Volume 26:40

College Football Season Start

The time is here, College football season starts today! Some big names are in action this week. Despite the limited schedule– due to it being Week 0– we have some good matchups. The season starts at 12:00pm with the TCU Horned Frogs and North Carolina Tar Heels meeting in Dublin, Ireland. TCU are slight favorites against the Bill Belichick led Tar Heels.

The 14th ranked USC Trojans also open their season today. USC is 35.5 point favorites against the San Jose State Spartans. USC has college football playoff hopes and looks to get off to a hot start against the unranked Spartans.

Half an hour after the USC-San Jose St. game starts, we get arguably the best matchup of the week. The North Carolina State Wolfpack visits the Virginia Cavaliers. UVA finished last year as the 16th ranked team, and the ACC runner-ups. On the other side of things, NC State hasn’t missed a bowl game since the 2019-2020 season. The Wolfpack have been consistently in the top half of the conference all decade.

Later this afternoon, the North Dakota State Bison and Sacramento State Hornets play their first games as FBS schools against the Jacksonville State Gamecocks and Eastern Michigan Eagles, respectively. Both the Bison and Hornets are favored today.

This evening, another ACC school starts their season– the Stanford Cardinal. Stanford hosts the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors as four-point favorites. Hawaii is expected to contend for a Mountain West title this season.

The Florida State Seminoles recently have declined, as they finished last year 5-7, when just two years earlier they were 13-1. They start the season as 31.5 point favorites against the New Mexico State Aggies.

The last game tonight may be the most exciting. The UNLV Runnin’ Rebels host the Memphis Tigers. Both UNLV and Memphis have been some of the best Group of Five teams in recent years. They will each be contending for conference titles and a college football playoff spot. 

Now that we have been over the games, it’s prediction time.

TCU Horned Frogs 33-31 over the North Carolina Tar Heels.

USC Trojans 56-7 over the San Jose Spartans

Virginia Cavaliers 24-23 over the North Carolina State Wolfpack

North Dakota State Bison 38-31 over the Jacksonville State Gamecocks

Eastern Michigan 21-20 over the Sacramento State Hornets

Hawaii Rainbow Warriors 28-27 over the Stanford Cardinal

Florida State Seminoles 49-17 over the New Mexico State Aggies

UNLV Rebels 37-35 over the Memphis Tigers

CT Top 25 rankings: Every College Football season, the CT has a writer-chosen Top 25. Here is the final CT preseason Top 25:

1. Texas Longhorns

2. Ohio State Buckeyes

3. Indiana Hoosiers

4. Georgia Bulldogs

5. Oregon Ducks

6. Miami Hurricanes

7. Oklahoma Sooners

8. USC Trojans

9. Texas A&M Aggies

10. Texas Tech Red Raiders

11. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

12. LSU Tigers

13. BYU Cougars

14. Michigan Wolverines

15. Louisville Cardinals

16. Ole Miss Rebels

17. Alabama Crimson Tide

18. Washington Huskies

19. SMU Mustangs

20. Utah Utes

21. Iowa Hawkeyes

22. Penn State Nittany Lions

23. Tennessee Volunteers

24. Missouri Tigers 

25. Houston Cougars

MLB Update

With football season getting underway, that’s a sign that it’s almost playoff time in the MLB. The 2026 MLB regular season has just about a month left. This playoff race is shaping up pretty well.

The NL is led by the MLB’s very best, the Milwaukee Brewers. With six more wins, the Brewers would have a fourth straight 90-win season. The Brewers are also seeking back-to-back seasons with the top record in the MLB. They are closely followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves who lead the other NL divisions. The Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies hold two of the other playoff spots. The San Diego Padres hold a 0.5 game advantage over their division rivals the Arizona Diamondbacks for the final playoff spot. The Miami Marlins and St Louis Cardinals are still fighting for their season, as they remain within striking distance of San Diego. The Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, Washington Nationals, and New York Mets have all reached the 60-win mark. The San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies sit at the bottom of the NL.

Over in the AL, the Tampa Bay Rays, New York Yankees, and Boston Red Sox are all fighting to get above one another as the playoffs near. Those three teams have the three best records in the AL, and all play in the same division. The 66-69 Baltimore Orioles and 66-70 Toronto Blue Jays round out the AL East. The Chicago White Sox and Houston Astros lead their divisions. The Cleveland Guardians are in the final playoff spot. The Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins, Seattle Mariners, Detroit Tigers, Baltimore Orioles, and Toronto Blue Jays are all just behind Cleveland for that playoff spot. The Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, and Athletics round out the AL.

Yordan Alvarez continues his triple crown push, as he leads the AL in batting average, homeruns, and RBIs. Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies was the first player this season to reach 40 homeruns. Luis Arraez leads the MLB in both batting average and hits, also for Philadelphia. Rookie Sal Stewart of the Reds leads the majors in RBIs with 102.