College football is unique in its own quirky way, and with every season that passes, we’re reminded that there’s nothing else truly like it. Where else can a cookie executive become one of the biggest players in the coaching carousel? Or a governor use part of his platform to get involved in a coaching hire?

The 2025 season was no exception to the perfect chaos that makes college football great. If anything, 2025 was even wilder than usual — bringing extra weirdness, madness and, yes, fun.

With that in mind, The Athletic set out to compile the best, most perfectly ridiculous moments of the season. This is in no particular order, though we do start with a doozy from across the pond.

1. Kansas State quarterback Avery Johnson’s brother and father got into a fistfight in Dublin, Ireland, in Week 0 … with each other … following the Wildcats’ loss to Iowa State. Perhaps this was a sign that the season would not go well in Manhattan. Kansas State, which was ranked in the top 20 in the preseason, went 6-6 and opted out of a bowl game following the retirement of head coach Chris Klieman.

2. The two favorites for the Heisman Trophy are: a quarterback who was ranked No. 140 at his position in the 247Sports Composite in the Class of 2022 and a quarterback who was unranked coming out of high school and who is in his sixth season of college football and at his third school. That would be Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the former, and Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, the latter.

Almost no coach believed in either as high school recruits, and now Mendoza has Indiana at 13-0 and the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff, while Pavia led Vanderbilt to its first 10-win season in school history.  They’ll take center stage in New York on Saturday night for the Heisman Trophy presentation. Fun fact: If Pavia were to win the award, the Heisman Trophy winner would be six months older than the favorite to win NFL MVP (Drake Maye).

3. “College GameDay” legend Lee Corso went a perfect 6-0 in his final game picks in Week 1 (including Florida State, his alma mater, over Alabama). However, both of the teams he picked to play in the national championship game (LSU and Penn State) fired their coaches midseason.

4. The No. 2 and No. 4 teams in the preseason AP poll ended the regular season unranked. And now Penn State and Clemson will square off in the Pinstripe Bowl on Dec. 27. Penn State was a trendy pick to win the national championship but fired James Franklin in October after consecutive losses to Oregon, UCLA and Northwestern. Clemson was also a popular pick to compete for Dabo Swinney’s third national championship, but instead lost five games and saw its Playoff hopes essentially bottom out by September with consecutive losses to Georgia and Syracuse. If Penn State loses, it will become the first preseason AP top-two team to finish with a losing record since the preseason poll began in 1950.

5. The two starting quarterbacks in the 2025 ACC Championship Game were first-year transfers who left the two schools that played in the 2025 American Conference title game. That’s right: Duke’s Darien Mensah previously played at Tulane, and Virginia’s Chandler Morris came to the Cavaliers by way of North Texas. Mensah’s old school is the No. 11 seed in the College Football Playoff.

6. Duke lost five regular-season games … yet played in the ACC title game.

7. The Sun Belt champion is headed to the CFP. The Dukes of James Madison, in their fourth year in the FBS, can thank the Blue Devils of Duke for this.

8. Two Playoff teams will have head coaches who already accepted different jobs for next season in Tulane’s Jon Sumrall (Florida) and JMU’s Bob Chesney (UCLA). A third team, Ole Miss, has a coach making his head coaching debut, with Pete Golding, previously the Rebels defensive coordinator, taking over for Lane Kiffin.

9. Speaking of Kiffin, he coached a team that went 11-1 in the regular season and is going to host a first-round CFP game, but he left after the regular season to become the head coach at his previous school’s second-biggest rival. Kiffin pleaded with Ole Miss to let him remain on staff through the postseason, but Rebels AD Keith Carter told him to take a hike. Want more drama? LSU will have to pay Kiffin’s postseason bonus — even though Kiffin won’t be coaching the team that is playing in the postseason.

10. Notre Dame, which went 10-2 in the regular season, declined a bowl berth after being left out of the CFP.

11. Texas is the first preseason No. 1 team with three-plus regular-season losses since USC went 7-6 in 2012.

12. The nation’s leading passer arrived at his school as a walk-on and is a full-time starter this season for the first time since he was on the Freshman B Team at Vandegrift High in Austin, Texas. This one is particularly mind-blowing, but it’s true: North Texas redshirt freshman Drew Mestemaker, who is averaging 317.6 passing yards per game, didn’t even start his final season of high school football. The nod instead went to Deuce Adams, now at Louisville, though things worked out quite nicely for Mestemaker, who has led the Mean Green to an 11-2 record and a spot in the New Mexico Bowl.

13. The chair of the CFP selection committee was replaced after two weeks, after he took a leave of absence from his day job. A few weeks later, Mack Rhoades parted ways with Baylor, ending his 10-year run as the school’s athletics director. Earlier in the season, Rhoades was investigated by the school for a sideline incident involving a Baylor assistant coach and player in which Rhoades took exception to a gold, long-sleeved undershirt worn by tight end Michael Trigg during the Bears’ home game against Arizona State. Then, days before he took a personal leave, new, unrelated allegations involving Rhoades surfaced, leading to his eventual departure.

Rhoades’ exit from the CFP committee thrust Arkansas AD Hunter Yurachek into our lives on a weekly basis, where we learned 17-0 halftime leads on the road are impressive (even if the game is eventually tied at 17-17), the committee loves “gutsy” fourth-down calls and head-to-head results don’t matter until they do — or sometimes don’t.

14. A Texas state trooper working the Texas A&M-South Carolina game almost came to blows with South Carolina wide receiver Nyck Harbor (OK, that might be a bit of a stretch, but what was this guy thinking?). The trooper was removed from his game assignment following the incident. Harbor, by the way, isn’t one to pick a fight with. He’s 6 feet 5 and 235 pounds with world-class speed.

15. The only thing more bizarre than that incident was the actual game. South Carolina, with a record of 3-6 and losers of four straight games, jumped out to a stunning 30-3 halftime lead over the undefeated Aggies … yet lost the game 31-30 in what was the biggest comeback in Texas A&M history.

16. Indiana’s coach showed no interest in leaving for Penn State. Vanderbilt’s coach showed no interest in leaving for Florida, Auburn and others. Curt Cignetti and Clark Lea have lifetime contracts in Bloomington and Nashville if they want them.

17. Brent Pry was fired as the head coach at Virginia Tech in September. Brent Pry is expected to be named defensive coordinator at Virginia Tech in December. Did he even move?!

18. A team that was one play away from reaching the previous season’s national title game signed all of two recruits on early signing day, all in the same calendar year. That’s how bleak things got for Penn State this year, but shout out to four-star edge Jackson Ford and four-star quarterback Peyton Falzone for fighting the good fight.

19. Louisiana’s governor swore LSU’s next coach wouldn’t get a huge buyout. LSU’s next coach got an even larger buyout. Kiffin swore taking the LSU job wasn’t about the money and said at his introductory news conference that he didn’t even know the details of his new contract. Well, after Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry used a news conference to rail on Brian Kelly’s buyout and how irresponsible it was to taxpayers, the Tigers gave Kiffin a sweeter deal. Never change, LSU.

20. The nation’s best linebacker began his career as a quarterback at Virginia. That would be Texas Tech’s Jacob Rodriguez, who just won the Nagurski Trophy, awarded to the best defensive player in college football.

21. Ten-time national champion North Dakota State didn’t reach the FCS quarterfinals. The Bison lost 29-28 to Illinois State — which threw five interceptions — last week and will miss out on chasing their third championship in the past five seasons.

22. Pavia, the 6-foot dragon slayer with one of the biggest personalities in college football, made a bet with comedian and podcaster Theo Vonn that if Vanderbilt won at South Carolina, he would set Vonn up on a date with his mom. See for yourself. Well, the date never happened because Pavia threw in a caveat that never materialized.

23. Kiffin’s exit from Oxford was emotional for Ole Miss fans, but maybe not as intense as Kiffin made it out to be. LSU’s new head coach said he had to call a cop he personally knew because he was driving with his son, Knox, when people were trying to run him off the road. Turns out the Mississippi Department of Public Safety refuted that claim.

24. Kiffin and a podcaster got into a public argument about whether or not the podcaster called him a “ho.”

25. Bill Belichick went viral for attending an adult cheerleading competition to support his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson.

26. UNC GM Michael Lombardi made a trip to Saudi Arabia this offseason — one the Tar Heels called “an exploratory fundraising trip.”

27. Alabama threw a screen pass to 6-foot-7, 360-pound offensive lineman Kadyn Proctor against Georgia and … it worked. Proctor scored the touchdown, and the Crimson Tide ultimately won the game 24-21.

28. Barstool Sports’ Michigan superfan Dave Portnoy accused Ohio State of banning him from Ohio Stadium in Week 1, where he was supposed to make his debut on Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff.” Except that didn’t actually happen.

29. Shirtless dudes became college football’s latest viral sensation and might have helped cure male loneliness along the way.

30. The College Football Playoff will feature a running back named Bo Jackson (at Ohio State), whose actual name is Lamar Jackson, as well as a pair of brothers and teammates named Peyton and Eli (at Oklahoma).

31. The Penn State coaching search ended up with the Nittany Lions hiring Iowa State’s Matt Campbell after getting rejected by, among others, BYU coach Kalani Sitake, backed by Crumbl Cookies CEO Jason McGowan.

32. The No. 1 recruiting class, according to the 247Sports Composite, landed at a non-SEC school for the first time since 2008, and both of the top two classes were at former Pac-12 schools, USC and Oregon. The No. 1 recruit, quarterback Jared Curtis, flipped from Georgia to Vanderbilt on the eve of the early signing period.

33. Three of the four Power 4 champions — Indiana, Texas Tech and Duke — hadn’t won a conference title in more than 30 years.

34. One of those conference champions had to ban the tradition of tossing tortillas at kickoffs of home games after a change in Big 12 policy stiffened the penalties and fines for objects thrown onto the field.

35. You thought we were done with Crumbl Cookies? Think again. Shortly after news broke that Sitake was remaining at BYU — thanks in part to a new contract, no doubt sweetened by donations from McGowan, the cookie man — Crumbl Cookies were served at the office of Virginia Tech (and new coach James Franklin) on the first day of the early signing period.

Christopher Kamrani, Jason Kirk, Justin Williams, Matt Brown and Mitch Light contributed to this story.