Lebanon, TN – After attending 22 college football games over the past 18 weeks, we figured this past weekend would allow us to make some observations, so we conclude this year’s adventure with our 2025 post-season report. Like most college fans, this past weekend was spent watching the playoff debacles on television rather than attending any in person. And please rest assured, our 2025 season isn’t over! It’s just about to heat up. We look forward to five more games on our billet. From December 30 – January 19, we will attend the Liberty Mutual Music City Classic Bowl, The CapitalOne Orange Bowl, the FCS championship, The Chick-fil-A Peach and the CFP title game. It doesn’t get better than that for collegefootballfan.com!
First observation: CFP letdown
Glad we didn’t buy any tickets to attend any of the opening round CFP games. Friday night played two teams with noticeable flaws. TV broadcasters can’t say that. Got to keep everything positive so viewers keep watching to sell advertising time. Alabama receivers dropped too many catchable passes. The Oklahoma offensive line couldn’t protect their quarterback. Good thing these players only make the big bucks for their names, images and likenesses. Based on what they demonstrated, they don’t possess enough skills to play their positions for pay.
Second Observation: we already identified improvements for our favorite sport
Between Texas A&M and Miami. Neither had an effective QB and neither played well on special teams. Blame the wind to some extent, but neither program seemed any good otherwise in any phase of kicking. The two later games; Ole Miss vs Tulane and Oregon vs, James Madison? We refuse to get into any heavy dialogue here. Instead of looking over all the media’s reactionary critiques around their 2025 post season reports, please read a full encapsulation of what the how’s and why’s of what happened by checking out our book published in 2023: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales; The Good the Fun and the Ugly.
No brag, just fact
Media reports react now to such things as disparity in football budgets, network empowerment, manipulative scheduling, NIL contributions, formation of super conference take overs, transfer portal monopolization etc., etc. In our book covering our history of attending over 700 games over 45 years in games played by every FBS team, we identified these issues and followed up with two conclusive essays.
In the first, “Vision of the Future,” you’re already witnessing the impact of recent changes making college the FBS championship a questionable, unwatchable, uninteresting path to determine one, true national champion. Equal competition among 136 college football programs exposes a farce. The current playoff format negates fun for players and fans alike. In Fifty Years, observations made regarding the disparity and monopolization by the “have” programs over the “have-nots” does not make for a better game on the playing field. Changes benefit few programs and fewer fans of this great sport. Coffers are filled for networks, universities and for some students who make more money than they know what to do with. We point out that college football now competes with the pros for talent. Players don’t go to college for four years anymore. And seriously, with all these tranfers, are they really focused on getting educations?
What are the Solutions?
We may not offer the final answers to maintain some sense of competitiveness on the playing fields. However, we desire to improve the game for more fans rather than fewer. All prefer to follow their favorite teams and alma maters to have a shot to win a championship in this great sport. Of course, among 136, only one rises to the top. We offer at least some solutions to start to overcome some of the changes currently reducing competition among most teams to win a national championship. It all starts with the variable amounts of money each football program raises.
In the second essay, “For the Love of the Game,” we offer solutions to assure more equality rather than monopolization of the sport. Fifty Years addresses strength of schedules, graduate players, optional post-season play for all teams, scheduling manipulations, use of power points, budgets beyond the football program, playoff formats and other factors to consider improvements for leveling playing fields for 136 schools. In the end, probably the best move is to break up the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) into two separate entities. Determine these based on budgets alone. Can college football survive with two divisions of “major” college football?
Another college football playoff? Why not? More football games that matter
With that, FBS#1 and FBS#2 play for separate national championships and for playoffs among schools with comparable budgets for their football programs. Of course, it all starts with money allocated from television networks. Think about two playoff formats of 16 teams each playing for two separate titles at the end of the season. See Ole Miss vs. Tulane and Oregon vs. James Madison. Let the latter two in each game play for a separate championship. Better games, better results, more college football interest, and another championship. It beats watching 40 separate “bowl games.” In reality, we consider most as “consolation games.” Instead of just feeling good, give teams a reason to play for a championship. However, play against teams with similar budgets. That’s why we already have a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Lower budgets, separate playoff, separate champion.
Best of the best players seen per our 2025 post-season report
As a member of the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), we’ve not only attended games where we watched the best of the best players perform, we also got to vote for them regarding some post-season awards. Here below, we list some of the players we voted for that were selected by the FWAA committee for its First Team All-Americans. Among them, we submitted votes for the Maxwell (best player overall), Nagurski (Defensive), John Mackey (TE) and Outland (OL) Trophy winners of 2025
Offense
QB Fernando Mendoza, Indiana (Maxwell, Davey O’Brien and Heisman Trophies)
RB Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame (Doak Walker Award)
WR Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State (seen in 2024)
TE Eli Stowers, Vanderbilt (John Mackey Award)
OL Spencer Fano, Utah (seen in 2024) (Outland Trophy)
OL Carter Smith, Indiana
Second team
QB Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt; RB Cam Cook, Jacksonville State; WR Omar Cooper, Indiana; TE Kenyon Sadiq, Oregon; OL Olaivevega, Penn State; OL Will Jeffcoat, Army; OL Laurence Seymour. WKU; C Jake Slaughter, Florida
Defense
LB Aiden Fisher, Indiana
DB Caleb Downs, Ohio State (seen in 2024)
DB Leonard Moore, Notre Dame
Second Team
DE John Henry Daley, Utah (seen in 2024); LB Anthony Hill, Texas (seen in 2024); DB Hezekiah Masses, Cal
Note: We’ll see Texas Tech play Oregon in the CapitalOne Orange Bowl. Tech features First Team All-American DE David Bailey and LB Jacob Rodriguez.
Ranked teams of 2025 post-season seen in action
Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS):
No. 4 Texas Tech to play Jan. 1 vs. No. 5 Oregon in CapitalOne Orange Bowl
No. 5 Oregon 59 Montana State 13 (No. 2 FCS)
No. 11 Notre Dame 41 Navy 14
No. 14 Vanderbilt 31 LSU 24
No. 14 Vanderbilt 45 Kentucky 17
Football Championship Subdivision (FCS)
No. 1 North Dakota State 59 Tennessee State 3
No. 2 Montana State (see above vs. Oregon)
No. 7 Tennessee Tech 42 SE Missouri St. 23
On Jan. 5, we’ll see No. 2 Montana State play No. 17 Illinois State for the FCS championship in Nashville
Division III
No. 6 Christopher Newport 69 Vermont-Castleton 7
No. 17 Berry College 31 Trinity (TX) 23, Round Three of D-III playoffs
On Jan. 4 No. 1 North Central (ILL) plays No. 3 Wisconsin-River Falls for the D-III championship in Canton, OH. We won’t be attending.
The meteoric rise and pending fall of Vanderbilt football
Vanderbilt HC Clark Lea won the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award. We saw his Commodores defeat LSU and Kentucky this season. Despite his team’s success, we selected three other coaches we watched lead teams this year as finalists. Ahead of him, we chose Frank Cignetti of No. 1 Indiana; Jay Mack of Kennesaw State (from 2-10 to 10-3 CUSA champs in his first season), and Navy HC Brian Newberry (10-2 American Athletic Champs). Unlike all teams they face, the academies do not have the benefit of using NIL funds, and they cannot recruit from the transfer portal. The primary reason for voting this way?
Though Lea’s Vanderbilt program made great strides again this season to a No. 14 ranking, we attribute this to two key moves. First came the signing of QB Deigo Pavia into the program. Second, came the wherewithal to hire Pavia’s OC from New Mexico State, Tim Beck. We attribute Lea’s success to bring more talent to the program through Pavia. To make Pavia effective, like at New Mexico State where he achieved success, Beck played major part. Give Lea credit for bringing in both, but how much could we attribute to his actual coaching capabilities?
Insults will cause injury to Commodores
Even before Pavia’s insults regarding his public display of being a selfish crybaby coming in second for the Heisman (which we agreed with), how much control did Lea have on making Pavia a successful QB? Pavia’s antics brought shame to himself, his coach and the entire Vanderbilt football program. How will this snub impact Lea’s ability to attract other quality players to Vandy in the future? How do you think other programs will leverage this recruiting against his program?
Also, will Beck remain at VU now that Pavia no longer plays there? Not only has Beck brought improvement to the Commodores with his offensive schemes, but he had a great ten-year career as Head Coach prior at D2 Pittsburg State. He achieved an 82-35 record and won a national championship with the Gorillas’ program. Maybe, his services will be sought from elsewhere. Maybe he’ll be interested, especially as Vandy adjusts without Pavia. Recently, news came out that Lea’s program flipped a top QB prospect from Georgia. That claim was refuted by the recruit two days later. Can Lea really keep this program at the level it’s gotten to? With Pavia’s reaction to the Heisman vote, it will make recruiting more difficult as it put his leadership in question.
Not ready to commit in 2026
From a personal perspective, if that had been the case Vandy had pulled off getting this five-star QB recruit, we considered a season package for Vandy in 2026. Better games closer to home would save money on gas, plane tickets and hotels. SEC powers Ole Miss, Alabama and Tennessee dot the home slate. Competitive games now? Not sure at this time. Back to the same old Vandy? We’ll wait and see.
Pavia’s reaction might have cost Vanderbilt’s football future. Lea is going to have to save it. Can he do it with his coaching capabilities as well as recruiting for the upcoming season? From what we just witnessed, not sure if he has the leadership skills to make this happen in 2026. Maybe he‘ll have to find the next Pavia out there if another exists. On the other hand, he’ll need to bring a little bit more class this time along with the comparable playing skills.
Farewell to James Franklin
One of the biggest disappointments of the 2025 season came at our one of our top two favorite programs, Penn State. We envisioned the Nittany Lions making it back into the CFP. Of course, as stated early in the season, we always came into the last five years with trepidations regarding James Franklin at the helm. Renowned as a recruiter, we still raised concerns about his game day decision-making processes. We went to the Oregon game with high hopes that he was going to overcome his losing streak against Top 5 teams. He had to with a road game to Columbus later in the season.
Too much Salesmanship, not enough Coach
Though close in the Lions 30-24 loss to Oregon, our fears based on his 3-0 record prior appeared as we considered. The three “patsies” he scheduled prior absolved him from any pressures to use his coaching skills in tough situations. Not only his team, but he personally wasn’t ready to face the challenges U of O would present. Once again, we and other fans walked away figuring he had to build back up to get a shot at defeating his primary nemesis, Ohio State. Instead, a week later, winless UCLA without their recently fired, HC DeShaun Foster, dominated the Lions. Next, Northwestern edged them at home. This was not supposed to happen. With all the “great talent” Franklin got credit for recruiting, the Lions came into this season a supposed powerhouse. These teams supposedly couldn’t compete
From anticipated First to Worst
Rumblings arose that internal dissention among the team was going on inside hallowed halls of the Lasch football facility. Rumors spread regarding disparity among players arose regarding NIL money between the offense and defense. Assistant HC Terry Smith replaced Franklin in the interim. The search for a future replacement started. AD Pat Kraft thought he had the immediate solution well in hand. He proposed to bring back former PSU star LB and Nebraska HC Matt Rhule who he worked with while at Temple. That idea inspired no acceptance at all. Terry Smith took over. The Lions fell to 3-6. QB Drew Allars fell to injury and left for the season. Unless some pro team shows an interest eventually, regrettably for him, his QB career likely over
We agreed with the firing of Franklin. His salesmanship forged his strength. He not only used it to effectively to recruit, but also to self-promote himself and his accomplishments. Maybe his recruits weren’t as good as he told everyone. Maybe his hires of assistants weren’t as strong as he made many believe. He not only “sold” everyone on his total win-loss record, but he got away with his record against winning programs. He avoided that nonchalantly.
The Wait had to End
He got compensated highly at Penn State, but Happy Valley sought him since the beginning to raise that program well above mediocrity. After 12 seasons in State College, that is all he could achieve. The timing of this departure may have come too early in the season. However, based on the results post-Oregon, it was time. He lost the support of the fan-base, and that is optimal for the stature of Penn State graduates around the world.
Out of nowhere, falling on a Matt
After weeks of considering and losing potentially good candidates over the course of time, the eventual hire of Iowa State’s Matt Campbell seems to be the right fit. At Virginia Tech, Franklin will probably do well. He’ll get the Hokies back to a level where they will compete in the ACC. He may even get them into the College Football Playoff. However, when he comes against top competition on the other sideline, Franklin just has a penchant for not stepping up. VA Tech may accept that for quite some time. For Penn State, however, the future is always now. Always has been, and it’s overdue. Is Matt Campbell the answer?
He’ll likely lead to start stepping in the right direction. Mount Union College D-III power grad, a successful coaching career in the MAC, he built solid teams and brought talent to Iowa State that struggled for years with minimal success. Like another unmentioned candidate we considered, whose name never came up (probably because his primary intent if he leaves his current position focuses on another Big Ten opportunity), a move to Penn State gets him the resources and support that can make him more successful than at his former football school.
Win-win strategy in place here
No offense to Iowa State, but the support and budget he will have at PSU gives him the opportunity to improve his capabilities in line with what Penn State desires. As an important strategy in any relationship, this could be a win-win for Campbell and for Penn State. We shall see. Only question is, how much time will Penn State allow him? Probably not much, but the foundation in State College starts well ahead of what he took over at Toledo and at Iowa State.
With Franklin no longer in charge, Campbell brings optimism back to Penn State that was lacking the past few years despite what Franklin was selling the Blue and White faithful. Happy Valley anticipates football being fun again and more competitive now. Without Ohio State on next season’s schedule, his first big test will probably be facing Michigan in The Big House! Of course, with changes ongoing in Ann Arbor, it’s still Michigan.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
