College football has always gone through radical change throughout it’s history. Conference realignment and different ways to crown a national champion is not new to the sport. We’re just in the next chapter of what is being written. That said, 2024 in CFB is set up for utter chaos. Not in the traditional sense of upsets or years like 2007 and 2021 but chaos OFF the field.

Just three weeks into 2024, the news cycle is already on fire. It’s January 23rd and already at this point we have crowned a national champion in Michigan who hasn’t reached the mountain top since 1997, Florida State is suing their own conference and actively trying to exit the ACC, Coach Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan program has been riddled with controversy and is currently pending a ruling on the alleged infractions, the NCAA just had a court date to file on ruling for players being employees and how that would fit into Title IX, players are leaving their programs faster than a whore in church via the transfer portal and oh yeah, Nick Saban just retired. Insert exploding head emoji.

This year is shaping up to be a crazy year and we haven’t even gotten to Spring Ball and the spring portal window. We are in a world right now where this chaos is the norm. The calendar for College Football and the key dates that have impactful meaning lead to a sport that is operating at full throttle year round. We have a so called “dead period” in mid-July for about a week or so where a select few members of the coaching staffs take a week to spend with their families before going back to the 51 week grind. Between high school recruiting, internal roster recruiting, college roster recruiting, the transfer portal, staff turnover and the countless other things that need to happen to run a successful program, we are in a sport where the race truly never stops.

Now, as we enter into the 2024 era of a 12 team playoff, we are about to enter into a vortex of chaos in the month of December. As if the grind of the 51 week year wasn’t long enough… just wait until we get to December this year. We all saw what ensued this December as teams playing in “meaningless bowl games” had players opt out or enter the transfer portal, teams affected by the coaching carousel that happens in December every year feeling the wrath of players rights to hop in the portal after their coach leaves and the early signing day for high school recruits on the third Wednesday in December. All of this taking place in the month of December.

Now add the twelve team playoff into the equation. The coaching staffs of the teams who will be participating in the twelve team playoff will now not only have to prepare for a playoff game, but also be extremely active in the transfer portal while also potentially being under siege of their coaches being poached for opening positions at other schools, while also put the lid on their next year’s high school class, while also recruiting their own roster! The amount of pressure and anxiety that will exist in December will be off the charts. Every morning you’re going to wake up, whether you’re just a fan or a coordinator on one of the coaching staffs and you’re going to say to yourself, “fuck, what happened over night.”

Enter what December will look like every year for the foreseeable future. As the calendar sits right now, we have conference championships ending the first week of December which is really the beginning of coaches being fired or bought out which leads to the coaching carousel. We have national early signing day and the transfer portal window opening. Just absolute nonsense. Unless key dates are moved around in the calendar, this will be December moving forward. It will feel like a whirlwind. Not to mention the playoffs extend into late January! It won’t be until March where you can sit down and be like, “Ok what the hell just happened? Where did the receiver from Oregon go to again?”

All of this will be crazier than all the upsets and outstanding in-game environments tthroughout the whole season. Buckle up!