Welcome to the Skull Session.
I hope you had a meaningful Memorial Day.
Today and every day we remember & honor those who sacrificed to make our freedom possible #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/cEofjLLEnc
— Ohio State Buckeyes (@OhioStAthletics) May 25, 2026
Have a good Tuesday.
THE PRINCE THAT WAS PROMISED. ICYMI: James Laurinaitis has landed another top-10 linebacker, further establishing himself as one of college football’s top recruiters.
Laurinaitis’ latest commitment came from Missouri four-star Prince Goldsby, the No. 7 linebacker and No. 101 overall prospect in the 2027 class.
#BOOM Missouri four-star Prince Goldsby, the No. 7 linebacker and No. 101 overall prospect in the 2027 class, commits to Ohio State.https://t.co/cSnZuVvM1v pic.twitter.com/dKBoa2Rcor
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) May 26, 2026
Last season at Blue Springs South, the 6-foot-3, 205-pound athlete recorded 83 tackles with 22.5 tackles for loss and 13.5 sacks in 10 games. He is Laurinaitis’ third-highest-rated commitment (.9527 247Sports composite rating) behind only five-star Cincere Johnson (.9912) and four-star Riley Pettijohn (.9793).
In other words, Goldsby is really, really good.
It’s no surprise Laurinaitis wanted him — and no surprise that Laurinaitis landed him!
TIME FOR INFORMED DISCUSSIONS. The Big Ten wants a 24-team College Football Playoff. It appears the ACC and Big 12 are on board, too. But where does the SEC stand on expanding the field from 12 to 24 teams? We still don’t have a clear answer, and it doesn’t seem like one is coming anytime soon.
Speaking with reporters on Monday, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said not to “anticipate any decisions on the College Football Playoff” coming out of the conference’s spring meetings, though he added the league will have “an informed discussion” about the future of postseason expansion.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey: "If you could over-hype a spring meeting, I think that successfully happened. ... I don't anticipate any decisions on the College Football Playoff, just so you're clear. We'll have an informed discussion."
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) May 25, 2026
To me, this feels like the SEC trying to flex whatever influence it still has after the Big Ten claimed three consecutive national championships* (REDACTED in 2023*, Ohio State in 2024 and Indiana in 2025). The SEC has long operated as college football’s power center, but the balance of power is shifting, and the Big Ten, ACC and Big 12 appear increasingly willing to force the issue.
I believe Sankey when he says a decision on a 24-team playoff is not imminent. But I also suspect those “informed discussions” will involve Sankey and SEC leadership making the case that a 24-team CFP would send the sport into a death spiral.
Maybe he’s right. Maybe he’s wrong. Either way, Sankey will be damned if he embraces a system that dilutes the SEC’s influence, and he’ll likely work to unify the league’s athletic directors and coaches the same way Tony Petitti did with the Big Ten’s membership during meetings in California last week.
HE SAID, SHE SAID. While Greg Sankey is expected to advocate for a united front, Rutgers athletic director Keli Zinn — who served as LSU’s deputy AD a year ago — told The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman there may be more support for a 24-team College Football Playoff within the SEC than has been publicly acknowledged.
“I also believe a number of them are already there,” Zinn said. “As we try and kind of figure this thing out collectively, you see that a number of folks feel the same way that we do.”
At this point, it’s a classic game of he said, she said.
Does the SEC truly want a 16-team playoff, as Sankey has suggested? Or are there enough voices within the conference pushing for further expansion, as Zinn indicated, to eventually shift the league’s stance?
What we heard at Big Ten meetings: No push to mandate 10 Power 4 opponents amid CFP talks https://t.co/PqdoDv9EvS via @NYTimes
— Scott Dochterman (@ScottDochterman) May 23, 2026
A 24-team CFP would undoubtedly benefit mid-tier Big Ten programs like Iowa, Illinois, Washington and Minnesota, along with several others. The same would be true for SEC programs such as Vanderbilt, Missouri, Auburn, South Carolina, Florida — really, every SEC school not named Georgia or Alabama should want as much expansion as possible.
But again, as I wrote last week, this fight over expansion isn’t really a battle between the Big Ten and SEC; it’s a battle between Fox and ESPN.
The television networks are fighting over November, December and January inventory (or content, the word Tony Petitti used repeatedly while speaking with reporters last week). So all this squabbling among conference leaders may ultimately be irrelevant if college football’s overlords television executives are the ones who end up deciding the format that determines the sport’s future national champions.
IT DON’T MAKE NO SENSE. Nothing about college football seems to make sense. That includes the fall sport crowning its national champion in the winter, late in January.
Ohio State won the first 12-team CFP on Jan. 20, 2025, and Indiana won the second one day earlier on Jan. 19, 2026. This year, however, the CFP final will occur on Jan. 25, 2027, in Las Vegas.
Nobody wants this (except maybe the overlords).
The calendar keeps drifting deeper into winter, and Ryan Day wants to change it. He told The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman that he feels strongly about pushing it up.
“I feel very strongly about that,” Day said. “To let the season go all the way into the third or fourth week of January doesn’t make sense. So, the sooner we can get the season over with, the better, so that we can get into putting our next year’s roster together and bringing in our freshmen, because that all happens the first week of January.
“Can we be finished by the first week of January? I think that would be ideal, or even sooner if possible.”
Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and the conference's 18 member schools unanimously support a 24-team CFP: "Inside our league, there is a deep commitment to 24 and the access.https://t.co/uk0mcUroQr
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) May 20, 2026
If the 24-team CFP is approved for the 2027 season, the first round would likely begin Dec. 3-4, with the second round set for Dec. 10-11. The quarterfinals would hinge on the NFL schedule — either taking place the weekend of Dec. 17-18 or shifting to midweek on Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 22-23. The semifinals could be played on Jan. 1, with the national championship following roughly a week to 10 days later.
I could write 1,000 words on how ridiculous it is that college football allowed the NFL to take over Saturdays in December and January — and maybe I’ll do that later in the offseason — but I’ll leave you with something familiar: the perfect postseason calendar that, for some reason, the sport’s leaders can’t seem to figure out.
The regular season starts in August.
Postseason in late November.
Three weekends of CFP games on college campuses.
Semifinals at traditional bowl sites (Cotton, Fiesta, Orange, Peach, Sugar).
National championship at the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.
And that’s in a 24-team format.
With 12 teams, keep everything the same and just shrink the three weekends down to two.
SONG OF THE DAY. "Boogie Wonderland" - Earth, Wind and Fire.
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