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Today in college football news, I finally finished the “Loki” show. 👍
Gross: ‘GameDay’ star spotlit college freshman
It’s bad enough when an internet rumor about a student spreads throughout a campus. A version of that experience has probably happened to a young person you know.
But what about when an adult chooses to immediately amplify that rumor to millions of nationwide strangers, including tons of college-aged young men, all without having any reason to believe it’s true?
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Today, Katie Strang reported on the fallout of “College GameDay” analyst Pat McAfee’s decision to trumpet gossip related to an Ole Miss freshman named Mary Kate Cornett.
One day after a user of an anonymous messaging app accused Cornett of cheating on her boyfriend with his father — something Cornett denies — McAfee shared the story on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
On Feb. 26, the man who is arguably college football’s most prominent media figure steered an NFL Draft discussion about the Rebels’ outgoing quarterback into two minutes of men giggling at what they acknowledged to be an unverified claim about a previously unknown 18-year-old. The guest, Adam Schefter, was confused: “So where is Jaxson Dart in all this?”
The story was already going viral on the app formerly known as Twitter, including among some CFB fans, who treated it as banter about Ole Miss. But McAfee’s millions-strong audience (and the credibility of ESPN, which broadcasts McAfee’s show in a hands-washing way) dramatically scaled the story’s reach and, for some people, believability. Strang writes:
“After her phone number was posted online, Cornett’s voicemail was filled with degrading messages. In one, a man laughs as he says that she’s been a ‘naughty girl’ and cheerfully asks her to give him a call. Another male caller says that he has a son, too, in case she’s interested. Several people texted her obscene messages, calling her a ‘whore’ and a ‘slut’ and advised her to kill herself.
“In recent weeks, Cornett has remained mostly holed up in her room. She no longer dines at her sorority house or the student union. On the rare occasion she goes out, she wears sunglasses and a hat. ‘I (can’t) even walk on campus without people taking pictures of me or screaming my name or saying super vulgar, disgusting things to me,’ she said.”
Other sports media members pounced as well, including two Barstool employees, one of whom posted a memecoin named after Cornett. (If you don’t know what that means: Somebody tried to make crypto money by using the teenager’s name.)
This fall, “GameDay” will set up at more than a dozen college campuses. Will we see McAfee — who’s now demonstrated a pattern of relaying hearsay about young women — return to the show for his fourth season backdropped by thousands of cheering young men?
Cornett intends to take legal action. Strang’s full story is here.
Quick Snaps
🌲 Stanford‘s coach for the year: Frank Reich, who coached Cardinal GM Andrew Luck in Indianapolis. They start spring ball … today.
🌭 Coastal Carolina has a teal field AND free concessions? Step it up, everybody else.
🍀 What will Notre Dame‘s offense look like, now that QB Riley Leonard’s exit means the Irish probably have to throw the ball sometimes?
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🍊 After the NCAA shot down that Colorado-Syracuse spring game idea, Orange head coach Fran Brown joked that it would’ve been approved if it’d been proposed by Bill Belichick and Bill O’Brien. (Tag team name: Double Billing.)
1️⃣ A month from now, No. 1 QB recruit Jared Curtis is set to commit to either Georgia or Oregon. How will that change this QB class for every other top team?
🅾️ The national champs gained a commit from the No. 1 safety recruit, Blaine Bradford of Louisiana.
🌩️ ICYMI from late last week: Kent State head coach Kenni Burns is on administrative leave.
🏀 The rules keep changing, but the same coaches and schools keep winning. Sounds like football too, right?
Numbers: Vegas’ 2025 risers and fallers
Even if you’re not interested in gambling, sportsbooks offer a way to think about realistic expectations.
That’s true even well before the season begins. For example, several places have recently listed 2025 win total over/unders for power-conference teams. (Basically, a number of regular-season wins for each team to aim at. If your team’s total is 5.5 and they go 6-6, they’ve had a pretty successful season, according to Vegas.)
Leading the way at BetMGM with 2025 totals of 10.5 wins each are Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oregon and Penn State. Why yes, that happens to be the 2024 CFP’s No. 1 seed alongside three of its final four. (The other semifinalist, Texas, is in the SEC-heavy 9.5-win cluster.)
As that exemplifies, most teams usually appear within a game or two of where they finished the previous year, partly because big leaps (and plummets) tend to be outliers. During the actual season, shockingly big leaps (and plummets) will happen, though, and Vegas will make a lot of money off of people trying to predict them. Maybe later in the offseason, this newsletter will try to guess a few.
For now, let’s look at something else. If BetMGM’s totals are all totally accurate (other than the half-wins thing), these would be 2025’s teams on the rise:
Mostly, those resemble bounce-back numbers for typically steady teams that had unexpected slumps last year. Pretty normal thing to see in over/unders, especially with some roster-settling still to go in the spring portal window.
- Last year, FSU missed its total by eight wins, which might’ve been CFB’s worst-ever performance, relative to expectations. This year’s Noles were portal winners, at least. That last part also goes for Auburn, which is 11-14 in the Hugh Freeze era.
- Lance Leipold’s Kansas, typically steady? Sure! Remember last year’s three wins against final Top 25 teams? And it’d be hard to again go 1-5 in one-score games. (It’d also be hard for Utah to be as injured as it was last year.)
- Not to be rude, but Purdue only went up to 3.5 because that was BetMGM’s minimum (also down there: Mississippi State, Northwestern and Stanford). Actually, things somehow got even worse in the portal for the Boilermakers. Welcome aboard, Barry Odom!
As for the teams expected by Vegas to take the biggest tumbles:
Again, this would represent lots of regression to the mean overall. Historically, that’s far from the worst predictive factor.
- Still, pretty harsh for Syracuse, which is replacing FBS passing-yardage leader Kyle McCord. Then again, if Cuse goes bowling despite this schedule, which includes four games away from home against 2024 CFP teams, that might be just as impressive as Fran Brown’s 10-3 debut season.
- What will Colorado be, now that Travis Hunter and two Sanders brothers are moving on, but Deion Sanders (and his new $10.8M salary) somewhat surprisingly remains? David Ubben has a new story on exactly that. One plotline: Deion’s first-ever QB battle.
- Lots of eyes will be on Indiana, which last year doubled its preseason total as part of the best football year in school history. Harder schedule this year. (Elsewhere, Duke‘s 2024 record did feel a bit inflated, with a 6-1 record in one-score games.)
Anyway, just now realized this newsletter’s season preview series should begin late next month. This is April!
Branding
Two brief stories, both coincidentally about the same state:
- From the Raleigh News & Observer: “The leafy, red-brick campus of Elon University shares no connection with tech billionaires, electric cars or slashing federal jobs with a symbolic chain-saw. But the students there still find themselves on guard these days, defending their hoodies, hats and bumper stickers against would-be haters.”
- From the New York Times on HBO’s “The White Lotus”: “Frank Tramble, the vice president for communications, marketing and public affairs at Duke, said in an email that the university did not approve of the use of its ‘marks’ in the program.”
Hmm, well, that’s all for today. Most-clicked story last week: The best FCS and Division II players rising to FBS this year.
📫 Love Until Saturday? Check out The Athletic’s other newsletters. And if you have thoughts on any of this, I will see them at untilsaturday@theathletic.com.
(Top photo: Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK)
This news was originally published on this post .
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