{"id":790126,"date":"2026-03-03T23:28:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T23:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/790126\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T23:28:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T23:28:18","slug":"college-sports-best-current-di-dynasties-plus-rueben-bains-short-arms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/790126\/","title":{"rendered":"College sports\u2019 best current DI dynasties, plus Rueben Bain\u2019s short arms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Until Saturday Newsletter \ud83c\udfc8\u00a0| This is The Athletic\u2019s college football newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive Until Saturday directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

I hope you\u2019ve all been enjoying that time of year when everything you wear will be wrong for the weather six hours later.<\/p>\n

Dynasty Mode: 14 dominant programs right now<\/p>\n

In honor of UConn women\u2019s basketball completing\u00a0its 11th (!!) undefeated regular season<\/a>, let\u2019s look into how many current dynasties in other college sports are up there with Geno Auriemma\u2019s 12-time national champs.<\/p>\n

(Sure, calling UConn a dynasty\u00a0right now\u00a0means carving out a custom definition of the term, since the Huskies have won just one of their titles since 2016. But they\u2019re favored to repeat this year \u2014 and have missed only one Final Four since 2007. They remain a dynasty\u00a0even during their title droughts<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s stay within Division I for today, and let\u2019s only count NCAA championships, since some of these sports were overseen by other organizations in previous years.<\/p>\n

Thirteen of the top current dynasties outside of UConn\u00a0(where the men\u2019s hoops team is also assembling a case), in an order that was strictly alphabetical until I moved things around for since-forgotten reasons:<\/p>\n

North Dakota State football: 10 of the last 15 FCS national titles, plus one runner-up.\u00a0Yes, FCS is DI. However, the FBS-bound Bison\u2019s\u00a0title-winning days are done<\/a>, so this is a late-period empire becoming a province in a small nation, so to speak.
\nOklahoma women\u2019s gymnastics: 6 1\/2 of the last 11 titles, plus two runners-up.\u00a0The Sooners\u00a0split 2014\u2019s championship<\/a>\u00a0with Florida. Not the only Florida split on this list!
\nStanford men\u2019s gymnastics: five of the last six, plus a squeaker loss to Michigan.\u00a0Also, five previous titles that were nearly 10.
\nStanford women\u2019s water polo: nine of the last 14, plus three runners-up.\u00a0(And five more of the latter since 2001.) Of course Stanford is on this list twice.
\nFlorida men\u2019s outdoor track: 6 1\/2 of the last 13, plus four runners-up. The Gators split with Texas A&M in 2013.
\nWisconsin women\u2019s hockey: four of the last six, plus a runner-up.\u00a0And eight of the last 19, with another four runners-up. Coached throughout\u00a0by a \u201cMiracle on Ice\u201d hero<\/a>, the Badgers are again No. 1 this season.
\nNC State women\u2019s cross country: four of the last five.\u00a0 Secret ingredient:\u00a0having fun out there<\/a>. Way out there.
\nOklahoma softball: seven of the last 12,\u00a0including a recent four-peat that pushed the sport toward its spotlight era. No. 5 in\u00a0our early Power Rankings<\/a>\u00a0this season.
\nVirginia women\u2019s swimming and diving: five in a row.\u00a0The cleanest sweep in all of DI right now.
\nNotre Dame fencing: four of the last five, plus a runner-up. Also two of the last three.\u00a0And four others. (These are co-ed titles, though USA Fencing\u00a0is pushing for<\/a> a standalone women\u2019s championship.) The internet is secretive about which teams are good at fencing this season, though. That fits fencing. Striking silently. *Ninja sounds.*
\nPenn State wrestling: 12 of the last 14, plus a runner-up.\u00a0This season, the Nittany Lions are again the undefeated No. 1, and\u00a0the answer to the question in this email\u2019s subject is right here. Thanks to 2020s eligibility mayhem, they\u2019ve even had\u00a0a five-time\u00a0individual\u00a0champion<\/a>. If you want, add in coach Cael Sanderson\u2019s status as the\u00a0greatest college wrestler ever<\/a>.
\nUSC beach volleyball: six of the last nine.\u00a0This has only been an NCAA sport for nine seasons, so the Trojans have won it twice as much as everyone else combined. Not even Penn State wrestling can say that. (In a few weeks, a school will claim 100 percent of the all-time\u00a0women\u2019s wrestling<\/a>\u00a0championships, you know. Probably Iowa.)
\nUtah skiing: six of the last eight, plus a runner-up.\u00a0Also, in previous decades: 10 champs and 13 runners-up. Imagine if USC was great at this and Utah was great at beach volleyball. The skiing selection show is tomorrow. Now you know that.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Maryland women\u2019s lacrosse, Northern Arizona men\u2019s cross country, Stanford women\u2019s tennis and Virginia men\u2019s tennis have won a lot in recent years, but have multiyear droughts. Sure, that\u2019s similar to the exception I proposed for UConn.<\/p>\n

Lots of others could make the cut, too. Texas men\u2019s swimming? Arkansas women\u2019s indoor track? Someone\u2019s gonna yell at me!! (I chose not to parse the overlapping Northwestern\/North Carolina field hockey dynasties, and while Cal rugby is hilariously great, rugby isn\u2019t an NCAA sport yet.)<\/p>\n

Another time, I\u2019d like to look at others outside of DI. Let me know at untilsaturday@theathletic.com if you have any of those I should be sure to inspect along the way.<\/p>\n

More:\u00a0Last summer, this newsletter reviewed\u00a0the greatest championship streaks<\/a>\u00a0in college sports history. Also, here\u2019s something you\u2019ll all click: Scott Dochterman ranked\u00a0the 50 best rivalries in men\u2019s hoops<\/a>. Might come back to that one another time.<\/p>\n

Quick Snaps<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf00 \u201cI hate to say it, but Texas Tech is doing what they should with their money.\u201d Loads of portal gossip\u00a0from anonymous coaches<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udda4 Colorado quarterback Dominiq Ponder died in a single-car crash Sunday morning, police said. He was 23.\u00a0Our report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcb0 \u201cThe actual money changing hands is less than that $270 million, and the total amount paid out from school to coach will likely be much, much less.\u201d Last year\u2019s buyouts bonanza\u00a0wasn\u2019t quite as ludicrous as it seemed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u270d\ufe0f Stewart Mandel has scripted how\u00a0Donald Trump\u2019s celebrity assembly to fix college sports<\/a>\u00a0will go.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfa7 \u201cThe Audible\u201d\u00a0discusses predictions<\/a>\u00a0on who\u2019ll be coaching each P4 team in 2030.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcf0 News:<\/p>\n

A former Michigan staffer was\u00a0fired by the Atlanta Falcons<\/a> after accusations of a 2024 incident in Ann Arbor.
\n\u201cStudent athletes inking multimillion dollar name, image and likeness deals in Mississippi could see their income become tax-exempt as early as next year.\u201d\u00a0Be serious<\/a>.
\nTexas is\u00a0reportedly<\/a>\u00a0hiring former Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops as a special assistant. Now imagine the Longhorns hiring his brother and former longtime Oklahoma coach, Bob.
\nGrad School: Up in arms over Bain<\/p>\n

When a Tyrannosaurus rex first showed up at the NFL combine in roughly the year 67 million BCE, did professional dinosaur evaluators say its arms were too short to compete in the pros? How silly those guys look now.<\/p>\n

At this past weekend\u2019s edition of the event, Miami edge Rueben Bain Jr.\u2019s arms measured 30 7\/8 inches,\u00a0the third-shortest at his position<\/a>\u00a0since 1999. Of those other two, one went undrafted (Ohio State\u2019s Nathan Williams), and the other became a sixth-round practice squadder (NIU\u2019s Sutton Smith). Not\u00a0ideal!<\/p>\n

Yesterday, Jacob Robinson\u00a0wrote in our NFL newsletter<\/a>, \u201cI couldn\u2019t find\u00a0any\u00a0(NFL) pass rushers who recorded a sack in the past five years with arms under 31 inches, though Micah Parsons\u2019 aren\u2019t much longer.\u201d He also rudely assembled this chart that made me even more defensive about my favorite 2025 player:<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Every year in the NFL Draft, a handful of players embody the disconnects between college football fans and pro GMs. Hey, we were right about Russell Wilson! Overconfident from acing that one, we were then wrong about Johnny Manziel.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear Bain is gonna be this year\u2019s \u201cHOW IS HE STILL AVAILABLE\u201d name.\u00a0Last week in\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s college writers mock draft<\/a>, he went No. 2 to the Jets \u2026 but\u00a0our NFL Draft analysts report<\/a>\u00a0he could slip out of the first round entirely.<\/p>\n

I dunno, man. The consensus All-American looked like the best player on the field in Week 1 against Notre Dame, then again in the bookend game, recording 2 1\/2 tackles for loss against Indiana. In between, he took over stretches against Florida and Ohio State, plus turned Texas A&M\u2019s whole field into a sinkhole. We saw what we saw.<\/p>\n

Still, the arm thing matters,\u00a0especially in the trenches<\/a>,\u00a0where wing span can determine which side has the advantage at point of contact. But it\u2019s not like the 6-2, 263-pounder will be without a place in the NFL. As\u00a0our Nick Baumgardner wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cBain\u2019s best assets are his power and burst, as he is able to consistently punish tackles \u2014 generally, by going right through their chests \u2014 via a great first step and elite power. He rushes on the outside a lot like an athletic interior tackle would in the NFL.\u201d<\/p>\n

Congrats, guards! You get to block the guy whose only flaw is being shaped like Godzilla. Besides, we all know how this is gonna go. He\u2019ll drop to either the Ravens or Eagles, everyone will shout, \u201cTHEY CAN\u2019T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS,\u201d and then they\u2019ll keep getting away with this.<\/p>\n

Other combine stuff:<\/p>\n

Bruce Feldman wraps up\u00a0the speediest class in combine history<\/a>, including a huge day by his No. 1 athlete to watch, Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq.
\n\u201cArguably \u2014 and there might not even be much of a counterargument \u2014 the most electric on-field combine showing by a linebacker in the past three decades.\u201d Ohio State\u2019s Sonny Styles leads\u00a0our winners list<\/a>.
\nThe most viral moment: Arkansas\u2019 Mike Washington Jr.\u00a0crying tears of joy<\/a> after posting the fastest 40 among the fastest running back group ever.
\n\u201cHe better win a national championship. He\u2019s got all the resources. It ain\u2019t Ames, Iowa.\u201d The combine means lots of players\u00a0speaking pretty candidly<\/a> about college football for the first times in their careers.
\nSix-month Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar found out on Friday that his college career is\u00a0essentially done<\/a>, then arrived at the combine four days later. Modernity!
\nComparing Fernando Mendoza\u2019s\u00a0\u201cjob interview\u201d media session<\/a>\u00a0to Diego Pavia\u2019s jump-scare revelation that\u00a0he\u2019s being mentored by Manziel<\/a>, it\u2019s clear both of these guys remain in character.<\/p>\n

Last week\u2019s most-clicked:\u00a0Mandel\u2019s\u00a0grades for all 33 FBS head-coaching hires<\/a>\u00a0so far.<\/p>\n

Love Until Saturday? Check out\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Until Saturday Newsletter \ud83c\udfc8\u00a0| This is The Athletic\u2019s college football newsletter. Sign up here to receive Until Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[331,339,7,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-790126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-college-sports","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116167842673853730","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}