The top three in my annual ranking of the best coaches in college football was easy. After that, things got more complicated. How much does recency bias factor in? For me, not as much as it does for Stewart Mandel, whose Top 25 can be found here. I’ve always given coaches more credit for what…
(Editor’s note: This article is part of the Bracket Central series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s & women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.) Drake’s in, so we can dispense with the arguments about whether Ben McCollum’s Bulldogs would have made the field of 68 without winning the Missouri Valley…
The Athletic’s debate series features two writers breaking down a topic. In this edition, Sabreena Merchant and Ben Pickman debate which teams are capable of winning the national championship. Ben Pickman: We’re less than two weeks away from Selection Sunday and the whole world caring about seed lines, bracket draws and Cinderellas. Before March Madness…
We’re a month removed from the national championship game, and the players who transferred from Notre Dame and Ohio State have found homes. So that’s given us a good bit of separation from the winter transfer portal window. Now that there has been time to assess all the roster movement, The Athletic spoke to 13…
One of the most anticipated showdowns of the season is on the docket this week, as UConn and USC face off in a rematch of the 2024 Elite Eight in Hartford, Conn. Both teams boast top-10 offenses and defenses, per Her Hoop Stats, which generally indicates a national title contender. During the preseason, this game…
Editor’s note: The Athletic 134 is a weekly ranking of all FBS college football teams. The first year of the 12-team College Football Playoff was an absolute success. Regardless of how the bracket plays out, it has already accomplished exactly what it was supposed to do. More regular-season games had more stakes. New faces made…
Sterling Sanders could feel the tears coming on. It was late October and Sanders was elated. He’d just committed to Boston College inside coach Bill O’Brien’s office. A handshake sealed the deal. The three-star defensive lineman from Blytheville, S.C., had always dreamed of playing at the Power 4 level but wasn’t sure whether the opportunity…
Editor’s note: The Athletic 134 is a weekly ranking of all FBS college football teams. It turns out the first 12-team College Football Playoff field may be mostly locked in before championship weekend. After weeks of twists, turns and hypotheticals, figuring out the 12 teams has become mostly pretty easy by the end. But seeding…
Editor’s note: The Athletic 134 is a weekly ranking of all FBS college football teams. Winning games is hard. That’s a press conference cliché you’ll hear from every coach, but it’s true, especially for coaches dealing with college athletes. How else can you explain what happened on Saturday? For two weeks, SEC fans beat the…