Want to enter an all-day college football rabbit hole? Ask yourself the question: “What if?”
There’s no more fascinating question in sports. What if Rich Rodriguez got the Alabama job instead of Nick Saban? What if Cam Newton was ruled ineligible? What if Iowa State hadn’t upset Oklahoma State in 2011? Changing those moments would cause a ripple effect throughout recent college football history. And college football is a breeding ground for what-if conversations of that sort due to its recruiting element.
No other sport features such a sizable salesman operation. Every FBS team has 85 scholarships and the myriad of players that participate in the process — athletes, coaches, parents, trainers, boosters, administrators, that one crazy uncle — makes near misses a defining element of almost every player’s origin story.
Take 2022 Heisman winner Caleb Williams and many other elite players who helped shape the 2022 season.
