Transcript
eBay Ad Voice (0:00)
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
Coca-Cola Ad Voice (0:05)
What a matchup we got y'.
Josh Pate (0:07)
All.
Coca-Cola Ad Voice (0:07)
This is that classic HBCU vibe. Non stop action. The band is rocking and the crowd lit. Chance echo drum beatin everybody showing that school pride. Game like this, yeah, it calls for an ice cold Coca Cola. Ah, crisp and refreshing. That's a game changer right there. Yeah, that taste always hits the right note. Just like the band at halftime. And just like that we're back at it. Passionate fans, school colors everywhere and in ice cold Coca Cola. That's a winning combo no matter the sport, no matter the yard. Everybody knows fan work is thirsty work. So grab a Coca Cola and keep that HBCU pride going.
Josh Pate (0:52)
This is Julian Edelman from Games With Names. Fan fantasy football can be exhausting. I mean that literally. You're so anxious over your lineup you can't fall asleep. Best way to deal with it is unisom. There's a reason it's the number one doctor recommended over the counter sleep aid brand. It helps you fall asleep faster, wake up less and feel refreshed in the morning. Plus unisom sleep tabs are clinically tested and proven effective and and completely non habit forming. So make the ultimate sleeper pick and put it to bed with unisom Use as directed.
IBM Ad Voice (1:33)
So you're telling me that the AI that's meant to make everyone's job easier to manage just adds more to manage? On top of the thousands of apps the IT department already manages? Funny how that works. Any business can add AI. IBM helps you scale and manage AI to change how you do business. Lets create smile to business. IBM.
Josh Pate (2:13)
I think. Really with the new year less than 10 days or so away, if you believe in resolutions, I do have a few suggestions for people I would say and I'm gonna try and lead by examp. If someone disagrees with you on an opinion about college football, it may not automatically mean you have to resort to questioning whether they know ball, questioning whether they love ball, questioning whether they're a corporate shill. Again, I'm certainly not speaking from personal experience here. It's just something I think collectively we as a college football community can work on. We're jam packed. We're high atop a lovely Mild Downtown Nashville, Tennessee on the Sunday, December 21st, the year of our Lord 2025. December 21st, first day of winter. That means it's the shortest day of the year. So it's only up from here. I've got a lot more to say about the College Football playoff. Everyone is up in arms Some way or the other about the whole G5 playoff thing. So we're going to have a very, very, very adults only conversation. Not in like a TV ma way, but very much a mature conversation on the show tonight that again, you're going to have to kind of. You're going to have to kind of hit the reset button on your mood because I know a lot of you are very mad right now. So I'll talk about that. I'm going to talk about all four games that we have set for the quarterfinal round. Could I interest you in the idea that even though Miami and Ohio State has the biggest point spread, it may be the most intriguing game? We don't say that very often. We've also. Not that I've forgotten this. I would not forget this. We've got worst predictions of the year on the show tonight, mind you, not mine. I have very little interest in calling myself out. Everyone else does that enough. No, no, no. We want to call everyone else out on the show. Namely you guys. It's all in good fun. Of course, if you're new to the show. That sounds sort of sadistic. No, we have fun with each other every year. Immunity. Okay, Atlanta, Georgia is tuned in San Jose, California. Chattanooga, Tennessee. Erie, Pennsylvania. We are on our way to a million subs around here. So if you're not already doing your part, and most of you are probably, please do your part and subscribe to the channel because it's free and it helps us out a lot. Okay, let's dive in. Jesse, I don't have anything in my teeth, right? I just ate a bunch of pumpkin seeds before the show. That's all we had. Look, I got a warning for you. No, Bradley, that's not the way I want to start the segment. I'll start it this way. So, yeah, of course James Madison and Tulane got splattered yesterday. Please don't talk to me about what James Madison did in the second half. Just see who Oregon had on the field. It's five possession game in the first half. That was the game at that point. It was a splattering Tulane, Ole Miss. It's crazy. I felt like I'd seen that game already. It's because I had just without Lane Kiffin this time around. So, yes, both of those games were blowouts. Not that many people expected anything otherwise. I've got to warn you. So we're going to do this. I'm going to really, really hash out this entire G5 playoff thing. Everyone's got extreme opinions on this. I don't feel like mine's extreme. But then again, Jim Jones didn't feel like his opinions were extreme. So I want to toss my thoughts out there, but I do want to go very, very adults only on this. So if at any point when someone disagrees with you on this, you're questioning their knowledge of ball or whether they love ball or whether they're bought and paid for, you're a corporate shill. Just leave. This is probably not the show for you tonight. If you can agree to disagree with someone, but hear them out. Let's go down that road for just a second. So I don't really think anyone particularly enjoyed this yesterday. Of course, Ole Miss fans are exempt from this. Oregon fans are exempt. But outside of that, even the people who want the G5 teams in the playoff cannot possibly enjoy watching them get disemboweled. So even you guys didn't enjoy the games themselves. Unless I'm missing something, I'm not saying you didn't watch. I'm saying did you watch it with a smile on your face and say, ah, this feels good to me. I like this. I just didn't really get that vibe. And if you do exist, God bless you. Again, just difference of opinion. You're outnumbered 10 to 1, maybe 20 or 30 to 1 by people who looked at it and said, we can do better than this. I don't like this. This is not enjoyable. I thought I was getting a hot dog. This is Vienna sausage. I lived on Vienna sausages growing up. Believe me, I know the difference. So I'll give you honesty, at least from my vantage point. My super bowl, or in college football terms, my national championship. The peak of my college football experience is late October into November. That's where it peaks for me. College football does not peak in the playoff for me. I don't sit around in April dreaming about playoff games. I dream about the regular season. So you need to understand from my viewpoint over here, I do care what the playoff looks like. This is not the center of my world. This is not the end all be all to me. I feel differently watching college football than I do the NFL or pro sports. Pro sports. They're all about building to the playoff for a million reasons which I've shared on the show before. That's not college football to me. So I only get worked up to like a seven or a seven and a half on the one to ten rage scale when it comes to discussing the playoff. But I will tell you how I feel. But I also want to give you a rule just for Tonight, I want us to clearly state our issue. If you have a big issue with the playoff, the structure of the playoff, the teams that made the playoff, I'm not doing the whole Notre Dame, Alabama, Miami thing. That's its own separate segment. I'm speaking specifically about the G5. You may not even think the G5 belongs in the playoff, or you may think that they should have a path. However, this particular year, there were no deserving G5 teams. You may think that there is a certain strength of schedule metric that should be met that most G5 teams can't meet. Whatever you think, clearly state your issue right now. I'm giving you guys time. That's why I'm buying time right now. And now let's dive into trying to sort it out. So I stated my issue pretty clearly, I think, for years, but I stated it last week and the week before that leading up to this because it was pretty clear where we were going. I don't care about margins. I don't care about margin of victory. I don't care about margin of defeat. If you adopt my position on this, you greatly avoid 95% of the mindless arguing back and forth when these games happen. JMU got it run up on them last night. Tulane had to score run up on them last night. And everyone started yelling, see, they are getting blown out. We knew it. Big point spreads, big margins of defeat. That's why G5 teams shouldn't be in the playoff. Well, I've never felt that way. Sure, I expect them to get blown out, but that's not why I believe a team should or shouldn't be in the playoff. When you make that argument, you leave yourself wide open to people making bad faith counter arguments. And the bad faith counter argument could be something as simple as, well, hey, Alabama got blown out by Clemson in 2018. Did they belong? Tennessee got blown out by Ohio State last year. Did they belong? Well, yeah, of course they belonged in the playoff. But someone's twisting your own logic against you and you opened yourself up to it. So I've never chosen to open myself up to that. So I've always made the argument that if I don't think a G5 team belongs in the playoff, and I did not think James Madison belonged in the playoff. Well, let me back up. Based on the current structure and the current rules, James Madison did belong in the playoffs. I'm arguing the structure shouldn't exist as it does right now. So jmu, none of this is their fault. You know, prerequisite, you have to say that none of it's their fault. According to the current structure in place, they did belong in the playoff. So I'm speaking about the way I would prefer it to be structured. All right, now. Now we move on. I don't think if the structure is the way it should be, a team like James Madison shouldn't be in the playoff. But it has nothing to do with the fact that I think Oregon's going to hang half 100 on him. I would hold my stance even if JMU had upset Oregon last night, as unlikely as it turns out that was going to be. I don't care if they go beat him or if they lose by 70, I'd still hold the opinion they didn't belong in. Because my viewpoint on whether or not A team, mostly G5, should be in the playoff has never been about margin of defeat, how badly I think they'll get beat, how badly they end up getting beat. SMU got smoked last year. I thought SMU belonged in. Why wouldn't I think JMU belonged in because they didn't meet the minimum baseline requirement of strength of schedule. Or put another way, there is a minimum threshold of resistance that I think your schedule has to give you to warrant consideration for the playoff. It's impossible for JMU's schedule this year to have done that and I'm using them as an example. There are a million other examples of this in our power ratings. I shared this stat last week in our internal power ratings. Doesn't matter whether you respect ours or not. You can go use Conley's or you can go use whoever. They're all going to look pretty much the same this time of year in our power ratings. I think I counted Oklahoma playing eight top 30 opponents and I counted JMU playing one top 50 opponent and they lost to that one team. And outside of that 14 point loss to Louisville, they didn't face another opponent in the top 50. Old Dominion at 52, I think was their their highest caliber opponent that they faced. So I don't care what they will or won't do. I could take the Indianapolis Colts, drop them into Harris. What is it? What is it, Prez? Harrisonburg. Wherever JMU is, I could drop them in there and have an NFL team play that schedule. I know how good the NFL team is. It's obvious the NFL team would run rough shot over a college football playoff. I wouldn't think they deserve to be in the playoff because they didn't earn it because their schedule made it impossible. So someone heard me make this argument the other day. And they said, wait a second. If that's the case, then you're telling me, based on the protocol you wish was in place, that JMU would know before the season even started, that they've got no shot to make it. That is correct. Actually. That is correct. Then the counter to that is, how is that fair? How could you ever advocate for this system to exist wherein a team that is under the FBS umbrella enters a season looking at their schedule and knowing this schedule is not going to give us any shot at making a playoff? And I said, that's. That's very logical. I don't think this should be. The structure is my follow up. So in my perfect world, it wouldn't matter because we'd have a separate G5 playoff. So we wouldn't have to worry about that because Tulane and JMU would probably be playing each other in the G5 national championship game or a quarterfinal or a semifinal, because that's the way I would prefer it to go. Now, this is where we need to remember, because I already hear it, already hear it happening out there. A lot of people are tuning out or. Well, not. They're not tuning out literally, but they're starting to talk already. You're talking over me and you're not really listening to what I'm saying. And you didn't agree to the rules. The rules where we're going to have an adult conversation here. So I'm going to give you my personal belief, but I'll shoot holes in my theory just like you guys would. You're not here, so I have to speak for you. And I have no problem doing that. So my personal belief is you should have to face a minimum required strength of schedule to warrant inclusion in the playoff. It's just a fact that Most of the G5 schedules and some of the P4 schedules do not meet that minimum threshold. Therefore, those teams should not be able to make the playoff. Doesn't matter what the margin of victory or defeat would be if they made the playoff. They shouldn't make it because they didn't meet the minimum threshold. Okay, My answer to that or my solution to that is I would love for us to have a G5 playoff. And I've given several reasons why I believe that that would be great. Number one, because I would love for us to acknowledge that 136 teams are not playing the same caliber of the sport. It's very commonsensical. It's very logical. And the biggest problem is money. Because if you create a separate G5 playoff, you're choking off a team like James Madison or a team like Tulane's access to the Big Dance. You're acknowledging that the second playoff would be a lower tier playoff. It absolutely would be that. Absolutely. It would be that. Just like they're already lower tier teams. They are lower tier in terms of resource, they are lower tier in terms of talent. They are lower tier in terms of staff salary. Everything is already second tier. This doesn't have to make you feel good, but it's a reality. You can get mad that that's the reality. And you could talk me till I'm blue in the face about the factors that exist in the sport that made that a reality. It's not my fault. It's not your fault, it's not anyone's. Well, it is someone's fault, but it's many someone's fault. We can't change it right now. So in terms. Strictly in terms of proper playoff structure, it makes sense to me to apply logic. Now, My logic has always been, let's make a G5 playoff where a team like JMU doesn't sit around knowing our best shot is to go play Oregon and get slaughtered. I would love for JMU to exist in a world where they could really win a championship, but a lot of people don't feel that way. Even though I've said I would love to have the thing fully subsidized, I would love for the big boys to be forced to subsidize it so the money's not an issue. In other words, you're not getting choked off from anything. I would love for there to be a promotion and relegation system where if you continue to dominate down there, you can advance, and if you continue to suck up here, you can get demoted. You know, European soccer stuff. So I would prefer all that. But a lot of people push back on that. So if you push back on that, okay, I didn't say my solution's the only solution, but if you push back on that, what's your alternative? Because a lot of you push back on it because you think the G5 should have access, I'm fine with that. I don't have a huge problem with that. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone who advocates for common sense thinking on college football hates the G5. But if you want the G5 to have access, but you also want to avoid the complete charade that was yesterday, then. I've heard a lot of people throw around the middle ground stance of, well, let's give the G5 access, but make them be ranked in the top 12. I got no problem with that. Let the G5 be in, but take away the auto bid. So in other words, if they earn it, like. Like Miami earned a spot as an at large team this year. Oklahoma earned a spot as an at large team this year. If a G5 team did that and the committee ranked them in the top 12, put them in. If that's your stance, I'd be fine with that. Totally fine with that. That's not the stance that most people are taking, but if that's the stance you want to take, I'd be fine with that. Not really sure people know what they're advocating for there, because they still have in their mind 2017, UCF 2007, Boise. And those are the two that come to mind always. But there have been a few of them. Cincinnati, as recently as a few years ago, made the 14 playoff as they should have. I never pushed back on it at the time. Cincinnati was still a G5 team, by the way, and they made it. And I thought they should make it. But those teams don't exist anymore. This is another of the harsh realities. There's some bad faith arguments that get made out there, and then there's some harsh realities. I don't like what I'm about to say. To be very clear, I don't like that this is a reality. But it is. The great G5 teams exist anymore because the second that talent starts to elevate on those teams, it is robbed by not really P4, but really more so Power 2 teams, Power 2 programs. Which is probably why the ACC and the Big 12 should keep their mouth shuts on this. Keep their mouths shut on this. Tom Fornelli put out a really good feature on this today, and one of the points he made was, hey, you can talk about P4 all you want to. It's really a P2 world. And the Big 12 in the ACC probably need to realize that what's currently being said about the G5 not too far down the road could start to be said about them. Because it's really just the SEC and the Big Ten and everyone else. He's not wrong about that. But the point still remains that as we stand here today, the moment that a G5 team starts to elevate, a program starts to elevate their roster gets raided because you've got teams that dwarf them in nil resource. They get to go take all the players. They take the coaches as well. Both of the G5 teams who were playing yesterday have had coaches that already took other jobs. And so you've got this endless stream of any of the worthwhile talent that could compete on that level, elevating to that level. So you're not having Boise stories anymore. You're not having those UCF stories anymore. Oh, by the way, what did UCF do? They parlayed that run into, hopefully a move upwards, they climb upwards. They're in the Big 12 now, so they gain that access. That's all anyone's goal there is. The players think that way, the coaches think that way, the ads think that way. Watch USF in the coming few years. You think they're comfortable with the resources they're investing down there? You think they're happy just sitting there in a G5 conference? They're absolutely not. So I'm getting a little off topic here, but it's not your fault if you're mad about this. It's not my fault, but you're looking at it through the scope of the playoff. Most people do not care about the business or economics of college football. They just want an entertaining playoff. And yesterday you had two egregious crap games dropped in your lap and you didn't like it. And you shouldn't like it because the structure makes no sense. There are a million and one reasons why the structure doesn't make sense. The sport is heavily tilted against those teams. A lot of the lifeblood that they used to be able to get is choked off. All this is real. I don't like it, but it still is. So it's not going anywhere. I will say, look, this, this time next year, just because of a few of the tweaks that are set to be made, maybe a lot of this is a moot point. But it got ugly on the Internet yesterday. Fortunately, I was traveling back. I didn't say a word. I mean, I put, I put out one little tongue in cheek screenshot earlier this morning. But I didn't say a word about the games last night. I said it's a splattering, which I say anytime a blowout happens. And that was about it, because I didn't care about the margins. But I will say of the many bad faith arguments people make out there about how these blowout G5 games don't matter because Ohio State blew out Tennessee last year. Oh, look at these examples. Georgia blew out tcu. Hey, man, these teams, you're telling me they didn't belong either. The margin has nothing to do with it. It's a stupid argument. It's a bad faith argument. But it's also a stupid argument. The margins have nothing to do with it. JMU didn't belong on the field last night because they were going to go get blown out. JMU didn't belong on the field because next to Louisville, who they lost to by 14, their next toughest opponent wasn't rated top 50 this year. TCU literally not only earned their way to the playoff, they beat Michigan in a semifinal before they got slaughtered by Georgia. Tennessee went through an SEC schedule before they went and got blown out by Ohio State. And not only that, but if you want to talk purely in terms of potential, the athletic profile of The Tennessee roster versus Ohio State is such that out of 100 simulations of that game there are many Ohio State blowouts. But there's some Tennessee wins mixed in there as well. I know it's hard to believe based off a one game sample size being what you saw. There is no JMU win mixed into the sample size. Play the game a thousand times if you want to. They're not winning the games. And so for a million reasons that's a bad faith argument, but the least of which not being it has nothing to do with the margin of defeat. It's did you earn the right to be in the game based off logical criteria? JMU earned the right to be in the game last night. The criteria is not logical. Tennessee earned the right to be on the field with Ohio State last year through logic based criteria. So that's the big difference there. I know that doesn't work on a screenshot on Twitter or anything like that, but that's the big difference. Okay, let's talk about something most of us can agree on. If you don't agree on this, then there is no help for you. Kwik Trip is one of the best places on the face of the earth. And in this case it really doesn't matter who you root for. It doesn't even matter what your stance is on the G5. Kwik Trip is a place where you can fuel up, you can stock up, you can fill up, you can caffeine up. Cold brew on tap. Of course. Now look, I always talk about the cold brew on tap. They've just got good old fashioned energy drinks in the fridge if you want that. They got the five hour energy shots at the checkout desk if you want that. But Kwik Trip has fueled our tour all across the country this year. The Fall Don't Lie Tour was in Norman, Oklahoma and and in College Station, Texas over the past two days. I mean, that was a I'm not going to say it was a tough turnaround because honestly, we're blessed to be able to travel the way we do. But we were in Norman and we didn't leave until like midnight. So after, actually after that. So we got down to College Station pretty, pretty late and that was an 11am kickoff. So quick Trip made that possible and then got us home last night. And we appreciate them. And I have not decided what quarterfinal game we're going to yet because we do have a little time. And there's the small matter of Christmas between now and then, which I'm told we're going to have on the 25th in the United States this year.
