It’s cold outside.
Perhaps even colder than Jeremiah Smith’s championship-clinching catch at the Benz last night.
Let’s have a chat about that College Football Playoff title game and what it means moving forward, but make sure to stick around for Andruw Jones and some Hall of Fame trivia, too.
📨 Wanna ask me a question? Have a crazy Hawks trade proposal? A suggestion for the Braves front office? We’re getting a regular mailbag feature going, and I’d love to hear from you at tyler.estep@ajc.com. If I don’t know the answer or have an opinion, I’ll gather the necessary intel — because your boy has access.
Quick links: Ohio State 34, Notre Dame 23 | Game photos | What you didn’t see on TV | UGA finishes outside top 5
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FIGHTING WORDS
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Ohio State held on to beat Notre Dame for its first national title since 2014. Then its players said things like this:
🗣️ “The Big Ten prepared us for these playoffs. I think the Big Ten is the best conference in the country right now, and it showed throughout the playoffs.”
🗣️ “It’s definitely the best conference in America.”
Right here in SEC country, no less!
It’s hard to argue, though, at least right now. The Buckeyes’ dominate-then-outlast type victory gave the Big 10 two straight championships (and exorcised some Atlanta demons along the way).
That said: Both the Buckeyes and the Irish (who still seek their first title since the ‘80s) will lose plenty of talent before next season, including their quarterbacks.
They’ll be fine, of course, but enter next season with an even bigger target on their back.
Reporter Gabriel Burns offers a look at which teams could help the SEC reclaim regional bragging rights. Like Georgia, which came in at No. 6 in the season’s final AP rankings:
- “The Bulldogs weren’t what they’ve been (in 2024), but with a revamped skill group and younger players’ development, they could end up a bona fide, No. 1-quality team again.”
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MORE ON TAP
Lest we forget, last night’s game kicked off an impressive, yearslong string of big-time sporting events in Atlanta. To wit:
✅ Later this year: The NCAA Men’s Basketball South Regional, the MLB All-Star game and the FIFA Club World Cup.
✅ In 2026: A College Football Playoff semifinal and eight World Cup games.
✅ In 2028: The Super Bowl.
The AJC’s chatting with Atlanta Sports Council president Dan Corso later today (presumably to ask what 2027′s deal is). So stay tuned for that.
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COOPERSTOWN CALLING?
Credit: Brynn Anderson/AP
Credit: Brynn Anderson/AP
Around 6 o’clock tonight, the folks on MLB Network will announce baseball’s newest Hall of Famers.
Mariners great Ichiro Suzuki will make the list, maybe unanimously. Yankees starter CC Sabathia and closer Billy Wagner (a one-year Atlantan) seem destined to join him. Carlos Beltran is right on the edge.
But what about Andruw?
Braves great Andruw Jones — he of the 10 straight Gold Gloves and 434 home runs — is in the running for the eighth time this year. He started off slow but appeared on 61.6% of ballots last year, inching ever closer to that 75% threshold.
Why?
📈 Well, there’s some natural momentum at play. The Braves retiring his number in 2023 didn’t hurt, PR-wise. And the rise of defensive statistics (however nerdy) helped better quantify his otherworldly outfield acumen.
📈 Jones is the all-time leader in defensive runs saved and defensive wins above replacement for an outfielder.
Translation: The man could get it after it. (So what if he packed on a few LBs and hit the skids after turning 30? Who among us?)
Still … people in the know still don’t expect him to make it this time around. One-year leaps like that are rare, especially when shoo-ins like Ichiro jump the line.
The good news is he’s got two more tries ahead. And the biggest names being added to the ballot in 2026 are probably Cole Hamels and Ryan Braun.
Not exactly first-ballot material.
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TRIVIA TIME
Who was the first person to play for the Atlanta Braves inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame?
Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.
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HAWKS AT HALFWAY(ISH)
Credit: Heather Khalifa/AP
Credit: Heather Khalifa/AP
Monday afternoon’s 119-110 loss at Madison Square Garden put the Hawks at 22-20 just over halfway through the season. They’d be the Eastern Conference’s sixth playoff seed.
🤕 Could be worse, considering their early and ongoing injury woes. Beat writer Lauren Williams recently revisited her preseason keys to success.
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TOUGH CROWD
Georgia men’s basketball dropped out of the AP Top 25 after just one week. That’s both understandable (back-to-back losses) and perhaps a bit harsh, given the competition (Tennessee and Auburn).
🏀 Up next for the 14-4 Bulldogs: At unranked Arkansas on Wednesday, at No. 5 Florida on Saturday.
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» Photos: Atlanta United prepares for another season
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
AJC photographer Jason Getz caught Ohio State safety Caleb Downs, a Mill Creek High School grad, celebrating with fans at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I’m a bit more disappointed in the selection committee for not picking Alabama for the College Football Playoff finals, accepting inferior teams like SMU and Indiana. Truly dark times in America.”
— Some guy who called into C-SPAN’s live coverage of the presidential inauguration.
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Thanks for reading to the very bottom of Sports Daily. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact me at tyler.estep@ajc.com.
Oh, and the trivia answer is Eddie Matthews (1978).
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