← Josh Pate's College Football Show
Josh Pate's College Football Show
Playoff Expansion Fails + Winter Storm Fallout & Portal Wjnners/Losers
01:09:18
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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human new year. Same extra value meals at McDonald's. So now get two snack wraps plus fries and a medium soft drink for just $8 for a limited time only. Prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher in Hawaii, Alaska and California. And for deliver. Look at that. Somehow, some way, the studio still here, high atop a still falling downtown Nashville, Tennessee, on this Thursday, January 29th, the year of our Lord 2026. Everyone lost power. Winter storm of the century of the year of the week has left everything in a deep freeze. Bradley went without power. Mitch and Prez went without power. Jesse. Yeah. You were without power. I would have been without power if I didn't leave town. And so we're all recovering. We're all kind of victimized here. Except if you wanted the College Football Playoff to remain at 12, turns out those of us, I include myself with you, those of us who wanted to, I don't know, just sit still for a little while. We're not going to be victimized because the College Football Playoff is not expanding, at least in the next five minutes. And I know that news kind of broke last week. I'm not so interested in the what. I want to talk about the why. And I want to do this on the show tonight. I will talk about the winter storm later in the show. I also think with the whole college football panic cycle, which gets cranked up around this time of year, it's sort of a February through July sort of sport, that being college football panic. I want to take a little water and just pour it on the flames. We're not going to completely douse the flames. We just want to damp down the flames a little bit tonight. Probably not as bad as it seems. We got some portal winners, we got some portal losers. We got a jam packed. Show us what we have. We're back in town and they're watching us in Bay City, Michigan. Toccoa, Georgia. I played many a baseball tournament in Toccoa. Beautiful town. Glendale, Arizona. Santa Cruz, California. The only favor that I really need, aside from rock salt and whatnot, hot cocoa, is for you to subscribe to the channel. And if you have, thank you. That just means I'm not talking to you. But stay tuned because I'll move on in five seconds. But if you haven't subscribed, please do so because there's no string attached. Really? There's no string attached. Most times when people say that they're lying to you, I'm not here. It just helps us. So where should I start? The show tonight. I got an idea. You might have heard the College Football Playoff is not expanding next year. They couldn't come to an agreement, blah, blah, blah, yada yada yada. I'm telling you, you gotta go to on3.com and read our boy Brett McMurphy on this today. So eloquent, oh, so poetic. And it made me smile the whole way through. Because for once in my life, when it comes to the College Football Football Playoff, at least temporarily, I feel like I'm getting what I want. It seems like most of you are getting what you want because I don't know very many people who wanted to expand this thing to 16, although some of you did. I don't know any of you who wanted to expand it to 24. So it's not expanding. And it's because really, the parents are arguing. The SEC and the Big Ten are really at each other's throats right now. And through some very, very fancy maneuvering that is threatening to leave. A year ago, the they got the whole system reworked to where they call the shots. And that works well as long as everyone is seeing eye to eye. But in a shocking turn of events, the SEC and the Big Ten are looking out for themselves more so than the greater interest of college football. Therefore, they're not seeing eye to eye. Now, what does all that mean as it relates to the playoff? Why isn't the playoff expanding? Well, I'm going to read you something in just a second, but essentially what we have here is we're sitting upstairs on the top step. It's after our bedtime. It's probably 9:15, 9:20 in the evening, and we're supposed to be tucked in, the door's supposed to be shut and the parents are downstairs arguing. Now, normally when the parents are fighting, it's not a good thing for the kids. But sometimes when the parents are fighting, that means we can stay up late. Sometimes when the parents are fighting, we can pull out the Halloween candy and eat it lieu of supper. Sometimes when the parents are fighting, you can just run video games until midnight. No one's really checking on you because they're preoccupied with fighting each other. And in college football terms, that just means one of them wants to expand to 16, one of them wants to expand to 24. They can't see eye to eye. They both have to sign off on any expansion plans. And so in the net, we just stay at 12. And that, although it sounds fake, really is how college football works right now. So here's the situation, Bradley. I want you to tee up this screenshot. I Screenshot it just five minutes ago. Past tense of screenshot. This is Brett McMurphy. You can read this entire piece, which I highly Recommend over on on3.com right now, but Brett McMurphy summarized it like this. I'm going to read this and then I'm going to celebrate. The Big Ten wants a 2014 playoff. By the way, I'm going to editorialize throughout this because a 2014 playoff is one of the worst ideas in a long, long, sad history of bad ideas that this sport has had to deal with. But I digress. The Big Ten wants a 2014 playoff which includes multiple automatic bids for the power leagues and the ability to stage play in games. The SEC wants a 16 team playoff with five auto bids for the conference champs and 11 at large bids. The S quote. Here's a quote. The SEC and the Big Ten wrestle the power away and they now have fumbled the opportunity to to expand to 16 or more, a source said. Brett McMurphy continues. Not that it matters, but the remaining eight leagues also prefer the SEC's model. But they are the silent majority. Now think about that. Who should I really praise right now? On one hand, the Big Ten has one of the most God awful ideas I've ever seen, but on the other hand, I also really don't even want it to expand to 16. So the Big Ten digging their heels in on their ridiculous 2014 model and is the only thing that kept us from expanding to 16 teams, which is a little more palatable but still unnecessary. Who should I be praising here? It turns out with the backwards way college football works right now, the dude with the worst idea in the room, Tony Petiti, is actually who got me what I wanted, which is nothing. I wanted the College Football Playoff to stay at 12 for a little while. We continue. The Big Ten and the SEC have absolute control over any playoff changes. Total control, no progress. Fun times. And here's a final quote. I love the sources buddy. Brett McMurphy needs to hit me up. I would gladly go on record as saying what this anonymous source said. The quote is they basically bullied their way into an agreement that provides them a lion's share of the revenue and the control of the format. And yet they can't work together because of their egos. Well, you know what? Three cheers for egos right now. Because if that's what's keeping me at 12 teams, then that's what's keeping me at 12 teams. I'm happy about it. So the 12 team playoff has been around for a couple of cycles and it really hasn't stayed the same because we had it the first go around. Then we realized maybe we need to change the way the top four seeds work. And then we had this last round and then we realized two G5 teams just made it. Probably need to fix that. And ironically, the answer was not in the playoff format. It was in conference championship tiebreakers. So anyway, now we enter year three of the 12 team model. And the great irony, whether in the Alanis Morissette version or the true Webster's version, is that we kind of got it worked out. Now if you look at it and you look at the 12 team model this upcoming year and beyond, however many years it exists, we're going to have what the power four conference champs all get a seat at the table. And while everyone's going to yell, yeah, that just means Duke would have had a guaranteed spot last year. Yes, it does. But it's a moot point because closely followed is the fact that all of these conferences are going to fix their tiebreakers. So we're not going to have a world anymore where Duke Virginia is your ACC championship game. If the exact parameters exist, that existed last year. So to be clear, what I mean by that moving forward is like the ACC's conference title game would have been what Virginia and Miami probably, Jesse, that's what it would have been. Moving forward, all you got to do is fix the tiebreakers. And the tiebreakers are this number one head to head, which is always the number one tiebreaker, and then number two, instead of whatever calculus they had worked out on back of a pizza box in the acc, what you do is you just look at the playoff rankings and at that point it would have been Miami that goes to Charlotte to play Virginia. They would have body bagged Virginia, zipped it up, tossed it to the side, and they would have been the ACC champ. And then you dust your hands off and you don't have two G5 teams in. So on the front of the G5, there's another little caveat that again, these things keep getting leaked out. Because we can't just have one gigantic press conference where the playoff committee says, here's how it works. Instead, we just have to get Ross Dellinger writing articles every few weeks. Oh, by the way, did you know this? Did you know that? Here's one of the did you knows that? As far as I can tell, not many people knew until this past week. It's the highest ranked G5 team that gets the guaranteed spot this year and moving forward. Now, that's important because what that'll mean is if Tulane goes 10 2, but their two losses are like one conference game, and then maybe they play Texas or someone like that, and some team from like, a far lesser league goes 120 because they were favored by 10 plus in every one of their games, then Tulane's probably going to be ranked higher than that team. And since they're both G5 teams, Tulane would get the bid. So at least you're guaranteed. You get the best of the G5 as the guaranteed G5 team and the Notre Dame guarantee. I know that's drawn a lot of criticism. I'm not that worked up about it. I don't know what else to tell you. We can agree to disagree on that. I think most of the time it's going to work itself out where whether Notre Dame had the guarantee or not, the playoff field will probably look the same. So the one thing, if you read this Brett McMurphy piece that he started to talk about, he started to quote some people, and Rich Clark is one of them, who's the chair of the playoff committee right now, who is not in charge of making decisions. So I don't blame him for any of this. But he kept on saying things like, we'll stay at 12 teams as we assess the need to expand. My question is this. How do you know you need to expand for the playoff expansionist crowd out there? Or maybe the crowd who thinks, oh, we may need to expand it. How will you know when you need to expand? How do you know when playoff expansion is needed? In my opinion, it never was needed. But no one cares about my opinion, apparently. So we're at 12 right now. How do you know you need to go to 16? Notice what I didn't ask. What I didn't ask is how do you know whether you'll make more money going to 16? Everyone knows the bigger the playoff gets, the more money certain people make. Now, I don't. You don't. Bradley doesn't. But some people will certainly make more money if the playoff expands to 16. Actually, I take that back. Our show would make more money if the playoff expanded further, which is how, you know, I really mean what I say when I say I don't want the playoff to expand. I'm actually the only one pulling my pocket out and saying, look, lent, that's a good thing. That's a very good thing. But forget about the financial piece for a second. Outside of money, I know this is a loaded second half of A question, but outside of money, how do you know when College Football Playoff expansion is needed? I just pause. I know there's no one really in the room with me here, but you may be listening, working out, you're on the treadmill, you're driving around town. I'm gonna give you a little time to answer. You don't have to agree with me on this. Maybe you think it needs to expand. My simple question is, how do you know when or in Rich Clark's language, how are you assessing whether or not playoff expansion is needed? I think the most popular argument that I've heard has been, well, we know it's needed because Miami got in as the 10 seed and they went all the way to the national title game. Which means if the 10 seed was capable of making a run to the title game, maybe Texas was capable, maybe Vanderbilt was capable, maybe Notre Dame was capable. And to that I say, maybe they all were capable. But that's not what I asked. What I asked is, how do you know when playoff expansion is necessary? And those kinds of people would look at me and say, I just told you. I just answered the question. Well, that's where I think we just differ in opinion. Which is fine. It's totally allowed at Pate State. We are a free ideas and free speech campus, even when it comes to College Football Playoff expansion. But I want to make my point pretty clear here. I think I've disagreed with Louis Riddick one time in my entire life. I want it to be the last time. But Lewis Riddick and I disagree with this on Get Up a few weeks ago because he made the point we need to go to 16. And his reasoning was, you know, Texas could have made a run here. Notre Dame could have made a run. Vanderbilt could have made a run. We need a playoff big enough for all the teams capable of making a run in the playoff to get in the playoff. I just fundamentally disagree with it. I do not think the size of the playoff should be. Let's be sure it's big enough where all the teams who are capable of winning a title are in. I couldn't care less about what you're capable of. I care about what you earned. So Vanderbilt got left out. I'm not bothered by it because they lost several games they could have won that would have gotten them in. Ditto for Texas. Hey, Miami got in this thing, and I thought they should have been in this thing. But if Miami had been left out and Notre Dame got in, I would have disagreed with it. I wouldn't have Had a huge problem with it because I always go back to the previous generation where we had four. And I remember when we expanded to 12, many of you may have said the same thing. We expanded from 4 to 12. And if you were on the fence, you said, hey, at least the debate is gone. Because now, I mean, we've been sitting here debating 4, 5, 6. Well, all of those teams will get in, in the new format. And I'll be, you know what it. If I'm going to sit there and argue about 12, 13, 14. Well, here we are arguing about 12, 13, 14. Scratch that. Here some people are arguing about 12, 13,14. I will draw your attention to one more thing before I move on. Just underline the mind numbing hypocrisy of these people. I warned you this was coming. You can rewind to like 20, 21. I warned you this was coming. For a long time, the playoff expansion crowd used public opinion as a convenient bullet in the chamber of their argument. Do you hear anybody citing public opinion these days? Jesse? Mitch, since I just happen to have you in my eye line right here, has anyone lately heard anybody associated with playoff expansion talks cite public opinion? I have not heard Tony Petiti or anyone from the Big Ten a single time talk about public opinion because they used to all do it. Now, the reason I'm pointing this out is back when they expanded from 4 to 12, they were really quick to boom, boom, boom, tap the nearest microphone and say, hey, we're doing this for the fans. Overwhelming public sentiment says they want to expand from four. They never cared what you thought. I said this at the time. People called BS on it, but I said at the time they don't care. It's just convenient for them in the moment that you happen to agree with them. But your motivation as a fan for expanding from four to whatever was largely just you thought it would be better for the sport. You and I disagreed. We've gone over this many times. But that's okay. As long as you and I both want what's best for the sport and you have one version of it and I have another version of it, at least our motivations are pure. Their motivation was never here's what's best for the sport. Their motivation was we got to make more money on this. If these people over here are convinced that what we want is best for the sport, then why should we be honest about our motivation? We'll just weaponize their motivation. We'll use that. We'll just astroturf this whole thing. Well, the reason I know they never cared is because they're advocating in some cases to go to 24 teams now. And there's not a whiff. There's not even the slightest whisper of public sentiment. I haven't heard anyone mention what fans want. You know why? Because fans know. This sucks. Even the most ardent of expansionists, even the people that I argued to, I was hoarse with four or five years ago, are looking at this and saying, no, no, this sucks. I hate this 24. That's not what I signed up for. What are we doing? What they're doing is what they were always doing. Well, at least trying to do. Except for we're not going anywhere for the time being. We at least get one more year. One more year in the sun. There has not been a lot of sun lately. I regret to inform you I am your dutiful correspondent from here in Nashville, Tennessee. But I was not in Nashville over the past week. I was down in Columbus, Georgia. Smartly, some say cowardly, I say smartly, running from a crippling ice storm, which afforded me the opportunity whether I went 65 down to Montgomery or I took 75 through Atlanta to visit several quick trips. So I have a question. Actually, someone gave me a question. I'm just going to read it on the air. Yam guy from Beautiful Horse Cave, Kentucky, hit me up and said, when you go to Quik trip, what are your go to snack lineups outside of the cold brew? First off, okay, I reject the premise of the question, outside the cold brew. There is no outside of cold brew. Now, I will tell you. Yes, I'm a big. I'm a big trail mix guy. Yes, I'm a big pizza guy. I don't call it gas station pizza, it's quick trip pizza. But if it's not topped off with cold brew on tap, what is it topped off with? As far as I'm concerned, that right there is H2O. Like that is oxygen when I walk into a quick trip, that nitro cold brew on tap, which some of you thought I was speaking about in euphemism terms. So I had to record this video the other day to prove. No, buddy, when I say cold brew on tap, I mean there are taps with cold brew in them. And imagine a world. Imagine our forefathers. Imagine the pioneers, the settlers, the first people to come across the ocean. Imagine if we could hit fast forward and show them that everything they were fighting for was going to lead to this. You know what I think? I think they would have said it's all worth it. I may get eaten by a bear tomorrow. I may have a tree fall on my head. But it's all worth it in the end. So God bless those who came before us. God bless America, and God bless Quick trip. Look, not a single shake of the head in there. Everyone agreed. So, yeah, it was a trying time. I ventured up and down the roads a lot this weekend. I think I probably made at least, I would say half a dozen quick trip stops combined. Montgomery, Ringgold, Georgia. There's one in Noonan now. Yeah, I was all over the place. So thank you. Quick trip. All right, let's continue. Take a Hypocritically, this is just nondescript office coffee. Sad. Hold on a second. Qt. All right, there we go. Even though it's very light pen and you can't see it, I really hope Joe does not watch this episode. I don't know if you heard and you probably didn't, but these conferences are releasing their schedules when I'm conference or excuse me, not conference, when I'm College Football Playoff commissioner. One thing we got to get a handle on is scheduling in many ways, but specifically the way we announce the schedules. These should be big events, everyone. And instead Jesse has to text me and say, hey, did you hear the Big Ten announce their schedules? And I was like, no, no, I didn't. Show me. And so he did. And the Big Ten has indeed announced their schedules. And I've got several thoughts on this. And imagine this sentence a decade ago. The first thing I'd like to talk about when it comes to the Big Ten schedule this year is USC. Because 10 years ago that would have meant someone's playing them out of conference. Nope, not this year. USC very much a member of the Big Ten whether you like it or not. And remember when they dropped Notre Dame, not many of us liked it, but they dropped Notre Dame. Well, what that did was that freed them up to end up being the only Big Ten team that plays a week zero game this year. And because they're playing a week zero game and the opponent I don't even think has been announced yet. But because they're going to play a week zero game, USC becomes the only team in the Big 10 to have two bye weeks. Because this year, just in terms of a calendar, is the year where pretty much everyone has one buy and that's college football wide. But if you play a week zero game, you can work your schedule out where you have two bye weeks. So USC figured out a way to do that. I don't like it, but they figured out a way to do that. And then the second thing they figured out a way to do, or maybe the league office figured out a way to do for them, is they only have one bad weather threat game, which is what I was worried about. Because if you look at the USC schedule, we knew they had to go to Rutgers, we knew they had to go to Penn State, they had to go to Wisconsin, they had to go to Indiana. All of those could have been nightmare situations in late November. Well, only one of those games is in November and it's mid November and that's at Indiana. Otherwise they play, let's see, they play at Rutgers early in or mid September. So that's fine. That'll probably be comfortable. They go to Penn State early October, they go to Wisconsin late October, which could be iffy, but it could be really iffy a month later. So I would call USC a winner there. Northwestern is in need of an apology and a flower arrangement and a fruit basket and honestly, just condolences. However you would treat someone who just lost a loved one, turn the volume down on it like 10%. And that's how you should talk to Northwestern fans and staffers and players and coaches. Cause the Big Ten did them wrong here, man. They've got a buy in week two after they play South Dakota State. And whomst amongst us doesn't need a regroup session after playing South Dakota State and then they play 11 consecutive games. You might be thinking, well, Josh, hey, they probably got a soft schedule. So in exchange for the Big Ten making them have a week two by certainly they went light on the schedule, right? Well, that is, I guess, true. Other than going to Indiana and, and playing Penn State and going to Oregon and going to Ohio State, Northwestern got off pretty light. This is barbarism. That's what this is. Northwestern doesn't even know it yet, but they're just behind the gates underground at the Coliseum and there are wild animals roaming around that place and the crowd is chanting kill, kill, kill. And they're about to lower the gate and then Northwestern just waltzes out there and bad things happen. And Jesse was asking me earlier, how does this happen? Well, I can promise you it's not randomized. Somebody somewhere in that league office understood. Look, mathematically, the way this is going to get situated, someone's just got to eat it. And it's not going to be Ohio State and it's not going to be Oregon, it's not going to be Penn State and it's not going to be Indiana or Michigan. And you just keep listing off names and eventually Northwesterns left and you look at them and it's, hey, some of you may die, but it's a risk we're willing to take. It's that moment. What is that? Shrek. The Shrek? Yeah. Never even seen Shrek. But I've seen the clip. I've seen the clip. So rest in peace, Northwestern. Okay, next up, big, big winner here, I think is Penn State. As you know, we claim to be a Penn State show, except that mainly the influence comes from behind the glass over there. It's not me. Did I get Matt Campbell his job? I say no. Some say yes, but I did not make the schedule. However, I really like Penn State's draw here. There is no Ohio State, there's no Oregon, there's no Indiana, there's no Iowa. They got USC in week six. Now, in a perfect world, nay, in a just world, that would be the Whiteout game. This is not a fairy tale world. This is real life. This is Shawshank college football style. So in all likelihood, someone will probably come and snatch that game and then we'll have to like make Wisconsin the Whiteout game or something like that. But we'll see TBD their final five games for Penn State. The final five games of the year coming out of a bi week. Purdue at Washington, Minnesota, Rutgers at Maryland. I'm going to whisper a word here. I'm not going to say it out loud. I'm a whisper it and I don't want anyone to repeat it. Okay? Okay. Playoff. You hear what I said? Did everyone hear what I said? Playoff. It's. It's on the table. Not a guarantee, but it's on the table. Indiana just won a national championship. They're going to have some new pieces. We'll talk about it later in the show. They do have to play nine straight games to open the year, which is not enviable. But if you look at who those nine games are, they don't play what you would consider a big marquee opponent until week seven. Now, Nebraska is in that mix. So you decide how you define Nebraska. Personally, I'm still a little bit in a state of flux on what I expect from Nebraska this year. But outside of a trip to Nebraska, Ohio State in week seven, that's the first real marquee opponent. Or put another way, that's the first time they probably won't be a touchdown plus favorite, but they play Ohio State and Michigan back to back. They got Ohio State, they got at Michigan, and Michigan is there. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8th game in a row. So that's not the easiest draw. But I mean, look, what can they afford to do? They can afford to lose two games and make the playoff. We just kind of work off that assumption now with everyone and they've got all the equity in the world. Also, if they don't make the playoff, they have a national championship to fall back on from. This past year, I'm a believer Indiana is just here to stay. I'm a believer that the floor for that program now and moving forward is a solid resting nine wins. So this is the first year we get to test that out. And Ohio State and Michigan, I thought both got tough draws. I mean, Ohio State's road schedule this year is kind of like Texas last year. It's ironic because they open at Texas or I think that's week two. But you remember this past year, Texas, who did we see that they had to play this time of year? We were already looking ahead and we knew they had to go to Columbus and they had to go to Gainesville and they had to go to Athens and there were all these road games. They were going to be their toughest games and they were all going to be on the road. Ohio State's kind of like that this year. Ohio State's got at Texas in week two. They got at Iowa a few weeks later at Indiana, at usc, at Nebraska. They play Oregon and Michigan at home. This is a tough schedule by any standard. That's a tough schedule. And then with Michigan, if you look at the fanduel odds to win the Is it the conference or make the playoff right now, Jesse, it's conference odds to win the playoff. So Big Ten teams odds to win the playoff. Michigan plays five of the top six teams in the conference in terms of odds right now. They do have a big schedule dynamic advantage. Look right here if you're listening on podcast, I can't reach that far. They play Penn State October 17th. They're coming off a buy so they will be rested. They're at home and that's Penn State's seventh consecutive game. Huge schedule dynamic edge. Then again, Penn State had a massive schedule dynamic advantage against Oregon last year and all it did was get James Franklin fired a couple of weeks later. So those are some very quick thoughts on the Big Ten schedule release. We should have fireworks. We should have a parade. We should have inflatable animals all over the place. That's how the schedule release should look. The NFL has figured this out. I don't get why college football can't figure this out. All right, let's move along. I got to stay warm by any means necessary. It's a solid 71 degrees in the studio. I'm okay. Transfer portal is closed. Even though you keep seeing headlines every day because technically guys can still be in and come out of it and sign with schools. But I think we're way far enough into it now where we can talk about winners. Got a couple of losers here and then I got three teams that I don't really know how to classify them. So solid winners. Indiana finished with the number one class in the portal. LSU finished with the number two class in the portal. Unequivocally, these are home run classes. And Indiana is going to be a mainstay in this conversation. All right, so Indiana added 17 kids. Now, what I choose to look at right now is I don't just look at the numbers that you're adding and the numbers that are leaving because sometimes you can add half as many as leave. But you upgraded your roster. Cause in the net you added a higher caliber athlete and you let a lot of guys walk. So at Indiana, I imagine some of that happened. What I choose to do is I choose to go over to on three and I look at the average player grade case by case. Yes, there will be oversights or maybe an exception to the rule, but general rule, those player grades were a really good gauge. So with Indiana, they added 17 kids. The average grade of the kid they added is 76.7. The average grade of the kid they're losing is 62.7. So they are adding high level players at the expense of maybe shaving off some of the underbelly of their roster. And they got Josh Hoover, the quarterback from tcu and they totally revamped that skill group. I'm really high on Nick Marshall, who's a wide receiver from Penn State. We were talking about this time last year. It's just Penn State screwed it up in every way or what? Did I say Penn State? I told you, man, too much influence. Michigan State. It is true that I was talking about Nick Marsh a whole lot. All for naught, as it turns out, this time last year. So it's just. I need delayed gratification on Nick Marsh. LSU added. They added a lot, man. Lsu, on this piece of paper here, I will make the case why a lot of other people are looking at the LSU class and saying, you know, that class right there, they killed it. Now, you may think if you don't really follow this stuff a Lot. Of course, LSU killed it. They got Lane Kiffin. They got a lot of money. Yeah. Again, it's the caliber of player that you add and how complimentary is it to your needs? So of course they had a need at quarterback. They added the number one quarterback, number one, and number five edge players. The number two offensive tackle. Since we last spoke, they did sign Jordan Seaton. They got the number four wide receiver, they got the number four inside offensive lineman. And honestly, those are going to be the headline grabbers. But if you look at their overall class, I think they added like 40 kids. If you look at the overall class, Eugene Wilson is a perfect example of, to me how underrated the depth of that class is because there are a lot of guys that are not rated in maybe top 10 at their position or top 50 overall. But you look and you say, I remember that name. I remember that name a few years ago. And for whatever reason, so far their career hasn't worked out. Maybe because they were a bad fit somewhere. Or in Wilson's case, it's just if he's healthy, if he's healthy, he can be a star. So I'm looking at all the big time names they added. I'm also thinking about what could be at the second and third levels of that class from a ratings perspective. The entire state of Texas. Well, not the entire state. There are several dots in the state of Texas. There are several green check marks in the state of Texas. Texas Tech Number 3 class in the portal. Texas A&M Number 4 class in the portal. Houston Number 7 class in the portal. Texas Number 9 class in the Portal. Tech. And A and M both added six blue chippers a piece. I mean, Texas Tech's going to do this every cycle, but I think A and M really, really made some underrated moves there. I think I say that a lot about Mike Elko. I just really trust their evaluation there and then I trust the development once they get there. Texas, though, that was probably the biggest headline grabber because they added Cam Coleman, Hollywood Smothers and Relique Brown. So two big time tailback additions. They just overhauled their running back room and they got Rasheed Biles, who was a linebacker out of Pitt, who's a really good player. I mean, Texas every year is going to do the same thing. But you're not used to talking about Houston. And I'm telling you, I want to tell you, I may not be the first if you follow this stuff closely, but I really want to warn everyone, there are many out there who kind of follow the portal. And so you knew LSU was going to make big moves and Texas Tech's always going to be there. Texas is always going to be there. But did you expect Houston to be there? Because Houston's got the number seven class in the transfer portal right now and they got Kayshawn Henderson, who is a five star quarterback in recruiting. So they've got their quarterback of the future. And then they pair that with 17 new additions. Average player grade of guys they added is over 70. The average grade of kids who left 62.4. I think Houston made some really, really good moves here. And you remember, or maybe you don't remember. I'll tell you this past cycle where there were a lot of coaching moves, Willie Fritz's name was out there. He didn't go anywhere. Willie Fritz, his name was out there. So just keep an eye on Houston. It's a Big 12 team now. It's not a G5 team anymore. For a couple of years They've been Big 12, but they haven't made a ton of noise. So people kind of still, I think associate Houston with like non Power 4 type vibes. No, no, they're in it. Like if they win the Big 12, they're guaranteed a playoff spot. Iowa State has to be considered a big loser here through no fault of their own. Which is kind of why I was telling Jesse earlier, I don't like doing transfer portal loser segments because normally all it is for the losers is just a bunch of places where they lost their coach. So Iowa State lost Matt Campbell and they had 54 kids leave and they had 48 come in. But the caliber of player they lost, they lost seven four star rated players. They added one of that classification and just to Penn State they lost QB1, wide receiver 1 and 2. They lost a starting guard, RB1, tight end 1 and 2 and edge corner 1. They lost three linebackers, they lost two safeties. That's just to Penn State. So I don't really think many of us love that college football is allowed to operate that way right now, but it does. So if you want to call Iowa State a loser, yeah, they're worse off now than they were. I just. Loser has a kind of connotation like, oh, you screwed up. They didn't screw up anything. It just is the way it is. Now. USC and Georgia and Alabama are three teams that are not ranked in the top 45. And they're big brands. Right? And so you would, you would think, oh, that means they're losers. I don't really know that I call Bama or Georgia or USC a loser here. What I think they are is I think there are programs here that recruit very well. They all are in love with the recent signing classes that they added. I think they all inevitably at the end of every year have a certain portion of the roster they need to shave off. Just kind of dead money in this new era. Now it used to be, look, if you recruited a kid out of high school and he's a bust, that's your fault. That's your poor evaluation or development. He's going to stay on the roster and he never really starts or anything, but he rolls through there four years and he's done well. Now if you paid him 200 grand out of high school and he's expecting bumps and you're not ready to give it to him, those are the kind of players who walk. Now, is that a loss? Is that a lot? You're not fighting at all. In fact, you're kind of trying to encourage them. Hey, there's the door right there. We'll help you. We'll pack your bags for you. Well, that's not a loss. I think a lot of that happened at usc. I just think they recruited over some of their roster. I think that happens every year at Georgia. I think that just happened at Alabama. So I. Look, I really think that those rosters in the net are probably better than they were at the end of the season. Therefore, I don't really call them losers. They're not in the top 45, but I don't call them losers. And then we got new head coaches at places like Penn State and Virginia Tech and Oklahoma State that are kind of importing their system. We just mentioned Matt Campbell going to Penn State. They retained fairly well on the roster they inherited, but they really portaled well. They brought just about every piece that they really trust to play Big ten caliber football with them from Iowa State. But then James Franklin leaves Penn State and he goes to Virginia Tech and they've got the number 6 portal class there and the average grade of player on that roster, additions versus subtractions is up 6.5 points. So they've immediately upgraded the caliber of roster. They take a really big bump up, I think at quarterback. I mean Grunkermeyer is I think a substantial improvement over what they not, not what they inherited because Drones was moving on anyway. But Eric Morris is another one. Like this is going to be really, really interesting for a team that was 1 and 11 last year at Oklahoma State. Eric Morris comes there and it Would have been crazy to say this in the old days, the old days being like 2018. But Eric Morris came from a better program, like a higher performing program. North Texas was a better team and a higher performing program last year than Oklahoma State was. So he comes there and there's of course, a much higher ceiling at Oklahoma State than there is North Texas. But when he brought Messemaker with him and Caleb Hawkins is running back and they added 17 guys from North Texas, they're adding 17 guys from what was unequivocally a better team than Oklahoma State. So in the Big 12, I know it looked like there was a little more distance, a little more gap between the haves and the have nots. Last year. That could have been a one off. Any given year, this conference could go full on accordion contraction. It could go total parody mode. And this conference is notorious for teams making big leaps. So I'd look at. I'd look at Oklahoma State this year as soon as this year. Let's roll on merrily along jam packed, man. Make sure you're subscribed. By the way, if you're watching, appreciate you, and nothing's going to change for you. It's not like all of a sudden you get billed 9.95 per month or anything. That would be fraud. So we don't do that. We just ask you to subscribe to the channel. It's free. You can subscribe and then just forget about it. It's like a Ronco Grill. You just subscribe and you forget it. I got a question from Andrew. He said, is college football salvageable or is it just too far gone? What does Commissioner Pate say? Well, Commissioner Pate, in the future tense says, Andrew, let's calm down, cyt, if you know what it means, you know what it means. Let's just call him for just a second, man. I need to speak to you as a friend because we are friends. But I need to ask you, is it really that bad? Is college football really that bad? Hey, I'm not asking you, is it perfect? I know it's not perfect, but there's something I noticed last year in our quality control as a show, may I even say, as a university here at Pate State, in our quality control, which is this thing we do right before the season where we assess everything. We noticed that from the months February through what, Jesse? About June or July last year, there was like a disproportionate negative tone that our mailbag took. We do a lot of mailbag episodes in what casuals would call the off season. Well, we don't have an off season. We do shows all year. College football year round. But what we noticed is when we took Q and A like this, and there aren't games going on and there aren't, you know, things to distract you, which is what games do every week, some people just start thinking existentially in May and June and July, and it always ends up this doom and gloom type vibe. And if you didn't know anything other than what our mailbag looked like in these months, you would think, oh, dude, college football is cooked, man. We're going to get to August and no one's watching. And then we get to August and. And the TV numbers are through the roof. Now, if you watch the show, you know, the last person to argue that TV ratings equals good decisions is me. I'm the first one to say, don't be using TV ratings to gauge the health of the sport. TV ratings are good to gauge the decisions of a generation prior. So you don't need to teach me about that. But at the very least, I think when we got to August and September this past year and we saw the metrics both from our show, but also just normal television viewership, we realized, I think there's a certain kind of person that asks questions of the show in February through June and July. And it's the kind of person who probably loves college football to death and therefore is disproportionately more likely to see the flaws, to see the negatives, and to magnify them. So, Andrew, I think what we need to do with college football, for anyone asking things like, oh, is college football salvageable? We need to have a serious conversation about the difference between flawed and broken. Because I would ask you this, Andrew, Is college football flawed? Yeah. Any good thing out there can be flawed. College football may be flawed, but it is a long way from being broken. So for all these folks who ask, oh, is it broken, man? Is college football salvageable? Well, let me hit you with this. What would you do if you lost college football tomorrow? Because I've had broken things before. I mean, if you got a car that's rusting sitting out in your driveway and it's totaled and you're just looking to get rid of it and someone comes and steals it overnight, Are you really that upset the next morning? You may have even made some money in insurance, but you're not upset you lost something that was broken. But if all that's wrong with your car is the door is dented and one of the tires was flat, so we got a donut in the back, left rear, and. But they stole it overnight. I'm still really upset. Now, your wife could walk in and say, what are you upset for? That car was messed up already. It was messed up, but it was far from totaled. That thing was getting me to work every day. I love that car. I've had that car for quite a while. I grew up with that car. Well, how do you feel about college football? Because I promise you, Andrew, you just asked me if this thing's salvageable. I promise you, if we lost college football tonight, you would weep tomorrow right next to me. College football's not broken. College football's flawed. If it's broken, there's probably no fixing it. And if something's broken, the real test of whether it's truly broken is how upset are you if you lose it? Totaled car gets stolen. No one's upset because it was broken already. I have no use for it anymore. But you just steal a slightly damaged car, and I'm really upset, and I'm filing claims, and I'm calling the cops because you took something that, while it was flawed, it still had a lot of value to me. College football's got a ton of value to us. Even with its flaws, it's still the greatest sport on the face of the earth. So I get the frustration. I talk about it on this show all the time. Andrew, you know, you knew how to reach us. So I assume you watch or listen to the show. I get the frustration. And your frustration is probably the same as mine in a lot of cases where it's like, you see the warning sign and you drive right past it, and then there's a second warning sign, and it feels like you just speed up. And we're sitting in the backseat yelling, might we want to stop? At the very least, can we slow down? We probably need to be a little careful here. And what you're trying to do is what any sane human does, and that is take preventative measures before the crash so that we don't have a big cleanup on our hands after the crash. That's the nexus. That's the genesis of the frustration. I understand. I have the same feeling. But the good news, if I can deliver any, Andrew, if I may be so bold as to give good news on the college football front, is the realization is there. As recently as today, like, four hours ago, I had a pretty substantial meeting with some pretty substantial people. Jesse doesn't even know about the meeting. He's looking at me Right now, he doesn't know about the meeting. It's okay, though. These are the kinds of people whose voice really, really matters in not just the college football space, but the media space, period. In the college athletics space, period. There is an understanding of the problem and the fact that there are problems and that action needs to be taken. Now, understanding is not enough. That second word, action, that's what has to happen. But if your fear is the powers that be, whoever that is, nameless, faceless though they may be, if your big fear is the powers that be are just ignorant to all of it, I can alleviate your concern there. They're not ignorant to it. Now. It's a little different immediately addressing problems in college sports relative to pro sports because of the tangled web of legalese and all sorts of matters that the pros don't have to deal with. I think action will be taken eventually. So I understand, Andrew. I understand. That's why I put the question in the show. I get the frustration. I get the source of it. Your source of frustration is the same as mine. But no, college football is not broken. College football is a long way from being broken. Long way. Maybe we'll tell stories about this one day. Academy Sports and Outdoors, famously not broken. Academy Sports and Outdoors is very much put together and they very much have everything you need for, I don't know, like, the solid 98% of the activities you could do outdoors, especially if it's recreational and. Or sporting. But also, I mean, camping, it's recreation, I guess it's not sport. But you can still go and get you a really, really nice tent or a really nice grill at Academy. Now, of course, you could go get yourself a hockey stick. You could go get yourself a baseball bat. You go get gear for the entire team. You can do that at Academy Sports and outdoors as well. You can get you some Big League Chew and other assorted goodies in the checkout line. And if you can't get there in person, you can go to academy.com they have all these things for you. Most important to us is Academy has had our back and they've had it for a long time, and they've been a longtime partner of the show, and we appreciate them. And if you like the show, you could have several reasons to appreciate Academy. Number one, because they make it possible for us to bring you the show. Number two, they also happen to have a lot of stuff you need, whether you like the show or not. So judging by your viewership, I assume you like the show. But even if you Hate the show. You'll still love Academy, so let's move on. This is going to be a tough subject to talk about. This coffee is going to get cold. I'm going to drink the last of it here. And speaking of cold, Matthew from sunny, warm, beautiful, tropical, enviable Orlando, Florida, said, are you back in Nashville yet? How is it? It seems like the community got hit pretty hard by the ice and snow. That again is Matthew from 82° Perfect. Not a care in the world. Orlando, Florida. Matthew, it's terrible. There are trees all over the place. There's ice all over the place. We have exclusive video here that's not exclusive at all to us. We actually borrowed it from other people. This is not a movie scene, but if you're listening on podcasts, just imagine the worst environment that you've ever experienced and then put ice on everything. And that's what Nashville has looked like. Now, in fairness to me and no one else. Last week I warned the staff that this was coming. Am I a hero? Look, I warned him it was coming. I warned. I was over at the shop with Taylor and Will and the guys busing with the boys crew. I warned them it was coming. We had a group text going. I sent out more alerts than anyone this side of the National Weather Service. If NES would have listened to me here in Nashville, we wouldn't still have red dots all over the power outage map. Or maybe we would. But I warned everyone. And the specific language I use, Jesse, was it will look like tornado damage except with ice. And lo and behold, every tree in about five counties is either down or leaning very, very precariously because it's covered with ice. Here we have as of late Tuesday evening still the power outage map. The last flake of snow dropped Saturday. So we've had Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, it's Thursday. It's not Tuesday, it's Thursday now. So we're going on nearly a week and we got people. Everybody in the red is without power. And we had to zoom out for scale. These are thousands and tens of thousands of people still without power. Now here's the bad part, Matthew, down in Orlando, here's the bad part as you sleep with your windows open tonight because that's the climate you live in around here. It has been freezing during the day and even more freezing and at night. And with five days without power, you can imagine the toll that takes. And I have stood up for nes, which does not stand for Nintendo Entertainment System around here, stands for Nashville Electrical Services. I stood up for these people because the rank and file @nes, those are hard working people. And man, I got all the respect in the world. One of my favorite songs growing up was Wichita Lyman by Glenn Campbell. So you just replace Wichita with Nashville. And that really expresses my feelings towards the actual workers at nes. But I got to tell you, I have come to really, really question the decision making there. I have come to question the bureaucracy there. This is a college football show, so we are used to people who have no business with their hands on the wheel. Having their hands on the wheel is something we care about. And it seems that Nashville Electrical Service may be suffering from some of the same conditions that college football suffers from. If you're picking up what I'm putting down, and in the interim, what the citizens around here are suffering from is this is my bedroom and it's 27 degrees in here right now. What's the problem? And so that's where we are, Matthew, in very, very warm, temperate, tropical Orlando. I'm glad you asked. That's where we are right now. Now, there are some harsh accusations that have been thrown my way. People are claiming things about me. People are saying things like I ran away, I fled. Bradley, I think the exact verbiage you used was I tucked tail. And I'm just here to tell you every bit of it's true. Every single thing they're saying about me is true. Hats off to the haters, but it's not the flex you think it is. I will build up all the equity I need in terms of weather based bravery. You're looking at someone who has a twister poster on the wall of his set here. That's not even real brick. But that is a real twister poster. I'm a storm chaser, okay? I run towards the danger. In the spring, Hurricane Matthew, the last landfall in category 5 hurricane. Where was I, Bradley? You were working at the news station. Me and Robbie Watson were down there in the thick of it. We were. We were there for the landfall. I'm there. I love snowstorms. I'm there for it. I'm in the trenches. I'm warning you ahead of time and I'm embracing it in real time. But when it comes to ice, I know better. So it's not my fault for being wise to weather. Did the public education system fail most of you when it comes to preparedness? Yes. Yes, they did. And that's why when I'm college football commissioner, through no power of my own, I just plan on using my platform to suggest that we replace I don't know. Various subjects in school that have no benefit to a normal person with things like weather preparedness and awareness. There's no reason why I should have walked in the office last week and asked Mitch if he's ready for the freezing rain. And for him to ask me, what is freezing rain? He grew up in Arizona. That's not his fault. Not everyone who grows up in Arizona is going to stay in Arizona the rest of their lives. Ask Taylor Lawan. The guy's basically running a mass unit out of his house right now because he came here from Arizona, quick pit stop in Michigan, and now he's running Salvation Army Luan style because his house is the only one with power, and freezing rain bit him. But he wasn't ready. Through his own admission, he wasn't ready. So that's a little knock on me because maybe it's my responsibility to fill the gaps that the public education system left. But, yes, I ran away. No, I wouldn't change a thing, other than maybe I would take a few people with me, maybe I would have rescued a few more people. But this has been a really serious deal, really serious situation, and it will happen again eventually. Have we learned our lesson? Have we learned our lesson? This is not the last you've heard from me about this Nashville electrical system conundrum. Maybe on this show, it's the last you've heard from me. Or maybe not. Maybe. Maybe we do need to use the microphone for the purposes of bullying. Bullying does work. It does work. But I assure you, it's not the last you've heard of me on the socials. You got a whole. You got. You got to speak truth to power, Jesse. You got to speak truth to power. We don't even have leadership in college football to call out, so we just have to. We just have to put the crosshairs elsewhere. What a transition this is. We went from talking about the mood in Tennessee to doing the Tennessee Mood Tracker. Huh? Funny how things work out every now and then. We've been doing the Mood Tracker a lot on the show this time of year. We like to look at the fan base and we like to say, what's the mood? How you guys feeling? Not the glass always full or the glass always empty folks, but the ones in the middle, the solid 80%, as we call them. What is the mood? And I thought we should do Tennessee tonight. And the mood at Tennessee, I think, is one of those classic. Pretty good. Pretty good. That's what I tell everyone anytime they ask me how I'm Doing pretty good. Translation could be better, could be worse. Now, if you're like me and someone tells you they're doing pretty good, your response is, okay, bye. Because you know that there's probably some issues they have that if you ask about, are going to keep you tied up for the next hour. And so the guy who's doing pretty good knows he's got a lot to be thankful for. Just like Tennessee fans have a lot to be thankful for. They remember where they were, they know where they are now. They certainly prefer the latter to the former, but they also know that if they look around the SEC neighborhood, there's some places doing better than them. If they look around the college football neighborhood, there's some nicer houses, there's some nice, there's some shinier cars. Now there's some broke down houses and cars as well, but there's some shiny cars and nice cars. And look, we're Tennessee. A generation ago, we were a perennial national championship contender. And if you're 17 years old watching the show, you just take my word for it. But that was Tennessee football once upon a time, and it could be again, and there's no reason it shouldn't be again. So you're kind of just doing pretty good now. In April of 2025, we had the Nico I. Amaliava bomb dropped on us. And at the time, I said, if they can, if they can just throw me seven or eight wins, I'll be good. And they did. They went eight and four. And that was April, man, that was April 20th of last year. So this time last year, we were still two months away from finding out, oh, our season's about to fundamentally change. And the quote, unquote, quarterback of our future, he's leaving us and we're going to take the guy he's replacing at ucla, who's been at UCLA for five minutes, and Joey Aguilar. Eight wins, all things considered. Could have been nine with the bowl game, but it was eight wins. Good enough. I think the mentality now is, all right, 2026. So if we, if we view 2025 as this transition year, 2026 basically, in my mind becomes. Is that like low key year two of a two year transition? Transition years are okay in college football, but you don't want them to be like you don't want to transition years because that's a transition period. And no one wants a transition period, especially several years into a coaching tenure. But there are at least grounds to consider 2026 as the second of two consecutive transfer or transition years, for example, at quarterback, what are we doing? Is it Faison? Is he just starting for us right out of the gate? He's the quarterback of our future. Yeah, we said that about Nico once upon a time, but we think he's going to be better than Nico. Is he going to be the guy right out of the gate, though? Is he going to be ready or do we have to wait a year? Jim Knowles just took over as our defensive coordinator. Knowles is notorious for having a complex defense, but a good defense, but a defense that it takes time to learn. So is he going to be back to top 15, top 10 right out of the gate, or will it take a year? He brought some kids with him from Penn State. Are they going to hit right out of the gate? Are we going to go back to top 10, which we were two years ago, or is it going to take a year now? We probably won't be in the 90s somehow like we were last year, but there's a difference between having the 15th best defense in the country and the 45th best defense in the country. Also, this profiles as a pretty young team this year. So are these guys going to be ahead of schedule or do we have to wait a year? So my approach is with Tennessee has always been to zoom out because it helps to know the history at Tennessee, not the long history. All due respect to General Neyland, we don't need to talk about him. We don't need to talk about Johnny Majors or Phil Fulmer. Just go recent. Just go Derek Dooley, go Butch Jones, you know, go the entire weird Covid era and then understand how bad it was and how relatively better it is now. And that really helps. It helps to zoom out on Tennessee. So, yes, I want a title if I'm a Tennessee fan, and yes, I believe we're capable of winning one. You better believe if Indiana can win one, we should be able to win one. But forget about Indiana. If Georgia and Alabama can win them, we should be able to win them. If LSU can do it, why can't we do it? And that's its own separate debate. But like, and I'm speaking as me for a second, there is a train of thought. There's like a school of thought out there that Tennessee's chance has kind of passed them by. It's garbage. There's no foundation in logic with that way of thinking. No more than there was in thinking the game had passed Miami by. Nothing has passed Miami by. Nothing's past Tennessee by. You can still do everything in Tennessee now you can do in 1998. I promise you. It just takes the stars aligning the the same way they did back then. But you can appreciate that it's not quite where you want it to be, but also appreciate it's a long way from what it used to be like in a much better way. 2025, number 11 class in the country in recruiting. 2026, number 9 class in the country in recruiting. They're just kind of searching for that sweet spot. So I go back to the mood. What's the mood? Pretty good. Could it be better? Yeah. Yeah. Could it be worse? Oh, yes. That's the mood at Tennessee right now. Classic tweener vibe. It won't be all that long before we're talking about futures bets with Tennessee. It won't be all that long. FanDuel, the exclusive odds provider of the show, and I come to you bearing good news on a couple of fronts. Okay, so first off, you know the super bowl is coming up. Do you know that? I think you know that if you don't know that the super bowl is coming up. So it's. It's kind of the last call for football, guys. I hate that the words are coming out of my mouth, but it is the last call for football, at least as it relates to this season. So for new customers over at FanDuel, you guys bet $5 on anything related to the super bowl and win and you get $200 in bonus bets or so. The key there is make sure you win. But that is a very, very good offer to take advantage of. However, maybe since this is a college football show you're watching and saying, I don't know if I want to bet in the super bowl. And I'm like, it's $5, guys. I think you can swing it. But if you are thinking that, or maybe you're thinking I'm about the super bowl, but I want some college. I want some college football options, buddy. Did you come to the right show on the right night? They have posted some early season lines. For example, I have information in my hand right now that confirms LSU is hosting Clemson to start the year. LSU is a ten and a half point favorite. You can bet that right now. That's not just cosmetic. It's not an ornament on FanDuel, you can go bet that game right now. There's several of those over there. You got some Heisman odds over there. I know it's January. I know, guys. FanDuel knows. They also know how desperate you can get this time of year. Look, a lot of you are going to go over there and not even bet it. You're just going to go look. It just helps to look. And then you say, I'll take care of it in May. You know, I'll bet it may. I just want to see it right now. I understand. We've all been there. I understand.
- [61:46]
B
Must be 21 plus 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. $5 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 chatincut or visit nd gamblinghelp.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.
- [62:31]
A
All right, let's wrap up the show with this very important question. Very timely question. Doc hit us up and said, here's a better endpoint for you, Bradley. Doc from the south side of Indianapolis hit us up. He said, does Notre Dame win a national championship under Marcus Freeman in the next two to four years? Don't be afraid of a bold prediction, partner. What kind of time frame is the next two to four years? Doc, if you want me to be bold enough to make a prediction, just give me a time frame. Are we talking the next two years? Are we talking the next four years also, are they allowed to win it this year? You said the next two to four year. I don't know. I don't know. I ask about this year only because at FanDuel, Notre Dame, believe it or not, currently has the number one overall odds to win the whole thing. Doc, so maybe the next one to four years. Here's what it takes to win a national championship as far as I could see. It takes proper alignment. It takes a good enough staff. It takes a good enough roster. It helps to have the quarterback situation in order. You've got to have really good development and you got to have a solid identity that can win. And Notre Dame for me is yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes in those categories. So, Doc, that means yes, I think they're going to win a national championship in the next one to Four years. I don't have to say which one, right? He didn't tell me. I had to say which one. But it could be this year. You know, those are the odds right there. If you're listening on podcast, Bradley didn't just throw this together because he had nothing to do. Notre Dame has the best odds to win the national title this year, followed by Ohio State, followed by Indiana, followed by Texas, followed by Oregon, Georgia, Miami. You got Texas Tech in there. Notre Dame's got better odds than all of them. They got CJ Carr another year in. They have got a very, very hungry program. I mean, they, they believe that they were just denied their birthright, which is to be in the College Football Playoff. And there, that was a big debate. Wherever you land on, that's wherever you land. But that's a solid roster and it's a tailor made schedule. You got their schedule, Bradley, by any chance? Yeah. So guys, there's no real other way to put it. This is a pathetic schedule, but it is the schedule they're playing now. It's not solely their fault that the USC game is not there. I lean like 70, 30 on the Notre Dame side of that argument. So USC is supposed to be here and it's not here. But because it's not there, I'm going to read it to you. It sounds a little something like this. Stop me when you hear the insurmountable hurdle versus Wisconsin. I think that one's in Lambeau versus Wisconsin. They play food in week two, Rice is on the menu. They play Michigan State at Purdue, at North Carolina, Stanford at Brigham Young, Navy neutral site, Miami at home in November, mind you, Boston College, SMU at Syracuse. There's just no two ways about it. It's a soft schedule. They know it. They're not apologizing for it. They know it. That probably means they can afford to lose one game and know they're in the playoff. It's almost like a G5 vibe. It's not, but it's kind of like the vibe where, you know, oh, they could lose one game. They can't be losing two games. Because if Notre Dame was left out with last year's schedule losing two games, they will absolutely be left out losing two games with this one. But the better approach to me here with this question, in fact, do me a favor, Bradley, put the question back on the screen for just a second. Because my answer was yes, Doc. My answer was yes. I'm going to reread the question and I'm going to ask you a question. So he's just saying, does Notre Dame win a national title under Freeman in the next four years or so? My answer is yes. If your answer is no, why is the answer no? It could be one of two things. Either you're just playing the percentages here that it's really a crapshoot. Any given year, even if you've got all the ingredients, it's a crapshoot. And you're just going to play the percentages that Notre Dame won't. So you're not saying they're incapable of it, you're just saying they won't. That kind of person. Their logic I get. I may disagree. I'm a roll the dice that Freeman gets it done. I understand your logic. I think I know the Notre Dame conversation well enough to know there's another kind of person out there who thinks Notre Dame's not going to win a title over the next four years because Notre Dame can't win a national title. That person. I'd like to ask you why. I'd like to ask you what they lack. I'd like to ask you what Michigan a couple of years ago had that Notre Dame can't have. I'd like to ask you what Ohio State had last year that Notre Dame can't have. And I'd like to ask you what Indiana possessed a few minutes ago that Notre Dame can't have. I don't think the answer is there. I think Notre Dame's fully capable of doing this. Now. I'm not asking how you feel about them. Maybe you grew up hating Notre Dame. Cool. Continue hating them for all I care. But we're asking, can they win a national title? And if your answer is they can't, if you're going back to that whole theory that all the sports just changed. Oh, the landscape has just changed, buddy. If you're telling me the landscape in college football has changed and the net result is the table has tilted away from the SEC and towards the Big Ten, I promise you, any tilting of the table towards the Big Ten in this sport is also tilted towards Notre Dame. I promise you that. So, Doc, upon your advice, I'm taking the stand. I'm saying, yes, Marcus Freeman wins it. And then you have to really deal with the NFL rumors getting ramped up. But I think they are on a mission this year. I think their best shots this year, actually. So that's my answer. And that's our show. Appreciate you guys watching and joining us. Make sure you're subscribed to the channel now. We'll be back here Sunday night because the super bowl is not this week. So we'll be back here Sunday night weather and God willing and look forward to talking to you then. Until then, for director Bradley, producer Jesse everyone here, I'm Josh Bait. Take care. Have a great start to your weekend and God bless.
- [68:54]
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A
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.