It’s the Washington Huskies, and if you need to ask how/why we can declare such a thing before the College Football Playoff final is played? Well, you haven’t been paying attention. The Huskies won their conference, and they never lost a game. No other conference champion can say that, for starters, and we don’t consider cheaters in our analyses—we never have. That has been an established proud pattern for a long time here.

This will be the final entry in this series, as we doubt we will be inspired to do it next year. And it’s poetic justice, too, to see a Pacific-12 Conference team win the first MNC here since we surprisingly discovered the Stanford Cardinal deserved it most in 2012. For all the years the BCS and the CFP conspired to fuck over the Conference of (real NCAA) Champions, it’s only appropriate the Huskies win this fair and square. Indeed!

No cheating team should be allowed to take this from the University of Washington and the Pac-12, either. Maybe we were wrong about the Huskies quarterback in one way or another, but his team earned this with 10 consecutive wins by 10 points or less. UW just knows how to win, and whether or not that skill translates to the NFL for Washington’s QB is irrelevant: we know it’s the head coach in Seattle magicking it. Fact!

Kalen DeBoer created a monster dynasty at the NAIA level with the Sioux Falls Cougars, going 67-3 over a 5-season span from 2005 to 2009—with 4 title-game appearances in a row (2006-2009) and 3 national championships (2006, 2008-2009). Why did it take so long for this man to get an FBS coaching gig? We’re not sure, but in two years with Fresno State (2020-2021), he posted a 12-6 record, stunted by a Covid start.

The Huskies were smart to hire him away after they went 4-8 in 2021 trying to transition away from retired genius Chris Petersen. The rewards have been stellar: just like he went 11-2 in his first season at Sioux Falls, DeBoer literally posted the same record with UW in his first season there (2022). And this year? The team is 14-0 with multiple wins over a very good Oregon Ducks team and a win over the Big XII champion Texas.

For the record, this is UW’s second MNC from us, overall, the other one coming in 1991 when the Huskies won the Rose Bowl over … yep, you guessed it. DeBoer is positioned to make Washington a dominant force in the B1G for years to come, and we hope he stays at the university in Seattle for a long time in order to do so. Nothing is better than a Best Coast football powerhouse, whether it’s in Los Angeles or Seattle, really.

Congratulations to the 2023 Washington Huskies, the mythical national champion!