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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🏈 NFL refutes the NFL. Tuesday, Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reported that “the NFL and the Lions will not take action against the fan involved in the altercation with Steelers WR DK Metcalf on Sunday in Detroit because ‘there was no violation of the fan code of conduct,’ per source.” On Wednesday, the NFL refuted the report, saying the matter was “still under review.”

🎤 Billable hours. Speaking of, as first reported by ESPN.com’s Brooke Pryor, Ryan Kennedy, the fan involved in the incident with DK Metcalf during the Steelers-Lions game, will hold a press conference with his attorneys on Friday. The press conference is supposed to “address the assault, correct misinformation that has been publicly repeated as fact, and discuss the serious consequences Mr. Kennedy has faced.”

☘️ Did USC this? There’s been much disappointment over the news that the Notre Dame-USC football series is going on hiatus. However, dating back to 2021, the matchup has averaged just over five million viewers across four games, none of which exceeded 6.43 million viewers. There’s more to it than just ratings, but it’s not as though the game was breaking ratings records.

🏈 Anonymous clapback. Pat McAfee and guest J.J. Watt laid into the anonymous source in a recent Front Office Sports article that slammed McAfee for potentially teasing that his GameDay field goal contest could end. The GameDay analyst also added that he would soon be releasing a new song after the success of his debut effort, “Dookie.”

🚨 LEADING OFF 🚨

The CFP first round frustrates everyone because it’s completely unnecessary

No sport thrives on complaints quite like college football.

Depending on who’s complaining, the sport is unfair, imbalanced, devalued, ruined, not what it used to be, or not what it should be. Sometimes, a single complaint covers that entire gamut.

Each season and postseason has its own themes and narratives regarding complaints. The 2025 college football season, the second in which the College Football Playoff has been expanded to 12 teams, has given us the gift of hating Cinderellas.

And that was before Tulane and James Madison, two Group of Five schools that qualified for the CFP thanks in part to the ACC’s stupidity and Notre Dame’s Notre Dame-ness, laid eggs in their respective first-round games.

The way that college football’s pundits reacted to their inclusion in the CFP, you’d have thought Tulane and JMU murdered their families. As an extension, they all took turns proclaiming the first round of the 2025 playoff a complete dud and blaming the G5 schools for that outcome.

The ratings bore out that the first round failed to capture the hearts and minds of America, solidifying the growing call to ban G5s from the CFP altogether.

Setting aside the fact that a Group of 5 Playoff would be a terrible idea that solves nothing, there’s a simple notion being lost in all the hand-wringing: The problem isn’t who plays in the first round of the expanded CFP. The problem is that it exists at all.

The goalposts have been moved so many times in recent years that it can be hard to remember, but it truly wasn’t that long ago when everyone understood that no team outside of the Top 5, maybe even the Top 4, “deserved” to play for the national title. We use quotations there because we admit it’s a silly notion, but it was very well understood all the same.

For most college football seasons, as far back as anyone can remember, the only teams in the national title discussion come December were either undefeated or had one loss to a highly ranked opponent. Everyone else, enjoy your Citrus Bowls and Holiday Bowls.

College football was by no means perfect at the time. We’d argue over the inability to crown a true national champion almost every season. But there was a clear distinction between very good teams and elite teams.

Now, we spend all month arguing over which three-loss team deserves to be considered for the right to play for a national title. We’re made to feel like an egregious error has been made because a two-loss Notre Dame, which started the season 0-2, got left out.

The 2025 Notre Dame squad didn’t deserve to play for a national title any more or less than Tulane or JMU, despite how hard college football pundits have worked to devalue wins since the CFP started.

The point is actually that none of them “deserve” to play for the national title. Honestly, the only teams that probably did were Indiana, Ohio State, Georgia, Texas Tech, and maybe Oregon, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M. Everyone else would have been happy with their Cotton Bowl or Gator Bowl bid back in the day.

But, of course, the CFP doesn’t exist to be fair or to reward regular-season success. It exists to create big TV ratings, and the ongoing expansion is all about that. That’s especially obvious when you look at the way college football’s talking heads complain about Tulane and JMU.

They’re not mad that G5 schools don’t deserve to play; they’re mad that those games didn’t pop big TV numbers. Heck, even the guys calling Tulane’s game openly pined for Notre Dame to be there instead.

Eliminating G5 schools doesn’t eliminate blowouts. There have been blowouts almost every year the CFP has existed. Last year, Oregon lost by more points than it beat JMU by this year. Next year, one of the best college football programs in America will probably lose a CFP game by 20 or 30 points. No one will bat an eyelash.

Those arguments are just convenient excuses to cover up the truth that the CFP is already simply too big. It’s also too big to fail, so it’s only going to keep expanding. And as it does, it will also keep contracting the pool of eligibility. Banning G5 schools is just the beginning. Pac-12, Mountain West, and ACC schools, you’re on notice.

Eventually, you’ll know which 16 or 24 teams are in the CFP before the season even begins because that’s actually the goal. Remember that ill-fated European Super League idea a few years back, which included only a select group of elite clubs and removed concerns of being left out or relegated? That’s what the Joel Klatts, Josh Pates, Paul Finebaums, and Kirk Herbstreits want college football to be.

The goal isn’t to create the best system to determine a champion; it’s to determine the best system to generate TV ratings.

And any other reason that someone gives is either a goalpost shift, a rhetorical trick, a lie, or all three.

🗣️ NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

“That situation was rare. We don’t usually see that, especially with a player that is offered up for an interview by the team, so they’re very much aware they’re going to be doing the interview, especially on Monday Night Football.” - Laura Rutledge on the awkward Justin Herbert MNF interview.

"In 10 years, I would not be surprised if there's a four-point line." - Reggie Miller, appearing on The Dan Patrick Show.

“The thing that makes Kansas City different than Des Moines, Iowa, or Omaha, Nebraska, is that we have the Chiefs and the Royals. That’s it. We’re a two-team, pro sports city. There is huge economic and civic pride benefit to that, and Kansas City’s not a huge market. So you can’t just dare a team to leave the way L.A. could, or New York could, or Washington, D.C., could, because they might leave.” - Nick Wright on the Kansas City Chiefs’ new stadium plans in Kansas.

“I watch some of these shows on various networks, especially the NFL shows, and it drives me crazy where our industry has gone. And politics are obviously this way, too, but it’s a lot of clickbait. It’s a lot of like really loud comments that will maybe go viral. ‘I might not believe in it, but it’s gonna go viral, and people are going to know who I am.’ Man, I will quit before I ever do that. Like, if that’s what it takes to make it, I would never do this.” - Kirk Herbstreit on the state of sports media.

“Once the Ravens become critical of Jackson, he becomes more withdrawn. It’s a shame because Jackson isn’t a mean-spirited person, just an overgrown kid in an adult’s body.” - Baltimore Sun writer and Ravens commentator Mike Preston in a column taking Lamar Jackson to task over his training.

🎙️ THE AWFUL ANNOUNCING PODCAST 🎙️

Join us for a special episode of the Awful Announcing Podcast. We had great discussions with many incredible people in sports media over the past year, and we compiled a collection of clips from 2025. Click to watch highlights from our chats with people like Tony Reali, Mike Greenberg, Dan Orlovsky, Verne Lundquist, Joe Davis, and more!

️‍️🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥

A holiday appreciation for our readers

The Closer is supposed to be our space to sound off on whatever sports media-related topic happens to strike our fancy on any given day. Today, on Christmas, the only thing we want to use this space for is to say thank you.

Thank you for subscribing to and reading this newsletter, a real labor of love that we focused on this past year. We’re delighted with how it’s growing and the reactions we’ve received. We hope you find it a worthwhile addition to your email queue, and we’ll keep giving you reasons to keep reading.

And of course, thank you to anyone who has supported Awful Announcing this year. That includes those who read our articles, read this newsletter, listen to or watch our podcasts, or engage with us on social media. We put our hearts into covering this beat, and we appreciate everyone who has come along for the ride, even if you disagree with some of our opinions and assessments.

We’re looking forward to growing this newsletter and the Awful Announcing brand even more in 2026. We’ll see you there.