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Which teams have the toughest strength of schedule heading into college football season?
It’s hard to believe, but we’re just a few months away from the ramp up to the 2026 college football regular season.
We’ve already seen some early, analytics-driven rankings be released, which showcased one obvious point: there are two conferences dominating the sport. The Big Ten Conference, at least based on last year’s performances, recruiting rankings, and returning talent, is expected to have three of the five best teams.
Meanwhile, the SEC will once again show off its quality depth. Seven of the top 15 teams are expected to come from the SEC, though with just one in the top five.
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As in most years, the 2025-2026 season was dominated by debate and discussion around strength of schedule. Particularly with two Group of Five teams reaching the College Football Playoff, and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish getting left out of the playoff in favor of the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Those debates are only going to increase this upcoming season, as the playoff field remains locked at 12. And perhaps more importantly, scheduling philosophies changing rapidly as programs optimize for reaching the postseason.
Well, we already have a new ranking of the ten hardest schedules in the upcoming season, and, spoiler alert, it’s those same two conferences yet again.
Bill Connelly, the creator of the SP+ analytics-based ranking system housed at ESPN, posted on X this week about the current toughest schedules in the country, based on the projected top teams in SP+. And the SEC dominates the list, with a few Big Ten teams slotting into the middle.
Per Connelly, the Texas Longhorns are projected to have the toughest schedule in the country, and looking at it, you can see why. They host Ohio State, who’s expected to be the best team in college football. They play at Tennessee, have their traditional rivalry game against Oklahoma, host Florida and Ole Miss, go on the road at Missouri and LSU, host Arkansas, then finish out with another rivalry game at Texas A&M. There’s only one likely top 5 team, but few off weeks facing lower quality opponents.
Speaking of Ohio State, they’re the top ranked Big Ten team, coming in at #4, with a bunch of tough games on tap for 2026. On the road at Texas, home for Illinois, at Iowa, at defending national champion Indiana, at USC, home for Oregon, at Nebraska, and home for Michigan. Two top five teams, and plenty more likely top 20 or 25 caliber teams.
Here’s the full list:
So seven of the top 10 are from the SEC, with the remaining three coming from the Big Ten. No surprise there. But the fact that there is so little surprise, and the strength of both conferences, makes it obvious why there will continue to be schedule-related arguments between the Power Four moving forward.
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The SEC, and the Big Ten too, will have reasonable arguments to make that they deserve more spots in the playoff because of the difficulty in getting through each conference. And they’ll surely have plenty to say about Notre Dame’s arrangement with the playoff too.
The Irish are now guaranteed a spot in the field if they finish in the top 12. Their schedule in 2026 indicates they are well aware of it.
Compare that to Texas or Ohio State, and you see where there’s going to be some disagreement. Expanding the playoff to 16 teams, for example, would allow for more playoff spots and take some of the disadvantages of tough schedules away from those conferences. For now though, it’s going to be a tough road ahead for many SEC teams, and plenty of Big Ten teams too.
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Acting AG Todd Blanche says SPLC fraud indictment is not politically motivated, calls conduct ‘egregious’
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said a federal indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was not politically motivated during an appearance Tuesday on “The Ingraham Angle.”
The Alabama-based civil rights group was federally indicted Tuesday on fraud charges and is accused of funneling millions of dollars to pay informants to infiltrate extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
“That indictment is free for everybody to read, and if the takeaway is that that’s political, I mean, I think the opposite is true,” Blanche told Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
Blanche described the SPLC’s alleged conduct as “extraordinarily egregious,” saying the group paid $3 million to people associated with the United Klans of America and other extremist organizations from 2014 to 2023.
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The group faces charges including wire fraud, false statements to a bank and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The SPLC, which uses litigation to fight White supremacy and dismantle extremist groups, performed counter to its mission, Blanche said.
“The very entities that this group was raising money to go against are the very entities that they were taking the money in and paying to these entities and these individuals associated with those groups,” the attorney general told Ingraham.
Blanche claimed SPLC-funded informants helped initiate the deadly Ku Klux Klan rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.
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“What we allege in the indictment and what the grand jury found is that one of the individuals that they paid was one of the folks who helped organize that terrible event,” the acting attorney general said.
“They were part of it.”
Blanche also said the SPLC did not alert law enforcement about its funding of informants in the extremist organizations.
The SPLC pushed back on the indictment, defending what its interim CEO Bryan Fair described as “prior use of paid confidential informants to gather credible intelligence on extremely violent groups.”
“There’s no information that we have that suggests that the money that they were paying to these informants and these members of these organizations, they then turned around and shared what they learned with law enforcement,” Blanche said.
In a video responding to the indictment, Fair said his civil rights group was “targeted” by the Trump administration and expressed outrage over the “false allegations” from the Justice Department.
“The actions by the DOJ will not shake our resolve to fight for justice and ensure the promise of the Civil Rights movement becomes a reality for all,” Fair said.
Fair also said the organization “will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff and our work,” according to The Associated Press.
Blanche said the investigation remains ongoing and said if allegations are proven to be true, the case is “very troubling.”
“It shakes the heart of our democracy to understand what happened,” he said.
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Josh Allen annihilates a beer to fire up the Sabres crowd
We all knew things would get wild in Buffalo with the Sabres making their first postseason appearance since Barack Obama’s first term, and they brought in the big guns for Game 2 against the Boston Bruins.
Did anyone order up Josh Allen downing a brewski for the boys?
Because that’s what you’re getting.
The Sabres and their fans are riding high after coming into the playoffs as the top seed in the Atlantic Division. Then, in Game 1, they pulled off a come-from-behind over the Bruins.
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So, to get the second game started on the right foot, the team recruited the Buffalo Bills’ signal caller to come out and fire everyone up by banging on a big, team-branded drum.
But he had one more move up his sleeve: a frosty cold one.
Now that’s how you do it.
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Also, how about that “goathead” sweater? I’m honestly stunned they didn’t wear those. Especially since we’ve seen two other teams — Dallas and Pittsburgh — bust out alternates for their first home games this postseason.
Those sweaters have so much mojo, as shown by Allen just demolishing what looked to be a Corona.
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He showed some stellar form, and I think it’s safe to say that if he wasn’t busy on most Sundays in the fall, he’d be one of the lunatics diving through folding tables or squirting that one guy with ketchup and mustard.
Allen fits in nicely in Buffalo, which is just going wild right now. Part of me wants to say it’s a shame that they’ve gone playoff-less as long as they have, but I feel like it takes 15 years of regular seasons ending in mid-April to make people behave like this:
You love to see it.
This series they’re in with Boston is going to be a tight one, but I’m not going to lie: I wouldn’t mind seeing what happens if the Sabres make it to the next round.
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EXCLUSIVE: DHS honors angel families during National Crime Victims Week, calls crimes ‘completely preventable’
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday recognized National Crime Victims Week by shining a light on those impacted by crimes allegedly committed by illegal immigrants and resources available to angel families.
After being shut down by the Biden administration, the Trump administration re-opened the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office to prioritize American victims and their families.
Over the past year, the office has fielded nearly 900 calls seeking assistance, according to DHS.
The office restores critical support services, such as helping victims track immigration enforcement cases, providing automated ICE custody updates, and connecting families with local social services.
Of the incidents reported, DHS said 32% involved violent assault, 15% involved rape or sexual assault and 9% involved homicide or manslaughter.
“For too long in this country, victims of illegal alien crime have been ignored by the media and sanctuary politicians,” DHS acting assistant secretary Lauren Bis wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital. “This National Crime Victims Week, Secretary Markwayne Mullin is honoring the victims of illegal alien crime.”
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“DHS will never stop fighting for victims of illegal aliens and will ALWAYS put America first,” she added. “Every crime committed by an illegal alien is completely preventable.”
Some of the victims of crimes allegedly committed by illegal immigrants, who DHS is remembering this week, include:
In April 2025, Megan Bos’ body was found partially decomposed in a garbage can in Waukegan, Illinois.
Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, is charged with abuse of a corpse, two counts of concealing the death of a person and obstructing justice in connection with her death.
Despite the charges, DHS said he was released under sanctuary Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. On July 19, 2025, he was arrested by ICE officers in Chicago.
Joshua Wilkerson, 18, was killed by his classmate Hermilo Moralez, an illegal immigrant from Belize, on Nov. 16, 2010, according to DHS.
After his disappearance, Wilkerson’s body was found dumped in the woods, severely beaten and burned.
Less than five months before killing Wilkerson, DHS said Moralez was arrested for harassing his ex-girlfriend.
Dalilah Coleman was seriously injured after illegal immigrant Partap Singh allegedly caused a car crash while driving recklessly behind the wheel of a semi-truck.
The 5-year-old was in a coma for three weeks and required six months of hospital treatment, according to DHS. Now 7 years old, she will need life-long therapy.
Singh first entered the U.S. illegally in 2022, but was released by the Biden administration, officials said. Despite his immigration history, he was also granted a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) in California.
Katie Abraham, a 20-year-old Ohio University student, was killed on Jan. 19, 2025, in a car crash in Urbana, Illinois.
A drunk driver, later identified as Julio Cucul-Bol, rear-ended the vehicle she was riding in at high speed and then fled the scene. Abraham’s friend Chloe Polzin was also killed in the crash.
Cucul-Bol pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including aggravated Driving Under Intoxication (DUI) resulting in death and leaving the scene of a fatal accident, and was sentenced to 30 years in prison, according to DHS.
Anya Varfolomeev and Nicholay Osokin, both 19 years old, were hit and killed on Nov. 19, 2021, by an illegal immigrant, Oscar Eduardo Ortega-Anguiano, while he was driving impaired and speeding at nearly 100 mph on the 405 freeway near Los Angeles.
Ortega-Anguiano, has a lengthy track record that includes multiple felonies and convictions for driving without a license, according to DHS. Despite being deported, he re-entered the country illegally twice.
He was sentenced to serve two 10-year sentences, to be served concurrently. However, local outlet KABC reported last year he was set to be released from the blue state after serving only three-and-a-half years.
On Aug. 24, 2003, Lacy Marie Ferguson and her boyfriend were caught in the crossfire of a shootout between multiple illegal immigrants, according to DHS.
Ferguson was killed and her boyfriend, along with a third person, were wounded, officials said. She left behind her 3-year-old daughter.
In 2016, the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office announced the arrest of David Aguilar, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, for Lacy’s murder, according to DHS. He was convicted the following year.
Chrishia Odette was killed by an unlicensed illegal immigrant on Sept. 12, 2014, after being hit by a car while crossing the street on the way to a slumber party at a friend’s house, according to DHS.
The driver of the car, Ramiro Guevara, was an illegal immigrant from Mexico who spent less than 35 minutes behind bars before posting a cash bond, officials said.
Guevara had been encountered twice before in 1994 and 2004 by Customs and Border Protection, before being returned to Mexico both times.
On Dec. 17, 2018, Rocky Paul Jones, 51, of Visalia, California, was shot and killed at a gas station during a 24-hour shooting and crime spree perpetuated by Gustavo Garcia, an illegal immigrant, DHS said.
In addition to killing Jones, DHS said Garcia shot a farm worker in the chest while he was on a ladder picking fruit, followed a woman to her car and attempted to shoot and kill her, fired multiple gunshots at his ex-girlfriend’s home and robbed a gas station.
Garcia was previously deported from the U.S. in 2014 by ICE after being charged with crimes including illegal possession of a firearm, according to DHS.
Hailey King, 18, was hit and killed on Nov. 7, 2016, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, by illegal immigrant Sergio Rodriguez.
Instead of stopping to help, he fled the scene, according to DHS. She left behind a 2-year-old daughter.
Rodriguez also struck Osmin Gutierrez, rendering him a double amputee. Gutierrez died from his injuries in 2021 at 25 years old.
Officials said Rodriguez pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and has twice been denied parole, with the most recent denial being in 2022.
Lizbeth Medina, a 16-year-old cheerleader at Edna High School in Texas, was found dead in a bathtub by her mother at their family home on Dec. 5, 2023, after she was stabbed to death by Rafael Govea Romero, an illegal immigrant from Mexico.
Romero, who had been placed on an ICE detainer because of an expired visa, pleaded guilty to the killing and received two concurrent life sentences, according to DHS and local reports.
Of the total number of illegal immigrants arrested by ICE, DHS claims nearly 70% have committed a crime or been charged with a crime in the U.S.
DHS said it is “protecting American communities every day from another senseless tragedy like these taking place in another town, to another family.”
Victims of illegal immigrant crime can receive support from the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office by contacting 855-488-6423.
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