ESPN has released a ranking of the Top 10 coaches in college football and many feel it is disrespectful to Texas Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian. ESPN ranked the three active coaches that have won a national title as the top three on the list. But it is who ESPN ranks No. 4 and how it happened that is proving very controversial.
The Disney company ranks Georgia Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart No. 1. It is hard to argue with that. Smart has had almost a decade of success in Athens and won back-to-back national titles in 2021 and 2022. Ohio State’s Ryan Day, fresh off a national title, ranks No. 2. And Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, who also has two national titles, is No. 3.
None of that should be very controversial. Maybe you could argue flipping Day and Swinney. But the real head-scratching comes at No. 4 and No. 5. ESPN ranks Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman as the top coach that hasn’t won a title yet, over Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian.
Sark’s case for that No. 4 spot is pretty sound. He is the only coach that has reached the college football playoffs two years in a row. Sarkisian accomplished that feat in both the four-team playoff era and the 12-team playoff bracket.
But Freeman did get the Fighting Irish to the CFP national final, though both Texas and Notre Dame were beaten by the same team, Ohio State. It’s not that Freeman ended up ahead of Sark that is head scratching. It’s how and why it happened.
ESPN gave all of their college football reporters a ballot and let them vote on the top ten. A first place vote got ten points. A second place vote got nine points and so on. Freeman finished with 64 points, while Sark had 62.
But here’s the real controversy, two of ESPN’s voters didn’t even rank Sarkisian in the top ten. They left him off the ballot completely. It’s an odd choice to discount two years of final four success. One…
Source link : https://longhornswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/longhorns/football/2025/05/17/espn-thanks-notre-dames-marcus-freeman-is-better-than-texas-steve-sarkisian/83687933007/
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Publish date : 2025-05-17 05:03:00
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