THE LOOKBACK

7 things you might’ve missed

1) There are four games this week! First, at noon ET, Florida State and Boston College kick off the season from beautiful Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Then, FCS Montana State travels to New Mexico at 4pm ET, SMU plays at Nevada at 8pm ET, and Delaware State squares off against Hawaii at midnight ET. Speaking of…

2) Delaware State, slated to play Hawaii tomorrow night, missed its flight to the islands due to a “bus snafu.” Fear not, the Hornets were able to cobble together three commercial flights and arrive with plenty of time to spare. Not gonna lie, this sounded a little like the McCallister family trying to get home from France. Yes, Delaware State is a 38-point underdog and probably going to lose the football game, but there’s no victory that compares to a creative travel achievement.

3) Georgia Tech’s uniform department rose to the occasion for its game in Ireland this weekend against Florida State. Presented without further commentary:

4) Iowa suspended Kirk Ferentz for its season opener against Illinois State due to a recruiting violation at the end of 2022. Iowa played coy about naming the player it tried to woo to Iowa City, but sources told ESPN it was former Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara.

5) The SEC finally announced its tiebreakers for the 2024 season. The story here is not how the tiebreakers work. That part’s pretty self-explanatory. It’s that the SEC waited until three days before the season to officially announce them, which didn’t at all give the impression that it was a big afterthought.

6) A former Colorado assistant apparently lobbied Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund for NIL funding. Look, it’s a brave new world these days and money is the name of the game. But, uhhhhh… adding this level of private investment to the leaderless mish-mash of college football feels like it could be a bad precedent?

7) Alabama is now paying its general manager $825,000 per year. It should come as no surprise that, in the NIL and Portal era, GMs are very much a thing in college football. The Tide just reset the market by paying Courtney Morgan with a big ol’ bag of money. Morgan reportedly turned down a more lucrative offer from USC to stay in Tuscaloosa and work with Kalen DeBoer.

THE LOOKAHEAD

Our playoff predictions with some conviction

For the first time ever, we found ourselves projecting a 12-team playoff field as part of our annual season preview series. Weirdly, it was harder than expected. There are, of course, a handful of teams (Ohio State, Georgia, Oregon, etc.) that we’ve had penciled in since March. And while there isn’t much mystery at the very top or with the pool of teams in the conversation, there’s an awful lot of intrigue over which fringe teams will qualify, and specifically which campuses will end up with home games.

▶️ Our full conversation with our VERY OFFICIAL predictions can be found right here

Thoughts?

THE VERBALLERHOOD

Be part of our community this season!

We’re pumped to watch another year of college football with you. Whether you’re a veteran of our community or just finding it for the first time, you’re welcome to be part of the Verballerhood, our legion of the most passionate college football fans on the planet. It’s easy to join:

1️⃣ Follow the podcast on your favorite app by clicking on this link. (If you’re already a listener, invite some friends!)

2️⃣ Sign up for any paid tier over at Verballers.com and be eligible for our Run The Board pick’em game, which launches next week. The winner in Week 1 gets a $500 Visa gift card. Oh, and at the end of the season, our top five finishers will earn a seat on our esteemed Board of Trustees.

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