This year’s crop of first-year coaches in college football raised the bar beyond all reasonable expectations. Sonny Dykes, Lincoln Riley and Kalen DeBoer are all legit National Coach of the Year candidates after putting together top 15 seasons for teams that were under .500 last year, Brian Kelly catapulted a 6-7 LSU team into SEC championship in his first season, and Mike Elko piled up eight wins at Duke after the Blue Devils had five the previous two seasons....

The Sooners opened as 11-point home favorites at the The Wynn sports book, but bettors have been backing the visiting Wildcats, moving the line down to -7.5 as of Friday afternoon. The combination of one team just playing a tough rivalry game and the other benefiting from a bye week has impacted the odds. Oklahoma is coming off a hard-fought 31-26 win over Texas last Saturday in the annual Red River Rivalry game, failing to cover the spread as a 16....

Here’s a pick for this week’s NCAA Football card: BYU Cougars (4-1) @ UCF Knights (2-2) A strong start was met by a frustrating series of events as BYU not only lost its first game of the season last week, but also star quarterback Taysom Hill to a fractured leg. According to initial prices, Central Florida opened as a 3-point favorite. Money-line odds have BYU as +150 underdogs, implying a 40 percent chance of winning....

The 130 FBS teams will compete for the College Football Playoff championship this season, even if there are only a handful can actually earn a Playoff berth. Even fewer teams can win their semifinal matchup in either the Cotton Bowl or Orange Bowl, then win again in the championship game in Santa Clara, Calif. How many, you ask? We’re going to say eight, which is fewer than the 10 teams we had on the list last season....

The Buckeyes benefitted from USC’s loss in the Pac-12 championship game to take the final spot in this year’s four-team playoff. Ohio State did not play in the Big Ten championship game. Ohio State will play No. 1 Georgia in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. THE CASE FOR: Georgia | Michigan | TCU Here is a closer look at Ohio State’s playoff history, and the reasons why the Buckeyes will (or won’t) win a national championship in 2022: Ohio State’s College Football Playoff history Ohio State is making its fifth College Football Playoff appearance, and this will be the third under Day....

The top four teams in the first set of rankings were Alabama, Notre Dame, Clemson and Ohio State. The Tigers are the only team with one loss among that group, but the entire top seven teams remained unchanged from the initial rankings on Nov. 25. The College Football Playoff rankings will be released each Tuesday leading up to conference championship weekend, and the final rankings will be unveiled on Dec....

How will that affect the latest College Football Playoff rankings? MORE: Should OSU be No. 2? Buckeyes leave no doubt in blowout against Spartans The Buckeyes were utterly dominant in the 56-7 victory over Michigan State, a score that is impressive in itself but is even more incredible considering it came against a top-10 team. It could even be enough to sway the playoff selection committee to bump Ohio State a spot or two in the latest rankings....

Recruiters up and down the country have been hard at work trying to convince the highest rated high school athletes to attend their institutions. The biggest football colleges, and the highest rated teams have already recruited over 20 players each. Texas A&M, Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State have all already bagged multiple five-star rated players each. Though player students have committed their futures to colleges already, today is just the beginning for the recruitment drive and a lot can happen between now and the official date for National Signing Day on February 2, 2022....

Main event: Clemson at Florida State Revenge won’t come easy. Clemson looks to avenge an embarrassing 51-14 loss against defending national champion Florida State on Sept. 20. That game put Jameis Winston in the national spotlight, both for his pregame speech and 444-yard, three-TD performance against the Tigers. The implications aren’t that much different in 2014. The winner will have a leg-up in the ACC Atlantic Division race, and the loser will be in an uphill battle to reach the four-team College Football Playoff....

Too bad it cannot figure out its postseason. In the eight-year history of the College Football Playoff, there have been 24 playoff games. All have been at neutral sites. When the CFP expands to 12, the plan is to have 11 playoff games per season, with seven on neutral fields. Has anyone contributing to this plan been to an on-campus game lately? BENDER: Seven games that will define college football’s second half | Bowl projections...

That includes three games between AP Top 25-ranked opponents, including No. 1 Alabama and No. 18 Mississippi State on CBS, No. 2 Clemson at No. 17 Boston College on ABC and No. 8 Ohio State at No. 22 Michigan State on FOX. MORE: Watch college football live and on demand on fuboTV Of course, there are plenty of other big games to watch, including a rare reunion between Florida State and No....

No ranked teams played each other last week, but Georgia vs. Notre Dame is one of three Week 4 games between ranked teams, as No. 11 Michigan opens Big Ten play against No. 13 Wisconsin and No. 8 Auburn visits No. 17 Texas A&M in the SEC. Here is the full schedule for teams in the AP Top 25 (all times Eastern), including kickoff times and TV channels for every game....

The Tigers arrive into the matchup against the Razorbacks on Saturday as a 44-point favorite. According to Killer Sports Database, that makes them the biggest favorite in a SEC conference game since 1980. In the intervening four decades, there have been only 10 SEC games featuring a spread larger than 35 points and LSU’s 44-point line is the biggest in conference history since Florida was a 43-point favorite against Vanderbilt in 1995 and 1996....

That includes defending national champion Clemson. The Tigers play Georgia Tech in the launch of the ACC Network. It will be our first look at Trevor Lawrence since the 44-16 blowout victory against Alabama in last year’s College Football Playoff championship game. MORE: Week 1 Heisman watch, upset picks and more Sporting News has picks against the spread for all the top-25 games here, but we’re giving you the Thursday picks for now ....

See the week’s full college football schedule below. (All times E.T., standings are AP poll) PHOTOS: Must-see from week 11 | Seven most-hated teams Tuesday, Nov. 11 8 p.m. | Akron at Buffalo | ESPNU 8 p.m. | Toledo at Northern Illinois | ESPN2 Wednesday, Nov. 12 8 p.m. | Ball State at Massachusetts | ESPNU 8 p.m. | Kent State at Bowling Green | ESPN2 Thursday, Nov. 13 7 p....

On Monday, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, flanked by members of both sides of the aisle, signed a bipartisan bill into law that expanded higher education opportunities for military families. In exchange for re-enlisting for six years, spouses and children of National Guard members could attend college for free or at a low cost. “I can’t think of a better way to show our appreciation for that sacrifice than to provide education benefits to their families,” Pennsylvania Senator Lindsey Williams, the bill’s co-sponsor, told Newsweek....

Virginia opened the 2015 College World Series by scoring all of its runs with two outs in beating Arkansas 5-3. The Cavaliers (40-22) broke a 3-3 tie in the top of the eighth as Daniel Pinero singled with one out and stole second and third. Kenny Towns plated him with a two-out double. Virginia moves on to face Florida (47-19), which used an 11-run fourth inning to rout Miami 15-3 in the nightcap....