I am, you may have been able to guess by now, a football fan. College. NFL. High School. Doesn’t matter. I love the game. Love following it. Love watching it. Love playing it with my son. With the College Football Playoff reaching its conclusion tonight, and the collective country speaking about it, YouTube recommended I make some type of content about it.
It got me thinking: What if every College Football Playoff Team was a beach volleyball team? Who would be the rough equivalents? It was a fun mental exercise, and something I enjoyed toying with on a walk with my son to, of course, a construction site. So, as he climbed around the bulldozers and rollers and diggers, I mused. Here’s what I came up with, by seed
12. James Madison — Melanie Paul and Lea Kunst
The plucky underdogs of the College Football Playoff, not much was expected of James Madison, despite the Dukes being a talented team with a 12-2 record. Similarly, the 36 seed at the World Championships, Melanie Paul and Lea Kunst were talented but not expected to win the whole thing. Like JMU, however, who put up 35 points on Oregon, Paul and Kunst put together a tremendous World Champs, winning pool and their first round of the playoffs before bowing out in ninth with nothing to be ashamed of.
11. Tulane — Stefie Fejes, Jasmine Fleming
Tulane and James Madison entered the CFP by virtue of being the best of the Group of 5 schools — wild cards, essentially, with no reasonable expectations or hopes of winning the whole thing. Their role was to be competitive, maybe make a few fun things happen. Fejes and Fleming, too, were wild cards into the World Championships and, while talented, had no reasonable expectations or hopes of winning. But they could compete, and did, breaking pool and playing Kelly Cheng and Molly Shaw well before being knocked out by eventual bronze medalists Carol and Rebecca.
10. Miami — Carol, Rebecca
A once-storied program with a handful of National Championships, Miami experienced a dip before a minor resurgence before, somewhat unexpectedly, popping off in the 2025/2026 season, making a run all the way to the CFP Championship. Similarly, Carol and Rebecca hail from a storied federation in Brazil, and both have had an abundance of success with separate partners. But, like Miami, they hadn’t reached the pinnacle in a major event — Olympics, World Championships, Beach Pro Tour Finals — in quite some time. Until this year, when they won their first World Championships medals, making it bronze — the same year Miami made the CFP Championship.
9. Alabama — Thamela, Victoria
The former Death Star of college football, Alabama was flawed and vulnerable this season, and it showed in a shaky win over Oklahoma in the first round of the CFP before getting demolished in the next round by Indiana. Thamela and Victoria, too, entered the World Championships as a talented but flawed and banged up No. 1 seed. It showed as they squeaked by a number opponents before getting swept in the semis and bronze medal match. A good season with an imperfect ending for both.
8. Oklahoma — Andy Benesh, Miles Partain
An incredibly talented team with a high ceiling and a proven ability to beat excellent opponents — but inconsistent and regularly banged up that left fanbases hungry for more. Both Oklahoma and Benesh and Partain qualified for the biggest event of the year, but both wound up losing in the first round of their respective events.
7. Texas A&M — Jorge Alayo, Noslen Diaz
One of the most exciting teams in college football, Texas A&M poured a ton of money into the program and became something of a moonshot overnight. Cuba’s Jorge Alayo and Noslen Diaz are the single most exciting team in beach volleyball and showed as much in a thrilling gold medal at the Quintana Roo Elite in March. Yet, like Texas A&M, who lost the final two games of its season, including a 10-3 dud against Miami in the first round of the College Football Playoff, Alayo and Diaz only won one more medal after that gold in Mexico, and were upset by Chaim Schalk and James Shaw in the second round of the World Championships, settling for ninth.
6. Ole Miss — Tina Graudina, Anastasija Samoilova
When Lane Kiffin abandoned his Ole Miss team before the CFP, departing for LSU, it galvanized a new fan base for Ole Miss, who became the adopted team of seemingly everyone and continued its historically great season into the semifinals. Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova of Latvia became similarly loved as they made a dominant run through the World Championships, turning Adelaide into a home event, where they won Latvia’s first World Championships medal, making it gold. It isn’t a perfect comparison, as Ole Miss didn’t win, but a pair of historically significant seasons, marked by becoming the bandwagon team for a number of fans, was good enough for us.
Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth celebrate/Volleyball World photo
5. Oregon — Kristen Nuss, Taryn Brasher
Oregon entered as favorite to contend for the CFP title this year, and Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher entered as a favorite to contend for a World Championship. Both had excellent regular seasons, with Oregon’s lone loss suffered to the juggernaut who became Indiana, while Nuss and Brasher won the highest percentage of matches of their careers. Nuss and Brasher’s only loss in the World Champs came to eventual champion Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova in the finals. Oregon’s only loss in the regular season AND the playoffs? Indiana, the heavy favorite to win it all.
4. Texas Tech — Terese Cannon, Megan Kraft
Texas Tech made massive strides as a program this season, dropping just a single game en route to winning the Big 12, smashing BYU in the Conference Championship game. They’re perhaps the most improved team in all of college football. But a dud of a playoff game, against Oregon, in which they failed to score a single point in a 23-0 loss is all that many will remember. Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft, too, put together a fantastic regular season, so to speak, winning three medals, making two AVP finals, and finishing in the top-five of every single tournament. Until, like Texas Tech, the post-season, where they lost in the first round. Two excellent regular seasons capped with a bummer of an ending.
3. Georgia — Cherif Younousse, Ahmed Tijan
Georgia has long been a proud program, one of the consistently great teams in college football. In a beach volleyball sense, so, too, have Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan, who have a pair of Olympics under their belt that concluded with a bronze medal and a semifinal appearance. Both are no stranger to big moments, and success in those big moments, Georgia boasting two National Championships in the last five years, Cherif and Ahmed leading all teams with four gold medals this season. But both fell short in the playoffs, Georgia falling to Ole Miss in the quarterfinals, Cherif and Ahmed getting upset for ninth by France’s Arnaud Gauthier-Rat and Teo Rotar.
2. Ohio State — Anders Mol, Christian Sorum
Considered the No. 1 team in their respective sports, Ohio State and Anders Mol and Christian Sorum both proved worthy of their rankings. Ohio State didn’t lose a single regular season game, while Mol and Sorum collected three gold medals in their GOAT Hunting season. But both had a disappointing finish in their respective championships: Ohio State fell to Miami, while Mol and Sorum were upset by Clemens Wickler. Two impressive regular seasons that just lacked the big finish.
1. Indiana — Elmer Andersson, Jacob Holting-Nilsson
Just two years ago, Indiana was the worst football team in the history of college football. They were a Basketball School, through and through. Sweden, like Indiana, was a Winter Olympics country, through and through.
Then came Curt Cignetti, the head coach Indiana poached from James Madison who entered with the greatest introductory press conference quip in recent memory: “I win. Google me.”
And they were good in his first year at the helm, making the college football playoff — but they lost convincingly to Notre Dame in the first round of the 2024/25 college football playoff.
Sweden’s Elmer Andersson and Jacob Holting-Nilsson were likewise good last year — but their late-season success came in the fall, in watered-down events. How good were they?
Turns out, both Indiana and Andersson and Holting-Nilsson were more than good. They were juggernauts. Indiana stormed through the regular season and is now on the precipice of finishing a perfect 16-0 with a National Championship. Andersson and Holting-Nilsson won six medals — three gold — and were named Team of the Year, Rookie of the Year (Holting-Nilsson), Most Improved (Holting-Nilsson) and finished No. 2 in prize money on the season.
They both win.
Google them.
