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Former Alabama QB AJ McCarron goes absolutely berserk on his UFL team during furious halftime rant

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 08:43:46 -0400

College football and the NFL don't return for a few more months, but for those who need a football fix, I think I've got something for you today.

The UFL. That's right. The United Football League. Bear with me for a second while I explain myself.

For those who don't know, AJ McCarron is the head coach of the Birmingham Stallions. Yes, that AJ McCarron. The former Alabama QB who won three (!!!) national championships with the Crimson Tide under Nick Saban.

McCarron was hired last December, replacing Skip Holtz, who led the Stallions to a 2024 title.

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OK, we all caught up now? Good!

Now, let's all head out to Birmingham, where McCarron absolutely laid into his team during halftime of the Week 4 game against Orlando.

Video of the tongue-lashing was released last night on the UFL's official YouTube series, "4th & Goal," and it was maybe the most impressive rant I've ever been privy to.

Take a look:

AJ McCarron's rant didn't exactly turn the season around

"Wake the f--- up. Make your f---ing kicks when we got the opportunity. Stop all this f--king crying and bulls---. All y'all talk about is f--king running the ball. And then we run the ball. They don't f---ing go anywhere. F---ing communicate. F---ing tired of it. We're playing f---ing scared. Scared to not make a f---ing mistake. F--- that."

Ten! I count 10 (!!!) F-bombs in 15 seconds. What a rant. It's impressive on so many levels. Just the pure, raw anger out of AJ McCarron here is second to none. I had no idea this dude was this angry, but apparently, he is.

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Lordy. You'd think being a three-time national champ (AJ only started two of the games) would sort of set you up for life in terms of happiness, but I guess not.

Hard to blame McCarron here, by the way. The Stallions were getting shut out at the time, and they're supposed to be this big juggernaut in the UFL. Seriously.

They've won one UFL championship, and two USFL titles. They went 33-7 under Holtz. The spring football league GOES through Birmingham.

Until this year, of course.

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The Stallions did NOT score a point in that game, losing 16-0. They then went on to finish the season 4-6, and missed the playoffs in McCarron's first season. They scored the second-fewest points of any team in the league (190).

Sad. Oh well. You live and learn, I reckon.

Perhaps AJ spends his first offseason workshopping motivational speeches, because this one, while impressive, clearly didn't move the needle.

Pairing nine World Cup contenders with their college football counterparts ahead of 2026 tournament

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:04:30 -0400

When it comes to fandom, few can rival international soccer fanatics.

It's hard to find a group of people more fervent than the ones who support a World Cup powerhouse.

Luckily for us Americans, we have college football, which is basically the closest thing to European or South American soccer when it comes to just how insane we get about it.

The two sports actually parallel each other better than either fan base would like to admit, so today I wanted to take a look at nine contenders in the 2026 World Cup and compare them to their college football counterparts.

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We are looking at these teams and programs through a historical lens, and judging them based on their history, fanbase, trophy case, and more.

This way, if you are a college football fan trying to catch World Cup fever, you can pick who you want to root for based on how they match the college programs you like or don't like.

It's not an exact science, but let's have some fun with it!

Netherlands - Oregon Ducks

Let's start with an interesting case on either end.

The Netherlands' national team is fun to watch, has produced plenty of good players, has cool, eye-catching uniforms, and has come close a few times while never winning it all.

Sounds a lot like the Oregon Ducks to me.

They did win the Euros back in 1988, which is basically like winning a souped-up conference title, but their best finishes in the World Cup are a few second-place finishes in 1974, 1978 and 2010.

They even invented a fun attacking style of soccer with Total Football back in the 1970s that revolutionized the game, much like Chip Kelly did with his spread attack in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

Spain - Clemson Tigers

The Tigers and La Roja have a lot in common in the sense that both are considered powerhouses in their respective sports and while a lot of fans think of them as traditional blue bloods at this point, they both found their successes fairly recently.

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Clemson won a national championship back in 1982, but their dominance came in the 2010s under Dabo Swinney, while Spain started their own dominant run at the 2008 Euros before winning the World Cup in 2010 and bookending that with another Euro win in 2012.

Even though Clemson fans feel as though they've fallen on hard times, they just won a conference championship back in 2024, coinciding perfectly with Spain's win at the 2024 Euros.

Spain has all the talent they need to win the World Cup again in 2026, but the same could have been said for Clemson in 2025, so let's hope for Spanish soccer fans' sakes that they don't parallel each other that closely.

Belgium - Texas A&M Aggies

Every college football fan knows two things about the Texas A&M Aggies: they always recruit well and have a ton of top-level athletes on their roster, and they don't have a damn thing to show for it.

Sounds a lot like Belgium, who are currently in the midst of their second "Golden Generation," with a roster full of players littered all over top-flight European club teams.

However, aside from an Olympic gold medal from more than 100 years ago, the Red Devils have a very empty trophy case.

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Belgium came into tournaments like the 2016 Euros and 2022 World Cup highly ranked and expecting to make a splash, only to leave way earlier than anyone anticipated.

Fans of both have had to endure constant razzing for underperforming on the big stage.

Brazil - USC Trojans

Both USC and Brazil are considered powerhouses in college football and world soccer, respectively, producing some of the greatest players to ever live and capturing countless trophies in the process.

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These two programs are some of the most recognizable brands in their respective sports, and have young and old fans who remember them as winners.

However, both are still in search of that "next title," having won it all last in the early to mid 2000s before experiencing dry spells in the late 2000s through the 2010s.

From Pele and Marcus Allen to Neymar and Reggie Bush, you can't tell the story of the World Cup or college football without Brazil and USC.

Argentina - Alabama Crimson Tide

Much like their rivals Brazil, Argentina is one of the blue bloods of the sport of world soccer.

They have a tradition of winning similar to their South American brethren, but their recent history is even more impressive than Brazil, having won it all back in 2022.

Argentina is a modern-day powerhouse much like Alabama, and their fans are quick to remind everyone.

That air of superiority is well earned for both, though I doubt you'll find other fans of South American teams chanting "CON-MEM-BOL" the way a Vandy fan would chant "S-E-C" while the Crimson Tide were winning all of their titles.

Argentina has produced the most Ballon d'Or winners, but they've all been from one player (Lionel Messi) and have come fairly recently, similarly to Bama producing all four of their Heisman winners since 2009, the most from any school in that stretch.

United States - Kentucky Wildcats

I know soccer fans will chastise me for calling the United States a "World Cup contender," but they are the host nation, and the vast majority of you reading this are American, so I couldn't leave them off the list.

That being said, America is very similar to the Kentucky Wildcats' college football program for many reasons.

For starters, Kentucky is a powerhouse program in a different sport (basketball) much in the same way that the United States dominates other sports while being woefully behind the other world powers in soccer.

Kentucky also punches above its weight every once in a while despite not having the same caliber of players compared to some of the other teams it goes up against, which pairs nicely with America's "plucky underdog" attitude.

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Both fanbases have their pockets of delusional devotees that believe their success in other sports means they're good at all of them, but most Kentucky football and U.S. Men's soccer fans have accepted their places and just hope for the best.

Germany - Georgia Bulldogs

Titles in multiple different decades and went through a long dry spell before winning another one in the modern era, that sounds to me like the Georgia Bulldogs.

Germany and Georgia at their best are both hard to top when it comes to powerhouses in their respective sports, and both represent some of the best-run programs in soccer and college football, respectively.

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The Bulldogs haven't had much success recently in the College Football Playoff, similarly to Germany, whose last two trips to the Euros and most recent World Cup appearance ended way earlier than they had hoped.

Fans from both leagues are writing off the two juggernauts, but much like I said with Georgia, I think it's a little early to pour dirt on Germany as well.

Also, Kirby Smart and former longtime German manager Jogi Löw have similarly bad haircuts, so there's that.

France - Ohio State Buckeyes

France comes into the tournament ranked No. 1 in the FIFA rankings, and always seem to carry a ranking with them into every tournament they enter.

That's usually a result of having the best players, and though they don't always live up to the lofty expectations placed on them, when they put it all together, they are a sight to behold, winning the whole thing fairly recently in 2018 and coming close to repeating in 2022.

You could say the same for the Ohio State Buckeyes, who always sit near the top of the recruiting rankings as well as the preseason polls.

They have a recent title to show for it, but they also have some seasons where they probably should have won it all and grossly underperformed.

Both fan bases also have devastating losses in high-pressure games in which they lost their best players, with Les Bleus losing the 2006 World Cup Final to Italy thanks to Zinedine Zidane being sent off and Ohio State losing the 2022 CFP Semifinal after wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. went out with an injury.

The parallels are uncanny.

England - Notre Dame Fighting Irish

England is famously a soccer-obsessed nation, and with how much they talk about their team and how good their players are, you would think they won a World Cup or even a Euro more recently.

However, their last and only World Cup title came all the way back in 1966, but every four years we are led to believe this is the year the lads bring the Cup back home.

Does that sound familiar to college football fans? Because it does to me.

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Notre Dame similarly won a national title back in 1988, and have been chasing that high ever since as other powerhouses have risen to prominence along the way.

Despite their shortcomings in the postseason, the Fighting Irish always come into the following season with sky-high expectations.

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Speaking of which, the Irish are likely to be a top-five team in the preseason polls for 2026, mirroring England's top-four FIFA ranking on the eve of the 2026 World Cup.

Both fan bases are clinging to a past that is slipping further and further away from them, but it only takes one good year to birth a new generation of believers.

Illinois coach Bret Bielema fires back at Notre Dame AD over recent remarks: 'just join a conference'

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 18:08:30 -0400

The future of college football has become a national issue, with everyone from college administrators, coaches, conference leadership, to President Donald Trump weighing in.

Earlier this week, legendary Alabama head coach Nick Saban gave his opinion, saying that NIL is going to create an endless arms race that would squeeze out smaller schools. Though failed to address the rapid increase in coaching and staff salaries, facilities, and the historical reality of which programs dominate the list of National Champions.

Another figure who spoke before Congress? Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua. Bevacqua spoke about several issues, but one concern he raised about the future of college football is the potential for what he described as a "super league" to develop in order to maximize media rights income.

"If you wanted to maximize media value around college football," he said. "I think you would take 24 to 30 teams, create unbelievably competitive scheduling where a team like Notre Dame would play Alabama, Georgia, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, and start to get a number that more closely resembles an NFL number."

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Well, another prominent college football voice saw those remarks, and didn't take too well to them. Particularly because of Notre Dame's unusual standing within the game.

"Some guys really like to talk about something that could happen and who they might play," said Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Bret Bielema in a post on X. "Actually it’s pretty easy just join a conference."

Bielema's disagreement with Bevacqua highlights an often unmentioned part of the college football realignment and consolidation debate: How does Notre Dame fit into this?

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The Irish have now negotiated a unique arrangement that guarantees them a spot in the College Football Playoff if they finish in the top 12 of the rankings. Clearly, that's not sitting too well with coaches forced to play full conference schedules. With that being the case, does it mean the Irish are predisposed to want things to remain how they are?

Notre Dame has its own television contract with NBC, giving them potentially significant financial advantages over other schools that share revenue within a conference. They can set, for the most part, their own schedules, leading to seasons like 2026 where they've all but guaranteed themselves a playoff spot. Obviously they have a large and well-heeled donor base willing and able to help with NIL. And their historic success and branding will always bring in top recruits.

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But if the Irish are allowed to operate as their own separate entity within college football, Bielema's point seems to be, why should we care what they think?

Just look at the differences in schedules for 2026. Illinois has conference games at Ohio State, against Oregon, Nebraska and Iowa. Per ESPN's SP+ preseason rankings, the Illini play the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country this year. Iowa is No. 22, and Nebraska No. 37. They have seven games against teams in the top 50 in that list. Should they win enough games in conference, they would then play in the Big Ten Conference Championship Game against another likely top-5 opponent.

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Notre Dame, meanwhile, plays just one team in the top 10, No. 8 Miami, and has just four games against teams in the top 50. They have no conference championship game to worry about. Why shouldn't they join a conference, and be subject to the same restrictions and difficulties as other programs?

They don't join a conference because it's advantageous for them to remain independent. Which is likely why Bevacqua is concerned about the formation of "super leagues." An NFL-type model would mean more consolidation and less ability for the Irish to maintain their unique benefits. If Bret Bielema is representative of other big-name coaches, that mentality might be becoming a lot less popular.

Nick Saban's comments during senate hearing don't change his legendary status as head coach

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:57:53 -0400

As college football continues to fight for its life on Capitol Hill, former coach Nick Saban has done his best to lend a helping hand in the battle.

Whether you agree with what he's saying or not is irrelevant, however, at least for the purposes of this exercise today.

The rhetoric that I am seeing online surrounding Saban's credentials as a legend in the annals of college football is concerning.

Full disclosure, I'm not an Alabama fan nor am I particularly fond of Saban as a coach.

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Being a Florida Gators and Miami Dolphins fan, the man is responsible for some depressing times for both my college and pro teams, so you know I'm not harboring any pro-Saban biases.

Hell, I just wrote a story about how Georgia is still a powerhouse program in the NIL era, so suffice it to say I haven't exactly been opposed to coming to the defense of some of my more bitter rivals.

While Saban has been testifying before the Senate, many fans online have been attacking him, calling him a hypocrite.

I'll reiterate that you don't have to agree with what he is saying, but what rubs me the wrong way is the accusations that Saban was nothing more than a glorified "bagman" who couldn't win without unfair advantages.

I won't post every example here, but the summation of these claims basically boils down to "Saban could never win without giving five-stars Dodge Hellcats, that's why he left when NIL came along."

For starters, let's address the initial claim that Saban quit because he couldn't compete in the NIL era.

Saban's last year was 2023, a full two years after NIL was introduced.

The Alabama Crimson Tide went 12-2, won an SEC Championship, and were a couple of bad center-quarterback snap exchanges from beating eventual national champion Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

They also had the second-ranked recruiting class in the country coming in that next season, so I don't think being able to compete in the NIL era was the issue.

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The man was 72 years old at the time and was coming off of coaching for over three decades.

Sure, he probably wasn't a fan of the way the sport was heading (who could blame him), but I don't think it had anything to do with him being "scared."

If Tide center Seth McLaughlin doesn't develop an unfortunate case of the yips, Saban probably wins the natty in 2023 and rides off into the sunset even more decorated than he already is.

Speaking of which, anyone who thinks Hellcats and bags of cash were the only reason Saban is the greatest college football coach of all time needs a history lesson.

First and foremost, if you think Bama was the only program paying for players, then I have some beachfront property in Tuscaloosa to sell you.

I mentioned this in my Georgia article, but it bears repeating. EVERYONE was paying players back in the day.

Ohio State was paying players when Urban Meyer was there in the 2010s. USC was paying players when Pete Carroll was establishing a mini-dynasty in the early to mid-2000s.

Even Bama paid players long before Saban arrived on campus.

It didn't help them win any games, since the team floundered for most of the late '90s and early 2000s until hiring Saban.

And what was Nick Saban doing before he got to Alabama?

It's like everyone just forgot the man was a head coach at three different college programs before his legendary tenure with the Tide.

He was a head coach at Toledo for a year, leading the Rockets to a 9-2 record before becoming the defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns under Bill Belichick (maybe you've heard of him).

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I guess Belichick hired Saban to be his DC because he knew some really good Dodge dealers in Cuyahoga County.

After his stint in Cleveland, Saban became the head coach of the Michigan State Spartans, winning 34 games in five years and even finishing in the top 10 his final season there.

The year before he arrived, the Spartans had five wins vacated for, you guessed it, "impermissible booster benefits" (translation: paying players).

Oh yeah, and then he left Michigan State to go be the head coach at LSU, where he won two SEC Championships and a national championship while compiling a 48-16 record.

Saban was a great coach before he ever donned that crimson "A" on his polo, and it wasn't because he was paying players.

If you need more proof as to why Saban's coaching acumen goes far beyond being a muscle car courier, look no further than his "coaching tree."

Nick Saban has one of the single most impressive coaching trees in any sport, let alone college football.

Some of his most famous disciples include national championship-winning coaches like Kirby Smart and Jimbo Fisher as well as college football mainstays like Mark Dantonio.

Even the great Curt Cignetti cites his time with Saban as some of the most enlightening years of his career, saying he learned more in a year under Saban than anywhere else in his life.

That's not to mention the myriad NFL players produced under Saban as well.

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Any way you slice it, Nick Saban is a legendary football coach, and it feels weird to even have to type that out to remind everyone.

Maybe it's just because the internet gives everyone a voice, and a loud, vocal minority of critics can color public perception more easily these days.

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Regardless, I won't stand for any Saban slander on my social media timeline.

He was, and always will be the GOAT. And no amount of 30-second clips of his testimony before the Senate will change what he accomplished on the field.

Here's why Nick Saban and Notre Dame's Pete Bevacqua are wrong about NIL ruining college football

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 20:36:25 -0400

The future of college football is once again up for debate, with prominent voices from major conferences and teams giving their opinions on NIL as the federal government works through potential legislation to regulate the sport.

Wednesday provided an opportunity for one of college football's most important figures, former Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban, to give Congress his thoughts directly. Saban made several accurate and valuable points about the current direction of the sport and his issues with it.

Namely, that the unlimited transfer portal and "arms race" for spending in major college football are changing the sport. He's right that the endless transfer system has its flaws, and that spending money on players has dramatically impacted roster construction. But he also brought up a result of NIL that, well, is simply not realistic as to what college football is and has been for decades.

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"That is not the same thing as turning NIL into a pay-for-play system," he said, referring to allowing players to earn income from their name, image, and likeness. "It is not the same thing as using collectives and outside entities to create a bidding war for recruits and transfers. When the system becomes whoever raises the most money gets the best players, then we are no longer talking about college athletics as millions of fans and I have known it."

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Pete Bevacqua, the current athletic director for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, said something similar.

"If you continue to have all of your resources pooled into football with escalating roster fees, and not knowing where that ends, I believe the inevitable outcome is there's going to be a small handful of schools that will differentiate themselves from others and play football at a super league level," Bevacqua said. "I don't think it's good for college football to be a mini-NFL. That's not the spirit of college football."

Saban said something similar, lamenting the rapid increase in spending: "Now you have schools that have close to $40 million rosters." The implication being that smaller schools that can't match that level of investment won't be able to compete for championships.

But what Saban, and Bevacqua, fail to realize about college football is that it's already been this way. In fact, it's been this way for decades prior to the introduction of NIL.

Let's look at the list of national champions since 2000. Alabama under Saban won six times. Ohio State has three. Georgia has two titles. LSU has two, three including a shared title in 2003. Florida has two. So does Clemson. USC has two, including 2003. Oklahoma won in 2000. Miami in 2001. Florida State won in 2013, Auburn in 2010, Michigan in 2024, and of course, Indiana in 2025.

See any small schools in there? Ironically, the "smallest" program in the past 25 years to win a championship was...Indiana in the new NIL era.

But that's just since the turn of the century. We can go back much further. Going back as far as 1980, 46 years ago, there's BYU in 1984 and shared titles for Washington and Colorado in the 1990s. The 1970s were dominated by USC, Notre Dame and Alabama. With some Nebraska and Oklahoma thrown in. Pittsburgh would be the outlier in 1976. 1960s champions included Texas, Ohio State, USC, Notre Dame, Michigan State and Alabama. Minnesota and Ole Miss were shared champions in 1960. 66 years ago. Though, credit to Syracuse, they won in 1959 under the Eisenhower administration.

The broader point here being that depending on how you classify teams, you could point to BYU in 1984, Pittsburgh in 1976 and maybe Colorado as "smaller" programs to win championships. In 66 years. It's mostly a myth that, as Saban and Bevacqua discuss, NIL is going to push out the lesser teams. And again, Indiana might qualify as the least likely program to win a title in 35-40 years. They did it last season.

NIL, in some ways, has actually become a bit of an equalizer. Saban built a dynasty at Alabama in part because he was able to attract recruits with advantages other teams can't match. Whether those advantages came from, uh, any type of financial arrangements is up for debate. But what isn't is that top high schoolers have always wanted to play for the blue blood programs. Alabama, USC, Notre Dame, Texas, Ohio State, Michigan, Georgia, Oklahoma, Miami.

For decades, those teams could tell recruits, "come play for us, you'll be on national TV, we'll get you to the NFL, you'll play in big bowl games," and they'd generally be right. Now, though, NIL offers teams like Indiana and Texas Tech a quick path to competing at a national level. Obviously, there's more to it than that, coaching and other factors need to be in place too, but does anyone believe Fernando Mendoza winds up in Bloomington if not for NIL? Or that Texas Tech, in Lubbock, winds up with one of the best defenses in the country without NIL?

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Sure, not every team can compete at the top end of the NIL budget. But Texas had the country's most expensive roster in 2025, including one of the most hyped, and expensive, quarterbacks in decades, and went 9-3 and missed the playoffs.

College football has a habit of romanticizing the past in ways that don’t match the actual results. NIL is no different. Are there things to be fixed? Absolutely. Will fixing it mean that Rice or Middle Tennessee State wins a championship? Nope. Ironically, the best path forward for programs like that would be a wealthy donor putting money into the program. Just look at Oregon, which was a middle-tier Pac-10 team until Phil Knight got involved. NIL offers the same opportunities, even if coaches and ADs don't like it.

Joel Klatt roasts SEC: Nick Saban isn't there 'with his big old coattails for you to ride as a conference'

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 22:45:06 -0400

The SEC has, for years, enjoyed a widespread belief that it is the strongest conference in college football. And for years, that belief was correct.

Starting in 2009, Nick Saban created one of the most impressive dynasties in the sport's history. The Alabama Crimson Tide won a BCS National Championship in his third year on the job. And just never stopped winning. They won again in 2011 and 2012. Then won three more College Football Playoff National Championships from 2015-2020.

But as hard as it is to believe, 2020 is now six years ago, and the times have changed. Dramatically. The Big Ten has won three consecutive National Championships, starting, coincidentally, when name, image and likeness rules were changed allowing college football players to get paid by outside collectives. Not only has the Big Ten won three in a row, but the SEC hasn't reached the championship game since 2022.

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SEC teams were 1-8 during the 2025-2026 bowl season against teams from other conferences, and 0-3 in the playoff against other Power 4 programs. Despite those obvious realities, along with plenty of other unflattering statistics, at the conference's recent spring meetings, Commissioner Greg Sankey and other prominent figures were adamant that they remain, by far, the country's best conference.

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There are some who agree with that sentiment, and others who don't, and based on some comments made by FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt, he's squarely in the latter category. Why? Because Nick Saban's retired, and the conference can't ride his "big old coattails" anymore.

"This is not 2012, this is not 2016, 15," Klatt said during a recent episode of his show. "I'm sorry, Nick Saban is no longer there with his big old coattails for you to ride as a conference. It's not that way anymore. So I thought that we should recap what we learned from the SEC spring meetings, and I've gotta be honest, it wasn't a lot.

"What did we get? Propaganda. Awesome," he continued. "Let's start with what Greg Sankey said, and it was basically, 'hey, we're the best.' That is false. They are not by far the best conference in college football. And candidly, I don't even know if you can call them the best conference in college football."

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Klatt added that the "data" shows that the Big Ten has passed the SEC, and those who doubt that are predisposed to support the SEC or its schools.

"Why don't we just go to the data, why don't we call balls and strikes, because here's the thing: at a meeting like that, Greg is saying this to a group of writers who largely want that to be true. If you believe what he said, deep down in your heart, it's because you want to believe what he said. You don't want to see the data, you don't want to see the truth.

"And that's fine, and that makes college football great. If you're a fan and you're mad right now because you sense what I'm about to talk about, and you're thinking to yourself like, 'no way, here he goes,' that's fine, because the passion in our sport is what makes our sport great. What the data suggests is that what Greg said, is absolutely false. The Big Ten is 4-0 over the SEC over the last three playoffs. 4-0 is not a small thing now."

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Yes, four games is a small sample size. But the playoff is the best against the best, ostensibly, providing a clearer comparison. Bowl games, too, went the Big Ten's way. Iowa beat Vanderbilt, a team that believed it should have been in the College Football Playoff. Illinois beat Tennessee, a team that was ranked for much of the season. Indiana obliterated Alabama, with the one win being Texas over Michigan. That same Texas team also lost to Ohio State in the first week of the year. Meanwhile, Curt Cignetti and the Indiana Hoosiers went 16-0 a few months after Steve Sarkisian said undefeated teams were a thing of the past.

It's Sankey's job to ignore these results and point to metrics he prefers. But it's the job of those on the outside to be honest about where the SEC currently sits. Because activism from Sankey and other coaches has already impacted the selection committee. Alabama's inclusion in the 2025-2026 field proves it. And it's why Klatt's right to call it out for what it is, propaganda.

Greg Sankey insists SEC is 'strongest league' despite Big Ten winning three straight national championships

Fri, 29 May 2026 11:09:19 -0400

For most objective fans, it's become clear that the Big Ten has surpassed the SEC as the dominant conference in college football. Just don't tell SEC commissioner Greg Sankey or the conference's coaches about the importance of on-field results. After years of them referencing those exact results.

Sankey, speaking at the SEC's spring meetings on Wednesday, once again struck, and once again struck a defiant, and inaccurate, tone. College Football Playoff executive director Rich Clark met with the conference and its coaches this week, explaining the "metrics" that go into the committee's decision making and selection process. According to Sankey, it confirmed that the SEC is the "strongest league."

"We saw metrics out of the College Football Playoff presentation where there’s no doubt we’re the strongest league," Sankey said. "But I think from a big picture, the breadth, the depth of this league — this league stands alone."

When discussing recent results, he repeated the same mantra. "If you look at the entirety of our league, we are by far the most competitive, the strongest football league by far," he told reporters. "But you're going to lose games when it's close and competitive like that."

VANDERBILT'S DIEGO PAVIA CLAIMS BIG TEN IS INFERIOR TO SEC DESPITE RECENT NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Big Ten has won three consecutive National Championships, with three different schools. The Michigan Wolverines won in 2024, followed by the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2025, and the Indiana Hoosiers in 2026 at the conclusion of a stunning undefeated season.

As for why that's happened, Sankey took an interesting path. "So why have they surpassed us? It's an oddball, it's bounced a couple times the wrong way."

What's interesting about that tactic, saying the games have been close even if the SEC team ultimately lost, is that other teams and conferences have never been able to use this justification. Did the ACC get credit when Clemson lost to Alabama 45-40 in 2016? Oklahoma had 507 yards of offense against a Nick Saban Alabama defense in the 2018 Orange Bowl. Georgia beat Ohio State by one point in the 2022 Peach Bowl after trailing for much of the game. Did the Big Ten or Big 12 get credit for the ball bouncing "a couple times the wrong way" in those games? Or was it further proof of the SEC's dominance that they ultimately won?

INDIANA'S CURT CIGNETTI TAKES SWIPE AT SEC AMID QUESTIONS AROUND SCHEDULE

The SEC has failed to reach the championship game for three straight years. The Alabama Crimson Tide, SEC runners-up, were blown out in the Rose Bowl game, losing 38-3 to Indiana. It wasn't even that close; the Tide had just 193 total yards of offense and 11 first downs. The previously dominant Alabama running game generated just 1.4 yards per carry.

Texas A&M lost at home to Miami, scoring just three points at Kyle Field. The SEC overall went 1-8 in bowl games and 0-3 in the 2025-2026 Playoff against other Power Four teams. And Sankey is claiming that the league's "depth" and "breadth" are heads and shoulders above the rest. All while the coaches were furious with the committee for not putting more SEC teams in.

"He was in a no-win situation with all the SEC coaches, a couple in there that thought they should have been in (the CFP)," new LSU coach Lane Kiffin said. "That probably wasn’t going to be a great meeting for him."

Suddenly, these results don't matter, after years of being used to claim that the SEC was the best conference. Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks was even worse.

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"Look, I’m biased," Brooks said. "I’ve spent a lot of time in the SEC. I was part of the mock (CFP selection committee) exercise a number of years ago and one of the things that took me back is when people would say things like, ‘That was a bad loss,’ or ‘That wasn’t a great win.’

"To me, that’s hard to say when you go to some of these venues, especially at night. When you judge Texas on the loss at Florida last year and say that’s going to be a massive hit to their résumé. Well, Florida’s a really tough team and that’s a really tough place to play."

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Florida lost at home, in the unimaginably difficult Swamp, to...USF. They went 4-8. They fired their head coach in the middle of the season. Does anyone involved here have any idea what they're talking about? Do they watch the games? Do they actually think Florida was a good team despite going 4-8 and losing to USF? It's inexplicable.

This is why other conferences have problems with the SEC. They relentlessly promote mediocre teams because of historic brand names, even if the results don't match the reputations. Iowa was a very good team, by all objective "metrics," as Sankey says, but because they're Iowa, they're not treated with the same respect Tennessee or other SEC teams get. As just one example. Crowd support does not equal quality on-field product.

The SEC is going to promote itself. That's not surprising. But the Big Ten and other conferences need to work on promoting themselves too. Because Kiffin, Sankey, and the rest of these personalities are going to keep influencing the committee to put undeserving teams like Alabama in the playoff because Nick Saban had a dynasty in the 2010s.

SEC football doing away with 'cupcake weekend' means the death of another college football tradition

Wed, 27 May 2026 17:25:01 -0400

One of the biggest developments coming out of the SEC Spring Meetings in Destin, Fla., is that the conference is doing away with the oft-derided "cupcake weekend" of scheduling during the college football season.

For those unaware, a "cupcake weekend" was generally the slate of games right before rivalry weekend, typically during the penultimate week of the season.

Fans of other conferences are likely cheering this news, as they have viewed this week of games as a slap in the face to competitive college football late in the season, but for diehard SEC fans such as myself, it's just the death of another tradition that we once held so dear.

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Any SEC fan from a bygone era of the sport will tell you that "cupcake weekend" generally meant a couple of really important things.

One of those things happened to be the fact that the games against overmatched opponents would give coaches an excuse to show off a few of their prized, highly-ranked freshmen.

Almost like a preseason game, a high-powered SEC team would throw their starters out against their designated cupcake for a quarter at most, who would then cede the field to a litany of talented underclassmen.

As a Florida Gators fan, I can think of two examples right off the bat in back-to-back years, as both Tim Tebow (2006) and Cam Newton (2007) had breakout games as true freshmen against Western Carolina and Florida Atlantic, respectively.

FLORIDA COACH JON SUMRALL'S LATEST COMMENTS PROVE HE'S JUST AS PSYCHO AS HIS FANBASE

Tebow's five total touchdowns that day only added to his growing legend, as he would go on to win the Heisman the very next year, and although Newton didn't stick around Gainesville for too long, his 24-yard touchdown scamper offered college football fans a glimpse of his talents and the magical season that would come for him down the road at Auburn.

This phenomenon wasn't limited to Gators freshmen either, obviously, as legendary running backs like Marcus Lattimore, Darren McFadden and Leonard Fournette all put up monster numbers against late-November cupcakes in their freshman seasons.

These are just the few notable names who went on to have legendary careers in college, but every cupcake week offered fans a chance to see the next wave of great players take some meaningful snaps.

Hell, even Auburn fans caught a glimpse of what could have been a very bright future in their cupcake tune-up before playing rival Alabama, as five-star true freshman quarterback Deuce Knight absolutely carved up Mercer in a 62-17 onslaught.

Unfortunately, with how transient college athletes are now, these cupcake performances can come at a detriment to the program, as Knight would end up transferring following the firing of Auburn coach Hugh Freeze at the end of the 2025 season.

This performance likely only drove up the bidding war on Knight, though, so even the young players benefitted from cupcake weekend.

Another positive to cupcake weekend came in the form of offering both players and fans a breather before going into their final game, usually a hard-fought contest against a bitter rival.

There was something magical about being able to watch your favorite team play some stress-free football for at least one week out of the season, especially if it came in the midst of a gauntlet of an SEC schedule.

I know my Gators haven't been in meaningful games in mid-to-late November in quite some time, but there was a period during my formative football watching years when Florida was in the midst of a championship hunt, and every weekend was a white-knuckle thrill ride with some heartburn tacked on for good measure.

It was indescribably blissful to be able to watch a college football game without the risk of cardiac arrest for four quarters.

It might sound dumb, but I will definitely miss cupcake weekend, flaws and all.

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Any fan of an SEC program that is over the age of 20 will always look back on that period of time with fondness.

Here's to another college football tradition falling to the wayside.

SEC's Greg Sankey confirms 'cupcake weekend' is finally dead after move to nine-game schedule

Wed, 27 May 2026 08:30:05 -0400

MIRAMAR BEACH, FL - After years of eating "cupcakes" late in the college football season, the SEC has finally decided that its sweet tooth in November needed to go.

If you are a fan of football, you know exactly what I'm talking about in terms of games played on the second-to-last weekend of the regular season in the Southeastern Conference.

These matchups have generally consisted of schools within the SEC playing lower-level FBS, or even FCS opponents, like Alabama versus UT-Chattanooga on November 21, 2026.

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In reality, these matchups are usually treated like an 'off-weekend' or even a Saturday where fans know that the starters will be out of the game by halftime.

Fans are the ones who take a hit, knowing that these dreadful games will be played before 'rivalry weekend', and having to still pay a ridiculous amount of money to attend these scheduled outings that most would think should be a less-expensive trip to see their favorite team play.

"That's the end of cupcake weekend. We never got that one sponsored, though," SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey jokingly noted on Tuesday evening.

Now that the league is moving from an eight-game to nine-game conference schedule, the SEC is hoping to capitalize on its new format.

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Getting away from these types of games being played late in the season is also a way for the conference to show their fans a little extra love, though media rights holder ESPN assuredly appreciates the SEC finally pulling the trigger.

"It's nine conference games and a recognition that you're populating more weekends," Greg Sankey said on Tuesday evening. "And so you really cannot have odd numbers of open or non-conference dates later in the season because then that has a backward domino effect in where you place games early. We ran into some of that in the '26 season."

SEC joins others like the Big Ten in removing their sweet tooth

Also known as "buy games," schools have used this weekend late in the season to either snag an extra win for bowl eligibility or add a few extra million to the athletic department budget, after their payouts to the schools who travel into town for a beating.

It's a move that also keeps up with the Big Ten, who have not watered down this weekend in November with a type of matchup that makes season ticket holders question why they are paying so much for their overall package.

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Unfortunately with a move to a nine-game conference schedule, some teams in the SEC have decided to 'mutually' part ways with upcoming power-four opponents, most recently with South Carolina and North Carolina canceling their home-and-home series.

There have been plenty others who have also decided that the additional conference game would be a catalyst to rearranging schedules, though there is still hope that schools will continue scheduling these marquee games in the future.

Next season, we will see Ohio State versus Texas, Oklahoma versus Michigan and Alabama versus Florida State, just to name a few.

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But, as for the cupcakes that took up the back portion of the month of November, those days are history following the upcoming season.

It's about time.

Mike Elko gives his brutally honest opinion about expanding the College Football Playoff

Tue, 26 May 2026 18:14:29 -0400

The College Football Playoff has been a resounding success in some areas, and a frustrating example of the modern sport in others.

Instead of decades of debate over which team with a similar record had the better résumé and bowl win, there's now a definitive national champion. But for a sport with more than 130 teams, finding the right balance of allowing more teams into the tournament without diminishing the importance of the regular season has been difficult.

Four teams wasn't enough, which led to 12. And even with 12, there are disagreements over whether deserving programs were excluded. Like last year's Notre Dame Fighting Irish team being left out in favor of the Alabama Crimson Tide.

As a result, this offseason has been dominated by talk of further expansion. Some schools and conferences, particularly the SEC, favor a 16-team field. The Big Ten, by contrast, has been successfully whipping up support for its 24-team proposal.

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There are pros, well, maybe, a pro, to a 24-team field, and many, many cons. Including devaluing rivalry games, limiting the importance of big regular-season matchups and risking the further degradation of non-conference schedules.

But what do the coaches think about more teams making it? Well, at this year's SEC Spring Meetings in Florida, Texas A&M Aggies head coach Mike Elko gave a refreshingly honest answer.

"I don’t know why you ask us," Elko told reporters. "It doesn’t matter what we think. I don’t know why we’re trying to become a trophy sport. What does Mike Elko want? 40. Then I won’t get fired."

"We don’t have to find a number that allows everyone to get in," he continued. "It’s OK for it to be hard to get into the Playoff. None of us (coaches) are answering for the good of the sport. We are answering for the good of ourselves."

He's right, of course. If coaches are now to be judged by College Football Playoff appearances, logically, they'd want to make it as easy as possible to make it. Though that raises the question, what happens when making it isn't enough?

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The "good" of the sport has been far down the list of priorities for most programs, conferences and interests for quite some time. College football is dominated by money, as most industries are. The more big games, the more television dollars there are to go around. More dollars means better facilities, recruiting, coaches, and on and on down the line. Few fans think that it would be "good" for the Playoff to expand to 24 or 40. But administrators aren't fans.

Given how many powerful forces are aligned behind 24 teams, it seems inevitable that's where the sport is headed. ESPN's objections aside. And as Elko points out, that, or even more teams, might mean better job security for coaches with the resources he has at a place like A&M.

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But what inevitably would happen in that scenario is that athletic directors and boosters will view making it to the Playoff as a bare minimum. Suddenly, just being selected as an 8-4 team won't be enough. We've already seen that play out with Penn State and James Franklin, who reached the semifinal one year, and was out of a job a few months later.

At least he's honest that most coaches are more concerned with their job security than the state of college football as a whole. The problem is that goes for just about everyone involved in the sport these days.

Three college football storylines to focus on INSTEAD of LSU coach Lane Kiffin this offseason

Fri, 15 May 2026 18:23:24 -0400

We have reached what is, perhaps, the trough of the college football offseason.

This is partly due to the time in between the end of last season and the start of next season being nearly identical and is also due to the fact that there is next to nothing of substance happening right now.

Spring games for most if not all teams are over and official visits for recruits won't start until after Memorial Day.

Hell, even media days seem like they might as well be decades away.

WOULD YOU WANT YOUR COLLEGE FOOTBALL COACH POSING FOR VANITY FAIR?

That hasn't stopped people from talking, though. And the main topic on everyone's tongue is LSU head coach Lane Kiffin.

Most of that is his own doing, but I have to say even I am guilty of mentioning the man's name when I maybe could have refrained.

What can I say, he's an easy target.

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Today, I'm here to tell you that offseason discourse doesn't have to center around the Lane Train.

There are plenty of engaging storylines to dive into this summer that won't include the Bayou Bengals and their carnival barker of a head coach even in the slightest.

Let's talk some college ball sans Kiffin, shall we?

FIVE SEC TRAP GAMES IN 2026 THAT COULD UPEND THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF RACE, FROM LSU TO GEORGIA

Playoff Expansion

If it wasn't for he-who-shall-not-be-named, I can almost guarantee the big talking point this offseason would be about whether the College Football Playoff should expand to 24 teams.

I'm sure you all know my thoughts on the matter at this point, but I was shocked to see that the discourse on social media wasn't quite as lopsided against expansion as I thought it would be.

The argument seems to splinter into two factions: people who view the regular season as sacred and people who want more programs to get a bite at the apple.

ESPN IS REPORTEDLY PREVENTING THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF FROM EXPANDING TO 24 TEAMS

While it's noble to want to include everyone in the postseason, it does reek of "participation trophy" vibes, and if you want college football to be this egalitarian society, you're probably new here and you shouldn't hold your breath.

College football has always been an aristocracy, and most fans like it that way.

Besides, NIL has done far more to level the playing field than an expanded playoff ever could.

Look at my darlings out in Lubbock, Texas Tech.

You're finally legally allowed to pay players, and all the Red Raiders have done is summon their bottomless pit of billionaires to start purchasing five-star edge rushers and offensive tackles.

Arch Manning Redemption Tour

Last year was supposed to be Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning's coronation.

ARCH MANNING, TEXAS SIT ATOP PRESEASON AP COLLEGE FOOTBALL POLL

Many fans thought he should have been starting over Quinn Ewers a season earlier, and bemoaned the fact that the prodigal nephew had to wait his turn in this instant gratification society we have.

2025 arrived, but Manning took a little time to morph into even a shell of what Texas fans expected him to look like.

By the end of the season, though, Arch had put together a hell of a second half of the season, ending with a brilliant performance against Michigan in their bowl game in which the Longhorns signal caller posted a QBR of 99.2 (they measure those bad boys on a scale that goes to 100, by the way).

Now that we've seen what Manning is truly capable of, the pressure will be on for him to deliver in 2026.

The redshirt junior is already the presumptive Heisman favorite heading into this season, and the Longhorns will be viewed as one of the teams with the shortest odds to win it all.

Will Manning's 2026 resemble the first half of 2025, where he looked like a deer in the headlights at times? Or will he look more like the version of himself during the second half of last year, throwing darts all over the field and knocking off top-ten teams like Vanderbilt and Texas A&M?

WHICH TEAMS HAVE THE TOUGHEST STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE HEADING INTO COLLEGE FOOTBALL SEASON?

There's only one way to find out.

Changing Of The Guard In Recruiting

I wrote about this a little earlier with UCLA's surprising jump into the top ten of recruiting rankings, but the talent acquisition landscape as a whole is starting to look a lot different than it has in years past.

Aside from UCLA, you have "new blood" Texas Tech knocking on the door of the top ten and boasting one of the highest class averages in the country, with three five-stars already in the fold.

What's even more noteworthy than who is in the top ten is who isn't, as traditional recruiting powers like Georgia, LSU, Alabama and Clemson are all comfortably sitting outside of the top 20!

Hell, even Texas finds itself on the outside looking in on the top ten.

LSU and Alabama are fine, both already having at least one five-star commit in their class and their issue being more of a quantity than a quality thing, but Georgia specifically may have some self-evaluating to do.

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The Dawgs lost three blue-chip commits in the last month, including five-star cornerback Donte Wright, who flipped to the Miami Hurricanes less than a week ago.

Georgia still has a pair of five-stars in the fold and plenty of room to grow, but this is an uncharacteristic spot for them to be in this far into the cycle.

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Does this represent a changing of the guard? A new era of recruiting where non-traditional powers will start to rise up and shrink the talent gap?

It's too early to tell, but it's definitely something to keep an eye on as the recruiting season soldiers on through the doldrums of summer.

Curt Cignetti reveals how working for Nick Saban changed everything: 'Every day was 4th-and-1'

Thu, 14 May 2026 11:06:32 -0400

If you have followed OutKick at all over the last six months, you'll know just how fond I am of Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti.

His two-year run in Bloomington has been so impressive, I already believe he's on the short list of "greatest coaches of all time."

There are very few who could have orchestrated the turnaround he pulled off with the Hoosiers, given the dearth of resources and interest in the program when he arrived.

Cignetti has Indiana as a mainstay in the national championship conversation, and if you had told me that even five years ago, I would have laughed you out of the room.

IT'S NOT TOO LATE, YOU'RE NOT TOO OLD: NATIONAL CHAMPION CURT CIGNETTI JUST PROVED IT

Naturally, Coach Cig owes his success to someone, but who?

When he sat down with Josh Pate earlier this week, he mentioned a familiar name that got him up to speed on what it meant to be a championship-caliber coach very early in his career.

Pate broke down how then-Alabama coach Nick Saban changed his perspective on "process oriented thinking" on a speaking tour during his first year in Tuscaloosa when Cignetti revealed he was on that tour, and the lessons being imparted on Pate also rubbed off on him.

NICK SABAN REVEALS 'BIGGEST MISTAKE' OF ILLUSTRIOUS COACHING CAREER

"I went with him in '07, part of his original staff. I just learned so much," Cignetti said.

"He had a philosophy, and he had been a head coach 13 or 14 years by then... and he could just lay it out there where it made so much sense."

Cignetti said even from day one on the job with the Crimson Tide, Saban had a detailed plan for everything.

EX-ALABAMA STAR DAMIEN HARRIS EXPLAINS WHY CRIMSON TIDE DOESN'T WANT TEAMS TO FEAR THEM

"After one year with coach [Saban] I felt like I had learned more about how to run a program than the previous 28 as an assistant."

The sense of urgency to win every day stuck with Cignetti more than almost anything.

"Every day was 4th-and-1 one with coach Saban," he said.

"But that's the way it had to be to fight complacency and find the edge on a daily basis and be as good as you can be."

When you hear Cignetti talk about the wisdom he gained with Saban, it's easy to see why he's such a successful head coach.

But being around Nick Saban and actually retaining that wisdom don't always go hand in hand.

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Plenty of coaches who have been assistants under Saban have had middling and forgettable careers as head coaches.

The fact that Cignetti was able to apply Saban's teachings - at a non-traditional power, no less - is all the more impressive.

When Saban retired in early 2024, it left a huge void in the college football community.

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It might sound outlandish, but Curt Cignetti could very well be the closest thing we have to prime Nick Saban in the game today.

The results speak for themselves. He wins, just Google him.

CFP, NCAA Tournament expansion both draw backlash, but one is definitively worse than the other

Fri, 08 May 2026 17:50:58 -0400

There has been much conversation and consternation lately over the expansion of both the College Football Playoff and NCAA Tournament.

Judging by the reactions of fans and pundits alike on social media, the decision to expand the fields of both postseasons in the "money sports" of college athletics has been met with nearly universal disgust.

While the NCAA Tournament has officially ballooned to 76 teams, the CFP committee and powers that be are discussing opening their field to a 24-team playoff.

Both of these are gross to anyone who is a fan of tradition in college sports (as you are aware, I am one of them), but, in my opinion, one of these is clearly worse than the other.

PROPOSAL FOR HISTORIC NCAA TOURNAMENT EXPANSION REACHES FINAL STAGES: REPORT

Yes, expanding the NCAA Tournament (yet again) is a slap in the face to fans everywhere and a blatant money grab, but it doesn't come close to how catastrophic a 24-team College Football Playoff would be to the sport of college football.

In the end, it's a numbers game.

March Madness going from 68 to 76 teams represents a roughly 12% increase in teams added to the field, hardly a drop in the bucket for an already-bloated postseason tournament.

When you compare that to the 100% increase a 24-team College Football Playoff would represent, we aren't even talking about the same game anymore.

The regular season in college football also has way fewer games than college basketball's regular season, and, as my colleague Ian Miller pointed out, a 24-team field would just dilute a once-great regular season more than it already has.

It's a zero-sum game. If the College Football Playoff expands, the urgency of the regular season diminishes by comparison, and in a sport that had, inarguably, the greatest regular season in sports, that's a huge blow.

Think about how badly teams like James Madison and Tulane got smoked in their respective playoff games. Now imagine teams like Virginia, Georgia Tech and Navy in the postseason as well.

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As I've discussed in the past, college basketball is more conducive to upsets in a single-elimination tournament format.

The advanced talent profile along the lines of scrimmage for "the big boys" alone makes it nearly impossible for a Cinderella to make a deep run in the CFP.

Meanwhile, all it takes is a hot day from beyond the arc for David to sink Goliath in the month of March.

The aggressive and expedited nature in which the playoff has expanded is concerning as well.

Just a few years ago, we had a four-team playoff (which many fans were perfectly fine with, mind you). How we got to 24 teams in less than half a decade just doesn't sit right with me.

While the NCAA Tournament becoming a 76-team bracket sucks, it happened after a decade and a half of adding another four teams to the Big Dance.

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Expansion is bad news any way you slice it for both sports, but acting like we are dealing with the same problems is ignorant.

This will fall on deaf ears, because the powers that be haven't taken the fans into account when making big decisions in quite some time (the real, passionate fans, anyway).

Run from it. Dread it. Expansion comes for us all the same.

Here's why the coaches association's 24-team College Football Playoff could ruin the sport

Thu, 07 May 2026 17:37:58 -0400

When college football first moved to a playoff format, there were just four teams included. That limited field created an endless series of arguments as to the criteria and selection process for the selected teams.

Almost immediately, discussions started to expand the field to include more teams and, the theory went, end more of those arguments, make the tournament more exciting, and of course, increase television revenue. The 12-team field has, for the most part, achieved those goals.

There are on-campus playoff games, generally creating a compelling, exciting atmosphere with a high-stakes, winner-take-all matchup in front of home fans. There are weeks' worth of games to watch and follow, sometimes pitting conference rivals against each other, or allowing for direct comparisons of top teams in different conferences.

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Still, with all the positives, the arguments around the selection process have not changed. The 2025 field being a near-perfect example. The Alabama Crimson Tide were blown out in the SEC Championship Game, yet still made the playoff with three losses, ahead of a two-loss Notre Dame team that had won 10 games in a row. Two Group of Five teams made the field, before being promptly demolished by Power Five teams in Oregon and Ole Miss.

That’s inevitably led to more discussion of expansions, and competing theories as to how best to expand. The Big Ten and SEC couldn’t agree on their preferred solution in the offseason, but the American Football Coaches Association has now come out in favor of a 24-team field, along with other changes. And that, unquestionably, is the worst possible answer.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF COMMITTEE SPARKS FRENZIED DEBATE AS NOTRE DAME KEPT OUT OF FINAL FIELD

While their recommendations are not binding, nor do they carry any specific authority, it’s still a powerful and influential group coming out in favor of a substantially larger field. The Big Ten Conference reportedly also prefers a 24-team format, while the SEC wants to expand to 16 teams instead.

The SEC’s right, and the Big Ten and the coaching association is wrong.

Many critics have said that the current schedule and format drag on too deep into January, with good reason. The 2026 National Championship Game was on Jan. 19, when the sport traditionally wrapped up in the first week of January. The coaches association wants to fix this by ending conference championship games and compressing the break between the end of the regular season and the start of the playoff. That makes sense; conference championship games serve little purpose in the modern college football landscape, and the traditional break in December had mostly existed for academic reasons. But nobody pretends academics matter for college football players in 2026, and shortening the lull could maintain momentum and move the National Championship up a few weeks.

But where they’re wrong is that 24 teams is simply too many. Not just because it would extend the playoff schedule significantly, but because it would include many teams that have no business participating in the College Football Playoff.

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In 2025, for example, the committee ranked an 8-4 Iowa team at No. 23. Arizona was ranked No. 17. Georgia Tech was No. 22. In 2024, UNLV finished the regular season at No. 24. Syracuse was No. 21 at 9-3. Mississippi State was No. 22 at 8-4 in 2022. That team lost by a combined score of 75-25 to Alabama and Georgia.

If there are already concerns over the lack of competitiveness in games against Group of Five teams, how would that be improved by including teams that lost four games?

But that’s not even the biggest issue. What a 24-team format would also do is diminish the importance of the best regular season in sports. What makes college football special is that each Saturday, there are games that have season-changing stakes in a way that the NFL can’t match. The 12-team format already reduced some of that impact, but it hasn’t eliminated it entirely. A 24-team format would.

We’re already seeing how the expanded field has changed non-conference scheduling for the worse, perhaps permanently. The USC-Notre Dame rivalry collapsed, in part, because both sides realized they had a better chance of reaching the playoff by avoiding each other. Many other big non-conference matchups have been canceled as the SEC moves to nine conference games. Imagine how much worse that scheduling would get if the field expands to 24?

For example, if you guarantee yourself three non-conference wins with cupcake opponents, all a big SEC or Big Ten program needs to reach the playoffs is to finish the conference schedule at 6-3 to essentially guarantee a spot. Even four losses, a 5-4 conference record, might be enough in some seasons. So why risk the additional loss by playing a tougher non-conference game?

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Then there’s the other problem: the end-of-the-season rivalry games could be completely changed. Take, say, Ohio State-Michigan. Both teams hypothetically could enter the game at 9-2 and in the top 15 in the rankings. A loss wouldn’t matter for either side, since it would be viewed as a "quality" loss for strength of schedule purposes. Why would you risk your starters in a game with no benefit? Sure, maybe they play the first half, but with only seeding at stake, why push it?

A 16-team field makes more sense, if not leaving it at 12. Sixteen teams would allow for more teams in the SEC and Big Ten to make the field despite their tough schedules, while also incorporating Group of Five teams who deserve a chance too. But 24 goes too far, dilutes the field and hurts the regular season.

Five SEC trap games in 2026 that could upend the college football playoff race, from LSU to Georgia

Tue, 05 May 2026 15:56:53 -0400

Any college football fan worth their salt knows a thing or two about "trap games."

Also known as "lookahead games," trap games are tricky spots on a team's schedule where the more talented team is usually overlooking their current opponent because of an upcoming game against a more significant opponent.

They may be looking past a lesser opponent in anticipation of a bitter rival that they haven't beaten in a while, or maybe it's a team they feel like they need to dispatch in order to gain the inside track to a conference championship.

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Either way, overlooking anyone in a league as competitive as the SEC is a recipe for disaster, but every team is guilty of it from time to time.

Right now, we are, by definition, technically committing the mortal sin of "looking ahead," but I thought it would be a fun offseason exercise to highlight five potential trap games that could shake the very foundation of the 2026 SEC season.

Now that we've gotten the preamble out of the way, let's dive in.

5. Mississippi State at LSU (Week 7)

We start off with one that is a bit off the radar, but aren't all trap games "off the radar" by their very nature?

Anyway, the LSU Tigers will have their bright, shiny new toy of a head coach in Lane Kiffin at their disposal, and if all goes according to plan, the Bayou Bengals will be right in the thick of the SEC and College Football Playoff race at this point in the season.

LSU will have an early test in the form of a non-conference game against Clemson, and two very worthy opponents in Texas A&M and Kiffin's old flame, the Ole Miss Rebels.

They also finish the season on a four-game run of having to face Alabama, Texas, Tennessee and rival Arkansas.

Sandwiched in between all those Goliaths is lowly Mississippi State, led by third-year coach Jeff Lebby.

There is a good chance Kiffin and crew view this as a spot to relax in between the two peaks of their season, but that would be foolish for a multitude of reasons.

For starters, Kiffin cultivated a bit of a reputation while in Oxford of dropping at least one game a season that he shouldn't have (see: 2024 Kentucky), and although the talent profile has ratcheted up considerably for him in Baton Rouge, there's a chance the "lookahead" is still in his DNA.

For the Bulldogs' part, they have been a tough out for ranked teams dating back to last season, as they knocked off 12th-ranked Arizona State and took both 15th-ranked Tennessee and 22nd-ranked Texas to overtime before gracefully bowing out.

Keep your eye on this one, as things could get hairy if LSU and Kiffin don't respect their opponent.

4. Ole Miss at Florida (Week 4)

From one end of the Magnolia State to the other, the Ole Miss Rebels will be looking to prove that their success in the first half of the 2020s was more than just the product of having Lane Kiffin as their coach, and luckily for them, they will have a chance to prove it in Week 3, when the Tigers of LSU come to town.

The problem with such an emotional showdown is that there is always another game to play afterward, and the Rebels will be hitting the road to take on the Florida Gators in The Swamp.

Any game would probably be a trap game the week after "welcoming" the coach who burned you for supposedly greener pastures, but playing Florida in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium presents a unique challenge.

Rebels fans probably remember their last trip there, a 2024 upset loss that all but knocked their team out of the Playoff picture, but that wasn't an isolated incident.

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Even with an underachieving coach like Billy Napier at the helm, the Gators knocked at least one top-10 team off its perch each season he was in Gainesville (2022 Utah, 2023 Tennessee, 2024 Ole Miss and 2025 Texas).

The Gators, shockingly, have a slight talent advantage over the Rebels when going purely off of recruiting classes and retention efforts, and that coupled with the emotional exhaustion from the week prior and the magic of The Swamp will make this a classic trap game for Ole Miss.

3. Arkansas at Texas (Week 12)

Yes, I know this one is technically a rivalry game, but hear me out.

Wedged in between meetings with the LSU Tigers and Texas A&M Aggies, the Texas Longhorns will welcome the Arkansas Razorbacks to Austin.

The Hogs will be breaking in first-year head coach Ryan Silverfield and will be operating at a significant talent disadvantage, but that might be to Texas' detriment.

The Longhorns will no doubt be playing the 2026 season with the burden of expectations placed upon them, and a win over LSU the previous week will only make that regular-season finale with the Aggies all the more important.

What better spot to jump up and bite them than the week in between two of the biggest games of their season?

To their credit, the Razorbacks were plucky last year against every ranked opponent on their schedule not named Notre Dame, so it's not like Texas is going against some FCS school as a tune-up in between physical matchups against playoff-caliber teams.

I'm not saying Arkansas will win this one, but don't be shocked if you check your phone and this is a one-possession game late in the second half.

2. Kentucky at Oklahoma (Week 7)

I couldn't talk Texas without throwing Oklahoma into the mix, and Texas is a big reason for this game being on the list in the first place.

Much like the Longhorns, the Sooners will have sky-high expectations placed upon them heading into the 2026 season, and that neutral-site rivalry game against Texas could be the launch point for a great season.

But the week after hasn't been too kind to Oklahoma, historically.

Since Brent Venables took the head coaching job in Norman back in 2022, the game after the Red River Shootout has been a shaky one at best for the Sooners, including a sleepy two-point victory over a below .500 UCF Knights team in 2023 and a blowout loss to South Carolina the following year.

Kentucky will have new coach Will Stein manning the headset, which could mean some renewed vigor in the Bluegrass State, so the Sooners would be wise not to let Texas "beat them twice" in this one.

Oklahoma faces a murderer's row of games to start their season, including a Week 2 showdown against Michigan, on the road against Georgia and the aforementioned Red River game in Dallas.

If the Sooners think they can view this date on the calendar as a chance to catch their breath, I don't think it will be that easy.

1. Vanderbilt at Georgia (Week 5)

For all of his accomplishments as the head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs, there is one program that continues to stick in the craw of Kirby Smart.

The two-time national championship-winning head coach is just 2-7 against the Alabama Crimson Tide in his tenure in Athens, and he hasn't fared much better against the Tide since Nick Saban retired, sporting a 1-2 record against Kalen DeBoer after he took over for the legendary Saban in Tuscaloosa.

But why am I talking this much about Alabama if Georgia plays Vandy in Week 5?

Well, as you can probably guess, this game falls right before the Dawgs travel to T-Town to take on the Tide, and Smart will no doubt have that game circled with every red Sharpie he owns.

Vanderbilt loses a ton of talent from last year's upstart 10-win team, including quarterback and Heisman finalist Diego Pavia and second-round draft pick Eli Stowers, but Clark Lea's squad should not be overlooked.

If the Bulldogs get caught looking ahead to their showdown with Bama (and Oklahoma the week after that), it could spell trouble for Kirby and the boys.

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Smart wants that Alabama game badly, and will likely be game-planning for it weeks in advance, but will that come with a cost?

The Commodores have slain giants in recent memory, and a little schedule luck could have them in position to do it all again in 2026.

College baseball game delayed after umpire takes a scary foul ball straight to the mask

Fri, 01 May 2026 20:10:45 -0400

There was a scary moment during Friday's college baseball game between Vanderbilt and Alabama when the umpire took a blistering foul tip straight to the head.

This was the second game of the two SEC teams' series at Sewell-Thomas Stadium in Tuscaloosa, and in the bottom of the second inning, Alabama was already up 3-0.

Alabama's Brennan Holt took a swing at the 1-0 offering and got a piece of it, but that sent it straight into the face of umpire Scott Kennedy, and he went down hard.

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According to The Tennessean, trainers from both teams rushed out to assist Kennedy, and that caused a 15-minute delay in the game.

Fortunately, he was eventually able to walk off the field under his own power and was replaced by one of the other umpires behind the plate.

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After the game — which the Crimson Tide won handily, 5-0 — Alabama head coach Rob Vaughn sent his best to Kennedy and said that he had heard from his team's trainers that he was going to be all right.

Man, this is just one of those reminders that being a home plate umpire is no joke.

Believe me, I like goofing on them when they mess up as much as the next guy, especially in MLB's ABS era, but it takes some serious stones to get behind the plate.

Most of us would have no problem getting behind the plate for a Little League game, but once you get to the high school, college and pro ranks, the number of volunteers would likely start to shrink.

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I don't think I'd want to stand back there, not with how hard pitchers can throw and how hard batters can swing.

So hopefully things are going to be OK for Scott Kennedy because, man, that was scary.

Did Alabama doom themselves to mediocrity with Kalen DeBoer extension?

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:03:36 -0400

They always say, at least in college football, that it's hard to be "the guy who follows the guy," meaning it's never easy to replace a coach who has had immense success at a program with high expectations.

How about being "the guy who follows THE guy?"

That's what Kalen DeBoer walked into in Tuscaloosa over two years ago when the legendary Nick Saban retired from coaching, and the task hasn't gotten any less daunting as he enters an all-important year three at the University of Alabama.

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For his efforts so far, though, DeBoer was just awarded a contract extension last week that made him one of the highest-paid coaches in the country.

After seeing this news, I immediately thought to myself, "Did Bama just pull a Florida State?"

For the uninitiated, FSU extended its head coach, Mike Norvell, a few seasons prior — ironically enough, — when he was linked to the Alabama job following Saban's departure.

Norvell, to that point, had earned a fat contract extension, at least on the surface.

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The Seminoles were rolling, posting a 23-4 record in the previous two seasons and coming off an ACC Championship and Orange Bowl appearance.

After rumors swirled that Norvell would be Alabama's pick to replace Saban, Florida State AD Michael Alford swooped in and extended his coach.

Since that pay bump, Norvell and the 'Noles have gone 7-17, including a disastrous 2024 campaign in which FSU went 2-10 and only beat one FBS team.

These days, the powers that be in Tallahassee are trying everything they can to offload Norvell and his massive albatross of a contract.

It's a classic case of buyer's remorse, but is Alabama in a similar boat with DeBoer?

Yes and no. Let me explain.

Let's start with the fact that DeBoer is not Norvell, nor is Bama FSU.

DeBoer had way more of a track record for turning programs around before being hired by Alabama, including guiding the Washington Huskies to the national championship game the year prior.

Alabama is also way better off than FSU is, specifically from an infrastructure and resource standpoint.

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All that is to say, I don't see Bama and DeBoer flaming out the way FSU and Norvell have these past few years.

I can't envision any scenario where the Crimson Tide go 2-10 or even 5-7 under DeBoer, but that also doesn't mean there won't be buyer's remorse in Tuscaloosa as well.

It all comes down to expectations vs. results.

Will the Crimson Tide bottom out and miss a bowl game as long as Kalen DeBoer is their head coach?

Not likely.

But will he take them to the heights that they want to reach and frequently did reach under Saban?

Also not likely.

Kalen DeBoer is a good coach. In fact, he's a very good coach. But Nick Saban is, without question, the single greatest, most accomplished head coach in the history of college football. Trying to find anyone who is going to replicate what he did at Alabama would be a fool's errand for multiple reasons.

For starters, as we have established, DeBoer is not Saban. But also, college football is a lot different than it was when Saban was running roughshod over the rest of the country. The proliferation of talent alone has made both the SEC and college football in general a lot more competitive than it was a decade ago.

Expecting DeBoer — or anyone else — to pick up where Saban left off in the 2010s is unfair to both DeBoer and the Crimson Tide fan base.

To his credit, DeBoer has been doing his best to keep up the standard in Tuscaloosa.

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The recruiting operation has barely flinched, as Bama has reeled in its fair share of five-stars and top five classes since DeBoer's arrival in January 2024.

And while he has had his fair share of head-scratchers on the field (2024 Vandy and 2025 FSU come to mind), Alabama has several wins over ranked opponents and holds a winning record over Georgia during DeBoer's truncated tenure.

That is all well and good, but at the end of the day, DeBoer will be judged — fairly or unfairly — by the amount of SEC and national championships he wins while coaching the Crimson Tide. That is the standard, the expectation in Tuscaloosa. And if he doesn't deliver, this coaching hire and subsequent extension will be seen as a massive failure.

Many programs would kill for what Bama has accomplished the last two years under DeBoer: a 20-8 record, an SEC Championship Game appearance, three straight top-five recruiting classes, an 8-4 record against top-25 teams and a win in a College Football Playoff game.

But Alabama isn't like many programs in the country.

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This year will be crucial for DeBoer, and if he doesn't get it done - meaning win the SEC and/or make a CFP semifinal - the murmurs will intensify into full-on shouts for his job.

No one knows that better than DeBoer, and he knew it the second he stepped in to replace THE guy.

College football national champion who wore wigs in fraud scheme pleads guilty to charges

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 07:18:43 -0400

Former Alabama Crimson Tide defensive tackle Luther Davis pleaded guilty on Monday to defrauding investors by impersonating NFL players.

Davis, 37, entered guilty pleas in federal court in Atlanta to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges. CJ Evins, 29, who was accused of executing the scheme with Davis, also pleaded guilty to the two charges.

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The men used fake bank accounts and email accounts to convince lenders they were either acting on behalf of professional athletes or were the athletes themselves, Assistant U.S. Attorney C. Brock Brockington said in court. They also sought to impersonate higher-profile players with bigger contracts, he said.

Davis wore disguises on multiple video calls with potential investors in 2024 and pretended to be three different NFL players. Davis wore makeup and a wig once, a wig a second time and a do-rag style head covering on a third call, according to prosecutors.

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The fraud scheme netted $20 million from fraudulent loans that Davis and Evins used to buy real estate, jewelry and cars, according to the complaint. Security for a players’ union learned that fraudulent player contracts had been used as collateral, Brockington said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta filed a criminal complaint against Davis and Evins last month.

Davis and Evins both had no comment as they left court.

Davis was a part of the Crimson Tide’s national championship team in 2010.

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Yahoo Sports reported in 2013 that Davis was allegedly acting as an intermediary between college football stars and NFL agents and financial advisers. Davis declined to comment on the report at the time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Rams make surprise first-round move, take Alabama QB Ty Simpson

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 21:55:32 -0400

One of the most intriguing stories entering the first round of the NFL Draft was where Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson might land. Well, fans got their answer sooner than they expected.

The Los Angeles Rams surprisingly selected Simpson with the No. 13 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.

The selection isn't completely out of left field and is arguably the best-case scenario for Simpson. The Rams have Matthew Stafford as their starter for 2026, but Stafford has flirted with the idea of retirement each of the past two offseasons. It's clear the clock is ticking on his NFL career.

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Now, Simpson gets to sit behind one of the NFL's best veteran quarterbacks, learn the position while adapting to life in the NFL, and not face immediate pressure to succeed. Additionally, the Rams are one of the most well-run franchises in the league right now. Sean McVay is an elite head coach who led the team to a Super Bowl victory to cap the 2021 season and just had the team within one win of another Super Bowl berth before falling to the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship.

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The most surprising aspect is the Rams looking toward the future, quite frankly. This is a team that has had no problem trading away first-round picks to make its team the best it can be each season. It seemed most likely the team would use the No. 13 pick to improve its team for next season, which could be Stafford's last. Instead, the team decided to put itself in position for Stafford's retirement without skipping a beat.

There were several surprises in the first 13 picks of the 2026 NFL Draft: the Cardinals taking Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love at No. 3, the Titans selecting Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate at No. 4, the Kansas City Chiefs trading up to take LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane at No. 6 and even the Cowboys trading up one spot to make sure they drafted Ohio State safety Caleb Downs at No. 11.

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But the Rams completely abandoning their recent strategy (usually trading away first-round picks and loading up for now) to select Stafford's heir apparent is easily the biggest early shock of the 2026 NFL Draft.

Alabama QB Ty Simpson says faith in Jesus Christ fuels confidence heading into 2026 NFL Draft

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 22:12:28 -0400

Confidence exudes from Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson when he’s on the field, and that carried over to the pre-NFL Draft process.

Simpson has steadfastly supported himself when asked if he can be a starting quarterback in this league, and he feels he has the first-round talent to do so.

Before he learns where he goes in the NFL Draft, whether it’s Thursday night in the first round or beyond, Simpson spoke with ӣ��Ƶ Digital about where his patented confidence comes from.

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"I think it goes with my faith," he said, while discussing his partnership with Toyota ahead of the draft. "My faith is very important to me. I fully believe that my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins, and knowing that football is just a minor stepping stone in why I’m on this Earth. I feel like I’m on this Earth for a bigger reason, to get people together to spread the word. The fact that I can do that on a huge stage, the Lord has blessed me in so many ways, that just gives me confidence.

"I get to play a kid’s game for fun, but I also know that everybody’s watching every move that I make. Understanding that I can impact so many people’s lives by spreading the good news."

Simpson, who spent all four of his college seasons at Alabama, embodies the "Faith, Family, Football" motto, as he also talked about his hometown of Martin, Tennessee.

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No matter where his NFL journey may take him, he will always be repping the place that made him who he is.

"I think that being able to impact my community is something I really look forward to because I know how much my community means to me," he said when asked about charitable work off the field in the city he ends up in. "Martin, Tennessee is a special place. It’s where I grew up. The 713-area code, we take pride in it. We always say in our household, ‘Martin made.’ So, it’s something where I look forward to, wherever I end up, to be able to give back to my community."

Simpson showcased his desire to give back Wednesday night in Pittsburgh, joining fellow NFL Draft prospect wide receiver Jordyn Tyson, Steelers receiver Michael Pittman Jr., and members of the U.S. Women’s National Flag Football team at Toyota’s NFL Draft Flag Football Training Camp for Pittsburgh-area high school girls. He was wearing the coach’s hat, helping coordinate drills and share some of his quarterback wisdom before preparing for the draft on Thursday night.

"My sister was a basketball player and softball player growing up, so it’s really exciting and awesome to see Toyota put a spotlight on girls in sports," Simpson added.

Toyota also covered NFL FLAG fall registration kit fees for current players in the Pittsburgh Flag Football League coed youth and high school girls leagues as part of this activation before the live draft in the city.

Simpson waited until his fourth season to finally take the reins of the Alabama offense, and he made the best of the situation. He threw for 3,567 yards with 28 touchdowns and only five interceptions across 15 games for the Crimson Tide. But the 6-foot-2, 211-pound quarterback, who has gotten comparisons to Mac Jones, a fellow Alabama alum, is all over the place in terms of mock drafts.

In short, not even Simpson has an idea where he might end up when the draft begins. But no matter where he goes, Simpson knows he can make an impact.

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And it starts with his faith.

"The first round is great, [but] any time you get drafted is great. There’s so many different players that are great at my position that are from each different round of the NFL. So, I’m in the mindset of wherever I go, whenever that will be, I’m gonna put my best foot forward. Trust the process and be the best player I can be."

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Luther Davis allegedly wore disguises to pose as NFL players in multi-million dollar loan fraud scheme

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 16:09:41 -0400

A former college football player has been accused of pretending to be NFL stars in order to make nearly $20 million.

Luther Davis, who won the 2009 national championship with Alabama, has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Court documents obtained by AL.com say that Davis disguised himself with wigs and makeup to pose at Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix, free agent tight end David Njoku, and Green Bay Packers safety Xavier McKinney, also an Alabama alum.

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Davis and a partner, CJ Evins, "executed a scheme to fraudulently obtain millions of dollars in loans from multiple lenders … by impersonating football players and falsely claiming those players were seeking multi-million dollar loans" from May 2023 until around October 2024, the documents said, according to the outlet.

The duo allegedly opened fraudulent bank accounts and email addresses to continue their disguises and even obtained fake IDs to pose as the players.

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Davis and Evins are slated for a hearing on April 27 when they are expected to plead guilty. They each face 20 years in prison.

According to The Guardian, the duo obtained Loans of over $4 million to impersonate both Njoku and McKinney.

"Unbeknownst to the broker and the lender, none of the players who were supposedly receiving the loans attended any of these closings," the filing read. "Rather, defendant Davis dressed in disguise and impersonated the players, providing fake identification documents to convince the notary."

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Davis played in 45 games for the Crimson Tide, making 47 tackles. He originally committed to LSU but switched to the SEC rival.

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Prosecutors say they found 'drug transactions' after Alabama player's arrest, searched his trash: report

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 17:02:31 -0400

Alabama guard Aden Holloway was arrested Monday for possession of marijuana and allegedly had 2.1 pounds in his apartment.

Prosecutors said they found evidence of "drug transactions" on his phone, according to ESPN,

"Holloway had smaller denominations in his possession, which is indicative of narcotic sales. The marijuana was in separate packing, from plastic bags to prepackaged marijuana to vacuum sealed bags," a complaint said, via ESPN.

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The complaint added that "people [texted] that they were going to get up with him after the season."

According to ESPN, police found $400 that was located in a jacket during a search of his home. The search, which included an inspection of Holloway's trash, came after police received "complaints," ESPN said, citing the search warrant.

However, Holloway's attorney told ESPN the search was unconstitutional, and he would fight to ensure that prosecutors cannot use what they found in the legal proceedings.

Holloway, 21, was arrested and charged with first-degree possession of marijuana and failure to affix a tax stamp. He was transported to the Tuscaloosa County Jail Monday at 9:48 a.m. and later released at 10:45 a.m. His bond was set at $5,000.

Holloway was a key piece of Alabama’s success this season, averaging 16.8 points per game as the team’s second-leading scorer. In his last game, an SEC Tournament quarterfinal loss to Ole Miss, he dropped 18 points in the 80-79 defeat.

No. 4 Alabama moved on to the second round of March Madness without one of its best players after defeating No. 13 Hofstra Friday. They will face No. 4 Texas Tech on Sunday for a trip to the Sweet 16.

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But head coach Nate Oats hinted it was unlikely Holloway would return to the team for the second weekend if they get there.

The Crimson Tide entered the tournament as one of the more successful squads of late, winning nine of 11 games before the tournament.

It’s worth noting that, as of June 2024, the NCAA Division I Council removed marijuana from its banned substances list for championships and postseason football.

Holloway is in his third season with the Crimson Tide, returning to the starting role he had during his freshman year in the 2023-24 campaign.

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Holloway shot 48.1% from the field, including 43.8% from 3-point territory, while dishing out 3.8 assists and grabbing 2.8 rebounds per game.

ӣ��Ƶ' Scott Thompson contributed to this report.

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Alabama 'preparing to play' NCAA Tournament without star guard Aden Holloway after felony drug arrest

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 12:20:04 -0400

The Alabama men’s basketball team will be without star player Aden Holloway as they open the NCAA Tournament against Hofstra on Friday after the star guard was arrested on a felony drug charge earlier this week.

Head coach Nate Oats said the team is "preparing to play without" Holloway after the 21-year-old sophomore was arrested Monday morning on a first-degree Class C felony charge of marijuana possession, not for personal use, and failure to affix a tax stamp.

"We got standards in our program and we've got ways we've held our guys accountable. And we try to keep everything in-house, obviously some of the situations you can't, and this is one of those," Oats said on his radio show Monday, via ESPN.

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"We found out about what was going on this morning, I found out this morning. I guess it all went down this morning. And we had to suspend him pending the investigation. "

Holloway, who is in his second season with the Crimson Tide and is second on the team in scoring with an average of 16.8 points a game, was arrested after agents with the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force searched a residence near Alabama’s campus.

Tuscaloosa police spokesperson Stephanie Taylor told The Associated Press that during the search, law enforcement "recovered more than a pound of marijuana, paraphernalia and cash."

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"The University is aware of the allegations and is working to gather more information," the school said in a statement. "The student has been removed from campus pending further investigation by the UA Office of Student Conduct."

If found guilty, Holloway could face up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $15,000 for the possession charge alone.

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"We're certainly disappointed in his behavior. But that being said, we still love him, he's still our guy," Oats continued Monday. "We're helping him get the help that he needs and we're going to continue to help him whatever way we can. But as far as our team goes, I thought we had a great practice, we're preparing to play without him this weekend."

As the No. 4 seed, Alabama opens its tournament play Friday against Hofstra.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Alabama basketball star arrested on marijuana charge days before March Madness tipoff

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 16:51:24 -0400

Just days before their start in the NCAA Tournament, the Alabama Crimson Tide is dealing with an off-court legal issue with one of its starting players.

Guard Aden Holloway was arrested on Monday for possession of marijuana, said Stephanie Taylor, a Tuscaloosa Police Department spokesperson, to the New York Post.

The spokesperson said more than a pound of marijuana, paraphernalia and cash were found after agents with the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force conducted a search of a residence on Monday morning.

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Holloway, 21, was arrested and charged with first-degree possession of marijuana and failure to affix a tax stamp. He was transported to Tuscaloosa County jail on Monday at 9:48 a.m. and later released at 10:45 a.m. His bond was $5,000.

It is currently unclear if the Crimson Tide will be disciplining Holloway before they take on Hofstra in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday in Tampa, Florida.

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The Crimson Tide went 23-9 this season, earning them a No. 4 seed in the Midwest Region, where they hope to get off on the right foot against the No. 13 Pride, which went 24-10 this year, at Benchmark International Arena.

Holloway was a key piece of Alabama’s success this season, averaging 16.8 points per game as the team’s second-leading scorer. His last game, an SEC Tournament quarterfinals loss to Ole Miss last Friday, saw him drop 18 points in the 80-79 defeat.

The Crimson Tide come into the tournament as one of the more successful squads of late, winning nine of their last 11 games. This is the time of year to get hot, and Holloway has played a part in that recent stretch.

It’s worth noting that, as of June 2024, the NCAA Division I Council removed marijuana from its banned substances list for championships and postseason football.

Holloway is in his third season with the Crimson Tide, where he returned to the starting role he had during his freshman year in the 2023-24 campaign.

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Holloway shot 48.1% from the field, as well as 43.8% from three-point territory, while dishing out 3.8 assists and grabbing 2.8 rebounds per game.

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Judge blocks former NBA Draft prospect from playing for Alabama in potential precedent-setting ruling

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 21:06:10 -0500

A potential groundbreaking decision was made in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Monday that could change NCAA eligibility forever.

A judge denied Charles Bediako’s motion for a preliminary injunction that would allow him to continue playing basketball for the Alabama Crimson Tide after he returned despite declaring for the 2023 NBA Draft.

So, after just five games, Bediako’s season is over, per AL.com’s Nick Kelly.

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"Common sense won a round today," NCAA president Charlie Baker said in a statement, per Yahoo Sports. "The court saw this for what it is: an attempt by professionals to pivot back to college and crowd out the next generation of students. College sports are for students, not for people who already walked away to go pro and now want to hit the ‘undo’ button at the expense of a teenager’s dream.

"While we’re glad the court upheld the rules our members actually want, one win doesn’t fix the national mess of state laws. It’s time for Congress to stop watching from the sidelines and help us provide some actual stability."

Bediako filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in order to return to his Crimson Tide squad, where he last played during the 2022-23 season. The 7-foot center declared for the NBA Draft after that year, but he went unselected in the two rounds.

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Bediako eventually spent time in the G League over the past three seasons, which includes six games for the Motor City Cruise this season.

However, he was granted a temporary restraining order in January, allowing him to return to Alabama to play for his old team despite the NCAA initially denying the Crimson Tide’s request to have him on the roster.

Bediako isn’t the first player whose attempt to head back to college after going pro hasn’t gone swimmingly.

James Nnaji, who was actually taken in the same draft as Bediako, shocked everyone when he committed to Baylor. While he hadn’t played in an NBA game, Nnaji was the first former draftee to be cleared to play in college.

It started a wave of similar commitments, which include G League players Thierry Darlan and London Johnson heading to Santa Clara and Louisville, though it is for next season.

Alabama head coach Nate Oats told The Athletic that Bediako will remain on scholarship even if he can’t play.

"Charles has done nothing wrong. I will stand by our guys every single time, no matter what the outside says when they’ve done nothing wrong, and Charles has done everything right," Oats told the outlet.

Meanwhile, Arkansas head coach John Calipari unloaded on the current state of college basketball for allowing players to head back into college.

"Does anybody care what this is doing for 17- and 18-year-old American kids?" Calipari questioned in his nearly seven-minute monologue in December 2025. "Do you know what this opportunity has done for them and their families? There aren’t gonna be any high school kids. Who, other than dumb people like me, are gonna recruit high school kids? I get so much satisfaction out of coaching young kids and seeing them grow and make it, and their family’s life changes, that I’m gonna keep doing it. But why would anybody else, if you can get NBA players, G-League players, guys that are 28 years old, guys from Europe — do we really know their transcript? Do we have somebody over there? Do we really know their birth certificate? Or don’t we?

"If you put your name in the draft, I don’t care if you’re from Russia and you stay in the draft, you can’t play college basketball. ‘Well, that’s only for American kids.’ What? If your name is in that draft, and you got drafted, you can’t play college because that’s our rule. ‘Yeah, but that’s only for American kids.’ OK. OK."

But Alabama feels that it has been done wrong by the NCAA considering players have been allowed in other programs to play this season despite going pro, Nnaji being an example.

"I respectfully ask the Court to uphold the NCAA eligibility rules challenged in this case, which are essential to the integrity of college sports, to the educational mission they serve, and to the opportunities they provide for current and future student-athletes," SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in a four-page affidavit filed last week.

The university added a statement following the court’s ruling, per Yahoo Sports.

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"While we understand the concern around competitive and developmental implications of former professional athletes participating in college, it is important to acknowledge reality," the statement read.

"The NCAA has granted eligibility to over 100 current men’s basketball players with prior professional experience in the G League or overseas. Granting eligibility to some former professionals and not to others is what creates the havoc we are currently in and why consistency from decisions-makers is so desperately needed."

The Crimson Tide went 3-2 with Bediako back on their bench.

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