College football begins this month, let us rejoice. During the off-season as I was working on the top 50 college football games to watch for 2023 it made me ponder the biggest story lines in what will be an end to an era for the sport.

Now, I present the top 30 storylines to watch for 2023 CFB:

Who will be the first coach to call consecutive timeouts?

We have several new rules coming this year one of which adopts the NFL policy of not being able to call consecutive timeouts during a dead ball period. Do we make it out of the 1st week without a coach forgetting this rule?

Will everyone hate the clock not stopping after 1st down (except inside 2 minutes of each half)?

If early reports from fans are any indication this will be one of the most unpopular rule changes in recent history. I am especially annoyed that this is happening as Notre Dame opens up the season against Navy who must be salivating to shorten the game as much as possible.

The historic Georgia 3-peat

A recent edition of How Did This Happen chronicled Notre Dame’s chances of winning 3 championships in a row. It didn’t happen and history has proven it’s super difficult to pull off for anyone at any time. Georgia certainly won’t be far away from hardware this season–can they actually do the impossible in modern times?

The Big Ten TV deal kicking in now

The new Big Ten media rights deal began on July 1st, runs through June 2030, and boy it is a massive one totaling more than $7 billion in total. This type of deal has the power to re-shape conferences (and it did so as Oregon and Washington jumped on board after finishing this part of the article) although in practice fans will have to get used to B1G games on NBC and CBS this season. There will be an adjustment period.

How will our new FBS teams fare?

We are pleased to welcome:

Sam Houston State: The Bearkats have been a strong FCS program since 2011 (114-33 overall record), won a National Championship in 2020, and are moving up to the Conference USA.

Kennesaw State: This program launched only back in 2015 and are also set to join the Conference USA in 2024 and will complete one year of independence this fall.

Jacksonville State: The sport now has another Gamecocks mascot. Jacksonville State (from Jacksonville, Alabama) are currently coached by one Mr. Richard Rodriguez and joining, you guessed it, the Conference USA.

What is going on in the Conference USA?

With all the conference shuffling things are extremely weird now in the C-USA, and that’s saying something with all the realignment in modern times. Coming in for 2023 include Sam Houston, Jacksonville State, Liberty, and New Mexico State. Leaving the league include Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, UAB, and UTSA. This is now a 9-team league!

Tulane as an AAC favorite

Most prognosticators have Tulane as the favorite to win the American Athletic Conference. Either the Green Wave or incoming new tenants UTSA who are coming off back-to-back Conference USA titles. The league has been hallowed out a bit after the Big 12 raided it but this could be a very fun 1-2 battle for the conference championship.

Who will be the most successful new Big 12 team?

BYU – 29 wins over the last 3 years has been pretty good although the Cougars haven’t really broken through nationally in a really long time.

Cincinnati – This is a program that has won at least 9 games a full 12 times since 2007 and outside of a few down years has experienced a modern renaissance. What will happen with a consistent step up in competition?

Houston – The Cougars have been up and down but pretty decent over the last 2 years and arguably have the highest ceiling out of these new Big 12 members.

USC winning a National Championship in their final Pac-12 season

Will Iowa dare approach 20 points per game on offense?

We joke often about Iowa (they bring it upon themselves damn it) but don’t sleep on 7 other Power 5 programs averaging fewer than 20 points per game last year, either. Those teams being Virginia Tech, Boston College, Rutgers, Georgia Tech, Virginia, Colorado, and Northwestern.

Phil Longo going against every fiber of Wisconsin’s offensive tradition

This has the potential to be wildly awesome or one of those decisions that grounds (insert Badgers running game joke here) the Luke Fickell era right from the start. This has a whiff of Rich Rodriguez going to Michigan and changing their stodgy offensive culture. Two Rich Rod references in one article! Will this approach work for Wisconsin?

Will Mario Cristobal stay stuck in the mud?

Let’s just say year 1 of the Cristobal era at Miami didn’t get off to a hot start. Well, they did start 2-0 but then finished 3-7 with a horrendous home loss to Middle Tennessee State and 4 other losses by a combined 122 points. One. Hundred. Twenty-Two. Points. The Canes did finish 7th in national recruiting and the door is always open to success in the ACC, outside of Clemson and a resurgent Florida State.

Clemson staying at the top

Speaking of success in the ACC, it’s year 15 of Dabo Swinney at Clemson and 2 National Championships and 161 wins later it’s been quite the ride. They didn’t object to DJ Uiagalelei leaving this off-season and will start the Cade Klubnik era at quarterback. The Tigers did go unbeaten in the ACC last year although 6 losses for 2021-22 are not up to their usual standards.

What happens when Coach Prime faces reality?

Admittedly the bar is super low at Colorado and even bad year 1 results wouldn’t be the end of the world at a place so accustomed to losing. The Buffs also have a very challenging schedule. Still, the brash Deion Sanders has his work cut out for him to sell players, fans, and media alike on his progress without falling into the trap of making it all about himself.

Ohio State losing 3 in a row to Michigan

*Unless Michigan has like 5 losses coming into the game then an Ohio State loss is fine.

How different will Navy look in the post-Niumatololo era?

The Middies stayed in-house while hiring defensive coordinator Brian Newberry who had been doing an excellent job running that side of the ball in recent years. Now, Navy moves into a slightly different era on offense that we discussed HERE in a recent 18S film room article.

Kurtis Rourke rehabbing his ACL and winning the MAC

When Notre Dame was in the market for a grad transfer quarterback we zeroed in on Kurtis Rourke as a potential option from Ohio University. However, he tore his knee in November 2022 and then decided to come back to the Bobcats for another season. He’s hoping to be healthy and win the MAC before a shot at the NFL.

Can Matt Rhule make Nebraska relevant?

What if you stripped many of the advantages away from Notre Dame and wondered if they could be relevant again? That’s Nebraska. I get why they had to do it but $74 million for Matt Rhule is a crap ton of money for someone who I think is nationally overrated as a coach and not likely to turn things around in a big or lasting way. Is he the final nail in the coffin of Huskers irrelevance?

Can Tennessee be a lasting SEC power?

The Vols only finished no. 6 in the country last year although they won the Orange Bowl and it felt like the type of season that could lead to a long-term turnaround. It was their highest finish in the AP Poll in 20 years, to be fair. Tennessee is hoping the uber-talented Joe Milton can put it all together at quarterback this fall to keep the offense humming while the recruiting slowly starts to ascend.

Avoiding a repeat Heisman

USC quarterback Caleb Williams is a pretty heavy +500 favorite to win the Heisman again, per BetMGM. As we mentioned in the top 50 games to watch, the Trojans have a brutal schedule so Williams will have to earn a repeat of the Heisman. Plus, USC visits South Bend and maybe Notre Dame can end his run before Halloween even arrives. Fingers crossed.

Billy Napier’s 2nd season with Florida

The only things worse than having a bad opinion about someone is having no opinion at all. Is this the least talked about the Florida Gators have been in years? Billy Napier is recruiting lights out right now which bodes well for the future. Still, Florida doesn’t seem poised to make a lot of noise in the SEC for 2023 and sustaining that recruiting could prove challenging.

Who are the next star quarterbacks to rise?

This could be a weird year. The usual suspects and betting favorites (Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State) all come into 2023 with some question marks about new quarterbacks. Then there are a bunch of really good veteran quarterbacks (Sam Hartman, Jayden Daniels, Box Nix, Jordan Travis, Cameron Rising, Michael Penix, Drake Maye, etc.) in the second or third tier of programs wanting to sniff around a playoff spot. Will there be any young hot-shot quarterbacks to develop this year?

Texas and Oklahoma’s last rodeo together in the Big 12

Both of these historic programs spent 80 years in the old Southwest Conference and will be playing their farewell 28th season in the Big 12 this fall. This was announced such a long time ago that everyone is so numb to it at this point. However, it opens the door to some wonderfully spiteful upsets within the conference this year with everyone gunning to take the Horns and Sooners down before they leave.

Can Stanford try something different?

USC enters year 2 of Lincoln Riley, Navy made big changes this off-season, and now Stanford is set to leave the David Shaw (and by extension Jim Harbaugh) era behind, while their place in the Power 5 is suddenly under question. Now, Notre Dame’s schedule has a bit of a different flavor in these ‘rivalry’ games. Troy Taylor was a very interesting hire for the Cardinal and will be looking to rebuild an offense that had been in the dumps for a few years.

The most fun darkhorse teams

I’ll give you 3 teams and one from each part of the country: Oregon State, Kansas State, and Ole Miss. All of these programs should be hovering somewhere in the back of the top 25 to start the season, or maybe a bit outside of it, and probably aren’t on many lists of teams expected to make a ton of noise. But, they are all projected to be frisky, or better offensively than most of their competition, and could have a fun ride in 2023.

Will Tommy Rees & Tyler Buchner blow up Alabama?

The Marvin Harrison, Jr. Hype

This might be my most interesting topic of the year at a player level. Clearly, Marvin Harrison, Jr. is very good. But is he top 5 overall in the NFL Draft good? I’m not saying he’s not! But, it’s been almost a decade since a receiver went higher than 5th and the majority of mock drafts have the Cardinals taking Harrison, Jr. 2nd overall. That’s Megatron’s draft position. I’m just fascinated that a receiver could be this good and it comes at a time when Ohio State has major question marks at quarterback and maybe someone who isn’t going to allow him to flourish.

LSU building off Kelly’s 1st season

Expectations weren’t very high for Brian Kelly’s first season in Baton Rouge (the Tigers were not ranked pre-season) and they got to 10 wins–including a huge victory over Alabama–with a demolition of Purdue in their bowl game. Now expectations are incredibly high, but Georgia and Alabama are in the way, and they have to travel to Tuscaloosa late in the season. This is what BK signed up for–the annual SEC grind waits for no one.

Will NBC’s expanded college football coverage be a success?

Notre Dame football, Sunday Night Football, and now the Big Ten all on NBC. The first full week of action this fall will see Notre Dame and Tennessee State on NBC heading into West Virginia at Penn State in primetime. East Carolina at Michigan will be on Peacock. Throw in the SEC on CBS ending this year and it’s going to take a while for our brain’s to adjust to this change. For example, Ohio State at Indiana in Week 1 on CBS, it just doesn’t seem right.

The last playoff before expansion

The television shake up is a prelude to the major change that was rammed home this off-season as the 12-team playoff is set to begin in 2024. As the years past, the television changes will probably be lumped together with the 12-team playoff era but we do have one more season with just 4 teams participating. This will be the end of the 10th year of the inaugural college football playoff era and we’re set to go to a format that will likely be even more polarizing.