Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
There was just no way that we were going wedding, honeymoon,
no jam packed show in between that the wedding and
honeymoon are the bread, but this tonight's the PB and Jay.
Probably not the best metaphor, but we got a lot
to talk about. We got too much to talk about.
Listen to this. We're jam packed. That is a weighty
stack of papers high at top, spirited downtown Nashville, Tennessee,
(00:38):
proudly brought to you by Academy Sports and Outdoors on
this Tuesday night, June third, of the year of Our Lord,
twenty twenty five. Do I sense frustration? I think I do,
Jesse Bradley, you feel that growing frustration somewhat say palpable frustration,
not towards me. We're just over here living our lives,
but the playoff situation becoming murkier and murkier. Yeah, I
(00:59):
will discuss. It's not all will discuss because I've also
got not overrated, but underrated head coaches. There's the wipe
to me. I've got some quarterback ranking stuff and I
basically I'm just going all the way deep into the
mail bag because I'm going to be gone for a
week and there's a ton to talk about, and I
don't want to leave you with dry well. No one
likes to dry well, as me Mal would say, So
(01:21):
if you leave the farm, make sure the well does
not run dry. I'll tell you about the wedding stuff.
On the back end of the show. I got something
else that's not necessarily football related, you know, we always
tuck that into the very back of the show. But
in the meantime, who were jam packed. They're watching this
in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Nashville, Tennessee, Bellevue, to be specific, Lavernia, Texas, Scranton,
(01:41):
pe A. Thank you guys so much. As I just said,
headed out of the country tomorrow morning, I'll be gone
all week and we will not have a show until
next Thursday. That's the longest you and I have gone
without discussing things with each other. So you know, I'll
technically have my phone with me if crisis were to
unfold on the college football horizon. But VI and Lauren
(02:02):
is gonna be a little bit silent, a lot silent
over the next week for good reasons, for good purpise,
plural of purpose, if you will. But before then, I figured,
if we're gonna leave the country. Why not just pop
the pin on like thirty different grenades and toss them
into the ether because we don't have to suffer the
consequences because we're leaving tomorrow. So here we go. I
(02:25):
want to dive into the mailbag and I want to
hit this college football playoff related question because it's happening.
In case you haven't looked around, it's happening, Calvin said.
I enjoy Joel Klatt's perspective. There's a headline I found
myself saying that a time or two Calvin. He said,
I like Clatt's perspective, including his recent take on the
five plus eleven model. However, while I mostly agree, his
(02:48):
intensity made me wonder so Clatt merit based points, But
he's too intense, Calvin says. Is his frustration genuinely about
propaganda or is it influenced by Fox's steak in pushing
the big ten backed model Fox? Yeah, so hey, I
don't think he is. I mean, I many of you
(03:10):
have sent the clip of Joel Klatt talking about his
beefs with the college football playoff conundrum that we're in
right now, namely, which format are we going to go with?
So much so that I watched it. Not only did
I watch it, I said, hold on a second. I've
never agreed with Clout on the playoff, and all of
a sudden, you can't even tell the difference between him
(03:31):
and me, at least on this topic. It's refreshing. For
once in my life, I find myself listening to Clatt
on playoff related matters, saying he's right. I can't even
pick a part anything he's talking about. We are in
lockstep on this. So I got to tell you, Calvin,
if you are suspicious about Joel Klatt's motivation and you
think it may be Fox related, well okay, I don't
(03:53):
think it is, but let's just say it is. Argument sake,
let's say it is. Why don't work for Fox. I've
never been employed by Fox a day in my life.
I didn't even work for a Fox local affiliate when
I was in the local news game, so I got
no affiliation with Fox. Well, I feel the same way
Clatt does. So I can't believe people are missing this.
(04:13):
I can't. I know it sounds a little conceded, a
little arrogant to talk that way. I just fully believe
there is an obvious one, and then there's an obvious,
distant second when it comes to the philosophies of the
approaches we should be taking in format right now. I
know a lot of you have been tuned in day
to day in the weeds of this, but some of
(04:34):
you maybe just checking back in. Some of you may
be NBA fans. You've been watching the finals, or you've
been living your lives and you're taking your kids on
vacation or whatever, and you just haven't been locked into
the day to day goings on in college football playoff circle.
So what we've been debating, not we what conferences have
been debating, is beyond twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six,
(04:56):
and beyond what's the world going to look like? What's
the format going to look like? And you've recently had
the emergence of the concept of the AQ model. That's
the one for future. For future's sake. When I say
AQ model, that's the one where the SEC and the
Big ten, no, they're getting four teams into the playoff,
and the ACC and the Big twelve, No, they're getting
(05:19):
two teams into the playoff. And then you've got the
G five spot. Now I and apparently clad as well.
I am advocating hardcore for fourteen teams over sixteen teams
if we go to AQ route. So if we were
to do that, it would be four four two two
one one, and there's no at large spot. If Notre
Dame makes the playoff, there's no at large spot. Now
(05:40):
there's a reason behind that, which I'll get to in
a second. Okay, So that's one school of thought, and
then kind of dove tailing off that, there's a group
that wants the AQ model in a sixteen team field.
Only difference there is you'd have a few at large
spots on top of the same general format. But then
there is a group of people who say that's evil,
(06:01):
it is counterintuitive, it's antithetical to what the spirit of
college football and sports should be about. Should never enter
a season knowing that a conference has a certain amount
of you know, it's just delegated spots in the playoff.
By the way, up until this year, I would have
wholeheartedly agreed with you. But that's back when we had
smaller playoff fields. Now we've gone to fourteen or sixteen,
(06:21):
which means you've got to invert the paradigm. You got
to invert the dynamic of thinking on this thing entirely.
But that kind of person looks at it and says
no to AQS, no, full stop. It's a non starter.
They either want just sixteen to the best teams or
fourteen of the best teams, or there's been this someonel
call it a compromise. I just call it idiocy where
(06:42):
you go the five plus eleven model, and that would
be take your conference champs and then you've got like
eleven at large, so you get your four conference champs
and then you got the G five spot so those
are your guaranteed five and then after that you just
take the next eleven best teams. So apparently Klatt doesn't
(07:06):
like that, put out a lot of videos last week.
I listened to him and I just pound him my
fist on the table. Man. I completely agree with him.
He's right about all of it. So I didn't hear
a single thing he said that I disagreed with. But
there was this thing where he was talking about and
you notice Calvin said propaganda. He said, Joe Klass talking
about propaganda. I mean, is that really his motivation or
does he just want to prop up the Big ten
(07:26):
look nefarious? Motivations or not. Just ignore that for a second.
I don't think you're right about it. But even if
you are, I'm sitting over here and I'm thinking, Okay,
get through the whee. Let's just brush all the weeds
to the side, sling blade them. They used to have
to sling blade the ditch when I was a kid.
It sucked, but you know what, it made the ditch
(07:47):
look a lot neaterer and tidier and cleaner. And we
need to sling blade the ditch in college football. Too
much in the weeds right now, too much questioning of
one's motivation. Hey, look, I don't care if I probably
would Satan himself entered the conversation. Okay, I'm gonna be real.
I would prefer that he abstained. But even if he
were to enter the equation satan, if he were to
(08:11):
propose a college football playoff model, could have some merit
to it, even if there is nothing else redeemable about
him in his character, And shame on us forever having
to resort to, you know, soliciting the opinion of the
dark one on this. But point being, no matter what
someone's motivation is, ask yourself this, this is my advice
(08:32):
for you, Calvin and anyone else. What do you want?
What do you want? What do you care about? Forget
about the models. I think we've gotten really twisted on
sort of reverse engineering the process here, and by that
I mean a lot of people are talking about college
football playoff formatting and expansion by starting with the format.
(08:52):
That should not be how the conversation works. By the way,
it's what a lot of people have been tricked into doing.
Forget about the format for second. This is advice for
me and from me to you. Ask yourself, be selfish.
Be selfish for a second, Calvin, ask yourself, what do
you love about college football? Okay, then then get down
to the nuts and bolts of what do you want
(09:16):
in a playoff model? What do you want that playoff
model to accomplish? What do you want crystallized in the sport?
So I can tell you what my feeling on this is.
And the only reason I'm going to get selfish myself
here is because I know you guys, and I know
most of you will agree with what I'm about to say.
And that's even as we disagree allegedly on what the
(09:36):
playoffs should be. So I'm gonna tell you what I want.
Forgetting about the formats for a second. What I want
is number one, maximum urgency on every regular season game.
I want every one of them to feel do or die,
no safety net under it. If you lose, there's a
chance instead of falling nice and safe into a net,
(09:56):
you just crash and burn in your street pizza on
the sidewalk. That's what college football's always been up until
ten minutes ago, and that's what I would always love
it to be. So the first thing I want is
maximum urgency on regular season games. Do you agree with me?
If yes, let's continue. I want maximum emphasis on conference races.
(10:17):
I want the Big Ten championship race and the ACC
championship race to carry maximum meaning, okay, independent of anything else,
because that's the way it's always been. And unlike some
people who would tell you, well, hey man, everything's got
to change. Everything doesn't have to change. The good stuff.
Shouldn't change. Change the bad stuff, all right, change the
(10:37):
bast stuff. Keep the good stuff free of interference. This
is part of the good stuff now, the regular season
being the most important regular season in all of sports,
that's a good thing that college football had. So we
don't need progress there. We don't need change. Masquerading is
progress there. Leave it alone, and leave conference races alone,
and leave the impact and importance of them alone. So
(10:59):
that's how I feel about that. And then the third
Now I've heard a lot of you say this, ironically,
those of you pushing against the AQ model have said
your reason for pushing back on it is you want
teams to have to earn it on the field. Well
so do I? Hey, hey, catch me here, that's why
I'm supporting the AQ model. How could that be? What
(11:22):
are you? That doesn't make any sense? It makes perfect sense.
You've just had the well poisoned. I think, quite frankly,
the people who support the AQ model have done a
very poor job of explaining the AQ model. Okay, so
right now people look at the AQ model, the concept
of the AQ model, and it's a non starter forum. Why, well,
(11:42):
you should never have a format that guarantees SEC teams
are gonna have four in and Big ten teams are
gonna have four in. It doesn't guarantee that, It guarantees
the conferences are gonna have four a piece, n you
doesn't guarantee any team anything. People are so caught up
on that what it guarantee. He's a conference that they're
not realizing. Individual teams aren't guaranteed anything. And to put
(12:06):
Rubbert a road here, I want to take you to
a hypothetical. Let's just take the University of Tennessee. I
picked him out of the blue earlier today, but I
looked at their schedule and I said, Jesse, find me
Tennessee schedule. Okay, So let's say Tennessee going into mid
November this year is nine and one. That means they've
probably beaten Georgia or Alabama. They've beaten Syracuse, they've beaten Oklahoma.
(12:30):
Let's say let's say they're nine and one. All right,
they got two games left. Remember, most of us just
agreed we want urgency on every regular season game, we
want maximum importance on conference races, and we want teams
to earn a playoff spot on the field. That's what
most of us just agreed on. Right, all right, Let's
say Tennessee's nine and one at this point in the season.
(12:51):
In your five plus eleven model where you suggest to
me you got to earn it on the field, and
where you suggest to me that regular season games matter,
Tennessee doesn't have to win another their game. Do you
realize that Tennessee as of November twenty second, two games
to go in the season, both of them conference games.
They're looking at it and saying, we'd love to win
both of them, and there would be benefit to us
(13:13):
winning them, but we're playing for seeding right now. We
know from mid November on we're in. Do you understand
in the AQ model where people are so worked up
about what the SEC is guaranteed, the teams in the
SEC aren't guaranteed anything. Tennessee, if they were nine and
one in mid November would probably be in the top five.
You'd have an SEC team in the top five that
(13:35):
in mid November is guaranteed nothing in the format I'm endorsing,
at least they're guaranteed nothing. They go to Florida and lose,
they probably drop out of contention for the conference title game,
which means from that point on, the best they can
hope for is to be active in that play in Saturday,
and so they dropped. Let's say they go nine and
(13:55):
two and then they beat Vanderbilt. Let's say they go
ten and two, but they're probably doing at that point.
First Saturday in December is they're hosting a play in
game at Kneeland. South Carolina is going to Kneeland six
versus three or five versus four. But the bottom line,
as Tennessee knows nothing about what they're guaranteed in that format.
In fact, hardly any teams, no, even in the Big
(14:18):
Ten in the SEC, if you go the AQ model,
that they're guaranteed anything. The only guarantee you have, and
the only guarantee you should have, is if you're playing
in your conference championship game in the SEC or the
Big Ten, you know you're gonna go to the playoff.
That's it. That means as late as the end of November,
the number three team in the SEC might not make
(14:40):
the playoff. The number three team in the Big Ten
might not make the playoff. Please, please, someone who is
intellectually superior to me, explain how the five plus eleven
further emphasizes conference races and places more urgency on regular
season games than what I just pitch to you. You're
(15:01):
so caught up on the conference being guaranteed something, you're
so bent out of shape about that you don't understand
that individual teams aren't guaranteeing anything and everything. You just
claim to care about whether it's urgency on regular season games,
importance on conference races, earning your way into the playoff.
All three of those boxes get checked with the AQ model,
(15:23):
Hardly any of them get checked with the five plus
eleven model. And any of you out there who are
basically pushing back on one of these formats despite the SEC,
you probably need to know that the SEC has both
of these hands clasped together as tight as they can,
and they are praying in Birmingham. People are dumb enough
(15:45):
to fall for the AQ. Excuse me to fall for
the five plus eleven Last year, Jesse actually told you
to show me this later. But do me a favor.
Pull up what the rankings look like going in to
conference championship Saturday last year. Okay, let me just let
(16:05):
me just remind you of something. Last year. Would we
agree it was a slightly down year for the SEC.
I think we would mostly agree, even the SEC homers,
of which I'm certainly not one, But even the SEC
homers out there, I think we mostly agree last year
is a down year for the SEC. Right five plus
eleven model lands six SEC teams into the playoff. I
(16:29):
need you to understand what you're sporting here, all right,
six half a dozen SEC teams in a down year
are in the postseason if you go the five plus
eleven route. And not only that, you got Alabama losing
that Oklahoma game in humiliating fashion. Nobody cares they're in.
Nobody they're hosting. I mean they're not hosting, but they're
(16:51):
solidly into the playoff, solidly in there. Ole miss went
and got smoked by Florida, I mean should have been
a do or die game, got beat by Florida. Law
to Kentucky at home early on, doesn't matter. They're in.
Doesn't matter. Oh by the way, by the way, because
you're going five plus eleven instead of just the pre
selected number of teams, which loosely correlates to power of
(17:12):
conference over an extended period of time. Because you're against
the AQ model. Forget you Iowa State, Forget you Brigham Young,
look at BYU. They're the ten and two last year
in the Big twelve. Don't care. We got no place
for you. We got no place for you, ironically, because
we want fairness, you know, we want teams to earn
(17:33):
it in and the stupidity. I agree with Cloud on
this too. I heard him say this. The stupidity of
very smart people in the Big twelve is mind boggling
to me right now. That league put out a statement
at a time where they should be as selfish as
possible because everyone else is. The Big twelve chose the
worst time imaginable to be selfless. They're supporting the five
(17:56):
plus eleven model, which will screw them every single year,
and it will prop up the SEC and or the
Big ten every single year. It will further put a
stranglehold on the power and balance thereof in the sport
into those Power two conferences, more so than it ever
has been before. They sat there and said, you know what,
we're supporting the five plus eleven because we're advocating for
(18:20):
the greater good of the sport, even if it's to
our detriment. First Off, this is the one time you
need to be selfish. Secondly, five plus eleven is not
for the greater good of the sport, it's the opposite.
And Thirdly, I don't know what thirdly is. I truly,
truly think there is a gross misunderstanding and a miscalculation.
(18:41):
I think it's as simple as improper labels. I really
think It's as simple as using a different phrase other
than automatic qualifier. If you just change the language of it,
you've got to change the presentation of the concept, because
outside of that, we're talking about something here in the
AQ format that checks almost every box that every hardcore
(19:02):
fan of college football and secondary and tertiary fan of
college football enjoys. I also, we had a couple of tweets.
I wanted to get to them because I had a
couple of replies from you guys. Someone someone hit me
from Breezy Point, Minnesota, beautiful people, beautiful town up there,
and they said, I think you like the four four
two two one one model because of the emphasis on
(19:25):
conference races. Some people though, at Chuck on Buck specifically,
that's our buddy, Justin does a great job. I would
highly encourage you guys to watch his show, but he
had pointed out on his show. Yeah, if you put
all this emphasis on conference races and you're deciding that
play in weekend based on conference standings, that's all well
and good, But what happens with out of conference games?
(19:49):
How do you preserve their importance? Great question, pretty simple.
The way I would determine your top six in your
SEC or Big Ten standings would not simply be the
conference standings. I would form subcommittees. As we're devaluing the
role that the College Football Playoff Committee holds over the sport.
I would love subcommittees in the Big Ten, subcommittee in
(20:12):
the SEC, and what I would love for that committee
to do is decide what they're one through six is
at the end of the regular season. It doesn't just
have to be you're straight one through six conference standings. Now,
that accomplishes two goals. Number one, it means you better
play your tailoff in you're out of conference games and
schedule up in you're out of conference, And in number two,
(20:32):
it guarantees that with how big these conferences are, if
there's a schedule that is vastly inferior to another schedule,
you've got a committee that can take that into account.
These conferences are so big. The principle that you aren't
always what your record says you are even applies within
conferences team to team and schedule to schedule. So that's
one thing I wanted to hit because I didn't talk
(20:52):
about that the other night, but it's a great point.
You want to maximize every part of the regular season,
not just conference races, and it's easy to do. You
just have to be very creative with how you seed
your conference standings. It doesn't just have to be strictly
by league standings as it relates to your playing weekend,
we had another one and I got a lot of
(21:13):
this jem from Dublin. He said, my brother says he'd
be fine with the four conference champs making the playoffs.
That's it. I think it's dumb. How do you feel
about it? Well, of course it's dumb, but it's also unreasonable,
like it's unrealistic, So Jim's brother, If you're listening, there's
also been a lot of Josh, why are you advocating
for so many teams in the playoffs? Why can't we
(21:34):
go back to eight or six friends? If there was
an option to do that, I wouldn't be wasting time
with this nonsense, because anyone who's watched this show or
listen to this show for any length of time knows
I'm the last one who wanted to expand past four.
I'd love to go back to the BCS days. And
for anyone who says that damages my credibility, what's your alternative?
What we have now, so anyway, I didn't want to
(21:58):
expand it period, but there's a lot of unrealistic proposals
out there. Oh, let's go back to six. Well you
can't because the necessary parties needed to sign off on
it wouldn't sign off on it. Same with eight. I
was talking to Dellinger the other day, who's been doing
the best reporting on this. I said, Hey, just out
of curiosity, what happens if they don't arrive at any
(22:18):
kind of consensus? Like what happens if these imaginary deadlines
approach and then they're here and then they pass and
no one's agreed on anything. He's kind of the same
way as me. I don't really know what happens. I
guess we just stick with the twelve team model. I
don't know. But what are we asking for? There's a
lot of frustration there should be. It's a very important matter.
(22:40):
It's a very important topic. But what do you want
more so than aligning yours kind of like in politics,
like your team red or team blue, it's probably smarter
to define who you are, what your values are, and
then decide where you're gonna vote. Well, in college football,
what do you care about then? And only then after
you define that, should you decide which format or which
(23:03):
model you know best accomplishes that. I truly think a
lot of people who are opposed to the AQ model
in theory, if you break down what it accomplishes versus
what the five plus eleven or what the straight seeding accomplishes,
you'd probably change your mind. I just need you to understand,
if we're going to a playoff field as big as
fourteen or sixteen teams, you are entering the season as
(23:28):
a top seven caliber program where you know you got
a lot of talent, you got the best coaching staffs.
You're entering the season knowing we lose a quarter of
our games. Who cares? Some of us may even be
able to lose a third of our games. There's an
outside shot if you play a tough schedule by whose
metrics I don't know, you can lose four games and
(23:48):
get into this thing. That's not a safety net. It's
like five safety nets that you're building under yourself relative
to where the sport was not too long ago and
where it always should be. So we spent to mouch
much time on this. Let's move on academy sports and outdoors,
bringing you the show tonight free of charge. We appreciate them.
We were down in Biloxi, Mississippi, this past weekend. You know,
(24:10):
Academy not only are they the presenting partner of the show,
they're really good friends of ours. So we don't you know,
we don't deal with like third party agencies, per se.
I deal with Academy Sports and Outdoors. So these folks
have become really good friends of ours, and our partners
insisted on having like involvement in the wedding. I mean,
(24:30):
Academy actually wanted more involvement than I even asked for.
They wanted to provide all the chairs and everything else.
So what we did is we made sure that during
the ceremony that we honored our day one Academy is
a day one Academy has been here with us virtually
since the beginning. We got that picture of the football anywhere, Yeah,
there it is. There's Savannah State clutching one half of
(24:51):
the Academy football me with the other chalice of Chalice
of Supremacy in hand for good measure, but just a
way to salute our friends at Academy. You want your
marriage built on a firm foundation of faith and then
you got family, and then you got football. And if
you can have the Academy branding on the football, I
(25:11):
don't know of any marriage that's failed to make it
with those four pillars in place. It could be somewhere.
I don't know. You show me that marriage. So we
appreciate Academy. They were, they were present and accounted for
the other night down on the coast. All right, let's
move on. We've got so much to get to. We
need to go because this is not supposed to be
a three hour show tonight. Diving back into the mail bag,
(25:36):
when I saw this today, I knew a million people
were going to ask about it. Murphy Franklin from Knoxville, Tennessee.
He said, I saw ESPN dropped their FPI rankings, and
I disagree with a bunch of it. But what do
you think stands out the most?
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Well, well, well, if it isn't our old friend, the FPI, Yeah,
so ESPN, it is a fact they dropped their FPI.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
What is FPI. I think it stands for Football Power Index.
It's their version of power ratings basically, so this is
meant to be predictive in nature. It is loosely and
I do mean loosely what we try and do with
the JP pole during the season. But I don't put
out a JP pole in June because it's June. And
ESPN said, forget about that, man, we need the content.
(26:23):
We're only ESPN after all, So they put out the FPI.
We are showing it to you on the screen right now. However,
if you're listening on podcast, you will be not so
shocked to hear that eleven of the top eighteen teams
are from a conference. Do you want to guess what
the conference is? It ain't the Big Twelve, it's not
the Sun Belt. It is the Southeastern Conference with eleven
(26:46):
of the top eighteen teams in the country. So I
saw a million of you hit me up with this,
and they said, how can you do this? How can
you sign an exclusive deal as a network with the
SEC and then pass this off as anything else other
than pure propaganda. All right, I'm not going to try
and talk you off of this. However, I do want
(27:07):
to ask you have you done your own comparative preseason rankings?
By that, I mean have you really looked at every team?
Have you measured them using equally calibrated criteria and judged
them blindly ignored the conference sticker and just judged them
based on whatever merit you think you can find in
a team in June. And have you made your own
(27:29):
top twenty five? The answer, of course is no. And
if you have, I got a lot of respect for you, man,
because a lot of people who do this for a
living have barely even done that. So I was looking
at it and I was saying, hey, man, people are
going to be mad at the FPI for having all
these SEC teams up there. Now you know that I
did a Top twenty a little while ago, but it
wasn't power ratings. Jppole hasn't come out yet. I just
(27:50):
did this for fun and it was anything. But I
do not encourage you guys to put out post Spring
top twenty rankings. If you're looking to have fun, if
you're looking to torture yourself for a week, if you're
looking to have to go Brandon Walker mode and block
a bunch of people, then yes, by all means put
out top twenty. But I did it. I did it
a glutton for punishment. I did it, and I had
(28:14):
nine of my top eighteen from the SEC, so half
of my top eighteen were SEC. ESPN had eleven of
their or eleven of their top eighteen. But I went
over to FanDuel because here's what I want to know. Okay,
if it's too heavy with the SEC, and you may
be right, where's the correction? Give me the specific corrections.
Don't just shout in the abstract death to the SEC
(28:35):
is too SEC heavy, Eah, SEC bias, blah blah blah.
Where's the correction? So I went over to FanDuel. And
not that this is the end all be all either,
but I mean FanDuel actually has to make a living
on this stuff. You know, they put it out there
in a betting market so that you can wager on
such things. And I went and looked at their odds
to win the national title. They've got eleven of their
(28:58):
top nineteen from the SAC. Bill Connelly many things he's
been labeled SEC home or not one of them. Ten
of his top seventeen in his preseason s and P
plus are from the SEC. So basically, here's what we
probably have here. Any kind of predictive model is going
to disproportionately wait talent acquisition. The SEC teams by and
(29:21):
large get most of the good talent. It doesn't always
pan out, it doesn't guarantee anything, but we're predictive. It's June,
so any top twenty of legitimacy is going to be
loaded with SEC teams. That's the way it should look,
if you're doing it right, that's the way it should look.
So I want you to show me. If you disagree
with that, that's fine. I want you to show me
a credible that's an important word. Don't just gloss over that.
(29:44):
A credible predictive rankings or ratings system that doesn't look
roughly like that, Like, what corrections are you making now?
I did look at my rankings versus the FPI, and
I disagree with them a lot. Don't think I'm trying
to prop up the FPI. I mean, I've taken as
many shots at the FPI as anyone has over the year.
(30:07):
It's not so much the shot at the FPI. I
just because the network that releases it happens to be
a major network, they can also bake it into their
commentary and it just sometimes it's laughable. But anyway, the
biggest difference is I had my personal disagreements here. They
got Tennessee number ten and I've look at that another
(30:30):
alleged friend. Who is this one? You know, if you
want to zoom in on the camera, you can, But
no friend of mine would be calling me right now.
So an acquaintance of mine was calling me anyway. They
got Tennessee number ten. I got them not ranked in
my top twenty. I don't know what FPI is see,
and maybe I'm off on Tennessee. I've been talking about
(30:52):
them a little bit later on. I know we're talking
predictive here, but you lose Nico and you do it
in the fashion it went down, and you can talk
all you want to about how raw raw that is
for the program. I got a lot of uncertainty about
Tennessee being at number ten right now. Georgia, I'm off
on them too. They got Georgia at number two and
I had Georgia down at number eleven. Now I did
(31:14):
tell you, if I'm doing JP Pole, which I eventually
will do, which is predictive and it's more power ratings based,
I'm not going to have Georgia at eleven. I'll probably
have them top five. So yeah, there's a difference here,
but it's a very understandable difference. Arizona State. They're down
at twenty four in FPI. I've got them at thirteen.
(31:35):
But again that's cause Arizona State's not loaded up with
four and five star players. But you know what, they
are loaded up with a lot of guys returning from
what was a very, very very good team. And I
still think the program's trajectory is solidly trending up. And
Kenny also kept his entire coaching staff together. So there
are a few truths in an uncertain world. There are
(31:55):
not going to be twenty teams better than Arizona State
when we start this season, unless there's just massive injury
out there, which you can't predict. Illinois Brett Brett, as
someone call him FPI, has you not ranked? I has
you number fifteen, mister Eli, And I hater himself here,
so Fournelli's probably got his number. Someone alert. Brett had
(32:19):
no problem quote tweeting us a couple of months ago
to bash us. Just remember who had you ranked in
June and who didn't even know you were alive? And
then Clemson, Clemson not even in the top ten in
the FPI, and your boy here I Clemson. I have
hitched my wagon to Clemson. I hope Dabo's legs are
(32:40):
still strong enough to pull because I have hitched our
entire wagon to Clemson. I had him number one. I
had him number one, and my what was that may
at the time, Jesse, Yeah, my May, my post spring rankings,
not even power ratings, rankings. Let's just say ESPN's FPI
is right. It's a dangerous exercise, but let's say they're right. Okay, Bradley,
(33:03):
do me a favor. Just throw ESPN's rankings back up
for a second, or ratings, whatever we're supposed to call them.
Even I confuse myself on this. If this is right,
like if they saw into the future and they have
perfectly predicted the balance of power in college football this year, Well,
that means Georgia is going to host number one and
number three at home Texas and Alabama. There is no
(33:26):
Big Twelve team in their top twenty. Miami is ranked
ahead of Clemson, by the way, so they don't play
each other in the regular season. I would assume that
means the FPI would expect Miami to play Clemson in Charlotte.
And I just want to remind you I have this
in the top of my head because I've like memorized
some of these schedules. Miami would be such, they would
(33:48):
be so disadvantaged schedule wise. There. I think it's they
either play seven or eight consecutive games to end the
regular season. Their last two regular season games are all
on the road, back to back in cold weather cities
I think is Blacksburg and Pittsburgh. Then they'd have to
go to Charlotte. So Miami would have to play three
consecutive road games and when the third win at the
(34:10):
very least if they want to win the ACC anyway,
Notre Dame, I don't know if anyone's paying attention, Bradley,
go back to the top ten for a second. You know,
Notre Dame. Everyone's talking about how workable Notre Dame schedule is. Yeah,
if FPI is right, Notre Dame is playing a couple
of top ten teams here in Miami and Clemson. They're
going to number nine to start the season. They're bringing
(34:33):
number eight into South Bend. And oh, by the way, now, Bradley,
you can go back to thirteen through twenty five. By
the way, let's not just overlook the fact right about there,
right there, you see that that's USC usc goes to
South Bend as well, so not quite as as Soft
(34:53):
and Bakery cupcakesh of a schedule for Notre Dame as
originally thought, that's if FPI knows what it's doing, and
sometimes that's a stretch. Oh, let's move along and the
interest of ranking things. Oh, by the way, some people
have pointed out that the whale breaches have returned to
the show. A whale breach for those of you unfamiliar,
(35:14):
is this sound right here? Look, I don't know what
to tell you. I'm not going as far as to
apologize for having allergies, but I have allergies, and it
is the South, and it is May. It's tough out
here for me. So I got a couple of options.
I can either chop up a clariton and snort it
before the show begins. I don't even know if it's
(35:35):
legal in Davidson County. Or I can whale breach on
the show every now and then. So you know, it's
a good old fashioned You just gotta let it ride immunity.
You's gotta let it ride immunity again. You guys want
me to rank what Bradley put it up here? Jamie
from Decatur looking for trouble. He said, who are the
best quarterbacks in the SEC for this upcoming season? In
(35:55):
Power ratings Land. So here's what I had the staff do.
I'm not going through this in some like grand Casey
Caseum countdown fashion. I just gave him my top ten.
I said, put it together on a graphic, and there's
not really science behind this. But I have changed my
opinion on Lenora's sellers. I've debated with coaches enough since
(36:17):
I put my previous version of quarterback rankings out that
I have changed my mind at least somewhat. So here's
the deal. I'm way way high on DJ lagway this year.
So when I'm ranking quarterbacks in a league, I'm going
to tell you what I'm looking at. I'm not looking
at past production, per se, because if I was, you're
not even allowed to rank arch Manning because he hasn't
(36:39):
really been a starter. So I'm ranking these quarterbacks in
the SEC based on the caliber of football I expect
them to be playing to start the twenty twenty five season.
Is that fair? All right? So I'm not going to
be able to back all this up statistically, and nor
do I have the time to I got Lagway as
the number one quarterback in the SEC entering twenty twenty five.
(37:00):
That's the caliber I expect him to be playing at.
And I better be right because if now he wasn't
starting for them against Miami last year, but if they
start off again like they did last year, it could
be cooked this year. I got arch number two though,
so I've got no basis to back this sub statistically,
but I'm putting arch Manning at number two because I
think he's going to be a monster. Ah maybe strong.
(37:24):
I just think he's going to be really good. I
think about the raw tools he has. He didn't have
to come in and start immediately. He's been able to
learn and develop and progress under one of, if not
the best in the country in Steve Sarkisian, and he's
going to be surrounded by really good players. I see
a lot more possibility of him thriving this year than
him busting. I've got Lenora Sellers up at three, so
(37:44):
full disclosure. Recently, like a month ago, we ranked the
returning quarterbacks and I had nuss Meyer ahead of Sellers,
and boy, I heard from some coaches, so I trust
them over me, believe it or not. And good for me,
by the way, for deferring to people who actually coached
the game for a living. But I had some dcs
(38:06):
hit me up and say, yeah, no, the South Carolina kid,
you need to bump him up. So I got Lenora
Seller's number three, Garrett nus Meyer number four. Garrett nus
Meyer has the opportunity to etch his name into the
history books at LSU this year. It's all there. The
team's going to be good enough. Surrounding or supporting cast
is going to be good enough. He needs to clean
(38:26):
up the turnovers from last year. There's a lot of
continuity and consistency and carry over there. For all the
portal talk, there's a lot that is there that was
there last year as well. Now here's where it gets
a little I don't know, saucy. People who don't know
the show well enough will call this a hot take.
It's not. I just believe what I'm about to say.
I'm putting John Mattier in the top five. I'm that
(38:49):
high on him. If I'm right, Oklahoma is going to
be a contender in the SEC. I believe in the
OC quarterback approach. Bring both of them in, not just
one of them. Especially when they're both qualified and our
Buckle and Matier are. I also think it greatly helps
that John Matier is not being brought into Norman, Oklahoma
and then being looked at by everyone down on their
(39:12):
knees with their hands clasped praying, please save us, John,
save us. You don't need to save anyone. You need
to go in there and play solid football and execute
make good decisions because you know what you got around you.
You got a top ten roster around you, you got
a really good defense, you don't have to score forty
two a game to win, and you got guys calling
(39:32):
plays for you that you're very familiar with. I think
he's going to be really good this year. That's why
I got Oklahoma top ten in the preseason number six.
You hardly know anything about him nationally, but I think
that will come to an end very soon. I'm really
high on Austin Simmons. I still don't think I'm as
high on him as people in Oxford are, but I
think Austin Simmons is going to be really good, and
(39:54):
kind of like I said with Arch, I love the
system that he has been sitting there developing in the
minds that he's been learning from so I got Austin
Simmons there. I think he'll be having a really good
year this year. He'll be an impact player. I also
love how hungry that Ole Miss team should be, that
program should because they fell short last year. Now number
(40:14):
seven is well, it's bold. I believe Jackson Arnold will
bounce back this year. I'm not alone here again. I
spend this time of year just talking to coaches as
much as possible. Several coordinators around the SEC have been
very specific in saying, hey, they always call him that
(40:37):
kid from that kid from South Carolina, that kid from Oklahoma,
like they don't know their names. But I've had more
than one of them translation two of them tell me, hey,
we got to play Auburn this year. That kid from
Oklahoma is going to be good. They'll get him corrected.
They got a really good wide receiver Cord to surround
him with. There are a lot of people up to
an including people in Norman, Oklahoma, who believe the combination
(40:58):
of quarterback and then all offensive system slash coaching staff
last year was just terrible and so it was doomed
from the beginning. That doesn't mean that you just throw
out the baby, throw out the bath water, and in
this case, the baby kind of got thrown over to
Lee County, Alabama. That's okay, whoms to monks hasn't seen
that appen before. I mean, I read the Ledger in
Quirre or did growing up. That's this happened a lot.
(41:19):
But you land at Auburn and you land in a
situation where they've recruited well, and they've put good talent
on the roster. They got really good wide receivers, and
they've also got a guy and a staff, an offensive
staff who probably a lot better suited to utilize your
skill than the previous in Oklahoma. So I think Jackson
Arnold will have a good year this year. I think
(41:39):
Taylor Green at Arkansas belongs on this list at number eight. Now,
unlike some of these other guys, I'm not as ready
to tout his supporting cast along the lines that I'm
ready to tout like Arch Manning's supporting cast or whatnot.
Go a little bit quicker here. I got Marcel Reid
at Texas A and m at number nine. Now, Marcel,
you know, as much as this is talking about quarterback,
(42:01):
you can't help but look at the old line in
front of him. You can't help but look at the
three headed monster at tailback. He'll have not that that
goes towards his stack column. But what it does is
it takes emphasis, it takes focus off him. And they're
also good enough, plenty good enough at pass catchers. So
I like more so there. I like Diego Pavia at
number ten, thirty seven years old, but he's still playing
at Vanderbilt, and he may be playing at Vanderbilt next
(42:24):
year and year after that and year after that. Who
knows what kind of lawsuit that you can file. But
in the meantime he's back. So yeah, I'm very fluid
on the North Sellers. I will admit that if you
go look at my previous videos, there is inconsistency there.
It's not hypocrisy. It's spring. That's what it's called. Memo
always told me Joshuait it's okay to have opinions about
college football in the spring, but don't write them in
(42:45):
pen Write them in pencil and be ready to erase.
She was right, and Mema didn't even use pens. Do
I to ever tell you? I think I told the
story Memo had an axe at accident when she was
young and her brother chopped her her middle three fingers off,
and so she didn't switch her dominant hand. She just
wrote the remainder of her life with her thumb and
(43:08):
her pinky in pencil. So I know I learned a
lot from Memo about writing beyond just the instrument you
used to write. But yes, Memah told me it's okay. Memo,
I think would also fluctuate a lot on Lenora Sellers,
knowing the way she used to judge the quarterback position.
Now you'll notice I don't have Ty Simpson in here.
You'll notice I don't have gun or Stockton in here.
(43:30):
And yet everyone including me, thinks that Georgia and Alabama
will compete for the SEC championship this year. Yes I do.
This is not an error. Neither of those guys possess overwhelming,
indisputable physical attributes, and because of that, I am not
blindly ready to just call them top ten. Now. It
(43:50):
could be by week four either one of them is
in the top five. Either one of them could be,
But they don't get benefit of the doubt because they're
not freaks of nature. DJ Lagway is I've seen him
play arch Manning and I think has a much higher
ceiling physically than those two, and that's why I'm willing
to blindly buy into him more. But that's inexact. That
is very inexact. They're watching us in Ali No, maybe
(44:14):
Alexander City too, but I know they're watching us in Alabaster, Alabama.
They're watching us in Sunrise, Florida, a home of Armageddon
ninety nine. They're watching us in Saint Paul, Minnesota. We
appreciate you guys so much. And as we pop the
top on this zero sugar cream soda Zevia, one ep,
(44:40):
big second step. As we do that, and we appreciate them,
a somber question comes to us, and it is from
Nole's Pride down in Tallahassee. He said, what are your
honest thoughts after being able to see inside Florida State?
Our media isn't allowed, so I was a bit shocked
when you got access. So he's referring to a month
(45:02):
or a month and a half ago when Mike Norvell
let us come down there for the day and we
sat down with him for a lengthy one on one
for the Speaker series, and yeah, there have been some
changes down there. So there are media policies a lot
different than it was last year. Last year it was
like open as open as any program in America, and
this year it's been pretty closed off, but they did
(45:24):
let us in there. Look, you know the trade off there.
The trade off is when they give you that kind
of access, it's because they trust you. So you got
to be responsible with how you talk about it. So
I'll speak in somewhat of a generic tone here. But look,
it's also it's spring, so there aren't specifics you can
drill down on yet. Here's what I'll say about my
(45:46):
impression of Florida State. My impression is there is no
comparable data point in history to go to. In other words,
there's nowhere where you go and say, hey, find me
those other teams that won eleven fewer games in one
season than they had the previous season. Let's see how
they did. It's never happened at the power level. We
(46:09):
have told you a couple of times over the last month.
The only other time that's happened, like in any level
of football, G five, power, whatever, was when Ellis Johnson
came into Southern miss and basically he grabbed the stick
and then pushed it and they just took a nose
dive into the Mississippi countryside. That's the only other time
(46:31):
it's happened. And then it happened at Florida State last year.
So you walk in and you don't know what to expect.
And I'll say this about Mike norvel Man. You'll never
hear me say a bad thing about the character of
Mike norvel I've got immense respect for him, just immense
amounts of respect for him. But here's the thing about
being nice and being a principled guy and being really
(46:53):
fun to be around. That's not the deciding factor as
to whether you succeed, whether you retain your job. And
this is nothing he doesn't know, but this is kind
of the impression that I walked away with. I walked
away saying, I think that my beliefs fully in the
changes he's made. He brought in two new coordinators, Tony
(47:13):
White from Nebraska. That's a huge get. It's a huge get,
and they feel that way. The Gus malzon Hire was
a little more head scratching to me, not because Gus
hasn't proven himself, just because it came out of left
field more so than anything. But you're relying on a
transfer quarterback again this year, you are not being able.
This is what I keep going back to. You're not
(47:35):
able at Florida State to just say, yeah, we lost
last year, but our young crop of talent, they'll be
another year older. There are homegrown product like they're are hope, Well,
that's not really there because they haven't recruited all that well,
they haven't recruited at an elite level. They haven't recruited
at the level where you just blindly assume they'll be
right back in contention this year. If they are right
(47:58):
back in contention, and maybe they will be, it'll be
because unknowns from the portal, whether it be this year's
class or last year's class. Guys just now starting to contribute.
Those guys saved you, which could happen. But there's such
an unknown, there's such a high variance, a high volatility
even in relying on that. So you ask what my
(48:19):
impression was. My impression was, this is a building that's
working as hard as any building in the country. Got
no doubt about that. This is a building and a
staff that still believes in itself, Got no doubt about that.
The players are bought in which I wouldn't have always
said last year, by the way, I thought that team
was dead last year. So there's a lot of energy
(48:39):
that you'd want to feel around the building. But look,
a lot of teams are going to miss a Bowl
game this year that have good energy around their building
right now. So that doesn't guarantee anything. Lack of that
energy does guarantee something. But they play Alabama week one,
they're a double digit dog at home. They could lose
forty four to ten, they could lose twenty seven to
(49:01):
twenty four. They could pull the upset and win outright.
My point is, you got a lot of conclusions that
are going to be drawn after week one. Now, if
you're coming off a great year, it doesn't really matter
what they're saying about you after week one, But you
have no equity, you have no benefit of doubt. You've
got no wiggle room. So if you get embarrassed in
week one and that doubt starts to creep back in,
(49:23):
you got to be a you got to be a
rock solid guard to prevent that. If you lose in
week one, that doubt starts creeping back in. It just
go back to the same old, same old, And you
remember how toxic the environment got around the program last
year and now toxic the conversation is. Norval told us
when we were down there, said, I'm myself, I can
block it out. It's a tougher deal for my family
(49:45):
and then players, it's impossible for them not to hear it.
My impression is I think they're trying all the right things.
I think they believe they made the right changes, but
there's no guarantee that they're right about any of that.
That was my impression, Like that was my takeaway. I'm
I'm as as undecided or as unsure about Florida State
(50:07):
this year as any of the major programs. Let's move along. Oh,
I did want to tell you this as well. Our
friends at Quick Trip we you know, got married this
past weekend and I got to tell you the venue
we used, white House Hotel, done in Biloxi. Great venue,
(50:29):
great people. Understandably, if you're using their space then they
want you to use them for catering. So all the
food and drink is coming from White House, and they
did a great job. But before I found that out,
Academy hit me up and said, hey, we basically want
to build an entire store down there on the hotel grounds.
We want to bring the roller grills, we want to
(50:50):
bring the cold brew on tap. We're just mobilizing an
entire quick trip, and so what we do. We were
a little ways down the road on conversation and doing that,
and then the White House Hotel said, yeah, okay, we can't.
We just can't have it. I mean, how many lawsuits
do you want us to open ourselves up to? Which
is fair, okay, because the last thing I want is
Bradley burning his hand on a roller grill and then
(51:13):
owning the White House Hotel two weeks later, And honestly,
there's a fifty to fifture shut of that happening. So instead,
Quick Trip loaded us up all the groomsmen with some
of the greatest care package goodies you'll ever see, and
a very personal handwritten note from them to me, which
is going to stay between us for obvious reasons. But
everything that you could want in there had advil in there,
(51:36):
had copious amounts of five hour energy in there. So
we appreciate Quick Trip. They not only fuel the fall
Saturday tours, they don't even fuel the spring tours. They
fueled the wedding as well. We appreciate it. All right,
let's roll on. So we've got a lot to get to.
Bold Prediction season, of course continues Bold Prediction season on
(51:58):
this show is in your hands, not mine. What do
you guys believe? What are you willing to go public with?
First one up tonight? This would be a headline grabber
in ws andrew out of Gadston, Alabama. I've got to
imagine that stands for National Weather Service, which is in
Huntsville in that part of the country. But nevertheless, he
said Texas and OU will play for the SEC title. Well,
(52:22):
I'm gonna put a nine point twenty five boldness rating
on that. The SEC odds are already out at FanDuel.
Texas is the co favorite to win the league, Oklahoma's ninth.
Now that's partly because FanDuel believes Texas has a better
team than Oklahoma. It has a lot to do with
strength of schedule. We've got our own internal strength of
schedule metric here. We got OU playing the toughest schedule
(52:45):
in the SEC. We got Texas playing the thirteenth toughest
schedule in the SEC. No conspiracy theories there whatsoever. So
I think OU's got to win in Dallas to make
this happen. There's a strong likelihood they've got to win
in Dallas to make it happen. I'm gonna make that
one a nine point two five. Next up, yet again,
(53:08):
another headline grabber. If this were to come to fruition,
as they say, John from Atlanta said, Miami makes the
Final four, Carson Beck is a Heisman finalist. These are
probably correlated. Obviously, for Miami to be a Final four team,
Carson Beck had to have had a great season. So
I'm gonna make this a nine point five. Miami has
(53:30):
yet to make the playoff, so for them to make
it and then go all the way to the Final
four means they have to make it and then win
games or maybe they won the ACC. If Carson Be's
a Heisman finalists, they probably did. They had the number
three passing offense in the country last year, so we're
not looking to upgrade. You just kind of have to
have to count on Shannon Dawson to get the most
(53:51):
out of Carson Beck and roughly stay in the ballpark
of the production they had last year, but not have
to match it because a lot of this depends on defense.
A lot of this depends on the new coordinator higher
out of Minnesota, Corey Heathman, and you gotta have that
pan out to where Carson Beck doesn't enter every week knowing, yeah,
we got to hang forty or we're done, because that
(54:12):
was cam Ward's existence. Last year, Carson Beck for the
record number ten Heisman nods, and a lot of that
has to do with his injury, and all I can
tell you is he's throwing already and they expect him
to be full go by the start of the season.
So outside of that, he'll be on a big stage
to start the year. They play Notre Dame Week one,
that Sunday night game. I think so I'm gona put
(54:33):
a nine point five on that. Tough, tough, but doable.
Next up, Jeff from Knoxville. Memphis wins the most games
of any team in Tennessee. It's a seven, Jeff, I
don't think it's that bold. Memphis and Tennessee have over
(54:53):
under win totals of eight and a half. Middle Tennessee
and Vandy have win totals of four and a half.
So allegedly, if you were to believe the odds board,
this is really between Memphis and Tennessee Tennessee is possibly
in a transition year this year, and conversely, Silverfield over
at Memphis has had double digit win seasons his last
(55:15):
two years. The one downside there is that means they
had a really good team and now they're one hundred
and fifteenth in returning production. But you know Tennessee, they're
losing a lot too, So maybe it's two teams in
transition years. But I could easily see Memphis win in nine,
Tennessee win in eight, or they both win eight and
seven respectively. So I'm gonna make it a seven. It's
(55:36):
not all that bold to me. Lastly, for tonight, let's
go with Noah from Mischillwauka, Indiana. Two of the four
semi finalists from last year returned to the semi finals
this year, so that is Penn State, Notre Dame, Texas,
Ohio State. Two of those teams make it back. That's
(55:58):
an eight point five for me on the boldness scale.
That is three first year starters at quarterback. All of
them are outside the top sixteen in returning production. So
a lot of new players at very important positions have
to come through, or at least for two of them
they do. But it's an eight point five because look,
there's not like slam dunk answers at quarterback for these
(56:20):
other teams. It's not like Ohio State and Texas are
returning a ton of production. It's not like, you know,
Penn State is returning a ton of production. But you
would have to see them do it again to believe it.
I know a lot of you feel that way. Georgia
has got newness everywhere, so someone's gonna have to do it.
Maybe it's them. I'd put an eight and a half
(56:40):
on that one. Good good boldness, good good solid boldness there.
I'd put an eight and a half on that one.
Let's move it along a brisk pace here, because, as
I told you, going out of town, going out of
the country. So I've got to load you up. But
we need we need content on the channel for the
next week. I forgot how this question was worded, but
(57:02):
I know what it's about. From elk Grove, California, German
JP hit us Up said, Hey, if there's a third, actually, Bradley,
I want to restate this so you can cut it
and sounds halfway coherent. You can keep the question up, though,
so German JP from elk Grove, California hit us and said,
(57:24):
if there's a third straight non SEC national champ this year,
do you think that does anything to chip away at
the SEC's power over the whole sport? Love the show?
So if the SEC goes a third year without having
a national champ, does their power over the sport? Wayne?
(57:47):
Not one bit? I don't think it, Wane's one bit.
I actually don't think that's what this is predicated on.
Or if you want to claim it's predicated on that
will okay by that very logic, then I would ask you,
if it's that important to be winning national titles, then
their power is forged in how many they already won
(58:09):
over the past generation or two generations. Therefore, it takes
more than a thirty six month drought period quotation marks
for that to unravel. I also can't believe this is
the discourse, but then again I can. We are. Look here,
here's a little side opinion that I've just I've come
to realize there are some things in college football we
(58:34):
are past the point of reasonable discourse on, and the
SEC is one of them. Some would argue this happened
a long time ago, but I don't believe that because
as recently as like a couple of years ago. Sure,
if you lived in Gary, Indiana, you probably didn't grow
up a huge fan of the Southeastern Conference. But I mean,
(58:54):
we were having rational conversation. That's gone. Man, it's just
not happening. So I've largely pushed my chair back from
the table on these sorts of conversations. But I've been
looking lately. I'll give you a perfect example. So my
answer to the question is, no, they're not gonna lose
power if they don't win the national title. But beyond that,
(59:17):
just the conversation around this conference right now, it was
so perfectly crystallized the last two weeks. Not to rehash
what we talked about to lead the show, but to
rea some kind of circle back for thirty seconds. You
know how everyone was yelling death to the SEC because
they thought Greg Sanki was pushing for the AQ structure,
(59:40):
and shame on the SEC for demanding having the audacity
to demand that they get four guaranteed spots. You remember that,
and then you remember Greg Sanki said, yeah, we actually
don't want that, we want the five plus eleven model.
And then the same people yelled Shame on the SEC
for being so greedy, Shame on them for wanting a
model where they could load up and get more than
(01:00:00):
four teams in. It's like, what do you what exactly
are you looking for them to just say we're going
basketball only, We're done with football. You guys can have it.
We are retiring collectively as a conference from the sport.
And then the schedule thing as well. If you think
the SEC should be playing nine league games, okay, I
happen to agree with you. I'd love for the SEC
(01:00:22):
to be playing nine conference games, But the conversation around
it is so intellectually dishonest you can't even have it
in good faith. If you believe that they should play
nine league games just because you think everybody should play
the same amount of league games, that's okay, but please
stop coming at me and saying, well, the SEC just
(01:00:43):
a bunch of cowards. They'd rather play cupcakes in November
instead of a ninth league game. Yeah, but that's chapter three.
What's chapter one? In chapter two? Chapter one is even
with eight the totality of their league schedules are tougher
than a vast majority of nine game league schedules elsewhere
and you can debate me on that if you want to.
(01:01:03):
I'm just gonna throw math at you. And then the
other part of that is, I don't know if you've
realized this. I think college football nerds of the pair,
both of whom were at the wedding last week, they
do a great job of explaining this. We get so
caught up on the semantics of FCS slash cupcake versus
(01:01:25):
quality opponent. And the bottom line is, if you're Ohio
State or your Georgia and one of you plays Mercer
and one of them plays Kent State, there's no difference
that either way you're naming the score, there's no difference.
But yet one of you is gonna get credit for
playing a G five team, the other one's gonna get
crucified for playing a cupcake team. And this stuff just
(01:01:46):
doesn't matter. And also you need to understand that if
we're really basing all of our metrics on strength of schedule.
But then at the end of the year, you've got
the playoff committee talking abouts and I'm not I'm not
even throwing around specific teams. I'm saying in a very
generic sense or general sense, you've got a crowd that
(01:02:08):
believes you are what your record says you are, and
they're unwilling to budge on that, thinking why would the
SEC ever move? But if you ran the SEC, why
would you ever change that until you got guarantees that
you weren't going to be punished for enhancing the already
toughest average league schedule in the country. It's so blatantly obvious.
(01:02:28):
There's you can have the opinion that you wish it
was different, but there's so much intellectual dishonesty in it
that you can't even have like a normal conversation. And
if you do start to have a normal conversation with someone,
it's not too long before someone wanders in off the
street and hijackson or some call it Twitter. Let's move along.
That's a happy subject here, not that, but this next
(01:02:50):
thing is a happy subject. I told you we got
a lot. We had a jam packed show tonight. This
may be the most loaded show we do all year,
and it's it's June. Wow. So someone wants to know
Carlos and Jacksonville. He said, everyone talks about overrated coaches.
I want to know who you think are the most
(01:03:11):
underrated head coaches in college football? Right now, Carlos, if
you watch the show, you know Jeff brom is my guy.
He's the most underrated head coach in major college football.
And you may listen to that and say, Jeff brom Man,
people know about him, Yeah, people know about him. How
often do you hear his name thrown around? If I
were to talk to you about the ACC right now,
(01:03:32):
we'd have to talk a minute or two before Jeff
Brom's name came up. You throw dabbo at me, you should.
Christ of Ball's name would be mentioned, okay, But Jeff
Brom's right up there, and he didn't get mentioned nearly
as much the guy. All he did was win at
Western Kentucky. He won it perdue, by the way. Check
out what happened to those programs when he left. And
now he's winning at Louisville and he's adapting. It's not
(01:03:54):
recruiting top ten classes, never has, he may never do that,
but he's a adapting And the thing I can count
on Jeff Brown to do is put a collection of
players together, form it into a team, and get the
most out of it. And that scales, by the way,
that skill, that scales. He's not out talenting people due.
(01:04:18):
I remember watching them play Clemson this past year, and
I remember how crazy it was to watch them go
into Death Valley. I believe it was a night game
and just physically take it to Clemson, knowing full well
they're outmanned, and knowing full well, that's the environment, that's
the team that's supposed to make them wilt, and they
(01:04:39):
just totally inverted the dynamics. So Jeff Brom, he's up there.
For me, the entire state of Kansas should just be
ecstatic about where they are right now, because I think
Leopold at Kansas and I think Climen at Kansas State
are both extremely underrating. I think both of them are
top twenty head coaches. You know, we do our own
(01:04:59):
intern coaching ratings. We do them for all positions, actually
head coach, coordinators, position, whatnot. Lipol won at Buffalo, he
comes to Kansas. They go from two to ten to
six and seven to nine and four. And then remember
last year they fell off, which is to be expected.
Like if Nick Saban were at Kansas, he ought to
(01:05:19):
have down years. It's Kansas. So they fall off last
year and they started terribly and they had bad injury
luck at the quarterback position. But did you notice how
they got things righted? They ended up beating Iowa State,
bringing Young and Colorado towards the end of the year.
They were like one of the hottest teams in the
country towards the end of the year. And then Klimbmen
won a lot at North Dakota State. He's had eight
(01:05:41):
plus wins every season aside from the COVID year at
Kansas State, and they're right up there is the co
favorites or maybe the outright favorites to win the conference
again this year. It's the State of Kansas. Man, when
if they had it better collectively, like Yin and Yang,
they had it better than they have it right now.
(01:06:01):
The two guys at the G five level that I've
got circled and they're not going to be there for long.
I close your ears at Tulane in South Florida. But man,
John Sumrall and Alex Golish, those two guys I think
could already have much higher profile jobs quote unquote if
they wanted him. But I also think they understand the
(01:06:25):
nature of the business and also understand the nature of
the sport. And also they're in good places. So John
Sumrall is only a fourth year head coach, but he's
got two titles at Troy. He just went nine and
five at Tulane. We went down there a couple of
months ago, spent the afternoon with him. Just gets I
don't know, you know when you're sitting with the real deal.
(01:06:46):
He's the real deal. And Golish was at Tennessee now
number one offense in the country a couple of years ago.
He goes down to South Florida. He's had two seasons there.
They've played Bama past two years, and I mean push
Bama to the limit both years. And you may say, oh, Josh,
Bama's not been vintage Bama. Man. We're talking about South Florida,
(01:07:06):
not Southern California, South Florida. So Alex Golish. I remember
talking to some people at Tennessee this past year. Tennessee
made the playoffs. They were a good team this past year.
But I had somebody tell me, dude, we miss Alex Golish.
Not that we've forgotten how to play football, but that
dude was good. He was a very, very plus dynamic
(01:07:30):
in this building. And that's why he's a head coach.
It's not an accident, and then I got a name
for you. In the interest of disclosing that we track
everyone here, most of these guys I don't talk about
I got a name. I want you to circle. We've
never talked about him on the show, but internally we've
been tossing this name around. You know who the head
(01:07:51):
coach in New Mexico is? Anybody? Do people in New
Mexico know who the head coach and New Mexico is? Well,
Jason Eck is the head coach at New Mexico. I
want you to do me a favor. Just pull out
your pen red sharpie if you've got it, circle Jason Eck.
He was at Idaho, he went seven to five, nine
(01:08:11):
and four to ten and for at Idaho. Takes the
job at New Mexico. It's his first year there. I'm
not gonna throw stats at you, not gonna bother with that.
I think this dude's good and I think his name
is going to be a lot more on the radar
over the next couple of years than it is right now.
No one's talking about him right now. He's been in
the game for a long time. He's not like twenty
(01:08:33):
five years old. He's a little bit more seasoned. Notice
I don't say old because age is not real. But
Jason Eck, I just want you to take the sharpie
circle his name. You don't have to watch New Mexico
this year. He'd appreciate it if you do. I've never
spoken to him. I don't know him, but I trust
our internals and our internals our guidance. Right here, the
(01:08:56):
old computer it likes Jason Eck. Let's move it along.
To take a sip of water right quick, because we've
been talking for an hour and eight minutes. All right,
but we can finish strong. Hear immunity Adrian from Kingwood, Texas.
He said, whoms amongst us wouldn't be curious about the
(01:09:18):
day to day grind. What does the typical behind the
scenes look like for you when prepping for and producing? Oh,
the show? Okay, so this is about the show. Let's see. Well,
it depends on what time of year it is, but
it's pretty much the same. But during the season it's
actually easier because even though it's more like we're doing
(01:09:38):
more shows, it's also regimented. It's the same thing every week.
But this time of year it's a lot of travel too.
But we're a lot more flexible, and I go storm
chasing a lot in the spring, so we work our
schedule around that. And you guys are really gracious about that,
because you could complain about it if you wanted to.
We keep our staff very small, very small. I've always
(01:09:59):
been intentional about that because the key is having the
right people on the staff. So nobody touches this show
who I don't trust to touch the show. So that
means we don't have a lot of people work on
the show, but the ones who do do the work
of two or three people. And I've worked in all
kinds of worlds, so you know the kinds of people
I'm talking about. You could be working in construction or production,
(01:10:20):
and you know that guy who you look at and
say he's doing the work of two or three people.
A pay them accordingly. Number two, Surround yourself with them
if you can find them. Takes a while to find
those kinds of people. But then take care of him,
don't let him go. And so we've got that with
this show. Think you'd be shocked if you looked at
our operation. The other thing is the day to day
(01:10:44):
grind is not grind because we're doing fun stuff for
a living. So we're covering college football. I didn't come
out of college age twenty two doing media. There are
some of my peers, and they're fortunate. I guess you
could call it fortunate that they've only done this, like
they didn't never do manual labor or anything. Well. I
did for several years, so I work jobs I hated
(01:11:08):
for quite a while, and later in my twenties and
early thirties, I finally got to do this. And so
relatively speaking, that's not a grind. I don't in the fall.
We're working. We're working the same amount of hours coaches do,
no lie, but it's different kind of work because you know,
we're not getting judgment wins and losses. We just got
to do a good show. And if you immerse yourself
(01:11:28):
in college football already, you should be able to do
the show. And if you know the audience, and I do,
because that's who I hang out with and that's who
I am, then it's very easy to talk to you guys,
even though you're not in the studio. We don't have
an audience in here. That part's very easy. And then
the third part is I communicate with I would safely,
(01:11:49):
say dozens of you per day, several dozens of you
per day, and a lot of you share your personal
lives with me, so I know what people are going
through in the real world. You know what economics are
like in the real world. I know how inconsistent and
how up in the air the job market can be.
(01:12:09):
Even in my world, I know how inconsistent and up
in the air the job market can be. And there's
so much volatility and uncertainty that this not grind. It's
long hours. It's like eighty ninety hours a week in
the fall. It's not grind. I'd much rather do that
than forty hours a week doing something I hate. And
then the other part is, man, oh man, know who
(01:12:32):
the audience is. It's the most important part. It's what's
made this whole thing possible. It's what I looked at
ten years ago as just a glaring inefficiency. I mean,
to really scale something, you need to find market inefficiency.
Everyone knows that. If you're on Wall Street, you know that,
if you're building a small business, you know that. Well,
(01:12:54):
we kind of did that in this world. Because college
football has been the number two sport in this country
for quite a while. To this day, it doesn't get
the amount of investment and attention that it should on
major networks. But that's okay because you're not limited to
just major networks anymore. You guys are either watching me
on YouTube or Rumble or Twitter, or you're listening on podcasts.
(01:13:15):
None of those are major networks. And so those mechanisms
give us the ability. If you think what I just said,
make your own show. So we did, and so we
serve an underserved audience and happy to do it. So
that's the inner workings of the show. And then I
guess the fourth part is people would define show prep.
(01:13:36):
It's like what time do you get to the building,
and do you have a production meeting? And do you
do this? And that. That's very informal the way we
do it. We grind it out once we're here. But
show prep doesn't stop. This is not something I hate doing.
So like when I leave here, I don't leave here
saying oh good, I don't have to think about college
football again until Sunday night or Tuesday night or Thursday night.
(01:13:59):
I just do it all day every day. So if
your show prep never stops, so come in the building
at like two o'clock at three o'clock in the afternoon
for a seven o'clock start time. But you've been working
all day. You've been working six am, seven am. When
you got up, you're on the phone with people. You
get done with the show, you're talking to people on
the phone. You're constantly immersing yourself in it. And that's
(01:14:20):
the blessing, by the way, in twenty twenty five of
being in media, in sports, you don't have to cover everything.
Like we could talk braves baseball here if we wanted to.
I wouldn't do it because it's a college football show.
I could talk about golf, or I could talk about
the NFL or NBA, but I don't have to do that.
(01:14:41):
I get to just talk about the one thing I'm
most passionate about all year, and I get to do
it because the market is there, always has been. We
just get the ability to serve it. Now, let's move along.
Got a couple of more things I wanted to get to.
We are we got a big live audience. Tonight kind
(01:15:01):
of goes back to what I was just saying, year round,
talk about this stuff responsibly, and we can do it
year round. Willie from Cincinnati Ohio. What teams do you
think will have the biggest difference in win total compared
to fan duels win total. So basically, Willy's asking me,
do you have any preseason leans on over underwin totals. Yes,
(01:15:22):
I do, and it's not all sunshine and rainbows here.
I think Arkansas would go under five and a half, Willie,
if I had to bet this right now, Arkansas, you
see five and a half. You looked at ESPN's FPI
had Arkansas ranked. You think, well, if they're the number
twenty two team in the country, certainly they're gonna win
more than five and a half games. Well, I don't
(01:15:42):
have them number twenty two, and I don't expect them
as of now to win more than five and a
half games. I've got them with the number three strength
of schedule in the country. I my own metrics have
him playing the third hardest schedule in the country. And look,
here's how I think about Arkansas. A lot of un
known on that team outside of Taylor Green. Where's the
(01:16:02):
big upgrade? Just like position units, sides of the ball,
where's the big upgrade? They play? This is kind of
in order. They play Ole Miss, Notre Dame, Tennessee A
and M Auburn, LSU, Texas Missouri. They go to Memphis
in out of conference play. Six wins is extremely hard
(01:16:27):
with that schedule, and if they don't get off to
a really strong start, there's already uncertainty around Pittman and
that coaching staff. I think I think Under would be
the play if I had to make a move on
Arkansas exact to opposite with Georgia Tech. Folks are missing
the mark with Georgia Tech. I've already bet this, by
the way, so you guys can have at it pound
(01:16:47):
that over for all I can. Georgia Tech over seven
and a half is already a bet. I've put in
multi year starter at quarterback Top twenty. Returning production and
returning production is not always the end all be all.
They are returning a lot of guys from already a
group I believe in, a team I believe in. Overall,
identity is trending way up. You know what Brent Key is,
(01:17:09):
and you see a bleeding through the identity and fingerprint
of that team. They got Clemson at home in Week three.
They got Georgia at home to end the season. Even
if they lose both those games, I still think they'll
go over seven and a half because I think they
may be favored in every other game. I'm not so
sure they're just gonna lose both of those games either,
So I think they're an ACC title contender. I'm very
(01:17:31):
high on Georgia Tech, so I think absolutely they go
over seven and a half. Wisconsin not high on them. Wisconsin.
I would go under five and a half. I have
not bet this right now. I have not bet it yet,
but if I had to forced one way or the other,
I'd go under. I've got them with the number one
strength of schedule in the Big Ten. In fact, it's
the only Big Ten team, off the top of my
(01:17:52):
head that we have with a top ten overall strength
of schedule. So they've got Just look at the line
up if you're listening on podcasts. Starting the first Saturday
in October, they go to Michigan, Iowa, Ohio State at Oregon,
Washington at Indiana, Illinois at Minnesota. I wouldn't pick them
(01:18:15):
to win any of those games, and they go to
Alabama and out of conference play, So even if they
don't slip up elsewhere and out of conference play, I
don't know where they find six. I do not know
where they find six wins. They're counting on Billy Edwards,
the transfer quarterback this year. I don't know what the
identity of the team is at this point. I don't
(01:18:37):
know that Wisconsin fans know that. So I'm going under
five and a half. Oklahoma, They're total six and a
half right now. I've got Oklahoma as a top ten
team in the preseason. Certainly I'm going over six and
a half. They're coming off a six and seven season.
They've got an extremely tough strength to schedule. This is
(01:18:57):
an odds maker actually saying they halfway respect Oklahoma. But
if you're coming off a six and seven year and
we think you're playing one of the five or six
toughest schedules in the country, over under win total six
and half very respectable, But I don't think the market's
corrected enough on the OCQB edition there and understanding that
outside of that disastrous dynamic last year, they were a
(01:19:20):
good team. It's just that if you're a good team
but your quarterback and offense coordinator combination sucks, you're not
a good team. So Oklahoma they play Illinois State and
then Michigan in Week two, and then Temple. They got
Kent State. They should be four and oher and out
of conference play, I firmly believe they should win every
one of their out of conference games. If they do that,
(01:19:43):
I need three wins in conference play and I think
they'll get it. So I am going over six and
a half on the OU win total. Ironically, OU is
also the acronym for over under. Everything I just told
you can be wagered on right now, right there at
Fandel Sportsbook. They are the official betting provider, an odds
(01:20:05):
provider of the show. They're always here for us. We
appreciate it. As the season draws closer, you will see
more and more and more odds available. And I look,
they did something last year. I assume they're going to
do it again this year. They did the yes no.
So you can always bet on whether a team will
win the conference or not, and you can bet on
(01:20:27):
whether a team will you do this or that, but
it's always a yes bet. But they put the nose
up last year too, and that was a really really
fun kind of different angle on the prop market and
the odds market. So I'm looking forward to that. They
already get Games of the Year up like Ohio State
Michigan can be bet on right now. I think Buckeye's
minus five and a half is the line right now.
(01:20:47):
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n Y. In New York. Oh did you hear the
breach didn't work all the way? I'm telling you, allergies
(01:21:56):
are tough for me. They're tough. I struggle. It's not
the talking for an hour twenty minutes. It's just you
sound like you've got a bubble in your throat of
your nose, because you got a bubble in your throat
to your nose. All right. I promised at the very
end of the show that I would delve headlong into
my personal life because you know, one thing I've always
(01:22:16):
believed in is you and I being intimately involved in
each other's personal lives. So one of our friends from
Portland said, how was the wedding? Where are you guys
going for the honeymoon? We're going to the Caribbean for
the honeymoon. That's as specific as I'd like to get.
Wedding was really good. Wedding was good Spring weddings. I
cannot recommend them strongly enough. We had hooms assembled down
(01:22:41):
on the Mississippi Gulf coast, so we did it the
White House Hotel down in Biloxi. We had basically we
basically had wwe come in and build the elimination chamber
on the front lawn, massive, massive tent. And when they
told me tent, I think, oh, I can get one
at a cat And all due respect to Academy, they're
(01:23:02):
not selling this at Academy. This tent was nicer than
the first home that I lived in. And so we
had Chali of supremacy that we toasted there. You see
Savannah State there the lovely Bride. I was just happy
to tag along. But we had a lot of folks
down there, and we had a great reception. I'm told
every magnolia available in the state of Mississippi was in
(01:23:26):
the building for our reception. And it looked like it. Man,
it looked really good. Look. I got no skill in this,
but the people who do put this together for a
living did a great job. Look at Gelby and miss
Gelby out on the road. Gelby in a tucks he's
normally setting up a live shot. A lot of you
who see us on the road in the fall, you
(01:23:46):
see Gelby because he's another one of those people who
does the job of three and so it's not Gelby
and a whole crew, it's Gelliby on the road and
Gelby also holding the Academy football. It's just a true
hashtag one of us. Moment there, look, I hesitated. I
struggled with whether I should do this because I got
(01:24:07):
no bus under which I wouldn't throw management. But I
never show management on the show. But there he is
management along with mismanagement in attendance the very last two invitations.
Actually she got an invitation early on. He got one
of the last remaining invitations. Truthfully, probably an alternate, but
really really happy to see Big Game Dan. Big Game
(01:24:29):
Dane an integral part of the early operation when we
first went out on the road. Big Game Dane the
first guy I ever worked with on the road at CBS.
Never saw a live shot he couldn't tackle, never saw
a CAMPI that he couldn't own, and we appreciated him
showing up. It was kind of like a reunion of sorts.
(01:24:49):
Kublick even made the trip. We had to post waste
up because even though we put Kublic in the groomsman party,
you know, we didn't really I guess specified that we
required socks, like you know, black socks to be worn
with the tuck. So I mean he went full war
eagle on the wardrobe there, and I honestly he should
(01:25:11):
have been the one embarrassed, but everyone else is embarrassed.
But you know what's crazy. That's Cam Gorby there, he's
the sid down at Miami. You got to be really
careful because you think the main event here is me
and Gorby. Billy Lucci just lurking, ready, ready, on a
moment's notice to have you look over your shoulders. Where
did my girl go? Oh, she's with Luci at your wedding,
(01:25:33):
at your wedding reception. No less, but on the best
of terms, we love Billy Lucy Nunio. The TexAgs crew
made it over there. It was a really fun time. Man. Look,
Gavin Snyder, you're if you're in the market for a
wedding planner. Unbelievable, Garrett Richardson, I have seen major motion
pictures that weren't as well constructed and put together and
(01:25:57):
is scenic and aesthetically pleased as the photography and video
he did. Unbelievable. It looked like it was produced by
one of the major production houses out in La So
again I would say I've got no dog in the fight,
but I do because these folks really came through for us,
and we only planned this thing over like two and
a half months, so we knew we wanted a spring wedding,
(01:26:19):
and they made it happen and it was. It was great.
It was great. And now tomorrow, actually in about ten hours,
we'll be off on honeymoon for a week, and next
show we do will be next Thursday. And if something
happens between now and then, I don't know what to
tell you. Just hang tight. I'll be back eventually. I'm
(01:26:41):
told we're gonna play the season no matter what. But
thousands and thousands of well wishes. I speak for everyone,
I speak for Savannah, I speak for myself. We sincerely
appreciate it. Can't get to all of you, and my
penmanship sucks anyway, so the letters we do send out,
she'll have to do. But look for me to you
there you go live. We appreciate it. I got to
(01:27:02):
get out of here because I got to back, So
I appreciate you guys so much. For producer Bradley in
the house tonight, and for director Bradley, producer Jesse, I'm
Josh Bate, take care, extended vacation here. We'll see you
next Thursday. Until then, From me to you, God Thos,
(01:27:36):
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