1 Miami, the team that has been pushing for playoff inclusion against the Fighting Irish in 2025 based on a head-to-head victory.
Beat the Hurricanes and take care of business against Boston College, SMU and Syracuse and the Irish are in, likely with a first-round bye. Losing to the Hurricanes, the Irish fell back into the anxious territory they inhabited this time last year.
Max Cutforth (30), Boise State quarterback
Maddux’s replacement Madsen brought a star off the bench in the Broncos’ rally to beat Texas State on Saturday, but more might be needed from him in the race for the Group of 6 automatic bid. Cutforth gained plenty of experience last year and played competently, so it’s not like Boise State is doomed if he has to be their QB the rest of the way. But the Group of 6 bid is something of a beauty contest, and it would help if Cutforth played nice football while keeping Boise State on track for that bid.
PODCAST: Listen Sports Illustratedthe college sports podcast, Others receive voteshosted by Pat Forde, on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s college YouTube channel or on SI TV.
Add us as your favorite source on GoogleFollow
Gn sports
