EDITORIAL: Football is a year-round sport that provides entertainment and sometimes heartbreak for many fans. Experts are often called in to provide their insights into college football for context. No one is perfect, but there are often really dumb takes that deliver highly recognizable media workers. With the 2022 college football season wrapped up, it’s time to look back at the stinkers of takes that had to be thrown in the trash. The writers of Last Word On College Football compiled a collection of the worst takes from preseason to postseason across the broader CFB community and voted on which take was the worst. Here are the four worst college football attitudes of 2022 from the LWOCFB crew.
Worst takes of the 2022 college football season
#4. CBS Sports’ Danny Kanell cites the odd reason behind the 12-team CFP format
CBS Sports’ Danny Kanell is a gold mine for bad takes. He will say anything to go his way and teams only way. During the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs’ loss to the No. 3 TCU Horned Frogs 65-7 in the CFP National Championship, Kanell insisted that expanding the CFP to 12 teams would eliminate one-sided games. It’s not an argument for or against the 12-team playoff format that takes center stage. Kanell insisted that TCU was the weakest team in the CFP, not teams like Michigan, which fell to TCU in the semifinals of the Fiesta Bowl.
“Weaker” teams would also be in the picture that have the chance of a championship run. He also said back in October that the CFP could have three ACC teams but not three SEC teams. In the end, the ACC had zero teams in the current playoffs. In 2018, he believed only eight teams should make the playoffs. But he changed it to 12 teams during that season. It should be noted that his alma mater ranks Florida State Seminoles 11th in the final selection committee CFP poll, raising his vote for 12 teams more.
#3. BarStool Sports’ Brandon Walker falls flat after Week 10 on TCU
Sports bar stool Brandon Walker is very similar to Colin Cowherd; he delivers wild takes. Unlike Cowherd, Walker’s format allows him to drop F-Bombs while making fun of people. After Week 10, Walker took to Twitter to describe #7 TCU (9-0) as not a factor in the race for the CFP. He specifically claimed that the SEC champion, Big Ten champion, Tennessee (8-1) and either the PAC-12 champion or loser Ohio State vs. Michigan would be ahead of TCU. Walker and everyone else was right when they said the SEC and Big Ten champions would be there. Much to Walker’s disappointment, TCU made their first CFP appearance of the season when they even defeated #2 Michigan 51-45 in the Fiesta Bowl.
#2. Colin Cowherd gives a terrible pre-season top 25
FoxSports presenter Colin Kuhhirt gets paid to deliver record after record. Some are arguably good takes. Among the sports where he delivers bad takes is college football. That’s evident in his top 25 last season, where he had eight teams who lost records in the top 25 the previous year. Five of those teams were in his top ten. USC (4-8 in 2021) was in 3rd place. His pick was based on the hype surrounding Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams. The Trojans finished a full 10 spots behind Cowherd’s pick after losing to Tulane in the postseason. The Green Wave actually finished ahead of USC in most polls.
He tried to say that Texas (5-7 in 2021) would be back at No. 4. The Longhorns finished 8-5 and were nowhere near the top 25, let alone No. 4. Nebraska, 3-9 in 2021, was listed at No. 8 in its preseason rankings. The Cornhuskers finished 4-8 overall. Nebraska was one of five teams in Cowherd’s top 25 to finish 2022 with a record under .500%. After all, he had the defending champion in Georgia at #14. We know how that turned out.
#1. ESPN’s Desmond Howard’s Preseason Final Four
Desmond Howard is among ESPN College GameDay’s most respected and loved figures. When it came time to reveal his preseason Final Four for the college football playoffs, his list was a head-scratcher. We want to give him credit for getting on his feet. But the limb broke. Howard didn’t consider the defending champion Georgia Bulldogs. He also didn’t have the perennial powerhouse Ohio State Buckeyes or Alabama Crimson Tide. Instead, Howard jumped on the hype train when it came to some of the teams in the bottom four. He listed the Texas A&M Aggies at #1, Baylor Bears at #2, Michigan Wolverines at #3, and the Pittsburgh Panthers at #4. He would let Texas A&M and Michigan score in the national championship game with the Aggies winning it all. Of all these teams, only Michigan would be the team that has previously appeared in the CFP. They were also the only team to finish in that year’s Final Four.
Pittsburgh would never recover offensively with the loss of quarterback Kenny Pickett and wide receiver Jordan Addison, finishing 9-4. Baylor’s defense was ranked 10thth in goal defense last season but struggled this season and was ranked 69thth in the nation. The Bears would wrap up a season after winning the Big 12 in 2021 with an overall record of 6-7. The biggest mistake was the Texas A&M Aggies, who had all of college football’s preseason hype after beating Alabama last season and finishing with the top recruiting class of 2022. The Aggies had their worst season under head coaching Jimbo Fisher with an overall record of 5-7.
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