Good morning, and welcome back to CFB Roundup from CFB Home – the first daily newsletter that’s all college football, all the time with no bias, no slant, and no fluff.

YESTERDAY’S RESULTS:

TODAY’S SCHEDULE:

Betting Information as of time of writing

Army Dominates Temple 42-14 to Remain Undefeated

Army came into this game as 12-point favorites, but the Black Knights dominated for 60 minutes to get to 4-0.

Army finished with over 400 rushing yards while also holding Temple to negative rushing yards, in large part due to picking up 7 sacks against the Owls.

Army quarterback Bryson Daily led the way with 152 rushing yards and 3 rushing touchdowns on 24 carries to go with 54 passing yards.

Texas State, Northern Illinois, and Toledo All Top List for Mountain West Expansion

After the Mountain West lost 5 teams to the Pac-12, expansion for the Mountain West could include some combination of Texas State, Northern Illinois, and Toledo, interestingly enough.

All three programs would get the Mountain West into the central time zone, as Texas State is in consideration as a full member of the conference, while Northern Illinois and Toledo are being considered for football-only membership.

Texas State joined the FBS in 2012 and has generally struggled until GJ Kinne took over in 2023, with Coach Kinne being a combined 10-6 in the last season plus three weeks of this season.

Northern Illinois has been in the upper half of the MAC, for the most part, since 2018 and have generally been on the rise, making headlines recently for beating Notre Dame in South Bend this season.

Finally, Toledo has been remarkably consistent in the last decade or so despite not having won a MAC title. Under current coach Jason Candle, Toledo has won at least 9 games on four different occasions and are a combined 68-39.

Early Reports: Big Ten and SEC Commissioners, ADs Looking to Create New Enforcement Arm, Playoff Format, & Scheduling Agreement

According to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, SEC and Big Ten commissioners and athletic directors are supposed to meet in a joint meeting in Nashville in a rare meeting of power players from both conferences.

There are three main topics on the agenda that college football fans will find of note: a new enforcement arm that is not the NCAA, a new or amended CFP format, and a scheduling arrangement (remember The Alliance?) for football.

It is worth noting that while some hot button topics are being covered, it’s being reported that impactful decisions won’t be made at this meeting, and this is more of an early step towards finding common ground so the two biggest conferences can be on the same page as the landscape of college football evolves.

4-Star IOL Douglas Utu has Flipped from Tennessee to Oregon

4-star IOL Douglas Utu has flipped his commitment from Tennessee to Oregon after having committed to the Volunteers back on June 24th after taking official visits to Washington, Michigan, Nebraska, Alabama, and Tennessee.

However, it is Oregon who now earns Utu’s commitment after not giving up on the Las Vegas lineman.

Utu said that it was the relationships he had with the coaches in Eugene that stood out to him as they were always upfront and genuine. That level of transparency made Utu want to be a part of the Oregon program.

Utu is rated as high as a 5-star by both ESPN and Rivals, ranking in the Top 13 nationally on both of those recruiting services. According to the On3 industry composite, Utu is ranked 57th nationally and 4th at his position.

This is now Oregon’s 14th Blue Chip commitment and 16th commitment overall, while Tennessee now also has 14 Blue Chip commitments and 23 commitments overall. With Utu’s commitment, Oregon and Tennessee flip spots in the 2025 class rankings on On3, as Oregon is now 7th nationally and 2nd in the Big Ten while Tennessee is now 8th nationally and 6th in the SEC.

Barstool Sports Owner Dave Portnoy Pledges $1-3M of NIL to Get Michigan a 10 QB Every Year

Michigan has struggled at the quarterback position this year, to put it lightly.

With that in mind, Barstool Sports owner and one of Michigan’s most famous and outspoken fan in the sports media space, Dave Portnoy, has pledged between $1 million and $3 million in NIL deals to help Michigan get one of the top 10 quarterbacks available every season.

Portnoy shared, “Michigan, I will be your quarterback guy. I’ll talk to [Coach] Sherrone [Moore], ‘Who do you guys want? Who’s in there?’ Give me a group, I’ll go sign them. $1 million, $2 million, whatever it is… $3 million.”

Barstool’s Dan Katz also talked about doing something similar for a top QB for Wisconsin, as Katz is a known Wisconsin guy.

According to On3, a $3 million NIL deal would be one of the top deals in the country and might be a bit of an overpay. According to On3, guys like Shedeur Sanders and Arch Manning have an estimated going rate somewhere in that range. Other top quarterbacks are more so in the ballpark with an estimation between $1M and $2M, with guys like Will Howard ($1.3M) and Cam Ward ($1.9M) as examples of guys who transferred this past offseason.

Kirby Smart on How to Beat Alabama on the Road

Kirby Smart recently made an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show where he shared how he believes Georgia can beat Alabama on the road for the first game that Alabama is a home underdog for since 2007.

Smart listed four keys: out-strain, out-effort, win the line of scrimmage, and don’t turn the ball over. Smart acknowledged these are things that could be said for every game, but this is not just any game for the Bulldogs. This is the first meeting between the two programs since Nick Saban retired, and is a matchup that Alabama has won 8 of the last 9 times, with the National Championship for the 2021 season being the only Georgia win.

Lincoln Riley Not Overly Concerned About Bear Alexander Departure

Bear Alexander announced he was sitting out the rest of 2024 to redshirt and then transferring from USC after transferring in to USC from Georgia.

Alexander made this decision after expressing frustration with only playing 21 of 58 defensive snaps against Michigan. When asked about Alexander’s decision, coach Lincoln Riley gave a fairly unbothered response on the state of competition in the DL room, stating that “I don’t think it’s changed, really. [Competition has] been high from the start of the season. We’ve got a lot of guys in that room that are contributing, that are playing at a high level.”

When thinking about the void Alexander’s spot on the depth chart creates, Riley stated that it will create some opportunities, similar to how opportunities are created when someone is injured or otherwise unavailable, “so that’s how we’re viewing it, and there’s a lot of excitement about the opportunities it’ll create for some of these guys and I think we’ll have several guys jump up this season and a lot of people want to play for this defense and this defensive line right now.”

Memphis AD: Pac-12 Offer Not A Good Deal for Memphis

Memphis was strongly considered by the Pac-12 as it continues its expansion efforts, and after being approached with an offer by the Pac-12, Memphis (along with other offered AAC programs) chose to decline any offers and release a joint statement regarding remaining with the AAC.

Memphis Athletic Director Ed Scott recently shared that the Pac-12 deal that was offered to Memphis was bad for the university. Most importantly, Scott said, it would have been a “really, really bad deal for [the] Olympic sports.”

Scott also emphasized focusing on doing the right thing for the university and trying to not fall in love with new opportunities just because they’re new and shiny, so to speak.

USC’s Lincoln Riley on the Emotions of Seeing Former DC Alex Grinch

USC and Wisconsin face off this weekend in a game which will be a reunion of sorts for USC Coach Lincoln Riley and Wisconsin co-Defensive Coordinator Alex Grinch.

Grinch was Riley’s defensive coordinator at both USC and Oklahoma for the previous five seasons.

Riley said that it’ll be unique to be on the opposite sideline as Grinch because of all of the time they have spent together: “it’ll certainly be unique being on opposite sidelines with all the good times and great memories that we had together, all the years working together. Yeah, and I’ve been part of this before where you have guys on previous staffs, or I’ve even coached against my brother before.”

Compounding the possible awkwardness with there being history, that professional relationship ended (or maybe was just paused) because Riley fired Grinch last year after USC’s defense was one of the worst in the nation.

As for how it will impact the game on the field, Riley said, “Obviously, Coach Grinch has a good familiarity with what we’ve done. But I still think the game comes down to players and who executes the best on Saturday afternoon. So I think we’ve prepared hard but we know it’ll be a good challenge going against a very good defense that he’s obviously a part of.”

James Franklin Unhappy with Reporters Not Recognizing Nittany Lion Wide Receivers

Last season, only one wide receiver from Penn State had over 250 receiving yards, KeAndre Lambert-Smith, but Lambert-Smith transferred to Auburn this spring. So, naturally there were a lot of questions about the Penn State receiving corp.

And in 2023, there were plenty of members who wrote and spoke on Penn State’s middling results passing the ball. In 2024, Penn State has reinvented itself with new offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki who most recently also reinvented Kansas’ dynamic offense from the past couple of years.

With how the wide receivers have done this year, Coach James Franklin was happy with the performance and the development overseen by WR Coach Marques Hagans: “I’ve been pleased with the step that we’ve taken.”

However, Coach Franklin did also note that he was surprised that he has not been told about articles complimenting the strides the WR room has made considering how many articles were written commenting on the room’s underperformance in 2023, “beacuse there sure was a bunch of articles when they didn’t play up to people’s thoughts and standards.”

“i’m not saying that some of the things that were written and said in the past weren’t fair. But, again, just like as coaches, if we’re going to be critical, then they should be praised when they’re doing some really good things, which I think they are.”

Other Commitments/Decommitments

3-Star (89) Michael Igbinoghene commits to Tulane

3-Star (84) John Tofi Jr. commits to Cal

Unrated K Tripp Bryant commits to Georgia Southern