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ESPN’s annual future power rankings series begins with the most important — and seemingly fluid — position in college football: Quarterback.

This winter didn’t feature as much movement among marquee quarterbacks as the previous transfer cycle, but notable players changed uniforms and impacted depth charts. Sam Hartman, the ACC’s touchdown passes leader, left Wake Forest for Notre Dame. Drew Pyne, who started 10 games for the Fighting Irish last season, is an Arizona State Sun Devil.

The ACC’s decorated quarterback class entering 2022 didn’t pan out and mostly splintered, as Devin Leary transferred from NC State to Kentucky, Brennan Armstrong from Virginia to NC State and D.J. Uiagalelei from Clemson to Oregon State. Two prominent ACC quarterbacks who stayed put are Florida State’s Jordan Travis and North Carolina’s Drake Maye, who will lead their teams through 2023.

Other key holdovers include USC’s Caleb Williams, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., Oregon’s Bo Nix, South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler, Utah’s Cam Rising, LSU’s Jayden Daniels, Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy, Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel, Arkansas’ KJ Jefferson, Mississippi State’s Will Rogers, UTSA’s Frank Harris and Western Kentucky’s Austin Reed, the nation’s passing yards leader in 2022.

But most if not all will be gone in 2024, and the challenge here is to project the top 25 quarterback groups in college football during the next three seasons — 2023, 2024 and 2025. Assessments are based on current rosters and committed recruits, while taking into account the likelihood of transfers, both in and out of programs. Programs that have continuity and success with coaching quarterbacks also received special consideration.

Here’s a look at last year’s quarterback rankings. Now, let’s get started.


2022 ranking: 2
Returning starter: Caleb Williams

Coach Lincoln Riley needed just one season at USC to again show he’s the sport’s premier developer of quarterbacks. Williams, who moved with Riley from Oklahoma to USC, became the third Riley-coached quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy (joining Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray). He led the nation with 42 touchdown passes and ranked third in passing yards with 4,537, while completing two-thirds of his attempts. Williams will spend one more season with the Trojans before likely becoming the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft. But USC is well stocked behind him, especially after signing Malachi Nelson, ESPN’s No. 1 overall recruit in the 2023 class.

Nelson could compete with Miller Moss, who returns for his second year in Riley’s offense and third overall at USC. Moss was ESPN’s No. 39 overall recruit in the 2021 class. If he stays for 2024, he will have the experience edge over Nelson. But both are good options in the post-Williams era. The Big Ten will represent an adjustment for USC, but Riley’s long-term success with quarterbacks puts the Trojans on top.


2022 ranking: 1
Returning starter: None

Despite never winning the Big Ten with C.J. Stroud at quarterback, the Buckeyes will miss the two-time Heisman Trophy finalist, who passed for 8,123 yards and 85 touchdowns the past two seasons. Like Riley, Buckeyes coach Ryan Day has established enough credibility to churn out top quarterbacks every year, either from recruiting or the portal. Kyle McCord is likely the next man up. He was ESPN’s No. 31 overall recruit in 2021 and could become Ohio State’s QB1 for multiple seasons. Day also brought in Devin Brown, ESPN’s No. 81 recruit in the 2022 class, and No. 4 pocket passer.

Although Ohio State’s long-term outlook took a hit when Dylan Raiola, ESPN’s No. 1 recruit in the 2024 class, decommitted from the team, the staff acted quickly in adding Lincoln Kienholz — initially a Washington commitment — late in the 2023 cycle. The key for Ohio State is McCord or possibly Brown panning out like Stroud did, as a productive multiyear option.

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Giants sell 10% stake to private equity firm

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Giants sell 10% stake to private equity firm

The San Francisco Giants have sold a reported 10% stake in the team to private equity firm Sixth Street.

The team confirmed the deal Tuesday but not the amount of the investment, which was first reported Monday by the New York Times.

Sportico places the value of the franchise and its team-related holdings at $4.2 billion.

Sixth Street’s investment, reportedly approved by Major League Baseball on Monday, will go toward upgrades to Oracle Park and the Giants’ training facilities in Scottsdale, Arizona, as well as Mission Rock, the team’s real estate development project located across McCovey Cove from the ballpark.

Giants president and CEO Larry Baer called it the “first significant investment in three decades” and said the money would not be spent on players.

“This is not about a stockpile for the next Aaron Judge,” Baer told the New York Times. “This is about improvements to the ballpark, making big bets on San Francisco and the community around us, and having the firepower to take us into the next generation.”

Sixth Street is the primary owner of National Women’s Soccer League franchise Bay FC. It also has investments in the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs and Spanish soccer powers Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.

“We believe in the future of San Francisco, and our sports franchises like the Giants are critical ambassadors for our city of innovation, showcasing to the world what’s only made possible here,” Sixth Street co-founder and CEO Alan Waxman said in the news release. “We believe in Larry and the leadership team’s vision for this exciting new era, and we’re proud to be partnering with them as they execute the next chapter of San Francisco Giants success.”

Founded in 2009 and based in San Francisco, Sixth Street has assets totaling $75 billion, according to Front Office Sports.

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Ohtani ‘nervous’ in Tokyo but gets 2 hits, runs

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Ohtani 'nervous' in Tokyo but gets 2 hits, runs

TOKYO — Shohei Ohtani seems impervious to a variety of conditions that afflict most humans — nerves, anxiety, distraction — but it took playing a regular-season big-league game in his home country to change all of that.

After the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ Opening Day 4-1 win over the Chicago Cubs in the Tokyo Dome, Ohtani made a surprising admission. “It’s been a while since I felt this nervous playing a game,” he said. “It took me four or five innings.”

Ohtani had two hits and scored twice, and one of his outs was a hard liner that left his bat at more than 96 mph, so the nerves weren’t obvious from the outside. But clearly the moment, and its weeklong buildup, altered his usually stoic demeanor.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Shohei nervous,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But one thing I did notice was how emotional he got during the Japanese national anthem. I thought that was telling.”

As the Dodgers began the defense of last year’s World Series win, it became a night to showcase the five Japanese players on the two teams. For the first time in league history, two Japanese pitchers — the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the Cubs’ Shota Imanaga — faced each other on Opening Day. Both pitched well, with Imanaga throwing four hitless innings before being removed after 69 pitches.

“Seventy was kind of the number we had for Shota,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “It was the right time to take him out.”

The Dodgers agreed, scoring three in the fifth inning off reliever Ben Brown. Imanaga kept the Dodgers off balance, but his career-high four walks created two stressful innings that ran up his pitch count.

Yamamoto rode the adrenaline of pitching in his home country, routinely hitting 98 with his fastball and vexing the Cubs with a diving splitter over the course of five three-hit innings. He threw with a kind of abandon, finding a freedom that often eluded him last year in his first year in America.

“I think last year to this year, the confidence and conviction he has throwing the fastball in the strike zone is night and day,” Roberts said. “If he can continue to do that, I see no reason he won’t be in the Cy Young conversation this season.”

Cubs right fielder Seiya Suzuki went hitless in four at bats — the Cubs had only three hits, none in the final four innings against four relievers out of the Dodgers’ loaded bullpen — and rookie Roki Sasaki will make his first start of his Dodger career in the second and final game of the series Wednesday.

“I don’t think there was a Japanese baseball player in this country who wasn’t watching tonight,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers were without Mookie Betts, who left Japan on Monday after it was decided his illness would not allow him to play in this series. And less than an hour before game time, first baseman Freddie Freeman was scratched with what the team termed “left rib discomfort,” a recurrence of an injury he first sustained during last year’s playoffs.

The night started with a pregame celebration that felt like an Olympic opening ceremony in a lesser key. There were Pikachus on the field and a vaguely threatening video depicting the Dodgers and Cubs as Monster vs. Monster. World home-run king Saduharu Oh was on the field before the game, and Roberts called meeting Oh “a dream come true.”

For the most part, the crowd was subdued, as if it couldn’t decide who or what to root for, other than Ohtani. It was admittedly confounding: throughout the first five innings, if fans rooted for the Dodgers they were rooting against Imanaga, but rooting for the Cubs meant rooting against Yamamoto. Ohtani, whose every movement is treated with a rare sense of wonder, presented no such conflict.

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Cardinals shortstop Winn out with wrist soreness

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Cardinals shortstop Winn out with wrist soreness

JUPITER, Fla. — St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn was scratched from the lineup for their exhibition game on Tuesday because of soreness in his right wrist.

Winn was replaced by Jose Barrero in the Grapefruit League matchup with the Miami Marlins, with the regular-season opener nine days away. Winn, who was a 2020 second-round draft pick by the Cardinals, emerged as a productive everyday player during his rookie year in 2024. He batted .267 with 15 home runs, 11 stolen bases and 57 RBIs in 150 games and was named as one of three finalists for the National League Gold Glove Award that went to Ezequiel Tovar of the Colorado Rockies.

Winn had minor surgery after the season to remove a cyst from his hand. In 14 spring training games, he’s batting .098 (4 for 41) with 12 strikeouts.

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