When it comes to franchises, sometimes you get a sequel, and sometimes you need a reboot. For the 2026 Michigan State football team, a reboot was certainly required. In fact, fans would probably prefer to have the past few timelines purged from their memories, as if by a strange magician’s spell. Mel who? Jonathan who? Never heard of them. Instead, there is a new sheriff in town. He is a gruff Chicago native, built like a linebacker, who looks vaguely familiar. Didn’t that guy used to wear purple? New head coach Pat Fitzgerald wears the only colors these days, and he brings an old-school Big Ten mentality to this particular origin story. It all feels both familiar and refreshing in the friendly neighborhoods around East Lansing. But Fitzgerald is not the only new face in East Lansing. The Spartans added 32 transfers and 30 incoming freshmen, enough new characters to fill a prequel and at least one confusing Disney+ series. Keep the roster handy Friday night when this new cast makes its...
Over the past few weeks, I have taken you on a tour of the college football preseason landscape. I reviewed the lessons of 2025, examined Michigan State's schedule and analyzed the races in the Big Ten, the rest of the Power Four and the Group of Six. Most recently, I projected the 12-team College Football Playoff. Across the first seven installments, I shared odds generated by a simulation of the full college football season. In today's finale, we will see whether those numbers might help us win a little money. That's right: It is time to kick off the 2026 edition of Dr. Green and White's Bad Betting Advice. The Big Picture My full-season simulation produces odds that can be compared with futures available at various online sportsbooks. The types of possible wagers include winning a division, reaching a conference championship game, winning a conference, making the College Football Playoff and winning the national championship. Table 1 summarizes those odds for the con...