NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

Around this time three years ago, you could feel the balance of power in college football start to shift. 

The Big Ten was ascendent. The SEC's dominance was showing some erosion. The impact of money in recruiting — how it was raised and allocated — was spreading the talent around like never before.

But after three consecutive years without an SEC team in the national championship game, doesn't it feel like the pendulum is swinging back a little bit? 

If there's a main character so far this college football season, it's undeniably been the SEC. And it's just getting started. 

We've already had the spectacle of Texas over Ohio State and Lane Kiffin's return to Oxford, Mississippi, with LSU, new must-see superstars like Mississippi State quarterback Kamario Taylor and one of the most absurd endings ever when Vanderbilt forced a fumble in the end zone with a second to go to beat NC State.  

Now here comes another week loaded with games that feel like must-see events: No. 1 Texas in a difficult road environment at No. 14 Tennessee. Oklahoma at No. 2 Georgia. Ole Miss being forced to come back down quickly off the high of beating LSU last week and facing a Florida team that looks resurgent under Jon Sumrall. Texas A&M and LSU in what feels like a possible College Football Playoff eliminator for the loser. Even Missouri at Mississippi State has some juice with both teams at 3-0.

Nearly all of them look like tossups. They're all teeming with storylines. And every result feels like it will have massive consequences.

"As parity has shifted a little bit in this NIL/transfer era, I think the level of balance has really increased," Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said. "To me, you're playing these games week in, week out that can go either way and when that's the case, to me, that's what the NFL is. It's seasons where 10-7 or 10-6 gets you in the playoffs and gets you a chance and it's just a change for college football where for so long, 11-1 or 12-0 defined success and I'm not sure that's going to be the reality for a lot of teams in this new era moving forward."

In so many ways, this week feels like the embodiment of how the SEC and Big Ten have diverged in this new era.

Hey, history is written by the victors, and it sounded really good when Indiana coach Curt Cignetti had three CFP championship trophies behind him on the stage at Big Ten media days as he threw chum into the water like, "We don't run a hype machine up here in the Midwest. … We don't cry a river, whine and complain and that's why we're the best." 

It's true, if the SEC wants the trophy back, someone will have to go take it. We'll see if they can.

But since ballooning to 18 teams, the Big Ten has become a league with a few elites at the top that could go deep in the playoffs and too many mediocre teams cluttering up schedules on a weekly basis.

The SEC's best teams are definitely not as dominant as they were five years ago, but there's enough NFL-style parity all the way down to maybe the 12th- or 13th-best team in the league where you can struggle to keep up with every game worth watching on any given Saturday. 

Even last week, a game between Auburn and Florida — two programs with first-year coaches that weren't very good last season — had more emotional juice than any game Indiana is going to play until it hosts Ohio State on Oct. 17.

Though their complaints don't always have merit, you can understand why the schedule disparity drives SEC coaches crazy in a world where going 10-2 — which has generally been the bar to make the CFP — requires winning a whole bunch of coin flips with very few gimmes. 

"That's where we've tried to really lean into the margins — how can we win in situational football and try to be really good at one-score games or 'middle eight' or red-zone scoring," Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said. "That's the reality of it. The game style is a little bit more like the NFL than what it used to be just because of that. The margins are so much closer and the talent has been spread throughout the league."

The Big Ten is going to have its moments this year, starting Saturday with Oregon at USC. But there are stunningly few huge clashes this fall you can circle on the schedule weeks in advance and know that it's going to deliver the kind of environment or quality of play the SEC has delivered every week so far.

It's pretty sad that we're four weeks into the season and the Michigan-Western Michigan instant-replay debacle is the only time the Big Ten has managed to wrest attention away. 

Look, there have been enough playoff results and non-conference games to suggest the Big Ten's primacy was real and not the product of SEC teams being worn down by the schedule grind or whatever excuses some coaches wanted to invent. Even in the NFL Draft, the Big Ten had more first-round picks in 2026. That almost never happens. The realignment of talent is undeniable in the NIL era.

The Big Ten has some very, very good teams. They just don't play each other enough to compete with the SEC as a compelling product. Last season, Ohio State kind of sailed along as No. 1 most of the season without anybody watching them because all their games were mismatches. 

Meanwhile, the SEC's best this season are going to have to survive a gauntlet that looks similar to what life would be like if the biggest brands in the sport formed some type of 35- or 40-team super league.

Just consider what Ole Miss is going through. In the first three weeks of the season, they have beaten No. 16 Louisville on a walk-off field goal and scored a late touchdown to win arguably the most high-profile game ever in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium against LSU. Now they have to turn around and play Florida, Vanderbilt, Missouri and Texas — with a combined record 12-0 — the next four weeks. 

Good luck. 

"It doesn't take much if you come into a week and don't prepare the right way and don't practice extremely hard and don't stay focused on the attention to detail, you're going to get your butt beat," Ole Miss coach Pete Golding said. "I know everybody else had that game circled but we didn't. There's nothing about winning a game in a September that makes your season." 

The Big Ten model isn't necessarily by design. If the league can ever get Wisconsin, Michigan State, USC, UCLA and Nebraska firing on all cylinders, it can be just as compelling week in and week out. 

But it's not there now, and you can look over the horizon and see some of the playoff debates we're going to be having in November when these SEC teams have been beating each other up.

"It's always been preached to us, meaning SEC coaches, that things are going to be taken into consideration like strength of schedule, strength of opponents, all these things, and then it doesn't seem like that happens," Georgia's Kirby Smart said. 

This may be the year it does because at least through three weeks, the SEC's depth looks undeniable. After a Big Ten run for the ages, the seesaw of power may finally be shifting back toward the South. 

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

Around this time three years ago, you could feel the balance of power in college football start to shift. 

The Big Ten was ascendent. The SEC's dominance was showing some erosion. The impact of money in recruiting — how it was raised and allocated — was spreading the talent around like never before.

But after three consecutive years without an SEC team in the national championship game, doesn't it feel like the pendulum is swinging back a little bit? 

If there's a main character so far this college football season, it's undeniably been the SEC. And it's just getting started. 

We've already had the spectacle of Texas over Ohio State and Lane Kiffin's return to Oxford, Mississippi, with LSU, new must-see superstars like Mississippi State quarterback Kamario Taylor and one of the most absurd endings ever when Vanderbilt forced a fumble in the end zone with a second to go to beat NC State.  

Now here comes another week loaded with games that feel like must-see events: No. 1 Texas in a difficult road environment at No. 14 Tennessee. Oklahoma at No. 2 Georgia. Ole Miss being forced to come back down quickly off the high of beating LSU last week and facing a Florida team that looks resurgent under Jon Sumrall. Texas A&M and LSU in what feels like a possible College Football Playoff eliminator for the loser. Even Missouri at Mississippi State has some juice with both teams at 3-0.

Nearly all of them look like tossups. They're all teeming with storylines. And every result feels like it will have massive consequences.

"As parity has shifted a little bit in this NIL/transfer era, I think the level of balance has really increased," Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said. "To me, you're playing these games week in, week out that can go either way and when that's the case, to me, that's what the NFL is. It's seasons where 10-7 or 10-6 gets you in the playoffs and gets you a chance and it's just a change for college football where for so long, 11-1 or 12-0 defined success and I'm not sure that's going to be the reality for a lot of teams in this new era moving forward."

In so many ways, this week feels like the embodiment of how the SEC and Big Ten have diverged in this new era.

Hey, history is written by the victors, and it sounded really good when Indiana coach Curt Cignetti had three CFP championship trophies behind him on the stage at Big Ten media days as he threw chum into the water like, "We don't run a hype machine up here in the Midwest. … We don't cry a river, whine and complain and that's why we're the best." 

It's true, if the SEC wants the trophy back, someone will have to go take it. We'll see if they can.

But since ballooning to 18 teams, the Big Ten has become a league with a few elites at the top that could go deep in the playoffs and too many mediocre teams cluttering up schedules on a weekly basis.

The SEC's best teams are definitely not as dominant as they were five years ago, but there's enough NFL-style parity all the way down to maybe the 12th- or 13th-best team in the league where you can struggle to keep up with every game worth watching on any given Saturday. 

Even last week, a game between Auburn and Florida — two programs with first-year coaches that weren't very good last season — had more emotional juice than any game Indiana is going to play until it hosts Ohio State on Oct. 17.

Though their complaints don't always have merit, you can understand why the schedule disparity drives SEC coaches crazy in a world where going 10-2 — which has generally been the bar to make the CFP — requires winning a whole bunch of coin flips with very few gimmes. 

"That's where we've tried to really lean into the margins — how can we win in situational football and try to be really good at one-score games or 'middle eight' or red-zone scoring," Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said. "That's the reality of it. The game style is a little bit more like the NFL than what it used to be just because of that. The margins are so much closer and the talent has been spread throughout the league."

The Big Ten is going to have its moments this year, starting Saturday with Oregon at USC. But there are stunningly few huge clashes this fall you can circle on the schedule weeks in advance and know that it's going to deliver the kind of environment or quality of play the SEC has delivered every week so far.

It's pretty sad that we're four weeks into the season and the Michigan-Western Michigan instant-replay debacle is the only time the Big Ten has managed to wrest attention away. 

Look, there have been enough playoff results and non-conference games to suggest the Big Ten's primacy was real and not the product of SEC teams being worn down by the schedule grind or whatever excuses some coaches wanted to invent. Even in the NFL Draft, the Big Ten had more first-round picks in 2026. That almost never happens. The realignment of talent is undeniable in the NIL era.

The Big Ten has some very, very good teams. They just don't play each other enough to compete with the SEC as a compelling product. Last season, Ohio State kind of sailed along as No. 1 most of the season without anybody watching them because all their games were mismatches. 

Meanwhile, the SEC's best this season are going to have to survive a gauntlet that looks similar to what life would be like if the biggest brands in the sport formed some type of 35- or 40-team super league.

Just consider what Ole Miss is going through. In the first three weeks of the season, they have beaten No. 16 Louisville on a walk-off field goal and scored a late touchdown to win arguably the most high-profile game ever in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium against LSU. Now they have to turn around and play Florida, Vanderbilt, Missouri and Texas — with a combined record 12-0 — the next four weeks. 

Good luck. 

"It doesn't take much if you come into a week and don't prepare the right way and don't practice extremely hard and don't stay focused on the attention to detail, you're going to get your butt beat," Ole Miss coach Pete Golding said. "I know everybody else had that game circled but we didn't. There's nothing about winning a game in a September that makes your season." 

The Big Ten model isn't necessarily by design. If the league can ever get Wisconsin, Michigan State, USC, UCLA and Nebraska firing on all cylinders, it can be just as compelling week in and week out. 

But it's not there now, and you can look over the horizon and see some of the playoff debates we're going to be having in November when these SEC teams have been beating each other up.

"It's always been preached to us, meaning SEC coaches, that things are going to be taken into consideration like strength of schedule, strength of opponents, all these things, and then it doesn't seem like that happens," Georgia's Kirby Smart said. 

This may be the year it does because at least through three weeks, the SEC's depth looks undeniable. After a Big Ten run for the ages, the seesaw of power may finally be shifting back toward the South. 

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

Around this time three years ago, you could feel the balance of power in college football start to shift. 

The Big Ten was ascendent. The SEC's dominance was showing some erosion. The impact of money in recruiting — how it was raised and allocated — was spreading the talent around like never before.

But after three consecutive years without an SEC team in the national championship game, doesn't it feel like the pendulum is swinging back a little bit? 

If there's a main character so far this college football season, it's undeniably been the SEC. And it's just getting started. 

We've already had the spectacle of Texas over Ohio State and Lane Kiffin's return to Oxford, Mississippi, with LSU, new must-see superstars like Mississippi State quarterback Kamario Taylor and one of the most absurd endings ever when Vanderbilt forced a fumble in the end zone with a second to go to beat NC State.  

Now here comes another week loaded with games that feel like must-see events: No. 1 Texas in a difficult road environment at No. 14 Tennessee. Oklahoma at No. 2 Georgia. Ole Miss being forced to come back down quickly off the high of beating LSU last week and facing a Florida team that looks resurgent under Jon Sumrall. Texas A&M and LSU in what feels like a possible College Football Playoff eliminator for the loser. Even Missouri at Mississippi State has some juice with both teams at 3-0.

Nearly all of them look like tossups. They're all teeming with storylines. And every result feels like it will have massive consequences.

"As parity has shifted a little bit in this NIL/transfer era, I think the level of balance has really increased," Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said. "To me, you're playing these games week in, week out that can go either way and when that's the case, to me, that's what the NFL is. It's seasons where 10-7 or 10-6 gets you in the playoffs and gets you a chance and it's just a change for college football where for so long, 11-1 or 12-0 defined success and I'm not sure that's going to be the reality for a lot of teams in this new era moving forward."

In so many ways, this week feels like the embodiment of how the SEC and Big Ten have diverged in this new era.

Hey, history is written by the victors, and it sounded really good when Indiana coach Curt Cignetti had three CFP championship trophies behind him on the stage at Big Ten media days as he threw chum into the water like, "We don't run a hype machine up here in the Midwest. … We don't cry a river, whine and complain and that's why we're the best." 

It's true, if the SEC wants the trophy back, someone will have to go take it. We'll see if they can.

But since ballooning to 18 teams, the Big Ten has become a league with a few elites at the top that could go deep in the playoffs and too many mediocre teams cluttering up schedules on a weekly basis.

The SEC's best teams are definitely not as dominant as they were five years ago, but there's enough NFL-style parity all the way down to maybe the 12th- or 13th-best team in the league where you can struggle to keep up with every game worth watching on any given Saturday. 

Even last week, a game between Auburn and Florida — two programs with first-year coaches that weren't very good last season — had more emotional juice than any game Indiana is going to play until it hosts Ohio State on Oct. 17.

Though their complaints don't always have merit, you can understand why the schedule disparity drives SEC coaches crazy in a world where going 10-2 — which has generally been the bar to make the CFP — requires winning a whole bunch of coin flips with very few gimmes. 

"That's where we've tried to really lean into the margins — how can we win in situational football and try to be really good at one-score games or 'middle eight' or red-zone scoring," Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said. "That's the reality of it. The game style is a little bit more like the NFL than what it used to be just because of that. The margins are so much closer and the talent has been spread throughout the league."

The Big Ten is going to have its moments this year, starting Saturday with Oregon at USC. But there are stunningly few huge clashes this fall you can circle on the schedule weeks in advance and know that it's going to deliver the kind of environment or quality of play the SEC has delivered every week so far.

It's pretty sad that we're four weeks into the season and the Michigan-Western Michigan instant-replay debacle is the only time the Big Ten has managed to wrest attention away. 

Look, there have been enough playoff results and non-conference games to suggest the Big Ten's primacy was real and not the product of SEC teams being worn down by the schedule grind or whatever excuses some coaches wanted to invent. Even in the NFL Draft, the Big Ten had more first-round picks in 2026. That almost never happens. The realignment of talent is undeniable in the NIL era.

The Big Ten has some very, very good teams. They just don't play each other enough to compete with the SEC as a compelling product. Last season, Ohio State kind of sailed along as No. 1 most of the season without anybody watching them because all their games were mismatches. 

Meanwhile, the SEC's best this season are going to have to survive a gauntlet that looks similar to what life would be like if the biggest brands in the sport formed some type of 35- or 40-team super league.

Just consider what Ole Miss is going through. In the first three weeks of the season, they have beaten No. 16 Louisville on a walk-off field goal and scored a late touchdown to win arguably the most high-profile game ever in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium against LSU. Now they have to turn around and play Florida, Vanderbilt, Missouri and Texas — with a combined record 12-0 — the next four weeks. 

Good luck. 

"It doesn't take much if you come into a week and don't prepare the right way and don't practice extremely hard and don't stay focused on the attention to detail, you're going to get your butt beat," Ole Miss coach Pete Golding said. "I know everybody else had that game circled but we didn't. There's nothing about winning a game in a September that makes your season." 

The Big Ten model isn't necessarily by design. If the league can ever get Wisconsin, Michigan State, USC, UCLA and Nebraska firing on all cylinders, it can be just as compelling week in and week out. 

But it's not there now, and you can look over the horizon and see some of the playoff debates we're going to be having in November when these SEC teams have been beating each other up.

"It's always been preached to us, meaning SEC coaches, that things are going to be taken into consideration like strength of schedule, strength of opponents, all these things, and then it doesn't seem like that happens," Georgia's Kirby Smart said. 

This may be the year it does because at least through three weeks, the SEC's depth looks undeniable. After a Big Ten run for the ages, the seesaw of power may finally be shifting back toward the South. 

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

Around this time three years ago, you could feel the balance of power in college football start to shift. 

The Big Ten was ascendent. The SEC's dominance was showing some erosion. The impact of money in recruiting — how it was raised and allocated — was spreading the talent around like never before.

But after three consecutive years without an SEC team in the national championship game, doesn't it feel like the pendulum is swinging back a little bit? 

If there's a main character so far this college football season, it's undeniably been the SEC. And it's just getting started. 

We've already had the spectacle of Texas over Ohio State and Lane Kiffin's return to Oxford, Mississippi, with LSU, new must-see superstars like Mississippi State quarterback Kamario Taylor and one of the most absurd endings ever when Vanderbilt forced a fumble in the end zone with a second to go to beat NC State.  

Now here comes another week loaded with games that feel like must-see events: No. 1 Texas in a difficult road environment at No. 14 Tennessee. Oklahoma at No. 2 Georgia. Ole Miss being forced to come back down quickly off the high of beating LSU last week and facing a Florida team that looks resurgent under Jon Sumrall. Texas A&M and LSU in what feels like a possible College Football Playoff eliminator for the loser. Even Missouri at Mississippi State has some juice with both teams at 3-0.

Nearly all of them look like tossups. They're all teeming with storylines. And every result feels like it will have massive consequences.

"As parity has shifted a little bit in this NIL/transfer era, I think the level of balance has really increased," Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said. "To me, you're playing these games week in, week out that can go either way and when that's the case, to me, that's what the NFL is. It's seasons where 10-7 or 10-6 gets you in the playoffs and gets you a chance and it's just a change for college football where for so long, 11-1 or 12-0 defined success and I'm not sure that's going to be the reality for a lot of teams in this new era moving forward."

In so many ways, this week feels like the embodiment of how the SEC and Big Ten have diverged in this new era.

Hey, history is written by the victors, and it sounded really good when Indiana coach Curt Cignetti had three CFP championship trophies behind him on the stage at Big Ten media days as he threw chum into the water like, "We don't run a hype machine up here in the Midwest. … We don't cry a river, whine and complain and that's why we're the best." 

It's true, if the SEC wants the trophy back, someone will have to go take it. We'll see if they can.

But since ballooning to 18 teams, the Big Ten has become a league with a few elites at the top that could go deep in the playoffs and too many mediocre teams cluttering up schedules on a weekly basis.

The SEC's best teams are definitely not as dominant as they were five years ago, but there's enough NFL-style parity all the way down to maybe the 12th- or 13th-best team in the league where you can struggle to keep up with every game worth watching on any given Saturday. 

Even last week, a game between Auburn and Florida — two programs with first-year coaches that weren't very good last season — had more emotional juice than any game Indiana is going to play until it hosts Ohio State on Oct. 17.

Though their complaints don't always have merit, you can understand why the schedule disparity drives SEC coaches crazy in a world where going 10-2 — which has generally been the bar to make the CFP — requires winning a whole bunch of coin flips with very few gimmes. 

"That's where we've tried to really lean into the margins — how can we win in situational football and try to be really good at one-score games or 'middle eight' or red-zone scoring," Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said. "That's the reality of it. The game style is a little bit more like the NFL than what it used to be just because of that. The margins are so much closer and the talent has been spread throughout the league."

The Big Ten is going to have its moments this year, starting Saturday with Oregon at USC. But there are stunningly few huge clashes this fall you can circle on the schedule weeks in advance and know that it's going to deliver the kind of environment or quality of play the SEC has delivered every week so far.

It's pretty sad that we're four weeks into the season and the Michigan-Western Michigan instant-replay debacle is the only time the Big Ten has managed to wrest attention away. 

Look, there have been enough playoff results and non-conference games to suggest the Big Ten's primacy was real and not the product of SEC teams being worn down by the schedule grind or whatever excuses some coaches wanted to invent. Even in the NFL Draft, the Big Ten had more first-round picks in 2026. That almost never happens. The realignment of talent is undeniable in the NIL era.

The Big Ten has some very, very good teams. They just don't play each other enough to compete with the SEC as a compelling product. Last season, Ohio State kind of sailed along as No. 1 most of the season without anybody watching them because all their games were mismatches. 

Meanwhile, the SEC's best this season are going to have to survive a gauntlet that looks similar to what life would be like if the biggest brands in the sport formed some type of 35- or 40-team super league.

Just consider what Ole Miss is going through. In the first three weeks of the season, they have beaten No. 16 Louisville on a walk-off field goal and scored a late touchdown to win arguably the most high-profile game ever in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium against LSU. Now they have to turn around and play Florida, Vanderbilt, Missouri and Texas — with a combined record 12-0 — the next four weeks. 

Good luck. 

"It doesn't take much if you come into a week and don't prepare the right way and don't practice extremely hard and don't stay focused on the attention to detail, you're going to get your butt beat," Ole Miss coach Pete Golding said. "I know everybody else had that game circled but we didn't. There's nothing about winning a game in a September that makes your season." 

The Big Ten model isn't necessarily by design. If the league can ever get Wisconsin, Michigan State, USC, UCLA and Nebraska firing on all cylinders, it can be just as compelling week in and week out. 

But it's not there now, and you can look over the horizon and see some of the playoff debates we're going to be having in November when these SEC teams have been beating each other up.

"It's always been preached to us, meaning SEC coaches, that things are going to be taken into consideration like strength of schedule, strength of opponents, all these things, and then it doesn't seem like that happens," Georgia's Kirby Smart said. 

This may be the year it does because at least through three weeks, the SEC's depth looks undeniable. After a Big Ten run for the ages, the seesaw of power may finally be shifting back toward the South. 

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos