← Josh Pate's College Football Show
Josh Pate's College Football Show
CFB’s Most Hated Teams + Perfect Conference Realignment Proposal
01:15:20
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Josh Pate
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Matt Rogers
This is Matt Rogers from Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.
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Josh Pate
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The Wells Fargo Active cash credit card. Visit Wells Fargo.com ActiveCash Terms apply. It's kind of weird for a month that has no college football games in it. Man, I get disproportionately excited when It's March. It's March 1st now. I mean, I love basketball. I don't talk about basketball, but I love it. But it's storm chasing season this month we actually get sunlight past 6pm in Nashville. This month. Spring begins this month. It's a great time. It's a great time. Spring practice is starting and eventually we'll be on multiple camp I plural of campus throughout this great land of ours talking to all sorts of different head coaches. We'll see who we add to the speaker series roster. But in the meantime, we're jam packed. We're high atop a what was a Sunny Downtown Nashville, Tennessee today on this March 1st, the year of our Lord 2026. You know what else is beautiful about college football other than we can talk about it all year round, is hatred is actually a good thing. Hatred is like a badge of honor. You can collect trophies, but what you really want is you just want people to despise you. Because if they hate you, chances are you've done something right. And we have on the show tonight probably some of the most important work, some of the most important investigative lowercase J journalism that we do all year. And that is identifying the most hated teams in college football. Not historically, but right now, right this second. And it gets very argumentative for all sorts of weird reasons that casuals would not understand. So we're going to talk about that. Someone has asked me to totally reconstruct the conference configuration in college football to give what we hope to be perfect conferences. And I've taken the challenge cause it's March now, so we don't have games this weekend. So this is the time of year where the future commissioner's office accepts those sorts of responsibilities. And I'm going to do that in like 20 minutes. We've got still to this day a noon kickoff conundrum that is plaguing our sport. And one of you asked about that. And then someone else asked a question. Jesse, as Far as I could tell, we've never had on the show because we always talk about the best games ever. We talk about best teams, we talk about best coaches. Someone asked what are the worst games in the playoff era? The College Football Playoff era, The worst playoff games. I didn't have to think too long before I thought about number one. But just for fun, we filled out the entire list. So we got a jam packed show tonight. They're watching us in Talmage, Ohio, Moultrie, Georgia, Palm Coast, Florida, El Paso, Texas. Thank you so much. Like I said, maybe you've stumbled onto the show. Yeah, we do it year round. Sure, there are other things happening in the world, but we're just going to talk about college football here. Humbly ask that you subscribe to the channel and if you think you are, just check and make sure that you are. Thank you so much. Let's dive in to tonight's program. Hatred is a nasty thing in real life, but this is not real life. This is college football. And in the world of college football, I would even say just in the world of competition and competitive sports, it's kind of okay to be hated. Hatred in the proper context just translates to I'm doing my job at a really high level or we're winning at a really high level. And so every so often we like to update the paint state hat o meter, which is a term that we haven't come up with. I just kind of came up with it on the fly. But it kind of lets us track which teams are hated the most, not historically. We're looking for a living, breathing rating ranking, we'll check on that, of how much hatred there is out there for some of these teams. And it's not just if you win, as I very, very clearly figured out early on today when I put this out on Twitter. So there's going to be a lot of debate on this. I don't really have set criteria. It's just gut. It's just kind of licking the old index finger and sticking it up in the winds of college football. I came up with eight teams right now. We could theoretically go as deep as we wanted to immunity, but I went eight teams. Who's the most hated right now? I'm going to go 8 to 1. You can absolutely contribute to this in the comment section, which I'm sure you will. I've only got Ohio State at number eight. I got Ohio State as the eighth most hated team in college football right now. First off, because they're really good and they've Been good for a long time. And they won a championship recently. And ironically, I think the championship turned down the temperature on the hatred a little bit. Cause up until then, people were really angry that Ryan Day was getting benefit of the doubt and Ohio State was getting benefit of the doubt when they, quote unquote, hadn't won anything. But then they won something. And they did it pretty emphatically buzz saw on their way through the playoffs. And you would think that that would crank the hate up. But ironically, the hatred that people were hurling at them mainly revolved around what they hadn't done. But now they've done that thing. And so it's just that they're good. They're always good. People don't like you when you're always good. But outside of that, I've only got Ohio State at eighth. And the team I've got in front of them is a team that also has a championship in the last three years. In fact, they've been one up on Ohio State a majority of the last four or five years. But there is an extenuating circumstance with number seven. Number seven is Michigan. And I'll be very curious when we put this out there, which we're doing right now live. But when I look at some of the feedback on this, where people think Michigan should be, I put Michigan at number seven on the most hated teams in the country right now because I think there's still a lot of bad blood that I sensed in some of the feedback we got amongst the college football public about how 2023 went down and how the entirety of the Jim Harbaugh era is remembered. Now, full disclosure, I've always said if I was a Michigan fan, I wouldn't really care what the outside world thought. I won my national championship and all's well that ends well for me. But that's. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about how the rest of the world views you. The rest of the world is not changing their mind. No one's changing their mind on this whole debate about whether or not Connor Stallions did this and whether or not sign stealing is okay, morally, ethically, if not by the outright letter of the law. And what kind of edge does it give you? What kind of edge did it give them? Well, you've heard that debate. Everyone's had that debate around your water cooler tailgate or your pickup truck. Everyone's had that debate by now. But there's still a lot of residue when you talk Michigan football right now in the college Football's general ecosystem about how people view them and folks want to discredit them for it. That I think is the genesis of a lot of the hatred, ill will that people throw that way or the way of Michigan. Also, when I put this out earlier today, there were a fair amount of you that said, I don't like that Michigan carries themselves as sort of better than, you know, Michigan tends to look down the nose a little bit at us, explaining to us what a Michigan man is and how a Michigan man just kind of carries himself differently. And yet there's been scandal after scandal after scandal and apparently that rubs some people the wrong way too. I heard you. So I put Michigan ahead of Ohio State. I put Michigan at number seven. What about number six? Staying in the Big Ten. Good for the Big Ten. Off to the races here. So far, just hatred all over the conference. I got USC as the number six most hated. Give me usc, number six, most hated team in college football right now. And I noticed as I got the feedback on this, there were two distinct groups that showed up when it comes to hating the University of Southern California. The first group I would guess would be, let's call it 35 years old and older. So if you're roughly that that age group or older, you were around for at the very least, Pete Carroll, Matt Leinert, Reggie Bush, celebrities all over USC practice them, leading sports center every day. If you grew up in the south, you thought they played an inferior schedule and they just got to cupcake their way out on the west coast. But then occasionally they played an SEC team and they smoked them and then that just made you even angrier. But people hated USC. In the early 2000s, people hated USC, but then there was a generation before that where USC had been dominant to varying degrees over several decades. So USC was a blue blood of college football. Therefore they already had a core group, a core constituency of haters. But then they were bad for quite a while. So then the second group pops up. Those are just the people who hate Lincoln Riley. And Lincoln Riley just so happens to be coaching USC right now. And so this group, I don't even know if they hate USC. These would be like 19, 22, 24 year old types. They don't hate USC so much because USC hasn't accomplished anything of note to draw hatred. Lincoln Riley is just a very polarizing figure. So because Lincoln Riley is the head coach at usc, there are two distinctive groups of haters that we found in the research. And that puts usc at number 6, top 5 now, top 5 most hated teams in college football. I think I'll get a lot of debate on number five, and the debate will be that some people think they should be higher. Miami. Miami just played for a national championship. I've got Miami as the number five most hated team in college football right now. Very similar vibe to USC in that we picked up on two groups of haters for Miami. Again, if you're 38 years old, if you're 45 years old, if you're 63 years old, you grew up and you lived in a world where the U was established, where they ran college football and they did it their way. And Miami doing it their way rubbed some people in Des Moines, Iowa, and Tuscumbia, Alabama and Fort Worth, Texas, the wrong way. Okay, so that was one generation, and they didn't particularly care. And they were good and they knew it and they told you about it. Then Miami was bad for a long time, but now Miami's back. They're kind of doing what USC's hoping to do, and that is dusting off a lot of what used to be, and now it is again. Now we can say the kind of stuff we used to say again. Well, Miami's there. USC is trying to get there. Miami's there. They were at midfield with a minute to go, down six, and a national championship game, what, like a little over a month ago. So Miami's back in the national championship conversation. They're back at the head table. And here's the thing that you learn about Miami folks. When they're good, they are first in line to tell you. They're first in line to let you know. And the Miami fan base is very, very unique. It's a fan base I know very well. Miami's a very small school. It's a private school. So the Miami fan base is a very national fan base. There are a lot of Miami folks in the Northeast. There are a lot of Miami folks on the West Coast, a lot of Miami folks in the desert Southwest. It's very interesting, and that's why the dynamic is what it is when they go on the road a lot. But Miami has a very, very unique way. They carry themselves and the fan base carries themselves. When they're good and they're good, again, that's going to draw a lot of hatred. I don't sense that they have too big a problem with it. Had they won the national championship a month ago, Miami would be much higher than 5 on this list. All right, now we get into the top four. This is going to Be controversial. When I first put it out there today, I literally just asked, hey, most hated teams in college football go. For a long time it was Notre Dame, lsu, lsu, Notre Dame. So here's what I'm going to do. Number four. I got lsu. I'm putting LSU at number four on the most hated college football teams list. But then we had Kiffin weigh in earlier today, and Lane Kiffin gave us the tiger emoji, you know, so he clearly wants to be featured very high here. But then a lot of the other feedback we got was not lsu, it was just Lane Kiffin. Man, I hate Lane Kiffin. Kiffin's not a team, but I don't really know since he hasn't coached a game at LSU yet. They haven't even cranked up spring ball yet. Can I really vault LSU to number one? I can't do it yet. We don't know if they're going to be any good this year. We think they are kind of expect that they are. They killed it in the portal. But Lane Kiffin has walked in the door down there. And I'm not saying that LSU was universally beloved or beloved before Lane Kiffin stepped on campus, but they wouldn't have been. What would you say, Jesse? Would LSU have been top seven or eight most hated? No. And then Lane Kiffin walks in the door and white hot heat, like true heel, vintage late 90s pro wrestling type heel heat. So I've got LSU at number four. They could rock it to number one at any given moment here. I mean, imagine if they beat Clemson by 40 in week one this upcoming season. And then Kiffin just kind of does what he sometimes does at the post game press conference and they start to get sort of that same vibe that the other vintage LSU teams have had. Yeah, man, LSU can get pretty insufferable pretty quickly. So LSU could rock it up to number one. I conservatively have him at number four right now. I got him behind Texas. So if we go to number three here, got Texas as the third most hated team in college football right now. Someone in the comment section said, and I quote, I hate Texas because they have the arrogance of Alabama with the trophy case of Auburn, which I thought was, I mean, a little extreme, but that's what the guy said. Okay. And he had a Camel smoking a cigarette as his profile picture, so it had to be a real person. Every advantage in the world has been afforded the Texas Longhorns. Given the current makeup of the college football landscape. The tables have never been more tilted towards Austin, Texas And I think a lot of the hatred, aside from the fact that folks have always kind of hated Texas, a lot of the era specific hatred right now is people are looking at it and people are saying, you guys ought to be dominating right now and you haven't. People look and say, like someone said in the comments, imagine if Chris Peterson, just to pull a name out of the hat, imagine if Chris Peterson had the resources that Sark has in Austin, Texas. Imagine what he would have done. Now, I would contend it's not quite that simple, but your point is taken. So until Sark wins a national championship there, he'll be dealing with the Ryan Day disease. And the Ryan Day disease was Ryan Day has been afforded all of these luxuries, all of these resources, yet he can't get over the hump. Well, then Ryan Day got over the hump and he won a national championship at Ohio State. And now it becomes Steve Sarkeesian's turn to bear the brunt of the what is he won crowd. Because there is a crowd and they wander the college football streets. And their opinion is unless you've won a national championship, you hadn't really won anything, especially if you're at a top 10, top 15 program, which clearly Texas is. So yeah, Texas number three. And I know certain fan bases would argue they should be higher than that. Number two, we've got Alabama, Alabama right now still holding steady right there at number two as most hated college football team in the country. And the way I could measure this is I just know there's no team in the country that brings more jubilance in our comment section than when Alabama loses a game. It with without fail, the Sunday night show after Alabama loses the game is always our highest traffic shows. And so I think that a part of that's just the residue from the Nick Saban era. People dealt with that for a long time. They dealt with that Alabama logo, meaning a certain thing for a long time. And they haven't fallen off a cliff. They may have regressed a little bit, but they haven't fallen off the cliff. So it's still a big deal for Bama to lose. It's still a big deal that, you know, if your team played at noon today and Bama's kicking off at 7:30 tonight, you, you kind of got to make sure you've arranged your plans where you can watch Bama because, man, we got to check it out. We got to make sure we're there, we're tuned in if they lose. And I don't know how Long. It takes that to go away. And maybe it doesn't because Bama's been a brand that's mattered across the years, the decades of college football. So I'd say Bama as a strong number two. You could easily make the argument of number one. If I were to just gauge this based off the feedback we get, it'd be Bama number one. But also our show was born in the south. So maybe if our show had been born in Indianapolis or Detroit or Milwaukee and there was a little more of a rust belt sort of Midwest vibe to it, maybe this team that I'm about to list at number one would have more heavy dose of hatred in the comment section. Notre Dame. That's who I put. I put Notre Dame number one on the most hated teams in college football. There's an age old hatred about Notre Dame now. Since I have emerged from my youth of growing up in the South, I have a little bit divorced myself of my upbringing when it comes to Notre Dame. Because look, you just get taught a certain way to feel about Notre Dame football when you grow up in rural Georgia. And the same would go for Mississippi and South Carolina and Tennessee, etc. But they also feel that way in Los Angeles. You know, they also feel that way a lot of places in the country about Notre Dame. Notre Dame's mattered as long as the sport has mattered, but also Notre Dame because of the independence factor, which is a good thing when you're talking about the country, but for a lot of people, a terrible thing when you're talking about college football. People hate it, I'm telling you. I think it's just because they can't have it. But I'm not going to editorialize here. It doesn't matter why you feel the way you feel, just that you feel that way. And a lot of people hate Notre Dame because they have that independence, even though you'd probably celebrate it too if you had it. But I digress. But thirdly, most recently, I noticed a lot of our youngest, the youngest portion of our viewership, my high school college age. There is like a real, real, real sharp tip of the spear when it comes to talking about Notre Dame. And overwhelmingly, the feedback was we got no respect for the way they carried themselves after they got left out of the playoff. And a lot of people even conceded they thought Notre Dame should make the playoff. The old Will Compton protocol there. A lot of people even conceded, hey man, they probably got screwed out of it. But dude, they whined 10 times more than the level of which they got screwed at. And then number two. And this was the most popular sentiment. I hate anyone who opts out of a bowl game at that level. That was like five to one, what we heard about Notre Dame. So there was a lot of it, man. I think Notre Dame was the. The most frequently mentioned team them in Alabama, and then there was a lot of lsu, but that was mainly Kiffin. So Notre Dame, number one, most hated team. Bama, Texas, lsu, Miami, usc, Michigan, Ohio State. Here's what's crazy, Jesse. Did you see Georgia at all? Georgia, like, there's no mirage here. You don't see through Georgia. Georgia's been good and they've been good for a long time. They've won multiple national championships in the past few years under Kirby smart. They've been 1A or just straight up number one as the best program in the SEC for quite a while now. And I can't find hatred of them. And I'm not talking about in Gainesville or like Knoxville. Yes, the teams you have traditional rivalries with, that's baked in, man. You're born with that. That's a. That's a great thing. I don't want that to die. But do people in Minneapolis hate Georgia? Do many people in Phoenix hate Georgia? I just didn't pick up on it. We got hardly any mentions of Georgia, and it's not because they haven't won enough. I just think Kirby needs to. I don't know what he needs to do. He needs to have a mic drop moment at SEC media days. He needs to really embrace a heel Persona because there's not nearly enough hatred out there for Georgia for the amount of winning they've done. Just crazy. I don't know many different theories on that. Appreciate the participation on that, by the way. We got an inordinate amount of feedback. People were happy to talk about hatred on a random Sunday afternoon. That's what brings us all together. After all, this sport is hatred. And somehow, some way, we've constructed the world where it's a beautiful thing. It's totally acceptable. Now onto more, shall I say, constructive, very important matters. Lewis, Hailing from East St. Louis, he said, you have a clean slate. How would you perfectly align college football conferences? Now I got to assume this means I don't have to operate under any constraints. Louis basically just named me commissioner. I have full autonomy. I don't have to answer to any TV networks. I don't have to worry about budgeting or bottom lines. I don't have to worry about any of that. Louis right Say nothing if you agree. He said nothing. He agrees. So you're telling me I just totally get my way and I can construct these conferences any way I want to? Well, here's what I would do. There would be big changes. I would value regionality because I think that's what this sport is built on. And I know, you know, if you're, if you've just come along lately to college football, you're watching USC play a conference game in Piscataway, New Jersey. Friends, that's not the way it's supposed to work. It's not. It's not supposed to work that way. It just does work that way right now. But, but teams in Seattle, Washington and Columbus, Ohio, in a perfect world, or even in a just world, are not playing in the same conference. So I would value regionality. I'd value tradition, I'd value rivalries. Not going to break any of those up. In fact, we'll resurrect many of them. But here's the other thing I would do. I'm all on board with a nine game conference schedule, and I'm on board with that happening for everyone. But I'm only on board with that if we limit the number of teams per conference, because right now the SEC's got 16, the Big Ten's got 18. So I don't really care. You could play eight games, nine games, 10 games. Not everyone's going to play everyone. So what I would love to do in reconstructing and reconfiguring conferences in this sport, I'd love to cap the total amount of teams you can have in a conference, and I'd love that number to be 10. Because if I have no more than 10 teams in a league and you're playing nine conference games, that means everybody plays everybody. Therefore, conference play is true round robin conference play every year. And so I would have that as the conference slate. And then I'd make you play one power opponent out of conference so that I could keep rivalries intact, which you're about to see. I'm splitting up a lot of teams. So if I could do that and I didn't get any pushback, which according to the question, I'm not going to get, would be off to the races. Here's how I'd make it look. Let me walk you through this. And I know if you're listening on podcast, you don't have the visual medium, but just follow me here. Think about the SEC. Right now, the SEC has 16 teams in it. The most recent realignment added Texas and Oklahoma, well, they're gone. In my sec, Texas and OU are no longer in. Missouri is no longer in. I'm taking Arkansas out, I'm taking Texas A and M out. And what we're left with is we're left with Bama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, lsu, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina and Tennessee. Just a night. Nice, neat, tidy sec. I think we counted the miles. The longest road trip here is either going to be LSU, South Carolina or maybe like Kentucky, LSU, Kentucky, Florida, something like that. So that is my 10 team SEC. Which brings us to the Big Ten. The Big Ten I had to do even more shaving down on because the Big Ten has 18 teams currently. There's a funny thing we're going to do here, with one exception. If you've got a number, then I want that to correspond with how many teams are in the league. Again, with one exception I'll mention. So the Big Ten, I'm going from 18 teams down to 10 teams. Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin. You'll notice no west coast teams here. Oregon's gone, Washington's gone. Both the Southern Cal teams are gone. There's no Northwestern. There will be controversy over what I'm doing with Northwestern, but I think it's in the best overall interest of the sport. And it's not like we're hanging them out to dry. In fact, we are freeing them to do whatever they want to do. You can go to class just as shortly as you can schedule anyone you want to. So I'm going to make Notre Dame an independent or not? Well, Notre Dame will be one, two, Northwestern will be an independent. I'll get to that in a second. It kind of comes down to a numbers game if you're trying to make things nice and tidy. And 10 teams per most leagues. Guess what? The Big east is back. And that's not the only conference that's back. But I would bring back the Big east and that's what it would look like a lot of what the Big east used to be. I need to add Boston College again, because it's a numbers thing. But Cincy and Louisville, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, UConn, Virginia Tech, West Virginia. You'll notice UCF is in there. I've got to put UCF somewhere. And it was either going to be the ACC or the Big east. And it's not like they have traditional ties to either one of them. But they're not going to be in the Big 12 because they're in Orlando, Florida and the Big 12 is about to cease to exist in a matter of moments. So I put UCF in here. We're just going to have to accept that. Small prices to pay, small prices to pay. I have an even bigger announcement than the Big east returning. I think we should have drumrolled this. The Southwest Conference was one of the wonders of the world when it existed. You had the pyramids, you had Niagara Falls, but the Southwest Conference was not far behind and it died unjustly in 1996. And on the 30 year anniversary of the Southwest Conference's tragic death, I would just like to bring the entire Southwest Conference back. I don't need new logos either. The old artwork is fine. There's nothing wrong with it. It's fine. Texas and Texas Tech and SMU and Texas A and M, they're all back. You'll also notice that in a gesture of probably good faith that's not even deserved, I have brought Rice into the equation. We have room for food at the table in the Southwest Conference. Now. I did write down Rice will enter the Southwest Conference as sort of a probationary period and at that point, balls in Rice's court to see what they do with it. But I made room for Rice and I do need to add one team. I need to add Tulane because I think Tulane's ready and I think Tulane, geographically it makes sense. I wanted a spot for them in one of these conferences. And so we're going to put Tulane in the Southwest Conference. Arkansas is in there because Arkansas used to be in there. Now it's a lot of Texas schools in Arkansas. And Lou Holtz was not a fan of that back in the day. I get it. But look, I value tradition and I value history. And outside of Tulane, that's what the Southwest Conference used to look like. And I'm just excited to see what Rhett Lashley and the crew do in an era where you can legally do what used to have an entire 30 for 30 made about you. So the Southwest Conference will be my appointment viewing every Saturday. Big Eight is also back. The Big 12 is an abomination. The Big Eight is a beautiful, beautiful creation that never should have gone anywhere. Old logo again works perfectly. Now I need to make some modifications with the Big Eight. I am going to put Oklahoma and Oklahoma State here, Nebraska's there. Missouri, Kansas State and Kansas, Iowa State, Colorado. They were all old school members of the Big Eight. I am taking both schools from Utah and I am putting them in the Big Eight. And I know if you're doing the math out There. That means we have 10 teams in this league. This is the one concession. This is the one conference that I need to keep the name of for legacy. Pppi, plural of purpose. But the number in the name of the league will not correspond with the overall number of teams. Again, not perfect, but small price to pay. I can't call it the Big Ten. We already have a Big Ten. You could call it the Big Eight plus if you want to, which I think's lame. So I'm going to call it the Big Eight because I like calling something the Big Eight because it used to be called the Big Eight. So we have sort of grandfathered the name of the league in here, but I'm putting Brigham Young and Utah both in this league. Otherwise, it's kind of the way it used to look. Now, there was a version of this we did, Jesse, like two years ago where I had Oklahoma in the Southwest Conference. We got a lot of pushback on that because Oklahoma was a Big Eight member. They weren't in the Southwest Conference. And I pushed back a little bit, but then I thought, you know what? You guys are making more sense than me. So let's put Oklahoma where they belong in the Big Eight. There is a mandate coming from my league office, and that is Oklahoma and Texas are now in different conferences. You will be mandated to play each other every year. So the Red River Shootout, not the rivalry. The Red River Shootout will go on. We'll play it at the Cotton bowl, the real one, from now until the Lord returns. And it will kick off at 11am you know what? I'm not going to mandate that. I'll give you a little flexibility on kickoff time. I want it to be 11am but I'll give you a little flexibility on that. But Oklahoma is out of the conference. Texas is in. You've got to play each other every year. So we're not doing away with any rivalries. But you'll notice we got bedlam back. As a conference game, no less. We continue resurrections everywhere tonight. The Pac 10 is back. Josh, don't you mean the Pac 12? No, no, I don't mean the Pac 12 because the Pac 12 as an idea, failed. The Pac 12 as a conference, failed. Really? Larry Scott failed. The Pac 12 would have been fine. The Pac 10 was fine. The Pac 10, when I was growing up, even though I lived basically in another world, was the easiest conference to remember. When you were trying to memorize your conferences because you knew that you had the two Washington teams, you have the two Oregon teams. You have the two Bay Area teams. You have the two Southern California teams, and you have the Two Arizona teams. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. Boom. And that is exactly what the PAC 10 is going to be here. I want to say for a third time, I don't need any new artwork. I don't need any new focus grouping or rebranding. We're going old school with this. Why? Because nothing was messed up about it to begin with, other than failed leadership. So as the future commissioner of this sport, I will see fit that people who actually know how to run a conference are enjoying spots in the league office this time around. But the PAC 10 is back. The ACC is a little interesting. So the acc. I had to make some decisions. I could have put Miami in the Big East. I could have put Boston College in the acc. I made some minor moves, Number one, because I like Miami and the ACC more. I like Florida State in the ACC more. I wanted to keep that rivalry together, but also geographically, I wanted as much regionality as possible. Now, yeah, I got Maryland here, but that's the northernmost team I have. And so if I put Boston College in there, it's just all up and down the eastern seaboard. I don't really want that. So I got Clemson and Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami, North Carolina State, North Carolina, Virginia and Wake Forest. No big surprises there. And then we come to the independents. I am not forcing Notre Dame to join a conference. If they want to, we can talk. Okay, I can probably kick someone out or I could negotiate a trade, but I'm gonna give Notre Dame their independence. As I said, we had a little bit of a math problem. So I have two more independents. One of them is Northwestern, the other is Vanderbilt. As I sit two miles down the road from the university, this will get way more vitriol than it should because it's purely hypothetical. But when we did this last time, any team who was taken out of a conference and made independent, there were torches and pitchforks in the comments and the replies. It's a math situation. So I have to have three independents. One of them is Notre Dame, and that's obvious. And then I just went academics on it. I went Northwestern and I went Vanderbilt, frankly, because I think they have the most in common. So that doesn't mean you're locked out of anything. That just means you both have to schedule the way Notre Dame schedules every year. And the good news is, I'm forcing every one of these teams to play one power out of conference opponent on top of their conference schedule, which means there's no shortage of opponents out there that want to play you. So there you go. Especially if I can pull the media rights, Jesse, if I can pull that off, if I can reconfigure all the conferences, which I was told I can do, because there's no limit on this. And then I get to pool the meteorites where every one of these leagues is playing on every network. Ohio State's not, you know, contractually bound to play noon kickoffs from now until eternity. They may be able to, oh, I don't know, play Penn State in primetime every now and then. That would be a great thing. So regions and rivalries, traditions, these are not dirty concepts. We still believe in them around here. It is March 1st, which means March 3rd is two days from now. So, as I have told you before, I moved to Nashville in early 2020. Now, 2020 was an insane year for a lot of reasons, but in Nashville, not only did Covid hit in spring, but a deadly tornado hit in spring. And it kind of sideswiped my building and it forced us to leave for a week, but it completely leveled some buildings across from me, so we were spared. Not everyone was, though. So there were. There were nearly two dozen fatalities just in the Nashville area. This was an EF4 tornado. It was on the ground for a long time. It was in the middle of the night. It was crazy. As you guys know, we partner with the Magnolia Foundation. So the genesis of that we're coming up on the five year anniversary, six year anniversary of this tornado is the reason I mentioned this today. It's because March 3, 2020, was when that tornado came through. Well, since then, we met a guy by the name of Matt Collins who watches the show. He's watched the show for a long time, and he let me know one day that his family got hit by that tornado. They live out in Cookeville, which is a little bit east of Nashville, and they survived, but they lost their little girl in the tornado. And so he shares the story with me, and then he tells me about all of the unexpected expenses that you have anytime you have a funeral, but especially when it involves a child. And he said it completely devastated us. And we went through a lot of heartbreak, but we also learned a lot going through the process. And. And we realized if we're going through this, anyone who loses a child is going through this. We got to figure out a way to help. They started their own foundation, the Magnolia foundation, and what they do is they try and cover cost as much as they can for families who Lose children. And we have worked with them. We've partnered with them for about a year now, and they do phenomenal work. And there's a lot of, as you would imagine, unforeseen expense that goes into this sort of thing. So we launched products in our store and proceeds go to the Magnolia Foundation. So you can see the. Like, there's a picture of it right now if you're watching it on YouTube, statematerial.com, you can find those items. But when we first talked about this on the show, refreshingly, I found out a lot of you kind of bypassed the store, which I'm fine with. You went straight to the Magnolia foundation website and said, how do I just donate directly? Well, I'll tell you, MagnoliaFoundation.com give. And Matt hit me up and let me know the kinds of numbers that our audience specifically was responsible for. And we told you on a show a couple of months ago, how many funeral costs were totally covered by our audience giving. And so, man, I appreciate it so much. And he's not here, but if he were here, he would say that times 100. And you got to know, I mean, you'll never meet most of these families that you're helping out, but they appreciate it. We had Matt stop by the studio a couple of weeks ago, actually. So if you want to give directly, you can go to magnoliafoundation.com give or you can buy one of the items in our store because portions of those proceeds go to the Magnolia Foundation. Either way, we appreciate you guys because that is. It's tough, man. You hear there is no, like, laid back story. There is no good story. Those aren't happy endings stories that you're getting, but what you are getting is an opportunity to help. You know, we always want to take advantage of that.
- [40:50]
Rob Gronkowski
This is Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman
- [40:53]
Julian Edelman
from Dudes on Dudes with Gronk and Jules.
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Rob Gronkowski
Here's your reminder to stay hydrated today.
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Julian Edelman
Honestly, I needed that reminder. I'm feeling a little foggy.
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Rob Gronkowski
That might be your body telling you it's time to rehydrate.
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FanDuel/Grainger/Toyota Ad Voice
Wow.
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Rob Gronkowski
Subtle brain fog is one potential sign of mild dehydration. Surely you didn't forget already.
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Julian Edelman
Okay, maybe for a second, but I know the other potential signs are thirst, nausea, fatigue, headaches, irritability, and of course, dark pee. There you go. And liquid IV sugar free is clinically demonstrated to hydrate faster than water alone bone and is an excellent source of five essential vitamins like B3, B5, B6, B12, and vitamin C. That's a lot
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Rob Gronkowski
of clinical talk because Science Liquid IV is backed by Scientific advisory board real experts.
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Julian Edelman
Are you saying we're not real experts?
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Rob Gronkowski
I'm saying you're an expert at picking the best flavors. Sugar free strawberry watermelon or white peach.
- [42:02]
Discover/Wells Fargo Ad Voice
Wrong.
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Julian Edelman
Sugar free mango pineapple is clearly superior no matter what.
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Rob Gronkowski
The flavored Liquid IV is here to help you with everyday extraordinary hydration. Stay hydrated and stock up on liquid IV@liquid-iv.com Use the code nuthouse for 20 off your first purchase.
- [42:22]
Public Investing Representative
Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.comDisclosures in the
- [43:23]
Josh Pate
heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock elite gaming tech@lenovo.com Dominate every match with next level speed, seamless streaming and performance that won't quit. Push your gameplay beyond performance with Intel Core Ultra processors for the next era of gaming. Upgrade to smooth high quality streaming with Intel Wi Fi 6e and maximize game performance with enhanced overclocking. Win the tech search power up@lenovo.com Lenovo Lenovo
- [43:53]
Discover/Wells Fargo Ad Voice
Ugh.
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Bowen Yang
Could this vintage store be any cuter? Right?
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Discover/Wells Fargo Ad Voice
And the best part? They accept Discover.
- [43:59]
Bowen Yang
Except Discover in a little place like this? I don't think so. Jennifer oh yeah. Huh?
- [44:04]
Discover/Wells Fargo Ad Voice
Discover's accepted where I like to shop. Come on baby. Get with the times. Right.
- [44:10]
Bowen Yang
So we shouldn't get the parachute pants?
- [44:12]
Discover/Wells Fargo Ad Voice
These are making a comeback I think. Discover is accepted at 99% of places
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FanDuel/Grainger/Toyota Ad Voice
that take credit cards nationwide. Based on the February 2025 Nielsen report.
- [44:26]
Discover/Wells Fargo Ad Voice
All right, let's move on in the show. Yeah, this is a perfect time of year to talk about this. Boston. Billy hailing from Boston, Massachusetts, hit us up. He said which coaches or teams have to be in must win mode this year. We saw a historic coaching carousel. So it's a tougher exercise than I thought. I don't know that it's that difficult. We came up with these names pretty quick. Mike Norvell's got to lead the list. When you're talking about must win, like gotta get it done in 2026. Mike Norvell and Florida State have to be at the top of the list. It seems the most obvious. So they went 2 and 10 two years ago. That was the huge disaster season. And then shockingly, they beat Alabama in week one. Kind of dominated Alabama in week one. Looks like they're off to the races. And then they still finish 5 and 7. There's all kind of hot seat talk. Turns out the buyout is really all that saved him. And it was public. It's just kind of known that that was the case. They've just had their worst two year stretch since 74 and 75. So here's what could happen. Of course, their season could go in the tank for a third year and he loses his job. They could pull the nose up and have a great year, in which case this is all a moot point. But also that buyout's still going to be high this year. So the other thing that could happen is he's not fired because we can't afford to fire him. Then fan apathy sets in, which in the long run costs you more than the buyout costs you. So Mike Norvell needs to win. That's how you silence all that. He needs to win. I think Shane Beamer may be on this list two years ago. I mean, less than two years ago, really. South Carolina, 9, 4, they're knocking on the playoff door. They just miss out. But outside of that, he's gone 7 and 6, 8 and 5. 5 and 7 and 4 and 8. 4 and 8 was the most recent year last year. And you got Lenore Sellers on this team and you've paid a lot to keep him. And you got Dylan Stewart on this team. Likewise, you paid a lot to keep him. And you got to ask yourself, you know, South Carolina fans start to wonder 10 years from now, are we really going to look back on this stretch of having Lenora Sellers And Dylan Stewart on this team. And we didn't even make the playoff and they expanded the thing to 12. We didn't even make the playoff. Well, that's to be continued because we haven't seen how this year turns out, but that's kind of what makes it a must win. And look, I'm not going to say that it was extremely loud, but there was some noise around South Carolina and around Shane Beamer last year towards the end. It's just. It's a tough job, man. He knows that, though. But it's a tough job. But Clemson's kind of down right now. So this is the opportune moment because remember, for a long time, Clemson's run looked like it was never going to end. And now Clemson's run, at least when it comes to being dominant, has subsided for the time being. You got to take advantage of it. What about Wisconsin and Luke Fickle? Bradley loves when he starts to roll B roll and then I switch teams and I'm not going to say I do it on purpose, but I kind of do. Luke Fickle has gone 7, 6, 5 and 7 and 4, 8 at Wisconsin. It's just not good enough. It surprises me a lot because I still think he's a really good football coach and it felt like his DNA and that program's overall historic DNA were such a match. And I just think if Luke Fickle had it to do over again, I don't think he would go the offensive route he tried to go, but he did and then he bailed on it. But still, when you've recruited and you've staffed one way and then you want to sort of 180it and you want to go another way. Ask Lincoln Riley how that goes defensively. Well, it's happening offensively at Wisconsin. Brett Bielema, Paul Crist, you know, these are, these are coaches in the recent era of Wisconsin football. Here's what's crazy. Wisconsin's won nine games combined the last two years. I want you to think back, Belema. How many single years did he win nine games? Try five. Paul Crist, you know, the guy that wasn't good enough, the guy they fired. Crist also had five separate nine plus win seasons. They've won nine the past two years combined. So they made a ton of moves in the portal. Number 15 in the on3 portal rankings. They had 33 come in, they had 23 go out. So that's a lot of portal churn. But really what it comes down to is quarterback has been snake bit for them. First off, Tanner Mordecai just wasn't it. And then Tyler Van Dyke got hurt and then Billy Edwards got hurt and well, that's it so far. It's been three years. So Colton Joseph is who they turn to this year. Old Dominion transfer. It's got to be better. It's got to be way better. I think Lincoln Riley's on this list too though. At USC. Riley's best year was his first year and they went 9 and 4 last year. But it felt kind of hollow. They got beat pretty soundly by Oregon, the bowl game, which again, people kind of anecdotally value bowl games. But it went the way it went. They got a. They got to click noticeably this year. This doesn't mean they have to win the Big Ten or I do think they have to be in the playoff picture. I do think that they got to be right there. Cause they just finished number one overall in recruiting two years ago. Was their great reset, which I personally was willing to give them time for. But the whole context of that was all right, you're admitting your mistakes in terms of defensive personnel. And they hired Danton Lin. Well, he's now on to Penn State, but they brought in Gary Patterson. But still you should be trending up defensively and they are. You've got a third year starter at quarterback in Myava. You should be good there. But more importantly, the overall just caliber of the roster should be improving year over year. And if they're not in the playoff mix this year, then there's going to be a lot of looking around out there saying, man, we got so many facets here that work. Is our head coach sort of the loose end. Is that the wobbly tire? Now I'm on record as saying I still believe Lincoln Riley can get it done, but he has to do just that. Get it done. Now there was an entire separate bucket of coaches that I did not put on my list here. I had five names or four names. Sark you can make the argument for, but that's a totally different kind of pressure. I think Kalyn DeBoer is the same way. Sark and Kaylin DeBoer are not facing like job security type pressure this year. There is immense pressure to level up the performance for Texas. I mean there's an immense pressure to compete for a national title for Alabama. At the very least, you know, do things like run the ball effectively which leads to playoff contention. That sort of thing has to exist with those two this year. Matt Rule at Nebraska, I didn't really know what to do with him. I didn't really know what to do with Nebraska because I can't say he's on any kind of hot seat. They just massively reworked his contract to keep him because there were rumors about Penn State. However true they were or not there were rumors about him. So he's not on a hot seat. But the rule, rule the year three Matt rule deal, it just didn't click last year. And then Bill Belichick in North Carolina. I don't really know what to make of that either. Only because they were. I mean, they were bad last year. Schedule gets tougher this year. You got to figure the roster will look a whole lot more like they want it to look. But also, I don't know, like, how bad does it have to be? How bad does it have to be at North Carolina? We're not talking about Texas, we're not talking about usc. So I don't really know. That's. I think the whole Bill. The whole Bill Belichick pressure picture, I kind of think is a wild card to me. They're watching us in Spokane, Washington. They're watching us in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and Mobile, Alabama. A lot of you are tuned in live. We our audience tunes in year round. I appreciate it. Do me one favor. Check and see if you're subscribed. If you are, two thumbs up. Thank you. If you think you are, double check. Because a lot of you think you are and you aren't. And if you're not, that's okay. I would just appreciate it if you would click that subscribe button because it's free. Let's move on. Very important matters. Hey, we're hitting a lot of them tonight. It's like a town hall event tonight. George from Point Pleasant, West Virginia, said, if you were the commissioner, what would you do about noon kickoffs? I'm a Buckeye fan. I don't know if any of our big games will kick off at night. And as someone who loves to travel up and tailgate, it feels like we get ripped off with the noon kicks. You do. You do get ripped off. We had to establish a long time ago if I'm gonna fairly rule on the whole noon kickoff conundrum. I've gotta just recuse my personal feelings because I am a weirdo. I am a vast minority type group guy when it comes to noon kickoffs. I love them, but most people don't. And I'm selfish in why. I love them because it lets me get home. Like, I've gone to many, many, many noon Kickoffs at Ohio State. And the reason I love noon kickoffs in Columbus is because I'm back in Nashville by 6:30 or 7. That's why I love it. But I'm not. I'm not going and I'm not tailgating and I'm not in no hurry to get out afterwards. So I've just got to divorce my emotions totally. And I've got to acknowledge you are getting the shaft here. Ohio State, especially, has been victimized by the entire Big Ten television media deal infrastructure thing. We went and counted. I think these are probably stats that Ohio State fans know by heart. But Ohio State just gets railed by the Big Ten TV deal. They had seven noon kickoffs in 2024. They had another five of them last year. Ohio State has virtually no shot of playing a marquee conference game at any other time slot than noon. And the only chance they really have is if they go on the road out of conference like they play at Texas this upcoming year. And yet they. They'll probably get prime time treatment for that. But remember, Texas came to Columbus last year. Fox got the game. So it's a noon kickoff. State representatives have tried to get involved here. Lawmakers have tried to get bills passed, and I don't even know that that's possible, but they've tried to. The Tennessee game, couple of years ago, the playoff game, that was when it really hit home. How much Ohio State has been victimized because those folks finally got a home, prime time marquee game dropped in their lap. And do you remember what it was like? I do. I was on the field. It was 20 degrees at kickoff, which I'm not built for, but they are. And that place was insane. And it was over shortly after it started, so not a good memory for my orange clad brethren over there in Knoxville. But, yeah, I looked at that and I felt it. And I said, wow, so this is what this place is like at night. And they hardly ever get it. That's kind of tough. Now, there will be people in the comment section who, I don't know, they like to sort of intellectually picture themselves as flying above the rest of the crowd. This is the kind of person who says things like, hey, that's what the money's for. You know? Translation, Ohio State, the Big Ten, willingly signed that TV deal. They willingly cash those big checks. Well, that's the exchange you have to play when Fox tells you you're going to play. And Fox has every right to establish that noon window as where they place their primary game. Hey, I don't even blame Fox, man. I've never had a big problem with the strategy, per se. I get the strategy. I'd probably do it no different if I ran Fox Sports. But the point of it all is fans didn't sign any deal. So. So Keith from Ashtabula or Mike from Akron did not sign any deal with any network. The deal they sign is with Ohio State when they send their money every year in exchange for their season tickets. And what they'd like a chance to do every now and then is to park in the Tuttle garage there and, oh, I don't know, have a few hours before the game starts. And I don't mean parking over there at 6am to get ready for a nooner. I don't mean that. I mean show up at 9 or 10am because we know we're not kicking off to 7:30 tonight. Every now and then, you know, I think they'd appreciate it. And they didn't sign any deal with Fox or any other network. They just happen to be locked into it. Like they don't make any television media rights revenue. That's who I'm talking to. Slash about slash for one of the biggest advantages, by the way. And I keep coming back to the same drum, so I'll hit it one more time. I think one of the biggest advantages to this whole concept being floated around about pooling meteorites about one college football TV deal is not about the revenue. You don't care about the revenue because your pockets don't ever see any of that money. So the reason that a lot of people advocate for one singular college football TV deal is not the same reason that you would care about it for. The reason you care about it is what it would do for the scheduling. And like, if you're an Ohio State fan right now, you live in a world where, you know any big game we have is going to kick off at noon if it's a conference game or a home game. But in that world, what you know is, okay, we know we've got five or six big games this year, but we could be playing on cbs, espn, abc, fox, NBC, and we don't know what time because there would be scheduled drafts every week and every network would participate. Now, you're still going to play some noon games, but you're going to play some primetime games as well. You're going to all different kind of broadcast crews come through there over the course of the year. That's why I support that concept. I don't care about the revenue we're not making that money. So I don't really care about it for that reason. I care about it for reasons that much more closely tie into just quality of the product over a given year. I don't have any college football games to tell you are coming up this week. I think the Milwaukee Bucks are in action. I think we have a lot of concerts getting cranked up. It is spring after all. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make to you, if you're listening to a podcast, I'm not talking about Ohio State anymore. But the point I'm trying to make to you is it is ticket purchasing season, not football yet. There's a lot of other stuff going on and I know a lot of you are trying to fill your calendars out, your entertainment calendars, because pretty much anyone who watches this show is locked in during the fall. But in the spring, total wild card, total grab bag, you can go be doing anything you want to, anywhere. Make sure you go to SeatGeek to purchase your tickets. I do have the promo code. Someone asked. We get like five or six people per week who say, hey, is that promo code still live? Yes, it is. The promo code eatgeek, right before you check out is PATE10P A T E10 and that gets you 10% off. Any order up to 200 doll. Any order over $200, it just gets you $20 off. So we haven't quite gotten seatgeek to the part to the point where they just give away tickets for free. We're working on it, but we haven't gotten them there yet. But they are willing to give you a discount.
- [60:42]
Rob Gronkowski
This is Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman
- [60:45]
Julian Edelman
from Dudes on Dudes with Gronk and Jules.
- [60:48]
Rob Gronkowski
Here's your reminder to stay hydrated.
- [60:50]
Julian Edelman
Today, Liquid IV is spreading the word about the importance of hydration and the potential things to look out for.
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Rob Gronkowski
Thirst, brain fog, dark urine, nausea, fatigue, headaches and irritability.
- [61:03]
Discover/Wells Fargo Ad Voice
Right.
- [61:04]
Rob Gronkowski
And on top of that, Liquid IV has been a great partner for our podcast. We had a blast at the Liquid IV nut house 100% and keep an eye out for all the new content that we'll be producing in partnership with Liquid iv. We got some exciting things ahead that you don't want to miss.
- [61:19]
Julian Edelman
Check us out on YouTube and listen to dudes on dudes on the iHeart app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [61:25]
Public Investing Representative
Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks bonds, options, crypto and now Generated Assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc, SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.com disclosure disclosures
- [62:26]
Josh Pate
in the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock elite gaming tech@lenovo.com dominate every match with next level speed, seamless streaming and performance that won't quit. Push your gameplay beyond performance with Intel Core Ultra processors for the next era of gaming. Upgrade to smooth high quality streaming with Intel Wi Fi 6e and maximize game performance with enhanced overclocking. Win the tech search power up@lenovo.com lenovo
- [62:52]
Discover/Wells Fargo Ad Voice
lenovo
- [62:56]
Bowen Yang
oh, could this vintage store be any cuter?
- [62:59]
Discover/Wells Fargo Ad Voice
Right? And the best part? They accept Discover.
- [63:02]
Bowen Yang
Except Discover in a little place like this? I don't think so. Jennifer oh yeah, huh?
- [63:07]
Discover/Wells Fargo Ad Voice
Discover's accepted where I like to shop. Come on baby, get with the times.
- [63:12]
Bowen Yang
Right. So we shouldn't get the parachute pants.
- [63:15]
Discover/Wells Fargo Ad Voice
These are making a comeback, I think. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide, based on
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FanDuel/Grainger/Toyota Ad Voice
the February 2025 Nielsen report.
- [63:28]
Discover/Wells Fargo Ad Voice
We move on. Oh yeah, James asked a question. I wanted to get to this. I meant to get to it the other day, but we got all mixed up. Papers got mixed up. These sorts of things happen, james from Dayton, Ohio, said after doing the ESPN thing for a full season. Did it change the way you see college football or the show or yourself at all? Well, it didn't change the way I see myself. I don't think it changed the way I see the show. I guess I'll just tell you my biggest observation, James. My biggest observation is college football is still massively undervalued now, this bores some people, which I understand I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it, but just kind of being around professionals who. Whose jobs it is to negotiate media rights deals. I didn't grow up in that world. So a lot of times when I'm sitting at a table with someone like that, I just shut up and listen. And it is crystal clear when you shut up and listen to people who have negotiated in NFL, NBA and college football, like people who have been in all those rooms, college football is so massively undervalued. And I know, like, people look at TV ratings and whatnot, that's downstream. I just mean the overall way the sport is treated, the way the sport is covered. That's one of the things that excited me the most about what ESPN did with us this past year. And we very much plan on that continuing. And that is. I mean, we're going up to New York or either we're doing stuff remote here, joining programming from Nashville, but you're talking college football sometimes on Mondays, a lot of times on Thursdays, and you're doing it on shows that frankly did not dedicate a ton of time until recently to college football. I love being a part of that. Love it. The other thing that I, you can take this or leave it, is I grew up thinking some things, thinking some conspiracies were true. I shared and trafficked in many conspiracy theories about major media, specifically sports media and how they treat certain leagues, conferences, teams, brands. And look, when you say so and so hates my team on a message board or Twitter or whatnot, I get it. I used to say it all the time. And I had all the evidence in the world I needed. You know what my evidence was? Quotes. Usually taken out of context. But I didn't care. I'm the one taking them out of context. Like I swore for a long time, Joe Buck hated the Atlanta Braves. How did I know that? Well, because he wasn't quite emphatic enough on an Eddie Perez home run one Saturday in July, game one of a doubleheader against the Mets. And he could only sound that way if he secretly hates the Atlanta Braves. I felt these sorts of things and I felt them about college football. So here's all I'll tell you. And I know there are people out there in the aggregation sphere waiting to take this and mock me for it. I can only give you my observations. Most of the conspiracy theories about sports media and the biases and the motivations and the hidden agendas kind of just become laughable when you get inside the bubble. But the great trade off or the unfortunate trade off is if you're inside that bubble, then people just look at you and say, oh, of course you're saying that. Once you're in the bubble, they got to you. They got to me. So, you know, like, I have a partnership with espn, so anytime that I shoot down a conspiracy theory about how ESPN covers college football, well, of course you would say that. So there's really no winner here. But, James, you asked me what I learned, and what I learned is I was probably wrong or at the very least misguided about a lot of my own conspiracy theories from back in the day that I used to hold. And I was at CBS before espn. So take it or leave it. Moving on. This was a fascinating question that we had. No one's ever asked this before. Ryan is in Houston, Texas, and he said, I always think it's dumb to compare championship teams from different years. I agree with you, Ryan. He continues, here's something I don't think is dumb. What are the worst playoff games we've ever seen? And immediately Georgia, TCU has got to be number one. This was horrific. This was assault. This was. Those are someone's kids in those white uniforms. And Georgia just did stuff to him all night. So it was a 65 to 7 national championship game. This is only three or four years ago. 38 to 7 at halftime, 589 to 188 total yardage edge for Georgia. Georgia players, like, midway through the third quarter are soliciting snacks from the crowd. Just eating chicken wings on the sideline, being handed food from fans. TCU can't do anything about it because they've long since been cooked right along with everything else. I was in the Fox box for this game. What's the Fox box? Well, the Fox box is somewhere I'm not supposed to be. First off, it is a suite that Fox Sports quite literally has for their talent because the game was in Los Angeles. Fox is in Los Angeles. I'm working for CBS at the time. It is a complete and utter dismantling on the field. So I was there with Cannell and a few other people. Brady Quinn was there, and we went up to the Fox box with Klatt and the guys, and we were up in a suite. It's the only time I've ever watched a game from a suite. I'm not going to apologize for it, because what else was I going to do? It was sad, and you get this great buildup. It's a college football season and this is how we're going to culminate it. So that was the splattering to end all splatterings. I ended up in enemy territory in a rival networks box. That's how bad it got. I went to a suite. That's how bad it was. Then we have Bama, Michigan State from 2015. This was a semifinal game. 38 to nothing. It was yet another one of those examples. There were several Bama games like this in that era. Georgia did it too. Where you're going into a game and you know this kind of feels like a waste of time. What are we doing? What is Michigan State going to do? What is Connor Cook going to do? What are the very, very best of scenarios? I think this is also one of those weeks where Tony Brown flipped out and went after Nick Saban's throat at practice and had to send him home and you all drama, drama. Internal dissension for Alabama. No, no. It just turns out their practices were tougher than the game. There's Derek Henry kind of messing around with the defensive lineman there. All I remember about this game because I was there is I was in the parking lot of AT&T Stadium as midnight hit. It was New Year's Eve and that's the only time I have ever been unaware that it's New Year's Eve. It's exactly midnight. Wow. It just became 2016 or 2015, whichever one it was. Other than that I don't have much recollection about that game. Next up, I stuck with the four team ERA by the way. So I'm not doing the past two years. So it's just four team playoff era. Worst playoff games. I think that semifinal game in 2016 between Clemson and Ohio State belongs on this list. Clemson just blew out Ohio State and Ohio State had three wins over top 15 teams that year. And then this happened. This got annihilated. Clemson was loaded because that was that team that had come so close against Bama in the title game the year before and they were on their way eventually to winning a title this year. Had to go through Ohio State first. Ohio State had no drive over 50 yards. Clemson had 24 first downs to Ohio State's nine. Just a no show of a night for Ohio State. It was bad. Who was it? J.T. barrett I think was quarterback and DeSean Watson and just a complete and utter loaded wide receiver room for Clemson. I also think the semifinal game in 2021 between Georgia and Michigan belongs on this list. So JJ McCarthy was 7 of 17 in this game. Cade McNamara was 11 of 19 for two interceptions. We were at this game and it's just, it's. You can tell so early. It's not happening. It's not happening. Georgia's skill group was loaded. Man, if you go back and look at that roster, it was 27 to 3 at halftime. And it's just. I was on the field for the second half of the game. And it's so weird in these sorts of environments because it's been a huge buildup and it's a playoff game. You have a whole week where the teams are on location. You got a media day. Like you have all that stuff and then it's just total blowout and you're standing on the field and it's so anticlimactic. You're watching at home or maybe you're tuned out by the second half and it's so anticlimactic and you're like this, this is a playoff game. The Bama Cincinnati semifinal. Same year, the two semifinals were Georgia over Michigan, Bama over Cincinnati. This game, this Bama Cincinnati game was really similar to that year. Bama played Washington. And I think it was like 24 to 6 or something like that. The scores were almost identical. Bama had 301 rushing yards against Cincinnati. All they had to do was just lean the whole game. They just knew our roster is that much better than theirs. Cincinnati was a G5 team, by the way. At this point, people kind of have memory hold the fact that a G5 team made a four team playoff. And it was totally legit. Like everyone, including me, thought, Cincinnati is rightfully in this playoff. That was about as far as they were going to go. But it was, it was a lean on them game. Just our roster is Bama, your roster, Cincinnati, and that's it. The only thing we can do is lose this game ourselves. And they didn't. And then the last one was probably the most TV ma of all the playoff games outside of that national title game with Georgia TCU. How well do you remember 2019? You remember LSU goes and wins a national title. Do you Remember the semifinal? LSU played Oklahoma in the semifinals in 2019. It was 49 to 14 at halftime. LSU somehow figured out a way to hang 49 in the first half and they punted at one point in the first half. Let me put it another way. Oklahoma scored touchdowns in every quarter of a playoff game and still lost by 35. And this was, this was Lincoln Riley's Oklahoma. This is when we first started to realize, you know, there may be a problem defensively here. There may be a little bit of a fly in the ointment here with the Lincoln Riley formula. This was so bad. I was in Atlanta. Oh man. I just. With all these games, you remember the second half and you're just kind of saying, oh man, you're like checking the clock. How long is left? The good news is the crowd's going to thin out so traffic won't be bad outside. Those are the worst ones I can remember. If such thing as a bad playoff game exists. I didn't go expanded era. So that was, I guess, what Jesse 2024 and earlier. 2023 and earlier. So FanDuel, we were looking earlier today. As you know, FanDuel is the exclusive odds provider of the show. We were checking out the Heisman board earlier today because, you know, a lot's happened with Trinidad Chambliss. There is no surer sign of that than if you look at the Heisman market right now. Over at FanDuel, we have co favorites to win the Heisman. Mind you, it is early March, so let's be responsible about how we talk about this. C.J. carr, Notre Dame quarterback, is tied with Trinidad Chambliss in the Heisman market. I just thought that was an interesting bit of information. It's publicly available. These are not hypothetical numbers. You can go bet these right now. You can also get ready for conference tournaments about to gear up. This may be the year where I walk across the street or down the street now and go to Bridgestone for the SEC basketball tournament. It's been a rumor every year. Maybe I'll make it happen this year, but even if I don't, you can bet it. And you can go look at a number of other different things over at FanDuel. They're the exclusive odds provider of the show. We appreciate them so much.
- [76:44]
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- [77:29]
Discover/Wells Fargo Ad Voice
Lastly, on the docket for tonight, appreciate you guys being tuned in live. If you are, make sure you're subscribed to the channel. We do the mood tracker pretty much every show this time of year, which is quite simply designed to take the temperature of various fan bases. And we chose Penn State tonight. It is the Jesse Memorial show. Even though he's still alive, I'm looking at him right now. Penn State's move. I came up with a very specific mood for Penn State. The mood amongst Penn State fans right now is what I call Survivor's adrenaline. So if you've ever been in a near death experience and then all of a sudden you look around and you realize, oh, wow, I'm alive, there's a kind of adrenaline that kicks in. This happens in storm chasing a lot. So I've been around it before and you feel like you can take on the world. You feel like, wow, if that didn't take me out, that must be my lucky day. Penn State from a football perspective. Penn State fans, from purely a football perspective have to have like the most severe case of survivor's adrenaline in the modern era. Because if you think about this time last year leading up to the season, this is it. This is our year. We got drew back, we got a veteran team. Look at that tailback room, look at this defense, what were going to be top five preseason. Look at how the schedule sets up. And then it crashed and burned. And you lose to Oregon and you lose to UCLA and you lose to Northwestern. And then James Franklin is fired by Halloween and then the search commences and it's ugly and it is discombobulated. No one knows which direction it's going. And we got signetti re upping at Indiana Matt rule is he or is he not a candidate? And we got like five or 10 other names that are in the equation, then they're not in the equation. And you're like, we fired James Franklin. No one wants the job. Who are we going to go get? And then you got certain shows who said from the get go you need to go get Matt Campbell. And for reasons that are at this point well enough documented, they didn't target him immediately. Well then they finally circle back around 53 days later, all hope seems lost. And then Matt Campbell says yes. Then Matt Campbell brings a vast majority of the top of his roster with him and you did a fairly decent job of retention and Penn State looks to be okay this year. But more so than just this year, Penn State is a football program, could have been ejected clear out into the Big Ten wilderness. You could have been hanging out with Maryland and Rutgers. It could have gone that far downhill. And instead, Penn State, they could win 10 games this year. It's a workable schedule. It's a good roster. You don't have a quarterback needing to learn a new system or anything like that. They went and got one of the premier defensive coordinators in college football in Danton, Lynn, out of usc. Penn State's fine. After all that, Penn State's fine. It's like you were. You were left for dead as a program, and you were mocked and you were ridiculed, rightfully so, by the way. The coaching search was a disaster. And the car's rolling and it's rolling, and then it comes to a stop and wow, we landed on our tires. Wow. Seatbelt was on, airbags deployed. We're good. I cannot believe it. We're fine. We're good. And Matt Campbell's your head coach now. I don't know how it could have turned out any better. I don't even know. And I'm not talking about Penn State fans here, but administratively. I don't know if Penn State deserved for it to turn out as well as it did, but it turned out much better than it should have. So that is the mood amongst Penn State fans now. And I do think, and I said it from the beginning, that Matt Campbell was at Iowa State for a long time. I know Matt Campbell fairly well. There were not many places he was ever going to entertain. Leaving Ames, Iowa, for cause. He loved it there. He loved Toledo before he went to Iowa State. So Matt Campbell's not a guy who's just kind of looking for the next big thing, looking for the next big job. He turned down a lot of them. But I always thought that Penn State was one of about five maximum jobs that he may leave for. Because what it's about at its core is what Matt Campbell is about at his core. I really think it's just. It's kind of like a puzzle piece fit. I say that sometimes when I describe a coach whose DNA, whose values and principles really closely align with the program he's at or the program he's going to. That is Matt Campbell going to Penn State. And, man, I know if you're a fan, you had no control over the way the season played out last year or the way the coaching search turned out, but yet you're living and dying with every. Every heartbeat of the program and to look at where we are now, especially compared to where it could have gone and how badly it could have gone off the rails. That's Survivor Adrenaline. Appreciate you guys watching the show. We'll probably do a podcast Tuesday. Sometimes it gets released on Wednesday morning, but I record it Tuesday. That's in the podcast feed only. Our next live show will be Thursday night here, so make sure you're following on socials. Make sure you're subscribed to the podcast feeds and the YouTube channel so you get everything combined. I am hungry, I am told. Actually I have not been told that dinner is ready. At this point I just have to hope the dinner is ready. Wore the wedding ring on air tonight. Yeah. So you know, I'm improving myself. I don't know what else to tell you. Appreciate you guys so much. We'll see you back on this channel Thursday night. For director Bradley producer Jesse, I'm Josh Pate. Let's have a great start to our week. Take care and God bless.
- [83:41]
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- [84:25]
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Josh Pate
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