A new world in Big Apple baseball: Steve Cohen, Hal Steinbrenner and the battle for NYC supremacy
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Jorge Castillo
NEW YORK — As the Yankees and Mets meet for another round of the Subway Series — this time in Queens — the dynamic between New York City’s two franchises has reached a point that those who have lived the rivalry were skeptical they’d ever see.
“The Mets have kind of turned the corner from being that little cousin or little brother or sister to the Yankees,” said Buck Showalter, whose nearly half-century in professional baseball was bookended by two decades in the Yankees organization and two seasons with the Mets as their manager. “They’re on firm standing. They don’t have to take a backseat to anybody. And I don’t think it’s that the Yankees have gone back. I just think the Mets have pushed forward.”
The teams have followed parallel paths so far this season — strong starts to the top of their respective divisions, followed by ugly recent stretches that have them both limping into the weekend. But they still have the same objective within reach: a World Series title. After a tense three-game series at Yankee Stadium in May, they’ll clash for what each team hopes are three bounce-back games starting Friday at Citi Field, where an unfamiliar sense of optimism has grown over the past five years.
There have been fleeting times when the Mets were the toast of New York baseball — the 1969 Miracle Mets and their golden years in the 1980s, among the brightest epochs — and seasons when both franchises were championship contenders. But what is happening now is different. The Mets have joined the Yankees as a baseball superpower, a metamorphosis that originated when Steve Cohen purchased the club from the Wilpon family for $2.4 billion in November 2020.
“The Mets were kind of a joke at that point,” said reliever Adam Ottavino, a Brooklyn native who joined the Mets in 2022 for three seasons after previously spending two years with the Yankees. “They were always looked at as a joke that made a lot of bad decisions.”
Now in his fifth season as owner, Cohen, 69, has revamped the organization, under the hood and on the field, alongside his wife, Alex. A franchise that people around the sport and in its own fan base dismissed as a running gag is now widely considered a first-class operation.
Sustained success is still the chief objective — the Mets failed to reach the postseason in two of Cohen’s first four seasons, including a spectacular flop in 2023 with the most expensive roster in baseball. But the culture change is indisputable. Brandon Nimmo, drafted by the Mets in 2011, is the longest-tenured player in the organization. He has seen the transformation firsthand.
“It kind of fell into my lap,” he said. “They came along and just put us in a totally different direction. And it feels really, really good.”
Across town, the Yankees, under Hal Steinbrenner since he assumed day-to-day control from his father, George, in 2009, have remained steady winners, even as the industry has undergone constant evolution. They’ve accrued 32 straight winning seasons, tied for the second-longest streak in any of the four major North American sports leagues, and are on pace for a 33rd. Only the Yankees’ 39-season run from 1926 through 1964 was better. They’re coming off an American League pennant. They have Aaron Judge, the best hitter in the world, signed to a long-term deal as their captain. Expectations from a fervent fan base have not lowered with the 55-year-old Steinbrenner in charge.
“[Hal] wants what’s best for our players,” said Brian Cashman, who started in the Yankees organization as an intern in 1986 and became general manager in 1998. “And that’s something his dad obviously provided and he’s continued to provide, obviously, in a completely new and unique environment.”
That new environment includes deep-pocketed competition in his own town — competition that challenged the Yankees for one of the most sought-after free agents in baseball history over the offseason and … won.
Juan Soto’s decision to leave the Yankees for the Mets — what would have qualified as a preposterous notion before last winter — seemingly cemented the Mets’ new standing among the sport’s premier franchises. But David Stearns, a lifelong Mets fan and the organization’s president of baseball operations since October 2023, insisted it did not represent anything more than a team adding a great player.
“I did not see it that way in my position,” Stearns said. “I saw it as we were able to sign and recruit one of our game’s best players. And regardless of where he happened to be playing last year, that, in and of itself, is important for our organization, for our brand, for our team, that a player could have gone to any of the major markets, any of the flagship teams in the sport, and he chose the Mets.
“It is a true testament to what Steve and Alex have been able to accomplish over the last five years.”
THOSE FIVE YEARS have been a crash course in MLB ownership for Cohen, who has reformed his public image from ruthless billionaire whose hedge fund agreed to pay a record $1.8 billion in fines for insider trading to beloved ballclub proprietor.
It started in 2021, when, in his first season as owner, he wondered aloud if he should be an owner like the famously passionate and hands-on George Steinbrenner, according to a source who heard Cohen pose the question.
He learned he was more emotional than he expected and tweeted aggressively, occasionally calling out the team, which peeved front office members, according to sources. He eventually took a step back, though he still periodically shares his thoughts on social media. On Monday, after the Pittsburgh Pirates dominated the Mets in a three-game sweep that featured a mid-series players-only meeting and concluded a league-worst 3-13 stretch, Cohen tweeted he was “as frustrated as everybody else.”
The Cohens became a consistent presence at Citi Field, occasionally working out of the stadium and regularly on hand for batting practice before watching games in their suite. Cohen peppered front office executives with questions about player performance and potential acquisitions. He was relentlessly curious and competitive, but not overbearing as he learned the game and found his style.
“He was, I wouldn’t say hands-on, but he was interested and he was involved as much as he thought he needed to be,” Showalter said. “He kind of let you do your job and asked good questions.”
Early in that first season, Cohen invited players, their significant others and their agents to his home for private dinners, soliciting suggestions for the post-Wilpon era.
Nimmo recalled having dinner with his wife, Chelsea, and the Cohens after a Sunday day game at Citi Field. They ate for two hours before Cohen hopped on a work call for Point72, his hedge fund, while Alex showed them around the house. Nimmo emphasized three areas needing improvement: sports science, analytics and accommodations for families. Players found the owners genuinely receptive.
“They listen,” Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor said. “They don’t make decisions based on the moment. They make decisions based on educating themselves. They talk to a lot of people and they make a decision. That’s important.”
Cohen was swift with changes. He quickly doubled the full-time analytics staff from 13 to 26. He tapped into his Point72 resources in data analytics, including bringing over the company’s head of data solutions, Sameer Gupta, to assume the same role with the Mets, and incorporating a team of data engineers and analysts based in the United States and Poland. Gupta left Point72 and the Mets last year.
“Bob Dylan, ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’,'” a source said, “you go through the lyrics in that song and that’s how it felt.”
Among its tasks, the group of engineers and analysts migrated the organization from a standard server on premises to a cloud-based, scalable solution to store files from new data sources. At one point in 2021, according to sources with knowledge of the situation, Cohen asked employees if he should just buy Driveline Baseball, the data-driven company at the forefront of pitching development over the past decade.
“The way I look at it is the Mets are playing catch-up big time, and they’ve already covered a lot of ground,” Ottavino said. “You could really feel this sense that nothing was going to stop the Cohens from making the Mets one of the top franchises in the game. They were improving every department.”
Cohen implemented pay raises across the board after sensing a toxic environment in which employees constantly pushed for promotions because they felt it was the only way to receive more compensation under the previous ownership. In 2022, after employees raised security concerns following a fight on the 7-train subway platform outside Citi Field, the team began offering money for rideshares to employees who stayed at the ballpark late into the night. This year, the team, at the behest of Alex Cohen, who has championed hospitality for player families, opened an expanded family room and day care center, which players have gushed over.
“He’s the type of owner everybody wants his team to have,” a source said. “He puts his money where his mouth is.”
Cohen also renovated Citi Field from the outside in, and emphasized better incorporating the team’s history into its present. Five players have had their numbers retired since Cohen bought the team, including Dwight Gooden’s No. 16 and Darryl Strawberry’s No. 18 last season. David Wright will join the list later this month. In September, the organization will host its inaugural alumni game.
Game production underwent an overhaul, with an emphasis on presenting Mets games as a party in direct response to the “corporate, buttoned-up” Yankees, according to sources. The Mets unveiled a 17,400-square-foot video board in 2023. They’ve added a dance troupe and a hype man to the in-game entertainment.
Last season, the team embraced an organic identity — from finding a new good luck charm in Grimace to rallying around infielder José Iglesias’ pop-reggaeton track “OMG” — during an unexpected run to the National League Championship Series. This year, the Mets introduced a mascot race for every home game with each of New York City’s five boroughs represented. The Bronx Giraffe, dressed in a dirty white T-shirt, has yet to win.
“There’s no way the Wilpons would’ve done any of the Grimace-type stuff,” a source said. “They were much more like, classic, put a baseball game in front of everybody instead of, like, turn this place into a nightclub.”
With the makeover, however, came constant personnel churn that in Cohen’s hedge fund world is common — but is not often seen in baseball.
Cohen initially brought back veteran executive Sandy Alderson to oversee baseball and business operations. Alderson stepped down after the 2022 season, leading Cohen to hire Scott Havens as president of baseball operations in November 2023.
But Havens stepped down from his post in May after less than two years. Days later, the organization announced Lew Sherr, the CEO and executive director of the U.S. Tennis Association since 2022, as president of business operations. Sherr’s tenure began Tuesday.
In addition to Havens, chief legal officer Katie Pothier, chief marketing officer Andy Goldberg, chief communications officer Nancy Elder and senior vice president of finance Peter Woll have left the organization since November. The shake-up, sources said, reflects Cohen’s demanding nature.
“He’s not afraid to change personnel, obviously,” said Showalter, who was fired as Mets manager at the end of the disappointing 2023 season, shortly after Stearns was hired to oversee baseball operations.
Turnover has seeped into the baseball side, though not always at Cohen’s discretion. Under Alderson, general manager Jared Porter was fired in January 2021, one month into his job, after sexual harassment allegations surfaced. Less than a year later, acting general manager Zack Scott was arrested on drunken driving charges and dismissed from his role, though he was later acquitted.
General manager Billy Eppler resigned in October 2023, two years into a four-year contract, while MLB conducted an investigation into whether he directed the team to fabricate injuries to vacate roster spots. MLB eventually suspended Eppler for the 2024 season. Carlos Mendoza, hired before last season from the Yankees, is the Mets’ third manager since Cohen bought the team, following Luis Rojas and Showalter.
With Mendoza, who spent 17 years in the Yankees’ organization and the final four seasons as manager Aaron Boone’s bench coach, and Stearns, a 40-year-old Harvard graduate who shepherded the small-market Milwaukee Brewers to four postseason appearances in seven seasons as general manager, the Mets appear to have found some stability.
“Steve and Alex, they’re very involved, but they have let David do his part, do his job, trusting him that he’s the right guy,” Mendoza said.
CONTINUITY, MEANWHILE, HAS defined the Hal Steinbrenner era in the Bronx, even as many fans have clamored for change during the Yankees’ longest stretch without winning a World Series since the mid-’90s.
While Cohen’s education has been on the fly, Steinbrenner’s instruction began when his father bought the Yankees in 1973. He had a front-row seat to the winning and, people forget, the losing in the ’80s and into the ’90s. He watched his father’s volatility — the firings, the controversies and his brief banishment from the league.
In contrast, Steinbrenner retained Randy Levine as team president and has kept Cashman as GM despite an ongoing 15-year championship drought. While George Steinbrenner churned through 10 managers and 16 managerial changes in his first 15 years, including Billy Martin’s infamous five terms, Boone is just the second skipper of Hal’s tenure.
Unlike Cohen and especially unlike his father, Steinbrenner eschews the spotlight. He attends games and goes unnoticed by the public. Steinbrenner, like Cohen, declined comment for this story through a public relations official. Boone said he’s a steady presence, stopping by his office to ask questions about the day-to-day machinations of the team, as he did three times on a recent homestand.
“He allows you to do your job, allows his people to do their job,” Boone said. “But he’s here. He’s a presence. He’s up here probably about half of our home games. He’s not a big extrovert. He’s obviously a little more reserved and likes to stay behind the scenes. That being said, he’s around. He’s invested. Always asking questions.”
The job was different when Steinbrenner first took over. Front offices have expanded. The technology in the sport has rapidly advanced. The product itself, from strategy to rules, has evolved. Aggressive spending on players comes with harsher penalties.
“It’s hard to compare the George era with the Hal era because there have been significant changes,” said Levine, who was hired as Yankees president by George Steinbrenner in 2000. “The game has completely, completely been changed because the rules have changed, what’s in the collective bargaining agreement has changed with luxury taxes and revenue sharing. So you’ve had to adjust based on that.”
Through the ever-changing landscape, Steinbrenner has become more assertive in spots both publicly and behind closed doors.
While the Yankees have held tight to some traditions, including refusing to add a City Connect uniform to their rotation, Steinbrenner in February announced the organization would allow uniformed personnel to grow beards, amending the polemic grooming rule his father established in 1976. Days later, the club announced it would play Frank Sinatra’s “(Theme From) New York, New York” — a song synonymous with the franchise since the early 1980s — only after wins, instead of after every home game regardless of the result.
Steinbrenner has also stepped in during franchise-changing contract negotiations, leading the charge to re-sign Judge and name him captain after the 2022 season, and the attempt to bring back Soto.
“He wants to be involved,” Judge said. “He wants to know what’s going on. Having that open line of communication, I think, helps a lot and only makes his team better.”
The Yankees still spend large sums of money on players. Judge was kept on a nine-year, $360 million contract. Gerrit Cole was signed for nine years and $324 million. Carlos Rodon got $162 million over six years. Max Fried agreed to an eight-year, $218 million deal in December after Soto was offered 16 years and $760 million.
“I think there’s been a real graduation of Hal’s personal involvement in the franchise in the last five or so years,” agent Scott Boras said. “Because of the fact that, I think, Hal has really grown to understand what a Yankee player is and what he wants in a Yankee player.”
But they’re not the Evil Empire that spooked foes at the turn of the century. A generation of players has entered the league not knowing the Yankees as a championship franchise; the Yankee mystique doesn’t register to some. The days of the Core Four and outspending peers for the best players are far in the rearview mirror. As a result, Steinbrenner’s continued belief in Cashman and Boone has drawn ire from fans.
The Yankees are now one of three big-market Goliaths — along with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who beat them in the World Series last October, and their neighbors in Queens. While the Yankees have the third-highest projected competitive balance tax payroll in the majors this season behind the Dodgers and Mets, they have not blown through the fourth-tier luxury tax threshold — known as “the Cohen tax” around the industry because it was seemingly aimed at Cohen when it was included in the 2022 collective bargaining agreement — like their deep-pocketed peers.
The Dodgers, backed by billionaire Mark Walter’s Guggenheim Baseball group, spend the most money on players and are a profitable entity thanks to unmatched attendance, an incomparable local television deal and a massively lucrative Japanese pipeline powered by Shohei Ohtani.
The Dodgers committed more than $450 million guaranteed to players this past winter and are projected to spend more than $561 million between player payroll and luxury tax payments this season, according to Spotrac. The Mets are in line for a $405.1 million bill while the Yankees are on pace for $360.5 million. The difference between his franchise and the Dodgers prompted Steinbrenner to bemoan, in an interview with the YES Network in January, that “it’s difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kind of things that they’re doing.”
The comment produced eye rolls across the industry, but it was a reminder that the Yankees’ place in the hierarchy isn’t the same. The Dodgers had an operating income of $21 million in 2024 despite topping the sport with $456 million spent on payroll and luxury taxes while the Yankees operated at a loss of $57 million, according to Forbes.
“We really don’t think about what the Dodgers do, what the Mets do,” Levine said. “Steve Cohen has a very good relationship with Hal and me and [I] wish him well. We think there’s plenty of room for two teams to operate in New York.”
COHEN, A MAN worth $21.3 billion according to public figures and whose willingness to absorb losses to build a winner has shifted the paradigm in the country’s largest market, spent $1.36 billion in payroll and luxury tax payments in his first four seasons as owner. But he has also asserted a goal is to decrease payroll under the highest tax line, which carries heavier penalties for repeat offenders, with an infusion of young, cheaper talent cultivated in the minor leagues under Stearns’ direction. Forbes estimated the Mets operated at a whopping $268 million loss last year.
“I’d like to get below the Cohen tax,” Cohen said during spring training. “We sure it’s about me? There’s a lot of Cohens out there. I was just saying to somebody before: I’m a pauper now compared to the Dodgers.”
One way for Cohen to better compete with the behemoth out West hinges on politicians and the New York State Gaming Commission. Cohen, in partnership with Hard Rock International, has pursued an $8 billion mixed-use development across the street from Citi Field, modeled after several projects around the country. The project, called Metropolitan Park, calls for a 25-acre public park, a 5,000-seat indoor music venue, affordable housing, a food hall, retail space and improvements to the subway station that serves the area. Cohen claims the park and businesses would create 23,000 jobs.
In May, the plan cleared a major hurdle when the New York State Senate voted to allow New York City to rezone 50 acres of parking lots around Citi Field to allow the development.
The proposal, however, is contingent on the consortium being given one of three downstate gaming licenses for its hotel and casino.
Cohen and Hard Rock International submitted their casino license application June 27. A Community Advisory Committee made up of six members, including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, will vote by Sept. 30 on whether to advance the application to the New York State Gaming Commission. The body is expected to award the licenses in December.
“It’s an expensive piece of property to build on,” Cohen said in February. “And it really needs an economic engine. Without it, it’d be impossible to make economic sense.”
To many baseball people, handing Soto, a Hall of Fame-caliber hitter who doesn’t excel in the field or on the bases, a 15-year, $765 million contract did not make much economic sense. But Cohen, as he did with giving Lindor a 10-year, $341 million extension in 2021 and signing veteran ace Justin Verlander to make a run in 2023, pushed for the expenditure. He met Soto twice in person — the first time in his $32 million Beverly Hills, California, home and the second in his $21.6 million Boca Raton, Florida, house — and came away from the second meeting convinced Soto would sign with the Yankees.
Two days later, Soto shocked the Mets with his decision. Soto has said the Yankees were the leading choice for much of the process. He enjoyed playing in pinstripes and the intense fan base. Hitting in front of Judge helped produce arguably his most productive full major league season. But the Mets — beyond compensation that included a $75 million signing bonus and could escalate to $805 million — offered various perks, including a luxury suite for all home games, four additional premium seats and security for him and his family. And a cultural twist.
Alex Cohen, the president of the Mets’ foundation, is of Puerto Rican descent and was instrumental in Soto’s recruitment. Her 93-year-old father, Ralph, a rabid Mets fan, flew cross-country for the first meeting with Soto. Family was central to the team’s pitch.
“The Mets have gone a really long way to, in my mind, be very pro-Latino player,” Ottavino said. “Just in every department, there’s a lot of Dominican presence, Puerto Rican presence. … If you’re a Latin player, you’re going to feel very comfortable with the Mets. And not to say you wouldn’t in other places, but I think they’ve done a very good job of positioning themselves to be attractive to the high-level Latin player.”
Five months after the decision, Soto returned to Yankee Stadium in mid-May for the Subway Series to merciless boos and jeers. It was a visceral reaction from a wounded fan base still not over the rejection. Of course, Soto’s former team was in first place. The Yankees are still the Yankees, after all. But Soto left them for the Mets, and the Mets, for once, don’t look like they’re going anywhere, either.
“This is great for baseball,” Showalter said.
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Bill Connelly
Oregon and Penn State went to overtime. Alabama and Georgia nearly did. Tennessee went to overtime for a second time in three weeks. Illinois watched a two-score lead vanish against unbeaten USC and then won anyway. Georgia Tech pulled off a magic act to avoid an upset in Wake Forest.
What looked to be a great Friday night was one of the best Friday nights in memory, with Virginia pulling off a stirring overtime upset of Florida State, Arizona State unearthing some more close-game magic and Houston coming back to win in overtime in Corvallis. Indiana survived Iowa City. Cincinnati and Kansas put on a Big 12 track meet. Central Washington scored 91 points!
There aren’t many things in the world better than a huge college football Saturday that lives up to its hype. We had been looking forward to Week 5 since the preseason, and it delivered. So instead of compiling a “My Favorite Games of the Week” list at the bottom of this week’s recap column, we’re going to build the whole column out of My Favorite Games!
With Florida State facing its first road test of the season and TCU and Arizona State facing off in a key Big 12 battle, Friday night looked like it was going to be awesome. It was more than that. Arizona State and TCU went down to the wire, Houston-Oregon State was surprisingly awesome, and the game between YAC kings in Charlottesville exceeded all expectations.
Thanks in part to an early fumble from FSU’s Gavin Sawchuk and an acrobatic red zone interception from UVA’s Ja’son Prevard, Virginia led 14-0 early in the second quarter. When FSU scored on three straight drives, however, this game looked as if it would belong to the “Underdog lands some shots early, then fades” category. We see a lot of those games.
Virginia just kept responding, however. J’Mari Taylor tied the game at 21-21 before halftime, Chandler Morris scored his second rushing touchdown, and Morris threw a go-ahead TD to Xavier Brown with 7:20 left. FSU sent the game to overtime with a fourth-and-goal touchdown pass from Tommy Castellanos to Randy Pittman Jr. with 36 seconds left; I was surprised FSU didn’t go for two points and the win, but perhaps coach Mike Norvell simply trusted that his offense was more likely to keep scoring. Nope! The Seminoles didn’t net a single first down in two overtime possessions. First, both teams settled for field goals. Then Morris scored again and hit Trell Harris for the 2-point conversion. Prevard picked off Castellanos’ desperation heave, and one of the most rapid field-stormings you’ll ever see followed.
0:49
Fans rush the field after UVA upsets No. 8 FSU
Florida State is unable to convert on fourth down in double overtime against Virginia, and fans storm the field.
I’m not going to lie: That was both exhilarating and terrifying to watch. But it had been quite a while since Cavaliers fans got to celebrate such a win — their last home victory over a top-10 team was in 2005. That win was also against Florida State. And in a fun nod to history, the Cavaliers had also scored one of the great weeknight upsets of all time in 1995 against, yes, Florida State again. Thirty years later, they did it again.
The win was big because every fan base deserves moments like this. It was also big because it upended the ACC title race a bit. We head into October with Miami at the top of the pecking order, but lots of teams pretty close behind.
Current ACC title odds, per SP+
1. Miami 24.2%
2. Louisville 20.4%
3. Georgia Tech 10.3%
4. Virginia 10.2%
5. Duke 9.6%
6. Florida State 6.7%
7. SMU 5.1%
The winner of this coming Saturday’s Virginia-Louisville game is going to be awfully well-positioned to nab one of the slots in the ACC championship game. (Of course, knowing this conference’s history, we’ve got 26 more plot twists to go between now and then.)
There were six Big Ten games Saturday, and only one was decided before the final two minutes. I felt smart for suggesting in Friday’s preview that Washington might make Ohio State sweat for a while, but the Huskies’ challenge lasted only about 29 minutes in a 24-6 loss. Otherwise, however, every game was dynamite.
That included the night’s big headliner in Happy Valley, though it certainly took its time reaching a boil. In fact early in the fourth quarter it looked as if this would end up a blowout. After 47:35, Oregon led 17-3, having outgained Penn State by a 352-109 margin. (Yards per play to that point: 5.9 to 2.9.)
Out of nowhere, however, Drew Allar led two pristine touchdown drives, one quick and one languid; a lovely touchdown lob to Devonte Ross made it 17-10 Ducks, and a gorgeously designed pitch to Ross tied the game with 30 seconds left.
Penn State needed only three plays to score in overtime, and Oregon had to gut out a response, converting a fourth-and-1 and then scoring on a cluttered shovel pass up the middle to Jamari Johnson. Penn State still looked like the steadier team heading into the second OT, but two plays later, the game was over. Dante Moore connected with Gary Bryant Jr. for a 25-yard score, and Dillon Thieneman appeared out of nowhere to pick off an Allar sideline pass. That was that.
Oregon is the real deal. The Ducks are No. 1 in SP+ and are getting what they need out of virtually every new and former transfer they’ve had to call upon, from Moore and Bryant, to much of the offensive line, to guys such as Thieneman on defense. And their two best offensive players Saturday night might have been freshmen: running back Dierre Hill Jr. (94 yards from scrimmage) and receiver Dakorien Moore (seven catches for 89 yards). Dante Moore aced the biggest test of his collegiate career, and led by head coach Dan Lanning, who seems to adore coaching in games such as this, the Ducks have won 19 of their past 20 games.
The narrative following this one, of course, focused mostly on the losing team. I tend to hate narratives; they’re almost always lazy and oversimplified, and one of the major reasons I’ve pursued analytics as much as I have over my writing career is that I like shutting narratives down. That goes especially for the “can’t win the big one” trope. Tom Osborne couldn’t win the big one, nor could Bobby Bowden or Mack Brown. They couldn’t, and then they did. James Franklin wears the biggest, brightest “Can’t win the big one!” sign in the sport at the moment, and guess what: Of the 136 programs in FBS, at least 125 of them would trade places with Franklin’s Penn State in a heartbeat. Franklin has been undeniably awesome at his job for quite a while. Almost no team in the sport has proven to be more upset-proof. That the Nittany Lions lose only to awesome teams — and often by small margins — is a sign that they’re an awesome team.
However …
Many of Penn State’s recent losses to awesome teams have followed a very familiar script full of droughts, a lack of offensive ambition and a complete lack of faith in the quarterback. Andy Kotelnicki’s fourth-quarter playcalling was almost note-perfect — he has proven his playcalling chops for quite a while now — but it came after two straight quarters of ineffective nibbling. In last year’s CFP semifinal loss to Notre Dame, Penn State scored one TD in its first six drives, then carved down the field beautifully for two late touchdowns. In last year’s Big Ten championship game, the Nittany Lions scored one TD in their first four drives and fell behind 28-10 before finding a rhythm and surging back (only to fall short).
It’s great to hold something in reserve for when you need it, and that’s a clear part of the Penn State approach in big games. But it’s producing awfully similar results, and it’s impossible not to notice that in his seven losses as a starter, Allar has averaged just 171 passing yards per game with a 50% completion rate and a 61.1 Total QBR. (It’s also not hard to notice that in the past two games in which he had a chance to win the game on Penn State’s final drive, he threw almost immediate interceptions.)
If someone says someone “can’t win the big one,” my natural instinct is to roll my eyes and assume the tables will turn pretty soon. But it’s hard to maintain that faith, in either Allar or Penn State, at the moment, not when it feels as if we’re watching reruns.
I feel like the Big 12 should sue the SEC for copyright infringement. An utterly nutty conference title race, loaded with close games and unexpected plot twists, is supposed to be the Big 12’s domain. But with Texas Tech’s early 2025 star turn and high-quality, unbeaten starts for Iowa State and BYU, the Big 12 race is looking pretty straight forward at the moment. Following these two huge Saturday games, however, the SEC’s title race leaves September in a place of glorious disarray.
SEC title odds, per SP+
Ole Miss 16.3%
Missouri 12.9%
Oklahoma 11.1%
Alabama 11.1%
Vanderbilt 9.7%
Texas 8.5%
Tennessee 7.2%
Texas A&M 6.2%
Georgia 5.2%
LSU 5.2%
To put that another way, the six above teams that have won a national title in the past 25 years (Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia and LSU) have a combined 48.3% chance of winning the SEC. The other four teams above — which have combined for a single outright conference title in the past 50 years (Texas A&M’s 1998 Big 12 crown) — are at 45.1%.
(Other teams have tiny chances that bring the total to 100%. And no, Oklahoma’s odds aren’t affected by quarterback John Mateer‘s recent hand injury.)
We basically have a 50-50 shot at a team enjoying its first conference title in a very long time.
Brilliant early play from Missouri and Vanderbilt has certainly juiced these odds in their favor a bit, and after last year’s No. 2 finish in SP+, we shouldn’t be all that surprised Ole Miss has a puncher’s shot at a conference crown. But I literally laughed out loud when I saw the list above. The SEC is in an incredibly strange place at the moment, and I’m here for it.
Saturday’s Alabama and Ole Miss wins certainly added to the chaotic vibe, and both came down to clutch late-down conversions. First, Ole Miss outgained LSU by a 480-254 margin and led by 10 at the half and 11 early in the fourth quarter. But the Rebels settled for a field goal in the first quarter and lost a fumble in the end zone in the second, allowing LSU to hang around, and Harlem Berry‘s touchdown with 5:04 left brought the Tigers within five points. When Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss foolishly allowed himself to get pushed out of bounds on a third-down rush, stopping the clock with 1:47 left and bringing up a fourth down, it wasn’t hard to see the Tigers stealing this one. But Chambliss found Dae’Quan Wright for a picture-perfect 20-yard gain on fourth-and-3, and Ole Miss kneeled out the win.
On Saturday evening in Athens, Alabama did what it did early against Georgia last season but changed the script for how things played out late. The Crimson Tide scored on four of their five first-half possessions, racking up 262 yards and a 24-14 halftime lead. Ty Simpson was 11-for-16 for 132 yards, Bama was 5-for-8 on third downs (Georgia was 0-for-3), and everything was working.
And then, in the second half, a rock fight broke out. Bama almost seemed Penn State-esque, going ultra-conservative and saving any actually good offensive plays for when Georgia finally took the lead. Only, it never happened. The Dawgs got to within three points on the first drive of the third quarter, but they punted twice and failed on a fourth-and-1 from the Bama 8 with 13:20 left in the fourth quarter when LT Overton and Deontae Lawson stormed the backfield on a hurry-up snap and knocked Cash Jones off-balance for a 3-yard loss. Georgia never got another shot. Thanks to a 7-yard pass from Simpson to Jam Miller on third-and-5 with 1:51 left, Bama was also able to kneel out the win.
By the way, if you’re a fan of the transitive property, I do have to point out that Old Dominion beat Virginia Tech, which beat NC State, which beat Virginia, which beat Florida State, which beat Alabama, which beat Georgia. ODU for the CFP???
Tennessee let a potential upset of Georgia slip through its fingers two weeks ago and is still looking ahead at a schedule that includes trips to Alabama and Florida and visits from Oklahoma and surging Vanderbilt. This was not the time to suffer an upset against an upstart — we know from Ole Miss’ and Alabama’s 2024 experiences that untimely upset losses will doom you awfully quickly — but Mississippi State sure looked like it was going to finish the job early Saturday evening. Despite two defensive touchdowns for the Vols (and a yards-per-play advantage of 6.5 to 4.4 for UT), MSU took the lead on four separate occasions and held a 34-27 advantage midway through the fourth quarter with Tennessee forcing a fourth-and-4. But Joey Aguilar found star receiver Chris Brazzell II for a first down, and Aguilar took in a touchdown on the first play after the two-minute timeout.
Tennessee’s DeSean Bishop scored on the first play of overtime, then Arion Carter broke up a fourth-down pass from Blake Shapen to Anthony Evans III.
If the loose playoff goal for an SEC team is to reach 10-2, this comeback saved Tennessee’s bacon. The Vols still have a 40% chance of reaching 10-2 or better. That number would have been about 10% with a loss here.
Arizona State has won nine straight Big 12 games going back to last season, and four of them were decided by five or fewer points. The last two were decided by 27-24 scores.
This Friday night result seemed rather unlikely. TCU, unbeaten and confident, dominated on the way to a 17-0 lead late in the first half, and after the Sun Devils charged back to tie, Josh Hoover‘s 1-yard touchdown gave the Horned Frogs another lead that they held with two minutes left. But a pair of defensive penalties and a fourth-and-goal touchdown pass from Sam Leavitt to Jordyn Tyson tied the game. And then Prince Dorbah made maybe the best play of the entire weekend.
It’s DORBAH ‼️@prince_dorbah pic.twitter.com/fMN1TulfJt
— Sun Devil Football (@ASUFootball) September 27, 2025
Dorbah’s strip sack set up a go-ahead field goal for Jesus Gomez, and Martell Hughes‘ interception 25 seconds later clinched the win.
It was fair to assume that, with such an experienced squad, Illinois was going to respond with physicality and quality after last week’s humiliating loss to Indiana. The Illini ended up needing an extra reserve of resilience too.
They led 31-17 with 10 minutes left, but two Makai Lemon touchdowns (and a 2-point conversion from Lemon), combined with an Illinois fumble deep in Trojan territory, gave USC a sudden 32-31 lead with 1:55 remaining. With help from a pass interference penalty, though, Illinois was able to drive to the USC 24 in the closing seconds, and David Olano‘s 41-yard field goal saved the day.
After jumping out to a 14-0 lead against NC State but falling 34-24, Wake Forest came even closer to an upset Saturday. The Demon Deacons led 20-3 early in the second half and had a chance to close out a 23-20 upset with less than two minutes left. But Robby Ashford, thinking Tech had jumped offside on a third-and-5 and he had a free play, threw an incomplete deep ball, stopping the clock. No flag was thrown — the Tech defender was in the process of jumping back behind the line of scrimmage when the ball was snapped and came awfully close — and Wake was forced to punt. With the extra seconds, Tech drove for a field goal and picked off a 2-point pass in overtime to somehow keep its unbeaten record intact.
In a game neither team led by more than 7 points, Central Connecticut looked to have forced overtime with a short Michael Trovarelli touchdown with 58 seconds left. But unfortunately for the Blue Devils, they, um, forgot to cover Ky’Dric Fisher.
THE GAME WINNING TOUCHDOWN CATCH BY KY’DRIC FISHER pic.twitter.com/QhMeLe858F
— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) September 27, 2025
I can’t really say Kansas did a ton wrong here — the Jayhawks got a huge day from Jalon Daniels (445 passing yards and four TDs) and Emmanuel Henderson (214 receiving yards and two of those scores) and basically split third downs with the Bearcats and committed far fewer penalties. But Cincy’s Brendan Sorsby completed passes to nine different receivers and threw two touchdown passes to Cyrus Allen.
When Levi Wentz gave KU its first lead in nearly 55 minutes with a short touchdown reception with 1:45 left, the Jayhawks left too much time on the clock. Sorsby completed a fourth-and-10 pass to Noah Jennings, and Tawee Walker plunged in with the game-winning points with 29 seconds on the clock.
The longer the road trip, the better the Cal result. The Golden Bears beat Auburn, Wake Forest and Pitt on the road last season, and despite a dreadful start in Chestnut Hill — Boston College led 14-0 after just eight minutes — they produced a win in their longest ACC road trip yet. Kendrick Raphael gave Cal its first lead with 13:47 left, but Turbo Richard‘s 71-yard turbo boost made it 24-21 BC. After a fourth-down pass interference call bought Cal time, Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele hit Mason Mini down the left sideline for a 51-yard score.
0:25
Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele throws 51-yard touchdown pass pass to Mason Mini
Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele throws 51-yard touchdown pass pass to Mason Mini
BC drove the length of the field, but Luke Ferrelli stepped in front of a Dylan Lonergan pass and the Golden Bears prevailed.
Oregon State can’t catch a break. After watching a late lead against Fresno State disappear earlier in the season, the winless Beavers played their best game of the season and led 24-10 with six minutes left. But Conner Weigman threw touchdown passes to Stephon Johnson and Tanner Koziol, and when a late Maalik Murphy-to-Trent Walker completion set up a shot at a game-winning field goal for OSU, basically the entire Cougar lineup broke into the backfield to block it.
0:31
Houston blocks Oregon State’s winning FG attempt to force OT
Multiple Houston defenders break through to block Cameron Smith’s winning field goal attempt for Oregon State.
It was Houston’s second blocked field goal of the night, and it made the ending feel preordained. In overtime, Brandon Mack and Zelmar Vedder stuffed OSU’s Cornell Hatcher Jr. on fourth-and-1, then Ethan Sanchez nailed the 24-yarder to keep Houston unbeaten.
Indiana passed yet another test, taking on upset-minded Iowa in Iowa City and misfiring for much of the middle of the game. Trailing 13-10 with less than 10 minutes left, the Hoosiers got a 44-yard field goal from Nico Radicic and a 49-yard catch-and-go from Elijah Sarratt to take the lead. This being an Iowa game, a late safety was legally required, but Indiana held on.
Last week, San Diego trailed Princeton 35-14 in the second quarter before storming back to win, 42-35. The Toreros decided the only way to follow that up was to spot St. Thomas a 27-10 lead midway through the third quarter. After a 54-yard touchdown pass from Dom Nankil to Cole Monarch cut the Tommies’ lead to 27-24, two fourth-quarter field goals from Emiliano Salazar — including a 25-yarder with two seconds left — sealed another wild comeback.
15. Div. II: No. 8 California (Pa.) 45, No. 4 Slippery Rock 38
As with FBS, Division II’s biggest game of the week went down to the wire. In front of 7,670 in Slippery Rock, Cal scored five touchdowns in 13 minutes to take a shocking 35-14 lead, but the Rock slowly reeled the Vulcans in. Kevin Roberts’ early-fourth-quarter field goal gave Slippery Rock a 38-35 lead, but Cal quickly retied the game, then took the win with Kendrick Agenor’s 14-yard touchdown run with 60 seconds left.
It was almost overshadowed by the two other wild Saturday afternoon SEC games, but A&M almost let one slip through its grasp.
The Aggies erased the Auburn defense and outgained the Tigers, 414-177, but their last six scoring chances resulted in five field goal attempts (two missed) and an interception that Xavier Atkins returned 73 yards to set up a short score. Somehow Auburn got the ball with a chance to win at the end, but poor Jackson Arnold got crushed by Dayon Hayes on fourth down — A&M’s fifth sack of the day and the 15th time Arnold has been sacked in two weeks — and the Aggies survived.
San José State did almost everything right. The Spartans methodically built a 12-point fourth-quarter lead as their in-game win probability crept over 90%. But the Cardinal drove 80 yards in the final three minutes, thanks in part to a 34-yard Caden High reception on fourth-and-10, and Sedrick Irvin‘s short touchdown gave them the lead with 19 seconds left. SJSU nearly drove into field goal range, but Leland Smith couldn’t hold onto a pass over the middle, and the Spartans came up short.
18. Div. III: Alma 29, No. 15 Hope 26
19. Div. III: Maryville 34, Pikeville 30
Big week for Scots! Both the Alma Scots and Maryville Scots came up with late heroics. In front of 3,206 in Holland, Michigan, Alma took down no-longer-unbeaten Hope by bolting to an early 14-0 lead and holding on for dear life. Hope tied the game with 22 seconds left in regulation but had to settle for a field goal in the first overtime. Facing fourth-and-goal from the 2, Alma went for the win and got it thanks to a touchdown pass from Carter St. John to Miles Haggart.
About 600 miles south in Maryville, Tennessee, Maryville looked as if it would cruise over NAIA’s Pikeville in front of 5,576. The Scots led 27-10 late in the first half, but a 20-0 run put the visitors on top. No worries! Maryville drove 86 yards in 44 seconds, and Bryson Rollins found Jalen McCullough with 35 seconds left to save the day.
For the second straight week, Rutgers enticed a rock-fight connoisseur into a track meet of sorts — Iowa last week, Minnesota this week — but couldn’t actually win it. A 4-yard Drake Lindsay-to-Javon Tracy touchdown gave the Gophers the lead with 3:19 left, but Rutgers worked the ball into field goal range until a devastating, 15-yard Rushawn Lawrence sack of Athan Kaliakmanis forced Dane Pizzaro to attempt a 56-yarder. He missed.
Hell yeah, Hokies. After starting 2025 so dismally that head coach Brent Pry was fired after just three games, Tech has won two straight. Terion Stewart enjoyed a breakout performance with 174 rushing yards, Kyron Drones threw two touchdown passes and Christian Ellis broke up a fourth-and-1 pass with 42 seconds left to clinch the win.
22. NAIA: No. 15 Dordt 21, No. 14 Northwestern (Iowa) 20
Dordt entered Week 5 as NAIA’s No. 1 team, per SP+, and the Defenders rallied to score a big road win over the 2022 national champs. After trailing 17-0 late in the second quarter, they took their first lead with just 13 seconds left, when Connor Dodd capped a 93-yard drive with a 4-yard TD catch.
This was easily UCLA’s best chance at avoiding a winless 2025 season, but as with their loss to UNLV, they spotted their hosts a big early lead and couldn’t quite catch up. They cut a 17-0 deficit to 17-14 with six minutes left, but two last-ditch drives went nowhere.
Pitt made this one as messy and chaotic as Pat Narduzzi could have hoped and bolted to a 17-0 first-quarter lead, but the Panthers couldn’t hold on. Louisville remained unbeaten by pitching a second-half shutout; the Cardinals took their first lead with 7:03 remaining, and their third interception of the day, with four seconds left, closed things out.
25. Div. II: No. 17 Central Washington 91, Western New Mexico 31
I had to end this list with one of the most confounding box scores I’ve ever seen.
Total yards: CWU 499, WNMU 468
First downs: WNMU 24, CWU 20
Red zone trips: CWU 6, WNMU 4
Touchdowns: CWU 13, WNMU 4
What??
CWU played an almost perfect first quarter, gaining 253 yards in 14 snaps and going up 35-0. The Wildcats then proceeded to score touchdowns on a kickoff return, another kickoff return two minutes later and a third-quarter pick-six. And because of turnovers and special teams, they had touchdown drives of 5, 40, 44 and 47 yards. And they managed to score nearly 100 points with less than 500 yards. College football is only ever allowed to make so much sense.
Who won the Heisman this week?
I am once again awarding the Heisman every single week of the season and doling out weekly points, F1-style (in this case, 10 points for first place, 9 for second, and so on). How will this Heisman race play out, and how different will the result be from the actual Heisman voting?
Here is this week’s Heisman top 10:
1. Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt (26-for-34 passing for 321 yards, 5 TDs and an INT, plus 83 non-sack rushing yards and a touchdown against Utah State).
2. Luke Altmyer, Illinois (20-for-26 passing for 328 yards and 2 touchdowns, plus 36 non-sack rushing yards and a touchdown against USC).
3. CJ Carr, Notre Dame (22-for-30 passing for 354 yards and 4 touchdowns against Arkansas).
4. Dante Moore, Oregon (29-for-39 passing for 248 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus 35 non-sack rushing yards against Penn State).
5. Ty Simpson, Alabama (24-for-38 passing for 276 yards and a touchdown, plus a rushing touchdown against Georgia).
6. Prince Dorbah, Arizona State (4 tackles, 4 TFLs, 3 sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery against TCU).
7. Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss (23-for-39 passing for 314 yards, a TD and an INT, plus 71 non-sack rushing yards against LSU).
8. Brendan Sorsby, Cincinnati (29-for-43 passing for 388 yards and 2 touchdowns, plus 63 non-sack rushing yards against Kansas).
9. Jalon Daniels, Kansas (19-for-28 passing for 445 yards and 4 touchdowns, plus 58 non-sack rushing yards against Cincinnati).
10. Xavier Atkins, Auburn (10 tackles, 2 TFLs, a sack, a forced fumble and a 73-yard interception return against Texas A&M).
I wrote about awesome running backs last week, but Week 5 belonged to quarterbacks. CJ Carr enjoyed by far the best performance of his career, and the winners of the two huge night games, Bama’s Ty Simpson and Oregon’s Dante Moore, both shined. But I gave the top two spots to a couple of veteran overachievers. Luke Altmyer completed four passes of 25-plus yards, all in the second half, and produced a 97.5 Total QBR rating. Diego Pavia, meanwhile, remains Diego Pavia: absurdly efficient via run and pass. He produced 404 total yards and six touchdowns, and if he wasn’t already in the Heisman discussion, he should be now.
Honorable mention:
• Micah Alejado, Hawaii (35-for-47 passing for 457 yards and 3 touchdowns against Air Force).
• Raleek Brown, Arizona State (21 carries for 134 yards, plus 50 receiving yards against TCU).
• Greg Desrosiers Jr., Memphis (19 carries for 204 yards and 3 touchdowns against FAU).
• Caleb Hawkins, North Texas (16 carries for 140 yards and 2 touchdowns, plus 78 receiving yards and a touchdown against South Alabama).
• Emmanuel Henderson, Kansas (5 catches for 214 yards and 2 touchdowns against Cincinnati).
• Trent Hendrick, JMU (11 tackles, three sacks, a forced fumble and a pass breakup against Georgia Southern).
• Sawyer Robertson, Baylor (24-for-35 passing for 393 yards and 4 touchdowns, plus a rushing touchdown against Oklahoma State)
• Nate Sheppard, Duke (15 carries for 168 yards and 2 touchdowns, plus 33 receiving yards against Syracuse).
• Liam Szarka, Air Force (10-for-12 passing for 278 yards, 3 TDs and an INT, plus 152 non-sack rushing yards against Hawaii).
Through five weeks, here are your points leaders:
1. Ty Simpson, Alabama (21 points)
2T. Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss (15 points)
2T. Taylen Green, Arkansas (15 points)
4. Jayden Maiava, USC (12 points)
5T. Jonah Coleman, Washington (10 points)
5T. Fernando Mendoza, Indiana (10 points)
5T. Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt (10 points)
5T. Sawyer Robertson, Baylor (10 points)
9T. Luke Altmyer, Illinois (nine points)
9T. Rocco Becht, Iowa State (nine points)
9T. Gunner Stockton, Georgia (nine points)
9T. Vicari Swain, South Carolina (nine points)
9T. Demond Williams Jr., Washington (nine points)
We’re seeing the beginnings of a sync-up between the points race and the betting odds. Obviously, Taylen Green (tied for second in the points race) isn’t a serious Heisman candidate, but points leader Ty Simpson is up to No. 3 in the betting odds, and Mendoza, Pavia, Stockton and Chambliss are in the top 10 of both the points and the odds. Still, it’s incredible how little has been settled as we approach the midway point of the season.
Arkansas fired Sam Pittman on Sunday, parting ways with the popular and folksy coach who couldn’t get the Razorbacks into the upper echelon of the SEC with a middling overall record of 32-34.
Offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino, a former head coach at Arkansas before he left in scandal, was appointed interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
“I want to thank coach Pittman for his service and dedication to the University of Arkansas throughout his time as head coach,” athletic director Hunter Yurachek said in a statement. “From Day 1, you could tell how much this opportunity meant to him. At this time, however, I feel a change is necessary to put our student-athletes and program in the best position to be successful. The goal for our football program is to be highly competitive within the Southeastern Conference and compete for a national championship.”
Because Pittman’s overall record since 2021 was above .500 (29-27), per his contract Arkansas owes him a buyout of nearly $9.8 million.
Pittman was the fourth power conference coach fired this season — all in the final two weeks of September — following Brent Pry at Virginia Tech, DeShaun Foster at UCLA and Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State.
The move at Arkansas came one day after the Razorbacks fell to 2-3 with a 56-13 home loss to Notre Dame. The Hogs have this week off before a game at Tennessee on Oct. 11.
Pittman, 63, was named the Razorbacks’ 34th head coach in December 2019.
“As we move forward in the process of finding our next head coach, I am certain we will be able to provide the necessary resources to our staff and team to reach our goals. We will begin a national search for our next head coach immediately and that search will include Coach Petrino, who has expressed his desire to be a candidate for the full-time job,” Yurachek said.
Petrino, 64, was rehired by Arkansas in November 2023 after serving in a number of jobs. In four years leading the Razorbacks, Petrino went 34-17, including consecutive double-digit-victory seasons in 2010 and 2011.
He had the Razorbacks rolling when in April 2012 he was involved in a single-vehicle motorcycle crash that left him with four broken ribs. At first, he said he was riding alone, but a police report revealed a woman was riding with him. The woman turned out to be a former Arkansas athlete who was in a romantic relationship with the married Petrino. The coach had given her a job in the football program and a $20,000 gift.
He was fired by then-athletic director Jeff Long for misleading his bosses about what happened with the accident and his relationship with the football staffer.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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