A season for the ages
by GEORGE SOMERVILLE
The longer I cover college football, the more mayhem and chaos each season seems to bring. This is not a criticism, more an observation that the game we love is changing beyond recognition.
This week, as a part of the College Chaps Podcast, I spoke with long-time and legendary college football author Ivan Maisel about his book about the life and times of Notre Dame head coach Frank Leahy. I couldn’t help but think during that conversation what Coach Leahy would think about the current state of college football.
That’s not to say that college football isn’t interesting. It sure is. Today, more people watch college football in stadiums and on TV than ever before.
However, the game is changing at a pace I’m not sure many envisioned. This has resulted in an unprecedented year of college football, which will conclude on Monday at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami between two teams we did not predict to be there.
the year of the underdog
new kids on the block
In this year’s National Championship game, the Miami Hurricanes will face off against the Indiana Hoosiers. On the way to the final, these teams beat the Ole Miss Rebels and the Oregon Ducks in the semi-finals.
I’ll let that sink in for a moment. No Ohio State or Michigan or Georgia or Alabama or Clemson. In 2025, the Blue Bloods were left behind. And if you tell me you saw this coming, please go buy yourself a lottery ticket, because you have extrasensory perception.
So, quite rightly, the question is whether this is just one of those years, a fluke, a once-in-a-lifetime anomaly. Or is the college football landscape changing? Is there a new world order emerging from the clouds of NIL, revenue sharing and the transfer portal?
the changing landscape
In this season’s playoffs, JMU, Tulane, Texas Tech, and Indiana challenged the blue bloods. Of course, JMU and Tulane made the playoffs as a result of the automatic berths available to Group of Five teams, but Texas Tech certainly have emerged as a contender.
However, be under no illusion that College football is moving towards a March Madness playoff structure. It might take a few years and a lot more pain, but we will at some point have 64 teams playing in a college football playoff tournament. Of that I am sure.
And like basketball, as more teams are given the opportunity to participate in one-off games, the more opportunity there is for shock results.
Miami bound machine
Much has been said about Indiana this season, and rightly so. Heading into the National Title game, the Hoosiers are BIG10 Champions and hold an unbeaten 15-0 record. Such has been Indiana’s domination of college football that commentators are pondering if we are witnessing the greatest team in college football history! So far in the Playoffs, Indiana has scored 94 points, conceding just 25. The Hoosiers’ shellacking of the Alabama Crimson Tide had those in the South calling for the head of their Coach. However, with retrospect, the 38 points that Indiana pillaged from Alabama were merely the appetiser for the 56-point mauling of the Oregon Ducks.
Indiana seems like an unstoppable runaway train at this moment. And in doing so, the Hoosiers seek their first National Championship title in their 138-year history.
cignetti the great
In many ways, the Hoosiers are the poster boys for the new world order college football finds itself in.
Head Coach Curt Cignetti, who may as well be called Grand Wizard, has formed a team that defies normal football logic but is terrorising college football.
In only two years, Cignetti has found the holy grail in the makeup of his Hoosiers team. Much has been made of this team, which lacks five-star status. This may be true; however, Cignetti has found balance. A team that plays hard across all three sectors and a team that fights for each other. In attaining a 15-0 record this season, this is not an inconsistent team. Cignetti has found a way where offense, defense and special teams have operated at a high level all year long. Indiana plays like as complete a team as we may have seen in the history of college football.
inheriting a losing record
And bear this in mind. Before Cignetti took over Indiana’s football team, they had never had a ten-win season in school history. The last time that Indiana had made it to a bowl game was in 1993. And the greatest slight of all was that with 715 losses under their belt, the Hoosiers were the losingest football team in D1 athletics. Yet, despite all this, in only two seasons, Cignetti has taken the whipping boys of college football to two double-digit-win seasons, has them ranked #1 in the nation, and has them on the brink of the first national title in school history.
convicted thrillers
peaking at the right time
The Miami Hurricanes are playing up to the reputation of those great but infamous Hurricane teams of the 1980’s – those notorious “Convicts” in the Catholics v Convicts game of 1988.
The 2026 version of the Hurricanes plays just as hard, and Head Coach Mario Cristobal has guided a team which wasn’t even in the Playoff conversation at one point, to the brink of “The U’s” 6th National Championship title.
Miami’s defense is tough and playing at its optimum level at the right time. However, while Indiana has been a powerhouse all season, Miami stuttered at the midway point and was all but ruled out of postseason football.
After beating Notre Dame in the first game of the season, the Hurricanes suffered defeats to Louisville and SMU mid-season, effectively knocking them out of Playoff contention. Or so we thought.
playoff football
Ending the season with a comprehensive win over Pitt – a must-win game for Mario Cristobal – saw the U somewhat controversially secure a spot in the College Football Playoffs, pushing out Notre Dame. However, any controversy was soon forgotten following a defensive stifling of Texas A&M in the first round of the Playoffs. This was impressively followed up with a signature win over Ohio State to set up a semi-final with Ole Miss.
In what was a highly entertaining game with the Rebels in Arizona, Miami’s quarterback, Carson Beck, showed why the Hurricanes invested so heavily in him. With the score swinging back and forward between both teams it was Beck who scored the game winning touchdown in the final moments of the Peach Bowl to set Miami on the road to a National Championship game in….Miami.
Which sets up a hugely interesting and somewhat unusual scenario.
home field advantage
With the National Championship game being played at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, the Hurricanes become the first team in Playoff history to play their final game at home.
While this is uncharted territory, one thing we have learned from this season is that home-field advantage matters.
NIL, revenue sharing, and the transfer portal have helped level the playing field in college football. What we are witnessing now is perhaps the greatest level of competition in college football we have ever seen. In many ways, this season has been the first time that we have seen just how much college football will change over the next decade.
With competition increasing top to bottom across conferences and throughout the game, it has become clear just how important home-field advantage is.
This past regular season, home teams have won 65% of their scheduled games. Factoring in games where the home team is favoured to win, this percentage rises to 81%.
So, can home-field advantage help to even out the threat that this rampant Indiana team poses to Miami?
old kids on the block
oldie but goodie
Cignetti has built an incredible roster within a short space of time. In two years, the Indiana Head Coach has taken his team from irrelevance to the brink of a National Championship. But in this sport, you can’t have your cake and eat it. The roster construction has come at the cost of player development. The average age of this Indiana team is 22.5 – if you want to be overly negative like some, 23, meaning it more resembles an NFL roster than a University. Is this sustainable? Well, only time will tell. But do Hoosier fans even care? I’d suggest that at this point, they do not. Whatever it takes to win a Natty.
But we do have to acknowledge that the transfer portal and the ability to pay players via NIL to entice them away from their current school has revolutionised the college game.
And this is not to hang Cignetti out to dry. Look at Ole Miss and how ex-Head Coach Lane Kiffin built the team in Oxford. Kiffin has become a master of bringing in players from other schools to enhance his roster. Is there a better impact player than Trinidad Chambliss currently in college football? I rest my case.
Miami grind machine
Indiana is a highly experienced team, as demonstrated by the games played so far. The Hoosiers appear unfazed by any venue they have played at and took their first appearance at the iconic Rose Bowl in their stride. And so too their Peach Bowl massacre of Oregon.
However, this is not to say that this Miami team is inexperienced or incapable of matching Indiana on the field. The Hurricanes have proven more than capable of bullying every team they have faced in the Playoffs so far. And for the avoidance of doubt, this means Texas A&M, Ohio State and Oregon.
This Miami defense is ranked #1 nationally in sacks, 4th in scoring defense and 5th in rushing defense. Defensive co-ordinator Corey Hetherman has his players playing an ultra aggressive scheme with the phrase “we hate the quarterback” becoming the defence’s motto. And boy, do they chase the quarterback!
However, this overexuberance has led to penalties, and it has caused Miami issues at times this season. For all the ball that Miami saw in the first half against Ole Miss, they should have been out of sight in the Fiesta Bowl by halftime. But penalties – 10 for 99 yards kept the Rebels in the game until the very last play, where they could have snatched victory.
So while Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza will likely have an uncomfortable evening in Miami, the Hurricanes’ aggression can spill over and cause them issues, making for a fascinating matchup.
here today, gone tomorrow
So, where does this leave us for next season?
Well, Georg,e you might want to get the Championship game out of the way first!
Agreed, but the transfer portal is already open, and roster management is well and truly underway.
Sadly, I don’t have a crystal ball – if I did, then I would have known Miami and Indiana would be in a shoot-out for the National Championship!
However, we do know a couple of things will happen. Rosters will change constantly, in a fluid state, almost. We have already seen Washington’s Demond Williams sign a new NIL deal with the Huskies only to renege and enter the transfer portal. The current situation is that Williams is committed to Washington but only under threat of legal action from those in Seattle. There will be more of this.
Competition will increase across the game. Will the Blue Bloods step up to the challenge? The other thing we know is that the pressure coaches find themselves under will only increase as the $$$’s increase. This last season, 25% of SEC Head Coaches were out of work by the halfway point of the season. That is a new twist. Normally, the cull starts towards the end of the season. There is too much at stake to wait. Time is money, and action will be taken quickly, knee-jerk or not. Head Coaches are no longer teachers of the game – they are CEO’s of organisations generating tens of millions of dollars. Underperformance will not be tolerated.
So I guess I am saying that “instability” is probably the right word to describe the new way of college football. Conferences are changing, players are transferring, and coaches are either jumping ship or getting sacked.
And if that sounds like doom and gloom, it’s not meant to be. It’s the way forward, the future.
But first, Indiana and Miami will contest for a National Championship. And that will tell us much about how college football will be played out for the next few decades.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change” – Charles Darwin
GEORGE SOMERVILLE
COLLEGE FOOTBALL WRITER
GEORGE IS A LONG STANDING FANATIC OF LIFE AND FOOTBALL IN THE DEEP SOUTH AND WRITES HIS WEEKLY COLUMN CALLED “IT’S ONLY SEC” FOR THE TOUCHDOWN. HE IS ALSO CO-HOST AND ONE THIRD OF THE COLLEGE CHAPS PODCAST, THE UK’S FIRST PODCAST DEDICATED TO THE COLLEGE GAME.