I can’t wait. Especially after yet another long week dominated by talk of eligibility lawsuits.

Someone asked me yesterday, “Who won the offseason?” Normally, that’s an easy question to answer. I could go with USC and say it’s because the Trojans signed the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class and look to have the pieces they need to finally break through to the College Football Playoff. Or I could talk about LSU for winning the Sam Leavitt sweepstakes, setting up Lane Kiffin for a strong Year 1 in Baton Rouge. Or perhaps I’d pick Indiana because of the totality of the Hoosiers’ transfer portal haul.

But none of those answers are quite right. Not this year.

It’s the lawyers.

Frankly, it’s been exhausting. All offseason, there’s been this seemingly never-ending stream of lawsuits — from players who want eligibility because they graduated before the new five-year model took effect or because they happened to have tonsillitis a few years back or because they previously gambled on college football and broke all sorts of rules but still want to suit up this fall.

There are a few go-to lawyers for these eligibility cases, and they’ve strangely become household names. They’ve turned this whole thing into a cottage industry of sorts. Don’t like something the NCAA says or does? Run to a local judge and overrule it. No one accepts “no” for an answer anymore, and I think it’s getting old to college football fans who do, actually, want a little bit of common sense to go along with their college football. They do not want guys who get cut from NFL rosters returning to college teams to play. They do not want quarterbacks to stick around for six, seven years simply because there’s a lot of money to be made in the NIL/revenue-sharing world.

Fans want college sports to still feel like college sports, even as some aspects of it have been professionalized. There should still be a few bright red lines that athletes can’t cross and still call themselves college football players. And I think that’s why you’ve seen so much public support for the Big Ten/SEC/others banning pro players from returning to school. Between that and the Big 12’s actions in response to the Sorsby saga, we’re seeing that the sport can police itself to some degree — which is an encouraging development.

Fans are tired of coaches trying to find loopholes to gain an advantage. They’re tired of perpetual player free agency. They’ve got lawsuit (and Senate bill) fatigue. And I’m right there with ‘em.

Just give us rosters and kickoff times, and let’s get this season going!

What I’ve been up to:

• I’ve been producing tons of college football preseason content! Here are my in-depth previews of the ACC, Big 12, SEC and Big Ten.

• We also previewed all four Power 4 leagues on Rushing The Field. We also hit on the fifth-year eligibility issue in this week’s episode. Please subscribe, rate and review the pod! It means a lot.

• Here are my official preseason College Football Playoff predictions + my explanation. A hint: Here … come … the … Irish …

My upcoming schedule:

• College Countdown is BACK! We’re on NBC at 2:30 pm ET on Saturday ahead of USC-San Jose State. And you can see us at halftime.

• Rushing The Field is going on the road! We’ll be doing a few live shows on campuses this fall, and our first show is in Ann Arbor on Sept. 2. We’ll be at Good Time Charley’s at 5pm ET, and we’d love to see you there!

• RTF will be publishing midweek in-season, and we’ll have a new format for a Saturday night show — one that includes all of our College Countdown teammates. Stay tuned!

• My September schedule is a little crazy, but you’ll still be able to find me on College Sports Today (noon-3pm daily) on SiriusXM Ch. 84. I’ll be hosting next week on Monday (8/31) and Tuesday (9/1).

So, so much more to come as we finally get into the college football season. I’m thrilled to be back, and you’ll be hearing from me a lot more frequently now. Cheers to kickoff and another great season ahead!

I, personally, still think all of that was necessary for a brand-new golfer. Especially the cute clothes.

But that’s just one example. I got super into skiing again a few years back. I got super into biking along the lake here in Chicago. I go through these brief spells where my newest hobby is the only thing I want to do.

Which brings me to mahjong.

I have become totally obsessed with mahjong. My friend Arielle taught me and my husband how to play a few weeks ago, and I got hooked immediately. I bought a gorgeous new set of tiles and a travel set. I downloaded an app that lets me play whenever I want against bots. I love the game itself, but I also love the act of playing this game with other people over a period of hours. It’s tactile, which I enjoy. But it’s also slow-moving enough that you can chat or listen to music or drink adult beverages throughout.

It reminds me of golf in that it’s usually an activity that requires you to commit to it for a few hours. That allows my work brain to turn off, and it allows for genuine joy (or frustration) and human connection. I can’t recommend it enough if you’re looking to slow yourself down a bit.

And, yes, I know that basically every 30-something woman in the world is playing American mahjong these days, so this all might sound super cliche or rather basic. But it’s been a highlight of my summer as I prepare to say goodbye to the offseason and hello to college football once again.

What I’ve been up to:

• Lots of preseason college football! You can always hear my thoughts on the latest in the sport on the podcast I do with former Ohio State linebacker Joshua Perry. We’ve covered a lot of ground this summer, from the Brendan Sorsby saga to the ongoing CFP expansion debate and everything in between. We’ll be previewing all four Power 4 leagues over the next few weeks, so stay tuned for that. I’m also doing written previews — here’s my Big 12 preview, and you can check NBCSports.com each week for more.

• Lots of swimming! Last week, I covered the U.S. National Championships out in Irvine, Calif. I had such a blast getting to chronicle some breakout moments for young swimmers as well as the triumphant return of Caeleb Dressel. We’re less than two years away from LA28, and the times are fast, the swimmers looking so good.

My upcoming schedule:

• Football season may be just around the corner, but the swimming season hasn’t ended just yet! We’ve still got the year’s biggest international meet for Americans coming up, and it should be a monster of a meet. I’ll be covering the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships next week in Irvine, Calif. My reports and interviews will be part of the NBC highlight shows that air Saturday (8/15) and Sunday (8/16) afternoon. And I want this on record: At least two world records will fall at this meet — at the hands of Gretchen Walsh and/or Kate Douglass.

• I’ll be making a few more training camp stops between now and Week 0. I’ll be in Bloomington, Ind., to visit the defending national champion Indiana Hoosiers on Monday, and then I’ll hit both LA schools the following week. If you’re interested in USC, I recommend my sitdown interview with head coach Lincoln Riley from Big Ten media days. It’s the most confident I’ve seen Riley since he got to SoCal. He knows this team is going to be good … but he also knows these Trojans are going to be tested. I’ll also hit up Notre Dame, Wisconsin and some others before the season kicks off.

• Please subscribe, download, rate and review episodes of my college football podcast Rushing The Field. Joshua and I are biased, obviously, but we think we do a pretty good job of identifying storylines in the sport before everyone else catches on. We’ll also tell you the strengths and weaknesses of teams before they win ‘em or cost ‘em games. It’s a show that will make you smarter as a college football fan, and it would mean a lot if you could help us grow the show even more this fall. We’ll actually be taking it on the road a bit — more details to come.

• We’ll get our Big Ten College Countdown season started with Week 0 this year! We’ve got USC-San Jose State on Aug. 29, so get that DVR ready.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Hit me up if you want to play mahjong!

A Texas judge ruled on Monday that a quarterback who has admitted to betting on his own team in the past can play college football this fall for Texas Tech. Yes, you read that right. A few additional details that matter: Brendan Sorsby, who bet on Indiana football while a member of the team in fall 2022, placed more than 9,000 wagers and spent more than $90,000 on sports bets over the past four years. Betting on your own team is, obviously, against NCAA rules. So is betting on other teams at your school (which he did) and betting on your own sport (which he also did).

The NCAA correctly ruled Sorsby permanently ineligible. He appealed. Separately, he filed a lawsuit to try to get eligible that way … and it worked. We’ve seen this time and time again — a player breaks an NCAA rule or wants to stay in college until he’s 35 years old, so he sues. The lawsuit gets filed in state court (not federal) and finds its way in front of a friendly judge. And that judge decides to do what’s best for the home team, not what’s best for college sports.

I wrote that it’s important to have consequences for a player who bet on his own team. Everyone knows that is a cardinal rule. Everyone knows you aren’t supposed to do it, because it causes the rest of us to question the integrity of the competition itself. That’s not to say that Sorsby should never play football again; he just shouldn’t play college football again. He’s lucky he played as long as he did without getting caught, actually.

But as it stands now, Sorsby will miss two games and be eligible to return for Texas Tech’s Week 3 game against Houston, one of the Red Raiders’ biggest games of the season. I don’t even think that counts as a slap on the wrist!

The argument Sorsby and his lawyers have made is that he is recovering from a gambling addiction and dealing with an anxiety disorder, which means he needs to be in a structured environment and surrounded by support. For some reason, they’re also arguing that he’s entitled to play in games on Saturdays, even though he could be supported in his recovery in a structured environment by being part of the program and attending practices. No one is forcing Texas Tech to play a quarterback who should be ineligible. But we all know they’re going to play him if they can.

That’s why everyone outside of Lubbock is so mad. Other football players found to have violated NCAA sports gambling rules in the past dealt with the NCAA directly and accepted their punishments. They didn’t make a mockery of actual mental health issues by trying to use it as a get-out-of-jail-free card. They didn’t go running to the courts to overturn a decision they didn’t like, even when they are part of the NCAA and being part of an organization like that is agreeing to adhere to its rules.

It’s been a dark week for those of us who care about college sports at large — and not just about this one upcoming football season for Texas Tech. Because the Red Raiders and their fans do not seem to understand that people aren’t jealous of their rise to prominence; people are upset that they’re trying to play a quarterback who would make us question the fairness of their football games. If Sorsby throws two picks in the first half of a game, we’ll all wonder if he had money on the Tech under — even if Sorsby says he didn’t/wouldn’t bet on games he played in. That’s not good for anybody. (At Indiana, he once bet the under for Hoosiers’ passing yardage, and he also bet the first-half under of another game.)

Predictably, even with such great backlash from all corners of college sports, Texas Tech doubled down on its defense of Sorsby and its efforts to make him eligible for the fall.

• Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire spoke at the Houston Touchdown Club and chose to say this: “For some reason, as a society, we’ve been OK with other things that happen and allowing players to play, and this has been the one thing that has united people, that they were against. It’s crazy because it’s not murder, it’s not beating somebody — so there’s a lot of things that we’re working through. None of this is OK.”

• Billionaire booster Cody Campbell, clearly ignoring whatever PR advice he’d been given, said this on Outkick: “There are kids that are playing that have gotten DUIs, that have beaten up women, kids that have committed horrible acts. You know, I mean, nobody boycotted playing Penn State a few years ago when that horrible situation happened there. … If this had happened at LSU, people would say, ‘Ah, it’s LSU. They’re always going to do what they do.’ But it happened at Texas Tech, and people don’t want to compete with us.”

Whataboutism is not a defense strategy. And, for the record, for as horrible as some of the examples given are, they did not impact the integrity of the actual competition itself. Betting on your own team does. That’s why this is different, and the feigned shock is not helping anyone.

We’ll see where this ends up, but I’m certainly hoping that Sorsby gets the support and treatment he needs while not seeing the field this fall. If we can’t trust that a sporting event is fair, what’s the point?

What I’ve been up to:

• A lot! I’ve been traveling quite a bit. My husband, Jeff, and I celebrated our one-year anniversary last month in Cape May — where we got married — and we also did a long weekend in the Cayman Islands back in the spring. I’ve also officially joined the charity golf circuit, playing at the Golic SubPar Classic in South Bend for the third time and making my first (but not last) trip to Charlottesville for Chris Long’s Waterboys event. If you need a gal to golf at one of your events, hit me up! I will say yes!

• I went to out to California for Big Ten spring meetings and then to Florida for the SEC’s. Everyone has lots of thoughts about College Football Playoff expansion, Senate bills, self-governance and other topics. We always joke that media day season is “talking season,” so let’s call spring meeting season “complaining season.” Because that’s really what it is.

• I also wrote about NCAA Tournament expansion and the idea of “fixing” something that isn’t broken.

• Joshua Perry and I devoted our entire episode of Rushing The Field this week to the Sorsby ruling and its fallout. You can listen on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Or, you can watch us on YouTube (or in the clips below).

Our initial reactions to the Sorsby ruling:

What the Big 12 can — and should — do in response:

And, finally: Why the rest of college sports is so upset:

Friendly reminder that Joshua and I put out weekly episodes in the offseason! Please subscribe and listen! I’ll have some exclusive interviews with coaches on the feed soon as well.

One additional scheduling note: I’ll be the pool-deck reporter for the upcoming TYR Pro Swim Series event in Indianapolis. We’ll be on Peacock on June 18 & 19. I’ll also be covering Nationals and the Pan Pacific Championships later this summer — will send out broadcast info as we get closer to them, too!

Yes, the Madness of March is upon us. We’ve got first- and second-round games for both the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments coming up, which means we’ll have wall-to-wall hoops from midday Thursday through Monday night. It’s truly glorious, especially when you have no other responsibilities. It’s also great for those who are “recovering” from a conveniently timed illness and need to be couch-ridden for approximately 48-96 hours.

Like I have for the past five years or so, I’ll be covering both the men’s and women’s tournaments. It’s a lot of teams to keep track of and a lot of games to watch, but it’s a lot of fun, too. I’ll be monitoring all of the action from my couch this weekend, and then I’ll be on-site for the Midwest men’s regional (here in Chicago) for the Sweet 16. Then, I’ll be in Phoenix for the women’s Final Four before jetting to Indianapolis in time for the men’s national championship game.

It’s going to be a blast. But before I jump too far ahead and focus on the finish line, it’s time to zoom in on the start. Let’s get our brackets out. They’re blank and beautiful right now. We haven’t made any bad picks or busted our brackets yet! We need to enjoy this.

What I’ve been up to:

• I filled out a men’s NCAA Tournament bracket on Sunday night. I tried to zig where others zagged in terms of potential upsets early on — because there’s nothing better than nailing an upset that no one else thinks is possible. But even with upsets on the brain, my Final Four still ended up pretty chalky.

• If you do not want to pick No. 1 seeds for your Final Four, read my guide to the chalk-busters. I took a look at the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds that have the best chances to reach Indy, either because they’re red-hot or because they’ve got an easy path. Consider it food for thought if you haven’t finalized your bracket just yet.

• Ahead of Selection Sunday, I decided to wade into The Discourse. A lot of people were Very Angry Online about 31-3 Miami (Ohio) and the fact that the RedHawks might go dancing without playing any tough competition throughout the course of the regular season. Here’s why they absolutely belonged in the NCAA Tournament — and why it was so weird to see a sport that typically celebrates Cinderella treat a mid-major so harshly.

• I filled out a women’s NCAA Tournament bracket and picked the national championship matchup that I think everybody else probably picked, too. It’s the right thing to do. I’ll be upset if we don’t get UConn vs. UCLA when all is said and done!

My upcoming schedule:

• I’ll be writing for NBCSports.com all month, and the easiest way to find my work is to bookmark my author page. I’ll also be chatting with my friend John Fanta throughout the month, breaking down matchups and previewing games to come. You can see us on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports YouTube page.

• I’ll be co-hosting “College Sports Today” on SiriusXM Ch. 84 on Monday. I’ll also be anchoring the SiriusXM women’s Final Four coverage in Phoenix, so set those reminders to tune in for pre- and post-game coverage on Ch. 84!

• Earlier this week, I joined NFL Draft guru Connor Rogers and my pal Joshua Perry to tape two draft preview shows. One focuses on the offensive position groups and the other dives into the defensive prospects. Those shows should be up on the NFL on NBC YouTube page now, or you can wait until April 1 to watch both specials on Peacock!

That’s all I’ve got for now. Enjoy the games! I hope you all win all of your bracket pools.

After more than three weeks in Italy, I’m home and ready to immerse myself in college basketball once again. The best postseason in all of sports is nearly upon us! I can’t wait to fall in love with Cinderella (with all of you).

I’ll have plenty of written/digital coverage to share once we have an actual bracket, but before we get to Selection Sunday we’ve got conference tournaments getting underway across the nation! And you’ll see yours truly on the sideline for a bunch of games between now and next week.

My upcoming schedule:

• Along with Sloane Martin (play-by-play) and Meghan McKeown (analyst), I’ll be on the call for the three first-round games of the Big Ten women’s basketball tournament on Wednesday. We’ve got Indiana-Nebraska at 3:30pm ET, followed by Wisconsin-Illinois and Purdue Oregon. All three games will be on Peacock and NBC Sports Network.

• Then, it’s time for a swimming detour! I’ll be the pool deck reporter for the TYR Pro Swim Series event in Westmont, Ill. We’ll have live shows on Peacock at 7pm ET on both Thursday and Friday night. It’s a star-studded event, with Katie Ledecky, Summer McIntosh, Leon Marchand and more competing!

• Next week, I’ll be on the call for the four first-round games of the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament — two on Tuesday and two on Wednesday, all on Peacock and NBC Sports Network. I don’t know the matchups just yet, but I do know I’ll be with my friends Paul Burmeister (play-by-play) and Robbie Hummel (analyst).

• On Selection Sunday (March 15), I’ll have articles and videos up on NBCSports.com reacting to the NCAA Tournament brackets. I’ll also be hosting the SiriusXM Women’s Basketball Selection Special that night from 8-11pm ET.

Lots more to come later this month … Enjoy the hoops, and we’ll chat soon!

Anyway!

I’m so excited to share with you all that I’m NBC’s on-air reporter for the Predazzo region, which means I’m covering cross-country skiing, ski jumping and Nordic combined. I’ve already gotten to see two incredible skiathlon races and the first women’s ski jumping competition of the Games. It’s been awesome. These sports are incredible up close, and I hope you are enjoying them on TV, too!

I’ve covered three Summer Games, two for USA TODAY, and one for The Athletic/New York Times. But this is my first Winter Olympics — and my first Olympics with NBC. And it’s reminded me why I love covering the Olympics so much. I love learning about sports that are brand-new to me. I love sharing stories of athletes who pursue these sports while working “real” jobs or getting college degrees at the same time. I love asking athletes how they get interested in a sport like ski jumping or luge — because I can’t imagine my parents ever considered signing me up for something like that at age 5!

I love both the pageantry and the emotion of the Olympics. And I absolutely loved getting to be a small part of our coverage of the Opening Ceremony by spending a few minutes giving viewers a glimpse of downtown Predazzo, a village in the center of a gorgeous valley in the middle of the Italian Alps. This place is pretty magical.

Where to find me during the Olympics

• I put together this helpful Google doc that includes my upcoming events and their broadcast schedule. It changes daily, so I am trying to keep it as up-to-date as possible!

• I’m also sharing a lot of behind-the-scenes content (and food pics!) on Instagram, so be sure to follow me there: @Nicole_Auerbach. I shared there — and will share here — the view from the top of the large ski jumping hill. It’s UNREAL!

I was too nervous to even walk all the way up to the ledge. I’m in awe of the men and women who actually jump off these hills!

OK, that’s all I’ve got for now. Back to work! Hope you all enjoy the coverage :)

On Monday night, we’ll crown a new college football national champion. We’ll either watch Curt Cignetti hoist a trophy as crimson confetti falls, delivering the Indiana Hoosiers the program’s first national title in the sport … or we’ll watch Mario Cristobal deliver the Miami Hurricanes their first national championship in nearly a quarter-century, fulfilling the promise he made to his alma mater to return the program to glory.

These are two pretty spectacular storylines. These are two endlessly fascinating teams that took endlessly fascinating paths to get to this point. Miami was the very last team into the 12-team College Football Playoff field as an at-large team, divisive and polarizing after more than a month spent arguing about Miami-Notre Dame (and then a week spent arguing about Miami-Notre Dame-Alabama). And Indiana started this season with more losses than any other program in the history of college football. Now, the Hoosiers are one win away from being the first team in the sport’s history to go 16-0 — and they’d do so with impressive wins over Ohio State, Alabama, Miami and Oregon (2x).

Indiana is both a Cinderella and a bully. If you watch them play, you know exactly what I mean. You can’t ignore the history of the program, but you also can’t ignore how thoroughly they destroy opponents. The Hoosiers got so good so quickly it’s actually broken a lot of people’s brains. (This is generally fun and harmless, except when it leads to a bunch of baseless conspiracy theories, but I digress.)

Regardless of who wins the game on Monday night, this championship game feels like a pivot point for college football. For so long, we had a sport dominated by bluebloods and a system that was largely designed to keep Davids far away from Goliath, at least when it came to handing out trophies at the end of the year. For so long, there was never really a path for a team like Indiana to ever attract and retain enough talent to compete for a national championship. That was before the transfer portal allowed rosters to change drastically from one year to another. That was before transfer rules changed to allow athletes to have immediate eligibility. And that was before the NIL era allowed schools with billionaire boosters and giant alumni bases to invest in football in ways we’d never seen before (because it wasn’t legal).

But now we live in a world in which Indiana (!) is elite. Indiana (!) has the best coach in the sport. Indiana (!) is the football program everyone’s trying to replicate, particularly looking at the way they identify, develop and retain talent.

The Hoosiers now invest and support Cignetti like any other elite football program does, which is the main reason I don’t think Indiana is going anywhere in the years to come. Hell, they’re undefeated and about to play for a national title with a bunch of former three-star recruits. Their core was recruited to JMU. Their big offseason acquisition was the quarterback of a Cal team that went 6-7! I get why the rest of the country is gobsmacked by what they’re seeing out of the Hoosiers. On paper, it doesn’t make any sense.

Thankfully, games are played on grass (and turf) — and not on paper. And we’ve got one last one before we close the book on the 2025-26 season. Will Monday night end with the Hoosiers making more history? Or will Miami pull off the upset and defy its doubters yet again, proving once and for all that The U is Back?

I can’t wait to find out.

My upcoming schedule:

• I’m currently in Miami, gearing up for the final weekend of the season. I’ll be part of SiriusXM's live coverage from Saturday’s Media Day, bouncing around and grabbing interviews with Miami and Indiana players. We’ll be live on Ch. 84 from 8am to noon ET.

• My podcast partner-in-crime, Joshua Perry, is here in Miami with me. So, we’ll record an instant reaction episode of Rushing The Field immediately following Monday night’s game. I’m sure most of you will be sleeping as we’re recording, so be sure to subscribe to the pod wherever you get your podcasts so you’ll get notified when we’ve got the episode up. It’ll be perfect to go along with your morning coffee!

• I’ll have a column up on NBCSports.com overnight Monday into Tuesday as well. You can bookmark my author page to see all my written work on the site.

• I’ll be on College Sports Today on SiriusXM Ch. 84 on Wednesday as usual! We’re live from noon to 3pm ET.

What I’ve been up to:

• After Indiana crushed Oregon last week in Atlanta, I wrote about the feelings of invincibility and inevitability surrounding these Hoosiers. Indiana is the best team in college football, and here’s why.

• I took a deep dive into college football’s calendar problem + explored some of the ideas that coaches have to fix things. The story includes an in-depth look at the transfer portal timing, the coaching carousel and other pressure points.

• First thoughts on the Indiana-Miami matchup, with keys to the game.

• Here’s the latest episode of Rushing The Field. Joshua Perry and I broke down the title game and gave our thoughts on Dante Moore’s return to Oregon (as well as Marcus Freeman’s decision to stay at Notre Dame amid NFL interest). You can watch it on YouTube or listen on Apple or Spotify.

National championship preview:

Here’s a snippet from the pod, as Joshua and I discuss what we expect to see on Monday night:

Well, college football seemingly has no rules anymore. So, I don’t think holiday greetings should have “guardrails,” either!

This past week has been dominated by portal talk and whether revenue-sharing contracts are truly enforceable. It’s a shame, really, that we aren’t celebrating the final four teams more. It’s an unbelievable foursome, one that points to a very intriguing era of college football to come.

Until the middle of this season, Indiana had more losses than any other team in college football history — and now it’s one win away from playing for a national title. Oregon is a team we’re used to seeing at this stage, but the Ducks have never won a national championship, either. Miami’s the program that has won one most recently, and that was a quarter-century ago; we’ve all spilled a lot of ink wondering, at various times in the decades since, if the ‘Canes would ever be Back. If they win tonight, they’ll get to play for a national championship in their home stadium. And, of course, you have Ole Miss, a team whose head coach had such little faith in it to actually win a national title that he left before the start of the postseason to take a job he thought would definitely allow him to win a national title. Then, his former players — led by the spectacular performance from a quarterback who played Division II football a year ago — began this magical run that has them at the doorstep of the national championship game.

It’s pretty awesome. These teams remind me what I love most about sports — its unpredictability. Before the NIL/portal era, a program like Indiana would never be able to acquire the kind of talent it needs to compete at the highest level of the sport. And Alabama/Georgia/Ohio State could stockpile tons of it, securing their place in college football year after year. That era is over. The world appears flatter.

And that’s how you get a fascinating final foursome like this.

OK, let’s get into game previews and team talk. I convinced two of my favorite college football writers to join Rushing The Field with me and Joshua Perry this week, and they were both phenomenal. (Full pod is available on YouTube, Apple, Spotify and wherever else you get your podcasts.)

Without further ado … Longtime Indiana beat writer Zach Osterman of the Indy Star joined us to talk about the Hoosiers’ path to this moment:

And what Indiana has to do to beat Oregon a second time this season:

Then! Manny Navarro, my former colleague at The Athletic, is my go-to guy for anything sports-related in south Florida. He was kind enough to join us as well to detail Miami’s path from the early 2000s to now.

Plus, keys to Miami-Ole Miss:

My official predictions: Miami beats Ole Miss, and Indiana defeats Oregon (again). But, more importantly: Here’s hoping we get two good games. I’ll be back next week with a championship preview and more thoughts on the mess that is the college football calendar!

I get that it’s a bit jarring to have *two* Group of 5 participants. I don’t think any Power 4 commissioner ever thought its champion wouldn’t be ranked high enough to automatically qualify for the CFP, which means that the people in charge of this event assumed that it would be capped at one G5 team per year.

But the ACC’s best team didn’t play in its conference championship game because of its convoluted tiebreaking process, and its champion (8-5 Duke) was not ranked by the CFP. So, here we are.

And prominent voices in the sport have responded by lashing out at JMU and Tulane, two teams that did absolutely nothing wrong. These are successful G5 teams competing in a world that is stacked against them. No good Power 4 teams want to schedule the good G5 teams — and the big boys definitely aren’t willing to play them at their place. Even at the top of the G5, budgets are a fraction of what they are in the middle of the P4. Top G5 coaches get poached every single year (as evidenced by Tulane HC Jon Sumrall pulling double duty during this postseason run as the new Florida coach, and JMU HC Bob Chesney doing the same) … and so do star players.

Group of 5 schools are never going to have the same kind of schedule as the Power 4 bubble teams. But they also don’t have much wiggle room, either. They have to be nearly perfect to even get CFP consideration.

The point is that they have access to the CFP — that every team in the Football Bowl Subdivision starts out the year with a path to the Playoff. That matters. That’s fair. That’s how other sports work; you don’t see the NBA or NFL telling half of its league that it is ineligible for the playoffs before any games are played.

I’ve seen folks point to the spreads as evidence that JMU and Tulane shouldn’t be part of the CFP. Tulane is a 17.5-point underdog to Ole Miss, and JMU is a three-touchdown dog to Oregon. Would I like to see close first-round games? Of course. Does the name of a team participating in a first-round game guarantee a game will or won’t be close? Not necessarily. The four first-round games last year were all lopsided — with Tennessee and Clemson on the losing end of two of them. A bracket that gives seeds 5-8 home games is going to give even more advantages to the better team in the matchup every single year. Teams seeded 9-12 are there for a reason! They’re expected to lose these games! That’s what these matchups look like on paper.

But I am glad they’re not played on paper. I watch every game the first weekend of March Madness even though crazy upsets are rare. Because when Florida Gulf Coast dunks all over everyone or Saint Peters goes on a big run, it’s captivating. Boise State’s Fiesta Bowl upset of Oklahoma in 2006 is one of the most memorable moments in the last quarter-century of college football. We love sports because we never know what we are going to see after the ball is tipped — or kicked — off.

Besides, I’m not personally offended if there are early-round blowouts. There were a bunch in the NFL playoffs last year, too. As long as the best teams advance to later rounds and get to square off against one another, I’m happy. That means the system is working.

So, in the spirit of the holiday season, a plea to everyone: Please stop being such a Grinch.

What I’ve been up to:

• I wrote about why I voted for Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza to win the Heisman Trophy. I’m sure most of you saw his lovely acceptance speech by now, but if you haven’t, it’s here.

• I also wrote about the CFP’s scheduling dilemma, and how the event feels about its first-round games going head-to-head with NFL games.

• I previewed the five most-compelling non-CFP bowl games. Of course my Pop-Tarts pals are included!

• Joshua Perry and I covered a *lot* of ground in our latest episode of Rushing The Field. We talked about the Michigan search, the transfer QB market and all four first-round CFP games. You can watch us on YouTube or listen to us on Apple or Spotify.

• If you need a last-minute gift guide for wives/girlfriends/sisters/daughters, I’ve got you covered! Click through the 5-6 pages of gift ideas here.

My upcoming schedule:

• I’m watching the whole first round from my couch — and I could not be more excited about this! So, I’ll write whatever interesting pops up, and you can bookmark my writer’s page here so you don’t miss anything.

• We’ll have a new Rushing The Field recapping the first round on Monday, so be sure to subscribe on whatever platform you use for podcasts, and you’ll be all set for your holiday travel.

Big-game game previews:

Joshua Perry and I dove into the first of the four CFP first-round games — Alabama-Oklahoma:

Then, we took a look at the first game of Saturday’s triple-header — Miami-Texas A&M:

Then, we previewed Tulane-Ole Miss Part II:

And, finally, we get you set for JMU-Oregon, the nightcap:

Here’s hoping we get some good games! Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas to all who celebrate. I’ll plan to be back with a new newsletter before New Year’s Eve (and the CFP quarterfinal games). In the meantime, enjoy the presents, the cocktails and the edible mascot sacrifice!

College football fans and media members have spent the past month arguing about the significance of Miami’s three-point Week 1 win over Notre Dame and whether it should determine a College Football Playoff spot now. We have argued about head-to-head results and when they should be used as tiebreakers. And whether or not teams ranked two spots apart are close enough to implement said tiebreakers.

It is, in a word, exhausting. I genuinely hate how this stuff overshadows the final month of the regular season (and conference championship games). Last year, it was Indiana and SMU. Now, it’s Miami and Notre Dame. I blame the weekly CFP TV show for this. I’ve written in this space that I don’t like weekly rankings in general, but I really don’t like the part where the selection committee chair tries to talk himself into circles to defend inconsistent decisions. Sometimes, a loss is a good one that barely blemishes a roster and other times it’s unforgivable. Sometimes, a win eked out over 5-7 Auburn is suddenly so impressive it merits Alabama jumping ahead of Notre Dame.

And we haven’t even gotten to the very real possibility that BYU loses badly enough to Texas Tech (for a second time) that the Cougars drop a few spots, which pushes Miami up to be right next to Notre Dame, which means the committee could finally say the teams are close enough to one another that the Week 1 result comes into play, which means that Notre Dame gets the rug pulled out from under it at the 11th hour even though the committee could have put Miami ahead of the Irish at any point in the last three weeks.

The process is the problem. I love the 12-team field and the extra rounds of meaningful games. I think it’s awesome that Tulane-North Texas is a play-in game. There are so many teams that played in games with real stakes throughout November and now into December because the Playoff expanded.

But the selection process is brutal. Public trust has been low ever since undefeated Florida State got left out of the four-team CFP in 2023. And I hope the sport’s stakeholders figure out some ways to improve things before next year — because I don’t want to spend all of November 2026 doing the same thing we’re doing now.

There are so many fun teams and interesting matchups we should be talking about instead! (See below.)

What I’ve been up to:

• I riffed on the Miami-ACC situation — and the fact that the ACC could genuinely be left out of the 12-team field. Why is the league’s best team on the outside looking in and needing help? I tried to make sense of it. And, in Topic No. 5, I vented about bloated conferences and bad tiebreaking procedures.

• Lane Kiffin could not have handled the last few weeks any worse. I wrote about his messy departure from Ole Miss — and how he hasn’t changed much after all.

My upcoming schedule:

• I’ve got one more swimming show tonight! I’m in Austin, covering the U.S. Open — a long-course meet that essentially sets these elite swimmers up for the 2026 season. We’ve already had some fast swimming from Summer McIntosh, Leon Marchand, Kate Douglass and the rest, and I can’t wait to see more tonight. We’re live on Peacock from 7-9:30pm ET tonight.

• Joshua Perry and I will have a special SELECTION SUNDAY LIVE PODCAST at 2pm ET on Sunday. We’ll be live on YouTube, and we’ll link out to the show on our social media feeds so you’ll be able to find it. The ESPN selection show is at noon, so watch that, digest it, and come hang with us at 2!

• I’ll have written analysis of the bracket, snubs, matchups on NBCSports.com later on Sunday as well. You can bookmark this page to see all of my work.

Big-game game previews:

Joshua Perry and I had to start with the No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown in Indianapolis:

Then, we previewed the Alabama-Georgia SEC championship game:

Here’s our look at the Big 12 title game:

And, finally, links to previews of the ACC championship game & the American title game. It should be a fun weekend, and I hope we all enjoy it — until we then all argue about it on Selection Sunday.

And, no, I don’t only mean on the gridiron. I also mean Thanksgiving. It’s always been my favorite holiday, and it’s one I’m especially grateful I get to celebrate even with a job like this.

That’s been a big topic of conversation this week, hasn’t it? Working on holidays, working on weekends — all the stuff we have to do as sports journalists. It all started with a very fair and straightforward comment from Erin Andrews, in response to a question from an aspiring sports broadcaster:

“This is what one of my first professors said: If you don’t want to make $40,000 in your first job, get out. If you don’t want to be told you need a nose job, get out. If you don’t want to be divorced, get out. If you don’t want to work holidays, get out.’”

“And I don’t say it like that, but I say you got to love what you do because I miss all holidays. I didn’t get married until I was in my 40s. Not that that is going to be your route, but I live out of a suitcase. I miss a lot of stuff. I missed a lot of weddings. I miss a lot of events. You have to love it to get you through the fact, ‘I’m not gonna be home for Thanksgiving next week’ or ‘Christmas is cut short.’”

Nowhere in that answer did I hear Andrew complaining about her job. I did not see her calling any of that a sacrifice, either. But a pull quote and a headline from Awful Announcing turned this into a whole Thing on the internet all week. People acted like Andrews was complaining about being rich and famous with one of the best jobs in sports TV — which she wasn’t.

I talk to journalism classes a few times a month. I always tell student journalists some variation of this message, too. I say that if you want to work in sports journalism because you like sports, you may be better off keeping sports as your hobby and finding a different job, because you’ll lose your fandom pretty quickly (or at least the kind of fandom you have before it’s your job). You work when everyone else is off — when everyone else is in entertainment mode. You work nights, weekends and holidays. You do miss weddings and birthdays.

You have to love the work itself — writing, interviewing, broadcasting, podcasting, etc. — as well as relationship-building to keep you going when you could do something else that would keep you more available on nights and weekends. You have to get used to saying no, but you need to love what you’re doing enough to make that OK. Saying something is a “dream job” doesn’t mean there are no downsides to it. So, you do need to make sure it’s what you want to do — and that it fulfills you.

It is an important message to send to people who are considering careers in this space. I’m not saying it’s harder than any other job that requires long hours or overnight shifts. I’m not saying anyone should pity sports journalists, and neither was Andrews. It’s just part of the gig.

It’s also why I’m so thankful for Thanksgiving. I’ve gotten to spend the actual Thanksgiving day with my family every year for the past decade, largely thanks to the fact that college football is a Black Friday/Football Saturday sport. Even in years I’ve rushed off to cover rivalry games, I’ve gotten to be home for most of the day on Thursday. It’s always been important to me because my dad is Jewish and my mom is Catholic. This was (and is) the only holiday that included both sides of the family, and we always hosted everyone at our house.

The table has gotten smaller over the years. Older relatives passed away. Cousins got older, had kids and hosted their own little gatherings. But we have added spouses and significant others, too. We’ve taken in coworkers who have no family nearby. We still always host, and I still spend two days in the kitchen with my mom making all of her favorite recipes.

I feel incredibly lucky to be able to do all of that — and still do this job. I’ve cut Christmas short plenty of times. I’ve missed most of the New Year’s Eve parties I’ve been invited to. I missed multiple weddings this fall alone. But I can fill my cup at Thanksgiving, surrounded by my loved ones, and I focus on that. And then I go back to work.

Now, let’s get to the main event: An epic rivalry weekend!

I said this last year, and I was wrong. But I’ll say it again — until I am right: Ohio State has to beat Michigan this year. There is no other acceptable outcome, and I say that as a Michigan grad and someone who obviously understands that this year’s Wolverines are way better than last year’s. Ryan Day seems to realize that he doesn’t have to run the ball between the tackles to win The Game, so that’s a step in the right direction.

More on this matchup (and more) below …

What I’ve been up to:

• Here’s the midweek episode of Rushing The Field, where Joshua Perry and I discussed the news that Florida State would retain Mike Norvell and the latest in the Lane Kiffin saga. We also previewed all of the biggest games from rivalry weekend. You can watch it on YouTube or listen on Apple or Spotify.

• Here’s our conversation about Kiffin — and why he’d be a perfect fit in the Bravo universe:

• ICYMI, my Week 13 Takeaways, which began with some thoughts on late-season scheduling.

My upcoming schedule:

• It’s our final weekend of College Countdown shows! We’ll be on NBC at 7pm ET on Friday ahead of Indiana-Purdue (plus halftime) and then at 7pm ET on Saturday ahead of USC-UCLA (plus halftime). I’ll have a feature on Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti that will run before the game on Friday as Indiana chases the first perfect regular season in program history.

• We’ll have our regular Saturday night weekend recap pod. So be sure to subscribe to Rushing The Field wherever you get your podcasts so you can have the new episode to enjoy over coffee on Sunday morning.

• I’ll have my final Takeaways column up on NBCSports.com overnight as well. You can bookmark my author page and find it there, if that’s easier. I’ll also project the new CFP rankings on Sunday as well.

• I’ll be on SiriusXM College Sports Radio (ch. 84) on Monday from noon-3pm ET with my pals Kris Budden and Roddy Jones. We’ll have tons to react to — and maybe some coach hirings, too!

• I’ll be switching gears and covering swimming next week for a few days. I’ll be in Austin to report on the Toyota U.S. Open — Summer McIntosh, etc. You can watch our live coverage on Peacock at 6pm ET on both Thursday and Friday!

Big-game game previews:

Joshua Perry and I discussed everything you need to know ahead of The Game, as Ohio State tries to snap a four-game skid vs. Michigan:

We also previewed Texas-Texas A&M — and why this is such a massive opportunity for the Longhorns:

We had to hit on Georgia-Georgia Tech … even though these teams are moving in opposite directions right now:

Vanderbilt’s got a shot to beat Tennessee and finish 10-2 … but miss the Playoff? A look at what’s at stake in that matchup:

And, lastly: Not a rivalry game like the others … but Pitt-Miami should be one of the most important games of the day. Here’s why:

Hope this weekend brings you as much joy as that screenshot brought us. Enjoy the best weekend of the season! And remember: Things get weird when it comes to rivalry games. If you expect the most insane possible outcome, you will never be disappointed.

We end up arguing about hypothetical matchups and conference supremacy ad nauseum. We end up with influential pundits trashing Group of 5 teams, saying that they play in college football’s minor leagues. We end up turning one of the greatest turnarounds in college football history (Indiana last year) into a negative — and a lightning rod.

I blame the College Football Playoff for this. More specifically, I blame the CFP for putting out weekly rankings and agreeing to do a weekly TV show to go through the rankings. If we just had one midseason look-in, I think we’d all appreciate the insight into how the selection committee evaluates teams. But the committee hurts itself by going through this exercise every week.

You end up with committee chairs who, one week, justify one team with a weaker resume over another by saying their offensive line play is stronger. Another team’s Week 1 result is completely ignored because of how good the offense looks now. Or Miami and Georgia Tech flip spots for seemingly no real reason … unless you zoom out and realize that the committee put USF in the rankings this week (which beefs up Miami’s resume).

Despite weekly rankings and a weekly TV show, there is not actual transparency in the process, either. We don’t see the team sheets filled with data that the committee members get access to. We don’t get to see the committee’s specific strength of schedule or strength of record metrics. We only hear from a chair who tries to speak vaguely and say nothing notable. We get told that these are the 25 best teams, in this order, and to trust the committee when the chair says things like “this is a good team that’s been playing very consistently offensively.”

That tells us nothing.

I ranted about this on SiriusXM this week, if you want to watch the clip. Either give us a Steve Kornacki-style data breakdown each week, or get rid of the weekly rankings. Because the more I hear from the committee each season, the less I trust it. And that’s a huge problem — and that’s before we get into the fact that the CFP is changing chairmen midseason because Mack Rhoades stepped down amid allegations against him at Baylor.

It’s a mess. And it’s not because of the 12-team Playoff itself. The access to the bracket itself is working as intended, with so many teams in the mix still in mid-November and so many meaningful games down the stretch. But we’ve got to fix the lead-up to Selection Sunday. It’s an issue of credibility.

What I’ve been up to:

• I previewed the five college football games this weekend that will have the biggest impact on the College Football Playoff.

• I wrote last weekend about Fernando Mendoza’s Heisman Moment. That’s led to a fun debate all week (including on the midweek Rushing The Field episode) about Moments vs. a season-long body of work.

• Here is the aforementioned Rushing The Field episode! We’ve also got NFL Draft buzz & a full Week 12 preview. YouTube, Apple and Spotify links.

• We had NBC Sports’ NFL Draft guru Connor Rogers on the pod this week, and he was fabulous. Here’s a preview, on Connor’s top QBs as of mid-November:

My upcoming schedule:

• I’ll be on NBC for the Ohio State-UCLA pregame show at 7pm ET, and then I’ll be on at halftime like usual!

• We’ll have our Week 12 recap pod publishing overnight Saturday into Sunday. Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you can enjoy that with your morning coffee!

• I’ll be on SiriusXM College Sports Radio on Monday from noon-3pm ET! No Whine Wednesday this week, because I’m traveling to do a feature.

• I’ll be projecting the College Football Playoff rankings each Sunday from now on (and then ahead of the actual Selection Sunday). You can bookmark my author page on NBCSports.com to find all of my written work.

Big-game game previews:

Joshua Perry and I previewed the massive Texas-Georgia game:

We also talked about Oklahoma-Alabama — a Playoff elimination game for the Sooners:

And, of course, we talked about Notre Dame’s trip to Pittsburgh:

aaaaand that’ll do it for Week 12! Enjoy the games, and we’ll catch up next week.

There are four weeks left of the 2025 college football season, and these four weeks will make or break so many teams’ seasons. It’s the best and most stressful part of the year.

It’s also the angriest part of the year. Once we start getting the weekly College Football Playoff rankings, we can’t help but argue amongst ourselves. Remember how Indiana — of all teams — became a lightning rod last year? That was a wild time. And I’m sure some other team will find itself in the eye of the storm soon.

After the first set of rankings, there wasn’t a ton of angst — unless you live in ACC country. There was plenty to be mad about if you were a fan of Miami or Louisville or the league’s chances of getting two teams into the 12-team field or … OK, so the ACC has some legitimate qualms. But outside of Notre Dame landing eight spots ahead of Miami — something I predicted — there wasn’t much for everyone else to complain about.

Yet.

It’s only Nov. 7. I’m sure we’ll all get worked up about something soon.

By the way, as the end of the season nears, my No. 1 goal becomes trying to stay healthy. It’s always a tough time of year because of the changing of seasons, allergies, the flu, etc. And then we throw in even longer days and nights as we inch closer to Selection Sunday (and the coaching carousel spinning at its fastest), and it’s a challenge!

My best tips for preventing colds, ranging from least expensive to most expensive:

• This stuff. Alyssa Lang from the SEC Network got me on this — she recommended either drinking it like a shot or mixing with orange juice. I mix it with OJ, and it doesn’t taste horrible. Really good for fighting off a potential cold.

• Drinking lots of orange juice. Like, more than you want to drink. Day and night. Over and over again.

• OK, here’s the splurge: I got an IV infusion this week that was some sort of immunity blend (Vitamin C, B Complex, Vitamin B12, Glutathione, Zinc) and I think it’s really made a difference in keeping me healthy while traveling so much and sleeping so little.

Here’s to health, happiness and a plethora of CFP debates as we head deeper into the month of November.

What I’ve been up to:

• I wrote about the first CFP rankings … and how obvious it is that this year’s selection committee is going to rely on the eye test to justify whatever it would like. It is, indeed, all about vibes.

• What do we actually know about the top-ranked college football teams this year? Is anyone actually good? I wrote about the search for answers — and why it’s so hard to get them in the era of megaconferences.

• Here’s our midweek episode of Rushing The Field, which includes CFP rankings reax, an interesting conversation about expectations in the Playoff age and Week 11 game previews. Here’s our CFP conversation:

  My upcoming schedule:

• I’ll be on NBC at 7pm ET ahead of Notre Dame-Navy — and then again at halftime!

• We’ll have our usual Saturday night wrap-up episode of Rushing The Field, so be sure to subscribe on whatever podcast platform you prefer to get that delivered directly to you.

• I’ll be on SiriusXM College Sports Today next week on both Monday and Wednesday from noon to 3pm ET.

Big-game game previews:

Joshua Perry and I previewed the top-10 showdown in Lubbock:

We also took a look at the topsy-turvy ACC race, which could be upended yet again with Virginia-Wake Forest:

And, finally, a look at one of the most interesting matchups of the month so far — Oregon-Iowa:

That’s all, folks! See you next week.

So, you can imagine what the group chats were like this week as we watched the Louisiana political drama unfold!

First, the will-they-or-won’t-they decide to fire football coach Brian Kelly after another embarrassing loss. (They would.) Then, the governor stating he’d let President Donald Trump hire LSU’s next football coach before he’d let athletic director Scott Woodward make another hire. Then, of course, Woodward’s inevitable departure from the school.

For those keeping track at home, LSU now has no full-time university president, no full-time athletic director and no full-time head football coach. But — don’t worry! — I’m sure the Tigers will get a really, really good football coach to come and save the day! Coaches famously love dysfunctional leadership.

We’ll see where the next twists and turns will come from in the LSU saga, which is ultimately a story of politics and power. And I’ll be curious to see the impact of such an embarrassing and public display — will it scare off top-tier coaching candidates? I would think Lane Kiffin (or others who may have multiple options in the coming weeks) would want to avoid an environment like this.

We discussed the Kelly firing, the political impact and where the Tigers could go from here on Rushing The Field … in our halloween costumes! Here’s part of our LSU conversation:

Oh, and for those wondering about my costume: I’m Private Equity Coming to Ruin College Sports. Joshua Perry is — obviously — the Grinch. I think I’m far scarier.

What I’ve been up to:

• Here are Apple and Spotify links to this week’s podcast.

• It’s about to be November, and the Heisman Trophy race is far from decided. Here’s how I see it right now.

  

My upcoming schedule:

• I’ll see you on NBC at halftime of the noon ET Rutgers-Illinois game. Then, per usual, I’ll be on our Big Ten College Countdown show at 7pm ET ahead of USC-Nebraska. (Plus, halftime!) We’ll be talking coaching carousel and College Football Playoff rankings all day on NBC.

• We’ll have our Rushing The Field Saturday recap show to your feeds by early Sunday morning.

• I’ll have my Week 10 Takeaways and an AP poll analysis on NBCSports.com on Sunday.

• I’ll be on SiriusXM College Sports Today on both Monday and Wednesday! Come hang on SiriusXM Ch. 84 from noon-3pm ET.

Big-game game previews:

Joshua and I broke down Nebraska-USC, a CFP eliminator:

And we previewed Vanderbilt-Texas, which may or may not include Arch Manning:

That’ll do it for this week. Happy Halloween to all, and Happy November Football as well. See you next week!

You can listen to the latest episode of Rushing The Field for my thoughts on the open jobs (and the ones that may come open soon). I’ve also ranked the open FBS jobs here.

Now that all that is out of the way, let’s dig into some fun questions you guys submitted to me over on Instagram!

Wisconsin $$$: Fickell buyout or roster upgrades?

This is a great question. It’s a potentially $25 million-dollar question, actually. Based on the letter that athletic director Chris McIntosh sent to Badger fans this week, I think it’s pretty clear that Wisconsin has been behind in the NIL/rev-share world when it comes to player recruiting and retention. I know not everyone wants to play the game — and by game, I mean paying prospective athletes a lot of money before they have produced for you — but you have to. You have to spend to get great players both out of high school and out of the portal. So, no matter who is the head coach next year, that has to be the priority.

I don’t get the sense that Wisconsin wants to make a change. That $25 million buyout is a lot of money in Madison, and you can always point to quarterback injuries or a bad initial offensive coordinator hire to explain away some of the bad stuff. But the school may be forced to make a coaching change sooner or later, as I wrote last Saturday night. Wisconsin has been shut out in back-to-back games for the first time since 1977 and has lost 10 straight games to Power 4 opponents … and the Badgers face Oregon this Saturday, so both of those streaks could stretch even farther. This is simply unacceptable for a proud football program that was reliably winning 8-9-10 games per year not long ago.

Why is ND ranked so high?

This question is funny to me, because I think No. 12 is probably too low for the Irish! I know they have two losses, and that is what is keeping them behind some one-loss teams I frankly think would lose to them. But I’ve always given Notre Dame a lot of credit for the two close losses to top-10 teams. Four combined points! To two teams that have stayed in the top 10 of the AP poll all season. Two teams that look like they should make the College Football Playoff.

Ultimately, I’ve adjusted my mental approach to the sport this year because I think most of the top CFP contenders will have more losses than we’re used to seeing — certainly more than last year. So, I’m leaning into teams that have gotten better as the season has gone on, and I’m giving credit for good wins/strong performances. Notre Dame has the best running back duo in the country, an elite quarterback and a defense that appears to be improving week by week. That’s a very good football team, and I’d pick them to beat a lot of SEC teams.

Should college get rid of conferences and form divisions like the NFL?

I’d love anything that makes geographical sense and preserves regional rivalries. Alas.

Are you enjoying this football season?

Very much so! It kind of feels like there have been eight or nine distinct chapters to it, which is crazy. Like, remember when we all thought Florida State was BACK after Week 1? Wild times. But it’s been a lot of fun, and I genuinely love getting to talk about teams like Indiana and Vanderbilt doing things few people believed possible. I need to remember all this good before we start getting the weekly CFP rankings and everyone spends the final month of the season fighting. I do hate that part!

What’s the dumbest thing a man has said to you about being a “girl in sports” ?

Ooh, so many ways to answer this one! Obviously, it sucks when men quiz women to find out if they have sports knowledge. The Quiz is something every women has experienced, and it’s infuriating. It’s also always like, “Name five players on the 1988 Boston Red Sox or else you are lying to make boys think you’re cool.” The. Worst.

One of the most annoying situations I have endured happened really early in my career. I was an intern at the Cape Cod Times, covering the Cape Cod Baseball League. There are 10 teams in the league, and I basically could pick whichever game I thought would be most interesting each day. So, a few weeks into the season, I go to cover a game, and I also decide to write about one of the best hitters in the league who had been playing on a temporary contract. (Because the Men’s College World Series stretches into the summer, Cape League teams often need short-term roster help while they wait for contracted players to finish their college seasons.)

So, I ask the manager about this kid’s contract status and whether he could stick around for the whole summer. He gets all snippy about that. Then, I try to ask a few questions about the actual game so I could write a game story. I ask about the squeeze play that turned the game around, and the manager starts speaking to me like I’m a child. He literally explains to me how batting works, what a bunt is, why it’s risky for a runner to try to score on it. The answer takes, like, three whole minutes. At the end, in this sweet, syrupy, mocking voice, he goes, “Did you understand everything I said?” I said, “Yep.” Then, I turned around and left. He was clearly mad at me for asking about the star player’s short-term contract and made me feel like a complete idiot to feel better about it. I was livid.

I told my editor what had happened, and he said I didn’t need to cover that team anymore. So, I didn’t. Thank god for great editors and even better humans

What I’ve been up to:

• I ranked the open FBS head coaching jobs. It was actually a pretty challenging exercise, although I do take solace in the fact that all of my readers will agree with my opinions — as they always do.

• In the midweek episode of Rushing The Field, Joshua Perry and I spent a long time talking about the current coaching carousel and what makes a job “good.” That dovetailed nicely with a conversation about parity in college football! You can listen on Apple or Spotify, or you can watch us on YouTube.

• I also wrote about parity in college football. Unlike some viral tweeters, I personally love that Indiana, Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt are currently top-10 teams!

My upcoming schedule:

• We’ve only got one game on NBC this weekend, so be sure to tune in at 7pm ET on Saturday to watch Big Ten College Countdown ahead of Michigan-Michigan State. We’ll see you at halftime, too!

• As always, subscribe to Rushing The Field so you get our weekend recap podcast ASAP! It usually posts around 1am ET, so you can enjoy it with your Sunday morning coffee.

• I’ll be on SiriusXM College Sports Radio from noon-3pm ET on both Monday and Wednesday! Looking forward to hanging out with Roddy Jones on Monday and Ben Hartsock on Wednesday — we’d love to have you join us as a listener.

Some big-game game previews:

Joshua Perry and I previewed the massive Missouri-Vanderbilt game, which is the most important game of the weekend (!) in terms of the College Football Playoff picture:

We also set the stage for Texas A&M-LSU:

And we didn’t ignore a very important Big 12 showdown — BYU-Iowa State:

That’s all I’ve got for you for now. Enjoy the games, and we’ll catch up next week!

Wait a second.

Indiana University decided to make its football coach the third-highest paid coach in the country?

Yes. You read that right. We live in amazing times. The school best known for basketball is turning into a football powerhouse — and it’s all because of Curt Cignetti, a 64-year-old man who is happiest when he’s watching film at home while lounging on a horrendously ugly turquoise recliner.

I’ve really enjoyed my dealings with Cignetti over the past few years. I was sitting on the Big Ten Network desk when Cig proclaimed that Indiana would play for a Big Ten title. (We were all shocked, of course.) I think I was the first national sports journalist to have Cig on my podcast last fall, too. I took the Hoosiers seriously earlier than most, mostly because the way Indiana was winning football games — even against inferior competition — was unlike anything I’d ever seen before.

Cignetti took the losingest program in the history of the sport to the College Football Playoff in Year 1. And this year’s team is even better than that one, fresh off Indiana’s first-ever road win over a top-five opponent.

We all know how the sausage gets made. Cignetti got his new massive deal done this week because Penn State fired James Franklin, and that could have been an intriguing spot for the Pittsburgh native. But there are also SEC jobs open and more to come by December.

Keeping Cignetti is, obviously, a big deal for Indiana. But it’s also a win for college football. How many times do we see a coach take a program to new heights only to jump to a job he thinks is bigger and better? How many times do we see players do the same thing in the NIL and transfer portal era? It happens so frequently now that it’s no longer stigmatized, which is why what happened in Bloomington this week is so rare.

And I want to make sure we highlight decisions like this. I want to make sure that we celebrate those who dream about taking a program to places it never believed possible before — instead of just chasing the next rung on the ladder. I want to make sure we all know that the grass isn’t always greener someplace else.

What I’ve been up to:

• Here’s the column I wrote today about Cignetti’s new contract — and why it’s not just great for Indiana but for college football as a whole.

• I wrote about Penn State’s decision to fire James Franklin. No buyout is too big to pay if you’re worried about falling behind in football.

• We made it to the midpoint of the 2025 regular season! Thankfully, my bosses let me have a do-over with my College Football Playoff picks. My preseason bracket was atrocious!

• My new QB Trust Meter is out! College quarterbacks who are surging, falling and everything in between, analyzed here.

• Here’s the midweek episode of Rushing The Field. Joshua Perry and I went long on the Penn State opening (and why we didn’t think Cignetti would want it!) and then we previewed the biggest games of Week 8. You can listen on Apple or Spotify, or you can watch the episode on YouTube. Here’s a preview:

My upcoming schedule:

• I’ll be on Peacock for the Indiana-Michigan State pregame show + halftime. Pregame starts at 3pm ET!

• I’ll be on NBC ahead of USC-Notre Dame! Our pregame show starts at 7pm ET, and we’ll also have halftime for you.

• As always, we’ll have a Saturday night episode of Rushing the Field, so be sure to subscribe to our feed to get that ASAP.

• I’ll be on SiriusXM Ch. 84 on Monday and Wednesday! I’ll be co-hosting College Sports Today like usual from noon-3pm ET.

Big-game game breakdowns:

Joshua and I previewed Ole Miss-Georgia:

Here’s our breakdown of Alabama-Tennessee:

And USC-Notre Dame, which should be a lot of fun:

That’ll do it for this week! Enjoy the games, and we’ll catch up next week.

When I’d last seen her — back in February, at a Loyola-Dayton game that also featured the Pop-Tarts Bowl mascots for some reason — she looked quite frail. But she was at the game, as she always was, praying with and cheering for her beloved Ramblers in her wheelchair.

I’ve always loved looking at photos from that especially special March Madness. There’s one taken from Sister Jean’s press conference that shows just how jam-packed it was. I remember the NCAA organizing that presser because Loyola had received too many interview requests to accommodate them all. Because her fandom was legendary; she’d been 43 when Loyola won the 1963 national championship with a team that broke the so-called gentleman’s agreement among coaches that teams only have two black players on the court at one time. She lived through the passage of Title IX. She watched college sports evolve into a billion-dollar business that now allows schools to pay players.

I am sure we’ll still remember and commemorate Sister Jean each March when the NCAA Tournament rolls around. She’ll be in the montages. She’ll continue to represent one of the great Cinderella stories in a sport that still celebrates them. And, to me, she will represent female sports fandom. She will remind us all that little girls fall in love with sports and that women can be diehard fans, too.

Even the nuns.

What I’ve been up to:

• I spent some time with Michigan freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood. He’s going to be a star, if he’s not already. We’ll have a feature on Underwood running during our Michigan-USC pregame show, which starts on NBC at 7pm ET on Saturday night.

• I spent Thursday at Big Ten men’s basketball media day. I’ll have interviews running on Peacock and on NBCSports.com in the coming weeks with Northwestern’s Chris Collins, Minnesota’s Niko Medved and Ohio State’s Jake Diebler.

• Here’s the midweek episode of Rushing The Field on YouTube. It was a newsy week + we previewed all the big Week 7 matchups! You can also listen on Apple or Spotify.

• I wrote about Texas and Penn State falling out of the AP Top 25, and how to feel about both programs moving forward.

My upcoming schedule:

• We’ll have a pregame (and halftime) show for Notre Dame-NC State on Peacock. Pregame starts on the app at 3pm ET!

• We’ll have pregame (and halftime) of Michigan-USC on NBC. We’ll get rolling at 7pm ET to get you set for a game with massive Big Ten/potential College Football Playoff implications. It’s possible we come on air a little earlier (in the 5pm ET range) if USC-UCLA volleyball ends early.

• I won’t be on SiriusXM on Monday because I’ll be at the Women Leaders conference in Kansas City. I’m hosting a fireside chat with NCAA president on Charlie Baker there on Tuesday morning.

• I’ll be back on SiriusXM Ch. 84 on Wednesday from noon-3pm ET.

Big-game game preview:

Joshua Perry and I discussed all the angles ahead of Michigan-USC:

OK, that’s all I’ve got for you right now! Enjoy the weekend, and I’ll see you soon.

I will say that the anticipation of a great college football Saturday comes verrrry close to matching the feeling I had all day Thursday. And while the Week 6 slate doesn’t have Oregon-PSU or Bama-Georgia, it feels like it could be one of those weekends with sneaky-good games that could devolve into total chaos.

Here’s hoping!

What I’ve been up to:

• I wrote about reevaluating teams like Alabama, teams that look completely different from the version we saw back in Week 1. What do we make of the Tide after a win over Georgia but with that loss to Florida State still on their resume?

• My Week 5 Takeaways focused on Penn State again failing to win The Big One. They also included some thoughts on why Arkansas needed to move on from Sam Pittman (which happened a few hours after this published).

• Our midweek episode of Rushing The Field hit on the Arkansas firing/elevation of interim head coach Bobby Petrino, the state of the SEC and the biggest games of Week 6, from FSU-Miami to Vandy-Arkansas and more. You can listen on Apple or Spotify and watch on YouTube.

My upcoming schedule:

• I’ll be on NBC all day on Saturday. We’ll have a pregame show at 3pm ET ahead of Notre Dame-Boise State (plus halftime!) and then a pregame show at 7pm ET ahead of Minnesota-Ohio State (plus halftime!) so please come hang with us!

• We’ll have the Saturday night episode of Rushing The Field up overnight, ready for you to listen over coffee on Sunday.

• I’ll have Takeaways and AP Poll reaction up on NBCSports.com on Sunday. You can bookmark my author page to see what I write for the site.

• I’ll be on SiriusXM on Monday from 12-3pm ET with Kris Budden and Roddy Jones. It’s always a blast recapping the weekend that was with those two.

• I’ve got Big Ten basketball media days this coming week, so I’ll share some behind-the-scenes content and thoughts once that wraps up.

Big-game breakdowns:

Joshua Perry and I both agree that Miami-Florida State is the biggest game of the day. Here’s why:

Diego Pavia had a lot to say about this one. Our thoughts on Vandy-Alabama:

And, finally, can Houston keep it close against Texas Tech?

Enjoy the games (and the new music), everyone! I’ll see you next week.

I think they ask because they’re secretly hoping I’ll say their school. Or maybe they just want to add something to their bucket list. And I always give them two — I say the Penn State White Out and an LSU night game. They are both incredibly special experiences that are really hard to explain to people who haven’t been to either. (They’re especially difficult to explain to people who did not go to big state schools!)

My first experience with a Penn State White Out came when I was a college student. My best friend went to Penn State and was obsessed with everything related to football. I was at Michigan, and a lot of our friends from home stayed on the east coast, so we’d visit each other at least once a year by driving six hours across Ohio and Pennsylvania. During our freshman year, she told me I had to come for their White Out game, which was a primetime game against Wisconsin. It was also my fall break, so it worked out perfectly. I got to sit (stand) in the student section as the entire stadium shook, and I screamed until I was hoarse as the noise swelled over and over again.

It. Was. Awesome.

I’ve covered a handful of White Outs since then, and the energy and electricity is just the same even if you aren’t literally sitting in the student section. I completely understand why Penn State fans (and James Franklin) refuse to let good games played during daytime get called White Outs. It’s not the same. It’s got to be the all-white stadium with a pitch-black backdrop. It’s iconic.

I cannot wait for Saturday night’s Penn State-Oregon game. It’ll be on NBC, so you’ll get to see me and my pals discussing it in our pregame show, which starts at 7pm ET. And we’ll say hi at halftime, too!

What I’ve been up to:

• I went to Eugene this week to chat with Dan Lanning and his coordinators. I also took in an Oregon practice. I’ve got some nuggets to come for the pregame show, but I also wrote this piece about how Saturday night’s game is the first opportunity for Lanning’s Ducks to put the past in the past — and begin the path to their big goals this year.

• Whenever Penn State has a big game, we’ve got to talk about James Franklin’s record in big games. Here’s what he had to say about trying to climb into the sport’s uppermost echelon (by beating the big boys).

• I wrote about how we need to re-evaluate some teams based on early-season results that now seem wildly misleading. For example, LSU got a ton of credit for beating Clemson. But, as it turns out, Clemson can’t run the ball on anyone! And the offense isn’t very good. So, maybe LSU isn’t as good as we thought that win made it seem. Food for thought!

• In last Saturday’s takeaways, I wrote about Indiana’s staying power. I also wrote that Oklahoma State needed to move on from Mike Gundy. Which it did, on Tuesday.

• Our mid-week episode of Rushing The Field covered Gundy’s firing, John Mateer’s hand injury, crazy coaching buyouts and all the big games to come in Week 5. You can listen on Apple, Spotify or YouTube.

My upcoming schedule:

• As I mentioned earlier, I’ll be on the NBC pregame show ahead of Penn State-Oregon. We’ll be on from 7-7:30pm ET so be sure to check us out! We’ll see you at halftime as well.

• We’ve also got the Indiana-Iowa game on Peacock — and we’ll have a pregame show for that on Peacock at 3pm ET so log in early and come hang out with us!

• We’ll have our usual weekend edition of Rushing the Field that will publish overnight on Saturday.

• I’ll be back on College Sports Today on SiriusXM Ch. 84 on Monday and Wednesday! I’ll join Roddy Jones and Kris Budden on Monday from 12-3pm ET and then I’ll be with Ben Hartsock on Wednesday from 12-3pm ET.

• The mid-week episode of Rushing The Field will drop on Thursday.

Big-game breakdowns:

Joshua and I previewed Ole Miss-LSU, a battle of unbeatens and a clash of styles:

Here’s our breakdown of Alabama-Georgia:

… and, of course, Penn State-Oregon:

Including last year, Indiana and Illinois have both finished with winning records in the same year just seven times. These are decidedly not bluebloods in the sport of football (though they have given us some awesome basketball games over the years). So, I get it. It’s weird to tell people that Illinois-Indiana is must-see TV on a football Saturday.

But … Illinois-Indiana is must-see TV this weekend!

The Hoosiers are trying to show that last year’s run to the College Football Playoff was not a fluke and that they should be taken seriously once again. Quarterback Fernando Mendoza might have been the best pickup out of the portal, and nobody really talked about it. The Hoosiers are well-coached and confident. And Indiana’s got dudes on defense. Curt Cignetti told me that this team has taken a step forward each week this season, and that he’s had his eyes on Illinois for awhile.

Bret Bielema has had his eyes on Indiana, too. Bielema told me he actually hadn’t watched a ton of tape on the Hoosiers last year because the two teams didn’t play each other and didn’t have a ton of crossover opponents. So, he queued it up and began watching Indiana all the way back in February. He’s been impressed by what he’s seen.

Both of these coaches know what’s at stake on Saturday. Illinois believes it can be a true CFP contender — and a favorable schedule sets up nicely for just that. And while Indiana has some big-time matchups ahead, this is the first chance it has to show its staying power, that last year’s success wasn’t an aberration.

I can’t wait.

What I’ve been up to:

• I wrote about the Illini’s belief in themselves, and why the way they built up this program gives them confidence heading into the spotlight this weekend.

• I debuted a new feature on NBCSports.com this week — our Quarterback Trust Meter. We’ll do it a few more times throughout the season, but I can’t say I expected to put Arch Manning at the very bottom of the chart when the season began …

  

• I also wrote about keeping Notre Dame on my AP poll ballot. I know it’s controversial, but it’ll work itself out later if the Irish lose again (and/or other teams start playing quality opponents themselves).

• Here’s the midweek episode of Rushing The Field!

My upcoming schedule:

• I’ll be on NBC throughout the day on Saturday. We’ll have halftime of the noon ET Maryland-Wisconsin game, then halftime of the Notre Dame-Purdue game, and then we’ll have the pregame for the Illinois-Indiana game starting at 7 pm ET/ 6pm CT (plus its halftime). Come hang!

• Joshua and I will have our Saturday night RTF episode out in the wee hours of Sunday morning. You can subscribe to get it immediately on Apple and on Spotify.

• I’ll have my Week 4 Takeaways on NBCSports.com on Sunday morning, and my AP poll thoughts on the website on Sunday afternoon.

• I’ll be co-hosting SiriusXM’s College Sports Today on Monday from 12-3pm ET with my pals, breaking down the weekend that was in college football. That’ll be my only show for the week!

Week 4 big-game previews:

Over on Rushing The Field, Joshua and I previewed Texas Tech-Utah, which might be the best game of the entire season in the Big 12:

We previewed The Jackson Arnold Game, aka Auburn-Oklahoma:

… and, of course, a full Illinois-Indiana breakdown: