Bold Predictions For 2026: Surprise Teams, Contenders Set To FLOP & More! | College Football

Summary

Cover 3 College Football Podcast

Episode: Bold Predictions For 2026: Surprise Teams, Contenders Set To FLOP & More!

Date: April 8, 2026
Hosts: Chip Patterson, Tom Fornelli, Danny Kanell (DK), Bud Elliott

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Episode Overview

This episode is dedicated to bold predictions for the 2026 college football season, with a focus on surprise teams, projected contenders who might flop, and high-level commentary on conference dynamics, player storylines, and playoff forecasts. The hosts take turns offering hot takes for the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, and Big 12, sparring over plausibility, upside, and what it would take for these predictions to come true. The episode is energetic, prediction-heavy, collegial, and playful, with plenty of back-and-forth and friendly needling between the hosts.

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Main Themes & Segments

1. State of College Sports: Big Ten Dominance (01:55–09:06)

• Discussion on Big Ten’s Recent Dominance
  The hosts kick off by discussing the Big Ten’s unprecedented run: holding national titles in men’s and women’s basketball and football, plus other sports.

  • Tom Fornelli observes it’s more than a three-sport streak: “It’s men’s basketball, women’s basketball, football. But it’s also women’s hockey, men’s hockey, track and field. They’ve won national titles. ...Penn State won wrestling.” (04:14)
  • Bud Elliott labels it “descriptive, but not predictive” of the future; the edges are hard to retain in the NIL and transfer portal era. (05:02)
  • Chip Patterson’s analogy: "What the Big Ten has done is, like, speed up—the pace car. ...Other programs will find ways to catch up and close the gap." (05:53)
  • The financial muscle and recent expansion (UCLA, USC, Oregon) are credited with boosting the conference’s success.

• On Big Ten as the 'Evil Empire'
  Jason from the chat suggests DK will switch his alliance if Big Ten outspends everyone else. DK rebuffs this with humor:

  • “That would be a cold day in hell if that ever happens... I am not joining forces with the evil empire known as the SEC.” (03:17)

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2. Big Ten: Bold Predictions (09:50–19:56)

Each host brings their spiciest 2026 prediction for the Big Ten:

• Bud Elliott’s Bold Prediction:

  • “Bryce Underwood wins the Heisman. Michigan wins the Big Ten.” (10:33)
  • Odds cited: 12:1 for Michigan, 35:1 for Underwood. Bud thinks improvements at OC, coach, and QB development could put Michigan over the top.
  • DK: “That is bold.” (10:39)
  • Chip: “It is both bold and also would be super fun to watch.” (11:42)

• Chip Patterson’s Prediction:

  • “No Big Ten team will go undefeated in conference play.” (12:42)
  • Notes it hasn’t happened since 2021, and top-to-bottom parity plus tough scheduling make this likely.
  • DK & Tom agree it’s sensible but maybe not so bold compared to Bud’s.

• Tom Fornelli’s Prediction:

  • “Defending champion Indiana finishes 9-3, misses the playoff due to lack of a marquee win.” (13:46)
  • Discussion on Indiana’s schedule and the possibility of a playoff snub even for a defending champ.
  • DK: “There’s your bulletin board material.” (14:12)

• Danny Kanell’s Prediction:

  • “Penn State, with Matt Campbell, goes 10-2 and makes the playoffs in his first year as head coach.” (16:53)
  • Attributes it to QB stability (Rocco Becht), favorable schedule, five-star culture.
  • Chip: “Going 10-2 and making the playoff... that’s just as bold as the record.” (18:03)
  • Follow-up: Discussion of the scenario where all Big Ten predictions could come true together. (18:48)

Notable Quote

“If you did ever see a merger where you saw maybe the ACC get gobbled up by the SEC... that would be the only case. Otherwise, there is no way I’m getting on that bandwagon.”
—Danny Kanell, (03:17)

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3. SEC: Bold Predictions (21:34–33:11)

Transitioning to the SEC, positivity and spiciness reign:

• DK’s SEC Prediction:

  • “Only two SEC teams get into the playoff, but one reaches the national championship for the first time in three years—and there’s massive whining about strength of schedule and the nine-game conference slate.” (21:49)
  • DK picks Texas and Georgia as playoff teams, Texas as title game participant.
  • Bud & Chip note it’s a “perfect storm” scenario with a crowded Big Ten and playoff auto-bids in play.

• Bud Elliott’s SEC Prediction:

  • “LSU misses the playoff.” (27:32)
  • Foot injury for Sam Levitt is cited and concern about Lane Kiffin’s variance at LSU. Bud sees high variance as both potential and risk.
  • “It could go really well, but you can also end up curled up on the side of the road.” (29:12)

• Tom Fornelli’s SEC Prediction:

  • “Texas begins 9-0, beats Ohio State, but loses three of its last four (at LSU, at A&M, vs. Georgia), squeaks into the playoff but as a road team.” (30:12)

• Chip Patterson’s SEC Prediction:

  • “Texas will average 40 points per game for the first time since 2020; top-5 national offense.” (32:01)
  • Credits explosive recruiting and portal activity (“the pieces seem to fit together”).

Notable Exchange

“Texas will never, ever beat Georgia, as is written in the stars.”
—Tom Fornelli, (30:15)

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4. ACC: Bold Predictions (39:07–48:28)

Each host brings high-variance takes for a parity-filled ACC landscape:

• Tom Fornelli:

  • “Miami goes 9-0 in ACC play; nobody else does better than 6-3.” (39:07)
  • League predicted to be weak outside Miami; tiebreaker chaos expected.

• DK (Danny Kanell):

  • “Ethan Grunkemeyer is the breakout star of the ACC. Penn State goes 9-3 but misses the ACC title game on tiebreakers.” (42:27)
  • Notes Grunkemeyer’s late 2025 surge as an omen for 2026.

• Bud Elliott:

  • “Virginia Tech wins the ACC.” (44:23)
  • Admits schedule is brutal and it requires Miami to regress, but not impossible for a Virginia Tech team catching the right breaks.

• Chip Patterson:

  • “NC State and UNC both win their international Week 0 openers as underdogs (NC State vs. Virginia in Brazil; UNC vs. TCU in Dublin).” (46:41)
  • Emphasizes the bold triangle parlay and local pride.

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5. Big 12: Bold Predictions (51:17–57:15)

Wide range of scenarios, prepping for chaos in the reconfigured Big 12:

• Tom Fornelli:

  • “Texas Tech will finish the regular season undefeated and will win their nine Big 12 games by an average of 17 points per game. They will decimate the league.” (51:21)

• DK:

  • “Houston wins the Big 12 title game, beating Texas Tech, and earns a playoff bid.” (51:48)
  • Cites Connor Weigman, Willie Fritz, Makai Hughes as key contributors.

• Bud Elliott:

  • “West Virginia makes the Big 12 title game.” (53:48)
  • Likes the schedule, system fit, and Michael Hawkins at QB.

• Chip Patterson:

  • “Kansas State plays for the Big 12 title—Avery Johnson, Colin Klein’s offense, bounce-back year.” (56:01)

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6. National & Miscellaneous Bold Predictions (58:11–61:43)

• Bud Elliott:

  • “A non-Boise Group of Five team makes the playoff.”
  • Also floated: “Notre Dame wins a national title.”

• Tom Fornelli:

  • “Notre Dame moves its Olympic sports to the Big East, ends its ACC football scheduling agreement, and announces a new Big Ten scheduling pact—strengthening its TV deals and SOS.” (58:42)
  • Sparks discussion on Notre Dame’s scheduling future and NBC/Big Ten partnerships.

Notable Quote

“Notre Dame announces a scheduling agreement exclusively with Michigan, Michigan State, USC... pick their favorites.”
—Chip Patterson (60:39)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Wild Parity:
  “You want to talk about the variance... Anything could happen there.”
  —Chip Patterson, on the unpredictability of Week Zero and Big 12 races (49:33)

• On Betting and Boldness:
  “What are the odds on that parlay, our Big Ten bold prediction parlay...?”
  —Tom Fornelli, on the improbability of all their predictions hitting at once. (19:40)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Big Ten dominance/conference landscape: 01:55–09:06
• Big Ten bold predictions: 09:50–19:56
• SEC bold predictions: 21:34–33:11
• ACC bold predictions: 39:07–48:28
• Big 12 bold predictions: 51:17–57:15
• National/Miscellaneous bold predictions: 58:11–61:43

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Closing Thoughts

• The panel’s predictions covered nearly every possible flavor of bold—plausible hot takes, pure optimism, and intricate scenario-building.
• Recurring themes: conference expansion, NIL/transfer impacts, playoff quirks, and coaching changes.
• The tone: Spirited, collegial, playful, and deeply plugged in to both statistical realities and the unpredictable anarchy of college football.

For the Die-Hard Fan:

This episode is a festival of hot takes, an ideal listen for fans gaming out “what ifs” for the 2026 season. Every power conference gets its wild-card, favorites and dark horse teams are spotlighted, and the hosts’ banter keeps even the most fever-dream scenarios grounded in smart analysis—with plenty of humor along the way.

Transcript

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[Chip Patterson]

Welcome Back to the COVID 3 podcast with your hosts, Chip Patterson, Tom Fernelli, Danny Cannell and Bud Elliott. It's your call for the best college football coverage from national signing day to the national championship and everything in between. CBS Sports presents the COVID 3 podcast.

And welcome back to the COVID 3 podcast here on CBS Sports. That's Tom Fenelli, that's Bud Elliott, that's Danny Canel. I'm Chip Patterson coming to you [e-mail] cover3 and everywhere. Get your podcast on demand. Thanks for hanging out. Smash that subscribe smash that like and come and join us in the chat aka the COVID 3 tailgate where Jay I mean the bold predictions are flying in the tailgate. They like today's show. They want to get involved and before we got started with the show, Jason jumped in and said we bold prediction. Once DK hears that the Big Ten is the conference that wants to outspend the SEC in every other conference, his quote love for parody will turn him against that conference and buddy up with the sec Jason that he'll turn. That is bold. That is bold. And of course we are coming to you. First time we have met since the Michigan Wolverines Claimed the basketball championship and the Big Ten now currently holds football, men's basketball, women's basketball, as UCLA got it done. Tom Fornelli wrote a piece for CBSSports.com if he wants to get into this in his rebuttal, but I do want to get to the prediction. Dk, do you foresee an alliance with the Southeastern Conference because of the way the Big Ten is just lording over college sports?

[DK]

No, that would be a. That would be a whole. A cold day in hell if that ever happens. Now, I will say this. If you did ever see a merger where you saw maybe the ACC get gobbled up by the sec, then you potentially could have that happen. So. But that would be the. That would be the only case. I'm joining forces with the evil empire known as the sec. There's no way I'm getting on that bandwagon.

[Chip Patterson]

Tom, you offered some words for cbs sports.com I believe John Talting, Chris Hummer also, you know, reached out to the football side. What do you make of this Big Ten dominance? What's. What's your, what's your thought here? Is there something to this that is big picture? Is this the pendulum? Is this kind of kind of happenstance? What's there to take away from the Big Ten success in those three sports during this school year?

[Tom Fornelli]

It's not just the three sports. That's kind of what I wrote about. It's men's basketball, women's basketball, football. Yeah. But it's also women's hockey, men's hockey, track and field. They've won national titles. Baseball. UCLA is currently the favorite to win the College World Series. Penn State won the wrestling national title. They are dominating all the sports right now.

[Grant]

I, I think money, clearly, now that

[Tom Fornelli]

everybody can fire the money cannon, that is what has helped the Big Ten kind of catch up in that area. But I also think this is more of an outlier. Like, you're not going to see them dominating every single sport, every single year. It's. It's just not going to happen. But this is a great year for the Big Ten in that regard.

[Chip Patterson]

Bud, what are you seeing from sort of the. Is it. Do you agree a little bit of just. It's kind of an outlier here?

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah, I, I think it's, like, probably descriptive, but not. But not predictive. Right. Like. Like that. That's an accurate description of what's been going on. Does it mean it's gonna. Gonna hold? I think it's probably harder to hold on to certain edges in this era. Right? Because of player movement and because of the ability to pay. You know, I think, like, you get the dynasty stuff going on because, like, they just have an edge that nobody else can really copy. You know, especially, like, if that edge creator, like, Saban just keeps innovating, which he did, you know, like, for so long. Right. Like, he was ahead of, like, so many trends, and that's largely kind of what carried the sec. And. And people trying to catch Saban within the SEC would occasionally produce a champion that was not saving. Right. I. I think now you're probably going to see, like, more different teams winning it, you know, pretty regularly.

[Chip Patterson]

I can't think about. I. I think about pace car. I think that what the Big Ten has done is, like, speed up. And my prediction is that other programs will find ways to be able to catch up and close the gap. There was very clearly a smart plan for someone who laid out, said, okay, so we've got more alumni than any other conference, right? And if everybody gives a little, that can be a lot. And now we can pay these players and we can invest in these different ways. And I think that they have played. Played their hand, but now there's. There's going to be a fire under the ass of the sec. There's going to be a fire under the ass of the top programs in basketball and football and everywhere else that if you want to compete, you're now trying to keep up. So do I think it'll last forever? No. But I think that in this window, I do. I do feel like not just because, you know, not just because of the Big Ten in general, but just, you know, you tip your hat, you recognized, you looked around, you said, all right, this is something we can do that other conferences do not have. How can we maximize it? That's my explanation for how we got here. But I don't know if it can hold forever because just like the pace car or any innovation, everyone else is going to try to find a way to be able to close that gap.

[Grant]

Part of it, too, is expansion.

[Chip Patterson]

Like, oh, you add. You like, just adding.

[Grant]

They like a lot of these titles that they're winning are ucla, Oregon and usc. Like, they got four schools from the conference that was called the Conference of

[Tom Fornelli]

Champions because they dominated Olympic sports. And now the.

[Grant]

Those four schools are in.

[Tom Fornelli]

In the Big Ten, they're still doing the same thing. They always haven't. Although, I mean, UCLA hadn't won a woman's basketball title in a long. I don't think they did. They ever. Was this their first I think it was their first. Yeah.

[Grant]

But like when it comes to the

[Tom Fornelli]

track and field and all that other stuff, this is, you know, they're just kind of stealing that more than anything and saying now it's Big Ten.

[DK]

But I don't think this is too shocking because I mean they've always had better TV contracts than the sec. It's always been an arms race. And then when you saw it spread out and spread through, I think that's been extremely helpful. Like the bigger surprise would have been, and I don't think we ever do because they're going to be playing catch up. If we were Talking about the ACC or Big 12, that would be the shocker. I don't think this was that hard to predict that the Big Ten was going to be right here, toe to toe and even taking over for the, for the meantime, the college athletic world because they've got the most money.

[Chip Patterson]

Coaching hire, staff hires. Also another part of this as well, just sort of the, you lose certain coaches, you gain other ones. And the Big Ten, you know, with the. I mean, wouldn't that be crazy if like Dusty May went to your university and you had a chance to hire him and you could have had Kurt Signetti and Dusty May at the same time? Oh my God, man, that's a. I can't, can't imagine that. I cannot imagine.

[Tom Fornelli]

I will say this to that.

[Grant]

Would they have the money because Michigan has.

[Tom Fornelli]

Yeah, like, like everybody's paying people a lot of money. Like everybody that was in the Final Four had pretty much a 10 million dollar roster. But Michigan had slightly more than 10 million dollar roster. Like they spent more than everybody else. Yeah, I don't know if Indiana would be doing that.

[Chip Patterson]

Yeah, no, no strays here. This is not targeted. But miss me on like the rags to riches Yaxel Lindenberg story. That guy was the number one player in the portal and was paid as such. So it's. They, they, they knew what they were doing. That was no diamond in the rough right there. But enough of that. College basketball is done. And now all eyes are ahead on the college football season. The tailgate, as I mentioned, has been dropping their own bold predictions. We have these sorted for hours. I'll pull up some tailgate suggestions as we start going conference by conference. On that note, we will begin in the Big Ten. So bud, I'll let you get first crack at this one Big Ten bold prediction. What do you got?

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah, I, I mean I, I guess part of this is like how bold are we going to go right like, are. Are we going to grade each other's boldness on this, by the way?

[Chip Patterson]

I would say that on the. What's it. The Scoville rating? Is that what that is for the Wings? I'm all over the place. There are some that I feel very bold and some that I'm preparing to defend the boldness.

[DK]

By the way, this show is what got me in trouble last year with every Miami Hurricane fan. And I tried to say it was bold and I said they were going to miss a bowl, and I made the case for it, and then that's all I heard about the entire season. But I did flip around pretty quickly. But this is the show that can get you in trouble. So I actually had a different philosophy. Mine are all positive. I didn't go any negative this year, which I could still get it thrown in my face, but, you know, it won't be. It won't be the same.

[Bud Elliott]

So. All right. Bryce Underwood wins the Heisman. Michigan wins the Big Ten.

[DK]

That is bold.

[Chip Patterson]

Yes.

[DK]

Yes.

[Bud Elliott]

Like, right. I mean, it. They're what, 12 to 1 on FanDuel to win the conference? They're 351 for. For Bryce to win the Heisman. Now, granted, they probably wouldn't let you parlay those because they're kind of very related. Yeah. But in doing this, I tried to think about, like, okay, like, you know, outcomes on the margins that, like, could happen. Like, could he make a huge leap, freshman to sophomore year? You know, could we be underestimating how much the dysfunction under Sharon Moore held that team back? You know, so if you solve for both of those. Right. He actually does make the jump. Massive upgrade in office coordinator. Really big upgrade in head coach. Maybe, like the quarterback who we know is super talented, takes a step forward. I. I just think it's maybe a little less crazy than people think.

[Chip Patterson]

Thoughts?

[Grant]

I. I love it.

[DK]

As old as we get. Way bolder than anyone I had.

[Bud Elliott]

I love Start with a bang. It's.

[DK]

It's a bold show.

[Chip Patterson]

Come on, let's.

[DK]

Let's be bold.

[Bud Elliott]

The.

[Chip Patterson]

The thing that is so exciting about that one is it is both bold and also would be super fun to watch. Yes, I am. I'm comfortable rooting for a world where Bryce Underwood does take that jump and where Michigan joins a tier at the top of the Big Ten that I. I think is set and does not include Michigan. You know, like this. If Michigan joins that party, too, and all those teams are good and that'd be. That would be an awesome, awesome competition, which actually does. Actually does Lead me right into mine because I already said it. So this one's easy for me. But I had to go back and do the research because I did say I do not think a single Big Ten team is going to go undefeated in conference play, that every single Big Ten team will take at least one loss in conference play. But I was going to audit myself. I said, all right, how bold is this? Well, it's actually been since 2021 that we've. We've always had someone who is undefeated in Conference play. 22, 23, 24, 25. Obviously Indiana before that, it was 2018. And look, some of these, 2016 was another year where nobody went undefeated in conference play. So it has not been since 2021 that everybody has taken at least one loss in conference play. Sometimes, Bud, I know you are always our respecter of the Big Ten West. Sometimes when I was doing my research, it was a Wisconsin going undefeated in conference play. Right. This year, as a respecter of the Big Ten west this year, my bold prediction is no one, not a single team in the Big Ten will be undefeated in conference play.

[DK]

I don't think that's that bold. After we, after you said that a month ago, then you started looking at the schedule. I think it's probably the smarter play. Like if you were going to make a statement.

[Chip Patterson]

Not a historical anomaly, but not something that happens often in Big Ten.

[DK]

Right.

[Tom Fornelli]

I don't think it's that bold.

[DK]

Okay, what do you got, Big guy Sauce? What do you got, Big Ten Tom?

[Tom Fornelli]

Mine. Wow. Just nobody. Like if you look at the history of sports, nobody would ever see this coming. The defending champion Indiana Hoosiers will finish the regular season at 9 and 3 and miss out on an at large playoff berth due to the lack of a marquee win. So the defending champ will not make the College Football Playoff.

[DK]

You're welcome. Kirk Signetti. There's your bulletin board material right there.

[Chip Patterson]

I was thought the champs were the champs until we got beat by the champs.

[Tom Fornelli]

I love it.

[Chip Patterson]

I just, I. All right, so where are what the lack of the marquee win.

[Grant]

So you have essentially Ohio State, Michigan and usc.

[Chip Patterson]

Ohio State, Michigan and usc.

[Tom Fornelli]

So then your best win is like at Washington, at Nebraska.

[Chip Patterson]

There might not be a top 25 win though.

[Grant]

Or you might lose at Washington and beat USC.

[Chip Patterson]

Right.

[Grant]

But if you beat USC, I'm guessing USC is more in that 9 and 3, 8 and 4 range.

[Tom Fornelli]

And I don't know if that'll be enough.

[Chip Patterson]

God, Grant's a savage in the tailgate. He's already predicting that it's a Josh Hoover pick. Six against Washington. Just getting even more detailed with Hoover's turnover issues.

[DK]

Oh, that's great. Call

[Bud Elliott]

9 and 3.

[DK]

Yeah.

[Bud Elliott]

I mean, if they go 9 and 3, how many bowl teams do they beat? Two.

[Chip Patterson]

But I think 9 and 3 is bold enough.

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah, no, right. That's what I'm saying.

[Chip Patterson]

Miss the playoff. To be able to bring some detail to it.

[Bud Elliott]

Like this schedule has some weight to it, but it's very heavily weighted at the top.

[Tom Fornelli]

Yeah.

[Bud Elliott]

Like this drops off a cliff. I mean, it. For instance, Northwestern, Rutgers, Nebraska, Minnesota, Washington. Like if we define their top three as Ohio State, Michigan, usc. What. What is that next group? Like, how many, how many bowl teams are there?

[Chip Patterson]

Two.

[DK]

Three.

[Chip Patterson]

Two or three?

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah, I think two out of the five, probably.

[Tom Fornelli]

Also part of the thought is like those Ohio State, Michigan games, they're coming after like seven straight weeks of a game. So, like, you haven't had a buy, you're going to be a little roughed up.

[Grant]

You play those two games and then after that you've still got to play

[Tom Fornelli]

Minnesota without a buy.

[Grant]

So maybe you go into Minnesota, you're

[Tom Fornelli]

banged up, maybe you're, you know, you're

[Grant]

a little whatever there before you finally

[Tom Fornelli]

get the buy against usc. So I just, I could see them losing both Ohio State and Michigan in back to back weeks. And then it's just the question of, do you drop a third one somewhere else? And I don't think that's impossible.

[Chip Patterson]

No. But the margin of victory for those first five games is probably going to be about 23 points per game.

[Grant]

That's the other part of it, too.

[Tom Fornelli]

Like you might not even be tested until mid October.

[Bud Elliott]

Yep.

[Chip Patterson]

That little. The Fernando Mendoza Memorial spot on the bench that you sit in the fourth quarter because your team is up by a billion. Yeah, we could see that for sure. All right, dk, let's, let's, let's round us out. What you got? Big 10, bold prediction, positivity number one.

[DK]

I'm going with the State College, Cyclones, Iowa State, east, whatever you want to call them. The Penn State Nittany Lions with Matt Campbell, go 10 and two and make the playoffs in his first year as the head coach at Penn State. Rocco Becht, stability, game manager, whatever you want to call him. All that experience, you get a locker room full of five star culture guys coming in there, it's going to work. The schedule also is incredibly helpful. But they go 10 and 2 with two road losses, get into the playoffs, it's probably the ceiling as far as bold as I'm going to go. But I think Penn State makes the playoffs in year one of Matt Campbell's era. I mean they're starting off 6, 0. I mean USC can't travel. I mean they're going to watch another movie on the plane but they're going to be jet lagged. They're going to be hurting. It's going to be a white out probably six zero. Then I did have them losing the Michigan and Washington on the road but I mean I could go Boulder and say they knock off one of those too.

[Chip Patterson]

I, I think it is just as bold that you've got Penn state make. Going 10 and 2 feels less bold going 10 and 2 and making the playoff. You know, especially when we saw what Vanderbilt was 10 and two got left out.

[DK]

Who else they didn't get left out. 10 and 2 at 10 and 2. They ain't getting left out. Not that brain.

[Grant]

It depends who the. If it depends.

[Tom Fornelli]

Yeah, yeah.

[DK]

Two losses. Road losses to Michigan and Washington.

[Grant]

But then who's your win?

[DK]

Usc.

[Bud Elliott]

Usc.

[Grant]

I don't, I mean you'd probably get in I think but I don't think it'd be a lock. You'd definitely be playing a road game.

[Chip Patterson]

Oh yeah, yeah.

[DK]

Oh for sure.

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah.

[Grant]

You know there's, it's not impossible that

[Tom Fornelli]

all four of our bold predictions come true.

[Grant]

Michigan can win the Big Ten while

[Tom Fornelli]

losing a game to Ohio State. Indiana can miss the playoff at 9 and 3 and then maybe it's 10 and 2. Penn State taking their spot from them.

[DK]

Right.

[Chip Patterson]

Oh man.

[DK]

And if you lose to the team playing in the Big Ten title, it's not that bad of a loss.

[Bud Elliott]

It's close game, close game in that scenario. Like it's, I mean I'm sure Indiana would be annoyed but also like Penn State would have a much better win in USC than Indiana would. If the wins and losses rack up like we had them on the show.

[Chip Patterson]

If it was, if it was the 9 and 3 Indiana and we gave them the Washington loss or the Washington win.

[Bud Elliott]

The we had them losing to I think their three best opponents. Right.

[Tom Fornelli]

If they lose to USC and beat Washington.

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah, correct.

[Tom Fornelli]

What's man, what's what. What are the odds on that parlay, Our Big Ten bold prediction parlay. What can we get?

[DK]

We could do pretty good.

[Tom Fornelli]

That's a dollar on that.

[Chip Patterson]

Holler at us. No, no, no. Free ads like come come to us. We'll do the Big Ten bold predictions parlay.

[DK]

We would get some dark market, some off the books.

[Chip Patterson]

Reach out. Reach out to Mikey and he'll betcha. All right. Coming up on the other side, we turn our attention to the Southeastern Conference with more of our bold predictions and yours. Nukes

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[Chip Patterson]

Back here on the COVID 3 podcast as we continue with some of our bold predictions. Having some fun looking ahead to the 2026 season. One last big Ted note coming from the tailg Yovi says bold prediction. My Wisconsin Badgers have our starting quarterback for the entire season.

[DK]

Boy, that is boldest one on here.

[Chip Patterson]

I love that optimism, you know, Bold and optimistic for our Wisconsin fans. Okay, let's go to the secdk. Why don't you get us started?

[DK]

Okay. Said I was going to be positive. So there is positivity in here, but the SEC gets only two teams in the College Football Playoff, but one of them makes it to the national championship game for the first time in three years. And after in the aftermath, there is going to be more crying about playing nine conference games than we've seen in the history of college football. And there's going to be so much complaining about strength of schedule and how hard it is to play in our league. But you know what? That committee has been paying attention to the lack of results in the College Football Playoff. They don't get the benefit of the doubt this year. So only two teams from the SEC get in and you're going to see a bunch of nine and three teams get left out and the crying is going to be off the charts. But you do get a team to the national title game, so there's that.

[Grant]

Hold on, Mr. Positivity here. Being super positive. You only get two teams in. One of you gets to the title game. I'm not gonna say you win it. I'm just saying you get there for the first time in, like, a decade at this point, and you're all gonna whine and cry like little babies.

[DK]

Big time now and then. But then the interesting dynamic will be, if they win it with just two teams in, do they claim they're the. Of course they will. Of course they'll claim they're the best conference in college football, but that'll be an interesting dynamic for them to unfold.

[Chip Patterson]

You know, do you want to. All right, we've got it on record,

[DK]

and it is Texas. I mean, I already have Texas, Oregon. Just book your tickets now. Longhorn fans.

[Chip Patterson]

Texas. And who would you say is the second? Did you drop that? Like, take it.

[DK]

I thought Georgia. Just because of the Georgia, you know, lore.

[Chip Patterson]

SEC champs.

[DK]

Yeah, exactly.

[Chip Patterson]

Doing everything that you would. Georgia fans would ever hope that Georgia would do in the modern era.

[DK]

I want to say Diabell leads him to the national title game, but we're going to hold off for those bold predictions for another year.

[Chip Patterson]

We are going.

[DK]

Though he has been lighting it up in practice.

[Chip Patterson]

We are going to be insufferable with the appeal support. I'm just. That's not a bold prediction. That's a promise.

[Tom Fornelli]

Yeah. Every time March misses a throw, we'll be like, dia would have made that throw.

[Chip Patterson]

Deal. Would have made it. Absolutely. But feel free to respond there or go ahead and jump in as we continue with our SEC bold predictions.

[Bud Elliott]

I mean, shoe, only two teams in the playoff, man, I don't get five

[DK]

from the Big Ten. They got to come from somewhere.

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah, I. I think you get pretty good odds on that, Danny. Like, I. I think three is bold. Yeah, probably. I mean, but, like, the SEC has talked about this. Like, they had the closest margin of victory. They've had, like, forever. So, you know, that's very, like, NFL. Like, they all beat each other up, which I think there's some truth to that in some ways. It doesn't mean they're all, like, championship level and be, you know, beating each other up. Shoot, two is. Man, two is so tough.

[DK]

Like, it was bold.

[Bud Elliott]

It's almost. That's like a. That's like a. Like, you know, kind of a perfect storm type event where.

[Chip Patterson]

So I was thinking. I was like, you've got. You've Got maybe Miami and Texas Tech both lose in their conference title games, which can propel Standby.

[DK]

Just stand by.

[Chip Patterson]

Which could propel other teams in. So, like, there's a couple bids, but man. Yeah, you've. You're really starting to talk about some. Some heavyweight work from the Big Ten.

[Bud Elliott]

But we don't know that. Right. Because now isn't it the conference champions

[Chip Patterson]

do auto get in now, I thought

[Bud Elliott]

they had to be a certain level like to where.

[Chip Patterson]

Not for the four.

[DK]

Power four.

[Bud Elliott]

Right. Okay. That's right.

[Chip Patterson]

Champs have to get in. Then for the group of six. It does not even have to be a conference champ. It's just the highest ranked.

[Bud Elliott]

Right.

[Chip Patterson]

Of those group of six teams. Notre Dame's got the auto if you're in the top 12 and oh my gosh, this has become the most overwrought, complicated playoff selection process ever.

[Bud Elliott]

I mean, you have one and then

[DK]

we're guaranteed we go to 16 the next year. If they only get two in. If they only get three in, we're guaranteed.

[Chip Patterson]

Move on.

[Tom Fornelli]

We've started to see coaches talk about how like the conference championship games kind of need to go. Right.

[Chip Patterson]

Right. Okay.

[Tom Fornelli]

Conspiracy time.

[DK]

Yes.

[Tom Fornelli]

You're the power four leagues. You get to your title game. You've got Texas Techs undefeated, you got Miami's undefeated. You've got whoever Big Ten and SCTC teams they're in, no matter what, they're one loss or undefeated, you tell them to take a dive. You can get. Maybe get an extra team in.

[Bud Elliott]

Oh, my gosh.

[DK]

You get the call. Do you get the call from the commissioner?

[Tom Fornelli]

Teams to take a dive, your favorites.

[Chip Patterson]

No, you don't tell the teams to take a dive. You just. There's other ways to influence the game. Like there was a former ECU head football coach who used to always say, the refs know who needs to win. You know, I don't know.

[Bud Elliott]

I mean, they have five teams lined eight and a half or higher for the win total. They have two more that are like seven and a half with. With pretty serious juice, man. This is probably the boldest thing we've had.

[Chip Patterson]

There we go. Danny, this is.

[Bud Elliott]

We are stepping up the boldness level.

[Grant]

Super positive and bold prediction.

[DK]

That's right. A Congrats, Texas.

[Chip Patterson]

All right, bud, where do you want to go?

[Bud Elliott]

I'm going. LSU misses the playoff, which is consistent with Danny's. Obviously you saw the same Levitt news yesterday. They said it was expected like a normal step in coming back from the Liz Frank surgery, but had to remove the screws. So not expected to play anymore in, in spring practice. And I, I just feel like LSU's a team with a lot of variance because there's a lot of things that go wrong, could go right. You don't know exactly how well they're going to play, you know, first year under Lane Kiffin. I mean, Kiffin's kind of doing like, hey, this takes time type thing. I don't know if that's just him, you know, that's just kind of, you know, lip service or if he's just trying to lay some of the groundwork, like maybe they're not quite there yet, I don't know. But like, that's not a really easy, like, easy road for the playoff for them if they're not like a pretty high level team.

[Tom Fornelli]

Foot injuries, man. Unpredictable.

[Chip Patterson]

I am not in defeat. As I've said before on the record. You, you've got a foot thing. I, I got, I'm have to, you know, give, give, give a little bit of space there. I thought a lot about lsu, but, and I'm with you that I both talked to myself and within an hour to. The instability is perfect for lsu. I mean, hell, Ed Oderon, right? It's just like the lightning in a bottle. Crazy ride fast and loose. Like, it can go really well, but you, you can also end up just kind of curled up on the side of the road, you know, Like I'm, I'm kind of. I, I see the vision in terms of trying to attack the widest possible range of outcomes because it could go poorly. I'm not, I'm not ready to, to step there quite yet. And I'm not going to overreact necessarily to Lane Kiffin's caution, but there's a small margin for error for them to be able to accomplish their goal. Oh, last thing, then I'll stop talking. LSU fans don't care. LSU fans don't care about, about whether Sam Levitt is or is not ready. LSU fans don't care about patience or caution. LSU fans don't care even about, like, how much things cost. All they care about is that you win if LSU misses the playoff. They are not happy with your run of Lane Kiffin era.

[Bud Elliott]

The other one I was going to go with that was really, really bold was the Gators win the sec. But we've already talked about that a lot.

[Chip Patterson]

We already know they're favored in 15 out of 12 games.

[Bud Elliott]

Right?

[DK]

Exactly.

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah.

[Chip Patterson]

All right, Tom.

[Grant]

Texas begins the season nine.

[Tom Fornelli]

Zero.

[Chip Patterson]

Whoa.

[Tom Fornelli]

Including, including that win over Ohio State, but then loses Three of its last four games at lsu, at A M and against Georgia in Atlanta in the SEC championship again, because Texas will never, ever beat Georgia, as is written in the stars, and they barely squeak in to the College Football Playoff, but they are forced to play first round road game.

[Chip Patterson]

So you've got them beating Ohio State, winning in Knoxville against Tennessee. They knock out Oklahoma, Florida and Ole Miss in that home stand against, in that, in that three game run right there in October. And then it's just. Is it the. The wheels fall off, the wear and tear.

[Tom Fornelli]

You lose that on the road to

[Grant]

lsu, you lose a tough rivalry game on the road against the Aggies, you

[Tom Fornelli]

get to Atlanta and you lose to the Georgia team you always lose to.

[Grant]

Arch's Heisman hopes go out the door.

[Tom Fornelli]

Darian Mensah steps up and wins it because Miami cruises through an easy season and Texas is playing maybe Miami on the road in the first round of the College Football Playoff.

[Bud Elliott]

Wow. Okay, this is, this is bold. But it's like we could see it happening.

[Chip Patterson]

I can.

[Tom Fornelli]

The boldness is in the exact prediction.

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah, because then we're going to get all the same arguments about like last year, hey, if we hadn't played Ohio State, although this time they won it, so it's actually like in their favor, which is going to be hilarious.

[Chip Patterson]

Yeah, exactly. I've. So it's been since 2020 that Texas has averaged 40 points per game. And if you score 40 points per game in 2025, you are a top five offense. I think that with what they have done in the transfer portal, with the way that they are building this thing up, I think we finally see the Arch Manning Texas offense take hold and fly. I do not see this kind of late collapse. And I'm not quite sure whether to think that everything is going to go boom, pun intended, or bust with Coach Muschamp taking over on the defense. But man, I think, I think this is going to be the real deal. I think this is one of the best offenses in the entire country. I've got Texas averaging 40 points per game. Wow. First time since 2020 top five offense in the country. And it is what they've done to load up in the running back room, some of their young talent coming in, young receivers taking a step forward, having some of the best receivers in the transfer portal added to the group as well as this. This kind of feels like the monster that we were waiting to click into place for a lot of last year. I mean, how often does that Texas offense frustrate you without the Talent doesn't come together from paper to performance. I think that this is the year that it happens.

[Tom Fornelli]

I mean, just like, suddenly remember that. They got Cam Coleman.

[Chip Patterson]

Yes. It was when I was doing this. That's what I was talking about.

[Grant]

It's like there's a part of me that keeps forgetting. It's like, oh, wait, they got Cam Coleman now, too.

[Bud Elliott]

All right, trivia here.

[DK]

Okay.

[Bud Elliott]

Who are the three Power 5 teams who averaged 40 or more last year?

[Chip Patterson]

So North Texas was one of them.

[Grant]

3.

[Chip Patterson]

I'm feel I'm just sort of filling out that.

[Bud Elliott]

Actually there's. There's four because one, somebody had 39.8, so we should probably round that up.

[Tom Fornelli]

Notre Dame was one.

[Bud Elliott]

Okay.

[Tom Fornelli]

I know that for a fact.

[DK]

Ohio State.

[Bud Elliott]

Nope.

[Chip Patterson]

No. No way.

[DK]

Our defense was sick.

[Chip Patterson]

Yeah. And those games were all a little bit. Remember? You know how Ryan Day plays the regular season?

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah.

[Grant]

Was Indiana one of them?

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah.

[Tom Fornelli]

Okay.

[Chip Patterson]

Notre dame, Indiana.

[Bud Elliott]

There's four. The. The other. The. The third. You might get the fourth. I bet you I could give you 20 guesses. You wouldn't get it.

[Chip Patterson]

Florida State.

[Tom Fornelli]

No.

[Chip Patterson]

They had 77. It does add up. Arkansas?

[Bud Elliott]

Nope.

[Tom Fornelli]

Good guess, though.

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah, that's a good, sneaky guess.

[Chip Patterson]

Georgia?

[Bud Elliott]

No.

[Tom Fornelli]

Tennessee.

[Chip Patterson]

No.

[Bud Elliott]

Yes.

[Chip Patterson]

Oh, Tom's a genius.

[Tom Fornelli]

Okay. But I have no idea who the fourth is gonna go. Let's.

[Grant]

It's a team.

[Bud Elliott]

Absolutely no text. Technically missed. They were 39.4. So Tom. Tom is dialed today.

[Tom Fornelli]

This is.

[Bud Elliott]

This is.

[DK]

I'm just all over.

[Tom Fornelli]

Nobody else in the Big Ten came close. Ohio State did not score near for Oregon.

[Bud Elliott]

No. This team dumped, like, dump truck people down the stretch.

[Grant]

Utah.

[Chip Patterson]

Yes.

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah. Yeah. You. You taught down the stretch. They dropped since the week before Halloween. 53, 45. 55, 51, 31, 44. Yeah,

[Chip Patterson]

I. I think this could be it. And I saw a comment in the tailgate. Steve Sarkeesian probably doesn't want to score 40 points per game. That's possible. You know, might not be. I just. There are too many. Good. It was already talented. The additions like Tom mentioned make it even more impressive. The pieces seem to fit together, and I just think. I think we might have a monster team. So it's. It's a bold. That's my guess here.

[Bud Elliott]

I think that's definitely within the range.

[DK]

Outcomes.

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah.

[Chip Patterson]

Okay. We'll see. All right, let's see. Texas, Danny, Bud. All right, we got him. Coming up on the other side, more of our bold predictions, including a look at the ACC and the Big 12 and more nukes

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[Chip Patterson]

back here on the COVID 3 podcast 9:06am Eastern Time Lane jumped in and said, not sure if this is bold, but I predict no teams with new head coaches make the playoff. That means no lsu, no Michigan, no Florida, no Penn State. I. I would say that's kind of bold.

[Bud Elliott]

I mean, that's pretty bold.

[Chip Patterson]

Yeah, it's a pretty bold one because you've got so many potentials in that mix. But don't. Don't hate your starting point, at least in terms of looking for a fun angle to talk about and think about.

[Bud Elliott]

Like, what does your playoff field even look like if no new coaches make it?

[Tom Fornelli]

Same as last year.

[Chip Patterson]

Yeah, same as last year. Just.

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah.

[Chip Patterson]

Yeah. Basically, because no one. Maybe usc, no one changed coaches. Who was in the playoff last year?

[Tom Fornelli]

Well, except Ole Miss.

[Chip Patterson]

Ole Miss.

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah. Yeah.

[DK]

Okay.

[Grant]

Although Pete did coach in the playoffs,

[Tom Fornelli]

so would he count?

[Chip Patterson]

I've always. I think we still call this his first year.

[Bud Elliott]

Okay.

[Chip Patterson]

First regular season year. But it's your first season.

[Tom Fornelli]

But he's already coached two playoff games.

[Chip Patterson]

Correct. I mean, technically, Luke Fickle had a headset on, even though he wasn't the coach for that bowl game.

[Tom Fornelli]

In. In Chip's mind, coaching two playoff games is the same thing as being the interim coach in a bowl game the year before. It doesn't really count.

[Chip Patterson]

If they'd won at all, I would change my tune.

[Bud Elliott]

No, no.

[Grant]

If they want it all, you'd really

[Tom Fornelli]

need to hammer down on it even harder.

[Chip Patterson]

I give. I give Trinidad Shambliss a great amount of credit for some of the playoff success. It's things that bewilder the mind. Okay, let's turn. Oh, this was a fun one. Sec Cleared out. Garrett. Bud's bold prediction. Marcel Reed completes passes.

[Tom Fornelli]

Oh, my gosh.

[Bud Elliott]

I do want him to do well.

[Chip Patterson]

At this point.

[Bud Elliott]

I. Yeah, I wouldn't be wrong about him.

[Chip Patterson]

It would. You know, you don't want to be on the corner for, like, what's. What's the one thing that Bud Elliott was the most right about? The. Marcel Reed can't play.

[Bud Elliott]

Oh, yeah. Like, all the Draft guys like finally getting around to watching the A and M receivers and they're like, what the hell is that?

[Chip Patterson]

Yeah, it's, Is Casey gonna get drafted high? I don't, I've, I haven't gotten.

[Grant]

It might be a first.

[DK]

Yeah.

[Tom Fornelli]

I still think second, but he might receiver.

[Chip Patterson]

Interesting. And as we turn our attention to the acc, actually I want to hear from y' all first. Then we'll get to some of the tailgate suggestions right here. Tom, you love the acc. Let's let you get us started.

[Tom Fornelli]

Let me see. Oh, Miami will go 90 in conference play and nobody else in the league will finish with their conference record better than six and three because the league sucks outside of Miami.

[Chip Patterson]

It's the overall gist I need to put.

[Bud Elliott]

How bold is that? Like honey barbecue bold.

[Tom Fornelli]

Like

[Bud Elliott]

no, I, I, I, I, I get. Yeah.

[Grant]

A bunch of teams at least went 7 and 2 last year.

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah.

[Tom Fornelli]

But this year none of them will. They're all going six and three and that will be the fun tiebreaker is,

[Chip Patterson]

you know how many, I mean, Miami did not. Miami lost two conference games last year. I mean did not play in the ACC championship game. But ah, you know, Danny, when I was going through looking at my, my, my, my Miami stuff, your, your conversation with Jason Taylor, he ain't blowing smoke.

[DK]

Right.

[Chip Patterson]

Team's still really, really, really good. I, I agree wholeheartedly with that gap note would be a lot though that, you know, there's, there are games that they are, that they have been double digit favorites in before that have gotten a little bit hairy. So what's, how about this one, Tom? I'll let you follow up. What is the most likely loss for the Miami Notre Dame in conference play?

[Grant]

Oh, at Stanford.

[Tom Fornelli]

Because it's the first week of the season and that's when crazy stuff happens.

[Chip Patterson]

But that's what we're kind of like having to resort to is like, hey, because college football goes college football sometimes

[Tom Fornelli]

the reality is the most likely losses are either at Clemson, maybe Florida State, or maybe at North Carolina because it's the week before Notre Dame and you get caught looking.

[Bud Elliott]

What do you, how many other games would you have to pick as like a, you know, a parlay before you decided. All right, like what's more likely they lose at Notre Dame or they lose at like this combo of four games or three?

[Grant]

Notre Dame. They most likely lose at Notre Dame.

[Bud Elliott]

Oh, okay.

[DK]

Yeah.

[Bud Elliott]

So, all right. More likely lose Notre Dame or more likely they lose any other like, or

[Grant]

like Clemson, FSU in North Carolina.

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah.

[Tom Fornelli]

In vt, Notre Dame.

[Grant]

Once you get to four, I would

[DK]

throw on them all.

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah. Once you had like, once you pick four, I, I think that's probably where it is. Yeah.

[Chip Patterson]

Also, you know, and we mentioned during the acc, if Vegas is right, win totals, look, getting, getting your Bay Area trip and not every ACC team has to make one, but getting it out of the way early and then having the fame you as your opponent when you get back, that's, you know, it's nice. That's nice. A lot of ACC teams do not have that kind of bounce in terms of what you have before nothing fall camp and what you have after your FCS game. Dig it. Who else would finish with 6 and 3? I also need to put in my mind, by the way, which teams are playing eight games and which. So that I've got that as my, my qualifier.

[Bud Elliott]

Because that's gonna be such a pain.

[Chip Patterson]

That's such a pain. So unnecessary.

[DK]

I've got one.

[Chip Patterson]

All right.

[DK]

On my bold prediction.

[Chip Patterson]

Yeah, let's do it.

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah.

[DK]

Ethan Gruckenmeyer finishes as the breakout star of the acc. Now, I didn't want to go ACC player of the year because that's probably going to go to Darian Mensah. Right. He's going to be the, the highly touted guy. He's going to have more opportunities. But James Franklin's squad finishes nine and three on the season, but misses out of the ACC title game due to tiebreakers with somebody else. I mean, there's just. There's going to be a way where somebody gets screwed again. I don't even know. Do we know the formula? They still haven't announced it yet.

[Tom Fornelli]

It's not breaking right? Oh, they haven't announced it yet.

[Chip Patterson]

Jim Phillips indicated that they are going to before the football season starts, review the tiebreaker process. So I would expect that we get a little bit of clarity there.

[DK]

But if you look at, if you look at Crockermeier, the way he finished the season because he started off a little bumpy first start, was on the road against Iowa, struggled, had a few turnovers. Then he played Ohio State, then he played Indiana. But four wins in a row to finish the season clean in the turnover sheet. He's got just the right amount of experience to come in, feel comfortable. It's a perfect guy for James Franklin. James Franklin's fired up. I think they have a really strong

[Bud Elliott]

first year like that.

[Chip Patterson]

So that would be finishing top four, basically, like if we were to, yeah, you know, finish somewhere upside up inside the top four. Gronkermeyer is your breakout star. Maybe he gets that second team all ACC honor behind Mensa.

[DK]

Correct.

[Chip Patterson]

Is. Is Gronkemeyer more likely to be available for the newcomer of the year? Like, is Mensa out from being a newcomer if he's not new?

[DK]

He has to be. He can't be eligible for that. He can't be.

[Grant]

You've been here.

[DK]

Oh, my gosh.

[Chip Patterson]

That would be hilarious, bud. What's. What you got?

[Bud Elliott]

It kind of plays off. Danny's Hokies win the acc.

[Chip Patterson]

Whoa.

[Bud Elliott]

It feels really bold. I. I looked at this and I was like, you need a lot of things to happen. So you need Miami to regress significantly. Right. Or just, you know, have it. Have an off game in the AC title game. But you look at this like a pit. Smu, Louisville, Virginia, Clemson and the Hokies, I think, are kind of like your. I mean, there's a lot who could. If Miami really regresses, then this is very, like, very. Just, you know, kind of ACC Wheel of destiny, which is a throwback for, you know, people who are our age. I. I think it's possible. Like, the schedule's not easy, right? At all. But again, I'm saying that with, like, kind of light conviction because I don't know that I really know what these teams are going to be. You know, like, at Cal is probably not easy. Pit is not an easy out. I'm pretty sure, like, Maryland, I think, will play good defense. We'll see about the offense. You know, Clemson, smu, Miami, Georgia Tech. At home is probably not an easy out, but, like, if we're going bold, I think this is something that could happen.

[Chip Patterson]

Super bold. I don't. I think that that's probably the boldest one I've had. Well, and I'm glad we. For Those watching on YouTube.com cover three, we've got the schedule pulled up in the final eight games of the season. Pit at Cal, Georgia Tech at Clemson, at smu, Stanford at Miami, Virginia. Of those eight games, we are talking about winning the right side of small margins in six of them. Even if Virginia Tech is as good as, you know, we hope they could be in terms of, you know, talent and production.

[Bud Elliott]

Right.

[Chip Patterson]

I do. What I would see that. That'd be one of the stories of the year, bud, because they. I see them, like, winning a bunch of close games, lightning in a bottle, like, good vibes and confidence builds through the season. It would be something not, not totally out of the realm of possibility. But to navigate that schedule would be incredibly impressive.

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah, like, very.

[Chip Patterson]

Let's see. So we got Grunkemeyer, we got Bud. I'm gonna keep this one super local. Did you guys know that both North Carolina and NC State are playing out of the country in Week zero? What could go wrong? The biggest Week zero storylines are the Wolf Pack and the Tar Heels taking their passports abroad. Well, I say they win them both. They're both underdogs. North Carolina State short underdogs to the Virginia Cavaliers as they play down in Brazil. North Carolina a little bit longer underdogs as they play against TCU in Dublin. We have a change at offensive coordinator. As at North Carolina upgrade, in my opinion, at the quarterback position. But it is the stability of C.J. bailey, who. I mean, you want to talk about warming the hearts of some Wolf Pack fans? It was like the next day after Will Wade bolts, C.J. bailey has his media availability, talking about how he would never dream of, you know, trying to transfer somewhere else or leaving it. And y' all committed to me first. I'm gonna stay committed to you for the rest of my time. I think that C.J. bailey and it. It leads the Wolf Pack to a victory against the Wahoos at the same time, as a rework to offensive staff shows a more offensive spark against Sonny Dykes and TCU. TCU's quarterback is who? I don't know. I. I do. Just one scholarship quarterback remaining from last year. We're still kind of putting things together for the Frogs. I'll. I'll go North Carolina with the bigger upset. NC State wins as a small dog. Call it the. The Week 0 triangle parlay. I say UNC and NC State both win out of the country in late August.

[Tom Fornelli]

Mike Malone and Justin Gainey make the trips.

[Chip Patterson]

Oh, I bet Michael Malone does.

[Tom Fornelli]

It's like you guys are all twinsies. You're both going to be abroad in week one. You both got new basketball coaches. It's like you guys just can't be like, you know, one does it, you get, the other has to.

[Chip Patterson]

I have heard, though I have not confirmed myself, so I want to be very clear about this. To uphold the journalistic standards of the COVID 3 podcast. But there is a Twitter account that I believe is like, Will Wade, LSU coach, that is currently being parked on by a Carolina fan. He grabbed it when the rumors started and they're. And somebody's trying to wrestle it away, and it hadn't happened yet. So, you know, the rivalry lives strong in this one. So I've. I've got. I mean, what's. I'm excited about Our week zero. Week zero focus on. On the teams right here in my backyard. I say they both win. How bold?

[DK]

Love it. Pretty bold.

[Bud Elliott]

Fairly bold. Yeah.

[Chip Patterson]

I mean, you can parlay them right now. It's. They.

[Tom Fornelli]

The odds are probably plus 20,000.

[Chip Patterson]

No, not that much. But, you know, it's a. It's a pretty decent. Pretty decent payout for both of them to be able to get it done. Second. Second prediction that is less bold is there will be some scenes from NC State fans and North Carolina fans who make the trip. For both of those, whether it's Tar Heels in Dublin or Wolfpack in Brazil, whole range of outcomes. Boys, you want to talk about the variants of what we could have. Anything. Anything could happen there.

[Tom Fornelli]

I mean, you gotta think Jordan would rather be in Brazil than Dublin, right?

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah, I think so.

[Chip Patterson]

I'm not gonna get myself in trouble.

[Grant]

One's gonna be cold and rainy, and

[Tom Fornelli]

the other one's gonna be Brazil.

[Chip Patterson]

Where would the accommodations be nicer?

[Tom Fornelli]

Depends what you want out of A Com.

[Grant]

I'm gonna say Jordan will feel like the accommodations in Brazil will be much

[Tom Fornelli]

better than the ones in Ireland, where they're going to have you in a cold, damp castle with moss on the walls.

[Chip Patterson]

It's August. It's lovely. But, I mean, didn't.

[Grant]

It is never lovely in Ireland, Chip. It is always cloudy and rainy and 52 degrees.

[Chip Patterson]

Didn't. Didn't the men's basketball team in the Olympics just stay on a houseboat? Do y' all remember that? Yes. They were like, hey, do you want to stay in the Olympic Village? LeBron said, no, I'm gonna call up my friend. We're getting a yacht. I am not staying in town. You guys can come get a dinghy. Come get me off the boat and take me to the games. All right, Big 12. Let's see. Tom, why don't you get us started?

[Tom Fornelli]

I can't remember what it was. Let me go look it up.

[Grant]

Texas Tech will finish the regular season undefeated and win their nine Big 12 games by an average of 17 points per game. They will decimate the league.

[Tom Fornelli]

It will. It'll be. It'll be like PSG in League one or Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. That's what this is going to look like.

[DK]

I have a man. It's not that crazy. I have a counter to that.

[Chip Patterson]

Let's go.

[DK]

I mean, because my bold prediction is that Houston WINS the Big 12 title game. Now, they will have gone and lost. So they don't. They don't play Texas Tech.

[Tom Fornelli]

I don't Know.

[DK]

Oh, no Tech schedule. Yeah. So they will have lost that game on the road at Lubbock, but Connor Wegman quietly had a really nice season for Willie Fritz. 25 touchdown passes, another 11 rushing touchdowns. Pretty good with the turnovers and brings back two of his favorite targets. And remember Makai Hughes, somebody we loved in the portal that was going to Oregon? Didn't work out there. Don't know what was going on there. But sometimes you got to find your level where you fit in. And that's where Makai Fu is going to be a big addition to this rushing attack. I think Texas Tech, or. Excuse me, Willie Fritz, Houston, I think they end up getting to the College Football playoff by beating Texas Tech in the Big 12 championship game because Texas

[Grant]

Tech took a dive to be able

[DK]

to get now your mark. We definitely would all. We all agree, like, he might tell. I mean, he's got wrestling in his blood, his background. He's definitely for the belt.

[Chip Patterson]

And Texas Tech in Tom's bold prediction is only that they finish the regular season undefeated. He did not say anything about yes or no taking a dive in the. In the final. So good to see. All right, dk, you gotta run.

[DK]

Yeah, I'm getting kicked out of my conference room.

[Chip Patterson]

Okay. All right. Glad you. Glad you. Glad you got it out on the record with. With your love for Houston. I'm sure that I. I've been traveling a lot in the last two weeks, so I haven't been able to stay locked into Dusty and Danny, but if Willie Fritz was on the show, like, two days ago, would not surprise me. You know, that's some classic Danny bump right there. Talk to Willie Fritz on a Monday. Come in on Wednesday. Like, I. You know, I. Guys, I feel like Houston's gonna win the Big 12. I. I see the vision right there. All right, Bud, why don't you. Why don't you take us where you want to go bold in the Big 12?

[Bud Elliott]

I didn't go so bold as to say they would win it, but West Virginia makes the Big 12 title game.

[Chip Patterson]

That's God, man. You win. I. I'm just. Tom, if you push back, if you want to. I think. I think Bud went to the spicy scale.

[DK]

Yeah.

[Chip Patterson]

Okay. That's awesome.

[Bud Elliott]

Year two of rich Rod. They recruit to assist them. I think they know what they're doing. You know, you get Oklahoma State early when all those new pieces are still gelling in September, you know, at Iowa State's not an easy place to play. But again, like, they lost. They have a team, but they Lost almost all of last year's team. Get Arizona at home, Cincinnati at home. Like at tcu. Not easy. Typically, we like to play TCU late. Right. So October 24th is later than it is earlier. I like they play Texas Tech on the road because that's probably a loss if you play it at home, wherever you play it. Right. So get that loss out of the way is one of your road games. You get Kansas at home, you get Houston at home, and then you're at Utah to end the year. And that is certainly hard. Yes. New coach. We don't really know exactly what Utah's gonna look like. I think they'll be pretty good, but, you know, like, is it that crazy? Think they could go seven and two or like six and three with tiebreakers and actually make it to the Big 12 championship game?

[Chip Patterson]

They've got four. You know, we always talk about the five home games, four road games, or vice versa. They do get five home games, four road games. And being in Morgantown is obviously even a plus value, but I would argue road trips to Ames, Fort Worth, Lubbock and Salt Lake City is kind of like a four and a half. Those are.

[Bud Elliott]

It's a lot of travel for if you live in Morgantown.

[Tom Fornelli]

Yeah.

[Chip Patterson]

Difficult trips to be able to make. Also, I like what you talked about, recruiting to a system. As I try to envision all of these bold predictions on the fly, Michael Hawkins is not short of athleticism.

[Bud Elliott]

Right.

[Chip Patterson]

You know, we're not. We're not, as we know what we're asking you to do. I could see the former Oklahoma quarterback being able to be successful in a new offense there with Rich Rod.

[Bud Elliott]

I mean, their GM there was like, what, the assistant GM at Oklahoma? Or maybe they're actually the actual GM before Nege. So he's seen Hawkins in person. He would. He should know if he's a fit or not.

[Chip Patterson]

Well, you know, it's the. The Big 12 because Bud says West Virginia is going to make the Big 12 title game, but he's not going to promise anymore. Danny did say Houston WINS the Big 12 title game. I've got Kansas State. Let's go. You want to talk about playing the hit? You're going to give me Avery Johnson and Colin Klein and a bounce back year after a frustrating season that, you know, we have seen year after year after year that some teams do come back cursed after they go and they play out there in that game in Dublin, Ireland. And I think that for Kansas State, even within the season, there were individual games and stretches of Games where you could see the group that many people thought would be competing for the Big 12 title. But the consistency both in terms of Johnson, but the team as a whole, the consistency just was not there. The injury issues to key offensive players really started to pile up and I think that Kansas State very much so is poised to be able to make the Big 12 title game. I was not bold enough to say that they would win it, but I do think that this is a schedule and a team that in year one under Colin Klein could be set to be playing for that WWE belt.

[Grant]

I enjoy that all three of your

[Tom Fornelli]

bold predictions were a different team making the title game and mine is just Texas Tech's going to beat the piss out of everybody in this league.

[Chip Patterson]

It's. I mean it is something that feels less certain. You know, we. A whole grab bag of teams. BYU absent from any of our bold predictions. Is that because it's not bold?

[Tom Fornelli]

Yeah, that's not bold.

[Chip Patterson]

I threw Utah and BYU out from unless I was ready to say they were going to straight up win the conference. I eliminated them from even sort of consideration.

[Grant]

Now if you wanted to say like

[Tom Fornelli]

Bear Bachmeyer wins the Heisman.

[Chip Patterson]

Whoa. Whoa.

[Bud Elliott]

That would be bold.

[Chip Patterson]

That would be bold. Let's. Let's hit some. Some tailgate. Oh, idiot. Let's go big picture wild cards. That's why I included this couple minutes that we've got left. What do you want to throw on record for bold prediction? Then we'll hit some tailgate stuff.

[Tom Fornelli]

Bud's got a heart out. You go first.

[Bud Elliott]

I went a non Boise team from. From the. The group makes the playoff because it

[Grant]

feels you were so bold on the other four.

[Bud Elliott]

I know I. Okay. The other one was Notre Dame wins a national title which gives them more leverage going forward when as we talk about like the new playoff format, restructuring all that kind of stuff like that. That would be a pretty big event

[Tom Fornelli]

minus also Notre Dame related.

[Bud Elliott]

Okay. Yeah. That the reason I got off it was I was trying to anticipate like somebody's going to go Irish here in this category.

[Chip Patterson]

Okay.

[Tom Fornelli]

Is something I've kind of discussed on the show before. During the season, Notre Dame announces it is moving its Olympic sports to the Big east, canceling its scheduling agreement with the acc.

[Grant]

It also announces a new scheduling agreement

[Tom Fornelli]

with the Big Ten, which is another broadcast partner of NBC. This helps Notre Dame's overall strength of schedule argument now that the ACC is kind of cratering. And there's also so much uncertainty about the future of the league while also adding more Inventory to both of the Notre Dame and Big Ten television schedules. Making sure even though NBC's got Notre Dame, Fox and CBS are happy that they will be getting Notre Dame games to add to their scheduling when they're on the road once in a while,

[Chip Patterson]

does NBC get more Notre Dame?

[Grant]

At that point, NBC will have every Notre Dame game. Pretty will still have all their home

[Tom Fornelli]

games, but they will lose a couple of road games a year. One to Fox, one to cbs.

[Bud Elliott]

So I'm curious how the trade off works here and I, I gotta, I got like two, three minutes in the last discussions that we saw. Isn't Notre Dame getting more of like the brand name ACC teams more regularly?

[Chip Patterson]

Yes.

[Bud Elliott]

Like I wonder if they pare it down to like just that. Like hey, we will, we will play you guys regularly for the games. That'll get ratings like the name teams. So basically like the three teams get ratings or maybe if the Hokies start, you know, really, really rolling. Right.

[Tom Fornelli]

But I, my thought is NBC would rather have Notre Dame versus Ohio State than Notre Dame versus Miami.

[Bud Elliott]

Agreed. But you also get like Rutgers, Northwestern, Minnesota, like the teams that don't, that don't rate. So I'm curious if like it's modified like they, they pare it down. I could see that happening.

[Chip Patterson]

Like Notre Dame announces a scheduling agreement exclusively with Michigan, Michigan State, usc, you know, like just sort of pick their, their favorites.

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah, like they're, we, we want the tops from both conferences basically.

[Chip Patterson]

Oh, I just, I think that Michigan would be more, I think not Michigan. I think Notre Dame would be more focused on arranging what happens with the future scheduling. Because if I remember correctly, while one of the takeaways from the lawsuit settlements was a clear cut exit path, expensive, but a clear cut path for you know, your Clemsons and Florida states to be able to leave the acc. All of those are fractions of what it would cost Notre Dame to do the same thing. Notre Dame canceling its scheduling agreement with the ACC feels like a step that now they know they could do, but they won't do it until they have a hundred percent finalized all the other stuff. And that's what I've got no clue of, you know, what they would, what they would be interested in.

[Bud Elliott]

So yeah, that, that makes sense.

[Chip Patterson]

Like they got step, they got little domino figured out. They got to figure out the, the bigger dominoes later. All right, real quick through bold prediction From Brad at 7:56am Eastern time, SMU goes to the playoff, which they did do two years ago. And here we go with the Bold. Kevin Jennings is a Heisman candidate. Tell you what, full health, not rolling around on a leg and a half would be helpful. Let's see. Bold prediction. Danny and bud start a Cover 3 fundraiser to pay Mike Norvell's buyout.

[Bud Elliott]

Is that bold?

[Tom Fornelli]

Can we do that?

[Chip Patterson]

Yes. Hell yes. It's old.

[Bud Elliott]

Yeah, we, we probably could do it.

[Chip Patterson]

No. Both of you have enough self respect to put those funds elsewhere. They said you didn't hire Mike Norvell. Yeah. You still get paid whether Florida State sucks or wins, you know that is a fact. So let's, let's think, let's start thinking about, start thinking about boys college fund. If we're thinking, you know, like I said, we're not going to fund Mike Norvell's buyout. Man's made millions off Florida State University already. He's good. He's got, hey, don't forget, that is former Alabama coaching candidate Mike Norvell to you. All right. We will be back on Thursday where in addition to going through your mailbag questions, the big old bag of mail, we are going to take a look ahead at what should be an interesting weekend of spring football. Alabama. I know it's going to be having their A day among some other headliners, but it is a Thursday. It is this time of year. You drive the show. So come in early. YouTube.com cover3 jump in the tailgate, drop your questions. We'll be sure to grab a bunch of those. We also have ones from the big old bag of mail where listeners have left a five star review and in that review put a question including. And I'll go ahead and leave this with you to rattle around your brain for the next 23 hours. Who are some of the worst quarterbacks to win a national championship in the modern era? Well, you know, cuts both ways. So we'll, we'll be sure to dive into that and so much more. And you can follow him on Twitter tomfinelli. You can follow him udlliot3. You can follow me. Hip Patterson. Gentlemen, thank you very much.

[Grant]

Friends hold hands all the time. Find a new slant.

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