The excitement is palpable in Blacksburg, as the Virginia Tech Hokies have a new head football coach in Justin Fuente. Legendary head coach Frank Beamer will oversee the sidelines one more time in a to-be-determined bowl game thanks to last week's thrilling win over archrival Virginia. The win over UVA puts the Hokies at 6-6 on the season, including a 4-4 mark in ACC play.  It's easy to question how good the Hokies could've been had starting quarterback Michael Brewer ...

Wouldn't it be amazing if the winners of college basketball's early-season tournaments punched a ticket to one giant tournament designed to crown the ultimate champion of the non-conference season? A total of 20 non-exempt tournaments were played in November, crowning 20 different champions. We took those 20 teams and ranked them from top to bottom based on three factors: Preseason expectations (scored from 1 to 20) Strength of tournament schedule (scored from 1 to 10) Level of dominance in ...

The North Carolina Tar Heels are off to a 5-1 start to the season, and while that is a good beginning, the team is far from perfect. There are always ways to improve as the year continues. UNC will face its biggest test of the year Tuesday in the form of a home game against No. 2 Maryland, one of the few teams in the nation that can match the Tar Heels' starting lineup. The good ...

The Big Ten-ACC Challenge has become an annual early-season treat featuring arguably the two best conferences in men's college basketball. After all, both conferences were represented in last year’s national championship game between the Duke Blue Devils and Wisconsin Badgers. Here is a look at Monday’s scores and a reaction from the opening contests of the three-day, 14-game series.   Wake Forest Defeats Rutgers 69-68 The Wake Forest Demon Deacons mounted a remarkable 16-2 run in the latter stages ...

On Saturday night, it was almost as if Bob Stoops was watching on television with the rest of us. Deep into the third quarter, up big against Bedlam rival Oklahoma State, the Oklahoma head coach took a timeout to discuss options on third down in the red zone. That break in action allowed everybody at home (and those of us in the Boone Pickens Stadium press box) to quickly switch to the action on the West ...

The Big Ten announced its all-conference football teams and individual award winners for defensive players and special teams aces on Monday through its official website.       Headlining the accolade recipients were Penn State defensive end Carl Nassib, the Nagurski-Woodson Defensive Player of the Year, and Michigan Wolverines all-purpose dynamo Jabrill Peppers as the Thompson-Randle El Freshman of the Year. Check out the complete All-Big Ten Defensive Team (coaches) in the table below, as offensive players ...

Melo Trimble was fat, lazy, terrible on defense and a poor leader. Is that harsh? Mean, even? Don’t blame us. The words come from Maryland’s point guard himself. On the surface, Trimble is the star who, as one of the top freshmen in college basketball last season, paced the 28-win Terrapins in scoring, assists, steals and minutes played. Only, he didn’t feel like a star (see: those unflattering words above). Call him humble, grounded, a realist; it’s ...

The Missouri Tigers have announced they will not seek a bowl bid, according to Joe Schad of ESPN.com. On Monday, Stephanie Kuzydym of the Houston Chronicle reported the NCAA approved the "recommendation by [the] Football Oversight Committee to fill bowls with five-win teams."    Missouri is 5-7 and has a sufficient Academic Progress Rate to qualify for one of the record 41 bowl games, but athletic director Mack Rhoades issued a statement saying the team’s focus is on finding ...

November is a defining month for college football programs that are attempting to navigate toward postseason opportunities. It also represents a new chapter in each recruiting cycle, as final in-season official visits occur and the countdown to national signing day ticks under 10 weeks.  While some teams maximized potential with key prospect pickups during the month, others struggled to maintain consistency and, in some cases, lost talented pledges. Here's a look back at programs that spent ...

And then there were eight. Maybe. The final days of the college football regular season—conference championship weekend and Selection Sunday—will cut the list of national title contenders in half, down to the second-ever final four for the College Football Playoff. Some chaotic scenarios were ruled out in the last few weeks, but there's still time for upsets and upheaval among the top teams in the country. A few teams are outsiders in the playoff chase, including the one ...