CFB DeptHITS: Friday, January 31

News and notes from the past 24 hours, including transfer portal news, coaching updates and some off-field happenings you may want to know about...

Jan 31, 2025

The news cycle has slowed a bit as the transfer portal and coaching carousel begin to settle in for the winter. There are still over 1,100 players in our portal tracker without a home for the 2025 season. We will continue to monitor the news coming from the portal and get you the impact signings. We figured it is a good time to begin releasing our team-by-team State of the Chart™ updates and you can learn more about that and our content/programming schedule for the “off-season” at the end of this quick edition of the HITS.

|||||| QUICK HITS

On3 is giving an unprecedented rating on Michigan quarterback signee Bryce Underwood. He is the first recruit to ever receive a ‘100’ rating from the trusted source.
New USC General Manager Chad Bowden is further developing his staff and that now includes another former Notre Dame, Dee Brown. Brown is hired away from Illinois, where he held the title of ‘director of player personnel,’ as the Trojans build their all-star off-field personnel department.
More GM news as Arkansas State and Butch Jones are expected to lure Virginia Tech’s director of player personnel, Alex Jones, to Blacksburg.

|||||| OTHER NEWS AND NOTES

ACC Television Deal Option Picked Up. ESPN picked up their option to continue broadcasting the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) games through 2036. This is big news as it was not a sure thing. The ripple effect is now that the conference, who can argue has financial stability for the near future, can work to settle lawsuits brought forth by member institutions Florida State and Clemson. This was the first domino that had to fall before the talks of a new revenue distribution model could be passed to alleviate the concerns that the biggest schools were not getting their fair share from conference revenues. If that occurs, it is likely that FSU and Clemson would drop their suits. One sticking point in the new agreement as detailed in the ESPN story (and highlighted by Nicole Auerbach) is that the schools want to include reduced penalties for exiting the grant of rights after 3031 - which just so happens to be the expiration dates of the other big conferences, primarily the SEC and Big Ten. Read the full ESPN article here »
Former Wolverines Suing the NCAA and Big Ten over NIL. The Detroit Free Press reports and On3’s Nick Schultz details that a group of over 300 former Michigan Wolverines are teaming up to file a lawsuit against both the NCAA and Big Ten. The suit has been asked for dismissal by the defendants. The plaintiffs include some names that you’ll know — former star quarterback Denard Robinson and wide receiver Braylon Edwards. They, along with now 340+ other former players are alleging the unlawful use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) both in the past and currently. It was only a matter of time before this type of class-action suit was brought by disgruntled former players seeing what these players today are reeling in. Read Shultz’ full article here »

|||||| State of the Chart™ Update Series and Content Schedule

As the news cycle slows a bit from the portal and coaching carousel, we figured it was a good time to start hitting you with more team-focused content. Today is the last day before we start our off-season updates for all 136 schools. So, the HITS will keep on coming, but you’ll also be getting a taste of what is to come in the State of the Chart™ update series. This series will run from tomorrow (February 1st - mid-May) with a detailed update on each of our FBS schools. The updates include a recap of the 2024 season, positional depth updates thus far, portal talent churn, a look at the 2025 recruiting class and an early look at the 2025 schedule. That all kicks off tomorrow with our first release…the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Once we get through each of the schools; we will begin flipping each depth chart to “summer mode” by removing players from depth charts who have moved on and begin our playing time projections.

We will be launching our first edition of the State of the Chart™ Magazine in July. This will take all of the updates and truly give you a data-informed publication for each of the 136 schools, complete with predictions for win totals, articles, and much more. We plan for this to be our signature publication each year. For more on this and to shoot us your email to be on the “update list” run over here »