Yesterday was college football’s national signing day. And I wouldn’t have blamed you if you had no idea it was happening. (Alabama finished with the country’s top class.) Pat Forde put it simply in his column: “Who is actually paying attention? Signing day is a big moment for many teenagers, but the December signees are increasingly lost in the churn of other news.”

December has become a time of chaotic change in major college football, one that has lasting impacts on programs, coaching staffs and athletes and more immediate impacts on the flood of bowl games we have from now through Jan. 2.

We can start with the coaching changes, both high-profile and not, which come fast and furious as soon as the regular season wraps up following the fourth Saturday in November. When a coach such as Luke Fickell or Hugh Freeze leaves Cincinnati for Wisconsin or Liberty for Auburn, respectively, they scrambled to put together recruiting classes by signing day while their former teams scrambled to play in an “interim-addled, fire-drill farce,” Forde writes. Both teams, coincidentally or not, lost their bowl games.

There’s also the transfer portal, which has become to December what NBA free agency is to July. And, rightly so, it has captured the attention of fans and media alike, Forde writes.

Players making news in the transfer portal right now are more established as prospects, better known to fans and more likely to immediately matter. As big as it is for Arch Manning to sign with Texas on Wednesday, Kentucky’s landing North Carolina State transfer quarterback Devin Leary might be more impactful in 2023.

Forde’s column highlights more issues impacting signing day and offers potential solutions for the current college football calendar. Above all else, one thing has to be avoided, Forde writes: “uninformed decisions by athletes who might not have any idea what they’re getting themselves into.”

The best of Sports Illustrated:

In today’s Daily Cover, Michael Rosenberg catches up with Lions rookie Aidan Hutchinson, who’s leading Detroit back toward the playoffs:

Some players have extraordinary athletic gifts but can’t apply them consistently in a fast-moving, complex game. Others are brilliant but get physically overwhelmed. Hutchinson’s brain and body work in concert. The result is a player who seemed to do one thing very well actually does a lot of things exceptionally well. Through Week 16, Hutchinson has seven sacks, the most of any rookie. He is a much better run-stopper now than he was two months ago, let alone in college. Hutchinson doesn’t even remember having a chance at an interception at Michigan. This year, he has picked off two passes, and neither was fluky.

Tom Verducci has the inside story on Carlos Correa’s flip from the Giants to the Mets.
Speaking of the Mets, the team’s owner is “embarrassing his peers,” Stephanie Apstein writes.
And, speaking of the Giants, Emma Baccellieri explains how they’ve lost the chance to sign two prized free agents in a matter of two weeks.
Jimmy Traina gave out his Sports Media Awards and Superlatives for 2022.
Albert Breer examines who the Texans should be looking to take at the top of the 2023 NFL draft.
Eastern Illinois pulled off one of the biggest upsets in men’s college basketball history yesterday, beating Iowa despite being a 30-point underdog.
The Jaguars’ playoff push is keeping things interesting, with Jacksonville’s Super Bowl ticket prices up 156% after the team’s Week 15 over the Cowboys.

The top five...

… things I saw yesterday:

5. Miked-up Robin Lopez tried to convince a ref his brother, Brook, flopped.

4. South Alabama defensive back Yam Banks hauled in an impressive one-handed interception in last night’s New Orleans Bowl.

3. Ayo Dosunmu’s buzzer beater to lift the Bulls over the Hawks.

2. An irate Tom Izzo berated referees while wearing a Christmas-themed sweater during Michigan State’s win over Oakland.

1. Washington coach Ron Rivera telling his team’s players they made the Pro Bowl, including special teamer Jeremy Reaves.

SIQ

Two quarterbacks from the highly touted 2021 NFL draft class will face off tonight when Trevor Lawrence’s Jaguars take on Zach Wilson and the Jets. Which of the 10 signal-callers picked in that draft has thrown the most interceptions in their NFL career so far?

Check tomorrow’s newsletter for the answer.

Yesterday’s SIQ: Which Mets player, born on this day in 1960, was identified as the “second spitter” in the Seinfeld episode “The Boyfriend” that featured Keith Hernandez as a guest star?

Ron Darling
Roger McDowell
Wally Backman
Jesse Orosco

Answer: Roger McDowell. In the episode, Kramer and Newman accuse Hernandez of spitting on them after a Mets game and, when they’re finally able to confront Hernandez at the end of the episode, Hernandez reveals that he remembers the incident in question and says it was actually McDowell, the Mets’ closer, who spit on them.

McDowell plays himself in the episode, appearing briefly in a flashback scene. He’s only on-screen for a few seconds and doesn’t have any lines, but he told an Atlanta radio show in 2015 that he gets a royalty check for $13.52 every time the episode airs. In ’20, he had a little fun about the episode in an interview with The Athletic.

“I’m not throwing any other guys under the bus,” McDowell told The Athletic, “but to emphatically accuse me of doing something without direct knowledge is kind of egregious.” —Dan Gartland

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