Meet the Sickos Committee: College Football's Offbeat Online Troupe

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Meet the Sickos Committee: College Football's Offbeat Online Troupe

Kyle Wood · Athlon Sports

Thu, Dec 4, 2025 ·

7 min read

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The Sickos Committee is an online community born out of the pandemic that champions all levels of college football . The stranger, the better.

Looking for an update on the SEC game of the week? There are other areas of the internet that might be better suited for your query. But if you're into the oddities that make college football, well, college football — outlandish mascots, poor punts and matchups between teams that can only be described as stoppable forces and movable objects — the Sickos Committee might be for you.

If that describes your degree of college football fandom, chances are you're already a follower of the Sickos Committee . They share highlights, lowlights and other minutiae from the collegiate gridiron to more than 150,000 followers on X, the largest and most active of their social media accounts. And not just on Saturdays. As any real sicko knows, college football takes up much more of the calendar, from midweek MACtion all the way to the Hawaii Test in the wee hours of Sunday morning when most of the mainland has gone to bed.

"I'm pushing the limitations of the human body to watch college football," said George Smith, the commissioner of the committee. ("It's the most plain name you could probably imagine," Smith, 44, said, "and I do the weirdest stuff.")

Smith attended Louisiana-Monroe and grew up in New Orleans, which he said inoculated him to bad football at an early age. He loves it all, anyway, and wants to consume as much of it as possible.

That's how Smith ended up in a Discord server for fans of Shutdown Fullcast, Split Zone Duo and the now-defunct Podcast Ain't Played Nobody, all college football podcasts. In the fall of 2020, fans such as Smith were happy to get any games at all, given the condensed season and COVID cancellations that seemed to occur every week. So he started to rank games based on their weirdness.

"These matchups intrigued me," Smith said. "And I don't watch college football for, 'Hey, you want to watch the No. 1 versus No. 2?' Yes, I am going to watch that game also because I am a college football fan. But also, on the other side of me, the weird Sickos Committee side of me, I want to see what's gonna happen in this game where it's two weaknesses against each other. Like, which one's worse?"

An X (then Twitter) account was created in December 2020, and the Sickos Committee was born. Smith started consistently posting alongside games the following fall and ongoing bits gradually became staples of a growing community. There were rankings, of course, and occasional moments of virality. The committee even created a weather-like alert system to gauge the likelihood of a Sickos Game breaking out.

Five years after its formation, the Sickos Committee has grown exponentially. Beyond X, they have a presence on Instagram , YouTube , BlueSky , Reddit and TikTok . True to their roots, there's a Sickos Committee podcast and Discord , too. They've even branched out from college football with spinoffs, including Sickos CBB , Sickos of Summer (baseball), Sickos on Ice (hockey) and 2 Fast 2 Sickos (motorsports).

"I still don't know how we have this many followers," Smith said. "It's not like I planned this, but sometimes things happen by accident for a reason."

The Sickos' mascot is derived from a cartoon in The Onion . At first, the original Sickos Guy was the profile picture. The cartoonist, Ward Sutton, approved the use and later drew up a version of the sicko with a pennant and foam finger wearing a football helmet and jersey. He receives a majority of the profits from licensed Sickos Committee merchandise, and his creation has become synonymous with any and all things weird in the world of college football.

It's a lot to process if you're not extremely into college football and extremely online. Smith said he understands Sickos Committees' unique humor and approach to consuming the sport doesn't resonate with everyone.

"Some people just didn't like us, or they didn't understand what we were doing," he said. "And they're like, 'Hey, you guys are making fun of my team.' I'm like, 'No, we are with you.'"

Because of the propensity for their online presence to be taken the wrong way, the Sickos Committee is calculated in their posting. They try to maintain a positive tone and operate as if they already have two strikes against them simply because of the nature of their name.

"We're not trash talking to anybody," Smith said. "We're trying to celebrate everything."

It's not just Smith behind the page. He has help from other members of the committee; it takes more than one person to keep tabs on 766 college football programs, after all.

When possible, the committee has boots on the ground. Smith was at the Kibbie Dome recently, the home of the University of Idaho football team, handing out Sickos Committee stickers. They're also regulars at the FCS title game. And the famous photo of the remains of the edible mascot at the first Pop-Tarts Bowl was taken by committee member Katie Shook.

And what better way to become even more ingrained in college football lore than to sponsor a Division III bowl game ? (Yes, those exist). The Sickos Committee was among the sponsors for the Extra Points Bowl between Mount St. Joseph and Westminster in November.

Adding to the committee's legitimacy, "Sickos" now has a Wikipedia page , which references Sutton's cartoon and its use "as an informal mascot by sports fans who take enjoyment in games involving struggling teams or unusual circumstances."

"It's cool to be a part of college football as a whole, and to see a weird, broad acceptance of what we are," Smith said. "On our Instagram page, we're getting tagged in Ivy League posts. It's like, 'The Ivy League has invited you to be a collaborator.' And I'm like, 'OK … this is cool.'"

Noting that most college football coverage focuses on a few dozen teams at the top of the sport, Smith is happy to help provide a platform for the other 100 or so FBS programs, not to mention the lower levels of football.

"I didn't take a Sickocratic oath or anything like that," Smith said. "But this is what we do, and this is what we enjoy."

Smith has hopes to take the Sickos Committee to a place where it can support him and his college football-loving members financially. He believes they're on the right path there — schools have collaborated with them more often as their brand grows. Still, he admits a sponsorship might be necessary at some point in addition to their merchandise and paid Patreon subscriptions.

Smith laments that college football is a one-season sport. And as that season winds down, he's working hard to turn the Sickos Committee into a legitimate business.

"If I can do this for the rest of my life, man, I would love it so much. It would be a dream come true," Smith said. "It's a bit of a blessing and kind of lining up with a weird midlife crisis at the same time. Being the guy that's like, 'Hey, man, you have a normal insurance job, and now you do college football sports with a weird logo that's unshaven.' Yeah, sure, I didn't have that on my bingo card."

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Dec 4, 2025, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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