The Best & Biggest of 2023

As 2023 ends with a full day of football, it's crazy to think about how 2023 began.  On Jan. 2, Bills-Bengals was scheduled for Monday Night Football after the Rose Bowl, a huge game with massive playoff implications.  They were still in the first quarter when Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered an on-field cardiac arrest and the game was ultimately cancelled.  Remarkably, Hamlin made a full recovery and was on the Bills' roster to start the season.  It's safe to say the NFL Comeback Player of the Year vote will be an easy one.

Hamlin's story went from potentially tragic to incredibly uplifting, and it was definitely one of the biggest sports stories of 2023.  There were star performances and there were breakthroughs.  There were some spectacular games and plenty of upsets.  There were displays of dominance and massive disappointments.  And there were some things that will resonate far beyond 2024.

Like any other year, there were so many massive sports stories, in fact, that it's impossible to create a "complete" list.  You're bound to miss something.  So, instead, I've put together some superlatives in different categories.  These are in no particular order.  But they're definitely the things about 2023 that I'll remember.

Best Game: Super Bowl LVII-There were plenty of contenders for the Game of the Year, but none of them topped that exceptional Super Bowl between the Chiefs and Eagles!  Back-and-forth it went, with both Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes displaying their brilliance.  Philadelphia led 24-14 at halftime, only for Kansas City to go up 35-27 in the fourth quarter.  Hurts ran for a touchdown and the two-point conversion to tie the game with 5:15 left, only for the Chiefs to drive down and kick the game-winning field goal with eight seconds remaining.

Biggest Upset: FDU vs. Purdue-For only the second time in the history of the NCAA Men's Tournament, a 16-seed beat a No. 1.  It's made even more incredible when you consider why FDU was even there.  They only qualified as the NEC representative because Merrimack, who had beaten them in the conference championship game, wasn't eligible for the NCAA Tournament.  The Knights were the 68th overall seed in the 68-team tournament and had to beat Texas Southern in the First Four before playing Purdue.  After which they shocked the world, 63-58, becoming the second straight small school from New Jersey to knock Zach Edey and Purdue out of the NCAA Tournament.

Biggest Breakthrough: Coco Gauff-She burst onto the scene at Wimbledon in 2019, when she beat Venus Williams in her first-ever Grand Slam match.  Then she made the French Open final in 2022.  In 2023, Coco Gauff became a Grand Slam champion.  It was a brilliant run to the US Open title, too!  Gauff was dominant in the quarters and semis, then came back from a set down to beat Aryna Sabalenka (who had just become No. 1 in the world) in the final.

Best Individual Performance: Shohei Ohtani-Ohtani did his thing again this season, then his free agency was the talk of the offseason (more on that later), but I'm talking specifically about the World Baseball Classic here.  Ohtani played for Japan for the first time since coming over to the Majors and was absolutely brilliant both at the plate and on the mound.  He was named Tournament MVP after clinching Japan's championship by striking out then-teammate Mike Trout for the final out of a 3-2 victory.

Best Team Performance: Spain Women's Soccer-Heading into the Women's World Cup, Spain was considered a possible contender, but I'm not sure anyone thought they would win.  Especially after a 4-0 loss to Japan in the final group stage game.  In the knockout round, though, the Spanish were incredible!  A 5-1 demolition of Switzerland, an extra time victory over the Netherlands, a 2-1 semifinal win over favored Sweden, and a 1-0 triumph over European champion England in the final.  They got better as the tournament progressed and were worthy champions.  Some ugly stuff happened afterwards, but that takes nothing away from what this team accomplished.

Most Memorable Finish: (Tie) Australia vs. France & Sweden vs. USA-How could I pick between either of these Women's World Cup shootouts?  Sweden and the United States went to seven rounds.  Kelly O'Hara's attempt hit the post, then, after Alyssa Naeher got her hands on Sweden's last shot, it slipped behind her and (as replay confirmed) just crossed the line.  Then in the quarterfinals, Australia and France played a scoreless game before an absolutely epic 10-round shootout that the hosts won 7-6.

Most Surprising Development: PGA-LIV Golf Merger-Ever since LIV Golf was formed and started poaching players away from the PGA with multimillion-dollar salaries, there had been nothing but animosity between the two organizations.  There were lawsuits and countersuits, and it sure looked like there would be a prolonged legal fight.  So, it shocked everybody then when the PGA and LIV Golf announced that all litigation would cease and the organizations would merge instead.  We still have no idea what that will look like or if they'll even continue to operate as two separate entities, but the fact that they just randomly started playing nice certainly came out of nowhere.

Biggest Flex: Dodgers-Everyone knew Ohtani would likely set a record for the biggest free agent contract in baseball history.  The Dodgers gave it to him: $700 million for 10 years, despite the fact that he won't be able to pitch at all next season.  But they weren't done signing coveted Japanese free agents.  They also landed the biggest pitching prize of the offseason--Yoshinobu Yamamoto, for 12 years and $325 million.  That's over $1 billion spent on two players in a span of a few weeks!  Just because they could.

Most Significant Transaction/Injury: Aaron Rodgers-It played out like a soap opera.  Rodgers, who wasn't a free agent, declared that he'd "only play for the Jets" this season.  Rather than calling his bluff, the Packers gave him what he wanted and traded him to the Jets, who suddenly became a popular pick to make the playoffs (or even win the AFC).  They scheduled Rodgers' Jets debut for Monday Night Football...only for him to tear his Achilles on their first drive of the season!  Then the next four months were a ridiculous saga about his attempt to rehab quickly so that he can come back and play again this season.  The Jets were eliminated from playoff contention just before that decision had to be made, so he wasn't activated (as if there was ever any chance he'd actually be able to play).

But, above it all, there was absolutely one story that trumps all others as THE biggest of 2023.  It could definitely be classifed as the "Worst," too.  And it will certainly be the most impactful in 2024 and beyond.  And that would be the Death of the Pac-12.

UCLA and USC were already heading to the Big 10 after this season.  That much we knew.  Then Colorado announced they were returning to the Big 12 and all hell broke loose!  Within the course of a few weeks, eight of the 10 remaining Pac-12 members joined either the Big 10 or Big 12, leaving just Cal, Stanford, Washington State and Oregon State.  The former two then accepted an invitation to join the ACC, and suddenly Washington State and Oregon State were a conference of two.

This saga is far from over.  Washington State and Oregon State will operate as a two-team conference for two years, while also having working agreements with the Mountain West for football and West Coast Conference for other sports.  They'll try to keep the Pac-12 alive in the meantime, with the Pac-12's ultimate future likely decided by the outcome of the litigation.  My guess is some sort of merger with the Mountain West.  What that will look like is anyone's guess.

All of this, of course, had a ripple effect on all of college sports--most specifically football.  With the expanded College Football Playoff debuting next season, they've already changed the format from six conference champions and six at-large bids to 5 & 7.  The SEC and Big 10 figure to monopolize those berths, with the teams in those conferences figuring to make a ridiculous amount of money.  That'll certainly be one of the biggest stories of the upcoming year, and definitely something to watch out for as the calendar flips to 2024.