Mike Cagley, Co-Host IlliniGuys Sports Spectacular

October 21, 2025

The Illini are coming off of their first bye week and preparing for battle with Washington next Saturday. The Huskies are coming off of a disappointing loss against Michigan. Washington QB Demond Williams had a bad game, throwing 3 interceptions in the game. I was hoping he'd wait until the Illini show up to have his first bad game of the season.

The Huskies will be looking to right the ship against the Illini, and this game will be critical for playoff hopes of both the Huskies and Illini. There is a chance that a 3-loss team gets into the playoffs, but it is hardly a certainty. This game could be an eliminator for the losing team. No one is fully "out" with a loss being still being "in" feels better for all involved.

Heat Check #1 - College Football's New World Order

Last year, it appeared that the era of firing coaches with big buyouts was over. But two events have given college football a new sense of urgency across the nation. The era of slow rebuilds is over. No longer does a coach get a four-year period to restock the team with four recruiting classes. The transfer portal changed that. Coaches can restock teams quicker than ever, but despite these changes, two recent events have ratcheted up the urgency felt by teams, boosters, fans, and coaches to improve quickly:

1. the historical worst team in Division 1 college football (Indiana) has earned a way to the CFP last year and looks like it is on a path to make a second straight appearance. To make things harder on the rest of the nation's football coaches, Indiana has done this in year one and probably year two of Coach Curt Cignetti's tenure the Hoosier head coach. There is no historical comparison to what Cignetti and Indiana have accomplished.
2. Penn State was willing to eat a potential $48 million to fire head coach James Franklin for not being able to win the big game.  Since taking over the struggling Nittany Lion program in 2014, Franklin has won 13 games once, 11 games four times and 10 games once. Never before has a team been willing to pay so much to fire a coach with a record of 104-45. Even the record setting buyout of Jimbo Fisher ($77 million) which was caused by a pedestrian 45-25 record doesn't approach the level of success that Franklin accomplished.

Across the country, fans and boosters will be changing their expectation levels. They will be communicating a message to their athletic director and head football coach. The message will be:

• Why not us?
• Why not here?
• Why not now?

The expectations for teams to win just got much higher and most teams won't hire a coach as competent as Curt Cignetti, have boosters and cash flow comparable to what Indiana has, or will attract so many difference makers so quickly.

Billy Napier of Florida was fired on Sunday. He couldn't get Florida near the heights of Urban Meyer or Steve Spurrier's success. For now, rumors to swirl regarding whether Lane Kiffin of Ole Miss is available or not. The urgency to win is climbing in the SEC.

Who will be the next affected by fanbases pointing at the Penn State firing and thinking that Indiana's success could be theirs as well - Luke Fickell at Wisconsin, Hugh Freeze at Auburn, maybe Mike Norvell at Florida State, or someone else?

There's a New World Order coming to college football and if Indiana is up at the top, who else might join them there? Who is willing to do and spend what it takes?

Life just got harder for athletic directors, head football coaches, and wealthy donors being called upon to write big checks.

Heat Check #2 - Transparency in the TV Scoreboard

I love the transparency that the ACC has innovated by introducing the dialogue going on in the replay booth to make key decisions during games. This allows the fans with insight into what is going on behind the scenes. I think it's great.

I would like one more area of transparency introduced. I'd like the total spend on the roster (in millions) listed just like the record and ranking when showing the game score.

So instead of:

#1 Ohio State 7-0

#2 Indiana 7-0

The scoreboard would say

#1 - $40 Ohio State 7-0

#2 - $35 Indiana 7-0

I have no idea on the actual roster spend as those numbers were just made-up examples. To be clear, I also don't think you can make any rules to limit spending because we've seen over the last 100 years teams will break the rules to spend more. If money can be made by winning, people will influence their odds of winning by cheating. Human nature is what it is.

Instead of creating rules that won't work, let's just add transparency to make sure the fans know how committed each team/school is to winning football games. The easiest measure is how much they spend on their player roster. Even better, I'm sure there are some coaches would love that transparency, especially if they're one of the coaches who are winning double digit games with a single digit budget (in millions).

I am also sure there are some athletic directors who would hate to have their total spend revealed. If you spent too much and don't win, fans will say you're incompetent. If you don't spend enough, fans will say you don't care about winning. Either way, I don't see why this should be an issue.

No one is trying to stop the teams from spending their hard-earned money (with all of its advantages), but why not make it public? These aren't state secrets.

Heat Check #3 - Don't Tell Me the CFP is Bad

So many complain about the CFP diluting the season because teams can lose more than 1 game to make their way to CFP berth. I say that with the possibility of a 2-loss (or maybe even a 3-loss team) making the CFP, it adds importance to games each and every week.

If we assume you can lose two games and somehow make it to the CFP, the following B1G games have CFP implications:

• Illinois 5-2 at Washington 5-2
• UCLA 3-4 at Indiana 7-0
• Wisconsin 2-5 at Oregon 6-1
• Northwestern 5-2 at Nebraska 5-2
• Michigan 5-2 at Michigan State 3-4
• Minnesota 5-2 at Iowa 5-2

and Ohio State 7-0 is idle.

Keep the 12-team or even better give me a 16-team college football playoff.

It keeps all sorts of games important late into the season and allows fans to enjoy big games throughout the football season. Excitement and dreams of CFP games will help fill up stadiums and get folks to tune into key college football games across the country again this season.

I suspect this year a 3-loss team (or two) will make the CFP because so many good teams are banging heads each week. That means more relevant games for college football fans to watch throughout the fall.

The CFP should be great fun again this season.

Feed me more!