Forward Progress - by Bill Connelly (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A cinematic celebration of college football's exploding influence and a rigorous look at how and why the sport may look totally new once again

College football in 2025 would look unrecognizable to a fan, player, or coach from even the recent past. Between massive influxes of television money, dramatic conference realignments, a restructuring of how the game crowns its national champion, and even a full revision of what it means to be an "amateur" athlete, America's most popular sport is rupturing, evolving, destroying itself, or getting with the times--depending who you ask.

And the dramatic changes won't be stopping any time soon. A complex media landscape, a transfer portal and endorsement money for players, and coaches carrying themselves like branded celebrities unto themselves are just a few reasons why the game will continue transform at a breakneck pace.

Forward Progress is the definitive and most comprehensive examination of how we got to this wild era in college football and what's in store for the game's future. Rather than offer easy or trite predictions about the game's future, renowned sports-data journalist Bill Connelly examines the crucial factors and forces that will drive these changes, showing fans how factors like influxes of private capital or a shift toward actually paying the game's players the money they are worth could lead college football in new directions.

Travelling from the pivotal 2006 Rose Bowl--a game so loaded with stars and money it felt silly calling any part of it "collegiate"--to the present day, Connelly's compelling storytelling and trademark data distillations illuminate the many moving parts that compose this shifting landscape.

Review Quotes

"Bill Connelly always does a great job of viewing college football through different lenses, from the analytical to the historical. In his latest book, he deftly guides college football fans through a turbulent time when the sport has never had so many major changes. Bill captures the mix of anxiety, excitement, and confusion many who love college football are experiencing, and explains what to expect as another important period begins. A must-read for CFB fans in 2025."

--Adam Rittenberg, ESPN senior writer for college football

"In this book, Bill has created an absolute master class for fans grappling with the past, present, and complex future of college football. Ever a student of the game, Bill offers thoughtful context for the moment while never losing sight of what makes our fandom tick. The sport's power brokers would be wise to embrace Bill's perspective while shaping its uncertain future."

--Ty Hildenbrandt, The Solid Verbal

"Bill Connelly is one of college football's best observers. He sees the same things we all do but pulls on threads that most of us wouldn't grab. And that's how we got this book, which is a great distillation of the current state of college football. It reveals, in plain English, how we got here, why things are so messy at the moment, and where it all might go--and where it definitely won't go. This book is a must-read for any college football fan who wants to actually understand the business of college sports and how that backdrop explains just about everything that happens on the field."

--Nicole Auerbach, NBC Sports

"To determine the optimum course for the future, understanding the path traveled is imperative. Bill thoroughly and thoughtfully maps out both and offers smart, tangible plans for the Forward Progress of college football. Bill is more than an expert at devising formulas to evaluate the relative strength of teams. His passion for the sport permeates every incisive corner of this book. To borrow from a Connelly statistical staple, Forward Progress delivers an off-the-chart success rate for every college football fan."

--Rece Davis, College GameDay

About the Author

Bill Connelly has been a staff writer for ESPN since 2019. One of the pioneers of the college football analytics movement, he is the inventor and proprietor of the SP+ ratings, the most prominent advanced predictive metric in college football today. He previously wrote for SB Nation and Football Outsiders.