Texas and Sarkisian can’t miss again; why NDSU’s jump to FBS makes sense: Mandel’s Mailbag

Sunday’s Super Bowl was practically played in my backyard. In fact, several of the planes that did the stadium flyover roared over my neighborhood minutes later. Good thing I was watching on TV, or I would have feared we were under attack.

I had some fun attending a couple of the media events leading up to the game and seeing so many of my colleagues on the NFL side. But now that’s passed. Back to more pressing matters — like G6 realignment.

Why is North Dakota State giving up being a consistent national championship contender in FCS to join the Mountain West and the FBS, where the chances of playing for a national championship are a long shot at best? Why give up a chance to play for a national championship to play in a sparsely attended bowl before Christmas? — Blair C.

With North Dakota State heading to the Mountain West, what are their chances of turning into a James Madison and making the Playoff in a few years? Do you think they should have tried the new Pac-12 lite first? — Ashley B.

Before a few years ago, I shared much the same opinion as Blair about FCS-to-FBS schools. Appalachian State, for one, went from competing for national championships every year to an endless string of Camellia and Dollar General bowls. For a seemingly modest bump in revenue and exposure.

But the 12-team College Football Playoff has completely changed that calculus. With James Madison as the shining example. Just four years removed from FCS, the Dukes earned several weeks of free publicity and played at Oregon in a first-round CFP game watched by 4 million people. Yes, they took a lot of flak for it, but they got the country talking about JMU football in a way that never, ever happens for an FCS team.

To me, it’s a no-brainer move for NDSU. The school apparently agrees, given it’s paying nearly $20 million to the MWC and NCAA to make the move. The program is better prepared for the FCS-to-FBS transition than nearly any recent school that’s made this move. It’s been winning at a high level for decades, going back to Division II. It has a rabid fan base, and its infrastructure is already closer to a typical G6 school than an FCS school. The one wrinkle is the Bison are attempting to move up immediately rather than take a year or two to ramp up.

NDSU won’t be eligible for the postseason until 2028. By that time, I predict the Bison will already be the dominant program in the Mountain West, which saw all of its top programs, save for UNLV, jump to the Pac-12. Speaking of which: The Pac-12 never seriously pursued NDSU, which seems like a big whiff on its part. With the American distancing itself from the other G6 leagues, why pass on a program that could easily become one of your perennial contenders?

Not that NDSU should mind. Rather than jostling with Boise State/Washington State/San Diego State/Fresno State every year, it could go 11-1/12-0 in the MWC every year and possibly land the committee’s highest G6 spot if the American’s best team that year is 10-2.

Texas did not have the most epic season, but to send that many contributors packing from a top-12 team seems unprecedented. Is Sarkisian a mad genius kicking his team up a level? Panicked at the prospect of missing the Playoff again? Need some perspective here from beyond the message boards. — Brian D.

Is Steve Sarkisian on the hot seat after this year’s flop? — Phil T.

The takeaway from last season’s wild coaching carousel is that pretty much the entire sport is on the hot seat from year to year now. Penn State’s James Franklin went from coaching the No. 3 team in the country to a pink slip in the span of 15 days. LSU’s Brian Kelly began the year beating Clemson and Florida, yet didn’t make it to November. Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy and Kentucky’s Mark Stoops were the winningest coaches in their schools’ histories. Gone and gone.

So, though Sark is only a year removed from leading the Horns to back-to-back Playoff appearances, I’m sure he fully realizes how quickly the fat-cat Texas boosters might turn on him if his team underachieves again in 2026. Especially given this will likely be his last shot to do something special with Arch Manning.

Because you’re right, Texas went on a particularly ruthless upgrade mission for a program coming off 10-3.

First, Sark fired the only defensive coordinator he’s had over his five seasons there, Pete Kwiatkowski, who produced the nation’s No. 3 defense just a year earlier. He framed it less as an indictment of Kwiatkowski than an opportunity to get Will Muschamp, who was revered in Austin during his 2008-10 run under Mack Brown. Note that Sark’s 2025 offense finished much lower (41st) than his defense (21st), but he couldn’t fire himself.

Instead, he went on a spending spree to upgrade Arch’s supporting cast. He might not have explicitly run off No. 1 running back Quintrevion Wisner (now at Florida State) and receivers Parker Livingstone (Oklahoma) and DeAndre Moore Jr. (Colorado), but guys know where they stand based on the numbers they’re being offered. Their exits cleared the way for Texas to bring in the presumably pricey trio of Arizona State running back Raleek Brown (1,380 yards from scrimmage last season), NC State running back Hollywood Smothers (1,128 yards) and Auburn wide receiver Cam Coleman (56 catches for 708 yards).

So, no free pass this year. Sark will be expected to contend for a national championship this season. At a bare minimum, the Horns should make the Playoff. Anything less than that, we’d be wise to remember another lesson from the 2025 coaching carousel: A $50 million-plus buyout is not the deterrent it once was for impatient schools.

Ohio State’s offensive coordinator (Arthur Smith) and defensive coordinator (Matt Patricia) are not participating in off-campus recruiting. Do you see this as a trend to attract coaches with NFL experience to take coordinator positions? — Terry G.

This practice is already more common than most people realize beyond just Ohio State. The coordinator/recruiter split will soon seem normal. They’re completely different jobs at this point. And we’re seeing an increasing number of really good X’s-and-O’s coaches who want nothing to do with name, image and likeness-era recruiting.

Case in point: Bobby Hauck. Montana’s accomplished coach abruptly “retired” last week at 61, and said, “Dealing with what college football has become is not always enjoyable as a head coach.” Illinois’ Bret Bielema hired him as his new defensive coordinator, where last year’s coordinators, Barry Lunney Jr. and Aaron Henry, were rarely on the road recruiting. Bielema has them focus on schemes and game plans and lets others handle the roster.

Arrangements like these only became feasible in 2024, when the NCAA dropped its restrictions on staff members’ roles. It used to be that only the head coach and 10 assistants could be on-field coaches and thus were the only ones eligible to be one of the 11 “countable” off-campus recruiters. Now, pretty much anyone on the staff can be an on-field coach.

At a program like Ohio State, there might be 20-30 guys in that pool. So, Ryan Day can keep Smith and Patricia off the road and still have 11 perfectly qualified recruiters to send on the road.

Will this approach help attract more NFL coaches to college? Possibly. But coaches have long floated back and forth between the two levels. And a college position coach is still going to be expected to recruit, because he’s going to be a player’s primary mentor. Also, this might come as a shock, but many college coaches like recruiting.

But I’ve talked to several current or former college coaches who, once they got a taste of the NFL’s saner calendar and workload, never wanted to go back. It would be good for all involved if that trend could be curbed.

So the eligibility rules the NCAA has imposed since 1906 are illegal under the Sherman Antitrust Act of … 1890? Have college athletes basically been illegal all along? How do we even think about this, historically? — Andre M.

This goes way above my level of education. But hey, you live in Cambridge, Mass. Go take this question to a Harvard Law School professor.

Mr. Beast, a billionaire YouTuber and Greenville, North Carolina native, has floated spending $100 million on East Carolina football to make it a national championship contender. If this happened, what are the reasonable expectations for ECU football: conference title? Playoff appearance and/or victory? How would you allocate the $100 million between coaches, players and facilities? And could the exposure lead to an invite to a major conference? — William V.

Though I do know who MrBeast is, I must confess I had no idea about his East Carolina ties. Also, I thought this was just a fun little hypothetical question from William until I Googled “MrBeast East Carolina.” Sure enough, this was an actual social media thing.

pic.twitter.com/sXuiNFo14r

— Stephen Igoe (@StephenIgoe) February 3, 2026

My first thought is, to really do this right, it’s going to take a lot more than $100 million. Presumably, the school would want to upgrade its facilities, expand the stadium, etc., and those alone would cost more than $100 million. But maybe you could start a separate fundraising drive for that.

In the meantime, you need players. Shortly after rev-share went into effect last summer, athletic director Jon Gilbert said, “Obviously, (at) ECU, we’re going to be well under the ($20.5 million) cap. And I don’t anticipate us ever getting to the cap.” He’d need to address that shortfall, and hopefully save some over-the-cap workaround cash as well.

As for coaching salaries, the smartest thing it could do with the rest of the money — but it will require some long-term thinking — is to endow those positions. It’s more common than you might think, and not just at private schools. Michigan’s Kyle Whittingham is technically the J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Head Football Coach.

If the program takes a chunk of MrBeast’s donation and invests it, it can draw from that fund every year to pay for some or all of the (using his real name) Jimmy Donaldson Head Football Coach’s salary. Do it for the offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator, too. Meanwhile, the principal keeps compounding over time, allowing the school to truly stretch its investment while easing a major strain on its annual budget and ideally use it to retain a good coach.

Long story short: If it does all that, yes, ECU could absolutely become the top program in its current conference, make the Playoff at least occasionally and ultimately parlay that into a Power 4 invite.

But it’s hardly a sure thing. Make a couple of bad coaching hires, and you’re lighting all of MrBeast’s money on fire. Money he could have used on his viral giveaways.

What would an All-American team of only players who haven’t transferred look like? Feels rare for a player to stay at a school, but it might be that not transferring doesn’t qualify as news. — Christopher D.

I believe that team already exists. It’s called the Ohio State Buckeyes.

(Kidding. … Mostly.)

Here’s a list I put together with some of the top players returning from 2025 (except offensive linemen, because I’m not qualified to rate them). I can’t guarantee I didn’t miss anyone. Even so, it’s a deeper list than you think.

QB: CJ Carr, Notre Dame

QB: Arch Manning, Texas

RB: Mark Fletcher Jr., Miami

RB: LJ Martin, BYU

RB: Isaac Brown, Louisville

RB: Jadan Baugh, Florida

WR: Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State

WR: Malachi Toney, Miami

WR: KJ Duff, Rutgers

WR: Charlie Becker, Indiana

TE: Trey’Dez Green, LSU

DL: Colin Simmons, Texas

DL: Teitum Tuioti, Oregon

DL: A’Mauri Washington, Oregon

DL: Anthony Smith, Minnesota

LB: Whit Weeks, LSU

LB Suntarine Perkins, Ole Miss

LB: Sammy Brown, Clemson

DB: Leonard Moore, Notre Dame

DB: KJ Bolden, Georgia

DB: Bray Hubbard, Alabama

DB: Brandon Finney Jr., Oregon

My three main takeaways:

1. I would not want to be a DB having to cover those receivers.

2. The list of eligible QBs is pretty thin, especially since Ohio State’s Julian Sayin doesn’t count.

3. It’s interesting that Oregon is known as a transfer portal special, yet has three home-grown guys on here (and a fourth, Matayo Uiagalelei, could have made it as well).

Next week, we’ll have to do an All-America Team of guys who transferred at least three times.

Are we overemphasizing production and experience when looking at roster constructions for next season? Indiana loading up on experienced players seemed more like them exploiting a market inefficiency than a paradigm shift. It has been odd to me seeing Alabama criticized for focusing too much on recruiting blue-chip players instead of going all in on older, experienced transfers, a strategy that has won 24 of the past 25 national titles. — AJ M.

Possibly, but that trend did not start with Indiana, which had 17 starters who were in at least their fourth year in school.

Though the 2023 Michigan and 2024 Ohio State squads weren’t teeming with sixth-year seniors, they both had around 15 senior starters and very few newcomers in key roles. Looking back at their portal classes going into those seasons, Michigan added three offensive linemen (Drake Nugent, LaDarius Henderson and Myles Hinton) who were entering at least their fourth college season, and Ohio State notably landed fifth-year quarterback Will Howard and two-year Ole Miss standout running back Quinshon Judkins. Plus Caleb Downs.

So, the emphasis on building an older roster is not without evidence. Indiana just felt like a more extreme example because of having so many fifth- and sixth-year players.

That’s not to say that no coach in America should ever have a young team. If the goal is to build continuity in your program, it might make sense to bring in portal guys with multiple years of eligibility left. High school players and less-experienced college players are also cheaper than most proven P4 players and high-end G6/FCS players. Alabama presumably spent much less on its No. 2-ranked high school class than LSU did on its star-studded No. 1 transfer class.

But Alabama’s youth movement does not seem entirely intentional. Kalen DeBoer tried to get some proven high-end players such as Auburn receiver Cam Coleman and NC State running back Hollywood Smothers (who initially committed). Texas outspent the Tide on both. DeBoer did land some big bodies that a lot of schools wanted, such as offensive lineman Jayvin James (Mississippi State) and defensive linemen Terrance Green (Oregon) and Devan Thompkins (USC). But it’s a class composed of more potential than productivity. Hence, Alabama did not crack Sam Khan Jr.’s top 25 portal classes.

The Tide barely made the top 20 in my early-season top 25, largely because it will be such a youngish team. But it’s entirely possible I’m underestimating them and they’ll make a deep Playoff run. If they do, it will be much more like those Nick Saban/Kirby Smart title teams, which were so talented that age didn’t particularly matter.

When do we rename this the “Minor League Football Mailbag?” — Brian S.

I suppose when the Mailbag starts getting minor-league-level readership.

So far, it just keeps trending in the other direction. Which is kind of amazing given how many readers claim they’ve stopped watching college football.