A historic year for college football? A historic year is for sure a way to describe the current college football season. Top teams have been falling each week as every team is working their hardest to beat the top dogs so they can have a sliver of a chance at the playoffs. With big time upsets each week, teams ranked in preseason polls have dropped after losing to some unknown teams.
This season there has been a new addition to the playoff system with 12 teams having a chance at the national championship. The top 4 conference champions will get a bye week in the playoffs while the 5th will get an automatic bid in the playoffs with no bye week. Every team has been trying their best this year knowing that they have a shot at the college football playoffs. Teams like unranked Northern Illinois beat a top ranked Notre Dame team 16-14 September 7th earlier in the season. Teams have unexpectedly risen in the rankings to become top ranked such as Iowa State and BYU out of the BIG 12. Indiana coming out of the BIG 10, Pittsburgh ACC and Boise State Mountain West are just a few others to name. With that being said top teams have tremendously dropped out of rankings such as a popular downfall of Florida State, and NC State out of the ACC, Michigan, and Iowa out of the BIG 10. Lastly Utah, Oklahoma State, Arizona, and Kansas all out of the BIG 12.
With the rises and falls of teams it is not crazy to say that this has been one amazing college football season. Not only have teams been playing great but players have been outstanding as well. The Heisman Trophy is awarded to the best player in college football, the race for this trophy has been like no other. This year it isn’t only quarterbacks who have been involved in the race for the Heisman but Colorado star wide receiver/defensive back Travis Hunter has been included in talks of it as well. Ashton Jeanty, Boise State running back has taken over the world of college football. Barry Sanders has the current record of rushing yards of 2,628 which is the current single-season record. Ashton Jeanty is on pace to come within range of it with a current amount of 1,376 yards with an average of 8.7 yards per carry in just 7 games. Jeanty has a projected amount of 2,752 yards with a included conference championship game and bowl/playoff game. With that Dillon Gabriel now leads in heisman winner odds after week 9 of the season and has just surpassed some huge names such as Cam Ward out of Miami, and Travis Hunter. Gabriel stated in the 10/28/24 issue of Sports Illustrated, “Dude, I’m chasing wins, dude… I choose winning 100% of the time. Special, as in a lot of guys came together to make this happen… Don’t want to dodge that, but I’m chasing wins, and that’s all I’m focused on.”