Bill Connelly on returning production, ceilings and floors and 2023 SP+ rankings (02/16)

The Cover 3 crew is joined by ESPN's Bill Connelly to talk the early 2023 college football ratings. First, reaction to the news that Notre Dame has decided to promote from within to fill its vacant OC role (1:18) and the assistant coaching hire that stands out the most from this recent cycle (9:24). Then it's on to discussing SP+, the college football ratings system designed and maintained by ESPN's Bill Connelly. The crew talks how transfers factor into the ratings (11:42), go deep on Alabama's lack of returning production (22:25), teams that are big risers/fallers in the SP+ ratings (32:40), the best-case record and worst-case record for for preseason top 25 teams (45:00) and then some quick team-by-team thoughts on the ratings and projections for Colorado (50:22), Iowa (53:38), Georgia (55:35), Kansas (59:35) and Oregon (59:15). For more from Bill: 2023 SP+ Ratings: https://www.espn.com/college-football/insider/story/_/id/35651872/2023-college-football-rankings-every-team 2023 Returning Production Rankings: https://www.espn.com/college-football/insider/story/_/id/35577489/college-football-teams-returning-production-2023-season Cover 3 is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Nominate the Cover 3 Podcast in the “Sports” category of the The People’s Choice Podcast Awards! http://podcastawards.com/app/signup Get 20% off Cover 3 merch in the CBS Sports Store: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/cover-3?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=cover-3-collection Watch Cover 3 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/cover3 Follow our hosts on Twitter: @Chip_Patterson , @TomFornelli , @DannyKanell , @BudElliott3 For more college football coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices