AI-assisted summary
• The current College Football Playoff format creates excessive travel demands for teams and their fans.
• Coaches suggest moving the playoff schedule to December and holding more games on campus sites.
• Playing playoff games at neutral sites has led to low ticket sales and a lack of atmosphere.

MIAMI GARDENS, FL – This is common sense stuff, everyone. If we can see it, they can, too.

Those who have built the College Football Playoff can surely understand they’ve asked Oregon fans to travel cross-country to Miami for the Orange Bowl quarterfinal, fly back to Oregon, and a week later fly cross-country again for the CFP semifinal in Atlanta if the Ducks advance. 

Then fly back to Oregon, and 10 days later, fly back to Miami for the national championship game in Atlanta. Or approximately 15,000 miles over three weeks.

Or that No. 1 Indiana’s road is Los Angeles/Atlanta/Miami. Or No. 2 Ohio State’s road is Dallas/Phoenix/Miami.

What in blue blazes is going on here?

“It’s the craziest thing,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “There’s a better way to do all of this. We’re not inventing the wheel here.”

It’s not that difficult, everyone. Strengthen the standalone December playoff product, and avoid the NFL playoffs a month later.

This brings us all the way back to common sense, and that we’ve been obsessing over the wrong problem all along. It’s not just who earns the right to play in the CFP, it’s the sequencing of it all.

Here’s how Lanning, and Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire — whose teams play Thursday in the Orange Bowl CFP semifinal — think it should all play out. 

(A quick addendum: Lanning and McGuire are just meathead football coaches, like many other coaches who see this the same way. What do they know about running a billion-dollar postseason tournament? Leave that to the brilliant university presidents and conference commissioners — who haven’t screwed up a single thing over the past four years of paradigm change.)

The playoff, coaches say, should begin the first weekend of December where Championship Week currently resides. That doesn’t mean eliminating conference championship games (and millions in revenue), it means beginning the season one week early. 

A novel concept, I know. 

The quarterfinals are then played a week later, or the second Friday and Saturday of December. The semifinals are played a week after that on the third Friday and Saturday of December, and the championship game on New Year’s Day — the holiest of college football days. 

Here’s the key: the first three rounds of the tournament are played on campus, thereby maximizing the impact of the regular season — no matter how many teams (12 or 16) you throw into the playoff bracket.

The more you win in the regular season, the greater your opportunity to host playoff games and gain a significant competitive advantage. 

And bonus: the convoluted and dysfunctional college football calendar — and the unwieldly player procurement process of national signing day and the opening and closing of the transfer portal — ends. Everything begins after Jan. 1.  

“The idea should be to make everything easier for all involved,” McGuire said. “We’re the furthest thing from that right now.”

This isn’t the men’s basketball tournament, a made-for-television neutral site event that emphasizes the underdog. Because the underdog chucking 3-pointers possession after possession can do the unthinkable. 

The underdog chucking deep balls play after play in the CFP loses by 30.

It’s a completely different sport and tournament, and absurd to even compare the two. Almost as absurd as Oregon playing Texas Tech in an NFL stadium in the second round of the CFP —  instead of Texas Tech rewarded for the greatest season in school history by hosting in the game day asylum that is Lubbock.

“I can’t even imagine what it would be like to have a home playoff game,” said Texas Tech quarterback Behren Morton. “Our fans are wild in the regular season. What would a playoff game look like?”      

Like it did in the first round at Norman, Eugene, College Station and Oxford. Wild, never before seen environments. 

Or you can have the current quarterfinal landscape, where ticket brokers have scooped up thousands of tickets — and now can’t sell them. The get-in price for the Orange Bowl is $49, and $32 for a Cotton Bowl featuring two of the biggest television properties (Ohio State, Miami) in the sport. 

Something, everyone, isn’t working. 

It’s bad enough that CFP leaders force the highest-ranked Group of 5 champion on its marquee event, despite the drastic difference in schedule difficulty. They then compounded the problem this year, when the selection committee added a Group of 5 at-large selection.

It’s worse that quarterfinal games — when the tournament truly begins — are struggling to fill stadiums and lacking juice because they’re not on campus. The college football regular season, the greatest television event in sports this side of the NFL, is an ever-growing monster because of rare campus environments. 

It makes no sense to take the most important show of the season — the tournament to decide the champion of the sport — and let it play out at neutral sites. It’s not the 1980s and 90s anymore, the golden ring is no longer a major bowl game.

Its now a home playoff game, and all the pomp and parade that goes with it — including Fiddy showing up in Norman, of all places, singing ‘Many Men’ at the end of the third quarter.

I’m tryin’ to be what I’m destined to be… I’m a diamond in the dirt that ain’t been found.

The CFP can no longer avoid tournament change, no longer run from its destiny. Everything else in the sport has drastically changed, why cling to the old postseason? 

The bowl season won’t go anywhere, and will be as strong as ever — merely 41(!!) games strong. The Rose Bowl is still the grandaddy of them all, the annual home of the national championship game. 

Once the sequencing is figured out, once the idea of emphasizing what makes college football unique and bulletproof is embraced, the thought of adding meaningless Group of 5 charity games to the process becomes utter blasphemy.

Then the real fun begins. Campus games take over, and funnel into the New Year’s Day spectacle of the Rose Bowl. 

The college football holy ground. 

AI-assisted summary
• Week 18 of the NFL season brings speculation about which coaches might be fired on ‘Black Monday.’
• We rank eight coaches on the ‘hot seat,’ with Pete Carroll of the Raiders the most likely to be let go.
• Despite high expectations, several teams are facing uncertain futures.

At a time when a sizable number of NFL coaches are trying to plot a path past the regular season, many more are simply looking to hang on for another year.

The arrival of Week 18 also brings about plenty of speculation about Black Monday, the annual date on which teams that fall short of the postseason begin enacting staff changes. Upheaval is almost a certainty, with the New York Giants and Tennessee Titans having already dismissed their leaders.

But this year’s setup seems to entail a good bit more mystery than that of previous years. With few buzzy names in the assistant coaching ranks – at least among offensive play-callers – might teams exhibit a bit more patience in forging ahead with known entities? Mike Tomlin’s name has drawn the most attention among coaches facing an uncertain future, but reports have indicated an outright firing by the Pittsburgh Steelers isn’t expected as a potential resolution even if the two sides were to split. Meanwhile, while the New York Jets’ Aaron Glenn and Cincinnati Bengals’ Zac Taylor each fell well short of expectations in 2025, neither appears to be at imminent risk of being dismissed – though the coaching cycle routinely produces a surprise or two.

Ahead of Week 18, here’s our final NFL hot seat rankings, leading off with the figure most likely to be let go:

1. Pete Carroll, Las Vegas Raiders

If Carroll had one task to check off in his first season back in the NFL after his one-year absence, it was to establish a baseline level of competence for the Raiders. Maybe that seemed as though it would be aiming low for a coach selected for the NFL’s 2010s All-Decade Team, but that floor wasn’t something Las Vegas could count on in the previous three years. Still, Carroll’s charges have hardly embodied his ‘always compete’ mantra. In taking the pole position for the No. 1 draft pick, the Raiders have made a full-scale reset look inevitable, with almost no silver lining to be seen for the Silver and Black. Carroll was clearly counting on a rapid turnaround, and there’s little point in having the oldest coach in NFL history oversee a much more extensive build than anyone in the organization had prepared for. And with Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza serving as the potential prize for a year of pain, the franchise would serve itself well by instituting the kind of alignment that has long eluded it.

2. Raheem Morris, Atlanta Falcons

A three-game win streak could help build the case that Morris knows how to guide this group. But the late-season surge also underscores how badly Atlanta has underachieved on the whole. Things aren’t as simple as merely running it back for the Falcons, with quarterback Michael Penix Jr.’s trajectory even more uncertain following his third torn anterior cruciate ligament since the start of his college career. Atlanta has also been dogged by repeated special teams errors, a distinctly bad look for a franchise with minimal margin for error. Arthur Blank has rare patience in the NFL ownership class, but an eighth consecutive losing season – and a postseason drought only exceeded by that of the Jets – could test even the most even-tempered decision-maker.

3. Jonathan Gannon, Arizona Cardinals

It would be easy to cast misfortune as the running theme of this season for Arizona, which is 2-8 in one-score games and became the first team in NFL history to lose three consecutive contests on the final play. And with 22 players on injured reserve, the Cardinals certainly haven’t been able to show what they can do at full strength, particularly offensively. But five of the defeats in the ongoing eight-game losing streak have come by at least 20 points, undermining any sense that this group is on the verge of a breakthrough. Some form of major change feels necessary in the desert, especially given the gulf between expectations and reality for Year 3 of Gannon and general manager Monti Ossenfort’s reign. But Arizona could stop short of making a shift at the top and instead alter its outlook elsewhere on the coaching staff and at quarterback, where Kyler Murray’s tenure looks to have run its course.

4. Kevin Stefanski, Cleveland Browns

In a vacuum, a coach with a 7-26 record the last two seasons typically would find himself atop this list rather than placed in the middle. But context matters when evaluating Stefanski, who was hardly set up to succeed this year. That dynamic was particularly evident behind center, with the coach cycling a trio of starting options that constituted the league’s worst collection of passing talent. Still smarting from the ill-fated Deshaun Watson trade, Cleveland set itself up for a 2026 resurgence by dealing back to earn another first-round draft pick this upcoming spring. Stefanski aided that effort by bringing along one of the league’s most impressive rookie classes, giving a roster starved for young talent something resembling an actual foundation. Still, even though he ceded play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, the two-time Coach of the Year is ultimately still responsible for an attack that ranks 31st in scoring. A reprieve would be entirely reasonable given the task facing Stefanski this season, but it can’t be guaranteed.

5. John Harbaugh, Baltimore Ravens

An unceremonious end to the season isn’t all that will await the loser of Sunday’s regular-season capper for the AFC North title, as either Tomlin or Harbaugh will surely face a barrage of questions about the future after falling short of the playoffs. Ending the second-longest tenure of any active coach is no trivial matter, as Harbaugh has a Lombardi Trophy to his résumé and is just one year removed from coming up short in the AFC championship game. Still, the Ravens were often responsible for their own undoing throughout this season, and Harbaugh did himself no favors with Derrick Henry’s late usage – or lack thereof – in a Week 16 loss to the New England Patriots. Baltimore is at risk of squandering the Kansas City Chiefs’ downfall this season, and the organization needs to pounce on a potential reset for the longtime AFC heavyweight. And two-time NFL MVP Lamar Jackson might benefit from a fresh direction as he prepares to turn 29 and enter a distinct new chapter of his career. Still, extending the season by a week or two likely extinguishes the matter.

6. Todd Bowles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Having lost seven of their last eight games and now needing help to secure a fifth consecutive NFC South title, the Buccaneers are in full tailspin mode. How much of that falls on Bowles depends on your perspective. Incessant injuries have prevented the offense from ever reaching full strength, and Baker Mayfield’s struggles have been so pervasive that the coach himself declared Tampa Bay has ‘got to be better at the quarterback position.’ But Bowles’ defense has also weighed the team down, ranking 26th in yards allowed per play while sporting a troubling overall trend line since the Week 9 bye. Perhaps the organization opts not to pursue drastic action amid the meltdown and Bowles receives a fifth season at the helm. Regardless, the Buccaneers will have to come to terms with the significant step back the franchise has taken in a year in which it had designs on making up ground on the NFC’s elite.

7. Matt LaFleur, Green Bay Packers

With the Packers locked into the No. 7 seed in the NFC playoff field, LaFleur certainly won’t have to fear his Black Monday fate. Of the coaches to make the postseason, however, he might be on he shakiest ground. The Packers’ positioning is unquestionably a disappointment for a franchise that backed an all-in approach with its early-season performance, and LaFleur has had to answer for several costly flops in critical spots. The coach’s standing had already become a point of interest over the summer when new Packers president and CEO Ed Policy did not offer him or general manager Brian Gutekunst an extension. Still, LaFleur has Green Bay in the playoffs for the sixth time in seven years, and season-ending injuries to Micah Parsons, Tucker Kraft and Devonte Wyatt played significant roles in the team’s late woes. Flaming out in the wild-card round might mean Green Bay at least has something to think about.

8. Mike McDaniel, Miami Dolphins

In following the biggest opening-week embarrassment with Tua Tagovailoa airing out his frustrations with teammates and subsequently apologizing for the finger-pointing, Miami managed to frontload many of its most persistent problems this season. That’s overall a credit to McDaniel, who at least steadied a ship that looked liable to capsize around midseason. Since parting ways with general manager Chris Grier and trading away one of its best players in Jaelan Phillips, the Dolphins have gone 5-2. McDaniel arrived at this point by already laying the groundwork for a post-Tagovailoa transition year in 2026 with a robust run game. Owner Stephen Ross could opt for a fresh start, but McDaniel has made the most of his opportunity to see out the season.

If I didn’t know any better, it would be easy to assume the Buffalo Sabres are allergic to the playoffs. Without going into the sordid, grotesque details of what their non-playoff spell has encompassed, there is hope emanating from the Queen City. 

The Sabres have won 10 consecutive games for the first time since assembling a 10-game win streak in November 2018. The streak has pushed them into the second wild-card spot. But will they be able to sustain their playoff-like pace through the new year and into spring? 

Everyone associated with the Sabres has their collective fingers crossed as we explore which other NHL teams have become unfamiliar with playoff action.

Longest active Stanley Cup playoff droughts

5. Utah/Arizona, Columbus, Chicago, Philadelphia (2020)

These four teams haven’t made the postseason since the 2019-20 season. Of the quartet, the Philadelphia Flyers were the only ones to make it to the second round, where they lost a seven-game thriller to the New York Islanders. 

Speaking of the Flyers, they currently have the best shot in the 2025-26 season to end their playoff drought.

4. San Jose Sharks (2019)

While still in the early stage of his career, Celebrini is showcasing all the telltale signs of being a generational talent. That only bodes well for a franchise still in search of its first Stanley Cup title. 

3. Anaheim Ducks (2018)

Like their aforementioned California counterparts, the Anaheim Ducks have more to look forward to than an Ivy League-educated prodigy. They are chock-full of promising young talent, led by 2023 second overall draft pick Leo Carlsson and 19-year-old Beckett Sennecke, the No. 3 pick from the 2024 NHL Draft. 

And just like the Sharks, they haven’t booked a ticket to the dance in a long time, almost eight years to be precise. But if the playoffs were to start today, the Ducks would end that extended dry patch. 

Ducks fans will be looking forward to what should be a quacking 2026. 

2. Detroit Red Wings (2016)

Steve Yzerman took over as executive vice president and GM in 2019, three years after the Red Wings’ last playoff visit. Their nine-year non-playoff streak feels even longer considering the Red Wings haven’t advanced past the first round since 2013. 

However, things are finally starting to look up in Hockeytown. While the adage ‘good things come to those who wait’ probably didn’t refer to a near-decade duration, Detroit appears, at least at the season’s midway mark, poised to re-enter the playoff fray. 

1. Buffalo Sabres (2011)

The Sabres haven’t competed in a playoff game since ‘Game of Thrones’ first hit the airwaves. The franchise’s 14 years, going on 15, of missing the playoffs is the second-longest across North American professional sports. 

The New York Jets, who last made the playoffs in 2010, are the only franchise enduring a longer playoff drought. Although in seasons, they were tied at 14 each going into 2025-26.

Boxer Anthony Joshua was released from a hospital in Nigeria on Wednesday, Dec. 31 two days after surviving a fatal car accident that killed two of his close friends, according to the Associated Press.

Joshua, a former two-time world heavyweight champion whose parents are from Nigeria, had been recovering from minor injuries during the two-vehicle crash near Lagos, according to Matchroom Boxing, which promotes Joshua.

In a video posted on social media after the crash, Joshua looked to be in pain as he exited the vehicle. That vehicle, in which Joshua and his friends were traveling, hit a stationary truck on a major road near Lagos, according to the Associated Press.

Gbenga Omotoso, the Lagos state commissioner for information and strategy, issued a statement on X saying Joshua was discharged late Wednesday afternoon after being “deemed clinically fit to recuperate from home.”

“Anthony and his mother were at the funeral home in Lagos this afternoon to pay their final respects to his two departed friends as they were being prepared for repatriation scheduled for later this evening,” Omotoso also said.

Sina Ghami and Latif “Latz” Ayodele, who worked for Joshua and were close friends with the boxer, were killed in the crash.

Ghami was Joshua’s strength and conditioning coach while Ayodele was a trainer, according to the Associated Press. Hours before the accident, Joshua posted on social media video of his playing table tennis with Ayodele.

Ten days before the accident, Joshua knocked out Jake Paul in the sixth round of their highly anticipated heavyweight fight livestreamed by Netflix.

• Drew Brees, Larry Fitzgerald, Frank Gore and Jason Witten are the first-ballot Hall of Fame candidates.
• Philip Rivers, who returned to play for the Indianapolis Colts in 2025, is no longer eligible.
• The final Class of 2026 inductees will be revealed in January before Super Bowl 60.

One step away.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame revealed its 15 modern-day player finalists for the Class of 2026 on Tuesday, Dec. 30, setting up another round of intrigue on the path to football immortality.

The group includes four first-ballot nominees and four candidates who, as mandated by the Hall’s bylaws, automatically advanced to this stage of the process after reaching the final seven selections for last year’s class.

➤ The first-ballot picks: Drew Brees, Larry Fitzgerald, Frank Gore and Jason Witten.

 ➤ The automatic finalists: Willie Anderson, Torry Holt, Luke Kuechly and Adam Vinateri.

➤ Advancing to the final round for the first time: Kevin Williams.

➤ Other returning finalists: Jahri Evans, Eli Manning, Terrell Suggs, Reggie Wayne, Darren Woodson and Marshal Yanda.

The Hall’s 50-member selection will meet before Super Bowl 60 to consider the modern-era players in addition to finalists from the coach (Bill Belichick), contributor (Robert Kraft) and seniors (Ken Anderson, Roger Craig and L.C. Greenwood) categories, to constitute the class that will be enshrined at Canton, Ohio in early August.

The committee can elect up to five modern-day players for induction, provided each receives at least 80% of the final vote. In balloting separate from the modern-era player slate, the committee can elect up to three of the five finalists from the other categories.

The results of the voting, and newest Hall of Fame class, will be revealed during the NFL Honors awards show on Feb. 5 at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.

There is no set number of inductees, but the bylaws stipulate that the class contains a minimum of four and maximum of eight enshrinees. The Class of 2025 consisted of just four members – Eric Allen, Jared Allen, Antonio Gates and Sterling Sharpe – to mark the smallest class in 20 years.

As usual, the process will be rife with intense debate. While each of the first-ballot nominees carry impeccable credentials, wide receivers Holt and Wayne are finalists for the seventh time. Woodson, meanwhile, is a finalist for the fourth time – in his 18th year of eligibility.

Philip Rivers’ remarkable return to the NFL has come to an end just as rapidly as it first materialized.

The Indianapolis Colts quarterback, who came out of retirement three weeks ago to rejoin his former team following a five-year break, is expected to sit out the team’s season finale Sunday against the Houston Texans, according to multiple reports. Rookie Riley Leonard will instead lead the offense.

With that decision, one of the most unlikely comebacks in NFL history is over.

The Colts were in dire straits in early December when starting quarterback Daniel Jones was lost for the season to a torn Achilles. Already spiraling after a sizzling start to the season, the Colts were without a true backup as second-stringer Anthony Richardson Sr. remained on injured reserve with a fractured orbital bone suffered in October.

With Leonard also ailing from a knee injury, Colts coach Shane Steichen and general manager Chris Ballard reached out to Rivers to see if the 44-year-old – who taught a version of the play-caller’s offense in his role as coach of St. Michael Catholic High School in Fairhope, Alabama – would be interested in returning. In the span of a few days, Rivers signed with the team, began practicing and took over as the starter for the Week 15 showdown against the Seattle Seahawks.

Rivers would go 0-3 as a starter, and the Colts became the first team in 30 years to miss the playoffs after starting the season 8-2. But the veteran signal-caller overcame limitations in his arm strength and mobility by manipulating coverages and making quick decisions.

On the season, Rivers finished with 544 passing yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions as well as a 63% completion rate.

The Colts were eliminated from playoff contention on Saturday, one day prior to the team’s 23-17 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Despite that, Rivers still played so as not to put Leonard into action after the quarterback did not receive starting reps throughout practice that week.

Rivers, who had been a semifinalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s 2026 class but now must wait another five years before becoming eligible again, has made clear that he will not entertain playing in 2026 and instead will return to his high-school coaching post. Still, independent of the results, the run is one he will remember fondly.

“If this is the last (game), again, I told you guys I wasn’t going to have any regrets about coming back – and I don’t, other than us not winning,” Rivers said Sunday. “It’s been an absolute blast for three weeks.”