December 10, 2025 • 24 mins
This week on Weekend Warriors, Anish and Tom share their thoughts on the final College Football Playoff bracket and so much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's a very famous holiday song that plays this time
of the year. I have one major issue. I feel
like they're hiding something. You know the song, You've heard
it a million times, and I'm gonna say the lines
to you back to back. Then one foggy Christmas Eve,
Santa came to say, Rudolph, with your nose so bright,
won't you guide my slay tonight? What's the line that
(00:20):
comes after that?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Then all the reindeer loved him? Right?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Don't you feel like we were leaving something out?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I'm not following you. You're gonna have to leave me
down this trail, Lukes.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I mean, in the previous verse, we're talking about how
the reindeers called him names, wouldn't let me join any
reindeer games. Yeah, and all of a sudden they just
loved him.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I just feel there's a deleted scene that ties the song.
Massive plot hole, that's all I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
So your plot hole in this particular instance is a
reflection of Miami and Notre Dame.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
That's a bigger plot hole. Welcome to the Weekend, Warriors.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Ladies and gentlemen. The Weekend Rice Bros.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Down the right sideline Pit's Coker it straight touchdown.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Coronado Weekend Warriors.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Let's start with the Miami Notre Dame mess.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
So it's really not a mess.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Well, it was a mess on Tuesday. Yeah, they cleaned
it up on Sunday. But here's the thing. If on
Tuesday you're saying head to head isn't all that important
and we think Notre Dame is better, a Notre Dame
doesn't play and Miami doesn't play, and then you change
your mind on Sunday. If I'm a Notre Dame fan,
I would feel a little ticked off, like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
(01:45):
You said that game in August or the beginning of
the year that didn't matter. Now it matters now. Yeah,
and you and I both believe the game should matter.
If you essentially say that head to head doesn't matter,
you disincentivize anybody from playing any conference game of any consequence.
So I do think Miami should have been in over
Notre Dame. The part that gets lost in all this. Oh,
(02:08):
if they're next to each other in the rankings, then
head to head comes into play.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
That's not how that.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Exercise works, No, not at all. Group, So whether they're
separated by one team or two teams. If there's a
buffer in there, that shouldn't matter, because at that point
you're trying to figure out, okay, everything else being almost equal,
we actually have a metric of these two teams being
on the field and Miami won, and that should matter.
(02:35):
It would be like if the Panthers are going into
their final four games, say, well, well you know that
one in three start. We're a better team than that.
Right now. Let's not count Jacksonville, Let's not count Arizona.
It's like, no, that counts. And if you overcome that, great,
If you don't, it could still haunt you down the road.
The games matter.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
They have to matter well, they have to matter, and
first and foremost for college football as a whole, the
point you just made, if you do not honor that
head to head, the excitement and the anticipation that we
all experience upon each and every new season, in weeks
zero in week one is gone. It's over. You're not
(03:15):
gonna be having teams playing in their Chick fil A Classic.
You're not gonna have so and so versus so and
so going to Jerry World. That's coming to an end.
You're not gonna have Texas play in Ohio State, right,
and so go schedule a group of five teams. Go
schedule an FCS team, because clearly the acknowledgement that two
teams with the same record and ironically a lot of
(03:37):
the same teams on the schedule to have a head
to head not matter in that instant. If you go
down that path and you make that move, there's consequences
there that I don't think you can come back from. Now.
With that being said, I think the biggest flaw and
issue in all of this is the Tuesday Night show.
(04:01):
Quit revealing to everybody what you think, because when you
do that, you're exposing yourself to any sudden change late
for whatever your reason or your justification may be. If
you start off with an opening sequence of a college
football playoff release, and you have these two teams eight
spots apart from each other, and then the gap slowly,
(04:23):
slowly kind of closes but not significant, and then you
look at the last month of the season and they
played common opponents right and ended up with the same record,
and all of a sudden, you make the flop. The
move was right to pick Miami, but to get from
point A to point B is alf it's egregious.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
It's often it almost felt like if you're in a
class you kind of mailed it in on the midterm,
but then you studied for the final. YEP, So you're
doing these shows on Tuesday talking about the committee and yeah,
maybe you're not paying attention, maybe you're not watching as
many games. And then oh for the last rankings. Now
(05:08):
we need to get this right. But everybody sees your math.
Everybody sees it out there. And I had some issue
too with the way they handled Alabama because in that
Tuesday ranking they moved Alabama up to number nine. Did
you watch that Auburn game? They were up seventeen to nothing,
(05:28):
They blew the game almost then had to rally to win.
While Notre Dame in Miami looked pretty good that weekend,
really good dropped and I'm going, okay, so are you
guys just gonna lock Alabama? And that was my first
reaction when they bumped Alabama to nine. I'm thinking, is
Alabama in win or lose?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
And I get it.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
They went and beat Georgia, and I will say this,
Bama's case was a strong one. Their volume of quality
wins was better than anybody in the.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Field, anybody in the field. That's exactly their body of
work was better than anybody in the field. And you're
at the win at Georgia might have been the greatest
regular season road win of any team in college football
in the time. Georgia was number three, no doubt. And
then how about Hunter year check Hunter Yurchik going on
air and said, well, we really thought they looked good
(06:19):
in the first half.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Did you did you watch the what? What did you
watch the game? I mean that game from the very beginning,
it was very clear Alabama's offensive line could not hold
up against Georgie's defense. Noah Simpson was running for his life.
They're in the backfield seemingly every play, getting pressure, blowing
up plays. They couldn't move the ball, couldn't.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It was a checked down, Charlie ty Simpson was checked down, Charlie.
It's the only place they could get the ball. They
couldn't throw downfield, they couldn't run it, they couldn't do anytime,
no time, no time.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
I'm kind of watching that and going all right, so
Alabama doesn't get penalized at all for playing poorly against
Auburn and winning. They don't get penalized at all for
getting blown out in the SEC championship game. Now BYU.
On the other hand, they actually were in that game
against Texas Tech for about a quarter and change. Yeah,
that Texas Tech pulled away. There are only two losses
(07:12):
were to Texas Tech, and I get it. They don't
have the volume of quality wins at Alabama. I'm not
making a case here for BYU. I'm making a rationale
for why did you drop? BYU? Because Texas Tech is
the fourth ranked team in the country. I mean they're
right there with Georgia in the rankings. Yes, so all
things being equal, BYU drops Alabama stays even. Again, the
(07:35):
math to me doesn't compute here.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Well, there's no doubt. And I think the one other
thing too here is if you're a Texas A and
M fan, you should be livid because you dropped without
playing which would have put you against one of the
group of five included teams, and instead you're playing Miami.
You did nothing wrong to me team.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
We talked about it on the show before. Yeah, Miami's
good enough to make a run up this thing, make
a no question yep if they get out of.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Their wrong way.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I mean they got a quarterback who's in the playoffs
last year, great offensive line, great defensive line, skill players.
Miami's a championship caliber team. I'll be honest, I thought
Notre Dame would have had a shot too.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
There's no question. I was just going to bring that
up with all of the you know, the debate and
the discussion surrounding Notre Dame, The reality is they could
have gotten to the National championship game.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
You can make a very easy argument that in Julian Love,
they had the most dynamic skill player in the playoff,
Jeremie in there, Jeremiah.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yeah, yeah, there's no There's no question. And the quarterback
grew up and became really really good. And I listen,
I remember coming away from the first game of the
season against Miami in that loss, and I'm like, they
didn't lose that game to the CJ Carr, right. I mean,
the reality is Miami shut down their run game all
right and said we're going to make a red shirt
freshman who's never played beat us. But he didn't play awful.
(09:09):
You know, I want to get your take on this too,
because I think the Notre Dame athletic director has done
a real disservice to his own university and to college
football as a whole. And he's just come off as
a whiny you know what, And if you're going to
be angry, you can be angry at the process and
you should be all right. You can be if you
(09:30):
want to be upset with the Alabama inclusion, you probably
don't have a lot of evidence, but I get it.
But you don't get to be angry at the ACC.
The ACC didn't do this to you. You want one
foot in the pool and one foot on the concrete.
You don't want to jump in. And their entitlement and
their arrogance won't allow for them to just either join
(09:56):
a conference and have an opportunity to play in a
conference championship game. But you played Miami, You played a
bunch of common opponents in the ACC. How are you
blaming the ACC for this?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Well, I'll let you know a little story. Saturday morning,
I'm trying to leave Harrisonburg, Virginia, home of James Madison.
We had the somampionship on Friday, So you drive to Charlottesville,
the home of UVA, and waiting at the airport. We
had about a six hour delay, so they had a
little airport bar and on one TV we're watching college
(10:33):
football game Day getting ready for BYU Texas Tech was
the first game that was coming on. After the second
TV they had ACC Network, and do you know what
was playing in an infinite loop?
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Oh yeah, Notre Dame Miami. And you know what that
day in.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Miami, that's Notre Dame because they played that NonStop basically
all week now. And I was just about to say,
now here's the deal, right, we see it with the
SEC network where yes, you're you're carrying games for the school,
but listen, like the league has input in how some
(11:12):
of that is run and some of the programming and
what can be said and what can't be said. Notre
Dame is not a member of the ACC and football
they have a scheduling agreement. They are a member of
the ACC and all their other sports it a base
ball or lacrosse or swimming, diving, whatever, right, and there
(11:35):
is a relationship there. But in football, the ACC has
to take care of its charter members. Absolutely every league,
every league was rolling out the propaganda train for the
playoff a league that is nobody's fault, but Notre Dame.
And here's the thing, for ad to go on and
say the things that they have. It's like you want
(11:59):
your cake and you want to eat it too. You
want your NBC contract all the time. You want to
have your independence, you want to be Notre Dame, and
you want to be out on an island. Well, okay,
that's great, But then when everybody else is fighting for themselves,
don't expect them to throw you a lifeline.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Not football exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
I remember this very well because I was in it
a few years ago, is twenty twenty two. Notre Dame
probably had the second best lacrosse team in the country
and they were in the ACC and they got left
out of the tournament. And I remember going nuts because
I'm thinking, if you watch these guys and it's a
(12:41):
different selection process where it's mostly RPI, it's all metrics base. Yeah,
the league was a little down and had been beaten
up in non conference, and they left Notre Dame out,
which was probably the only team that would have had
a chance to beat what was an ulti Maryland team
that season. Point being, the ACC lobbied hard for them.
He lobbied for Notre Dame, Hey, they should get in.
(13:02):
Duke was another team that year that got left out,
that had a real shot. The ACC lobbied for those teams,
didn't work, didn't get in. But the point is they've
been your friend. They were your friend. As the Big
twelve commissioner said during COVID, they gave you a lifeline, yeah,
schedule and to be in a conference. And you actually
got to plan in an ACC championship game during COVIY.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Yeah. And listen, if you are the Notre Dame athletics,
you'd you want to know you really need to be
upset about this notion that we have to trade access
for excellence. James Madison and Julane do not belong in
this thing. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, but here's the thing, man, the rules and the
way I mean again, like, it's not like they twisted
the rules to get in. They they got in based
on what the parameters were.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Correct. Correct. What I'm saying to them, I'm happy for them.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I don't want to be a thief joy for those schools.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
No, I don't. And listen, I I've got Oregon and
jmu on on ESPN Radio and I'm happy for those
programs too. But what has to be tweaked going forward
is I think that in order for them to be included,
you have to make some ranking stipulations. You have to say, hey, listen,
unless you're in the top twelve as a ranked team,
(14:23):
we are under no obligation to take you. Because if
the if the notion that we are taking the twelve
best teams in college football is actually true, that's not
what we have here. What if you if you were
and I on real quick, if you remove if you
remove those two teams, Notre Dame makes it, and then
the committee has a selection between Vanderbilt and Texas. Okay,
(14:48):
and who else it would have been?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
One more might have been in there.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Oh maybe maybe even BYU because they have played the champion.
So now you're talking about a field where you're like, okay,
this is this is comparable across the board. Right now,
it's not comparable across the board.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
I think what that does, though, it takes away from
the regular season, because you're essentially telling half of college
football this.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Isn't for you. And I know, make your own playoff, right, and.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
I understand that, But I just think again, what happens
now for Tulane and James Madison. Does James Madison get
a coach with Billy Napier's resume, if they're not in
the playoff or they haven't been this good.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
If they haven't been this good, no, I don't think
the playoff would have had.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Any any Okay, but they've got a chance now to
raise the standard of their program. It's going to create
more money, more exposure for their program, their league. You know,
the one thing this playoff era, especially the very brief
existence of this twelve team era, yeah, showing all of us.
I mean, shoot, yet, Duke just win the ACC championship
(15:58):
and that's you know you want talking about the ACC
dropping the ball?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
That was they almost they got nobody to believe themselves.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
I mean, one of the worst tiebreaker systems. Ever, How
do you just not take the highest ranked CFP team
but Indiana, which is basically the Bob Dylan song the
loser now is later to win. They are now winning,
and they are winning big, and they go and beat
Ohio State and you could say the game didn't matter.
I don't think you can put a numeric quantitative value
(16:31):
on what that kind of win meant for the Indiana
football program in their history, the history, Like you beat
Ohio State, you beat the bully on the block, take
the season out. Just look at the context of the sport,
Like Ohio State is here living in the penthouse in
the basement, so in this portal era, and I know
(16:51):
things may change, Like everybody's kind of got a little
bit of a fair shot, everyone's got a puncher's chance.
I like that element, you know. And and to me,
like James Madison as the Sun Belt team and Tulane
as the American team, I wouldn't shake up the rules
based on an anomaly. I don't think this is going
(17:12):
to happen very often where.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
You're going to well not to not to getting it.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I agree with the two teams from the group of five.
Like when we have the fourteen playoffs, there was one
one group of five team that got into the fourteen
playoff that higher existence. Yeah, I don't want to shake
things up because of something that is more than likely
an outlier.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah. No, I agree with you on the two group
of five inclusion. The one is a normal set of
regular circumstances that I think we all acknowledge are a
part of the playoff structure. You know that being sad,
you know, two Lane lost to Ole Miss by thirty five,
they're playing again. Okay, if you're Vanderbilt or your Texas
(17:52):
or you're Notre Dame, you're looking at that and you're
rolling your eyes, right.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
And then how about the fact, hold on, how about
the fact the two head coaches who were in that
game once at LSU, Yeah, and the other I don't
know how much of his heart and his brain are
in Gainesville.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Absolutely, he's to listen, he's he's got half of his work.
I mean, he's probably get two hours of sleep a night,
you know, for the forever long this goes on and
it's just you. You you look at that and you say,
my goodness, like, wouldn't we have rather had old miss
Notre Dame. Wouldn't we have rather had you know, Oregon
(18:34):
and Texas or you know, or you know, if we're
talking about the twelve best teams? Well, but you're right,
no rules were broken, nothing was nothing was done off
the books. It's what everybody signed on for about that.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
And then that's where you know, I don't really have
a lot of pity for the people who said, well,
James Madison, Tulane, they don't deserve to be and they're
not as good, they're not as good, but they played
by the and they got in. Absolutely, let's end on this,
because I think this is going to be a fascinating
subplot in the offseason. Notre Dame, for example, doesn't go
to the College Football Playoff. We don't want to play
(19:12):
in the Pop Tarts Bowl. We're good guys, Kansas State.
I always state we'll pay a five hundred thousand dollars
fine not in a bowl game. Number of schools decided
to pass on bowl games for various reasons, whether it's
players going to opt out, coaches leaving staff, shuffling, lack
of desire. But I think the bowl system might be
(19:36):
at a tipping point where we have to really look
at it because I think even for the casual college
football fan, right, you might throw on a ballgame because
it's on TV. But now it's about the playoff, and
you got twelve teams in, it's probably gonna go to
sixteen in a year or two. What if we just
(19:56):
set these matchups for August and made the last two
weeks August bowl season and almost use that as a
way to get your premier non conference games as a
lead up in the.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Right season, I thank you. I think that's an idea.
I think another idea is to expand to a thirty
two team playoff and use the Bowls as the playoff games.
That way, you would prevent opt outs because there could
be a light at the end of the tunnel if
you win the first round game or the second game.
Now what you lose. There are the on campus sites, right,
(20:30):
but something's going to have to give whatever we do
going forward, because you're not going to be able to
have everything that you want. But to main because I
agree with you, I think I think the Bowl system
is on the verge of extinction. And not to mention,
how about this, when teams were starting to opt out,
you're going to five and seven teams that should be
saying hell, yeah, we'll play, and they're saying no.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
They're saying no.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
And when you under think about this, they're saying no
and they're in a position whereas a program, they're trying,
they're a developmental program, they're trying to grow and and
get better and see how their young kids play and
prepare for the transfer portal because they're likely a group
of five school Like, why would you say no to that?
(21:15):
Kids aren't gonna opt out where are they gonna go
you're at the group of five level.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
No you're not, you're not You're not going anywhere. And
again it it it used to be kind of the
final showcase for a star. Well years ago that changed
when the stars who have NFL dreams, we're not risking injury,
we're opting out. So that piece was removed. And then
we've covered enough of these loogues where you even sense
(21:42):
it from the coaches like they don't really care a
whole lot whether they win or lose. It's it's kind
of as almost a drag on them. Okay, we're gonna
do it, and then guys are gonna play, and then
you know there's also a fear. Now, let's say you
have a bunch of opt outs and then you play
younger guys who haven't played a whole lot, and then
(22:04):
some of these younger guys play well, and then you
have the transfer window that opens after and then you
risk losing those younger guys because now exactly.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
So, there's a lot of angst and I get it.
The whole thing is a mess. Let's just let's just
let's just admit it all about. I'm telling you, it's
a wonderful mess.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I'm telling you, it's a wonderful time of the year.
It's a wonderful mess. And I'm telling you, I don't
know what the magic number is. Maybe maybe it's maybe
it's eighty. But if you have eighty teams, Let's say
you picked the top eighty teams in college football. You
did like an AFC NFC, right, and then you did
ten four team divisions in each conference. You regionalize your divisions,
(22:52):
and then you rotate and you play like different divisions
every year, like the NFL. Did I think that could
be fun?
Speaker 2 (22:58):
I think so.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Point we're headed in that direction because the last piece
of this is college football is such a valuable entity.
Like as ugly as the inside of the house looks like,
the outside is nice. The lawn is still manicured. Oh yeah,
the shutters still look great. People watch. The ratings are high.
There's a lot of money involved. The problem is there's
all these competing enterprises, these different conferences. We want more money,
(23:22):
we want more money. They ever came together and just
sold this thing as one.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
I mean, if you look at the college football ratings
versus the NBA ratings, Oh low trotters in the generals,
it's not even close, No, And so there's gonna be
somebody who comes along and figures out how to package
this thing and you can bring some regional rivalries back.
I think in the next five years, the entire model
of college football is going to get up ended. Until then,
(23:51):
you know, sorry Notre Dame, sorry BYU. And welcome James
Madison in Tulane, right, Welcome
Speaker 2 (24:02):
He
There's a very famous holiday song that plays this time
of the year. I have one major issue. I feel
like they're hiding something. You know the song, You've heard
it a million times, and I'm gonna say the lines
to you back to back. Then one foggy Christmas Eve,
Santa came to say, Rudolph, with your nose so bright,
won't you guide my slay tonight? What's the line that
(00:20):
comes after that?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Then all the reindeer loved him? Right?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Don't you feel like we were leaving something out?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I'm not following you. You're gonna have to leave me
down this trail, Lukes.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I mean, in the previous verse, we're talking about how
the reindeers called him names, wouldn't let me join any
reindeer games. Yeah, and all of a sudden they just
loved him.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I just feel there's a deleted scene that ties the song.
Massive plot hole, that's all I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
So your plot hole in this particular instance is a
reflection of Miami and Notre Dame.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
That's a bigger plot hole. Welcome to the Weekend, Warriors.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Ladies and gentlemen. The Weekend Rice Bros.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Down the right sideline Pit's Coker it straight touchdown.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Coronado Weekend Warriors.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Let's start with the Miami Notre Dame mess.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
So it's really not a mess.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Well, it was a mess on Tuesday. Yeah, they cleaned
it up on Sunday. But here's the thing. If on
Tuesday you're saying head to head isn't all that important
and we think Notre Dame is better, a Notre Dame
doesn't play and Miami doesn't play, and then you change
your mind on Sunday. If I'm a Notre Dame fan,
I would feel a little ticked off, like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
(01:45):
You said that game in August or the beginning of
the year that didn't matter. Now it matters now. Yeah,
and you and I both believe the game should matter.
If you essentially say that head to head doesn't matter,
you disincentivize anybody from playing any conference game of any consequence.
So I do think Miami should have been in over
Notre Dame. The part that gets lost in all this. Oh,
(02:08):
if they're next to each other in the rankings, then
head to head comes into play.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
That's not how that.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Exercise works, No, not at all. Group, So whether they're
separated by one team or two teams. If there's a
buffer in there, that shouldn't matter, because at that point
you're trying to figure out, okay, everything else being almost equal,
we actually have a metric of these two teams being
on the field and Miami won, and that should matter.
(02:35):
It would be like if the Panthers are going into
their final four games, say, well, well you know that
one in three start. We're a better team than that.
Right now. Let's not count Jacksonville, Let's not count Arizona.
It's like, no, that counts. And if you overcome that, great,
If you don't, it could still haunt you down the road.
The games matter.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
They have to matter well, they have to matter, and
first and foremost for college football as a whole, the
point you just made, if you do not honor that
head to head, the excitement and the anticipation that we
all experience upon each and every new season, in weeks
zero in week one is gone. It's over. You're not
(03:15):
gonna be having teams playing in their Chick fil A Classic.
You're not gonna have so and so versus so and
so going to Jerry World. That's coming to an end.
You're not gonna have Texas play in Ohio State, right,
and so go schedule a group of five teams. Go
schedule an FCS team, because clearly the acknowledgement that two
teams with the same record and ironically a lot of
(03:37):
the same teams on the schedule to have a head
to head not matter in that instant. If you go
down that path and you make that move, there's consequences
there that I don't think you can come back from. Now.
With that being said, I think the biggest flaw and
issue in all of this is the Tuesday Night show.
(04:01):
Quit revealing to everybody what you think, because when you
do that, you're exposing yourself to any sudden change late
for whatever your reason or your justification may be. If
you start off with an opening sequence of a college
football playoff release, and you have these two teams eight
spots apart from each other, and then the gap slowly,
(04:23):
slowly kind of closes but not significant, and then you
look at the last month of the season and they
played common opponents right and ended up with the same record,
and all of a sudden, you make the flop. The
move was right to pick Miami, but to get from
point A to point B is alf it's egregious.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
It's often it almost felt like if you're in a
class you kind of mailed it in on the midterm,
but then you studied for the final. YEP, So you're
doing these shows on Tuesday talking about the committee and yeah,
maybe you're not paying attention, maybe you're not watching as
many games. And then oh for the last rankings. Now
(05:08):
we need to get this right. But everybody sees your math.
Everybody sees it out there. And I had some issue
too with the way they handled Alabama because in that
Tuesday ranking they moved Alabama up to number nine. Did
you watch that Auburn game? They were up seventeen to nothing,
(05:28):
They blew the game almost then had to rally to win.
While Notre Dame in Miami looked pretty good that weekend,
really good dropped and I'm going, okay, so are you
guys just gonna lock Alabama? And that was my first
reaction when they bumped Alabama to nine. I'm thinking, is
Alabama in win or lose?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
And I get it.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
They went and beat Georgia, and I will say this,
Bama's case was a strong one. Their volume of quality
wins was better than anybody in the.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Field, anybody in the field. That's exactly their body of
work was better than anybody in the field. And you're
at the win at Georgia might have been the greatest
regular season road win of any team in college football
in the time. Georgia was number three, no doubt. And
then how about Hunter year check Hunter Yurchik going on
air and said, well, we really thought they looked good
(06:19):
in the first half.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Did you did you watch the what? What did you
watch the game? I mean that game from the very beginning,
it was very clear Alabama's offensive line could not hold
up against Georgie's defense. Noah Simpson was running for his life.
They're in the backfield seemingly every play, getting pressure, blowing
up plays. They couldn't move the ball, couldn't.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It was a checked down, Charlie ty Simpson was checked down, Charlie.
It's the only place they could get the ball. They
couldn't throw downfield, they couldn't run it, they couldn't do anytime,
no time, no time.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
I'm kind of watching that and going all right, so
Alabama doesn't get penalized at all for playing poorly against
Auburn and winning. They don't get penalized at all for
getting blown out in the SEC championship game. Now BYU.
On the other hand, they actually were in that game
against Texas Tech for about a quarter and change. Yeah,
that Texas Tech pulled away. There are only two losses
(07:12):
were to Texas Tech, and I get it. They don't
have the volume of quality wins at Alabama. I'm not
making a case here for BYU. I'm making a rationale
for why did you drop? BYU? Because Texas Tech is
the fourth ranked team in the country. I mean they're
right there with Georgia in the rankings. Yes, so all
things being equal, BYU drops Alabama stays even. Again, the
(07:35):
math to me doesn't compute here.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Well, there's no doubt. And I think the one other
thing too here is if you're a Texas A and
M fan, you should be livid because you dropped without
playing which would have put you against one of the
group of five included teams, and instead you're playing Miami.
You did nothing wrong to me team.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
We talked about it on the show before. Yeah, Miami's
good enough to make a run up this thing, make
a no question yep if they get out of.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Their wrong way.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I mean they got a quarterback who's in the playoffs
last year, great offensive line, great defensive line, skill players.
Miami's a championship caliber team. I'll be honest, I thought
Notre Dame would have had a shot too.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
There's no question. I was just going to bring that
up with all of the you know, the debate and
the discussion surrounding Notre Dame, The reality is they could
have gotten to the National championship game.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
You can make a very easy argument that in Julian Love,
they had the most dynamic skill player in the playoff,
Jeremie in there, Jeremiah.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yeah, yeah, there's no There's no question. And the quarterback
grew up and became really really good. And I listen,
I remember coming away from the first game of the
season against Miami in that loss, and I'm like, they
didn't lose that game to the CJ Carr, right. I mean,
the reality is Miami shut down their run game all
right and said we're going to make a red shirt
freshman who's never played beat us. But he didn't play awful.
(09:09):
You know, I want to get your take on this too,
because I think the Notre Dame athletic director has done
a real disservice to his own university and to college
football as a whole. And he's just come off as
a whiny you know what, And if you're going to
be angry, you can be angry at the process and
you should be all right. You can be if you
(09:30):
want to be upset with the Alabama inclusion, you probably
don't have a lot of evidence, but I get it.
But you don't get to be angry at the ACC.
The ACC didn't do this to you. You want one
foot in the pool and one foot on the concrete.
You don't want to jump in. And their entitlement and
their arrogance won't allow for them to just either join
(09:56):
a conference and have an opportunity to play in a
conference championship game. But you played Miami, You played a
bunch of common opponents in the ACC. How are you
blaming the ACC for this?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Well, I'll let you know a little story. Saturday morning,
I'm trying to leave Harrisonburg, Virginia, home of James Madison.
We had the somampionship on Friday, So you drive to Charlottesville,
the home of UVA, and waiting at the airport. We
had about a six hour delay, so they had a
little airport bar and on one TV we're watching college
(10:33):
football game Day getting ready for BYU Texas Tech was
the first game that was coming on. After the second
TV they had ACC Network, and do you know what
was playing in an infinite loop?
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Oh yeah, Notre Dame Miami. And you know what that
day in.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Miami, that's Notre Dame because they played that NonStop basically
all week now. And I was just about to say,
now here's the deal, right, we see it with the
SEC network where yes, you're you're carrying games for the school,
but listen, like the league has input in how some
(11:12):
of that is run and some of the programming and
what can be said and what can't be said. Notre
Dame is not a member of the ACC and football
they have a scheduling agreement. They are a member of
the ACC and all their other sports it a base
ball or lacrosse or swimming, diving, whatever, right, and there
(11:35):
is a relationship there. But in football, the ACC has
to take care of its charter members. Absolutely every league,
every league was rolling out the propaganda train for the
playoff a league that is nobody's fault, but Notre Dame.
And here's the thing, for ad to go on and
say the things that they have. It's like you want
(11:59):
your cake and you want to eat it too. You
want your NBC contract all the time. You want to
have your independence, you want to be Notre Dame, and
you want to be out on an island. Well, okay,
that's great, But then when everybody else is fighting for themselves,
don't expect them to throw you a lifeline.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Not football exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
I remember this very well because I was in it
a few years ago, is twenty twenty two. Notre Dame
probably had the second best lacrosse team in the country
and they were in the ACC and they got left
out of the tournament. And I remember going nuts because
I'm thinking, if you watch these guys and it's a
(12:41):
different selection process where it's mostly RPI, it's all metrics base. Yeah,
the league was a little down and had been beaten
up in non conference, and they left Notre Dame out,
which was probably the only team that would have had
a chance to beat what was an ulti Maryland team
that season. Point being, the ACC lobbied hard for them.
He lobbied for Notre Dame, Hey, they should get in.
(13:02):
Duke was another team that year that got left out,
that had a real shot. The ACC lobbied for those teams,
didn't work, didn't get in. But the point is they've
been your friend. They were your friend. As the Big
twelve commissioner said during COVID, they gave you a lifeline, yeah,
schedule and to be in a conference. And you actually
got to plan in an ACC championship game during COVIY.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Yeah. And listen, if you are the Notre Dame athletics,
you'd you want to know you really need to be
upset about this notion that we have to trade access
for excellence. James Madison and Julane do not belong in
this thing. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, but here's the thing, man, the rules and the
way I mean again, like, it's not like they twisted
the rules to get in. They they got in based
on what the parameters were.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Correct. Correct. What I'm saying to them, I'm happy for them.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I don't want to be a thief joy for those schools.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
No, I don't. And listen, I I've got Oregon and
jmu on on ESPN Radio and I'm happy for those
programs too. But what has to be tweaked going forward
is I think that in order for them to be included,
you have to make some ranking stipulations. You have to say, hey, listen,
unless you're in the top twelve as a ranked team,
(14:23):
we are under no obligation to take you. Because if
the if the notion that we are taking the twelve
best teams in college football is actually true, that's not
what we have here. What if you if you were
and I on real quick, if you remove if you
remove those two teams, Notre Dame makes it, and then
the committee has a selection between Vanderbilt and Texas. Okay,
(14:48):
and who else it would have been?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
One more might have been in there.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Oh maybe maybe even BYU because they have played the champion.
So now you're talking about a field where you're like, okay,
this is this is comparable across the board. Right now,
it's not comparable across the board.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
I think what that does, though, it takes away from
the regular season, because you're essentially telling half of college
football this.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Isn't for you. And I know, make your own playoff, right, and.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
I understand that, But I just think again, what happens
now for Tulane and James Madison. Does James Madison get
a coach with Billy Napier's resume, if they're not in
the playoff or they haven't been this good.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
If they haven't been this good, no, I don't think
the playoff would have had.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Any any Okay, but they've got a chance now to
raise the standard of their program. It's going to create
more money, more exposure for their program, their league. You know,
the one thing this playoff era, especially the very brief
existence of this twelve team era, yeah, showing all of us.
I mean, shoot, yet, Duke just win the ACC championship
(15:58):
and that's you know you want talking about the ACC
dropping the ball?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
That was they almost they got nobody to believe themselves.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
I mean, one of the worst tiebreaker systems. Ever, How
do you just not take the highest ranked CFP team
but Indiana, which is basically the Bob Dylan song the
loser now is later to win. They are now winning,
and they are winning big, and they go and beat
Ohio State and you could say the game didn't matter.
I don't think you can put a numeric quantitative value
(16:31):
on what that kind of win meant for the Indiana
football program in their history, the history, Like you beat
Ohio State, you beat the bully on the block, take
the season out. Just look at the context of the sport,
Like Ohio State is here living in the penthouse in
the basement, so in this portal era, and I know
(16:51):
things may change, Like everybody's kind of got a little
bit of a fair shot, everyone's got a puncher's chance.
I like that element, you know. And and to me,
like James Madison as the Sun Belt team and Tulane
as the American team, I wouldn't shake up the rules
based on an anomaly. I don't think this is going
(17:12):
to happen very often where.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
You're going to well not to not to getting it.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I agree with the two teams from the group of five.
Like when we have the fourteen playoffs, there was one
one group of five team that got into the fourteen
playoff that higher existence. Yeah, I don't want to shake
things up because of something that is more than likely
an outlier.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah. No, I agree with you on the two group
of five inclusion. The one is a normal set of
regular circumstances that I think we all acknowledge are a
part of the playoff structure. You know that being sad,
you know, two Lane lost to Ole Miss by thirty five,
they're playing again. Okay, if you're Vanderbilt or your Texas
(17:52):
or you're Notre Dame, you're looking at that and you're
rolling your eyes, right.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
And then how about the fact, hold on, how about
the fact the two head coaches who were in that
game once at LSU, Yeah, and the other I don't
know how much of his heart and his brain are
in Gainesville.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Absolutely, he's to listen, he's he's got half of his work.
I mean, he's probably get two hours of sleep a night,
you know, for the forever long this goes on and
it's just you. You you look at that and you say,
my goodness, like, wouldn't we have rather had old miss
Notre Dame. Wouldn't we have rather had you know, Oregon
(18:34):
and Texas or you know, or you know, if we're
talking about the twelve best teams? Well, but you're right,
no rules were broken, nothing was nothing was done off
the books. It's what everybody signed on for about that.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
And then that's where you know, I don't really have
a lot of pity for the people who said, well,
James Madison, Tulane, they don't deserve to be and they're
not as good, they're not as good, but they played
by the and they got in. Absolutely, let's end on this,
because I think this is going to be a fascinating
subplot in the offseason. Notre Dame, for example, doesn't go
to the College Football Playoff. We don't want to play
(19:12):
in the Pop Tarts Bowl. We're good guys, Kansas State.
I always state we'll pay a five hundred thousand dollars
fine not in a bowl game. Number of schools decided
to pass on bowl games for various reasons, whether it's
players going to opt out, coaches leaving staff, shuffling, lack
of desire. But I think the bowl system might be
(19:36):
at a tipping point where we have to really look
at it because I think even for the casual college
football fan, right, you might throw on a ballgame because
it's on TV. But now it's about the playoff, and
you got twelve teams in, it's probably gonna go to
sixteen in a year or two. What if we just
(19:56):
set these matchups for August and made the last two
weeks August bowl season and almost use that as a
way to get your premier non conference games as a
lead up in the.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Right season, I thank you. I think that's an idea.
I think another idea is to expand to a thirty
two team playoff and use the Bowls as the playoff games.
That way, you would prevent opt outs because there could
be a light at the end of the tunnel if
you win the first round game or the second game.
Now what you lose. There are the on campus sites, right,
(20:30):
but something's going to have to give whatever we do
going forward, because you're not going to be able to
have everything that you want. But to main because I
agree with you, I think I think the Bowl system
is on the verge of extinction. And not to mention,
how about this, when teams were starting to opt out,
you're going to five and seven teams that should be
saying hell, yeah, we'll play, and they're saying no.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
They're saying no.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
And when you under think about this, they're saying no
and they're in a position whereas a program, they're trying,
they're a developmental program, they're trying to grow and and
get better and see how their young kids play and
prepare for the transfer portal because they're likely a group
of five school Like, why would you say no to that?
(21:15):
Kids aren't gonna opt out where are they gonna go
you're at the group of five level.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
No you're not, you're not You're not going anywhere. And
again it it it used to be kind of the
final showcase for a star. Well years ago that changed
when the stars who have NFL dreams, we're not risking injury,
we're opting out. So that piece was removed. And then
we've covered enough of these loogues where you even sense
(21:42):
it from the coaches like they don't really care a
whole lot whether they win or lose. It's it's kind
of as almost a drag on them. Okay, we're gonna
do it, and then guys are gonna play, and then
you know there's also a fear. Now, let's say you
have a bunch of opt outs and then you play
younger guys who haven't played a whole lot, and then
(22:04):
some of these younger guys play well, and then you
have the transfer window that opens after and then you
risk losing those younger guys because now exactly.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
So, there's a lot of angst and I get it.
The whole thing is a mess. Let's just let's just
let's just admit it all about. I'm telling you, it's
a wonderful mess.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I'm telling you, it's a wonderful time of the year.
It's a wonderful mess. And I'm telling you, I don't
know what the magic number is. Maybe maybe it's maybe
it's eighty. But if you have eighty teams, Let's say
you picked the top eighty teams in college football. You
did like an AFC NFC, right, and then you did
ten four team divisions in each conference. You regionalize your divisions,
(22:52):
and then you rotate and you play like different divisions
every year, like the NFL. Did I think that could
be fun?
Speaker 2 (22:58):
I think so.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Point we're headed in that direction because the last piece
of this is college football is such a valuable entity.
Like as ugly as the inside of the house looks like,
the outside is nice. The lawn is still manicured. Oh yeah,
the shutters still look great. People watch. The ratings are high.
There's a lot of money involved. The problem is there's
all these competing enterprises, these different conferences. We want more money,
(23:22):
we want more money. They ever came together and just
sold this thing as one.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
I mean, if you look at the college football ratings
versus the NBA ratings, Oh low trotters in the generals,
it's not even close, No, And so there's gonna be
somebody who comes along and figures out how to package
this thing and you can bring some regional rivalries back.
I think in the next five years, the entire model
of college football is going to get up ended. Until then,
(23:51):
you know, sorry Notre Dame, sorry BYU. And welcome James
Madison in Tulane, right, Welcome
Speaker 2 (24:02):
He
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