CFP Changes & Complaints + Coach Approval Ratings & Games Of The Year

Josh Pate’s College Football Show Ep 635 features Josh Pate discussing job approval ratings for several College Football head coaches. How do Miami fans feel about Mario Cristobal? Where are things for Mike Norvell at FSU and Sherrone Moore at Michigan? Josh also looks at Lincoln Riley at USC and Dan Lanning at Oregon. Bold prediction season has returned with you calling your shot, including Clemson blowing out LSU, Notre Dame winning the CFP, Mississippi State tanking, and UGA vs Penn State in the national title game. What is the truth about the Transfer Portal? We also take a look at the biggest games each week of the 2025 College Football season. That plus a ton of pushback on the current state of College Football and where the sport is headed.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:18):
I was doing some thinking over the weekend. I got
married Thursday, so naturally I spent Friday and Saturday thinking
about the last few years of playoff expansion, as you
do once you're married. And I can't help but realize
a lot of people who blew the trumpet for playoff
expansion are also complaining about the collateral damage of playoff expansion.

(00:41):
It's just the craziest thing to me. I wish we
had tape Colin when we first started this show, all
the way back in twenty twenty of us warning about this.
Shame on us for not seeing it coming. But nevertheless,
we're jam packed tia a tape bustling downtown Nashville, Tennessee.
People think it's a narcissistic to talk like that. It's not.
It's just when you warn people and warn people and

(01:03):
warn people and something happens and the people you warn scream,
how could this happen? It gets under one's skin a
little bit. But we do have clarity. The reason I
lead the show with that is we do have clarity
on this Sunday night, May twenty fifth, the Year of
Our Lord, twenty twenty five, about twenty twenty five, about

(01:24):
this year and what the playoff will be this year.
Don't know what it's gonna be beyond that, So think
about leaving for school early in the morning. Really thick fog. Okay,
we got rid of the thick fog, and now it's
just kind of bad fog. But you can at least
see thirty feet in front of you. That's where we
are right now. Wow, we got that. I'm gonna talk

(01:46):
to you about quarterbacks in this sport this year, but
returning quarterbacks. I'm gonna go ahead and put that on
your plate. Actually think about the returning quarterback. So it
can't be true. Freshman Bryce Underwood can't be on this
returning quarterbacks. Guys who started last year, who are your
top five coming into this year? Use your own criteria.
I don't even know what ours are, to be honest,

(02:07):
but use your own criteria. This is a hard list
to put together. You know the names, but it's hard
to put them in proper order. We got approval ratings
on the show tonight. I've got yes, true enough. Some
thoughts about this playoff expansion that they did finalize. If
you've been busy with life and whatnot, they did finalize
this I think there's some BS aspects to it. I

(02:28):
think there's some common sense aspects to it, but I
just look so much broader. If you will that you
know what. We'll get into it in a second, but
I just my view is different than most. I guess
on this, they're watching us in Ellicott City, Maryland could
be a different pronunciation. I should have hit Kenny up
on that they're watching us in Silverdale, Washington, Tallahassee, Florida,
and over Kansas. We're going to have a show Tuesday

(02:51):
night this week, And unlike last week when I promised
a Tuesday show but it turned into a Wednesday show
because of storm chasing, this really will be a Tuesday
show unless Jesse screw something up and he can't fight
back because the IFB's not working tonight, so he can
say whatever he wants to. I don't care. I can't
hear him. And we'll be here Tuesday because we have
a wedding reception down on well somewhere south of here.

(03:14):
That's as specific as i'd like to get later in
the week, and we're doing that whole get married but
then have the reception separate sort of deal. I recommend
it it was nice, nice little private ceremony here in
Nashville last week, seventy two thirty seven. Due point, I
think that very moment. It was great. Oh, it was awesome.
So anyway, that's happening this week we'll have a Tuesday

(03:35):
night show instead of a Thursday night show. In the meantime,
I got a paper pop serious matter right here in
my hand, immunity. We have final word on what the
college football playoff will look like for this upcoming season.
Now you may be thinking to yourself, well, that's not anything.
Can't we get finality on the next several years? Good question. No,

(03:58):
it is, as it turns out, too much to ask,
But we do have finality right here I'm holding in
my hand on this year. So as you know, last
year was a not disaster, but it was a mess
because Boise finished number nine, but they were bumped up
to number three. Arizona State finished eleventh, but they were
bumped up to number four. They both got first round byes.

(04:21):
Why is that Well, because there was some rule that
said only teams that won their conference title could get
first round byes. You didn't agree to it. I didn't
agree to it. None of us have agreed to any
of this, but someone did somewhere, probably wearing a bow
tie and a sweater vests, and so that happened last
year and through the entire bracket out of order. We've
litigated that to death, Oregon especially. So anyway, the powers

(04:45):
that be looked at that and said, Nope, don't want
that this year. So they fought over it, and there
were some concessions that had to be made, and there
was some negotiating that had to be done. But we
are at a place now where for the twenty twenty
five season, and let me stress just for the twenty
twenty five season, we're gonna go straight seeding. That means

(05:07):
if you finish seventh, you're going to be the seventh seed.
And it's a concept that sounds common sensical, but that
stuff rarely flies in this sport, So be thankful when
you can get it, because it's very temporary. So we're
gonna go straight seeding. If you do win your conference championship,
you're still getting in. You're just not guaranteed some buye.

(05:27):
So theoretically, like you could have four Big ten teams
get the buys, you could have four sec you could
have four acc teams get the buys. That's unlikely in
all of those cases, but it could happen. So we
do have that, and it's for one year, and then
they're gonna be huge changes. Now. That was the news
this past weekend, and that's what I think most people

(05:48):
expected us to talk about on the show tonight. I
don't really care. I thought that was coming more or less.
I am just utterly fascinated by the fallout, if you will,
because see, here's what was happening, and behind the scenes,
behind the scenes, there was a lot of butting of heads.
The ACC or the Big twelve or the G five's

(06:09):
Notre Dame whatever, they knew that this was their one
bargaining chip to try and get concessions on the format
of twenty twenty six and beyond, because when it comes
time to form the twenty twenty six and beyond playoff format,
the Big ten and the SEC are pretty much in control. Well,
the Big ten in the SEC wanted changes to this
year's format. This year's format is the last year of

(06:31):
the current contract they're on, and the other conferences were saying, well,
we'll give it to you, but you got to give
us something in the future. And they were arguing over
all that. So what happened was the SEC and the
Big Ten agreed to whatever they needed to agree to
in order to get what they wanted this year. It
now looks for all the world like they're headed towards
this model in twenty twenty six and beyond that has

(06:54):
the AQ structure built into it. That's the thing where
you know how many teams the Big ten's getting in,
and you know how many teams every conference is getting in.
You'll have like three at large spots, but largely there's
a minimum number of teams from each conference that get in.
Some of you love that, some of you hate that.
I fall on the side of if we're going to

(07:14):
fourteen or sixteen or whatever. I actually do think it
makes a little more sense. But that's coming from a
person who hated all of the playoff expansion periods. So like,
I didn't want to be here to begin with. So
no one's about to argue with me on this, because
I'm not wasting two seconds debating format when I didn't
want to be here to begin with. Having said that,
that's also enough. Where my head's at. Where my head

(07:35):
is at is I was looking just perusing the internet
as I do from time to time and when I
have nothing better to do, and you know what else
have I had to do this week? And I saw
a lot of the reaction when this announcement was made,
and a lot of the reaction was from sports writers
but also fans who I know good and well in

(07:55):
many cases supported playoff expansion. And I'm gonna take something
from Stuart Mandel, but I'm gonna use Stuart Mandel as
more of a representative for this mentality. Okay, because Stu
is not anywhere remotely close to the only person saying this,
But he did write a piece in The New York
Times earlier this week, and it was maybe even yesterday

(08:17):
or today. I read it, and I think his sentiment
reflects the sentiment of many people. Okay, So I'm gonna
read you the tweet on the screen if you're listening
on podcasts. This is Stuart Mandel from The Athletic. The
big ten in the SEC are plowing ahead with a
bizarre future playoff format four aqs each, double buys and
more that would cause serious damage to college football. Will

(08:40):
anyone put a stop to this madness before it's too late?
And I sit here and I read this, and my
jaw is just on the ground. I'm just in disbelief. Again,
Stu's not the only person saying this. Let me correct myself.
He's not the only person who supported playoff expansions saying
this as an army, deep and wide of people who

(09:03):
supported expanding the playoff, who are looking at the result
of an expanded playoff and they're terrified by it. And
I keep looking back at them, and I don't think
I should have to say anything. I keep waiting for
the realization to slap them in the face that they
were on the wrong side of this, they supported the

(09:23):
wrong thing. And yet that moment never comes. Colin, you
got the next tweet because also in the replies to
this were people like Kevin. So Kevin down here replied
to Stu, and he said, but you wanted this, you
advocated for it. Some of us told you, morons, Kevin's word,
not mine. It would ruin the greatest sport on the planet.

(09:44):
But you cheered it on enthusiastically. Congratulations. Now Kevin's not wrong.
Here was Stu's response. Nobody advocated for two conferences granting
themselves special access in writing, but you did. You did
because there was no world, as some of us tried
to tell you, where collateral damage was avoidable. If there

(10:06):
was a utopian model where everyone got along and everyone
got what they wanted, well, you would have heard me
seeing a different tune about playoff expansion. But I knew
there wasn't that world. There was no world then, just
as there isn't now where you get all the positives
of playoff expansion, which as should we just get more football? Oh,
it evens out the competitive balance, the little guy has

(10:28):
a shot. There's no world where you actually get that
and avoid all this garbage, because there was never a
scenario where you expanded the playoff with the right people
in charge. This wasn't hard to see. I know that
because I saw it then a lot of people saw
it then, and so I look around and I see

(10:49):
people who had zero consideration for the unintended consequences, if
you want to call it that, of playoff expansion, as
they cheered it on, and then you expect them to
take some accountability and maybe a oops, we were on
the wrong side of that one. No, there's zero accountability
for what you supported either. Just fascinating to me. So here,
we are, Here, we are. We fought this fight on

(11:12):
this show. I don't know how many times, many many,
if not most of the audience was against me on it.
But that's fine. We disagreed on it all the time
and shook hands at the end of the day. But
what did I tell you every single time? What did
I tell you? I had folks who made these disingenuous
arguments against me. Well, how could you say no to
more football? Has nothing to do with it, It has

(11:34):
nothing to do with it. Well, why don't you want
more access for more teams? Has nothing to do with it.
We had differences of opinion on how it would impact
the value of the regular season. We had all that,
But what really at the core of my resistance to
playoff expansion is I knew who would be in charge
of it, and I knew what their motivation was, and
their motivation was way different from your motivation. The Stuart

(11:56):
Mandel's of the World stud never looked this and said,
I want playoff expansion so that we can deepen the
pockets of two major conferences at the expense of the
literal rest of the country. But he advocated, as did many,
for a step down a slippery slope that inevitably caused
all of that. It was not hard to see coming.

(12:18):
If there was centralized authority in this sport, where you
were placing it in the hands of a commissioner, or
you were placing it at the hands of like a
central table that was looking out for the overall best
interest of college football as a whole, like you have
in the pro sports ranks, then you could reasonably say,
let's expand. It won't get out of control. You never

(12:39):
possess that ability in college football. You could never do that.
It was foolish to ever think you could. I don't
know what they thought would happen to many people listening
to this who you know you just got an opinion
on it. But if you supported playoff expansion but you
hate this, I ask you, what did you think was
going to happen. I'll await your responses in the inbox

(13:02):
or the replies, because it's not a sarcastic question. I
really want to know how did you think it would go?
Because clearly a vast majority of you do not like
what's happening now. So I ask you, how did you
think it would go? And what's been different in the
outcome versus how you thought it would go. Now, there
is another part of this that I hate. The whole

(13:24):
Notre Dame piece to this rubs me the wrong way,
and it's kind of been a caveat that. I don't
know how it's been glossed over, but it's been glossed over.
It's twenty twenty five, the twenty twenty five model. The
twenty twenty five format. Notre Dame can get a first
round by in this model. It's complete garbage that they
can get a first round by and avoid a conference

(13:46):
championship game. There is a world where Notre Dame does
not play a game in the month of December that
could happen in this model. Here. Now you'll remember, in
the model that we've been in for the last five
minutes or so, Notre Dame could get in, they could
make the playoff and whatnot. But the tradeoff in format

(14:07):
for them not playing in a conference championship game is
they could not have a first round by. Well, it
appears in order to get Notre Dames sign off on
this temporary adjustment, Notre Dame had them due away with
that caveat. So now Notre Dame does not have to
play in a conference championship game, but if they're one
of the top four teams in the country, they get

(14:27):
the first round by. So you don't play first week
in December, and then you also get the first round by.
And I'm looking at it and I'm saying I have
never bashed Notre Dame for their standing in college football,
and Irish fans know that, or if you watch the show,
you know that. In fact, everyone knows that, because most
people get mad at me and call me a Notre

(14:49):
Dame homer when I don't agree with you guys, when
you yell they ought to have to join a conference.
They shouldn't have to join a conference if they don't
want to. However, the sport should not collectively have to
bendo over backwards to appease them either. And that's what
just happened here. A lot of Notre Dame fans I
saw reacting to this. None of you reacted with any
kind of logic based argument that pointed out this was

(15:11):
for the greater good of the sport. You collectively laughed
that you were able to game the system. If that
makes you feel better, go for it. But I mean,
there was a lot of ha ha, we got them
weep haters weep, But there was no logic based here's
actually why this makes sense. It doesn't make sense. You
know it doesn't make sense. Everyone else knows it doesn't
make sense. So that's baked into the cake here, And

(15:33):
because everyone's fighting over much bigger issues, it kind of
got overlood. I hadn't seen many people talk about that,
but look, zoom it way out, not even fifty thousand feet,
go one hundred thousand feet. I don't care what the
format is now. I don't care what the format becomes
for the more expanded playoff that we're about to have.
Do we at least understand here that some people who

(15:56):
were very, very skeptical about playoff expansion had valid reasons?
Do we at least acknowledge that now? And I'm not
asking you so I can pat myself on the back.
I'm asking you to admit that so that I can
now make my next statement with a little more credibility.
My next statement is it's not gonna get better until
the structure of the sport gets better. You've got only

(16:18):
a few outcomes here. No matter what the future model is,
as long as you've got the SEC as they are
and the Big Ten as they are. They're either gonna
further expand swallow up the remaining valuable properties and form
their own playoff. They're gonna break away as they are
and form their own playoff, or they're gonna get put

(16:39):
in their place. They're gonna get put in line. Currently,
the third option is not doable because currently, I mean,
we've got people that are resistant to any kind of
change or you know, any kind of stepping in at
the congressional level or the executive level. And look, I
don't claim to have the answers on that. I do
claim to know that things are a mess right now.

(17:01):
And no matter what your format is, I'm telling you,
as much as you look and you say the SEC
and the Big ten shouldn't get four a piece, the
SEC and the Big ten are going to look at
you saying you ought to be fortunate, You ought to
be you ought to be lucky, you ought to feel
blessed that we're even allowing you to compete on the
same field as us. It sucks. I don't like it
any more than you do. But the difference is I'm

(17:22):
not going to waste a whole lot of time arguing
about how I feel when the reality is just right
there in front of us. So that's the part that's
got to change. And until then, prepare for more outrage
and more headlines on Twitter like the one we just showed.
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(17:42):
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(18:03):
looks good, it smells good, it is good. It's a
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Sports and Outdoors, you may have something in mind, but
you will see five other things in there that you
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(18:27):
need outdoor camping equipment, you need a new basketball, you
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(18:47):
feel better when we know our names are being dropped.
And I always get feedback that you'll drop the name
of the show to some random cashier who doesn't watch
college football, and she'll say, who warms my heart because
we have raised aware about the show, one cashier at
a time. All Right, approval ratings, I have a fresh batch.
Here we go. I got a fresh batch of head
coach approval ratings in my hand. We're not talking about

(19:10):
national approval ratings. This is not some campaign speech. I'm
giving you this right here is hyper localized. What does
your own fan base feel about your head coach? Example,
Penn State James Franklin. I've got him polling at a
solid eighty five percent approval rating right now. Now, you know,
we only go up to ninety because we don't think

(19:31):
it's possible to one hundred percent approve of anybody as
long as they're humans. You know, everyone's got flaws. So
James Franklin. I got him at eighty five. That's extremely high.
And I would say the only people who are Penn
State fans who do not approve of James Franklin would
be the fringe, you know, like ring cult. That's the
group that until you win a national championship, does not

(19:53):
approve of you. That's the group who probably claims James
Franklin's overrated even though he's not. And they claim aim
that Penn State's overrated even though they're not. It's crazy
to hear a Penn State fans saying that, but you know,
you got a fringe minority that will say that. But
outside of that, and outside of the people who are
tired of not beating Ohio State and Michigan, which is valid,

(20:15):
but outside of those folks, and those folks probably are
younger and probably don't understand in the grand scheme of things,
how really good the program has it right now and
how lost in the wilderness Penn State football could be
because a decade and a half, within the last decade
and a half, you had sanctions hit you that should
have put you out in the wilderness for a long time,

(20:36):
and it didn't cause of that guy and It's a
story that I know has been told at the Penn
state level, but needs to be told at the national
level more. And so because of that, James Franklin, I've
got in polland at eighty five percent, and I would
consider that a little bit low on the total flip
side of the coin. As we go down to Tallahassee.
It brings me no joy to tell you, Mike Norvel

(20:59):
is polling at twenty percent approval rating amongst Florida State
fans one season after winning the acc and in their
own mind being screwed out of a playoff spot. But
it fell off a cliff because Florida State fell off
a cliff. And here's the problem. Many Florida State folks
will tell you this, as disastrous as last year was,

(21:21):
if they had loaded recruiting classes in coming and they
had a ton of momentum on the recruiting trail, they
would be skeptical, but they'd be ready to buy back
in the Florida State doesn't have that Talent acquisition has
been a problem here. Not killing it at the high
school recruiting level, just doing okay at the high school
recruiting level has been a big problem, and Because of that,

(21:44):
it's hard to it's hard for a fan to look
and say, I see stability returning. Maybe it will, but
it's not. We're not polling what reality brings us. We're
polling how fans feel about the program and about the
head coach. And because of that, twenty percent, look twenty
percent high, you go, what was he two and ten?

(22:06):
I think you go too and ten. In a major program,
most of the time, you're fired. No equity, but Mike
Norvell had equity because of just one season ago. He
did what they did, and so I got him at
twenty percent right now, Obviously, I think this goes without saying,
a huge defining year coming up, and I think it's

(22:27):
maybe of all the major brands out there, maybe Florida
State the biggest mystery brand, biggest mystery team with a
big brand. This year. They opened with Alabama, so they'll
be right there on the main stage to start the season.
That's a three thirty kickoff, by the way, so you know,
apply the suntan lotion accordingly down there. Next up. This

(22:52):
one's interesting and we had to really debate this. What
would you say? Sharon Moore is polling at amongst Michigan fans.
I had sixty five percent approval rating. It may be higher. Certainly,
he hasn't had time to totally make it his own program.
He's a holdover from the Horrorball era, which everyone else

(23:13):
thinks is a negative. Michigan folks would think that's a positive.
And he's got the Ohio State win under his belt,
and he just got Bryce Underwood's commitment, and so because
of those things, it may be that he's pulling higher.
It may be that sixty five percent is low. Tough
to know how this NCAA thing's going to go. I've

(23:33):
got my feelings on it. Many of you disagree on that,
And although that shouldn't be tied to Sharon, it will
be tied to him. He also could be involved in
it from a show cost perspective. I literally have no
clue how that's going to go. So a lot of
that will be linked. But they got a game in
Week two at Oklahoma. They go to USC this year.

(23:55):
We're going to talk about those games a little bit
later on. So the Sharon More era should be just
getting started there. I'd say the win over Ohio State,
they beat Bama in the bowl game, I didn't even
mention that. Sixty five to seventy percent I think is
what I would put him at there, and the ones
that are holdouts, they're not necessarily thumbs down as much
as they are let's just wait and see. I think

(24:15):
that would be the attitude next up. They've seen at USC,
they've seen a fair amount of Lincoln Riley. I got
Lincoln Riley at sixty percent approval amongst USC fans, but
I think I'll get pushed back because the ones who
don't approve of him really disapprove of him, and they
will argue there's no way six out of ten of

(24:36):
us approve of him. But here's the key difference. The
USC didn't have the kind of season that FSU had
last year, but they did underachieve. But the difference is
they were competitive in every game and there is huge
recruiting momentum, which means there's reason to believe amongst the
fan base that the change is either just around the

(24:58):
corner or it's already here. They made a change in
the GM's office a year ago. They made a change
on the defensive side. It yielded immediate results. You would
expect that to improve this year and so also, Lincoln
Riley's got a proven track record at the power for
slash two level. In a sense, what I'm saying is

(25:19):
you've seen him do it before, so you're not trying
to guess whether he can win now. What you are
trying to do is you're trying to guess, Okay, can
he win in a style that's complementary enough to not
just be flashy enough to make the playoff, but to
win a national title yet. That's fair though, but we're
just trying to get the thing righted out there first
and foremost. I think a majority of the fan base

(25:39):
believes he can do it, and I think there's a
lot of energy. It's sort of a subcurrent of energy.
The rest of the country is not picking up on
it right now, but if you're close to USC football,
you know there's a huge subcurrent of energy that he's
benefiting from. It's because of him in many cases, and
he's benefiting from it. In his approval rating. So got
him at sixty percent, I would go down to Miami.

(26:02):
I moved around on this one some I went higher
than this at first, but I got Mario Cristobaul at
an eighty percent approval rating amongst Miami fans. I would
be thumbs up on him because the talent's gone up.
If I'm a Miami fan, that's indisputable. The results have
gone up three consecutive years, that's indisputable. The buzz around

(26:24):
the program, all that stuff's gone up, It's indisputable. That's
why I would approve. However, I do think there is
a small collection that may disapprove because they feel the
cam Ward season was wasted last year in a sense
that they should have achieved more, you know, for all
the ability to explain that away as we failed on defense. Well,

(26:47):
the person who disapproves of him would say, yeah, but
you hired Lance Guidry, so that's on you, which is fair,
don't I don't have a problem with that. But I
do look at it in sort of a zero sum
with Mario without Mario, and I know what it was
like before he got there, so with him here, I
don't know how you can't approve of what he's done
so far. You can approve of what he's done and

(27:07):
also say, but I want to see more. That's okay.
That would be my stance if I were a Miami fan.
I love the trajectory we're on. I approve of that,
but I think we're capable of more and want this.
I want this cat you brought in at defensive coordinator
from Minnesota. I want him to return to us playing
a style that I recognize on the defensive side. And

(27:30):
you know, if that's the case, Carson Beck's healthy and
you're telling me he is, then we should be good
to go this year. That'd be a fair stance. Mario
came from Oregon a few years ago. Dan Lanning is
now at Oregon. Dan Lanning's at eighty five percent. It's
tough to find an Oregon fan who disapproves of Dan Lanning,
but as we all know, if you look long enough,
you will find disapproval of almost any coach. And so

(27:53):
I would say the eighty five percent who approve of
him approved for obvious reasons. If I'm right and there
is a all like five percent subset out there that disapprove,
they would point out the consecutive losses to Washington two
years ago. They would completely forget that he went undefeated
and won the Big Ten in the regular season. They

(28:13):
would remember the lasting image of Dan Landing and that
is them getting blown out in the Rows Bowl against
Ohio State, and for five percent of people, the last
thing they saw is the only thing they remember. That's
why Dan would probably be at eighty five instead of ninety,
which is the max. But Landing and Franklin are both
the Big Ten coaches that we talked about there that
are at eighty five. We didn't do Ryan Day, but

(28:36):
I think they would be at eighty five. So there
are some really really high approval rating coaches at major
big ten institutions right now. And it's just funny as
you try and speculate into the future, you don't see
any of them falling off, but yet history says at
least one of them will. You don't just cruise there forever.
And if I'm to believe what the Portland and IL

(28:58):
are doing to the tops of the tallest trees the sport,
you don't just stay there forever. I just don't know
where it's gonna happen. So there are your approval ratings. Now.
We started to show tonight talking about how they're changing
the playoff structure whatnot for twenty twenty five. Excuse me,
we popped the top on the zvia. I came up

(29:19):
here with this thing in my pocket because I got
big pockets and I was worried it was gonna spew
all over the place. But it did not. So let
me take one sip, and then the second sip is
just dedicated to the haters who claim I only take
one sip. So there we go. Zero sugar cream soda.

(29:39):
Had a relative of mine come up here. He very young,
very young, impressionable child less than ten years old, tried
the cream soda zvia and did not speak glowingly about it.
Kicked him right out of the apartment. He didn't even
say it was bad. He claimed it was something other
than the best zero sugar soda he's ever had, and

(30:00):
that wasn't acceptable in my apartment. Hold, that's not acceptable.
So he got put in time out. So try ZeVA.
If you love it, let me know. If you don't
love it, just keep your thoughts to yourself. That's all
we ask. That's all we ask. Now, as for Colin,
here's your endpoint. The state of college football. Funny thing
right now, state of college football is such that I

(30:21):
went off on this on the last show. And it's
a very complex situation because if you know me, you
know I've got my beefs about where we are, just
like the rest of you do. And I've been outspoken
on some of them, and they're familiar themes on the show.
But here's where I've always come back to, my north
star on all this has been what does Saturday feel like?

(30:44):
For all the complaints I have here and there and
everywhere in between, as long as my Saturdays in the
fall still feel like Saturdays in the fall, you still
got the sports you love. And my stance is I'm
on the road every week the biggest game in the country.
Those games still feel like they always have. The tailgate
scene still looks like it always has. The vibe in

(31:07):
the building still feels like it always has third down
and a key moment, still feels like it always has,
the fight songs and whatnot. The student section like it
still feels the same to me. So college football is
still good, Like its core is still good. There may
be thirty seven things that suck right now, but the
core is still good. So I put that up on

(31:30):
Twitter this morning. Actually, normally Sunday's a light traffic day,
but I took a video from the last show. I'm
gonna show it to you in a second, but I
said college football is messy, but when anyone claims it's ruined,
I always ask the same questions. Do fall Saturdays feel
the same? And I'll show you this clip. It was

(31:50):
from another segment on the show, and I kind of
went down this road and I thought it was a
good standalone video, so I clipped it. I put it
out this morning. I'm gonna have column play it for
you to remind you what I said, and then I'm
gonna show you. So many people disagreed with this, and
I think we got to acknowledge there may be some
merit to it. But first, here's what was said to

(32:12):
prompt all of this. There's Ohio State. Let's say Michigan's
in town, and let's say it's midway through the third
quarter and they're deadlocked at seventeen and it's fourth and
one on your own thirty eight yard line and they're
opting to go for it. Clock's ticking down, huddle breaks
five four, three, crowds at full throat. Just pause, right

(32:34):
there is anybody thinking about whether Ohio State had ota workouts?
Is anybody thinking about how much the left hackle's making
You're not? So the point is the game hasn't really
been ruined at all. If that moment feels different, If
that moment is ruined, then college football has ruined itself.
But I think college football is extremely resilient, like it

(32:58):
is extremely strong. It's the redwood. You could chop a
redwood down, but you don't do it with five or
ten swings. You don't do it with five thousand or
ten thousand swings. It take a lot to chop down
a redwood, all concentrated, all at one spot on that tree,
and don't do it because you'll get arrested. But point being,

(33:20):
it takes a lot to ruin college football. That's a
byproduct of how great it is, so pretty simple stance.
There can be a lot wrong, there can be a
lot you have a problem with, but the sport's still
great and it is still what you love. So that's
where I stand. Apparently many of you don't now I

(33:41):
will acknowledge it is may so anyone who's talking hardcore
about college football right now is a hardcore fan. Hardcore
fans tend to love the sport the most, take ownership
of the sport the most, and therefore most readily point
out the flaws and I think it's a lot like
a city council meeting. If you've ever attended a city

(34:02):
council meeting, or you ever watched one on public Access TV,
it doesn't matter if ninety five percent of the citizens
of a town are happy. The five percent that are unhappy.
Those are the folks who are going to be at
a city council meeting, which is okay. They deserve the
platform to speak their mind. However, if your only impression
of that town is a city council meeting, you'd think

(34:25):
the town's terrible. Similarly, if your only impression of college
football is the people who are critical of it in May,
you're not really getting an accurate representation of how the
public at large feels. But that doesn't discredit what I'm
about to show you. So I played that video on
Twitter earlier today some other platforms as well. I'm mns

(34:46):
show you some of the responses we got, and what
I'm showing you. I'm showing you because one response equals
like a thousand responses that were similar. So the first
kind of response I got to me asking Saturdays feel
the same was like Brad, he said, Ohio State just
finished fourth in their conference lost to their biggest rival,

(35:07):
but still won the national title. Ruined feels like the
right word. It's not even close to the sport we
enjoyed fifteen years ago. What Brad is saying there is
the regular season games have relatively speaking, less meaning. He's
not wrong about that, But that doesn't mean it's ruined.
Because see, I was at several Ohio State games last year.

(35:28):
I was at the Oregon game where they lost. It
still felt like it had maximum leveraging consequence on it.
The Ohio State Michigan game. If you're telling me that
that thing was meaningless, I would encourage you to listen
to Ohio State fans after that game. Because they knew
they were going to the playoff. It didn't change that

(35:49):
half of them were ready to run Ryan Day out
of town. Like you can tell me the games have
less meaning, don't tell me they have no meaning in
that they're ruined. And Brad, by the way, you're talking
to someone whose chief pushback against expanding the playoff was
that we were going to devalue regular season games. So
you and I agree, we're not disagreeing. But the difference

(36:11):
is I'm in these buildings, I'm on the field for
these games, I feel it. I know what I'm experiencing.
I know what I used to experience. And while it's
true the volume may have gone from ten to eight
and a half, it's still an eight and a half,
and for those big games, it's still a ten. I
don't know what else to say about that, but I

(36:31):
do know a lot of people told me that a
lot of people responded like that. Here's another kind of
response we got. Gamecock Lifer hit me and said, no,
these games don't feel the same, Saturday doesn't feel the
same anymore. Part of the fun of college football was
getting to know players over three to four years and
watching them develop. That's mostly gone. Now your team and

(36:52):
your rivals teams are filled with a bunch of mercenaries,
and my school is better at retention than most. You're
not wrong about this, and if this is not corrected,
this is going to go from a somewhat of a
problem to a major problem, because this has only just
begun to happen. And what we're talking about here, I

(37:12):
think is pretty obvious. If you've grown up loving college
football up until about ten minutes ago, you knew if
a guy committed to you out of high school. Chances are,
unless he gets hurt, a ninety five percent likelihood he's
going to be there two years from now. Most of
them are going to be there three or four years
from now. So you got to know them. You followed
their recruitment, you watched them commit, you read the early

(37:36):
practice reports about how their red shirt season was going,
and then they got on the field for special teams
as a sophomore, and then as a junior they go
from spot duty to starting by mid season, and then
they shine as a senior. And what you're saying here
is right. Those stories still do happen, but they're much
fewer and further between. And what that does over time

(37:57):
is it loosens the attachment between between you and the team.
Because your attachment to that team was somewhat tied into
attachment to the loyalty that you were seeing between the
player and the team. You were both attached in different
ways to that team. But now what you're saying is
you're watching this kind of mercenary free agent culture, not

(38:21):
once every three years, but once every you know, basically
Spring and even beyond that, where Kud's just kind of
move around, go to the highest bidder. Now that's not
quite as you know, not quite as frequently happening as
many indicate, but it's happening and it's a problem. Now
here's the follow up. I think we're on the precipice

(38:42):
of figuring out how to fix that. And I think
the revenue sharing model is going to greatly reduce the
amount of roster churn because I think the incentive structure
to stay on one roster for several years is going
to be such that guys are far less likely to
move around. You'll never do a way with transferring. But
you don't have to pass rules or laws or even

(39:05):
try to. You just have to fix your incentive structure.
And at that point, I think a lot of that
can be solved. So that's one area where I don't
think you're past some point of no return. I do
think if that doesn't get fixed, it is a major,
major problem. And here's the follow up on that. And
this is another big problem because of what he's talking about.

(39:26):
It has ruined recruiting for many people, and it is
a huge problem about overall fan interest. And this is
not covered a lot, but it should be. Following recruiting
used to be to college football what following the NFL
Draft was to the National Football League. You had to
know one to know the other. You had to follow

(39:47):
recruiting if you were really going to have any depth
of understanding about the sport. But you don't have to anymore,
And in fact, people are actively turned off by it
because they think, to themselves, why should I invest time
and energy in knowing South Carolina signing class when recent
history is showing me seventy percent of them aren't gonna

(40:08):
be there in two years and any given point, any
of them can leave at any time, Like, why would
I invest my time and energy. I can't fault you
because I feel the same way. I don't pay any
attention to recruiting like I used to. We don't talk
about it on the show. We talk about it a
couple of times a year. And the reason is because
of that, because I don't think the commitment, even once

(40:29):
Penn hits paper, is worth what it used to be worth.
No one could push back on that. No one argues that.
And here's the problem with that is that is kind
of like taking away a spring game. It doesn't destroy
the sport. I'm still watching on Saturday, But man, you
just removed one of the layers that used to exist

(40:51):
in the conduit between me and the sport. Okay, then
you get rid of the desire to follow recruiting sports,
not destroyed, but you remove yet another critical connective layer
between fan and sport. And you can't continue to do that.
You can't, and it's got to get fixed. And I
think it will get fixed. So that's why I'm hopeful

(41:12):
on that. The volume of consensus here was eye opening, though,
because I got to be honest with you. I put
that video up, and I put it up because that's
how I feel. And then so many of you, thousands
upon thousands, responded with disagreement by saying, oh, no, you're wrong,
Saturdays do feel different for me already. I think there

(41:33):
may be a little hyperbole behind some of your sentiments,
Like some of you just flat out said the sport's ruined,
I don't watch it anymore. Well, yeah you do. You're
lying about that. However, many more of you just articulated
how you felt, and I can't ignore that. You may
feel different than me. But if if like a million
of you feel different than me, and in my opinion,

(41:54):
doesn't really matter, it's the overwhelming majority over here that matters.
And I don't have the power to change that, but man,
I have the power to use the platform to express it.
You got a big, big, like underlying sort of bubbling
problem that I think sort of come into the forefront,
and that is that there is a critical moment that

(42:17):
you can reach in fan attachment and interest in the
sport past which there is no return. We are not there.
We are not there, and I hope we don't ever
get there. But the temperature is warmer on that threat
today than it was yesterday. And it's much warmer today
than it was this time last year. And I'm telling you,
and I'm telling anyone who has any power to pull

(42:39):
a lever to do anything about it. You're not in
the weeds day to day with your constituency. Most of
you never rub elbows with the common fan. I do.
I've got a show in an audience full of them.
I am one of them, and I know that what
has been will not always continue to be just because

(43:00):
and there's a lot of connectivity. The attachment between a
college football fan in this sport is very delicate, but
it's also multi layered, which means you can remove one
of the layers, just like a Jenga block, and the
thing doesn't automatically tumble to the table, but it's closer
to tumbling than it was before you remove that block.

(43:21):
And similarly, when you have a more mercenary type feel
about your roster than a loyalty based feel, it matters
to fans. When you have the desire to follow recruiting
hardcore all but erased in the typical fans mind, it matters.
It matters because there's not as connected to the players

(43:42):
and not as connected to the product as they used
to be. And they're still watching. They're still watching, but
they're they're watching more lean back whereas they used to
be watching on the edge of their seat. And those
are your diehards, you know, those are your ones twos,
Those are the ones that you can count on the
time to address that is not once the alarm goes off.

(44:05):
This is the alarm going off. I would encourage anyone
who doubts me go look at the replies to that
tweet today. It was overwhelming. I was very surprised by it.
It was overwhelming. That's why we put it in the
show tonight. You guys claim I didn't listen. Some of
you said, he's just gonna go on the show and
tell us we're all wrong. Well, you're not wrong in
how you feel. How can you be wrong and how
you feel? If I feel it's cold in here, but

(44:26):
the thermometer says sixty six, I still feel cold, even
though you may think it's plenty cold enough. I'm not
turning this down any lower than sixty six. So it's
a problem. Are we gonna address it or we're just
gonna sit there and cash checks and just hope it
magically figures itself out. We'll see Quick Trip they do

(44:46):
not approach life like that. They saw people getting drowsy
on the roads and they said, cobraw on tap, put
it in done. You got gas in the parking lot
for your car. You got gas on tap for your
You know that didn't come out the way I wanted
it to. It really didn't. Figuratively speaking, gas in the

(45:07):
way of caffeinated fuel for your tummy. That's what they
have at a Quick Trip. And look, if you have
another issue, if you have gas related issues, I'm sure
on the medication iile they have something for that as well.
It's just not as glamorous to talk about in an
ad read. So I mainly gear towards the food and
the beverage selection and the great fuel options, just those

(45:29):
classic fuel options, and the best logo in the game.
Don't let any animal on a billboard tell you otherwise.
It's the best logo in the game, and we appreciate
them so much. All right, let's move on. Tough question here.
Tough question. I think a couple of people tweeted this
at US, so I just decided, all right, let's talk

(45:50):
about it. Question from the masses here. Top five returning
quarterbacks for this year from Statesboro, Georgia. Now, notice the
word returning, so like, there's no room for Arch Manning,
even if you think he's gonna win the Heisman. Arch
has no place in this conversation because it's returning quarterbacks.
There are a lot of them returning. There are no

(46:11):
huge superstars returning. Kate Klubnick could be that this year.
So I got Kate Klubnick on this list. There was
a major year one to year two jump for him
last year, like he went from nineteen touchdowns to nine
interceptions in his first year of starting to thirty six
touchdowns to six picks in his second year, his legs

(46:35):
were a big factor. He could be He could win
the Heisman this year. Clemson could win the national title
this year because of him. He's got it the best
receiver room they've had there in a while. He's also
I'm not gonna say they have a weakness at running back.
They're very unproven there and because of that, he may
have to shoulder more of the load. And you know what,
they should feel comfortable asking a third year guy under

(46:57):
the same coordinator again to do that. I'm extremely high
on DJ Lagway now that I went down to Florida
a couple of weeks ago and had all my injury
concerns eased. I think DJ Lagway's on this list. I
think he's in a great spot. He took over midway
through last year because Mertz got hurt and so he

(47:19):
had flashes. This is the year I think he could
really explode. Got a good offensive line, They're gonna have
a good running game. He's got good receiving options to
throw it too, so he could be a Superman type player.
But this is not a situation where he has to
be That is my point. They're not asking him to
go Cam Newton circa twenty ten and just carry everyone.

(47:40):
And I think he's gonna have a huge jump this year.
I mean, I know that Florida is not on everyone's
national title radar or anything like that. There's a chance
that he ends up being the most dynamic player at
his position in the country. And if he is that,
then Florida is They're a contender to being seriously in

(48:01):
the playoff conversation tough schedule or not if he is
what I think he could be this year, and Florda's
gonna be really tough out Drew Allers on here. Drew
Aller's in an interesting spot, kind of similar to James Franklin. Honestly,
it's funny that he plays for him. So you know,
Franklin has been really good but not elite for a
long time. And if you keep being really good and

(48:24):
you're someone that people want to be elite, they end
up criticizing you. Drew Aler's been really good, but since
he was five stars out of high school, people will
expect and accept nothing less than elite from him. But
he hasn't been elite yet, but he's been really good.
Thirty three hundred passing yards last year twenty four to
eight touchdown to I sixty six percent completion guy. They've

(48:45):
got an enhanced wide receiver corp. I think this year
his legs are also a factor. They were a little
bit more of a factor last year. He had three
hundred rushing yards. I still don't think he needs to
be elite this year. I mean to qualify as one
of the top five returning starters at the quarterback position.
There aren't five guys. I mean, we don't go five

(49:06):
deep on this list and not have Drew Aller on there.
And that's without the possibility that he could elevate his
game this year. I'm just sitting here saying, even if
he's just more of what he's been, he belongs on
the list. If he elevates his game, he really belongs
on the list. What about Garrett Nusmeyer at LSU, Garrett Nusmeyer,
the tools are there for him. He cannot be as

(49:28):
turnover prone as he was last year. Twenty nine to
twelve touchdown to it. They got to have a better
ground game because they've got to have a more balanced
offense for him. And that's not really on him. I mean,
he's got to take care of his business. But that
offensive staff has got to put him in a good position.
They've got the players, they should be able to do it.

(49:48):
The turnovers. If they stop, then he's gonna have lsu
in position to be playing really, really meaningful games late,
and if they are, he's a big part of it.
So I don't really think it's much of a question.
Garrettnusmeyer belongs on this list. And also, you know who
else I put on here. I could have put John
Mattier on here, but he's such a question because I've

(50:11):
only seen him do it at Washington Statement. I'm really
high on him. Leonora Sellers at South Carolina potential star.
I wonder about his receiving talent. Sam Levitt at Arizona
State could have easily put him on there. I'm putting
Carson Beck on the list though Carson Beck's throwing at Miami.
He'll be healthy, he'll be ready to go by the
time the season starts. And you know, most people expected

(50:36):
Carson Beck to be in the NFL by now, and
he's not. It's a really funny thing because if you're
mentally weak, then that can cripple you. If you have
a little toughness about yourself, mentally, it can do the
same thing that it did to cam Ward last year.
Cam Ward went to Miami because he did not like

(50:57):
the feedback he got. He didn't like where he was
to go in the draft, so he went down there
dominated to become the number one overall pick in the draft.
Carson beckdon have to be the number one overall pick.
What he does have to be is wired the right
way to where that guy's got a lot of doubt.
There's a lot of criticism out there, partly because of
on the field stuff. A lot of it's because of

(51:17):
off the field stuff and it personal life stuff that
has nothing to do with football. But nevertheless, this is
the real world. So your personal life is like public knowledge.
So when some Instagram influencer breaks up with you, people
know about it. When you leave Georgia and you go
to Miami and you didn't go to the NFL and

(51:37):
people know about it. And when you had your worst
games last year in the biggest moments against Florida or Bama,
even though you let a big comeback there or Texas,
people let you hear about it. Well, my point there is,
if you're wired the right way, you're about to go
play for Shannon Dawson. You're about to go face acc defenses.

(51:58):
Playing for Shannon Dawson. You got a chance to explode
this year. You got a chance to have the best
year of your career this year. So a lot of
their production this year obviously will rely on Carson back.
But I don't think it's so much the physical stuff,
because I think he'll be good to go physically. It's
from this point on the body up, neck up, how's

(52:20):
he wired. He's a different dude than Cam wod. He
is not the kind of guy that's gonna come in
there and take the offense by the throat. He is
a lot quieter, a lot more probably introverted is a
good word. But you know, if you can play, then
you can play. It's just that there's a lot that
still remains to be seen about him. As high a

(52:42):
profile of player as he's been, there's still a lot
to be proven from Carson Beck. I think he'll be
pretty good this year, so I put him on that list.
They're watching us in Anderson, South Carolina, Glendale, Arizona, Tacoa, Georgia.
We appreciate it, Steven said. The girlfriend thing was done
in the chat Stephen, Buddy, you and I might as

(53:03):
well be co hosting a show. I agree with you.
I don't care about it. I'm merely mentioning it because
it was a very very high profile breakup. I mean,
who's to mongst Us hasn't been part of one. But
I'm just telling you that if people are talking about
your personal life, it affects you unless you don't let

(53:24):
it affect you. So we got to find out about
Carson Beck. Segondent's already over Collin, but we gotta find
out about Carson Beck. Will he let it affect him?
Maybe it affects him in a positive way. Whoms to
amongst us knows, We'll see. We had a very riveting
question about the schedule this year, and I figured tonight's
a good show to put it in. Mark from Hoover, Alabama.

(53:46):
What's the best game of each week? It's May and
I need it. Well, you know what, I'll skim through
these right quick week ones. It's I've got an answer
for you. It's not easy. I went Texas at Ohio State,
but you could easily sell me on LSU at Clemson
Texas Ohio State to top two in the playoff odds
it's a rematch from the playoffs last year. They're both

(54:08):
replacing so much so there's a lot of just wild
card unknown about it. All huge brands. You could be
saying a lot of the same things about LSU Clemson.
I went Texas, Ohio State there. What about Week two?
It's got to be Michigan at Oklahoma for me. There's
so much pressure on this Oklahoma staff this year. This
will be where we learn about the whole John Matteer

(54:31):
experiment at quarterback, the Ben Arbuckle experiment at offensive coordinator.
And now they would argue, what do you mean experiment?
We've already proven ourselves. And then everyone else is gonna say, yeah,
you did in Pullman, Washington, this is the SEC. And
then Michigan's gonna say we're a big ten team. See
a lot of conversation going on, But I'm going Michigan Oklahoma.
Big helmet game there. Huge game for Venables is Michigan

(54:54):
starting a true freshman quarterback on the road in Norman
against Brenton Vinibles remains to be seen. Three. A lot
of options here. I went Texas A and m at
Notre Dame. I would love to know if any of
you know, let me know, did Notre Dame beat Miami
in Week one? That's the first thing I want to know.
Second thing I want to know is I want to

(55:15):
know about Texas A and m and their legitimacy because
this is a huge test for them. Remember this game
last year in college station they lost it. This is CJ.
Cars Well, it's not his introduction because he will have
already played Miami, but we get to see him against
Marcel Reid. But dude, this is a potential matchup, maybe
of the two best ground games in the country this year,

(55:36):
and so I love that one Week four a game
I was at last year, a game that who it
was ugly to start the year. Week four, I got
Florida at Miami. This was a brutal schedule draw for Florida.
Florida goes to Miami this week. You know what Florida
does the week before they go to Baton Rouge. You

(55:57):
got at LSU at Miami. Back to just rough. Uh,
I'm telling you straight up. And I was down in
Florida a couple of weeks ago and I did some
shows down there. Florida fans have this game circled as
a must win. It's not a conference game, but based
on what happened last year, they got it circled as
a must win. It's a huge test from Miami's defense. Man.

(56:17):
It may be a more unique test for their defense.
Even the Notre Dame is gonna be Week one because
DJ Lagway is a different cat than anyone else has
on their roster. So I would go Florida Miami Week five.
This is a one A, one B. This is Oregon
at Penn State, but it's also Bama at Georgia. I
went Bama at Georgia only because I think the one

(56:40):
of the hidden but out in front of your face
stories in the SEC over the last several years is
that's been the biggest rivalry in the conference. But it's
not a historic rivalry, but yet it has been. I mean,
it's been that matchup's been the face of the conference
for the last few years. Whereas Oregon, look, it's one A,
one B, but Bama at Georgia I also think, I mean,
you got Kirby still struggling to get over the hump

(57:02):
against Alabama, but then on the other side, you got
Debor and sort of reimagined offensive approach with a new quarterback,
and you got to take him into Athens to face
Kirby on the road. Georgia has not lost a home
game since twenty nineteen. Quick trivia question, who was the
head coach of the team that beat him? Would have
been your South Carolina game, Cocks. I think must Champ

(57:25):
was still there. So, yeah, it's tough to win on
the road at Georgia, and we got a lot of
You got a lot of wild card there. You got
two new starters at quarterback in that game. The next
week is one that I am very excited about. Texas
hardly ever plays Florida most of the time. They hadn't

(57:46):
been in the same conference last year. This game happened
and it was a blowout, but that was cause Lagway
didn't play. He went down, he was hurt for that week.
I think it's what happened, and so it was a
non competitive game. This right here could end up being
one of, if not the toughest road games that Texas
has played under Sark. If the dynamic is right now,

(58:06):
if they go in there and get up seventeen to
nothing early, forget about what I just said. But if
they go in there and you mark my words, Florida
scores early, that right there will be like the manifestation
of what the Arkansas game was like for Texas a
few years back, where you just walk into it and
you get drowned and you can't get up, you can't respond. Now,

(58:27):
Texas is a lot better now than they were that
year when they went to Arkansas. That may be in
the first year even under Stark, but that right there
is one of the underrated games of the year because
if Florida figures out a way to win that game,
and if they played it right now, I think the
line would be under a touchdown Texas favored, but under
a touchdown if they win that thing. First off, if
they were capable of beating Texas, they're capable of beating anyone.

(58:48):
And secondly, they'd be off to the races because they've
already played multiple high profile games there and we don't
know what they've done to this point. But I just
I got Texas Florida circles as one of the biggest
games of the year the next week, Week seven. I'm
gonna roll the dice here a little bit. Second Michigan
game already. I got Michigan at USC I've just got

(59:12):
a feeling here that USC is gonna be undefeated, and
if that's right, then they would be six and oh.
And if Michigan is going into Los Angeles and USC
is six and oh, the coliseum will be sold out.
That will be the premier game of the day. We
will be asking if USC is back, whatever that means,

(59:33):
And for the first time in a few years, the
focus of the college football world will be on USC.
And if I'm right about that leading up to this,
it will be now. It would help if Michigan beat Oklahoma,
like if Michigan's also undefeated here, which could be the case,
then it goes without saying that's the game of the week.
This is also OU Texas week, though this is also

(59:55):
Bama at Missouri, this is South Carolina at LSUS. There
are a lot of other big games this week, but
I'm going to Chigan and USC. Week eight, I've got
the game of the year in the Big twelve. It's
the third Saturday in October. So we got Tennessee Bama,
we got USC, Notre Dame on this day, Ole miss Georgia.
But I didn't go with any of them. I went

(01:00:15):
with Texas Tech at Arizona State because I think it's
the biggest game in that conference this year, and these
other games are big, but this right here is the
biggest game in a conference this year. To me, I
think that both of these rosters are the two rosters
that stand the best shot of having fringe national title
potential in that conference. You could talk about Kansas State

(01:00:38):
having the same odds to win the Big Twelve. You
could talk about Baylor having the same odds to win
the Big Twelve. They don't have the kind of rosters,
even at their best, to compete for a national title.
The Arizona State may not either. Texas Tech may not either.
They've got more high level athletes than any other teams
in those conferences do, so they're playing each other on

(01:01:00):
this day. This could be the biggest Saturday of the season.
By the way, Week eight may be the biggest Saturday
of the season. Week nine. This is a real good game.
Last year I chose Bama at South Carolina for this week.
This was down to the wire. Last year. South Carolina's
getting Bama the week after Bama plays Tennessee. So Bama's

(01:01:23):
coming up a big rivalry game. They got to go
on the road. This is a season defining stretch for
South Carolina. In order, they go at LSU, Oklahoma at home,
Bama at home at ol mess just boom boom, boom boom.
Four games tougher than several teams will play in one

(01:01:45):
week all year. So and it's Williams Bryce Stadium. Williams
Brice Stadium gets a two week stretch here of Oklahoma
and Bama coming in and they get to flex. And
you know what rarely has Williams Brice Stadium had a
chance to flex for the country where they didn't come through.

(01:02:06):
And I'm pausing so that you guys can clip that
for the hype video. I know the proper authorities will
get their hands on that next week, pretty straightforward. And
it's gonna kick off early in the day, so make
sure you get up with plenty of time to spare.
Penn State at Ohio State. Other big games this day,
none of them are bigger than Penn State at Ohio State.

(01:02:26):
I don't know what your schedule and what your win
loss record looks like to that point, but this is
one of the games of the year in the Big Ten.
We were at this game last year. Ohio State goes
up there it gets down ten to nothing and Jesse
and them could not hold on to the lead, and
shame on you and let them come back and let
it let them. Ohio State came back and took the game,
and so now we get to build up, build up,

(01:02:48):
build up. But here's the difference for everybody saying James
Franklin can't win a big game. They've already played Oregon
by this point, so maybe they've already beaten Oregon, so
they've already won the big game. They don't normally win,
even though they got better odds to win the league
than Oregon, and they will have been at home and favored.
But I digress. They go to Columbus. You've got the

(01:03:10):
uber experienced, seasoned veteran team against a bunch of unproven
but really talented guys for Ohio State that have probably
found their way by now. Week ten Penn State Ohio
State Week eleven. Always one of my favorite games to
go to LSU at Bama this weekend. Inevitably just a
huge spot for both head coaches Brian Kelly, Caylin de boor.

(01:03:33):
I don't really think we need to say much about this.
One of the great rivalry games down in that conference.
They still play it every year. So I'd go there
Week eleven, Week twelve, i'd stay down there. I'd go
Texas at Georgia. And I was talking about this a
little bit earlier in the show. I mean, of course,
these teams played twice last year, and Georgia blankedon two
and zero. They went into Austin and won. They won

(01:03:54):
in Atlanta with their backup quarterback the second half. Georgia's
last home loss was twenty nineteen, and this year they
played Bama at home, they played Texas at home, they
play Ole Miss at home. So there are wide ranging
opinions on Sandford Stadium out there. Some people say Sandford

(01:04:15):
Stadium is not one of the premier environments in college football.
I think they haven't felt nervous at home enough lately,
because I promise you when you're at a Georgia game
where the home fans legitimately feel like there's a threat
they can lose, that place can be electric. And the
reason that I mentioned that is because there will be

(01:04:37):
some spots on the schedule this year where they've got
a chance to shine for the entire world, and I
think they will, especially for this game a week thirteen,
Oh give me USC at Oregon. USC at Oregon. I
don't know why, but I completely forgot they played two
years ago. I had just had it wiped from my memory.
But they did go up there. USC lost, and they

(01:04:59):
go up there again this year, and there is such
a hatred, just pure hatred. Hatred, but in sports the
way God intended it to be. Oregon looks at USC
and they say, you're in Los Angeles, California. You ought
to have all the advantages over us in the world,

(01:05:19):
and we still beat you in recruiting. And USC looks
up the coast at Oregon. It says, well, you have,
but that's about to change because we made the proper
adjustments internally. Maybe they're right, but if USC is back
to being a Big Ten title contender for the first
time or a playoff caliber team, this is the kind

(01:05:41):
of game where you got to show it. And you
know what else, They are going to return to recruiting
against each other a whole lot more than they had
for a few years. And so every prospective athlete is
watching this game as well. And the last week Week fourteen,
Ohio State at Michigan. I mean I was at Texas,
Texas and last year on this week, but Ohio State

(01:06:04):
Michigan ended up being the game to be at, and
that will be the game to be at in all
likelihood again this year. And not much more that needs
to be said about that. FanDuel's got a line on
the game already. You know, you can already go bet
that thing. I think it's five and a half, Jesse.
If you wanted to bet that game right now, Ohio
State minus five and a half at Michigan, do it

(01:06:25):
at your own peril. I mentioned FanDuel there. They are
the exclusive odds provider of the show. They've got some
games of the year that you can already bet on,
but they've got a whole lot of just odds and ends.
When a conference, when the Heisman, when this, when that
over under win totals, and that market will expand obviously
as the season draws closer. We are inside one hundred

(01:06:47):
days and to kickoff now. By the way, and FanDuel
your exclusive, not well the exclusive odds provider of this show.
You can go wherever you want to, but I highly
advise you go to FanDuel for all of your college
football needs. And if you're not the betting type. We
still got a home for you here. I promise you
that I encourage you not to do it if you're
not comfortable with it. But even if you're not comfortable

(01:07:09):
with it or you're opposed to it, you can still
go look at whatever you want to over there. It's
a very valuable resource to kind of get an idea
of what the market is saying about these sorts of things.
I mean, I look at the stock market all the time,
and I mean I own stock. I do, But it
doesn't mean I have to sign up for FanDuel at
FanDuel dot com backslash CFB promotion must be twenty one

(01:07:30):
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(01:07:51):
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(01:08:11):
eight hundred three two seven fifty to fifty for twenty
four to seven support in Massachusetts, or call one eight
seven seven eight Hope, n Y. Or text hop E
n Y in New York. Let's wrap up the show
with some bold predictions, shall we? Oh, let me check
on one thing? Uh? All right, good deal? So bold

(01:08:34):
prediction season is here. Bold prediction season on this show
just means what's pretty bold, but you actually believe it'll happen,
and you'll let me be public with it. So like tonight,
we got a lot of boldness on the show. Tonight.
I've got three out of four predictions that are nine
point five or bolder. The first one is very disrespectful

(01:08:54):
to LSU. I just gotta be honest. From Medford, New Jersey.
Clemson beats LSU in Week one by three plus touchdowns.
Well okay, Now, famously LSU is allergic to winning Week
one games. They haven't won an opener since twenty nineteen.

(01:09:15):
But man, you're gonna beat them by twenty one plus.
We're just gonna For the sake of argument, we'll say
three touchdowns is twenty one plus. Both of these teams
are top twenty five returning production. Both of them are
very plus at the QC or quarterback, offensive coordinator, defensive
coordinator spots. Head coaches are the same there that they've
been for several years. The LSU portal class number one

(01:09:36):
in the country. Now, if you're telling me you think
it's gonna take a while for all of those pieces
for LSU to gel and Clemson's gonna be a well
oiled machine out of the gate. Plus it's Clemson at
home at night. I believe that game will be okay.
I just don't know about a twenty one point blowout.
So I'm putting a nine point five on the boldness
scale there. Next up, this one gets a ten for me.

(01:10:00):
All college football from Brunswick, Georgia said. Georgia and Penn
State face off in the national title game with identical
fifteen to zero records. Now that's a ten specificity there.
That's a ten. Even if you just told me Georgia
versus Penn State for the national title, I would have
put like a maybe a nine point twenty five on that,

(01:10:21):
But they are the third and fifth teams in the odds,
so it's not crazy. It's not some crazy prediction. But man,
both of them being undefeated. Do you know, Georgia to
be undefeated would have to beat seven of the preseason
top twenty five teams in the odds. Just in the
regular season, Georgia will have played seven of the top

(01:10:42):
twenty five teams, then they will have played another one
in the SEC title game. That's eight, and then they
will have played two more prior to the national title
game to get there. So that's Georgia going ten to
oh theoretically against top twenty five teams. Many of those
would be Top ten caliber teams. And meanwhile, Penn State

(01:11:02):
will have had to beat Oregon, Ohio State, Iowa, probably
Ohio State or Oregon again in the Big Ten title game.
Then they have to play two games prior to the
national title game. So it's just it's so unlikely, so
I put a ten on that. Next up, This hasn't
happened in a long time, but apparently the drought is over.
Rowan Oake, Virginia checking in twenty twenty five. Season for

(01:11:25):
Notre Dame will be like twenty sixteen for Clemson. They
reached the national title game the year before, they came
up short. They come back the next year they win
it all with a program changing quarterback at the helm.
That's pretty vivid, Okay, so huh, I'm putting a nine
point five on it because it's hard to win a
national title. Notre Dame has the seventh best odds tied

(01:11:49):
for the seventh best odds to win it all. They
are eligible to have a first round by remember this year.
With the way the format is, they play three like
really really high level opponents. They play Miami week one
on the road, they play A and M a few
weeks later at home, they play USC at home. Elsewhere.
Their schedule is very manageable. It's the best skill profile

(01:12:12):
that they've had there in a long time. Now. CJ.
Car is a first year starter at quarterback, but when
you look at the running game, he'll have the O line,
he'll have in front of him, the pass catchers that
are better there than they've been in a while. If
they get there again, it means all that's validated. Like
if they're in the game, that means it's all validated.

(01:12:32):
So I got no doubt if they get loose in
the playoffs, I got no doubt about that. It's just
getting back there that's tough. So I'm gonna put a
nine point five on Notre Dame winning the whole thing
and the last one here got some Mississippi State flavor
in the show from Jackson, Mississippi. Mississippi State wins two games,
they finish dead last in the SEC, and they fire

(01:12:52):
Jeff Levy after two seasons. I put an eight point
seventy five on this, all right, So they're gonna win
two games. They're over under win totals three and a half,
so by Vegas standards, it's not crazy. They've gone from
nine to four to five and seven to two and ten.
Last year was Levy's first year, so they went too
and ten in his first year. Here's the thing I

(01:13:13):
want you to know about Mississippi State. If you want
real Mississippi State coverage, you listen to us because up
to an including Brandon Walker, I'm giving you more thorough
Mississippi State analysis than anyone on the national scene. The
thing you'll notice about Mississippi State this year it looks
way different than last year, is defensive line depth. They
also added three coaches with former head coaching experience. It

(01:13:37):
will make a difference. Their roster is not there yet,
but it will look leaps and bounds better this year
than it did last year. And for them to only
win two games, Look at the schedule, So they play
an SEC slate, so that's eight tough games. They play
Arizona State, that's a ninth tough game. So they got

(01:13:58):
to lose like all those games. And then they got
to lose two out of three to Southern miss Alcorn
State in Northern Illinois. Well, they got to lose one
of those games, and that's if they lose all nine
of the other ones. I just think they're gonna be
better than that. So I got I got an eight
point seventy five on that. And do we have a
fifth tweet? Someone said we had a fifth tweet, but
I don't. We normally just do four. Blake hit us

(01:14:22):
with a fifth prediction. Blake from Nashville. I think Brandon
Walker will gain more pounds during the season than Mississippi
State will have wins. We don't. We don't do that.
We can't do that on this show. To a friend
of the program, we can't do that. So Colin and I,
I just ask that you take that down. We gotta
we gotta get that off screen. We got they're telling

(01:14:42):
me the screen's frozen. So you're telling me that we
have to keep the Slanders prediction about Brandon Walker up
because our system messed up at the end of the
show and now Blake's calling for Brandon Walker to gain
more pounds than Mississippi State has wins this year, something
I'm totally opposed to being said on this show. And
you're telling me we can't even take it down. We

(01:15:03):
don't have that power. I apologize, I hate this, but
you know, since we got it up, let me do
this where I can screenshot that later for personal use.
All Right, that's our show tonight. We appreciated everyone. Look,
the system's working again, just in time. We got to
show Tuesday night. Until then, enjoy the start to your week.

(01:15:23):
For producer Jasse direct Colin, I'm Josh Bate, Take care,
have a great rest of your night, and God bless.
Sign up for FanDuel at FanDuel dot com backslash CFB

(01:15:45):
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