With the 2026 college football season right around the corner, you're no doubt dreaming of big things for favorite school this fall. But the true fans among us know that this deranged, delirious sport isn't fueled solely by optimism — it's also fueled by pure spite, and by the joy that comes from seeing a hated rival bite the dust.
It's in that spirit that we come to you today, with this list of the biggest villains of the upcoming campaign. We're trying to go beyond factionalism here; yes, we realize that Michigan will always be a villain to Ohio State and vice versa. But the goal is to identify truly national antagonists, the ones that will unite casual fans nationwide hoping they fail as loudly as possible. You probably don't need me to tell you who comes in at No. 1 with a bullet.
LSU head coach Lane Kiffin
The way Kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU was bad enough. Sure, the compressed and contradictory nature of the college football schedule didn't do anybody any favors, but that still doesn't excuse stringing your current employer along for weeks before trying to hold them hostage ahead of a College Football Playoff run and throwing a fit when said blackmail didn't get you what you wanted.
What really takes it over the top, though, is that Kiffin proceeded to spend his first offseason in Baton Rouge insisting to anyone who would listen — or, more accurately, anyone willing to stick a microphone in his face — that actually he was the victim, just a humble guy who loved his players and wanted to see the season through with them before some dastardly bureaucrats got on the way. Kiffin wanted the money and the platform that came with the LSU job, and he wasn't wiling to risk waiting to get them. The least he could do is allow us the courtesy of treating him as a proper heel, rather than insulting our intelligence by wondering what all the ire's about.
Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti
This may seem harsh, but I promise I don't mean it that way. This has nothing to do with the way Cignetti's conducted himself since coming to Indiana a couple of years ago; on the contrary, all he did was tell everybody what he was going to do in Bloomington and then do it. But this sport hates nothing so much as new money, especially when that new money makes no apologies.
It was one thing when the Hoosiers were still a feel-good story for most of the country. Now that they're the reigning national champions, though, the hunters will very much become the hunted — and all the disinterested third parties who hopped on the bandwagon during last year's run are going to suddenly get awfully sick of Cignetti's team if they keep on winning (which, with this transfer class, it sure seems like they will). College football is better when it has a big bad to unite everyone against, and if Alabama and Georgia aren't going to step up, Indiana will have to do.
Notre Dame
This might be redundant; I'm fairly confident Notre Dame would have ranked somewhere on this list before every season since the advent of the sport. Entering 2026, though, expect the rest of the country to root against the Irish with just a little extra gusto.
That's what happens when you act as though you're the protagonist of reality, the only team that has ever been snubbed in the history of college football, then take your ball and go home once you don't get your way. Really, what did Marcus Freeman and Co. have to be mad about? That they got left out of the College Football Playoff in favor of a Miami team with an identical record that beat them head-to-head? We're all supposed to believe that was a profound injustice worth saber-rattling and demanding reform about? That rematch with the Canes can't get here soon enough.
Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey
If you couldn't pick Petitti or Sankey out of a lineup, you're not alone. And yet they are quite possibly the two most powerful figures in the sport right now — and they seem hell-bent on using that power to enrich themselves and their friends and leave everybody else worse off. Whether it's demanding (and then holding up) more Playoff reform or threatening to break off and form their own Super League, it's become abundantly clear that neither the Big Ten nor the SEC have the best interests of the sport in mind. They don't really care whether what we love about college football continues into the future; if it means a better TV deal down the line, well, that's a sacrifice they're willing to make. Any Group of 6 party-crashers deserve our full support.
Texas Tech (and Cody Campbell)
You almost feel bad for the actual players involved. Okay, sure, maybe not Brendan Sorsby — not betting on your own team has been a cardinal rule forever, no matter how problematic the sport's relationship to gambling has gotten — but everyone else who will compete for the Red Raiders in 2026 now that Sorsby's gone.
Stlll, it's hard not to want this program to get humbled a bit after the way they conducted themselves this offseason. Fighting tooth and nail to keep Sorsby eligible was bad enough, but pretending like you were doing so out of concern for his well-being and a respect for mental health? Seriously? I would've respected Tech more if they'd just saved us all the trouble and admitted that they wanted to win a bunch of football games this fall. Then again, nothing Campbell's done since assuming his role as Red Raider mega-booster and CFB shadow czar has been particularly above-board.
Texas QB Arch Manning
I've been negatively polarized into a begrudging respect for Arch, who took an absolute beating behind a sketchy Texas offensive line and endured plenty of ups and downs in his first season as a college starter but toughed it out and seemingly emerged on the other side a better player. He was making good on every bit of his recruiting hype down the stretch of the 2025 season, and it should surprise no one if he's going No. 1 in next year's NFL Draft after winning the Heisman.
All that said ... come on. Rooting for Texas is already uncomfortable enough, but rooting for a Texas team that's quarterbacked by a member of the Manning dynasty? There's a reason everybody outside the tristate area roots against the New York Yankees, and if the Horns are as good as everyone expects this season, it should be a lot of fun hoping that the prince who was promised falls short of a title.
UNC head coach Bill Belichick
I was almost starting to feel badly for Belichick after a thoroughly embarrassing first year in Chapel Hill. And then consigliere Michael Lombardi — the same guy who talked a lot of noise about turning UNC into the 33rd NFL team upon stepping on campus last spring — was placed on administrative leave in July amid off-field controversy, a nice little reminder of just who we're dealing with here.
It's not just that they're running an extremely uninspired program and don't seem to have much of any respect for what it takes to win big in college football in 2026. It's that they've been incredibly unpleasant while they do it, to the point that even Heels fans are ready for all this to end. There's a twinge of sadness that comes with watching arguably the greatest coach to ever live humiliate himself every Saturday, but don't worry, it won't last long.
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