With the arrival of professional football and the NFL, another form of football is making its triumphant return. College football, consisting of NCAA Division 1 schools, made its return earlier this month.
Many schools around the country compete to either make a bowl game at the end of the season or to qualify for the college football playoffs. The playoffs will be determined at the end of the season when the top four ranked teams are selected to play.
This year, many of the colleges that performed well last year make their return to the top of the rankings. Georgia, the defending back-to-back national champion, has been ranked number one since the preseason AP rankings. Time will tell if they continue to crush everyone this season in their quest to win three consecutive national championships.
Michigan had seen some controversy before the start of the season when the school announced that they would be suspending head coach Jim Harbaugh due to school recruiting violations. Michigan has stayed the number two ranked school even without Harbaugh. Harbaugh will finish his three-game suspension this week and will make his return before week four’s game against Rutgers.
Florida State, a school that was the eighth-ranked school during the preseason, has jumped its way to the third-ranked school. This was done after they defeated the fifth-ranked LSU in their opening game. The Seminoles will look to continue their push for the college football playoffs.
The fourth-ranked Texas Longhorns secured a massive victory against third-ranked Alabama. Alabama, a school that has long been a college football powerhouse with head coach Nick Saban at the helm, might be seeing its dynasty come to a close.
Another school that has captivated the nation is the 18th-ranked Colorado Buffaloes. Colorado brought in NFL Hall of Fame cornerback and former Jackson State head coach Deion Sanders with the hope of finally bringing back success to the Colorado football program. So far, this has been a major success with Sanders’ son, Shedeur Sanders, playing quarterback like he wants to win the Heisman trophy.
This season will also be the end of the power five conferences. For a long time, there have been five major college conferences: the SEC, the Big-10, the Big-12, the ACC and the Pac-12. After this year, the Pac-12 will most likely be closing because most of the schools in the conference will be moving to another major conference.
Two of the major Pac-12 teams, UCLA and USC, will be moving to the Big 10. Another major change is the inclusion of Texas and the University of Oklahoma into the SEC. These changes will be reflected at the start of the 2024 season, meaning college football will look pretty different next year.
Editor’s Note: While this might not be college football-related, GO DOLPHINS! 1-0!
