2025 FBS Football Thread

[AshevilleApp]

Not sure what to make of this..

Sources: James Madison set to hire ex-Florida coach Billy Napier
https://www.espn.com/college-football/s ... lly-napier

Napier‘s buyout at UF.

$10.6 million due Nov. 19, 2025
$2.65 million due July 15, 2026
$2.65 million due July 15, 2027
$2.65 million due July 15, 2028
$2.65 million due July 15, 2029

Napier signed a seven-year, $51.8 million deal back in 2021 with a base salary that increases $100,000 every year. His salary for 2025 is $7.4 million, with another $22.8 million that was due to him over the next three seasons through January 2029…

https://www.cbssports.com/college-footb ... ead-coach/
Well, he‘s going to be getting a fraction of that at JMU. lol..

Looks like a good signing for JMU. And I wish I could be bought out.

[BDKJMU]

Not sure what to make of this..

Sources: James Madison set to hire ex-Florida coach Billy Napier
https://www.espn.com/college-football/s ... lly-napier

Napier‘s buyout at UF.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-footb ... ead-coach/
Well, he‘s going to be getting a fraction of that at JMU. lol..

Looks like a good signing for JMU. And I wish I could be bought out.

Hope so. The top 3 names on the JMU board until a week ago were:
-The Navy OC Cronic: won big at Lenoir Rhyne and Mercer.
-The Mercer HC Jacobs: won big also at Lenoir Rhyne and Mercer (succeeded Cronic at Mercer), placed at Ohio State.
-The Lehigh HC Cahil (Lehigh now 12-0).

That was the model with Cignetti and Chesney- guys who had big success at the Div II & FCS levels.

[BDKJMU]

[BDKJMU]

P4 fans are losing their collective shit over 2 G5s getting in. SEC fans are whining that only 5 SEC (all top 8 seeds) got in, and that they didn’t get 7 teams in in TX and Vandy. But if it wasn’t JMU, then it had to be 8-5 Duke. The ACC has only themselves to blame. You have 5 teams tied for 2nd place. Take the 10-2 team? Nah, they’ll get in anyway. Take the 9-3 team? No. Take one of the 8-4 teams? No. Hey, let’s take the 7-5 team so if they win, we don’t get our conference champ in. Thanks ACC. And thank you Duke.

Get ready for the CFP to expand to 16. Going to call it the JMU rule.

[GannonFan]

P4 fans are losing their collective shit over 2 G5s getting in. SEC fans are whining that only 5 SEC (all top 8 seeds) got in, and that they didn’t get 7 teams in in TX and Vandy. But if it wasn’t JMU, then it had to be 8-5 Duke. The ACC has only themselves to blame. You have 5 teams tied for 2nd place. Take the 10-2 team? Nah, they’ll get in anyway. Take the 9-3 team? No. Take one of the 8-4 teams? No. Hey, let’s take the 7-5 team so if they win, we don’t get our conference champ in. Thanks ACC. And thank you Duke.

Get ready for the CFP to expand to 16. Going to call it the JMU rule.

Going to 16 has more to do with the other teams (ND, Texas, Vandy) not getting in than anything about JMU. You're right, the ACC is the conference that mucked it up with their lack of attention to their in-conference tie-breakers. How they didn't have overall ranking in the polls as a major factor in deciding tie-breakers is the big head scratcher - it's a basketball conference masquerading as a football conference that does that. JMU got in far and square - the rules clearly say the 5 highest ranked conference champions. The ACC is the one that missed that whole "ranked" thing.

But going to 16 just has to happen for the integrity of the sport. ND would be the betting favorite against all of except maybe 2 of the CFP participants. Texas and Vandy would be favored against a lot as well. You can't have the championship process of your sport not including the best teams in the sport. There's room for Tulane and JMU to be in the 16 team model and still get the best teams in. This year you could add those 3 teams I talked about as well as say, BYU (although truth be told, they haven't impressed) and you'd have a better CFP than what you have this year, and you'd still get to keep two G5 teams in the playoff. College football runs the risk of further making the regular season weaker if they don't expand to 16 - why schedule anyone you could lose to in the current format (other than Alabama, they can lose multiple games and they'll get in, it's just how it works)? Ohio State basically played Texas during the LLWS and Michigan this year, and Michigan was just meh. Super conferences allow teams in those conferences to play a conference schedule, but you can make it so the big teams never play each other.

[BDKJMU]

Another thing. 4 million for JMU making it. On the JMU board it was posted JMU gets 1.5 million, the rest of the SBC 2.5 million.

[BDKJMU]

P4 fans are losing their collective shit over 2 G5s getting in. SEC fans are whining that only 5 SEC (all top 8 seeds) got in, and that they didn’t get 7 teams in in TX and Vandy. But if it wasn’t JMU, then it had to be 8-5 Duke. The ACC has only themselves to blame. You have 5 teams tied for 2nd place. Take the 10-2 team? Nah, they’ll get in anyway. Take the 9-3 team? No. Take one of the 8-4 teams? No. Hey, let’s take the 7-5 team so if they win, we don’t get our conference champ in. Thanks ACC. And thank you Duke.

Get ready for the CFP to expand to 16. Going to call it the JMU rule.

Going to 16 has more to do with the other teams (ND, Texas, Vandy) not getting in than anything about JMU. You're right, the ACC is the conference that mucked it up with their lack of attention to their in-conference tie-breakers. How they didn't have overall ranking in the polls as a major factor in deciding tie-breakers is the big head scratcher - it's a basketball conference masquerading as a football conference that does that. JMU got in far and square - the rules clearly say the 5 highest ranked conference champions. The ACC is the one that missed that whole "ranked" thing.

But going to 16 just has to happen for the integrity of the sport. ND would be the betting favorite against all of except maybe 2 of the CFP participants. Texas and Vandy would be favored against a lot as well. You can't have the championship process of your sport not including the best teams in the sport. There's room for Tulane and JMU to be in the 16 team model and still get the best teams in. This year you could add those 3 teams I talked about as well as say, BYU (although truth be told, they haven't impressed) and you'd have a better CFP than what you have this year, and you'd still get to keep two G5 teams in the playoff. College football runs the risk of further making the regular season weaker if they don't expand to 16 - why schedule anyone you could lose to in the current format (other than Alabama, they can lose multiple games and they'll get in, it's just how it works)? Ohio State basically played Texas during the LLWS and Michigan this year, and Michigan was just meh. Super conferences allow teams in those conferences to play a conference schedule, but you can make it so the big teams never play each other.

If 2026 rules had been in place, would have been Notre Dame and 8-5 Duke instead of Miami and JMU.

…As part of a memorandum of understanding signed last year that guarantees that the field will have at least 12 teams in 2026 and beyond, Notre Dame would be guaranteed a spot if it finished in the top 12 starting next year.

By not making it this year, Notre Dame lost out on a $4 million payday for just making the field. All 12 schools that make the CFP receive that amount, but the difference is that Notre Dame, as an independent, doesn't have to split it with conference members.

In addition, under a deal agreed to in March, there will be guaranteed CFP spots for the conference champions from the ACC, Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 and the highest-ranked Group of 5 champion, sources told ESPN. If that had been in place for this season, ACC champion Duke would have made the field and Sun Belt champ James Madison, a second Group of 5 representative, would have been left out...

https://www.espn.com/college-football/s ... -rug-farce

[BDKJMU]

Not the only article like this. The P4 cartel is closing ranks. Boy they are mad about 2 G5s crashing their party. They want NONE.
How to fix the CFP and strengthen college football: No more charity
Adding more teams to 2026 format won't matter unless automatic qualifiers are eliminated.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/n ... 666160007/

[GannonFan]

Not the only article like this. The P4 cartel is closing ranks. Boy they are mad about 2 G5s crashing their party. They want NONE.
How to fix the CFP and strengthen college football: No more charity
Adding more teams to 2026 format won't matter unless automatic qualifiers are eliminated.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/n ... 666160007/

Well, hopefully the games are competitive, but I'm not hopeful. JMU's a 21.5pt dog now up from 20.5 when it opened. Tulane's only a 17.5pt dog, although that's much better than the 35 points Tulane lost to Ole Miss when they played earlier this year. Didn't realize Lane Kiffin was worth 17.5 points by himself. It's great for the fans of the G5 teams that made it, and upsets are always possible. But even in March Madness, the 1v16 game is not really watchable most of the time. If we're expanding the playoffs, the last thing I'd want is to have each G5 conference winner get in - that's just not necessary. Still having one get in each year, though, would be important. Any system should still have that carrot out there for G5 teams to play for.

Again, the main issue this year was the ACC not handling their part of the plan. They really need to fix the tiebreaking procedures in-conference to ensure they don't end up with a 7-5 team in the championship game again. Not including rankings into the mix is what shut out Miami from playing in the conference title game. I imagine behind closed doors the other leagues are ripping into the ACC.

[SuperHornet]

I have faith that JMU will either win or at least make it a much more competitive game than those dummies at ESPN give them credit for....

[BDKJMU]

I have faith that JMU will either win or at least make it a much more competitive game than those dummies at ESPN give them credit for....

While a win is too much to hope for, all of G5 should be rooting hard for Tulane and JMU to make it somewhat competitive- within 2-3 scores. If both are boatraced that could be the death knell for any possibility of 2 G5s in the expanded 16 team playoffs, and will make it more difficult to keep one.

[SuperHornet]

I have faith that JMU will either win or at least make it a much more competitive game than those dummies at ESPN give them credit for....

While a win is too much to hope for, all of G5 should be rooting hard for Tulane and JMU to make it somewhat competitive- within 2-3 scores. If both are boatraced that could be the death knell for any possibility of 2 G5s in the expanded 16 team playoffs, and will make it more difficult to keep one.

While it wasn't a playoff game, ESPN has collectively either forgotten about APP-MI, or they're trying their hardest to purge it from their brain housing groups. Defining out the upset is a horrible idea, IMO. There was a Yahoo Sports article this week essentially positing the same thing.

[BDKJMU]

Florida Will Pay Billy Napier To Stack NIL Money At James Madison For Multiple Years

….. He does not have to worry about finances so all of his bonuses can go right back to his program.

This might not be the first time in college football history where this has happened but I cannot name another. It is, at the very least, the first time that a coach has said the quiet part out loud….

…. It fired its head coach near the end of October. It will pay him approximately $21 million not to coach over the next four years. Most of it was already paid out up front.

$10.6 million due Nov. 19, 2025 (PAID)
$2.65 million due July 15, 2026
$2.65 million due July 15, 2027
$2.65 million due July 15, 2028
$2.65 million due July 15, 2029

There is no offset for the buyout. Billy Napier is guaranteed every last penny.

James Madison can put the money toward NIL.

Napier was hired to replace Bob Chesney as the head football coach at James Madison University on Dec. 4. He signed a five-year contract.

His deal includes a base salary of $500,000, a retention bonus of $140,000, a fundraising bonus of $315,000 and $50,000 in licensing royalties for media and proprietary rights for an annual guarantee of $1,050,000. The Dukes will also give him $12,960 per year for his car and his phone.

All things considered, $1,050,000 is not that much money in the Sun Belt. The former head coach at Florida is only the third-highest paid coach in the conference after the ouster of Tim Beck at Coastal.

This is where things get interesting.

Billy Napier is not worried about his salary at James Madison because Florida is paying him a base salary of $2.65 million per year for the next four years. And he already got paid a lump sum of more than $10 million. Money is not a concern. Salary is not important.

As a result, Napier can give all of his bonus money right back to the program.

“I’ve made more money than I ever dreamed of making,” he said. “We’ve negotiated a scenario where a lot of the money maybe they wanted to pay me is being paid to other people, or we’re going to put that into rev share. All my incentives are going into a discretionary fund for the university.”

The Gators are basically subsidizing the Dukes because they fired their coach.

Oh, and Napier — who was fired in large part because would not give up play-calling duties at Florida — recently said he is going to let an offensive coordinator call plays at James Madison. The coordinator will have “autonomy.” The program also has more money to pay the coordinator.

https://brobible.com/sports/article/bil ... onus-fund/

[BDKJMU]

Long read. Only pasted about 1st half..Something needs to be done with the calendar..

'It's been a nightmare' — College Football Playoff coaches juggling multiple jobs amid wonky calendar

On the campus of James Madison, two head football coaches are hard at work.

Within the JMU football operations center, outgoing coach and new UCLA coach Bob Chesney and his coaching staff are grinding on preparations for the biggest game in the school’s history — the College Football Playoff bout on Saturday night at Oregon.

Less than a mile away, inside Hotel Madison, new JMU coach Billy Napier and his staff are knee-deep in preparations for the next version of the JMU football team — scouting players, assembling a staff and examining the transfer portal.

Every now and again, these two intersect. For instance, Napier attends most practices, watching Chesney coach Napier's future players from afar. The two, Chesney and Napier, have even met to share information — Napier helping with Chesney’s transition to the power conference level and west coast (Napier has experience in both), and Chesney helping Napier’s transition to JMU.

In the middle of it all is a chance at one of the biggest upsets in college football history.

“The three of us — me, Bob and Billy — have an agreement that the most important thing is the 2025 team,” JMU athletic director Matt Roan said. “We are proving you can work together for the betterment of a team and program. Now, is it awkward? Yeah, there is an awkwardness to it, but we’ve handled it as good as we could have.”

After all, Roan added, “What’s the alternative?”

As this year’s College Football Playoff revs up with four first-round games this week, one thing has impacted a majority of the 12-team field: the coaching carousel.

Eight playoff-bound teams have experienced coaching staff turnover to some degree.

Three programs have lost or will soon lose their head coach (JMU, Ole Miss and Tulane). Two teams, Texas A&M and Oregon, have each lost both their offensive and defensive coordinators — three of them (Collin Klein, Will Stein and Tosh Lupoi) to head coaching gigs. Ohio State’s offensive coordinator, Brian Hartline, and Alabama’s receivers coach, JaMarcus Shephard, have accepted head coaching jobs at USF and Oregon State, respectively.

And how could anyone forget about what happened in Oxford, Mississippi, where five offensive assistant coaches, including coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., followed Lane Kiffin to LSU, only to awkwardly return for the postseason run.

While all but Kiffin are remaining at their gigs through the end of their teams' playoff stretch, the juggling act is intense enough to beg a couple of questions: Will their team’s play be impacted by the situation? And is there a way to avoid the carousel’s infringement on the postseason?

“We’ve got to fix the calendar,” said Will Hall, the former Tulane assistant who will replace Jon Sumrall as head coach after the Green Wave’s playoff run ends. “We are the only sport in the world where free agency for players and coaches begins in the middle of the season.”

An expanded playoff has further complicated an already-frenetic time — mid-November through mid-January — in the sport of college football.

In that span, teams are completing their regular seasons; preparing or playing in bowls and, now, playoff games; attempting to retain their current roster while signing a new class during the December early signing period; scouring the transfer portal (i.e. tampering) to prepare for its opening in January; hiring, firing and attempting to retain coaches; and, oh by the way, players are completing their final exams.

Whew.

Shifting and shrinking the portal window from December to January hasn’t necessarily produced the desired effect. In fact, the coaching hiring cycle has accelerated faster than ever and players are already announcing their portal entrance weeks before January arrives.

How does all of this get fixed? Some believe it isn’t possible as long as college football is tethered to higher education. The university’s academic calendar makes it virtually impossible to structure college football in the same way as the NFL, where free agency and coaching transitions mostly unfold after the playoffs.

Most spring semesters begin in the middle of the playoffs in early to mid-January.

“I don’t think there is a way to avoid it,” Chesney said. “The NFL doesn’t have to worry about players enrolling in classes. If everybody started in February [class], you could do it then.”

However, a group of college athletic administrators is reigniting the topic. Members of the NCAA Football Oversight Committee are in the midst of exploring a holistic examination of the 365-day football calendar…

https://sports.yahoo.com/college-footba ... 48108.html

[BDKJMU]

Typical of a top G5 team losing their HC, in this case JMU’s Chesney to UCLA. I’m sure Tulane, N Texas, and Memphis fared similarly. From the JMU board, 17 transferred to P4, 8 to UCLA.

Projected 2026 starters lost to portal:
Offense:
QB Alonza Barnett III - UCF
RB Wayne Knight - UCLA
RB Ayo Adeyi - OKST
OL Riley Robell - UCLA
OL Trent Wilson - Iowa
OL Carter Sweazie - UCLA
OL Joseph Simmons - Auburn
WR Landon Ellis - UCLA
TE Lacota Dippre - Florida
TE Josh Phifer - UCLA

Defense:
DL Aiden Gobaira - UCLA
DL Sahir West - UCLA
DL Manny Ezeogu - Colorado
DB Justin Eaglin - Colorado
DB DJ Barksdale - UCLA
DB Tyler Brown - Iowa

KOS Christiano Rosa - Penn St

JMU now projects 4 starters back (2 on each side of the ball (one of the offense a 2024 starter)). Just like 2 years ago with the exodus with Cignetti to Indiana, it’s just reload with a several dozen transfer mix of Div III, Div II, & FCS All Conferece & All Americans, some G5 starters, and P4 non 2 deep.

[dal4018]

Florida Will Pay Billy Napier To Stack NIL Money At James Madison For Multiple Years

….. He does not have to worry about finances so all of his bonuses can go right back to his program.

This might not be the first time in college football history where this has happened but I cannot name another. It is, at the very least, the first time that a coach has said the quiet part out loud….

…. It fired its head coach near the end of October. It will pay him approximately $21 million not to coach over the next four years. Most of it was already paid out up front.

$10.6 million due Nov. 19, 2025 (PAID)
$2.65 million due July 15, 2026
$2.65 million due July 15, 2027
$2.65 million due July 15, 2028
$2.65 million due July 15, 2029

There is no offset for the buyout. Billy Napier is guaranteed every last penny.

James Madison can put the money toward NIL.

Napier was hired to replace Bob Chesney as the head football coach at James Madison University on Dec. 4. He signed a five-year contract.

His deal includes a base salary of $500,000, a retention bonus of $140,000, a fundraising bonus of $315,000 and $50,000 in licensing royalties for media and proprietary rights for an annual guarantee of $1,050,000. The Dukes will also give him $12,960 per year for his car and his phone.

All things considered, $1,050,000 is not that much money in the Sun Belt. The former head coach at Florida is only the third-highest paid coach in the conference after the ouster of Tim Beck at Coastal.

This is where things get interesting.

Billy Napier is not worried about his salary at James Madison because Florida is paying him a base salary of $2.65 million per year for the next four years. And he already got paid a lump sum of more than $10 million. Money is not a concern. Salary is not important.

As a result, Napier can give all of his bonus money right back to the program.

“I’ve made more money than I ever dreamed of making,” he said. “We’ve negotiated a scenario where a lot of the money maybe they wanted to pay me is being paid to other people, or we’re going to put that into rev share. All my incentives are going into a discretionary fund for the university.”

The Gators are basically subsidizing the Dukes because they fired their coach.

Oh, and Napier — who was fired in large part because would not give up play-calling duties at Florida — recently said he is going to let an offensive coordinator call plays at James Madison. The coordinator will have “autonomy.” The program also has more money to pay the coordinator.

https://brobible.com/sports/article/bil ... onus-fund/

Napier had a cup of coffee with South Carolina St as the OC and pushed the Bulldogs into national prominence among FCS BASED SCHOOLS with his scaled down passing game.