These 7 stretch run storylines will define the second half of the 2026 season

From Ohio State’s backup QB situation to Texas’ offensive crisis, these seven situations are set to dominate the college football landscape over the next seven weeks

This week, CBS Sports has been celebrating the midpoint of the 2026 college football season. We have honored the best and brightest with a Midseason All-America Team, given the experts a chance to redo their predictions for how the season will end in the College Football Playoff, and taken the time to offer a midseason report card for every power conference team. The key word here is celebrate, because while it's easy to get caught up in complaining about a coach, quarterback or playoff format, college football still overwhelms us with names, games and storylines worth debating and celebrating every week. When there's a chaotic Saturday like in Week 7 with five of the top seven teams going down in a 12-hour span, we celebrate it.

It hasn't mattered whether we had poll champions, BCS champions or any number of playoff formats; those stories have been a driving reason behind college football's popularity. But to be fair to complaining as an institution, complaining is nothing new in college football. We complain about the quarterback who can't convert on deep passes, the offensive coordinator who isn't calling the right plays and the defense that just can't get off the field on third down. We complain about officials (a lot) and lightning delays (seemingly a lot more than we used to). Complaining