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Watching the Super Bowl through the eyes of a college football fan? We’ll prepare you for the big game today.
Watching the Big Game
Preparing for Sunday
Here are my three tips for following Super Bowl LIX if you’re mostly a college fan:
Start by catching up on the college careers of the Super Bowl’s big stars.
- Bruce Feldman wrote this week about Eagles RB Saquon Barkley’s origin story, which revealed the phenom almost quit football after his freshman year of high school. As his former Whitehall (Pa.) High School coach Brian Gilbert said, “(Barkley) said ‘Coach, I’m so skinny. If I come up and play varsity football, I’m gonna get broken in half.’ We said, ‘Just get in the weight room and get stronger.’ Thank God he listened!”
- The story details Barkley’s original commitment to Rutgers (he pledged so fast because he legitimately thought they offered the wrong player), his flip to Penn State and his ascent to become the No. 2 draft pick to the New York Giants in 2018.
- Another story I’ve been thinking about is Justin Williams’ oral history of the Kelce brothers’ college days at Cincinnati. It was written in light of Jason Kelce’s retirement last year but includes some great anecdotes about Travis, the Chiefs’ superstar TE. Prepare for lots of beer, video games and a college crib once referred to as “a real-life animal house.”
Find your favorite players.
- The NCAA has a handy list of the colleges represented on each Super Bowl roster, and it’s no surprise to see six players from Georgia. Five of those Bulldogs are with the Eagles, who went full “Philly Dawgs” during the 2023 NFL Draft by selecting Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith and Kelee Ringo.
- But Georgia isn’t the most well-represented college in New Orleans. That’s Oklahoma. Seven former Sooners are on the rosters, five with the Chiefs and two with the Eagles. Philly QB Jalen Hurts is chief among them, although he did spend three seasons at Alabama before transferring to Oklahoma for his final season in 2019 when he finished second in Heisman Trophy voting to LSU QB Joe Burrow.
- There are a few star rookies to root for too. Chiefs WR Xavier Worthy (Texas) has 11 catches for 130 yards with a touchdown in Kansas City’s two playoff games. The Eagles’ Cooper DeJean (Iowa) and Quinyon Mitchell (Toledo) are both up for defensive rookie of the year (which will be announced at 9 p.m. ET today on Fox).
- Alabama, Florida and Michigan are tied with four players each. Five FCS programs are represented, plus three Division III schools.
Compare the history.
- If Kansas City wins, it will be the first team to three-peat in Super Bowl history. A similar storyline followed Georgia into the 2023 season — no college team had won three consecutive College Football Playoff championships — but the Bulldogs ended up missing the Playoff field entirely.
- But back-to-back-to-back titles have been pulled off at both levels. The University of Minnesota is the only college team to accomplish the feat with three straight titles from 1934-36. The Green Bay Packers went back-to-back-to-back from 1965-67, but the first title was before Super Bowl I in 1966.
Mandel’s Mailbag
Michigan not backing down
Why is Michigan fighting the NCAA so hard regarding the ongoing investigations? Does this mean significant sanctions are coming to the Michigan football program and its current head coach? — Terry G.
Everyone fights the NCAA now. Everyone thinks they’re being unfairly persecuted. But Michigan has been particularly defiant about the Connor Stalions stuff from the time it broke, so I’m not surprised it’s maintaining that approach. The strategy all along has seemingly been: this guy was acting on his own, we knew nothing about it, it didn’t help us anyway.
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But as of now, we’re lacking specifics on what exactly Michigan is charged with. The school has not released the Notice of Allegations, which is frustrating because it should at least be subject to a public records request. Nor has it leaked. But Yahoo last week reported some of the contents of Michigan’s response to the NOA, including a mention that six of the alleged violations are considered the most serious type, Level I. If so, they could definitely lead to major sanctions, whatever that consists of these days.
Mind you, the enforcement staff, which issues the NOA, is essentially the prosecutor. The Committee on Infractions is essentially the judge who hears the case. It’s highly unlikely it would throw out the case entirely, but it could downgrade some of those charges, which, the report says, Michigan is claiming are “without merit or credible evidence.”
It’s an interesting argument, given the evidence reportedly includes a spreadsheet that documents everything Stalions did (as confirmed in the Netflix doc). Also, they have the deleted text messages between Stalions and Sherrone Moore, which Moore says are completely innocent.
The most interesting reveal from that report was the anonymous tipster who touched off the whole scandal was not Ryan Day, or Day’s private investigator brother or any other nefarious figure out to get Michigan, but, in fact, a mole on Michigan’s campus. Who saw that plot twist coming?
Read the full mailbag here.
My Last Until Saturday
Passing the baton
Before we go, here’s one final note from me. This will be my last edition of Until Saturday. Since we launched in August 2023, we’ve covered Nick Saban’s retirement, the first 12-team Playoff, LOTS of Deion Sanders and so much more. Thanks for spending some time in your day catching up with me. It was a lot of fun.
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My colleague Jason Kirk will be your new lead writer. You’re in good hands! Here’s a quick intro from him.
“Hey! Looking forward to seeing y’all next week. We’ll talk some more recruiting, for starters.”
Quick Snaps
Manny Navarro’s oddly specific predictions are back to forecast the 2025 season. Will Arch Manning win the Heisman? Will Michigan beat Ohio State … AGAIN? Read it here.
The NCAA football rules committee will meet later this month. Atop the docket is how to stop fake injuries, along with overtime timeouts, replay challenges and more.
Lincoln Riley is revamping USC’s staff with four hires in the past month. The search for a general manager dated back to last summer and concluded with the hire of Chad Bowden from Notre Dame.
Barely two weeks after Notre Dame’s historic run to the national championship game, the Fighting Irish are looking ahead to Marcus Freeman’s first true quarterback competition.
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(Photo of Saquon Barkley, left: Lauren Leigh Bacho / Getty Images)
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