When it comes to current events in sports, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo can come across as being out of touch at times. But there’s little denying that the man knows his history when it comes to all sports.
That doesn’t mean Russo can’t float controversial opinions on the history of college football though. He did that exact thing on today’s edition of ESPN’s First Take.
For the segment “Mad Dog’s A-List,” Russo listed off the five schools that he considers the “most storied CFB programs.” His list (descending from five to one) consisted of Oklahoma, USC, Alabama, Michigan and Notre Dame.
Russo gave his reasons for each of those programs being in the spot he had them. All the while, his First Take co-hosts were stunlocked by how absurd they found his list.
Molly Qerim continuously admonished Russo for invoking imagery from the black and white era of television in making his picks. But Russo was undaunted.
You can tell by the looks on Ryan Clark and David Pollack’s faces that watching Chris Russo talk about college football like that was painful.
Nearly all of the references Russo made were about coaches, teams and players from the 1960s and earlier.
As you might expect, college football fans didn’t like the list. Some believe that his list meets the definition of a “Storied program.” But for the most part, there’s a lot of virtual facepalming going on.
Do you agree with Russo’s list here?