We are only three weeks into the 2025 college football season and ESPN just sent me the dumbest push notification of all-time. I am an Ole Miss alumnus and this is my soapbox.
The ‘Worldwide Leader in Sports’ has become largely insufferable.
I subscribe to way too many push notifications on way too many apps. Every so often I learn something I did not already know from social media but most of them are garbage. ESPN sent the worst one yet.
Ole Miss must first go 1-0.
Lane Kiffin was hired as the head football coach at Ole Miss in late 2019. The Rebels won (at least) 10 games in three of the last five seasons and each of the last two.
There is a new expectation in Oxford to compete for the College Football Playoff every single fall.
However, to go 12-0, you must first go 1-0. You cannot win the next game until you win the current game.
To look ahead to December in September is silly. Ole Miss has to beat Tulane on this coming Saturday after close wins over Arkansas and Kentucky. And then it can worry about next Saturday.
Thus, I was astonished to receive the following push notification from ESPN on Tuesday morning. It read:
“CFP BUBBLE WATCH: If Ole Miss wins each of its remaining games besides the matchup against Georgia, it should be in the playoff – Dinich”
If I am to be completely honest, I did not click the notification to see what it was about. I don’t care. All I know is that Heather Dinich is too smart to say what she said. What are we doing?!
Lets start at the beginning.
ESPN has to talk about something.
As I already said, it is a waste of time and energy to discuss the College Football Playoff at this point of the season. Teams are going to lose that you didn’t expect to lose. Teams are going to win that you didn’t expect to win. The current rankings will not look anything like the rankings in December.
But I get it.
ESPN needs topics of conversation on a Tuesday morning in September. The Playoff is a good thing to discuss early in the week after the recap of the past weekend before the focus shifts to injury reports, and matchups for the next weekend. Fine. Whatever.
I don’t blame Dinich for Playoff talk on Sept. 16. I blame the system.
BREAKING: Heather Dinich boldly claims water is wet.
With that being said, what Dinich said about the Playoff is truly mind-numbing.
She expects Ole Miss to be one of the 12 college football teams to compete for a national championship if the Rebels win 11 of 12 regular season games in the hardest conference in the country. She also expects the earth to orbit the sun once every 365 days.
Her bold prediction would mean Ole Miss, currently ranked No. 13 in the country, would finish inside the top-12 if it beats LSU and South Carolina at home, and Oklahoma in Norman. That doesn’t even include the other SEC games (which are not guaranteed wins by any stretch of the imagination) and a very challenging non-conference game against the Green Wave this weekend.
- vs. Georgia State — W
- at Kentucky — W
- vs. Arkansas — W
- vs. Tulane
- vs. LSU
- vs. Washington State
- at Georgia
- at Oklahoma
- vs. South Carolina
- vs. Citadel
- vs. Florida
- at Mississippi State
The Rebels would probably make the SEC championship game with an 11-1 record in the regular season.
Heather Dinich thinks they could make the Playoff if they do. ESPN decided to let me know she does.
Meanwhile, I am worried about the health of Zxavian Harris and who is going to start at quarterback against a really talented Tulane team on Saturday. I will think about the Playoff in three months.
The Worldwide Leader in Sports sent me the dumbest push notification of all-time.