Golden: My bad, Mr. Mahomes, you're now the tops on this list, that list and every list

Let this serve as an official announcement.

I, Cedric Golden, being of sound mind and portly but improving body, do hereby announce on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023 that I will never doubt Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes again.

And the rest of you non-Chiefs fans should fall in line as well.

Mahomes isn’t even halfway through his career and he’s making Rushmore-like strides. At just 27, he has two Super Bowl notches on his belt over the last four seasons, which is slightly behind the pace Tom Brady set when he won three in a four-year span from 2001-04.

Golden:Super Bowl starters Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts making the right kind of history

In what turned out to be an epic battle with Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts, Mahomes showed why he is more than capable of making an all-out assault on TB-12’s record seven Super Bowls. The man shrugged off a high ankle sprain two weeks ago against a powerful Bengals team, kicked an aggravated high ankle sprain in the teeth at the end of the first half on the sport’s biggest stage and figured out a way to will his team to a win after it had been pretty much dominated early on.

After their 38-35 comeback win, I'm picking the Chiefs to take it all next year, and the next and the next. As long as PM-15 is behind center and Andy Reid is the head coach, KC has to be the favorite.

Patrick Mahomes has Tom Brady in his sights

Captain Comeback: There was a moment in the second quarter — right before Jalen Hurts fumbled and Nick Bolton scooped and scored to tie it at 14-14 — where you looked at someone at your private gathering or sports bar and came to the same realization:

Philadelphia is a better football team than Kansas City.

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How wrong we were.

I’m not completely down with the live betting formats on these websites, but the money coming in on the Eagles to take this thing home in the second half had to be huge. They were up 24-14 at the intermission and had the look of a team preparing for its date with destiny.

That’s where a fool and his money are so often parted.

Mahomes revealed that clutch gene familiar with only the greatest of the greats. Just like Brady before him, he paid no attention to the optics and went out and grabbed it for himself and his team.

While Philly burns, shed no tears for Hurts, who showed he will surely be back on this stage at his rapid rate of progression.

Philadelphia’s point total was the most ever by a losing Super Bowl team and Hurts' 304 passing yards and record three rushing touchdowns for a quarterback were both awe-inspiring and tremendous teases for what we can expect to see from the 24-year-old in the future.

On any other day, he would be the one heading to Disneyland.

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He lost to an all-time great who has plenty of tread left on his football tires. Mahomes could quit today and be ready for a gold jacket, one of the first-ballot quality.

It’s his world and the rest of us are just paying rent.

What took the Big 12, Texas, Oklahoma so long?

Finally, mark your calendars: Now that we know the Big 12 will be a 14-team conference for the 2023 season with Texas and Oklahoma leaving for the SEC in 2024, the biggest question is why couldn’t this have been sooner?

The anger at the Horns and Sooners for making a back-room deal under the noses of Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby and the other school administrators is understandable, but once things cooled off, the bigwigs and their lawyers should have hunkered down in their legal bunkers and come up with a suitable agreement for all parties involved.

The Big 12 wanted its greenbacks in full, but $100 million would have spent just as well last summer.

More:Texas men try to stay atop Big 12 basketball standings on trip to Texas Tech

The national writers who proclaimed that Texas and Oklahoma would have to serve out the last two seasons of the agreement should go back and check their sources because we’re here now. It’s unfortunate that BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston must enter this messy fray when the divorce could have been amicably settled before the new schools took residence.

So prepare for Big 12 Farewell Tour 2023.

At least as far as the blue bloods are concerned.

The future SEC looks loaded in basketball, too

SEC, say hello again to Vic Schaefer: While the news of Texas and Oklahoma departing is mostly a football conversation, I couldn’t help but think how good women's basketball will be in the SEC.

We know the Big 12 is the best league on the men's side, but it will be fun to watch former SEC head coach Vic Schaefer navigate his old haunts in his current area code. His Mississippi State teams made it to two Final Fours, but the heat will get turned it up even higher given the star power in the SEC.

Texas' women's basketball should have us hyped

Texas is on the rise: No. 1 South Carolina took out No. 3 LSU in a battle of unbeatens Sunday, a nice little prelude to the Super Bowl as shown by Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley, a Philly native, sporting a Randall Cunningham throwback jersey on the sideline.

If we’re doing a Mount Rushmore of NCAA coaches still working, Staley — the biggest Eagles fan on the planet — and LSU’s Kim Mulkey are unquestionably on it.

It was great hoops, which offered up the question of Texas. Schaefer's Longhorns were in first place in the Big 12 entering Monday's game at Iowa State and have aspirations of being a No. 2 or No. 3 seed for the NCAA Tournament.

Schaefer has never been one to back down from a challenge. The cool part is if the Horns are as good as I think they are, we'll see them against one of these Rushmore programs sooner rather than later.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Patrick Mahomes adds to his Super Bowl legend (and earns my apology)