College football stayed very much in the news throughout the offseason, with details emerging almost weekly about changes in the way the sport works, both on and off the field.
With the kickoff of the 2025 campaign less than a week away, here’s a quick cheat sheet on all that’s changed (and also what hasn’t):
How come players are getting paid now?
This has been developing for decades. It’s rooted in a handful of lawsuits in which players sued to be able to profit from their name, image and likenesses — say, for instance, on the covers of a video game or the back of a team jerseys.
Starting this season, the schools themselves will be able to pay the players directly for using their NIL, which further blurs the line between amateur and professionalism.
What still isn’t allowed is “pay for play” — where a school simply signs a player to play for them — though many people argue these NIL deals are simply pay for play in disguise under the term “revenue sharing.”
There have been, however, persistent calls for players to be treated more like employees — for instance, through collective bargaining — and that figures to be the next big debate to play out.
How much money do the players make? And who pays?
Contracts range from several million dollars for top quarterbacks such as Arch Manning of Texas to four-digit deals for players far down on the depth chart.
Schools are allowed to share 22% of a portion of their revenue this school year, which amounts to $20.5 million that has to be split among all sports, but mostly goes to football and men’s basketball.
Who pays? Well, often it’s us, the fans, one way or another. Some schools are increasing the cost of tickets and ticket licenses; others are upping concession prices and a few more have added athletic surcharges to tuition bills.
Most every big school has been hitting up boosters to fill in the gaps that the $20.5 million and added scholarship costs will create. Some sports departments are getting extra funding from government.
Did Deion Sanders stay at Colorado?
He did. Though there was speculation wide and far that Sanders might follow his sons Shedeur and Shilo out the door after two years, the coach insisted he was with the Buffs for the long-haul. Just as preseason camp was warming up, Sanders disclosed he’d been diagnosed with bladder cancer, which he said had been treated.
“I’m healthy, I’m vibrant,” Sanders said.
His team? Who knows? Replacing a star quarterback and a Heisman Trophy winner in Travis Hunter is never a sure thing. The over/under on the CU win total this year is 6.5 according to the MGM Sportsbook.
Why is Bill Belichick coaching in college?
The 73-year-old, six-time Super Bowl winner with the New England Patriots said he was looking for a new challenge and a place to build a program the way he wanted, instead of the way NFL teams he interviewed with were telling him.
He also cited the close connection he had to his new school, North Carolina, where his father served as an assistant coach in the 1950s.
What about Alabama?
The Crimson Tide’s four losses in coach Kalen DeBoer’s first season were the most since Nick Saban’s debut in 2007. The Tide’s hopes for a turnaround rest on quarterback Ty Simpson, who won the starting job this month after sitting on the sideline for his first three seasons in Tuscaloosa.
Simpson is a rarity — a five-star recruit who didn’t bail on his school in search of more playing time and potentially more money.
Alabama’s opener is Aug. 30 at Florida State.
When do the games start?
Things kick off Saturday, with Big 12 rivals Kansas State and Iowa State meeting in Ireland. Big games next weekend include No. 1 Texas at No. 3 Ohio State, No. 9 LSU at No. 4 Clemson and No. 6 Notre Dame at No. 10 Miami.
Anything new about the College Football Playoff?
This is the second year of the 12-team playoff. There will be four rounds of games, starting Dec. 19 and ending exactly a month later at Hard Rock Stadium near Miami.
The five best conference champions will earn automatic bids into the tournament, but in a tweak from last year, the four best among them will not be guaranteed a top-four seed and a first-round bye. Instead, they’ll be slotted in by how the 13-person selection committee ranks them.
So, for instance, if Texas and Alabama are CFP No. 1 and 2 heading into the SEC title game and Texas wins a close one, but Alabama only falls to No. 4, the Tide would still get the 4 seed and a first-round bye.
How to keep track of who’s good and not good
After Labor Day, the AP releases its weekly Top 25 poll every Sunday. The CFP selection committee starts releasing its weekly rankings the first week of November. Its last poll, on Dec. 8, will slot the teams into the playoff bracket.
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