Texas Tech’s story gets even slimier, plus niche college sports
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Hello. Happy Friday. No “Odyssey” spoilers. Do not tell USC how the Trojan War went for the Trojans. Let’s get to it.
Gross: Big political donation, conveniently timed
Does it feel like this college football offseason’s news cycle has bounced between Texas Tech, Playoff expansion, Lane Kiffin and the usual thrum of NCAA business, with no topic ever really going away?
The discourse dial spins back to Texas Tech, with what should be by far the biggest scandal of the entire Brendan Sorsby story, but surely won’t be:
“One day before the office of Texas attorney general Ken Paxton released a letter threatening legal action against the Big 12 conference if it moved to sanction Texas Tech over Sorsby’s eligibility saga, Texas Tech board of regents chair and billionaire booster Cody Campbell donated $274,300 in support of Paxton’s U.S. Senate campaign.”
When I said in Tuesday’s newsletter that college football is a metaphor for how the rest of the world works, I didn’t expect to get an even starker example days later. However, this newsletter’s position on Campbell has never felt more vindicated.
A month ago, Paxton issuing threats in support of Campbell’s team was weird. In coldly political terms: Paxton’s in a tight Senate race, so wouldn’t he rather seek the support of the sure majority of Texans who opposed Sorsby’s eligibility?
Well, do we now see a potential inspiration for Paxton taking that risk? Gosh, I feel like we might.
“Campbell made prior donations to Paxton’s Senate campaign dating back to 2025 and to Paxton in his capacity as attorney general,” notes our story on news first reported by the Texas Tribune. “The June 10 donation to Paxton’s Senate campaign represents Campbell’s largest one-time amount given toward a state-level politician dating back to 2016.”
Anyway, Tech might not have any healthy veteran quarterbacks for Week 1, while Paxton’s real estate portfolio has expanded despite both his Senate campaign and his divorce. The game is the game.
And because metaphors never stop arriving, Tech renamed its stadium after an AI data-center company today.
Quick Snaps
⏰ One of ESPN’s most prominent NFL Draft analysts is recovering from a horrific injury. At the same time, he’s being investigated for years of allegedly exploiting both charity donors and fantasy football players, often intertwined. So much going on here.
- Totally different draft thing: In this era, a “best underclassman” list is extra fun … because these guys might stick around for 2027. Hey! Look! An upside of modernity!
🐯 “The only thing we demand excellence of in Louisiana is Mardi Gras and college football.” OK, I know what you mean, but that seems a little off. Why LSU really is unique among top-tier CFB jobs.
🎤 From this week’s ACC media days:
- After last year’s goofy setup put 7-5 Duke in the conference title game over 10-2 Miami, the league has new tiebreakers that also account for something even goofier: ACC teams playing different numbers of conference games. This will go great.
- “Everybody compares us to (our 2015-2019 teams). They say that but don’t have perspective.” Dabo Swinney makes points, though his 2020s rosters have been constructed as if it’s still … 2015-2019.
- Two things. First, SMU is in the ACC. Modernity still has its issues. Second, SMU is allowed to give money to whoever it wants now. “If people knew the numbers in (head coach Rhett Lashlee’s) deal, they would be shocked.”
- James Franklin said he thinks his Hokies “won the offseason.” He, too, makes points. However, this is me, advising him not to say things like that:
📰 Other news:
Athletic Department: Your school’s favorite overlooked sport?
In college sports, one way to cope with a humiliating loss is to claim, “Ehh, we’re really more of a ____ school.” Oh, you crude normies think this sport matters? This isn’t our thing anyway, because our thing is superior.
Still, there’s no doubt that different sports matter very differently, depending on which campus we’re talking about.
In that light, our Joe Rexrode boldly attempted to list the definitive sport for each Power 4 school. Mostly football, yeah, but lots of basketball and other sports.
The decision by Joe that jumped out at me:
“Indiana: Men’s basketball. It’s in the blood. Curt Cignetti just delivered a football national championship to Indiana, perhaps the most amazing story in college sports history. But how many IU fans would trade it for a basketball title? Or even a general return to the national relevance that has eluded the program for more than two decades? Most of them.”
There’s a popular movie named after residents of the state, and it’s a movie about basketball. For those of us old enough to remember Indiana’s last men’s hoops title appearance a quarter-century ago, it’d make sense for this to still be a basketball school.
But honestly, and this still feels wild to say … I think Indiana has been permanently football-pilled. At least its younger generations. Just like that. Poof. (Cignetti’s a better story than “Hoosiers” anyway.)
Spinoff question: Which non-football/basketball/diamond sport is your school’s special interest? I already know the prominent specialties like Nebraska volleyball, Georgia gymnastics and Virginia swimming. Gimme the niche stuff. If your school is secretly way into a smaller sport, let me know at untilsaturday@theathletic.com.
And now for a selection from Stewart Mandel’s new mailbag:
Mandel’s Mailbag
Penn State, Clemson and LSU all had preseason national championship hype last year. They all went 7-6, and two of them fired their coaches. Which team(s) do you think this could happen to this year? — Tyler F.
I know that’s going to happen to some teams again this year, but they’re harder to identify. Though all those teams were ranked highly in the preseason based on their personnel, there was still cause for skepticism given their coaches. James Franklin couldn’t beat top-10 teams, Dabo Swinney’s program had been backsliding and Brian Kelly had underdelivered at LSU up to that point.
Looking at the Vegas preseason national title favorites, I have full confidence in the coaches at Ohio State (Ryan Day), Notre Dame (Marcus Freeman), Oregon (Dan Lanning), Georgia (Kirby Smart) and Indiana (Curt Cignetti).
The only one in that upper tier that gives me pause is Texas under Steve Sarkisian. Last year’s preseason No. 1 went 10-3 but lost to a 4-8 Florida team and needed overtime to survive 5-7 Kentucky and 5-8 Mississippi State.
I do believe this year’s team is much more formidable on paper. Arch Manning has a full year as a starter under his belt (though I still think expectations are too high), and Sark upgraded his supporting cast in a big way with The Athletic’s No. 3 portal class. But the Horns are not without questions. Everyone assumes defensive coordinator Will Muschamp will come in and field a vintage Will Muschamp defense, but he hasn’t called plays in six years.
Long story short, if you told me Texas would end up being this year’s Penn State, I’d be less than shocked.
Any of the others could fall flat too, but for different reasons. Even then, it would probably be more of a 10-3 disappointment than a 7-6 disaster.
More mailbag here. Back to Jason.
Stew also puts Georgia on potential flop watch. For the following reason, I think that’s shrewd: No matter what anyone says over the next six months, Kirby Smart will claim nobody believed in his Dawgs. Why not give him the tiniest bit of actual disbelief to work with, for the first time in like a decade?
I typed that while sitting in the library on his campus. Life’s like that.
Now for a few weekend links about the other football, because you’ve been clicking those at least as frequently as the CFB ones:
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