The pregame and first-half scene Friday in Denton, Texas, even in a second-half blowout, was a reminder that college football has a lot to offer when you let it. Raymond Carlin III / Imagn Images

DENTON, Texas — There have been some days when the fraternity tailgate field on the hill at North Texas looked like it outnumbered people in the stadium. But not on Friday, with the biggest game in program history and so much on the line.

The College Football Playoff’s expansion to 12 teams has been an absolute success, and the scene in Denton was a reminder of why. There is good football in the Group of 5. There is fun football here. And it was good for the health of the sport to give some hope to everyone.

North Texas opened the year with five consecutive wins for the first time since 1959, the opportunity for its first appearance in the AP Top 25 since that year. In came No. 24 USF, already with wins over Florida and Boise State. The result was the largest attendance in UNT history (31,386) and the first sellout at DATCU Stadium. The fact that real College Football Stakes were on the line for both teams certainly played a role in that.

A raucous environment and a tied game at halftime ultimately became a splattering, a 63-36 USF win.

A beautiful night at DATCU Stadium 🌅#GMG🦅 pic.twitter.com/2vUX6voVbZ

— UNT Football (@MeanGreenFB) October 11, 2025

One night prior, a Tulane team that beat Duke earlier this year battled it out with an East Carolina team that pushed NC State to the limit in Week 1 and beat the Wolfpack in last year’s Military Bowl. The Green Wave won and kept themselves in the thick of the CFP race.

One of the smartest things the subgroup of three commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick did in concocting a 12-team CFP format was to grant automatic playoff berths to the top six conference champions (later five after the Pac-12’s collapse). It guaranteed that at least one Group of 5 school would make the field.

After undefeated UCF was left out of the four-team field in 2017 and 2018, everyone knew the system had to change.

For the first time in the 150-plus-year history of the sport, everyone had a legitimate path.

“It’s critical (that) the playoff is an inclusive opportunity,” said American Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti, in attendance at Friday’s game. “Our coaches are recruiting kids, telling them we have an opportunity to play for the national championship with access to the Playoff.”

USF is not going to win the national championship. We’ve already seen USF lose 49-12 to No. 2 Miami. But the Bulls did win on the road at Florida, something preseason No. 1 Texas couldn’t do. These Bulls are fast, and they’re good. I’d take them over a lot of other Power 4 teams.

The top-ranked Group of 5 team may be outside the top 12 at the end, as it is right now. But that’s OK. ACC champion Clemson wasn’t in the top 12 last year, either.

If that happens, you will hear complaints from the Power 4 calling for more expansion because one of their teams, probably with three losses, was left out. Expansion is happening at some point, even if the Big Ten and SEC still don’t agree on how. It’s possible, perhaps likely, that we remain at 12 next year if they can’t agree. The conferences have already changed the seeding this year to make sure a team like Boise State doesn’t get a first-round bye again.

But it’s good for college football that the top of the Group of 5 has a path into the field. That has to continue. It makes games mean more. It helps North Texas actually get a sellout.

Pay attention to the American Conference, which will be full of high stakes and good games down the stretch. USF is ranked. Memphis is 6-0 and ranked No. 23. Those two play on Oct. 25. Tulane, with two Power 4 wins, goes to Memphis on Nov. 7. Memphis also gets Navy — currently 5-0 — on Thanksgiving night. Navy goes to North Texas on Nov. 1. At this point, it would be a shock if the American champion doesn’t earn a CFP bid, unless they all knock each other out.

“A lot of the programs in this conference are rising, and the support is rising with it,” Pernetti said.

The Football Bowl Subdivision may indeed be too big. There are certain teams where, when they go up against top Power 4 teams, you wonder about player safety a bit. It would benefit a handful to actually move down to the Football Championship Subdivision, as Idaho did, and win games.

But the top of the Group of 5 has always been legitimate. TCU and Utah made the move up and became among the best in the Big 12 and Pac-12. SMU went from American Conference champion to currently 9-0 in regular-season ACC games. Even as the Power 4 take the best G5 players in the transfer portal, teams like USF, Tulane and Memphis still beat SEC and Big Ten schools. Tulane lost quarterback Darian Mensah to Duke in the offseason and still beat the Blue Devils this year.

College football is booming right now. Ratings are up. Attendance post-pandemic has risen after years and years of declines. Group of 5 games get good viewership numbers on ESPN on Thursday nights. That North Texas, where Mean Joe Greene and Stone Cold Steve Austin both played, even had a record crowd to send home dejected on Friday, was still a good sign for the sport.

The Big Ten and the SEC can spin their wheels in figuring out how much by which to expand the Playoff. The goal of the original Playoff expansion wasn’t really about who won it in the end. It was to create more meaningful games for more teams. That has already happened.

There may be a limit to how far that can go at the top. But the pregame and first-half scene Friday night in Denton, even in a second-half blowout, was a reminder that college football has a lot to offer when you let it.

Oct 11, 2025

Connections: Sports Edition

Spot the pattern. Connect the terms

Find the hidden link between sports terms

Chris Vannini has covered national college football issues and the coaching carousel for The Athletic since 2017. A co-winner of the FWAA’s Beat Writer of the Year Award in 2018, he previously was managing editor of CoachingSearch.com. Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisVannini