College football’s transactional ruthlessness is inescapable. The billions that networks pay for rights fees, the riches that schools lavish on coaches, administrators and, now, athletes, not to mention the incessant legal and political warfare, remind us daily that money is paramount.

Winning fuels the money train, and absent fuel, the train slows. And if the train slows, or heaven forbid derails, folks get fired.

Indeed, as the 2025 season hits halftime, six power-conference schools have already dismissed their head coaches. Penn State’s James Franklin on Sunday became the most prominent casualty, a jarring divorce that especially resonated at Old Dominion.

Understand that ODU coach Ricky Rahne last month saw a close friend, Virginia Tech’s Brent Pry, lose his job less than 24 hours a

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