College Football
College football is back: what week 1 showed
College Football 2026
WEEKONE
Five moments from a quiet opening weekend.
Week 1 of the college football season is done, and if you only look at the scores, not much happened. There was exactly one game between two ranked teams. The rest was big names against small names, and it mostly went the way you would expect.
That comes with the territory. Opening weekends exist to find rhythm, not to deliver surprises. Even so, five moments are worth holding on to, and one of them will keep echoing for weeks.
The five moments
Michigan got a second back
Western Michigan were about to pull off the biggest upset of the season. Bryce Underwood threw a Hail Mary that sailed behind the end zone, the clock hit zero and the Western Michigan sideline was already spilling onto the field. Chants of "fire Kyle" came down from the stands.
Then the officials went to the monitor and found one more second. The Big Ten later explained that Micah Davis had touched the ball out of bounds with a second still showing, and that the stadium clock did not match the broadcast graphic. Underwood got a second chance, threw another Hail Mary, and JJ Buchanan hauled it in from 47 yards. 13-12.
LSU took Clemson apart
After a Clemson field goal in the first quarter, LSU scored 51 unanswered points. Sam Leavitt ran for 113 yards on his debut and threw for 230, good for three touchdowns.
The story was on the other side of the ball. Clemson went 0-for-12 on third down, finished with 74 total yards and punted ten times before a late drive salvaged something. 51-10.
The only real thriller
Ole Miss against Louisville was the only meeting of two ranked teams in week 1, and it produced the best game of the weekend. Trinidad Chambliss threw for 336 yards, ran for 60 more and had a hand in four touchdowns.
Louisville would not go away. Lincoln Kienholz, over from Ohio State, put together back-to-back touchdowns to tie it at 38. Chambliss steadied the Rebels into range, and Lucas Carneiro drilled a 48-yarder as time expired.
Mensah set the tone immediately
Miami won 45-6 at Stanford, and Darian Mensah’s numbers were almost unreal: 27 of 30, 401 yards and five touchdowns. The quarterback arrived from Duke and needed half a game to show why Miami wanted him.
His favourite target nearly stole the show. Malachi Toney caught twelve passes for 234 yards, a program record, and added three touchdowns. Both names are now being mentioned alongside the Heisman.
Indiana replaced a Heisman winner
Last season’s champions lost Fernando Mendoza, who won the Heisman, went unbeaten and then went first overall to the Raiders. That is not an easy act to follow.
Josh Hoover, over from TCU, managed it on his first outing. Thirteen of sixteen, 231 yards and four touchdowns. More touchdowns than incompletions, on debut for the defending champions. Indiana beat North Texas 52-16.
How you get in, in college football
Athletic directors build their schedules strategically, exactly as they do in basketball. But the system underneath works very differently.
There are no quadrants here
In college basketball the NET rating sorts every opponent into four quadrants, factoring in whether you play at home, away or on neutral ground. Home against the top 30 is Quad 1; away it already counts from the top 75. That is where the flaw sits: you mostly get credit for playing Quad 1 opponents rather than beating them. How that system works, why athletic directors build their entire schedule around it and what it does to a programme's chances, I explain from start to finish in my book on college basketball.
Football has nothing like it. A committee of thirteen people works without a formula, weighing strength of schedule, head-to-head results, outcomes against common opponents and circumstances such as injuries. Since last year a game against a strong opponent carries more weight, and a new measure rewards beating one while limiting the penalty for losing to one.
The real difference is the number of games. In basketball you play thirty and can absorb a few heavy defeats as long as the quality is there. In football you play twelve. That is why athletic directors schedule far more aggressively in basketball than in football, where one misstep can cost you the season.
It also explains why week 1 is so often tame. Anyone chasing the title would rather not take a risk before the real work starts.
Saturday is where it really starts
Texas travel to Ohio State, and that is the fixture this season begins on. Arch Manning against the number one team in the country, with Jeremiah Smith on the other side, who caught eight passes for 151 yards and two touchdowns in the first half alone against Ball State.
This is exactly the kind of game the committee looks back on in December. Whoever wins it banks something in September that others chase all season. Whoever loses has eleven games left to explain why it did not matter.
Week 1 was the run-up. Saturday is the start.