The Sports Thinker

Jerry Richardson Stadium, home of the Charlotte 49ers football team      The 2025 season is over for all of the 25ers, with Massachusetts capping an unchampionship with an 0-12 record. In addition, all 3 teams finishing directly behind them each only had a win over an FCS opponent to the positive in their records. California leads the way with three B25 finalists in the poll ( UCLA , Stanford and San Jose State ), with Massachusetts, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas each adding two entrants, including both sides of a state rivalry, Colorado State and Colorado, who did NOT play each other this year. I see a fictional bowl in the future between them! As for the conferences, the twelve team Mountain West and the seventeen member ACC both had four entrants in the 25. Surprisingly, the Sun Belt only had 2, tied with the Big 12, Big1G (12, 18, whatever) and the AAC. Conference USA and the MAC have three teams in, but worst of all, fully 50% of the PAC 2 are in the final poll! St...

A view of the Corps of Cadets at Michie Stadium, home of the Army Black Knights The 25 had 4 winners last week, leading to 3 teams, Wisconsin , Stanford and New Mexico State dropping out of the poll and into the DHM. Nevada also won, but with just three wins, they could only fall as far as #25. South Alabama and Tulsa from the DHM also both won, completely dropping out altogether. The Sports Thinker was in the stadium to see Tulsa take down Army , who, quite frankly, blew the game. But it was still a beautiful game day, even if the outcome was disappointing for my favorite adopted home state team. Stanford's win in their annual Big Game over California actually pushed the athletic department at Cal to show head coach Justin Wilcox the door, despite his 6-5 record this season for the bowl eligible Bears. Of note is that I am posting this poll a day later than is my preference, and thus Tuesday night games were played, including one involving a 25er. The results of those gam...

Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, home of University of Arkansas football Sadly, it appears that Massachusetts is heading towards a winless campaign and will likely be our final #1 while fellow compatriots Boston College may end the year at number 2, setting up a potential all Bay State Relegation Bowl. Florida , meanwhile, has been teetering on the brink of the B25 all year and has finally fallen in. Penn State FINALLY won after 6 straight losses to get themselves out, entirely. Also winning themselves out but into the DHM are  South Alabama,   Tulsa ,  Northern Illinois  and  Eastern Michigan. And s hockingly, with NIU and EMU out, there are only two 25ers remaining from the MAC, an unprecedented occurrence for this late in a season.    As always, enjoy the games... 1) Massachusetts (0-10) The Minute - Men were absolutely dogged by the Northern Illinois Huskies, falling 45-3 at home in a MAC Bummer Bowl on Wednesday. Honestly, all jokes asid...

While I will be making a statistical comparison within this post, I am starting off by writing what I am "feeling" as an Atlanta Falcons fan. I am feeling two contradictory things. First, I feel that with the offensive talent Atlanta has, they should have a much better record than 3-6. Conversely, I am also feeling that outside of Bijan Robinson and Drake London, maybe Atlanta's offensive talent isn't really living up to the hype. Kyle Pitts has certainly been a disappointment since the start of his sophomore season and Michael Penix has shown flashes but maybe isn't necessarily ready to be the full-time starter.  And the Falcons still have an opportunity THIS season, even at 3-6. With a remaining game against Carolina, two against New Orleans, one at the New York Jets and one at Phoenix, that is 5 very winnable games out of the remaining 8. Flip one of the remaining three (against the Seahawks, Rams and Bucs, two of the games at home) and the Falcons could potent...