🏈 🔵 Breaking Down The Sam Leavitt Hype Train, Potential ACC Postseason Changes, & Jim Knowles' Happy Valley Homecoming
Stay up-to-date with college football's latest off-season happenings courtesy of Blue Chip Journal!
Welcome to Blue Chip Journal by Adam Breneman — a 2x per-week newsletter with analysis, hot takes, and news on all things college football, NIL, and recruiting. Subscribe now and join nearly 13,000 other sports fans, and share this newsletter with all the college football fans you know!
My College Football Stock Report
Trending Upwards 📈
Sam Leavitt
Quarterback, Arizona State
According to On3, Kenny Dillingham’s Sun Devils might just have the most talented quarterback at their disposal in 2025.
On Saturday, the publication ranked the “Top 25 Quarterbacks in College Football” heading into next season, and Arizona State gunslinger Sam Leavitt topped the list.
Site contributor Thomas Goldkamp ranked Leavitt ahead of several notable passers, including Penn State’s Drew Allar, Florida’s DJ Lagway, Texas’s Arch Manning, and Miami’s Carson Beck.
Leavitt led Arizona State to a Big 12 Championship and a College Football Playoff appearance this season behind 2,885 passing yards, 24 touchdowns, and only six interceptions.
Jim Phillips
Commissioner, ACC
During last week’s College Football Playoff management committee meeting, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips offered an intriguing proposal that would spice up conference championship weekend.
Within the next two seasons, the 12-team postseason format will likely expand to 14 teams.
Out of the 14 participating squads, the Big Ten and SEC would each warrant four bids each, the Big 12 and ACC would receive two slots per league, the highest-ranked Group of Five team would take one spot, and the remaining berth would be granted as an at-large bid at the committee’s discretion.
Consequently, Phillips proposed a four team ACC “conference tournament” to drive revenue and interest.
The winner of each contest would receive one of the two automatic qualifying bids to the College Football Playoff, while maintaining high stakes and interest for each matchup.
While there are several underlying factors that could prohibit Phillip’s idea from taking shape (including season length and player representation), college football is in desperate need of innovative leadership.
Ohio State’s Skill Position Stars
Last week, the AP released its all-College Football Playoff team. To no surprise, the list is littered with Buckeyes.
The entire offensive backfield is made up of Ohio State commodities, including quarterback Will Howard, running backs TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins, and wide receiver Jeremiah Smith.
Other notable names on the AP’s first-team playoff roster include Notre Dame pass catcher Jaden Greathouse, Penn State tight end Tyler Warren, and Arizona State’s Cam Skattebo as an all-purpose selection.
This newsletter is presented by... PrizePicks
PrizePicks is the easiest way to play daily fantasy. Getting started is very simple — register for an account, make a deposit, and pick more or less on 2-6 player stats to win payouts of up to 25x!
This season, place a $5 lineup, and use code “AdamB” to instantly earn $50 in bonus bets. Click on the link below to get started today!
Trending Downwards 📉
Georgia’s Early Departures
The deadline for college players to declare for the NFL Draft passed on January 15, leaving many programs in search of replacements for draft-eligible contributors.
Overall, 71 collegiate players opted to forgo additional eligibility and enter the draft early, including two Heisman Trophy Finalists.
Georgia was hit harder than any other FBS program with seven players opting to leave campus early in pursuit jumpstarting NFL careers.
While none of the Bulldogs’ losses are surprising, Kirby Smart will have to replace four starting offensive linemen from the 2024 season without center Jared Wilson and guard Dylan Fairchild.
Additionally, Georgia must replace proven talent across the front seven including linebacker Jalon Walker and pass rusher Mykel Williams.
Tampering
Just four days following Ohio State’s national championship victory, two of the Buckeyes’ most productive weapons allegedly received multi-million dollar offers to compete for other programs.
Per On3’s Pete Nakos, wide receiver Jeremiah Smith received an offer from an unnamed school for up to $5 million annually, while pass catcher Carnell Tate fielded an offer of “more than $1 million” for just one season.
Although schools aren’t supposed to contact players until they officially enter the transfer portal, the current rules in place certainly aren’t deterring tampering efforts.
“Enforcement is really strained right now,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said last week on the Dan Patrick Show. “Until we start enforcing some of these rules, like you said, people can just call someone’s agent or someone’s parents and offer them a certain amount of money and then it goes from there.”
It’s no secret that college football’s current player acquisition process mirrors the Wild Wild West, with no clear endpoint in sight.
Between The Numbers 📊
204
Today marks the end of the first full week without college football since mid-August 2024.
While this year’s college football calendar spanned longer than ever before, we’re still already counting down the days until “Week Zero” commences.
Currently, we are 204 days away from the start of the 2025 college football campaign, beginning on Saturday, August 23.
For the second-straight year, the season will start in Dublin, Ireland for the Aer Lingus College Football Classic, featuring Iowa State and Kansas State.
Hang in there, college football fans. The finish line will be here sooner than we know it.
🔥 New FREE Resources for Athletes
The #1 question I get asked in my DMs is:
“How do aspiring college athletes get noticed by college coaches or scouts?”
So, I just launched a new video training called the Get Coaches to Call Gameplan.
Inside I reveal ALL the secrets that top recruits use to get noticed at the elite D1 programs!
Any athlete, parent, or coach can use this to get ahead of the competition.
Mic Drop 🎤
Jim Knowles | Defensive Coordinator, Penn State
“I grew up in Philly – North Philly, for you suburb guys… Penn State was everything [to me], it was everything. That’s what we aspired to be, and I couldn’t get there as a player… Growing up as a kid, Penn State was everything, and this is where I want to be.”
On Tuesday morning, Penn State football’s social media team posted a 47-second clip of new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles’ introduction to the team.
During the heartfelt welcome, Knowles continued to reiterate his long standing love for the blue and white.
As a Philadelphia native, he mentioned that Sunday mornings were for flipping through a select few TV channels to watch Penn State football highlights from the previous afternoon.
Now, Knowles will take the reigns of Linebacker U to write his own chapter in the program’s storied history of stout defensive units.
If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me by email at adam@brenemanmedia.com.
You can also find me on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn or Facebook.
Shoutout to Connor Krause for helping to write this newsletter and putting it together!
Interested in advertising with Blue Chip Journal? Email me.