Every year in mid to late August, there’s a palpable excitement in the air for college football fans. We can feel it like we feel the summer heat give way to the first autumn breeze. Before you know it, we’re pulling out our favorite players’ jerseys and t-shirts in team colors, shopping for snacks and tailgate food, and getting ready to spend the next 12 or 13 Saturdays (more if we’re lucky) with our backsides planted firmly in a stadium seat in our favorite college town or in front of our TVs, cheering on these young men like our lives depend on it.
Who knew my mental health is actually fine. I just needed the promise of college football on Saturdays and the weather to be sub 70 degrees and I’m all good
— Riley (@Ri_S_OB) August 25, 2025
In a way, our lives may very well depend on it. For me, football is much more than a sport. It’s the escape my brain craves when life is hard and the world is dark.
It’s something that my family bonds over — except that one weird distant cousin who got mad because I jokingly slammed her husband’s alma mater on Facebook once. My grandfather was one of the biggest University of Georgia Bulldogs fans I’ve ever known, and I came out of the womb cheering them on alongside him, even before I knew what football was. He’s long gone, but as an adult, more often than not, I watch the games with my dad. We have a routine. Early on, he talks about how bad our receivers are playing, or how terrible our defense looks, and how Kirby Smart just doesn’t have it together this year. I get annoyed with his negativity and call him a fair-weather fan. Sometimes, I leave the room. And then, as our guys tend to do, we come back in the third or fourth quarter and win — I scream like someone’s beating me, and my dad says something like, “I knew they’d pull this one off” with a stupid grin on his face.
Here’s baby me in my Georgia gear circa 1980-something.
But it’s not just a family thing; it’s a community thing. I live about an hour and a half from UGA these days, but you can be anywhere in the state of Georgia on the Friday before a game and feel it in the air. This afternoon, I ran to Publix to pick up a few groceries, and the store welcomed me with red and black — UGA team colors — balloons in the bakery. (There may have been a few Georgia Tech things, too. Whatever.) Shoppers were already decked out in their game day gear. When the team gets us to the postseason, it’s even better. People literally walk around saying “Go Dawgs” and the like to each other, no explanation needed, as if we’re all in on the same little secret.
Even when we’re away from home, we find each other. I was on a random Caribbean Island when a guy came up to me and said, “Go Dawgs!” because I was wearing something UGA-related, and we figured out we were both former students. I’ve watched games in a bar in Costa Rica with United States expats. Few things can bond a group of diverse people like football can. Certainly not politics…
Just this week, Marco Rubio, a big Florida Gators fan, even joked about it during Donald Trump’s cabinet meeting, and the moment was much more memorable than anything political that the team discussed.
Today @marcorubio asked @realDonaldTrump if he can issue an executive order to stop people from getting married on Saturday’s during college football season. Preach. This is fantastic: pic.twitter.com/SoX6uDtoSU
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) August 27, 2025
When our new managing editor, Chris Queen, asked if I’d mind writing something about college football today, I wasn’t sure what to do exactly. I’m too much of a homer to cover the entire sport objectively, and admittedly, I barely pay attention to teams outside the SEC and ACC unless they’re doing something noteworthy or playing my Dawgs. You can get endless predictions and analysis from far more qualified people on other sites. So, I decided that I’d take the self-indulgent route and list five things I’m kind of looking out for this fall. Here they are, in no particular order:
1. University of Texas & Arch Manning
I ain’t gonna lie: I hate Texas. I hate the way the media hypes them up for no good reason. I hate the way their entitled fans throw garbage on the field when they don’t get their way. I hate the fact that Matthew McConaughey sits on the sidelines like a mascot and turns a football game into some sort of Hollywood razzle-dazzle. And I especially hate that someone thought it was a good idea to bring them into the SEC.
Throw in their quarterback, the crown prince of the Manning football dynasty, Arch, and it’s even more insufferable. And I say this as someone who is a HUGE Peyton Manning fan — like when I was in middle school, I made scrapbooks with all his newspaper and magazine clippings, and I still have them.
But I have yet to see any reason to hype this team up the way the sports media does. I mean, my Bulldogs, who were not playing their best, beat Texas twice last year. We left the young Manning looking something like this after he went up against our defense:
Arch Manning and Quinn Ewers look terrified of the Georgia defense pic.twitter.com/YW31OEe6b6
— the Sports ON Tap Betting (@thesportsontap) October 20, 2024
I guess a lot can change in a year, but the Associated Press currently ranks Texas at number one. I just don’t think this team will stay there for long… at least not based on merit alone. There’s also a lot of talk that Arch will take home the Heisman Trophy this year. Sure, it’s possible, but I’m going to give it some time before I make that bold prediction about a guy who has only completed 61 passes in his college career.
2. Carson Beck
Oh, Carson Beck. The man Georgia folks love to hate, but can you blame us? He abandoned us last year to chase a couple of blonde influencers to Florida find a better “offensive fit” at the University of Miami. I’m not upset about it. I like our current QB1 Gunner Stockton a lot better, though I was never a big Beck fan in the first place. Stockton seems like he has a better head on his shoulders, and he’s eager to learn. I suspect he’s done a lot of that this spring and summer. Either way, I’ll keep an eye on how Beck does in South Florida.
He’s got some big shoes to fill, both on and off the field. He’s taking over for Cam Ward, who was not only the number one NFL Draft pick this year, but who is also, by all accounts, a humble guy. I’m not sure Beck would know humility if it crawled up into his Lamborghini and bit him.
Give me a tough old Ford F150 over a leased Lambo any day. Already like Gunner Stockton’s decision-making. pic.twitter.com/JZoCfxwwUj
— Radi Nabulsi (@RadiNabulsi) December 27, 2024
Related: Here Are Some 2025 NFL Draft Picks I’d Rather Hear About Than Shedeur Sanders
3. Deion Sanders & Bill Belichick
I don’t have much to say on this topic, aside from the fact that it’ll be interesting to see how these two celebrity coaches’ seasons turn out. I grew up watching Deion Sanders play for the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Falcons, so it’s hard to hate on him, even if the media hypes him up like the second coming of Vince Lombardi (or Vince Dooley for Georgia fans). I wish him well, but I am curious to see how things play out when he’s not also fathering a small percentage of his team. It could go either way.
As for Belichick, I’m just waiting to see if his 20-something-year-old girlfriend actually calls plays or just stands on the sidelines and yells at everyone during the games.
Bill Belichick’s girlfriend, 24 year old Jordon Hudson on the field during practice at UNC 👀
pic.twitter.com/RyxxciNdDx— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) April 16, 2025
4. SEC Domination
True, the SEC hasn’t had a team in the College Football Playoff National Championship in two years, but all this talk about how the SEC’s domination is over is nonsense. Everyone is allowed an off year or two or three. The best conference still has more than twice as many appearances as the ACC and Big Ten combined. But I’m just going to call it right now: An SEC team will make the big game this year. The South will rise again.
Due to the season starting soon, let’s relive the 2021 National Championship. #GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/wKg59W4GNM
— Dawg Muse 🏆 (@UGAFanatic0) August 20, 2025
5. NIL
Now, let’s address the elephant in the room. Ever since the 2021 Supreme Court ruling that influenced name, image, and likeness (NIL) payments, college football has felt increasingly chaotic. I know people who say it’s not even worth watching anymore because of it.
While Rubio may not get that executive order on banning non-football events on Saturdays during the season, back in July, Trump did sign one that seeks to rein in all the NIL stuff. The “Saving College Sports” EO aims to “preserve” the institution that is college sports, and it has a lot of support from big names across the top five conferences and the president of the NCAA. But right now, it’s mostly a symbolic effort that only provides direction for the future. Any major changes to the system would likely require passing legislation in Congress.
I won’t deny that it can be a distraction, and it’s making something that once felt somewhat wholesome look more like the NFL, but my advice is to ignore it this season. I think change is on the way, one way or another, and my plan for the rest of the year is just to sit back and enjoy the actual action on the field.
I’ll leave you with the AP’s current college football rankings. Give us your thoughts, predictions, hopes, dreams, and fears for the season in the comments. I can’t promise I’ll look at them — some of y’all get nasty when I dunk on Texas (it’s all in good fun, people) — but I’ll try my best to stop by this weekend and check them out with one eye closed.
AP Top 25 College Football Poll
1. Texas
2. Penn State
3. Ohio State
4. Clemson
5. Georgia (Go Dawgs!)
6. Notre Dame
7. Oregon
8. Alabama
9. LSU
10. Miami
11. Arizona State
12. Illinois
13. South Carolina
14. Michigan
15. Florida
16. SMU
17. Kansas State
18. Oklahoma
19. Texas A&M
20. Indiana
21. Ole Miss
22. Iowa State
23. Texas Tech
24. Tennessee
25. Boise State
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