Mark Haines

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College Football

Wisconsin Fans Stopped Chanting and Canceled 7,193 Season Tickets. That Is How You Measure a Hot Seat in 2026

Aug 25, 2026

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10 min read

Wisconsin Fans Stopped Chanting and Canceled 7,193 Season Tickets. That Is How You Measure a Hot Seat in 2026

Our Week Zero board ranks all 10, from Mike Norvell at No. 1 to the 4 coaches whose own presidents put a defense of them in writing last fall. Plus a military college that sold its jersey to a gun store. Headline

Mark Haines

Odom

Purdue Committed $48 Million to 2 Coaching Decisions. Indiana Put $11 Million a Year Into Its Staff and Won a National Title

Aug 21, 2026

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16 min read

Purdue Committed $48 Million to 2 Coaching Decisions. Indiana Put $11 Million a Year Into Its Staff and Won a National Title

Barry Odom loses all 38 shaded rows in the workbook against Curt Cignetti and Marcus Freeman, and almost none of it is his fault.Sub Headline

Mark Haines

College Football

Lane Kiffin Has The Same 117 Wins As Kirby Smart. He Also Has 32 More Losses And A $91 Million Contract.

Aug 18, 2026

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12 min read

Lane Kiffin Has The Same 117 Wins As Kirby Smart. He Also Has 32 More Losses And A $91 Million Contract.

We ran Kiffin's full 17-year career against Smart and Steve Sarkisian across 42 metrics. His offenses score as often as Georgia's do. His record against ranked opponents is 13-25, and LSU's 2026 schedule has 5 of them on it.

Mark Haines

College Football

Chris Creighton Took Over a Program That Had Gone 39-125 and Turned It Around. He Is Still 10-45 Against Winning Teams.

Aug 14, 2026

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14 min read

Chris Creighton Took Over a Program That Had Gone 39-125 and Turned It Around. He Is Still 10-45 Against Winning Teams.

His defense finished 136th out of 136 against the run, and the 2026 schedule is the easiest he has ever been handed. The market still has Eastern Michigan half a win short of a bowl.

Mark Haines

College Football

Lincoln Riley Is 0-5 Against Top-10 Teams. Here Are The 8 Signs That Tell You Whether 2026 Is Different.

Aug 11, 2026

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22 min read

Lincoln Riley Is 0-5 Against Top-10 Teams. Here Are The 8 Signs That Tell You Whether 2026 Is Different.

We measured Riley against Dan Lanning and against the three men who built USC. Then we pulled out the signs worth watching, starting with Oregon in the Coliseum on September 26.

Mark Haines

Big Ten

Rutgers Brought Greg Schiano Back For His Defense. It Just Finished 136th Out Of 136 FBS Teams.

Aug 7, 2026

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16 min read

Rutgers Brought Greg Schiano Back For His Defense. It Just Finished 136th Out Of 136 FBS Teams.

7.6 yards a play, the worst mark in big-time football since 2000. Plus Purdue picks a fight with the champs, and the Mountain West settles for 47 cents on the dollar.

Mark Haines

College Football

North Carolina Needs $29 Million To Fire Bill Belichick. He Needs $1 Million To Walk Away From Them.

Aug 4, 2026

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18 min read

North Carolina Needs $29 Million To Fire Bill Belichick. He Needs $1 Million To Walk Away From Them.

31 NFL teams refused to give him this arrangement and said why out loud. A board of trustees in Chapel Hill went around its own athletic director to write it anyway, and 1 year later, the general manager is on leave, and university counsel is investigating.

Mark Haines

Nebraska

Jul 31, 2026

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13 min read

Matt Rhule Has Beaten 2 Ranked Teams in 10 Seasons. Nebraska Just Guaranteed Him Through 2032.

Every Rhule rebuild jumped in year 3, which is why Nebraska hired him. Inside: what year 3 delivered, and the 43-row matrix that sets him against Bo Pelini and Curt Cignetti.

Mark Haines

College Football

Curt Cignetti Went 16-0 In Year 2 At Indiana. Here Are The 7 Head Coaches Who Could Do It Next

Jul 28, 2026

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10 min read

Curt Cignetti Went 16-0 In Year 2 At Indiana. Here Are The 7 Head Coaches Who Could Do It Next

Seven names we're betting are already on every athletic director's short list.

Mark Haines

College Football

Baylor's Boosters Wrote the Checks. Now Aranda Says the Money Is the Problem.

Jul 24, 2026

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16 min read

Baylor's Boosters Wrote the Checks. Now Aranda Says the Money Is the Problem.

Six years, 36-37, and one elite defense from a defensive genius. Plus the adjunct keeping your five-star eligible for $3,498 a course, and the cap that turns out to be a floor.

Mark Haines

NILonomics

Save Your Tears for the Fired Coach. He Cashed the Check.

Jul 21, 2026

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14 min read

Save Your Tears for the Fired Coach. He Cashed the Check.

A guest deep dive from NILnomics on why getting fired became the best-paid day of a coach's career, plus the Michigan investigation that cost twelve million and found no one in charge, and a Senate cap that fences nothing.

Mark Haines

Michigan

Arkansas State Has Never Had a Tidier Football Team

Jul 17, 2026

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12 min read

Arkansas State Has Never Had a Tidier Football Team

Butch Jones commits the fewest penalties in program history and has been outscored in every one of his five seasons. The school just signed him through 2029.

Mark Haines

College Football

Dabo Swinney Is Doing Just Fine, and That's the Problem

Jul 14, 2026

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14 min read

Dabo Swinney Is Doing Just Fine, and That's the Problem

The coach you ask us about more than any other, in a special Tuesday issue. He turned nine NFL draft picks into seven wins and the lowest-rated team of his eighteen years, and the buyout means none of it has to change.

Mark Haines

Wisconsin

Jul 10, 2026

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13 min read

At Cincinnati, Luke Fickell Made the Playoff. At Wisconsin, He Made the Worst Offense in the Power Four.

He buried the Air Raid the fans blamed, and the throwback offense scored 12.8 points a game, dead last in the Power Four, while a third straight transfer quarterback went down hurt. The talent is finally here, and the schedule is the softest in the Big Ten. On the thermometer, it reads "Structural Trend," and it is the hottest honest seat on the board.

Mark Haines

College Football

Lance Leipold Raised the Floor at Kansas. Now He Can't Clear It.

Jul 3, 2026

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12 min read

Lance Leipold Raised the Floor at Kansas. Now He Can't Clear It.

He dug Kansas out of 0-9 and built it to 9-4, and back-to-back 5-7 seasons later the reward is a warm seat. The offense is real, the run defense is not, and the trend is bending the wrong way.

Mark Haines

College Football

Florida State Graded Its Own Coach as Failing, in Writing, and Kept Him

Jun 30, 2026

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14 min read

Florida State Graded Its Own Coach as Failing, in Writing, and Kept Him

Mike Norvell went 0-4 in one-score games and 0-5 on the road, so he took back the one job that was never the problem: the play sheet.

Mark Haines

Big Ten

Maryland fired Mike Locksley in November, except they didn't.

Jun 26, 2026

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14 min read

Maryland fired Mike Locksley in November, except they didn't.

The fake report still pulled two million views, because the seat is that hot

Mark Haines

College Football

Preseason 2026 Coaches' Hot Seat® Rankings

Jun 23, 2026

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12 min read

Preseason 2026 Coaches' Hot Seat® Rankings

Ten coaches, ranked by the heat they feel right now, not by who gets fired in a month where nobody gets fired. Fair warning: a few of these are going to make you mad.

Mark Haines

Mortensen

Mar 3, 2026

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10 min read

Is Alex Mortensen A Good Hire For UAB?

One coach blames the players. The other signed 41 of them. Plus: Vol fans are drinking their feelings — to the tune of $615K per game.

Mark Haines

UConn

Feb 17, 2026

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10 min read

UConn Just Handed Toledo's Jason Candle $15 Million Over 6 Years To Be Its Next Head Coach. He's Never Beaten a Ranked Opponent. Here's Why That Points You To The Huskies' Ceiling

81–44 overall. Two MAC titles. Seven bowl appearances. 0–5 against the top 25. Candle's résumé tells two stories. UConn is betting on one of them.

Mark Haines

Dillingham

Feb 13, 2026

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9 min read

Stanford's New Head Coach Grades Out As An A+ In Fit And A C+ In Track Record. That Gap Is Where The Risk Lives.

Plus: Kenny Dillingham's power play at ASU, YouTube TV's new sports plan, and a state court judge just told the NCAA it was wrong about Trinidad Chambliss.

Mark Haines

Kentucky

Feb 10, 2026

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10 min read

Kentucky's Will Stein Hire Comes Down to One Position. We Break It Down.

North Dakota State goes FBS, a judge shuts down UCLA's escape plan, and Brent Brennan gets extended through 2030.

Mark Haines

Cal Golden Bears

Feb 6, 2026

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10 min read

We Graded Cal's Hire of a Coach Who Has Never Been a Head Coach. Then We Looked at What It Costs to Build a Program in 2026. The Numbers Are Insane.

The Lupoi deep dive, the new economics of recruiting, and a combined $971 million in debt at FSU and Penn State.

Mark Haines

South Florida

Feb 3, 2026

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10 min read

$21 Million for a First-Time Coach. Eight Figures on Hype Videos. And a $24 Million Profit Drop.

This week: Brian Hartline's pressure rating, the new content arms race, and what Florida State's finances really say.

Mark Haines

Blake Anderson

Jan 30, 2026

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11 min read

Is Blake Anderson a Good Hire for Southern Miss? Yes. Is He a Great Hire? Probably Not.

Plus: What "all-in" actually looks like at Virginia Tech, and why the man who blew up the transfer portal now wants someone else to fix it.

Mark Haines