Jackie Robinson the college football star, plus 2025 transfer portal winners

New York Times

20-03-2025

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Did you know Jackie Robinson was a four-sport standout in college? That's multiple Travis Hunters at once, I think. Check my math.
Even if you knew this, it's always worth remembering anew, because every time, it sounds too amazing to be true. So many basic Robinson facts function as an escalating series of 'not only did he do X, but also he did Y' statements.
In both athletic merit and contributions to society, no American sports figure will ever surpass Jackie Robinson. If he isn't worthy of honor, then nobody is worthy.
On that note, here is some news:
'On Wednesday morning, a (Department of Defense) link that guided users to a 2021 article titled, 'Sports Heroes Who Served: Baseball Great Jackie Robinson Was WWII Soldier,' showed a 404 error page with 'dei' included in the URL.'
After public outrage, that link has been restored, minus 'DEI,' a term that has been altered into shorthand for complaining about achievements by women and people of color. At this time, the Defense Department has responded to questions by sounding like 'King of the Hill's' Dale Gribble, but has not explained the process that briefly branded the unbelievably overqualified Robinson as unqualified in the first place.
With a bit of transfer activity left to go in April, we pretty much already know which schools gained the most from it this time around. Manny Navarro recently named LSU, Miami, Oregon, Texas Tech and Southern Miss as this cycle's biggest winners (in a list that also included the biggest losers).
And this week, Manny looked at the same question from a more numerical POV, after 2,328 FBS players left their previous schools:
Plenty more to dive into here, including details on how badly Group of 5 teams got raided this time and which new coaches brought along the most of their previous employer's players. Washington State Jackrabbits!
We finally got a 16-seed beating a 1-seed in March Madness. If the Playoff goes to 16, how long will it take to get a 16 over 1? — Reggie C., San Diego
The only way I could see that happening is an even more extreme example of 2024 Ohio State. Imagine if the Buckeyes had sustained a third loss in the regular season, snuck in at 9-3 with the last at-large spot but behind all of the five highest-ranked champs, then caught fire exactly the way they did last year. In that scenario, certainly, No. 16 could beat No. 1.
But my guess is that spot would go more often than not to an ACC, Big 12 or Group of 5* champion.
* I have seen people start to use the phrase 'Group of 6,' presumably encompassing the reconstituted Pac-12. Personally, I'm considering retiring the phrase altogether. Its intended meaning in the old system was to refer to the five conferences that did not have a contracted berth in one of the New Year's Six bowls. Obviously, that's irrelevant now. Any team from any conference can earn an automatic CFP berth, whatever its label. So shouldn't we just retire the label?
More Stewart Mandel mailbag here.
Untimely thought, spinning off of Stewart's last point: The Group of Whatever is not actually a group. Those conferences do not have their own postseason or share any broadcast deals, they poach each others' schools all the time and the only thing they have in common is that they are not in the Power Whatever.
For years, I've thought the conferences outside the Power Whatever should refer to their football versions with the same term everyone uses for those leagues in other sports: mid-majors.
The same goes for FCS. 'Football Championship Subdivision' was adopted in 2006 (as distinct from 'Football Bowl Subdivision') because the old name, Division I-AA, arguably made that level sound insignificant. But in hindsight, I-AA was the more prestigious name — because it left no doubt that those teams are part of Division I. Now that we call it FCS, casual fans share misstatements like, 'Carson Wentz played for a DII team called North Dakota State,' and, 'Did you hear a Big Ten team just lost to a non-DI team?'
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Actually, nevermind. I take all this back. Group of Whatever, start calling yourselves The Absolute Highest Of All Possible Majors. What are they gonna do about it, refuse to let you play in the Rose Bowl?
That's it for this week. Thank you for reading. If you have thoughts on any of this, let me hear them at [e-mail].
Last week's most-clicked: The QB situations at each Power 4 school.
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