Welcome to the College Football Newsletter, where we have never tampered with an opponent’s podcaster, nor would we ever, because we have honor.
It has been a while since the last newsletter went out. Since we last hit your inbox, Michigan won a championship in [checks notes] basketball? UCLA won the women’s tournament and six of their players would be drafted in the WNBA Draft. With Indiana rounding out the championship bona fides on the football side, the Big Ten is dominating among the power conferences. In this episode snippet, Alex says he doesn’t expect fans to be chanting B-1-G like they’re SEC fans, but it would be very funny if we see that at some point.
Not everything in the Big Ten has been positive, however. The NCAA recently vacated some of Iowa’s wins from 2023 due to tampering involving QB Cade McNamara. While a member of the Michigan Wolverines, McNamara would learn he would have to compete for the starting job with JJ McCarthy. Rather than seeing that path play out, McNamara got a jump on conversations with Iowa and eventually joined the Hawkeyes. He produced the following line:
The number of vacated wins (four) is negligible, especially because McNamara’s injury that season minimized any further punishment. But it does raise the question of how often tampering happens in college football. Dabo Swinney recently accused Pete Golding’s Ole Miss staff of illicitly poaching linebacker Luke Ferrelli. This is just going to keep coming up.
As Richard points out in this week’s free episode, the jokes were flying when news broke that the NCAA issue a ruling regarding the tampering. Yes, the jokes have been funny, but how do we actively regulate this? The long answer is: We probably can’t at this rate. The McNamara tampering happened in late ‘22, a lifetime ago in college football. Back then, NIL was in its infancy. The influx of money since then probably means conversations between players, team, and third parties have only increased. Players getting paid is always great, but if we’re talking about a tampering problem from 2022, the NCAA will probably address whatever has happened between Ole Miss and Clemson in 2030.
I’m not holding my breath that some sort of legislation will fix it either. That’s a whole other can of worms that smarter people like Extra Points’ Matt Brown can explain. Speaking of whom:
Here’s what Alex and Richard dropped into your podcast feeds this week:
Matt Brown joined the gang for the Sports Business Hour. They discussed the $2 billion Learfield sale and how it’s not as foreboding as it initially seems. And they go in depth about how Donald Trump’s executive order is both a distraction from everything else going on and an annoyance to senators who have been working to pass their own legislation that might more seriously address college sports’ difficulties.
We have an April mailbag episode for you this week as well, out this morning. Richard and Alex talk about the perils of the coach-in-waiting and also reveal which non-college football sport they would most like to cover.
Some recommended reading:
Over at Slate, Alex chronicled the latest chapter in Anthropic’s journey and how the AI company’s relatively positive reputation from refusing the Pentagon’s wishes might not be enough to generate enough happy consumers.
Pour one out for Slate’s Hang up & Listen, which had its final episode this week. Alex and company were joined by guests who helped them predict the next 17 years in sports.
We’re not going to let April pass us by without mentioning The Masters here at least once. Richard wrote about the college football connections at Augusta for CBS Sports.
Soon: The EDSBS Charity Bowl
Our friends over at Channel 6 are about to kickstart the 2026 EDSBS Charity Bowl supporting New American Pathways. Starting on Monday, donate to the cause using your favorite college football score or stat to see which university raises the most money at the end of the week. For example, if you’re an Indiana fan who wants to continue basking in National Championship glory, you can donate 27.21 in honor of the Hoosiers. You’ll hear more about this on SZD next week.
Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you next week.