A quick catch-up on the 2024-25 College Football season ahead of Week 0

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Good morning, folks! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thank you so much for rocking with us today. Appreciate you giving us a bit of your time. Happy Friday!

Folks. Guess what? We made it. Just close your eyes for a second… Wait. Actually, don’t close them because then you won’t be able to read this. Just ride with me real quick.

You feel that crisp, cold air (much to my chagrin) gently nipping at you. You begin to hear those drums blaring faintly in the background. It’s as if you just turned on College Football 25, but wait. You don’t have a PlayStation! If you do, it’s definitely not on right now.

Don’t worry, homie. Your mind isn’t playing tricks on you. That’s just the bat signal. We’re finally here. Week 0 starts tomorrow and college football is officially back.

We’re already back into the swing of things. Brian Kelly and Lane Kiffin have already seemingly drummed up some SEC beef with Coke at the center of it. Steve Spurrier still doesn’t know what he’s talking about. We’ve also somehow already got our first recruiting violation of the season. In Iowa! I’m sorry, Kirk Ferentz. I was not familiar with your game.

Kind of lost on this season? No worries. We’ve got a ton of good stuff for you to catch up on:

— Here are our picks against the spread for Week 0. Florida State, we believe in you.

— We’ve also got our staff picks for the season ready to go here, including our thoughts on the first 12-team College Football Playoff field.

— Here’s where College GameDay will start their season on ESPN.

— If you’re itching to look back on last season, Blake Schuster has you covered with the 9 pettiest moments from 2023.

— Here are five big takeaways from the first AP Poll of the 2024-25 season.

— We’ve also got the best bets you should be thinking about for this season with the poll in mind.

We’re in for a really good time this season, folks. There’s so much intrigue. The reigning CFP champion lost its coach to the NFL this offseason. The greatest coach of all time also left the game and was replaced by the guy who made it to the pinnacle of the sport and lost.

We’ll have our first 12-team field for the CFP, with four conferences vying for the top four spots (RIP, Pac-12).

This is going to be such a fun season. You won’t want to miss a second of it.

Cutting your losses

Yesterday, I saw many Commanders fans on my timeline who were distraught about the Jahan Dotson trade.

And, look, I get it. As an Eagles fan, I’d probably be pretty nervous if the roles were reversed. You never see intra-division trades for a reason, right?

There’s always a chance that move comes back and bites you in the butt. Does it happen like that all the time? No, certainly not. But it does happen. As an Eagles fan, I remember when Desean Jackson went from Philadelphia to Washington and absolutely torched the Eagles. It…wasn’t great.

But the Dotson deal probably won’t be that.

He’s not especially terrifying. His numbers over the last two seasons since being drafted have been OK. He’s grabbed 11 touchdowns and 1,041 receiving yards over two seasons.

But here’s the thing: He reportedly struggled to beat out *checks notes* Olamide Zaccheus and Dyami Brown. None of that sounds great. With that being the case, it made sense that the Commanders would ship him out. Getting a third-round pick back for a player you probably wouldn’t use anyway is a nice return.

And the fact that they were willing to send him somewhere within the division says that they’re confident he won’t come back to bite them.

Maybe it does. Maybe I’m wrong here. Maybe this is another one of those “WOW Howie Roseman, how do you do it?” moments.

But we’re probably making a bigger deal out of this than we should.

No Bezos for Boston

The Boston Celtics are for sale, and ownership of the newly minted NBA champions will certainly cost a few pretty pennies. That’s why it made sense when rumors popped up about Jeff Bezos potentially being interested.

Apparently, however, there’s nothing to the rumor, according to reporting from The Information. Nick Wingfield writes that Bezos has “no plans” to take part in a bidding war for the NBA champs.

On the most basic level, the dude has so much money that he’ll never be able to spend it all. He’s worth nearly $200 million, according to Forbes. The Celtics are only valued at just over $5 billion, per Sportico. Bezos can afford to use that as toilet tissue.

The Amazon billionaire also clearly has an interest in sports. Remember, he was interested in the Commanders before being outbid by Josh Harris and company. He’d clearly like to own a team someday.

It just won’t be this one.

Photo Friday: Elly being Elly

Elly De La Cruz is very good at baseball. We know that. But he’s also great at being one of the faces of the game, too. Just ask these kids!

Quick hits: The Chiefs are still the Chiefs … 10 breakout NFL players … and more

— Here’s Christian D’Andrea on the Chiefs’ slow, methodical dominance

— Cory Woodroof has 10 potential breakout stars for you in the NFL

— Here’s more on the NWSL’s amazing pro-labor collective bargaining agreement. I can’t believe this is real.

— We all thought J.J. Watt was making a comeback yesterday. Let’s just chill, though. It’s not happening.

— Skylar Diggins-Smith opened up about her anxiety and what it’s like being on a new team again. Here’s more from Meg Hall.

— Shoutout to the Beyoncé fakeout from the DNC. Y’all got us. Here’s Cory again.

That’s a wrap, folks. Have a fantastic weekend! Thanks for reading. Let’s do this again on Monday.

-Sykes