Today: Final On3 Heisman poll, inside Florida's pursuit of Lane Kiffin, Pete Bevacqua's next move, and Alabama's CFP irony.

~8 minute read (1,871 words)

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NCAA FOOTBALL

Heisman Trophy finalists set: Final player rankings in the On3 Heisman Poll

And then there were four. With the regular season in the books and the College Football Playoff bracket set, the Heisman Trophy remains up for grabs. The finalists are Jeremiyah Love, Julian Sayin, Diego Pavia, and Fernando Mendoza. In light of Saturday's ceremony in New York City, the final On3 Heisman Trophy poll is now out, with voting conducted by On3's national experts. Here's how the voting shook out.

5. QB Gunner Stockton, Georgia

WEEKEND STATS: 20-of-26, 156 pass yards, 3 TD; 13 carries, 39 rush yards

As Georgia surged to an SEC title, Gunner Stockton provided steady production to close out the season and secure the No. 3 seed in the College Football Playoff. He delivered three touchdown passes in the SEC Championship win over Alabama and continued to show how valuable he was to an offense that relied on his balance as both a passer and runner. He finishes the season with 3,133 total yards and 31 TD/5 INT.

4. QB Julian Sayin, Ohio State

WEEKEND STATS: 21-of-29, 258 pass yards, 1 TD, 1 INT

Julian Sayin helped drive Ohio State to a 12-1 season and a place in the Heisman conversation. His Big Ten Championship performance had highs and lows, but he still threw for 258 yards and a touchdown as the Buckeyes locked up the No. 2 seed in the CFP. Sayin's consistency throughout the year kept Ohio State's offense among the nation's most productive. Entering the playoffs, he's racked up 3,323 yards with a 31-6 TD/INT ratio.

3. RB Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame

WEEKEND STATS: IDLE

Jeremiyah Love delivered a standout junior year as Notre Dame finished 10-2 and narrowly missed the CFP. He posted career numbers with 1,372 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns on 199 carries, plus 27 receptions for 280 yards and three more scores. Love's all-around production made him one of the nation's most reliable offensive weapons.

2. QB Fernando Mendoza, Indiana

WEEKEND STATS: 15-of-23, 222 pass yards, 1 TD, 1 INT

Fernando Mendoza led Indiana to its first outright Big Ten championship since 1945 by beating Ohio State in the title game. He threw for 222 yards, added a touchdown, and sealed the game with a key completion to Charlie Becker, earning MVP honors. Indiana now heads into the CFP as the No. 1 seed after a breakthrough year under Mendoza. He has 3,220 total yards, 39 total TD, and 6 INT.

1. QB Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt

WEEKEND STATS: IDLE

Diego Pavia tops the final On3 Heisman Trophy poll after guiding Vanderbilt to a 10-2 season. He finished second nationally with 4,018 total yards, including 3,192 passing and 826 rushing, and accounted for 36 touchdowns. His dual-threat impact powered the Commodores into one of the best seasons in program history.

Pavia routinely extended plays and carried Vanderbilt's offense in critical moments. His combination of efficiency, explosiveness, and toughness turned him into one of the sport's breakout stars and pushed the Commodores into the national conversation.

Read the full story.

COACHING CAROUSEL

Inside Florida's pursuit of Lane Kiffin

Jon Sumrall, Scott Stricklin, Lane Kiffin

*The following is a portion of Andy Staples' interview with Florida AD Scott Stricklin. The full article can be read here.*

When Florida AD Scott Stricklin fired Billy Napier on Oct. 19, the mandate from Florida fans seemed pretty clear.

Go hire Lane Kiffin.

But it wasn't that simple. The LSU job opened a week later. Kiffin had Ole Miss marching toward the CFP, and the Rebels seemed capable of offering plenty of reasons to stay.

Stricklin and his team — associate athletic director Duke Werner and 1996 Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel — made Florida's interest clear to Kiffin. Early on, that interest was reciprocated. "There was a flurry of initial engagement," Stricklin said. "I would say really positive conversations."

Text messages and audio messages flew back and forth early on, and there was a time that Florida brass thought Kiffin could be headed to Gainesville. Stricklin didn't say this, but based on On3's reporting, on the night of Nov. 14, all signs pointed to Kiffin choosing Florida.

Kiffin's agent Jimmy Sexton had told all three involved schools that the financial package would be negotiated once Kiffin decided where he intended to coach in 2026, so there would be no bidding war. The following week, however, communication with Kiffin slowed.

In the preceding weeks, Stricklin, Werner, and Wuerffel had been talking to other coaches. Stricklin had wanted to have a broader search running parallel to the pursuit of Kiffin in case Kiffin didn't choose the Gators. At first, not every coach Stricklin and company engaged wanted to talk to Florida. All asked about the Kiffin pursuit, and Stricklin said some coaches wouldn't engage as long as Florida was in active pursuit of Kiffin. Some did, though. One of those was Sumrall, who was well known to be a target of Auburn, which fired Hugh Freeze on Nov. 2.

At the same time, Florida had also been conducting a search for a general manager. The Gators had spoken to at least four former NFL GMs, including former Jaguars GM David Caldwell, who ultimately got the job.

Sources briefed on the search indicated that Stricklin and company made clear to Kiffin that a GM wouldn't be foisted upon him. If he wanted to bring Ole Miss GM Billy Glasscock — who ultimately followed Kiffin to LSU — that would have been acceptable.

When Kiffin seemed less eager about the Florida job, Stricklin was glad he hadn't put all his eggs in one basket. "The communication became a little more erratic," Stricklin said. "The timing of when that began to occur, reading the tea leaves, gave me the impression that it was a good thing we'd talked to other people. We were going to have to look at some other candidates."

By Nov. 21, LSU sources seemed confident they would land Kiffin. In the preceding days, Florida's search had shifted based on Stricklin's reading of the tea leaves. Stricklin estimates it was about 10 days before Thanksgiving when the search shifted away from Kiffin and began zeroing in on other candidates.

Don't miss the full story from Andy Staples.

NCAA FOOTBALL

If Notre Dame is really that mad at the ACC, it should call the Big Ten or the SEC

Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua needs to decide exactly how mad he is right now. And if he's mad enough, he needs to make three phone calls.

Call No. 1: To Notre Dame's general counsel

This conversation would determine if the ACC openly politicking for Miami to make the College Football Playoff gives Notre Dame any license to break its agreement with the conference. The deal puts most of Notre Dame's non-football sports in the ACC and guarantees five football games a year against ACC teams.

If the lawyers believe an arbitrator might let Notre Dame leave without penalty, Bevacqua could move to calls No. 2 and No. 3, because he cannot abandon the ACC deal without solving the scheduling problem it covers. Thanks to that agreement, Notre Dame still gets power conference opponents in October and November. In an era of massive conferences, those schools do not want tough non-conference games after September.

If your business partner stabs you in the front, that partner should at least give you better matchups. The ACC, whose 2025 champion finished behind the Sun Belt winner, is not meeting that standard. Notre Dame might find better partners. The Irish remain a valuable TV draw and a guaranteed stadium filler, which leads to the next two calls.

Call No. 2: To Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti

Offer the rest of Notre Dame's non-football sports as Big Ten members, since Irish hockey already plays there. Then make a scheduling deal to play USC and Purdue annually with a rotating set of three other Big Ten opponents.

This would preserve the Notre Dame-USC rivalry and give the Big Ten reason to help keep its traditional dates. The Irish and Purdue could continue their long series, and the rotating slots would guarantee frequent games against Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Michigan, and Nebraska.

It fits geographically, not due to regional ties but because both sides recruit nationwide. NBC, Notre Dame's TV partner, also works with the Big Ten. NBC could sweeten the deal by paying extra for Irish road games, or the league could steer those to Fox or CBS.

If Petitti's response is a push for full membership, or if Bevacqua wants another option, there is still one more call.

Call No. 3: To SEC commissioner Greg Sankey

This makes less geographic sense for non-football sports, but would thrill anyone who wants Notre Dame to face Alabama, Georgia, Texas, LSU, and more. Non-football teams might not even need to join the SEC. This could be a pure football scheduling play.

Notre Dame's biggest problem this year was a lack of quality wins after early losses to Miami and Texas A&M. USC was the only possible resume booster. Adding SEC games in October and November would give the Irish a better path if they believe they are national title contenders.

The SEC could extract more money from Disney and ESPN by guaranteeing a few Notre Dame appearances each year. Its schools, moving to nine league games, would also gain high-end non-conference inventory.

Would Bevacqua and Notre Dame be mad enough to pursue this? And would someone partner with them if they could get out of the ACC deal?

It's probably worth an ask.

Read the full story from Andy Staples.

🚨Headlines

COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF

Wasserman: Alabama's CFP berth saves us from another offseason filled with a nonsensical SEC narrative

Transport yourself back to last year's Selection Sunday, a day when the College Football Playoff Committee left three three-loss SEC teams out of the field: Alabama, Ole Miss, and South Carolina. Remember the narrative manufactured from that? Why should SEC teams schedule anyone out of the conference if they were going to be penalized for losing one more game than teams from other leagues? We spent months stuck in that nonsensical loop while SEC voices insisted those teams were victims, even though their own résumés were to blame.

Regardless of how you feel about Alabama's inclusion this season, one positive emerged. At least now we no longer have to debate the importance of conference championship games. And that talking point from a year ago looks even sillier. The irony is glaring. Alabama got in this year because it played a harder schedule than the teams it was being compared against, the exact thing the SEC was complaining about last offseason. Last year, Alabama had two additional losses. This year, it had only one more than its peers, so despite losing to Florida State in the opener and getting hammered by Georgia in the SEC title game, the Tide were given a mulligan and selected over a two-loss Notre Dame team with only one top-25 win.

Yet in the hours after losing to Georgia, SEC supporters flooded social media with complaints about Alabama being punished for playing the extra game. If Notre Dame had gotten in over Alabama, the discourse would still be raging. That argument essentially boiled down to this: we must protect the conference championship games by ensuring their results do not matter. It was lunacy, just like last season. Blame the system for the exclusions, not the teams for losing.

If you are not aware, conference championship games are already meaningless competitively. They exist for ratings and money, not for functional championship designation. Conference expansion made sure of that. It wrecked the regional charm of the sport, killed the Pac-12, tossed West Coast teams into the ACC, and created bloated leagues where tiebreakers are unavoidable. These conferences chose money. And now we want to protect the system created by that choice?

History proves that title game losses have always mattered. In 2017, Auburn entered the SEC Championship as the No. 2 team and fell to No. 7 after losing to Georgia. Alabama, idle that weekend, jumped into the final four.

We do not need that debate now because Alabama was saved, though a strong case could have been made for Notre Dame. The SEC benefited this year from the very thing it was complaining about last year.

Some people, mostly Notre Dame fans, are upset. Others are thrilled.

But the best news is simple. At least we do not have to spend the entire offseason fighting over arguments that were nonsense all along.

Read Wasserman's full column here.

TRIVIA

Now here's a guy...

Below, you'll find 3 facts about a random college football player. You'll try to guess who the player is based on the facts. Let's go.

I set 36 school records at Notre Dame, including career marks for passing yards per game, touchdown passes, and completion totals.
I won both the Maxwell Award and the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award after a senior season where I threw 37 touchdowns with just 7 interceptions.
I was drafted in the first round of the 2007 NFL Draft and later became a national college football analyst.

Answer at the bottom.

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