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.

Current Subscriber Count: 493

Goal: 1,000 by the National Championship on 1/20/25

YESTERDAY’S RESULTS:

TODAY’S SCHEDULE:

Betting Information as of time of writing

NCAA Considering 5th Year of Eligibility In All Sports, Eliminating Letter of Intent

According to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, the NCAA is reportedly considering adding a fifth year of eligibility and eliminating the national letter of intent.

Currently, participating in a “redshirt” year is only permissible in football and wrestling, with football players only allowed to participate in up to four contests as a redshirt player. The potential change which might impact football, however, is the elimination of the national letter of intent.

As for what the NCAA is planning, the core benefits that exist in the NLI (financial aid, scholarship agreement) will still exist, just in a different package. Signing with a school will also still end a prospect’s recruitment, making it against the rules for other schools to reach out to the prospect.

Dabo Swinney Reassesses Clemson’s Conference and National Title Hopes

After a 34-3 loss in Week 1 to Georgia that was, frankly, brutal, coach Dabo Swinney is optimistic about the Tigers’ chances moving forward.

Swinney pointed out that the ACC is still wide open, and Swinney also said he’d “be surprised if there’s an undefeated team when it’s all said and done this year.”

By winning the conference, Swinney also points out that they’d therefore be granted a spot in the playoff.

According to ESPN’s FPI, 6 teams have at least a 5% chance to win the conference, with Clemson falling 3rd at 11.7%.

Miller Moss After Win over #13 LSU: We Don’t Pay Attention to Any Questions

Much was made about USC and USC’s chances this season throughout the offseason, but one person who was unaffected by all of this talk was QB Miller Moss, as well as the rest of the USC Trojans.

After a strong 27-20 win over #13 LSU team where Moss threw for 378 yards, a touchdown, and no interceptions on 27-of-36 passing, Moss shared with ESPN’s Holly Rowe that “we don’t pay attention to any questions anyone asks. They can keep asking them. We’re gonna keep preparing and keep knocking down these wins.”

Moss also shared that “two minute [drills are] something that we practice all the time. Those are the type of situations that coach Riley always talks about wins and loses games. … We just had to go execute and I think we did a good job of doing that.”

Looking at how Moss and the Trojans looked at the end of each half, that seems pretty clear.

Kyron Drones Injury Update: Didn’t Look Good

Virginia Tech lost their Week 1 game against Vanderbilt in overtime, but they also lost starting QB Kyron Drones late, as backup QB Collin Schlee needed to come in to finish the game.

Coach Brent Pry did not share the exact nature of Drones’ injury but shared that Drones was lobbying to come into the game. But Pry said that Drones didn’t look good and therefore was unable to come back in the game.

Virginia Tech hosts Marshall next weekend, but it is unclear if Drones will be good to go for that game, or if it will be Schlee who plays for the Hokies.

Mike Elko After Aggies’ Week 1 Loss: Fans Deserve Better

In Coach Mike Elko’s first postgame press conference as Texas A&M’s head coach, he gave credit to Notre Dame, saying. “they came in here and they beat us. You know, there’s really no two ways around it.”

He then proceeded to share that he found it to still be a special day thanks to the Aggie fans who showed up in support of the team. He went on to say “you deserve better and we didn’t give it to you.”

Texas A&M hosts McNeese this weekend, and Coach Elko shared that the team will “go back to work. We’ll continue to drive this thing to become the product that you guys want this and deserve for this program to be.”

Miami Players Recruiting Florida’s Visitors In The Swamp

In Week 1, some Miami players coming off the field said that they run the state of Florida. At least through the early going of the season, it’s an entirely plausible stance.

Additionally, Miami players coming off the field also shared to some of the visitors at the game that they should be coming to Miami. It took Florida staffers ushering Miami players away from the front of the recruit section to get some Miami players off the field and to stop recruiting against the Gators.

Included in the visitor list was 5-star CB DJ Pickett, currently committed to LSU but still high on Florida’s priority list for the fall.

Dan Mullen, Booger McFarland Give Early Keys for Texas @ Michigan in Week 2

Even though Week 1 is not completely done, ESPN analysts Dan Mullen and Booger McFarland are already providing some early keys to the game for the Week 2 game of the week: Texas @ Michigan.

For McFarland, it comes down to how physical Texas can be on both sides of the football, but especially on defense. “You know Sherrone Moore is going to run the football and see if the Longhorns can hold up against the run. With the running quarterback, if you’re Texas you’ve got to be able to push the ball down the field.”

Coach Mullen agrees with that assessment, and is confident in Texas’ ability to hold up physically. Mullen was impressed with Texas’ defense against Colorado State, but did acknowledge that Michigan has a different caliber of athlete and level of physicality that Texas has obviously not seen yet this season.

4-Star WR Terrence Smith Commits to Iowa

4-Star WR Terrence Smith committed to Iowa yesterday over his other finalist program, Minnesota.

Smith took an official visit to Iowa a little over a couple months ago. The highlight of every visit he took was his ability to sit down with the head coach and talk football. Smith also spoke on the value of getting to talk with the players at each program when he was being hosted so that way he could get an idea how each player liked their program.

Smith is rated a 4-star by On3 and a high 3-star by the other major recruiting services. According to On3, Smith is ranked 172nd nationally and 26th at his position, but the On3 industry composite ranks him 328th nationally and 50th for his position.

This is Iowa’s 4th Blue Chip commitment and 15th commitment overall for a 2025 class which ranks 34th nationally and 11th out of 18 in the newly expanded Big Ten.

Diego Pavia: I Feel Like I’m The Best Player In the Country

Vanderbilt transfer QB Diego Pavia is feeling pretty confident after Vanderbilt’s big season opening win over Virginia Tech.

So confident that he called himself the best player in the country. In describing his recruitment process in the transfer portal, Pavia said “People wanted me, but it was never Power Five, and I just feel like I’m the best player in the country, and I’m here to show it. … And that’s my mentality every single week that I step on the field.”

Pavia also had a response for people calling him a poor man’s Trace McSorley: “When you stop me, then you can talk.”

DirecTV Customers Lose ESPN

At least temporarily, DirecTV customers have lost ESPN and Disney amid a carriage dispute.

ESPN released a statement that it is open to offering flexibility in terms to DirecTV to continue offering their channels to the network, but that they would not undervalue their programming.

After an awesome Week 1, thoughts and prayers to anyone impacted by this squabble.

Other Commitments/Decommitments

3-Star (87) Edge Kelan Butler commits to Georgia State