Why Notre Dame is probably out of the playoff, and Ohio State is looking at a quarterfinal SEC foe

Summary

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The Bill and Doug Show: Ohio State Football Talk

Episode: Why Notre Dame is probably out of the playoff, and Ohio State is looking at a quarterfinal SEC foe
Date: December 3, 2025
Hosts: Doug Lesmerises and Bill Landis (Blue Wire)

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Episode Overview

Bill and Doug deliver their unfiltered reactions to the latest College Football Playoff rankings, with a heavy focus on the fates of Notre Dame, Miami, BYU, and SEC contenders—plus what Ohio State’s playoff road probably looks like. The hosts dissect the committee’s logic (or lack thereof), question the SEC’s mid-tier strength, and have their usual fun banter, all through the lens of seasoned Ohio State and college football insiders. The tone is passionate, sarcastic, analytical, and fan-focused.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Notre Dame Likely Out of the Playoff

• Bill reacts viscerally to Alabama leapfrogging Notre Dame in the latest rankings.
  • "Bama's in and I'm sick. Sick to my stomach." (01:06)
• The key ranking shift: Bama at 9, Notre Dame at 10, BYU at 11.
• If BYU beats Texas Tech, BYU gets the automatic bid; Texas Tech will still be in, and Notre Dame is out. If Texas Tech beats BYU, Notre Dame gets in (unless Miami jumps them).
• Doug notes CFP clarified that idle teams can move up—so Miami could possibly jump Notre Dame based on head-to-head.
• Bill uses the “already dead” Band of Brothers meme:
  • "For real. Notre Dame's dead. I think Notre Dame's the third best team in the country. They're dead. For real." (02:58)

2. The Logic (or Illogic) of CFP Committee Decisions

• Doug questions whether Miami and Notre Dame have even been directly compared in the committee's rankings "pod" yet.
  • "Have Notre Dame and Miami been ranked, been compared to each other in the same group yet?" (03:21)
• Bill and Doug express frustration at the lack of transparent process.
  • "The pod thing is imaginary... do we exist in the same dimensional plane?" (05:24 - Bill)
• The strength of schedule and record metrics for Miami and Notre Dame are nearly identical (Notre Dame's 13th in strength of record, Miami 14th; schedule 42 vs. 44), so head-to-head could be decisive if/when they're compared directly.

3. Head-to-Head, Metrics, and Committee Contradictions

• Doug: "If it really comes down to [Miami vs. Notre Dame]... you don't think all the old football guys in that room are going to pick the team that won the game on the field?" (05:52)
• Bill: Points out the inconsistency—why not already order them that way now?
• Both hosts lambaste the convoluted explanations from committee members and TV panelists like Booger McFarland.

4. Reasonable Outrage & Limits of the 12-Team Playoff

• Bill recognizes Notre Dame fans don't have much of a right to complain since their ranking (10th) shows they're on the fringe:
  • "Nobody who's the 10th best team in the country has a right to anything. You should be down on your knees thanking the good lord..." (09:13)
• True outrage is reserved for situations like last year's Florida State snub due to a QB injury; the expanded playoff should minimize future controversies.

5. Why Not BYU? And Conference Bias

• BYU might be the most deserving left-out team, being 11–1 with its only loss to a top-4 team, but their non-conference schedule (Portland State, Stanford, East Carolina) and the Big 12’s weak perception undercut their case.
  • "Their non conference schedule was Portland State, Stanford and East Carolina. And the Big 12 just doesn't rate right." (11:48)
• Metric reality: BYU is 6th in strength of record, with a schedule better than Notre Dame or Miami (12:43).

6. The SEC's "Midness" and Ohio State’s Probable Quarterfinal

• Hosts are disgusted with the middle-tier SEC teams populating the standings:
  • "[Bama] blows like hot garbage… all these mediocre SEC teams that are going to make it. I want to vomit… it is disgusting." (14:22)
• Frustration with Ole Miss, Texas, and Vanderbilt’s relative playoff positions leads Bill to propose a fantasy “cram it” merchandise line.

7. Conference Championship Scenarios and Playoff Projections

• Doug and Bill break down possible conference champions (especially ACC and G6 teams) and how tiebreakers/committee choices could affect the last playoff spots, especially regarding the ACC’s bad tiebreaker protocol:
  • "The ACC has a bad tiebreaker plan." (23:56)
• Doug offers a mock projection: Ohio State, Georgia, Indiana, Texas Tech as top 4; Oregon, Ole Miss, A&M, Oklahoma, Bama next; then Miami, North Texas, JMU. (29:28)

8. Playoff Site and Matchup Speculation

• Potential for multiple SEC-hosted first-round games if Georgia loses the SEC title and the committee's SEC tilt persists.
• Bill and Doug fantasize about boycotting/watching holiday movies rather than early-round SEC playoff sites.
  • "What if that was our bit? ...What if we boycott it if it's 4 SEC first round sites? What if we ignore that they happened?" (36:14)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Notre Dame's fate:

  • "Notre Dame's dead. I think Notre Dame's the third best team in the country. They're dead. For real."
    —Bill Landis (02:58)

• On opaque “pod” comparisons:

  • "Are they in the same universe? Do we exist in the same dimensional plane as each other? Then like, take it into account. I don't know what you're freaking talking about."
    —Bill Landis (05:24)

• On SEC mid-tier teams:

  • "I want to tear [the rankings] up into tiny pieces, eat it, poop it out and flush it because it is disgusting all these mediocre SEC teams that are going to make it."
    —Bill Landis (14:22)

• On BYU’s snub:

  • "Actually, probably the answer probably should be BYU is in. And instead of Notre Dame or Miami and Alabama, why isn't BYU in?"
    —Bill Landis (10:49)

• On playoff expansion reducing real controversy:

  • "We got everybody who really needs to be in. When you think about it, in the end, Bill, there's only... 15 teams even in contention for those 10 spots."
    —Doug Lesmerises (09:13)

• On outrage limits:

  • "You can only be so angry. So quite a thing, though, that… it's like Notre Dame lost the first two and most people were like, they're out. And then by week four or five, everybody was like, they're gonna be in. And now we're in week 14, it's like, oh, no, they're out."
    —Doug Lesmerises (24:30)

• On Big Ten vs. SEC:

  • "The Big Ten is a league of champions and the SEC is a factory of midness."
    —Bill Landis (32:01)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:06 – Opening reactions to playoff rankings; “Bama’s in and I’m sick. Sick to my stomach.”
• 02:01–03:40 – Miami/Notre Dame head-to-head dilemma explained.
• 05:24–06:46 – Pod ranking frustration; committee transparency debate.
• 09:13–10:49 – Setting “outrage” expectations for fans; limits of playoff controversy.
• 10:49–12:43 – BYU’s playoff case and strength-of-schedule discussion.
• 14:22–15:21 – Rant about SEC "midness" and playoff selection process.
• 23:56–24:30 – ACC tiebreaker critique and impact on at-large spots.
• 29:28–31:19 – Doug’s playoff projections and discussion of how losses/conference titles are valued.
• 32:01–34:21 – Big Ten’s dominance vs. SEC, speculation on first-round playoff matchups.
• 36:14–36:52 – “Boycotting” SEC-heavy first round—banter about watching “Jingle All the Way” instead.
• 37:28 – Final realization: "We're not comparing Notre Dame and Miami side by side" (Hunter Eurocheck’s quote).
• 38:19 – Plans for upcoming coverage and live reaction podcasts.

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Conclusion

Bill and Doug deliver a comprehensive breakdown of the current playoff chaos, centering on Notre Dame’s near-certain exclusion, the SEC’s controversial placement of mid-level teams, and the committee’s murky logic. Relying on both stats and sarcasm, they reaffirm both the limits and benefits of the expanded playoff, and tease a potent Ohio State–SEC quarterfinal. Amid it all, their humor and grit hold true for Ohio State and northern football supremacy.

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For More

• Thursday: Big Ten championship game preview
• Friday: Conference championship picks
• Sunday: Immediate playoff reaction and analysis

Thanks for riding with The Bill and Doug Show.

Transcript

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[Doug Maurice]

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[Bill Landis]

Welcome back to the Bill and Doug show playoff reaction. We often do it live. We didn't do it live tonight. Dougl Maurice and Bill Landis. Bama's in and I'm sick. Sick to my stomach. Bama's in. They swapped Notre Dame and Bama. That is the big takeaway from this. Alabama number nine and the playoff rankings announced on Tuesday night. Notre Dame number 10. And it feels like Bill, I mean it doesn't feel like. I mean it is what it is. BYU's 11 and if BYU beats Texas Tech, BYU gets the automatic bid and Texas Tech will still be in and Notre Dame will be out. And if Texas Tech beats byu, then Notre Dame will be in and BYU will be out. Unless you believe that somehow Miami could then pass Notre Dame. You're wrinkling. You're wrinkling. If we wind up with Miami and Bama in okay, why you think that's possible? Did.

[Doug Maurice]

Did they not just tell us that there? Good question from Reese Davis. Getting clarification on whether or not an idle team can still move up because last year what's the board manual said they couldn't do it and the CFP has corrected the record and said no, it can happen. And that felt very intentional because I think if it comes down to one spot for Miami and Notre Dame, they will then decide to honor the head to head.

[Bill Landis]

So then, then the result is Notre Dame's already out.

[Doug Maurice]

I think Notre Dame is out. I think Notre Dame's I Could very well be wrong, but I think Notre Dame's out.

[Bill Landis]

Yeah. Did you watch Band of Brothers? Of course.

[Doug Maurice]

I watch it often. Yeah.

[Bill Landis]

Isn't there. This sticks with me. There's like a. A part in there where there's like this super brave guy running around and they're like, how. How are you so brave? And it's like he. His answer was like, because I know I'm already dead.

[Doug Maurice]

He's already dead. Yeah.

[Bill Landis]

For real. Notre Dame's dead. I think Notre Dame's the third best team in the country. They're dead. For real.

[Doug Maurice]

Do you?

[Bill Landis]

You do.

[Doug Maurice]

You don't think. Because here's my question you've gone through, and I hope this burnout listening to the teleconference, it wasn't asked on the show. I'm sure it will be asked in a teleconference, and maybe this has already been the case. But when they rank these teams, they rank them sort of in groups.

[Bill Landis]

Yeah.

[Doug Maurice]

Have Notre Dame and Miami been ranked, been compared to each other in the same group yet?

[Bill Landis]

I don't know.

[Doug Maurice]

I don't know. I don't know either. I probably should know that. I know as of like two weeks ago that had not happened yet. But I don't know if it happened last week.

[Bill Landis]

So here's the thing, because like they said, idle teams can move because it could affect your strength of schedule and everything. Miami, their schedule. There's nobody on Miami schedule that has a game left. And the only team on Notre Dame schedule that has a game left is Boise State is playing in the Mountain West Championship. So would you look at it?

[Doug Maurice]

On the road at New Mexico, right?

[Bill Landis]

At unlv, isn't it unlv, Boise State in the Mountain west title game. I think that's right. Unlv, Boise State.

[Doug Maurice]

What was I watching last week? Okay, never mind. I stand corrected.

[Bill Landis]

So. So it's like, well, what would affect that? So does that mean that, like, if Boise State wins, that helps? Oh, Notre Dame. Strength of schedule, and they go up, and if Boise State loses, it hurts their strength to schedule and they go down. Or is that just one thing? He mentioned the strength of schedule and that the reality is you bump out the team in the middle, they're now head to head, and now they're. They're.

[Doug Maurice]

The thing is that the moment their strength of schedule and strength of record are like strength of rec. And this is it. Like, they have other metrics, but this is just what ESPN has. Strength of record, Notre Dame is 13, Miami's 14. Strength of schedule Notre Dame's 42, Miami is 44. It's not like there's some big gulf there between the two.

[Bill Landis]

But then I do think it gets into reasonable discussion of like, if that's the case, then why does one team losing and now they're currently 10 and 12, but if they're 10 and 11, then you change your entire thinking. There's a part of that that it, it feels like it doesn't make sense.

[Doug Maurice]

Well, that's why I have the question about whether or not they've been compared in, in, yeah. A pod yet. I don't know. Yeah, because if they have and they're where they are, then what you're saying absolutely makes sense. Why would you switch it at the end?

[Bill Landis]

But also the pod thing is imaginary. If that's the case. If it's just that, like, well, they haven't been in the same pod. It's like, what do you mean they haven't been in the same podcast? Are they in the same universe? Do we exist in the same dimensional plane as each other? Then like, take it into account. I don't know what you're freaking talking about. So.

[Doug Maurice]

But even if that's okay. Well, again, I don't, I don't disagree with that either. The pod thing is just sort of feels like a made up thing.

[Bill Landis]

If.

[Doug Maurice]

It really comes down to it. And there's one spot and they're the only two teams that have that are viable for that spot. You don't think all the old football guys in that room are going to pick the team that won the game on the field?

[Bill Landis]

But then why didn't they already do that then why right now?

[Doug Maurice]

They didn't have to.

[Bill Landis]

But why isn't Notre Dame 12 and Miami 10 right now? And they'll put BYU in the middle of them.

[Doug Maurice]

Yeah, I don't know why they wouldn't put people in the middle. It didn't matter. So they like, they just kind of, I think they ranked them according to what the metrics told them.

[Bill Landis]

But it, Well, I mean I, I understand that it's difficult to rank teams and that like, maybe there's so many things to consider that head to head was just part of the equation and now there are fewer things to consider. And so the importance of head to head rises. I, I guess I get that. But is there not a part of this that is frustrating the way these people talk about it?

[Doug Maurice]

Yeah, well, this is part of, this is the corner. These are the corners they paint themselves into by doing the show every week.

[Bill Landis]

Yeah.

[Doug Maurice]

If if we didn't have week to week iteration of this knowing where these two teams have been the whole time. And two weeks ago Notre Dame was ahead and we didn't hear from him again until this weekend and suddenly Miami was ahead. I think people just like oh okay, right.

[Bill Landis]

And it's just hard the mumbo jumbo that Hunter, you're a check who just hired a coach and should be focused on that that he's trying to explain like well, Alabama was ahead and they had a good first half and then they repelled Auburn at the end and got a turnovers. I thought couldn't Auburn receiver just dropped it. I mean like Bama played like turds and that's the hard thing is like Bama played by turds against a lousy team that fired his coach and moved past Notre Dame. So like that. That part of it is also frustrating that all of a sudden. Right. That so that there's two things that are happening here. BYU loses but also like this week they decided. So like do you think it's reasonable that Texas A and M that have beaten Notre Dame. Texas A and M.M. lost its first game to Texas. So now Texas A M went from three to seven and so that now is not quite as good of a loss for Notre Dame and that's enough to move Bama ahead of Notre Dame. Is that fair?

[Doug Maurice]

Oh, I actually hadn't considered that. But yeah, yeah, I think it could be.

[Bill Landis]

Also I do think and it did help Alabama's case. I think Florida State moved up from 114 to 111. So that loss for Alabama doesn't look quite as bad.

[Doug Maurice]

Isn't it funny? Notre Dame and Alabama both play bad teams without head coaches and somehow Alabama gets credit because they played it worse and it was close. Yeah. And they had to show some resolve to win the game. Stupid Notre Dame. Notre Dame should have just let Stanford hang in it, man.

[Bill Landis]

So listen, I can't be. Obviously I have some affinity for Notre Dame. Maybe in part because they were my preseason pick to win the national championship. I think they're good. They're in the north, that's most of it. And south as we know Ken Kram it. But also Notre Dame did this to itself. Also I think Notre Dame got screwed in the Texas A and M game by the officials. So like. But we just can't, we cannot get out the torches and pitchforks and march on the castle because the 10th best team in the country got left out of the playoff. Because if you didn't want to be left out of the playoff be the sixth best team in the country. Nobody who's the 10th best team in the country has a right to anything. You should be down on your knees thanking the good lord that you have an opportunity to maybe play for a national championship when you've already lost at least two games and you did it to yourself. So, like, I want to make sure that I hold myself to account on minimizing the outrage because floor undefeated Florida State not making the playoff because his quarterback got hurt. That's where what outrage is reserved for. And we'll never have that level of outrage again because we have 12. So, you know, we got. We got everybody who really needs to be in. When you think about it, in the end, Bill, there's only. So we know the automatic qualifiers are a thing. So that's kind of, you know, between the ACC stinking to like hot garbage and this, this other G6 team. So that's going to be two to 12 spots. So there's 10 real spots here. There's only. There's 15 teams that are even in contention for those 10 spots. And I cut the line off between number 15 Utah, maybe would still have a case. A lot of people would say they don't because they have two losses and what's their best win? And then USC is 16 and USC has three losses. And like, what are we doing right? Like, no one's making a case for usc. You maybe could cut it. Maybe the better cut is between 14 Vanderbilt and 15 Utah because I don't even think Kyle Whittingham didn't spend this week going like it's an injustice, which is what Clark Lee said. Clark Lee said it would be an injustice for Vanderbilt to get left out. Kyle Whittingham didn't say that. So actually let's cut it at 14. Is that. That more fair?

[Doug Maurice]

Yeah, I think that makes more sense.

[Bill Landis]

Okay, so then we're going to have 10 of those 14 teams are going to get in. And right now as it stands, Notre Dame is 10, BYU's 11, Miami is 12, Texas is 13, and Vanderbilt is 14. And one of those teams is going to get in. And so if you don't like it, then Texas could not lose to Florida and Vanderbilt could have beaten Texas and they'd be in for sure. And Miami could have not lost to Louisville. And byu, frankly, is the team that is getting the most screwed because they're 11 and one their losses to the number four team in the country. Now they're playing that team again. So they might end up with only two losses, one of them in a conference championship game, which actually is not supposed to count as a full loss and it's to the same team that's number four. Actually, probably the answer probably should be BYU is in. And instead of Notre Dame or Miami and Alabama, why isn't byu, and we haven't talked about this a ton, why isn't BYU in.

[Doug Maurice]

Because their non conference schedule was Portland State, Stanford and East Carolina. And the Big 12. The Big 12 just doesn't rate right. So I don't, I mean but like they like Arizona turned out to be a good thing. Arizona's ranked, right? Yeah. Arizona's ranked 18th. BYU beat Arizona, Utah.

[Bill Landis]

Utah's 15th. Yep.

[Doug Maurice]

So I don't know, I don't know. Like now that you bring it up, like is there, is, is there a non zero chance that BYU gets in with a loss if they just play a banger of a game and it's close.

[Bill Landis]

Texas Tech kicks a field goal in the last play of the game to beat BYU and they, they have one loss and then a conference championship game loss, which is not a full loss. And your eye test tells you, man, they're good. They're what? They're one of the 12 best teams. They should be in. I don't know.

[Doug Maurice]

What's crazy is like all the metric talk like BYU is sixth in strength of record and its strength of schedule is better than Notre Dame's and Miami's.

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[Bill Landis]

What about toys?

[Doug Maurice]

Do they have brands kids have been wanting all year?

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[Bill Landis]

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[Bill Landis]

You know who blows, by the way though? Bama. Did I already say that? That Bama blows like hot garbage. Did I forget to mention that? I'm so mad at Auburn and I'm so mad at lsu. We should have wiped one of these SEC teams. There was no chaos this weekend. We thought there would be chaos. There's no chaos. Ole Miss moved up. Like, what are we doing? All the stuff like Lane Kiffin leaving is going to be treated like Jordan Travis, the Florida State quarterback getting hurt. And they were like, nope, move them up one spot. Yeah, I, I just want to say there's only so much outrage you can muster for the bottom half of the bracket, but I want to vomit. And I'm sick to my stomach about all these mid SEC teams who are going to get in and I've tried to, to like make myself feel better and say, well, at least I'll get in and get boat raced by the actual good teams from the north. It's not working at the moment because I'm staring at this list and it makes me want to tear it up into tiny pieces, eat it, poop it out and flush it because it is disgusting all these mediocre SEC teams that are going to make it.

[Doug Maurice]

I'm a little surprised. Like, Vanderbilt lost to Texas. So like there's, I mean, in theory there should be a ceiling there, but wasn't Tennessee ranked last week when Vanderbilt beat them and like they beat, they beat Tennessee and didn't move, right?

[Bill Landis]

Yeah, but they can't move ahead of Texas because Texas beat them and you're.

[Doug Maurice]

Not going to put both those teams as a pair ahead of the other one. Yeah, I guess I get, I, I do get it. I guess. But it was also funny to me that booger McFarland was like pumping up Vanderbilt, saying, everyone's talking about Texas, Texas, Texas. Vanderbilt's playing great or playing as well as anybody in the country. It's like, yeah, they lost to Texas. What are we, what are we doing? Trying to pump that team up.

[Bill Landis]

But I guess it is one of those, like, Vanderbilt has two losses, Texas has three. They're next to each other in the standings and Texas is ahead of them because of the head to head and Texas actually has one more loss. So now and then how could that apply to the Vanderbilt, Texas argument and not apply to Miami, Notre Dame, Texas's strength of schedules.

[Doug Maurice]

Yeah. Is better because they played Ohio State, Vanderbilt, strength of record is actually their one spot ahead of Texas. Yeah.

[Bill Landis]

So I don't know.

[Doug Maurice]

I mean, they don't have. They don't have a ranked win at the moment because.

[Bill Landis]

Yeah.

[Doug Maurice]

Yeah.

[Bill Landis]

And that Texas A and M win is nice for Texas. Obviously, Texas moved from 16 to 13, so. So it's going to be Miami or BYU for the last spot. I think that's right. And I. Can I just say this? I did say this. I just really like Notre Dame going into the year. I bet a lot for Dougie. Dougie style. I bet like $12 on Notre Dame to make the playoff, and I cashed that bet out five days ago.

[Doug Maurice]

Nice. Like that. I bet last year, I bet Notre Dame to win the national title in, like, October. And then I cashed out before they played Ohio State. Felt pretty good about it.

[Bill Landis]

Yeah. So I cashed it out and won, like, instead of getting the total of 19 back because it was pretty heavy minus odds, I cashed it out to get like 13 back. So I won like a $60, but I cashed it out before the weekend. I was like, they're not gonna lose to Stanford, but, like, I think this has a chance to start rolling against them in a real way. And so. But also just to restate for the record, I want to vomit. So it's actually. I guess it's only going to be five, because whatever this is, whether it's Notre Dame, BYU or Miami for the last spot, the good thing is none of those three teams are in the sec. So we're not going to be saddled with six sec. And we. We've been headed to five SEC forever. So the fact that Vanderbilt and Texas, no matter how much Clark Lee and CSR Sarkeesian come plain and wine and wine and whine about it, it's not gonna work. They're out.

[Doug Maurice]

I think that's right. I'm looking just on Twitter to see if anything has been said about Notre Dame and Miami and how much they've been compared yet. I don't see anything.

[Bill Landis]

All right, so do we want to make our predictions as we head into conference championship weekend? The Big Ten is number one versus number two. The SEC is number three versus number nine. The Big 12 is number four versus number 11. The ACC is number 17. Virginia versus Duke. The American is number 20 versus number 24. And then what's conference? Is it. What's JMU in Conference USA?

[Doug Maurice]

Sunbelt.

[Bill Landis]

Sunbelt. JM. The Sun Belt is JMU. Who's number 25 versus Troy. So what's going to happen is if Virginia wins, the two last conference chance will be Virginia from the acc and then the winner of the American between North Texas and Tulane. If Virginia loses and Duke wins, like the winner of the. Of the North Texas two lane game is in. The winner of the American is.

[Doug Maurice]

Absolutely. Yep.

[Bill Landis]

And then it's either going to be Virginia or if Duke wins, it could be jmu. If JMU wins and then what if.

[Doug Maurice]

What if JMU and Duke lose? Yeah, I mean, Heather, sorry. If Duke wins and Jamie loses and.

[Bill Landis]

Then I guess it might be the Mountain west championship. But I don't like, what if Boise wins and Boise makes the playoffs? Does that help? Notre Dame. And now we've reset this. They're a conference champ. They're in the playoffs. Notre Dame, Boise 8 and 4 and UNLV is 10 and 2. There's a part of me, and I don't mean to be dismissive, but I don't care at all. Congratulations to those lesser conferences for having the opportunity. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it because whoever. And this is not the Boise State getting the 3 seed last year, by the way, which also was an underdog travesty. My God. Get over yourself, underdog lovers. Like, do we have to. Do we have to pretend? I hate white. I. I hate the pretending with underdogs. Underdogs are a wonderful story, but like the idea that last year we had to pretend that Boise State was actually the third best team in the country and get all fired up about this. What a freaking joke.

[Doug Maurice]

Sorry.

[Bill Landis]

You deserve a spot. I'm not like the guy on the bus who doesn't want to let the G6 teams in because God forbid the 12th best team from a power conference doesn't get in. Get over yourself. 12th best team in a power conference. You'll be fine. I'm not saying they shouldn't be in, but I don't care who it is. Just like let us show up at the game and tell us who's going to go. But you don't get a three seed. So I don't care who. There's 11 and 12 because they're both going to lose. Can I, can any of those teams beat anybody?

[Doug Maurice]

North Texas's offense is pretty freaking good. I don't, but like, I don't think they could stop anybody. And I don't think they'd be pretty freaking good against like Oklahoma. But like you could get in North Texas at Ole Miss. Sure.

[Bill Landis]

Yeah. No, I'm here for it. Well, I take that back go 11 seed beat the snot out of Old Miss. I hope that happens. But the 12 seed's not going to beat Oregon. Oregon's looking like the five right now.

[Doug Maurice]

So do you think back to the Miami Notre Dame, BYU discussion. Would the fact that the ACC champ is not in give Miami a better chance of getting into the ACC as representation?

[Bill Landis]

I thought you were going to say give Notre Dame a better chance. So the ACC has representation. Well, it's like 60 of the ACC got in. Like that's, that's good enough. Notre Dame, is that not right? I wouldn't think about that at all because and I do think this, as people had said, like to call our back from NBC Sports has suggested the idea of like the ACC just like do away with their. It's all tiebreakers. So it's not like Duke has like earned it more than Miami. It's that the way the five way tie for second place worked out. Duke won the tiebreaker there. Just so people understand this, there are currently. Is that what it is currently? Yeah, because Pittsdale, there's five teams in a, in a, in a, in a tie for second place in the acc. Virginia's first. There are five teams tied for second and three of those teams are ranked. Right? Or is it just two now Miami's ranked just two. Georgia Tech is ranked.

[Doug Maurice]

Okay, sorry. Why is Georgia Tech ranked?

[Bill Landis]

Because, well, they have three losses. They, I mean they gave Georgia a little bit of a game. So what, what And I, I was going to do rants. What some conferences do this. The American does this. What conferences need to do is the tiebreaker needs to be whoever's highest in the playoff rankings because the goal as a conference is to get teams in the playoff. So like who cares whether what your strength of, of of record is against based on the random opponents and your thing and it's 0.631 versus 0.628. That's ridiculous. Who's hiring the playoff rankings? And if the ACC was doing that right now, it'd be Virginia, Miami and Miami would be a 14 point favorite and then Miami could be in the playoff. And then guess what? Because the thing about this is it's, it's not just screw in Miami, it's screwing Notre Dame because then Notre Dame would be in. Right? So it's like this idea, it's the conference's fault. And so people complain about the lack of divisions and the conferences are too big, just have better tiebreakers. Your tiebreaker is playoff ranking now because I think conferences don't want to give up, that they don't want to outsource their tiebreaker, but right now they're outsourcing it to randomness. And so that's silly. And I hope I. And the big tension. Everybody should do this because you never know when it's going to come for you. Put your best teams in. And the best way to determine your best teams, you have somebody doing it. So that's the problem here is that the ACC has a bad tiebreaker plan.

[Doug Maurice]

Yeah, but that's the tiebreaker plan for everybody, is it not?

[Bill Landis]

I think it's a tiebreaker plan like, but. But not for the American. And I think the Mountain west is like some computer ratings or something.

[Doug Maurice]

Yeah. I was gonna say if it. I like the playoff ranking idea. It's not maybe always applicable to like G6 leagues, but if the next step beyond that was more like a power rating thing, whatever it is, devise your own proprietary metric to power rate the teams in your league and fall back on that rather than schedule luck. That gets you.

[Bill Landis]

Yeah.

[Doug Maurice]

Better winning percentage or worse winning percentage.

[Bill Landis]

Because I think it's one of those. It's like, well, your schedule certainly matters, but you could still have a better team that has a worse schedule. And it's like, okay, whatever it is, whatever the things are, Miami's schedule, you know, the opponents records in the ACC didn't come up for Miami as well as Duke, but Miami's still better than Duke. Like, that's not up for debate. So. So no offense to Vandy and Texas, but they can cram it. And so Notre Dame screwed, and it's going to be Miami or byu, but you can only be so angry. You can only be so angry. So quite a thing, though, that. It was like Notre Dame lost the first two and most people were like, they're out. And then by week four or five, everybody was like, they're gonna be in. And now we're in. Week 14, it's like, oh, no, they're out.

[Doug Maurice]

I want to see. Where's Notre Dame? Notre Dame to make the playoff is still -520 on FanDuel.

[Bill Landis]

They haven't adapted yet. They don't understand what's happening here.

[Doug Maurice]

They haven't. You don't think they've changed it?

[Bill Landis]

Okay.

[Doug Maurice]

Their odds, like, their. Their odds, like, sort of mirror whether or not BYU wins or wins or loses. Miami.

[Bill Landis]

Yeah.

[Doug Maurice]

Oh, Miami's plus 570 to make the playoff.

[Bill Landis]

I would put some money on that because I think you're right. I think you're Right. Once they're next to each other, Miami will get the head to head. All right. Do you want to do what we think's gonna happen?

[Doug Maurice]

Yep.

[Bill Landis]

All right.

[Doug Maurice]

This is despite the way this will be doing your game pick for the Big Ten championship. I guess.

[Bill Landis]

Yeah. Although I've said nonsensical things all year that that are not based on what actually reality or what I think is going to happen. So I reserve the right to for no reason have a different thing on Thursday when we do our game picks. By the way, if you're still here, what a confusing night. I would love Roback to make a shirt that says could they have the game day line at Roback? R H b a c k.com could they have the kramit line where you would buy something of an of an opposing team and so it'd be like a beautiful crimson hoodie with a little A on it, maybe a cute little elephant right here and then there'd be a band right here that says cram it. Right. Could we get Roback to do the cram it line? Because maybe I would love to wear a beautiful crimson hoodie to express my utmost disdain for the Alabama Crimson Tide in a classy, casual, sporty way. Right. So the new kramit line from roback.com email customer service and say Doug said you guys are making a kramit line. When is it coming out? Will it be out for Christmas? Actually don't do that. But just imagine and I do like my mother in law can like do embroidery and that kind of thing. So maybe there's somebody in your family who has one of those fancy sewing machines. And for instance, you could just buy. Maybe I'll do that. I'll just buy a beautiful quarter zip from Roback of Alabama of Georgia and then have my mother in law embroider cram it across it. So you could do that as well. So. Or you could just actually buy gear of the teams that you actually like and you can do [e-mail], use bad 20B a D20 to get 20% off.

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[Bill Landis]

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[Doug Maurice]

Clock.

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[Bill Landis]

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[Doug Maurice]

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[Bill Landis]

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[Bill Landis]

You think it's going to be on Sunday.

[Doug Maurice]

Before I do that, I will read this quote from Hunter Irichek, courtesy of Nicole Auerbach, who's on the conference call on Texas being on the wrong side of the bubble. Quote it's not the Texas loss to Ohio State. It's that Texas lost to Florida that's holding them back, which is obvious. But thank you for saying that part out loud because for some reason people couldn't realize that last week after Texas beat Texas A M and forgot that they lost to Florida.

[Bill Landis]

All right, score one for the committee chair. Score one for reason. Score one for reason.

[Doug Maurice]

My. My, my projection's pretty chalky. Yeah, actually, it's. It is chalk, basically. Ohio State 1, Georgia 2, Indiana 3, Texas Tech 4. I'm basically just sticking with the rankings. Oregon 5, Ole Miss 6aM 7, Oklahoma 8. I don't think Bama would move and like, unless they lost by a couple scores. So I still have Alabama at 9, Miami 10, North Texas 11, and James Madison 12th.

[Bill Landis]

Okay, so you do have Duke beat in Virginia.

[Doug Maurice]

That's not because it'd be funny.

[Bill Landis]

That's not all chalk. So. So you and I are the same top nine. I just, I don't think they are going to move Bama down under any circumstance. I think Bama could lose 60 to nothing and they won't move them down.

[Doug Maurice]

They won't move.

[Bill Landis]

Yeah. Because as much as the committee's people change year to year, I think we are in the realm of we're not going to punish teams for losing in conference championship games, which I agree with. Like, I don't. I don't think that's wrong.

[Doug Maurice]

Do you think that's true of Ohio State and Indiana?

[Bill Landis]

What do you mean?

[Doug Maurice]

Like, like clearly, like, if Indiana beats Ohio State, they would be number one. But do you think Ohio State would be two? Or could they fall to three or and the same thing for Indiana.

[Bill Landis]

You know, that's a very interesting point. I think it would be more that. It's not that. Well, you know what, it's an interesting point because we've been making this assumption because, like, if it's not a full loss, if it's half a loss, Georgia has a full loss. You know, I think they like to reward conference champions. So I've kind of been assuming that. I actually, I haven't heard anyone say that. I think you. I think you have a chance to be right there. If they're the two best teams in the country, they're playing each other, they earn the right to play each other. They're the only two undefeated teams. Nobody else is undefeated. Why should the either the. Why should either of them move down? Yeah, the winners won, the losers, too. That's not impossible. And it doesn't really matter. But it's an interesting point.

[Doug Maurice]

It does. Yeah, you're right. It doesn't. It doesn't really matter. Well, trying to think. No, I guess it doesn't matter. The thing that could be interesting, one of the semifinals is in Atlanta. So if you're Georgia, you don't want to be four, but I guess they.

[Bill Landis]

All right. But they wouldn't be. Then the SEC champ would be three. Yeah.

[Doug Maurice]

Yeah.

[Bill Landis]

So the one thing.

[Doug Maurice]

But then if you're the two, I guess it does matter. Then if you're the two, then you're going to go play Georgia in Atlanta in the semi final. You don't really want to do that either.

[Bill Landis]

But if you're the three, you're going to play George in the semi final in Atlanta.

[Doug Maurice]

I guess that's true. Yeah.

[Bill Landis]

So. So it does. I mean, it's just a matter of like.

[Doug Maurice]

Are you asking. Can you ask to be the four? Yeah, if you lose.

[Bill Landis]

But I'm not afraid of playing Georgia. I'd rather do that than play Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. Yeah. You know who's the one? I did like the idea that if Texas Tech loses, then Oregon's the four and three of the top four teams, the four bot three buys would be for the Big Ten because the Big Ten is a league of champions and the SEC is a factory of midness.

[Doug Maurice]

So you don't think I saw somebody, I can't remember who it was, say, like, well, if Bama wins, they're going to get a buy. Like they're not going to move up from nine to four if they win, right?

[Bill Landis]

No, I don't think so.

[Doug Maurice]

Yeah, I don't think so either.

[Bill Landis]

Yeah. So there's multiple ways for Oregon to get a buy here because also Bama can cram it because they sucked against Auburn and they should have lost three times this year. Our top nine are the same. Ohio State, Georgia, Indiana, Texas Tech, Oregon, Ole Miss, Texas A M, Oklahoma, bama. And our 10 is the same at 10, Miami. And then I have Virginia 11, North Texas 12. So good luck to everybody at the bottom of the field. So again, the things that are interesting here from an Ohio State perspective, you now end up in a world where Ohio State's playing the winner of Oklahoma Bama. So we're getting that SEC Big Ten matchup that we were pretty interested in. You would get a 710 game in the first round, potentially between the two Notre Dame vanquishers, Texas A M and Miami. And then I do hate the idea of Ole Miss being high enough at six to get one of these kind of like lesser conference champs, but I'd rather them. I like yours better of playing North Texas or Tulane. Although Tulane got boat race by Ole Miss already.

[Doug Maurice]

Yeah.

[Bill Landis]

So if like. So I wouldn't love that matchup. I can't believe Ole Miss is going to like back door. The only saving grace here is If Indiana is 3 and old miss, like, gets a free win because the 11's not that good, then Kurt Signetti, no offense to Pete Golding, can take apart Ole Miss limb by limb like he's working his way through a rotisserie chicken. My God, it'll be nothing left but bones. Signetti's gonna hang a 70 on the SEC in that quarterfinal, is he not?

[Doug Maurice]

I think you would try to. Yeah, I'm a little actually, like, now that you're talking about, a slightly surprised that A M fell behind Ole Miss. I know like A M's SEC schedule has not. Was not strong, which we discussed, but like they were sort of crowned as the class of the league until Texas beat them. Now all of a sudden, they stink.

[Bill Landis]

Yeah, no, I. I kind of agree with that. So, I mean, they finished tied in the SEC with one loss and they're the two teams that didn't make the tiebreaker to get into the SEC championship game. But, you know, it's an interesting spot. In the end, if it works out this way, the idea that you would be looking at potentially like a Texas Tech Oregon quarter in a four or five game. This really sets up to me that you absolutely would be looking at three Big, three Big Ten teams in the semis.

[Doug Maurice]

The other thing very possible. I agree. If Alabama Beats Georgia and Georgia were to fall out. Well, if Alabama beats Georgia, I think all the first round games are going to be SEC games. Maybe.

[Bill Landis]

Right.

[Doug Maurice]

Like at SEC station.

[Bill Landis]

Oh. Oh, yeah. That'd be disgusting. Oregon could move up.

[Doug Maurice]

Yeah.

[Bill Landis]

Because in Oregon. Yeah. Potentially. Potentially. So like the sec, the trade off would be the sec. No SEC team gets a buy. But all four first round games are in SEC schools.

[Doug Maurice]

Yeah. Which would be like the inverse of last year, kind of. Yeah. Penn State, Ohio State, Notre Dame. I got the host, but.

[Bill Landis]

And then one of them would be hosting another SEC team and then we'd all end up rooting for Miami. This is going to be weird if Notre Dame's not in because it's only going to be three northern teams.

[Doug Maurice]

Yeah. It's gonna be the north against who all may not.

[Bill Landis]

Who all May not play. And we'll just be lying in wait. Like, they'll just be sitting in their thrones, like, waiting for these mediocre teams to like, fight amongst themselves and let us know when you've determined your winner. And then we'll destroy whoever it is.

[Doug Maurice]

We're gonna get more Northern Thrones 4, 23, 17 first. First round games.

[Bill Landis]

Maybe we won't watch them. What if that was our bit? I actually have stuff going on the first weekend of the playoff.

[Doug Maurice]

We'll do.

[Bill Landis]

But what if we boycott it if it's 4sec first round sites? What if we ignore that they happened?

[Doug Maurice]

That sounds great. My birthday's that Friday, so I can think of something else to do.

[Bill Landis]

Oh, yeah, and then we'll just come back on Monday and be like, hey, who won? Oh, cool. That's who's playing Indiana. That's who's playing Oregon. That's who playing the Ohio State. Great. How. What happened in those games? I don't know. It's 41 to 6. Who knows? It's like, okay, that's fine. Moving on. Oh, what a great bit that would be. We could come on and do like a movie podcast. We could just talk about.

[Doug Maurice]

We feel like a watch along of like, jingle all the way or something. Tis the season, you know? Yeah.

[Bill Landis]

Oh, jingle all the way Watch along. Up against the 8pm SEC game on Saturday night. I think we get 2,000 people. Okay. I hate them more every day. I can't help it. I just hate them more every day. I hate who they are and what they stand for. But other than that, I'm sure there are fine people who are involved and are fans of SEC teams. I know there are for a fact, but what the conference is and what it stands for makes me. It revolts me. It revolts me. But anyway, good luck to everybody. Okay, that's it.

[Doug Maurice]

Oh, here's, here's by the way, Hunter Eurocheck quote. We're not comparing Notre Dame and Miami side by side.

[Bill Landis]

Okay. And when we do next week, of course we will value the head to head. Notre Dame, in a word, is screwed. Okay. I can't believe it. So that Notre Dame had to have been sitting there rooting for Texas A and M against Texas. I guess they maybe realized that. Maybe they didn't.

[Doug Maurice]

But yeah, okay.

[Bill Landis]

Don't lose twice. What are you gonna do? We'll be back on Sunday. We do need to advise the people on this that we will do some kind of post game show after the Big Ten championship game late, late, late late Saturday night. But as soon after the game as we can. But then we will do a, a playoff reaction show on Sunday pretty instantaneously. Yes, that's the plan.

[Doug Maurice]

Yeah. It shows at noon. Yeah. Probably, I would say by like 12:30 would probably be me live talking about it.

[Bill Landis]

Yeah, live.

[Doug Maurice]

There's gonna be here live. There's going to be an Ohio State press conference more than likely that afternoon. So we'll have to squeeze it in between the playoff show and that. Yeah.

[Bill Landis]

Yeah. Okay. So we'll see you guys on Sunday. We'll have a, a Big Ten title game breakdown on this feed on Thursday. We'll have our picks for all the conference championship games on this feed on Friday. Lots of stuff coming. Thanks for riding with us. For now, he's Bill Landis, I'm Doug Lemurice and that was the Bill and Doug show.

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[Bill Landis]

Wood thrush, three o'.

[Doug Maurice]

Clock.

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[Doug Maurice]

Oh man. How about waterproof boots, size 10?

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[Bill Landis]

Really?

[Doug Maurice]

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[Bill Landis]

Okay. Was that you or the birds? Check out the wellness side of Walmart today.

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