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If you spent the offseason wondering what the heck is going on in college football at what feels like the sport’s most critical juncture in history, fear not. The one-of-a-kind sport we all know and love has changed — a lot.

But here at The Athletic, we’re experiencing all of those changes right along with you. And we’re here to help you navigate it.

Without further ado, here are a dozen things you should know to help you prepare for a new era:

CFP expansion is here

For years, college football decision-makers have debated the optimal postseason model. Starting this year, the sport will have a new format. Goodbye, four-team Playoff. Hello, 12-team chaos.

The shift in format comes at just the right time after Florida State went undefeated in 2023 but was left out of the Playoff in favor of one-loss Alabama after Seminoles quarterback Jordan Travis suffered a season-ending leg injury in November.

In the new College Football Playoff, automatic bids will be extended to the five highest-ranked conference champions — meaning a Group of 5 team is guaranteed to get in — and at-large spots to the next seven highest-ranked teams.

The top four seeds (who are the four highest-ranked conference champions) will get a bye into the quarterfinals while seeds No. 5 through No. 8 will host first-round games against seeds No. 9 through No. 12. Those on-campus games should be electric … but then it’s back to neutral sites for the quarterfinals and beyond.

So the top four seeds miss out on the experience (and money) of hosting a postseason game simply for being the highest-ranked teams.

College football has never been accused of being logical.

Michigan won the title, but hopes of a repeat are slim

The Wolverines had a controversial but highly successful season in 2023, going a perfect 15-0 while Jim Harbaugh was feuding with the NCAA and the school was in the midst of a sign-stealing scandal that rocked college football. Michigan beat rival Ohio State for the third consecutive season and won the program’s first national title since 1997. Now, it’s facing a bit of a rebuild.

With star J.J. McCarthy off to the NFL, Michigan will usher in a new quarterback in coach Sherrone Moore’s inaugural season following Harbaugh’s departure to the Los Angeles Chargers. Alex Orji, a dual threat who can challenge defenses in multiple ways, appears to be the front-runner for the job, but he did not attempt a pass in 2023 despite playing in six games. Michigan also lost its leading rusher, Blake Corum, and its top receiver, Roman Wilson.

Don’t expect the Wolverines to fall out of contention for a spot in the expanded Playoff, but it will be hard to replicate the success from 2023 with so much turnover — and with Ohio State doing everything it can to get back on the winning side of this rivalry.

Georgia and Ohio State are the favorites

It should come as no surprise that Georgia — which won consecutive titles in 2021 and 2022 — is the favorite to win the national championship this year. The Bulldogs were on track for a potential three-peat in 2023 but lost to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game and missed out on a College Football Playoff berth.

There will be no rebuild in Athens. Quarterback Carson Beck is back for his fifth season after passing for 3,941 yards a year ago — good for third nationally and the most among returning quarterbacks. The Bulldogs must replace some key weapons in the passing game — most notably All-America tight end Brock Bowers — but Beck will still have plenty of talent at his disposal. Georgia’s defense has been ranked in the top 10 in each of the last three years, and there’s no reason to believe this season will be any different.

Ohio State has the next-best odds to win the national title. The pressure is on head coach Ryan Day, who has lost three straight to hated rival Michigan, but the Buckeyes have a star-studded roster that includes some key transfers and several veterans who bypassed the NFL Draft to return to Columbus for one more season.

Two key names to know: quarterback Will Howard, who transferred to Ohio State after four years at Kansas State, and true freshman wideout Jeremiah Smith, who is regarded as the best prospect at his position in years.

GO DEEPER

Exploring the Nick Saban butterfly effect, 400-plus job changes later

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Nick Saban and Jim Harbaugh are gone — who are Kalen DeBoer and Sherrone Moore?

Nick Saban won a record seven national championships — six at Alabama and one at LSU — and is considered the greatest coach in college football history. He announced his retirement on Jan. 10, just nine days after the Crimson Tide’s loss to Michigan in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff.

In steps Kalen DeBoer, who most recently coached at Washington — where he guided the Huskies to the 2023 national title game — but previously compiled a staggering 67-3 record with three national championships in five seasons at the University of Sioux Falls, an NAIA school in South Dakota.

Alabama fans will expect similar success in Tuscaloosa. We’re kidding — sort of.

Moore is familiar with Michigan after serving on Harbaugh’s staff for the past six years, including three as an offensive coordinator. The 38-year-old from Kansas is well regarded — and did a great job filling in during Harbaugh’s multiple suspensions last season — but he must now deal with the pressure of taking over one of the sport’s most iconic brands.

“We will continue to attack every day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind, and I promise we will smash!”

🗣️ @Coach_SMoore#GoBlue pic.twitter.com/lbw7QaTxg2

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— Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) January 27, 2024

The Heisman race is wide open

All four Heisman Trophy finalists from 2023 — LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels (the winner), Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr., Oregon quarterback Bo Nix and Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. — are off to the NFL. That leaves this year’s race wide open.

Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel, the Oklahoma transfer, is the preseason favorite. Beck isn’t far behind. Texas’ Quinn Ewers, Alabama’s Jalen Milroe and Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart have the next best odds.

But could a non-quarterback win the prestigious award this year? Colorado’s Travis Hunter is in a league of his own as a unique two-way player who stars at both wide receiver and cornerback. If Colorado does its part on the field, there’s reason to believe he could be a contender. There has been only one non-QB to win the award since 2015 — Alabama wide receiver DeVonta Smith in 2020.

Goodnight Pac-12

The “conference of champions” is no more.

The league started to crumble when USC and UCLA announced their decision to join the Big Ten. Then it fell apart when Oregon and Washington followed the two SoCal schools to the Big Ten and Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State bolted for the Big 12.

The two teams left standing are Oregon State and Washington State in what is now the … Pac-2? Both teams have scheduling agreements with the Mountain West Conference for the 2024 season but are still in limbo for the long term.

We will miss you, Pac-12 after dark.

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Oregon State, Washington State finalize scheduling agreement with MWC

The most famous backup in college football

Arch Manning — grandson of Archie and nephew of Peyton and Eli — is still a household name even though he’s thrown only five passes in his collegiate career.

Now a redshirt freshman at Texas, Manning is expected to back up Ewers for one more season before the Longhorns give him the keys to the offense in 2025. A season ago, Manning played in just two games as Texas advanced to the College Football Playoff for the first time. Should anything happen to Ewers — and keep in mind, he has missed multiple games in each of the last two seasons — Manning would be next in line for the Longhorns in their debut SEC season.

Hopes are high for Notre Dame

Notre Dame might have no interest in joining the ACC as an official member, but the Fighting Irish sure do love the league’s quarterbacks.

Last year, Sam Hartman used his final year of eligibility at Notre Dame after throwing for nearly 13,000 yards in five seasons at Wake Forest. This year, the Irish swiped Riley Leonard from Duke. Leonard entered the transfer portal after Blue Devils coach Mike Elko was hired at Texas A&M, and he committed to coach Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame about two weeks later.

His arrival gives the Fighting Irish a good chance to make the Playoff for the third time since 2018 and the first time under Freeman.

It will be must-see TV when Leonard squares off against his former coach on Aug. 31 when the Irish open the season at Texas A&M.

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Notre Dame’s Riley Leonard, the small-town QB with championship ambitions

The SEC is no longer on CBS

The SEC and CBS have been one of the most recognizable duos in college football over the last three decades, but the conference’s games will now be shown exclusively on ESPN and its networks after the SEC and Disney reached a $3 billion deal in 2020.

The coveted 3:30 p.m. (ET) CBS slot — and that glorious theme music — now belongs to the Big Ten.

The rest of the Big Ten slate can be found on Fox and NBC, along with the Big Ten Network.

It might take a few weeks, but we’ll figure it out soon enough.

College football’s first ‘Big Ten on CBS’ commercial:pic.twitter.com/H9NCoMGwS9

— Front Office Sports (@FOS) January 28, 2024

Yes, Deion Sanders is still at Colorado

Coach Prime begins his second season in Boulder with his son Shedeur Sanders at quarterback against North Dakota State on Aug. 29. That’s great news for TV executives. There were 44 college football games last season that drew more than 5 million viewers, and Colorado appeared in four of them (the same number as bluebloods Ohio State, Notre Dame, Florida State, Tennessee and Texas). The only schools that played in more games that crossed that threshold were Georgia (eight), Alabama (seven), Michigan (six) and Washington (six).

Of course, all of those teams produced winning records, and Colorado went 4-8. There’s optimism, though, that the Buffaloes are primed to win more thanks to another hefty haul in the transfer portal. Win or lose, Sanders and his crew figure to still be must-watch TV before games, during games, after games and in the interview room.  You better tune in because with Shedeur Sanders and Hunter headed to the NFL after this season, this might be the last year to catch Coach Prime.

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Rule changes

In case you missed it, college football decided in April to leave the stone age behind and adopt a few rules that have been part of the NFL for years — most notably instituting a two-minute warning and allowing coach-to-player helmet communication.

The NFL has been using coach-to-helmet communication since 1994 and has stopped the clock with two minutes to play in the second and fourth quarters since 1949.

Coaches are definitely more excited about the new form of communication. Only one player on each side of the ball (designated with a green dot on their helmet) will be allowed to have a radio inside their helmet, and communication will be shut off with 15 seconds remaining on the play clock. Teams have been using hand signals and funny play-call signs for years in an attempt to cut down on sign stealing (we’re looking at you, Michigan).

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Sleeper teams

We’re confident that at least one team that isn’t ranked in the AP preseason Top 25 poll will grab a spot in the expanded College Football Playoff. But who is the dark horse to ride with? Earlier this month we selected 13 sleeper teams to watch.

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What the AP Top 25 says about CFB in 2024: Is Ohio State a better bet than No. 1 Georgia?

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If you’re looking for a Power 4 conference school to emerge from the shadows, it’s unlikely to be someone from the SEC or Big Ten, which combined to dominate the preseason poll with 15 of the 25 spots.

It’s more likely that it will be a team from the Big 12 or ACC such as Louisville, Virginia Tech, SMU or West Virginia. There are also several unranked Group of 5 schools — Boise State, Memphis and Appalachian State are a few candidates — with plans on crashing the first 12-team Playoff party.

(Photos of Kalen DeBoer, Riley Leonard: Gary Cosby Jr., Greg Swiercz / USA Today Network)

Shohei Ohtani didn’t just make history, he wore it.

As he danced across home plate into the arms of bouncing, disbelieving Dodgers Friday night, the magnitude of his accomplishment was evident in the condition of his uniform.

His shirt was soaked from being sprayed with water, marking his 40th home run.

His left pants leg contained large cakes of dirt, marking his 40th steal.

No other player in baseball history has ever looked quite like that.

No other player in baseball history joined the exclusive 40/40 club by reaching both the steals and home-run milestones in the same game, just five innings apart, with the finishing touch coming on a walk-off grand slam.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called it “storybook.”

Ohtani said he was “very ecstatic.”

I’m like, are you kidding me?

The Dodgers and their fans have never seen anyone like this guy, ever, ever, ever, 40 times ever, a fact that was proven again Friday in their dramatic 7-3 win over the Tampa Rays in front of a roaring, stomping mob at Dodger Stadium.

“Shohei just never ceases to amaze,” Roberts told reporters afterward.

With every breath he takes. With every move he makes.

Ohtani stole second base in the fourth inning without a throw because he is so darn fast. He hit his walk-off grand slam over the right-center field fence with two out in the ninth with an ordinary swipe because he is so darn strong.

The six-person 40/40 club rarely accepts new members because one must possess those completely separate skills of so darn fast and so darn strong. Babe Ruth never did it. Willie Mays never did it. Ty Cobb never did it. Hank Aaron never did it. Ted Williams never did it. No Dodger has ever done it.

Ohtani reached the milestone quicker than anyone of his five 40/40 predecessors and, with a month’s worth of games remaining, he will surely end up surpassing them all with baseball’s first 45/45 season. Heck, the odds are 50-50 that he can reach even the seemingly insurmountable 50/50 plateau.

“That’s never been done, right?” said Roberts of 50/50. “So, I mean, I think with this guy, you know, over a month of baseball left, I think anything’s possible.”

Since Ohtani joined the Dodgers from the Angels last winter, the belief that anything is possible has actually been replaced by the idea that everything is possible.

“I think that he wants to be the greatest player to ever play this game,” said Roberts. “And when you start doing things like that, then you’re certainly staking your claim.”

The trajectory of the walk-off homer and its ensuing reaction was perhaps symbolic of Ohtani’s incredible, improbable journey into becoming even better than anyone thought.

The ball was hit so high, one could see fans literally holding their breath in disbelief that it would actually clear the fence. When it did sneak over the right-center field wall, bouncing in and out of the glove of the Worst Fielding Fan Ever and dropping back down to the grass, the building erupted so loudly that as Ohtani rounded the bases, one could barely even hear Randy Newman.

When Ohtani arrived here with a $700-million contract and a starry history and a perfect smile, many folks wondered if he was too good to be true.

Now that everyone realizes he’s even better, the results have been deafening.

“He’s definitely known for the dramatics,” said Roberts.

He began his Dodger career amid the uncertainty of offseason Tommy John elbow surgery. Yet in his first spring training game, he hit a home run.

He began the regular season caught in the swirl of a gambling scandal in which he was absolved of all wrongdoing but featured longtime interpreter Ippei Mizuhara stealing more than $16 million from him. Yet in the first month of the season Ohtani recorded a 1.017 OPS as if nothing ever happened.

He had lately struggled against left-handed pitching, dropping his August batting average to near .200, yet guess who he homered against on Friday night? Yep, a left-hander named Colin Poche, on his first pitch, as if Ohtani had again shrugged off all doubt and couldn’t wait to pounce.

“One of my top memorable moments,” Ohtani told the media through his interpreter Will Ireton. “And I hope that I can do more and make more memorable moments.”

The Dodgers are counting on it, and Ohtani will be held to it. With every bit of greatness, more greatness will be expected.

First, there’s the postseason, an event where Ohtani has yet to participate, but the main reason he’s here and not still in Anaheim. He has said he wants these big moments, these championship moments, occasions like Friday night’s dramatic pennant-race moment, and in a few weeks he’ll have plenty of them, the pressure on him anew.

“You’re playing for a championship caliber team, you’re playing for meaning every game in …August, September, going forward is meaningful,” said Roberts. “That’s something that he signed up for. And so you can expect there to be better performance. And that’s what’s happening.”

Then there’s the moments not accessible this season but coming soon. You do remember he also pitches, right? He’s not pitching this year because his arm is recovering from the elbow surgery but, yes, think about it, he’s the best player in baseball this season and the Dodgers haven’t even seen his best!

“He’s just dangerous…anytime he puts that uniform on,” said Roberts.

In case folks were wondering, and they surely were, Friday night’s blast was obviously not the biggest home run in the history of Dodger Stadium, That honor will forever remain with Kirk Gibson and the authors of several other memorable postseason dingers.

In fact, the home run wasn’t even the biggest in Dodger Stadium regular season history. Don’t forget Steve Finley’s walk-off grand slam that gave the Dodgers the 2004 division title, or Charlie Culberson’s walk-off homer in 2016 that gave them the division crown in Vin Scully’s last home game.

Call this, instead, one of the most faith-stirring home runs in Dodger Stadium history, a grand slam that reached one milestone while increasing belief in another, an August blast filled with October heat, a preview of things to come?

During the postgame on-field interview with Spectrum SportsNet LA, one of the first words out of Ohtani’s mouth, through his interpreter, was, “World Series.”

As in, that’s what Shohei Ohtani is all about, that’s what the grand slam was all about, water on his jersey, dirt on his pants, a ring in his eye, and hope in a city’s heart.

ST ANDREWS, Scotland — As the No. 1 player in the world, Nelly Korda has become used to wearing a target on her back. Heavy expectation necessitates a sudden fall and, so, when she followed a run of six wins in seven tournaments with three successive missed cuts, gravity introduced itself without a handshake.

Since that streak — which included victory at the Chevron Championship, her first major since 2021 — ended in May, criticism that Korda is a “dome golfer,” a player who looks in ideal conditions but struggles in the more arduous tests, has returned in some quarters.

St Andrews, with its sidewards rain and howling gales, looked like a course designed to bolster that assertion.

After these first two days at the Old Course, Korda has placed that characterization on notice, posting successive 4-under rounds to start this Women’s Open and give herself a three-shot cushion on her nearest rivals, Lilia Vu and Charley Hull.

The 26-year-old Korda was utterly flawless on Friday. To shoot a bogey-free, 4-under 68 with without even the slightest hint of trouble is no mean feat amid the elements. To do so while feeling mildly frustrated that another five gettable birdies were not converted is a different level of comfort than anyone in the field has been able to find so far.

She had good looks at birdie from inside 20 feet on Nos. 4, 7, 10, 12, 14 and 16 but missed by a cup or lipped out each time. It looked like her putting may hold her scoring back but she rolled in a 20-foot birdie at the infamously tricky Road Hole on 17 and sunk another testing putt on 18.

Turning it on 🔥

A long birdie putt for @NellyKorda on the tough 17th Road hole and she follows it up with a birdie on 18.

She leads the AIG Women’s Open as she starts her second 9.

Follow her progress live on AIG Women’s Open Radio https://t.co/4PKMDcUsD1 pic.twitter.com/duuyLj5yJI

— AIG Women’s Open (@AIGWomensOpen) August 23, 2024

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Korda’s finishes at the Women’s Open have been respectable placing T9, T14, T13, T41 and T11 since 2019 but links golf was not supposed to be a style of golf that she could conquer with the lower ball flight, right-to-left action off the tee and creative chip shots required all outside of her supposed comfort zone.

Golf is not the only sport that searches for the fabled all-rounder. The tennis world of her brother Sebastian Korda, ranked number 16, also does it.

Completing the grand slam set is viewed as the pinnacle because it displays that a competitor is not just formidable on a certain surface or event, they are the ultimate because their game can answer any challenge thrown at them.

“This year I’ve won on just so many different types of grasses in different types of conditions that you just kind of always have to adapt,” Korda said.

“That’s the same thing in tennis, same thing in life. You’re always adapting to your situations at hand, and I think that’s what’s so fun about links golf is you’re literally starting it 30 yards left of your target. I’m not a fade player but I’m hitting massive fades.

“I think it’s fun hitting these little low drivers, too. I’m having fun, and I enjoy links golf a lot. You have a lot of 30-footers that feel like 50-footers out here because you’re hitting it into the wind.

“Then also the one that I had on 8, which was like a 20-footer and I hit almost like a 40-footer. It’s all about distance control out here and kind of getting it within a certain range so you have an easy two-putt.

“I think I’m more adapted to the mindset of literally just taking it a shot at a time, not thinking ahead of myself and trusting my lines a lot. You’re literally hitting slingers in. I mean, I hit a hybrid 150 yards today on 2 and that’s my 200 (yards) club. It’s all about just trusting the process and trusting what you have in your hand.”

From tee to green, there was little to separate Korda and her playing partners, Vu and Hull. But her entire round contained not one miscontrol shot.

Vu had to escape a bunker on 10 and Hull found herself wide on a couple of awkward mounds but the divergence that led to a five-shot swing between Korda and overnight leader Hull was all down to the putter.

Korda has not been afraid of a putter change but she mixed things up before this tournament, moving to a TaylorMade Spider for the first time. She said she had previously been using a square-back mallet but felt like she needed something new to look at and is enjoying the roll she is getting from it.

In contrast, Hull three-putted on 2, 10 and 14. Even when Hull got her first birdie of the day on 5 (after smoking her second cigarette of the day), Korda responded immediately by sinking a 12-footer of her own, which felt like a reinstatement of her dominance.

“I left a lot of putts out there,” said Hull.

“Nelly had 30 putts and I had 36 putts. So that’s six shots that I’ve lost to her on the greens.

“Am I three shots behind Nelly? That’s nothing going into the weekend, especially on this golf course. I feel like I’m hitting it equally as good, she just holed a few more putts than me today.

“Lilia is the one to watch, as well, because when it gets windy she kind of just sticks in there. She’s a good scrambler.”

Hull, left, and Korda were two-thirds of a super group at the Women’s Open. (Andy Buchanan / AFP via Getty Images)

If the R&A were hoping to increase the profile of women’s golf this week then their creation of a super-group comprised of world number one Korda, top Brit Hull and the defending champion Vu — aiming to become the first player to retain the trophy since Yani Tseng in 2011 — was a smart way of going about it.

By the time the trio had made it to the fifth hole — the 14th of their round — the crowd following them was around 400 strong with lines three and four people deep.

This was the elite of women’s golf all together playing at the home of golf but its exposure was limited given that Sky Sports’ coverage of the event only starts at noon this week. Having teed off at 7:55am, just under 12 hours since they had finished a six-hour-plus round Thursday, they only had three holes remaining.

There is the unusual reprieve that the same trio are one, two and three on the leaderboard so will compete at close quarters again but it does little to help the absence of a superstar in women’s golf.

Korda seems reluctant to step into the silhouette herself but two more machine-like rounds at St Andrews and she may have to wear the suit.

(Top photo: Andy Buchanan / AFP via Getty Images)