EDITORIAL: Football is a year-round sport that provides entertainment, and sometimes, heartbreak for many fans. Oftentimes, experts are called to provide their insight on college football for context. Nobody is perfect, but there are often really dumb takes that highly recognizable media personnel provide. With the 2022 college football season wrapped up, it is time to look back at the stinkers of takes that had to be thrown in the trash. The writers of Last Word On College Football compiled a collection of the worst takes from preseason to postseason through the major CFB community and voted on which take was the worst. Here are the four worst takes on college football in 2022 from the LWOCFB crew.
Worst Takes of the 2022 College Football Season
#4. CBS Sports’ Danny Kanell States The Odd Reason For The 12-Team CFP format
CBS Sports’ Danny Kanell is a goldmine of bad takes. He will say anything to make his way and teams the only way. During the beatdown by the #1 Georgia Bulldogs over the #3 TCU Horned Frogs 65-7 in the CFP National Championship, Kanell insisted that if the CFP was expanded to 12 teams, one-sided games would be eliminated. It is not an argument for or against the 12-team playoff format that is the focus. Kanell insisted that TCU was the weakest team in the CFP, not teams like Michigan, who fell to TCU in the Fiesta Bowl semi-final.
Also, there would be “weaker” teams in the picture that have the chance to make a championship run. He also said back in October that the CFP could have three ACC teams, but not three SEC teams. In the end, the ACC had zero teams in the current playoffs. In 2018, he believed that only eight teams should make the playoffs. But he changed it to 12 teams throughout this season. It should be noted that his alma mater Florida State Seminoles ranked #11 in the final CFP poll by the selection committee and raises his voice more for 12 teams.
#3. BarStool Sports’ Brandon Walker Falls Flat On TCU After Week 10
Barstool Sports’ Brandon Walker is a lot like Colin Cowherd; he provides wild takes. Unlike Cowherd, Walker gets to drop f-bombs and make fun of people in the process because of his format. After Week 10, Walker went on Twitter to describe #7 TCU (9-0) as a non-factor in the race for the CFP. He specifically claimed that the SEC Champ, the Big Ten Champ, Tennessee (8-1), and either the PAC-12 Champ or the loser of the Ohio State vs. Michigan would be ahead of TCU. Walker, along with everyone, was correct in saying the SEC and Big Ten champs would be in. Much to Walker’s disappointment, TCU was able to make their first CFP appearance this season as they even defeated #2 Michigan 51-45 in the Fiesta Bowl.
#2. Colin Cowherd Gives An Atrocious Pre-season top 25
FoxSports host Colin Cowherd gets paid to provide take after take. Some are arguably good takes. Among the sports where he provides bad takes is college football. That is evident with his preseason top 25 where he had eight teams that had finished with losing records in the top 25 the previous year. Five of those teams were in his top ten. USC (4-8 in 2021) was at #3. His pick was based on the hype for the addition of Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams. The Trojans finished a full 10 spots below Cowherd’s pick, after losing to Tulane in the post-season. The Green Wave actually finished ahead of USC in most polls.
He tried to say Texas (5-7 in 2021) would be back at #4. The Longhorns finished 8-5 and were nowhere near the top 25, much less #4. Nebraska, 3-9 in 2021, was listed at #8 in his preseason rankings. The Cornhuskers finished at 4-8 overall. Nebraska was one of five teams in Cowherd’s top 25 to finish 2022 with a below .500% record. Finally, he had the defending champs in Georgia at #14. We know how that turned out.
#1. ESPN’s Desmond Howard’s Pre-season Final Four
Desmond Howard is among the most respected and beloved personalities on ESPN’s College GameDay. When it was his time to reveal his preseason final four for the College Football Playoff, his list was a head-scratcher. We want to give him credit for going out on a limb. But the limb broke. Howard didn’t include the defending champions Georgia Bulldogs. Nor did he have perennial powerhouse Ohio State Buckeyes, or Alabama Crimson Tide. Instead, Howard hopped on the hype train when it came to some of the teams on the final four. He listed the Texas A&M Aggies at #1, Baylor Bears at #2, Michigan Wolverines at #3, and the Pittsburgh Panthers at #4. He would have Texas A&M and Michigan meet in the national championship game with the Aggies winning it all. Of all those teams, only Michigan would be the team who previously appeared in the CFP. They were also the only team to appear in this year’s final four.
Pittsburgh would never recover offensively with the loss of quarterback Kenny Pickett and wide receiver Jordan Addison to finish 9-4. Baylor’s defense was ranked 10th in scoring defense last season but struggled this season and was ranked 69th in the nation. The Bears would finish with an overall record of 6-7 one season after winning the Big 12 in 2021. The biggest blunder was the Texas A&M Aggies, who had all of the preseason hype of college football after beating Alabama last season and finishing with the #1 recruiting class of 2022. The Aggies had their worst season under head coach Jimbo Fisher with an overall record of 5-7.
