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Welcome to the College Football Newsletter, where incoming Purdue athletic director Tommy McClelland said something that is so perplexing, I had to make sure the summer heat wasn’t getting to me. Watch here, or here’s an embed:
One more time, that’s: “We’re here to win championships. If you don’t want to win championships, go to Indiana.”
Let’s focus on the good part first. Purdue is here to win championships. That’s the right mindset to have for any program. Elsewhere in the Big Ten, head coach Pat Fitzgerald said he expects Michigan State to win every game. Great! The Purdue men’s basketball team won the Big Ten championship this year. Great job having high expectations and a recent example of what that can look like.
But the latter half of that sentence: Who’s gonna tell him?
Strictly from a rivalry perspective, I understand why an athletic director is incentivized to say these kinds of things. Throw a little jab at your opponent to show the alumni base that you’re serious about what it truly means to be a Boilermaker. Get some excitement brewing as you enter this role. You’ve got to say something. Maybe be a little more specific or pick a different jab, though, given recent events.
Purdue faces the Hoosiers in the last week of the regular season. Now I can’t wait for the petty postgame social posts that come from this.
Here’s what Alex and Richard dropped into your podcast feeds this week:
We’re previewing the American with Godfrey. Our host emeritus stops by to hype up the ECU Pirates and to figure out the state of this conference since most major players in 2025 were successful enough to move on in 2026.
Mailbag time! Alex and Richard discuss superleagues but without mentioning the Power Two. There’s also a great discussion in here about which schools you get to root for if you got a postgraduate degree.
Who’s winning Conference USA? Unsurprisingly because of their money, it’s probably Liberty. But Richard and Alex discuss the low-key game of the year in this conference, and that does not include the Flames.
Some recommended reading and watching:
Do you follow Alex on Instagram? He’s been posting videos on the most embarrassing losses in college football history and some other fun gems. Follow him for more.
ESPN released a list of the greatest college football supervillains. Since we’ve been talking about self-awareness here in this newsletter, number seven here is great.
The Athletic has a list of sleeper teams who could make some noise in the Playoff race.
Holly and Spencer announced they’re working on a college football preview magazine called Turfman’s College Foot-ball Preview Almanac. A lot of your favorites are involved, including me. More soon.
Thanks for reading and we’ll talk to you next week.
I don't know why the Purdue story has become such a big deal. College football among other things has become a place where people try to talk as much shit as they can about opponents, and social media accounts spend all season trying to push the limits after games. I wish McClelland had just said, "F*ck those C*ck bags from F*cking Bloomington." It would have been more accepted.