Hey, all.
There’s really never a good lede for something like this, and if there was, it’d probably be self-indulgent anyway. So, here it is: yesterday was my last day at CFT. Beginning today, I’m moving on to a new opportunity in my career (and if you’re looking for more information, you can find it on my Twitter account).
You’ll still see some conference previews over the next day or so with my byline on them like some sort of ghost of college football past, but this is my last post.
I’m sad to be leaving CFT and NBCSports. I’ve had three tremendous years here and there are a lot of people who are responsible for that. Rather than spend (most of) my last post on CFT talking about me, I’d like to take a few moments and acknowledge them.
First, I have to thank my loving family and friends, who have given me their unconditional support and understanding while I chase the dream.
Thank you to Mike Florio and Larry Mazza. They’re two of the brightest, hardest working gents I’ve ever had the pleasure of getting to know. They were there from Day 1 and gave me a chance out of faith. I am forever thankful to them.
Thank you to Tom Seely, Rick Cordella, Mike Miller, all the news desk guys and gals, past and present. There are some truly great people at NBC and I can’t say enough about how much fun they’ve been to work with over the years.
Thank you, John. Y’all, he’s more than my boss. He’s become a dear friend and I’ll cherish that for the rest of my life. I feel blessed to have had such a solid working and personal relationship with him. There were days when we’d literally email each other at the same time about the same site-related things. It was beyond creepy.
Finally, thank you. Yes, you. Thank you for reading, for making CFT a part of your day… or week… or whenever it is you visit. I appreciate it and I know John appreciates it. We haven’t always agreed on things, and that’s okay because you all have continued to be so loyal to this site. That alone rises above everything else. I mean, there were days when I could barely construct a sentence with a proper subject-verb agreement -- yet y’all kept on comin’ back anyway.
I’ll certainly miss it here. CFT has been such a big part of my life over these last three years. It’s one of the first things I see in the morning and usually the last thing I shut down before I go to bed. Naturally, there is a sense of ownership I’ve gained from all of this. Moving on is definitely going to take some getting used to, but I will always look back on my time here fondly. Who knows, maybe our paths will cross again some day.
Until then, and with tears unapologetically welling up in my eyes, I say be good to each other, enjoy the season, and go Mean Green.
Signing off,
Ben