Titans lose again hang onto top pick for another week … Today’s early games are now in the books, but the only thing we can say for sure at this hour is that Tennessee will hold onto the #1 pick in this week’s selection order for the 2026 draft for yet another week after the Titans lost at home to Jacksonville in a game that was never in doubt. However, we won’t no for sure who comes next as the NY Giants, who picked second coming into the week, don’t play until Monday night. In fact, about the only other thing we can say with certainty is that New Orleans will pick no worse than third after the Saints lost in Miami, although they did throw a bit of a scare into the Dolphins.
Kiffin to LSU … In college football’s worst kept secret this weekend, Lane Kiffin has announced that he has indeed agreed to coach LSU going forward. Kiffin claimed that he asked for permission to remain at Mississippi until the Rebels season was done as Ole Miss is still very much in the CFP playoff picture, but was turned down. That means that ironically Kiffin’s last game with the Rebels was this weekend’s Egg Bowl win over arch-rival Mississippi State because as of this hour there’s egg not all over the face of Kiffin, but also college football in general and the NCAA in particular. The simple solution, of course, would be simply to ban teams from contacting prospective head coaches until their seasons are complete.
1 versus 2 highlites College conference championship games … Rivalry in college football is done and now its on to the conference championship games next weekend. And it will be #1 versus #2 in the Big 10 where top-ranked Ohio State, which finally beat Michigan yesterday, facing upstart #2 Indiana in the conference title game next Saturday in Indianapolis. Meanwhile, it will be like old home week in the SEC as Georgia meets Alabama in Atlanta; for the record its the 4th time in the past 8 years that the Dawgs and Tide have faced off for conference honors, plus its also the 12th straight year that at least one of the 2 will be in Atlanta on the first Saturday in December. There’s also a potential classic in the Big XII as #5 Texas Tech will take on #11 BYU in Dallas. Then there’s the ACC which looks more like a basketball game as #18 Virginia will play Duke. That is not a misprint as the 7-5 Blue Devils somehow won the conference’s convoluted tie-breaker over several ranked teams including #12 Miami. In fact, it is very likely that if Duke can pull off the upset next week against the Cavs, the ACC could be left out of the CFP playoff field entirely as only the top 4 tanked conference champions gain automatic admission to the 12-team field. Meanwhile, #24 Tulane looks to have the best chance to earn the non-power conference bid, but they’ll face a challenge against 11-1 North Texas in the American conference final, while James Madison, which plays Trot in the Sun Belt title game could also be in the mix there if the Green Wave falter against the Mean Green.
PS: For those that are wondering, Mississippi head coach Lane Kiffin has still not yet announced whether he will be signing elsewhere, although it is believed he is headed to LSU for 2026. Kiffin will reportedly meet with his Ole Miss players at 1 PM today to give them the news. Of course, this is all very unseemly because Mississippi appears to be pretty much guaranteed a spot in the CFP playoffs after defeating Mississippi State in Friday’s Egg Bowl. Stay tuned!
Who to watch in college football on Thanksgiving Saturday … As we noted yesterday, Saturday’s college football fare is a little more appealing than Friday’s with a number of huge games on the docket including THE game between #1 Ohio State and Michigan, alog with Alabama at Auburn and LSU at Oklahoma in the SEC and Miami at Pittsburgh in the ACC. Here’s who we’ll be watching with an eye toward the 2026 draft in Saturday’s games.
Who to watch in college football on Thanksgiving Friday … Of course, the Thanksgiving football world will be focused on the NFL today with three games scheduled. That focus, though, shifts to the colleges tomorrow and Saturday with a full slate of annual rivalry games many with conference and national implications. Indeed, heading into the final weekend of the college regular schedule, not one slot in a major conference championship game has been wrapped up. Same for the 12-team CFP playoff field. Here’s who we’ll be watching in Friday’s college football fare, although we note that Saturday’s games, which we’ll preview later today, may be the more impactful.
Weekly selection order posted … With another week in the books, the selection order for the first-round of the 2026 draft were it to be held this week has been updated here.
PSU QB Allar commits to draft … Penn State QB Drew Allar has confirmed that he will in fact be entering the 2026 draft. Allar hasn’t played for several weeks since suffering a season-ending broken ankle earlier this fall and there had been an expectation that he might explore his options of appealing for an extra year of eligibility. However, there simply weren’t grounds for an appeal so Allar will head to the draft. Allar also reported that his rehab is going well and that he hopes to be able to throw for pro teams either at Penn State’s pro day or at a private workout closer to the draft.
In fact, it is that time of the year when underclassmen, especially those not likely to be involved in the CFP playoff, begin to announce their intentions for next year. One who has, for example, is Clemson redshirt junior WR Antonio Williams who has announced that he will be entering the 2026 draft despite having a year of eligibility remaining. Williams had been considered to be a potential first-round pick at the beginning of the year, but his grade has slipped as he struggled thru an injury plagued campaign, although he is still likely to be at least a second-day pick.
Top 9 picks set for week … With the late afternoon games now in the books, we can say that as a result of their loss to Atlanta, New Orleans will move up to the #3 pick slot behind Tennessee and the NY Giants in this week’s opening selection order, followed by the NY Jets, Las Vegas, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Washington and Arizona. As usual the full, updated weekly selection order will be posted after tomorrow night’s Monday night game.
Titans, Giants to stay 1-2 on weekly board … There won’t be any change at the very top of the 2026 selection as both Tennessee and the NY Giants who came into the week sitting in the 1-2 spots lost early games this afternoon, although put on pretty gutty efforts. The Titans, for example, battled Seattle hard at home, but still fell short 30-24, while for the 2nd time this year, the Giants lost in OT – to Detroit this week – that their opponent only got into by kicking a 60-yard FG to tie things up in the final minute of regulation. However, the rest of this week’s top 10 won’t become clearer until after the 4 PM games.
Shuffling in the works for top of selection order … There will almost by definition be some shuffling at the top of this week’s selection order for the opening round of the 2026 draft as there are a couple of games involving teams both of whom are currently sitting on early selections. Cleveland, which is currently 3rd in this year’s selection order, for example, will play at Las Vegas, which would have had the 6th pick this week, while #4 New Orleans hosts Atlanta, which is at #8, although the Falcons traded that pick to the LA Rams at the 2025 draft. Both those games are late afternoon contests. Meanwhile, Tennessee, which has been sitting on the #1 pick overall for multiple weeks, will host Seattle, while both New York teams have tough road dates with the Giants, which are sitting on the second pick, at Detroit and the Jets (at #5) at Baltimore. As usual, the full weekly selection order will be updated after the Monday night game.
OT Casey part of Boise senior day; to enter draft … Boise State has confirmed that rising OT Kage Casey, one of the top prospects at the position, will participate in the Broncos’ senior day activities later today and will enter the upcoming draft despite having another year of eligibility available. In fact, we’ll be watching other senior days around the country over the next couple of weeks as the college season winds as as many as half the top 100 or so prospects for the 2026 draft will actually have eligibility remaining after this year. For the record, S Tyler Benefield, Boise State’s other top prospect who also has a year left, will not be part of the team’s senior day as he has yet to decide what his plans are for 2026.
SMU QB Van Dyke to seek extra year … Much-travelled SMU QB Tyler Van Dyke has confirmed that he will appeal to the NCAA for an additional year of eligibility which would be his 7th. Van Dyke was once a highly promising prospect at Miami after a breakout redshirt freshman year in 2021, but two somewhat pedestrian seasons with the Hurricanes he transferred to Wisconsin where he suffered a severe knee injury early in the 2024 campaign and hasn’t played since. And while he has already been in college for 6 seasons, he’s actually only accrued three playing so has a good chance to win his appeal, although with Kevin Jennings locked in as the Mustangs’ QB, Van Dyke will likely have to transfer to play next fall.
Who to watch in college football this weekend … Its an odd week on the college football docket without much in the way of must-see games, even though it is the second-to-last week on the regular schedule. It is, for example, ‘cupcake week’ in the SEC as several of the big-name national contenders in the conference play, well, cupcakes including Alabama (FCS Eastern Illinois); Georgia (Charlotte); Texas A&M (FCS Samford); and LSU (Western Kentucky) as tune-ups for next week’s big rivalry games. There is, however, one key SEC between ranked opponents as #8 Oklahoma, fresh off their upset win over Alabama last week, hosts #22 Missouri. Same thing in the Big Ten where #15 Southern Cal and #7 Oregon reprise a good-old fashioned PAC-12 championship encounter in Eugene. Here’s who we’ll be watching with an eye to the 2026 draft on this weekend’s college schedule.
Injury Updates for OSU WR Tate and UM RB Haynes … There are a couple of injury situations we are following. Ohio State, for example, is being coy with the status of star WR Carnell Tate for this weekend’s game with Rutgers. Tate, one of the top 2-3 prospects at the position for the 2026 draft, has missed the Buckeyes’ last couple of games with an unspecified injury and is listed as questionable for this week. More than likely though, even if he could go Saturday, Tate sits until next weekend’s annual showdown with Michigan. Speaking of the Wolverines, they have confirmed that star RB Justice Haynes will not play again in the regular season because of a foot injury. Haynes, another top 2-3 positional prospect, had been leading the country in rushing prior to being injured, but has missed the last several weeks after having a screw inserted in his foot. However, Michigan did leave open the possibility that Hayes could conceivably play again if the Wolverines have any meaningful post-season games. Michigan is currently 18th in the CFP rankings and outside the 12-team playoff structure, but would get a huge boost with a win over Ohio State next week.
Browns looking at QB early in 2026 … One of the big questions heading to the 2026 draft, especially in Cleveland, was whether would stick with their young QBs Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders next year or use one, if not both, of the their 2026 first round picks to address the position this coming April. According to award-winning Cleveland beat writer Mary Kay Cabot, though, there’s not much doubt that the Browns at least would like to address the position early this year. According to Cabot, the Browns “have been crisscrossing the country scouring and scouting these quarterbacks.” And the Browns could end up in good position to find their guy next April as they are currently sitting on the 3rd pick overall in the latest selection order for next year’s opening round, while they also hold Jacksonville’s #1 pick (#21 overall this week) as a result of this past April’s trade which allowed the Jags to move up to get Travis Hunter.
ASU QB Leavitt not looking at portal … yet … Arizona State QB Sam Leavitt, or least his brother and agent, is denying that the star Sun Devil is already actively shopping his services for the 2026 season, at least not yet. Leavitt, a redshirt sophomore with two years of college eligibility remaining, has been sidelined the better part of the current season with a foot injury after a breakout year in 2024. Prior to the injury, Leavitt had been mentioned as a possible solid candidate for the upcoming draft; however, all this tends to suggest that he’ll be back in school somewhere next fall. Indeed, he figures to be one of the hot players in the portal this winter with price tag upwards of $3M if that is in fact the direction he goes at the end of the current campaign.
Weekly selection order posted … With another week in the books, the selection order for the first-round of the 2026 draft were it to be held this week has been updated here.
As the QB turns, NFL edition: Jets bench Fields, Sanders plays … A couple of QB developments in the NFL with draft implications. On the one hand, the NY Jets confirmed this morning that Justin Fields has bee benched ad will be replaced by veteran Tyrod Taylor. That likely signals the end of the Fields-era in New York such that the Jets will almost assuredly looking for a new passer this winter, either a veteran or thru the draft. And the Jets certainly should be in touch to get one of this year’s top QB prospects, assuming of course that 1 or 2 actually enter the draft; they are currently sitting on a top 5 pick and have an extra #1 this year acquired from Indianapolis in the trade for star CB Sauce Gardner, as well as two extra first rounders in 2027 acquired from the Colts and Dallas, should they want to try and trade up.
Meanwhile, fans in Cleveland finally got their wish to see Shedeur Sanders on the field yesterday when he came in in relief of an injured Dillon Gabriel ad played most of the 2nd half in a loss to Baltimore. Unfortunately it was not pretty; in fact it was kind of ugly. Sanders completed just 4 of 16 passes for a measly 47 yards while throwing a pick and losing a fumble. Ad Browns’ head coach Kevin Stefanski left little doubt that if Gabriel gets a medical clearance – he suffered a concussion – he will be back under center when Cleveland plays at Las Vegas in a ‘big’ draft game on Sunday. Fact is that Gabriel hasn’t been all that effective either – he’s completing under 60% of his passes while averaging barely 5 yards per throw – and inquiring minds are wondering if the Browns, who are also currently sitting on a top 5 might also be looking at the position early this coming April.
Sask Riders win CFL’s Grey Cup … The Saskatchewan Roughriders won their first Grey Cup in 12 years with a 25-17 win over Montreal in the 112th edition of the Canadian league championship tonight in Winnipeg. Riders’ QB Trevor Harris was named the game’s MVP after completing 23 of 27 passes for just over 300 yards, while his favorite target on the day, WR Samuel Emilus, was named teh outstanding Canadian player.
Titans hang onto top pick for another week … Tennessee threw something of a scare into divisional rival Houston in one of today’s early games before losing 16-13. As a result, the Titans drop to 1-9 and will hold onto the #1 pick at the 2026 draft were it held this week, at least for the week. Meanwhile, the NY Giants will slide up into the #2 slot behind the Titans after they lost a tight one themselves to Green Bay. That poistion is a little deceiving, though as the 2-9 Giants would actually pick after 2-8 teams New Orleans, the NY Jets and Cleveland should any of these teams lose their game in hand.
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