The cover of this football special section has an obvious musical concept with illustrations of LPs, CDs and even an old-school cassette tape.

If you were to plug that cassette into your tape deck, you would undoubtedly hear David Bowie singing the theme song for the 2024 college football season.

"Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, Turn and face the strange ch-ch-changes."

The chorus of Bowie's classic song from 1971 -- "Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes" -- underscores the stuttering repetition of the word "changes" and represents the difficulty and resistance people often feel toward change, even as they acknowledge its necessity.

College football coaches and administrators can certainly relate. They don't necessarily love all the massive changes happening in their sport, but they know they must embrace the inevitability of this transformational season.

"For the last two years there's been more transition in college football than all the years before," UCF coach Gus Malzahn says. "It's an interesting time to be a head coach in college football."

That may be the biggest understatement since the Biblical weatherman told Noah, "Looks like a 30 percent chance of rain."

It's not an overreaction to say that we are about to embark on a college football season unlike any other we have ever seen. Locally, regionally and nationally, the Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes are immense and intense.

So immense and intense that the changing landscape at least partially impacted the decision of seven-time national champion Nick Saban -- the greatest coach in college football history -- to retire. Saban has made it no secret that he does not like how the recent phenomena of unlimited transfers combined with unregulated NIL compensation have turned the game into, as Florida coach Billy Napier calls it, "a land with no laws."

"I thought we could have a hell of a team next year," Saban told ESPN upon his retirement, "and then maybe 70 [percent] or 80 percent of the players you talk to, all they want to know is two things: What assurances do I have that I'm going to play because they're thinking about transferring, and how much are you going to pay me?"

Saban was more than just college football's G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time), he also was the SEC's cash cow. He almost single handedly elevated the SEC into the most dominant, dynastic conference in college football at a time when TV rights fees were escalating exponentially. As a result, the SEC turned its football dominance into the lucrative TV conglomerate known as the SEC Network.

"I couldn't even begin to estimate the amount of money Nick Saban has generated," Cecil Hurt, the late columnist of the Tuscaloosa News, told me a few years ago. "He has dominated and defined the whole playoff era of the college football playoff. For anybody who is sitting down and negotiating those television-rights deals, they're getting the money they're getting from television because of Nick Saban more than anyone else."

Saban's absence is just one of the many transformations happening in college football this season, including the most exciting and significant -- the expansion of the playoff from four to 12 teams with every Power 4 conference champion and the highest-ranked Group of 5 champion assured of a spot. And with seven at-large spots available that means you don't even have to win your conference to get a playoff bid.

The common consensus is that the SEC and Big Ten, because of the strength of their leagues, will dominate the at-large invitations, but nobody really knows right now how the process will play out. One thing is for certain, though: The 12-team playoff will add significant intrigue and interest to the end of the college football season.

"So many more teams have hope when you get into weeks 6, 7, 8 and 9," Napier says.

"It's been a long time coming and should have happened a long time ago," Malzahn says.

"This is the biggest change in college football since the forward pass in my view," new College Football Playoff executive director Rich Clark says. "I think it's just going to be -- no pun intended -- a game changer for all of us."

Just one of many paradigm-shifting game changers we will see in 2024. How strange is it that USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington are in the Big Ten this season? Or that Stanford and Cal (and SMU) are in the ACC? Or that Texas and Oklahoma are joining the SEC? Or the Big 12 is actually the Big 16 with the addition of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State? Conferences continue to cannibalize each other and universities continue to uproot themselves in the unending quest for the almighty TV dollar.

Seriously, who would have ever thought that Texas, with all of its power and prestige, would be joining a conference where it is, at best, the third most prestigious program in the league? And who would have ever thought that the Big 12, left for dead a couple of years ago when Texas and Oklahoma announced they were jumping to the SEC, would now be more stable than the ACC, where FSU and Clemson are suing to get out of the league?

"No one is safe in the dash for cash," Associated Press college football writer Ralph D. Russo writes.

There also are major revisions and transitions going on within the programs inside the Sunshine State, where Florida's Napier and Miami's Mario Cristobal have losing records in their first two seasons on the job, UCF's Malzahn is coming off his first losing season as a coach and FSU's Mike Norvell is replacing every major star from a team that went undefeated during the regular season a year ago.

The Seminoles are replacing one of the best quarterbacks in program history (Jordan Travis) and also lose their leading rusher (Trey Benson), top two wide receivers (Keon Coleman, Johnny Wilson), their most productive tight end (Jaheim Bell) and four defensive players taken in the first two rounds of the NFL draft.

At UCF, Malzahn has resumed play-calling duties, brought in two new coordinators -- Ted Roof (defense) and Tim Harris Jr. (offense) -- and will feature a roster with 40 new players.

"We won six games last year, and that's not good enough," Malzahn says. "If that didn't leave a sour taste in our mouths then there's something wrong. I did some self-evaluation. Any time you lay an egg like we did last year, it starts with a darn head coach."

The grumbling among UCF fans is mild compared to what's happening at UF, where Napier occupies arguably college football's hottest seat. As a result, Napier made significant changes, hiring veteran coach Ron Roberts to coordinate his defense and former NFL assistant Joe Houston to direct the special teams. Napier also revamped his strength and conditioning program, hired a new team nutritionist and brought in 35 new players.

"Every team in our league, about 25 [percent] to 30 percent of their roster is new," Napier says. "So I think some of these teams that we play aren't the same teams that they had last year, and we certainly are not the same team that we had last year. College football, more than any time in our game, has become one year at a time."

In other words, the only constant in college football is change itself.

And, so, as we press play on the 2024 season, let us remember David Bowie's words of wisdom: "Turn and face the strange ch-ch-changes."

College football's new soundtrack is here, and it's a remix we won't soon forget.

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