ESPN College Football

Greg McElroy ranks his Top 10 teams going into the 2025 college football season. McElroy explains reasons he loves each team and also one area of concern for each. Defending champ outside the Top 5? Any SEC teams in the Top 3? Surprising No. 1? Find out in the latest Always College Football. | Always College Football (0:00) Intro (2:24) #10: Miami (7:07) #9: Oregon (11:05) #8: Ohio State (14:16) #...

Greg McElroy and Matt Barrie sit down to discuss the opening of fall camp with the season right around the corner. What is the impact on Florida with DJ Lagway in a boot to start camp? How will new Offensive coordinators and QB’s mesh at Alabama and Michigan? Is Gunner Stockton the perfect Georgia quarterback and can Arch Manning live up the ridiculous hype? Can Penn State prove the haters wrong a...

Greg McElroy breaks down the ‘tiers” in the BIG 10 and tells you why Penn State, Oregon and Ohio State can ALL win a National Title and make it three in a row for the conference. Michigan, USC and Nebraska are all playoff contenders but don’t sleep on Washington or Indiana making it back to the CFP either. It is a deep and dangerous conference with Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa looking t...

Greg McElroy breaks down the ‘tiers” in the ACC for the upcoming season and tells you why Clemson AND Miami are both National Title contenders. If SMU is still a CFP contender and to watch out for Louisville or Georgia Tech to crash the CFP party. How much will Florida State and NC State bounce back, will North Carolina’s favorable schedule increase the Bill Belichick hype and is THIS the year tha...

Greg McElroy breaks down the ‘tiers” in the SEC for the upcoming season and tells you why Texas, Alabama, Georgia and LSU all can WIN a National Title. Can South Carolina carry over the momentum from last season and make the CFP? Will Oklahoma, Florida or Auburn make a big jump and contend for a playoff spot? Will Ole Miss or Texas A&M take the next step and make the CFP? Is this the year the SEC...

As 2025 SEC Kickoff starts Greg McElroy sits down with Heisman Trophy winner and Texas A&M icon Johnny Manziel. The two look back at SEC Media Days in 2013 when Manziel-mania took over and dominated almost every storyline. To this day it is still the most talked about media days in college football history. The two also discuss Manziel’s new podcast “Glory Daze”, how much he could have made in NIL...

Greg McElroy breaks down the ‘tiers’ in the BIG 12 with a surprising number of CFP contenders but is there a legit National Championship contender in the conference? How will Arizona State handle the bullseye on their back? Is Texas Tech in the BIG 12 “championship or bust” mentality? How will Iowa State follow up the best season in program history and will Kansas State, Kansas, Baylor and TCU kee...

Steve Sarkisian joins Greg McElroy and talks about the expectations at Texas heading into 2025, the growth of Arch Manning, the depth at running back, why he “super pumped” about the wide receiver room, how Ohio State in week one is motivating them and much more. Plus, we hit the mailbag and answer if NIL puts more pressure on players, the G5 teams you NEED to know, the best “under the radar games...

Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule joins McElroy to talk expectations heading into year 3, the culture shift, winning close games, Dylan Raiola and much more. Plus we open the mailbag to talk about realistic expectations for the Cornhuskers in ‘25, if Virginia Tech will ever get out of the middle of the ACC, if Georgia Tech can take the next step and the best and worst case scenarios for the Florida G...

The House Settlement got its final approval and Greg McElroy is here to tell you what it means for college football, who gets paid, roster limits and if it will bring "competitive balance” to the sport. McElroy also talks about the importance of the College Sports Commission and maybe the unintended consequences it might have. Plus, we look at the comments Ryan Day made about automatic qualifiers...

Joey McGuire has Texas Tech at levels not seen since Mike Leach was roaming the sidelines in Lubbock. McGuire joins the show to talk about Texas Tech’s rise, how the Red Raiders have approached the transfer portal, lessons learned from his first 3 seasons, the depth of the BIG 12, and recruiting in Texas (and he shares an amazing story). Plus McElroy looks at OVER/UNDER win totals for Texas Tech,...

Defense wins championships so we decided to go down and rank the Top 10 defenses entering the 2025 season. Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State and Clemson all welcome in new defensive coordinators - what impact will that have early next year? Texas might have their best defense EVER, Alabama is returning A TON of production while Georgia and Oklahoma are looking to get back to dominance. McElroy br...

Marcus Freeman joins the show and talks about Notre Dame’s quest for a National Championship, how the Irish have stayed focused, lessons learned from a LONG season, the rivalry against USC, what the QB competition looks like heading into summer and much more. Plus, the SEC Meetings have concluded and McElroy looks at the straight seeding model adopted for the 2025 CFP and the much talked about 5+1...

Rece Davis and Pete Thamel explore the potential future of the College Football Playoff format heading into 2026. They delve into the possibility of expanding to a 16-team playoff and discuss the SEC’s openness to participating in a broader format. Also on the pod, Rece Davis sits down for an exclusive one-on-one interview with Dabo Swinney and Bill Belichick. Together, they reflect on the evolvin...

Lincoln Riley joins the show to talk about USC getting back on top, what he learned in his first season in the BIG 10, the recruiting surge that the Trojans have been on and the changes that come with the evolution of college football. Plus, conference expansion has already cost us more rivalries than football fans care to admit. McElroy talks about how the Notre Dame USC rivalry can continue but...

Kalen DeBoer joins the show to talk about Alabama getting back on top, what he learned in his first season in Tuscaloosa, the quarterback competition, recruiting and what Ryan Grubb will bring to the staff in 2025. Plus, we look at win totals for all P4 teams with second year head coaches - Can Alabama, Texas A&M and Michigan make a jump, can Indiana, Syracuse, Duke and others prove Vegas wrong? M...

Mario Cristobal joins the show to talk about Miami being on the up and up, how his first recruiting class are now the clubhouse leaders, Carson Beck’s impact, the youth at wide receiver, why playing Notre Dame early will motivate his team (and the fans) and much more. Plus, week 1 in 2025 is good with Texas vs Ohio State, Notre Dame vs Miami, LSU vs Clemson but McElroy lays out how it could be bet...

Coming off a 9 win season where they defeated FOUR ranked teams, South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer joins Greg McElroy on the show. The two discuss LaNorris Sellers impact, culture within the Gamecocks locker room, when coach Beamer knew they were going to be good last year and raised expectations in . Plus, we give a hat tip to Cam Rising after his retirement and McElroy gives his reasons for...

Coming off a CFP appearance and a program record 11 win season, Curt Cignetti joins Greg McElroy on the show.  The two discuss how Indiana’s commitment to football brought him in, why he looks for production over potential in the transfer portal, changes to the CFP selection process and expectations for the Hoosiers in 2025. Plus, is Nebraska getting disrespected over Sherrone Moore’s suspension a...

Who are the best running backs heading into the 2025 college football season? Can Jeremiyah Love and a deep running back room get Notre Dame back to the CFP, how much better is Penn State’s RB tandem than everyone else in the country and what impact will the transfers have at Oklahoma, Missouri and Oregon? How many running backs from the SEC made the list and can anyone challenge the BIG 10 as the...

Spring is over and the portal is closed and so we decided now was the best time to give you McElroy’s Top 10 QBs entering the 2025 season. Are Arch Manning and Nico Iamaleava in the top 10? How much does Carson Beck have to prove at Miami this year? Where will Cade Klubnik and Drew Aller rank and who has the immediate impact transfer (hint: Oklahoma). McElroy goes over all of it plus gives you som...

Greg McElroy takes a look at the Madden Iamaleava-Arkansas situation and if recouping NIL via buyouts could become a regular occurrence moving forward. Greg then gets into spring game recaps for Texas A&M and South Carolina, discussing season outlooks for both SEC squads. Finally, Greg gives his take on Joey Aguilar to Tennessee, what’s going on with the CFP meetings and the changes that could hap...

Greg starts today’s show celebrating the career of the legendary Lee Corso before getting into some portal news and spring game recaps. Do we buy what Nico’s camp said about why he transferred away from Tennessee? And what will it look like now that he’s QB1 for UCLA? Plus, Steve Angeli is in the portal, David Stone returns to Oklahoma and more. Finally, Greg talks about Bryce Underwood’s spring g...

Rece Davis and Pete Thamel break down the lingering questions surrounding Nico Iamaleava—did he leave Tennessee too soon, prioritizing financial opportunity over development? Is UCLA truly committed to him? And can he work his way into future NFL Draft conversations? Then, ESPN NFL Draft Analyst and Insider Matt Miller joins to spotlight the player everyone’s talking about: Jalon Walker. He also w...

The spring transfer portal is open and players are jumping in every day. McElroy goes through the early contenders and gives you the needs that each team has. Will Alabama take a Tight End, will Texas, LSU, Georgia and Ohio State go after the same defensive lineman? Can Miami and Michigan bolster their wide receiver rooms and will Tennessee find help at quarterback? So many needs, so many question...