
An oral history of when Bevo charged Uga at the Sugar Bowl
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David Hale, ESPN Staff WriterOct 17, 2024, 07:00 AM ET
Close- College football reporter.
- Joined ESPN in 2012.
- Graduate of the University of Delaware.
On Jan. 1, 2019, two icons were set to meet at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Yes, Georgia and Texas would face off, but that wasn’t the real draw. It was the meeting between the teams’ mascots — Georgia’s bulldog Uga and Texas’ longhorn steer Bevo — that ultimately captured the nation’s attention.
What began as a made-for-TV moment to fill airtime before kickoff ended up a near catastrophe, a showcase of the strength and majesty of the world’s most famous cow, a preview of the game to come and a tangible example of the incredibly thin line between comedy and tragedy. Above all, it became one of the iconic viral videos in bowl history.
Now SEC rivals, Georgia and Texas are set to play again this week for the first time since the great Bevo-Uga showdown, so we looked back on that famed meeting of mascots for a better understanding of what happened and why live mascots remain an indelible part of the culture of college football.
Lowell Galindo, Longhorn Network play-by-play announcer: People get caught up in the moment, and honestly, who’s thinking that’s going to happen? Surely they’ve talked this through and have it all figured out, and there won’t be any issues, right? Wrong.
Jim Sigmon, Texas team photographer: I was kind of thinking, this is odd because usually other schools don’t bring their live animal mascots over to Bevo. That’s a big-ass animal. I just thought the whole thing was bizarre.
Holly Rowe, ESPN sideline reporter: I saw Uga coming our way and thought, “Aww, what a sweet meet-cute for the mascots,” so I started filming it on my phone. Then things got wild.
Tommy Tomlinson, Georgia fan and author of “Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show”: What’s the old Mel Brooks line? Tragedy is when I get a hangnail. Comedy is when you fall into a hole and die. Depending on which side you were on in this story, it could’ve been both.
Charles Seiler, Uga’s owner and handler: People who’ve been in the mascot business, we don’t like to have problems with the mascots. But I can’t say they lost control because my butt was headed in the other direction.
Part I: A history of live animal mascots
The story of Uga and Bevo’s meeting actually begins 140 years earlier. That’s when Yale’s bulldog Handsome Dan, widely regarded as college football’s first mascot, took to the field at Yale. The term “mascot” comes from the French word “mascotte,” which means “lucky charm,” and for dozens of schools around the country, Handsome Dan and other live animals were exactly that.
Tim Brown, football historian: It was mostly dogs originally. But as teams started coming up with mascots like badgers or buffalo, it was almost like a prank initially. Some students would decide to get one and bring it to the game.
Seiler: When my dad started this thing, he actually smuggled the dog into the Florida State game, and the [newspaper] took some pictures of it. That game was 3-0, and Coach [Wally] Butts, I think kind of tongue-in-cheek, said to my dad, “That game wasn’t very interesting, so it’s good you brought that dog.”
Nowadays, extreme care is taken in selecting just the right animal, and countless hours are spent training both the mascot and its handlers. But of course, incidents have happened along the way.
Taylor Stratton, handler for the Colorado Buffaloes’ buffalo, Ralphie: I talk to them as if they understand me, and the thing I was telling Ralphie VI is, “Oh no, all buffalo do this. It would be weird if you didn’t go to a stadium. This is normal.”
Ricky Brennes, executive director of the University of Texas Silver Spurs, handler for Bevo: A lot of it comes down to their natural temperament and disposition. Without that, it doesn’t matter too much. We took him to band practice, music playing in his pen, hung flags up in the barn to see how he’d react to different types of movement. The previous Bevo did not like flags at all.
Stratton: Because [Ralphie’s] so big and athletic, we do Division I-level strength and conditioning training. They’re doing sprint workouts, making sure their bodies are ready and functioning at peak athletic performance. … We go through different ways we run. Get your chest up and your knees up because you cannot run 25 mph, so you need to let the buffalo pull you while you’re in the air so when you hit the ground you can keep your feet and go as fast as you can.
Adam Harper, handler for SMU‘s stallion, Peruna: The only time he’s not used to loud environments are flyovers, and that’s something we have to plan for. Like, “Be aware guys, Peruna is going to hate that.”
Peter Cashman, handler for Army‘s mules: Mules are funny animals. Certain things bother them and certain things don’t. They can be standing next to the cannon when it goes off, and it’s no problem. But if the wave starts behind them, and it’s in their peripheral vision, that bothers them.
Harper: We form a kind of circle around [Peruna] where it negates anybody from possibly walking behind him. That’s our one big rule: Do not walk behind Peruna.
Cashman: We were at Army-Navy about five years ago, and for some reason, the whole Army team ran out right into the mules where we were standing. We had 50 football players amongst the mules, but nobody was hurt.
Seiler: Baylor used to bring out a bear cub. Uga walked up to sniff the bear’s butt, and he spun around and, damn if he didn’t spin Uga like a top. I don’t think they can possibly bring a cub anymore.
Cashman: The biggest part is keeping [the mules] hidden from Navy. On the road, I have to find a location that is secretive and nobody is going to tell Navy where the mules are. We go in with an unmarked trailer. And it’s the same with the [Navy] goats.
Harper: Before I took the job, one person pulled me aside and said, “This is what happened to me.” He was running with Peruna, and he tripped and fell. We’re tasked to hold on to the reins no matter what, because if Peruna gets loose, you’re not catching him. So if you fall, let him drag you. Just hold on. That’s all that matters. Anyway, he fell at the 40-yard line, and was dragged by Peruna all the way to the end zone. He scored a touchdown. He had a nasty bruise down the side of his body.
Brennes: We had a moment walking Bevo off the field against Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game, and he defecated on the word “Nebraska” when we were walking him off.
Harper: The pooping on TCU‘s field gets talked about still. People still come up and say, “Don’t let [Peruna] poop on the field.” It adds to the celebrity status.
Michael Griffin, former Texas player and Longhorn Network analyst: If I’m not mistaken, didn’t Uga bite somebody before?
Tomlinson: That’s the one where if you go into a dive bar in Georgia, that photo or a painting of it will be on a wall somewhere. That’s one of the top moments, because it’s a literal manifestation of the rivalry. We want to eat the other team. Uga stood in for all of us that day.
Seiler: Auburn hates that [picture]. For five years after that, they put someone on me to make sure I didn’t get that close to the field again.
Brennes: One of the funniest Bevo moments … was Jordan Shipley jumping into Bevo’s pit on a punt return [at Darrell K. Royal Stadium].
Why do I feel the urge to do a Tech post today?
Jordan Shipley visits Bevo after a 46 yard Punt Return TD against Texas Tech
Sept 19, 2009#HookEm pic.twitter.com/uvFsvYc1sb— Longhorn🤘Highlights (@LonghornClips) August 24, 2023
Jordan Shipley, former Texas player and Longhorn Network analyst: It was a short punt, and I already had some speed built up. It ended up being a footrace to the pylon, and I hit the end zone running full speed. In the moment, you don’t think about it, but I had to hop over a couple things, and by the time I look up, I’m literally right in front of Bevo. I put my hands up and hit his horns and jumped back out of there. He was pretty lethargic that day, thank goodness. It was a quick, “OK, I’m going to get out of here.”
Harper: Peruna killed a mascot in the 1930s. I stepped on campus, and the first thing our administration told the new students is that our mascot is Peruna, and he killed the Fordham ram. That’s legendary.
Breckyn Hager, Texas defensive lineman: Well, it’s good Bevo kept it classy.
Part II: The photo op
In college football history, few mascots resonate among the masses like Uga and Bevo, who’ve been a part of their respective programs for generations. The history between bulldogs and bulls, however, goes back much further.
Tomlinson: Wild bulls are huge, ornery animals that are hard to control, especially in frontier days. These dogs were bred to be fearless, and bred physically to have flat faces so they could literally run up to the bull, grab its nose with its teeth and drag its head to the ground.
Brennes: Bevo doesn’t hate dogs. Bevo’s not familiar with what bulldogs are bred for, and let’s be honest, that was bred out of English bulldogs a long time ago.
Seiler: My breeder, she’d get day-old bread and give it to the bulldogs, and they’d go down the fence line and give it to the cows twice a week. Bulldogs don’t care about cows. They’re used to them. A cow is no big deal to a bulldog.
Tomlinson: In some ways, I’d like to think Bevo was striking a blow for his side after all that history. Clearly in that moment, neither bull nor dog had any experience in that sort of thing, but maybe somewhere deep in Bevo’s DNA, he remembered that those dogs used to get the best of his kin.
Before the Sugar Bowl, the Longhorn Network was less concerned with the history of bulls and dogs, and more about filling a little airtime before kickoff, so TV worked with Brennes and Seiler to arrange what was actually a second meeting of the mascots.
Seiler: We were staged right behind Bevo in the parade the day before. We went to go talk to Rick and his guys, and we could see Bevo in the trailer, but his butt’s facing out at me. In order to get a picture of Bevo without getting a butt shot, they had to pull him out backwards. It took him a while to do it, but Bevo was super chill. We took our dog over, and me, my wife and our son got a picture with Bevo and Rick and the owners, and it was no fuss, no muss.
Rowe: [Bevo] is one of the iconic mascots in all of sports — the literal logo for Texas, the Jerry West of college football. I have a fearful and respectful relationship with him, because let’s be honest — I’m 5-8, and the horn span is bigger than me.
Danny Davis, reporter for Austin American-Statesman: At Texas games, the pen he stays in is right in the corner where the media stands for the last five minutes of the game, and he’s usually chill. I don’t know what his problem was that one day. Maybe he wasn’t happy to see the cute, little puppy.
Seiler: We roll up. We’re not quite on time for TV yet. I’ve got the dog in his kennel on the golf cart. I look over at Bevo, and they have him in some makeshift corral, but he’s staring at a concrete wall.
Angela Wang, photographer for The Daily Texan: We all heard Uga was being brought over and thought it would be a great photo opportunity. I was squatting down behind the barricade, facing Uga, with no idea what was happening behind me.
Davis: I was standing around with other journalists and saw Uga come up, and I decided to do a video. Then, of course, all chaos broke loose.
Sigmon: It’s like being at a car wreck. Everything’s perfectly fine, then all of a sudden, s—‘s weird and you’re like, “What happened?” Some of the best TV moments are that way.
Nick Wagner, photographer for Austin American-Statesman: You have the overhead camera, three or four other angles, it was the most perfect setup to catch a viral moment.
Galindo: It was straight out of “Anchorman.” Like, that escalated quickly.
Tre Watson, Texas running back: All we hear is people yelling. I think somebody told us Bevo had just tried to attack the bulldog, and we were lit. We were yelling, “Let’s go Bevo!”
Temple Grandin, animal expert: A longhorn can learn to tolerate that environment, but this was a brand-new stadium, and that’s part of the problem. At home, he’d be used to it, but now you’ve got him in a strange place in a makeshift enclosure, and that probably led to the problem. I’ve seen show steers get upset at just trade show banners on tables. Sudden novelty scares him.
Sigmon: Bevo’s butt was facing where the dog was, and he spun around, and when he saw the dog, he flipped the New Orleans police barricade, just one-horned it, and flung it like it was a bug.
Galindo: I’m shocked there were photographers near the pen with their backs toward Bevo at that moment.
Seiler: There were cameras on tripods. There were people laying down. Some of those sideline guys are nuts. They get taken out by players all the time.
Sigmon: I’m behind the golf cart. The golf cart is between me, the dog and Bevo. The people with wide-angle lenses right up front, I wasn’t going to be one of those people.
Wang: Initially, I heard a woman start screaming. At that time, Uga had started squatting, so I thought it was because she thought he was going to use the restroom on the field.
Kirby Smart, Georgia head coach: I was worried for Uga, to be honest.
Seiler: Uga was sitting down waiting to have his picture made, and I don’t even think he knew Bevo was behind him. Then I heard a lady scream, and I turned around, and saw people dashing. I wasn’t going to wait around, so I just pulled away the dog. In some of those pictures, it looks like Bevo’s like 2 feet from us, but actually he was never within 10 feet of us.
Griffin: The biggest thing I really remember was his horn went over this — I think she was a photographer. I just remember her ducking, and the horn going right over her head.
Wang: I started standing up and thought, “Oh, it’s fine,” so squatted back down, and if you watch the video in slow-mo, you’ll see me kind of duck and the horn barely scrapes by me. I didn’t realize the horn hit me until someone pointed it out on Reddit.
Griffin: She was still doing her job. That’s funny. I thought she was ducking like, “Oh my god.”
Tomlinson: The thing that makes me laugh every time is there were like three announcers, and they’re clearly mocking and enjoying this moment as it leads up to it, talking about it being like the royal wedding. But when it happened, they reverted to football announcers, because one of the guys immediately said, “That’s targeting.”
On the TV feed, the incident is largely played for laughs. Galindo compared it to the meme of Joe Rogan reacting at a UFC fight — hugging, laughing, screaming, chaos.
Galindo: We’re actually on the sideline with a monitor in front of us. We saw Uga come behind us to go see Bevo, but then we’re just watching everything on the monitor.
Griffin: They take Uga out of his crate, and all of a sudden, Bevo is out to destroy.
Shipley: Bevo just kind of squared up and went after him, and he wasn’t going to take “no” for an answer.
Griffin: You’re like, “Oh s—, if Bevo gets loose, where the hell is he going?”
Pre-Game things getting heated 👀 between @FootballUGA and @TexasFootball #bevo #uga pic.twitter.com/K1eNw4Ir4S
— Holly Rowe (@sportsiren) January 2, 2019
Shipley: One of the things they thought was funny about it was the game I ran into Bevo, and they were saying, “It’s a good thing Bevo didn’t treat you like he treated Uga.”
Galindo (on the ESPN broadcast): Can live television get better than that? No!
Hager: The only thing I’ve ever really showed my girlfriend from my football career is that video.
Galindo: I love it, man. That’s what college sports are about — the insanity, the fans, the mascots, the players. So if I’m associated with [the Bevo call] more than anything, I don’t care. I think it’s hilarious.
Ultimately, the entire incident lasts just a few seconds before Bevo’s handlers, the Silver Spurs, get control of the situation, and the TV clip ends with Galindo and Co. repeating the phrase that’s now tethered to the incident in college football lore: That. Was. Awesome.
Watson: I didn’t see it until after the game. We were all talking about it. Bevo really tried to go get him. I just thought it was a nice easy buck. No. That boy was about to lose his life on live television.
Wagner: People right there understood the gravity of it, of how it could’ve been. It was just chaos. That moment, the entire night, the following day. It was a story I’ll tell for the rest of my life.
Griffin: That whole conversation that’s always been said, “Is Bevo drugged up and that’s why he’s so tame during the games?” Now you see that and you’re like, “No, I don’t think he’s drugged.”
Hager: I was actually a Silver Spur. I’ve been very close to Bevo, and there was never, in the four years I was playing, a moment when I thought Bevo was going to do anything out of the ordinary, let alone attack the other team’s mascot. It’s really impressive how they’re able to handle an animal like that, especially in a time when that skill of the true cowboy is kind of lost.
Sigmon: They professionally took care of it. They got the dog safe, and they got Bevo back behind the barricade. But I’m guessing that won’t happen again.
Rowe: I think there was a moment we were all talking and saying, “Wow, that could have gone really badly.” Kudos to the handlers.
Galindo: I want to make sure people know how professional and well trained all the people around Bevo are. But at the end of the day, it is a massive animal. But Ricky Brennes and all those guys, it is shocking how detailed everything is. It’s like the Secret Service preparing for the president to arrive somewhere.
Seiler: At some point, I took the dog back over there, and we did get a picture.
There was, of course, still a game to play, and while no one can say for sure whether Bevo’s charge changed the outcome, the folks at Texas certainly believe it did. Texas, a 12.5-point underdog, pulled off the upset win, 28-21.
Griffin: It was a lot for Texas getting into the Sugar Bowl, but everybody was talking about Georgia being upset, because they weren’t in the College Football Playoff.
Hager: I just remember them being overhyped, and Georgia was going to kill us, and all my friends from Georgia were telling me we were going to get beat pretty bad. And before kickoff, to see our beloved Bevo setting the tone, I think it helped us go out there more relaxed and excited and aggressive.
Davis: College football fans will rally around anything. Bevo charging a little puppy became a rallying cry that night. It became a symbol before they beat a Georgia team no one thought they’d beat.
Watson: Our mascot was ready to go to war with their mascot on full live television. Bevo got us rolling. That was the start and set the tone that we were going to step on some Bulldogs’ necks that day.
Charlie Woerner, Georgia tight end: I remember them showing it on the Jumbotron. Bevo knocked over a fence. It was crazy. I was like, “Dang, I’m glad Uga is OK.”
Hager: Coming in from warming up, it went viral around the locker room. And the main point was, “How can we lose if Bevo’s bossing up like that?”
Griffin: Texas goes on to win the game, and everybody’s like, “It’s because Bevo showed attitude.”
Smart: The incident comes to light because of all the videos since, but I don’t recall it having any impact on us or seeing it prior to the game.
Bijan Robinson, top recruit and future Texas tailback: I wasn’t there when Bevo attacked, but I saw it live on TV. I was like, “That’s the scariest thing for that dog to get attacked by an absolute gigantic mammal.” From that moment, I was like, “I’m going to Texas.”
Rodrigo Blankenship, Georgia kicker: There was a whole lot of content that said, “This sums up the Texas-Georgia game.”
Part III: The aftermath
The game itself became something of an afterthought, while the clip of Bevo’s brashness was a sensation. It spread across social media like wildfire, led “SportsCenter,” and it was Scott Van Pelt’s “Best Thing I Saw” that night. Texas fans immediately adopted the image as the perfect symbol of the state and the school’s ethos of toughness.
Seiler: Rick called me and apologized. I said, “Did you get some good pictures?” He said he thinks that, because Bevo got to the arena like six hours before the game started and hadn’t moved from that spot, he just got worn out from staring at a wall. He just wanted to go for a stroll. I don’t think the cow ever even saw the dog, because there were too many people around.
Galindo: In the moment, we thought it was hilarious and cool and funny. But we really didn’t realize it was that big a deal until we got back to the hotel and at the bar, every TV was on “SportsCenter,” and they’re showing basically my play call.
Davis: This probably says a lot about the industry or how terrible a person I am, but this happens, and the first thing I think is, “Did I get it on camera?” And then, “This is content gold I have here.”
Seiler: I had a photographer come up and say, “Look what Bevo did to me.” He pulled up his shirt, and the guy had a big gash down his back.
Wagner: People were just coming up to me in the press room like, “Can I see your back?” My brother, Peter, had a good line that night in the family group text: “Nick I’ve seen your back more times today than I have in my entire life, and we used to share a room.”
Davis: Nick’s health and wellbeing, I didn’t even think about it at first. Then someone was like, “What happened with Nick?” and I was like, “Oh, s—, I should check on him.”
Wagner: On the workman’s comp form, it asks why you’re receiving treatment, and I just wrote, “Hit by cow.”
Wang: Nick and I always joked that we really wish our careers were something more than this meme, but at the same time, I’ll share it.
Griffin: [Wang] probably has a bright future ahead of her, but now she’s known as the lady who almost got killed by Bevo. When she has kids, they’ll be like, “Hey, you know my mom almost got killed by Bevo, right?”
Davis: It’s been a long-running joke that I peaked that night.
Bevo is not here for this mascot meeting. #HookEm pic.twitter.com/KXgaQzGm0W
— Danny Davis (@_dannydavis) January 2, 2019
Wang: When it first happened, I’d get responses on dating apps like, “Was that you?” My résumé at the bottom on special interests says, “Dodging mascots.”
Galindo: Every year we’d do three or four Longhorn Network promos before the start of the football season. We wanted to play off it, so we did a piece where it was, “Bring your dog to work day.” It was Ricky [Williams], Ship, me and Griff, and we’re all walking our actual dogs on the field at DKR. Ricky and Ship have bulldogs. So we’re walking our dogs, then cut to a shot from behind us of Bevo coming in frame. We all turn and walk the other way like, “Nope, not a good idea.”
But ultimately, there’s no arguing the color, tradition and, occasionally, unpredictability, live mascots bring to the sport.
Stratton: I do think [Ralphie] enjoys it. She’s a 1,000-pound animal, and we use only positive reinforcement, so at the end of the day, we’re not making this buffalo do anything she doesn’t want to do. We can’t make her do anything she doesn’t want to do. … I’ve had so many people come up to me and say, no matter how many times they see Ralphie run, they still get goosebumps. These animals are so special. They’re domestic, but they’re still just a little bit wild. And I think that speaks to our campus. It just gets your adrenaline going to watch four or five crazy college kids hold on to a buffalo for dear life. Who thinks that’s a good idea? But it’s me. I did it, and I love it.
Smart: So many people respect the long history and tradition of each Uga. They’re buried in our stadium. They’re right there. He’s part of the fabric of our culture.
Steve Sarkisian, Texas head coach: Bevo brings a ton of pride to our program and is such a great symbol of the power, strength and determination of Texas football. One of our mantras is “Tough All Day,” and that’s what Bevo is and represents.
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If college football’s playoff system ain’t broke, why fix it?
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50 mins agoon
July 19, 2025By
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Dan WetzelJul 18, 2025, 07:00 AM ET
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Dan Wetzel is a senior writer focused on investigative reporting, news analysis and feature storytelling.
During college football’s Bowl Championship Series era, the sport’s opposition to an expanded, let alone expansive, playoff could be summarized in one colorful quote by then-Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee.
“They will wrench a playoff system out of my cold, dead hands,” Gee said in 2007.
We are happy to report that while college football does, indeed, have a playoff, Gee is still very much alive. The 81-year-old retired just this week after a second stint leading West Virginia University.
What is dead and buried, though, is college football’s staunch resistance to extending its postseason field. After decades of ignoring complaints and the promise of additional revenue to claim that just two teams was more than enough, plans to move from 12 participants to 16 were underway before last season’s inaugural 12-teamer even took place.
A once-static sport now moves at light speed, future implications be damned.
Fire. Ready. Aim.
So maybe the best bit of current news is that college football’s two ruling parties — the SEC and Big Ten — can’t agree on how the new 16-team field would be selected. It has led to a pause on playoff expansion.
Maybe, just maybe, it means no expansion will occur by 2026, as first planned, and college football can let the 12-team model cook a little to accurately assess what changes — if any — are even needed.
“We have a 12-team playoff, five conference champions,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said this week. “That could stay if we can’t agree.”
Good. After all, what’s the rush?
The 2025 season will play out with a 12-team format featuring automatic bids for five conference champions and seven at-large spots. Gone is last year’s clunky requirement that the top four seeds could go only to conference champs — elevating Boise State and Arizona State and unbalancing the field.
That alone was progress built on real-world experience. It should be instructive.
The SEC wants a 16-team model but with, as is currently the case, automatic bids going to the champions in the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC and the best of the so-called Group of 6. The rest of the field would be at-large selections.
The Big Ten says it will not back such a proposal until the SEC agrees to play nine conference games (up from its current eight). Instead, it wants a 16-team system that gives four automatic bids apiece to the Big Ten and SEC, two each to the ACC and Big 12, one to the Group of 6 and then three at-large spots.
It’s been dubbed the “4-4-2-2-1-3” because college athletic leaders love ridiculous parlances almost as much as they love money.
While the ACC, Big 12 and others have offered opinions — mostly siding with the SEC — legislatively, the decision rests with the sport’s two big-dog conferences.
Right now, neither side is budging. A compromise might still be made, of course. The supposed deadline to set the 2026 system is Nov. 30. And Sankey actually says he prefers the nine-game SEC schedule, even if his coaches oppose it.
However, the possibility of the status quo standing for a bit longer remains.
What the Big Ten has proposed is a dramatic shift for a sport that has been bombarded with dramatic shifts — conference realignment, the transfer portal, NIL, revenue sharing, etc.
The league wants to stage multiple “play-in” games on conference championship weekend. The top two teams in the league would meet for the league title (as is currently the case), but the third- and fourth-place teams would play the fifth- and sixth-place teams to determine the other automatic bids.
Extend this out among all the conferences and you have up to a 26-team College Football Playoff (with 22 teams in a play-in situation). This would dramatically change the way the sport works — devaluing the stakes for nonconference games, for example. And some mediocre teams would essentially get a playoff bid — in the Big Ten’s case, the sixth seed last year was an Iowa team that finished 8-5.
Each conference would have more high-value inventory to sell to broadcast partners, but it’s not some enormous windfall. Likewise, four more first-round playoff games would need to find television slots and relevance.
Is anyone sure this is necessary? Do we need 16 at all, let alone with multibids?
In the 12-team format, the first round wasn’t particularly competitive — with a 19.3-point average margin of victory. It’s much like the first round of the NFL playoffs, designed mostly to make sure no true contender is left out.
Perhaps last year was an outlier. And maybe future games will be close. Or maybe they’ll be even more lopsided. Wouldn’t it be prudent to find out?
While there were complaints about the selection committee picking SMU and/or Indiana over Alabama, it wasn’t some egregious slight. Arguments will happen no matter how big the field. Besides, the Crimson Tide lost to two 6-6 teams last year. Expansion means a team with a similar résumé can cruise in.
Is that a good thing?
Whatever the decision, it is being made with little to no real-world data — pro or con. Letting a few 12-team fields play out, providing context and potentially unexpected consequences, sure wouldn’t hurt.
You don’t have to be Gordon Gee circa 2007 to favor letting this simmer and be studied before leaping toward another round of expansion.
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Arch to victory? Texas preseason pick to win SEC
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50 mins agoon
July 19, 2025By
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Associated Press
Jul 18, 2025, 05:18 PM ET
Texas, with Heisman Trophy candidate Arch Manning set to take over as starting quarterback, is the preseason pick to win the Southeastern Conference championship.
The Longhorns received 96 of the 204 votes cast from media members covering the SEC media days this week to be crowned SEC champion on Dec. 6 in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Georgia, with 44 votes, received the second-most votes.
If that scenario plays out, it would mean a rematch of the 2024 SEC championship game, which Georgia won in an overtime thriller. The SEC championship game pits the two teams with the best regular-season conference record against one another.
Alabama was third with 29 votes, while LSU got 20. South Carolina was next with five, while Oklahoma received three and Vanderbilt and Florida each got two votes. Tennessee, Ole Miss and Auburn each received one vote.
Since 1992, only 10 times has the predicted champion in the preseason poll gone on to win the SEC championship.
The 2024 SEC title game averaged 16.6 million viewers across ABC and ESPN, the fourth-largest audience on record for the game. The overtime win for Georgia, which peaked with 19.7 million viewers, delivered the largest audience of the college football season.
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NASCAR nixes ’26 Chicago race, eyes ’27 return
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4 hours agoon
July 18, 2025By
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Associated Press
Jul 18, 2025, 06:30 PM ET
CHICAGO — NASCAR is pressing pause on its Chicago Street Race, answering at least one major question about its schedule for next season.
NASCAR raced on a street course in downtown Chicago on the first weekend in July each of the last three years. But it had a three-year contract with the city, leaving the future of the event in question.
Writing to Mayor Brandon Johnson on Friday, race president Julie Giese said the plan is to explore the potential of a new event weekend with his office and other community leaders while also working on a more efficient course build and breakdown.
“Our goal is for the Chicago Street Race to return in 2027 with an event that further enhances the experience for residents and visitors alike, as we work together towards a new potential date, shorter build schedule, and additional tourism draws,” Giese wrote in her letter to Johnson.
Giese said NASCAR is keeping its Chicago Street Race office and plans to continue its community partnerships.
“We deeply value our relationship with the City of Chicago and remain steadfast in our commitment to being a good neighbor and partner,” she said in the letter.
NASCAR is replacing its Chicago stop with a street race in San Diego.
A message was left Friday seeking comment from Johnson’s office.
NASCAR’s Chicago weekend featured Xfinity and Cup Series races on a 12-turn, 2.2-mile course against the backdrop of Lake Michigan and Grant Park – to go along with a festival-like atmosphere with music and entertainment options.
The goal was an event that appealed to both a new audience in one of NASCAR’s most important regions and the most ardent racing fans. NASCAR used to race at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, a 45-mile drive from downtown, but it pulled out after the 2019 season.
Johnson’s predecessor, Lori Lightfoot, was in charge when the three-year contract for the downtown weekend was finalized.
It wasn’t exactly a popular move in Chicago. Local businesses and residents were frustrated by the street closures in a heavily trafficked area for tourists in the summer. But organizers shrunk the construction schedule from 43 days in 2023 to 25 this year, winning over some of the race’s critics.
Drivers and their teams had some concerns about the course ahead of the first weekend. But the setup was widely praised by the time the third year rolled around – both the course and the ability to walk to the circuit from their downtown hotel.
Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson called Chicago “probably my favorite event in NASCAR each year.”
The racing in downtown Chicago has been dominated by Shane van Gisbergen, who won the Xfinity and Cup races this year from the pole. He also won in Chicago in his Cup debut in 2023 and last year’s Xfinity Series race.
“I love the track,” he said after this year’s Cup win. “It’s a cool place to come to. You feel a nice vibe. You feel a good vibe in the mornings walking to the track with the fans. It’s pretty unique like that.”
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