Lebanon, TN – Following up on our proposal to create two divisions from among 138 existing Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football programs, our perusal of preseason publications provides plenty of ammunition to break up the FBS into two distinct divisions. Just read the previews among the 70 teams playing in the Group of Six (G6) plus one Independent, Connecticut. Compare these previews to those of the 68 Power schools. You don’t have to read them all. However, just read our sample based on the 29 FBS programs we plan to witness on our annual road trip this year. Clearly, it makes sense to break up the FBS. The reasons are to give more teams and fans better college football. The Six non-power Conferences (G6) deserve to play for a separate championship of their own.
As presented in Collegefootbalfan.com’s post of June “To the Delight of Many: Making the 24-team Playoff Format Work,” our analogy compared college football to being as diverse talent-wise as all 232 professional baseball teams in North America. Consider the Dodgers and Yankees playing against competition deep within the depths of Class A minor League baseball. One can imagine the dilution of such competition. The best talent resides primarily among the elite top where the most money is made.
Power Four vs. Group of Six
Our review of the 70 teams outside the Power https://collegefootballfan.com/2025-schedule/Four Conferences (P4) not only indicates a deep talent divide between P4 and G6 programs, it shows that the G6 has become mere feeder programs to the P4. How can the lower 70 compete with upper 68? Especially when the best talent will be drawn from G6 to P4 teams? It occurs at the conclusion of every season through the transfer portal? There’s continuous talk of change. However, don’t depend on politicians representing constituencies of 138 football programs to agree on fair solutions for all.
Media focus on the upper echelon
Offseason college football news primarily exalts signings of the best high school players available. Their propensity also shells out offers regarding transfers of the best available players from FBS programs available through the transfer portal. Notre Dames’ Blue and Gold Magazine reported recently that the Irish led the nation in the total amount of five-star and four-star-recruits coming to South Bend – 17. Florida, Texas A&M, Miami (F.), Michigan and Oklahoma followed with 16,15, 14,13, and 13 respectively.
In addition, Notre Dame picked off two Wide Receivers from Ohio State, Mylan Graham and Quincy Porter. Florida shored up its O-Line with two Penn State transfers. A&M hauled in O-Line talent to replace three starters from among SEC foes – Alabama, LSU and South Carolina. Of course, Miami’s big move replaced starting QB Carson Beck with QB Darian Mensah fresh off leading Duke to a breakout season. Mensah went to Duke via the transfer portal after a successful season at G6 Tulane.
Going nowhere fast
The list goes on regarding players who move on each year through the transfer portal. However, these teams not only draw players from other top programs. They also take the best of the best players all the way down to the bottom of all 138. No one seems to dwell on how many who enter the portal, don’t continue playing college football at all. In 2023, 17,000 of 31,000 “student-athletes” who entered the transfer portal never continued in their pursuit of college athletics.
So much for competing and developing such programs to ever challenge for a national championship let alone a conference championship. Some of the lower-ranked schools though may get a player or two from among the top CFP contenders. However, the reality is that these players come in with little or no playing experience. They ended up playing behind better qualified players on the depth charts among the best. Maybe some such new talent can provide a boost. On the other hand who knows if a former bench player turns out to be a boon or a bust?
If they do perform well, however, they may not stay around much longer until rules possibly restrict all players to transfer just once. The top teams stay at the top because they feed on lesser programs by relieving them of their most talented players. Of course, this doesn’t prevent them for scheduling the lesser teams they draw their new talent from either. These examples certainly solidify the proposal to break up the FBS.
We’re not called Collegefootballfan.com for nothing
We attend as many games as possible every year. Our budget, travel time, and self-imposed goals like attending a game in every FBS stadium eventually, and returning annually to some venues to see our favorite teams play, does not mean we attend only the best teams play every week. We do try to find good, competitive games as much as possible. This year, we’ll see Miami at Wake Forest, Auburn at Georgia, USC at Penn State, Texas State at Boise State, Kentucky at Tennessee, and Army vs. Navy for our 21st time. We’ll see at least six teams ranked among most preseason Top 25’s.
Going to Boise will be our first visit to Albertsons Stadium. My wife, “St. Laurie,” even looks forward to attending a game played on the “blue field.” Wake, Auburn and Penn State fall among our traditional visits with long-time connections as does the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. Aside from these plans, we slide into some lower echelon contests in the hopes of at least seeing competitive games between programs of comparable talent.
Group of Six: 18 teams from four G6 conferences on our slate
We perused three preseason publications to make our first assessments of all the teams we’ll see in action during the 2026 regular season. These include Phil Steele’s 2026 College Football Preview, Athlon Sports 2026 College Football Preview, and The Sporting News 2026 College Football Preview. From among all their respective previews, they basically reinforce our premise that all 138 college football programs just don’t belong playing for one national championship. Break up the FBS! Below, our analysis offers the highlights of the post-season lowlights among lower-ranked FBS teams to appear on our 2026 slate. In addition, we also provide similar analysis regarding one team that played on our schedule the past two years.
Many bowl games aren’t rewards originally intended
With 35 non-CFP bowl games in the post season, 70 teams among 126 teams not in the CFP will play in post-season games. That means 55% receive a “bowl bid” with final records of 6-6, 7-5, or 8-4 or even worse records. They primarily fill air time for televisison networks. Win totals also include those against teams not eligible to even play a bowl, namely FCS teams. Sorry, we don’t consider all of these records as benchmarks of great success.
Thirty of those games confirm mediocrity at best. Can be entertaining television, but as stated in the past, in reality these are “consolation games.” Even when a 6-6 team defeats another 6-6 team, the winner gets a trophy? Rewards for finishing among the top 47+ teams of all 138. Sometimes there are fine lines of success despite the final records. So, when publications predict a team will vie for a bowl game, it no longer distinguishes a unique achievement like finishing among the Top 20 best teams as in previous decades. Below, we preview expectations of G6 programs on our 2026 slate that lend justification to our objective to break up the FBS. In general, they are long-shots to ever earn the one G6 bid to the CFP.
New Mexico State opens at Florida State
HC Tony Sanchez leads the Aggies into 2026 season with a 7-17 record the last two years (4-8 in 2025). He brings an overall HC record of 27-57. We see NM State open at Florida State. Questions abound at QB with transfer Trey Hedden from a 6-6 FCS Furman squad. Same goes for Junior College (Juco) transfer, Kalani McCleod. O-line Protection waned last season and the ground game averaged only 2.6 yards per carry. They brought in transfers upfront from programs like FCS Columbia, FCS Western Illinois and Stanford. None played for dominant offensive programs.
Sanchez brought in RBs James Jones from FCS Delaware State and Terrell Washington from Iowa. Washington seeks a second chance after gaining 182 yards in three seasons for the Hawkeyes. Best receiver Donovan Faupel headed to Arkansas. On defense, biggest import came in Safety Tayden Barnes who returns after transferring to Cincinnati last season.
Only 10 starters return. The offense looks like it will continue to struggle. Question the 26 transfers and note that they don’t come in from winning programs. How much good experience they bring should not build a lot of optimism. Four Juco and only six high school players come in. Doesn’t seem like a formula to challenge for a championship in the short-term or long. Despite Florida State’s recent struggles, the outcome of this game will not only indicate how well this season goes for NMSU, but how the Aggies compare to middle range P4 FBS teams overall. What is their chance of finding another QB like Diego Pavia? And keeping him? Break up the FBS.
University of Alabama-Birmingham hosts staunch Navy
We’ll see the Blazers host a pretty good Navy team. USNA returns stalwart senior leadership which all the academies can use to their advantage in the future. They’ll keep and develop many players for four years now as opposed to teams seeking transfers. They can lose players to transfer the first two seasons. Beyond that they’ll generally have a pipeline filling voids with juniors and seniors stepping up. The academies don’t accept portal transfers. Even more importantly, with many FBS teams recruiting portal transfers instead of high school recruits, the Midshipmen and Cadets of the other two FBS service programs find more high-quality football players interested in joining their ranks.
UAB has a tough challenge ahead. Former OC Alex Mortensen replaces HC Trent Dilfer, former NFL QB and Lipscomb Academy HC who leaves an 11-26 record back at UAB. Mortensen takes his first crack as a HC. The Blazers lose their starting QB, three top RB’s and 3 WRs from last year’s 4-8 edition. Only two starters return on offense and none on defense. QB Ryder Burton returns as probable starter with only two starts under his belt from last season. That includes a big upset against Memphis.
RB departures will be compensated for with RBs from Coastal Carolina (6-7) and UL Monroe (3-9). Of course, the big portal name came in the form of 6’1”, 235 lb. Rod Robinson from Georgia. How will 221 yards in three years at Athens translate behind a line with two returning starters, a red shirt, an FCS Monmouth (NJ) transfer, and a Colorado transfer who played in two games last year?
Questionable transfer quality
Defensively, new DC Todd Grantham brings three transfers in with him from 1-12 Oklahoma State. DE Blanc Gold comes in from FCS Morgan State. A few players join the defense from a beleaguered 2-10 Boston College program. In summary, you can get players through the transfer portal, but there’s lot of work that needs to get done here. There just doesn’t appear to be enough talent around for 138 teams to all compete for one national championship. It’s not reality. For this reason, break up the FBS!
Southern Mississippi takes on Tulane
After a Friday night game with Navy at UAB, we travel to New Orleans to see the Golden Eagles visit Tulane. A team one year removed from a CFP Championship game. This will be our first visit to the Tulane campus. The Green Wave has also been removed from HC Jon Sumrall and a slew of talent that left new HC Will Hall with only three returning starters on offense and four on defense. The former Tulane passing game coordinator coached Southern Miss for four years. He garnered a 4-15 record his last two seasons there.
Previous Southern Miss HC Charles Huff left behind a 7-6 record from a year ago to take over at Memphis. You think Tulane took a hit? A lot of defensive talent left the Eagles to join Huff, leaving only one starter remaining in Hattiesburg. New HC Blake Anderson, former Eagle DC and former HC at Utah State, will probably lean on junior QB John White who’s thrown 32 passes in his career, or rely on former NIU starter Ethan Hampton with 1,600 passing yards to his credit. WR Grant Page steps up after 281 yards last year. AJ Little played for UT Chattanooga. Small, talented but inexperienced receivers arrived from Illinois and Penn State. A running back from 0-12 UMass (no. 138 overall), of all places, showed up in Brandon Hood (368 rushing yards) to play for the Eagles.
P4’s take the best from among the portal; G6’s gets the rest
Defensive talent comes from programs like UCF, Ole Miss, Stetson, SE Missouri, Akron, Kansas and Alabama, However, none bring a wealth of experience. Looks like guys still wanting to play, but they just couldn’t make it where they were. The Golden Eagles have a long way to go. Thus far, this is only previews teams playing on our schedules this season. Think of among all 70 G6 programs of how many face similar consequences looking for available talent to plug in holes while trying to compete for the one FBS championship playoff bid for G6 conferences.
North Texas State arose mightily before potential big fall
Finishing with a 12-2 season a year ago, 7-1 in the American and falling short of the CFP in a championship loss to Tulane, third-year HC Eric Morris took off to take over rock-bottom, P4,1-12 Oklahoma State. With the Mean Green’s 2025 FBS-leading offense averaging 512.4 yards per game and 45.1 points per game, Morris absconded with key players. He left the NTSU offensive cupboard bare without any returning starters. Among them, he took play-making QB Drew Mestemaker, WR Wyatt Young (70 catches, 1,264 yards, 10 TDs), and leading RB Caleb Hawkins (1,434 yards and 25 TDs). Entire starting O-line, gone! This is wrong. Break up the FBS.
New HC Neal Browm steps in after serving as HC at Troy and WVU. He hired DC Matt Powledge of Baylor. He brings some fresh transfers with him to fill in defensive voids. Brown looks to replace Mestemaker’s stats with UCF transfer Tayven Jackson, or returning Chris Jimerson. Both possess little college experience under center. At WR, Brown has choices among inexperienced returners, and transfers from Utah, Oklahoma, Cal, Houston, Dartmouth and D2 Black Hills State. Key transfer at RB will be depended on in Jaheim White who played for Brown in ’23-’24 at WVU. The new line consists of transfers from Georgia Southern, a Missouri guard with three starts, a Texas OT with 23 games over four years, and another with five starts at WVU and Mizzou. One redshirt returner joins them.
Success – detrimental to G6 programs confirms the need to break up the FBS
Brown has his work cut out ahead of him to get this team to jell quickly as it enjoyed a prior incredible season to be compared to. They won’t want to disappoint. We see them play as Navy’s homecoming opponent in October. The Mids seek revenge while the Mean Green seeks what the Mids already have – cohesiveness. The NTSU message is to be careful of what happens after an FBS program overachieves.
You may lose your HC, your best players through the transfer portal, and it’s back to square one. New coaching staff, new players on short notice. Short-term success does not guarantee any continued long-term success among Group of Six schools. A primary reason the break up the FBS! Maybe limiting the number of transfers to only one by every player and rethinking the rule to allow all players to follow their HC on his next career move needs consideration. Who’ll be making these decisions? Player commitments seem to benefit a coach’s career whatever he decides to do, not a university’s football program. Break up the FBS and limit the transfer portal. Determine who the players should be committing to – a coach or a particular college football program? Sorry, Indiana. It was fun though.
Another G6 humiliation – Kennesaw State
Last season, we watched first-year HC Jerry Mack turn around the Kennesaw State Owls of CUSA after a 2-10 season into a 10-4 success. We watched them win the CUSA title game over Jacksonville State, 19-14, only one season after seeing them get hammered by Jacksonville State, 63-24. Disappointingly, the Owls got drubbed by Western Michigan in the Myrtle Beach Bowl, 41-6, last year. However, that didn’t stop other programs from ran-sacking the KSU roster based on the newly developed success by Coach Mack.
Two returning QBs bolted to Tulsa and Syracuse respectively. Freshman Elijah Hill, who led CUSA with nine sacks, transferred to Kansas State. CB JeRico Washington took his talents to Boise State. Mack went to the portal and pulled in Syracuse QB Rickie Collins from Syracuse. After leaving LSU, he struggled last season for the Orange (3-9) connecting for only 53.5% through the air. Only six TDs and ten INTs. Reports figure he will play better against lesser than ACC competition (message: break up the FBS).
G6 programs “tread water” to remain in the game
To better support Collins, Mack brought in four physically huge transfers. For adequate protection, he signed them from FCS Central Connecticut, Middle Tennessee (3-9), FCS Elon, and a TE from Southern Miss to join transfers on the line from South Florida and Florida International the previous season. All come from other G6 programs or lower. No significant sign of major talent upgrades. Again, such transfers may keep Kennesaw competitive in CUSA, but they just don’t indicate improved talent to catapult them into CFP contention.
G6 – one CFP bid for all
Admittedly, some of the lowest ranked G6 teams adorn our 2026 slate. On the other hand, some of the strongest G6 teams appear ahead of us as well. Boise State ranks among Top 25 polls and looms as a favorite to represent the G6 as their one bid in the CFP. Last year, the G6 qualified two in Tulane and James Madison, and what happened? Both head coaches Jon Sumrall and Bob Chesney moved on along with their key players to Florida (SEC) and UCLA (Big Ten), to leave programs behind in bigger holes to climb back out of.
Navy, Delaware, Western Kentucky, Army, Memphis and Texas State on our 2026 schedule loom as potential challengers for respective conference championships and thus, potentially, the one CFP bid available for all 70 G6 programs. UNLV, ND State, UTSA, New Mexico, Jacksonville State, Miami O, Western Michigan, San Diego State, JMU, Air Force, Old Dominion and Troy all get consideration for significant winning seasons. And of course, just like at the P4 level, some programs will surprise all “the experts.” Part of the great fun of college football.
Break up the FBS!
The great disappointment in this summary comes down those among 70 football programs with decent records that mostly don’t currently share the same revenue statures nor talent acquiring capabilities as the top 68 P4 programs. It’s to the detriment of these programs and in reality, all college football fans, that we miss out on a potential playoff format consisting of teams like these to play for another college football championship. Look at 20 teams among the G6 previously mentioned here. Amongst each other, they are all competitive.
There could be great games and added excitement to post-season college football if they all battled in a 24-team CFP of their own. Rather than each playing one insignificant “bowl game” for a trophy against superior or inferior competition for the benefit of television viewership, just think how great his would be if 24 of these teams competed amongst each other for a second FBS-II championship! This could add to even more excitement for more great college football. Divide the FBS into two divisions, and let’s have playoffs for championship games for two distinct levels of Football Bowl Subdivision competition. For the best of 138 college football programs, break up the FBS! Two divisions. Two playoff championships. The FCS, Division-2 and Division-III already do. Add 70 more teams to have the same opportunity.
Read our Great History of Games among our First 42 Seasons!
If you haven’t already, please click on the title about this life-long adventure: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun, and the Ugly on Amazon.com. Among 740 college games attended to date now, we’ve seen all 136 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams play in person at least once. By the way, in case you aren’t aware, North Dakota State and Sacramento State join the FBS this season. “Fifty Years” tells our story of how we got to attend our first 652 games!
Read the reviews on the book page and get your copy today. If you’re trying to follow NILs and transfer portals, read what we predicted in 2023 and more. Hopefully, you’ll understand how much we love this sport and what we propose for it to survive successfully. In addition, we offered solutions to issues occurring that we anticipated when we wrote this book. Please buy your copy today, enjoy it, and read about the many great memories captured. Maybe these will bring back some of the same memories you encountered when we did!
Edited and written by Stephen J. Koreivo, member of Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and Author of “Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun and the Ugly.”
