[Editor’s note: The number of winless teams keeps dwindling, which means changes at the top of the Bottom 10. Could a Power 5 team in Arizona win the whole thing? And what is Tennessee doing in here?]
Inspirational thought of the week:
Why be afraid if I’m not alone? Though life is never easy, the rest in unknown And up to now for me it’s been, hands against stone Spent each and every moment, searching for what to believe
Coming out of the dark I finally see the light now And it’s shining on me Coming out of the dark
— “Coming Out of the Dark,” Gloria Estefan
Here at Bottom 10 Headquarters, located in the storage room where Stephania Bell keeps all her rubber injury demo skeletons, we are often asked, “Hey, what’s the best part of the Bottom 10 experience?”
Well, besides the hate mail, death threats and the continuing effort by angry Tennessee fans to have my UT diploma revoked, the most beautiful aspect of living in the Bottom 10 Cinematic Universe is when a team we have watched lose for so long finally wins. It happened two weekends ago when UMass defeated UConn and again seven days later when UConn defeated Yale.
And when a team really turns it around? Like, it doesn’t just win a game, it wins ALL its games, for us it’s like watching your kids go off to college and seeing all their wildest dreams come true. And if that college was, say, former Bottom 10 stalwart R.O.C.K. in the UTSA, its wildest dream was to defeat Rice, reach 7-0 and be ranked for the first time ever.
What we’re saying is, there is hope for all. Yes, there is light, even for those who are lost in the darkness of the catacombs of the Bottom 10. But take a hint from UTSA. Be a Roadrunner and know when to run toward the light at the end of the tunnel and when to run away from it. Until then, you’re just one of the Wile E. Coyotes who are on the list below.
With apologies to Chuck Jones, Mel Blanc and Steve Harvey, here’s the 2021 Week 7 Bottom 10 rankings.
1. unLv (0-6)
The Fightin’ Tark Sharks snatched defeat from the Jaws of victory, leading Utah State essentially the entire game before surrendering the losing TD with 35 seconds remaining. The good news? They weren’t even close to having the worst week among teams who play their home games at Allegiant Stadium … and the other team even won its game.
2. By The Time I Get To Arizona (0-6)
Did you have that one “friend” who would ruin every sleepover pillow fight by hiding something like a hardcover book in the pillowcase and smacking you upside the head with it? That’s what the Colora-duh Muffaloes did to Arizona in the Pac-12 Pillow Fight of the Week, winning 34-0. Now the Mildcats travel to Warshington for Pac-12 Pillow Fight of the Week: Episode II. The Other Huskies’ only two wins this season came against a pair of Bottom 10 Waiting List members, Arkansaw State and Cow Berkeley. Speaking of Huskies …
3. U-Can’t (1-7)
While the win was great and all, it did come against a 2-2 non-scholarship FCS team after nearly blowing a 21-0 lead, and the game was decided on a Yale Hail Mary (Yale Mary?) that was run twice because UConn had 12 men on the field on the first attempt and handed the Elis a do-over. Now UConn hosts Middle Tennessee, a team that has spent all season on the Conference USA one-to-two-win Bottom 10 Waiting List carousel of pain. The game is on Friday night, which is fitting because these days the crowds at The Rent make it look like a high school game. Speaking of C-USA …
4. FI(not A)U (1-5)
Word is that Bottom 10 regulars Minute Rice, the North Texas Lean Green and FI(not A)U archrival FA(not I)U, as well as three other schools, are pursuing leaving Conference USA for the American Athletic Conference of American Athletics of America. You know you’re having a rough season when you’re even losing big during an open date.
5. Tennessee fans (4-3)
This week’s Coveted Fifth Spot is reserved for those individuals who decided to turn the hallowed ground of Neyland Stadium into a trash bin, aka Colonel Mustard and his band of merry hillbillies. If General Neyland were still alive, not only would he have already hunted down those who dared to sully his namesake football cathedral, he would currently have them on maggot nest duty at the University of Tennessee’s famed forensics school body farm.
6. Kansas Nayhawks (1-5)
KU lost to Texas Tech 41-14 but trailed 41-0 with only 52 seconds remaining in the game. Those final two TDs were scored after Tech had already loaded all its gear and players onto the team bus to try to make an earlier flight home.
7. UMess (1-5)
The Minutemen survived their bye week leading into Saturday’s trip to Florida State, but just barely. After their team beat UConn to snap a 16-game losing streak, everyone in Amherst kept bringing over cases of Sam Adams and boxes of crullers from Dunkies.
8. Whew Mexico State (1-6)
The Other Aggies barely covered the spread against the Fightin’ Byes of Open Date U, but this week are sure to cover the beach barbecue spread when they travel to Hawaii. Heads up, NMSU, that guy asleep on the beach with the Rip Van Winkle beard and the faded 2002 Hula Bowl hoodie is Nick Rolovich. Don’t wake him.
9. Old Duh-minions (1-6)
If you’re looking to put some money on a team that could make a late fall run in the Bottom 10, keep an eye on the Monarchs, who could slip from their throne like it was covered in Crisco. They play Bottom 10 flirts Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee and Florida International, as well as 3-3 Florida Atlantic and the Charlotte 4-and-2’ers. Lose all of those and they will have a résumé worth considering. Also, if you’re looking to put some money on a team that could make a late fall run in the Bottom 10, then you most definitely have a gambling problem.
10. US(not C)F (1-5)
There are 14 one-win teams in FBS football and three are lumped together at the bottom of the American Athletic Conference of American Athletics. Two of those teams will face off on Nov. 20, when South Florida visits Tulame in what might very well be part of the Bottom 10 playoffs, taking place over the final two weekends of the regular season. The third one-win AAC team is Navy, which doesn’t play USF or Tulane. Also, we refuse to rank the Midshipmen anyway because: One, we love America, and two, we don’t want a cruise missile to land in our living room.
Waiting list: Arkansaw State, Ohio Not State, Tulame, Vanderbilt Commode Doors, The Yew, Southern Missed, North Texas Lean Green, Ill-ugh-noise, Cow Berkeley, Georgia Southern Not State, COVID-19.
First baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Toronto Blue Jays are in agreement on a 14-year, $500 million contract extension, pending physical, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan on Sunday night.
This is a monumental, no-deferral deal to keep the homegrown star in Toronto for the rest of his career, and comes as the 5-5 Blue Jays are in the midst of a road trip that takes them to Fenway Park to meet the Boston Red Sox on Monday.
Guerrero, 26, a four-time All-Star and son of Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero, had said he would not negotiate during the season after the sides failed to come to an agreement before he reported to spring training. The sides continued talking, however, and sealed a deal that is the third largest in Major League Baseball history, behind only Juan Soto‘s 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets and Shohei Ohtani‘s 10-year, $700 million pact with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Blue Jays, snakebit in recent years by Soto and Ohtani signing elsewhere, received a long-term commitment from their best homegrown talent since Hall of Famer Roy Halladay.
They had tried to sign Guerrero to a long-term deal for years to no avail. Toronto got a glimpse of Guerrero’s talent when he debuted shortly after his 20th birthday in 2019 and homered 15 times as a rookie. His breakout season came in 2021, when Guerrero finished second to Aaron Judge in American League MVP voting after hitting .311/.401/.601 with 48 home runs and 111 RBIs.
Guerrero followed with a pair of solid-but-below-expectations seasons in 2022 and 2023, and in mid-May 2024, he sported an OPS under .750 as the Blue Jays struggled en route to an eventual last-place finish. Over his last 116 games in 2024, the Guerrero of 2021 reemerged, as he hit .343/.407/.604 with 26 home runs and 84 RBIs.
With a payroll expected to exceed the luxury tax threshold of $241 million, the Blue Jays ended the season’s first week atop the American League East standings. Toronto dropped to 5-3 on Friday after a loss to the Mets, in which Guerrero collected a pair of singles, raising his season slash line to .267/.343/.367.
Between Guerrero and shortstop Bo Bichette‘s free agency after the 2025 season, the Blue Jays faced a potential reckoning. Though Bichette is expected to play out the season before hitting the open market, Guerrero’s deal lessens the sting of Toronto’s pursuits of Ohtani in 2023 and Soto in 2024.
Toronto shook off the signings of Soto and first baseman Pete Alonso with the Mets, left-hander Max Fried with the New York Yankees and infielder Alex Bregman with the Boston Red Sox to retool their roster. Toronto gave outfielder Anthony Santander a heavily deferred five-year, $92.5 million contract, brought in future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer on a one-year, $15.5 million deal, bolstered its bullpen with right-handers Jeff Hoffman and Yimi Garcia, and traded for Platinum Glove-winning second baseman Andres Gimenez, who is hitting cleanup.
Toronto’s long-term commitments will allow for significant financial flexibility. In addition to Bichette and Scherzer, right-hander Chris Bassitt and relievers Chad Green and Erik Swanson are free agents after this season. After 2026, the nine-figure deals of outfielder George Springer and right-hander Kevin Gausman come off the books, as well.
Building around Guerrero is a good place to start. One of only a dozen players in MLB with at least two seasons of six or more Wins Above Replacement since 2021, Guerrero consistently is near the top of MLB leaderboards in hardest-hit balls, a metric that typically translates to great success.
Like his father, who hit 449 home runs and batted .318 over a 16-year career, Guerrero has rare bat-to-ball skills, particularly for a player with top-of-the-scale power. In his six MLB seasons, Guerrero has hit .288/.363/.499 with 160 home runs, 510 RBIs and 559 strikeouts against 353 walks.
Originally a third baseman, Guerrero shifted to first base during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Had the Blue Jays signed Alonso, they signaled the possibility of Guerrero returning full time to third, where he played a dozen games last year.
With the extension in place, the 6-foot-2, 245-pound Guerrero is expected to remain at first base and reset a market that had been topped by the eight-year, $248 million extension Miguel Cabrera signed just shy of his 31st birthday in 2014.
Jamison Hensley is a reporter covering the Baltimore Ravens for ESPN. Jamison joined ESPN in 2011, covering the AFC North before focusing exclusively on the Ravens beginning in 2013. Jamison won the National Sports Media Association Maryland Sportswriter of the Year award in 2018, and he authored a book titled: Flying High: Stories of the Baltimore Ravens. He was the Ravens beat writer for the Baltimore Sun from 2000-2011.
The NASCAR legend announced Friday on social media that he has secured the right to use a stylized version of No. 8 and will abandon the original No. 8 logo used by Earnhardt’s JR Motorsports. This decision came two days after Jackson filed an opposition claim with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to stop Earnhardt from putting that JR Motorsports version of No. 8 on merchandising.
“We are looking forward to the remainder of an already successful season,” Earnhardt wrote on social media.
Jackson, who has worn No. 8 since his college days at Louisville, previously registered the trademark “ERA 8 by Lamar Jackson.” His filing had argued Earnhardt’s attempt to trademark that particular version of No. 8 would create confusion among consumers.
The trademark review for a challenge can take more than a year. If the U.S. Patent and Trademark appeal board would have denied Earnhardt, Jackson could have sued him if Earnhardt had used it for merchandising.
This isn’t the first time that Jackson has tried to stop another athlete from filing a trademark on this number. In July, Jackson challenged Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman’s attempt to use “EIGHT” on apparel and bags.
When asked about this dispute last summer, Jackson said, “We’re going to keep this about football. That’s outside noise. We’re sticking with [talking about training] camp, football, and that’s it.”
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Denny Hamlin did his job so his pit crew could do its most stellar stop at the perfect time.
Hamlin came into the pits after a final caution in third place and told himself to hit every mark, then let his guys take over.
And that’s what the Joe Gibbs Racing group did, pulling off a perfect winning moment that sent Hamlin out with the lead. He took over on the final restart and held off William Byron to win the Goodyear 400 on Sunday.
It was Hamlin’s 56th career NASCAR win, his fifth at Darlington Raceway and his second straight this season
“When you think about 56 wins, that’s a huge deal,” said Gibbs, Hamlin’s longtime car owner.
Hamlin said he hung on throughout as Byron and others looked like they might pull out victory. Instead, Hamlin waited out his time and then pounced as he broke away during the green-white-checkered finish.
“I can still do it, I can do it at a high level and look forward to winning a lot of races this year,” Hamlin said.
Hamlin won for a second straight week after his success at Martinsville.
Hamlin chose the outside lane for a final restart and shot out to the lead and pulled away from series points leader Byron and NASCAR wins leader Christopher Bell.
Hamlin looked like he’d have a strong finish, but not a winning one as Ryan Blaney passed Tyler Reddick for the lead with three laps left. But moments later, Kyle Larson spun out forcing a final caution and the extra laps.
It was then time for Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew to shine as it got him out quickly and in the lead.
Byron, who led the first 243 laps, was second with Hamlin’s JGR teammate Bell in third.
“There are two people I really love right now, my pit crew and Kyle Larson,” Hamlin said to a round of boos from those in the stands.
Hamlin credited the past two victories to his pit crew.
“The pit crew just did an amazing job,” he said. “They won it last week, they won it this week. It’s all about them.”
Blaney had thought he was clear to his first-ever Darlington victory after getting by Reddick late. When he saw the caution flag for Larson’s spin, he said he thought, “Oh, no! I thought we had the race won.”
So did Byron, who sought was to become the first NASCAR driver in nearly 25 years to lead every lap on the way to victory. He got shuffled down the standings during the last round of green-flag pit stops and could not recover.
“It was looking like it was going to be a perfect race and we were going to lead every lap,” he said.
But once “we lost control, it was too late to get back up there,” Byron said.
Bad day
Kyle Larson, who won the Southern 500 here in 2023, had high hopes for a second Darlington win. But he slid into the inside wall coming off the second turn on lap three and went right to garage where his team worked the next couple of hours to get him back on track. Larson returned on lap 164 after falling 161 laps off the pace. Larson finished next to last in 37th.
Biffle’s ride
Greg Biffle, the last NASCAR driver to win consecutive Cup Series victories at Darlington in 2006 and 2007, drove the pace car for the Goodyear 400 on Sunday. Biffle has had an eventful few months, flying rescue missions with his helicopter into areas of the Southeast affected by devastating Hurricane Helene in September.
Biffle was planning a weeklong trip to the Bahamas when his phone started going off about people stranded in parts of Western North Carolina.
“I went to the hangar and the power was out,” Biffle said. “We got the hangar down open with the tug and got the helicopter out. Once I got in the air, I realized what had taken place.”
Biffle then flew the next 11 days from “sunup to sundown.”
“It was incredible,” Biffle said. “It was pretty tough going for the first week.”
Biffle won the Myers Brothers Humanitarian Award for his work.
Up next
The series goes to Bristol on April 13 before taking its traditional Easter break.