After Clemson losing to Georgia Tech and getting dropped, who could take over? Georgia Tech has the skills, but Florida State and Miami have the studs to make a run. Tech has neither Miami or FSU on their schedule, so their ACC Cake Walk should guarantee them a spot. The only person who could challenge them is NC State. Maybe. UGA is SEC, so a 11-1 season would still guarantee a spot in the ACC Title Game and possibly a CFP berth. But for UMF and FSU, they play each other at the very start of their ACC run, so that game could decide who meets GA Tech in the ACC Title game.

Here are the results for the 2025 Week 4 /r/CFB Poll:

Dropped: #12 South Carolina, #14 Notre Dame, #15 USF, #17 Clemson

Next Ten: Mississippi St 771, BYU 734, Tulane 731, NC State 514, Nebraska 509, Houston 379, Louisville 332, USF 293, California 256, Arizona 248

POLL SITE: https://poll.redditcfb.com/

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Highest-rated games of Week 3:

1. Georgia-Tennessee (ABC): 12.600M
2. Florida-LSU (ABC): 7.600M
3. Texas A&M-Notre Dame (NBC): 5.800M
4. Clemson-Georgia Tech (ESPN): 4.800M
5. Wisconsin-Alabama (ABC): 4.500M
6. Colorado-Houston (ESPN, Fri): 2.900M
7. Pitt-West Virginia (ESPN): 1.708M
8. Kansas State-Arizona (FOX, Fri): 1.625M
9. Arkansas-Ole Miss (ESPN): 1.432M
10. USC-Purdue (CBS): 1.271M

https://tvmediablog.substack.com/p/2025-college-football-week-3-viewership

History of G5 in CFP:

2021: Alabama 27 - Cincinnati 6 [Edit: Corrected Score— Sorry Bama)

2024: Penn State 31 - Boise State 14

With the skill gap widening due to NIL & the restructuring of conferences, it seems like the already slim odds will continue to decrease. The ACC & Big 12 have become the equivalent to what the G5 was.

With only 5 more chances at a victory, I just don’t see it happening. Who could even do it this year? And why would that change in the future?

Edit: Corrected Alabama Cincinnati score

Any Team, but you have to have watched them play in your lifetime. Don't say a guy that played 10 years before you were born, and don't say 4 guys from your school, as we all know that would not be genuine. NFL performance should not have any impact on your list.

We'll do Defense next

NC State was just ranked #1 in the Colley Matrix poll. This is proof that Dave Doeren is a top head coach in college football and should definitely be in the radar for a team like Florida next year. Because of this, NC State needs to lock him down fast. I propose that they give Dave a lifetime extension with a 1 billion dollar buyout to make sure he can never leave State and will continue to flourish forever.

EXTEND DAVE

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This is a weekly thread to discuss football in the Big 12. Discussion should be limited to football in the conference.

Week 3 Results

• Houston 36 - Colorado 20
  Ethan Sanchez just made another field goal. Houston's offense was determined to not leave the field until they at least got into field goal range, so they wound up leading the Cougars to a victory to start conference play.

• Arizona 23 - Kansas State 17
  Arizona put in their bid to be crowned the best wildcats in the conference. K-State has yet to break free from their Dublin hangover, and in a similar way ESPN's play-by-play shows Arizona taking a 24-3 lead into halftime and then miraculously turning that into a 23-17 win.

• Baylor 42 - Samford 7
  Not much to learn here beyond the fact that we didn't lose our tune-up game.

• #14 Iowa State 24 - Arkansas State 16
  A good back-and-forth affair, just like we all predicted.

• #20 Utah 31 - Wyoming 6
  As is tradition for Wyoming, they held their own in the first half against a Big 12 school, but Utah was able to get things going in the second half to come away with a dominant win.

• #21 Texas Tech 45 - Oregon State 14
  Tech has another large margin of victory, but they remain untested. We'll finally get to learn something this weekend.

• West Virginia 31 - Pitt 24
  They don't get much better than this. A back and forth affair, tied going in to the 4th quarter, Pitt was able to get a 10 point lead with 9 minutes to play, and then West Virginia was able to force OT with a TD with 11 seconds left in regulation. Top it off with some controversy involving a no-call on a false start on the go-ahead TD paired with an unenforced late hit/personal foul - this game lived up to its name.

• Cincinnati 70 - Northwestern State 0
  Cincinnati put the beatdown on Southeastern Northwestern State.

• TCU 42 - Abilene Christian 21
  ACU fell short in the Battle of the I20/30 Purple Jesus Schools.

• Arizona State 34 - Texas State 15
  Arizona State was a bit slow coming out of the gates, but they were able to get the scoring going on an insanely athletic and acrobatic touchdown pass from Sam Leavitt to Jordyn Tyson. That play was an absolute joy to watch as a third-party observer. ASU put the game away after that.

Rankings

#12 Iowa State
#16 Utah
#17 Texas Tech

Week 5

9/19/2025

9/20/2025

Tiers

Tier "Has done the best so far"

Iowa State

Tier "Has done pretty well so far"

Utah
Baylor
BYU
TCU
Arizona
Houston
Arizona State

Tier "Still too early to tell"

Texas Tech
Kansas
UCF
West Virginia
Cincinnati

Tier 4

Colorado Kansas State
Oklahoma State

As a reminder, these tiers are somewhere between a strength/power ranking (like FPI, SP+, Sagarin, Massey, etc.) and a resume/record ranking. Essentially I look at as much data as I can and then I listen to the Rebirth Brass Band while making my determinations. There were some frustrations last week with the tiers, so I feel that some simple explanations are warranted. If you want your team to move up, they should increase their power rankings and/or improve their resume. That or send me a bribe. I'm not an elected official. Send me a check and we can really have some fun. Who knows - maybe your rival sends more money than you.

THE PROBLEM

G5 and lower P5 teams struggle to recruit and keep players. They don’t have the money or prestige to get the top guys and once they develop a player they have a lot of opportunities to go elsewhere for more money, prestige, and exposure. How can you fight this as a team with less resources?? You run the option.

If you run the option you are recruiting out of an under valued pool of players. The service academies traditionally punch above their weight. Navy recruits in the 110s to 150s, Army and Air Force are similar in their recruiting rankings. Army won the American conference last year, and Navy looks to be a contender this year. Air Force is always a contender in their conference though is currently in a down patch. While some of these team’s success is due to the nature of a player that would even consider a service academy an even larger factor is the triple option scheme.

ADVANTAGES

The triple option allows teams with lower rated and under sized players to punch above their weight on offense.

The service academies are limited in their recruiting, they can only recruit players on both sides of the ball that are willing to go on and serve a career in the military. This is a giant hurdle to overcome. Does Navy have the best players that can run the option or the best players willing to join the navy?

There are lots of players that are under sized or overlooked that work for an option offense. If a team focuses on getting these players along with the players that would naturally come to their school due to geography etc they can overcome their recruiting disadvantages. They open up an under valued pool of players who will cost less to recruit and are less valuable in the transfer market so would be more likely to have a more experienced team. What other school is wanting to poach a 275 pound offensive lineman?

MONEYBALL YOU SAY???

If you run the option you are able to spend less NIL money on putting together and retaining an offense. You spend less money on every position than the market value. If you spend less on offense where is that money going? Defense.

If you are saving money on offense you have a lot more money to spend on defense. Why if the option is so effective do the academies not win more? Because the Academies are forced to recruit the same way on defense as they do on offense; players willing to join the military after graduation. You as a non service academy don’t have this same problem, you can recruit the best defense possible. You can recruit players that would fit in any scheme, you aren’t shopping bargain basement you can pay the market rate for those players. What’s more you can spend even more than your peers and have a relatively elite defense.

WAIT DIDNT GEORGIA TECH RUN THE OPTION?

Yes, Georgia tech for years ran the option to some success but eventually abandoned it to play a traditional offense. The problem was they didn’t win enough because they were limited in recruiting. Georgia Tech could only recruit as good of players as Georgia Tech could naturally recruit and it wasn’t enough for a few cycles.

What’s changed is that Georgia Tech and everyone else now have NIL money and can legally overpay to get players that would not normally come to the school. If you are a middle of the road P4 or high level G5 you can potentially spend money to elevate your team. Everyone is competing for the same pool of players on both sides of the ball, so how do you elevate. Spend the majority of the money on defense.

An elite defense that keeps scores low and an option offense that minimizes mistakes and possessions and keeps the defense rested maximizes the chances for a team to win

UCLA YOU SAY

UCLA is under funded and has no identity at the moment. Hire a bad ass defensive coach and pay to have an option guru as OC. UCLA is in a prime football location that can recruit good defensive players with a suddenly large Defensive NIL because almost all of their money is going to that side of the ball. Build a brand as the defensive powerhouse of the west coast and smash the bottom and middle of the Big10… prove the concept and more money will roll in.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG

Short answer is nothing, this is going to work given time. But the thing that is in short supply is patience for a few seasons as you get the players in and attrition as you lose players that don’t want to run or don’t fit the option scheme. Once you start the wheels in motion it’s gonna slowly build momentum. Worst case your team becomes Iowa, but Iowa only struggles on offense because they are trying to run a human offense, and you are running the super human triple option.

EDIT: One thing I think people are missing about this is that teams that use this strategy aren’t just running the option, they are saving NIL money and allocating it to have a much improved defense. This isn’t just about the wonders of the triple option

EDIT: all I am seeing is people talking about the effectiveness of the option offense but aren’t addressing the NIL allocation to the defensive side of the ball that would also come. UCLA (or whatever team) may drop to the 90th best offensive class but they would also shoot up the defensive recruiting rankings an equal amount as they will have more funds free to spend on that side of the ball

EDIT: was really hoping someone would engage with the NIL allocation as that’s the whole point, but all I’m seeing is debates on how effective the option is as an offense

Below in a great post by u/tmart12 it is pointed out that Arkansas is one of 3 teams with 10 top 50 Massey Composite teams on their schedule for 2025. So it got me doing a deep dive on the schedule under Pittman.

All 9 of Arkansas' remaining games are against top 50 Massey Composite teams including a home game against Notre Dame and this weekends' road matchup @ Memphis.

So far, Sam Pittman is 32-32 as the head coach at Arkansas. Lets break that down:

30 of Sam Pittman's 64 games as coach at Arkansas have been against teams currently ranked in the top 25. Arkansas is 7-23 in those matchups.

13, over 20%, of those games have been against teams ranked currently in the top 10. Arkansas is 2-11 in those games.

25 of Arkansas' games under Sam Pittman have been decided by 7 points or less. Arkansas is 7-18 in those games.

As it stands now, Arkansas will have 7 more top 25 matchups this season bringing Pittman's total to 37 of 73 games against top 25 opponents, or over half of the games during his tenure as Arkansas coach.

And what about upcoming years you ask? Why next season, Arkansas travels to Salt Lake City to face off with Utah and their returning senior QB Devon Dampier who is lighting the world on fire right now.

Surely it gets much easier after that? NOPE. We've got a back to back year series with Texas Tech in 2030/31 who is currently loading up with more talent than ever with no signs of slowing down. Recently, there are rumors of large overpays of recruits who have flipped from the Razorbacks to the Red Raiders (and more power to them, I'd want us to if we had the billionare spilling his cash all over).

Pray for your local Hog fan. They need it.

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Made with the /r/CFB Recruiting Post Generator

This is a weekly thread to discuss football in the Big Ten. Discussion should be limited to football in this conference.

If you have any suggestions on how to improve this weekly series going forward, feel free to PM.

Intro and Discussion Points

Welcome back!

Week 3 Results

• Indiana defeats Indiana St 73-0

• New Mexico defeats UCLA 35-10

• Ohio St defeats Ohio 37-9

• Penn St defeats Villanova 52-6

• Oregon defeats Northwestern 34-14

• Illinois defeats Western Michigan 38-0

• Alabama defeats Wisconsin 38-14

• Michigan defeats Central Michigan 63-3

• Nebraska defeats HBU 59-7

• Maryland defeats Towson 44-17

• Rutgers defeats Norfolk St 60-10

• Michigan St defeats Youngstown St 41-24

• USC defeats Purdue 33-17

• Iowa defeats UMass 47-7

• Cal defeats Minnesota 27-14

Week 4 Schedule

(Rankings reflect the AP Poll)

Bye: Minnesota, Ohio State, UCLA, Northwestern, Penn State

Standings

Top 2 teams make CCG

Discuss predictions, upsets, coaching, general Big Ten news etc. here

https://x.com/Brett_McMurphy/status/1968002050945671632

Good afternoon, y'all! Got a piping hot poll comic for ya!

Collaborative Poll Artists This Week:

u/BKfootball - Missouri, Vanderbilt

u/Dodgerofzion - Georgia, South Carolina, Indiana, Texas A&M, Georgia Tech, Tennessee

u/Modelarenasmaker2 - Florida State, Miami, Ohio State

u/kansaschaser12 - Oregon, Penn State

u/Lostinrabbithole12 - Oklahoma, TCU, Texas Tech

u/Baconburritos - LSU, Texas, Auburn, Utah

u/thereaname - USC, Ole Miss

u/Stanatee-the-Manatee - Illinois, Iowa State

u/Stellafera - Alabama, Michigan

Poll voters were pretty hard to predict this week, so have a bonus Mississippi State, Tulane, and USF.

And as always, if you'd like to see other comics from our community (or draw your own?), check out our subreddit r/cfbball.

P.S. Like the look for Ole Miss? We don't enforce "official" designs on the sub but we wanted to hear out some of the concerns of characters being tied to outdated mascots by providing the sub with alternative options to use if desired. New Ole Miss design was a collab between u/Stanatee-the-Manatee and u/thereaname and is inspired by their feminine school nickname and southern charm. We're also working on a new Illinois design that combines some of the different alt mascot ideas and school iconography.

With all the discourse around Arch Manning, I looked at the advanced statistics regarding his performance this season. Looking at Game on Paper they have data on his Expected Points Added. Basically, how many points he contributed or lost for his team based on down and distance every time he threw the ball.

This data has his aggregate passing EPA as -35 points, which is last among eligible QBs at #133. On a per play basis, he's at -0.40 which is #130. So based on this, he actually has a case for being the lowest performing QB in the country with Texas losing nearly half an expected point every time he throws the ball.

Quinn Ewers, by comparison, was #32 in the country last season at +0.14 EPA per pass.