Derek Voss
Play-by-play
Renee Castellan
Analyst
Voss
Welcome back to the National Desk. The confetti's down, the trophies are handed out, and somehow the two teams standing at the end of this thing were seeded seven and nine. Renee, in three years of doing this, have you ever seen a title game like that?
Castellan
Never. Not once. Every single tracked championship before this one had at least one blue-blood, top-4-seed team standing at the end. This year the committee's top two seeds — Michigan and Iowa State — were both gone before the semifinals. We are recapping the most chaotic season this desk has covered, start to finish.
SEGMENT 01
Conference Champions
Big 12
Texas Tech (11-2) over Iowa St. (12-1), 38-35
SEC
Ole Miss (10-3) over Texas A&M (11-2), 31-21
Big Ten
Michigan (12-1) over Nebraska (10-3), 16-13
ACC
Miami (11-2) over UNC (10-3), 59-35
American
USF (9-4) over North Texas (8-5), 41-38
Mountain West
Wyoming (7-6) over San Jose St. (7-6), 31-24
CUSA
Missouri St. (9-4) over Kennesaw St. (9-4), 28-21
MAC
Ball St. (9-4) over Central Michigan (9-4), 24-7
PAC-12
Texas St. (8-5) over San Diego St. (6-7), 28-21
Sun Belt
Louisiana (8-5) over Arkansas St. (8-5), 28-26
Texas Tech's 38-35 win over previously-unbeaten Iowa State in the Big 12 title game is the single result that set up everything that followed — it's the loss that drops Iowa State to the No. 2 seed shown below, still good enough for a bye, but no longer the undisputed top team in the field. Michigan's 16-13 escape over Nebraska in the Big Ten keeps the committee's other unbeaten-adjacent power alive too, if only barely.
SEGMENT 02
The Bracket That Broke The Model
ON SCREEN: FULL CFP BRACKET
College Football Playoff2027 National Championship Bracket
12-Team Field
Round 1
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Championship
#2 Iowa St. (12–1)
#7 Ole Miss41
#10 Auburn7
#3 Texas A&M (11–2)
#11 USC40
#6 Texas Tech32
#1 Michigan (12–1)
#9 UNC38
#8 Nebraska32
#4 Notre Dame (11–1)
#5 Miami37
#12 USF27
Cotton Bowl
#7 Ole Miss38
#2 Iowa St.24
Rose Bowl
#3 Texas A&M52
#11 USC3
Sugar Bowl
#9 UNC48
#1 Michigan24
Orange Bowl
#4 Notre Dame45
#5 Miami24
Peach Bowl
#7 Ole Miss35
#3 Texas A&M16
Fiesta Bowl
#9 UNC31
#4 Notre Dame21
National Championship
#7 Ole Miss21
#9 UNC17
#CFP Seed
★Bye, Top-4 Seed
WGame Winner
Voss
Walk me through it. Iowa State goes into the Cotton Bowl 12-and-1, the No. 2 overall seed, and Ole Miss just — ends it. 38-24.
Castellan
And it's not a fluke, Derek, that's the part people are going to miss. Ole Miss beat a 12-1 Iowa State team, then beat a 12-2 Texas A&M team in the semifinal, then beat a UNC team that had just knocked off the No. 1 overall seed, Michigan, in the Sugar Bowl. That's three consecutive elite wins to close a season. You don't back into that as a 7-seed. You earn it.
Voss
And on the other side, UNC's road to the title game might be the single most impressive run of upsets we've ever charted on this desk — a 9-seed knocking off the No. 8 team, then Michigan, the No. 1 overall seed, in the Sugar Bowl, then Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl semifinal.
Castellan
Three straight ranked kills to get to the title game, and they still came up two points short. That's how good this final actually was — 21-17, and it did not feel like a mismatch for one second.
SEGMENT 03
National Awards: The Full Board
ON SCREEN: NATIONAL AWARDS WINNERS, 2027
| Award | Winner | Team |
|---|---|---|
| Heisman | Jaray Rask, QB | Iowa St. |
| Davey O'Brien | Jaray Rask, QB | Iowa St. |
| Maxwell | Demond Williams, QB | Washington |
| Doak Walker (RB) | Richard Young, HB | Alabama |
| Biletnikoff (WR) | Mason Bojorquez, WR | Miami (Ohio) |
| Bednarik (Def. Player) | Suntarine Perkins, OLB | Ole Miss |
| Butkus (LB) | Suntarine Perkins, OLB | Ole Miss |
| Mackey (TE) | Julius Tisdol, TE | Ole Miss |
| Thorpe (DB) | Marvin Holliday, FS | LSU |
| Outland (OL) | Juelz Baptiste, LT | Tulane |
| Rimington (C) | Ron Pulu, C | Arizona St. |
| Lombardi | Michael Hallock, DE | Jacksonville St. |
| Groza (K) | Tyson Smith, K | Texas Tech |
| Ray Guy (P) | Paul Emezie, P | Iowa St. |
| Hornung | Aaron Anderson, WR | LSU |
| Best HC | Matt Campbell | Iowa St. (12-1) |
Voss
Jaray Rask sweeping the Heisman and the Davey O'Brien is the headline, but Renee, look at Ole Miss on this board — they didn't win the whole thing on scheme alone.
Castellan
Suntarine Perkins wins Bednarik AND Butkus — a defensive player of the year sweep — and Julius Tisdol takes home the Mackey. That's a national champion that's also producing individual hardware on both sides of the ball. It's not a fluke title. The roster was built for exactly this.
Voss
And one quiet footnote for our regulars — Iowa State's Matt Campbell wins Best HC at 12-1, even after that Cotton Bowl loss. Same pattern as our very first Best HC winner, actually — Ball State's Mike Uremovich won it back in 2025 without winning a title either.
Castellan
Makes sense to me. Twelve wins, a Heisman winner on his roster, and the only loss all year outside of the eventual national champion came in the Big 12 title game itself. Losing to Ole Miss in Round 2 doesn't erase a season like that.
Voss
For the record, Rask wasn't the clear front-runner all season — Richard Young and Fluff Bothwell finished the regular season deadlocked at 12 weeks on the watchlist each, the longest run anyone had. Rask closed at 10, then won it anyway once the actual voting happened.
SEGMENT 04
National Statistical Leaders, Final
ON SCREEN: FINAL SEASON STAT LEADERS
| Category | Player | Team | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passing Yards | Austin Novosad | North Texas | 4,088 |
| Passing TDs | Demond Williams | Washington | 44 |
| Rushing Yards | Jordan Molinich | Southern | 1,669 |
| Rushing TDs | Fluff Bothwell | Mississippi St. | 18 |
| Receiving Yards | Dazmin James | California | 1,404 |
| Receiving TDs | Mason Bojorquez | Miami (Ohio) | 18 |
| Tackles | Maddox Marcellus | Virginia | 147 |
| Sacks | Michael Hallock | Jacksonville St. | 16 |
| Interceptions | Andrew Vera | Ohio | 6 |
Castellan
Jordan Molinich closes it out as the national rushing leader for the second year of his career, Derek. Second straight season, both years he's been on a college field.
Voss
And yet he's nowhere on the awards board we just showed. Not Heisman, not Doak Walker — that went to Richard Young at Alabama.
Castellan
It's not for lack of hardware — he won the Doak Walker himself last year. It's that back-to-back national-leader seasons have only produced the one trophy so far. Compare that to Michael Hallock, who wins the Lombardi as the same guy topping our sacks leaderboard — production and hardware lining up perfectly this time around. Molinich's production isn't translating into a second piece of hardware yet, and it's worth watching whether that changes.
SEGMENT 05
The Coaching Carousel: Who's Already Gone, Who's On Notice
Voss
Let's get into the carousel, because it's already turned over twice this cycle. Wake Forest and Cincinnati both made in-season changes.
ON SCREEN: COACHING CHANGES, 2027
| School | Out | Final Record | In | Prev. Job |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wake Forest | Jake Dickert | 2-10 | Graham Harrell | Abilene Christian OC |
| Cincinnati | Scott Satterfield | 3-9 | Jeff Grimes | Wisconsin OC |
Castellan
Two coordinators pulled off Power Conference staffs to try to fix two of the worst jobs in the sport. Dickert was in his second straight near-winless season at Wake Forest — that one felt inevitable for a while.
Voss
Now here's the one that's going to define the next calendar year of this carousel — the 2028 hot-seat board, revealed as soon as this season closed.
ON SCREEN: 2028 HOT SEAT WATCH
| School | Coach |
|---|---|
| Auburn | Hugh Freeze |
| Iowa | Kirk Ferentz |
| Missouri | Eliah Drinkwitz |
| Penn St. | James Franklin |
| TCU | Sonny Dykes |
| Tennessee | Josh Heupel |
| Virginia Tech | Brent Pry |
Castellan
Kirk Ferentz on a hot seat is the one that stops me. One of the longest-tenured coaches we track, and he's on this list for the first time.
Voss
And Eliah Drinkwitz survives another cycle at Missouri after finishing 1-and-11 this year. That's a program that, by the raw record, should be the easiest firing decision in the sport, and he's still standing.
Castellan
Which tells you administrations are weighing more than the scoreboard — buyouts, recruiting pipelines, whatever it is. Hugh Freeze staying on this list despite a 9-3 season and a win over a defending national champion earlier this year is the real head-scratcher for me, though. That's twice now we've flagged him as the strangest name on a hot-seat board.
Six coaching journeys worth tracking, condensed
Joey McGuire · Texas Tech
Three years, three deep national runs — 2025 title-game runner-up, 2026 Big 12 champion, 2027 back in the Big 12 title game — with award-winning players developed at two different positions along the way. Never once on a hot-seat list.
Hugh Freeze · Auburn
A full turnaround in one offseason: a losing 2026 bowl trip became a signature 2027 upset of the defending national champion and a CFP-caliber season, yet he's still on the hot-seat board entering 2028.
Brian Kelly · LSU
Beat a Round 1 CFP team and pushed the eventual national runner-up in 2026, then landed on the hot-seat board anyway in 2027 at a perfectly reasonable 8-4 — name recognition and expectations driving the notice, not results.
Jesse Minter · USC
Debut season, 2027: 9-3, the best first-year record of any coach in this chronicle's tracked window, built on development and the transfer portal rather than blue-chip recruiting.
Adam Fuller · Virginia
A Sun Bowl championship debut in 2026 collapsed into a 4-8 season in 2027 — still the steepest one-year fall this chronicle has tracked for any coach, debut included.
Mike Uremovich · Ball State
This chronicle's first-ever Best HC Award winner (2025) missed the 2026 MAC title game entirely, then returned to it in 2027 against Central Michigan.
SEGMENT 06
National Recruiting: The 2027 Cycle
Voss
The 2027 class is in the books too, and Iowa — not a name you'd guess — takes the No. 1 class in the country.
Castellan
A transfer-built haul again, led by JC Ajian, a 5-star defensive tackle in from Oklahoma. Four different 5-star transfers total for Iowa's class — that's the story here, not a single blue-chip name.
Top 5 HS Recruits, 2027 Cycle
| Rank | Name | School | Position | Height | Weight | State |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Don Ratliff | Ohio St. | DE | 6'4 | 252 | KY |
| 2 | Wesley Mcleod | San Jose St. | OLB | 6'5 | 228 | CA |
| 3 | Dylan Boatman | Colorado | DT | 6'4 | 302 | HI |
| 4 | James Glass | Ohio St. | MLB | 6'1 | 242 | AL |
| 5 | Connor Veach | Georgia | DT | 6'0 | 289 | SC |
Top 10 Transfers, 2027 Cycle
| Rank | Name | School | Prev Team | Position - Class | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jaiden Ausberry | Auburn | Notre Dame | OLB - SR (RS) | NFL |
| 2 | Mike Mitchell | Penn St. | Notre Dame | DT - SO | — |
| 3 | Amare Adams | Clemson | Clemson | DT - JR | NFL |
| 4 | Dashawn Spears | Miami | LSU | FS - SR | NFL |
| 5 | Malik Autry | Auburn | Auburn | DT - JR | NFL |
| 6 | JC Ajian | Iowa | Oklahoma | DT - SO | — |
| 7 | K.D. Arnold | Tennessee | Tennessee | T - SR | NFL |
| 8 | Dillan Johnson | Iowa | Wisconsin | DT - SR | NFL |
| 9 | Roderick Robinson II | Texas A&M | Texas A&M | HB - SR (RS) | NFL |
| 10 | Ahmad Breaux | LSU | LSU | DT - SR | NFL |
Top 25 Recruiting Class Rankings, 2027 Cycle
| Rank | School | Signings | Avg | 5★ | 4★ | 3★ | Top Recruit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iowa | 28 | 90.20 | 4 | 7 | 9 | JC Ajian (Transfer) |
| 2 | Oklahoma | 27 | 89.95 | 3 | 8 | 10 | Chandavian Bradley (Transfer) |
| 3 | Pittsburgh | 27 | 89.18 | 4 | 6 | 9 | TJ Branch (Transfer) |
| 4 | Michigan | 26 | 92.25 | 3 | 6 | 14 | Mike Russell (HS) |
| 5 | Georgia | 30 | 91.25 | 2 | 7 | 15 | Braylon Staley (Transfer) |
| 6 | Miami | 29 | 89.69 | 2 | 7 | 14 | Dashawn Spears (Transfer) |
| 7 | Notre Dame | 25 | 91.37 | 2 | 8 | 10 | Jamarion Wilcox (Transfer) |
| 8 | Ohio St. | 30 | 89.50 | 1 | 8 | 14 | Sean Rickel (HS) |
| 9 | Texas A&M | 27 | 91.20 | 3 | 4 | 15 | Jabari Moncrief (Transfer) |
| 10 | Oregon | 28 | 91.09 | 1 | 8 | 13 | Max Wright (HS) |
| 11 | LSU | 27 | 89.65 | 2 | 6 | 8 | Ahmad Breaux (Transfer) |
| 12 | Florida St. | 28 | 90.82 | 0 | 8 | 16 | Ashton Woods (Transfer) |
| 13 | Clemson | 28 | 91.42 | 1 | 6 | 15 | Amare Adams (Transfer) |
| 14 | Penn St. | 24 | 89.18 | 1 | 9 | 5 | Mike Mitchell (Transfer) |
| 15 | Ole Miss | 28 | 89.66 | 1 | 6 | 11 | Will Echoles (Transfer) |
| 16 | Texas | 28 | 90.33 | 1 | 5 | 15 | Dan Trueman (HS) |
| 17 | Arizona St. | 27 | 89.05 | 1 | 6 | 10 | Mike Bernal (HS) |
| 18 | Michigan St. | 28 | 88.96 | 1 | 5 | 13 | Jace Cunningham (HS) |
| 19 | Washington | 28 | 88.61 | 2 | 4 | 9 | Bryan Palepoi (HS) |
| 20 | Duke | 29 | 89.21 | 0 | 6 | 14 | Leonard Harrison (HS) |
| 21 | Bowling Green | 30 | 88.08 | 2 | 4 | 7 | Keegan White (HS) |
| 22 | South Carolina | 26 | 88.72 | 1 | 4 | 13 | Myles Finley (Transfer) |
| 23 | Alabama | 26 | 90.18 | 0 | 6 | 12 | Tony Williams (Transfer) |
| 24 | Georgia Tech | 24 | 88.61 | 0 | 7 | 9 | Benaiah Damuni (Transfer) |
| 25 | Utah | 27 | 86.48 | 1 | 7 | 3 | Randy White (HS) |
SEGMENT 07
What To Watch
Voss
So Renee, as we turn the page to 2028 — what's the one thing you're carrying out of this season?
Castellan
That seeding means less than it's ever meant. A 7 and a 9 played for the title this year. If that happens again next season, it's not a fluke anymore, it's just how this format works now, and everybody building a roster needs to plan around that instead of chasing a 1-seed.
Voss
And on the carousel side — Kirk Ferentz and Eliah Drinkwitz are both going to be the two most-discussed names of the entire offseason, for completely opposite reasons.
Castellan
Agreed. That's the desk for this recap. We'll see everybody back here for the road to 2028.
Next Read
2028 Season Preview