🚨 We’d love your feedback!

Hello, valued reader! As you might know, we’re Stanford MBA students who are passionate about making sports more accessible to everyone. We’re just getting started and would love your feedback on how we’re doing here.

Starting Five

The most discussed sports topics at water coolers across America

1. The Game: 11-0 Michigan Hosts 11-0 Ohio State

The Scoop: There is no love lost between the Wolverines and Buckeyes and it’s officially Hate Week for “The Game.” In back-to-back years, both teams are undefeated and ranked in the top 3. Both teams have been dominant on defense, smothering opponents and passing every test thrown at them. With headlines around Michigan cheating, Ohio State hiring a private investigator to uncover info on the Wolverines, and Jim Harbaugh suspended by the conference, the story lines in this game write themselves. In front of 110,000 screaming fans in Ann Arbor, this looks to be the game of the year. 

Conversation Starter: Do both teams deserve the playoffs, or just the winner?

2. Joe Burrow Out for the Season

The Scoop: Bengals quarterback and TikTok heartthrob Joe Burrow was pictured in a wrist brace before Friday’s game against the Ravens. After leaving the game early, the Bengals announced he is done for the season due to a wrist injury that is “unrelated.” Burrow was not on the pregame injury list, despite pictures clearly showing he was dealing with injury. Fans took to twitter, complaining the Bengals were careless and even some, like Barstool Sports President Dave Portnoy, accusing the team of being intentionally misleading about the injury, which has major gambling ramifications. While this is awful news for Burrow and the Bengals, it could lead to enough media focus for the NFL to have to respond to their policy on pregame injury disclosures.

Conversation Starter: Should NFL teams be forced to disclose all existing injuries before a game?

3. Super-Seniors Lead the Heisman Race

The Scoop: Oregon’s Bo Nix and Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. are two of the favorites for the Heisman trophy (awarded to the best player in College Football). Both are 23 years old, playing their 5th season of college football. NCAA rules limit players to 4 seasons, but all players got an extra year of eligibility after the Covid season. This wealth of experience has allowed both players to lead their teams to Top 6 rankings and a chance at the Playoffs. With Penix coming through in the rain against a good Oregon State defense and Nix dominating Arizona State, all eyes are on the Pac 12 championship, where these two will face off with the playoffs and maybe even the Heisman trophy on the line. 

Conversation Starter: Is it fair that players got an extra year of eligibility because of Covid?

4. Even Olivia Rodrigo Can’t Save USC’s Season

The Scoop: Before the season, USC was a National Championship favorite. Quarterback Caleb Williams won the Heisman last year, head coach Lincoln Riley is one of the hottest names in football, and the Trojans had the talent to beat anyone in the country. On Saturday, USC lost to rival UCLA 38-20 to fall to 7-5. The team has been underperforming with little to cheer for on the field, so attention was turned to the sideline, where Olivia Rodrigo showed up to show her USC pride. Hopefully for Riley and the Trojans, she will dominate the headlines this week and folks won’t spend too much time talking about the disaster that has been this season. 

Conversation Starter: Do you enjoy seeing celebrities on the sidelines of schools they have no affiliation with?

5. LSU Women’s Basketball Drama

The Scoop: Coming off a national championship, LSU was supposed to be the best team in the country. Well, after a brutal loss to Colorado, reigning National Championship game Most Outstanding Player Angel Reese was not on the sideline. A parent of teammate Flau’jae Johnson shared online Angel has “below a 2.0 GPA” and hinted she wasn’t there because she is academically ineligible. The team that was bringing so much focus to the Women’s game is now bringing on the wrong type of attention, and Kim Mulkey needs to right the ship quickly if she wants to win. Instead, she’s busy making jokes about refusing to test for Covid. 

Conversation Starter: Is the attention too much for this LSU team?

Get Others in the Game

Know someone else itching to up their sports convos easily? Share this with them! For every referral you send our way, we'll:

🌲 Plant a tree in your name! We choose to plant trees in developing nations to not only alleviate climate change, but to help end hunger and poverty by rebuilding local farming ecosystems.

💸Enter your name in for a chance to win a $500 Amazon Gift Card. We guarantee 1 in 1000 people in (and every referral gets you another entry)

“Sports” Moments of the Weekend

One thing we love about sports is the funny moments they deliver, here are some rapid fire viral memes, videos, and posts for your enjoyment!

Life imitates art

Tortilla’d!

Too much pre-workout for Micah Parsons

Sometimes making it to the bathroom is just too difficult

Myles Garrett once swung a helmet at Steelers QB Mason Rudolph, the Steelers learned their lesson

Even the world’s best athletes can look painfully unathletic

Robert Saleh shows off his form tackling…on his own QB

What We’re Watching This Week

If you're at a bar, they might be showing these games. Here's what you should know:

Monday Night Football

• Philadelphia Eagles (8-1) vs Kansas City Chiefs (7-2) (Monday Night at 8:15 ET): Star quarterbacks Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes lead their teams into a matchup between two Super Bowl favorites. Whether you’re looking for a great game, or to find out who Eagles superfan Taylor Swift will be cheering for, fans will be tuned in. 

NCAAM Basketball

• #2 Purdue vs #11 Gonzaga (Monday at 5:00 ET): Reigning National Player of the Year Zach Edey and Purdue take on emerging star Brandon Huff and Gonzaga. The Zags play in a weak conference, so games like this showcase their talent as they try to chase their first national championship.

• #5 UConn vs #19 Texas (Monday at 7:00 ET): Defending champs UConn is rolling once again, up to 4-0 and looking to show that last year’s title charge was no fluke with a tough neutral site game against Texas. 

NBA In-Season Tournament

• For the first time, the NBA is hosting an in-season tournament. Teams were drawn into 6 groups of 5 and will play 4 games in the group to qualify for an 8-team knockout round. The winning team will get monetary rewards split among players and staff. Follow the live bracket here.

Subscriber Question of the Week

Do you have a sports topic you want to get smart on? Let us know here.

This week, Chris from the Bay Area asked, "What are protected rivalries in college football?"

Hi Chris - it’s rivalry week, so we’re ready with that answer!

Every year in college football, the end of the season hosts some of the biggest games of the year. Ohio State vs Michigan, Stanford vs Cal, Auburn vs Alabama. This is intentional. Protected rivalries are games between historic rivals that happen at the end of the season, falling the weekend before or after Thanksgiving, depending on the conference schedule that year. Sometimes these games are for a trophy, like the Stanford vs Cal Axe, other times they have a fun nickname, like the Washington vs Washington State “Apple Cup.” The games always come with extra intensity, even in down years, fans pack the stadium and “anything can happen in a rivalry” is thrown around by pundits. 

In a sport where history, tradition, and competition are paramount, saving the biggest games of the season for the last week is a great showcase of our beloved game, American College Football. So this week on your couch if you have nothing else to do, check out the passion of fan bases across the country, cheering on their team to beat their rival!

We hope this helps!

Your Wish is My Command

What do you think of today’s email?
As you may know, we are just getting started, and your opinion matters to us! Please share feedback, ideas, or insights on how we can make this even more useful for you! Use this link or just respond directly to the email!

Until next week,

The Fastbreakk