When every single coach agrees the system is a ‘disaster,’ inaction is no longer an option. College football’s calendar has become a contentious issue that can be resolved if the game follows the pros’ lead. That’s the message Kirk Herbstreit is sending to leadership, echoing a sentiment from Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire.

“Every coach I talk to, I’ve never heard a coach go, ‘the calendar’s perfect,'” Herbstreit said on Crain & Cone’s February 17 podcast episode. “Every single coach says, ‘The calendar is a disaster.’ If all the coaches want it changed, why wouldn’t we change it? Instead of having to schedule the games for the middle of August, let’s keep it where it is. And on the back end, why can’t we come up with a rule the way the NFL does?”

Kirk Herbstreit, in describing his solution, took the Raiders’ new head coach, Klint Kubiak, as an example. Despite reports linking the new head coach to the Raiders, nothing was official, and he didn’t become the Raiders’ new head coach until after he finished the 2025 season with the Seahawks. In contrast, in college football, players and coaches start to think about moving once the regular season ends.

“We need to adjust the calendar for NIL or Portal or whatever. But these players and these coaches, I would love a calendar that says, listen, once you sign on for 26, you’re here,” Herbstreit added. “There’s no ‘I’m going here, I’m going there.’ You can’t; it’s against the rules. You just can’t do it. So, I would love for that to be the case. And these Athletic Directors are freaking out because they have to replace a coach.”

Athletic Directors, of course, have a hard time once the regular season ends and coaches start making moves. In Herbstreit’s alma mater, for instance, offensive coordinator Brian Hartline took up the USF job before the season ended. At Oregon, Will Stein accepted the Kentucky position, and the Ducks’ DC, Tosh Lupoi, left to become Cal’s new head coach. Former Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin also left the team controversially for LSU right before the playoffs.

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Apart from Kiffin, all the coaches stayed and coached their teams until their postseason ended. Yet signing contracts beforehand essentially means dual loyalties, something that doesn’t happen in the NFL, even if rumors persist.

While Herbstreit focuses on the chaos of the offseason calendar, coaches like Joey McGuire are pointing to equally critical flaws in the in-season and postseason schedule.

Joey McGuire flags a scheduling concern that led to his team’s loss

Scheduling is something where a consensus within college football is challenging to reach. Many programs, including Georgia, want Week 0 in August to become the opening week. Whereas many others want the college football playoffs’ first round and quarterfinals moved up to December. Moreover, head coaches like Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire want the gap between conference championships and quarterfinal games for teams earning byes to be reduced. 

“We’re still in the process with that because until we get the calendar fixed, and I don’t know why that’s not the No. 1 priority out of everybody,” McGuire said. “Until we get the calendar fixed, everything we do is backwards to me. Indiana is the only team in the last two years that has been able to handle the 25-day layoff when the other team did not have a 25-day layoff. I heard Dan Lanning had a mock game. Do we do something like that?”

Not just Joey McGuire, Oregon’s Dan Lanning also raised similar concerns regarding the 25-day gap. He recounted how his team was sharper and in better shape in the 2025 season, when it didn’t earn a bye, compared to the 2024 season, when it did. “In my opinion, playoff games should be played in sequential order and really quickly,” Lanning said.

Indiana is the lone team to win the bye game in the 12-team playoff era, and coaches are getting more frustrated than ever. Except for the Hoosiers, Texas Tech, Georgia, and Ohio State all lost their quarterfinal games after earning a bye in 2025.

Whether it’s the Wild West of the transfer portal and coaching carousel or the logistical nightmare of a 25-day playoff layoff, the consensus is clear: college football’s calendar is fundamentally broken. While figures like Kirk Herbstreit and Joey McGuire are demanding change from different angles, the powers that be have yet to deliver a unified solution, leaving coaches and players to navigate the chaos for at least another season.