The Daily Mauling 9.30.26

No. 13 Utah football enters its bye week but learned its game time for the following Saturday when the team returns to the field at Rice-Eccles Stadium against Kansas. The Utes will welcome in the Jayhawks to Salt Lake City with an 8:15 p.m. MT kickoff on ESPN , which is the second such instance for Utah this season.

No. 13 Utah football enters its bye week but learned its game time for the following Saturday when the team returns to the field at Rice-Eccles Stadium against Kansas.

The Utes will welcome in the Jayhawks to Salt Lake City with an 8:15 p.m. MT kickoff on ESPN , which is the second such instance for Utah this season.

Hey, sometimes goofy things happen with college football after dark.

Let's be honest, of the three phases of football, we always give special teams the least credit. They are on the field the least and, up until the new age-based eligibility ruling, mostly saw players limited to reserve roles, hitting the field. But all that being said, it can very easily make the difference between a win and a loss, and for the Kansas Jayhawks, it has leaned towards the losses so far throughout this season.

When speaking with the media earlier this week, the KU offensive coordinator and associate head coach spoke on Belcher's acquisition . "He's got really good size and power, change of direction, has good vision. You know, the things that you see with him on film. And we had an opportunity to add to the roster. We were getting backed up a little bit and so we had to do what was best to make Kansas football better."

When speaking with the media earlier this week, the KU offensive coordinator and associate head coach spoke on Belcher's acquisition .

"He's got really good size and power, change of direction, has good vision. You know, the things that you see with him on film. And we had an opportunity to add to the roster. We were getting backed up a little bit and so we had to do what was best to make Kansas football better."

But after the Jayhawks were hit hard by early departures to both the NBA Draft and transfer portal, Bill Self and his staff had real work to do to position the program for the type of success they've enjoyed for most of the previous 23 years — and I think they've done it. To be clear, Kansas probably won't be the preseason favorite in the Big 12. But with Stokes in the fold, Taylen Kinney providing another heralded piece on the perimeter, and White now eligible again and back in the program, I'm compelled to move KU up to No. 18 in Version 28 of the 2026-27 CBS Sports preseason Top 25 And 1 college basketball rankings, where Florida remains No. 1 based on a projection that has the Gators returning six of the top seven scorers from a team that won the SEC by three games and secured a No. 1 seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament.

According to Goodman, Kansas has expressed interest in ex-Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn . The 2025 All-Big Ten First Team selection has been granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the NCAA, allowing him to pursue a sixth college season while he awaits a hearing on his preliminary injunction.

Like Leipold, like Bill Self, like Brandon Schneider and like coaches in all sports across the country, Fitzgerald is also exploring adding to his roster by pulling from the past. But as he so clearly pointed out, Fitz and the KU baseball program have one major advantage over all of them. "We're in the middle of it right now," Fitzgerald said. "Still trying to figure it out for the spring. Thankfully, we've got some time. These fall sports, they're up against it and we've got time. Certainly, we are always looking for every avenue to improve our roster."

Like Leipold, like Bill Self, like Brandon Schneider and like coaches in all sports across the country, Fitzgerald is also exploring adding to his roster by pulling from the past.

But as he so clearly pointed out, Fitz and the KU baseball program have one major advantage over all of them.

"We're in the middle of it right now," Fitzgerald said. "Still trying to figure it out for the spring. Thankfully, we've got some time. These fall sports, they're up against it and we've got time. Certainly, we are always looking for every avenue to improve our roster."

Playoff baseball is underway! I'm not sure about everybody else but this is about as detached as I've been from MLB in years. Blame the Royals. The Cardinals are heading into the playoffs red hot but as Jay Jaffe at Fangraphs points out, that's not really meaningful as a tell for future success in October:

For as unbeatable as the Cardinals appear right now, the history of late-season winning streaks tells us that while this run may certainly help the team secure a playoff berth, it doesn't tell us anything about how they'll fare in October. Look no further than that aforementioned Cleveland team for a harsh reminder of that lesson. From August 24 to September 15 of the 2017 season, the defending AL champions steamrolled opponents, piling up wins in close games and in blowouts until they'd set an American League record. The team finished with 102 wins, the highest total by the franchise since 1954, and hopes were high that they could secure the title that they'd come so close to winning just the year before. Yet when the postseason rolled around, Cleveland was unceremoniously bounced, losing a tight five-game series to the Yankees.

Speaking of baseball, there were reports over the weekend about MLB scouting sites at Grand Teton National Park for a potential stadium site for a game. Renee Dechert over at Purple Row wonders if there might be something else behind this idea:

It is the single issue I know of that cuts across voter registrations. In this very red state, people value public lands for recreation and hunting. Federal legislation introduced last year by Utah Senator Mike Lee that would have sold 3.3 million acres of public lands met with fierce local opposition and political action in Wyoming's August primary. (And there's a case to be made that if those public lands went up for sale, only the very wealthy — the folks who live in Teton County, the wealthiest county in the United States — would be the benefactors and that they would restrict access from the general public.) And I would be curious to know if Joe Ricketts — whose family controls the Chicago Cubs, founder of TD Ameritrade, and current resident of Teton County — has an opinion on this topic.

It is the single issue I know of that cuts across voter registrations. In this very red state, people value public lands for recreation and hunting. Federal legislation introduced last year by Utah Senator Mike Lee that would have sold 3.3 million acres of public lands met with fierce local opposition and political action in Wyoming's August primary. (And there's a case to be made that if those public lands went up for sale, only the very wealthy — the folks who live in Teton County, the wealthiest county in the United States — would be the benefactors and that they would restrict access from the general public.)

And I would be curious to know if Joe Ricketts — whose family controls the Chicago Cubs, founder of TD Ameritrade, and current resident of Teton County — has an opinion on this topic.

When I see a 7-3 team getting votes ahead of a 9-1 team just because nobody expected the 9-1 team to be 9-1, it makes me legitimately angry. In my opinion, it's pure laziness on the voter's part. But history does matter in power ratings. It's proven over time to be one of the more reliable predictors of future success, but even that's changing a bit in modern college football . Still, it matters, but as the season goes on and new data comes in, it should matter less in any reliable power rating. That is the case here. While I haven't stopped considering it entirely, for the first time this season, the overwhelming majority of each team's rating is based on 2026 performance.

When I see a 7-3 team getting votes ahead of a 9-1 team just because nobody expected the 9-1 team to be 9-1, it makes me legitimately angry. In my opinion, it's pure laziness on the voter's part.

But history does matter in power ratings. It's proven over time to be one of the more reliable predictors of future success, but even that's changing a bit in modern college football . Still, it matters, but as the season goes on and new data comes in, it should matter less in any reliable power rating. That is the case here. While I haven't stopped considering it entirely, for the first time this season, the overwhelming majority of each team's rating is based on 2026 performance.

I've always been a fan of Fornelli and I'm happy that he's still writing at a site that's accessible.

The most important thing to understand about "Texas" and its 24-week run at No. 1 is that had it come out two decades earlier — really even one decade earlier — not only would it have no chance of spending that long at No. 1, it likely wouldn't have sniffed the top spot at all. That's not about how the song would have made for a poorer fit in the country landscape of 2005 or 2015 — in truth, the song's casual timelessness is one of its most endearing and immediately apparent qualities. It's just about how much the Hot 100, and country's place within it, has changed over those decades.

"Like Helen Keller, if I'm being honest with you, did she really exist? Like, did she really exist?" Gaines asked. "I can't wrap my mind around it. Like, you're telling me there's a woman who can't see, she can't hear, but she wrote a book?" She acknowledged that her opinion might not be popular with the masses, however. "I don't know. Like I'm the worst conspiracy theorist ever. Like I'm way too naive to believe that actually happened," she continued.

"Like Helen Keller, if I'm being honest with you, did she really exist? Like, did she really exist?" Gaines asked. "I can't wrap my mind around it. Like, you're telling me there's a woman who can't see, she can't hear, but she wrote a book?"

She acknowledged that her opinion might not be popular with the masses, however.

"I don't know. Like I'm the worst conspiracy theorist ever. Like I'm way too naive to believe that actually happened," she continued.

Republicans created Trump Accounts in their sweeping tax and domestic policy bill passed last year, providing $1,000 for babies born between 2025 and the end of 2028, and a tax-advantaged investment account for all children younger than 18. But few Americans have set up their Trump Accounts, with only 5% of middle- or lower-income families enrolling as of this summer . If successful, the effort to auto-enroll kids in Trump Accounts could reach an additional 60 million children just a few weeks before the midterm elections. But it's unclear how much political upside the push would actually have. Trump Accounts only provide some tax advantages, and most families aren't eligible for the $1,000 benefit. The money is not available until the child turns 18.

Republicans created Trump Accounts in their sweeping tax and domestic policy bill passed last year, providing $1,000 for babies born between 2025 and the end of 2028, and a tax-advantaged investment account for all children younger than 18. But few Americans have set up their Trump Accounts, with only 5% of middle- or lower-income families enrolling as of this summer .

If successful, the effort to auto-enroll kids in Trump Accounts could reach an additional 60 million children just a few weeks before the midterm elections. But it's unclear how much political upside the push would actually have. Trump Accounts only provide some tax advantages, and most families aren't eligible for the $1,000 benefit. The money is not available until the child turns 18.

QOTD: Not too long ago, David had asked if anyone had new tasks thrown on their plate at work and how it went. That happened to me this fall and it was the first time I've had to utilize AI for work in a way that was actually somewhat useful. It still took a lot of correcting for me to get what I needed out of it but it did save me a lot of time compared to going through the program's documentation. There were a few times I had it analyze screenshots or write scripts for me and that was pretty useful! However, I also found out that having the bots do that ate up all of my "free" usage pretty quickly. And that brings me to the QOTD, OpenAI just announced a $500 a month plan and that seems completely insane to me.

How much would you be personally willing to pay for access to an AI interface for any reason or part of your life?