Hey Team 👋

If you’re looking for instant drama, this week’s headlines deliver. Texas made history by claiming the AP preseason No. 1 spot in the tightest poll in decades, promising an unforgettable college football kickoff. While football is just starting, the golf season is wrapping up with the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Justin Rose started the playoff drama with a comeback win in a sudden-death playoff at the St. Jude Championship, while Tommy Fleetwood’s late slip cost him a breakthrough victory. With both football and golf setting the stage for high-stakes battles, we have plenty to look forward to in the coming weeks.

Letter Rip!

< CFB >

Longhorns Lead the Pack

Texas claims first-ever No. 1 ranking as closest poll in decades sets up an explosive Week 1.

The AP preseason college football poll is officially here, and the rankings are considerably different from last week’s coaches’ poll. Texas leads the charge as the No. 1 team for the first team in school history. Speaking of history, Texas is also the first AP preseason No. 1 team to be an underdog in Week 1. The Longhorns edged out Penn State by just 2 first-place votes and 5 total points, making this the closest preseason poll since 1998. With history already made before kickoff and major gaps between the polls, this season is sure to bring that classic college football drama we’ve been missing. 

What’s even better? We don’t have to wait until the playoffs for that drama. It all starts Week 1 with three top-10 matchups, and these matchups are anything but ordinary. The No. 1 Longhorns head to Columbus to face the No. 3 defending champion Ohio State Buckeyes. Then, we have Tigers vs Tigers – or Death Valley vs Death Valley, depending on your preference –  as No. 9 LSU takes on No. 4 Clemson. To top it all off, we have an age-old rivalry as No. 6 Notre Dame squares off with No. 10 Miami.

Recruiting has played a major role in shaping these rankings, with seven of the 25 teams having finished last season unranked. The SEC leads the pack with 10 teams in the top 25 – six of them inside the top 15. The Big Ten isn’t far behind with six teams in the top 25, including four in the top 15.

Preseason AP Top 25

1. Texas

2. Penn State

3. Ohio State

4. Clemson

5. Georgia

6. Notre Dame

7. Oregon

8. Alabama

9. LSU

10. Miami

11. Arizona State

12. Illinois

13. South Carolina

14. Michigan

15. Florida

16. SMU

17. Kansas State

18. Oklahoma

19. Texas A&M

20. Indiana

21. Ole Miss

22. Iowa State

23. Texas Tech

24. Tennessee

25. Boise State

Others receiving votes: BYU (156), Utah (144), Baylor (132), Louisville (90), USC (64), Georgia Tech (63), Missouri (33), Tulane (23), Nebraska (23), UNLV (21), Toledo (13), Auburn (10), James Madison (9), Memphis (9), Florida State (8), Duke (6), Liberty (5), Navy (5), Iowa (5), TCU (4), Pittsburgh (3), Army (2), Colorado (1), Louisiana (1)

< GOLF >

Rose Rallies as Fleetwood Falters in St. Jude Championship⛳️

Fleetwood Falters Late, but Rose’s Birdie Surge Seals Victory as 49 Golfers Advance to BMW Championship.

Tommy Fleetwood had the perfect chance to claim his first PGA Tour win – again. But once more, it slipped away at the last minute. Standing on the 16th tee with a two-stroke lead and Scottie Scheffler coming off a bogey, the path to victory seemed clear. But Fleetwood stumbled down the stretch, going par-bogey-par to finish one shot short of a playoff.

His collapse set the stage for a showdown that almost didn’t happen – between Justin Rose and J.J. Spaun. While Spaun had stayed near the top of the leaderboard all day, Rose came from out of nowhere, scoring six birdies across his final eight holes to vault himself into a sudden-death playoff. With his win, he earned revenge for his Masters playoff loss to Rory McIlroy, claimed the first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs and secured his first PGA Tour victory since 2023.

Now, 49 golfers will move to the second leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs: The BMW Championship at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Maryland. Originally, the field was supposed to include 50 players, but Sepp Straka withdrew from the playoffs on Monday for personal reasons, citing a “private family matter.” Despite Straka’s qualification, he will not be replaced. 

After the St. Jude Championship, five golfers played their way into the top 50 to qualify for the BMW Championship: Kurt Kitayama, Bud Cauley, Rickie Fowler, Jhonattan Vegas and J.T. Poston. Most notably, Fowler – with his T6 finish at St. Jude Championship – climbed from just inside the top 70 to just inside the top 50. But for every player who moved in, one had to fall out. Aldrich Potgieter, Jordan Spieth, Jake Knapp, Wyndham Clark and Min Woo Lee watched their seasons come to an end on Sunday.

FedEx St. Jude Championship Leaderboard

1. Justin Rose (-16)*

2. J.J. Spaun (-16)

T3. Tommy Fleetwood (-15)

T3. Scottie Scheffler (-15)

5. Cameron Young (-11)

T6. Akshay Bhatia (-10)

T6. Rickie Fowler (-10)

T6. Andrew Novak (-10)

T9. Benjamin Griffin (-9)

T9. Kurt Kitayama (-9)

T9. Patrick Cantlay (-9)

T9. Ludivg Aberg (-9)

T9. Chris Kirk (-9)

T14. Jhonattan Vegas (-8)

T14. Bud Cauley (-8)

T14. Si Woo Kim (-8)

* Won in playoff

To see the 49 players who qualified for the BMW Championship, click here.