Welcome to This Week in Our Dumb Beautiful Sport, a weekly look at the chaos that reigns over the most perfectly imperfect world of college football.
The College Football Playoff is here, and with it comes fans' favorite past time: re-litigating the entire season and proposing sweeping structural changes to the sport based on the outcome of a select few games. I'd like to propose a different idea: simply sitting back and appreciating the last few games we have this season in the best sport in the world.
MIAMI (FLA.) KNOCKS OFF TEXAS A&M
I'm of the opinion that a selection committee's decisions cannot be validated or invalidated based on what happens next because their job is to assess what the teams have already done and not what they will do in the future. I've been clear pretty much throughout this season that I thought Miami deserved to get in over Notre Dame, and I wouldn't have changed my mind if the Hurricanes lost. With that being said, I have to imagine it felt pretty good for CFP selection committee members to see Miami (Fla.) beat Texas A&M, 10-7, on Saturday.
THE FRESHMAN IN THE CLUTCH
— ESPN (@espn) December 20, 2025
Malachi Toney gives Miami the lead pic.twitter.com/iHiRTBKQZA
For Texas A&M, it was a crushing end to a season that started with immense promise and finished with a gutting loss to Texas and a home playoff loss. Perhaps even worse, that finish gave credence to anyone who pointed out that the Aggies built up their record without having to face Georgia, Ole Miss, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, or Vanderbilt. They did face Texas, and they lost decisively. It's entirely possible that their strongest SEC win was against a Missouri team that exactly zero people considered a playoff threat.
Next up for the Hurricanes: Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl for a rematch of the infamous BCS title game of the 2002 season.
OKLAHOMA BLOWS 17-POINT LEAD
Oklahoma and Alabama both arrived to the playoff leaking vast amounts of oil. The Sooners, and particularly quarterback John Mateer, didn't look good for most of the back half of the season despite managing to knock off the Tide in Tuscaloosa. Speaking of Alabama, the Tide lost to the only ranked team they played in November (Oklahoma) and looked very bad against two teams (LSU and Auburn) with interim coaches. They then followed that up by getting smoked by Georgia in the SEC Championship Game.
OKLAHOMA HAS COLLAPSED.
— CFB Kings (@CFBKings) December 20, 2025
WE ARE TIED IN NORMAN. pic.twitter.com/mQQFHScYSs
It looked like that Atlanta debacle had followed Alabama to Norman, as Oklahoma raced out to a 17-0 lead. Instead, Alabama fought its way back thanks to a horrendous pick six from Mateer right before halftime and then wrestled control of the game away from the Sooners in the second half.
“It was a really good game that had some really great moments for the Sooners," Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said. "And obviously, some really ill-timed moments as well, coaching, playing, the things that they’ve helped us be successful all year long. Tonight, when we needed it the most, we just didn’t have what it takes.”
IN DEFENSE OF THE GROUP OF FIVE TEAMS
Things did not go well for the Group of Five teams. Tulane was thrashed by Ole Miss, 41-10, in a virtually identical outcome to their regular-season matchup. James Madison acquitted itself slightly better against Oregon in a 51-34 loss, but the outcome was never in doubt and the score wasn't truly indicative of the gap between the teams.
As a result, it seems like everyone has collectively decided that the Group of Five teams should be banished from the playoff. To an extent, I see what they're getting at. Non-Power Four teams are probably less talented overall today than in past years. For one, teams like Cincinnati, UCF, Houston, SMU, TCU, and Utah are in power conferences now. Furthermore, unlimited transfers and NIL have combined to make it much harder for smaller teams to keep their best players from leaving.
However, it took a nearly impossible scenario (the ACC having a convoluted tiebreaker that excluded Miami from the conference championship game, combined with an 8-5 team somehow not only making it but also winning it) for two Group of Five teams to make it. So off the bat, that's half the complaints dealt with. There's also the pesky issue of the NCAA's roughly 0-1,037 record in courtrooms over the past decade, and what antitrust issues might be raised if half its teams are excluded from any meaningfully realistic path to qualifying for the postseason.
But ultimately, those are just side issues. The main reason I think it's shortsighted to get rid of the Group of Five teams is the impact it would have on the regular season and our collective enjoyment of it. The benefit of the playoff -- at least to me -- is that more regular-season games matter. In a BCS-type system or four-team playoff, late November games like Auburn-Alabama, Washington-Oregon, Tennessee-Vanderbilt, Ole Miss-Mississippi State, and Utah-Kansas would have had virtually nothing at stake. Instead, they helped determine which teams remained alive in the playoff chase. A loss by Texas A&M to Texas didn't knock the Aggies out of the field, but it was the difference between a first-round bye and a game against Miami that they ended up losing.
I just can't get behind a decision that would remove this impact for half the teams in the country. Anyone who reads this column has seen me write about Group of Five teams throughout the season but especially as it impacted the playoff race. It was never out of some form of obligation -- I legitimately find it interesting to watch games where something important is at stake. It was interesting to watch the rise and fall of teams like Memphis and USF, who seemed poised to do big things but fell by the wayside. I don't want us to lose that. My kids go to school about one football field length away from Tulane's campus, and when I dropped them off the morning of the American Conference title game you could already feel the energy on campus even though kickoff was almost 12 hours away.
If this were about access to a four-team playoff, I'd understand. But if you're not one of the 11 best teams in the regular season, it means you messed up at least once but more realistically at least twice and have nobody but yourself to blame. If Vanderbilt wanted in, they should have beat Alabama. Notre Dame should have beat either of the only two teams with a pulse on its schedule -- and they would have likely survived that most years, too. Texas shouldn't have lost to Florida. The list goes on. To me, letting in one flawed team that isn't going to win so that you can exclude a different team that isn't going to win doesn't justify the cost of taking away the meaning of so many other Saturday games. If it offends you that much, watch something else during the 5-12 game.
One possible solution that I'm not fully on board with but would be willing to consider is a 16-team bracket. Four more teams get in, making it virtually impossible that a Group of Five spot hurts any team with a legitimate chance of winning. All teams get on the same schedule, preventing the ultra-long layoffs that top-four seeds face. Top-four seeds also get guaranteed at least one home game, which is sadly not the case in the current format. I don't love expanding further, but 16 doesn't seem like a complete dealbreaker and I think that would be at least a compromise worth considering.
WE NEED MORE ON CAMPUS GAMES
I love the Rose Bowl, but I'm at the point where I don't love it enough to be happy that Indiana isn't playing Alabama in Bloomington or that Ohio State gets to play in Arlington for what feels like the millionth year in a row. How can FCS, Division II, and Division III get this right and FBS get it so wrong? You know what was a great atmosphere? No. 3 Montana at No. 2 Montana State with a trip to the national championship on the line. And it was in Bozeman in a packed stadium of rabid fans, not in some random city halfway across the country. Its opponent in the title game, Illinois State, won four straight true road games -- including one in the Fargodome -- to make the national championship.
This weekend featured an elite set of stadiums with their own different things that make them great -- Autzen Stadium, Vaught-Hemingway, Kyle Field, and Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium -- but it's a shame that there are four other great stadiums that won't get to host quarterfinal matchups. The thought of Alabama having to go to Bloomington in January is a college football fever dream. It's great that the Rose Bowl has a nice sunset, but I'd much rather watch the Tide try to deal with Curt Cignetti's scheming while it's sleeting sideways. The fact that Ohio State is the No. 2 team in the country and we won't get to see the Horseshoe feels criminal. The same goes for No. 3 Georgia and especially for No. 4 Texas Tech, given that such a game would be the biggest thing to happen in Lubbock since... ever.
WHO IS GOING TO COACH MICHIGAN?
When it comes to reporting -- especially college football reporting -- I like to think I have a pretty good sense of when someone has the goods or not. I learned to read using the newspaper. My college degree is in journalism. I spent more time than I should have on college football message boards while in high school and college. When I was on the Ohio State beat, my first job was at Buckeye Sports Bulletin, which at the time was affiliated with Scout.com.
Perhaps I need to recalibrate my decoding skills, though, because reading any Michigan site late last week had me convinced the Wolverines were about to land either Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer or Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham. In fairness to me, the confidence levels I was seeing seemed off the charts. While there was a general recognition that any pursuit of DeBoer realistically required an Alabama loss, you would have thought based on some reporting that it was a foregone conclusion that if Alabama won Dillingham was ready and waiting to end up in Ann Arbor. So imagine my surprise when I saw Saturday morning that, despite Alabama's win, Dillingham had just inked a contract extension to remain in Tempe.
It feels pretty fair to say that, barring some minor miracle with DeBoer, the Wolverines are going to miss on their top two targets. And thanks to the timing of Sherrone Moore's firing, there simply aren't a ton of realistic candidates that would be viewed as good hires at this point.
Right now, it seems like the current names who are the objects of speculation and/or interest are:
- Former Utah coach Kyle Whittingham
- Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz
- Louisville coach Jeff Brohm
- Washington coach Jedd Fisch
- Hoping Alabama loses to Indiana and circling back on Kalen DeBoer
That's not a terrible list of candidates, but it's also not particularly encouraging. There's also the fact that any hire will be dealing with unideal circumstances, particularly in terms of the timing of the transfer portal opening. On top of that, Michigan will have to reassure any candidate regarding Warde Manuel's job security, as most coaches aren't looking to take a job when they don't know who their boss will be.
SPEAKING OF MICHIGAN...
I genuinely never want to hear the term Michigan Man ever again. The only way they're special is in just how far their depravity goes.
Here's how insane the news out of Ann Arbor has been the last few years: On Sunday, The Athletic wrote a story with an update on the case involving former Michigan co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss, who allegedly made a hobby out of using work computers to hack student accounts in order to try to access explicit photos and videos. I somehow completely forgot this happened! At almost any other school in the country, this would be the most scandalous thing to happen in at least a decade. In Ann Arbor, it's at best third behind the nearly $500 million the school paid out to sexual assault survivors in 2022 and its football head coach being arrested for threatening to kill himself in front of an athletic department employee he was having an affair with.
That's to say nothing of the rampant on-field cheating, including the entire Connor Stalions saga and the 800 different ways Jim Harbaugh pushed the envelope, from recruiting sleepovers to recruiting contacts during the COVID dead period that ultimately led to a three-game suspension.
The cherry on top, though, is the insane gaslighting the rest of the country is forced to deal with in regards to how Michigan is not only the only team in the country that doesn't cheat but also that they are morally superior and have in fact never done anything wrong in any capacity. Every program deals with its share of black eyes, but there's only one place in the country that lectures everyone else about its own sins.
PLAY OF THE WEEK
MIAMI WINS IT pic.twitter.com/VeIsf7jkRY
— CFB Kings (@CFBKings) December 20, 2025
An interception to seal the program's first-ever playoff win with the opposing team just 5 yards away from a potential game-tying touchdown? Yep, that'll do it.
IDIOT OF THE WEEK
It's a tie between Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, whose actions are virtually indistinguishable from someone whose goal would be to burn down the athletic department, and anyone involved in letting him still lead the coaching search for Michigan's next football coach. Seems like it's all going great!
REF JAIL INMATE OF THE WEEK
The Sideline interference penalty on Alabama 30+yds down the field... It was gonna be 4th down & a punt for Oklahoma. pic.twitter.com/OEPDCMBDqU
— (@fsh733) December 20, 2025
Far be it from me to defend Alabama, but I do think this was pretty ticky tacky from the official. With about 20 seconds left in the first half, Alabama appeared set to get the ball back after a third-down stop. Instead, the Tide got flagged for sideline interference when one of the officials ran into someone on the Tide sideline. I get the intent of the rule, and it may have been correct by the letter of the law, but it seems a bit much to me given how deep in the sideline the Alabama staffer was. It wasn't like he was right next to the field, he was probably 5 yards away from the sideline. Ultimately, it didn't impact the outcome of the game, but this is exact the type of power trip from referees that drives me wild. It would have been very easy to let that go given how far back the guy was, but they truly cannot resist the adult hall monitor urges that live in their hearts.
