This college football season has been anything but normal. With College Football Playoff mainstays like Clemson, Ohio State, and Oklahoma not even reaching their conference championship games, college football fans knew that the Playoff would probably look different this year. Even Alabama was at risk of not making it to the College Football Playoff before they took down the undefeated, number one ranked Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship game, locking in a trip to the CFP for the seventh time in eight years. Alabama was the underdog in this game for the first time in 93 games, but the College Football Playoff was not about to crown a national champion without having the Crimson Tide in the mix. There are still three fairly unfamiliar faces in the CFP this year with number two Michigan, number three Georgia, and number four Cincinnati. Georgia has made the Playoff one time before, but both Michigan and Cincinnati are in for the first time. All four of these teams are clearly very talented, making it to the top four and having the opportunity to play for a national championship, but which team will come out on top?

The college football world was shaken up last Sunday afternoon after Oklahoma Sooners head coach, Lincoln Riley, announced that he will be the head coach at the University of Southern California next season. After last weekend’s loss to the Sooners’ rival, Oklahoma State, Riley was asked to comment on the many rumors that he was set to become the next head coach at Louisiana State University. Before the inquiring reporter could even finish his question, Riley stopped him and said, “Let me stop you right there, I’m not going to be the next coach at LSU.” Oklahoma’s loss last weekend was their first loss to Oklahoma State since 2014 and the Sooners will be missing the Big 12 championship game for the first time since 2003. Although this was a devastating loss for Oklahoma, Riley’s postgame interview gave the Sooners’ fans hope that their successful young coach would be staying in Norman. Unfortunately for them, Riley had other plans. He didn’t lie to his team and his fans at Oklahoma in his postgame interview, he just didn’t tell them the whole truth. 

The Redbirds of Illinois State University will be opening their season Saturday, September 4th after a short off season due to the 2021 spring season. To make up for no games played in the fall of 2020, Illinois State and the Missouri Valley Conference agreed to play a ten-game schedule in the spring of 2021. Unfortunately for the Redbirds, due to COVID issues, ISU was only able to play four of their ten games and ended with a 1-3 record. The Birds come into this new season with high hopes. Sophomore quarterback Bryce Jefferson is returning after a shaky spring season. Jefferson did show flashes of great ability, but overall, there were constant mistakes. Jefferson does have some experience winning, as he was the starting quarterback at the end of the 2019 season, after starting quarterback Brady Davis suffered a season ending injury late in the regular season. In that 2019 season, Illinois State made it to the FCS quarterfinals with Bryce Jefferson under center, so he has shown that he can be the guy for the Redbirds. 

After a 2-6 season in 2020, the University of Illinois Fighting Illini Football team is looking forward to an improved season in 2021 under a new head coach, Bret Bielema. The Fighting Illini parted ways with former coach, Lovie Smith, after a five-year stint with the program. In those five years, Coach Smith and Illinois went 17-39 with no winning seasons. Illinois did not wait long to find Lovie’s replacement, hiring Bret Bielema off the New York Giants’ staff in December, on the same day as the team’s last game of the 2020 season. The Fighting Illini had no problem with hiring Coach Bielema in a timely manner, as they were very impressed with his Big Ten-heavy background. Coach Bielema is from Prophetstown, Illinois, played football at the University of Iowa and had a long run of success as Wisconsin’s head coach. As Wisconsin’s head football coach, Bielema led the Badgers to three Big Ten championships, six consecutive bowl games and a 68-24 record. This kind of success in the Big Ten is something that the Fighting Illini could not overlook. 

The Big Ten has voted to change its rules to let Ohio State play in next weekend’s title game, a move that will increase the Buckeyes’ chances of making the College Football Playoff and potentially bring millions in added revenue to the league’s 14 schools.

The Irish welcomed No. 1 Clemson to South Bend and went toe-to-toe with the mighty Tigers for four quarters and beyond. The game went into double-overtime, and it was Brian Kelly’s team that eventually emerged with a triumphant 47-40 victory. It’s a victory that firmly plants Notre Dame at the top of the College Football Playoff discussion with the likes of Alabama and Ohio State with the CFP selection committee’s first rankings just a few weeks away.