by Zak Drapeau and Matt Hylen Sportz Nation - 9/1/2026 Photo Credits to Xinhua via IMAGO Song Yadong vs Merab Dvalishvili Matt Hylen - After a knockout like that against an opponent like Umar Nurmagomedov, Song Yadong has officially solidified himself as one of the top-2 contenders in the division, alongside Sean O'Malley. His performance on Saturday night was absolutely spectacular; he did not let anything get to him, stayed composed, and ultimately sent Umar Nurmagomedov in

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/28/2026 10. Wyatt Young 6'0" 195 lbs. Oklahoma St Pro Comparison John Metchie 2025 Overview Young went from an okay freshman season to an absolute breakout year in 2025 at North Texas and one of the best slot receivers in all of FBS. Young didn't truly gain WR1 favor until Week 6 but once he did he was unguardable. He had 5 games over 100 yards in a 6 week period including 9-190-1 and 8-295-2 performances against admittedly weaker teams in Cha

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/27/2026 Welcome to Draft Season! Technically the new draft season starts the day after the NFL Draft but with the College Football season set to kick off tomorrow and the NFL season only 2 weeks away, I'm using this timeline to start my official Draft Content for the 2027 season. Draft content will start with this Mock Draft but as my content showed last year, I will be again prioritizing player evaluations and team makeup over Mock Draft exer

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/25/2026 Photo Credits to Ricardo B. Brazziell/The Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images College Football will return this Saturday with the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin, Ireland between TCU and North Carolina at Noon. The rest of the schedule for "Week 0" is only 7 more games in the FBS including only 1 consensus Top-25 team. Even though we won't see most of the teams we are most excited about this week, let's give the

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/20/2026 Make sure to come back everyday for positional rankings and my MOCK DRAFT 1.0 releasing Thursday, August 27 at noon Top-10 Quarterbacks of the 2027 Draft Class Photo Credits to Chad Hamilton/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images 10. John Mateer 6'1" 225 lbs. Oklahoma Pro Comparison: Older Russell Wilson 2025 Overview 2025 was a very up and down year for the former Washington State transfer. At one point early in the season, Mateer's name wa

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/19/2026 We are 3 weeks away from the start of the 2026 season and if it's anything like last year, the only thing we know for sure is that making predictions like this are almost useless and more often wrong than not. Just to make my case, let's look at my predictions for the 2025 season that I made the same time last year: MVP - Baker Mayfield Super Bowl MVP - Lamar Jackson Coach of the Year - Todd Bowles Comeback POY - Christian McCaffrey OP

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/18/2026 Photo Credits to Zach Dimmit via Sports Illustrated 10. Cam Coleman WR Texas Let's start this list off with a wild card pick straight away! Truth be told I'm not too sure if this pick is indeed a hot take because Cam Coleman is an elite WR athlete who will be joining a Texas team with one of the best QBs in the country in an offensive-friendly system. In two seasons at Auburn, Coleman did well statistically but didn't take the year 2-

by Zak Drapeau and Will Gilhooly Sportz Nation - 8/16/2026 Photo Credits to James Lang via Imagn Images All Odds courtesy of DraftKings on 8/13 Starting tomorrow we can officially say, "College Football is back." The season won't actually start until August 29th when TCU and UNC play in Dublin for the College Football Classic. But the first official, AP Top-25 poll will release tomorrow at Noon. Before the coaches' poll becomes official, Sportz Nation's Zak Drapeau and Will G

by Zak Drapeau and Matt Hylen Sportz Nation - 8/10/2026 Quilan Salkilld vs Diego Lopes Zak Drapeau - Salkilld has been one of the biggest rising stars of the division because of his violence and striking. The test he had against Gamrot was to see if he could keep himself up against a relentless wrestler and instead, he showed us that he may be just as dangerous on the ground and COMPLETELY altered his prospect status to contender... and a strong one at that. At the same time

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/11/2026 When I made this list in 2022 which you can find here, I had Shavkat, Du Plessis, Chimaev, Pereira and Topuria, so I can't wait to see where this group of prospects will climb to by 2030. Honorable Mentions: - Ion Baraniewski - Mairon Santos - Ethyn Ewing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Photo Credits to Jeff Bottari via Zuffa LLC #10 Tommy McMillen Division Lightweight Age 28y, 239d UFC Record 2-0 Finishes 2 McMillen j

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/9/2026 Photo Credits to Todd Kirkland via Getty Images 10. Bijan Robinson Falcons Running Back Last Year's Rank: 24 Bijan spent 2 days as the highest-paid RB in NFL history and it was well-deserved. Robinson had just under 2,300 yards of total offense this season along with 11 TDs all while rushing for 5.1 yards per carry. Robinson's true value and reason he cracks the Top-10 list is his dual threat ability. Robinson's 287 carries and 79 catc

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/4/2026 Georgia Odds to Win SEC: +260 Photo Credits to Hyosub Shin via AJC Transfer Grade: B+ Recruiting Grade: A 2026 Schedule: B+ Georgia has firmly established themselves as the favorites in the SEC this year with not only the easiest schedule in the conference but the most returning starters from 2025 as well. Their defense returns 2 All-American level defenders at each level of their defense including top players Ellis Robinson V, Chris Co

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 7/30/2026 Photo Credits to Mark J. Rebilas via Imagn Images Indiana Odds to Win B1G: +310 Transfer Grade: A+ Recruiting Grade: B- 2026 Schedule: A- Indiana has made a habit of molding their roster around the Transfer Portal and 2026 will be no different with 17 incoming players including their starting Quarterback, Josh Hoover from TCU. The Hoosiers' miracle 2025 Championship season was one you could only dream of as a Hoosiers fan. When looking

by Zak Drapeau and Matt Hylen Sportz Nation - 7/27/2026 Photo Credits to Fadel Senna/ AFP via Getty Images Magomed Ankalaev vs Carlos Ulberg Light Heavyweight Championship Zak Drapeau - The way the top of the 205-division is set up, the original fight between Ankalaev and Rountree should've been either a #1 contender fight or even an interim title fight. Now that Ankalaev has gone through Bogdan Guskov in such dominant fashion, the only way to move forward is to give him a ti

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 7/21/2026 Photo Credits to Eddie Keogh/ The FA via Getty Images 10. Declan Rice England Center Mid From the historic Arsenal squad that finally won the Premier League after 22 years to England's 3rd place finish in the World Cup, Declan Rice has had quite a year. As England's Center Mid, he was the master of their set pieces and often times starter of their offense while controlling pacing with passes around the back. Say what you will about t

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 7/19/2026 30. Jared Goff Lions Quarterback Last Year's Rank: 55 Photo Credits to Peter Casey via Imagn Images Jared Goff had another outstanding season last year in Detroit in the midst of one of the worst teams Dan Campbell has ever produced and for that reason I'm seeing a LOT of people that are really underrating Goff this year. 4564-34-8 was his line last season and it was a statistical down year for him some how as he continues to show tha

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 7/12/2026 Photo Credits to Eric Hartline via Imagn Images 40. Cooper DeJean Eagles Defensive Back Last Year's Rank: N/A DeJean is one of the new school DB's that are all the rage now because of their versatility. DeJean could be a lockdown, boundary corner one play and a soul taking, Box Safety the next in the blink of an eye and the way he showed improvement from his rookie season to his sophomore makes me really excited for his 3rd. DeJean is

by Zak Drapeau and Matt Hylen Sportz Nation - 7/7/2026 Photo Credits to Chris Unger via Zuffa LLC UFC Male Fighter of the Year Current: Justin Gaethje Honorable Mention: Sean Strickland Zak Drapeau - Fighter of the Year is awarded for a number of reasons that are subjective to every voter and usually have to do with the number of wins, number of title wins, and the way you win. Justin Gaethje has checked all of those boxes. In his first fight of the year, Gaethje had arguably

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 7/5/2026 Photo Credits to Mitchell Leff via Getty Images 50. Saquon Barkley Eagles Running Back Last Year's Rank: 2 After Barkley was debatably snubbed for the 2024 MVP award due to his 2,000-yard rushing season and Super Bowl winning season, we all thought Barkley and the Eagles were the best rushers in the league. With their 2025 season looking to be their Championship run part 2, both the team and the superstar fell well short of expectatio

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 7/3/2026 Photo Credits to Vincent Carchietta via Reuters Kylian Mbappe France ST Mbappe came into this World Cup with sky high expectations for him and his country and is already surpassing them. In 4 games, Mbappe has scored 3 braces (2 goals in 1 game), and tallied 2 assists in the other. As the Captain of the French squad who has pulled away as tournament favorites, Mbappe has not only led his team in scoring but has led his whole team to pla