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Good morning! I hope Joey Chestnut is fasting for the rest of the week.
Dichotomies: FSUâs toast ⊠and still alive
Just two games into the college football season (thanks to having also played in Week 0), Florida State is a broken team. Many thought this year would end with the Seminoles as ACC champions and a top-four seed in the first 12-team College Football Playoff. Last nightâs humiliating home loss to Boston College made that future seem impossible.
And yet, itâs technically not. Emphasizing technically. Stick with me here:
- At warp speed, the Seminoles reached 0-2 in conference games, yet the ACC title game could have a spot up for grabs. Miami looked great, but Clemson got stomped, while other preseason favorites have also struggled. The Noles will essentially have to run the table in ACC games and get some help, but if they win the conference, theyâre in. Wild, right?
- The new Playoff format gives automatic bids to the five highest-ranked conference champions. An ACC title would surely be good enough for at least the fifth spot on that list, even if, say, a Mountain West or American team finishes the season ranked higher ⊠which would mean a Group of 5 team would earn a first-round bye in the first Playoff. A hilarious and plausible future lies ahead for us.
Letâs be clear: FSU has looked so, so bad this year. Former five-star DJ Uiagalelei appears lost at times and is shockingly inaccurate. He completed just 50 percent of his passes last night. The team looks so far removed from last yearâs Playoff-adjacent form, itâs hard to imagine them winning any conference games at this rate.
- Also, we must give proper credit to Boston College and new head coach Bill OâBrien. (Yep, that Bill OâBrien.) Itâs easy to forget how good of a coach he is. BC shoved FSU around. It was impressive. The Eagles share first place in the ACC with Georgia Tech, who upset the Seminoles two weekends ago. Fun club.
Again, welcome to our new reality. Itâs very fun. See our updated bracket projections here. And we have a fresh Bubble Watch up, too.Â
Moving on:
Funny Money: Juan Sotoâs staggering free-agent value
The Athleticâs Tim Britton has become an indispensable asset for projecting MLB contract values, and today he attempted to do whatâs felt impossible to this point: figure out how big of a contract Juan Soto will get this offseason.
Before we get to the number, two notes from me:
- Soto is one of the rarest free agents in recent history. Baseballâs draconian service time rules keep most players from reaching big-money free agency until theyâre 28 or so. Some teams, most notably the Braves, have circumvented this by inking top prospects to big deals early in their careers. Most do not. Sotoâs just 25 and is already playing his seventh MLB season.
- He is also one of the most gifted hitters weâve ever seen. Baseball Referenceâs picks for comparable careers through this age include Bryce Harper, Frank Robinson, Andruw Jones and Ken Griffey Jr. And Soto is having the best season of his career.
So, the number: 14 years, $560 million. This would, in essence, become the most valuable contract in MLB history, beating Shohei Ohtaniâs $700 million deal this offseason, which really clocks in around $438 million when you factor in deferrals.
Timâs full story is worth a read this morning, just for the jaw-dropping number-crunching alone.Â
P.S. Would the Nats really try to get him back? Maybe so.
News to Know
Chestnut breaks his own record
Super-powered eater Joey Chestnut inhaled 83 hot dogs in 10 minutes yesterday, a feat no one had recorded thus far in human history. It went down on Netflixâs âUnfinished Beef,â a smart answer to the earlier banishment of Chestnut by Nathanâs July 4 event. Chestnut faced his only actual rival, Takeru Kobayashi, who downed 67 dogs, topping seven of Chestnutâs Nathanâs-winning scores. I am sick just thinking about this.
Pearsall to miss at least 4 games after shooting
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall will begin the season on the reserve/non-football injury list, which means he will sit for at least the first four games of the year. Pearsall was shot in the chest over the weekend during an attempted robbery, but did not need surgery and was released from the hospital yesterday afternoon. Read our full update here.
More news
- The Athleticâs Chandler Rome reports that Astros star Kyle Tucker has a fractured shin, though Houston GM Dana Brown initially insisted he doesnât. More drama here.
- Both No. 1 seeds advanced at the U.S. Open yesterday, and four Americans â two men and two women â are into the quarterfinals. Read an update here.
- The Eagles are working to remove what they called âcounterfeitâ ads that endorse Kamala Harris for the upcoming presidential election.
- Luis Suarez is retiring from international soccer.
- The Pac-2 and Mountain West failed to extend their scheduling agreement, leaving Washington State and Oregon State in a tough spot.
Poll Season, Pt. 4: Are we still in on the 49ers?
Chris Unger / Getty Images
The polls will continue until kickoff on Thursday. Today, Mike Jonesâ bold predictions for the NFL season inspired me to discuss one of the leagueâs best â and most confusing â teams: San Francisco. (Unrelated to the Pearsall news.)
In Mikeâs column, he predicts a Super Bowl hangover, a slow start in a league where âit gets late early.â I want to be more specific though.
Two things are true here: San Francisco has one of the most talented rosters in football and employs one of the leagueâs smartest coaches. The Niners have made the conference title game each of the last three seasons and four of the last five. Itâs just hard to do this stuff every year.Â
So the question is simple:Â Do the 49ers make the NFC title game?
Make your voice heard here. Weâll have an official Pulse Prediction tomorrow to add to our list.
Watch and Listen
đș MLB: Red Sox at Mets
7:10 p.m. ET on TBS
These are two teams in similar positions, both a little too far back in their divisions to make up ground and both barely on the outside of the wild card race. This one makes a huge difference.
đș WNBA: Sky at Aces
10 p.m. ET on NBA TV
Let this serve as a correction for yesterdayâs newsletter, where we incorrectly printed this game as happening last night. Itâs happening this evening and will still be a great matchup, especially after Aâja Wilson scored 41 points Sunday. That should quell any fears over whether sheâs losing her grip on MVP.Â
Get tickets to games like these here.
đ§ âThe Athletic Football Showâ has their final division preview, which might be the most interesting: the NFC West. All of their previews have been great so far. Listen here.
Pulse Picks
The Athleticâs Brooks Kubena has an incredible report from on the ground in Brazil, where the first NFL game on South American soil takes place this week. Everyone is very, very, very excited.Â
Maybe the most sneakily interesting QB in the league this year: Seattleâs Geno Smith, whose make-or-break season will determine the Seahawksâ future.
Corey Pronman ranked the best NHL players 23 and under, from No. 1 to No. 155. See where your teamâs young star falls on the list.Â
An intriguing column from Ken Rosenthal: For most underachieving MLB teams, front-office changes appear unlikely. Why?
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Our story from Coco Gauffâs disappointing day at the U.S. Open.Â
Most-read on the website yesterday: Stewart Mandelâs column about why Brian Kelly is so mad at my alma mater. Itâs a great read ⊠which I consumed through gritted teeth.
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(Top photo: James Gilbert/ Getty Images)
