2025 College Football - General Thread

[SoxJox]

Leaving the CPF thread to carry on, am starting a general discussion thread for this year.

The early signing period for the 2025 season has come and gone. The National Signing Day is Wednesday, February 5.

In the meantime, this...

As many of you may know, Penn State's Beaver Stadium is in the early stages of a $800M renovation. Here is one of the major muscle movements: the Press Box demolition.



View: https://youtu.be/u5XLeBxF0NQ?si=U2Z9iYdSVJEB3WoB

 

[Awesome Fossum]

Carson Beck hitting the portal. Internet seems to think he's going to Miami.

https://www.on3.com/news/georgia-bulldogs-quarterback-carson-beck-expected-to-enter-transfer-portal/

 

[Skyhawk96]

Carson Beck hitting the portal. Internet seems to think he's going to Miami.

https://www.on3.com/news/georgia-bulldogs-quarterback-carson-beck-expected-to-enter-transfer-portal/

Dumb Question I am sure, but why wouldn't he go back to Georgia????

 

[canderson]

Dumb Question I am sure, but why wouldn't he go back to Georgia????

Because Bennett is actually a better QB.

 

[SoxJox]

Because Bennett is actually a better QB.

Who is this Bennett of which you speak? Stetson was drafted in the 4th round in 2023 by the Rams. The only other Bennett on the UGA roster is Luke Bennett, a SO WR.

Did you mean Gunner Stockton?

 

[canderson]

Who is this Bennett of which you speak? Stetson was drafted in the 4th round in 2023 by the Rams. The only other Bennett on the UGA roster is Luke Bennett, a SO WR.

Did you mean Gunner Stockton?

D’oh Stockton. Got my interchangeable GA speed racers confused.

 

[SoxJox]

indeed

 

[Awesome Fossum]

Stockton didn't look better to me, but I'm no scout. I just assumed Miami is going to be giving a Cam Ward-sized bag to Beck and UGA didn't care to match.

 

[Ale Xander]

Stockton didn't look better to me, but I'm no scout. I just assumed Miami is going to be giving a Cam Ward-sized bag to Beck and UGA didn't care to match.

They have the 12th ranked QB incoming freshman in the country in Ryan Montgomery coming in. (He also played basketball in HS and has a brother lineman at Ohio State).

 

[Awesome Fossum]

They have the 12th ranked QB incoming freshman in the country in Ryan Montgomery coming in. (He also played basketball in HS and has a brother lineman at Ohio State).

12th ranked incoming freshman QB sounds like a pretty huge downgrade in 2025. Mel Kiper has Beck 5th in his QB rankings for the NFL draft.

 

[Ale Xander]

12th ranked incoming freshman QB sounds like a pretty huge downgrade in 2025. Mel Kiper has Beck 5th in his QB rankings for the NFL draft.

From Beck, yeah. From Stockton, not really

 

[DeadlySplitter]

View: https://twitter.com/PeteThamel/status/1877773685852950836

 

[BaseballJones]

I wonder how much $$ Miami is paying him that would convince him to transfer. It's gotta be huge dollars.

 

[RedOctober3829]

View: https://twitter.com/On3sports/status/1877799212374532599

 

[RedOctober3829]

I wonder how much $$ Miami is paying him that would convince him to transfer. It's gotta be huge dollars.

Kirby also has a very talented QB in Gunnar Stockton who is ready to step in and play next year. I think he'll be an upgrade on Carson Beck. I never have been a huge Beck fan.

 

[jsinger121]

I wonder how much $$ Miami is paying him that would convince him to transfer. It's gotta be huge dollars.

Knowing what I know from a Miami alum at my gym who has season tickets for the Canes and flies down a lot for games said they paid Cam Ward 1.5-2 million range. It has to be around that or more.

 

[mic99]

I wonder how much $$ Miami is paying him that would convince him to transfer. It's gotta be huge dollars.

Beck's girlfriend (and her twin sister) played hoops at the U and have millions of social media followers. I assume they still live in Miami.

GF, a huge payday and UGA likely not guaranteeing him QB1 seems to have been enough for him to transfer.

 

[Was (Not Wasdin)]

Beck's girlfriend (and her twin sister) played hoops at the U and have millions of social media followers. I assume they still live in Miami.

GF, a huge payday and UGA likely not guaranteeing him QB1 seems to have been enough for him to transfer.

I am embarassed that I knew this. He is dating one of the Cavinder twins, who were among the first college athletes to exceed $1 million in NIL money. I think they are up over $2 million now.

 

[jsinger121]

Former Colorado coach Bill McCartney passes away at age 84.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/43365771/former-colorado-buffaloes-football-coach-bill-mccartney-dies-84

 

[Humphrey]

Former Colorado coach Bill McCartney passes away at age 84.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/43365771/former-colorado-buffaloes-football-coach-bill-mccartney-dies-84

That was a great 30 by 30 on him. Most prominent in the film was the gift of a 5th down they got at Missouri, something that nowadays wouldn't happen (no booth reviews, etc., then).

 

[SoxJox]

In case anyone is betting on James Franklin being canned, here are the buyout implications:

This is an old article, so I've extrapolated to 2025.

[In 2020] Franklin and Penn State agreed to a new 10-year contract worth a guaranteed $70 million that includes multiple incentive clauses. Franklin will make an additional $1.5 million annually in incentives and can make up to $1 million per year in performance bonuses. The contract also makes it costly for Penn State to fire Franklin for performance reasons.

According to the buyout terms, Penn State would owe Franklin $8 million (his guaranteed salary plus a $1 million loan for life insurance) times the number of remaining years on the contract if it terminates him without cause.

Penn State would owe James Franklin [$40-$45 million to terminate him without cause in 2025 (variable is based on when in 2025 the firing occured], while Franklin would owe the university $2 million to leave for another job the same year, according to the buyout terms of his new contract.

The term sheet Penn State released does not include whether those numbers can be mitigated or negotiated.

Conversely, if Franklin leaves for the NFL or another college coaching position, he would owe Penn State these annual buyout totals:

• 2026-30: $1 million
• 2031: No buyout

The termination-with-cause terms are the same that Franklin has in his current contract, which began in 2020. Franklin's buyout for taking another job was $4 million [in 2021], with $1 million annual reductions until there was no buyout in 2025.

 

[DegenerateSoxFan]

Arizona State is getting QB Sam Leavitt back. NIL deal valued around $3 million.

Some money’s starting to flow into the program. The alumni like winning. Who knew?

The Sun Devils are getting most of their 2-deep back. They’ll be in the mix in 2025.

 

[Groovenstein]

Cancer finally got the better of Jack Hoffman. Damn.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/43429318/jack-hoffman-nebraska-football-fan-known-run-dies-cancer

 

[CFB_Rules]

, something that nowadays wouldn't happen (no booth reviews, etc., then).

Oh you have so much faith.

There was a D1 game this year where they missed TWO DOWNS during the same series. School punted on 2nd down thinking it was 4th. This was with replay, live TV, a kid writing the down/distance on a piece of paper every play, the whole nine yards.

 

[Humphrey]

Can't find that one (would love to read about it); but I did find one in 2021 where they messed up (Penn State vs Auburn). Shocked it's still occurring.

 

[CFB_Rules]

Can't find that one (would love to read about it); but I did find one in 2021 where they messed up (Penn State vs Auburn). Shocked it's still occurring.

The guy on the line of scrimmage (who is "most" in charge of keeping the downs since he's with the down box) for that game is working the Chiefs game Saturday. Didn't hurt his career a bit.

I've stated before that conferences tend to be more concerned with how officials look than how they perform. The reason is that a bad crew can get away with a lot if they LOOK like they know what they are doing.

Another example: In one of the power 4 leagues this season, EVERY SINGLE crew in the conference misenforced at least one penalty. By misenforced, I mean they did something like mark a 5 yard penalty 6 yards. Or marked a penalty from the spot of the foul instead of the previous spot. But because they did it smoothly, nobody including the coaches even noticed until they looked at film days later

EDIT: It happens in the NFL too

 

[CFB_Rules]

Can't find that one (would love to read about it); but I did find one in 2021 where they messed up (Penn State vs Auburn). Shocked it's still occurring.

One more anecdote: an ACC crew at Syracuse screwed up the downs the very same week as this game. I first read about it on Sosh! Didn't make the news.

 

[Humphrey]

Sports with a lot less rules (soccer, the one I officiate) aren't void of screwups either. Football, it seems almost inevitable.

 

[Awesome Fossum]

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said Sunday that the league will have conversations among coaches and athletic directors about whether to make changes to its conference championship game format.

...

Phillips said the ACC could consider giving its regular-season champion a bye, and have the teams that finish second or third in the league standings play in the ACC championship game.

He said another possibility is having the top 4 teams play on the final weekend of the regular season: first place versus fourth place, and second place vs. third place, with the winners playing the following weekend in the ACC championship game.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/43483852/acc-weigh-changes-title-game-commissioner-says

The first idea makes so little sense I suspect the writer misunderstood -- surely the idea is to have 2 vs 3 during the final week of the regular season with the winner playing 1 in the championship. If that's the case, I wouldn't necessarily hate either idea except for the fact it's going to ruin rivalry week.