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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Oh you ready to witness business football fans. Welcome to
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Radios Countdown to Kickoff.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
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Speaker 3 (00:24):
Let's go.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
We're here to break it all down. Yeah God, this
is Fox Sports Radios Countdown to Kickoff, presented by Bett
emg App. We're live from your tailgate. Here's Brian Nook,
former Penn State All American, Rich Hornberger, and FSR betting
analyst Jared Smith.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
Oh what is going on? Welcome in here.

Speaker 5 (00:47):
Happy Saturday to you on a conference championship Saturday.

Speaker 4 (00:53):
If you will, hope all is well. Hope the day
is off to a great start.

Speaker 5 (00:57):
You know we're gonna get to of course, the conference
champi and hip game matchups. We'll get to the college
football playoff picture. A lot of moving parts here. The
committee's getting very cold feet when it comes to my irish.
I'm not happy about this, but uh hey, we start
off with Penn.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
State's got a head coach.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
How about that?

Speaker 5 (01:16):
Someone finally said, yes, finally, I'll go to the ball
with you, says Matt Campbell.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
But first, good morning, Good morning, Rich, Good morning Jared.
Everything good with you, guys.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Everything's great.

Speaker 6 (01:27):
Everything's seems to be coming up Nitney Lions this morning.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
My goodness.

Speaker 6 (01:32):
Yeah, I mean, all is right in the happiest valley
of all state college Pennsylvania.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
My good funky route to get there though, all right, yeah,
I would agree. I like the Higher.

Speaker 6 (01:45):
It was kind of what I was thinking would happen.
It's not the sexiest Higher. It's certainly not a name
that was being screamed from the mountaintop, says one of
the well, frankly many possibilities for the job when it
became open.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
And also, I think that.

Speaker 6 (02:04):
You know, this being a coach with head coaching credibility,
a decade's worth at a program that he really helped
turn around and then keep at the top of its
conference in college football. I think it's good Higher. I
really do.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
It's a strong higher.

Speaker 6 (02:24):
And I think the one thing that I'm a little
hesitant because I don't know is how is this going
to work out on the recruiting trail and the transfer portal.
I'll have to do a deeper dive on, you know,
some of the players he was able to lure to
the program while he was the Cyclones head coach. And

(02:45):
think on that a little bit further, but knee.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
Jerk reaction to it.

Speaker 6 (02:50):
I figured I'd like the hire because you'd figure that
Penn State would be able to bait and reel in
a real coach, and that's what they did. Matt Campbell's
a real football coach. This guy knows ball, he knows
how to win, he knows how to turn a program around.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
And I like the hire. What are your thoughts, Jared,
they kind of failed up frankly, Yep, as crazy as
that sounds, they went after the biggest of the big fish,
who had no desire to come to Penn State. They
definitely had a desire to get a raise, and they
definitely took advantage of that. Twenty twenty five was absolutely

(03:28):
the year that James Franklin got like half the coaches
in college football raised. But once once the Sataki thing
fell through, that was definitely the rock bottom moment. And
from what I was told, Sataki was the guy for
a long period of time. At the beginning, it was Elko,
it was Drinkuts, it was Marcus Freeman's name was put

(03:49):
out there Brent Key, Caitlin de boor you had no
chance of getting any of those guys. Those guys all
kind of used Penn State as a fiddle. Sataki was
based off of what I was told, Like it was,
there were real conversations, they actually had a verbal agreement,
but then basically Penn State started a holy war with

(04:11):
like the Twelve Apostles and the CEO of Crumble Cookie
and that was the end of it. And then once
BYU raised their stake, then Sataki frankly was a terrible
fit to leave. You know, religion and all the things
that are involved with the BYU program that are just
not the average football program. I just didn't think it was.
It was like hubris of Pat Kraft's part to even

(04:33):
go after him. The best candidate was Matt Campbell the
whole time, throughout the entire process, and credit Josh Paid
who actually said this like a month ago. The best
candidate was literally the guy that they failed up for.
They didn't look at him, they didn't talk to him
until the very end, and then it just kind of
fell into their lap. I do think he'll bring some

(04:56):
pretty high level talent. I mean, let's just go down
the list, Breeste Hall, David Montgomery, Brock Perdy, Jays Higgins,
Jalen Uel in this draft Peer in this draft on
the same team to the Houston Texans. They've got some
guys that can play that have come through that program
very recently. So I think now that you up the
bounty right, you up the amount of money they can

(05:17):
spend on the roster, I think it'll work. I sometimes
things take weird directions and paths to get there. We've
all had this happen in our careers and in other
parts of our lives where we're going one way and
it just kind of shoots off in the other direction.
But I think the end results pretty good.

Speaker 5 (05:35):
Yeah, That's what's so weird is the path where they
just Penn State was getting turned down left and right,
and then they ended up and you're like, that's pretty good.
It's like they're like spitting game at Kalanie Sataki and
it's like, hey, are you free on Friday? And Kilanie's like, no,
I'm not free on Friday. You kidd meet Jeff brom Hey,
you want to you want to hang out sometimes, Jeff, No,

(05:56):
I don't want to hang out. Hey, Matt ruhle, you
want to like net flicks and chill over it? I
want any part of that. And all of a sudden,
it's like, hey, uh, you want to grab some ice cream?
Dua Lipa and d was just like, yeah, sure, I love.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
Ice cream, and Penn State's like really like that. They
ended up with, like Matt Campbell, that's pretty good. That's
pretty good.

Speaker 5 (06:14):
If you said, hey, I'm dating Dua right now, you'd
be like, wow, that's wow, that's amazing.

Speaker 4 (06:19):
Great job, but just such a weird path.

Speaker 5 (06:22):
But they ended up with a dude that's got the credentials,
he's highly thought of. We'll see what type of job
he does at Penn State. But the route was so weird.
And have you guys seen these reports that they initially
Penn State initially put out it's feelers to see if
if Matt Campbell was interested in the job, And apparently
it was like the wrong inner circle that they reached

(06:45):
out to. I don't even understand what's going on here.
So I could just picture these dopes at Penn State, like,
let's see if Campbell's interested, and someone at the table's like,
I think he's got a friend named.

Speaker 7 (06:56):
Todd and It's like, let's get to Campbell's who going
after Let's see I think he knows a guy named Matt, Like, well,
let's get the other Matt on the phone and see
if Matt Campbell's what are you?

Speaker 5 (07:06):
You're reaching out to the wrong people in the inner circle.

Speaker 4 (07:10):
How ridiculous is that?

Speaker 5 (07:12):
But that was the story, is that they put out
their feelers in the wrong direction and they didn't even
know Matt Campbell was interested in them this whole time.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
How crazy is that.

Speaker 6 (07:24):
I don't want to embarrass anybody because because these stories
can be embarrassing. But I was talking to a general
manager one time about situations like that, like because.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
Something happened or was reported on.

Speaker 6 (07:39):
That was like it was similar to what you're talking about, Brian,
where you know it was misconnection that led to this,
that led to this. Well, there are so many examples
in the NFL of guys who were called because all
of a sudden there was an injury on a roster
and a player's agent was called, and then the player

(08:01):
was called like nineteen times, but he was he was sleeping,
or he was hunting, or he was on vacation and
didn't have access to his phone.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
And all of a sudden, they're like.

Speaker 6 (08:11):
We need a kicker, So if your guy doesn't answer
the phone in an hour, we're moving on to the
next kicker. And so all of a sudden, the next
guy gets a phone call, and then the agent who
was called first calls back and it's like, hey, what
about us, And they're like, no, we're on the phone
with the other guy now. And like literally, there have
been situations where because a guy was sleeping or a

(08:35):
guy broke his phone because he got in a fight
with his girlfriend, didn't get the phone call and somebody
else did.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
And then you start hearing the story about the way.

Speaker 6 (08:44):
The season went for that team that hired the guy
who they didn't want, but got the call because the
guy they wanted didn't answer the phone, and all of
a sudden, boom, it's a success. It actually doesn't shock
me because these things happen more often than you think.
What these with these these these colleges, these football programs do.

(09:04):
They hire basically an outside consultancy and they get in
touch with people they've worked with in the past, and
they the firm that they entrust to help them through
the coaching surge. They're the ones that put out the feelers.
So like when Penn State and their board of trustees
or you know, their general manager or their athletic director says, hey,

(09:28):
we haven't reached out to anybody.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
This football program hasn't reached out to anybody.

Speaker 6 (09:32):
That is true because a consulting firm has reached out
to people on their behalf, and so they're able to
put out that that statement to the press and have
it be true. And sometimes these firms don't have up
to date information on the correct agent to call. So
I mean, as ridiculous as that sound, and as like bonkers.

(09:56):
You know, in our Lord's year twenty twenty five, that's
someone didn't have the right phone number for Matt Campbell's
people and they ended up calling the people who make
the can tomato soup or whoever they were on the
phone with it. It Actually, it happens more than you think.
And God blessed the broken road that led him straight

(10:16):
to us.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
That's all I have to say.

Speaker 6 (10:19):
As a former Nitny lion, I think, like I said,
the more we talk about it this morning, the more
my mind ups reeling on what's next, what's next, what's next?
And start settling into Okay, Hopefully this guy can rehash.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
Basically what he was able to do with a Toledo.

Speaker 6 (10:40):
Program prior to being the Iowa State head coach and
where he was a winner with both of those programs.

Speaker 3 (10:46):
So I think it's gonna work out.

Speaker 6 (10:48):
I think Penn State did a nice job hiring him,
even though they did a poor job of getting his
contact info out the gates.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
I'm gonna make it feel better in a minute, rich,
even better than you feel this morning. But first, what
you're describing is the reason why I get anxiety about
ever leaving my phone, because I remember even a few
weeks ago. A few weeks ago, I was out running
on the trails where I get no service, and that's
when ABC News called for me to do that segment
about the gambling scandal stuff, and I was literally and

(11:19):
I got the call back as I was driving in
back into like the city where I was getting service again,
and I got like two emails back to back that
like were waiting for me on the on the no
service bus and then all of a sudden they pit
and I.

Speaker 4 (11:33):
Was like, oh man, I gotta get back to this.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
Like it gives me anxiety because you always have to
be available. It's a very like unsettling way to live.
But when you are in our business, or really in
any business, it just availability is a huge all right,
you want to make it feel better? Right now, not
only did they hire Matt Campbell, but they retained Terry Smith. Oh,

(11:58):
there you go. That cannot be overstated how important that is.
He is basically a Penn State lifer, and I think
he holds the keys to preventing a mass exodus in
the portal. Now people will still leave in the portal.
It's the portal, first of all. Second of all, there's
a new coach, and I'm sure people are gonna want

(12:20):
to go to either Virginia Tech or elsewhere to follow
James Franklin. But there was obviously a very big push
to hire Terry Smith. There was like a whole campaign
on that last game that night. And I think keeping
Terry Smith is even more important, maybe not more important,
as important, right on the level of importance as hiring

(12:40):
a good coach, because now you actually have a chance
to keep some guys and not have to completely start
from scratch. And Terry Smith, I think is a perfect
candidate to be like a GM. And I also heard
rumblings that Packcraft might be getting, you know, renegotiated with
what his duties are because this search was an ABD
salute train wreck. Brian, Yeah, train.

Speaker 5 (13:03):
Well, what's funny is what Rich is talking about in
the NFL, where it's just like a calamity. Some of
these stories that are comparable to Penn State, like putting
their feelers out to the wrong people to initially gauge
Matt Campbell's interest. I remember two famous stories I'll share
with you real fast, so you probably remember both of these,

(13:23):
where one of them was the Cameron Jordan Jordan Cameron story.
Remember this, this goes back to twenty eleven with the Browns.
They're intending to draft Jordan Cameron, who is a tight
end out of USC In the fourth round, they dial
up Cameron Jordan, who is a defensive lineman you know,

(13:46):
out of cal And And so they call up Cameron Jordan,
the defensive player and they're like, yo, we're about to
take you, and Cam Jordan's like, I've already been selected.

Speaker 4 (13:55):
What are you guys talking about?

Speaker 5 (13:56):
And they're like, oh, flip flop the name my bad,
Like stay almost put the.

Speaker 3 (14:02):
Gard in for the wrong guy.

Speaker 5 (14:04):
And of course even more famous than that, how about
our guy Belichick. So it goes back to when the
Giants were hiring their last head coach, Belichick reached out
to Brian Flores, and Belichick texted him, was like, congratulations
the Giants job.

Speaker 4 (14:22):
That's a great gig for you. Oh yeah, And Brian
Flores is like, what are you talking about?

Speaker 5 (14:26):
I interview like tomorrow or whatever it was, and Belichick's like, oh,
the wrong Brian. He meant to hit up Brian Dable,
who got the job. He was trying to congratulate Dable
accidentally congratulated Brian Flores, who didn't get the job, and
then has lawsuits against NFL teams the NFL as a whole,

(14:48):
claiming that they're racist because Belichick reached out to the
wrong guy.

Speaker 4 (14:53):
So it does happen. Craziness does take place.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
There's no question about it.

Speaker 6 (14:58):
And look at I mean, it's it's almost like reading
what it's a People magazine or one of the tabloids
that you see on the grocery line. Like stars, they're
just like us, Like you know, we all have had
that moment where it's like, oh my gosh, who did
I just send that text message.

Speaker 3 (15:16):
To everyone everyone. Look, we all do it.

Speaker 6 (15:19):
And then you know, that's the reason why some of
these the new iOS updates on the iPhone or some
of these new Android updates, they allow you to unsend
or edit a text message that's already been sent, because
it gives you that ten or fifteen seconds before maybe
the person reads their text, to switch up what you

(15:41):
were saying and have it be the right thing or
send to the correct person. Man, I'll tell you right now,
it happens more than you think. But again, for Penn
State's sake, for college football's sake, I think college football
is better when traditional powers are actually playing good football.
I said this about the NFL this year. The NFL

(16:02):
is great. It's been a fun watch. It's plenty good.
I never have any complaints.

Speaker 3 (16:08):
You know.

Speaker 6 (16:08):
Look, fifty seven million people tuned in for Cowboys Chiefs
on Thanksgiving Day. The NFL still is a draw. However,
I think the NFL is better when you have a
measuring bar team, having a great Chiefs team that everybody
else has to measure up to, or when the Niners
are good, or you know, when the Patriots were good,
when you had dynasties it's a good because they are.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
The litmus tests for the NFL.

Speaker 6 (16:33):
It's like, oh, if you beat this team, or if
you even keep it close with this team, you're a
pretty dang good team, or.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
Or maybe you're better than we thought you were. Like,
I think it helps.

Speaker 6 (16:43):
And so in college football, when the Bammas of the world,
in the Ohio States of the world and the Penn
States of the world are good and they have good
talent and good coaching and they're led well, I think
that's better for college football. So I think this higher
is a good high. It's a crazy route to get
there for Penn State, but I think Matt Campbell's gonna

(17:04):
have a lot of success with the Nitney Lions.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
Yeah. A little humble pie, I think definitely. Penn State
served got served a little humble pie here too. I
think they're not like a lockdown top ten program that
everybody wants to come to, because I think what happened
was Pat Kraft had a little hubers here. I think
he thought I'm gonna fire James Franklin in October, and
what I did by that was give him two months

(17:28):
to get his troops together, and everyone's gonna want to
come to Penn State. Everyone's gonna want to be knocking
down our door to come here. Based off of his
wish list, which is the best coaches in college football.
It was obvious that they thought this was going to
be an easy process and they got served a little
humble pie. Now, sometimes that can be a good thing.
Sometimes that can be a good thing. Sometimes that can

(17:49):
reset your expectation, it can recalibrate maybe the direction of
the program a little bit. So I don't necessarily think
it's a bad thing that it happened this way, but
it was definitely I was twisted in the win Man
Like the last couple of weeks was really right, Like
this last week when everyone is hiring their head coach
Michigan and Kentucky excuse me, Michigan State and Kentucky fire

(18:14):
and hire a head coach within twenty four hours, and
you got players tweeting to like Tony Row. I was like,
why don't we got a higer a head coach. It
was a rough week, definitely, But I don't know. You
want to pull from the Batman movie, you know, the
night is darkest before the dawn kind of cliche, like
that's kind of how it felt this week, but it's
over now and the happy ending definitely occurred, and now

(18:38):
we can look forward because I do think the future
is bright. I think there is a lot of potential
and we'll see, we'll see what they do in the portal.
The recruiting class was a disaster, I mean an absolute disaster.
There's another one coming in February, and then the portal
opens in January, so there's a couple of months where
they can kind of get things back on track. But

(18:59):
the last week, if you were a Penn State fan,
unless you were living under a rock, you've had a
rough week.

Speaker 5 (19:07):
All right, We've got rich Oronberger, Penn State, All American,
Jared Smith, FSR betting analyst, I'm Brian No. Register with
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(19:28):
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City today, but we'll simplify it. It is not as
complicated as it seems with this playoff race, and more importantly,
was my brilliance overlooked yet again?

Speaker 4 (19:48):
Details on the way.

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(20:58):
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the BEDMGM app. Okay, So I don't know if anybody
out there listening is like me. When you start hearing
scenario after scenario after scenario, you hear like the seventeenth

(21:18):
scenario and you forget the first scenario, which is most
likely to happen, you know what I mean. So with
the college football playoff picture like starting to come into
form here, I think it boils down to this. If
you try to simplify everything, it starts with BYU. BYU
plays the morning game, it's the Big twelve championship game.

(21:39):
If BYU wins somehow, it shrinks the playoff field. Okay,
that puts Notre Dame in Miami in jeopardy of missing out.
They're probably going to lose. They're huge underdogs. Texas Tech
whooped them in the first go around. There's a very
good chance they whoop them again in this one. So
let's play this out. If BYU loses, which is most

(22:01):
likely to happen, then you have three teams for two spots.
That's the way it's gonna work. You've got Alabama, You've
got Notre Dame, You've got Miami. You would have those
three teams duking it out for the final two spots.
That's most likely the way it's going to work out.
But I do have to say, before you go, Rich
and before you go Jared, that I did tell you

(22:23):
weeks ago Notre Dame was not a lock, not a lock.
And shockingly, I got pushback from the Penn State brigade,
which is normally very open minded, very receptive, very.

Speaker 4 (22:35):
Come on in, no, what opinions do you have?

Speaker 5 (22:37):
Very welcoming, you know, soothing, I would say, but no,
there was pushback this. I'm like, oh, I think Notre
Dame's in for sure, Like I Jeremiah Love hurt.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
Yeah, what happened last week? Jeremiah Love got hurt.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
Jeremiah Love got hurt.

Speaker 4 (22:50):
Yeah, And so I'm worried.

Speaker 5 (22:52):
I'm worried to dam at my wits end, worried about
this committee getting cold feet with Notre Dame and having
Bama jump them. And now if Miami's next door to
Notre Dame, this changes thing.

Speaker 4 (23:03):
What are you guys talking about. I'm worried. I'm worried
right now.

Speaker 5 (23:06):
But it boils down to Notre Tame is certainly not
a lock, and we'll see if they can get in
or not.

Speaker 6 (23:14):
Yes, I I okay, So as we come down the stretch. Look,
I'm I'm willing to completely admit when I'm wrong. This
is a closer race than I assumed it would be.
And if I have to admit, man be no was
right all along, I'll be happy to. You know, given
the head to head victory or loss against Miami earlier,

(23:37):
I still think an Alabama loss in the SEC championship
game still gives them the angle to be that nine
seed in the bracket, like you know, or really a
seed in the bractet. We'll see where they land, but
I do think that Notre Dame is in still and

(24:00):
still get the nod over Miami. Now, don't get me wrong,
I've been wrong about these predictions in the past and
that's what's so confounding about the playoff picture. I wish
there was an easier way to determine, or more straightforward
way to know what these selectors are discussing or what

(24:23):
they're acknowledging more or less, because I think that transparency
would actually make college football fans enjoy this process more.
There's got to be a way to welcome not necessarily
more voices or opinions into the room, but just more
eyes on a great product. You know, I think we

(24:45):
should know more than we do, essentially, is what I'm saying.
But look, we don't live in a utopia. I don't
think that ever really will happen, because I do think
sometimes conversations behind the scenes are circled around things that
probably shouldn't matter, like, hey, which team is gonna do
better for television ratings? Like I do think that conversation
essentially does happen at a certain point when you're getting

(25:08):
down to the nitty gritty, and that's unfortunate because I
don't think that's what you should look at if you are,
if you are the the committee that decides on which
team stays and which team goes in terms of a
playoff bracket.

Speaker 3 (25:23):
But I digress.

Speaker 6 (25:24):
Is there a possibility that Notre Dame doesn't make the playoff?

Speaker 3 (25:28):
Yes? Do I think it's a likely scenario even still today? No,
I'll be honest, I'm with Brian on this one. Yeah,
I think mark tape, Mark tape. I think the flip
was intentional. I mean, let's be honest. Bama did not,
you know, blow the doors off of Auburn over the weekend.

(25:49):
They got out to a nice lead, they lost the
running back who's probably not gonna play today, who is
actually running it really well. But that is not a
positive for moving them up in the rankings. But they did.
And I don't want to say it was like a
Maya Kolpa by the committee.

Speaker 4 (26:08):
Yeah, but it was.

Speaker 3 (26:10):
It kind of felt out of place, right. I didn't
understand why they moved BAM up in the rankings. I
didn't get it, and why they moved Notre Dame down.
It didn't make any sense to me. There was no
evidence based off of their play last Saturday, for that
to take place, but they did it, and I think
they kind of nudged us closer to the inevitable outcome.

(26:33):
And to be fair, as much as Notre Dame I
think is a top five power rated team, but there's
a difference between best team and most deserving. Notre Dame
is better than Miami. If they played tomorrow, Notre Dame
would be favored, but they played already and Miami won,
So we have to take that into account. And if

(26:55):
we don't take it into account, then we are opening
up an entire new Pandora's Box of crap that we
have to sift through to figure out who are the
twelve teams they are going to pick for this playoff. Now,
BYU can do everyone a favor in about three hours
and just beat Texas Tech, and then it won't matter
because then neither Notre Dame or Miami will be getting in,

(27:18):
and they'll put in BYU and Texas Tech probably will
drop to the ten seed, and then we'll just go
from there. I don't know if that'll happen. It's unlikely
obviously as a double digit underdog, but also, to be fair,
stranger things have happened, especially on Championship Saturday, so let's
not completely rule that out. But I do agree with
Brian's premise. In a vacuum BYU losing their out, Notre

(27:41):
Dame then is kissed up against Miami and the rankings,
and at that point you have to take the head
to head more seriously when you are evaluating both of
those teams.

Speaker 5 (27:52):
Yeah, listen, it's a little bit like how we started
off the show with Penn State, right. It's it's the
right outcome, but it was the wrong path. And that's
what you're seeing with this playoff committee. And in my opinion,
in a couple of instances, and coincidentally, my Irish are
involved in both of them. If you look at Notre
Dame versus Alabama, I think that it's the right outcome

(28:16):
that Alabama was ranked higher, but the wrong path. So
if you go back three weeks ago, you had Alabama
lose to Oklahoma and Alabama dropped below Notre Dame at
the time, and so for the next two weeks, Notre
Dame was ranked ahead of Alabama. I didn't agree with that.
I thought Alabama's resume was better. Alabama had many more

(28:38):
impressive wins than Notre Dame did. Now Notre Dame had
better losses, but the better wins check mark went to
Alabama easily. Like Alabama played a gauntlet compared to Notre
Dame schedule, so I never would have had Notre Dame
ahead of Alabama for the last couple of weeks that
the committee did. But the committee, they basically looked at
it and they tried to oversell the win over Auburn

(29:01):
when it was really like, you know what, we probably
should have had Alabama over Notre Dame this whole time,
you know, And so they're like, this is what Hunter you'
achech had to say, the committee chair, this is just laughable.

Speaker 10 (29:12):
Notre Dame went on the road, had a strong win
at Stanford, but Alabama went on the road and a
rivalry game looked really good, especially in the first half.
Getting up seventeen to nothing.

Speaker 4 (29:22):
Oh my lord, like, what are we doing right now?
It was seventeen seventeen after.

Speaker 5 (29:27):
That lead that went away, But oh man, that the
first half from Alabama really impressive.

Speaker 4 (29:32):
What are you guys talking?

Speaker 3 (29:33):
That's when games are won, Brian, in the first half, right,
everyone knows that it's so bad.

Speaker 5 (29:39):
But yeah, and it was another one of those deals
where it's like, hey, if if BAMA loses to Georgia
in the SEC title game, we probably should have Bama
ninth because they're on the chopping block. If they're yeah,
they're absolutely that went into it. So I think it's
the right outcome that Bama's ranked ahead of Notre Dame.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
Wrong path.

Speaker 5 (29:59):
You can't just to fight doing that after they barely
beat war Eagle, a five and seven team, you know,
like a riverboat gambling at the end on the fourth
and two conversion.

Speaker 4 (30:09):
That was crazy.

Speaker 5 (30:10):
And the other one, I'll say real fast is Notre
Dame versus Miami. Now I've said on this show many
times as a Notre Dame die hard from South Bend,
that Miami should be ranked ahead of Notre Dame. If
it's down to the final spot, Miami should get it.
Notre Dame should not.

Speaker 4 (30:27):
When you have a head to head win, that's the
trump card. I get it.

Speaker 5 (30:31):
If Notre Dame played Murderer's Row and Miami played the
weakest schedule in the history college football, find their neck
and neck in strength of schedule.

Speaker 4 (30:39):
It's slightly to Notre Dame's favor. In that case.

Speaker 5 (30:43):
You have to consider head to head, and the committee
is saying, well, you know, one idle team can jump
another idle team.

Speaker 3 (30:51):
Hmm.

Speaker 5 (30:52):
I wonder which idle teams they're They're talking about Miami
and Notre Dame and if they're next door to each other,
somehow this changes everything in the committee's mind, which is
laughable again, but I think that Notre Dame should have
been ranked below Miami this whole time. And I think
if it's down to the final spot, which it very

(31:13):
well could be, I think the Committee is gonna put
Miami in there.

Speaker 4 (31:17):
It's been nothing but.

Speaker 5 (31:18):
Week after week after week where these talking heads are like,
you have to consider head to head, what is the
committee doing?

Speaker 4 (31:25):
And they're already starting to get cold feet. You can
tell they are.

Speaker 5 (31:29):
And I think if it's in the Miami and it's
that that last spot, they're gonna go with the Canes.

Speaker 4 (31:34):
I really think they're gonna do that.

Speaker 6 (31:37):
I I don't think so. And here's the reason why.
It's because and and again I'm happy.

Speaker 4 (31:44):
To be wrong, but I I pray you're wrong, right, No, no, no, And.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
I know you do.

Speaker 6 (31:51):
And I think there's a lot of Golden domers out
there who hope I'm wrong or or or yeah, like,
who hope I have it right about out Notre Dame
making their way into the postseason, because let's face it,
we have precedent for this where the best team goes
to the CFP, not the most deserving team. You had

(32:13):
a Florida State team with Jordan Travis. We actually talked
about this a week or two ago, who was undefeated
in the twenty twenty three CFP. And it feels like
deja vous all over again because we had the same
conversation about one loss, Texas or Alabama both being better teams,
better teams based on Florida State's quarterback situation where you

(32:39):
have a backup playing. But it didn't matter to the committee.
It didn't matter who was the most deserving. They just said, hey,
look Texas and Bama, they are going to be better
options for us in this postseason bracket than Florida State.

Speaker 3 (32:55):
And then you also have that told just so lost.

Speaker 6 (32:58):
To Georgia in the Orange that everybody sort of wrung
their hands about who are Seminoles fans saying, well, they
were demoralized, a lot of people sat out of the bowl.

Speaker 3 (33:08):
Game, etc. Etc.

Speaker 6 (33:11):
This is a can of worms that they've opened in
their very recent history, and guess what they're gonna catch
so much less flack for this, even though there's a
head to head victory They're gonna catch so much less
flack for this because we're talking about the bottom of
a twelve team bracket as opposed to the very tippy
top of college football as we know it. We're talking

(33:33):
about the four seed, we're talking about a conference champion.
We're talking about an undefeated team. And yes, tragedies struck.
They found a way to finish the season the right
way for the Seminoles, and that is very different. I
understand the situations aren't the same, but the feeling is
the same, where the better team is going to make

(33:53):
it as opposed to the more deserving team. And I
think you can make plenty arguments about how Miami made
deserve it more, and you can make and and trust me,
I'll believe them. But I think they want Notre Dame
to be there more, and I think that's a more
compelling argument for the committee.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
Then then we realize, Yeah, I kind of feel like
the nudge in the rankings was your foreshadowing. I think
Notre Dame is a better team. I do, I really do.
I've got them rated higher. I think every power rating
service in the country that I've seen has them rated higher.
But when you play each other and you lose. I mean,

(34:34):
it's it's hard for me to make that argument. It's
really hard for me to make the argument for Notre
Dame to get in, very hard, hard.

Speaker 5 (34:40):
Yeah, that's the tough part. Like, last thing I'll say is,
as a Notre Dame fan, if Miami got the nod
over Notre Dame, part of me wouldn't hate it because
I think that's what should happen, right, But the other
part of me would absolutely despise it because the committee,
week after week after through week, despite what everybody is saying,

(35:02):
they're like, no, no, no, Notre Dame over Miami every week,
and then at the last minute, when this is the
only poll that matters, right, like this is the only
this determines who's in and who's out, then at the
last minute you're like, yeah, no, Miami over Notre Dame.

Speaker 4 (35:22):
We're kind of just kidding the whole time.

Speaker 5 (35:24):
It's like what you've done to the ken Bai No no, no,
Notre Dame over Miami, and then at the last second,
the eleventh hour, then you flip flop them.

Speaker 4 (35:34):
That would suck.

Speaker 5 (35:36):
So it's a weird, weird scenario to be living in
as a Notre Dame Fan.

Speaker 4 (35:40):
But we'll see how it works out, man. We'll see right.

Speaker 5 (35:43):
We've got rich Oroornberger, Penn State All American, Jared Smith, FSR,
Betting Analyst. I'm Brian No coming up next to parlay platter,
which have one selection for you.

Speaker 4 (35:51):
We pull it together for a greater payout. Hey, we
hit last week. Let's see if we can go back
to back.

Speaker 5 (35:56):
It is Fox Sports Radios Countdown to kick Off presented
by Bedam. It is Fox Sports Radios Campdown to Kickoff
presented by bet MGM. Every time you make a wager
at BETMGM, you earn BETMGM rewards points that could be
redeemed for things like bonus bets or converted to MGM
rewards points that could be used towards dining shows and

(36:16):
hotel rooms at over twenty MGM resorts. And be sure
to follow BETMGM across all socials at BETMGM.

Speaker 4 (36:24):
All right, let's do this.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
Check this out our late letter.

Speaker 5 (36:30):
All right, we each have one selection for you. We
pull it together for a greater payout. And before we
unveil the platter this week, how about we look backward
to the platter last week.

Speaker 4 (36:42):
It was a hit it was a win.

Speaker 5 (36:44):
Jared had a Vandy and Tennessee over sixty eight and
a half. It got there, got to the magical number,
if you will. We had rich unlv Nevada over fifty
three and a half.

Speaker 4 (36:55):
It got there. I took Miami and pitt under twenty
four and a half in the first half and we
had to hold on for dear life.

Speaker 5 (37:03):
That one got harry at the end, but I think
it was the cane settled for a field goal at
the end of the first half, something like that.

Speaker 4 (37:09):
But anyway, we hit home. We got home with the boost.

Speaker 5 (37:13):
It was plus seven ninety eight, so basically eight to one.

Speaker 4 (37:17):
That's a nice little hit right there to start off
your day. Eight to one. So we'll try to do
it again. Jared, what do you have for us today?

Speaker 3 (37:22):
We did two this year, which I think is a
record for US in one season, so good on us.
I made a little adjustment. I know I sent you
guys a touchdown prop, but I'm gonna make an adjustment
because I wanted to get out of the same game
parlay mode. Because you can't use the boost in a
same game parlay. It has to be just a regular parlay,

(37:42):
right A parlay boost to oken twenty five percent of MGM.
It's a great, you know, advantage when you can use that,
So I wanted to use that. So instead of going
with a prop in the Virginia game, I'll leave that
for Ridge. I'm gonna give you BYU plus twelve and
a half. I think this number is just a heavy.
So this number was thirteen when they played a few

(38:05):
weeks ago in Loving and now it's essentially the same
price on a neutral. So do I think BYU is
gonna win the game? I think they've got a puncher's chance,
but I think Texas Tech's the better team. I just
think the numbers a little heavy. I gave it out
this week one of the videos I do for BETMGM
during the week, I gave it out, so I'll do
it for this particular parlay so we can take full

(38:26):
advantage of the poost. So BYU plus twelve and a
half the first lection.

Speaker 6 (38:30):
Okay, I'm going to give you Virginia's team total, which
is thirty and a half over Duke. Look, Virginia should
move the ball super.

Speaker 3 (38:41):
Easily, Duke.

Speaker 6 (38:42):
They're outside the top one hundred in explosive run defense.
They allow four and a half points per scoring position
drive and have a hard time keeping teams out of
their side of the field.

Speaker 3 (38:54):
Expect to Cavs to put up points with their their
strong rushing game.

Speaker 6 (38:59):
They have some distinct red zone advantages, not only how
they score in that area of the field, but also
how Duke defends in that area of the field.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
I think there are gonna be many visits to the Dukey.

Speaker 6 (39:10):
Side of the field, and I think the Calves will
be able to finish in the end zone often. So
give me Calves Virginia over They're thirty and a half
team total.

Speaker 5 (39:20):
You know, it's funny. It dawned on me just a
couple of minutes ago. I'm like, man, there's been an
opportunity for weeks now that I haven't seen until this
very moment where we know that Jared he turns into
Mama Bear mode with Alabama. You know, he turns into
a protective mama bear. And to get him out of
that mode, you know, protecting the kin known as the

(39:43):
Crimson Tide over here, all I had to do was
fade Alabama in the parlay pladder and if correct and
if it cashes.

Speaker 4 (39:53):
Right, it's a game changer.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
Is it not rich? I mean, listen, I am not
opposed to winning money. I will bet against my own
team if it means I'm gonna win money. Yeah, dude,
and Jallabama, to be perfectly fair, is not my team
defense state of law.

Speaker 6 (40:08):
And he has been against them before yea.

Speaker 4 (40:12):
So with that in mind, here give me the dogs.

Speaker 5 (40:15):
Give me Georgia minus a point and a half against Alabama,
and listen, there are many reasons for this too. Bama,
like all year long, they've had no running game. They've
got a couple of running backs banged up, so that hurts.
It's like the Daniel Hill Show. Now, Uh, jam Miller
is probably out. Like they've got a couple of guys
banged up. They're not gonna run it on Georgia. Ryan

(40:37):
Williams has disappeared over the last month. I don't know
what's going on with that. And ty Simpson has been
his shakiest lately compared to the rest of the season.
He's been pretty stellar the whole season, except at the
end he's a little bit more inaccurate.

Speaker 4 (40:50):
A little bit more jittery.

Speaker 5 (40:51):
So I like the Dogs plus are minus a point
and a half against throw Tide today.

Speaker 3 (40:57):
I don't hate it. Plus six forty without the boost,
it's plus five to six teams.

Speaker 4 (41:03):
Okay, not bad.

Speaker 5 (41:05):
Let's do it back to back over here, coming up next?
Can this team do something it hasn't done?

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (41:10):
What is going on?

Speaker 5 (41:11):
Happy Saturday to you? Happy uh selection Sunday eve to you?
If you will, right, sure, we'll get to the Big
Ten title game. Team trying to do something that it
hasn't done in nearly six decades. First though, throughout the
entire football season, bet MGM will offer all different types
of no sweat tokens and odds boost tokens. Be on

(41:31):
the lookout for no sweat same game parlay tokens, parlay
boost tokens, and so much more. All Right, we've got
IU against Ohio State. Both teams are twelve and zero.
Little bit of Ohio State by back, it's up to
four and a half now that the Buckeyes are favored
by How about this Indiana playing for its first Big
Ten title in fifty eight years? And uh, listen, man,

(41:56):
there's a lot on the line here where if you
look both teams, yes, you're looking at trying to have
a first round by in the playoffs. That's big of
course Indiana, like I just said, trying to win a
Big Ten title for the first time in almost six decades,
that's a big thing right there. If you could beat
the defending champion Ohio State Buck guys in the Big
Ten championship game, that'd be a monstrous deal for IU.

(42:19):
And of course this little Heisman detail that we'll get
to in a little bit more greater detail later this hour,
but I mean surface level when you look at Fernando Mendoza,
you look at Julian saying, a lot on the line
in terms of Heisman Trophy is the.

Speaker 4 (42:35):
Most prestigious award in college football.

Speaker 5 (42:37):
So a lot of people think the winner of this
game is probably gonna win the Heisman, unless it's Julian
saying it's like, well, if saying wins, they is probably
gonna be Diego Pavia, right, Like, that's what a lot
of people are saying. If it's Mendoza who wins and
plays well, he's a shoe win to win the awards.
So a lot on the line here today. It's not
one of those well shoulder shrug if you lose, big deal,

(43:00):
still get a buy. I think there's more to it
than just that. And I don't think I you and
a loss is guaranteed a first round by so a
couple of layers to think about in this one here.

Speaker 6 (43:10):
Well, yeah, I'm so glad you brought up the importance
of the winner the loss, and I want to comment
on that before I handicap this game at all. If
anybody out there doubts the level of importance for a
conference championship, even though we now have a college football
playoff where both of these teams obviously will be in

(43:31):
that playoff, it matters. It still matters. It matters in
a big way. You get to go home with the
hats and the T shirts and the rings when you
beat your rival, your conference rival, in a conference championship game.
You get that for the rest of your life. Nobody
can take that away from you. You are twenty twenty
five Big Ten champs, and twice in my career at

(43:54):
Penn State, I was able to say that, And that
is man, It's something that I'm proud of. A lot
of hard work, that's a lot of toil that goes
into that effort. And so these teams, I promise you,
any teams who are performing this Saturday, or have performed
already in their conference championship game.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
It matters.

Speaker 6 (44:14):
It matters regardless of where they'll land on the CFP
or how protected their.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
Pole position is.

Speaker 6 (44:20):
So getting beyond that, look, you know, there is a
chance that Indiana keeps it clos or even potentially wins
this game, and Mendoza looks somewhat pedestrian if the game
plan is to really do what I think they're going
to do. And we'll see how the game actually plays out.

(44:41):
But I think Indiana has a slight edge in the
run game against this Ohio State defense, and I think
if they can keep them off balance in standard downs
where they're gaining on them, they're getting into third and manageable.
They don't have to lean on Mendoza to be their hero.

Speaker 3 (44:58):
They're not way.

Speaker 6 (44:59):
Behind the sticks against Ohio State, or I should say
way behind on the scoreboard against Ohio State.

Speaker 3 (45:07):
They can keep it close or.

Speaker 6 (45:09):
Win this game, and Mendoza can look average, you know
what I mean, He can have a good game.

Speaker 3 (45:15):
He would be on the winning side, but nothing to
write home about.

Speaker 6 (45:19):
And actually that's my lean in this game is I
kind of like, I kind of like Indiana on the spread,
because I think they're going to find a way to
keep this close. And that's what I would do, you know,
against this Ohio State defense that can be had by
my inside zone concepts. I think I would attack the

(45:39):
soft middle of their defense with our run game, try
to control the clock. And while Julian Saying has had
success against the type of defense we run, which is
primarily the Hoosiers run cover two, I think you could.
I think he could have success on the ground to
control the clock and control the tempo.

Speaker 3 (45:58):
Of this game. Yeah, Matt Patricia and his approach, It's
gonna be interesting here because the Buckeys have not allowed
seventeen points in a game all year, and they've been
so good on defense. It's been silly how good they've
been defensively. And we were unsure what the defense would
look like coming into the year. But I think Matt
Patricia's done a great job. When you go back and

(46:20):
watch the game last year, now, it's a different defense
last year, right, completely different defense. But the game last year,
Ohios they played a lot more man against this Indiana
team than they typically do, and I think that makes
sense because when you look at Indiana's offense. I think
they're a capable offense. I love Mendoza. I think he's
a really smart kid. I think playing a lot of

(46:41):
his own against him is probably not the best idea
because I think he's smart enough to pick it apart.
But the one thing Indiana lacks is that legit burner
that's gonna just take the top off your defense. So
playing man makes sense to me. And when you look
at Mendoza's you know numbers this year against man, they've
been kind of average, you know, seven and a half

(47:03):
yards per attempt, seven big time throws to four turnover
where he plays just a fifty seven percent completion rate.
He's been much better against zone. So I think Ignosim
and Matthews on the outside, very physical corners. You got
Caleb Downs at safety. Like I would play a lot
of man if I was Matt Patrician this game. That's
what they did last year. They had a lot of
success and they held Indiana to under seventeen points. On

(47:25):
the other side, Rich mentioned it, Julian saying torches zone coverage.
Guess who plays the highest rate of zone in college
football at ninety percent Indiana. So I think Saying has
a chance here. Last year, Indiana did a good job
taking away Jeremiah Smith. He had three catches for thirty

(47:46):
four yards in this game. Didn't matter. You had Egbuca,
you had Tate, you had the running backs. Same deal.
This year. You got Ennis, you got Tate, you got
Claire the tight end. You've got bo Jackson, who's come
on strong lately. If Indiana just lines up and plays
their regular zone coverage, I think Julian Sayan has a
big game, and I think he puts the Heisman in

(48:09):
his back pocket. And that's kind of the way I
see this playing out. Obviously, there could be wrinkles along
the way. Turnovers could be a factory through a pick
on the first drive last week. But you're giving me
the shortest number of Ohio State's played since the Texas game,
and you're giving me a favorable matchup. Indiana plays a
lot of his own and Julian Sayan's got the highest
passing grade against zone coverage this year. That to me

(48:32):
feels like the path for the Buckeyes to win and cover.

Speaker 5 (48:36):
You know what's interesting to me is that, look, I've
said it where I think Ohio State is overrated just
in terms of they're talked about in these glowing terms.
Look at this amazing Russ, look at this Tefen. How
can you score on these guys? And it's like they
haven't played anybody. They played Texas and that's it. But
I say that to say this, I'm trying to give

(48:56):
him credit here where you have eight games where Ohio
State did not allow double digit points, Like, just think
about that. Eight games these teams didn't crack ten points
like that. That's pretty crazy right there. So they are
beating a lot of bum teams, but they are suffocating

(49:18):
these teams, you know, like they can't even get to ten.
We're not asking for it, get to twenty four and
be in the neighborhood of winning the game, Like we're
just asking for ten points, and eight teams couldn't do that, right.
Some of those are home games and you still can't
get to ten points against Ohio State's defense. So they've
got a lot of talent. They've got playmakers all over
the place, and that, to me is where this game

(49:40):
begins for IU.

Speaker 4 (49:41):
It's up front. It's the big uglies over here. Rich Hunt.

Speaker 5 (49:44):
We got to talk about the old line because you
got to be able to run the ball effectively, and
you've got to be able to protect Fernando Mendoza. Now Mendoza,
he throws it quickly. That's the one thing that's working
in Indiana's favor, not the only thing, but one thing
that really works against a good pass rush is get
rid of the all quickly. The average is two point
five to five seconds before throwing the football, and that's

(50:06):
you know, number one in the Big ten in terms
of getting rid of the football quickly.

Speaker 4 (50:10):
They've only given up.

Speaker 5 (50:11):
Fifteen sacks this season, so IU has done a very
good job protecting Mendoza. They've been able to run it effectively.
That's the question though, this is Ohio State's defense. Can
you do those things and protect and run the ball?
Can you get the big uglies moving in the right
direction in this one? Because if that's not happening, nothing
else is for IU in this one.

Speaker 3 (50:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (50:33):
Look, I think one of the early predictors of this
game is gonna be if Indiana is getting caught in
third and long situations consistently in the first quarter or
early in the first half, I should say, you know
it's gonna be a long, hard game for the Hoosiers
because I don't think they're comfortable playing football that way.

(50:57):
This isn't a team that plays on their heels and
then hits you with an overhand.

Speaker 3 (51:02):
Right out of nowhere and you're like, whoa, where did
that chunk play come from?

Speaker 6 (51:06):
They spend more time in standard downs than any team
in college football. They are that team. They are constantly
keeping the pressure on defenses and the forward momentum going,
and I mean, how do you do it?

Speaker 3 (51:23):
Well?

Speaker 6 (51:23):
I mean it's it's much of the same that has
given you a great deal of success throughout this season.
You know, throwing the ball quickly, getting it out of
your quarterback's hands, the RPO game. Look, Ohio State is
they have a successful rating against the inside zone and

(51:44):
you're going to have to try to defeat that by
playing fire with fire a little bit. But but really
what it's going to come down to is if you
can loosen this primarily nickel defense that Patricia likes to
run as defensive coordinator with Ohio State by keeping some
of these threatening linebackers or slot defenders away from making

(52:07):
tackles close to the line of scrimmage by scaring them
with the RPO action, you know, getting the ball out
to a slot receiver, getting the ball into a second
window with a slant behind the run fake. Those type
of things have had a great effect on defenses that
have gambled against Indiana. And if you have a situation

(52:30):
where early in the game, Ohio State takes a couple
of gambles where they commit to the run, they bring
a slot defender, they try to crash the inside run
with some quick move from the inside linebackers, and you
throw the ball over the top and it hurts them
early for an explosive, even if it's not a touchdown,

(52:52):
even if it's just you get gashed up the middle
for fifteen or twenty yards. Defensive coordinators they don't have
short memories and games. They remember those things and they
don't want to lose a game for their head coach,
for their team, for their reputation, and so they'll start
getting a little less aggressive and that can really hurt

(53:12):
a defense that well. I mean, they've buy and large
been able to call whatever they've wanted to all season
long with great degrees of success.

Speaker 3 (53:21):
So I think that's going to be the bell weather
in this game.

Speaker 6 (53:26):
If Indiana can handle this defensive line, if Indiana can
keep the front six or seven, if they bring an
extra defender off the slot blocked long enough for the
run to be effective in standard downs you know, first
and second down, normal distances, stay out of trouble.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
If Indiana can stay out of trouble.

Speaker 6 (53:49):
With penalties and they don't harm themselves, I think this
could be a game where we see Indiana able to
control the tempo. I could also see this game kind
of getting out of and for them if they don't,
If if Fernando Mendoza, if this turns into a pass
fest for for Mendoza, I don't think that bodes well
for Indiana against this Ohio State defense.

Speaker 3 (54:12):
Yeah, Indiana's got two backs that I think are formidable.
There's no doubt about that. We know about Hemby the
other one you might not have heard one. Kleyan black
red shirt senior transfer from JMU, like one of the
guys Signetti brought over. Both of those guys are very capable.
This is one of those games that I do think

(54:33):
is going to be a tone setter for the playoff
because what Brian is saying is correct. Ohio State has
played a cupcake schedule. We don't know how good they
really are. They might be amazing, and this is the
night where they can show it if they take Indiana
and stuff them into a locker for four quarters. Defensively,

(54:53):
I think Indiana's defense will hang in this game. They've
got some good pass rush off the edge. That zone
scheme I think will at least for the most part,
prevent the absurd explosives. You know, they did a good
job on Jeremi Smith las year. I don't think he's
gonna go nuclear in this game. But the defensive side
of the ball is what I'm fascinated with because if

(55:14):
Ohio State's defense again, they have not allowed seventeen points
in a game all year, and everyone's pushing back with
all they haven't play any one. Okay, that's fair, but
tonight they're playing someone. So if they do that to
Indiana tonight, I think the tone will be set for
the playoff. Whereas last year they didn't get this opportunity.

(55:36):
They were watching this game at home, and then all
of a sudden in the Rose Bowl, it was like
explosion against the Oregon They were like, all right, well,
Ohio State's the best team. Clearly we get that game tonight.
If they do to Indiana what they did to Oregon
in the Rose Bowl last year, which is ironically a
similar situation, right Dylan Gabriel, upstart quarterback, undefeated Ducks and

(56:01):
Ohio State stuffed them into a locker, pulled their pant,
you know, did the swirlly the whole nine yards. If
they do that to Indiana tonight, Brian, would that change
your opinion on Ohio State being legit.

Speaker 5 (56:14):
Well, if they did that to IU, like legitimately just
completely smacked them, it'd be like, all right, okay, you know,
like we know that they're capable of doing that. They
just they played Texas in the first game and it
was fourteen to seven, you know, like typical first game, weird,
you know, not prolific at all. But yeah, I mean

(56:35):
that would be like, wow, Okay, we see what Ohio State.
They have the talent to do it, and now they
they finally had an opportunity and they took advantage of
it and they did it. I would steel like, I
don't think of them as this goliath that's just towering
over everybody that most people seem to think they are,
but yes, smacking around I you that'd be an eye

(56:56):
opener for me at least.

Speaker 4 (56:59):
But I still think there if they can be had
in the playoff. I really do think that.

Speaker 5 (57:03):
So we'll see how it goes tonight. But yeah, legitimate
opponent and IU. We'll see what I Ohio State does here.
All right, We've got Rich Joornberger Penn State, All American,
Jared Smith FSR betting analyst.

Speaker 4 (57:14):
I'm Brian No.

Speaker 5 (57:15):
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(57:36):
Coming up next, our main man, Seamus McGee from BETMGM
gets you all set to these conference championship games. I
know we'll have some strong angles, some strong opinions, maybe
some playoff thoughts.

Speaker 4 (57:48):
Who knows, we'll get crazy.

Speaker 5 (57:49):
Coming up next, it is Fox Sports Radios Countdown to Kickoff,
presented by BETMGM. It is Fox Sports Radios Countdown to Kickoff.
Presented by bet MGM. Be sure to check out the
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(58:11):
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with bonus code countdown if they don't win their first bet.
That's code countdown in the betmgm app. All right, let's
do this, follow the money, real good money. All right,

(58:31):
we welcome in our main man, Seamus McGee, team lead
of Sports Trading at BETMGM. Okay, Seamus, I know what
you need. You need a Sterling Virginia win today.

Speaker 3 (58:42):
But that's just you.

Speaker 5 (58:43):
How about BETMGM. It's bigger than you, Seamus. What does
BETMGM need today?

Speaker 4 (58:47):
Exactly?

Speaker 11 (58:50):
Yeah, So the book definitely would be better off with
a Duke win today. We do have some Duke liability
on the Futures book to win the acc but also
there's some last legs of parlays that we have out
there with Virginia tied to those that would cash that
are up there, and you know, it's a lot of

(59:11):
action on UVA sharps and sharps and recreational money. This
line opened around two and a half and it's gone
up to four and a half and it's just been
one way traffic on the Who's.

Speaker 3 (59:23):
Today, Seamus, I'm on an island with my BYU pick.
I feel like everybody wants Texas Tech. Everyone thinks Texas
Tech is going to win this game and win big.
Although I'll be honest, I love bear Bachmeyer. I think
the Kalani Sataki narrative. I think they're going to be
absolutely jazz for this game. Considering if they lose, they

(59:43):
are really out. When Texas Tech loses, they are probably
still in a little bit of movement towards the Koogs.
This morning, I got thirteen earlier in the week. Now
I'm seeing twelve and a half some twelves. Is there
any chance BYU can pull this upset and send shot
wades through the CFP?

Speaker 11 (01:00:02):
Yeah, Jarre, I I really talked myself into BYU this week,
myself because for what I am with you on the motivation.
I think I think that's real. I think, you know,
if TEXTA loses, they're still in. BYU needs to win
to get in. And the other thing is too you know,
my buddy was telling about this this morning. It look
at who Texas Tech's defense is played at quarterback like

(01:00:24):
all season. It's not a glowing list of like you know,
huge big name qbs. I think BYU's gonna be able
to score something today. Now, the BYU defense outside of
Provo isn't particularly great, so we'll see if they can
hang around for the book. Right now, it's a lot
of money on Texas Tech on the spread. We're gonna

(01:00:45):
hope BYU at least keeps this close. But I think
a Texas Tech win and a BYU cover is what
we're looking to have here. A lot of shot takers
on the BYU money line.

Speaker 4 (01:00:55):
Today.

Speaker 6 (01:00:56):
We were just talking about this Big ten championship game
Indiana Ohio State. I like Indiana on the spread. I
feel like they have what it takes to keep it close,
even though Ohio State defends some of what they like
to do well, and frankly, Indiana sits in a defense

(01:01:18):
that Julian saying has had some success against this season.
That being said, I like the Hoosiers to keep it close.
Talk me off the ledge if you feel a need to.

Speaker 11 (01:01:30):
Well, you know, do with this what you will. Our
biggest need of the day is going to be the Hoosiers.
He took a couple of huge bets on Ohio State
as well as well as heavy public action on Ohio
State and specifically in minus four agency. Now we're hanging
nice four and a half now, money line parlays, you

(01:01:52):
name it, it's all on Ohio State. So Indiana outright
would be great for BETAMGM.

Speaker 6 (01:02:00):
All of a sudden, it looks like I'm on the
side of the books, right, That's where you want to
be rich.

Speaker 5 (01:02:05):
Yeah, Seamus, you know you're a man of you know,
high character, integrity and strong opinions. Right, And so I
got to ask you about this college football playoff race.
Any strong stances are you fully on Miami totally against
Notre Dame or whatever? Is there anything that you're really
strong on that might go against the committee or doesn't

(01:02:27):
have anything to do with the committee at all? Do
you have a strong college football playoff related if I love.

Speaker 11 (01:02:34):
Notre Dame, so much, I'd probably be more animated about it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
But I have Miami in.

Speaker 11 (01:02:39):
The playoffs, like I just do. I've tried my hand
at some bracketology this year, and every iteration I come
up with, I have Miami in ten times out of ten.
So I think they have a reason to be animated.
But it just looks like it's just not going to happen.
There was a window of time for the committee to

(01:03:00):
put Miami ahead of Notre Dame, and it was last
week and they didn't do it because I don't know
what gymnastics they're going to have to do to say
that nothing happened between each team. And but this week
we just feel like Miami's I don't know what they're
gonna do, And frankly, I don't know why everyone is

(01:03:22):
so bad at this ship this year about the playoff.
It's literally just because of Miami. This is I mean,
we're going to get five conference champs in and hopefully
Virginia takes care of business tonight. We just have, you know,
the regular power for or in. We have our G
five spot and we're been out of shape because three
lost Texas isn't going to get in. I think I'll

(01:03:43):
live like this is fine. We got you know, Notre
Dame saying this has to go to sixteen and it'll
be perfect. It was perfect probably at six and we've
blown right through that and it's just we're gonna get
to this is the problem with expanding the platform for
this is my hot take is that it's just too
much expansion. This is a different sport than basketball. We

(01:04:03):
don't need I don't need twelve. I barely even needed
four if I'm being perfect like this. So it's just
going to get out of control as we keep going
on to the conference who are going to want more
and more of their teams in.

Speaker 3 (01:04:17):
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how it shakes out
sec it. Actually, as we started this segment, I saw
a little bit of money come in on Bama. I'm
seeing this down to one at some shops. Does that
make sense to you? Where have you seen this number
this week? I feel like when these two teams play Seamus,
you can pretty much throw out the points spread and

(01:04:38):
the history, like it just seems like it's like a
title wave in one direction or the other, and it's
like a college basketball game, like the momentum like last
year was twenty eight to nothing Bama, Georgia took the
lead and Inbama won. Like I feel like this is
going to be one of those classics. What do you
make of this SEC title?

Speaker 11 (01:04:55):
Yeah, it's definitely a game where I'm probably looking at
the money line more than anything. I like Alabama in
this game. I think they'll get this done, but it's
it's a little weird. A lot of the Alabama takers
have been taking you know, Baba plus two and a half,
a lot of Baba plus one and a half, but
a lot of money on Georgia money line. So I

(01:05:16):
think we're gonna be rooting for the Tide come kickoff right.

Speaker 6 (01:05:19):
Now before we get to the Seamus Special, I have
a selfish question both Jared and I being alumni of
Penn State, myself a former player the new hire Matt Campbell.
I bet MGM, you've handicapped countless Iowa State games.

Speaker 3 (01:05:35):
Obviously you're familiar with his work. You know what, what's your.

Speaker 6 (01:05:40):
Reaction to the Penn State higher after the long and
thorough coaching search.

Speaker 11 (01:05:46):
I don't think anyone outside of Iowa State fans get
more crap for defending Matt Campbell than I do from
some of my friends. I'm a huge Matt Campbell guy.
I think this is a fantastic higher. I think he's
going to be really good. So we'll see.

Speaker 5 (01:06:03):
All right, it's the moment of truth. Rich alluded to
it the Shamus Special. What do you have for us today, Seamus?

Speaker 11 (01:06:09):
Let's go to macin Let's go to the MAC Championship
Game a conference. I think I overrated the beginning of
the year because you know I I I post these
markets six plus and ten plus over under teams, and
uh I had them way higher and unders cashed on
ten plus win teams and six plus win teams, and
Miami Ohio was a team I actually underrated. I thought

(01:06:31):
they were going to be not that good this year.
I'm gonna bet them to win the game today. I
think they're gonna win out right over Western Michigan. So
Miami Ohio, okay, shot?

Speaker 3 (01:06:40):
Getting yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:06:42):
Are they taking the week off? What's going on?

Speaker 3 (01:06:44):
The playoffs are today?

Speaker 11 (01:06:45):
I know?

Speaker 3 (01:06:47):
Wild? Yeah? All right?

Speaker 4 (01:06:49):
Going on going mainstream on us here, ye crack action.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
You know this is a yes, I know, it's like
we're shot. You pick such a mainstream game in the MAC.

Speaker 4 (01:07:02):
That's right, That's right.

Speaker 5 (01:07:04):
This is like, uh, you know, Metallica Until It Sleeps
or something, you know, or if they released a Christmas album.
All right, good stuff, Seamus, always good hanging with you man.
Hope you have a good day. We'll catch you soon.

Speaker 4 (01:07:19):
Thanks guys enjoying the game, Yeah you too, Love you, Bud.

Speaker 5 (01:07:22):
There he is Seamous McGee, team lead of sports Trading
at bet MGM. All right, let's dive headfirst into this.

Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
Watch.

Speaker 4 (01:07:35):
All right, the last installment of Heisman Watch, if you will.

Speaker 5 (01:07:39):
This is uh, we're down on the nitty gritty here,
and it's all eyes on the Big Ten Championship game.

Speaker 3 (01:07:44):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:07:44):
It's Fernando Mendoza, the IU quarterback against Ohio States, Julian saying,
and a lot of people think the winner of this
game is gonna win the Heisman. There are some people
that say, if Ohio State wins the game, there's a
good chance Diego Pavia could sneak.

Speaker 3 (01:08:01):
In there and win this thing.

Speaker 5 (01:08:03):
Jeremiah Love, who a lot of people think is the
best player in college football, he just didn't have the
you know, the crescendo. You know, he didn't hit the
high note in the final game of the season because
he got banged up against Stanford. There was that you know,
high rushing total prop bet where it was it like
one thirty three and a half, something crazy like that,

(01:08:23):
And it was tied to the thought that he was
going to set this single season all time Notre Dame
rushing record, and he got banged up like a little
bit of an abdomen issue going on there against Stanford,
and so he hardly ran the ball at all in
the second half and was greatly reduced to the bench.

(01:08:44):
Mostly so, Jeremiah Love's not gonna win this award. It's
a three horse race. It's Mendoza, it's saying, it's Diego Pavia.
What do you think of this thing?

Speaker 6 (01:08:53):
Rich, Here's the way I always look at the Heisman.
It doesn't go to the best player in the country.
It goes to the best player playing on the best team.
And like you said, Brian with the best hype machine
behind him at the time of the award ceremony, or
I should say, at the deliberation of the of the award.

(01:09:15):
You know, when you're looking at all the candidates in
their resume, I mean, you could make the argument that
there are quarterbacks in the top five, the top handful
of talented quarterbacks in this country who you would easily
replace either Mendoza or Julian Saying with and their teams
would have better success with. I mean, you could argue

(01:09:36):
that Pavia would fit better on a IU Hoosier's roster
than Mendoza. You know, you could make the argument that
Ty Simpson, if he was wearing buck eye red instead
of Crimson.

Speaker 3 (01:09:48):
Tied red, would be a better Ohio State quarterback. But
I digress.

Speaker 6 (01:09:54):
This doesn't go to the best player or the player
who you think is the most talented of the bunch.

Speaker 3 (01:09:58):
It goes to the player with the most hype.

Speaker 6 (01:09:59):
And so I think the correct crescendo for both of
these candidates would be the star top of the tree,
to borrow the metaphor from the holiday season, winning this
championship game, That'll be the final feather in the cap,
and I think it'll be the final deliberation point that

(01:10:19):
separates either Saying or Mendoza from the other. So I
don't have a strong feeling on who's gonna walk away
with this other than saying that I think Ohio Say
wins this game. So I guess you could say I'm
leaning more towards Julian saying it wouldn't shock me if
Indiana won it.

Speaker 3 (01:10:39):
It would not shock me at all. So it's a
bit of a toss up.

Speaker 6 (01:10:42):
But I would say if I'm going to put a
heavier favorite on one side or the other, I would
say it would be saying.

Speaker 3 (01:10:50):
Yeah, I thought Brian laid it out pretty well. Jeremiah
Love is the best player in college football this year.
I believe so. But recency bias as a hell of
a drug, and the last thing we saw was, you know,
kind of a dud, like not necessarily a dud, just
it wasn't that the high note as Brian alluded to,
which I thought was properly put. The Diego Pavia argument, like,

(01:11:15):
I think he has the best narrative, but it doesn't
feel very strong because it just doesn't seem like he's
the best player. It just seems like he's a really
good player on a team with a really great story
that kind of came from out of nowhere, I guess,
not out of nowhere, but one ten games and frankly
deserves to be in the play has a playoff argument,

(01:11:36):
I think, But I don't think the Heisman argument for
Pobby is very strong, so that leads us to the
two quarterbacks that are playing tonight, and all of this
makes sense. I've talked to multiple odds makers this week
about this, including Shamus. We had a lengthy conversation about
this for your text message earlier this week. I should
have asked him about it earlier, but we had a
lot of other things to get to. I don't understand

(01:11:57):
the odds. The odds make no sense if what we
are hypothesizing is true, which is the winner tonight is
gonna win the Heisman, unless it's like a six to
three defensive slugfest, which I do not see happening. Why
are the odds so tight for both players. Ohio State's
a minus two hundred favorite in the game, yet Sayings

(01:12:22):
plus one seventy five even with Mendoza. It makes no
sense none. And you could make the argument that maybe
Mendoza has some exposure, right the books have taken significant
Mendoza money and that's why the odds are a little
bit tighter. That's not the case either. I just think
this is one of those scenarios where the perception doesn't
match the reality in the odds market. If you like

(01:12:45):
Ohio State tonight, which I do. I wouldn't bet Ohio State.
I would just bet Julian Saying to win the Heisman.
I feel like it is a very parallel bet, very
correlated or yes, there is a outlier scenario where Ohio
State's defense is dominant, they win the game, like seventeen
to three, and Julian Sayan doesn't do anything and it's

(01:13:08):
all running game, defensive score, something like that. There is
that outlier scenario where that could take plays, but that
is an unlikely scenario. The more likely scenario is Ohio
State plays a good football game, Julian Sayan has a
good game against a good Indiana's own defense, and that's
the last thing the committee sees before they vote. The

(01:13:28):
voting opens tonight. They haven't even started voting for the
Heisman yet. It opens today and it closes Monday. And
I think that window is a big advantage for the
last game on the board, which is Indiana and Ohio State.
So it makes sense to me, if you like Ohio
State tonight, you bet Saying to win the Heisman. If

(01:13:51):
you like Indiana tonight, well then you can pick your poison, right.

Speaker 5 (01:13:55):
It's that's interesting with the window because as great of
a season as Diego Pavia has had.

Speaker 4 (01:14:02):
He's been tremendous.

Speaker 5 (01:14:04):
It just feels like, well, he's watching on his cow
cheating cheetos, you know, and it's there for the taking
for Mendoza. It's there for the taking for Julian Sayan,
and the only way he can win this is by
back dooring his way into the Heisman trophy. I mean,
it's how it feels like there's an element of that
going on here. And it really speaks to just utter

(01:14:25):
reluctance to say, Julian Saying should be the Heisman winner,
right like you detailed the odds, Jared, and that's what
it screams to me for Fernando Mendoza, who's had a
strong season. Obviously, they're four and a half point dogs,
you know, like money line, they're there's significant underdogs right there,

(01:14:46):
and he's got the same Heisman odds as Julian Sane.

Speaker 4 (01:14:49):
It just speaks to Julian say in reluctance to me, yeah,
and we'll see.

Speaker 5 (01:14:54):
That's the thing is if Ohio State wins and whatever,
like bo Jackson has a really good game, the defense
is just standing on its head.

Speaker 4 (01:15:03):
Hockey style, you know, right like, you're gonna.

Speaker 5 (01:15:06):
Look and be like, oh, Jillian's saying he completed a
bunch of passes, but they were high percentage passes and
nothing really wowed us.

Speaker 4 (01:15:14):
And then what then it's down to saying in Pavia
in that situation.

Speaker 5 (01:15:18):
So it'll be interesting, man, We'll see how it unfolds,
curious how it does go down exactly. And I mean
that's the thing, man, that's what's so hard for Diego Pavia.
A lot of people go by what they just saw last. Yes,
you know, and you're gonna see Mendoza and saying on
the same football field duking it out for the big ten.

Speaker 4 (01:15:38):
Crown, that is the last thing you see.

Speaker 5 (01:15:41):
You might not even remember Diego Pavia against Tennessee, right
like it might be a distant memory when you're casting
your ballot.

Speaker 4 (01:15:48):
So that timing does matter. There's no doubt.

Speaker 5 (01:15:51):
We've got rich On Berger, Penn State All American, Jared
Smith FSR betting analyst. I'm Brian no. Be sure to
subscribe to the Fox Sports Radio YouTube chat. Just search
Fox Sports Radio on YouTube and you'll see our best
videos from all of our shows. And don't stop there.
Hit the thumbs up icon and comment away. Let us
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don't like. Just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube and subscribe.

(01:16:15):
All right, coming up next, prop it up? That's right,
the prop betting market. Do I dare take a college
quarterback's rushing total.

Speaker 3 (01:16:26):
Under? Maybe under you?

Speaker 5 (01:16:29):
We'll see I'm thinking of an under and this makes
me sweat a little bit too. We'll get to details
right around the corner. It is Fox Sports Radios count
Down to Kickoff, presented by bet MGM. It is Fox
Sports Radios count Down to Kickoff presented by Bett MGM,
and it is time for the tire rack play of
the day.

Speaker 2 (01:16:47):
Mess to maker looking looking up the middle now checks down,
It's off the fingertips and takes off Chris Rogers down.

Speaker 10 (01:16:53):
It looks funny to the fifteen in the head down
touchdown too.

Speaker 5 (01:16:58):
Lo there it is Corey Glore from lear Field as
two Lane won the American Conference Championship game. I do
miss the act the American Athletic Conference AAC. I loved
calling it DAC. They shortened it to the American can't
even call that anymore. By the way, if I could

(01:17:19):
derail the show just for a second. Let me get
to read in first, then I'll derail it. For over
forty years, tyrack has been helping customers find the right
tires for how, what and where they drive, shipped fast
and free, backed by free road hazard protection with convenient
installation options like mobile tire installation tire rack dot Com.

Speaker 4 (01:17:35):
The way tire buying should be. That play was total bs.
That was a fumble through the end zone. It should
have been a touchback.

Speaker 3 (01:17:42):
They reviewed it.

Speaker 4 (01:17:43):
What are they doing like this? I hate?

Speaker 3 (01:17:46):
I hate.

Speaker 4 (01:17:47):
I can't tell you guys how much I hate this.

Speaker 5 (01:17:50):
I hate the standard of It's got to be indisputable,
one beyond a shadow of a doubt for us to
overturn a call. Why does it need to be that?
Why you saw a mess to maker make the hit.
He wasn't in the end zone. The guy was fumbling
it before he crossed the goal line. That's a fumble
through the end zone all day, and yet you had

(01:18:13):
the official in the booth like, well, I think that's
the case, but I can't tell you with one hundred
percent certainty. So we're going by the call on the
field in live time, and we're beholden to that unless
the replay shows one hundred percent.

Speaker 4 (01:18:31):
Why shouldn't it just be better than the fifty percent?

Speaker 3 (01:18:34):
Why?

Speaker 4 (01:18:35):
I don't understand it at all.

Speaker 5 (01:18:37):
I don't get it. It shouldn't be one hundred percent.
That is in irrational benchmark to hit standard to hit.
I don't like that whatsoever. But we get to the picks.

Speaker 3 (01:18:48):
Let's do this.

Speaker 2 (01:18:51):
Prop it up player play.

Speaker 5 (01:18:54):
All right, my guys were just itching. They're like, all right,
shut up, now, let's get to the pics. That's a
bit picking, all right, what do you have, rich, what
do you have for us?

Speaker 6 (01:19:01):
Okay, right off the top, I'm gonna give you Trell Harris,
Virginia's top offensive weapon.

Speaker 3 (01:19:07):
You saw me take the team total for Virginia against Duke.

Speaker 6 (01:19:11):
He's leading the team with fifty six catches eight hundred
and nine yards this season, five tuddies. He torched Duke
last time they faced, and that was two games ago,
eight grabs, one hundred and sixty one yards and a touchdown.
He's got big playability, he's got a history against the
Blue Deevils. He's poised for another strong performance. So give

(01:19:32):
me Trell Harris over seventy nine and a half yards
for the for the Cavaliers go.

Speaker 3 (01:19:38):
Who's I love it? I bet him to score a
touchdown to to night. I think he has a big game,
all right, So we're gonna kind of play off of
the BYU pick here. I think BYU keeps things close,
but I think the Texas deck defense has its say.
So we're gonna go bear Bachmeyer under thirty one and
a half rushing yards. Right, sacks count as negatives he

(01:20:00):
and he's not a gifted runner. That's not what his
goal is. It's not his number one focus. So I'm
gonna hope that they're gonna focus on the passing game
today and we get a couple of sacks and Bachmeyer
BYU covers, but buyer bachmert days under his rushing yards PROPM.

Speaker 4 (01:20:15):
That's exactly what I had. You know, now there was
there was only one sack in the first game. They
had eleven.

Speaker 3 (01:20:22):
Harris too, how about that.

Speaker 5 (01:20:24):
We're all kind of tradet each other's paper.

Speaker 4 (01:20:27):
I'll go with the same game.

Speaker 5 (01:20:28):
Give me Cameron Dickie over eighty six and a half
rushing yards. They're gonna run it down BYU's throat. So
I have no problem with that, all right, coming.

Speaker 4 (01:20:36):
Up neck verbal fisticuffs.

Speaker 3 (01:20:39):
Oh what is going on?

Speaker 5 (01:20:40):
Happy Saturday to you. Hope your day is off to
a fantastic start. All right, we're gonna get to number
three Georgia against number three nine fools gold Alabama. I
like to say before we get into the Crimson Tide,
because it's always it's always thin ice around here when
it comes to the Crimson Tide, differing views. It's been

(01:21:02):
a good show so far, you know, and if, man,
if the Crimson Tide bring us to our knees yet again,
I would just like to say the first two hours
were fantastic. Let's not lose sight of that had a
lot of fun. But hopefully we can state differing views
and it's still peaceful.

Speaker 4 (01:21:19):
But I'll tell you what.

Speaker 5 (01:21:20):
What's tied to the SEC Title game is who gets
into the college football playoff. So let's have that conversation
first and then we'll dive into the nitty gritty of
the SEC Title game.

Speaker 4 (01:21:32):
Because this is the scenario.

Speaker 5 (01:21:34):
If Bama wins, they're obviously in Bama would have to
get crushed to not be a playoff team.

Speaker 4 (01:21:41):
I really think that's where we're at.

Speaker 5 (01:21:43):
Like maybe there's a world where let's say Alabama loses
thirty five to ten. I don't see that happening. I
know you guys don't see that happening. But Georgia smack
Texas thirty five to ten. So let's just say they
get up on BAMA and somehow things just don't go
back AMA's way at all. I think that's the only
thing that would keep them out of the playoff. If

(01:22:04):
this is a respectable loss, they're a playoff team. They
might not even move down at all. If it's a
respectable loss, they'd have to move down two pegs most likely.
If BYU loses Alabama they win, they're in and as
long as they don't get blown out, they'd have to
get blown out and get leapfrogged by Notre Dame and Miami.

Speaker 4 (01:22:24):
Right, I don't see that happening, So it looks like
Alabama's going to be in there.

Speaker 5 (01:22:29):
The question I have before we get to the SEC
title game is if it comes down to Notre Dame
in Miami. Okay, let's say BYU loses and BAMA either
wins or doesn't get blown out, then it's Notre Dame
Miami not who you think should be in Who do
you think the committee will choose if it's Notre Dame Miami.

(01:22:50):
What do you think they do do they finally switch
their tune in at the last minute, say, you know what,
we gotta consider head to head now. We couldn't consider
it so before with teams in between these. It makes
no sense to me.

Speaker 4 (01:23:04):
I think that's what they would do. I think they
would put Miami in there.

Speaker 5 (01:23:06):
Rich, What do you think the committee would do if
it's down to those two teams for the final spot?

Speaker 6 (01:23:11):
I really honestly believe that if we get to that point.
Much to what I've been saying the whole show, and
Seamus pointed out during our time talking to him, is
I just don't think that the committee has any problem
putting who they project as the best team into.

Speaker 3 (01:23:31):
The playoff bracket. And they did that. They proved it
two years ago with Florida State.

Speaker 6 (01:23:36):
In a much more egregious in my opinion, I would
say subtraction of evidence that a team has the best resume,
whereas maybe they don't fit the eyeball test because they
lost their starting quarterback. You know, you say, well, are
we looking for the team that's most deserving or are

(01:23:57):
we looking for the best television product, and the committee
put their heads together and said, no, we're looking for the.

Speaker 3 (01:24:02):
Best television product. That's what they told us. That's what
they told me.

Speaker 6 (01:24:07):
And so with much lower stakes, you're telling me that
they're going to change their tune for Miami or Notre Dame,
who are hanging on to the bottom rung of a
twelve team bracket. Absolutely not. This is a much easier decision.
Notre Dame has much more broad appeal. In my opinion,
they're the better team right now, and so both from

(01:24:29):
a TV market or rating standpoint in terms of broadcasts,
and then also just in terms of who's the team
in the power rankings, who's playing better football right now,
both of those nods go to Notre Dame.

Speaker 3 (01:24:45):
I continue to stand firm on this. The Golden Dumbers
they're going to be in.

Speaker 6 (01:24:49):
The Hurricanes are going to be out, and I would
be shocked if they the committee changes has a change
of heart over teams that are placing outside the top ten.
When they made this same decision and put a Seminoles
team who deserved to be in the bracket, when it
was when we were talking about a potential three or four.

Speaker 3 (01:25:11):
Spot two years ago, Yeah, this is a tough one
for the original original point on the SEC they should
not penalize Bama for playing in this game, just like
they didn't penalize SMU last year for losing in the
ACC Championship, albeit a close game to Clemson, they still

(01:25:34):
put SMU in. They did drop two spots though, you know,
like they did so, and that's why I think they
bumped BAM up a spot here, right, Because let's be honest,
last year's Clemson team compared to this year's Georgia team,
there's no comparison. George's light years ahead. So a loss
to Georgia is not as bad as a loss to
last year's Clemson team, who was kind of hanging on

(01:25:55):
the edge. It would be a very respectable loss unless
the game is very one sided, which is possible, but
I don't expect it to be. I think Bama should
be in period. End of story. The Notre Dame Miami discussion.
I'll be honest, guys, I think there's two ways to
look at this, and I'm glad that Brian kind of

(01:26:16):
put it out there early. Do we think personally, how
would we decide or what we think the committee will decide?
Those are two very different arguments because I go through
this stuff with the draft all the time. In the
NFL draft, it's not about who you would take, it's

(01:26:39):
about who the team will take. So I hear it's
all the time, well, I'm gonna bet on this team
to draft this person because this is who I would take.
But that's irrelevant. It's about who the team is looking at.
So you have to look at it through the eyes
of the committee. And that is why I think the
move last week was very or this week was very

(01:26:59):
InTru There was no reason to upgrade Miami the way
that they did, no reason, but they did. And there
was no reason to flip Bam and Notre Dame the
way that they did, but they did. And so I
think that's where you have to look at what the
Committee's kind of nudging you towards here as this outcome.

(01:27:20):
So I I personally would put Miami in over Notre Dame.
I think the head to head matters. I also think
that's what the committee is nudging us towards based off
of their move this week. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:27:34):
Man, last thing I'll say and we'll get to the
SEC title game, is the betting odds favorite what you're saying, rich,
You know where Miami at BETMGM is plus three point
fifty to still make the college football playoff. Now that's
not just if it's down to Miami Notre Dame, because
there are some moving parts around that it might not
even get there. BYU wins is not even gonna get there, right,

(01:27:56):
I think BYU is gonna lose. So I'm surprised that, Man,
Miami is still a long shot and Notre Dame at
some shops minus four hundred to make the playoff.

Speaker 3 (01:28:07):
Like I bet said I would too. You've got two outs.
You've got BYU winning, and you've got the Miami scenario.
You've got two outs if you bet the null on
Notre Dame.

Speaker 8 (01:28:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:28:17):
And that's the thing, man, with the committee, you can
tell they're getting cold feet. They're getting cold Notre Dame
feet because they know they have to answer to the nation,
you know, like the Pine, the Paul Fine bombs, that
all these talking heads like this is a travesty that
what are they thinking.

Speaker 4 (01:28:33):
It's you know, you're not considering head to head.

Speaker 3 (01:28:36):
What are we doing here?

Speaker 6 (01:28:38):
I think you're reading way too deeply in. They don't care,
They don't get they've dealt with it before.

Speaker 3 (01:28:42):
They care.

Speaker 5 (01:28:43):
Dude. They absolutely there's no reason why they would flip
Notre Dame and Bama like they're feeling the pressure. Man,
It's one thing to do it when it's not down
to the final spot. It's this is something else that
Hunter you Achek said, the committee chair.

Speaker 3 (01:28:56):
Check this out.

Speaker 10 (01:28:57):
The IDOL teams can move following the results the championship
games and how they impact the teams that are around
those that play in the championship game and data such
just strength the scheduled teams that may be idle. So yes,
teams that are idle can move up or down.

Speaker 5 (01:29:11):
Right, is maybe the answer to the test right there,
that's right there, Like, Okay, Notre Dame in Miami are
not playing this week, they are idle, but they could
switch spots.

Speaker 4 (01:29:20):
In the rankings just just if they're you know, well,
you got to leave that door open. It is so ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (01:29:26):
That was the most impactful thing he said with this
entire process, right that line right there really stuck with
me this week. It really did.

Speaker 6 (01:29:34):
I'm I'm not saying that you guys are wrong and
I'm right because I think that it's it's a possibility.
I'm just saying that these people who vote on these
games are not afraid, are not afraid.

Speaker 3 (01:29:48):
To piss people off.

Speaker 6 (01:29:49):
And by the way, they love what's happening on this show,
and that's the reason why they put little breadcrumbs in
the forest to bring you to the witch's house before
she devours you.

Speaker 5 (01:29:59):
Well, hey, man, I hope you are right. I really do,
but I have significant doubts.

Speaker 3 (01:30:04):
I do too, because Notre Dame's the better team. Yeah,
I really think Notre Dame's the better team. Oh but
it just so happens that they lost back in week two.

Speaker 6 (01:30:12):
You know, I'll give you the answer to the test.
That happened nine years ago? Is it nine years ago?
I think it was twenty sixteen, So yeah, nine years ago,
Penn State eleven and two record, conference champions left out
in the cold. Ohio State wins head to head. They're
in Penn States out. It was a fourteen bracket then, Yeah,

(01:30:32):
and much much to your point, the conference championship game
didn't really matter as much as the head to head
and so even though with an eleven and two record,
arguably the better team at the time, Ohio State still
got in and It just comes down to what the

(01:30:52):
committee wants or feels is the better product is what
they're going to supply the nation with. So again, if
you're asking me flat out, do I think it's a
better product to have Miami in the playoff right now
or Notre Dame, I say Notre Dame now. Again, this
may be a choice that's made for them based on

(01:31:14):
conference championship results, but they have factored out conference championships
results in the.

Speaker 3 (01:31:19):
Past to make the shoe fit.

Speaker 6 (01:31:22):
And so I'm not saying you're wrong, and I'm not
saying I'm right, And I will absolutely come back on
this show in a week's time and say, yeah, you
guys had it. And I was maybe reading the wrong.

Speaker 12 (01:31:33):
Tea leaves, but I think this committee is completely, unabashedly
unafraid to piss people off if it means making college
football more money.

Speaker 3 (01:31:43):
I'll tell you what. I don't care.

Speaker 4 (01:31:45):
I've never wanted to be wrong more in.

Speaker 3 (01:31:48):
My lead too, I think Notre Dame would make for
a much better playoff.

Speaker 4 (01:31:52):
Yeah, yeah, I definitely.

Speaker 5 (01:31:54):
Would to Like if I it's not gonna be one
of these I had it, I had it. It's not
gonna be that Miami's in there. Rich I'm gonna be like,
oh my gosh, I was right.

Speaker 3 (01:32:03):
This sucks, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:32:04):
All right, let's do this.

Speaker 5 (01:32:05):
We'll each have one comment on the SEC title game
and we'll pick it back up. Okay, So the first
part for me is this thing with Kirby Smart. So
since twenty seventeen, Kirby is one and seven against Alabama.
He is one oh seven and eight against everyone else.
For whatever reason, Bama has just had Georgia's number. Kirby

(01:32:28):
Smart won his national championship against Alabama.

Speaker 4 (01:32:32):
I was there in Indianapolis.

Speaker 5 (01:32:33):
I was there among Georgia fans, and it is an
amazing accomplishment.

Speaker 3 (01:32:38):
But that's all.

Speaker 4 (01:32:39):
He's beaten Bama.

Speaker 5 (01:32:41):
That's one great time to beat him, right, But he's
oh and three in SEC title games against Alabama. So
that's the backdrop to me, Georgia, you gotta get off
to a good start. So many times this season they've
fallen behind early. They've had to scratch and claw their
way back, which they're really good at doing. But Alabama's

(01:33:02):
really good at starting fast. They're eighth nationally in points
per drive in the first half. They're not as good
in the second.

Speaker 3 (01:33:08):
Half.

Speaker 5 (01:33:09):
They're thirty third in points per drive in the second half.
So if Georgia can just start off better then it
typically has and not have to play from behind and
come all the way back.

Speaker 4 (01:33:20):
I think that's a big big deal for Georgia today.

Speaker 5 (01:33:23):
Can you get off to a better start instead of
for whatever reason, these lackluster starts. They've said it and
week we got to start better and they don't. We
gotta start better and they don't. Can they start better
in this game? Because you don't want to fall behind
in Alabama team when your record is one in seven
led by Kirby Smart.

Speaker 4 (01:33:41):
So that's my first thing in this game.

Speaker 3 (01:33:44):
You are who you are. You are who you are.

Speaker 6 (01:33:47):
And Georgia is a slow starting team this season, and
they've been slow starters against Alabama historically. Kirby Smart's record
against Alabama proves it. Like you said, he struggled against
his team, posting a one and ten record in their
past eleven meetings. That's dating back to two thousand and eight.
He's beaten he or excuse me, he's never beaten to

(01:34:10):
Bor as a head coach. And this is their third
SEC Championship game clash since twenty one and both of
those previous games have gone toward to Alabama. Look, the
head to head between these two coaches is not great
in terms of what you just talked about, especially in

(01:34:31):
the first quarter where if you look at how Alabama
scored versus Kirby Smarts led Bulldogs twenty eight to zero
in the first quarter over two games in the SEC Championship,
it's not good. Kirby Smart still hasn't figured it out,
and I don't know what it is. It could be

(01:34:53):
a one of those, you know, self fulfilling prophecies where
you know, because it's Bama, all of a sudden, things
just feel different, are different for Kirby Smart.

Speaker 3 (01:35:03):
But you're one hundred percent right. We're looking at this
game the same way. Now.

Speaker 6 (01:35:08):
If if Georgia doesn't come out to a fast start,
a strong start, or at very least limits the damage
of the Crimson Tide in the opening salvo of this game,
I think this could be another SEC Championship game loss
to Kalin debor for Kirby Smart.

Speaker 3 (01:35:25):
Yeah, there's a ghost haunted element here with the Georgia
Bama rivalry over the last few years. Like Georgia threw
the kitchen sink at Baman the first game and Ty Simpson,
this was kind of peak ty Simpson. This is right
when they started that run of four straight wins against
ranked opponents, and he was fantastic. The offensive line was fantastic.

(01:35:48):
So Georgia blitzed the heck out of ty Simpson in
that game, but they only pressured him a nine out
of forty one dropbock. The on line did a tremendous
job picking up the blitz. Now. But I've noticed recently
from Bama, because I know we've had our differences about
this team, but I am not pigheaded stubborn about what

(01:36:09):
Bama is right now. They are not what they were
earlier in the year when I was believing they were
a national championship team. They are not that team right now.
They're injured, they're banged up. Ty Simpson has been a
little bit off his game recently. The thing I noticed
last week against Auburn, who has a fantastic pass rush,
they were moving the spot, they were manipulating the launch point.

(01:36:29):
You were seeing a lot of play action rollouts where
ty Simpson was moving out of the pocket. And I
think the reason for that is because they don't trust
their offensive line to protect him right now, and so
they're trying to change the angle that the defense comes
at him with, and it was relatively effective. The run
game actually in the first half with Jan Miller was
really good and then they got banged up and the

(01:36:50):
run game went away. So I don't know what they're
gonna get from the running game here. Probably not much
because I don't fully trust Daniel Hill. I don't know
if Bama fully trusts him in especially in pass protection.
But the one thing that Bama has to do is
figure out a way to keep Tye since it up right,
whether that means they roll him out, get him out
of the pocket, make Georgia chase him, or just quick

(01:37:13):
release quick hitters, because there needs to be a little
more tempo and rhythm from Alabama's offense. Now. On the
other side, I actually really like Alabama's defense. I went
into depth on that tape last week against Auburn, and
they played a really good football game. They really did.
I think their three to three five is a really
tough thing to throw on. The one thing I want

(01:37:36):
to see more of is them getting pressure. Quay Russo
came back last week defensive end edge rusher he looked
really good. I'd like to see him get a little
bit more pressure off the edge. The issue though, noelt Overton,
who's probably their best overall defensive player. He will not
play this week, so both teams are banged up. It's
the end of an SEC year. I think Bama's defense
has a chance to win him this game, though, I

(01:37:57):
honestly do, especially if Quay Russo fills in that lt
Overton roll and get some pressure off the edge. So
I'm a little more bullish on the Bama defense in
this matchup than I am their offense. But these games
have a way of being a classic, and I expect
it to be very much back and forth. Man.

Speaker 5 (01:38:13):
You think about the first meeting, Georgia had great success
running the ball. Two hundred and twenty seven yards rushing
against Bama.

Speaker 4 (01:38:20):
That's a ton.

Speaker 5 (01:38:21):
So that's one of the things. Can Bama do a
much better job against the rush today? I think it's
a big deal for them.

Speaker 4 (01:38:27):
I don't know, man.

Speaker 5 (01:38:28):
Like Again, the thing with Bama is, I mean, go
back to the game against Auburn. It's a five and
seven team. Auburn's offense sucks, Like I'm just not giving
them roses for doing well against Auburn and they got
out gained by one hundred and thirty one yards against Auburn.

Speaker 4 (01:38:45):
That's crazy to me.

Speaker 5 (01:38:46):
So I don't know, and the committee is like, wow,
what a great start though they're seventeen to nothing.

Speaker 4 (01:38:51):
I'm like, what are we watching here? But whatever.

Speaker 5 (01:38:55):
Some people I have their fascination with Bama and the
Committee is one of those entities. If you will, all right,
We've got rich oron Berger, Penn State All American, Jared
Smith FSR betting analyst.

Speaker 4 (01:39:06):
I'm Brian No.

Speaker 5 (01:39:07):
Bet MGM players will receive college Football Odds boost tokens
and college Football Parlay boost tokens throughout the season to
use on college football bets, score extra winnings if your
bet with the token applied wins.

Speaker 4 (01:39:19):
Check it out in the bet MGM app.

Speaker 3 (01:39:21):
All right.

Speaker 4 (01:39:22):
Coming up next is the committee rooting for this team.
We'll tell you about that.

Speaker 5 (01:39:27):
It is Fox Sports Radios Countdown to Kickoff presented by BETMGM.
It is Fox Sports Radios Countdown to Kickoff presented by
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(01:39:49):
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Speaker 4 (01:39:55):
Pop up at the top of your screen.

Speaker 5 (01:39:57):
All Right, We've got BYU against Texas Tech for the
Big twelve Crown kicks off in just over a half hour,
so we're about to tee this thing up here.

Speaker 4 (01:40:08):
I just started thinking about this. They're not gonna say it,
but as the.

Speaker 5 (01:40:12):
Committee just quietly pulling for BYU because think about it.
If BYU wins, they are off the hook, okay, like
Miami and Notre Dame gonna get squeezed out. Like the
only way it would come down to Notre Dame in
Miami is if Alabama loses in like historic fashion, which

(01:40:32):
is not going to happen, right. If Alabama plays a
close game, respectable game, doesn't get blown out, Alabama is
in and BYU would also be in. So there's no
Notre Dame, there's no Miami. There's no debate. How crazy
would it be if both of those teams, Notre dame
in Miami, don't get in and the committee flip flops them, right,

(01:40:53):
would that be the weeniest move of all time? Like, well,
you know, we did consider head to head when they
were next door to each other, and it would have
been Miami.

Speaker 3 (01:41:01):
But you know, BYU won.

Speaker 4 (01:41:04):
So neither of them get in. I wouldn't put it
past them to do that.

Speaker 5 (01:41:07):
But I think the committee, you know, maybe a couple
of tiger woods fist bumps, if you know what, bear
Bachbeyer throws a touchdown pass, They're like, all right, let's
go Koog's here, right, that would get them off the hook.

Speaker 4 (01:41:19):
There's no doubt I think they would be pretty receptive
to that happening.

Speaker 6 (01:41:24):
Yeah, yeah, okay, So quietly rooting for BYU, I could
see that. I absolutely could, because it would make some
of the nipping and tucking a little bit easier, and
you would have an easier route to explain things, and
some of the determination obviously would be done for you
if that were the case. Now you look at the

(01:41:44):
actual game and you say, does BYU after losing? I
believe the score was twenty nine to seven. I don't
have it in front of me, right, Okay, twenty nine
to seven last time they faced Texas Tech. And also
just the way the game went. There's zone read concepts
with Bachmeier and they're running back. They've looked good against

(01:42:07):
virtually everyone, but against Texas Tech they looked abysmal. I mean,
they were averaging under three yards per play when they
were running that concept against the Red Raiders, and that
defense is, in my opinion, the best in the country.
I don't really see a route for BYU to win
this game. Could I see it possibility for them to

(01:42:29):
keep it close. Yeah, it's hard to beat the same
team twice, and so you figure two things that bode
a little bit better for BYU than maybe the scoreboard
said at the end of the game. Texas Tech was
in their kitchen all game long. In that battle, I
think they made it to the red zone seven times.
They only scored two touchdowns in drives that led them

(01:42:51):
within the twenty yard line.

Speaker 3 (01:42:53):
That bodes well for the Kougs.

Speaker 6 (01:42:56):
You know, they were able to limit some of the
damage in terms of scoring, you know, three points instead
of seven in some of those cases are none. But
but yeah, this this does feel like a little bit
of an inevitability for Texas Tech. To take home the
Big Twelve Championship game.

Speaker 3 (01:43:14):
Three turnovers in the last game, muffed punt really flip things.
I really do think if BYU cleans those things up,
I think this game's close. I'm not saying Bhyu wins.
I just think it's closer. I think the one thing
BYU does really well is they have an ability to
stretch the field. When I look at Bachmeyer, I think

(01:43:37):
he has a big, talented arm and I think he
has the You have to have a level of fearlessness
when you're staring down the barrel of a gun against
this Texas Tech defensive line. And make no mistake, this
Texas Tech defensive line. It might be historically good. We
haven't really given them the flowers they deserve because it's

(01:43:58):
Texas Tech and they haven't really done on the national
stage just yet. They had a lot of attention coming
into the year, but when you play in the Big Twelve,
you just don't get that kind of attention on a
week two week basis. Now they're gonna get it, and
not only they're gonna get it this week, but they'll
get it in the playoff as well. David Bailey leads
the nation in pressures. Their other ed Russia. Romelo Height

(01:44:20):
is a top ten Pro Football Focus great guy. They're
two defensive tackles, Homes and Hunter, top ten Pro Football
Focus great like. This is a Sunday defensive line, and
that is I think the problem for BYU in this game.
The solution is Chase Roberts. They're getting back. They're six
foot four stud X Alpha receiver. He was hurt last week,

(01:44:41):
didn't play. I think the path for BYU, something they
didn't do in the last game, is to not run
it into a brick wall. BYU wants to run it.
They've got a good offensive line, good back LJ. Martin.
They want to run the ball. Don't do it. You're
not gonna win in that regard. The way you win
this game is you loosen this defense up. You take

(01:45:03):
some shots down the field early in the game, and
you hope that your defense, which has been pretty good
off the edge this year, can get some pressure on
Baron Morton, because when Morton gets pressure in his face,
he isn't as unflappable as I think Bear Bachmeyer is,
which sounds crazy because Bachmeyer is a freshman, but he
is not an ordinary freshman. He wears a weird number,

(01:45:25):
which might actually push you away from him. But I
promise you do not let the visual bias of the
number he wears to deter you from the talent of
his arm and his and his mind. So I do
see a path for BYU in this game. Now. It
ain't gonna be easy, because, like I said, that Texas
Tech d line is nasty. But if you can loosen
them up a little bit early and maybe get the

(01:45:47):
pass game going to set up the run. The last
time they played, they tried to run it first, set
up the pass. That's no, no, no, no, no, let's
pass first, set up the run. Maybe you can keep
this game close and hang it within the number.

Speaker 4 (01:46:00):
That's a tough thing. I hear what you're saying.

Speaker 5 (01:46:03):
I get it, But it boils down to this what
BYU wants to do, which is run the ball. They're
not gonna do very effectively. Texas Tech is just that
good upfront. So you're asking a BYU team to do
something it's unaccustomed to doing, you know what I mean, Like,
you're asking them to throw it first and then we'll

(01:46:25):
try to run it when they really want to run
it first, second, and third and then throw it a
little bit here and there.

Speaker 4 (01:46:30):
That's what they really want to do.

Speaker 5 (01:46:31):
So I'm not saying they can't do it, but again,
you're asking a team. Let's say it's a boxer and
your best punch, your very best punch.

Speaker 4 (01:46:40):
It's your money maker, right, it's your bread and butter.

Speaker 5 (01:46:44):
Not gonna work like your job is totally ineffective against
this particular opponent. Don't even think about using the jab.
You're wasting your time. And it's like, but I use
my jab to set up all my other punches. I
can't really It's like, yeah, okay, I guess I'm gonna
be right cross in this particular fight, and that's not
my strength at all.

Speaker 4 (01:47:03):
That's a tough ask for BYU.

Speaker 5 (01:47:05):
I'm not saying they can't do it, but man, that
is a tough ask for them to do it at
like with great efficiency. But that's what's gonna be so
interesting about this game. So we'll see how it plays out.
I wanted to throw something your way. Where our guy
John Gruden, he had a thought about these conference championship games,
and I thought it was really interesting.

Speaker 4 (01:47:26):
It's on his barstool channel over there on YouTube and
listen to what he lays.

Speaker 5 (01:47:32):
Out in terms of some teams playing for their conference
championship games and a lot of other teams just watching
those teams play.

Speaker 4 (01:47:41):
Kind of interesting. Check this out see if you buy
in what he's selling.

Speaker 3 (01:47:44):
Here, here's my problem.

Speaker 9 (01:47:45):
I just point this out to you. Here's Indiana playing
Ohio State for the Big Ten championship. Meanwhile Oregon is
sitting at home getting a bye week before the tournament starts.

Speaker 3 (01:47:56):
What logic is that?

Speaker 9 (01:47:57):
Then he got Alabama playing Georgia for the championship, and
you got a team like Old Miss and Texas A
and M.

Speaker 2 (01:48:04):
They're freshness at Daisy Man.

Speaker 9 (01:48:06):
They don't even have to play a game, but they
get into the tournament.

Speaker 3 (01:48:09):
What kind of logic is this.

Speaker 9 (01:48:11):
That's like the top two seeds in the NFC, Let's
say the Chicago Bears and the La Rams having to
play to see who the number one seed of the
NFC is before we go to the playoffs. Meanwhile, we
got everybody else that's in the playoffs sitting at home
having a bye week.

Speaker 3 (01:48:28):
Does that make sense? Hell no, it doesn't make sense.
I'm saying this.

Speaker 9 (01:48:32):
If you're gonna have these conference games, I'm all for that,
we can have the Big ten championship game.

Speaker 3 (01:48:38):
Ohio State, go.

Speaker 9 (01:48:38):
Play Indiana, Alabama, you go play Georgia, Texas Tech, go
play BYU in Virginia, you go play Duke.

Speaker 3 (01:48:46):
But the rest of you guys, you guys are getting
off the hook. Some of you guys got to keep proving.

Speaker 9 (01:48:53):
Your resumes worthy by playing another game as well.

Speaker 4 (01:48:57):
What do you think they make a good argument. I
think it makes a lot of sense.

Speaker 3 (01:49:01):
I don't know how you.

Speaker 5 (01:49:02):
Would have everybody play games, but the concept makes total sense.

Speaker 4 (01:49:07):
That is a luxury.

Speaker 5 (01:49:08):
Think about the team. Maybe it's Oregon that's not playing
today that could be in line for a buye, like
that's a double win, or you get a buy this week.
Maybe you get a buye in the first week of
the playoff potentially that that's a huge advantage.

Speaker 4 (01:49:23):
So he definitely makes a good argument there.

Speaker 6 (01:49:26):
One hundred percent agree with his argument. Not sure if
there's a clean way of fixing this problem, but one
hundred percent agree with his argument. Now, for a team
who maybe isn't so lucky to have an opportunity for
an out large bid playing for a conference championship, and
maybe an underdog getting a w and quote unquote sneaking into.

Speaker 3 (01:49:48):
The playoff bracket.

Speaker 6 (01:49:50):
You wouldn't complain about the fact that everybody else is
getting a buye because that was your golden ticket. But
for the rest of these teams, who aren't you know,
Charlie waiting for his trip to the chocolate factory because
he opened up the right chocolate bar.

Speaker 8 (01:50:05):
Man.

Speaker 6 (01:50:06):
It's just yeah, it's rest and leisure and an opportunity
to get healthy, while teams who you're gonna be facing
against worthy opponents not only are playing football, which is
a vicious sport, but also potentially injuring some of their
key players. That's the other thing that we fail to
remember and part of the reason why you have this
mass exodus of star players participating in bowl games prior

(01:50:29):
to the college football playoff or should say postseason games
because you want to preserve yourself for an opportunity to
play in the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:50:38):
Well, this is no different.

Speaker 6 (01:50:40):
Now you have a situation where teams who are not
good enough to perform in the conference championship game record wise,
but are still at large teams getting a bye week.

Speaker 3 (01:50:53):
It's not fair. Yeah, here's the best solution in my mind.

Speaker 6 (01:50:58):
You make it so that if it's gonna be a
twelve week season, the final week of that twelve week
season is conference championship week. And whether you're if you're
in the game, obviously you drop the opponent you were
scheduled against. That opponent has a bye, and it's just
the luck of their stars that they happen to get
that buy and you.

Speaker 3 (01:51:17):
Play against the rival conference champion.

Speaker 6 (01:51:20):
And if it so happens that that's the scheduling match anyways,
well that's to the benefit of the whole conference and
all of college football, and.

Speaker 3 (01:51:28):
Everybody can rest easy. Not if it's not.

Speaker 6 (01:51:31):
It just means, my goodness, how lucky Oregon was slated
to play against Ohio State the final game of the season.
They got lucky and they got a by on their
way into the conference. Or it should say the CFP,
Ohio State has to play Indiana, because that is what
the Big Ten Championship game.

Speaker 3 (01:51:49):
Is going to be, you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (01:51:50):
It's the fairest way to get this job done, where
everybody's playing the same amount of football leading to the CFP,
and you have only a limited opportunity if a conference
champion is scheduled against an at large team to have
a team get a quote unquote unfair by right.

Speaker 3 (01:52:10):
I vote John Gruden for College Football Commissioner. Didn't it
made so much? Well, he's describing two kind of versions
of reality. One he's describing like a world where there's
no conferences at all, and it's just like an expanded playoff.
Like that's kind of the first realm of it. And
then the second realm of it is he's describing fairness,

(01:52:32):
and that is something that the playoff committee doesn't always
take into account, nor does sports always take into account,
Like life isn't always fair. So like we make the argument, oh, well,
sports shouldn't be fair r because life isn't fair. And
I get that. But there's ways to make it more fair,
and this is absolutely one of them, I think, and

(01:52:52):
I've made this argument on this show for four years.
The conferences are irrelevant. We have evolved past them. They
are in existence for nostalgia purposes only and money. That's it.
We don't need an SEC championship game today. We don't
need a Big ten championship game today. It is not

(01:53:14):
necessary in order to move forward with the playoff. We
can look at Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, and Indiana and
say those are playoff teams. Let's rank them, seed them,
and start the playoff. This is for extra the cherry
on top, Like that's now you want to say the
ACC Championship game matters. Okay, that's like a play in

(01:53:34):
game Big twelve Championship game. I'll be honest. Eleven and
one BYU probably deserves to be in. They probably do,
and this Big twelve Championship game probably not necessary for
me to look at BYU and say, you know what,
you're probably one of the twelve best teams in the
country this year, but we are in this We're locked

(01:53:55):
into this conference structure, and it's just I think it
is taking away from what the playoff can be. Maybe
we'll eliminate them one day. And then the promotion relegation
system that I've talked about on the show for years.
I know you guys are probably against it. I get
a lot of pushback when I put that out there
on social media, like go back to Europe EPL. But

(01:54:15):
I think that is another thing that we could use
as a promotion system, Like hey, maybe North Texas Tulane
the winner of that game gets into the playoff division
next year and again, we're going off the rails here,
but I think Gruden's hypothesis is very sound.

Speaker 5 (01:54:32):
All right, let me throw one at you before we
start talking to EPL real fast. Yes, Marcus Freeman, Notre
Dame's head coach, he made a statement, I want to
get your two cents super fast here. So he said,
the more teams you give an opportunity to play in
the playoffs, the better. Everybody can have their own opinion,
but I always favor more. Would you want more teams?

Speaker 3 (01:54:54):
I don't.

Speaker 5 (01:54:54):
Would you change anything? I think it's fine the way
it is twelve teams. The regular season matters a ton.
I love that we have these arguments. I hate that
my Irish might be left out. But this isn't bad
for college football. And I still look at this. It's
a good cutoff line. Win more games and spare me
your tiers, right, Like Notre Dame beat Texas A and
M at home. Don't give up yards and yards and

(01:55:16):
points and points, and like, if you win one of
those two games at the beginning of the year, you're
a shoe win.

Speaker 4 (01:55:21):
So I don't think we need more teams. Would you
change anything quickly?

Speaker 3 (01:55:25):
Rich you?

Speaker 4 (01:55:26):
Would you do anything I would.

Speaker 3 (01:55:28):
I would bump it up to fourteen or sixteen.

Speaker 6 (01:55:30):
I think college basketball has it right. I think the
NFL has it right. There are less teams and more
playoff teams in the NFL, right, let thirty two teams
fourteen spots, one hundred and thirty teams.

Speaker 3 (01:55:44):
In college football twelve spots. So there's room. Okay.

Speaker 6 (01:55:48):
College basketball is two things really quick that they do great.
Everybody's got a shot in a tournament. You have to
obviously play some semblance of good basketball, and you know,
wins stuff like that, right.

Speaker 3 (01:56:02):
But the other part about it that I love is
the fact that.

Speaker 6 (01:56:05):
Cinderella is are a real thing. You don't really have
Cinderell's with a twelve team playoff.

Speaker 3 (01:56:11):
You agree with everything. Rich says, I think sixteen probably
the max. Sixteen.

Speaker 4 (01:56:15):
I stay twelve, I stay here, right.

Speaker 5 (01:56:17):
We've got rich O hon Berger Penn State all American
fan of expansion. We've got Jared Smith FSR, betting analyst
fan of expansion. I'm Brian no, not a fan of expansion.

Speaker 3 (01:56:30):
This light expansion, not a major, that's true, A bump
like call it inflation.

Speaker 5 (01:56:36):
No more expanding the segment, all right, shutting up now
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(01:56:57):
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Speaker 4 (01:57:11):
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(01:57:35):
They have got you covered in about eight American minutes
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All right, we got picks to make let's do it.

Speaker 2 (01:57:47):
Rapid fire.

Speaker 4 (01:57:49):
Okay, shared, we start with you.

Speaker 3 (01:57:50):
What do you like? All right, Let's go brock Lowry
over one twenty four and a half passing yurds. Who
is brock Lowry not brock Leslier, not brock Per not
Kyle Lowry.

Speaker 4 (01:58:01):
Brock Lowry.

Speaker 3 (01:58:02):
He's the Western Michigan quarterback. Not much of a thrower,
but this number is way too low for conference championship game,
so we'll go over one twenty four and a half
passing yards. I think they throw it a little bit
today against Miami. I will go BYU plus twelve and
a half against Texas Tech. I've been honking the Coogs
all day long. I've got to back it up here,
so I'll go Coog's to keep it just close enough.

(01:58:22):
I don't know if they went out right, but I
think this is a competitive game, and I think bear
Bachmeyer is going to have himself at least one of
his better games of the year, at least, I hope,
And I'll go Indiana team total under twenty one and
a half. The Ohio State hasn't given up seventeen to
anyone this year. They're giving up twenty two to Indiana. Tonight.
I don't think so, so Indiana team total under twenty
one an hope all right, all.

Speaker 6 (01:58:42):
Of a sudden, that Big twelve Championship game is the
bragging rights ball. I'm taking Texas Tech minus twelve and
a half, so diametrically opposed to my Knitney lion Jared
Smith Alabama.

Speaker 3 (01:58:54):
I'm taking the Dogs against the Dogs plus one.

Speaker 6 (01:58:56):
And a half hosting the SEC championship hip game, Crimson Tide.

Speaker 3 (01:59:03):
I don't believe they're frauds. I believe their college football
playoff gold.

Speaker 4 (01:59:08):
You will and then those a hard way, well, you
boo the Crimson Tide.

Speaker 3 (01:59:12):
I'm cheering the Who's, so maybe those boos are who's.

Speaker 6 (01:59:15):
I'm hearing from the stands. I got the Virginia Cavaliers
minus four and a half against the.

Speaker 5 (01:59:20):
Dookies diametrically opposed like sign me up to Fantastic. I'm
on the Red Raiders minus twelve and a half as well,
like listen man, the Red Raiders were terrible in the
red zone in the first meeting. I just don't see
the Koogs playing as well in the red zone a
second time around, and they're gonna have a hell of
a time scoring man. Texas Tech is just so good

(01:59:43):
up front, they're gonna have to throw it. I'm gonna
fade the quarterback that Whear's number forty seven, throwing the
ball all over the place. I'm just gonna do that.

Speaker 4 (01:59:50):
Sorry.

Speaker 3 (01:59:51):
Give me.

Speaker 5 (01:59:52):
Give me an Alabama wide receiver. Give me Isaiah Horton
over thirty one and a half receiving yards. Where's number
one Miami transfer Ryan Williams been invisible? And all Ty
Simpson did in the first game has spread the ball
all around? So I look for that to happen again.
And give me Georgia running back Chauncey Bowens. Give me
over thirty six and a half rushing yards. Ran it
all over Bama in the first game. I think they

(02:00:14):
run it all over them again in this one. So
give me Chauncey.

Speaker 4 (02:00:17):
Enjoy the games.

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