Houston Astros superfan Mattress Mack can’t lose, no matter who wins the World Series
INSTEAD OF A bank vault or a Brink’s truck, the betting slips from what could be the largest payout in sports gambling history are being guarded by nothing more than an old, tattered Houston Astros backpack. On a recent Tuesday afternoon in Houston, with the MLB playoffs about to begin, the faded blue nylon bag — its contents worth potentially millions — sits on the floor of the massive Gallery Furniture showroom, just within arm’s reach of its owner: the Houston furniture magnate and Astros superfan Jim McIngvale, better known around these parts and in the world of high-stakes sports gambling as “Mattress Mack.”
Lanky and seemingly equal parts ears, teeth, cowboy boots and charisma, McIngvale has been a household name in Houston for decades thanks to his wacky TV commercials and his Ross Perot delivery. “I just have what you might call a high tolerance for risk,” McIngvale says. “Damon Runyon said ‘All horse players die broke.’ And I know I shouldn’t bet with my heart, but it’s hard not to and it’s a lot more fun.” In 2017, McIngvale gained national notoriety for opening his doors and sheltering hundreds of victims of Hurricane Harvey for weeks inside his furniture showroom, something he also did after Hurricane Katrina years prior. After the storm, as the Astros continued their historic run to the 2017 World Series, McIngvale was in the news yet again, this time for an only-in-Texas furniture promotion through which anyone who bought a mattress from Gallery Furniture would get it for free if the Astros won it all.
In a rather ingenious move at the dawn of the legal sports gambling era, McIngvale hedged his potential business losses by placing seven-figure bets on the Astros. Good thing. He ended up having to refund more than $10 million worth of mattresses. “We take large wagers from sports bettors of all stripes, but I’m not sure anyone does it with as much panache as Mack,” says Ken Fuchs, head of sports at Caesars Entertainment. “That’s why I bring in [Hall of Fame baseball owner and promoter] Bill Veeck as the only comparison with Mack. He’s never afraid to make a statement or take a risk and, clearly, he has fun doing it.”
By the end of the 2017 MLB season, McIngvale was such a Houston institution the Astros brought him along as one of their own for the trip to the White House. “We invited Mack because he had become such an example of everything the Astros and Houston had been through together in that year,” says Anita Sehgal, the Astros’ senior vice president of marketing and communications. “Houstonians have watched him build his life in Houston while giving back every step of the way. That’s why they have a special love for him. For Mack it’s not about words, it’s about action.”
In more ways than one.
Now, five years later, with the Astros poised to face the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series, McIngvale’s original furniture promotion — and the epic sports bets behind it — have quintupled in size to what is about to be a record-breaking $75 million World Series squeeze play. By the start of the Fall Classic on Friday, McIngvale says he’ll have around $10 million (at an average 7.5-to-1 odds) riding on the Astros. In other words, the exact kind of nerve-frying, death-defying stakes Mattress Mack, 71, has been drawing aces his whole life.
On the eve of the MLB postseason, we spent time with McIngvale for a look behind the scenes at the remarkable life and times of Mattress Mack and the moments during the past four decades that led him to take such a big swing on his hometown team.
“I just get bored to death with stability, which is why I guess I like all of these big bets,” he shrugs, even as he faces the culmination of all his business success, sports-gambling excess and Astros madness. “I thrive on chaos.”
If that’s true, with an entire furniture fortune now riding on the Astros, McIngvale is about to have the time of his life.
IT’S JUST AFTER noon inside the bustling, 110,000-square-foot original Gallery Furniture showroom on the north side of Houston, and McIngvale is where he always is and where he hopes to remain “until I die” — behind the front desk, noshing on an orange and taking customer service calls. While McIngvale, who is worth an estimated $300 million, checks on the delivery status of a bedroom set, visitors wander through the property, a mesmerizing wonderland of furniture, kitsch, memorabilia and community outreach.
The football field-sized warehouse out back is stuffed with mattresses in anticipation of another Astros title. On the north side of the building is a daycare funded by McIngvale. To the south, a trade school. (The saying around here is that since the hurricane this location has become a community center disguised as a furniture showroom.) One 360-degree panorama near the entrance includes, I swear, the customized Texas A&M presidential motor scooter that belonged to George H.W. Bush, four stuffed raccoons playing poker on top of a bar, a glass showcase overflowing with humanitarian awards, a 30-foot nutcracker doll next to a similarly ginormous Christmas tree, a series of paintings of steers relaxing on sofas, a framed excerpt from Thomas Paine’s 1776 “Common Sense,” a 5-foot wooden fish carved from a tree stump and painted like the Texas flag, a six-piece leather, reclining living room set (last one, as is — no returns), a giant slab from a 513-year-old African Bubinga tree, a signed poster from the Chuck Norris movie “Sidekicks” and an ornately framed oil painting portrait of McIngvale’s north star, his father, George Sr.
In the 1960s Jim was a prep football standout at Bishop Lynch High School in Dallas, a school his father helped found. (Jim claims his junior high coach, Bob Barrett, was among the group of officers who arrested Lee Harvey Oswald at the Texas Theatre.) A few years later when a former high school teammate of McIngvale’s didn’t have the money or the means to get back to college, George McIngvale put him in his car and drove him 2,000 miles back to Dartmouth. “My father was a giver, even when he didn’t have money to give, so he died without a lot, but he died very happy,” McIngvale says. “And that spontaneity, that taking care of people, that, maybe not a lot of thinking, but more just ‘ready-fire-aim’ approach to life? That’s where it comes from.”
EVEN THOUGH McINGVALE was a member of the legendary 1969 and 1970 Texas Longhorns football teams that won 30 straight games and back-to-back national titles, you can tell the overall importance of this experience in his life by where the Longhorns team photo is displayed inside Gallery Furniture: right above the customer restrooms. “I was a great football player, I just had two small problems,” McIngvale says. “I was too small and I was too slow.” Spending all that time on the sidelines, however, McIngvale became close with another major influence in his life, Frank Medina, the Longhorns trainer from 1945 to 1978. “He was all of 4-foot-10, but he was a fireball,” McIngvale says. “He’d get right up in your face and scream ‘What are you saving it for, son? Is that all you got?’ And he taught me this line: ‘Ask, take and give no quarter.’ In other words: Never give up and never ask for anything. Do it yourself.”
Before he started selling furniture, McIngvale was a “broke failure” living at home in Dallas, trying to keep the lights on at his first business, a fitness center. Around 1978, hoping to sell some gym memberships, he attended “Muhammad Ali Appreciation Day” at Market Hall in Dallas. Late in Ali’s career, in between fights, the three-time heavyweight champ cashed in on his popularity with barnstorming-type “exhibitions” where he’d spar with local heavyweights and sign autographs for fans. After quickly dispatching a handful of local heavyweight hopefuls, Ali, always the showman, grabbed the ring announcer’s microphone and taunted the crowd: “Any y’all want to fight?”
Only one hand went up.
It was McIngvale’s.
“OK, come on up here then, Great White Hope,” Ali yelled.
Inside the ring, as a trainer laced up McIngvale’s gloves, Ali leaned in and told McIngvale the plan for the spectacle. After sparring for a round, Ali would drop his guard and McIngvale would seemingly knock his lights out, then stand over Ali and taunt the fallen champ. McIngvale did exactly as Ali told him, and when the crowd turned on McIngvale, Ali miraculously sprang back to life, grabbed the mic and confessed to choreographing the entire stunt.
And not a second too soon.
“People in the crowd were already asking my friends, ‘Hey, are you with him?’ And they were like, ‘Uh, no, no, we’re not with him,'” McIngvale says.
McIngvale’s wife, Linda, was with him at the event. “It just showed what a great personality Ali had, and of course Mack loved that side of Ali. [Ali] was obviously the greatest boxer of all time, but what Mack also loved was he was also the greatest promoter of all time, too.”
Says McIngvale, “I just seem to stumble into these things. I’m not shy, and I have a high tolerance for risk. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.
“It’s like when you lose a million-dollar bet, you just say, ‘What’s next?’ That’s all you can do. But I do know we sold a lot of gym memberships that day.”
AFTER GALLERY FURNITURE opened in 1981, a Texas oil bust forced Houstonians to tighten their belts and threatened to bankrupt McIngvale. Down to his last $10,000, McIngvale spent half on inventory and half on a TV commercial shoot. After three hours in front of the camera, though, he had nothing on tape he could use. “I was stuttering and stammering and down to my last take,” McIngvale says. “I had the day’s receipts in my back pocket, so I pulled those out and waved them around and said ‘Gallery Furniture will save you … MONEEEY!’ The producer said, ‘That’s it, that’s the commercial.’ And it stuck.” The over-the-top spots started airing late at night on Channel 39 in Texas, where McIngvale enjoyed a long association with Houston Wrestling and WWE Hall of Fame announcer Paul Boesch.
Mattress Mack was born.
Combined with McIngvale’s longtime association with the Astros, it’s a character who immediately draws comparisons to legendary MLB owner and promoter Bill Veeck, the man who, in 1979, gave us Disco Demolition Night. “Someone who bets big and bets with his heart, with a colorful personality,” Fuchs says. “Like Veeck, Mack thinks about ideas in such a large way, but he’s able to act on them and execute them.”
McIngvale’s catch phrase has been flooding the Houston airwaves nonstop since the 1980s. (He has screamed it while wearing a mattress, while nearly being trampled by livestock, while fighting Chuck Norris, tumbling with Olympians, arm wrestling comedian Joe Piscopo and posing next to pretty much every B-level celeb in Texas.) Mattress Mack has become a part of the community’s subconscious. McIngvale says he recently walked past an autistic teenager shopping for furniture with his parents, and the normally nonverbal child said, “Hiya, Mack!” His mother burst into tears.
“I’ve always been bombastic and wanted to be a big promoter like W.C. Fields or Bill Veeck,” McIngvale says. “That’s what I’ve always dreamed of being, and now I’m getting to live it out.”
McINGVALE’S APPETITE FOR sports gambling started in 2006 when he says he won $250,000 on Texas and Vince Young in the national championship game. But it was two die-hard Peyton Manning fans who helped him develop the idea to hedge his furniture promos with massive sports wagers. Well, kind of. In 2014, before the Broncos played the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII, two employees convinced McIngvale there was no way on Earth that their boy Peyton would ever lose to the lowly Seahawks. So — ready, fire, aim! — McIngvale announced that if the Seahawks somehow beat Manning everyone would get their furniture for free. “I didn’t hedge anything on this at all,” he says, “and it really got away from me in the last three or four days.”
By Saturday, Gallery Furniture had sold every mattress, every sofa, every ottoman and every last lamp in stock. “The damnedest promotion we ever had,” McIngvale says. “On Saturday night at 7 o’clock I’m standing on top of the desk at the front of the store screaming at the people that they have to go home now, we have no more furniture. It. Was. Unbelievable. We sold every last stick of furniture we had. Never happened in our history before.”
McIngvale knew he was on to something. He was ecstatic. Right up until he did the math just before kickoff.
“I hadn’t told my wife or anyone else about this, but we were on the hook for a whole lot if Seattle won,” he says.
Far too nervous to watch the game, McIngvale ran on the treadmill in the exercise room at the back of his warehouse for three hours. (He doesn’t have a TV at home.) When the two Peyton Manning fans were nowhere to be found, McIngvale knew he was screwed. All he could do then was wait for the postgame call every gambler dreads. “The phone rang at the end of the game, I picked it up and I said, ‘Who won?’ and my wife says ‘Seattle won you big dummy, how much money did we lose?’ And I just spit it out: ‘Nine million. We’re out nine million,'” McIngvale recalls. (McIngvale has run this story through the Mattress Mack Filter in recent years. An ESPN story from 2014 says he actually lost $7 million.) “Let’s just say, yeah, she wasn’t a happy camper. That’s when I realized I needed to find a way to hedge this stuff somehow.”
In 2017, a day after Hurricane Harvey decimated Houston, Gallery Furniture inventory control manager Anthony Lebedzinski arrived at the showroom where, he says, McIngvale was already handing out keys to the company’s fleet of delivery trucks to any able-bodied adult willing to help rescue people from the floodwaters. Later that day while trying to reach a trapped family, Lebedzinski nearly drowned when he was sucked into the filthy floodwater by an open manhole cover. “He was halfway to Galveston Bay before he saved himself,” McIngvale says. Daring rescues like Lebedzinski’s continued for days until there were hundreds of families not just sheltering but living inside McIngvale’s pristine showroom. “Mack’s always first, first in the water, first to open his doors, first to help,” says Houston schoolteacher and Astros fan Deirdre Ricketts. “All Houstonians have big hearts, but Mack’s might be the biggest.”
“People asked, ‘How can you let them sleep on the brand-new furniture like that?'” McIngvale says. “What am I going to do, let them all drown? So that was it. To me, it was nothing. It was the right thing to do. And I wanted my kids to see me doing that. At the end of the day we’re all going to be judged by our creator, and he isn’t going to ask how much money we made. Instead, he or she will ask us how much of a difference did you make?”
McIngvale’s immediate, large-scale, open-arms policy set the tone and created a path forward in the terrifying, chaotic and critical early days of the city’s recovery. It was the best of Houston, Sehgal says, the way people took McIngvale’s example and ran with it, coming together across the board to help each other.
One of the temporary residents pulled out of the floodwaters and fed, clothed and sheltered at Gallery Furniture for several days was Khanh Doan, 31. At a recent home Astros game, Doan finally got to thank McIngvale in person.
For saving his life?
“No,” he says.
“For saving my life, my mother’s life and my father’s life.”
During the past decade McIngvale has also helped raise $12 million for tsunami relief, he delivered 25,000 care packages to seniors during the COVID pandemic and he opened his showroom again during last year’s winter storm and power outages. In August when the team from nearby Pearland, Texas, made it to the Little League World Series, McIngvale and the Astros raised money to send the players’ families to Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
“Mack’s always the first to step up for anything that’s impacting Houston,” Sehgal says. “Big or small.”
IF YOU REALLY want to catch a glimpse of McIngvale’s electric Mattress Mack alter ego, don’t ask about Texas football, his Elvis memorabilia collection or even his weakness for racehorses and Ferraris. Instead, ask about his life’s masterpiece: The Promotion. By combining all of his passions — furniture sales, community, sports, gambling and Texas-sized spectacle — McIngvale has achieved a kind of gambler’s nirvana by finding a way to bet millions upon millions on his beloved Astros and other teams without ever really “losing” a cent, all while pushing his brand equity through the roof.
Here’s how it works: It starts with picking underdogs and getting favorable odds. Because, without the futures aspect, none of the math works. For example, this season McIngvale’s initial $3 million bet at Caesars for the Astros to win it all at +1000 covered him for the first $30 million in potential furniture refunds. Next, McIngvale makes the grand announcement, which is some variation of: Spend $3,000 or more on a mattress and accept delivery within 24 hours, and if the Astros go on to win it all, your purchase is free. Then, the more furniture he sells through the promotion, the more McIngvale bets on the Astros, whose line has moved from 10-to-1 to 8-to-1 to 4-to-1 to their current status as World Series favorites.
Fuchs says McIngvale’s idea to use sports gambling as a business hedge is a different angle than anyone has ever seen before. “He’s laying off the risk with these wagers, covering one big loss with one big win,” adds Patrick Everson, senior reporter for Vegas Insider. “It’s kind of a genius business move, really. And, clearly, he’s got the money to lose. He’s not losing any sleep at all.”
What McIngvale really understands better than gambling, furniture or promotion, though, is human nature. Even the slightest chance to get something for free is practically irresistible to most consumers, especially those already on the fence about needing a new mattress. The more sales increase, the more McIngvale gets to do the thing he loves most: bask in the attention and fly off to Vegas to place ridiculously large bets, sometimes with a briefcase full of cash. “It’s just like in the movies, the briefcase gets its own seat on the plane,” says Gallery’s Gerald McNeil, a former Pro Bowl returner with the Browns in the 1980s who now works with McIngvale. After the first few spur-of-the-moment trips to Vegas with McIngvale, McNeil started keeping a change of clothes in his car at work. “I guess it’s my job to save the suitcase if the plane goes down,” McNeil says.
Sports gambling is still illegal in Texas, so when he doesn’t feel like jetting to Vegas, McIngvale will simply drive roughly 125 miles east until the betting app on his phone pings to let him know he’s in Louisiana and free to drop another million or five. On the eve of the past Super Bowl, outside a rest stop in Vinton, Louisiana (and on live TV, of course — this is Mattress Mack after all), McIngvale dropped $5 million on the Cincinnati Bengals, the largest Super Bowl bet in history. And this summer, as the Astros caught fire and the promotion exploded — until July, McIngvale was refunding double the customer’s money on mattresses and furniture — McIngvale flew to sportsbooks in Iowa and Vegas to bet another $4 million in a single night.
“I sweat these games because of these promotions and it is so much anxiety,” McIngvale’s wife, Linda, says. “I don’t know how he doesn’t get anxious about it. I think he does and pretends like he doesn’t.”
“My wife says I have a gambling problem,” McIngvale says. “I say I have a promotion problem.”
They’re both probably right.
If the chosen team happens to win, great, McIngvale’s losses are covered, thousands of ecstatic customers blab for years to everyone they know about that time they won the lottery at Gallery Furniture, and many of them turn around and spend the refund on more furniture.
After the Astros won it all in 2017, McIngvale got to live out every gambler’s dream, flying home from Vegas with that raggedy old Astros backpack of his stuffed with almost 50 pounds of the sportsbooks’ money.
If the team loses, well, that’s when McIngvale really wins. For example, last season McIngvale “lost” his $3.35 million wager when the Braves beat the Astros in the World Series. McIngvale pulled out all the stops for that bet, trying to appeal to a higher power by packing a suite at Minute Maid Park with nuns from the Dominican Sisters of Mary Immaculate Province. The sisters became known as the “Rally Nuns” until a 7-0 loss at home to the Braves in a godforsaken Game 6.
It wasn’t quite as soul-shattering a defeat as you’d imagine for McIngvale, though. The odds on that bet covered McIngvale for more than $35 million in freebies. So, assuming the promotion brought in around $30 million in sales (during the fall, no less, which is typically a slow time in the furniture biz), at even a 40% markup, minus his wager, McIngvale confirms that he still came away with a cool profit, probably somewhere close to $9 million. And that’s not even counting the value of all the free advertising, promotion and goodwill that McIngvale says is “exponential,” or the fact that, according to TurboTax, itemized gambling losses can be tax deductible.
“Oh, it’s definitely a win-win,” McIngvale says. “These promotions just bring the brand to life and give us a ton of brand equity that we wouldn’t have otherwise. The customers love it so they’re totally engaged and talk about it for years. Because it runs all season long it probably ups the number of people following the Astros, too, because now they have a real vested interest in the team.”
WHEN McINGVALE WAS a panelist at a gambling conference and trade show in New Jersey this summer, Everson says he heard minor grumblings from bettors about the whole Mattress Mack phenomenon. Mainly, that it’s unfair how McIngvale is allowed to place multimillion-dollar bets while sportsbooks strictly limit what the average person can wager. Besides sounding a lot like airline passengers who blame the awful conditions in economy on the people flying first class, this really is an issue with sportsbooks policy, not McIngvale. One sports gambling industry insider said the reason sportsbooks love McIngvale so much and allow him to keep betting bigger and bigger amounts is all the free promotion they get out of it, and the fact that, well, he’s kinda terrible at it.
During a brutal losing streak in 2022, McIngvale dropped $15.4 million on the Patriots, the Titans, the Bengals and Alabama. He was about to be out another cool $5.5 million in the NCAA tournament until Kansas came back from 16 down at the half to defeat North Carolina. Just before the tip, McIngvale sneaked off to Louisiana to bet another $1 million on Kansas at -190. The wager broke all his rules about taking only underdogs and not gambling with his heart. “Stupid bet,” he says. “I see all these kids when I go to Vegas and it’s the weirdest thing because they all know me from gambling. People think I’m a great handicapper but I’m really not.”
After March Madness, McIngvale brought Jayhawks coach Bill Self into the store for the first day of the $14 million giveaway party. “First customers, a big family, comes up to say thanks to Self and I asked them, ‘How much did y’all win?'” McIngvale says, placing his hand on his forehead. “Sixty-four thousand. Sixty. Four. Thousand. It about knocked me over.”
Another reason the books love McIngvale is what Vegas Insider calls the Mattress Mack effect. McIngvale’s huge wagers on the Astros actually help defray the sportsbooks’ liability on more popular teams like the Yankees and Dodgers, teams that would normally be a loss for casinos. For the record, McIngvale doesn’t like the idea of limits, either. “I think they ought to take bigger bets,” he says. “It’s like if some customer comes in here and wants to spend a million dollars. Well? Knock yourself out. What difference does it make? Yes, the sportsbooks have to hedge it the other way, but they ought to have enough savvy to do that. They’re going to take some big losses, but they’re also going to get some big wins too if they have the numbers right.”
That math will continue to keep people like Fuchs up at night until the Astros are eliminated or sports gambling history is made. Although it’s clear he gets a kick out Mattress Mack, and the promotional mileage of his big bets, Fuchs stops short of rooting for the Astros. “It will be a lot of fun to be on this roller coaster as they progress through the postseason,” he says. “That’s the beauty of Mack’s hedge. It works out for everybody. Well, unless we lose $30 million.”
IN THE END, few things can capture the inexplicable phenomenon that is Mattress Mack better than McIngvale’s Astros game attire. About an hour before the Astros faced the Diamondbacks on Sept. 27, McIngvale shuffled into the mezzanine level of Minute Maid Park by himself, sporting his signature look: well-worn black cowboy boots, a slightly askew orange-billed Astros cap, blue business slacks and an authentic Alex Bregman home white Astros jersey over a white button-down oxford, covered in a galaxy of black dots from the Sharpie McIngvale uses to take notes and sign autographs. McIngvale always completes this ensemble with the single most egregious sports-fashion crime of them all: tucking his game jersey into his pants.
And yet, somehow, on him it works.
Apparently, $70 million in free furniture as an accent piece will do that for an outfit. McIngvale promises that number will keep climbing as long the Astros keep winning, the odds remain favorable and the sportsbooks keep taking his bets. McIngvale is close to several of the Astros, especially Bregman, who shares his passion for racehorses, and he insists the players get a kick out of his promotions and don’t feel the least bit of pressure to help remodel the living rooms of half of Houston.
“This year he’s done it right, and if the Astros win it all it’s so exciting for him and the customers,” Linda McIngvale says. “Mack has this huge connection to the team now, and he loves doing this. … The man works really hard so, you know, it’s all good.”
Mobbed by fans the second he steps into the park, it takes McIngvale an hour to walk along the mezzanine from home plate to right field. And when he does finally reach his seat about 10 rows behind the Houston dugout, Section 122 erupts in a wave of applause. The Astros’ response to McIngvale’s arrival is even more dramatic: three homers in four at-bats to blow the game open in the sixth. “He’s an icon, I love him, he’s Mack to me, not Jim McIngvale,” says Sehgal, the Astros SVP. “He’s just an authentic fan with a really big heart, the kind of person you can’t see without it putting a smile on your face.”
Outside of Houston, McIngvale has quickly become an irresistible storyline as a quirky curiosity in the burgeoning world of mega-sports gambling. Inside this city, though, he remains something completely different and far more impactful. For three straight hours inside Minute Maid Park, fans beam when they recognize Mattress Mack. Some yell out “Legend!” and keep walking to their seats. Others repeat his quirky catch phrase or reveal exactly how much free furniture they won in 2017. A little girl asks him if he’s a ballplayer. A few fans bend his ear for gambling advice on the Texans and Oklahoma State. But the vast majority of people who stop do so to offer some heartfelt variation of the same message: “Thank you for everything you’ve done for this city the last 40 years. Go Stros! Let’s get those free mattresses!”
One hundred days from now, the college football season will officially begin. Week 0 will kick off on Aug. 23 with an international edition of Farmageddon as Big 12 hopefuls Iowa State and Kansas State meet in Dublin, Ireland.
While we’re counting down days until the season starts, it’s never too early to look at storylines, players and coaches who should define 2025. We’ll even make some wild predictions.
This year, we’ll see six-time Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Belichick make his college football coaching debut at North Carolina and star QB Nico Iamaleava debut at UCLA after a dramatic transfer portal exit from Tennessee.
We’ll see former Georgia QB Carson Beck at Miami (if he’s healthy) and Arch Manning-mania officially kicks off at the Horseshoe when SEC favorite Texas travels to face Ohio State, the reigning College Football Playoff national champions.
Our ESPN college football reporters have put together 10 lists of 10 things to know (100 in total!) ahead of the college football season.
Jump to a section:
Storylines | Must-see games
Coaches | Heisman contenders
First-time CFP teams | Freshmen
Transfers | First-round bye
Predictions | G5 teams
10 must-know storylines
2:16
How Deboer plans to choose Bama’s starting quarterback
Kalen Deboer analyzes the practice performances of Ty Simpson, Austin Mack and Keelon Russell as he discusses his method of choosing the Crimson Tide’s next starting QB.
10. The House settlement’s impact on walk-ons: Walk-on success stories have always been among the most compelling college football has offered, but as the sport evolves toward a more professional model, those slots are in jeopardy. Federal judge Claudia Wilkin delayed approval of the multibillion-dollar antitrust settlement last month largely because of the negative impact it was set to have on walk-on opportunities. The settlement included a proposal to limit football rosters to 105, which means that some programs would be cutting 20-plus spots designated for walk-ons athletes. We’ll have to wait to see how things are finalized before being able to draw specific conclusions but it’s hard to see a scenario where walk-on programs can be as robust as they have been. From the outside, it will be hard to see much of a difference, but for those on the inside, this rips away part of the sport that has been central to what makes it special. — Kyle Bonagura
9. Can Lincoln Riley and Mike Gundy bounce back? Just four years ago, these two were facing off in a top-10 Bedlam matchup, with Gundy’s No. 7 Oklahoma State team beating Riley’s No. 10 Oklahoma 37-33. Then Riley stunned everyone by departing for USC the next day, where he’s gone 26-14, including 4-5 in conference games in his first Big Ten season. Gundy, meanwhile, has gone 20-19 over that span, including 0-9 in the Big 12 last year. Gundy has always bounced back over a stellar career (including a 10-win season in 2023 after going 7-6 the season before), and last season’s 3-9 disaster was his first losing season since his first in 2005. But losing ground in the new Big 12 without Texas or OU has him squarely on the hot seat. Riley, meanwhile, has leeway because of the monstrous 10-year, $110 million contract USC gave him in 2022. — Dave Wilson
8. Diego Pavia and the fight for more eligibility: Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia won a landmark injunction in federal court that determined his junior college football should not have counted toward his four-year NCAA eligibility clock. The decision granted Pavia additional eligibility and led to a quick decision from the NCAA to issue a waiver for anyone else in his position. It was yet another court-mandated decision that has the potential to have a strong ripple effect through the sport. The most obvious change could be in recruiting. The option to go the junior college route looks a lot more appealing if it doesn’t count against an NCAA eligibility clock because many high school football players would benefit from another year of physical development at that age. It could allow players to become more sought-after recruits, increase their earning potential and ability to earn playing time early at a four-year school. The interesting part, though, is to think about where this could lead. Because it seems like it’s only a matter of time before someone else — or a group — goes to court to challenge the four-year eligibility cap or the existence of a cap on eligibility at all. — Bonagura
7. Is this NIL’s last big hurrah? Schools like Texas Tech have leaned into the NIL era, with 20 incoming football transfers and standard deals for all players in multiple sports. But once the $2.8 billion House v. NCAA settlement is approved by the judge, the NCAA says it will begin new oversight of NIL compliance. With distribution of up to $20.8 million in revenue sharing allocated to be paid directly to players, the NCAA says it will take a closer look at NIL enforcement, with all deals of $600 or more subject to independent review, along with new tech platforms to monitor payments. Part of the settlement provides for the creation of a new enforcement entity for Power 4 schools. While the NCAA’s record on enforcement in the past has been wildly inconsistent, many administrators still feel this will be the end of the pay-for-play deals that we’ve seen thrown around as a last gasp before the potential for the settlement and revenue sharing. — Wilson
6. Coaching encores: A lot can change in one college football season. Just ask Mike Norvell. Or Ryan Day. Two years ago, Norvell was hurting as his team was bypassed for the College Football Playoff, then watched the bottom fall out of Florida State’s 2024 season, going from 13-1 to 2-10. Ryan Day, meanwhile, lived both lives in a matter of months, losing on Nov. 30 to Michigan with calls for his head before getting in the first 12-team playoff field and beating Notre Dame to win the title on Jan. 20. So the theme for many coaches is what will they do for an encore? Day gets to replace quarterback Will Howard and running backs Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson. Norvell convinced his old mentor, Gus Malzahn, to leave the head coaching job at UCF to focus again on just offense as coordinator at FSU. Meanwhile, Rich Rodriguez, who became a rising star by going 60-26 at West Virginia, returns to try to bring the Mountaineers back. And Scott Frost, who fell from grace back at his alma mater and got fired at Nebraska after going 16-31, returns to UCF, where he went 19-7, including going 13-0 in 2017. — Wilson
5. The Iamaleava dominoes: Tennessee transfer Nico Iamaleava and his brother, Arkansas transfer Madden Iamaleava, aren’t officially enrolled at UCLA yet. But during UCLA’s Spring Showcase, they watched as Luke Duncan took first- and second-team reps while Nick Billoups, who is in the transfer portal, also took some snaps, according to the Los Angeles Times. Meanwhile, Joey Aguilar, who is still taking classes from App State while he is enrolled at UCLA, where he transferred before Nico’s arrival, is now transferring to Tennessee to replace Nico. By this fall, Aguilar will be in Knoxville and the Iamaleava brothers could be Nos. 1 and 2 on the Bruins’ depth chart. Coach DeShaun Foster said “it’s just comforting” having Nico around, which is not the way Tennessee felt after a dispute over NIL money. He heads to Los Angeles after throwing for 2,616 yards with 19 TDs and 5 INTs. The soap opera will continue into the fall. — Wilson
4. Deion without Hunter and Shedeur at Colorado: The Colorado Buffaloes proved a lot of the skeptics wrong last year by posting a nine-win season and losing out on a chance to play in the Big 12 title game due to a tiebreaker. It was a remarkable improvement over the previous season, when Colorado finished in last place in the Pac-12. But for Deion Sanders, here’s where the real test probably begins. Even with a generational talent in Travis Hunter and a dynamic quarterback with his son, Shedeur Sanders, the Buffaloes were still just 13-12 over the past two seasons. They masked a lot of issues. Without them, the team’s on-field identity will inevitably evolve. And with that, we’ll also likely get a better understanding of how committed Coach Prime is to the job long-term. — Bonagura
3. DeBoer at Alabama, Year 2: Replacing Nick Saban at Alabama was always going to be a unique conundrum because it’s completely unfair to expect anyone to replace the greatest college football coach of all time. The coach who came after Saban was going to be measured against him. That’s just how this works. While that dynamic is probably unfair, that doesn’t make DeBoer’s task any easier. He left a place where the external pressure would be relatively nonexistent for the foreseeable future after leading Washington to a national title game appearance in his second season. The Crimson Tide were disappointing last year, but it also made sense that Year 1 was transitional as Saban’s shadow still loomed quite large. That will be the case for a long time, to varying degrees, but now that there has been adequate time to shape the roster into his own vision, it will be interesting to see how Alabama looks in Year 2 under DeBoer. — Bonagura
2. Manning, Mateer and Texas’ and Oklahoma’s offensive makeovers: The Red River Reboot is afoot. Quinn Ewers is gone after three years as Texas’ starter, giving way to Arch Manning, the Heisman favorite who has two starts and 28 career pass attempts under his belt. Meanwhile, at Oklahoma, the Sooners have imported an offense under new coordinator Ben Arbuckle and junior quarterback John Mateer, who arrived from Washington State, along with Cal running back transfer Jaydn Ott. The Longhorns, coming off two straight College Football Playoff semifinal appearances, lost star receivers Matthew Golden, Isaiah Bond and tight end Gunnar Helm. The Sooners, meanwhile, are replacing Nic Anderson, Brenen Thompson and tight end Bauer Sharp while trying to bounce back from a 6-7 season and the departure of former five-star recruit Jackson Arnold to Auburn. — Wilson
1. Belichick goes to school: Let’s try to set aside the sideshow that is Bill Belichick’s personal life and return our attention to why anyone is fascinated with him in the first place. Arguably the greatest football coach who has ever lived, a man who won six Super Bowls as the head coach of the New England Patriots but has never coached at the college level, will begin his reign at North Carolina. There have been all sorts of outside-the-box coaching experiments in recent years, but this one — strictly from a football standpoint — might be the most interesting. His arrival in Chapel Hill comes with so many questions. Can he relate to college-aged players? Does his style translate to the college level? How long will he stay? But they really all boil down to one: Will he win? The last time North Carolina won a conference title (1980), the millennial generation had yet to arrive. — Bonagura
10 best games to watch
10. Ohio State at Michigan, Nov. 29: The Buckeyes couldn’t lose a fifth straight to the Wolverines … right?
9. Texas A&M at Notre Dame, Sept. 13: Notre Dame isn’t easing into 2025. After a Week 1 trip to Miami, the Irish open their home schedule against an ambitious A&M team that returns starting quarterback Marcel Reed and starts the season with a couple of pretty easy tune-ups. This one will speak volumes about either team’s potential CFP prowess (and about Notre Dame’s new starting QB of choice).
8. South Dakota at North Dakota State, Sept. 27: Yes, that’s South Dakota, not South Dakota State. With SDSU losing its head coach and quite a few transfers to Washington State, and with NDSU itself rebuilding a solid amount, South Dakota might never have a better chance to make a big splash. Can new head coach Travis Johansen and star running back Charles Pierre Jr. make an early splash in the Fargodome?
7. Montana State at Montana, Nov. 22: It’s hard to beat Brawl of the Wild under any circumstances, but after dropping three of its past five games (and watching rival MSU storm to the national title game), Montana went big in the portal, adding four FBS power-conference transfers. This one could determine a top FCS playoff seed.
6. Boise State at Notre Dame, Oct. 4: Aside from maybe Tulane–Ole Miss (Sept. 20) or Memphis-Arkansas (Sept. 20), this is the best chance for an aspiring Group of 5 playoff team to score a statement win in 2025. Boise State must replace Ashton Jeanty but returns plenty of key players from last year’s CFP squad, and after a tricky September slate, Notre Dame might be facing a must-win here.
5. Oregon at Penn State, Sept. 27: On the same day as Bama-Georgia, two Big Ten teams with massive expectations face their first huge tests of the season. Penn State has had just about the best offseason a team can have and will probably be a slight favorite in a rematch of last year’s Big Ten championship.
4. Texas at Georgia, Nov. 15: Texas went 0-2 against Georgia and 13-1 against everyone else in 2024. The Longhorns’ first-ever trip to Athens should pack major stakes for the SEC title, CFP seeding and, if Arch Manning (or Gunner Stockton?) lives up to hype, the Heisman. Who could ask for anything more in mid-November?
3. Penn State at Ohio State, Nov. 1: The ultimate existential Penn State hurdle. Penn State hasn’t beaten Ohio State (or won the Big Ten) since 2016 but will bring massive experience and national title potential to Columbus for this status check. Meanwhile, Ohio State might be looking at its first major challenge since Texas. We’ll learn loads about each team heading into the stretch run.
2. Alabama at Georgia, Sept. 27: We’re including a trio of enormous Week 5 games here, but even though Bama and Georgia have gone, gasp!, two straight years without one of them winning a national title, it’s still hard to create a bigger college football matchup than this one. Likely starting QBs Gunner Stockton (UGA) and Ty Simpson (Bama) have a high bar to clear after last year’s amazing 41-34 Bama win.
1. Texas at Ohio State, Aug. 30: Two of the richest programs in the country, playing in a rematch of a down-to-the-wire CFP semifinal, with two former all-world recruits at quarterback — Texas’ Manning and, potentially, Ohio State’s Julian Sayin (if he can hold off Lincoln Kienholz)? Is it even possible to have a bigger opening-week showdown? — Bill Connelly
10 coaches to watch
1:56
Thamel: UNC still getting used to Belichick’s publicity
Pete Thamel joins “SportsCenter” to break down the latest headlines surrounding North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick.
10. Dabo Swinney, Clemson: He’s seven years removed from his last national title and has taken heat for largely stiff-arming the transfer portal and digging in on certain philosophies. After a surprise ACC title in 2024, Swinney has one of his best rosters, filled with homegrown players like quarterback Cade Klubnik, wide receiver Antonio Williams and defensive linemen Peter Woods and T.J. Parker, but he also integrated a few transfers. He aims for his third national championship doing it his way.
9. Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State: After winning Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2021 and 2023, Gundy had the Pokes positioned to contend annually in the reshaped league. Coming off his worst season, though, Gundy needs a turnaround with a reshaped coaching staff and a transfer-laden roster to keep his job. Oklahoma State has questions at quarterback and just about everywhere else. Gundy has won too many games to be counted out, but he will need one of his best coaching jobs to stabilize things.
8. Mike Norvell, Florida State: Norvell is entering his sixth year at FSU, but doesn’t it feel like longer? He started off with two losing seasons and then won 10 games before a 13-0 start to the 2023 season that culminated with an ACC championship. But the CFP snub sent Florida State into a tailspin, as the team went 2-10 last fall. Norvell hired notable coordinators Gus Malzahn and Tony White to help engineer a turnaround, which he’ll need to reach Year 7 in Tallahassee.
7. Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame: He entered 2024 with questions about his readiness, amplified after a Week 2 loss to Northern Illinois, but ended the season in the national title game. After getting everything he could out of his team, Freeman has a younger but arguably more talented squad in 2025. Notre Dame will ride with an unproven quarterback, CJ Carr or Kenny Minchey, but returns stars on both sides of the ball. Another CFP appearance will cement the 39-year-old Freeman as one of the sport’s best coaches.
6. Brian Kelly, LSU: Kelly came to the Bayou with the expressed purpose of winning a national title, just like the three Tigers coaches before him (Ed Orgeron, Les Miles, Nick Saban). Instead, he watched his former team, Notre Dame, make a CFP run while he sat home again. Kelly could have his best team as quarterback Garrett Nussmeier stayed, and LSU made a strong transfer portal push. He needs a good start at Clemson, though, after dropping his first three season openers with the Tigers.
5. Deion Sanders, Colorado: The spotlight has been on Sanders since he arrived in Boulder, and Year 3 will be no different. What will be new: He no longer will be coaching his sons Shedeur Sanders and Shilo Sanders, or 2024 Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter. Phase 2 of Coach Prime at CU will feature a team trying to build on a nine-win season and challenge for the Big 12 title. A quarterback competition featuring Liberty transfer Kaidon Salter, decorated incoming freshman Julian Lewis and holdover Ryan Staub adds intrigue.
4. Kalen DeBoer, Alabama: DeBoer followed a coaching icon in Nick Saban and went through a turbulent first season, as Alabama missed the CFP despite the expanded field. He has had a full offseason to shape and develop the roster, and reunited with offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, who was integral to the Washington Huskies‘ surge. It must pick a quarterback, likely Ty Simpson or Austin Mack, and get more overall consistency. Another CFP miss won’t be received well in Tuscaloosa.
3. Brent Venables, Oklahoma: His return to OU momentarily dulled the pain and anger surrounding coach Lincoln Riley’s abrupt departure. But the Sooners’ results under Venables have been painful, too: 22-17 overall, 2-6 in OU’s inaugural SEC season and an offense that plummeted to 119th in passing and 97th in scoring last season. Oklahoma had a strong offseason, adding transfer quarterback John Mateer and offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle from Washington State, and other notable transfers like Cal running back Jadyn Ott. Venables now must win or face significant job pressure.
2. James Franklin, Penn State: He led Penn State to its first two CFP wins last season and will have quite possibly his best overall team, led by quarterback Drew Allar. But Franklin still faces the perception that he can’t win the biggest games consistently. Can he deliver Penn State’s first national title since 1986? The ingredients are there — Allar, running back tandem Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen, defensive coordinator Jim Knowles — but Franklin must now meet the highest of expectations.
1. Bill Belichick, North Carolina: The most talked-about coach entering the 2025 season is a 73-year-old who has never worked at the college level, but guided the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl championships. North Carolina conducted spring practice largely in secret, but Belichick then became the story of the offseason for reasons that had little to do with football. Will his first year be desirable or disastrous? There may be no in-between as he takes over amid so many questions. — Adam Rittenberg
10 early Heisman Trophy contenders
10. Ryan Williams, WR, Alabama: As a 17-year-old true freshman, Williams was one of the most electric playmakers in the country the first part of last season. He had five touchdown catches in his first four games, including the game winner against Georgia, and finished the season with 10 touchdowns (eight receiving, two rushing). Williams has tremendous big-play ability. He averaged 18 yards per catch and is as dangerous catching the deep ball as he is at making things happen after the catch. — Chris Low
9. John Mateer, QB, Oklahoma: Cam Ward won the Heisman Trophy and became the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft after transferring to Miami from Washington State. Mateer, another Wazzu transfer, is coming off of his own breakout season following two years of backing up Ward. If the Sooners can protect him — a big if — Mateer could become the next in a long line of OU transfer QBs (Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts) to contend for the Heisman. — Jake Trotter
8. Jeremiyah Love, RB, Notre Dame: Love ranked second last year in yards after contact per rush (among running backs with at least 150 carries) after averaging 4.41 yards, only trailing Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty, the No. 6 overall pick in last month’s NFL draft. Love, who figures to get more touches for the Irish in 2025, could be the first back off the board in next year’s draft. — Trotter
7. LaNorris Sellers, QB, South Carolina: There may not be a more valuable player in the country than the 6-foot-3, 240-pound Sellers, who’s next to impossible to tackle when he breaks out of the pocket. Sellers looks and plays a lot like Cam Newton did when Newton was at Auburn for his 2010 Heisman Trophy season. Sellers, a redshirt sophomore, needs to become a more polished passer. He accounted for 25 touchdowns (18 passing, seven rushing) last season and was one of five Power 4 quarterbacks to pass for more than 2,500 yards and rush for more than 600 yards. — Low
6. Drew Allar, QB, Penn State: Though he tossed a catastrophic late interception in Penn State’s loss to Notre Dame in the playoff semifinals, Allar is coming off a banner 2024 with a QBR of 77.5, which ranked 16th nationally. Allar took a big jump from 2023 to last season and could make another sizable leap in his third year as the starter. — Trotter
5. DJ Lagway, QB, Florida: There was some concern this spring about Lagway’s throwing shoulder, but coach Billy Napier said Lagway should be 100% by June. He was one of the top true freshmen in college football last season and led the Gators to wins in their last four games of the season after Graham Mertz was injured. At 6-3 and 240 pounds, Lagway has elite arm strength and is extremely tough to bring down in or outside the pocket. He threw 12 touchdown passes in 192 attempts last season. — Low
4. Garrett Nussmeier, QB, LSU: After waiting his turn for three years, Nussmeier had a breakout year in 2024 and enters his redshirt senior season as the starter for the second straight season. Nussmeier was fifth nationally and second in the SEC with 4,052 passing yards a year ago. He threw 29 touchdown passes but was also intercepted 12 times. Nussmeier’s experience and toughness make him one of the unquestioned leaders in the LSU locker room. He engineered fourth-quarter comebacks in wins over Ole Miss and South Carolina last season. — Low
3. Jeremiah Smith, WR, Ohio State: Multiple NFL scouts and personnel told ESPN that Smith would’ve been a top-five pick in this most recent draft, had he been eligible. Instead, the 19-year-old phenom, who won’t be eligible for the draft until 2027, will power a retooling Ohio State offense still boasting plenty of talent, albeit inexperienced, around him. — Trotter
2. Arch Manning, QB, Texas: Though he has attempted only 63 career passes, Manning is the current favorite to win the Heisman, according to ESPN BET. With his famous surname, Manning has as much national hype as any first-time, full-time starting QB in recent college football history. He’ll be tested immediately, when the Longhorns travel to Ohio State to face the defending national champion Buckeyes in Week 1. — Trotter
1. Cade Klubnik, QB, Clemson: Klubnik has grown tremendously since his first season as a starter in 2023. The 6-2, 210-pound senior ranks in the top five in Clemson history in nearly every passing category and put up huge numbers a year ago when he was one of two FBS quarterbacks with more than 3,600 passing yards and 400 rushing yards. He accounted for 43 touchdowns (36 passing, seven rushing) and threw only six interceptions in 486 passing attempts. What’s more exciting is he has all of his top wide receivers returning for the 2025 season. — Low
10 potential first-time CFP teams
10. Texas A&M: The Aggies are last on the list because of last year’s inconsistency, losing four of their last five games after looking like a potential playoff team for a skinny minute. With all five starters returning on the offensive line and a strong running game, there should be some relief for quarterback Marcel Reed. The Aggies could make a playoff statement early with a Sept. 13 win at Notre Dame.
9. Louisville: USC transfer quarterback Miller Moss might be the most talented quarterback that coach Jeff Brohm has had to work with at Louisville, and he’ll be surrounded by plenty of talent. Louisville has also added 20 players from the portal. Remember, Louisville lost three games by seven points last year. If they can win at Miami and SMU, and beat Clemson at home, they should be in the CFP hunt.
8. Florida: The Gators again have one of the most difficult schedules in the country, but they also have one of the best quarterbacks in DJ Lagway — as long as they can keep him healthy. Lagway went 6-1 as the starter last year, but the Gators are lower on this list because of a gauntlet that includes road games at LSU, Miami, Texas A&M and Ole Miss. It would be surprising to see Florida win the SEC — but if it finishes with two or maybe even three losses, depending on the games and opponents, it could earn an at-large bid.
7. Texas Tech: This might come as a surprise to those unfamiliar with the program, but coach Joey McGuire has landed one of the top transfer portal classes in the country, and the overall financial backing of the program has been significant in recent years. The Red Raiders reportedly spent more than $10 million to sign 17 players, with a focus on both lines. If they can avoid upsets and earn a winning record against Arizona State, K-State and BYU, the Red Raiders can be a surprise Big 12 — and CFP — contender.
6. Kansas State: If the Wildcats beat Iowa State in their season opener in Dublin, Ireland, they’ll take the early lead as the Big 12’s best playoff hope. The return of quarterback Avery Johnson is significant, as the dual-threat player racked up 3,317 yards of offense and 32 touchdowns. Expectations are even higher in his second season as the starter.
5. BYU: The Cougars were another fringe playoff contender last year, and will have to win on the road to take the next step. They have tough trips to Colorado, Iowa State and Texas Tech, but they return top talent in quarterback Jake Retzlaff, running back LJ Martin, and receivers Chase Roberts and Keelan Marion.
4. Iowa State: In another wide-open Big 12 race, the Cyclones return enough talent to win the school’s first conference title in 113 years. Iowa State is coming off its first 11-win season, and quarterback Rocco Becht is back, along with top tailbacks Carson Hansen and Abu Sama III. Home games against BYU and Arizona State gave it the edge here.
3. Miami: The Canes had a case for playoff inclusion last fall and could guarantee themselves a spot if they can win the ACC — which they’re capable of doing with transfer quarterback Carson Beck from Georgia. Quarterback wasn’t the problem, though, last year — the defense was. If the Canes can avoid the losses to unranked opponents, they’d be in. A win against Notre Dame in the season opener would set the tone early.
2. South Carolina: The Gamecocks were a fringe CFP team last year and could take another step forward as an at-large team this year under the leadership of talented returning quarterback LaNorris Sellers. If they can go 2-0 against the ACC and pull off some SEC upsets along the way, the Gamecocks’ CFP chances will rise.
1. Illinois: The Illini return 18 starters, including quarterback Luke Altmeyer and all five starters on the offensive line. They also don’t play Oregon, Michigan or Penn State. If you’re looking for this year’s version of Indiana, the Illini could be it — dominant enough against a manageable schedule to earn an at-large bid without winning the Big Ten. — Heather Dinich
10 freshmen to watch
10. Gideon Davidson, RB, Clemson: Davidson, ESPN’s No. 3 running back in 2025, rushed for more than 5,000 yards and 80 touchdowns over his final two high school seasons. Coach Dabo Swinney said last month the 5-foot-11 rusher is “physically” ready for first-team snaps but still needs to develop into a complete running back. If Davidson can refine his blocking skills and learn the offense, he stands as Clemson’s most intriguing potential replacement for 1,115-yard rusher Phil Mafah.
9. Jahkeem Stewart, DE, USC: A towering defensive end at 6-5, 290 pounds, Stewart was ESPN’s No. 1 prospect in 2026 before he reclassified into the 2025 cycle last fall. Stewart played only one varsity season, totaling 85 tackles (33 for loss) and 20 sacks as a sophomore in 2023, and might require time to develop. But he should at the very least inject some energy into a Trojans pass rush that finished 91st nationally in sacks (21) last fall.
8. D.J. Pickett, CB, LSU: Previously ranked as ESPN’s No. 1 athlete in the 2025 class, Pickett joins the Tigers as the program’s highest-ranked cornerback recruit since coach Brian Kelly arrived in 2021. Pickett’s combination size and speed at 6-4, 190 pounds should make him a versatile option for LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker, and the Tigers’ lack of experienced cornerback talent behind projected starters Ashton Stamps and Mansoor Delane means Pickett will have an opportunity to compete for snaps on day one.
7. Devin Sanchez, CB, Ohio State: Coveted for his length and sudden speed at 6-2, 185 pounds, Sanchez was the No. 1 cornerback prospect in the 2025 class. ESPN national recruiting analyst Craig Haubert has likened Sanchez to former Buckeyes standout Denzel Burke, and the five-star freshman should challenge junior Jermaine Mathews Jr. as Ohio State works to fill Burke’s starting spot under first-year defensive coordinator Matt Patricia.
6. Julian Lewis, QB, Colorado: Lewis, a long-time USC pledge, ended a lengthy recruiting saga with his flip to coach Deion Sanders and the Buffaloes last November. A 39-game starter in high school, Lewis enters a quarterback battle in 2025 with Liberty transfer Kaidon Salter. Given Salter’s experience and Lewis’ age after reclassifying from the 2026 cycle, Lewis might need to be patient in Year 1, but his time will come at Colorado.
5. Justus Terry, DT, Texas: An explosive interior presence at 6-5, 263 pounds, Terry emerged as perhaps the most disruptive defensive line prospect in the 2025 class. After stiff-arming in-state Georgia to join the Longhorns, Terry should at least challenge for a situational role in 2025 as part of a Texas defensive line replacing its top four defensive tackles from a year ago.
4. Michael Fasusi, OT, Oklahoma: Fasusi’s decision to stick with the Sooners over late pushes from Texas and Texas A&M was a silver lining for Oklahoma last December amid a 6-7 finish. The 6-5, 302-pound player dominated competition at the Under Armour All-America game a month later. If he settles in quickly under Sooners offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh, Fasusi could carve a role up front this fall, similar to Cayden Green in 2023.
3. Dakorien Moore, WR, Oregon: Moore, No. 4 in the 2025 ESPN 300, was Keelon Russell’s primary target at Duncanville (Texas) High School, where he accounted for 2,983 receiving yards and 37 touchdowns across his junior and senior seasons. A college-ready playmaker with track speed, Moore is capable of making an impact in Year 1 within a Ducks offense missing four of its top five pass catchers from 2024.
2. Keelon Russell, QB, Alabama: A dynamic playmaker from Duncanville, Texas, Russell dominated one of the nation’s top high school classifications en route to Gatorade National Player of the Year honors in 2024. Similar to Bryce Underwood, Russell — a former SMU pledge — steps into an uncertain quarterback situation behind Ty Simpson and Austin Mack this fall. Whether it’s 2025 or beyond, Russell will get a shot to start for the Crimson Tide sooner rather than later.
1. Bryce Underwood, QB, Michigan: Underwood, the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2025 ESPN 300, shook the sport with his flip from LSU to in-state Michigan 13 days before the early signing period. A four-year starter who threw for 11,488 yards and 152 touchdowns in high school, Underwood is the Wolverines’ future under center. Depending on how Fresno State transfer passer Mikey Keene settles in, the gifted, 6-4, 208-pound quarterback could challenge to become the program’s present as soon as this fall. — Eli Lederman
10 transfers to watch
10. Max Klare, TE, Ohio State: The Buckeyes’ passing attack didn’t need any extra help going into 2025 with the star power the team returns at wide receiver, but Klare could end up being a sneaky great addition. The Purdue transfer ranked fourth among all Power 4 tight ends with a team-high 685 receiving yards on 51 receptions last season and should be a dependable target for the Buckeyes’ inexperienced QBs.
9. Nic Anderson, WR, LSU: The Tigers have put together a CFP-caliber roster with an elite portal class this offseason full of proven starters. Anderson sat out almost the entire 2024 season because of injury but showed he can be a big-time playmaker at Oklahoma in 2023, turning 38 catches into 798 yards and 10 TDs. LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier should greatly benefit from the arrival of Anderson and Kentucky transfer Barion Brown, two of the top wideouts from the portal.
8. David Bailey, OLB, Texas Tech: The Red Raiders went all-in for 2025 and assembled an absolutely loaded portal class this offseason. Bailey, a former freshman All-American at Stanford and a projected early-round NFL draft pick next year, is teaming with fellow transfers Lee Hunter (UCF), Romello Height (Georgia Tech) and Skyler Gill-Howard (Northern Illinois) to give Texas Tech one of the most talented defensive lines in the country.
7. Zachariah Branch, WR, Georgia: Adding difference-makers at wide receiver was a huge priority for the Bulldogs this offseason. They landed an explosive playmaker in Branch, a first-team All-America kick returner who produced 1,863 all-purpose yards and six TDs over two seasons at USC. Georgia OC Mike Bobo is going to have a lot of fun finding different ways of getting Branch involved.
6. Isaiah World, OT, Oregon: The Ducks landed lots of proven players via the portal, including running back Makhi Hughes (Tulane) and safety Dillon Thieneman (Purdue), but World is the one who has pro scouts buzzing. The 6-foot-8 left tackle was a three-year starter at Nevada and should be an excellent replacement for first-round pick Josh Conerly Jr.
5. Eric Singleton Jr., WR, Auburn: Singleton, a freshman All-American in 2023, caught 104 passes for 1,468 yards and scored 10 TDs over his two seasons at Georgia Tech, and also ran track for the Yellow Jackets. He’s bringing blazing speed and excellent route running to a Tigers offense that will be led by Oklahoma transfer QB Jackson Arnold and a bunch of high-impact portal additions.
4. Carson Beck, QB, Miami: Beck initially declared for the NFL draft but wisely reversed course and came back to school after Miami made an offer he couldn’t refuse. He brings serious big-game experience to the table for the Hurricanes as a two-year starter with a 24-3 career record and put up more than 8,000 total yards and 63 total TDs at Georgia. He sat out spring practice while he recovered from elbow surgery but is ready to step in as Cam Ward’s successor and prove he’s a first-round talent.
3. Fernando Mendoza, QB, Indiana: Indiana coach Curt Cignetti worked wonders with veteran transfer Kurtis Rourke leading his offense in 2024. If Mendoza can enjoy similar success, he could become a first-round pick next year. Mendoza, a 19-game starter at Cal, threw for 3,004 yards on 69% passing last season while playing behind a line that surrendered the most sacks in FBS. After earning a CFP bid in Cignetti’s debut season, the Hoosiers couldn’t have found a better QB to keep them in the Big Ten race in Year 2.
2. Darian Mensah, QB, Duke: Mensah flew completely under the radar as a two-star recruit and didn’t get much national attention last season as a redshirt freshman starter at Tulane, but coaches absolutely coveted him when he hit the portal. The 6-3, 205-pound passer flashed elite arm talent and potential first-round upside in his debut season. The Blue Devils made him one of the highest-paid players in the sport and are betting Mensah can turn them into an ACC and CFP contender in 2025.
1. John Mateer, QB, Oklahoma: Mateer was one of the more dynamic quarterbacks in the country in his first season as a starter at Washington State, putting up 3,139 passing yards, 1,032 rushing yards (excluding sacks) and 44 total touchdowns. The fact he gets to keep playing with his offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle in Norman sets him up to be even better in 2025. He brings much-needed swagger to the Sooners’ offense and could quickly make Oklahoma a factor in the SEC title race. — Max Olson
10 potential first-round bye teams
10. Boise State: The Broncos could again represent the Group of 5 in the playoff as its highest-ranked conference champion. But they might not earn a top-four seed and a first-round bye like last year when they were seeded No. 3 ahead of the Big 12 and ACC champs, respectively.
9. LSU: Expectations are soaring for the Tigers, especially with the return of quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, but are they ready to return to the top of the SEC? LSU doesn’t play Texas or Georgia during the regular season, so we might not know unless they make it to the conference championship game.
8. BYU: The Cougars can earn a top-four seed if they win the Big 12, which is again wide open. Last year’s Big 12 champion (Arizona State) was seeded No. 4 behind Boise State, but the Big 12 is getting the edge this preseason with Ashton Jeanty now in the NFL. The Cougars are ranked ahead of LSU here because their path to a conference title looks easier than LSU’s.
7. Miami: If the Hurricanes can win the ACC, they’ll earn a top-four seed as one of the four highest-ranked conference champions. If they beat Notre Dame and Florida, though, en route to a conference title, they’ll make a case for one of the top seeds, depending on how those opponents ultimately fare.
6. Ohio State: The defending national champion is ranked this low only because it’s behind projected champs from other conferences. If Ohio State beats Texas at home in its season opener — and beats Penn State at home on Nov. 1 — the Buckeyes will be at the top of this list and in position for the committee’s No. 1 ranking and seed.
5. Georgia: The Bulldogs and Longhorns will settle this on Nov. 15, when the Longhorns visit Athens, and they could meet again in the SEC championship game, just as they did last season. Georgia won both games and earned a first-round bye as the SEC champion. It can certainly do it again.
4. Iowa State: The Cyclones would earn the fourth and final first-round bye in this projection as the Big 12 conference champion. In the current model, the four highest-ranked conference champions earn the top four seeds, which is why this ranking started this way.
3. Clemson: The Tigers are here as the projected ACC champion and the selection committee’s third-highest ranked conference champion, which would earn them the No. 3 seed.
2. Penn State: The Nittany Lions are ranked here as the projected Big Ten champion and selection committee’s second-highest ranked conference champion, which would earn them the No. 2 seed.
1. Texas: The Longhorns get the top spot here as the projected SEC champ and the selection committee’s highest-ranked conference champion, which would earn them the No. 1 seed. — Dinich
10 wild predictions for the season
10. Juice Kiffin scores for Ole Miss: OK, we need one wild prediction that’s so wild they’d have to make a movie about it — though this one could infringe on “Air Bud” copyrights. But if the tush push is legal for short-yardage dominance, it’s only reasonable to assume someone could hand the ball to a yellow lab in space for some explosive plays, too, right? Well, there’s no better combination of “dog with skills” and “coach willing to think outside the box” than Juice and Lane Kiffin, so why not throw us all a bone and give it a whirl? And honestly, it has been six years since something dog-related has completely upended the Egg Bowl. We’re overdue.
He’s lucky I’m on my leash https://t.co/n6XSwZcq5d
— Juice Kiffin (@JuiceKiffin) November 9, 2024
9. Kent State‘s streak reaches 34: Things are bad at Kent State. After the 2022 season, Sean Lewis voluntarily left his head coaching job for a coordinator position at Colorado. His successor, Kenni Burns, proceeded to lose every game he coached vs. an FBS opponent. Burns was then put on leave and ultimately fired in April for multiple alleged violations of his contract. As it stands, the Golden Flashes have dropped 23 straight games vs. FBS opponents, with their lone win over the past two years coming against FCS Central Connecticut. Things aren’t likely to improve in 2025. Kent State’s schedule includes road games at Texas Tech, Florida State and Oklahoma, plus MAC dates with four bowl teams from last year. They do get UMass, Akron, Ball State and Central Michigan — all chances for a rare W — but we’re not holding our breath. Our prediction: By the time 2025 is over, it will have been three years since the Golden Flashes celebrated an FBS win, and their trophy case will be getting awfully full from all those Bottom 10 championship trophies (which, we assume, is just the Civil Conflict trophy with duct tape over the name plate).
8. There’s a new power in Texas: The Big 12 looks to be up for grabs as Utah gets healthy, BYU stockpiles talent, Coach Prime goes into Year 3, and Iowa State and Arizona State look to build on exceptional 2024 seasons with returning stars at QB. But here’s a prediction that none of them are the conference’s champion when it’s all said and done. That honor goes to Texas Tech, which has been lurking for two years under Joey McGuire, and has added a wealth of star power this offseason. In the portal, it found Stanford’s David Bailey and Georgia Tech’s Romello Height to anchor the D-line, netted heft on the O-line with Howard Sampson, Hunter Zambrano and Will Jados, and added speed at receiver, tight end and corner. McGuire has top talent, depth and a manageable path to the playoff. Expectations are high in Lubbock, and we’re betting the Red Raiders live up to the hype.
7. Florida State wins 10 games: The roller-coaster ride in Tallahassee is enough to make any fan lose his lunch. In 2021, the team was dismal, still dealing with the ripple effects of Jimbo Fisher’s departure and Willy Taggart’s ill-fated hire. But by 2023, the Seminoles were on top of the world — winners of 19 straight games and holders of a 13-0 record. Then they were snubbed from the playoff, got routed by Georgia in the Orange Bowl, then went 2-10 in 2024 in what was, perhaps, the most incredible year-over-year decline in modern college football history. But what goes down must go up again, right? A simple regression to the mean on some key luck-based metrics should get FSU back to a bowl game, but if the defense takes a step forward under new coordinator Tony White and the offense is energized by Tommy Castellanos at QB, it’s not absurd to think the Noles regain much of the form they had in 2023, when they finished 10-3 and looked like a genuine contender by year’s end.
6. Riley saves his job: It has been a rough few years in L.A. for Lincoln Riley, who was once touted as the greatest offensive mind of his generation. USC is just 13-14 in its past 27 games vs. power conference competition, and last year’s unit finished sixth in scoring offense in its first year in the Big Ten. But has Riley actually lost his touch? Has the rest of the country figured him out? Is the Big Ten really so old-school that his offense can’t work amid the run-heavy tradition still upheld in places such as Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin? We’re not buying it. Riley knows what’s at stake this season, and with a manageable schedule — at Notre Dame and at Oregon being the biggest hurdles — here’s our official prediction that the Trojans turn things around and finish the regular season at 10-2 or better.
5. Ohio State loses to Michigan … again: The Buckeyes are national champions. Last year’s team was elite, and this year’s could be just as good. There’s no reason to be anything but joyous in Columbus. Only … the fine folks from that state up north do have something of a trump card. Michigan’s four straight wins over Ohio State make for some pretty good bragging rights, even if the playoff trophy resides at the Horseshoe. Last year’s astonishing Buckeyes loss might’ve cost Ryan Day his job had the playoff not expanded to 12 and given Ohio State a second bite at the apple. And so, when this year’s game comes around on Nov. 29, the buzz won’t be about Ohio State’s 2025 championship game win. It will be about the four straight losses, and that’s an awfully big monkey now living on Day’s back. So, we won’t be too shocked if that dark cloud looms so large that the Buckeyes stumble yet again thanks to all of the outside noise. Would the Ohio State faithful be OK with a fifth straight loss to Michigan if it was followed by a second straight national title?
4. Georgia misses the playoff: For the better part of three seasons, the Bulldogs seemed invincible. Only an injury-plagued one-score loss to Alabama in the 2023 SEC title game might have prevented Georgia from winning three straight national championships. And yet, by the end of 2024, it was clear some of the shine was off the once-dominant program. Carson Beck struggled without much help from his skill positions. The Dawgs lost to Alabama, were whooped by Ole Miss, and nearly fell to Georgia Tech before escaping in eight overtimes. By the time Penn State eased past Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, it was pretty clear Kirby Smart didn’t have a championship-level team. So, will 2025 be a return to greatness? It’s possible, but the SEC is stacked, and with games at Tennessee, home vs. Alabama, Texas, Ole Miss and the rivalry showdown vs. Florida, there are ample opportunities to stumble. Is 8-4 possible? Would a 9-3 Georgia be a sure bet for the playoff? Could things get worse? When the standard is dominance, it’s hard to maintain the standard for long in today’s college football.
3. Belichick is one-and-done: It’s no secret Bill Belichick wanted an NFL job before landing at North Carolina. His buy-out with the Tar Heels also drops significantly next month. So a quick visit in Chapel Hill before heading back to the pros wouldn’t be a shocker (especially if he can set the stage for his son, Steve, to land the UNC head job afterward). But what if the scenario for his departure is less about moving up than falling down? The Heels are in the midst of a massive makeover in Year 1 under Belichick, who has never coached in college and is already dealing with his share of off-field spectacle. Is a 3-9 type of season possible? It certainly won’t be a good look if that’s where the Tar Heels land.
2. Manning doesn’t win the Heisman: The 1997 Heisman voting is part of college football lore, as Michigan’s Charles Woodson won the prize over the more heavily touted Tennessee QB Peyton Manning. Now 28 years later, Manning’s nephew, Arch, is set to lead Texas — and he probably has even more hype going into the season than Peyton or Eli ever did. We’re believers in Arch Madness, but predicting a playoff run for Texas doesn’t exactly count as a “wild” guess. Instead, how about a little history repeating itself? We’re predicting Arch Manning looks every bit as good as his famous uncle, and he enters December as the Heisman favorite. But when the award is announced, it’ll actually be a surprise winner instead. Who wins it? How about Oklahoma’s John Mateer? Or maybe Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith? Or perhaps Tennessee gets a little revenge and sends its own athletic defensive star to the podium, with Jermod McCoy winning the hardware.
1. Kelly goes ballistic: Brian Kelly has been head coach at LSU for three years. In 2022, he lost in Week 1 to Florida State. In 2023, he lost to the Noles in Week 1 again. In 2024, the Bayou Bengals flubbed away a game against USC and, once more, opened the year 0-1. Each time, Kelly was left … frustrated. (And none of this includes his famed postgame quote after a Week 1 overtime victory against Florida State in 2021 in which he joked about executing his players.) So, what happens if LSU starts 0-1 again this year? It’s entirely possible, as the Tigers draw Clemson in the opener. It’s not hard to envision a scenario in which a late Garrett Nussmeier fumble leads to a Clemson scoop-and-score and a 21-20 LSU loss after which Kelly turns into the red guy from “Inside Out” during his postgame news conference. — David Hale
10 CFP contenders from the Group of 5
10. UTSA: After a slow start in 2024, UTSA won four of five to end the season. Now Jeff Traylor’s Roadrunners face an ambitious schedule with quarterback Owen McCown and most of his offensive line and receiving corps returning.
9. Army: After surging from 6-6 to 12-2, Jeff Monken’s Black Knights are rebuilding a bit. But they still have speedsters such as Noah Short in the backfield, and the defense has ranked in the SP+ top 40 for two straight years.
8. Louisiana: The Ragin’ Cajuns started last season 10-2 before a late collapse, and Michael Desormeaux aimed high by bringing in blue-chip transfers such as quarterback Walker Howard (Ole Miss) and wide receiver Shelton Sampson Jr. (LSU). The ceiling is high for the offense. The defense? We’ll see.
7. Liberty: Jamey Chadwell will field his most experienced defense, and while quarterback Kaidon Salter is off to Colorado, the Flames still have a proven offensive system and upside in the skill positions. They’ll host James Madison in Week 4 in a potential eliminator.
6. Memphis: Ryan Silverfield has lots to replace from a team that went 21-5 over the past two seasons, but the Tigers have massive upside at quarterback with either Nevada transfer Brendon Lewis or redshirt freshman Arrington Maiden, and a number of former blue-chippers arriving via the portal.
5. James Madison: After an up-and-down first season in charge, Bob Chesney returns a wonderfully experienced offense led by either incumbent quarterback Alonza Barnett III or UNLV transfer Matthew Sluka. The defense is taking on a rebuild, but Chesney did good work in the portal.
4. Navy: Quarterback Blake Horvath returns to pilot (naval reference!) another potentially excellent offense, and the defense is also pretty experienced. The major hurdle: a schedule that requires the Midshipmen to play their three toughest opponents (Notre Dame, Memphis, Army) away from home.
3. Tulane: The Green Wave have won 32 games over the past three seasons, and though head coach Jon Sumrall has quite a few players to replace from last season, he has done dynamite work in the portal. Few G5 teams have more upside in the trenches.
2. UNLV: Will it be a total collapse after losing head coach Barry Odom? Or will it be a major surge because of a load of blue-chippers? Almost anything is possible in Dan Mullen’s first season in charge in Las Vegas. A Week 2 visit from UCLA will tell us quite a bit.
1. Boise State: The reigning champions of the G5 return quarterback Maddux Madsen, ace pass rusher Jayden Virgin-Morgan, tight end Matt Lauter and most of last season’s offensive line, and they’ll probably be underdogs only at Notre Dame in Week 6. — Connelly
-
Eli Lederman
Four-star linebacker Xavier Griffin, the No. 29 overall recruit in the 2026 ESPN 300, has decommitted from USC, sources told ESPN on Wednesday.
Griffin, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound defender from Gainesville, Georgia, had been pledged to the Trojans since July 2024. ESPN’s third-ranked defender in the current cycle had stood among the top prospects in coach Lincoln Riley’s star-studded 2026 recruiting class.
Griffin’s decision to pull his pledge from USC stemmed from a desire to schedule official visits elsewhere, sources told ESPN. That went against USC’s policy against committed prospects taking official trips to other campuses. Upon his decommitment, Griffin is now set to embark on a slate of official visits over the next months with stops at Alabama, Florida State, Georgia and Texas.
His departure marks the first significant blow to a Trojans recruiting class that holds more ESPN 300 pledges — 13 — than any other program in the 2026 cycle. Five-star prospects Elbert Hill (No. 15 overall) and Keenyi Pepe (No. 17) became the latest elite prospects to announce commitments to USC earlier this month, following nine other ESPN 300 recruits who have joined the program’s incoming class since Jan. 1.
ESPN national recruiting analyst Craig Haubert listed the Trojans, who hold 27 total commitments, at No. 1 in his most recent 2026 class rankings earlier this month.
A lean, physical linebacker, Griffin has established himself across two varsity seasons at Gainesville High School, logging 97 total tackles and 21 sacks over his sophomore and junior years. He took unofficial visits to Florida State, Tennessee and Texas, among others, earlier this spring before Wednesday’s decommitment.
Sports
MLB Power Rankings: Two AL teams crash NL’s party in top 5 MLB Power Rankings: Two AL teams crash NL’s party in top 5
The National League still dominates in Week 7 of our MLB Power Rankings, with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Mets holding on to the top two sports on the list. But a pair of American League squads are making a dent.
The red-hot Detroit Tigers, owners of the AL’s best record, leapfrog the No. 4 San Diego Padres and the Chicago Cubs (down this week to No. 7), moving up from No. 5 to No. 3. The AL East-leading New York Yankees, meanwhile, reenter the top five after a No. 7 ranking last week.
Have the Tigers hit their ceiling?
With the Subway Series scheduled this weekend, will the Mets or the Yankees win temporary bragging rights in the Big Apple?
Our expert panel has combined to rank every team based on a combination of what we’ve seen so far and what we already knew going into the 162-game marathon that is a full baseball season. We also asked ESPN MLB experts David Schoenfield, Buster Olney and Alden Gonzalez to weigh in with an observation for all 30 teams.
Record: 28-15
Previous ranking: 1
When the season began, Clayton Kershaw was a luxury. The Dodgers seemed to possess so much starting-pitching depth that it was safe to wonder where the future Hall of Famer would even fit. But things have changed. Shohei Ohtani‘s pitching rehab has gone slowly. Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and, more recently, Roki Sasaki have landed on the injured list with shoulder ailments. And when Kershaw makes his return to the rotation on Saturday, it will serve as a much-needed boost to a staff that is routinely staging bullpen games these days — just like it did for so much of October. — Gonzalez
Record: 28-16
Previous ranking: 2
Brett Baty began the season at the Mets’ regular second baseman but was sent down to Triple-A after hitting .204 with a .246 OBP in 19 games. He was called back up on May 5 when Jesse Winker went on the IL and has homered four times on this homestand, including the go-ahead home run in the seventh inning of a 2-1 victory over the Pirates on Tuesday. With Winker sidelined another five to seven weeks, Baty should continue to get plenty of playing time, including at his natural position of third base, with Mark Vientos sliding over to the DH role. — Schoenfield
Record: 29-15
Previous ranking: 5
The journey of Javier Baez is becoming one of the most unlikely baseball stories of this year, maybe this decade. Baez lost his starting role in August, and there were evaluators with other teams convinced the Tigers were about to release him. But not long after that demotion, Baez, long known as a player who reliably posts and plays, told the Tigers that he had been hurting. He had hip surgery and looked much better at the plate in spring training. When a wave of injuries created a need for a center fielder, Baez, a lifelong infielder, took to the position — and he is thriving, including hitting a walk-off homer against Boston on Tuesday. — Olney
Record: 27-15
Previous ranking: 3
Fernando Tatis Jr. turned on Kenley Jansen‘s 2-2 cutter late Tuesday night and immediately tossed his bat to the side. The baseball sailed a whopping 430 feet, breaking a 4-4 tie, electrifying Petco Park and giving Tatis the first walk-off homer of his career. By that point, Tatis was slashing .316/.389/.574 with 11 home runs and eight stolen bases, making him one of the game’s best performers thus far. Manny Machado (slashing .340/.410/.490) and Jackson Merrill (.412/.438/.676) are doing their part, too. Given the holes in the bottom of their lineup, star-level performances from star-level players are precisely what the Padres need. — Gonzalez
Record: 25-18
Previous ranking: 7
Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt is simple and direct in communicating with players, and one thing he has said to his team is: “I don’t make the lineup. You guys make the lineup with how you play.” And this is where the Yankees and Aaron Boone are with third base in the aftermath of Oswaldo Cabrera‘s devastating ankle injury: If one of the candidates hits, he will continue to play. The veteran on the clock now is DJ LeMahieu; if he hits, he’ll continue to get starts. If not, the Yankees’ search for third base help will continue. — Olney
Record: 25-18
Previous ranking: 8
Kyle Schwarber continues to rake, including homering twice to drive in all three runs in a 3-0 win over the Guardians on Sunday that completed a nice 5-1 road trip to Tampa and Cleveland. Schwarber entered Wednesday’s doubleheader tied for the MLB lead with 14 home runs while ranking sixth in OPS. After leading the majors with 200 strikeouts in 2022 and 215 in 2023 and striking out 197 times in 2024, Schwarber’s contact rate has climbed in 2025, and he has cut his strikeout rate of more than 29% the past three seasons all the way down to just over 20%. He could be headed to his third All-Star Game. — Schoenfield
Record: 25-19
Previous ranking: 4
Justin Turner is hitting under .200, but the 40-year-old veteran delivered in a big way on Tuesday. After pinch hitting earlier in the game, Turner delivered a two-run walk-off double in a 5-4 win over the Marlins. “I’m happy for him. It’s a big moment,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “He’s done it so many times. It’s not fun watching a great player struggle, but he got a moment and he did it.” That game was also the MLB debut for catcher/DH Moises Ballesteros, the Cubs’ preseason No. 2 prospect. Called up to replace the injured Ian Happ, Ballesteros was hitting .368/.420/.522 in Triple-A. He served as the DH for the Cubs and went 0-for-4, although he lived up to his reputation as a strong contact hitter by putting the ball in play all four at-bats. — Schoenfield
Record: 25-19
Previous ranking: 6
Giants: The Giants suffered a four-game losing streak recently, a stretch in which they were outscored by a grand total of… five runs. Even when the Giants lose games, they continue to be competitive, which speaks well to their prospects in 2025. Just as encouraging: Willy Adames and Justin Verlander, their two big free agent additions last offseason, have seemingly rounded into form. Adames’ slash line was just .208/.292/.300 through the month of April, but he’s slashing .264/.339/.528 in May. Verlander, meanwhile, had a 6.75 ERA through his first four starts but has a 2.76 ERA over his past five. — Gonzalez
Record: 23-19
Previous ranking: 9
A Mariners team that enjoyed a remarkable run of health from its starting pitchers last year placed another one of their starters on the injured list Wednesday, when Bryce Miller was diagnosed with a bout of elbow inflammation, joining George Kirby and Logan Gilbert on the shelf. The news came on the heels of a recent four-game losing streak — which followed an 8-2 stretch. It emphasized something we should have probably learned by now — that nobody is going to run away with the American League West this season. — Gonzalez
Record: 25-18
Previous ranking: 13
In the midst of his April struggles, Emmanuel Clase revealed to the Guardians that he had some shoulder soreness — nothing debilitating but something that was bothering him. Cleveland backed off him, and he did not pitch for five days. Since that brief in-season break, Clase has allowed only one earned run in eight appearances, and the Cleveland bullpen that was so dominant last year has its closer nearing his previous form. Meanwhile, the Guardians’ rotation seems to be improving, with the return of Shane Bieber getting closer by the week. — Olney
Record: 23-21
Previous ranking: 10
The D-backs split a four-game home series against the Dodgers over the weekend, during which their hitters scored 20 runs and their pitchers allowed 25. It basically encapsulated their season. The D-backs’ offense has been a force this year, ranking third in the majors in OPS, fourth in homers and fifth in runs per game. But their pitching staff has a 4.71 ERA, seventh-highest in the sport. And though it’s easy to see Zac Gallen and Eduardo Rodriguez pitching better out of the rotation, the concern lies in the bullpen, especially with A.J. Puk out an undetermined amount of time with elbow stiffness. Some good news on that front: Justin Martinez, their dynamic closer, could return as early as this week. — Gonzalez
Record: 25-20
Previous ranking: 11
Top prospect Jac Caglianone is doing his part to put himself into the conversation for possible promotion later this season, crushing the pitching in Double-A. If he is going to help the Royals in the big leagues this year, it’ll likely be as an outfielder, and Kansas City has started using him twice a week in that capacity in the minors. He has work to do in refining his reads and in his ability to get good jumps, and longtime K.C. coach Rusty Kuntz is overseeing the effort to help Caglianone defensively. Caglianone is very open to feedback and has been spending time in batting practice getting reads on the ball off the bat. — Olney
Record: 22-23
Previous ranking: 12
The Rafael Devers situation is settled: Unless something changes dramatically, he’ll continue to serve as the designated hitter — something he has done very well this year — and the Red Sox will find other solutions at first base. Maybe the only person who has the power to alter the trajectory of this situation is Devers himself, by going to manager Alex Cora and volunteering to take ground balls. One AL evaluator familiar with the situation is shocked that Devers hasn’t been taking grounders anyway, to give Cora alternatives at first base in the event of injuries to other players and the need for a stopgap solution. — Olney
Record: 21-22
Previous ranking: 14
After starting 0-7, the Braves reached .500 for the first time with Tuesday’s 5-2 win over the Nationals. The Braves went 7-3 over a 10-game stretch, with three of those wins coming in walk-off fashion and another coming in extra innings. Rookie catcher Drake Baldwin continues to sizzle at the plate, going 3-for-4 on Tuesday with a home run and double to raise his line to .329/.382/.557. After starting the season 1-for-18, Tuesday’s big game capped a 20-game stretch where he hit .423 with four home runs. — Schoenfield
Record: 24-20
Previous ranking: 23
Here come the Cardinals. St. Louis ran off nine wins in a row heading into Wednesday’s doubleheader against the Phillies — two over the Mets, three-game sweeps of the Pirates and Nationals and then taking the first game in Philly. The pitching staff had a 2.00 ERA over that nine-game stretch, allowing just three home runs in 81 innings. The offense hit .267 with 10 home runs with Willson Contreras leading the way, hitting .367 with three home runs and 10 RBIs. Nolan Arenado and Victor Scott II had OBPs over .400 during the win streak while Ivan Herrera returned after more than a month on the IL to help boost the lineup as well. — Schoenfield
Record: 23-20
Previous ranking: 22
The cliché long applied to Byron Buxton might never be more true than it is right now: When he’s on the field, he’s a great player. Going into the Twins’ Wednesday doubleheader in Baltimore, Buxton had multihit games in 11 of the team’s previous 20, and in that span, he was hitting .316, with six homers, 15 runs and 18 RBIs to spearhead Minnesota’s recent win streak. As usual, Buxton is playing strong defense in the outfield, with positive ratings in both outs above average and defensive runs saved. — Olney
Record: 22-20
Previous ranking: 16
The Astros’ offense is still without Yordan Alvarez and still waiting for the likes of Jose Altuve and Christian Walker to get going. But the month of May has provided some encouraging signs from less-established players who really need to take another step forward this season, specifically Jake Meyers, Jeremy Pena, Yandy Diaz and Isaac Paredes. Those four have combined to slash .356/.415/.561 with eight home runs this month. The Astros are just 6-6 in May, but they’re still well within striking distance in a wide-open American League West. And they’d be in far worse position without the production of those aforementioned players. — Gonzalez
Record: 23-21
Previous ranking: 19
An offense still trying to find its footing placed its best hitter, Corey Seager, on the injured list for the second time in less than two weeks on Tuesday. Seager is dealing with a hamstring strain, the same injury that kept him out from April 23 to May 2. During that stretch, the Rangers lost eight of 10, winning one game by a 15-2 score but combining for 14 runs in their other nine. Their offense doesn’t seem to flow quite the same without Seager, who’s slashing .300/.346/.520 in 26 games this season. His middle-infield partner, Marcus Semien, needs to step up, now more than ever. — Gonzalez
Record: 22-21
Previous ranking: 18
The rotation is a concern and their defense is a mess, but boy is the A’s offense fun. And few represent that better than Jacob Wilson, the 23-year-old shortstop who’s making an early case for the American League Rookie of the Year Award. Wilson returned to his roots in Los Angeles on Tuesday and went 4-for-5 with two home runs at Dodger Stadium, propelling the A’s to an 11-1 rout over the defending World Series champs. That performance put Wilson’s slash line at .363/.389/.513 — a 168-plate-appearance sample in which he had drawn just seven walks but had struck out only nine times. Fun. — Gonzalez
Record: 21-23
Previous ranking: 17
The Brewers aren’t going to go anywhere unless Jackson Chourio and Christian Yelich start to produce better results — namely, getting on base more often. Chourio is hitting .265 with seven home runs, but has drawn just four walks with 37 strikeouts, giving him an OBP under .300. Yelich also has seven home runs but is hitting .205 with a .301 OBP. He’s striking out 28% of the time, a sizable 10% increase from last season. The Brewers certainly have other big holes — they’re last in OPS at third base, for example — but they need their two big stars to carry this offense. — Schoenfield
Record: 20-24
Previous ranking: 15
The Reds scuffled through a 2-8 stretch that saw Hunter Greene land on the IL with a groin strain and Noelvi Marte, who had been hitting well, land on the IL with an oblique strain. Three of those losses were in extra innings, which dropped the Reds to 0-5 in extra frames, but the offense was also a big culprit, getting shut out three times and scoring just one run in three other games. They managed a 13-9 victory over the Astros, scoring 10 runs in the first inning, with seven of those coming off a struggling Lance McCullers Jr., who is trying to make a comeback for Houston. — Schoenfield
Record: 21-21
Previous ranking: 21
The Blue Jays’ sweep of the Mariners in Seattle last weekend was a classic example of the American League’s parity. Just when the Jays’ offense had settled into something of a malaise, they go in and dominate the AL West front-runner. There are likely to be more ebbs and flows like this during the summer as Toronto defines itself. If the Jays ever decide to move veterans before the trade deadline, George Springer is one player who could draw interest in a very, very thin outfield market. He is off to a strong start in his age-35 season while making $24 million this year and next, and if Toronto aims to reshape its roster, his production and experience would be attractive to other teams. — Olney
Record: 19-23
Previous ranking: 20
When the Rays announced they would play their home games at Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field this season, the assumption was that the team’s hitters — who had previously competed in the pitcher’s haven that is Tropicana Field — would get a nice bump in a park thought to have a prevailing wind to right field. But that has not always been the case up to this point. The Rays’ hitters rank 19th among the 30 teams in wRC+ in their home park, although they are tied for eighth in home runs. Brandon Lowe, Christopher Morel, Danny Jansen and Taylor Walls are all batting under .200 at home so far. — Olney
Record: 15-26
Previous ranking: 25
Even before the season started, it seemed as if the Orioles would need to hit enough to make up for their pitching challenges. Despite the surprisingly slow start for the offense, that continues to be the case, as there are few signs of a rotation turnaround. There are some ugly numbers. Opposing hitters carried an OPS of .920 in Camden Yards this season going into Wednesday’s doubleheader. In Baltimore’s losses, the team had an ERA of 8.59. The team’s record in games in which the Orioles scored fewer than six runs: 5-19. — Olney
Record: 18-26
Previous ranking: 24
After getting close to .500 at 17-19, the Nationals dropped seven in a row, scoring two or fewer runs in five of those losses. CJ Abrams has been the one player producing at the plate, with three three-hit games in that stretch to push his average over .300. Since the World Series season in 2019, the only qualified Nationals to hit .300 were Juan Soto and Trea Turner in the shortened 2020 season and then Soto in 2021. In the history of the Expos/Nationals franchise, the only shortstops to hit .300 were Turner in 2020, Cristian Guzman in 2008 and Mark Grudzielanek in 1996. — Schoenfield
Record: 17-25
Previous ranking: 28
From April 11 to May 4, the Angels navigated a brutal stretch in which their offense posted a .574 OPS, their pitchers put up a 6.08 ERA and their defense committed 13 errors, a 21-game stretch in which they accumulated only five victories. The Angels have since been better. More competitive, at least. They took two of three from the Blue Jays, hung tough with the Orioles, then played back-to-back tight games in San Diego, coming all the way back against lights-out closer Robert Suarez on Monday and watching Fernando Tatis Jr. walk-off Kenley Jansen on Tuesday. The Angels are simply not being embarrassed at this point. That’s progress. — Gonzalez
Record: 15-29
Previous ranking: 26
The Pirates fired manager Derek Shelton, sitting in last place in the division with a 12-26 record. Bench coach Don Kelly took over as interim manager. A seven-game losing streak was the final straw. Shelton was in his sixth season as manager and after finishing 76-86 the past two seasons, the club had higher expectations for 2025 — although ownership and management did little in the offseason to improve the club. “I believe he was the right person for the job when he was hired. I also believe that a change is now necessary,” GM Ben Cherington said in an odd statement. In more exciting news, Paul Skenes announced that he’s committed to pitch for Team USA in next year’s World Baseball Classic. He’s the second player to publicly commit to playing, alongside team captain Aaron Judge. — Schoenfield
Record: 16-26
Previous ranking: 27
If you’re looking at an early potential All-Star for the Marlins, it might be outfielder Kyle Stowers, who entered Wednesday hitting .287/.365/.507 with eight home runs and 27 RBIs. Acquired last July with Connor Norby from the Orioles for starter Trevor Rogers, that trade is looking like a win for the Marlins. Stowers is whiffing 30% of the time, so it would be nice to cut that down a bit, but he ranks tied for 10th in the majors in barrels (a batted ball with an exit velocity of at least 98 mph and an optimal launch angle). The last Marlins outfielders to make an All-Star Game were Giancarlo Stanton and Marcell Ozuna in 2017. — Schoenfield
Record: 14-29
Previous ranking: 29
A staffer with another AL team walked away from a recent series against the White Sox impressed with the young arms that Chicago has compiled in its rotation. Jonathan Cannon, Sean Burke and Shane Smith have all had varying degrees of success early this year; and in the end, the development of the pitching is probably the most important thing that will happen in the organization this year. But the staffer also wondered aloud if the end of the season could be more challenging for the Sox, because that trio will be bumping against innings limits. — Olney
Record: 7-36
Previous ranking: 30
A team that had already reached rock bottom absorbed a demoralizing blow on Saturday, while losing to the division-rival Padres by a 21-0 score. It marked the Rockies’ eighth consecutive loss, putting them at 6-33 with a minus-134 run-differential — on the heels of back-to-back 100-loss seasons. Less than 24 hours later, Bud Black was fired, ending an eight-plus-year run as manager. Changes like these are exceedingly rare for the Rockies. The last time they made an in-season managerial firing like this, it happened to Clint Hurdle in 2009. Now Hurdle is back with the team as its interim bench coach. It speaks to the insular tendencies that many believe have doomed this franchise. — Gonzalez
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway