Barstool Breakdown Coach Day CFB Heisman, Playoff Rankings Vol. 3

It’s officially Spooky Week!

This means the college football season is hitting its home stretch of MACtion, rivalries, SEC “bye week” (I know the casuals won’t get this one), and playoff rankings!

With the college season hitting its high point and playoff pictures starting to form, football is riding high! So I’m not gonna waste your time with useless quips or banter in here and instead dive right in!

First up, the now 3rd edition of the Top 10 Heisman Contenders. Not according to name brand value or Vegas odds, but the real performance contenders. So really if you think about it, this is what people are calling the truest rankings.

The trio of QBs, Fernando Mendoza, Ty Simpson, and Julian Sayin continue their stronghold as potential finalists. They’ve not only been the most consistent with their play but have also led their teams to Top 5 rankings. Its just a no brainer!

The next group are becoming dark horses this late in the season, but don’t write them off yet. Marcel Reed of Texas A&M has some big matchups left to impress, while Jeremiyah Love for Notre Dame may not have any marquee opponents remaining...but if he keeps putting up video-game numbies, you just never know!

If 4 and 5 are the dark horses, then sadly this group of 6–10 are becoming the long shots. Which is depressing to say, considering the insane amount of talent & FUN here. You may also see a lot of names not being mentioned by Vegas, ESPN, or others... WHICH IS ONE HELL OF A CRIME!

Brendan Sorsby, Haynes King, and Blake Horvath are shades of Eric Crouch(please tell me you know the name!!) on superhuman mode. If you haven’t found yourself tuning in to watch, find time this week, I'm begging you to make it appointment TV, please.

Also sidebar time... I went to the Illinois vs. Washington game this past week, and what I saw in person from Denzel Boston… WOW. He needs to be talked about more, right up there with the likes of Carnell Tate, Jordan Tyson, and others. He can do it all, he even threw for a TD!

Now I get that the Heisman is more about name or brand value (as we saw last year with Ashton Jeanty not winning), but these guys are on the truest rankings you’ll see & are having crazy years, GIVE THEM LOVE AMERICA!

Okay, let’s pivot from individual rankings to team rankings with the first edition of the 2025 season: Coach Day’s Playoff Rankings. Now I know I’m early with these, but as they say, if you’re on time, you’re 10 minutes late… or maybe that’s just a coach thing. Either way, who doesn’t love to talk about rankings!!

To kick it off, it’s pretty chalk as expected. I’d say the first big shakeup happens around the 6–11 spots. Starting with Ole Miss ahead of Oregon, when you look at it, Oregon’s only big win was Penn State, which is now, well… BIG nothing. After that, while most will still put Vanderbilt & Miami ahead of them, BYU & Georgia Tech deserve those spots with no hiccups yet at 8-0.

Notre Dame(my team btw!), meanwhile, sits at 12. But if these rankings somehow held through the end of the season, they’d be booted for the Group of 5 representative, which is still a wide-open race. As of now, Memphis sits one spot ahead of James Madison. Watch out for the Dukes though, they can score it like crazy!

The teams to pay close attention to right now, who are looking in from the outside, are Texas Tech, Virginia, Cincinnati, Michigan, & Louisville. All still have big games left or a shot at a conference title. They have the cards in hand & could really flip this thing upside down in the next month. Also, and I may be a bit enamored after seeing them trounce ranked Illinois...but if they take care of business, Washington could be 9–2 heading into a home matchup vs. Oregon on Thanksgiving weekend. It’d be interesting to see how a 10–2 Washington team with only losses to Ohio State and Michigan & a win over Oregon would be viewed.

I may need to pump the brakes, of course, as the “what ifs” could just keep spilling out with so much still to play. But sometimes you just can’t help yourself, you want to soak in every drop of the next few weeks of football.

We wait all year for moments like this. SOOOOO lets sit back, watch, and take it all in. Text buddies wild “what ifs,” crazy predictions, and insane parlays that’ll cover all the kids’ Christmas gifts. We are officially into the best time of the year!