College Football

Sep 15, 2026

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8 min read

Greg Schiano Lost to UMass and Boston College, and That Made Him the No. 1 Hot Seat in College Football

Mike Norvell moved up a spot without playing a snap, Ryan Day made the single biggest jump on the board, and almost every coach who cooled off this week did it by beating somebody who had no business being on the schedule.

Mark Haines

College Football

We Graded Greg Schiano Against Bill O'Brien and Bret Bielema on 45 Career Measures. He Loses 29 of Them.

Sep 11, 2026

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14 min read

We Graded Greg Schiano Against Bill O'Brien and Bret Bielema on 45 Career Measures. He Loses 29 of Them.

The winningest coach in Rutgers history is stuck 1 win short of 100, at an athletic department that cannot afford the $18.5 million it would take to move on.

Mark Haines

College Football

Sep 9, 2026

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10 min read

Week 2: Coaches' Hot Seat Rankings

Luke Fickell Led Notre Dame At Halftime And Left Lambeau With The Hottest Seat In America. Mike Locksley Won 62-0 And Dropped 3 Spots. Dabo Swinney Moved 44.

Mark Haines

College Football

The Clock In The Stadium Said Michigan Lost. The Big Ten Has A Different Clock, And You Are Not Allowed To See It

Sep 8, 2026

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3 min read

The Clock In The Stadium Said Michigan Lost. The Big Ten Has A Different Clock, And You Are Not Allowed To See It

Michigan beat a MAC school by one point on Saturday, and to do it the Big Ten had to reveal that the clock 110,000 people were staring at isn't the one that counts.

Mark Haines

Doeren

TCU's Receiver Spent 3 Days in a Hospital With a Brain Bleed. TCU's Response Was to Ban the Newspaper.

Sep 4, 2026

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15 min read

TCU's Receiver Spent 3 Days in a Hospital With a Brain Bleed. TCU's Response Was to Ban the Newspaper.

Also, Dave Doeren enters year 14 at NC State with 0 ACC Championship Game appearances and a defense that fell from 19th to 111th in 3 years.

Mark Haines

College Football

Florida State Paid $1.4 Million to Get Booed by Minute 20

Sep 1, 2026

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11 min read

Florida State Paid $1.4 Million to Get Booed by Minute 20

Tony Elliott was on the hot seat 2 years ago. Saturday he put Dave Doeren on it, and our board moved for the first time all season.Sub Headline

Mark Haines

Deion Sanders

Aug 28, 2026

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13 min read

Deion Sanders and Mike Norvell Are Closer Than Anybody in Boulder Wants to Admit

Over the same 3 seasons, Norvell went 20-18 and Sanders went 16-21, and both peaked on borrowed talent before the floor gave out. Plus the 3 days that closed the door between the NFL and college football, and the Baton Rouge hearing Monday that could kick it back open.

Mark Haines

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

College Football

Greg Schiano Lost to UMass and Boston College, and That Made Him the No. 1 Hot Seat in College Football

We Graded Greg Schiano Against Bill O'Brien and Bret Bielema on 45 Career Measures. He Loses 29 of Them.

Week 2: Coaches' Hot Seat Rankings

The Clock In The Stadium Said Michigan Lost. The Big Ten Has A Different Clock, And You Are Not Allowed To See It

TCU's Receiver Spent 3 Days in a Hospital With a Brain Bleed. TCU's Response Was to Ban the Newspaper.

Florida State Paid $1.4 Million to Get Booed by Minute 20

Deion Sanders and Mike Norvell Are Closer Than Anybody in Boulder Wants to Admit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Arkansas State Has Never Had a Tidier Football Team

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

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

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

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

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

Preseason 2026 Coaches' Hot Seat® Rankings

Coaches Hot Seat®