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Today in college football news, the rock and roll album of the year is “I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven” by Atlanta’s own Callous Daoboys. Recommended for: Those who are now imagining what it would be like if Fall Out Boy was our only source of news on the end of the world.
The Best: Tigers vs. Hurricanes
Since the number 25 is special in college football, of course the 25th season of the 2000s needs to have its own top 25s.
This week, Stewart Mandel kicked things off with a ranking of the 25 best teams of this millennium-ish. That’s a hard job!
Stewart went with 2001 Miami at No. 1, pointing out the nine future All-Pros on that cartoonishly loaded roster. It’s long been a popular choice, especially as the NFL careers of those Hurricanes only added to that team’s standing.
Three things:
- No two people will ever agree on exactly what “best” means, even if those two people somehow agree on which team deserves that superlative. Stewart laid out his own criteria, then tried to balance all of them along the way. Does “best” refer to the team that would win a time-traveling game right now (probably not 1945 Army) — or the team that most overperformed, relative to its schedule (maybe 1945 Army)? And there are a million methods to answer either of those questions.
- Still, I think the majority of those million methods point to the same answer: 2019 LSU, Stew’s (close) No. 2 team. Those Tigers beat five other final top-eight teams by a 20-point average — and had transitive victories over the other two. A whole difficulty level beyond Miami’s, with comparable results. Also, since the Hurricane argument revolves around star players: Joe Burrow had arguably the best QB season in history. Compare that to Miami’s Ken Dorsey finishing No. 18 in 2001 passer rating.
- Next, this entire argument is about to evolve dramatically. At some point, a team will go undefeated in the era of the expanded CFP. Imagine if last year’s Oregon had gone 16-0 while finishing with wins against a steaming-mad Ohio State, a loaded Texas and a resilient Notre Dame. Somebody will pull it off eventually.
Psst: Now that some readers have already scrolled past the rest of this section, I gotta admit a CFB internet heresy. I’m not sure I would have 2001 Miami at No. 2 on my list, either. 2004 USC, 2005 Texas, 2018 Clemson and 2020 Alabama would each get very strong consideration.
Still, Stewart’s the one who did all the work of actually ranking 25 teams. Read it here.
Quick Snaps
🏆 Another ranking! Bruce Feldman has the 25 best players of the millennium so far. I think No. 1 is indisputable here, despite playing just one real year in FBS. Hint, hint.
🎲 This newsletter now delivers good Clemson feelings every week. Bruce’s win total picks include this: “If I had to predict the national title game matchup now, almost 250 days away, I’d predict Clemson versus Texas.” So far, I’ve been leaning toward exactly the same.
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🤔 In the big-playoff era, traditional conference championship games already feel a little obsolete (and maybe even counterproductive). Could the SEC really turn its main event into a multi-parter?
🙄 Realignment has already killed way too many rivalries. Now it seems to have conspired with CFP uncertainty to endanger Notre Dame-USC, who have played almost every year since 1926.
🏆 All 136 QB situations in FBS, ranked in tiers by David Hale. My alma mater is in “Tier 20: Nowhere but up.” Hell yeah. Love going up.
👴🏻 “‘Those parents are going to want to have conversations with you. Whereas not many parents in the NFL are calling the head coach saying I need to talk about my son being unhappy,’ the ACC assistant said.” (Bill Belichick, college football coach, continues to sound like an experiment designed to make one man hate both college and football.)
💎 Mayhem underway already in the softball championship scene: Texas A&M became the first No. 1 seed to ever lose in regionals, falling to Liberty on Sunday. Million-time champ Oklahoma is now the top seed remaining, and former Sooners star Jordy Bahl leads Nebraska against No. 7 Tennessee. Everything to know here.
Big Brother: NFL crowding in on CFB days
The NFL and its own de facto developmental league are now counter-programming each other. (To be clear, that’s now how I think of college football, but the NFL’s opinions matter a lot more than mine.)
- On Black Friday, a day that has long functioned as a miniature CFB Saturday during rivalry weekend, the Chicago Bears will face the Philadelphia Eagles on Amazon Prime, surely a move meant to sell some gadgets and some ads on the same site at the same time. (Demonstrating how much CFB now feels boxed in, Texas and Texas A&M are trying to avoid the NFL by playing on Black Friday instead of their traditional Thanksgiving date.)
- And the first day of the expanded CFP now coincides with one of the Saturdays that had been solely claimed by the NFL in previous seasons. Two NFL games will go head to head with at least a portion of a CFP triple-header.
Personally, I find all of this rude. The NFL has more than enough days, and college football feels like the last entertainment entity it should ever trample upon. Think of everything college football has done for the NFL, such as making sure nobody in the league has to think about Belichick’s personal life.
In light of all this, Chris Vannini explains this battle actually goes back more than half a century, back to when CFB was nationally entrenched and the Super Bowl wasn’t even a thing yet.
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In 1961, when Congress began allowing the NFL to pool its TV rights, college football leadership lobbied for Saturdays to be protected.
The bill eventually protected Friday nights as well, ensuring high school football also wouldn’t have to compete against the pros. That’s part of the reason this year’s Black Friday NFL game happens to kick off at 3 p.m. ET, dancing just around the outskirts of the Friday night part. How convenient!
One-Minute Warning: New top 25 👀
One last ranking! It’s another big one: Stew’s updated 2025 top 25 after portal season. More good Texas and/or Clemson feelings!
Let’s come back to this one on Friday. (Slightly different newsletter schedule this week, like when it’s November and the Sun Belt is suddenly playing on Wednesdays.)
This news was originally published on this post .
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