More Classic Conference Previews

Three more Classic college football conferences with each team's preseason ranking on CBS Sports.  Here's the Classic Big Eight:

9.  Oklahoma

23.  Missouri

33.  Nebraska

34.  Kansas St.

44.  Oklahoma St.

56.  Kansas

65.  Colorado

69.  Iowa St.

Here's the Classic Southwest:

4.  Texas

8.  Texas Tech

11.  Texas A & M

20.  S.M.U.

26.  Houston

31.  T.C.U.

49.  Arkansas

53.  Baylor

121.  Rice

And, finally, here's the Classic Pac-10:

2.  Oregon

14.  U.S.C.

19.  Washington

30.  Arizona

41.  Arizona St.

42.  U.C.L.A.

50.  California

74.  Stanford

88.  Washington St.

94.  Oregon St.

Here are the six major conference Champions last year:

SEC:  Georgia (3d time in the last 4 years)

ACC:  Virginia (1st time since 2004)

SWC:  Texas Tech (1st time ever as outright champion)

Big 8:  Oklahoma (1st time since 2019)

Big 10:  Indiana (1st time since 1967)

Pac 10:  Oregon (2d year in a row)

It's Almost Time

Last week, CBS put out its ranking of the teams that play D-1A college football.  Here are the ranking for every team in the Classic SEC.  As you will see below, Kentucky is not in last place, because they are well ahead of the Tulane Green Wave:

5.  Georgia

10.  Louisiana St.

12.  Mississippi

13.  Alabama

17.  Tennessee

22.  Florida

32.  Auburn

36.  Vanderbilt

47.  Georgia Tech

51.  Mississippi St.

55.  Kentucky

86.  Tulane

Meanwhile, let's see how the Classic Big 10 is doing.  UK fans used to take comfort from comparing themselves to Indiana, but that probably won't be happening for awhile:

1.  Ohio St.

6.  Indiana

15.  Michigan

21.  Iowa

29.  Illinois

40.  Minnesota

48.  Northwestern

60.  Wisconsin

66.  Michigan St.

82.  Purdue

On the other hand, the Cats are ranked ahead of UNC.  Here's the Classic ACC:

27.  Clemson

28.  S. Carolina

37.  Virginia

45.  N. Carolina St.

46.  Duke

52.  Maryland

58.  Wake Forest

61.  N. Carolina

What's really striking about the Classic ACC is how closely bunched all the teams are, even though none of them is in the Top 20.  It seems obvious that fans at all eight of these schools would have more fun if these teams played a true round-robin schedule with each other.  Check out the 2026 home schedule for Maryland:

9/5:  Hampton

9/19:  Virginia Tech

9/26:  U.C.L.A.

10/17:  Rutgers

10/31:  Illinois

11/14:  Wisconsin

11/28:  Penn St.

Now, if you replaced U.C.L.A., Rutgers, Illinois, and Wisconsin with South Carolina, N. Carolina St., Duke, and N. Carolina -- and threw in road games against Clemson, UVA, and Wake -- wouldn't that be a lot more entertaining?  Of course it would.

R.E.M.'s Best Song?

There's a guy on YouTube named Rick Beato (born 1962), who is identified on Wikipedia as "an American YouTuber, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, and educator."  Three years ago, he posted a video called "WHY This is R.E.M.'s Greatest Song."  This video has 705,000 views, and he says he's going to work through nine R.E.M. songs.  Let's follow along!

The End of the Sports Year

With Spain's victory in the World Cup Final, the 2025-26 Sports Year has come to an end.  It was a good one.

Congratulations to George Rogers Clark H.S., which became the first school since 1928 to win the boys' and girls' KHSAA basketball championships in the same year.  Congratulations to Vanderbilt, which went 10-2 in football, and also sent both its men's and women's teams to the NCAA basketball tournaments.  Congratulations to the Dodgers, who won their second World Series in a row, and to the Knicks, who won the NBA title for the first time since 1973.  Congratulations to all the Americans who contributed to hosting a successful World Cup Tournament, and to all the Europeans who got to try ranch dressing for the first time.  Congratulations to West Virginia for winning the NCAA Rifle championship.  Congratulations to Georgia, for having the best football team in the SEC, and to Ole Miss, for beating Georgia in the playoffs.  Congratulations to the Miami Hurricanes for beating Notre Dame and returning to the NCAA Football title game.  Congratulations to Notre Dame for holding the Unofficial College Football Championship.  Congratulations to the Michigan Wolverines, for their first men's NCAA basketball title since 1989, and to the U.C.L.A. Bruins, for their first women's NCAA basketball title.  Congrats to UConn for a miracle win over Duke and another trip to the men's Final Four.  Congrats to U of L, for pasting Kentucky in both football and basketball.  Congrats to Tennessee, for a third consecutive trip to the men's Regional Final in basketball.  Congrats to Oklahoma, for winning the gymnastics title and the College World Series.  Congrats to Texas, for winning the softball title.  Congrats to the long-suffering football fans of the Midwest, who saw their heroes crush the SEC for the third year in a row.  And most of all, congratulations to the Indiana Hoosiers, who put aside over a century of suffering on the football field, to capture the 2025 Big Ten title, and the 2025 National Championship.

And now we can all take a break until September 5, when the college football season will begin in earnest, or (if you prefer) September 9, when the Seahawks will kick off the NFL season.  Read some good books.  Go down to the Lake.  Maybe play some putt-putt, or get to the driving range.  Take at least one day where you spend most of the day driving through the countryside, listening to really good music.  And give thanks for the chance to see it all start over again.

World Cup Final: Spain v. Argentina

Here are the starting lineups:

SPAIN (4-2-3-1):

GK:  Unai Simon, Athletic Bilbao (ESP)

DF:  Pedro Porro, Tottenham Hotspur (ENG)
DF:  Pau Cubarsi, Barcelona (ESP)

DF:  Aymeric Laporte, Athletic Bilbao (ESP)

DF:  Marc Cucurella, Real Madrid (ESP)

MF:  Rodri (Captain), Manchester City (ENG)

MF:  Fabian Ruiz, Paris Saint-Germain (FRA)

FW:  Lamine Yamal, Barcelona (ESP)

MF:  Dani Olmo, Barcelona (ESP)

MF:  Alex Baena, Atletico Madrid (ESP)

FW:  Mikel Oyarzabal, Real Sociedad (ESP)

ARGENTINA (4-1-3-2):

GK:  Emiliano Martinez, Aston Villa (ENG)

DF:  Gonzalo Montiel, River Plate (ARG)

DF:  Cristian Romero, Tottenham Hotspur (ENG)

DF:  Lisandro Martinez, Manchester Utd (ENG)

DF:  Nicolas Tagliafico, Lyon (FRA)

MF:   Enzo Fernandez, Chelsea (ENG)

MF:  Rodrigo De Paul, Inter Miami (USA)
MF:  Alexis Mac Allister, Liverpool (ENG)

FW:  Nicolas Gonzalez, Juventus (ITA)

FW:  Lionel Messi (Captain), Inter Miami (USA)

FW:  Julian Alvarez, Atletico Madrid (ESP)

As usual, Argentina has opened the game by teaching their opponents that if you have the ball, it won't be long before someone from Argentina crashes into you.  Argentina hasn't bothered to do anything on offense yet.  After 30 minutes, we have no score.