As we close the door on 2025 and start settling into 2026, I thought it would be a good time for a look back — not on the year as a whole but at a wild two-day span in college football. December 31 and January 1 had some crazy stories, so in lieu of a fancy intro, let’s dive right in.
Gary Danielson’s career ends not with a bang but a whimper
For the years that CBS ran Southeastern Conference (SEC) games, Gary Danielson was the bane of many fans’ existence. Look, I’m sure he’s a nice guy and all, but Danielson was guaranteed to offer multiple takes that were either moronic or painfully obvious. Georgia fans knew that his lukewarm takes could often be anti-Georgia, too.
For many years, I was good for a “Shut up, Gary,” comment at least once during a game. I had a long-running joke that I was going to make my millions inventing a device that would allow viewers to mute Danielson but still hear the rest of the broadcast.
The Sun Bowl on New Year’s Eve was Danielson’s last broadcast on CBS. After the game came the encomium to Danielson. Crew members feted him, his broadcast partners spoke his praises, and he thanked everybody like a winner at an awards show. The trouble was that he went too long, and CBS had to cut him off to throw to the New Year’s Eve broadcast.
CBS cut off Gary Danielson as he was still delivering his sign-off message into retirement. https://t.co/pMsRFHRQxS pic.twitter.com/7qHTCKhIz1
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 31, 2025
You can see a crew member counting him down the last three seconds, and I don’t doubt that the director zoomed out on purpose so that viewers could see it. It’s hard to tell if Danielson was deliberately ignoring the signal or if he was oblivious. (My guess is the latter.)
I wish Danielson well in whatever retirement brings. It’s just too bad the last moment of his broadcast career ended so abruptly.
From first-round bye to second-round bust
The way the 12-team College Football Playoff (CFP) is set up now, the top four teams have the privilege of a first-round bye. Depending on when the teams played their last games, whether those games were conference championships or final regular-season games, those top four teams have something like 25 to 30 days between their last game and their second-round CFP matchup.
Any coach worth his salt is going to have his guys practicing during that downtime, with a short Christmas break. There’s been a debate on whether that long break affects the teams that earned the first-round bye because the other teams that played a game in between have faced battle tests more recently.
Flashback: College Football Playoff Blowouts and a Modest Proposal for Future First-Round Games
That debate raged on December 31 and January 1, as three of the four teams that earned first-round byes lost their second-round games. The only team with a first-round bye that won was the top-ranked Indiana Hoosiers.
FACT-O-RAMA (apologies to KDJ): The game between SEC rivals Ole Miss and Georgia marked the second time both teams faced an opponent twice this season. Georgia played Alabama twice, Ole Miss played Tulane twice, and Ole Miss and Georgia played each other twice.
Miami soundly beat second-ranked Ohio State 24-14 on New Year’s Eve. Fifth-ranked Oregon routed number four Texas Tech 23-0 on New Year’s Day. And sixth-ranked Ole Miss beat my Georgia Bulldogs, who were ranked number three, in a close 39-34 heartbreaker.
Side note: “Heartbreaker” may even be too mild a word. That game hurt, but even as disappointed as I am in the outcome, I still love my Dawgs. I reposted a graphic on Facebook that read, “Still my team. Still my Dawgs.” I’m ride or die, even when I’m sad over a loss.
This round of losses was a stress test to the format, and it might even be evidence that the sport may have over-engineered rest and undervalued rhythm. Is there a remedy for this phenomenon beyond an expansion of the playoffs to 16 teams, which I don’t necessarily support? I wish I had an answer.
So 2025 ended and 2026 began with a broadcasting snafu and three teams who worked their tails off all season leaving the second round of the CFP in heartbreak. And from my perspective, Georgia’s season didn’t end the way we hoped — but it ended the way great seasons often do: with lessons that will shape the next one.
We have about six weeks until college baseball season starts. That gives me something to look forward to. And that’s the thing about sports: There’s always another season coming, whether you’re ready or not.
Anybody can react to a scoreboard. We’re more interested in what the games tell us.
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