Coca Cola Advertiser (18:32)

What a matchup we got, y'.

Josh Pate (18:34)

All.

Coca Cola Advertiser (18:34)

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Odoo Advertiser (19:49)

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CarMax Advertiser (20:50)

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Josh Pate (20:52)

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CarMax Advertiser (20:53)

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Josh Pate (21:23)

Home of Kwik Trip is the great state of Oklahoma, where we'll be a little bit later this week. All right, here we go. Michigan Coaching Search it feels like it's entering week 13, but really it's just been a week. So what's the latest here? Well, Caleb Debord, Alabama, has repeatedly made statements. Now he released a statement on Sunday, I think it was, and he said pretty much, I'm happy here, I'm not going anywhere. I don't plan on going anywhere. And that should have been good enough, but it wasn't good enough. And so then Monday he had a press conference in Tuscaloosa and he was asked by one of the reporters there, I think it was Nick Kelly, I think. And the question was, are you going to be the head coach at Alabama next year? Great question, right to the point and DeBoer answered it. But he did what Meemaw would call him hawing. He hem hawed around the answer. And friend of the program and bloodhound Alabama beat reporter Charlie Potter circled right back around and said, hey, just follow up on Nick's question. Are you going to be the Alabama head coach next year? And Kaylyn DeBoer said, yes. Yes to Nick, yes to Charlie. Now, a lot of us listen to that and thought that that was good enough. Understandably, the folks at Michigan have a job opening and they think Kaylyn DeBoer would be the perfect candidate for it. So it is within their constitutional right to continue their coaching search and to not give up until someone looks them in the eye and says no means no. Well, that wouldn't happen until at least Friday or Saturday because Alabama's got a football game this Friday against Oklahoma. And if they win, then you have a whole new can of worms that you have to open and deal with. But even if they lose, that's the earliest, theoretically, if you believe in a world where Michigan still got a shot at Kaylin DeBoer, that's the earliest that it would happen. I've maintained the same stance on this particular dynamic throughout the duration of this coaching search. And that is, I don't think there's anything to Caitlin DeBoer to Michigan. Feel really good about that. Have had several conversations about it. I totally understand where Michigan's head is at on that. And if you guys want to wait and get an actual no from the man himself, maybe you'll get that Saturday or maybe you'll have to wait much longer. But when the time comes, I think the answer will be no there. And I feel pretty good about that. Now. Kenny Dillingham's name has also floated. And I said several days ago, when asked, I said to someone who was asking, what's the difference in Kenny Dillingham putting out a statement of denial and Kaylan DeBoer, someone asked, I think on the Sunday show, what's the difference in Kaylan and Kenny? They've both denied interest. And I said, well, there's a big difference. And I don't really know specifically what you're alleging has been said, but I can tell you there's a pretty big difference. And as time has gone on and you've listened to the guy in Tuscaloosa talk about this versus the guy in Tempe, Arizona, they're in different situations. There are things that, you know, Kenny Dillingham would love to have at Arizona State, that, truth be Told he probably doesn't have in terms of support. And I don't mean support emotionally. I don't mean like Arizona State's heart's not in it. I mean, he's competing with Texas Tech, and he has a fraction of the resources Texas Tech has. And so that's not the only program they lag behind. So you're only capable of what you're capable of. And it wouldn't mean anything if this was in a vacuum, but it's not. Kenny Dillingham may have a shot at the Michigan job, and so he's doing what probably anyone else would do. He is looking and kind of intrigued at the possibility that earlier today they had practice out there for their bowl game. And for the second time in a few days, Kenny Dillingham was available to media after practice. We've got some sound. I'm going to play it for you, and then I'll react to it. On the other side, I think my job is to try to do whatever I can for the people that are with me.

IBM Advertiser (25:21)

Right.

Josh Pate (25:21)

The people that are in the foxhole, the coaches that are in the foxhole with me is I got to do whatever I can to fight for those people, for my family, for everything from that perspective and kind of, you know, and I love it here. I've said that since day one. That's absolutely never changing. Absolutely never changing. So, yeah, that's. That piece is never changing. Pretty clear to me, at least what's going on there is. Kenny Dillingham is like the most brutally honest coach in America. I know Kenny. I know him fairly well. He's a very straight shooter. Even when it probably works against his own best interests, he's a pretty straight shooter. And so it's not hard. There aren't layers that you have to peel back to figure out where his head's at. You may have to read between the lines a little bit there, but I'll read between the lines for you. He knows that he's on Michigan's radar. I don't think he has spoken to Michigan because I think there's a pecking order in the Michigan coaching search. And I don't know that Kenny's at the top, but I think he's near the top. And I think that, you know, once those dominoes unequivocally fall, I think they already have, but according to Michigan, maybe they haven't. So once they unequivocally fall, then I think maybe it's Kenny Dillingham's shot to listen. I will also Tell you this, there's a perception out there that Michigan need only pick up the phone and Kenny Dillingham's on the first thing smoking to Ann Arbor. I don't find that to be the case. I think they'd have a reasonable shot at landing him. I don't think it's a foregone conclusion because as I said, everything you're hearing him say about Arizona State is accurate. Kenny Dillingham is not looking to leave Arizona State. That dude loves it there. There is a root system planted there with him for a number of reasons. One of the beautiful things in college football is when a guy that is uniquely tied to a program exists at that program. Brent Key, Georgia Tech, perfect example. Clark Lee Vandy, perfect example. Well, Kenny Dillingham, Arizona State is a perfect example. So someone who lives in Spokane, Washington may look and say, dude, if I could have Arizona State or Michigan, it's Michigan, it's a no brainer to you. It would be. But that's all things being equal. All things aren't equal with him. He has strong ties to Arizona State, so it's going to take a lot to get him out of there. Michigan has a lot to offer and that's why you listen and he may very well listen to them if the time comes and choose to go. All I'm saying is I maintain, and I still maintain there's a very, very different dynamic in play with Kenny Dillingham in Michigan than There is Kalyn DeBoer in Michigan. And I don't think any of that's ever changed. I think that's been the way it's been the whole time. There was a lot of talk earlier today about Jet Fish. There was a lot of talk, you know, like I was looking over on the fort, that's over on the Michigan on 3 site, Chris Ballas and those guys are updating by the second, not just by the minute, by the second over there. And there's been a lot of talk over there today. And by the way, look, if you're a Michigan fan, I don't know how you're not checking this thing at least 30 times a day, maybe even 30 times an hour. But that's your personal business. You live your life however you want to. I know I am. If you're looking at my web browser history, I'm over here a fair amount because I'm fascinated at what people are thinking during coaching searches. So there has been some sentiment about Jed Fish. There's been some thought this week and granted it's Only Tuesday. But there's been some thought this week that Jed Fish's name may be climbing and that's because Michigan was taking a hard look at him. There's been some sentiment today that hey man, maybe Jed Fish's name has cooled. I think that's accurate and I think they've done a fairly good job, especially if you're on the Ford over on the message board over there. I think they've done a fairly good job of detailing that. Not necessarily details that I think it's important for us to dive into. It's more minutia based. The critical take home points here are. I don't know that Jed Fish is going to be a factor in the Michigan search moving forward. He's got himself a good job at Washington. It's one of the better jobs in the Big Ten. In fact, Jed Fish may have one of the more underrated jobs in the country. So it's not like he needs to be desperate to leave Washington. But I think his name was a factor. I'm not so sure it's going to be a factor moving forward. I think Eli Drinkwitz's name is involved here. Okay, you need to understand where we're sitting. Where we're sitting is this is a premier job with several question marks attached to it. And I'm trying to be as fair as I can. I've got immense respect for the Michigan job, the Michigan program. I would view it extremely highly. It would be one of my top five destination jobs if I were a head coach. You cannot ignore the internal investigation going on. You cannot ignore the uncertainty with the ad. You cannot ignore the administrative uncertainty right now. Now, those aren't stop signs. Those could be roadblocks, potential stop signs for coaching candidates. You don't know because you're not talking to them. And so unless you were to be able to sit down with them, you don't really know how much it matters to them. If you're a Michigan fan, you're very quick to brush past it because you hope that's how people feel. If you're an Ohio State fan and you're watching the Michigan search, you probably make a huge deal about internal goings on and whatnot. So the only thing that matters really is the perspective of the potential hire. And they're not talking publicly about that. So you're kind of left to wonder. The situation is this. It would probably take a perfect like confluence of events to get Kaylin DeBoer out of Alabama anyway. And if he looks and sees even a whiff of that. He's probably turned off by it. This is me guessing he's probably turned off by it. Okay, so let's cross that name off the list. Maybe Kenny Dillingham looks at it and says, you know, it was going to take the perfect situation with no questions to draw me out of my home, Arizona State, and there's just a few too many questions there. Thanks, but no thanks. So you cross that name off the list. I don't think Jed Fish is going to be an option for him. And my point here is, which other candidates are we looking at? Do you really want to go after Jesse Mentor, knowing that you're probably always going to have to fight against the NFL for him? Is there a mystery candidate that we're not really aware of Very well? Could be. Coaching searches get really fun when there's a talk of a mystery candidate. Remember how Kalani Sitaki didn't really come in out of the rafters in the Penn State coaching search until late in the game? So there could be that. But if there's not that, names like Eli Drinkwitz get thrown out and people are really quick to scoff at it. I've noticed this and my question is always, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You're scoffing as if you have definitively better options. Do you? So I would ask, do you now? If you tell me DeBoer is a better option. Of course he is. Can you hire him? You may tell me you think Dillingham's a better option. Maybe he is. You know, I may lean Kenny slightly there, I think a little higher of Eli than many of you do, so. But I would still lean Kenny slightly. Can you hire him in this scenario? You couldn't. Jed Fish, we think, is off the board now. So, like, how far down the list do you go before you just kind of throw your hands up and go interim route for 20, 26 and start your coaching search in the summer like you just have a long Runway, a year long coaching search. I have always been baffled by people who turn their nose up at the concept of Eli Drinkwitz. Eli Drinkwitz, it's well known in the sec, is one of the better staffers in the country. Staffers, meaning a guy who knows how to identify coaching talent and hire them and put him on his staff. I mean, LSU saved their program defensively by raiding Missouri. They went and got Blake Baker, American hero Blake Baker. Kevin Peoples came along with him. And everyone's looking around saying, wait a second, if these guys are so great, why were they At Missouri? Well. Cause Eli Drinkwood is really good at identifying talent and bringing it in. He just had an offensive coordinator I believe leave like he's always, always a turnstile there. Some players leave via the portal. Coaching talent leaving via the portal. And so I'm looking at it and I'm always thinking to myself, got really good personnel there as well. Always a scrappy team, haven't won a national title, haven't won the sec. But like they probably punch a little bit above what they should be punching at Missouri. Those are all the hallmarks of a good head coach to me. Not to mention it's kind of fun. You know, he'll give you sound bite every now and then. Like I'd have no problem with Eli Drinkwitz being on my coaching hot board. That's just me. So that's where we are with the Michigan head coaching search. My guess and the pretty widely held belief in Michigan circles is this is going to ramp up this weekend pending the outcome of the Alabama game. And I'm sure Kaylyn DeBoer is tuned into the show. Caitlin DeBoer is probably looking and saying, wait a second, he's like Leo pointing at the tv like what? What? I thought I already rid myself of this. Nope, nope. You're going to have to, you're going to have to meet him on a tarmac in Toledo, Ohio somewhere or maybe like Frankfort, Kentucky in the dead of the night and you're going to have to look him in the eye in the terminal and say no. And then you have rid yourself of it. In that scenario, you also just lost to Oklahoma and your season's over, so probably not a fun weekend anyway. That's the Michigan coaching search right now. Let's move on. We have not done a segment like this in quite a while, but it's that time. The transfer portal is a buzz right now. Remember our close friend the transfer portal? Well, it's filling up. Remember we got one portal window now. It technically opens when Jesse, the 2nd or 3rd of January, but you can kind of express your intent to go in the portal and several guys have taken the opportunity to do just that. So this thing looks like it's going to go off the rails a little bit. There are several high level names in it already and it looks to just be starting. So at the quarterback position alone, if you go look at the ON3 rankings right now and it's starting to starting to fill up a little bit. So you know who, whoever the number one player in the portal is right now could Be number three tomorrow. Number one player in the portal right now. Sam Levitt, though, one of many quarterbacks who have entered the portal. That's Arizona State's quarterback. Looking at Nacos hot board and just reading some of the articles that they've put out there. Oregon, Miami, Indiana, lsu. And you're going to hear the same schools mentioned a lot because if you're in the market for a quarterback, you know, you're probably not pushing all your chips to the middle for one guy. You're probably in it for several guys. It's no different than recruiting. But Sam Levitt's the number one overall player and quarterback in the portal. That's via on three as of today. All right, the number two player, Dylan Raiola, Nebraska in the portal. This came as a shock to many. Not Will Compton, but it came as a shock to many. Louisville has been mentioned here and it's kind of been reported. It's kind of been whispered that Raiola reached out to Oregon. Now, I gotta, I gotta tell you, I know everyone loves when I do this. Dylan Raiola in the portal was not like this closely guarded secret. It was kind of speculated in the industry it was going to happen. I don't really get caught up all that much in the portal, so I didn't do a whole lot of digging on it. I said, okay, maybe it happens because you hear portal rumors all the time. So I just said, all right, I'll believe it when I see it. Okay, well, it happens. So now I believe it. But the funny thing is you had heard Oregon whispered about to the point where, like, I asked around, I asked some people and they were like, I guess it could happen. Which is code for oh, wow. I hadn't heard that yet. Let me text someone after we get done talking. So Oregon may be in the mix here. It looks like Texas Tech will not be in the mix. So do whatever you want to with that. The number three player in the portal. The number three quarterback in the portal is Brennan Sorsby out of Cincinnati, I guess I should say of Cincinnati. Not a ton of info on him quite yet. I think that's kind of early in the process. Also, you could technically have the NFL be an option for him. So a little different ball game than these other guys. But I think the big story item was DJ Lagway at Florida announcing his intention to enter the portal. I'm told someone had him as their number one quarterback in the SEC in their preseason quarterback power rankings. And it's not important who that person was. It's just important that that information is out there. Again, we're not about casting blame on this show. We're not about that at all. We don't throw people under the bus. We don't do that. So whoever that was that had Lagway as their number one preseason quarterback in the sec, I'm sure their heart was in the right place. They sound like an okay guy. If it was a guy we don't know, we can't possibly know. And it sounds like they had the best of intentions. It sounds like they were working on some pretty good knowledge and then coaches and players screwed it up. That's what it sounds like. So anyway, we arrive here and DJ Lagways in the portal and reading between the lines. Actually you don't have to read between the lines. It's been pretty widely reported that this was kind of John Sumrall and his staff meeting with DJ Lagway. And that meeting sounds like it did not go well. And that meeting sounds like it included a lot of that coaching staff challenging his mental makeup, his competitiveness, his disposition towards football. And it just really, it did not provide either party with the warm fuzzies. And they left realizing, yeah, he's probably not going to be our quarterback this year. And DJ Lagway left realizing, yeah, I'm probably not going to fit here anymore. And so now he's in the portal. Baylor has been mentioned, Miami's been mentioned, lsu, Louisville, again, we're still very early in the process. So those are the quarterbacks. That quarterback picture is only going to deepen. There is good wide receiver talent, there's good running back talent. Again, I cannot stress enough. It's December 16th, so we've only just begun. As Karen Carpenter would say. Big fan of the Portal. Karen Carpenter. Nick Marsh is a player that I'm circling now. That's me personally. I don't have my own portal rankings, but I am circling the name Nick Marsh out of Michigan State. I would be targeting him. Pate State is set at wide receiver, but if we were not, I would be targeting him. Perry Thompson and Malcolm Simmons at Auburn have also entered the portal. CJ Baxter at Texas intending to jump in the portal as well. So there are a lot of you're going to be a lot of big time names, a lot of game changer types. Think about what Texas Tech or not Texas Tech. Think about what Texas A and M did with Concepcion and Craver and just the immediate like season altering impact those guys have had. We could very well be looking at that. Possibly just Go get one of them, much less two of them. Offensive linemen, everyone's after them, everyone's after big bodies on the line of scrimmage, period. And I was talking with some coaches this past weekend and I've talked with some non coaching types this week and I've got one of those ideas that's really easy to say. It's much harder to execute. But if you watch college football and you've watched it for a long time, you don't have to be a former O line coach or having played offensive line at some point in your career to know offensive line play seems to have regressed across the board. So there's not really much dominant offensive line play. And one of the easiest go to theories on why is well, it takes chemistry, it takes cohesion, it takes a lot of reps. Together it takes. And with how much churn there is in the sport, you just don't really see that as much. So you got a lot of pieces, but you don't have as many full units that have played together multiple years. So I'm thinking about that within the framework of the Portal. And again, I want to warn everyone, what I'm going to say is easy to say. I know it's much harder to execute. But if I were in the G5 ranks or even the FCS ranks at the higher level and I were a group, I mean a center guard combo or maybe even a center guard tackle combo or a guard tackle combo and I was in any kind of demand at all, I'd look to my dude on the left or my dude on the right or both of them and I'd lock pinkies with those guys and say, hey, we in isolation are valuable commodities because we're offensive linemen who can be plug and play starters. But we together are borderline priceless because we are chunks of an offensive line unit and we are bringing more than just our individual talent. We're bringing cohesion. And I would go full package deal. And if I were at the G5 level and I would do that, I would look at the P4 level and I would just look him dead in the eye and say you guys really want to go overspend on wide receiver talent and not have your quarterback have any time to throw the ball? You want to go really overspend on running back talent and have no one to pave the way? You want to rely on slide protection all year or you want some folks who speak the same language? Yeah, we may have been doing it at the FCS level But your guys aren't doing it at the power four level. So maybe those of us who have done it together before can do it up there as well. As I said, it took two minutes. It was so easy to say so my advice to all the player personnel departments out there, Recruit offensive line in blocks. That's it. That's all. Also, after you do that, like you guys may have kids at home, you could go to patestatematerial.com and buy them a chuggy sweater. That'd be nice. In fact, if you whiff on your portal class, you may really want to go and peruse the Pate state store because you need smiles at home because you may be coming home with news down the road that puts a frown on their face. It got dark and morbid really quick. Look. Pacestatematerial.com we got a wide variety over there. I'm going to talk about one special item later in the show, but the Tis the Season collection flying off the shelves. It's our best performing holiday collection ever because it's the only time we've ever had a holiday collection. You may also know it as a Christmas collection. I say holiday because, like, there's no specific Christmas branding on the Tis the Season to be chuggy sweater, even though we all know it's a Christmas sweater. And that's what you would call that niche of clothing, a Christmas sweater. So anyway, I just didn't want anyone to think we were avoiding saying Christmas around here. We don't even go Xmas in the store. There is no Xmas merch. Full Christmas. Okay, so we've got a wide variety of that. But you also just got your normal T shirts over there. If you live in Fort Lauderdale and it never dips below 70 and you don't really need sweaters, that's fine. We've got you set in that department as well. Paintstatematerial.com.

Coca Cola Advertiser (44:09)

What a matchup we got, y'.

Josh Pate (44:10)

All.

Coca Cola Advertiser (44:11)

This is that classic HBCU vibe. Non stop action. The band is rocking and the crowd lit. Chance, echo drum beat. Everybody showing that school pride game like this. Yeah, it calls for an ice cold Coca Cola. Ah, crispy and refreshing. That's a game changer right there. Yeah, that taste always hits the right note. Just like a band at halftime. And just like that, we're back at it. Passionate fans, school colors everywhere and an 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 Hb ICU pride going.

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Odoo Advertiser (45:26)

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CarMax Advertiser (46:27)

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Josh Pate (46:29)

Who wouldn't?

CarMax Advertiser (46:30)

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Josh Pate (46:59)

All right, we've got. We've got a very, very important matter to talk about, man. The important matter is I left my chapstick. Bradley, that's on you. Now I got to talk about Joel Klatt with chapped lips. This is the worst. This is the worst. So I opened the mailbag earlier today and I told Jesse we have a rule for this show tonight. It's our last show of the week. It's our last show before the playoffs. So I really want us to just go anywhere the audience wants to go. Always a big mistake. Mason In Duluth, Minnesota. Here's where he wanted to go. Joel Klatt called all Cinderellas and March Madness stupid. Why do all you national voices hate on the little guy? David beat Goliath, Boise beat Oklahoma, and UCF undefeated. We remember those stories more than the Giants. But keep this up for a second, Bradley. This is really just a breathless screenshot. I'm really glad we screenshot this past tense of screenshot. Okay, so they start throwing shots at Klatt, which, okay, if he deserves it, he deserves it. And then I got lumped in, and I hadn't said anything about Cinderellas, but I'm about to, because Mason insisted. If I'm gonna get blamed for it, I might as well do it. He said, why all you national voices hate on the little guy? You might be wondering to yourself, what warranted all this. Well, here's what happened. Now, I'm going to do something in order, because this is probably the order it happened to you in. You know sometimes how you see a snapshot or a small sound bite of something and you get outraged by it, and then you go on to learn the context of it two weeks later, and you're like, wow, I probably shouldn't have gotten as outraged as I did over that. That is what is happening to Klatt. Admittedly, he brought a lot of this on himself, but Klatt went on next round live. Those guys are friends of the program. Klatt's a friend of the program. And so we're just talking about a bunch of friends of the program getting together, and he did a segment. Now, what you probably saw was you probably saw, quote, edits like this or quote, graphics like this. And if you're listening on podcast, just imagine scrolling through your social feed and there's a picture of Klatt. Looks like he's somewhere very sunny and happy. And then there's a quote at the top, and it says, quote, we don't want Cinderellas. We want the best teams playing each other at the end. The NCAA basketball tournament is a joke. It's the dumbest tournament and the least fair tournament in all of sports. Now, they started throwing babies off of buildings moments after that was posted, and you can imagine why that means Joel Klatt hates underdogs. He wants the G5 to just die entirely, just die on the vines. Cut them loose. We're in it for the big boys and nothing more. We're better than you, and we know it. That's Joel Klatt, right? I, in the interest of fairness, had the staff Dig into the archives. And I know it may be irresponsible, but I thought that maybe we needed to provide context and play the entire sound bite. Now I got to warn you, this is not going to fully absolve clap in many of your minds. There's still going to be fair amounts of egregiousness in what is said here. But before we break it down, I just wanted to let people know the full context of what was actually said. So this was next round live a couple of days ago. Roll it, Bradley.

Joel Klatt (50:27)

The reason the group of five is included in this playoff is to avoid antitrust litigation. That's it, guys. Like, we're not looking for a Cinderella. Nobody cares in football about James Madison or you know, the equivalent of George Mason going, didn't George Mason go to the Final Four?

Josh Pate (50:44)

They did. Yes.

Joel Klatt (50:46)

Nobody cares in football about that. We don't want Cinderellas. We want the best teams playing each other at the end. In fact, hot take. I mean like the hottest of, of all takes that I've ever had in my entire life. The NCAA basketball tournament is a joke. It's, it's the, it's the dumbest tournament and the least fair tournament in, in all of sports. We go and we put, we put teams at odd times on neutral sites in a one game affair like that doesn't crown a true champion. We're not, we're not doing anything that tells us who's the best team over the course of the entire season. You know, like if anything, the NCAA basketball tournament should act exactly like the old, the old World cup which we should have groups, they should all get guaranteed three games and they should be played at the higher seeds arena so that those seeds are, are rewarded for a quality game. And that way we don't just get to see like, you know, Kentucky one and done against George Mason or something like that. Well, that's stupid.

Josh Pate (51:49)

The chat is already filling up with the usual suspects. All right, some of that was insane. I'm going to grant you that. I just want to say the foundation of it, I at least understand the foundation of it is sound. Not all the parts of it. The foundation of it is sound. So a couple of quotes there. Number one, the G5 is in the College Football Playoff to avoid litigation is basically true. I'm not asking you what makes you feel good. I just want you for a second to stop screaming. Lower, lower the caps. Lock on the keyboard. Just sit still for a second. That's not incorrect. They are. They are present in the playoff. They're granted an auto bid in the playoff because if they're not, then there will be lawsuits filed immediately. So that part's accurate. Now, whether you think it's also morally sound that they're included in the playoff, that's your own. That's your own business. That's your own opinion. He's got his, I've got mine, you've got yours. But he is right. Because in no other merit based world where we just judged these teams on a static scale of quality of resources and therefore what you do with the resources and the results on the field and strength of schedule, in no world would James Madison be in the playoff. But the parameters of the playoff right now are that we take the five highest ranked conference champs. So by every current rule, James Madison is in the playoff and should be in the playoff. I don't disagree with that. Tulane is in the playoff and should be in the playoff. I don't disagree with the structure, I don't disagree with the body of the playoff this year based on the current rules. What he's saying is the rules are the way they are right now because if they weren't that way, then someone would get sued really quickly. He is correct about that. That always gets twisted into, well, you must hate the G5. Oh, man, you must hate the little guy. Oh, you're just a corporate shill. Oh, man, you're just in it for the money. I deal with that all the time. I left corporate media, by the way. I bought my show from CBS so I could leave corporate media so I could be free of the very thing that people accuse me of. And yet anytime you state an opinion that's contrary to what the G5 mafia out there that roams the Internet want you to say. It's not just we differ in opinion, but we can still go and have ice cream on Sunday. It's you hate us and you're bought and paid for. And I sit here and I know good and well no one's bought and paid for us because we own our own show. And yet we can't fight the allegations. It's really tough. So I wanted to play one more sound bite that I haven't seen widely aggregated on the Internet. This was the same interview. This was just moments later. Bradley, queue up. SOT2. This is Clap.

Joel Klatt (54:30)

In order to separate it out, the group of five will have to be incentivized somehow and specifically from a financial perspective to go play their own championship. I think that would be better for them anyways. But if that doesn't happen and they get cut out of the finances, they will sue and will wind up in court, and they'll be in the playoff moving forward.

Josh Pate (54:55)

That's been the same point that's been made on this show. So you notice, like, if you really hated the G5, you just say, piss on the G5. That's not what he did, despite the fact that that part didn't get shared widely. And that's not what I've ever done on this show. Anytime you got a problem with something, you ought to have a solution for it. So if your problem is, man, it makes little sense that we've got 136 teams pretending to play the same caliber of the sport. You need to have a solution. That solution he just presented is the same one we've shared on this show, and that is a G5 playoff. Now when we've presented it, this is not the first time this has happened on this show. The chat just fills up and the comment section just fills up with, no, that's not fair. Because you're excluding us. You're boxing us out. You're already boxed out. You're already boxed out because the natural order of things boxes you out. And that's why it's really dumb to talk about Cinderellas in college football. There aren't Cinderellas in college football. There never will be Cinderellas in college football. In fact, we grow further and further and further away from the possibility of a Cinderella every day. Because once upon a time, Boise State 078 existed and there wasn't a monumental gap between them and Oklahoma because it was possible for the players at Boise to stay there four years, nowadays there are mechanisms, like the portal in nil that make it to where even if a G5 team did just hit the lottery with a recruiting class and they just smoked everyone on evaluation and even smoked everyone on development, you'd get one to two years in with that crop of players, and then the big boys would take notice and you'd get rated not just your players, but your coaching staff. They'd all get raided. I know, because it's happening. So I even think it's bad faith to use Cinderella stories of years gone by like UCF 2017 or Boise07. Those will never happen again. They'll never happen again because the moment they start to happen, the players get poached. So you're already boxed out. What would make sense is a world fully subsidized, fully funded that creates a national championship. You can actually chase and win that. That's the solution. So it's not just the problem, it's the solution. Now, the crazier parts of this were when Klatt started talking about how we're not looking for a Cinderella. I fully get what he's pick. I fully get what he's putting down there. What he's saying is, in football, we don't really believe in Cinderellas. He's right about that. All right. Forever. One of the rules on this show is do not apply football logic to basketball and do not apply basketball logic to football because they are apples to oranges as far as comparing in college sports. Likewise, when we talk about Cinderellas and people look at the G5, well, you got to have G5 inclusion. Why we love Cinderellas. We love Cinderellas in college basketball. We love them because we think they're possible in basketball. When Klatt said, no one wants to talk about a Cinderella, we're not looking for a Cinderella. We're not looking for a Cinderella in college football because it's impossible for one to happen in college football because every mechanism of the portal in NIL makes it such that the moment a Cinderella starts to pop its head up, ie 07 Boise or 2017 UCF. If 07 Boise or 2017 UCF even started to happen today, they'd get raided. That all get portaled. The players would leave, the coaches would leave. I know that because it's happening. So there is no Cinderella opportunity in football. So instead, what we've trained our mind to do is we've trained our mind to understand, unlike basketball, you're not making a run in football. Because in football, you get to put your hands on people for four quarters and bigger, faster, stronger, really does win nine tenths of the time. And if it doesn't win on one Saturday, then it's probably going to win on the next one. So no one's stringing together three or four wins and winning a national title or even going to the semifinals or the national title game as a Cinderella in college football. But. But when my guy said that the NCAA Tournament in basketball is a joke now, that's where I had to sit back for a second and say, oh, hold on now, hold on. I rewound it because I always believe in listening twice just in case I misheard something, but I didn't mishear it. And Joel Klatt, not a big NCAA tournament fan in basketball, I actually think the NCAA Tournament's amazing. But that's because I know that Cinderella's can exist in college basketball. And the point he's making is that's not the best way to crown the best team in college basketball. I never looked at the NCAA tournament as doing that. I don't really think there is a way that captures the public's imagination like the NCAA tournament does, to crown a real, true best team over the course of a season. In college basketball, the college basketball season plays out the way it does. And then you have this amazing spectacle of a tournament in April. It's a little bit randomized. Yes, the two seed can fall to the 15 seed, and yes, your season just abruptly comes to an end like a record scratch. That's the way it is. Tough in football, I don't think like that. But in basketball, I view basketball in a vacuum. I view football in a vacuum. They don't overlap. For me, I learned very few lessons from the structure of college basketball that I apply to the structure of college football. So March Madness makes sense. Because the concept of a Cinderella in basketball makes sense. The minute we start talking about G5 inclusion and the pros and cons of it in college football and someone throws like, Florida Gulf coast at me or George Mason at me, I just turned the volume down like, you have no idea what you're talking about. You have no idea what you're talking about. Now, the NCAA basketball tournament is not a joke. It's awesome. But that's because you have to properly consume it. You're not looking to crown the best team over the course of a whole season. That's never been what that tournament was about. Does it reward the hot team at the right time? Could you just get red hot from three and buzz saw your way to the Sweet 16 or the Elite Eight over teams that were favored by double digits? Yes, that's basketball. That's basketball. If you don't like it, watch football, which is what I choose to do ironically. So, yeah, man, there were some weird points made there. I just. I don't necessarily think that if I lifted Klatt's shirt, there would be a barcode on his lower back that proves he's been bought and PA for simply because he shared an opinion that some disagree with. Many in this case disagreed with. They're watching us in Lawrence, Kansas. They're watching us in Durham, North Carolina. They're watching us in Oxford, Mississippi. Sorry, I had to check something there. All right, we had another question. As I said, we opened the mailbag and the mailbag overflowed today. Trey from Hamilton, Alabama, which head coach needs the national championship more in these playoffs? I don't think A single coach needs to win the national championship to validate themselves. I think if a couple of them won it, it would transform their perception. But I got some who need to win some games. How about that, Trey? The first thing that I would say is Kurt Signetti doesn't need to win anything. Kurt Signitti has become a legend. What he's done in Indiana already is one of the great stories in the history of college football. But imagine if he did win the national title, and he very well may, if Kurt Signetti in Indiana won the national title. I'm again, I'm going to say it may be the greatest story in the history of college football. Certainly one of the most unbelievable stories, if not the most unbelievable story in the history of college football. The only reason I hesitate is because you always hesitate when you talk about the entire history of a sport and you're worried that you're being prisoner of the moment. I actually think the opposite is true. I don't think people are making a big enough deal about what Sig is doing in Indiana. I really don't. I really, I know that people talk about it. This is like historic all time history of the sports stuff that's unfolding in Bloomington, Indiana. And I don't know that we could do it enough justice like talking about it enough. But that's before the playoff has started. What if they win the whole thing? I have, we talked about this for like 30 minutes today. I have a thought that if Indiana wins the national championship, it would be a phenomenal story. If Indiana wins the national championship, it would be phenomenal for Indiana. There's this weird twisted way where it could actually be bad for the sport overall. Not in a sense that Indiana being good is bad for college football or anything like that. It would create so much unrealistic expectation on every other coaching staff in America that I think the collateral damage of an Indiana national championship would be a net negative on college football. And I don't like, I know that's going to get twisted, but if you really think that through, I think most of you can see what I'm saying is accurate. The attention span and the patience windows would evaporate. And if that guy just won a national championship in his second year at Indiana, there will never be an excuse for John Sumrall not to immediately do it at Florida for Lane Kiffin not to immediately do it. Kaylin DeBoer, you should have already done it at Alabama. Kirby, it's been two or three years. What's wrong with you? Like that would be. That would be like a persistent attitude across the country. So, yeah, he doesn't care. Sig shouldn't care. But the rest of college football, I'm just saying, man, I don't know if the rest of college football is really pulling for Indiana, like just the general fan, the agnostic fan at home may be. So I'll say three coaches here. I think Mario Cristobal badly needs success in this playoff. They're playing Texas A and M. They're about a field goal underdog this Saturday. We're going to be there for that game. It's going to be a war physically. It may be one of the best head to head matchups and in this entire tournament. But there's been a lot of thought that Mario's underachieved at Miami. There's been a lot of thought that, well, he's assembled a lot of talent, but man, they really haven't gotten the job done. Now. They've ascended every year, record wise. They've gone 5 wins, 7 wins, 10 wins, 10 wins again, and now a playoff berth this year. So they've gotten better every year. They lost Cam Ward and brought in Carson Beck and they're right back in the playoff. But if he added a playoff win, much less multiple playoff wins, then I really think people start to talk about him a little bit differently. So it'd be really big for Mario if he were able to do that. Kaylin DeBoer, I would say the same thing about Kaylin DeBoer. Far less people doubt him because of what he did at Washington and he's got universal respect amongst his peers. I think most people just in general fandom respect him, but they were really, really beat up down the stretch. Alabama went from one of the favorites to win it all to with the way they performed in the last month, they're really not on anyone's radar to win at all. A lot of people think they'll get eliminated this Friday night. So what if they were to win Friday night, but then they were to beat Indiana as well? I look, given the state of that team late in the season, I think it's an accomplishment for them to be in the playoff, especially if they win a game, if they win a game in the playoff, to me that's been a successful year for them, all things considered. But if they beat Indiana, he starts kind of going on another one of those Washington runs. But at Alabama this time and all of a sudden they're parked in the semifinal. Yeah, that would, that would greatly change the perception and Dan Lanning. I probably should have put Lanning second because DeBoer has beaten landing head to head several times. So Landing. There's still a little bit of question about him in these big games. Signetti and Indiana went in there and house them earlier this year and Lanning got in this tournament last year as the 1 seed won the Big 10 had the first round by and everything and they just got smoked. But that's because they had the unenviable task, as it turns out, of playing Ohio State. So if they get in this thing, and I absolutely love their placement in the bracket, they are going to beat JMU handedly Saturday and then they're going to go play Texas Tech. And if they win that game, I mean they're in the semifinal and they. I'm just telling you they should win both of those games. I mean, I think Oregon very, very many scenarios are in the semifinal of this thing more times than not. And that would be against Indiana or someone who upset Indiana. And either way, like if they are to get there, if they are to get to that semifinal, they're probably either facing Signetti again with a chance to avenge that early season loss or maybe they're facing DeBoer. Maybe he gets another shot at DeBoer. I, I think if Alabama makes it to the second round, they got a better shot of beating Indiana than Oklahoma does. Even though I picked Oklahoma in the game Friday, I think Bama's got a better shot of winning two games to face Oregon than Oklahoma has winning two games to face Oregon. I know that's weird, but it makes sense in my head at least. So I think Lanning, Lanning really needs to make some noise here because with the way they got eliminated last year, if they, if they even win Saturday, I mean there are three touchdown favorites so they should win Saturday. But even if they win that one, then they get bounced by Texas Tech. People are going to look at that as a failure. I'm just telling you that's the expectation level there, that's the talent level there. A lot of talk about them getting healthy at the right time, I buy into that. That's why I have them going way deeper than just the Texas Tech game. But yeah, I think Mario needs it. I think Lanning needs it. I think it would be nice for DeBoer to have. I don't think Signetti needs any anything. But if he does get something here, if he does get to the national title and especially if he wins it, I think the collateral damage that does on the impact it has on other coaches would be a disaster for other coaches. Let's continue. Yeah. So this question changed today. Patrick in St. Louis hit us up early in the day. He said, in your opinion, what's the greatest threat to the success of college football? Private equity involvement, current calendar nil players having to resign each year. So college football is in a very weird spot, Patrick, because on one hand, it's never been more popular. The numbers are off the charts. Our data is unbelievable. It's incontrovertible on this. So I just tweet out sometimes college football and the scale emojis. So that's one hand. On the other hand, the minute you peel back the curtain, there's all kind of mess behind the scenes. So how are you supposed to characterize college football? Is it exploding? Is it great or is it terrible or is it great on the surface, but rotten underneath? Or is there just a temporary mess underneath but it's getting itself worked out? It's just that a mess getting worked out still looks like a mess. How are we supposed to characterize this? So I said a second ago that this answer for me changed earlier today. The way I feel didn't change. It just so happens that we had a sound bite dropped in our lap that I thought would be perfectly tailored for this part of the show. So Eli Drinkwitz at Missouri had a press conference earlier today. I don't even know what he got asked. He may have been asked what his favorite color is, and he may have said blue. Speaking of which, that's the mood I've been in lately, and you want to know why. So he got into talking about some of the problems he sees in college football right now. So I want you to listen to this. It's a little lengthy, but I think it's well worth the listen. And I'll wrap back around on the other side.

Eli Drinkwitz (70:26)

The system that we're in is really sick right now, and college football is sick and not in a. It's just there's showing signs of this thing really cracking, moving forward, and we need to get something under control.

Josh Pate (70:40)

And.

Eli Drinkwitz (70:43)

You know, the score act was something that it looked like it was going to be a step in a direction. There is no perfect solution, but we have to get some sort of steps moving in that direction. Tampering is at. I mean, the highest levels. There is no such thing as tampering. It's just because there's nobody that's been punished for tampering. And so everybody on my roster is being called. We've worked around a system and then tried to create that as the system instead of creating a functioning way of moving forward and making sure that it works for everybody.

Josh Pate (71:16)

Now, for some reason, even though coaches have probably the best viewpoint on this out of all of us, their opinions get dismissed because they make a lot of money. So if you make a lot of money, you don't ever get to point out legitimate concerns, because if you're rich, you're not allowed to point out concerns. So since the head coaches can't do it, sometimes I like to play their sentiments, and if I agree with them, I'll echo them. So I'll echo a lot of what Eli Drinkwich just said there. Like, you got the greatest sport on the face of the earth. It's had horrifically bad leadership. It's been void of leadership. So it's kind of run over in the ditch a little bit, but that doesn't mean the car's totaled. It's just in the ditch. And we've always talked on this show about how current viewership, current engagement, current metrics are well downstream of decision making. So even if college football were to make the worst decisions imaginable today and tomorrow and the day after that, you wouldn't reap the consequences of that in terms of ratings for several years. So what you're seeing right now, in other words, is the benefits and the fruits of decent decision making in the past. Terrible decision making right now would not be reflected in viewership numbers until well down the road. So it's always been a fallacy when people say there's nothing wrong with college football. Look at the ratings. I see the ratings. That means there was nothing wrong with college football decision making a decade ago. We are not a decade ago anymore. So all the fences have been torn down, the cattle are just roaming all over the place, and no one really even knows who owns the farm. Like, what's happening right now. I'm going to tell you what I think is going to happen in short order here. In very short order. I think collective bargaining is coming to college football, which sounds like just a pill that you swallow and spit right back up to a lot of people, me included, for a long time. Given the current landscape that is by 10 miles, the best solution moving forward. It doesn't have to be Wild West. It doesn't have to be anything like that. In fact, you list a lot of what you love about college football, you list a lot of what you wish would come back to college football, you're actually going to get it with collective Bargaining. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this. There are some really, really smart people working on this. There are a lot of athletic directors and presidents at the university level that I think are well down the road on this already. So I'm not just making this up kind of halfway. Know what I'm talking about when I look at it, I don't care about it from a business standpoint as much as I care about it from a check the boxes on me getting what I love in college football standpoint. So if I love players not moving around so much, if I love national signing day mattering, if I love loyalty to programs mattering, I actually believe that the collective bargaining route, when it's done right, is going to give me way more of that than what I have right now. What I think that's going to look like is I don't think that you're talking about doing it from the university level or from the league level. I think you're talking about it being centralized and way up the ladder above the league level. And I think you're talking about maybe if you're scared about private equity involvement, I think probably that's the level that it gets infused into more so than the university level or the conference level. Because at that point you're not having to. You're not having to accept the risk. You're not running payroll. They're not employed by the University of Utah. They're employed by whatever conference Utah happens to be in by then. Not even the conference. Actually, the entity above the conference. Anyway, think this through for a second. Think about collective bargaining and what it means. It means finally you can list your rules and enforce them because you've collectively bargained with the athletes. So everyone's agreed to it. Your player reps in collective bargaining are not going to be like hotshot freshmen who can't even get their way around their dorm room, much less understand the world of college football. It's going to be veterans on rosters that are your player reps. Now, here's what I think will be the mentality amongst your veteran player reps in college football. When the time comes for them to have a seat at the table for collective bargaining, they are going to appreciate and value the dues that they've paid at whatever institution they're at. And so when it comes time to agree upon pay scales, what I think we're headed towards, and my fingers are crossed on this, what I think we're headed towards is a system that heavily incentivizes sticking it out at the same program. It never locks you into the same program. You're free to transfer. But if I'm a freshman at South Carolina, I know I'm earning a certain amount. But if I'm a sophomore there, I know I'm earning more. But if I'm a third year player at South Carolina, that's when my big earnings kick in. And if I make it a fourth year at South Carolina, then that is payday for me. And it doesn't mean that I can't partake in nil. If I'm a superstar player, there's going to be a market for that. But if we are in a collective bargaining world, that means we're also in a world where nil as Wild west pay for play is gone and the true spirit of NIL takes its place. Which means your transcendent stars get the Snickers commercial. But otherwise NIL kind of becomes nil and revenue sharing becomes collectively bargained revenue sharing. That's where I think we're probably headed. I don't know that that's 10 years down the road or even five years down the road, by the way. I think it may be much closer than that. But I'll tell you what the biggest threat is. The biggest threat is no plan like Eli Drinkwich just talked about. Because right now, think about what we've lost in college football. The games are still awesome. The games are unbelievable. Ratings through the roof. So people still love the games. It is my belief that we've lost several of the adhesives that connect fan to sport. One of them we've lost is recruiting. Recruiting still exists, but the attention that recruiting and National Signing day gets Palestine pales in comparison to what it used to get. And the only thing I can compare that to is what if overnight people just kind of lost interest in the NFL draft. They would still watch the NFL games on Sunday, but you would have lost part of the adhesive that connects fan to product. Also in college football, we have watched spring games more and more go by the wayside. And we'll probably go even further down that road. That's not the end of the world. But there is a family out there down the road in Ann Arbor, Michigan, down the road in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, down the road in Gainesville, Florida, who probably can't afford season ticket packages, can't afford to go to the big games. You know, maybe they go to like the FCS game every year. But what they can't afford to do one Saturday in the Spring is load up the truck and go down the road and walk in a stadium because it's free or it's $5. And that's an experience. And there's a little kid who's experiencing that, that gets a lasting memory, and it becomes the early adhesive between him and her and that program and that university. It'll still happen to a degree, even if that experience isn't had. But you removed a little bit more of the adhesive. You have also greatly devalued bowl games. This is all happening in the last 10 years. Bowl games still exist. Bowl games are not what they used to be. Even I can't pretend they are. So a lot of the adhesive outside of the games themselves that attract fan to college football has suffered greatly. You don't just get to keep doing that and never suffer consequences down the road. I just don't know how far down the road it is. And I don't know, like, what's too late. We're not at the too late point, not at the too late point at all. I just hope we never get anywhere close to it. So a couple of months ago on the show, I talked about a group called the Magnolia Foundation. And the reason that I did not mention it every other show is because we got such overwhelming feedback in the two shows that I mentioned it that frankly, we got overwhelmed a little bit, and I kind of had to hit the brakes on it a little bit. Here's what the Magnolia foundation is. In 2020, I moved to Nashville. Shortly thereafter, there was a big tornado that came through Nashville. It sideswiped my building, and I was out of it for a week. But it went over the Cumberland river and it went into places like Cookeville, Tennessee. It was on the ground for a long time. It grew into an EF4 tornado. It killed a couple of dozen people. And one of them was the daughter of one of our friends of the program, Matt Collins, who runs the Magnolia Foundation. They started the Magnolia foundation because they went through the process of what it's like to have to bury your child. And they looked at that process and they realized how difficult it is. They realized that many people any given time in our country are going through that, and they wanted to help out because they understand the expense. And so they started the Magnolia Foundation. The Magnolia foundation helps any families who have lost children age 0 to 18, and they help with funeral expenses, they help with commemorative care, they help with basically everything. The expenses you would think exist and then the ones you would never think of. And so Matt reached out quite a while ago because he watches the show, and I got to know him and I said, we want to partner with them. We want to partner with you guys. And so we did. And so the first thing we did is we put the website right there on the bottom of the screen. If you just want to donate to them directly. Themagnoliafoundation.com give. And several of you did that. We also have items in our store, patematerial.com that are specialty to the Magnolia foundation, where portions of those proceeds are just going to the Magnolia Foundation. And, man, we just cut them a check for several thousand dollars today, I gotta tell you. Also, there have been several private donors that have reached out with very, very sizable contributions. The Detroit Airport, Detroit International, Wayne Wayne Airport up there in Detroit, one of the biggest contributors. They reached out because I've told several stories about being in the Detroit airport on the show after Ohio State, Michigan games. And so there's some folks at the airport who watch the show. So they're part of a charity up there. And they. I think they have a golf tournament every year. Anyway, $10,000. I'm not even sure they wanted me to share it, but $10,000 contribution that they cut to the Magnolia foundation to help families, specifically there in southeast Michigan. So they do incredible work there. I am mentioning it again on the show because it is December 16th. This is a really, really hard time of year for people who are going through that. There's never an easy time. People who haven't been through it, including me, cannot fully understand it. And I understand that as much as we can understand it, what we understand is it helps to help. And so if you are able out there, I would strongly encourage you, if you're blessed and you're well off financially and you're just looking for ways to help, that's a really good place to help. Themagnoliafoundation.com give me a. And you can check out in the Pate state store or you are loved line there. And portions of those proceeds go to the Magnolia foundation as well. All right, let's move on. What happened, Jesse? Oh, Jesse messed up the rundown. That's on Jesse. That's not on me. Okay. Well, luckily, we called an audible here. Kevin, our buddy from Montgomery, Alabama, hit us up. He said, hey, what's your plan to fix bowl season? I don't know if I can, Kevin. I don't know if I can. The first thing I have to do is ask you a question, and that is how Married are you to the current structure? The current structure is just bowl season happens at the end of the regular season. If that's what you're looking for me to save, I don't know that I can save it. I can keep the games we're about to. We're in the middle of bowl season right now, so I can have the games still happen, but you're going to deal with teams opting out, players opting out, you know, the stuff we hate. So if you're looking for me to save that, if you're looking for me to hit the rewind button and go back in time, I can't do that. We warned about it, but they didn't listen to our warning. So I can't do anything about that now. I have tossed around an idea. I heard our buddy Rick Neuheisel was tossing around this idea. It doesn't really matter who had it first, as long as it's a good idea. That's what Meemaw says and that is to have bowl season at the beginning of the next season. Now, anytime you mention these ideas, they're going to be radical. Okay? So like that's why I always ask, do you have to have bowl season at the end of the current season? Okay, if you do, don't listen to the following idea. You're not going to like it. But if you're open to some radical proposals, at least what you could have is the playoffs. Plenty big enough now to where December's, December's filled with inventory. So we don't have to have the bowl games or else there's no football in December. There wouldn't be as much of it. But if you're okay with it, what you could do is write down the games that would have been bowl season and then let those be sort of like a gigantic kickoff week the following year or what you really could do. Like I was thinking about this. If we're going to move the start of the season up to where what is currently week zero is, week one, maybe, maybe you have like a tune up weekend where there's some decent games and some throwaway games and then week two is Labor Day weekend and that's the huge, like what would be bowl season bowl weekend. And you got like 30 or 40 matchups that were kind of set last year. Like Jesse, who would Notre Dame have played in their bowl game? Was it, was it, who was it Georgia Tech or someone like that. So would have been byu. Okay, so just let's just pretend that under this new idea let's just take Georgia Tech since they're in the game. Georgia Tech and Brigham Young, Instead of playing December 27, 2025, they just play Labor Day weekend, Labor day week in 2026. That's. That's the bowl game. I know it makes no sense by historical standards because the team, the players that are going to be on those teams next year weren't even on the team the year before. I know that. I'm trying to save it. Okay. The current situation is on life support, so this would just be one way to do it. And it gives you something to look forward to the next year. And all the games are going to be played at a maximum level and no one's going to opt out because they're legit regular season games. So that would be one idea. There's another idea that our buddy Stephen Godfrey is throwing around. And I was listening earlier today to his proposal and what his idea was. It's pretty complicated, but I'm going to sort of broad stroke it. Immunity. His idea was, forget about all the tie ins, just have the bowls, but they don't have to take an SEC team, they don't have to take an ACC team. And they just start basically recruiting teams. You could start in like week six, week seven, week eight, and you just start recruiting teams. And they're bidding on teams. They're basically recruiting teams. Like, teams would recruit players. And so they're going to Notre Dame and say, hey, if you guys aren't in the playoff already, or if you're not in the playoff at the end of the year, the Pop Tart bowl over here, we're willing to pay you this much money. We're willing to pay your players this much money. So here's the full compensation package. And the Bulls are competing against themselves. And then another idea he tossed out was partner with one of the big streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon, whatnot, and just document the whole thing. Document the sun bowl competing against the Gator bowl and the entire process. And it comes down to like the night before and the Gator Bull thinks that they have Memphis, but then the sun bowl yanks Memphis away with an over the top offer. Like I said, radical proposals. And then there's another question. Okay, could you blend that concept with sort of what I call the 13th game concept? We were throwing this idea around earlier today. There's a lot of holes in this one. But you know how when Vandy realized they were going to get locked out of the playoff, they tried to schedule a 13th game last week? Well, what would happen if you kind of took bowl games, bowl season, threw a Stephen Godfrey spin on it and had the whole recruiting process, but you had those games take place on conference championship weekend. So anyone who's not in a conference championship is in their bowl game. That is essentially their 13th game. But the results of the bowl games are counting. You're not even putting out your final playoff rankings until after that 13th weekend. So if Brigham Young and Georgia Tech are playing in the Pop Tart bowl, that's wonderful. And they just missed out on the playoff, but they're getting a 13th data point. So everyone who's playing that weekend is getting a 13th data point. Now, I think one of the things you would have to do is you would have to crystallize the idea that if you're playing in the conference championship games, you've got a spot in the playoff. Because otherwise I'd look at it and say, like, if I'm Alabama, why am I going to play Georgia? I'm playing a tough opponent, while the other teams that are competing for spots are playing somewhat lesser opponents. So I would kind of need some assurances that if I'm playing in these conference championship games, I'm going to be in. I don't even know how you would do that. That's just a loose concept that we were throwing around. So I don't know if we can, you know, fix bowl season to the degree that we just resuscitate what used to be, but you can get creative about ideas for the future. Couple of more things to hit here. Hateful, hurtful allegations came our way from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and this allegation sounded like this. Why are we allowing vague posting to become the hot new trend in college football? Now, we all know what they're talking about, but if you don't know what they're talking about, I have a tradition around here, and that is when I hear some big news, maybe on the horizon, but I'm not at liberty to discuss it. I just put out the GIF from Jurassic park of the cup of water on the dash of the Ford Explorer when the T. Rex is approaching and the footsteps of the T. Rex start causing ripples in the water. Same thing, figuratively, that happens in college football. All right, Jesse, that's when you tell me I can stop hitting the desk. So here's the thing about it. I'm not a reporter. I'm not a journalist. In exchange for that, people tell me stuff all the time that I can be trusted with because they know I'M not a newsbreaker. I don't look to do what Pete Nakos does, okay? Pete Nakos is breaking news constantly. That's not what I do. I just have a college football show. We have a lot of fun here. So in exchange for that being my existence, sometimes people are a little, or maybe a lot more free with the information they'll share with me. And then the follow up is now, keep that between us for now, which sucks because I'd love to just throw it out there. For instance, now, this was not fun. This was not a fun piece of information. But the Sharon Moore stuff was known behind the scenes for a long time. I certainly didn't know he was going to get fired when he got fired. And I certainly didn't know that we were going to have the events transpire right before he got fired the way they did. I didn't know that. But the infidelity, people knew about that. People knew about that behind the scenes. I don't care what anyone says up there. I never spoke publicly about it twofold on that front. Number one, because I wasn't at liberty to because the people who told me about it asked me to keep my mouth shut on it, so I did. And number two, you start talking about that sort of thing, you open yourself up legally. And I was not about to do that. This is real brick on this set. So I can't afford for someone to come take it from us. It's expensive. But on the other side, like with coaching, search rumors all the time, hear stuff all the time, I'm going to have fun with it. Okay? And I'm going to continue to do that. So that's kind of what the show is about. And if you don't enjoy that, that's totally fine. This probably is not the show for you. My social accounts are probably not social accounts that you want to follow. It's not really that serious at the end of the day. But I will say this. All right? So last week I put it out there because I got told Friday morning that Alabama was working towards an extension with Kalyn DeBoer and they were probably about to put an announcement out about him in Michigan. So I put the water cup out there. It took two days. And so it finally happened on Sunday. And once the thing I'm referencing happens, I'll let you know what the water cup gift meant. That is what I was talking about Friday. People called BS on it. So, oh, this didn't warrant the water cup. There are no rules for what warrants the water cup gift. It's just what I feel warrants the water cup gift. And secondly, yes, that was a big deal when the number one candidate in the Michigan coaching search tells you he's not going to be a candidate in the Michigan coaching search. And that's a really big deal because the alternative is he goes to Michigan. So if he's saying he's not going to, that's a really big deal. So I will continue to use the water cup gif when I put it out there. That means I think big news is coming. Don't necessarily always know how soon, but I think it's coming. And once it does happen, I will tell you. Yup, that's it. That was it. Okay. We have addressed the allegations. I hope I've been clear enough. Before we get to worst bold predictions and we get out of here, I want to remind you 30% profit boost over at FanDuel on all college Football Playoff futures bets. So earlier tonight I doubted that Oklahoma could win a national championship. You may think that that is foolish. If you do, you can make yourself a lot of money. Like retirement level money. Yeah, maybe not quite that much, but you can make yourself a lot of money if you just go bet against that. Bet against me. Because Oklahoma's got pretty long odds to win the whole thing right now. So if you go bet them to win the national title, that's called a College Football Playoff futures bet. And if you do it, you're getting 30% profit boost on it. So you make even more money. And those are over there in a lot of cases. Like obviously, you could pick whoever's going to win it. You could pick exact matchups. You could do all sorts of different things.

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Josh Pate (94:59)

We end every show in December the same way. We go in our bag of predictions. Not mine, yours from the preseason. And the rule around here is very simple. We have a scale of 1 to 10 that measures how bold the prediction was from you. And if I give it a nine and a half or bolder and you hit the prediction, we ship you a chalice of supremacy. Jesse I think we shipped three of them last year. We'll see how many this year. I'm going to go through some of the worst though, because some of these crashed and burned. When you go bold, sometimes you crash. And the rule around here is if I'm going to risk a chalice of supremacy, you risk public embarrassment in December. And four of you are about to get thrown under the bus. Respectfully, Jeffrey and Cary, North Carolina. First up, Clemson becomes the first team since 2013. Fresno State with three 1000 yard receivers. Clemson did not have a single thousand yard receiver this year. Jeffrey TJ Moore was closest with 754. Antonio Williams was hurt some of the year. He had 604 yards. Wesco 537K. Clubnick obviously regressed in terms of passing numbers this year. He was 2800 his first year, 3600 his second year, and then came back down to 2750 his third year. I only gave this a 9 on the boldness scale. I actually thought it could happen. I didn't think it would, but I thought it could nonetheless. Not even close. Next up, this one did get a nine and a half on the boldness scale. A Challis could have been one, except that this was the prediction from Nick. Michigan State beats Michigan and Penn State at home this year. Year two, Jonathan Smith will have his offense clicking. Year two ended up being the last year for Jonathan Smith and East Lansing. He got fired. Quarterback got benched. They lost to Penn State 28 to 10. They lost to Michigan 31 to 20. They started three and oh and then they lost eight in a row. So people quickly forgot about the three and O start. Kind of sad. So yeah, that one was nowhere close. This one was creative but also not close. I gave the next one a nine and a half. Benjamin for Lawrence. Kansas got really bold and he said four flying creature mascots will make the playoff this year. Then he gave us several examples. Well, only one flying creature made the playoff this year and that is a duck. They can fly. There was a great debate on the show back in August or July whenever that was submitted about whether a Gamecock was a flying creature, we decided that it was and then we quickly decided it's not going to matter. South Carolina is not playoff bound. Jacksonville State probably not playoff bound. Iowa didn't make it. Louisville didn't make it. Boston College didn't make it. Kansas didn't make it. Georgia Tech flirted with it, but they didn't make it. So only one flying creature in the playoff that got a nine and a half and that busted. And the last one, this one hits a little close to home. John from Fort Worth, Texas said nebraska becomes the Indiana of this year and and makes the playoff with an 11 win season. I predicted Nebraska to make the playoff and even I didn't say 11 wins. Nebraska went 7 and 5. Nebraska went 4 and 5 in league play and I held out hope to the bitter end. Even when they had their second loss against Minnesota, I still held out hope. But they lost three of their final four. And as much as it hurt me to watch it, it hurt even more to watch Will Compton watch it because I crawled in the foxhole with our guy. That's what friends do. And then I snuck out of the foxhole to go get a snack right as they lost to USC and I never came back. I came back to visit. But then I left again right before the Penn State game and I was nowhere to be found for the Iowa game. So in summary, I kind of hung out in the foxhole with William, but I didn't live in the foxhole. And it's a good thing because it turned out no one lived in the foxhole. Everyone died this year. Nebraska 7 and 5. Better luck next year. It'll just be with someone at quarterback other than Dylan Raiola because he has hit the transfer portal that is our show. Appreciate you guys. Make sure you're subscribed if you haven't already. This is our last show before the before the playoffs. So we're going to do Get Up. Listen to this. Listen to the schedule. Thursday we're going to do get up in New York Thursday morning. We'll be right there with Greeny & Co. And studio there in Manhattan. And then we will come home to Nashville for a little while. Enough time to work out. Then we'll get right back over to the airport and we'll head out to Norman to do a live show that night with Teddy Lehman and Gabe Eicher and Stanford Steve will be there, Kubelik will be there, Dusty Dvorak will be there. I said that they should kick the Thunder out of the arena and move it to Oklahoma City, but they didn't listen to me. But we'll be in a nice theater there and then we'll be on campus there Friday night for Bama, Oklahoma. Strong rumors that I'm going to stop by and see my friends there at the National Weather Service, the Storms Prediction Center Friday morning since it is literally on the campus of Oklahoma. And then we will hop down to College Station right after the game for Miami and Texas A and M Saturday and then we'll come home, be in national in time to watch the Lake games again, weather permitting. Going to be a fun weekend and then we'll recap it all here on Sunday night. Until then, for director Bradley, for producer Jesse, I'm Josh Pate. Take care, enjoy the playoffs and we'll talk about it Sunday. God.

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