ANGST CHECK. I checked in on some of the summer's angstier entities -- Real Madrid, Manchester [Fill In Blank], the Bundesliga, Wrexham -- to see how things are going early this season. (Real Madrid: going well! Wrexham: not so much!) www.espn.com/soccer/story...

Mizzou ... BYU ... Florida State ... Indiana ... Virginia ... the secret to overachievement in 2025? Yards after contact, baby. I wrote about Ahmad Hardy, Hollywood Smothers, Robert Henry Jr. and this season's YAC KINGS. www.espn.com/college-foot...

┏┓ ┃┃╱╲ In this ┃╱╱╲╲ house ╱╱╭╮╲╲ we love ▔▏┗┛▕▔ & appreciate ╱▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔╲ Hollywood Smothers ╱╱┏┳┓╭╮┏┳┓ ╲╲ ▔▏┗┻┛┃┃┗┻┛▕▔

Mizzou ... BYU ... Florida State ... Indiana ... Virginia ... the secret to overachievement in 2025? Yards after contact, baby. I wrote about Ahmad Hardy, Hollywood Smothers, Robert Henry Jr. and this season's YAC KINGS. www.espn.com/college-foot...

On one hand, OU is 67th in points per drive on O and 6th on D, and John Mateer's injury obviously doesn't make their awesome unit worse. (And their next 3 opps aren't great at O either.) On the other hand, they were 67th WITH Mateer, which ... doesn't say amazing things about the supporting cast.

Mike Gundy got the Oklahoma State head coaching job when Bill Callahan was in year two at Nebraska

COLLEGE FOOTBALL SP+ TOP 766, WEEK 5 * No. 1 vs. No. 2 this week! * Arkansas -114 Arkansas Baptist * UTRGV -87 Rio Grande * Oberlin lost 63-0 to No. 381, while Maine Maritime lost 63-0 to No. 671, therefore MARITIME HOLDS ONTO NO. 766 GO MARINERS docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Now they just have to figure out which team gets to play itself, since you can't have 17 teams playing 9 games each! (Yes, I assume Notre Dame will be involved somehow.)

Writing a YAC piece for Wednesday. #YACkings #YAAAAACkings

WEEK 5 SP+ PICKS Oregon 27.2, Penn St 26.8 (😳) Bama 27.2, UGA 26.4 (😳😳) Irish 31, Hogs 29 Ole Miss 29, LSU 23 Buckeyes 31, Huskies 21 USC 34, Illini 26 A&M 29, Auburn 24 Indiana 30, Iowa 21 (TRAP GAME TRAP GAME TRAP GAME) FSU 28, UVA 25 docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

* There's no title favorite * There's no Heisman favorite * Clemson is toast (more or less) * Vandy and Florida switched bodies * Texas Tech is the Big 12 favorite * Go! Tigers! Go! I looked at what's actually changed 4 weeks in (and also SP+ movers and amazing games): www.espn.com/college-foot...

Get some rest these next couple of weeks, Mizzou fans. This home stretch is going to be *something*.

SMALLER-SCHOOL SP+ is updated. * The Ivy League ASSERTED itself on Saturday * Ferris State fell for underachieving against projections, lol * Wisconsin rules D3 (after North Central, anyway) * Man, NAIA is *messy* every single week Full rankings: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

* There's no title favorite * There's no Heisman favorite * Clemson is toast (more or less) * Vandy and Florida switched bodies * Texas Tech is the Big 12 favorite * Go! Tigers! Go! I looked at what's actually changed 4 weeks in (and also SP+ movers and amazing games): www.espn.com/college-foot...

LOWEST POSTGAME WIN EXPECTANCY IN A WIN, WEEK 4: UConn > Ball St 18.3% Memphis > Arkansas 18.5% Ariz St > Baylor 31.2% UTSA > Colo St 42.9% UNLV > Miami-OH 46.3% Tulsa > OSU 54.1% 'Cuse > Clemson 58.5% Full list here (minus USC-Mich St, still waiting on that): docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

The CFP based solely on *Résumé SP+* after 4 weeks: 9 Miami at 8 Ohio State -- 1 Indiana 12 North Texas at 5 Texas Tech -- 4 Oklahoma 11 Missouri at 6 Penn State -- 3 Florida State 10 Ole Miss at 7 Tennessee -- 2 Oregon

Still waiting on one more game before I can fully post SP+, but ... it appears "Top-5 Indiana" is a thing. So is "Top-6 Texas Tech."

SP+ the last two weeks: 31% ATS on games that kick after 7pm ET on Saturday and 54% on all others. It's 1-10 on the 9pm or later kicks, lol. Spooky stuff happens at night.

Miami (Ohio), Arkansas and North Texas all suffering catastrophic fourth-quarter fumbles within about five minutes of each other was almost a little TOO college football.

MEMPHIS

😬

Every Saturday, Taylen Green makes five of the greatest plays I've ever seen a QB make and five of the worst plays I've ever seen a QB make.

THIS IS IMPORTANT Louisville gave Pudge his own locker for game day 😭😭😭

* Which disappointing QB gets right? * Biggest! IU-UI game! Ever! * Man, Texas Tech-Utah is going to rule * The IU-UIs of the SEC * Huge G5 weekend * Chaos superfecta! Playlist! NEW HAMPSHIRE-DARTMOUTH! Act I of 2025 comes to a close. WEEK 4 PREVIEW: www.espn.com/college-foot...

what in Jay Leno's chin have you done here, Tulsa

* Which disappointing QB gets right? * Biggest! IU-UI game! Ever! * Man, Texas Tech-Utah is going to rule * The IU-UIs of the SEC * Huge G5 weekend * Chaos superfecta! Playlist! NEW HAMPSHIRE-DARTMOUTH! Act I of 2025 comes to a close. WEEK 4 PREVIEW: www.espn.com/college-foot...

It's the last big weekend for G5 vs. P4 matchups, and we've got chances at minor (Memphis-Arkansas, ECU-BYU) and major (BGSU-Louisville? SHSU-Texas??) upsets. I walked through major upsets of the past 20 years to create an upset script: www.espn.com/college-foot...

Probably took about 17 committee meetings to come up with a decision that is just going to make people say Pony Up even louder.

It's the last big weekend for G5 vs. P4 matchups, and we've got chances at minor (Memphis-Arkansas, ECU-BYU) and major (BGSU-Louisville? SHSU-Texas??) upsets. I walked through major upsets of the past 20 years to create an upset script: www.espn.com/college-foot...

Current SP+ rankings if based solely on 2025: 1 Texas Tech 2 Oregon 3 Penn State 4 BYU 5 Indiana 6 USC 7 Washington 8 Utah 9 Missouri 10 TCU 11 OU 12 Florida St 13 Illinois 14 Nebraska 15 Miss St Is this the CFB world in which I want to live? I can't say no!

COLLEGE FOOTBALL SP+ TOP 766, WEEK 4 * Miami -130 Fort Lauderdale * Michigan -121 Madonna (Mich.) * Yes, No. 141 Ferris State is playing No. 753 Rio Grande * With an ENCOURAGING 58-21 loss to No. 734 Hiram, Oberlin SURGES to 765th. Your move, Maine Maritime. docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

* quack quack * You think I'm going to stop overrating A&M now?? * The computers have noticed USC * Hello there, Dores * MEAN, WHOOOOOOOOO, BY GOD GREEN * Hello for a minute, Sparty We're 3 weeks in, so it's time to RANK. THE. UNBEATENS. A tradition like no other. www.espn.com/college-foot...

Setting up the smaller-school SP+ rankings and Week 4 projections and oh my GOD

WEEK 4 SP+ PICKS Indiana 28, Illinois 24 OU 28, Auburn 21 Utah 29, Texas Tech 26 TCU 34, SMU 27 Mizzou 32, SC 18 Miami 34, Florida 23 Memphis 31, Hogs 30 Rebels 37, Angry Wave 20 Nebraska 23, Michigan 22 Ducks 49, Beavers 8 Huskies 38, Cougs 19 docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

* quack quack * You think I'm going to stop overrating A&M now?? * The computers have noticed USC * Hello there, Dores * MEAN, WHOOOOOOOOO, BY GOD GREEN * Hello for a minute, Sparty We're 3 weeks in, so it's time to RANK. THE. UNBEATENS. A tradition like no other. www.espn.com/college-foot...

The CFP based solely on Résumé SP+ after 3 weeks: 9 Texas Tech at 8 Ohio State -- 1 Oregon 12 NORTH TEXAS MEAN DAMN GREEN at 5 Mizzou -- 4 Oklahoma 11 Utah at 6 Washington -- 3 Penn State 10 Miami at 7 Illinois -- 2 Florida State I must once again humbly ask: Stop the count. Lock this in.

Teams with the highest odds of finishing 12-0, per SP+: Ohio St 11.5% Penn St 11.2% Oregon 10.4% Miami 10.3% Memphis 8.7% Ole Miss 6.5% Texas Tech 5.9% Utah 4.7% Iowa St 2.7% UGA 2.5% Highest odds of going 0-12: UCLA 20.8% 😬😬😬😬😬 UMass 15.6% EMU 3.4% Sam Houston 2.8%

LOWEST POSTGAME WIN EXPECTANCY IN A WIN, WEEK 3: Georgia > Tennessee 23.8% Delaware > UConn 26.6% Georgia Tech > Clemson 31.7% BGSU > Liberty 38.2% MTSU > Nevada 50.4% Oof, Vols. Full list: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Over the last decade or so, I don't think there's a single game I've enjoyed more reliably than Ole Miss-Arkansas.

The 14yo’s clear bag for entering the football stadium. She’s a liberal hipster stereotype already.

* Hot seat panic! (Florida, VT) * "Look like you're supposed to" panic! (UGA, Clemson, SC, ASU) * "Kinda sorta must-win" panic! (ND, K-State, Bama) * Dumb rivalry panic! (Hogs-Rebels, BACKYARD BRAWL) * Miami-USF! Chaos superfecta! Playlist! HAWKS-GRIZ! WEEK 3 PREVIEW: www.espn.com/college-foot...

So basically, whoever loses in Ireland in Week 0 is destined to have a cripplingly disappointing season.

Oh that was no brawl, Rufus wrecked him.

So weird. College football viewership is up by MORE than NFL viewership, even though colleges are paying their football teams millions of dollars directly. So many industry pros and highly paid economists who swore, under oath, that paying CFB athletes would ruin viewership. So weird.

* Hot seat panic! (Florida, VT) * "Look like you're supposed to" panic! (UGA, Clemson, SC, ASU) * "Kinda sorta must-win" panic! (ND, K-State, Bama) * Dumb rivalry panic! (Hogs-Rebels, BACKYARD BRAWL) * Miami-USF! Chaos superfecta! Playlist! HAWKS-GRIZ! WEEK 3 PREVIEW: www.espn.com/college-foot...

Forward Progress came out, and I almost immediately stopped talking about it as much because of that whole working-70-hours-a-week thing, lol. But I've got a moment, the fun ACC game is nearing half, and I wanted to talk about some of the book's meaningful themes and takeaways.