The season's barely halfway over, and five programs are already in the market for their next head coaches. We'll update this ranking as more join in.
Say you're soon to be looking for a head coaching job in college football. You want an FBS job. You want a job at the best available program, where you'll have the resources to win consistently for a long time. Where would you go?
The answer depends in part on your geography and on your system, of course. Whether you're from the Southeast or California or elsewhere will impact things, as will whether you believe you're a fit for an academic power or an NFL Draft factory.
But, all those things being equal, how do you rank all the currently available jobs? Which would you have your agent call first? Three of us have more or less agreed on consensus rankings of all the spots now open, and we'll update it over time as more become available.
There are only five right now, and No. 1 and No. 5 are both pretty obvious, so how about the middle three?
1. USC
Former coach: Steve Sarkisian
Bud: My No. 1 is USC, and I'm not sure we even need to debate it. Conservatively, USC is a top-five job, and following Lane Kiffin and Sark is relatively easy. Plus, that roster is one or two recruiting classes away from being as good as any in the country.
2. South Carolina
Former coach: Steve Spurrier
Bud: You can't win big big at South Carolina or Maryland, and while it is tough to follow the best coach and stretch in school history, the Gamecocks paid Spurrier $1.9 million more per year than Maryland paid Randy Edsall. But if the money is even, I'm switching, because there is more pressure at South Carolina and I can get paid for longer at Maryland.
3. Maryland
Former coach: Randy Edsall
Bill: The biggest question is the difference between potential and production. We hear a lot about the potential of this job, the Under Armour money, the recruiting base, BTN money, etc.
But while UA and BTN are new developments, the recruiting base isn't. And you're still looking at a program that has had a couple of short bursts (1976-78, 1982-85, 2001-03) and little else. If I'm considering that job, I need pretty good answers regarding why no one since Jim Tatum has succeeded long term and why things are different now.
4. Illinois
Former coach: Tim Beckman
Steven: Illinois is a quintessential Big Ten have-not. That means it's got to solve the impossible riddle of recruiting talent to a cold-weather town without having a national brand or the available resources. But hey, it's still a job close to a major media market with plenty of exposure, and the conference TV coffers are only getting fatter.
Bill: Everything I said about Maryland rings true for Illinois, too. The Fighting Illini have BTN money and are near Chicago and St. Louis. They're a sleeping giant!
A sleeping giant that has finished in the AP top 20 four times in 51 years. That's comatose. A great hire could do great things in Champaign. A good hire will probably go 8-5 a couple of times and eventually get fired.
5. North Texas
Former coach: Dan McCarney
Steven: There's no rationale for an FBS program in the DFW Metroplex to be this bad, ever. UNT offers great facilities relative to its Conference USA rivals because it's in Texas, where you're building not just to lure recruits, but to stay a step ahead of the high schools they're coming from. Dan McCarney was the fourth-highest paid HC in the C-USA, so the money's there. You're also sitting an interstate exit away from a pile of talent that's deep even after Power 5 programs get theirs.
UNT needs to shake off the PTSD of the Todd Dodge era and go back to Texas. Don't hire a high school coach outright, but copy the Chad Morris SMU blueprint and get a current college assistant who's well connected with local preps.
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