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The first College Football Playoff rankings were released, and, whew, what a mess! P.D. and I discuss it on this week’s episode of The Best College Football Show! Also, we break down some matchups you may or may not see down below!

Now, to the sports!

Oh, hell yeah! Our first top-5 matchup of the season. The Wolverines gave UConn its biggest regular-season scare last season before ultimately falling 72-69. They bring back all of their heavy-hitters from that one, including Syla Swords, who knocked down eight threes in the near-upset, and Olivia Olson, who earned 3rd Team All-America honors last season.

UConn is still UConn. Sarah Strong is yet again at the top of everyone’s National Player of the Year ballot. The do-it-all junior filled out the stat sheet in the Huskies’ season-opening blowout against Cornell, finishing with 19 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, and an incredibly silly 8 steals in just 21 minutes. We also got our first look at Jovana Popovic, who figures to be the program’s next great guard. The 19-year-old has been playing in Serbia’s top pro league since 2023, and was called up to the senior national team last summer. She finished with 19 points against Cornell. Oh, and Geno is still the head coach here. Keep an eye on him in the handshake line!

The men play, too! In case you forgot, this was the national championship game matchup last year. Michigan won that one 69-63, and they’re looking to run it back with a host of new faces, including new head coach Mike Boynton Jr. He played his college hoops at South Carolina and was an assistant there for a handful of seasons. Why is he not coaching there? The Gamecocks have won 6 SEC games total over the past two seasons.

Speaking of things that irritate me, Dan Hurley is still the head coach at UConn. They lost a couple of big pieces as Alex Karaban and Tarris Reed moved on to the next level, but great players keep signing up to play for Hurley for whatever reason. We don’t have to sign up to cheer for him, though, so I’ll be booing. Join me!

You thought I forgot? Let’s jump back into our Premier League fandom journey. Tottenham Hotspur has won three matches in a row and finds itself firmly in the middle of the EPL pack. Leeds is a point behind them, but hasn’t picked up an outright win of their own since early September. It still feels like 8:30 to your body, so tap in!

The highest-ranked Holy War ever! They are starting this one at 10:00 local time for whatever reason. BYU is trying to stay in the playoff picture after struggling to get past a bad Arizona State team last week. Meanwhile, a win here should secure Utah’s spot barring an absolute disaster to end the season. All of these people are insane, so it should be a great environment. And you can watch from the comfort of your own home, which is hopefully very far away from them.

Talk about conflicted! Nobody can figure out why the CFP Committee ranked a two-loss Bama team this highly. In order to correct all that is wrong in the universe, they need someone to hand them a third loss. This game is the nation’s best chance to see that happen, but that would mean pulling for Lane Kiffin. On top of that, Tigers fans don’t understand that everything Kiffin is doing is part of his audition to one day be the Alabama coach. This is one of those games that make you miss the SEC on CBS. Play the theme music!

Now, it’s easy to criticize the committee’s decisions, but we must also point out the hilarious things they did, such as dropping the Irish to the brink of playoff elimination. Turns out beating the worst the ACC and Big Ten have to offer doesn’t make you playoff-worthy, no matter how big of a fit you pitch. This is pretty much a win-and-you’re-in, lose-and-you’re-out game for them. Unfortunately for us, the game is in South Bend and the Hurricanes are coached by a man who loves to stumble his way into goofy losses in spite of his team’s talent. It really could go either way, and should be entertaining no matter what.

No better way to wind down from some high-stakes football than this one. A million points should be scored, and it’s a safe bet that some of them will be scored by Beavers WR Jesse Legree. The star freshman leads the nation in both receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. The fact that this one is being played on a channel best known for teen drama makes it that much sweeter.

Man, they’re really going all-in on Europe, huh? This one is in Madrid. What’s the Spanish word for interception? Joe Burrow and Michael Penix Jr. threw for a combined 7 picks last week. Hopefully, it’s a little bit easier to tell who is on their team today. Enjoy with some café con leche!

Wildcats coach Kenny Brooks has assembled quite the team of basketball relatives. Not only is his daughter, Gabby, here, but he’s also got Syla Swords’ sister, Savvy, Georgia Amoore’s sister, Jemma, and Shaq’s daughter, Me’Arah. They face off with a Wolfpack squad led by star juniors Zoe Brooks and Khamil Pierre, who are out to prove that last season’s struggles were a fluke. These teams feel a bit closer than their rankings would suggest.

Marcus Freeman could learn a thing or two from Dawn Staley when it comes to strength of schedule. This is the 2nd of 8 top-25 opponents that the Gamecocks will play BEFORE their conference slate begins. South Carolina looked like a buzzsaw early in their season-opening win against Maryland, but fell asleep at the wheel in the second half before escaping with the W. Can they execute for the full 40 minutes against the Tar Heels and star freshman Kate Harpring?

A rematch of the 1987 national championship game! Keith Smart’s jumper over Howard Triche (only my wife will care about this, but yes, that’s Brandon’s uncle) gave the Hoosiers the win in that one, then they played “One Shining Moment” for the very first time. Neither of these teams has a prayer to make it back to that level for the foreseeable future. Hell, Indiana is a football school now. But sometimes things exist just to remind old people the way things used to be, and that’s nice.

Thoughts and prayers for whoever is in charge of making the MNF schedule. This is likely to be the last matchup between contenders for at least a month. Even worse, if ratings start to dip, you know we’re getting more McAfee. So yeah, enjoy this one. A battle of strengths. The Bills are the only team in the NFL that averages 30+ points per game. Minnesota has been the surprise of the NFL season thanks to the league’s best scoring defense. Who comes out on top?

The first game between the two Jays, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Boston traded Brown this offseason, splitting up the duo that had been together since 2017. There’s been a lot of talk about what led to that move, with Celtics insiders pointing the finger at Brown and his desire to leave Tatum’s shadow. For his part, Brown has denied all of that, but has hinted at some sort of issue between himself and Tatum. What does Tatum have to say about it? A whole lot of nothing. Perhaps he prefers to let his game do the talking. We’ll see!

Yes, JuJu is back, Jazzy Davidson never left, and star freshman Saniyah Hall is here, but this is purely a homer pick for me because I want you to watch my hometown Cougars. The College of Charleston made the tournament for the first time in program history last season, but lost its entire coaching staff and much of its roster to Pitt. But the rebuild is on!

The Rockets have gotten off to a great start, but surprise, surprise, Kevin Durant is still miserable. This time it’s because people keep asking him why he’s not shooting as much. The answer is probably a pretty simple, “This is what’s best for both the team and me at this point in my career,” but that’s not how he operates. He faces off against the team that nurtured his moody ways!

As always, thank you for reading! Make sure you’re subscribed so you get this in your inbox first thing Thursday mornings! Also, share with your friends! See you next week!