Mountaintop View 8-10-26. College Football Playoff Expansion, Senate Bill, UTEP Preview, Offensive Schemes, Lou Groza Award.

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It’s Monday, and fall camp is up and running for every football team. As updates come in constantly, take a look at all our content coming out this week. As always, check out our original coverage and what we can find on the World Wide Web below.

The Protect College Sport Act is necessary.

Jerry Brewer discusses why he thinks this Senate bill is necessary. His main point is that the current version of college sports isn’t the one everyone fell in love with, and this is a chance to get back to that. While the bill itself isn’t perfect, providing hard rules for how the sport has evolved. While nothing will be a perfect fix, it’s a step toward improvement, which is what is needed at this point in time.

College Football Playoff Expansion.

Football conference commissioners are meeting today to discuss a potential playoff expansion to 24 teams, which appears to be driven by the Big Ten. Other topics will come up too, such as the football calendar, conference championships, and the Army-Navy game. But it all centers around the playoff, and truthfully, it’s all about the rich trying to get richer. It’s unlikely anything meaningful will come out of this, but it’s an important meeting if they want to work towards change before the December 1st deadline for 2027 CFP changes.

UTEP Preview

This College Football News preview will highlight the Miners. They have the right QB for their system and brought in a number of running backs to keep the chains moving, which is when they were at their best. But they struggled mightily on third down and had way too many turnovers over the course of the year. Over on defense, the third-down defense was great last year and should continue to be with a loaded secondary as well as some talented linebackers. But the defensive line has been a weak point and they need to find a way to generate a pass rush. UTEP is predicted to go 2-10 in their inaugural MW season, which isn’t ideal.

Is the CFB offensive shootout era over?

After roughly two decades of offensive explosions, it appears that defenses are now gaining an edge with benefits from rule changes as well as creativity in scheme. With fewer plays during a game, play calls are at a premium for OCs, plus defenses getting creative with blitz packages and disguised coverages has led to 15-year lows in offensive production. To counter this trend, teams are slowing down the pace and huddling more often than they have in years. Trends wax and wane in sports, so it’s not a complete surprise that more teams are using heavier personnel; multiple tight ends and even some employing a fullback, which had been all but extinct over the past decade. Also, offenses need to be simplified for true freshmen playing right away and having to teach playbooks to new transfer players every year.

Watanabe on Groza Award Watchlist

On the horizon:

Today: A new Recruiting Roundup, featuring August Mountain West Team Recruiting Rankings

Today: A judge reopens the class of 2022

Tuesday: Hike’s Peak Podcast: Episode 164

Tuesday: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: 2026 Pac-12 FPI

Tuesday: Reacts Survey

Wednesday: Top 10 MW MBB Games since 2013.

Wednesday: Boise State Top Players #3

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