Halfway to the 2026 Season!

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 Welcome Back!

We are just about halfway between the end of the 2025 College Football Season and the beginning of the 2026 College Football Season, so I thought I might update you on some items of interest.

1) After taking a couple of months off from near daily writing, I have begun my preparations for my 2026 Previews and Power Rankings. This mostly involves data entry, applying formulas, etc., but I am nearly ready to start actually writing. Or at least filling out the data portion of each team's preview, like the coach's name and record, bowl records of teams, etc. I will actually be doing some preliminary writing as well, but that will mostly come in June and July.

2) I have tweaked several of my formulas, the result of which will still be determined. However, I believe it will make my Power Rankings a little more responsive to early season results and not so dependent on preseason points. As I said, I won't know for sure until the season plays out, but I like what I see so far. Mainly what I have done is de-emphasized some data that I felt was having an outsized effect on the preseason rankings. The main result is that there will be fewer points separating the #1 team from the #138 team, meaning that teams should move up or down more easily, and farther, based on results.

3) The season begins on Saturday, August 29, which means my previews will begin on Monday July 20. For those of you who don't know, I preview all 138 teams over 3 weeks (Monday through Friday), with 10 teams per day (on most days). I do the Top 20 the last 4 days with 5 teams per day, but I may adjust that due to there being more teams than just a few years ago, when I established this setup. I may do 12-13 teams per day until the Top 25, when I'll do 5 per day. At any rate, I have plenty of time to decide before the 1st previews drop. After my individual team previews finish, I preview one conference per day over the next 2 weeks, so all-in-all, my previews take 5 weeks, which takes us up to game week and my normal in-season schedule: TWIF Notes, Power Rankings, Odds and Ends, and then Paul's Picks on Thursday.

4) I've alluded to the number of teams a few times already, but we have also added 2 teams to the FBS ranks: the North Dakota State Bison join the Mountain West Conference, while the Sacramento State Hornets join the MAC (though they are nowhere near the middle of America), raising the total number from 136 to 138. 

5) Speaking of conferences, the Pac 12 is a fully re-formed conference now, with Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Texas State, and Utah State joining holdovers Oregon State and Washington State. Yep, that's a LOT of "States". They are keeping the Pac 12 name even though they only have 8 members. I guess numbers have lost all meaning now... 

6) All of the new Pac 12 members have moved over from the Mountain West (except Texas State, which hops over from the Sun Belt Conference), which means the MWC now consists of previous members Air Force, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State (they didn't lose ALL of their "States" to the Pac 12), UNLV, and Wyoming, and new members NDSU (from the FCS- see item 4), Northern Illinois (from the MAC), and UTEP (from CUSA). 

7) The MAC has lost Northern Illinois, but added Sac State (see item 4) from the FCS ranks to return their number to 13.

8) The Sun Belt lost TSU to the Pac 12, but added La Tech from CUSA, which is a great move for the Bulldogs, since they'll join the West Division and have natural in-state rivalries with Louisiana and ULM, as well as Arkansas State, Southern Miss, South Alabama, and Troy, all within a few hours drive.

9) CUSA loses 2 teams, so they drop to 10 teams, but it should be a competitive conference. Too bad most people can't watch their games, as they are mostly on CBSSN or ESPN+.

10) For those of you who don't know, I am a Georgia Bulldog through and through- all 3 of my degrees are from UGA, and I played in the Redcoat Marching Band for 4 years, from 1982-1985. I watched the G-Day Game yesterday, and had a few reactions. First, the defense looks much improved. They were very active swarming to the ball, and coverage downfield was very good. Second, the Dawgs have a thousand tight ends (or so it seems), and they can all catch! They also have a bunch of QBs, and I was impressed by redshirt Freshman Hezekiah Millender and true Freshman Bryson Beavers- one or both could be the future at the position. Finally, the RB room looks deep and talented, and I am much less worried about the receivers- they appear to be talented and could actually be an asset. What I am worried about (a little) is at punter. 

That's it for today. 


Feel free to leave a comment. Don't forget to bookmark this page, and come back this summer for my previews!

May you and your loved ones be blessed!

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