Josh Pate Identifies Top 4 College Football 'Villains' to Watch in the 2026 Season

Every college football fan vilifies at least one figure in the sport.

Many fans point to their team's biggest rival as the biggest villain. Additionally, programs with multiple that consistently win national championships are viewed as villains by fans of less fortunate teams across the sport.

Now that the regulations around college sports are changing on the regular, new villains are emerging throughout college football.

For example, Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby's recent fight for eligibility despite his extensive gambling history directed tons of negative attention at the Red Raiders that was not previously there.

College football media personality Josh Pate has weighed in on the villain discussion. Pate highlighted who he believes are the four biggest villains of the 2026 season on a June edition of his show.

Texas Tech

Unsurprisingly, the Red Raiders were the first villains Pate mentioned in his list. The Sorsby drama and billionaire booster Cody Campbell's comments about the situation managed to unite the entire college football world against Texas Tech, which is impressive considering how rarely the college football world agrees on anything.

Traditional college football fans are also not impressed by the notion of spending exorbitant amounts for the best team money can buy. Without any salary cap in place, nothing can prevent the Red Raiders from becoming the Los Angeles Dodgers of college football.

Texas

The Longhorns have always been a bit of a punching bag in college athletics, and they will attract haters the minute they stumble in 2026. Texas forced a lot of underperforming talent out of its program in January to acquire new pieces with high asking prices.

Additionally, Steve Sarkisian has not made any friends this offseason with the comments he directed at Ole Miss and Texas Tech. The Longhorns square off against the Rebels in late October, and there is a possibility they face the Red Raiders somewhere in the College Football Playoff.

Lane Kiffin

The "portal king" was Pate's third nominee for his list of villains. Whether Lane Kiffin admits it or not, he also holds a reputation as the king of bridge-burning to many across the football world.

The rocky departure from Ole Miss to LSU is Kiffin's most controversial feat to date. Not only did he leave the Rebels during a College Football Playoff run, but he made derogatory comments about the school's history in a Vanity Fair interview in May.

Kiffin will not receive a warm welcome when the Tigers and Rebels square off in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Sept. 19.

Greg Sankey

The SEC commissioner's one-man crusade to prevent College Football Playoff expansion landed him on Pate's list of college football villains.

While keeping the College Football Playoff from expanding past 16 teams is what many fans of the sport want, it does not align with the agendas of other prominent figures in college football.

The other three Power Four conference commissioners and many SEC athletics directors and coaches are proponents of a 24-team College Football Playoff.

Sankey is catching additional heat from SEC coaches and athletics directors over the expansion of the conference schedule to nine games.

Sankey did this in hopes of a 16-team College Football Playoff, and many feel he was peer-pressured into doing so by other conference commissioners.

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