Surprise Playoff Contenders + Winter Storm Survival & ESPN’s CFP Monopoly

Summary

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Josh Pate's College Football Show

Episode: Surprise Playoff Contenders + Winter Storm Survival & ESPN’s CFP Monopoly
Date: January 28, 2026
Host: Josh Pate (iHeartPodcasts / CBS Sports)

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Episode Overview

In this fireside-style, all-mailbag episode, host Josh Pate fields listener questions from a temporary base in Columbus, Georgia, after fleeing a frozen Nashville. He discusses surprise College Football Playoff contenders under first-year coaches, playoff structure debates, tampering in the transfer portal, the impact of ESPN’s College Football Playoff monopoly, SEC scheduling, public speaking tips, and more. The show features Josh's direct, conversational style—rich with insight, humor, and honest opinion.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Emerging Playoff Contenders: First-Year Head Coaches

• Question: Which first-year head coach is best set up for a deep playoff run? ([03:24])
• Josh’s Picks:
  • Alex Golesh (Auburn):
    • Not well-known, but fits Auburn’s “spirit” and is “legit.”
    • “He will not be outworked... I think he knows the league very well.” (04:58)
    • Has a quarterback, Byrum Brown, from USF who already knows his system.
    • Auburn’s roster is underrated; losses not insurmountable.
  • Matt Campbell (Penn State):
    • Program not in crisis after James Franklin's departure.
    • "You get to bring over a chunk of your roster," including QB Rocco Becht from Iowa State, aiding culture and system adaptation.
    • "There are like 30 voices in the locker room above and beyond just the coaching staff that can kind of preach your message." (09:46)
• Other Mentions:
  • Lane Kiffin at LSU considered a different scenario as an established coach.

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2. Commentary Dream Teams & Alt Casts

• Question: Who would you pair with if you could commentate with any all-time commentator? ([14:27])
• Josh’s Take:
  • Loved SEC Title Game alt cast with Will Compton, Taylor Lewan, Harry Douglas.
  • Dream: Interactive field alt cast with himself, Will, Taylor vs. Pat McAfee’s crew, “handing off” gameside commentary.
  • “If there was a day where Joe Tess just wasn't working somehow ... I would love Joe Tess to run point on one of those alt casts with me and Will and Taylor. That would be awesome.” (16:45)
  • Praises Jimbo Fisher’s game dissection skills: “It's amazing...they’re seeing it. It's like they've seen the next play already and they're kind of spoiler alerting you.” (18:59)

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3. Playoff Auto-Bids & Conference Champion Debate

• Question: Opinion on Power Four conference champs getting auto-bids to the playoff? ([20:30])
• Key Points:
  • Josh supports auto-bids in principle, provided conferences have robust tiebreakers.
  • “If your tiebreaker structure is proper, then you’ll always have highly ranked teams playing in your conference championship games.” (22:10)
  • Gives example of 2025 Duke ACC Championship scenario as a “tiebreaker language” failure, not a real risk.
  • On Group of Five (G5) Champs: “Yes, I value a power four conference champion over a group of five conference champion... I do not believe winning a group of five conference should be an auto-bid into the playoff. Sue me. No, don't do that.” (24:41)
  • Also sees value in conference championships for college football’s ecosystem rather than pure meritocracy.

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4. Tampering in the Transfer Portal

• Question: Can anyone force conference commissioners to crack down on tampering? (26:36)
• Discussion:
  • Coaches can set precedent by calling out tampering by name (Pat Narduzzi, Dabo Swinney examples).
  • Details the Dabo Swinney/Ole Miss/Pete Golding/Luke Forelli saga:
    • “Dabo had two choices: bite his tongue or go scorched earth and just call Pete and call Ole Miss out by name. All of this, I guess, is still alleged.” (27:17)
  • Tampering is widespread, authorities reluctant to enforce (“I have hope for a world one day where we're back to at least somewhat normalcy. We are not there right now” (30:19))
  • Gives credit to any coach willing to be publicly direct about it.

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5. Public Speaking Advice

• Question: How did you develop your public speaking skills? ([32:30])
• Josh’s Advice:
  • Grew up with a “crippling fear of public speaking,” overcame it by reframing speeches as a series of one-on-one conversations.
  • “Really, at the core, a fear of public speaking is just fear of perception...what risk is there to you based on what someone thinks?” (33:55)
  • Emphasizes devaluing others’ perceptions and breaking down large audience into individuals.

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6. Georgia’s “Fall Off”: Reality vs. Perception

• Question: Should Georgia fans worry about a “fall off” after two playoff losses? ([36:16])
• Analysis:
  • Technical fallback from 2021 peak is “inevitable” given college football’s changed era, but:
    • “I think Georgia is going to be just fine.” (38:50)
    • The challenge is sustaining a high “cruising altitude,” not always winning it all.
  • Defensive coordinator turnover (Glenn Schumann) not seen as existential threat.

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7. ESPN’s Playoff Monopoly—Good or Bad?

• Question: Is ESPN's exclusive hold on the Playoff a net negative? ([39:56])
• Take:
  • Ideally, every network should have access to promote the playoff (like the NFL model).
  • “It’s in the best interest for as many seats to be at the College Football Playoff table as possible...a net positive for the promotion of the sport.” (42:02)
  • Doesn’t blame ESPN for dominating; places onus on CBS, Fox, NBC for not being more aggressive.

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8. Humor: Hair Debates and Motivation

• Question: Who has better hair, Josh or producer Jesse? ([43:45])
• Josh’s Playful Rant:
  • Claims victory due to comfort, time, and money savings with shaved head.
  • “Do you know what my yearly budget for hair care is? Zero. I bought a buzzer three years ago.” (44:38)
  • “If the hair doesn’t have a functional purpose, the hair might as well not exist to me.” (45:38)

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9. LSU, Lane Kiffin, and Program Ceilings

• Question: Is it “undeniable” why Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU—and what’s LSU’s floor/ceiling in 2026? ([46:26])
• Insight:
  • Lane left for personal reasons and access to LSU resources; it’s “undeniable” if it was simply his preference.
  • On expectations: “He [Lane] could crush it at LSU. All I'm saying is if he does, he will have enhanced himself...doing things that, as of this point, he hasn't done, and that is winning a ton of big games.” (48:12)
  • Pushes back on being taken out of context by message boards regarding skepticism about Lane’s proven record in big games.

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10. SEC’s Move to a 9-Game Schedule: Did They "Play Themselves"?

• Question: Did the SEC hurt its own playoff odds by adding a 9th conference game? ([50:33])
• Analysis:
  • It may cost the league some playoff spots since selection still heavily weighs win-loss record over schedule strength.
  • “It could just be one of those instances where what's in the greater interest of college football may cost you a playoff team every now and then.” (52:15)
  • “I've never been about that...an eight-game SEC schedule in the past have been tougher than many nine-game league schedules elsewhere.” (53:13)
  • Ultimately supports the move for better “inventory” and signals thanks to the SEC office for keeping expansion at bay, at least for now.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On tampering:
  “It's so laughable when you're in the middle of December and every other call you're getting...is about the ongoing process of recruiting in the portal and you're ignorant enough to say, 'Hold on, the portal doesn't even open until January.' And they just kind of chuckle like, 'Yeah, sure it doesn't.'” (30:02)

• On public speaking:
  “It’s just a bunch of one on one conversations. It’s just people. That’s all it is. When I said it that way to myself, it got really easy.” (34:56)

• On playoff structure:
  “I value a power four conference champion over a group of five conference champion. That's not me saying I don't think the G5 should have a seat at the playoff table. I am saying I do not believe winning a group of five conference should be an auto-bid into the playoff. Sue me. No, don't do that.” (24:41)

• On SEC’s ninth conference game:
  “The weaker your conference is, the easier and more manageable your ninth conference game is going to be. So I've never been about that.” (53:13)

• On hair care (humor):
  “Do you know what my yearly budget for hair care is? Zero... The joke’s on them. I wouldn’t change it if I could.” (44:38)

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Timestamps to Important Segments

• Surprise Playoff Contenders (First-Year Head Coaches): 03:24 – 10:49
• Commentary Dream Teams/Alt Casts: 14:27 – 19:23
• Playoff Structure & Auto-Bids Debate: 20:30 – 26:36
• Tampering & Dabo Swinney's Public Call-Out: 26:36 – 32:30
• Public Speaking Advice: 32:30 – 36:16
• Georgia’s Outlook & “Fall Off”: 36:16 – 39:56
• ESPN’s Monopoly on Playoff: 39:56 – 43:45
• Hair Care Humor: 43:45 – 46:26
• Lane Kiffin at LSU & Program Outlook: 46:26 – 50:33
• SEC 9-Game Schedule Debate: 50:33 – 56:10

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Tone & Style

Josh’s approach is conversational, witty, and occasionally tongue-in-cheek, blending passionate defense of tradition and honesty about college football’s evolving landscape with lighthearted banter, notably on personal questions. His respect for listener questions and his refusal to stoop to “hot takes” or low-effort content remains clear throughout.

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For New Listeners

This episode exemplifies the show’s mix of inside knowledge, nuanced analysis, tradition-minded but modern commentary, and humor. It’s particularly strong for those with questions about the playoff direction, transfer portal ethics, or who want a “no filter” fielding of community questions.

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Transcript

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Your new Sunday kickoff ritual starts here with new Morning Uncrustable sandwiches packed with 12 grams of protein. Man, the haters said we wouldn't be able to have a show. Honestly, they were right. But this is not our studio. This is Columbus, Georgia. I fled Nashville. I'm a refugee. I'm out. Nashville has frozen. I would say fallen, but Nashville is just frozen. We're we will rebuild though. But in the meantime, it is Tuesday. It is January 27th, the year of our Lord 2026. We're going to do something very, very old school here. Jam packed high atop, as I said, a pretty mild downtown Columbus, Georgia. We're going to kick it back to like the Late Kick Extra era. So back in the day, first off the show used to be called late kick. And secondly, when we got this time of year, sometimes I just go full mailbag. And I would just put out the call and you guys would submit like a million questions and I would do entire shows of just that. That's this entire show. Now, sometimes mailbag episodes sound like mail in episodes, or in our case, it's an emergency backup option. But what we found back in the day was the mailbag episodes ended up being our best episodes because in a shocking turn of events, you guys know how to write the show better than not me, better than producer Jesse. Let's call it like that. There's a question in the mailbag batch here about producer Jesse. So we're going full mailbag. I think we'll be back Thursday. I plan on stopping here as soon as we get done recording, packing our stuff up. And Savannah state and I are going to very, very slowly, like the pilgrims did a generation before us, mosey our way back up to Nashville. We'll see. Make it to Birmingham, make it to Huntsville, make it to Pulaski County. Maybe we'll get all the way to Davidson County. We'll see. So fingers crossed for that. They're watching us in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Tempe, Arizona. Bradley, Brunswick, Georgia. Dallas, Texas. I've got a very, very trusty notebook here that I've got some questions written down in. You guys did a good job. I appreciate you submitting these questions. Make sure you are subscribed to the channel. That's it. That's all I ask. Subscribe to the YouTube channel. It's free. It doesn't sign you up for anything. Make sure five of your friends have done the same thing. All right, here we go. First up, Jesse has compiled a lot of your questions in this helpful doc here. So we've got a fail safe. First one says, give me a first year head coach that is set up best for a deep playoff run. That's Lucas in Los Angeles. Man, I don't know if you can see that coming. Lucas, one of the things about the deep playoff run, even for established head coaches, is you can't really see it coming. But I know you're not asking me to beat around the bush, you're not asking me to fence ride. But I also think there should be an understanding if I answer this, I'm not held responsible, right? So two new coaches that I think may be best positioned to surprise some people in year one. One of them is Alex Golish at Auburn. The other one's Matt Campbell at Penn State. That's not to say like Lane Kiffin. Can't I almost look at Lane as his own world? Lane is an established head coach with a track record who's taken over an established program. I don't know. The answer would be Lane. I'm saying Lane is the answer. Let me move beyond him. All right, so beyond Lane, because I think his situation is way different. I think Alex Goelish is the guy. Alex Golish is a guy that is not well known nationally yet. I would even go as far as to say a lot of Auburn folks didn't know a whole lot about him before he was hired. That's okay. That, that's fine. He's. He's legit now. He is going to fit in very, very well in the sec. He will not be outworked. And a lot of people say they won't be outworked. Well, when Alex Goelish says it, it will be true. I think he knows the league very well. I think very, very quickly he has come to understand Auburn very well. Auburn will come to understand him. And I also think that there's just this kind of spirit that Auburn has when it's working. And I think there's a. There's sort of a puzzle piece fit between Alex Goelish and Auburn on that front. And I can't really explain that. If you know Auburn, you kind of know what I'm talking about. If you know Alex Golis, you know what I'm talking about. Some of you don't know much about either. Just have to watch it on TV this fall, maybe as early as this fall, definitely in years to come. The question was about this fall. So this fall I'm excited for them because I think his roster situation is probably going to be just a little underrated because all people saw was them losing players, which is true. I don't think they lost so much that they can't win. And I think in the net they brought in some guys that while they may not have been Cam Coleman out of high school, they know Alex Golish's system offensively, but they also just know, program wise, top to bottom, how he does stuff. Byron Brown, the quarterback, got brought up there from usf and again, that is a guy taking over a job and he's installing everything, but he's not having to inherit players that have to learn his system at the quarterback position. At least he's got a QB that knows how to run his system. So I'm excited about that. It's the SEC like it's going to be tough year one. They'll probably be in some one possession games. But I've just got a lot of confidence about Alex Golich. I'm disproportionately high on him, I think maybe relative to the market. And then Matt Campbell at Penn State, that one's pretty simple. That one is you're going to an established program. Things went worst case scenario last year and then James Franklin's out of a job. But the program didn't like fall in a ditch or fall off a cliff or anything. And you know what my thoughts were? I thought they should have targeted Matt Campbell right at the outset of the search. They didn't. They, they wasted 50 some odd days but in the end the result was they still hired the guy that I thought should have been the first call they made. So if I, if I just wipe my memory clean of all the nasty details they got, the guy I hope they would get. So of course I would be high on him. The added benefit, at least for Penn State, is you get to bring over a chunk of your roster. I don't think that's a benefit for college football. It's certainly not a benefit for Iowa State. But Matt Campbell didn't write the current rules. He didn't create the current landscape. He's just operating on the current landscape within the current landscape. So he brought in not just his quarterback in Rocco Becht, but he brought a lot of guys over. So again, yes, you're inheriting a bunch of new, yes, you're inheriting a roster still kind of full of guys that have never played for you. They don't know your way of doing things. Guys, I just don't think there's that big a culture shock and I could be wrong on that. But I know James Franklin pretty well. I know Matt Campbell pretty well. Certainly it's not an apples to apples comparison about how they do their business, how they go about their business, but there's a lot of similarity. It's, it's not like just a night and day total difference in culture shock here that those current players are having thrust upon them. And then the other thing is when you bring over so many guys from Iowa State, first off, there's familiarity. Secondly, there are like 30 voices in the locker room above and beyond just the coaching staff that can kind of preach your message. So I'd go Alex Golish and I would go Matt Campbell. If two of them just randomly wound up in the playoff outside of Lane Kiffin in the first year, I would say I could see them doing it. You know what else I could see? Because I've got a long drive ahead of me tonight. Quick Trip. I can see a lot of Quick Trip. I can see a lot of cold brew on tap. I mean, right now, just drinking generic labelless coffee from a nondescript hotel room. Nondescript only because this hotel has not to have their name mentioned on the show. Couldn't be Quick Trip, man. Couldn't be. Our friends at Quik Trip, they fueled the Fall Don't Lie tour soon to have commemorative T shirts in the store, by the way, for the Fall Don't Lie tour. They have been longtime friends of the program Ride or Dies. And they fuel us and they take care of us and they feed us. I'm in exclusive deep negotiations with Quick Trip about a certain addition to the studio there. And if we can pull this off, it would be a game changer. 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[Main Commentator]

Next question. Oh, this is a good question. I gotta click on it though. Okay, now remember, this is fresh off of us doing an alt cast for the SEC title game last December. Jerome from Idaho, he said, if you were to commentate with someone, who would you pick out of the all time commentator list? It could be play by play or analyst. I took this question a little differently because I don't think of myself as any kind of future play by play guy. I don't think of myself as any kind of future analyst, at least game analyst, because that's not my area of expertise. So I leave that to the experts. I would love to just kind of be a fly on the wall and watch Keith Jackson do his thing. Obviously, you guys know I'm very high on Sean McDonough. We love Joe Tess on this show. I'm not going to start listing names because I'll leave someone very worthwhile off. There are a lot of good booths. There have been a lot of good booths. But Jerome, I'm going to answer it selfishly. We had a ton of fun doing the SEC championship game Altcast, which is where you're just on the field. Pat and his guys do it all the time. It was Pat's alt cast that he gave to us, Pat McAfee that he gave to us to do. So it was me, it was Will Compton, it was Taylor Lewan, it was Harry Douglas, and we got to do that. Loved it. If you're asking me my perfect case scenario, which probably won't be able to happen, what I would love like in a dream scenario is I would love in one of these big games to get the opportunity to where like let's say me and Will and Taylor are on one end of the field and Pat and his guys are on the other end of the field. And just basically based off where the action is on the field, you're like handing off who's running commentary for the action as it's going on. I don't know if that dynamic is possible, but I would love to do that. And then also the other thing I would love to do, let's just say it was the kind of lineup that we had in Atlanta at the SEC title game. I kind of just started doing the play by play on it because none of us had ever done that before. And we just kind of felt our way out. I'd love to take like Joe Tessitor, big friend of the program, high energy Joe Test. He does great in the booth. I think he's like custom built to do those alt casts. And so if, if there was a day where Joe Test just wasn't working somehow and he was just available, you know, you ran into him on the sidewalks. Like, hey, Joe, what are you doing today? Absolutely nothing. Okay, come with me. I would love Joe Test to run point on one of those alt casts with me and Will and Taylor. That would be awesome. That would be great. Who, who else did we work? We worked with? Harry Douglas. I thought Harry Douglas ended up probably doing. Probably putting as much meat on the bone of our broadcast as any of us. Like all due respect to anyone else on that broadcast, Harry Douglas brought it. I'll tell you someone else, man. When I was at the national championship game, the ACC network had an alt cast. Taylor Tannenbaum's running point on that and Eric McLean's there, Eddie's there. Who else was on that? Oh, so Jimbo Fisher's there and dude, it's crazy to just stand there and listen to Jimbo dissect a game. I loved it. I loved it. But I could see myself if I were on an alt cast with Jimbo, I could see myself sort of getting caught up in just listening to him and then all of a sudden there's a pause and I know I'm supposed to fit something in there, but I've gotten so lost in listening to him that I'm just kind of. I bet I would do that 10 times in a broadcast. We were at the playoff game, Miami and A and M. I think I told you this story and we weren't on air or anything. We were just all standing on the field there and I was standing between Rhett Lashley and Jimbo Fisher and just listening to them. They're not on air, so they're just talking between plays. If we could broadcast that, that would be one of the best broadcast you've ever seen because it was like one of those coaches film rooms, except there were only two people talking and they're both just. They're seeing it. It's like they've seen the next play already and they're kind of spoiler alerting you. It's amazing. So that was really fun. That's probably my dream commentary situation. Next up, debt from Maryville, Tennessee. He said, what's your opinion on the Power four conference champions getting automatic bids to the playoff next year? The public would have been outraged if a five loss Duke team made it in this year. Yeah, they would have been outraged. They should have been outraged. Yet I'm pretty okay with the auto bid structure. But you need to understand something. You're going to hear a lot of talk in the coming weeks and months about how all the conference champs are getting the auto bids this upcoming year and how that would have meant Duke made it last year. But that's not actually ever going to happen. The only reason Duke was in the ACC championship game last year was because their tiebreaker system was all jacked up. Miami should have been in there, but they weren't because the ACC just didn't have enough foresight to have their tiebreaker situation figured out. So you ended up with Duke in Virginia and Duke 1. So yes, in that kind of world, Duke would have made the playoff. They're going to overhaul the tiebreaker situation. Like I've listened to a lot of people who know talk about this. I have spoken to a lot of people who know and they've all said publicly and privately the ACC and all these other conferences are going to get their tiebreakers figured out. Now, what I think that means for the acc, if we were to use last year as our basis for comparison, what I think that means is the ACC will change their tiebreaker language to be tiebreaker number one is head to head, as it always should be. Like if you and I are tied and we played during the season, whichever one of us won that game, we get the. We get the head nod over the other. That's normal. That's always been the case. Tiebreaker number two, if none of us have played each other is instead of some convoluted nonsense that the ACC did just use the playoff rankings. Because if you do that, then Miami gets the nod. Miami goes to Charlotte, Miami wins the ACC in all likelihood and they take the ACC's guaranteed spot. And it's a moot point. Point is as long as your tiebreaker structure is proper, then you'll always have highly ranked teams playing in your conference championship games. Therefore, there is no egregious team outside the top 35 that based on some technicality of winning the conference, gets the auto bid. Because whoever wins the conference is going to be highly ranked. So I'm okay with it. Now, there is a follow up to that. I used to say it and the follow up is that you shouldn't have any auto bids. Let's just take the top 12, let's just take the top 16. However big the playoff is, let's just take that many number of teams based purely on the rankings. There's merit to that. I also think in the real world you couldn't get it passed. And even if you could get it passed, this is where I got to stop for just a second. I don't think there's a right or wrong answer here. It's just opinion. I think you got to ask yourself, what really is in the best interest of college football? Is it in the best interest to just, purely for the sanctity of that tournament, take the top 12 teams, or for the overall sanctity of college football at large, do we need to maintain the value of conferences and winning those conferences? I think the latter. I think what I just said has more value. But then I know what the follow up is. Group of five guys, they lurk on this show. They listen to this show. They got those Twitter fingers ready and they're ready to fire a tweet off at me saying, oh, wait, wait, wait. You want guaranteed spots for conference champs? Cool. What about the Sun Belt champ? What about the champion of Conference USA? Are you saying that Power 4 conference champs are created differently than Group of 5 conference champs? And to that, I'm just forced to say, yes. That's what I'm saying. Yes, I value a power four conference champion over a group of five conference champion. That's not me saying I don't think the G5 should have a seat at the playoff table. I am saying I do not believe winning a group of five conference should be an auto bid into the playoff. Sue me. No, don't do that. That's the opposite of what we're trying to do here. Don't do that at all. Next up. Oh, we haven't been able to talk about this dabo thing, have we? This is what winter storms do. They really divorce us from reality. Andrew in Stonecrest, Georgia, can anyone force conference commissioners to crack down on tampering? Yeah, Conference commissioners themselves can do it. University presidents can force the issue because those are the bosses collectively of conference commissioners. But you know what? Coaches calling out each other by name, I think goes a long way. Are only two coaches that I can remember that have really done this. Pat Narduzzi did it when he thought Lincoln, Riley and USC tampered with one of his receivers. Once upon a time. I think it was Jordan Addison could be wrong on that, but I think it was Addison. And then the next year, I remember listening to Narduzzi do an interview and he said, no one really tampers with our players anymore. The message there was, once we called it out publicly, it didn't really maintain itself as an issue. We kind of got rid of the issue. Well, Dabo Swinney had one of his players tampered with. Dabo didn't like it. This is also a guy that's been reluctant to dive into the portal because of many reasons. One of them probably being this. And so he dives into the portal, and no sooner is he in the portal than he signs a guy. We're not talking about a verbal commitment. He signs Luke Forelli. Luke Forelli is in classes. Luke Forelli is participating in team activities. Luke Forelli is already been given his gear. And he's probably wearing Clemson shorts and a Tiger Paw T shirt. And then you find out Pete Golding and Ole Miss got in touch with him and now they're going to try and take him. And no, it worked. He's gone. Well, Dabo had two choices. He could either bite his tongue on it, or he could go scorched earth and just call Pete and call Ole Miss out by name. All of this, I guess, is still alleged. So I guess I should say that I haven't seen the text. But Dabo claims that he has. And Dabo claims that they turned all of that over to the ncaa. And I'm sure by now you've heard the rant he went on. If you haven't, we don't have time to play this like 10 minutes long, but you can go find it pretty easily. Just type in Dabo Swinney rage. It'll probably pop up. The second option he had was the option he took, and that is call people out by name. I've got all the respect in the world for it. I think most of us understand in the past why coaches have whined and complained about tampering, but they've stopped short of calling another coach out by name. And the pretty simple answer there is because they know they're probably guilty of it at some point, too. So it would be a massive pile of hypocrisy shoved in your face via a microphone if most of them did it. But see, I believe Pat Narduzzi when he says, we don't really do that here. We don't do it. Therefore, I'm going to call someone out when they do do it. I believe Dabo. I believe Dabo. Cause if I don't believe him, doesn't really matter if I don't believe him, if. If he's lying or if he really is being a hypocrite, in due time, that evidence will surface. Now, there is a world. I've got to admit this, or I've got to acknowledge this. There is a world sometimes where your program may be guilty of tampering and you, the head coach, aren't directly trafficking in it. That sort of thing happens before or has happened before it still happens. But to my knowledge, I don't know that Clemson's done it. I don't know. That doesn't mean they haven't. I don't know. Either way, that is what could force the issue. It's not a guarantee that anything happens with tampering. Frankly, I don't know what legal grounds we're standing on right now. So I don't know how enforceable any of these rules are. I know, I hate it. I mean, I know I despise the situation that happened there. And then the Ole Miss folks are going to get mad and say, oh, why are you calling us out? But you won't call Lane Kiffin out. I'll call anyone out. Anyone who is tampering with a player that is currently on another roster. I hate it. I hate that. That's a way of life. Most coaches are doing it, most staffs are doing it. It's so laughable when you're in the middle of December and every other call you're getting, every other text you're getting from coaches or from personnel staffers is about the ongoing process of recruiting in the portal and you're ignorant enough to say, hold on, the portal doesn't even open until January. And they just kind of chuckle like, yeah, sure it doesn't. Okay, so everybody knows that's going on and most people who are mad about it are also doing it. So I at least give Dabo credit. I at least give Pat Darduzzi credit. I mean, at least they called it out. I don't know what happens. I have no idea. I have hope for a world one day where we're back to at least somewhat normalcy. We are not there right now. Obviously you can, you can have some normalcy in your life, some consistency in your life by visiting Academy Sports and Outdoors. You can. I know I do. So I'm not a hypocrite here. I'm speaking out of personal experience. Academy Sports and outdoors. A one stop shop for. Oh, what could you possibly need? Basketball hoop. Yep, you can get it there. Football cleats. Yep, you can get it there. Fishing pole. Yep, you can get it there. Pull over. Yes, you can get it there. A bike. Yes. You notice I just keep listing things and they're all available. Academy Sports and Outdoors. 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[Main Commentator]

All right, let's move on. Good question here. Non football, but good question. Jonathan in Antioch, Illinois. I'm a pastor who preaches every Sunday. I love watching your show because you're a very gifted speaker and it's entertaining listening both to how you put things and how you say them. How did you develop your public speaking skills? No, this is close to the most popular question that people ask me. That's non football. Slowly is how I developed it slowly. Most people's biggest fear is public speaking. I had a crippling fear of public speaking growing up terrified of it. So I didn't grow up with some immunity to that. My biggest fear is lightning. My second biggest fear for a long time was public speaking. Still have it to a degree, but I think maybe I'm more introverted than I have a fear of public speaking now. So maybe I'm misdiagnosing myself a little bit there, but I had a crippling fear of public speaking for a long time. Okay. What helped me there is not so much a class or listening to a public speaker who, you know, gave me the right messages, although you can do that. What helped me is I just Realized one day that all it is is a bunch of one on one conversations. So the way I said it in my own mind is, you know, I would work in the fabric warehouse in Columbus. Actually, where I am right now, just a few blocks away from us, is the warehouse where I used to work. And we would take a break about 12:30 every day. We would go over to Clearview Barbecue on River Road. I've told that story many times. And we would eat lunch anyway. It's like sometimes it's one person with me, sometimes it's five people with me. But I remember when I was thinking about fear of public speaking, I remember I thought to myself one day, why is it so easy for me to talk at that lunch table? And yet I had this fear of public speaking. And the answer was, there is no answer. The only difference is, you know those people. I guess so it's a little bit different. You're a little more familiar with them. But really, at the core, a fear of public speaking is just fear of perception. It's just a fear of how people are going to perceive you. But the way I thought about it is, number one, what does it really matter what someone thinks about you? Really? Like, what risk of life is there? What risk is there to you based on what someone thinks? So I stopped valuing that. And that's public speaking. And beyond number two, this is probably the most important part. What's the difference in you talking to someone one on one at lunch or talking to four people, four on one at lunch, versus that. It's just people. It doesn't matter if there are 10 people or a million people in an auditorium or a cafeteria or a huge arena. It's just people. So when you break it down, if you don't get petrified of having a one on one conversation, you times that by 10,000. There are 10,000 people in this building. You're still having 10,000 one on one conversations. That's all that boils down to, there may be a little bit different lighting on you. You may be holding a microphone in your hand, but those are external factors. Those don't matter. Those are cosmetic. It's just a bunch of one on one conversations. It's just people. That's all it is. When I said that way, when I said it that way to myself, it got really easy. I'll be real with you. And I don't know if that approach works on me and it was unique to me, but I used to be terrified of this stuff and now it's nothing. I Actually love it. I actually look forward to it. It's kind of fun. So that's what worked for me, Jonathan. I hope it. I hope it works for other people. Because once you get past the fear of public speaking, think about the opportunities that open up to you and think about the opportunities most people choke off from ever being a possibility for themselves because of the fear of public speaking. That's. It's a big deal. A lot of people deal with that. Next up, we will go to a sip of coffee. First off, and secondly, Matthew is in Dothan, Alabama. He said, I'm a Georgia fan. I was curious as to your thoughts on the program. I've seen some people say Georgia's falling off after two playoff losses, but I don't see any real concerns with the program other than a possible change up at defensive coordinator. I gotta answer this a couple of different ways. Is the program falling off? Technically, yes. But that's only because the altitude they were flying at was unsustainable for anyone in the new era of college football. Translation, the team Kirby put on the field in 2021 probably is not able to be replicated anymore. And I know that's tough because that's only four years ago or five years ago, I guess now. But you guys know what I'm talking about. They know Georgia, what I'm talking about. So, yeah, Georgia was one of the few programs that. That had to fall off. Like Saban and Alabama fell off. They had to fall off. It was not possible to do anything other than fall off. So in a way, yes, they have fallen off in a sense that, oh, man, they're not what they once were. They can't compete as much anymore, the sports passing them by. And I'm not saying anyone said these words, maybe they did. I'm just kind of suggesting this. I'm kind of offering this up. No, I don't buy into that. I don't buy into that at all. I think the skill in this sport right now is to maintain, maintain a level, maintain a cruising altitude that puts you within reach. That puts you within reach where at that point, health, luck factors in. But really, if you get quarterback figured out, and I don't know that they've been special at quarterback in a few years, like, you know, Fernando Mendoza hasn't rolled through there. But if you get quarterback figured out, like, if you're special there, if you have pretty good injury luck and you're opportunistic, you execute at a high level, you're really good on game day as a staff. You're within reach of winning a title and you may do it like Indiana did. You may get to the 50 yard line with a minute to go and down six, needing one score like Miami didn't. You don't come through. But either way, both of those teams put themselves within reach. Oregon does it every year. They haven't won a title yet. Georgia won two of them. So it's a little different perspective that we look with them. We look at them with. But no, I don't think they've fallen off at all. The change at defensive coordinator, like, I don't know. Schumann, I know, is interviewed for some head coaching jobs. He's. Glenn Schuman's a really good coach. You're also coaching for Kirby Smart. I just think the last image you have in your mind is of Trinidad Chambliss playing out of his mind. And that's a performance that probably just beats most teams. I don't really know that many teams have a defense for that. So, no, I don't think George is falling off. I think George is going to be just fine. Next up, interesting question here. Really interesting question. So, Ramon, Ramon from Carlsbad, California, I know you work closely with espn, but do you think their monopoly on the playoff is a net negative for the structure and coverage of the sport? So I've said this for a long time that I think college football would be in its best position if every network had a chunk of the playoff. Now, I don't negotiate this stuff like true. I work with espn. Burke, Magnus and company do not allow me into the room to negotiate the playoff deals. And I don't work at Fox or NBC or CBS and put in their bids. I don't, I don't have knowledge of any of that stuff. I kind of do, but I'm not involved in it. I do think one of the things the NFL benefits from is that every network knows they have a chunk of the playoffs. NBC has games. CBS and Fox have games. ESPN does. ESPN's got the super bowl next year. The reason that benefits you is because it's in every network's best interest to heavily promote that product because they know they've got a piece of it. Whereas in college football, Fox, what's the motivation for them to promote the College Football Playoff? They don't have a piece of it. Why would CBS go above and beyond out of their way to promote a product that they don't have a piece of? And then ESPN in turn, has all the motivation in the world because they own the Whole thing. So it's not a blame of espn. Because if I'm running espn, you better believe I'm trying everything in my power to completely own the playoff, because it's the most valuable commodity the sport has to offer. So I don't really know that there's blame to go around. Like, as much as people want to demonize ESPN on this, okay, why don't you ever blame CBS for not being more aggressive? Why don't you ever blame Fox for not being more aggressive? Like, do you really think that had you put a solid, viable financial bid on the table that the College Football Playoff wouldn't have listened to? You know, so there are a lot of different angles you can take on that. My point is in the abstract, removing all the context. Just if we were building it right now from scratch, what do I think is in the best interest of college football? It's in the best interest for as many. As many seats to be at the College Football Playoff table as possible, because I think it's a net positive for the promotion of the sport. I think that's a fair take. I think that's a fair take. Maybe I'll negotiate one of those deals one day. It sounds like a better idea for a screenplay than a movie or a movie than a real life idea, but still, I'd like to do it. Very disrespectful question coming up here, but I got to tackle this beaver from State College, Pennsylvania. Actually, Dave from State College, Pennsylvania. Who has better hair, you or producer Jesse? The answer is me. The answer is me, because, number one, I'm totally comfortable with whatever hair I have. So that means I win first and foremost. Number two, even if Jesse says, oh, okay, but I'm comfortable, too. Yes, but yours costs money to maintain. Every year, you foolishly pay hundreds of dollars to maintain hair that no one really cares about. And it takes time. Think about how much time per year you have to spend drying your hair. Do you know what my yearly budget for hair care is? Zero. I bought a buzzer three years ago. And the only money I spend cutting my hair is the money we spend on the electricity to charge that thing. And I have to charge it, like, every three months maybe. And then part two is I spend about three seconds per day drying my hair because drying my hair consists of running my hand through it two times and it's dry. It's the most low maintenance, comfortable existence one can have. I can't believe more people do not shave their hair. I think it's because a lot of Your confidence is tied up in your hair. And I've just never had confidence tied up in my hair. Or really, I guess any kind of physical appearance. Although I work out, but I work out to be in shape. So I don't know, maybe there's correlation there. I don't know. Anyway, yeah, I've always. I've always thought the joke is on other people. Like when people try and make fun of you for not having hair, I'm like, I laugh along with them. The joke's on them. I wouldn't change it if I could. If you told me I could have who has the best hair, like, who. I don't know who. An example would be of having the best hair. Anyway, whoever you fill in that blank with, it would not be Jesse, but whoever you fill in the blank with of blank has the best hair out there. I would likely look at them and say, good for them. I'm gonna stick with what I got. I'm gonna stick with this. Because I really value the time saved and the money saved more than any kind of look. It would be different if I were a pro wrestler. I will grant you this. Or if I were a rock star, because I do think that it helps the aura, it helps the vibe, it helps the aesthetic, and especially in pro wrestling, because, I mean, what you can do if you have a ton of hair as a pro wrestler is make sure that stuff's in front of your face and you can talk to your opponent and the crowd can't see. And also think about the added cell job it does if you're taking a fake punch, excuse me, a working punch, and you jolt your hair back, your head back, and the hair flies backwards. That's a good look. But at that point, the hair has a functional purpose. If the hair doesn't have a functional purpose, the hair might as well not exist to me. And that's my stance on it. I hope, I hope I've given public speaking confidence and lack of hair confidence to someone out there today. We will have done our job if we can do that. What was the next question here? 4, 5, 6. Here's a good one. Here's a good one. This gives me a chance to write a wrong from the other day, too. Bearded fan from St. Amont, Louisiana, believe the pronunciation is right, he says. Is it undeniable why Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss for lsu. Now his first year, he signed three five stars in his high school recruiting class. Also, what is the floor and ceiling for LSU this season? Well, Lane left Ole Miss for lsu because he wanted the LSU job. If that's the reason he wanted the LSU job, then, yeah, it's undeniable. But if he didn't sign a great recruiting class this year, it still would have been undeniable to me. It was his personal preference. So whether I agree with it or not is irrelevant. Whether anyone else agrees with it or not is irrelevant. He did it because he wanted to do it. So the follow up is really the question here. What's the floor and the ceiling for LSU this year? So someone asked me, Cowherd, Colin Cowherd, asked me the other day. He said, is there any reason to believe that Lane's going to improve a whole lot at lsu? All right, so what I said is there's technically not evidence of it. That doesn't mean it can't happen. The evidence would be like, I'm looking at what's happened. I'm looking at the example he's given. I'm looking at the product that he's produced. So how many big games has Lane Kiffin won? Forget about championships. He hadn't won one of those. But I even look at how many big games has he won, all the while acknowledging that doesn't mean he can't. I'm asking what the big sample size is. Did he improve Ole Miss? Yes, greatly. They're probably playing at as high a level as they ever played in my lifetime. I acknowledge all that. And if you want to make the argument that that will transfer and then some to lsu, okay, that's your opinion. That's fine. It may. It may come to fruition. I was simply saying there isn't this, this long established track record of him punching above his weight and then winning a ton of games they're not supposed to win. So that I think now, with better resources, he's just going to kill it. I said that. And some clown over on the LSU board, of course, clipped it out of context and took it to the message boards and he said, lane. He says, lane's not going to win here. He said, there's no evidence he's going to win at lsu, which of course is the kind of foolishness you have to deal with in the modern world of digital media. Someone, especially in January and February when it's a slow time, takes something you say out of context, throws it up on the message board. And then people on the message board don't bother going and getting the full context. And they just believe, well, this guy wouldn't have posted this if it wasn't true. And so then Shay Dixon sends you a text, hey, you better take a look at this thread. And I go over there and it's like four pages deep of people bashing me for something I didn't say. So here's what I am saying about Lane. I think he could crush it at lsu. All I'm saying is if he does crush it, he will have enhanced himself. He will be doing things that he, as of this point, hasn't done, and that is winning a ton of big games. And of course, if he wins championships, that's something that he hasn't done. He can do it. I was asked where the evidence is. The evidence isn't there yet. So you're hoping his best work happens down the road. If you're an LSU fan at lsu, don't let that get in the way of what you think I said, though. Don't let what I actually say get in the way of what you think I said. Here's what I am saying about this weekend. Well, I guess next weekend is Super Bowl Sunday, so we've got a week. Of course there are other sports going on, but we do have Super Bowl Sunday coming up. Next Sunday, FanDuel is your spot. For that, I'm cooking up several player props that I myself have had an eye on. I'm not ready to share them publicly. Maybe I never will be ready to share them publicly. But FanDuel is the exclusive odds provider of our show. FanDuel's been right there with us arm in arm all year, sent us a lot of good information which I passed along as best I could on the show. And so they've been a really good friend of ours for a couple of years now, but especially this year. And they are your home for all of your wagering on the big game. What did I see this morning? I think as of this morning, Seattle -4 and a half McDonald really about to get the job done over New England. The fact that Mike Vrabel recently got fired by the Titans, not my Titans, but the Titans, and is in the super bowl is just fascinating. So that is your spot. And of course, you know, if you're not interested in that, you got some early props out, you got some early over under win totals out. In college football, you got the Heisman odds already up there. So that is your, that's your place. And if you want to just go look and not even bet anything, just go look. As Memaw said, no harm on logging on the fanduel and just looking. She said it, her words, not mine.

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[Main Commentator]

Let's get one more question in here and then I got to get this off to Jesse so he can edit it. Film guy in Norman, Oklahoma is Brooks Austin. No. No, he doesn't live in Norman. No, he doesn't have a compound out there. This is just, it's another film guy I see now there are several of you out there. Well, Norman, Oklahoma's film guy said, did the SEC play themselves by going to nine games? Given how beaten up a lot of their teams already are going into postseason play, it seems like this will actively work against them. It may, it may. I know right now there was this big fight. The Big Ten wanted to go to 24 playoff teams. The SEC wanted no more than 16. And since they couldn't agree, the SEC was like, hey man, we're okay just having 12. There are people out there saying, wait a minute though. The committee largely still just base bases their rankings on wins and losses. Like they don't really care how strong your schedule is. And so there were they said there was going to be all this incentive to schedule tougher. Therefore, you guys in the SEC felt comfortable adding a ninth conference game. But then when it really comes down to it, the committee still just you are what your record says you are mode, which could hurt the SEC. And if it's only going to be 12 teams, is going to nine conference games going to keep some SEC teams out of the playoff? Well, the answer is yeah, it may. Big deal, do it anyway. It's what I say. It could just be one of those instances where what's in the greater interest of college football may cost you a playoff team every now and then. Or who knows, maybe the committee recalibrates its criteria and we see a three loss team put in over A two loss team and we're explicitly told we put the three loss team in because they challenge themselves with their schedule. Yeah, it could be that or it could be that the SEC sees another year where like a Vandy or a Texas is just on the outside looking in and there's a lot of arguing and debate about it. But in the aggregate we got a way better schedule. We got a way better shelf of inventory because the league played a ninth conference game. Now I have never been one of these people who sits there and just blindly accepts this slop that's dealt out by other conferences. Well, we play nine. Why doesn't the SEC play nine? Well, because the talent by and large is better dispersed down the chain in the SEC. Which means playing the 10th best team in the SEC is a little bit tougher in terms of the caliber of athlete you face than playing the 10th best team in the Big Ten. It's been that way for a long time. Maybe it's not that way, maybe it just changed, but it has been that way. So I've never been one of these people who has said, oh, it's not fair the SEC only plays eight. Because I candidly, I've thought some eight game SEC schedules in the past have been tougher than many nine game league schedules elsewhere. In fact, the weaker your conference is, the easier and more manageable your ninth conference game is going to be. So I've never been about that. But it is true the SEC may have short term backed themselves into a corner here. My advice, don't relent, don't give up. Because I think you guys know at least someone has their head screwed on straight in Birmingham right now and they know 2014 playoff is stupid and so we're either going to go to 16 or we're going to stick at 12. And if we stick at 12, we're okay. Great, great. Thank you. I haven't been in the business of praising league offices lately, but I will praise the SEC league office because if they're the reason we're not going to 24 right now or hopefully ever, that's reason enough for me to thank you. Okay. I hope we'll be back Thursday. I think we'll be back Thursday. Either we're back Thursday or I'm doing the show from a rest stop somewhere just north of the Tennessee state line and we don't want to do that because we can't depend on their WI Fi. So I hope that I'm there. I appreciate you guys. Make sure you are subscribed to the channel and make sure you're following along on the socials. Oshpatecfb so for myself here in Columbus, soon to be Nashville again, for director Bradley for producer Jesse take care. Stay warm, stay safe. We'll speak Thursday. Until then, God Bless.

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