Duke head coach Manny Diaz holds up the trophy after defeating Virginia in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship NCAA college football game Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Jacob Kupferman)

College football took a bunch of people to school this season and the lingering question is, did anybody learn anything?

Associated Press pollsters were the first ones through the schoolhouse doors, and they should be held back to repeat the year.

After entering the season as the second and fourth-ranked teams, respectively, Penn State and Clemson combined for 11 losses. No matter which team wins the Pinstripe Bowl, neither is going to finish in the Top 25.

While on the subject of Clemson, head coach Dabo Swinney’s delayed embrace of the transfer portal has transformed his program from a perennial national title contender into a lower-tier bowl game participant.

Similarly, Mike Gundy’s dismissal of name, image and likeness opportunities ultimately cost him his job as head coach at Oklahoma State.

The stubborn trait extends to South Bend, where the Notre Dame hierarchy continues to demand special treatment for the football program while resisting a conference affiliation that would have helped to lock up a spot for the Irish in the College Football Playoff this season.

Arrogance inflates pride, but it restricts critical-thinking skills.

Advanced mathematics is prescribed for ACC coaches and athletic directors who voted for the tiebreakers that sent a 7-5 Duke team to the conference championship game over 10-2 Miami.

Five teams tied for second-place in the ACC standings, but Duke benefited from the fifth tiebreaker — conference opponent win percentage.

“We’ve got to get a little better at that, and I can’t tell you what the answer is right now, but I think we’ve got to look at some different things that might be able to streamline that and make sure that the league is going to put its best foot forward,” said Miami athletic director Dan Radakovich.

As the new kid in the Mid-American school of hard knocks, Massachusetts went 0-8 in conference play in its debut season.

Life as an independent the last nine years wasn’t any better for the Minutemen, who went 18-82 during that time.

There were no great shock waves reverberating through the Big Ten when Purdue and Maryland finished with conference records of 0-9 and 1-8, respectively, but the six combined conference wins by traditional powers Penn State, Wisconsin and Michigan State made history.

Those paltry six conference wins are the fewest in a season by the three programs combined since Penn State began Big Ten play in 1993.

Finally, a painful lesson was learned by all those schools that have handed out guaranteed contracts to their coaches.

While fired coaches enjoy soft landings courtesy of golden parachutes, athletic departments are thrust into a state of financial freefall.

Some people just never learn.

Not just a hoops school

The significance of Duke’s upset victory over Virginia in the ACC Championship Game transcends football.

The 27-20 win distinguished Duke as the first ACC school to win conference titles in men’s basketball, women’s basketball and football in the same calendar year.

Duke’s eighth ACC championship is the program’s first outright title since 1962.

The Blue Devils (8-5) have now posted at least eight victories in four consecutive seasons for the first time in program history.

Duke’s streak of four straight winning seasons is the program’s first since 1960-63.

Stealthy success

Utah’s achievements have generally slipped beneath the radar throughout the 2025 season.

The team’s eight victories by 25 or more points are the most by a power conference team this season.

To date, Utah (10-2) has won five more games than last season. A 31-21 win at Kansas in the regular season finale was the program’s first road victory by 10-plus points when trailing to start the fourth quarter since 1988.

Both of the Utes’ losses were to opponents–Texas Tech and BYU–positioned in the top-11 in the next-to-last CFP rankings.

Head coach Kyle Whittingham, who announced that he will step down after Utah plays Nebraska in the Las Vegas Bowl New Year’s Eve, has led the Utes to 17 bowls in 21 seasons.

Big Ten bookends

Texas opened the season with a 14-7 loss at Ohio State and will close out the campaign against Michigan in the Citrus Bowl on Dec. 31 in the second bowl meeting between the schools.

Dusty Mangum kicked a 37-yard field goal as time expired to give Texas a 38-37 win over the Wolverines in the 2005 Rose Bowl.

The Longhorns will be making their 62nd bowl appearance, which ranks third behind Alabama (79) and Georgia (63). Michigan will be making its 54th bowl appearance, which ranks 11th.

Notables

– North Texas will take a 3-12 all-time bowl-game record into Saturday’s New Mexico Bowl against San Diego State. The Mean Green (11-2), Tulane (11-2) and James Madison (12-1) were the only Group of 5 teams with 11 or more wins after conference championship weekend.

– In the LA Bowl victory over Boise State, Washington intercepted five passes for the first time since the 2003 Apple Cup against Washington State.

– In the absence of Cam Cook, the nation’s leading rusher, seven Jacksonville State players combined for 43 carries and 100 net yards in a 17-13 win over Troy in the Salute to Veterans Bowl. Sidelined by injury, Cook finished the regular season with 1,659 yards rushing.

– Five days after signing a four-year contract extension, Old Dominion head coach Ricky Rahne, a former Penn State assistant, led the Monarchs to a 24-10 win over South Florida in the Cure Bowl, capping a 10-3 season.

– With a 20-13 victory over Louisiana in the 68 Ventures Bowl, Delaware joined Jacksonville State as the only teams to win a bowl game in their first FBS season.

– Arizona set program records with five wins in November and three road wins during the month.

Quotables

“They want to talk all their crap during the game and act like they’re so tough. The excuse last year was that they played a conference championship game before us. This year, we’ll see what it is.”

— Navy quarterback Blake

Horvath after leading the

Midshipmen to a 17-16 victory over Army with one rushing score and one passing TD

“We were not an elite program ready to compete for a national championship when we took over. We’re still not. We’re working to become it. We’re battling to become it. I think clearly these last two games have showed there’s still room in areas that we have to continue to grow, but that’s what this is. That’s what this should have been.”

— Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko assessing the state of his program after consecutive losses to Texas in the regular season finale and Miami (Fla.) in the first round of the CFP

“We always talk about the game is going to come back to us. We have too many good players, and if you just keep fighting, you’re going to force them to make a mistake. Something is going to happen. Just keep coming after them play after play, and the game is going to come back to you, and that’s what happened tonight.”

— Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer after the Tide rallied from a 17-0 deficit to tie the game at the half on a pick six enroute to a 34-24 win over Oklahoma in the first round of the CFP

Jim Caltagirone, a former member of Penn State’s sports information department, comments on the national scene for Gameday. He can be reached at jimclion4ever@gmail.com.