Loading summary
Eva
This is an I Heart podcast Guaranteed human I'm Nikki and sports have always been a part of my life.
Josh Pate
So when I was diagnosed with early breast cancer I approached it like I was facing a tough opponent, always thinking
Eva
about my next move.
Josh Pate
After initial treatment I learned my breast cancer could still come back. My doctor and I chose Kiskali with an aromatase inhibitor as a next step.
Eva
Kiskali Ribociclo 200mg tablets with an aromatase inhibitory is for adults with HR positive HER2 negative stage 2 or 3 early breast cancer with a high risk of coming back. Cascali may cause serious skin reactions, liver problems and low white blood cell counts that may result in serious infections. Life threatening lung problems and abnormal heartbeats can occur. Your doctor should test your heart and blood before and during treatment. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening cough, chest pain or dizziness before taking Kaskali. Tell your doctor all your medical conditions, medicines you take and and if you're breastfeeding, pregnant or planning to be as it can harm an unborn baby. Common side effects include nausea, headache and tiredness. Nikki is a real patient, compensated for her time.
Marie Callender's Advertiser
Learn more@cascali.com for delicious meals, you could go out to eat or spend hours in the kitchen. Or you could just make a Marie Callender's meal. Yeah, you heard me. Marie Callender's classic Chicken Parmigiano bowl is delicious with scratch made marinara sauce, creamy mozzarella cheese and no preservatives. It's high in protein with 30 grams per serving. Marie Callenders what Having It All Tastes
Eva
like hi, it's Eva and I think it's about time you discovered the world's first luxury hospitality brand at sea. The Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection. Imagine setting sail on an all inclusive voyage where every moment is entirely yours. It's Explore the Amalfi coast, the islands of Thailand, or Alaska's glacial fjords and the lagoons of French Polynesia. Or maybe just stay aboard and indulge in a spa day, dining from Michelin starred chefs and kayaking directly from the exclusive marina platform. There are so many possibilities and so much time to relax every journey. Unlike the rest, the Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection. Learn more@ritzcarlton yachtcollection.com Lego Star wars just
LEGO Star Wars Advertiser
made the jump to hyperspace Introducing the LEGO Smart Brick. New Lego Star wars sets with smart bricks inspire your child's imagination, taking their play to uncharted regions of the galaxy with responsive lights, a color recognition scanner, a synthesizer and an accelerometer. Your child's play doesn't just come alive. It allows the Lego Star wars galaxy to play back. May the Force be with you. Shop Lego Star wars sets now on lego.com or in Lego retail stores.
Josh Pate
I told you. I tell you all the time. I tell anyone who will listen. We got a little bit different crowd here at Pate State. The community is a little bit closer than your average college football show. Case in point, this morning I put the following out. Quote, I'm recording a Pace State Extra podcast this morning. Drop questions or topics here. Now, most people would ask about depth charts, head coaching rankings. What does our crowd ask about? Well, here's the first reply. Quote she took the kids, Josh. What's my next move? You know, that's what community is all about. And that's what God invented March for Spring practice, Life advice, some passing college football conversation, little bit of storm chasing. That's what the Pate State Extra mailbag is for. It's overflowing this morning, so we're going all over the place. Let's dive in. First up, Scott, lead us off with this. He said, is there actually a world where conference title games don't exist, or is the money too good to let go? Well, I think the money's too good to let go. I know a bunch of people float a bunch of different scenarios out there, Scott, about how conference title games are or aren't meaningful anymore. They're certainly less meaningful than they used to be, I'll grant you that. But a lot of people say, oh, let's do away with them. And then the other side of the fence says you can't. And then your side of the fence says why? And then the other side says, well, they make too much money. And then your side of the fence would probably say, who cares? I don't get any of that money. I'm just speaking selfishly, which at the end of the day we're all doing. I, until proven otherwise, tend to believe those conference title games will be around. But I will tell you how they would disappear. And the only way they disappear is if something takes the place of the conference title game on that Saturday or on that weekend that makes the conference more money. Or follow up, there is a system in place that overall makes the conference more money than it was making with the current way of doing things, including a conference title game. So maybe we will arrive at that one day, Scott. I think the only way we do the former version, I guess the a scenario that I mentioned there is if you have that thing Tony Petiti has floated out there where instead of a conference title game, you have multiple play in games like 3 versus 6 and 4 versus 5. And look, I think, I think the Big Tens had a lot of terrible ideas lately, including the 2014 playoff. But when they floated that concept, just the concept of the play in weekend, I was on record as saying I didn't think it was the worst idea in the world. If you structure it properly. I still don't think it's the worst idea in the world. Happens to be intermixed with a lot of other terrible ideas. So I haven't really given it much oxygen. But Scott, I think that's how it would happen. Next up, Preston, what is a fair but semi realistic way to allow fans to have their interests directly represented in major college football decisions? From Columbus, Ohio? This is a phenomenal question. This is what I have come to spend the majority of my time on. So about a month ago I was talking to some viewers. I do this quite frequently in my DMs. That's not an encouragement to flood my DMs, but I was talking to a few viewers who I trust. You know, those I've gone back and forth with a long time. And a couple of you independently said, hey, you keep talking about the various, like congressional stories or you're talking about the media rights stories and you're talking about them and we know they're newsworthy. But both of you said we're not particularly interested in it because it doesn't affect us like a congressional bill. It doesn't affect us, we're not directly interested in it, or if we pooled the media rights, we don't make that money, so we're not interested in it. And you were right. I said, both of you, it was like 10 different people. But I said on that day I'm going to change the way I talk about this stuff. And that kind of ties into the question that you just asked here, and that is Preston asking, what's a realistic way to allow fans to have their interests directly represented in major college football decisions? Well, I don't know what that system is. That doesn't mean there couldn't be one. I'll try and float one here. And I don't have anything written down. I'm just trying to call it in the ring, as they would say in old school pro wrestling, trying to make it up as I go. But before I say that, I will say any conversation I've had with any kind of, I Guess what you would call a power broker. Over the past month, since I had those interactions, I've said the same thing. You guys are so focused on the opposition, you're so focused on getting your bills, you're so focused on lobbying Congress, you're so focused on convincing investors and whatnot, that you're forgetting who makes it all possible. At its very core, college football to us is the greatest sport in the world. Right? College football is the second biggest sport in the United States behind the NFL. But why is that? It's not just that God invented college football. Now he did, obviously. But God didn't just invent college football and voila, it's that way, Voila. It's great. No, what happened is over a period of time, a whole lot of people, AKA fans, developed a white hot interest in college football. And they built huge cathedral stadiums to seat them all. And they signed multi billion dollar media rights deals to put the games on tv because people cared so much, they knew they could make money selling advertising against it. But the sport wasn't just magically created that way, it became that way. Well, my message and my viewpoint on it is before you start making any changes, before you start cashing any kind of hypothetical check, might you first want to take that into consideration? Might you first want to understand the entire platform or the entire premise in which and on which you operate is that fans, fan interest, massive public interest, is what drives the value, which is what drives the revenue. Well, then we go back to the question that just got asked here. Cause it makes a lot of sense when you think about that. Preston's asking. I'm going to reword his question, but basically the way I read the question is him saying, if we're the ones that really create the value, why wouldn't we have our interests directly represented? Why wouldn't decision makers care what we think or care what we have to say? You notice when they had the little roundtable in D.C. last Friday, a lot of people accurately pointed out there's no player representation. How could you accomplish anything without the players voices being heard? And that's accurate. There's a lot of validity to that. I said it myself. But I'll take it a step further. Okay, if we want to go down that road, that's fine. You want to talk about representation, that's fine. What about fan representation? So to answer your question, Preston, I don't know exactly what that system would be. I don't know if we have like a fan representative for all 136 FBS teams or 38 or whatever. And then you expand it out for all the G5, and then you expand it out for all the FCs. I don't know what that would look like. I just know in a very, very general sense, one of my biggest pushes as of late has been to accomplish this, has been to make sure fan interest, the college football public's thoughts are heard, emotions felt, because that's what created this entire ecosystem to begin with. And the more I think about this, the more it is a worthwhile project to take on. So it's time to call up Congress. It's time to get our own lobbyists. The Pate State lobbyists will spend the majority of spring and summer figuring out how to get fan representation on all of these matters. Good job, Preston. This is your work. I'll probably end up taking credit for it, but it's your work. It's your work. Next up, John from Charlotte, North Carolina. John said, as future commissioner, will you ban international and neutral site games other than the Red River Shootout? I love how we have come to such an understanding on this show that you go ahead and put in parentheses the first thing you know that's going to come out of my mouth. So, as we all know, I'm largely opposed to neutral site games in the regular season. The Red River Shootout is an exception. Georgia, Florida, in Jacksonville. I'm fine with that being an exception. I'm probably forgetting a couple of others. But generally I want college football games played on home camp I, which is the plural of campus. I don't like the neutral site games. So now John's talking about headlines that we keep seeing about games going international. And I think international college football games are a very, very dumb concept. And hear me out on this, because I don't think the same thing for pro sports. The NFL plays international games all over the globe, basically. And I think it's a really smart move. Now, I wouldn't like it if I were a season ticket holder. Cause it's won fewer home games, but they play like 30 games in the NFL now in the regular season anyway. So you get your money's worth there. But in college football, I have always thought it's stupid. Not in a sense that it's stupid to try and grow the game, but I think there's a saturation point, you know, there's a line in the sand, and if you go past it, you're actually detrimentally affecting college football. And you're probably thinking, okay, well, I mean, how does playing a game in Ireland and Detrimentally impact college football. It may not hurt it. I don't think it does anything to grow it. Well, how could you say that, Josh? You're exposing an international audience to college football. You're letting people in Ireland, for example, witness a college football game. That's just the thing. I don't think they're witnessing a college football game. And it's different than when the NFL plays in London. If the Patriots and the Jaguars play in London. You're witnessing professional athletes at the highest level of their sport play, competitively mirroring the same product that they would put on the field in the United States. But college football extends beyond the field. That's the big difference in pro sports and college football at least. You could probably make the argument for college basketball, too. But this is a college football thing right now in college football. Compare that. Compare Texas versus Tennessee to Bills, Browns, Bills, Browns. I could play it in a TV studio. I could. I mean, I know that's a little disrespectful to the home crowds there. Bills and Browns both have really good stadium environments. But you get the point I'm making. If I play that game, if I play Seahawks, Ravens in London, or I play it in Madrid, or I play it in Brazil or Mexico City, I'm largely getting the same product I would get if it were played in the United States. Because the NFL is far more a television studio product than college football. I don't mean it sounds like it's played in a studio because you could hear the crowd noise. You could feel that. You could sense that. I say TV studio product, in a sense that it's copy and pasteable. It's duplicable anywhere. Because the product in the NFL is the game on the field. And that's pretty much it. With very few exceptions, in college football, the game on the field is only the beginning of the experience. So I could take Seahawks, Ravens and put it in London, or I could take. Let's put in an Ireland, since college football plays games there. Let's pretend we took Falcons Bucks and we put it in Ireland. All right? Then pretend you took Texas and Tennessee and you put in an Ireland. Those products do not translate one to one the same way the NFL product translates fine. College football is about so much more than what's on the field. To experience college football is not to experience the highest level football being played in the country that's played in the NFL. That's actually why collegiate sports and our fascination with them in the United States don't make a whole Lot of sense to the international crowd. The international crowd looks at college football and says, why are people so fascinated with Georgia or Michigan? Why don't they just go watch the Falcons or the Lions? Like, are we understanding this properly, that those are just university kids that hope to one day play pro ball, so why not watch the product that is the professional version? That's how they think in a lot of cases about American football overseas. Well, the reason we're fascinated by it is not because it's the actual highest level of the sport we have access to here. The reason is because of pageantry. It's because of the environment, the snow globe that surrounds that game, that college football game. And you can't pick that up and drop it into an international market. You cannot take Knoxville, Tennessee. You can't take Neyland Stadium. You can't take that environment and drop it in Ireland. You can't do it. You're not experiencing college football the same way as if I took two NFL teams over there. You're experiencing the NFL. So when the NFL plays internationally, I think they're doing wonders to grow their game and expand their game. I don't think at its core, college football is meant to be consumed internationally. And that's okay. It's okay to admit there's a certain growth point and to an extent, there's a certain ceiling on the potential growth of college football. Understand, it's the same way as if someone tells you, hey, there is a maximum height that you're going to reach as a human. Now, some of you, it's going to be five, seven. Some of you, it's going to be six one. College football is like the dude who is told when he is 6 foot 8, hey, that's as tall as you're going to get, bud. And college football is looking over at their cousin who's 7 foot 2, and they're pissed off about it. You're 6, 8. You already had to buy a specialized car. You couldn't fit in normal commercial airline seats. You're plenty tall enough. It's okay. It's all right. So I've always been against the international push to play games overseas. It's not because I don't want to grow the game. Hey, you want to grow the game? I got some ideas to grow the game. I don't think the game has come near to maximizing its growth potential in the United States. Why don't we worry about that before we worry about playing a game in Sri Lanka? I get heated on that subject
Marie Callender's Advertiser
for delicious meals. You could go out to eat or spend hours in the kitchen. Or you could just make a Marie Callender's meal. Yeah, you heard me. Marie Callender's classic chicken parmigiana bowl is delicious with scratch made marinara sauce, creamy mozzarella cheese and no preservatives. It's high in protein with 30 grams per serving. Marie Callenders what having it All Tastes
Eva
like Hi, it's Eva and I think it's about time you discovered the world's first luxury hospitality brand at sea. The Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection Imagine setting sail on an all inclusive voyage where every moment is entirely yours. Explore the Amalfi coast, the islands of Thailand, or Alaska's glacial fjords and the lagoons of French Polynesia. Or maybe just stay aboard and indulge in a spa day, dining from Michelin starred chefs and kayaking directly from the exclusive marina platform. There are so many possibilities and so much time to relax every journey. Unlike the rest, the Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection. Learn more at Ritz Carlton YachtCollection.com Lego
LEGO Star Wars Advertiser
Star Wars Just Made the Jump to Hyperspace Introducing the LEGO Smart Brick New Lego Star wars sets with smart bricks inspire your child's imagination. Taking their play to uncharted regions of the galaxy with responsive lights, a color recognition scanner, a synthesizer and an accelerometer. Your child's play doesn't just come alive, it allows the LEGO Star wars galaxy to play back. May the Force be with you. Shop LEGO Star wars sets now on lego.com or in Lego retail stores.
Dr. Jake Goodman
Hi, I'm Dr. Jake Goodman, host of beyond the Script, the podcast where I sit down with pharmacists to answer the health questions you didn't even know you could ask at the pharmacy counter. In this episode, we are diving into gut health with CVS pharmacist Victoria Mottola, who explains why so many of us live with stomach issues we should not accept as normal.
Pharmacist Victoria Mottola
A lot of what I see is just like chronic bloating, chronic stomach aches. Like I get a stomachache every time that I eat and it just becomes like a lifestyle where, oh yeah, you know, I just, I have a stomachache every day or I'm constantly feeling like gassy and all of those things are not something that generally if you have a healthy gut, you should be living with. So, so that's when we deep dive. We deep dive into your medication, we deep dive into your OTC medication and then at that point we can probably
Dr. Jake Goodman
identify something that we can change, hear the full conversation. Plus some Fascinating facts about how gut health affects so much more than just your stomach. On beyond the Script, a podcast from CVS Pharmacy and iHeartRadio. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts,
Josh Pate
Will. Next up, Peachtree Corners, Georgia. Beautiful there this time of year. Will asked, you've been to a lot of college towns and you normally work out in every facility, but do you ever go to their staple restaurant in that town? If so, what are your favorites? The one downside with the way we do the speaker series in the spring, which is starting next week, by the way, two stops next week, the way we normally do that. And the one downside is we get in and out pretty quick. Immunity. And so all of the time is kind of spent at the facility. You're sitting down with staffs, you're watching practice. In many cases, like you said, we always want to see the weight room, work out in the weight room. However, last year we went to Starkville. We went to sit down with Jeff Levy at Mississippi State. Brandon Langlois, hall of famer. In my book, if he's not in a hall of fame, he should be in a hall of fame. So he just runs everything communication over there at Mississippi State. After we got done with Levy, he took us over to a place called Two Brothers. And Two Brothers was possibly the best meal I had last year. Haters will suggest that it doesn't belong top 10, but two things stood out to me in Starkville that day. First off, no one asked me about Brandon Walker. He's a ghost there. Don't believe the hype. Brandon Walker is, is no big figure in Starkville, Mississippi, and you'd be hard pressed to convince me otherwise. And the second thing is Two Brothers is phenomenal and anybody who goes there needs to check it out. Now, I have to say this little quiet Savannah State somewhere around here, she, she, her tummy got a little sideways. She got, she's in here. Leave off limit. Leave. Walk away in the studio. Walk away. Okay, well, ignore what you heard in the background. It was good food. To most people who sat at that table and partook in that lunch, it was good food. So they're not paying me a dime. I don't even know if they're open today. But two brothers, they did a great job. And I highly suggest anyone in Starkville check them out. Next up, cfb. Modernity, Modernity, modernity. He said. There is a lot of discussion about advocacy, extracting as much value out of the system and any Future collective agreement, etc. I'm 100% supportive of players having a legit voice in discussions. But wouldn't you say NFL economics are the ceiling college players should be getting? How do you assign the value of the school brand, which I believe is more powerful to the fan than the ratio of the NFL? There's no way to prove this, but I would think the alumni base and attachment to the school would be even higher than NFL attachment. That sounded long winded. He's saying something I've always agreed with, but I've never taken a deep dive into the argument because I am not an economist and I don't have the data to back it up. So there are a lot of times where I'll feel something and I won't just come out say it because I don't have data. And if anyone were to make a claim like this to me, I would ask them for data to back it up. So when I don't have the data, this isn't an across the board stance because sometimes I just open my mouth. But in this case, what he's saying there and what I agree with is all the people out there who make these arguments about how much players should be paid in college and how they use these tables or these graphs, maybe you've seen them where it compares what an NFL left tackle makes and what a college football left tackle makes. Or even from head coaching salary perspective, what a payroll for an NFL roster is in comparison to what the head coach makes versus how dwarfed that is in college football. The assumption there or the suggestion there is that college football's pay scales should mirror the NFL in some cases. So it's a case by case thing. In some cases. There's legitimacy and logic behind that, but it's not an apples to apples thing. So what he's saying there is in the NFL, the attachment to the brand versus a college football fan's attachment to the brand and is way different. And I agree with that. If you live in Laredo, Texas, your attachment to Texas A and M is far greater than your attachment to the quarterback of that team or to the star wide receiver of that team than that of the Houston Texans fan and their attachment to brand versus players on the team. And that's the way it's always been. There's nothing wrong with either of those worlds. By the way, I have been at various points in my life a fan of an NFL team and then fan of college football in general, and I feel different ways about the two products. Like when I'm an Atlanta Falcons fan, when I'm a kid Growing up, you better believe I was hardcore Mike Vick. Right up until I wasn't. I was hardcore Roddy White. I'm hell, let's see. Brian Finneran, friend of the program yeah, I was much more a fan of them. Keith Brooking, I was much more a fan of them than the Atlanta Falcon logo. But then if I were growing up a Georgia fan, yeah, I'm a huge block G guy and whoever comes through there over the span of three or four years, they're my favorite players in the country. I'll cheer for them over any other player, obviously because they're wearing my uniform. But that uniform is far more important to me as a Georgia fan. Just like my head coach. If it's Mark Richt or if it's Kirby Smart, my head coach in a perfect world is going to be there a decade, two decades. He could become a college football legend. But he's going to be there a long time. And so he's going to be there before that freshman wide receiver steps on campus. He's going to be there long after that senior wide receiver graduates and goes off to the NFL and hopefully represents us in the starting lineup. Intro instead of his high school. But yeah, that's why I, I know that attachment is different. So the question there is all right, well what about the value of players? Might we be overshooting the true value of players and college in relation to what kind of value they have in the NFL? Yeah, I don't really think we figured it out yet. You could argue let the market figure it out. Then there's this other school of thought. When there is a cry for employment, when there is a cry for collective bargaining, when there is a cry to essentially have a players union, there are a lot of folks who will tell you, hey, if you're an actual player right now, current or future player, you might want to tread lightly on that whole concept. You might want to stop and realize a lot of you have it as good as you could ever have it right now. And if you end up collectively bargaining, let's be real, either environment is going to be great. There is no bad way to be a college football player right now. But if you collectively bargain, you may actually be giving up a little bit of your freedom, a little bit of your high end earnings potential, a little bit of your maneuverability. So it's a really fascinating time. But I do agree on the surface that it's overblown in a lot of cases the value that an individual player has to a college football team and There are exceptions to that rule. So please save me. Just spare me yelling in the comments about, well, what about this guy? What about that guy? I fully understand. I fully get the value of Johnny Manziel has the value of Cam Newton has a Tim Tebow has. We are talking about exceptions to the rule there. In the grand scheme of things, Yes. I think there is a different value ratio in college football than that of the NFL, both when it comes to players and coaches. I think coaches are worth a lot more in college football than they are in the NFL. I know what the pushback is on that. I know the pushback is it's crazy to think that a college football coach makes two or three times what his left tackle makes. Whereas if you look in the NFL, it's totally different. I agree with that. I just think the dynamic is totally different in college athletics. Well, college football specifically, as opposed to the NFL. Let's move it on. Let's move it on. Good pace here. I think I've gotten way more questions in this morning than I normally would have by 22 minutes. Then again, I'm wasting time. Archaeus is actually where I'm from. He's from Hamilton, Georgia. I'm from just down the road in Harris County. I'm from Fortson. Archeus asked, do you interact with the people you compete with in media? The answer to that is I don't compete with anyone in media and therefore I interact with a lot of people in my space, I guess is what you're asking. People who do something similar to me. Yeah, I interact with many of them. I don't view competition the same way most people view competition. I think I've talked about this on the show before. I won't bore you with it. I think the way a lot of people define competition is so stupid and outdated in media, especially because it is not 1997 anymore. It is 2026. In 1997, if I were doing a show and let's say will Compton and Taylor Lawan have a show and let's say Joel Klatt has a show and we're all airing at the exact same time, we are marketplace competitors in the ecosystem. You can only choose one of us. If we're all on from 4pm to 7pm Every listener or viewer that Klatt gets, every listener or viewer that Bussin gets is one I can't have. But as you'll notice, it is not 1997 anymore. In 2026, what you can do, and I know many of you do, this is you could listen to my show first thing in the morning, and then you'd go turn on Klatt's show right after that. Or maybe you watched his show when it premiered and you watched mine later. And then you watch Will and Taylor at your lunch break every day, and you consumed all three of our products. It's an on demand world now. And so the proper way to think about that to me is, is not, hey, how do I make sure I get a listener or viewer and someone else doesn't get it? I'm the exact opposite. If I'm in a conversation with someone and they say, hey, in addition to you, like, I watch your show in addition to you, who else should I watch? Dude, I'm listing like five or ten shows. I hope everybody gets listened to or gets consumed. I hope everybody makes as much money as they can. One plus one equals three in this world. In the on demand world, actually, one plus one can equal seven if you play it right. So competition is us trying to do the best we can. That's the competition. The competition is set the bar insanely high and focus on meeting or exceeding that bar that you set for yourself. I mean, we've got all kind of stuff that we're planning on doing with our show. I've got all kinds of things I'm planning on doing with our organization outside of just our show. That has nothing to do with what anyone else is doing in the space or what a quote unquote competitor is, is, or isn't doing. And then in turn, they'll do stuff that I would never do and I would never touch. It's just limitless, man. It's a whole wide open frontier. We're less than a decade into the digital media era being fully formed, and in a way, it's still kind of being formed. So I don't think about competition that way. So, yeah, I talk to most everyone. I mean, I have conversations every single day with people who do the exact same thing I do in the space I do it in. We're working on something right now that I'm pretty sure will end up being way bigger than anything I've ever done in college football. And those relationships and connections and conversations are all born from the loose concept I'm talking about right now. And by the way, before anyone gets any big ideas, that doesn't mean anything about this show, and that doesn't mean this show's going anywhere. Anything that I do extends above and beyond or off of this show. So this show's the center of the universe. So we're not changing the show or messing the show up in any way. Rest easy. I have found that I always have to throw that caveat in, because if I don't, then the inbox will fill up with people out of their minds thinking that we're going to stop the show or change the show. We're not doing that. We are not doing that. Next up, Mark asked, what is a college football upset you still think about today? I think one of the most consequential upsets that ever happened in this Sport was that 07 season. Of course it was in 2007. All the crazy stuff happened in 2007, but I don't really think people understand how much crazier it could have gotten. 2007 is like its own planet of college football. Many of you who are too young to have lived it, you've probably heard about it. Like, you have heard people tell stories about 2007 and you've seen the screenshots of the BCS rankings in like week nine or something like that, but you never lived it. And even the people who lived it have come to forget how close we came to just a massive mushroom cloud at the end of the year and people forever having their worldview of college football changed. Because here's the thing about the 2007 season, even though it was crazy, you look back at the ending. LSU won the national title over who? Over Ohio State. And that looks like a normal national title game. So there is a nice neat bow on the top of a package of insanity. But it almost wasn't that way. The biggest upset. You want to call it the biggest, I don't care. To me, when you, when you say college football upset, the first upset that comes to my mind's App State over Michigan because that began like an entire new era of upsets. But outside of that, I actually think that happened in 07. Outside of that, to me, the most consequential upset that happened in college football was not App State over Michigan. It was Pitt over West Virginia in rivalry week in 2007. Because what was happening was in the midst of all this chaos and the BCS rankings looking like they were spat out of a PlayStation simulation. We were on track to have West Virginia versus Missouri in the national title game. We were so close. All that had to happen for West Virginia to make the national title game, guys, was to beat Pitt as like a three touchdown favorite. That's all they had to do. I mean, this is, this is Pat White, this is Slayton this is vintage Rich Rodriguez West Virginia. And they go into that rivalry game and they lose, I think 13 to 9 to Pitt. That was bombshell upset, absolute bombshell upset. And then Missouri lost the Big 12 title game, I think that same weekend or the next weekend, but I can't remember. But anyway, it took what was going to be this fever dream of a national title game, West Virginia, Missouri, and it turned it into LSU versus Ohio State. Here's how insane that was. LSU lost their last regular season game. They lost in triple overtime, I think to like Darren McFadden in Arkansas. And they somehow ended up in the national title game. So we ended up getting a normal looking national title game in LSU versus Ohio State. And LSU wins the thing. And that's Les Miles national championship. And it just changes the way that the entire story of college football was told because that's, that's the SEC in the middle of their run of consecutive national titles. Well, it almost didn't happen. And that's the BCS in this run of crowning traditional national champs. Well, it almost didn't happen. You almost had a huge fly in the ointment. And what I've always wondered, and I can't prove this, but what I've always wondered is, let's say in 2007, let's say it happened. Let's say we really did have Missouri versus West Virginia in the national championship game. Let's say West Virginia really wins a national championship. Well, you and I both know that's not supposed to happen. You and I both know that is not what the BCS was built for. In fact, no postseason structure in college football is built to crown the little guy champion. You can be mad at that, but that's the purpose. The purpose, by the very nature of the architects that build these models, are for the big boys to have their day. At the end of the day, whether it's LSU or Ohio State that year doesn't matter either way. That's how it's quote unquote supposed to end. But what if it didn't end that way? I've always thought it would have expedited us having a college football playoff because people would have looked at it, the powers that be would have looked at it and said, there is no way we can let this fly. There is no way we can let the West Virginia's of the world at the time a Big east team. There's no way that we can let them be winning a national title. So we need a playoff. So that if worst were to happen And a West Virginia or a Missouri ends up in the top two, we can make sure they get filtered out in one of the playoff games. I believe that would have happened. So that upset was insane, 13 to 9. Well, West Virginia is a pinball offense that year too, and they end up hanging nine points against Pitt. That one was crazy. That is what I think about when I think upset. And the other upset that I have never really shaken from my mind is Harbaugh over usc. I don't know if this record still stands today, but at the time Harbaugh and Stanford beat Pete Carroll and USC, they were over a 40 point underdog. There are huge upsets that happen in college football. The one I just talked about where the point spread is like half of that FSU over Alabama was this big upset. Last year it was under a two touchdown spread. It's not even remotely close. It's not even the same galaxy as Stanford over usc. But when Stanford beat USC that day, it wasn't just that they did it, it's that it didn't seem fluky. If you watch the game, Stanford just kind of controlled the game. And then Harbaugh, who some of America knew about at the time, all of a sudden becomes this household name and not too far down the road, he's off to Michigan and you know, rest is history. But that was a big one too. But I just pound for pound the consequence that surrounded that, that West Virginia loss to Pitt. That's one I'll never forget.
Marie Callender's Advertiser
For delicious meals, you could go out to eat or spend hours in the kitchen, or you could just make a Marie Callender's meal. Yeah, you heard me. Marie Callender's classic chicken parmigiana bowl is delicious with scratch made marinara sauce, creamy mozzarella cheese and no preservatives. It's high in protein with 30 grams per serving. Marie Callenders what having it all tastes
Eva
like Hi, it's Eva and I think it's about time you discovered the world's first luxury hospitality brand at sea. The Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection. Imagine setting sail on an all inclusive voyage where every moment is entirely yours. Explore the Amalfi coast, the islands of Thailand, or Alaska's glacial fjords and the lagoons of French Polynesia. Or maybe just stay aboard and indulge in a spa day, dining from Michelin starred chefs and kayaking directly from the exclusive marina platform. There are so many possibilities and so much time to relax every journey. Unlike the rest, the Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection. Learn more at Ritz Carlton YachtCollection.com Lego
LEGO Star Wars Advertiser
Star wars just made the jump to hyperspace Introducing the Lego Smart Brick. New Lego Star wars sets with smart bricks inspire your child's imagination, Taking their play to uncharted regions of the galaxy with responsive lights, a color recognition scanner, a synthesizer and an accelerometer, your child's play play doesn't just come alive, it allows the Lego Star wars galaxy to play back. May the Force be with you. Shop Lego Star wars sets now on lego.com or in Lego retail stores.
Dr. Jake Goodman
Hi, I'm Dr. Jake Goodman, host of beyond the Script, the podcast where I sit down with pharmacists to answer the health questions you didn't even know you could ask at the pharmacy counter. In this episode, we are diving into gut health with CVS pharmacist Victoria Mottola, who explains why so many of us live with stomach issues we should not accept as normal.
Pharmacist Victoria Mottola
A lot of what I see is just like chronic bloating, chronic stomach aches. Like I get a stomachache every time that I eat and it just becomes like a lifestyle where, oh yeah, you know, I just, I have a stomachache every day or I'm constantly feeling like gassy. And all of those things are not something that generally if you have a healthy gut, you should be living with. So that's when we deep dive, we deep dive into your medication, we deep dive into your OTC medication, and then at that point we can probably identify something that we can change.
Dr. Jake Goodman
Hear the full conversation, plus some fascinating facts about how gut health affects so much more than just your stomach on beyond the Script, a podcast from CVS Pharmacy and iHeartRadio. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Josh Pate
Next up, Four Verticals Podcast asked me, what are your thoughts on the college football video game and its impact on the sport now that we're two years in since it came back? I don't really know. I'm not the best person to ask about this. When the game came out, I did play it and it was on total new technology for me because here's the thing about me and video games. I just stopped playing them a long time ago. I played them as a kid, but I really stopped probably in my early 20s. It's been, it's been a long time since I played video games at all, much less just regularly. I'm not judging anyone who does it. I just found it was wasting too much of my time. I was a big, I was on this big kick for a long time of invest time instead of spend time so Investing time is doing stuff that you. You get things out of whatever time you trade in in exchange for it. Well, I wasn't getting anything out of video games. Some of you would say, oh, you get relaxation or you get entertainment, that's cool. I just choose to do other things for relaxation or entertainment. To each his and her own. But when it comes to this, I don't really know what impact the game being back has had. I'm sure it's had a net positive impact. You guys can tell me you're in a lot better position to judge this than I am. I'm so bad about this. Here's what turned me off from video games. Part one was just the time thing. Part two, really specifically as it relates to the college football game was back when it was first out, when I was way younger, I bought the game with Reggie on the COVID So that was like 04 or 05 or 06. Somewhere in middle 2000s, I bought that game and I was playing it on PlayStation. And then the next one came out and I didn't want to buy the next one. And then the one after that came out and I didn't want to buy the next one. And it never made sense to me that all my friends, they would buy the game, they would play it for like eight or nine months and then the excitement and the attention would turn to the next game coming out. Well, at that point, I had gotten used to that game, so I didn't want a new version of the game. And so, I mean, I remember it was like five or six years later. It's 2010, 2011. I'm still playing with Vince Young as my quarterback at Texas. I don't want to move on. I'm happy with Matt Leinert as my quarterback. I'm completely fine. I don't need to move on, you guys. Moving on. I don't need to move on. So they would always get mad at me and then they would only want to play the newest game when I was over at their house. And I wouldn't play because just like golf, I'm either going to be good at something or not play it at all. That's why I have not picked up golf, because I don't want to be bad at it. And with video games, my pride could not take the hit of learning on the fly because you had to lose games in the process. This is a horrible life strategy, by the way. And if any of you kids are listening, please don't live life like that. This is not Uncle Josh this is not a therapy session. This is actually me admitting a fault. This is a character flaw of mine. I would love to play golf. I would love to be good at it. But you got to be bad at golf before you even get decent at golf. And I don't think that I have the patience or the time to dedicate to getting decent at golf. That's it. And similarly with the video game, once I got used to one version of it, I didn't want to learn any other version of it. And then I just dropped video games altogether. I don't regret it. I don't look back on it. It just kind of is what it is. So I don't really know. A lot of you are playing the video game. I know. So you can tell me if you've seen it have an impact. I would guess it's had an impact, but I'm not the expert on this. John is. Next up, how many verified tornadoes have you seen? What was the highest rated? I have personally witnessed 13 tornadoes. The highest rated was an EF4 in Beauregard, Alabama, March 3, 2019. I was in another EF4 tornado a year later to the day, March 3rd of 2020, in Nashville. But I didn't see that one because famously, it's the only tornado that I have taken shelter from as an adult. Every other tornado that I've been in close proximity to, I've been chasing. That one chased me. Not fun. So I know yesterday, as we're recording, it's Wednesday. Yesterday there was a pretty big outbreak. Texas, Oklahoma got hit. Illinois, Indiana got hit. Keeping a close eye on that. Had a lot of buddies up there chasing. We will end up getting out on the road sometime in the next few weeks, and we'll be chasing. And it's really a delicate balance. Really a delicate balance. I talked about this last year, and I'll probably talk about it again at some point this year of the excitement that you feel as you're passionate about atmospheric science, you're passionate about, about weather, about storm chasing, but also balancing it with the real world aspect that anytime there's a tornado, it means lives are in danger. It means property is in danger. And it is very. It rubs people the wrong way when you experience excitement for something that normal people correlate with terror and with loss and with tragedy. I learned last year you got to be very careful with how you talk about these things publicly. And so I'm trying to do that. All right, let's. Let's bundle this one up. This is a good stopping point. Let's bundle this one up. Let's send it out. We'll have another show Thursday Traditional show we do a traditional show on YouTube and here in the podcast feed on Sundays and Thursdays. The podcast feed drops Monday and Friday, but the show is live Sunday night and Thursday night on the YouTube channel. Make sure I know a lot of you obviously if you're listening to this cause this version in the middle of the week is only on podcast. If you're listening to this, I know that means maybe you don't watch on YouTube, which is completely fine. I want you to consume the show however you most easily consume the show. Do us a favor and make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube channel even if you don't watch over there. Just cause it helps us out and it doesn't cost anything, it doesn't sign you up for anything. You know the whole drill. So help us there if you can. If you already have thank you for everyone associated here at Pate State, I'm Josh Pate. Until next time. Have a great rest of your day and go and God bless.
LEGO Star Wars Advertiser
Must be 21 and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. first online real money wager only. Five dollar first deposit required. Bonus issued as non withdrawable bonus bets which expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms@sportsbook.fanduel.com gambling problem call 1-800-gambler or visit fanduel.com rg call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit ndgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text HOPE NY in New York at CVS.
Eva
It matters that we're not just in your community, but that we're part of it. It matters that we're here for you when you need us, day or night. And we want everyone to feel welcomed and rewarded. It matters that CVS is here to fill your prescriptions and here to fill your craving for a tasty and yeah, healthy snack at cbs. We're proud to serve your community because we believe where you get your medicine matters. So Visit us@cvs.com or just come by our store.
Josh Pate
We can't wait to meet you.
Eva
Store hours vary by location.
LEGO Star Wars Advertiser
Lego Star wars just made the jump to hyperspace. Introducing the LEGO Smart Brick New Lego Star wars sets with smart bricks inspire your child's imagination, taking their play to uncharted regions of the galaxy with responsive lights, a color recognition scanner, a synthesizer and and an accelerometer. Your child's play doesn't just come alive, it allows the LEGO Star wars galaxy to play back. May the Force be with you. Shop LEGO Star wars sets now on lego.com or in Lego retail stores.
Josh Pate
I'm U.S. transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. We all get distracted when we drive,
Marie Callender's Advertiser
whether it's from our phones or kids
Josh Pate
in the backseat bickering. But how we handle these distractions can
Marie Callender's Advertiser
be a matter of life or death.
Josh Pate
Before you get on the road for your next road trip, please put your
Marie Callender's Advertiser
phones on silent and take a mental
Josh Pate
note to focus on driving.
Marie Callender's Advertiser
Paid for by NHTSA
Josh Pate
Modern Enterprise has a lot of moving parts. Comcast Business helps you orchestrate it all with SD WAN, working at scale to keep 15050 hospital locations connected and working as one. Plus SASE and Zero Trust Security, protecting financial data across a bank's 2000 branches, and AI powered networking that optimizes traffic across five continents. No one does business like Comcast Business.
Eva
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
Episode: Pate State Extra: Big Upsets & Media Rivalries
Date: March 11, 2026
Host: Josh Pate (iHeartPodcasts)
This "Pate State Extra" episode is a fast-paced, unscripted mailbag session where host Josh Pate tackles an eclectic slate of questions from the show's loyal community. The topics range from the future of conference title games and fan representation in college football, to international games, player value, media rivalries, memorable upsets, and even a bit of storm chasing. As always, Josh maintains his trademark mix of candor, wit, and inside perspective, debating the business and culture of college football with depth and personality.
[03:00]
"Until proven otherwise, tend to believe those conference title games will be around. But I will tell you how they would disappear... only if something takes the place of the conference title game... making more money." — Josh Pate [04:30]
[06:50]
"You guys are so focused on the opposition, getting your bills... you’re forgetting who makes it all possible... the fans." — Josh Pate [08:45] "College football’s platform... is that fan interest, massive public interest, is what drives the value." — Josh Pate [09:20]
[11:32]
"College football extends beyond the field. That’s the big difference... the game on the field is only the beginning." — Josh Pate [13:35] "It’s okay to admit there’s a certain ceiling on the potential growth of college football." — Josh Pate [16:05] "Why don’t we worry about maximizing the game in the United States before we play a game in Sri Lanka?" — Josh Pate [16:50]
[20:15]
"Two Brothers was possibly the best meal I had last year... They did a great job. Highly suggest anyone in Starkville check them out." — Josh Pate [21:15]
[22:20]
"The attachment to the brand is way different. If you live in Laredo, Texas, your attachment to Texas A&M is far greater than the quarterback of that team." — Josh Pate [24:10]
[29:55]
"I don't view competition the way most people do... In the on-demand world, one plus one equals three... or seven if you play it right." — Josh Pate [31:10] "We're not changing the show or messing the show up in any way. Rest easy." — Josh Pate [34:42]
[34:55]
"The most consequential upset... Pitt over West Virginia in rivalry week 2007... that was a bombshell upset, absolute bombshell." — Josh Pate [36:19] "If we’d gotten West Virginia-Missouri for the national title, the BCS might have ended years sooner." — Josh Pate [36:55]
[40:56]
"I don't really know what impact the game being back has had. I'm sure it’s had a net positive impact. You guys can tell me." — Josh Pate [41:18] "I'm either going to be good at something or not play it at all... that's why I don't play golf." — Josh Pate [42:50] (lighthearted)
[43:15]
"It rubs people the wrong way when you experience excitement for something most correlate with terror... trying to balance that." — Josh Pate [44:00]
On Upsets and the BCS:
"No postseason structure in college football is built to crown the little guy champion... the purpose, by the very nature of the architects, is for the big boys to have their day." — Josh Pate [37:40]
On Fan Representation:
"Before you start making any changes, might you first want to take into consideration... fans are what created this entire ecosystem." — Josh Pate [09:10]
On the Limits of Growth:
"College football is like the dude who’s told when he’s 6 foot 8, hey, that's as tall as you're going to get, bud... you're plenty tall enough. It’s okay." — Josh Pate [15:50]
On the Culture of College Football:
"To experience college football is not to experience the highest level of football played in the country. That's played in the NFL... The reason is because of pageantry. It's because of the environment, the snow globe that surrounds that game." — Josh Pate [14:50]
On Media “Competition”:
"I hope everybody gets listened to or gets consumed... one plus one can equal seven if you play it right." — Josh Pate [32:00]
If you missed this episode, you missed classic Pate: a range of issues tackled with clarity, humor, and a sense of what matters most about college football—its fans, its absurdity, its traditions, and its community.