Category: College Football

Texas Longhorns junior cornerback Manny Muhammad declared for the 2026 NFL Draft on Monday, ending a stellar career on the Forty Acres.

When the 6’0, 188-pounder committed to Texas in July 2022 after taking official visits to Austin and College Station, the head-to-head win over Texas A&M was a significant recruiting coup for Jeff Banks and Terry Joseph — the South Oak Cliff product possessed a winning pedigree and prototypical measurables to grow into a lockdown cornerback. The expectations conveyed by Muhammad’s recruiting rankings told a similar story, as he finished the cycle as a consensus four-star prospect ranked as the No. 43 player nationally and the No. 4 cornerback, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.

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Muhammad quickly made an impact for the Longhorns, earning the backup role to senior Ryan Watts and playing 479 snaps over 14 games with two starts, totaling 31 tackles (21 solo), one interception, four pass breakups and returned a blocked punt for a touchdown. In coverage, Muhammad graded out at a high level as a true freshman, according to Pro Football Focus, only 10.3 yards per reception on 24 receptions.

As a full-time starter in 2024, Muhammad continued to show flashes of his immense upside with 36 tackles (32 solo), one tackle for loss, and eight passes broken up while limiting opponents to a 50-percent reception rate when he was targeted, but he also struggled late in the season. At the end of the season, Muhammad gave up 263 receiving yards, almost 64 percent of his season total, including 92 yards on five receptions against Clemson in the College Football Playoff. Muhammad also committed three of his four penalties in the playoff.

Intent to be more reliable, Muhammad promised improvement to head coach Steve Sarkisian and lived up to that promise as a junior, notching 30…

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Everybody wants to fix the College Football Playoff, but nobody seems to know how. There’s a good reason for this. It’s because the College Football Playoff isn’t broken … college football is.

On Saturday, college football die-hards and casuals alike tuned in to watch two games that were largely decided before a snap ever took place. Sure, the possibility of an upset always looms, but the first quarters of Ole Miss’ 41-10 win over Tulane or Oregon’s 51-34 win over James Madison made it clear quickly how those games would go. They were results that would do nothing to slow the ceaseless wave of the college football literati who had spent the last few weeks gnashing their teeth in despair over the possibility these blowouts would happen and what it would all mean.

But the pearl-clutching, hemming and hawing are all directed at the wrong target. What we’re seeing in the College Football Playoff is the result of a far bigger problem in the sport. College football has always been a top-heavy sport, and while we’ve seen a more even distribution of that weight up top thanks to NIL and the transfer portal (the GLP-1 of college football), on the whole, the sport is more top-heavy than ever before.

Resources, talent shifting in one direction

There is far more talent available and far more money coming in than at any time before, and it’s all flowing overwhelmingly in one direction.

If you look at the top recruiting classes for the 2026 cycle, you’ll notice a couple of things. The first is that, for the first time since 2008, the top class in the country belongs outside of the SEC. USC took the honors this year, the first non-SEC program to do so since Miami way back when. Furthermore, Alabama is the only SEC school to finish in the top…

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Lane Kiffin receives $100,000 for Ole Miss’ CFP win originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Even after leaving Oxford, Lane Kiffin continues to cash checks tied to Ole Miss’ historic College Football Playoff run.

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Kiffin is due a total $250,000 payout following the Ole Miss Rebels’ 41-10 rout of the Tulane Green Wave in the CFP first round Saturday, according to terms outlined in his contract agreement with LSU. The payment is classified as an “ancillary benefit” tied to Ole Miss’ advancement in the playoff bracket.

The figure mirrors the bonus Kiffin would have earned had he remained in Oxford under his previous Ole Miss contract. Since the Rebels made the College Football Playoff, he recevied $150,000 and an additional $100,000 for the win.

Under the same structure, Kiffin is slated to receive escalating payouts if the Rebels continue their postseason run: $500,000 for a semifinal appearance, $750,000 for reaching the national championship game and $1 million if Ole Miss wins the title.

Ole Miss’ dominant victory came in its first game since Kiffin’s high-profile departure to LSU, which followed an Egg Bowl win over Mississippi State that capped the program’s first 11-win regular season and effectively secured a CFP berth.

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The Rebels quickly turned the page by naming defensive coordinator Pete Golding as head coach. Saturday marked Golding’s debut in the role, and the response was emphatic. Ole Miss fans showered him with applause during warmups and chanted his name throughout the win.

Ole Miss now moves on to the CFP quarterfinals, with both its present and past head coaches still very much part of the story. The Rebels have a rematch with Georgia awaiting them on New Year’s Day in the Sugar Bowl.

More college…

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The 2025-26 college football bowl schedule rolls on Saturday with the bulk of the first round of the 2025 College Football Playoff. No. 9 Alabama, a slight underdog, advanced past Oklahoma on Friday, and now three more games are on tap in the CFP bracket as the quarterfinals will be set by the end of the day.

The latest College Football Playoff lines are No. 7 Texas A&M (-3.5) vs. No. 10 Miami, No. 6 Ole Miss (-17.5) vs. No. 11 Tulane and No. 5 Oregon (-20.5) vs. No. 12 James Madison, with the higher seed hosting all of those games on campus. Standard bowl games then continue on Monday. Before locking in any college football bowl picks for those games or others, be sure to see the latest bowl and playoff college football predictions from SportsLine’s proven model. 

New users can also target the latest Underdog promo code, good for $75 in site credits when you play $5 with the promo code CBSSPORTS2 in select states.

The model simulates every FBS game 10,000 times, and it is profitable on its top-rated money-line picks since the beginning of the 2024 season. Anybody following those college football betting picks at sportsbooks and on betting sites could have seen strong returns.

Now, it has turned its attention to the latest college football odds and 2025-26 bowl season college football betting lines on the spread, money line and over/under. Head here to see every pick. 

New users can target the DraftKings promo code, which offers $200 in bonus bets if your bet wins:

Top college football predictions for bowl season

One of the college football picks the model is high on during the 2025-26 college football bowl schedule: Penn State (+3.5, 48.5) covers against Clemson in the Pinstripe Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 27 at noon ET. Both schools vastly underperformed…

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One of the attributes that new Auburn head football coach Alex Golesh possesses is his ability to build or rebuild a program.

He proved that in his three years with South Florida. The Bulls were one of the worst programs in all of college football before he arrived. In the three years before Golesh took over the program, they won a total of four games.

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In his three seasons from 2023-25, he won 23 games, and the team played three bowl games. During that time, he led the Bulls to some big wins as well. Here is a look at his top five wins with South Florida.

Here is a look at Alex Golesh’s top five wins as a head coach.

No. 5: 2023 Boca Raton Bowl versus Syracuse

After the program had struggled for years, a bowl appearance in the first year under Golesh was a tremendous accomplishment. For South Florida, winning the Boca Raton Bowl 45-0 over Syracuse made the season even more impressive. Golesh showed this was a different team early in the year when they played Alabama in a 17-3 defeat as well. Against Syracuse, South Florida jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter and led 31-0 at halftime. It was another stellar performance by Brown at quarterback with three touchdowns and 278 total yards. The defense played great as well, allowing just 159 yards and forcing four turnovers.

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No. 4: 2025 win over North Texas

The North Texas Mean Green had a very good season in 2025. They are currently 11-2 and had an appearance in the American Conference Championship, losing to Tulane. The other loss for the Mean Green this season came against South Florida in a 63-36 win for the Bulls. Quarterback Byrum Brown had a big game with five total touchdowns and 327 yards. The two teams were tied at halftime with a 21-21 score before South Florida created distance in the second half. The Bulls took their first two…

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Beyond the wins and losses, there is a narrative at stake here that’s more than just wins and losses. A loss in the College Football Playoff opener can steer conventional wisdom — right or wrong — about a team, or in this year’s case, whether half the sport even belongs in the format at all. 

Eight teams are will kick off the CFP festivities in this year’s format that gives us straight seeding, opposed to last year where four of the five highest-ranked conference champions earned the first-round byes. So, going matchup by matchup, what would a loss mean for each team that plays in the first round? 

Let’s have a look at the potential consequences …

Alabama: The Kalen DeBoer “will he or won’t he” will only get turned up to 11 if Alabama is unable to come away with the victory for a second time this season against Oklahoma. When you stack it up, losses to Oklahoma would be the bookends to a wretched final third of the season for Bama. After four wins in a row against Georgia, Vanderbilt, Missouri (with Beau Pribula) and Tennessee, no team was hotter than the Crimson Tide in October. It looked like they had moved past their embarrassment against Florida State. Then, they lost to OU in Tuscaloosa in a turnover-fueled showcase. Then, they nearly lost to Auburn after going up 17-0. Then, got drubbed by Georgia in the SEC title game. 

Now, if they fall to the Sooners for a second time this fall? It will begin a loud offseason of is he the right man for the job for DeBoer, which is a drumbeat that feels like it barely every really faded since he showed up in the wake of Nick Saban’s dynastic run. That is, of course, if he is telling the truth when saying he plans on being Alabama’s coach next season amid the Michigan rumors. 

Oklahoma:…

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The College Football Playoff has finally arrived — games were played, decisions were made and controversy reigned once again.

There was no shortage of drama this college football season. With the precipitous falloff of teams like Penn State, Clemson and LSU, the door was opened for newcomers like Tulane, James Madison and punchy little upstart Alabama.

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The most controversial decision the CFP committee made was placing three-loss Alabama and two-loss Miami into the field and leaving Notre Dame out. That’s despite the Tide getting shellshocked in the SEC title game and the Hurricanes being ranked behind the Irish since the very first set of rankings came out.

But alas, the CFP bracket is set, and 12 teams remain. Who will win it all?

Our team of college football experts breaks it all down with their picks for every playoff game. Feel free to disagree, or to make your own picks in the comments below.

Complete College Football Playoff predictions/picks from the Yahoo Sports staff. (Taylor Wilhelm/Yahoo Sports)

A year ago, we saw Ohio State lose its final game before the playoff and then run through the field in one of the greatest postseason winning streaks in the history of the sport. This year, the Buckeyes lost to Indiana in the Big Ten championship game — a defeat that we believe will launch Ryan Day and Co. into another postseason run.

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The Buckeyes are just too talented and playing too good of defense not to run through this field. That pick shouldn’t surprise you, but how about my pick for runner-up: the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Tech’s front seven is good enough to knock off Big Ten foes Oregon and Indiana and advance to the title bout.

Things got tough for me in the semifinal round. The first two rounds are pretty straightforward. Alabama over Oklahoma was nearly a coin flip, but it feels…

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