Monday: Quarterfinals

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Who will move on to the final four of college football.
We've got Oregon, Texas Tech. We've got Alabama and Indiana, Ohio
State taken on Miami, ole Miss taking on Georgia. Those
are your final eight teams. Before I get into the
picks on all of this, I was having this discussion
with our radio crew this week, and I also brought

(00:26):
it up as part of our pregame interview with Lisa
compos on the pregame coverage of the First Responderbowl, about
the need for the Group of six or group of whatever,
the non powerfour conferences to have representation in the NCAA Tournament.
And I'd be happy to have this debate with both

(00:47):
Paul Feinbaum and Nick Saban, and I would preface that
with this saying that I understand that JMU and Tulane
right now are not as good or we're not as
competitive as Oregon and Ole Miss, the teams that they played,

(01:07):
but we are now in a different landscape of sports
that says if you raise enough money, you can be
good regardless of the status of your program. And I
think schools like Nick Saban is basically going to be
tied to Alabama, even though he coached other places. He's
an Alabama guy, and in fact, I think he still
lives in Tuscaloosa at least some of the time. And

(01:29):
Paul Feinbaum has been an ESPN SEC show guy that
basically loves the Southeast Conference and Alabama in particular, and
I have zero issue with that. But the issue that
I have with both of them is I don't think
they want others invited to the party, and deep down inside,
they're sitting there with their headspinning, going well in the world.

(01:51):
Indiana get this good. Indiana got this good because they
raised thirty million dollars to pay their players. About twenty
of that's coming from the revenue share in about thirteen
or fourteen's coming from collectives, maybe a little bit less.
It's between thirty and thirty three million dollars. And I
will still make the argument that if a James Madison

(02:13):
or Tulane alum went to the Bowl game this year
and happens to have a few billion dollars laying around
in different accounts, if they are so inclined to go
back and actually win games, all they have to do
is stroke a check to the football team every year
for twenty million bucks, and if you are a multi billionaire,
you're probably not going to miss the money, and you're

(02:33):
probably going to feel very good about the fact that
you're helping your team. I think there's two teams that
are left right now in Texas Tech and Indiana that
if you basically got into a deep dark room with
Alabama and Georgia and Ohio State and set in Georgia
and said do you really want these guys around, they

(02:54):
go no, they're not part of the history of college football.
Indiana is the is, to take stickley speaking, the worst
college football program in the history of college football. They
have the most losing record in even with the wins
the last two years. I made the case last week
that UTSA, a fledgling football program with fifteen years of

(03:17):
experience total, has a better record in the last fifteen
years than Indiana has in the last fifteen by twenty
six games better. UTSA is eleven over five hundred, they're
fifteen under. And that takes into consideration that not only
were they thirteen and oer this year, they were twelve

(03:39):
and two last year, and so they've had two great
renaissance yeers and they still can't catch a football program
that has existed for about a tenth of the amount
of years that they've existed. And so my thought is,
whatever school you represent, whatever school you consider your favorite team,
if you have the re sources to donate thirty million dollars,

(04:02):
you probably can find a coach that can make your
team really competitive with any team in the nation in
a relatively short amount of time. So, yes, the ACC
is the conference to blame for James Madison getting in,
because had Miami gotten the automatic bid, which would have
excluded James Madison, then either Notre Dame or Texas or

(04:25):
Vanderbilt would have likely gotten that other spot. But if
we're going to play by these rules now, which basically
there are no rules, and it's he who has the
most wins, then you're going to have to get out
of the way for the non traditional teams to rain
on the party of the traditional teams in the College
Football Playoff. And the blue bloods will still be there

(04:48):
and they'll still be fine, but they're going to have
to deal with different competition. And if Penn State wants
to be there, pony you up thirty million bucks. If
USC wants to be there, raise the bar and spend
more and if U TSA or Tulane or Memphis or
South Florida or James Madison wants to get there and
actually win games, if they have the roster that they

(05:10):
can go out and buy, then they're gonna be in
a position where they can do that.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
And there there is a doomsday scenario that TV does
not want, similar to the College Wable playoff doomsday scenario
that did happen. I'll remind people the doomsday scenario that
happened in the College Will playoff was that not only
did Virginia lose the a CC championship game, which Duke
then won, but James Madison won the Sun Belt and
because they were still in the top twenty five, they

(05:36):
were the next highest ranked U conference champion, which means
they got the automatic bid. That's just how the rules are.
You can cry about it to your mama, I don't care.
And that was a doomsday scenario for them because then
they had to basically say, is Alabama getting this last
spot or we give it to Notre Dame or whatever.
There is a doomsday scenario right here in the in
the semi in the semi finals as well.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
Can I tell what that is Texas Tech in Indiana
winning well sort.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Of, it's it's it's it's it's beyond just that. So
there is what TV wants and what is in and.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
What Georgia and Alabama to be in the championship TV wants.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
TV wants Oregon to beat Tech, they want Bama to
beat Indiana, they want Georgia to beat Ole Miss, and
they want to be Ohio State to beat Miami. The
reality is is that in all these matchups, some there
are some aspects that favor the rather And for instance,
in the Oregon tex Tech game, tex Tech has no offense.
They have the best front seven in college ball that
is based on megic that is based on pass rush

(06:31):
as well as as well as third down stops.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
On defense.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
With Indiana they have one of the they have one
of the best, most complete defenses, and Alabama has become
a one dimensional offense. They can't run the ball, which
is crazy because at one time that's all they could do.
And now if they can apply pressure to them to
uh to Ty Simpson the way they did to Julian
Sane the Big Ten Championship game, same thing is gonna
happen in that case with Miami and Ohio and Ohio State.

(06:54):
Same thing with Julian saying is like this Miami front seven,
the way they pressure Marcel Reid, they can get after
a still accurate passer in Julian saye, the most accurate
passing college football, by the way, and make life hell
for him because the secondary also shut down a really
good receiving cor in Textas A and m Ohio State
and Texas A and m are very similar in how
they're built offensively. Now with Georgia Ole Miss, remember uh,

(07:15):
Georgia won the first matchup and that was a high
scoring game that was a forty two to thirty five
if I remember right. But this Ole Miss team, if
nothing else since then, has has I think as like
one of the highest point since the Georgia game. I
think I saw in ESPNS that they have one of
the highest points per points per points per game average.
It made my in the FBS. So this is a

(07:36):
different offensive team than Georgie has played in recent weeks.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
So who are your four winners? Who do you think wins?
You get me to pick? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (07:42):
Go, So I actually like the upset of Miami overall
House State just because I think Ohio state hasn't really
been tested all that much this year, and I think
when they have been tested, they struggled, not defensively, but offensively.
And I think Indiana, I'm sorry, I think Miami has
enough offensive score enough points to win.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
I'm going to agree with you. I think Miami is
going to beat Ohio.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
I think that's I think that's a pretty solid upset.
I think when Georgia ole Miss, I will give credit
because for uh Chambliss, the quarterback Trinidad Chambliss has done
a good job of opening the plays up. But Georgia's
defense is playing really good. Since the Alabama game. They
might be the best defense in college fotball that you've
actually heard of. I think Georgia wins that game. I
agree when it comes to Alabama Indiana again, I don't

(08:23):
like this Alabama team. I think that this this Alabama
team is beat up. They can't run the ball, they
are one dimensional offense. They're a good passing team. But
this Indiana defense is better than what they saw against
Oklahoma from the secondary as well. So I like Indiana
in that game. Okay, and this is not because I'm
a Red Raider, It's just because like I've seen Oregon play.
Oregon has a good offense, but they have they have

(08:44):
a setable defense.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
They have a defense that they have the old Texas
Tech defense from.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Years again exactly and and and Texas Tech despite the
spine people they've been talking about text defense all year.
Tech has a really good offense as well. They have
multiple guys that are gonna be in the Senior Bowl
and drafted the show. Offensively, I like Tech in this game,
not just because I'm a greater, but objectively, I think
that the better.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Team on the last two games. Here's the scenario that
I saw heard the other day. There are two Alabama
teams that played this year. There's Alabama's A team and
there's Alabama's B game. The Alabama B team can't beat anybody.
I mean, it's basically the same players, but sometimes they
play like they're the B teams. Florida State game, Yeah,
they lose to Florida State, they lose to OU, and

(09:23):
they lose to Georgia. The B team isn't very good.
The A team is capable of beating anybody. Indiana this
is the second year that they've been in the playoffs.
I think it benefits I think it probably benefits Indiana
that it's in the Rose Bowl because it because the
Big Ten champion is supposed to go to the Rose
Bowl anyway, that's kind of been the traditional thing. I

(09:45):
think this is a close game at the end, and
whoever has the ball last wins, and that's I gave
the edge to Alabama in this one. The Texas Tech
Oregon game. I go back and forth on Oregon offensively
is as good as it gets. Yes, they but defense
they're very susceptible. I agree with Dan Lanning that this

(10:05):
game should be played in Lubbock. The fact that it's
in Miami, I think gives Oregon a little bit of
help because they're going to be there for three or
four days. It's not like they got to fly in
and get acclimated to the time zone and all that.
I've got a very slight edge to Oregon, but Texas Tech.
If Texas Tech can keep Oregon under thirty, I think
they can win the game. And that so to me,

(10:26):
both the Oregon Texas Tech game and the Alabama Indiana
game are going to be fourth quarter decisions. I think
Miami is going to handle Ohio State for a good
chunk of the game and methodically pull away, And I
think George is going to wear out Ole Miss. So
that's kind of the way I see these games. But
I do think the CFP still needs to include the
group of six teams. It's not going to change because

(10:48):
the NCAA notes they're going to get sued if they
try to knock them out. But if I am, if
I didn't win the two billion dollar lottery the other night,
but had I done so and given Jeff Trailer twenty
five million, I'd make a strong bet. I can make
a strong bet that he could feel a team that
would beat Texas next year. It wouldn't take long. He
would be just as good as they were if he

(11:10):
had twenty five million dollars, just like all the other
power for schools do. All right, guess who's turning fifty tomorrow.
We'll tell you about that next. It's the Andy Everage show.
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