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Welcome to the college football newsletter, where there is no college football happening. But we can congratulate the following programs on the first men’s March Madness wins in school history: High Point, Howard and Prairie View, plus … the Nebraska Cornhuskers!
This Is March: Day 1 was nearly incredible
As noted, every college basketball postseason now works like college football’s, like a referendum on whether mid-majors/G6s should get to exist or not. This is thanks in part to ever-widening financial gaps — and in part to the men’s tourney being unusually chalky last year. (Nevermind that about a half-dozen pre-NIL brackets were just as basic.)
So let’s check in on the referendum, after the first half of the men’s Round of 64. (No, I’m not gonna do this in every newsletter all March. But it’s only fair, since this has become the point in the College Football Playoff’s opening round when the talking neckties on television all begin yearning for some luxuriously 9-3 underachiever to replace a team representing half of FBS.)
First of all: Yesterday, if a shorthanded No. 16 Siena had hit just a few more of its gimmes against overall No. 1 Duke, everyone would’ve been too busy resharing delirious memes to even remember there’s a discourse. It’s hard to overstate just how narrowly the Blue Devils escaped a benchless team that went 13-7 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Elsewhere, No. 11 VCU knocked out blueblood North Carolina with the biggest Round 1 comeback in tournament history. “Rec Specs Chapman” and his Saint Louis Billikens made No. 8 Georgia look like the little guy. And after No. 12 High Point took down Big Ten semifinalist Wisconsin in the game of the day, Panthers coach Flynn Clayman stared down the storyline itself. His wrestling promo, delivered live on air:
“Looks pretty obvious to me that high-majors need to play mid-majors early in the season. … Nobody would play us. Just like they wouldn’t play Miami (Ohio). But they have to play us in this tournament.” 🔥🔥
High Point’s not locked up in here with you! You’re locked up in here with High Point! The night prior, those Bruce Pearl-defying Miami RedHawks won maybe the most memorable (and vindicating) First Four game ever, beating the ACC’s SMU.
Otherwise? Mostly normal-looking wins by higher seeds. More data required. Guess we’ll keep going.
But at the moment, March Madness once again feels like March Madness. Hell yeah, right? The big schools should consider keeping this going forever, protecting their most valuable shared property by treating Division I like an ecosystem. But those are farfetched ideas for another day.
Hey, do you think any of those power-conference royals will be able to give Duke more of a scare than five exhausted guys from the MAAC just did?
Many other things happened yesterday, including my depleted No. 14 Kennesaw State Owls forcing No. 3 Gonzaga into a hideous slog. Proud of the nasty effort. More tourney stuff, with the women’s bracket tipping off at 11:30 a.m. ET and the men’s resuming at 12:15:
Will Leitch: “This sport is great right now. And the reason is obvious: We’re paying the players. Because of that simple (and long overdue) fix, there are stars everywhere.”
What to make of BYU’s huge NIL investment into potential No. 1 NBA Draft pick AJ Dybantsa, now that it led to zero tournament wins? (Granted, the upset happened at the hands of a moneyed concern named Texas.)
Every March, it’s essential to debate which mascots could defeat each other. A new wrinkle: Let’s poll actual scientists. This time of year, Bruins “are still managing the effects of seasonal torpor,” making them susceptible to shocking defeats by Knights.
Quick Snaps
📰 College football news, because this is technically a college football newsletter:
Adjusted rules for 2026: A targeting penalty in a game’s second half will no longer make the offending player ineligible for part of the next game. Other new intricacies here. (No change to the short-pants thing. Fashion victory.)
“Oregon quarterback Dante Moore battled depression early in his college career, he revealed in a letter to Gov. Tina Kotek earlier this month, while asking for more mental health services in the state.” More here.
In May, local hero Curt Cignetti will drive the pace car at the Indy 500. Imagine asking him to avoid trying to win it.
🎨 From the vault: How sports-internet legend Art But Make It Sports works. The creator has a new book.
Numbers Crunched: A question for you, on this Leinart thing
A few days ago, 2004 Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart discussed whether he’d ever consider letting the Trojans use his retired No. 11 again:
“People at USC have asked me if I would unretire my jersey for some five-star prospect. And do you want to know what I told those guys straight up? ‘Absolutely f—ing not.’ I am never going to unretire my jersey for some random dude, who by the way, now could wear No. 11 and transfer after a year.“
As soon as we asked readers of The Pulse (our all-sports newsletter) about this, it became immediately clear Leinart’s stance is a popular one.
Obviously, this taps into those modern feelings of confusion about which players are on which teams and frustration about your team’s recruits not always sticking around. Without that element, I’d be curious to see the split.
Beyond all that, this brought something else back to mind for me. One issue faced by some teams, such as USC: having so many retired numbers that it’s a puzzle to numerate the roster each year. (A problem the Trojans happily accept, since all eight of their retirees won Heismans.)
So: If your college football team were able to retire only one jersey number, whose would it be? Some are obvious! Some aren’t. Send me your answer at untilsaturday@theathletic.com, and I’ll get into it next week.
Off we go to a clip from Stewart Mandel’s new mailbag.
Mandel’s Mailbag
In 2006, Florida became the first school to win both the football and men’s basketball national championships in the same year. Who do you predict is the next school to accomplish the double? — Mark N., Downingtown, Pa.
It’s hard to say anyone but Michigan as of this moment, given it hit the basketball lottery in hiring Dusty May, 49. The guy took FAU to the Final Four in 2023, led the 2025 Wolverines from 8-24 to 27-10 and the Sweet 16 and now has one of the three favorites to cut down the nets next month. Maybe they’ll end the Big Ten’s 26-year title drought.
Meanwhile, football is only a few years removed from its last national title and just hired a future Hall of Famer in Kyle Whittingham. Granted, it’s far from a given that Whittingham will come in and dominate from Day 1, but even if he flames out in a few years, May seems like the kind of coach who could spend the next 15 years overseeing a juggernaut.
But if Michigan is 1A, Alabama is 1B.
Nate Oats is not the world’s most lovable hoops coach these days, but he’s turned the Tide into annual contenders, reaching a Final Four, an Elite Eight and two Sweet 16s since 2021. I could easily see him cutting down the nets at some point.
The question is whether Kalen DeBoer will hang on long enough to do the same. I still consider him a top-five coach, given he’s 54-14 in his five full seasons as an FBS head coach and won 11 games (including a CFP first-rounder) last season. But the preponderance of blowout losses his first two seasons has admittedly dampened my confidence.
More mailbag topics here, like why college basketball’s elites are more resilient from year to year than football’s.
Hi, it’s Jason again, saying goodbye. This weekend, may you get all the couch time you seek, and may upsets happen to your detestable rivals.
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