An Introduction to the New Rules and Familiar Traditions of the 2024-2025 College Football

America’s Most Beloved Game Isn’t Actually a Professional Sport

Saturdays are not just Middlesex game days in Concord, Massachusetts. They are universal days designated to college football around the entire country. 

  The 2024-2025 college football season has changed drastically since last year. This season introduces the long-anticipated playoff expansion from four teams to 12 teams, providing colleges in weaker NCAA conferences the chance to compete on the big stage. After the NCAA selection committee prevented Florida State from entering the postseason last year, although having an undefeated regular season, it was clearly time for some adjustments to the playoff structure.  

Similarly, NCAA conferences have gone through major alterations. The SEC added Texas and Oklahoma; the Big Ten moved westward to UCLA, USC, Oregon, and Washington; the ACC expanded to Stanford, University of California Berkeley, and SMU; and the BIG 12 added four new teams. With college athletes now able to get paid, universities are forming super conferences in which they incentivize athletes to commit to their school. For instance, the University of Alabama football team has an annual revenue of $130 million, giving athletes, like Jalen Milroe, $1.6 million in Name Image Likeness (NIL) deals. Additionally, Shedeur Sanders, University of Colorado Boulder’s quarterback, is the highest paid collegiate athlete ever, making $4.7 in one year. The huge amount of money in college sports has transformed the landscape of college football forever. 

With aspects of the beloved game having been modified, the amount of stardom produced from college football remains constant, however. Quinn Ewers, the Texas Longhorn’s junior quarterback is the consensus favorite to win the Heisman Trophy with +550 odds. In the 2023 season, Ewers threw for over 3,000 yards with 21 touchdowns, led his team to a 12-2 record, and appeared in the CFB semifinal game. Texas is the team to beat, currently ranked 2nd in the country with two highly profitable quarterbacks on its roster, Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning, the nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning. Nevertheless, through week three of the season, quarterbacks like Jaxson Dart of Ole Miss, Cam Ward of Miami, and Carson Beck of Georgia are also in contention to win college football’s most prestigious award. 

Unsurprisingly, football is the most popular college sport in America. Last season’s College Football National Championship recorded 25 million viewers, the most watched collegiate game since the start of the pandemic. Its seven-game playoff bracket averaged 15.1 million viewers, and its Monday night viewership rose 45% from the year before. So far this season, the television trends similarly remain up with the Michigan vs Texas game sitting around 10 million viewers.

Ultimately, college football is sacred in many households. It is on Saturday that perseverance, grit, and dedication are shown on the television screens across the country. From 12:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. eyes are glued on ESPN, and it is not until January 20th that this will cease. And so with that, the long-awaited football season is underway. The playoffs may be organized differently, conferences may have new teams, and players may earn more money, but the tradition of college football will never die. 

Ryan Wolff