This is a column to check in on the rest of the football world, but since it’s 2025 in America I will beat you over the head with The Agenda, which in case you’ve forgotten is “Big Ten Superiority Unless
It’s Funny.”
THE AGENDA MVP: ILLINOIS FIGHTING ILLINI
The winner of Indiana-Ohio State was going to assume the mantle of Undisputed #1, so instead this week’s MVP is Illinois for securing a road victory over a power conference champion. The winner of the ACC was defeated by the Fighting Illini 45-19 at home earlier this year, further bolstering the concept of Big Ten Exceptionalism.
Ohio State is very good, but Indiana would not have allowed Texas to hang around. Do bear in mind that they stifled the Buckeyes while missing Omar Cooper for virtually the entire game.
PROGRAMS BUILT BY B1G COACHES WENT 1-1 IN OTHER TITLE GAMES
Barry Odom is so good that his UNLV Rebels reloaded the year after he left for Purdue and made it all the way to the Mountain West title game. They would get as close as a 7 point deficit in the second half before Boise State inevitably ran away with the game.
But that’s nothing compared to Curt Cignetti’s old team. Cignetti is so good that two years after he left James Madison, they went 12-1, won the Sun Belt and made the College Football Playoff.
Curt Cignetti brought two different teams to the College Football Playoff in the same year, which is more than the ACC brought in 2025.
AN APOLOGY IS IN ORDER
For the entirety of The Agenda’s run, I have been misleading you. It was certainly no act of malice on my part; I earnestly believed I was telling the truth. Yesterday’s events have forced me to re-evaluate my priors and I’m afraid I have to confess something to you all:
Alabama did not get their ass kicked by Florida State this year.
We are clearly suffering some kind of mass delusion where we all believe this to have happened. Clearly it didn’t, because the Tide are in the CFP at 10-2 after being dominated by Georgia. Although the team that coughed up their signature win got about four times as many licks back on them, the Committee still saw fit to put Alabama in the playoff at the 9 spot, where they will get a chance to avenge their other loss to Oklahoma.
Oklahoma is a curious addition; they lost two regular season games but they didn’t have a signature out-of-conference win to bolster their resume. Many people believe they defeated Michigan, but I’ve done some research and that game is another mass delusion along the lines of Alabama’s fictional loss to Florida State.
The Oklahoma-Michigan mass delusion makes sense because it is a hypothetical game and the SEC always wins those. Why we all imagined Alabama losing to Florida State in such a lopsided fashion is beyond me however.
Surely we did just that! The alternative is that the CFP committee wants you to accept the possibility of a three-loss national champion boasting not only multiple conference losses but a totally one-sided loss to a 5-7 ACC team, and the stewards of the game would never dream of doing such a thing.
I beg your forgiveness for spreading misinformation, and I promise you only that I will do my very best to avoid repeating this mistake.
ESPN CONTINUES TO LOSE THE PLOT
ESPN’s website features a Football Power Index ranking, where they rank teams based on how much Football Power they have. Apparently, only the two Big Ten Championship Game participants had more Football Power this year than Notre Dame. Oklahoma had the 15th-most Football Power, but still more than BYU. While Penn State was more Football Powerful than Tennessee, ESPN did find a pair of equals: Illinois and South Carolina, both with roughly 9.2 FPI Units of Football Power.
ESPN, then, has made some progress. Nearly a year to the day after Luke Altmyer and the Fighting Illini snatched Shane Beamer’s soul at the Citrus Bowl and followed it up with an 8-win season while the Cocks struggled to a 4-8 campaign, ESPN finally concedes that it might be possible for Illinois to defeat South Carolina.
(Tulane checks in two spots behind East Carolina at 54th. 2-10 Arkansas is a tenth of a point better than 9-3 Georgia Tech)
IT ALL PLAYED OUT EXACTLY LIKE I TOLD YOU, WITH ONE EXCEPTION
Last week, I told you how the weekend would play out.
With one exception, I was right about everything. The SEC title game didn’t matter, was totally inconsequential. The Big Ten title game was must-see TV and truly worthy of Game of the Century designation. Only the Big 12 champ was selected. Tulane and James Madison made the field.
All I was wrong about was that the CFP chose the ACC over Notre Dame, saving the conference from a shutout by throwing Miami a life vest. Notre Dame is understandably quite mad about this and they are taking their ball and going home.
If Alabama had three losses and one was to Florida State, the easy call is to jettison them from the playoff picture to prevent a three-loss national champ and show that non-conference games matter, whether they be signature wins or a loss to a team that even ESPN believes is worse than Illinois.
But alas. No such thing happened.
PLAYOFF PREVIEW
#5 Oregon could not defend their home from Corporeal Curt Cignetti, but may fare better against The Ghost Of Curt Cignetti if only because James Madison has to travel even farther.
Nobody knows or cares who will win between Alabama and Oklahoma. Neither of these teams played any P5 teams in the non-conference slate, which is puzzling.
Tulane and Ole Miss square off in a battle of teams whose head coaches will be elsewhere next year. In the case of Ole Miss, he’s already gone. Ole Miss won their first meeting 45-10, but Lane Kiffin has the backing of the ESPN Industrial Complex in his quest to get all of the attention ever. Anything is possible.
Miami plays Texas A&M in the Beat Notre Dame Bowl. A&M did it more convincingly. Either of these teams would make a fine snack for Ohio State.
In the second round, assuming Oregon makes it out of the first, the 4-5 matchup will pit some rich guy buying a team for his Alma Mater against…Texas Tech. Phil Knight has been at it longer though and I have to think his experience helps Oregon. It’s TTU’s first year doing this.
The no-doubt best team in the country should feast on either of the two multi-loss SEC teams.
Georgia, having the advantage of “head coach will be here next year and our program is coherent season to season”, likely beats the 6/11 winner.
I already told you how I feel about Ohio State.
I don’t think Oregon has the juice to overcome Indiana. Ohio State will stifle Georgia to set up a rematch of the Big Ten Championship Game for all the marbles
(If Ohio State wins by 3, Indiana should still claim a national title)
