UNDATED (AP) — The NCAA’s FBS Oversight Committee has recommended eliminating the spring transfer window and having just a 10-day window starting on January 2. The committee is also proposing that December be a recruiting dead period. The Division I Administrative Committee must approve these changes, with a vote expected before October 1. FBS coaches unanimously supported the January portal proposal earlier this year. If implemented, the changes would allow coaches to focus more on coaching during bowl season. The spring portal period had many players and coaches juggling transfers and spring practice.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Clay Helton twice became the head football coach at Southern California under bizarre circumstances. The folksy coach then held this perilous job longer than almost anyone expected, coaching 70 games over parts of eight seasons at one of the most prestigious programs in college football until his firing four years ago. Helton is returning to the venerable Coliseum on Saturday to face USC with Georgia Southern, the Sun Belt school where he landed just two months after saying goodbye to the West Coast. As anyone who knows him would expect, Helton expresses no public bitterness or disappointment about his departure from Los Angeles.
UNDATED (AP) — The Big Ten's top two games of the week have teams going on the road for nonconference matchups as No. 15 Michigan visits No. 18 Oklahoma and Iowa heads to No. 16 Iowa State. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz's next win would be his 206th and would enable him to overtake Woody Hayes for the most in Big Ten history. Southern California quarterback Jayden Maiava is coming off a spectacular season-opening performance as he prepares to lead the Trojans at Purdue in their Big Ten opener.
UNDATED (AP) — The new College Sports Commission says it has cleared more than 8,300 name, image and likeness deals worth nearly $80 million. The commission, which is in charge of approving contracts worth $600 or more between college athletes and third-party companies that pay them, says 28,342 students signed up on its NIL Go platform between June 11, when it launched, and Aug. 31. The platform was created as part of the House settlement, which allows schools to pay athletes directly for their NIL, while also offering them a chance to make money from outside groups. NIL Go is in charge of analyzing the outside deals.
UNDATED (AP) — All those top-10 matchups last week left college football fans wanting more. They’ll have to wait. It could be three weeks until there’s another one. That’s not to say there aren’t compelling matchups in Week 2. No. 15 Michigan at No. 18 Oklahoma is the only Top 25 matchup. Other games worth watching are Oklahoma State at No. 6 Oregon, South Florida at No. 13 Florida and Iowa at No. 16 Iowa State.
UNDATED (AP) — The Boise State Broncos could be on the cusp of ceding their Group of Five supremacy to the team that just beat them. Alex Golesh has been quietly building South Florida since 2023 when he took over a program that had won a total of 15 games over five years. He put together back-to-back 7-6 seasons that ended with bowl wins and will go into Saturday’s game at No. 13 Florida with a dymanic quarterback in Byrum Brown, a retooled defense and the boost of confidence that comes with last week’s 34-7 win over Boise State.
UNDATED (AP) — After taking down then-top-ranked Texas, No. 1 Ohio State welcomes Grambling State to Ohio Stadium on Saturday. Coach Ryan Day deliberately kept quarterback Julian Sayin’s workload light in his first start. Sayin threw a touchdown pass against the Longhorns and avoided sacks and turnovers. Now, Day says Ohio State will try to generate more explosive plays. Grambling State is playing a Power Four school for the first time since 2013. The Tigers will receive $1 million for playing in the game. They opened the season with a blowout of NAIA opponent Langston.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Penn State running backs Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton were largely bottled up in the No. 2 Nittany Lions' season opener. Both scored touchdowns against Nevada, though, improving the Nittany Lions to 8-0 when both score. Penn State hosts Florida International this weekend, and the Nittany Lions are 41 1/2-point favorites. They hope to get the running game going ahead of their showdown with No. 6 Oregon later this month. Allen and Singleton both have a chance to break the program's career rushing record this season. They expect opponents to stack extra defenders against the line of scrimmage to stop them.
