Ranking college conference names by accuracy, plus CFB 26's top 25
Today in college football news: happy Canada Day to the Beaches.
The Pac-12 has added Texas State, which is nowhere near the Pacific Coast, unless you zoom out a lot and get in 'pale blue dot' mindset. In the grand scheme, we're all near the Pacific Coast.
Regardless, the Pac-12's name has become less accurate. Well, there's a lot of that going on in conference names. On that note, I will rank each FBS league by the accuracy of its name, considering all upcoming realignment moves.
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Excuse me, I misspoke. I will not rank anything. The Name Accuracy Quotient (NAQ) will do the ranking. I'm just here to tell you what it told me, like I'm one of those oracles who used to tell the BCS what the computers were allegedly saying. Behold, I hear the results issuing forth from the NAQ even as we speak:
🐝 'NIL's been around for 50 years. It's just public NIL now.' Real talk from Brent Key in Seth Emerson's story on why Georgia Tech is good again.
🅾️ Adidas, American Eagle, Battle Sports, Chipotle, DSW, Electronic Arts, Lululemon and Red Bull: just some of the companies in the Jeremiah Smith business.
💰 Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti is trying to present his '9 billion automatic bids for us and the SEC' plan as a way to minimize the role of the CFP committee.
🧢 Michigan beat Ohio State in a head-to-head battle for top-100 recruit DE Carter Meadows.
📰 'The unnamed woman who brought a civil lawsuit accusing BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff of sexual assault has withdrawn her case. … It's unclear if Retzlaff is still facing the suspension and or if he still plans to leave the program.' Details.
🏀 Truly a full-circle moment: EA Sports is bringing back its college basketball series. It was EA's usage of former UCLA star Ed O'Bannon's image in NCAA Basketball '09 that sidelined both the football and basketball games in 2013. O'Bannon had better be in the new game (tentatively coming in 2028, per Extra Points) for real. Speaking of!
Alabama at No. 1 in an EA Sports college football game? Sure, that's normal. Technically, the Tide started at No. 1 in three of the last five editions, going back to NCAA 11. Business as usual.
But Alabama being the top team in College Football 26's initial top-25 rankings (listed below) feels a little different than it used to.
We'll see how it turns out, on fields both real and fake. Bold choice by EA either way! The game's full initial top 25:
Also, I compared EA's list to a ranking I mashed together from five different 2025 power ratings (FPI, Massey, SP+ and TeamRankings, plus BetMGM national title odds). I'll share a version of that composite later in the offseason, but know this: EA's rankings fit in fine. If I'd seen a blind spreadsheet of all six metrics next to each other, I probably wouldn't have guessed which one is which.
Still, a few small takeaways from that comparison:
OK, that's all for today. Email me at untilsaturday@theathletic.com to tell me which conference outside of FBS is the most (or least) accurately named.
Last week's most-clicked: Technically, it was the New York Times' list of the century's 100 greatest movies, but among the links in this newsletter's actual jurisdiction, it was: 'How many college football teams could have won a national title with Nick Saban?'
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