Spencer Hall on Lane Kiffin & LSU's major mistake, Pressure on Alabama & Ohio State, College Football's playoff problem | 12.02

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Right Time with Bomani Jones

Episode: Spencer Hall on Lane Kiffin & LSU's major mistake, Pressure on Alabama & Ohio State, College Football's playoff problem
Date: December 2, 2025
Guests: Spencer Hall (Channel 6)
Host: Bomani Jones

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Main Theme & Purpose

In this episode, Bomani Jones and guest Spencer Hall break down the wild and drama-filled world of college football amid championship weekend. The central focus is the controversial hiring of Lane Kiffin as LSU's head coach, examining the viability of the move, the culture around Kiffin himself, and the implications for LSU. They also discuss high-stakes pressure on programs like Alabama and Ohio State, and broader issues facing college football, such as playoff structure, the broken calendar, and the nature of conference realignment.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Lane Kiffin’s Hiring at LSU: "Keys to the Castle"

Timestamps: 03:38–18:43

• No Plan B for LSU: LSU went all-in for Lane Kiffin, giving him a massive contract—despite vowing not to after their last fiasco.
  • Bomani: “Not only are they giving him a contract like the one before, they're going to pay him bonuses if Ole Miss were to win a national championship.” (03:44)
  • Spencer: “Lane rolled up and he's like, keys to the castle, baby.” (04:45)
• Lane's Coaching Record Scrutinized: His impressive win record at Ole Miss is acknowledged, but Bomani and Spencer debate if he's actually better than other coaches in the SEC.
  • Bomani: “Just putting their names on the list… I'm not positive in this conference that Lane Kiffin is a better coach than [anyone].” (06:44)
  • Spencer: Gives Lane credit for simple, effective play-calling and finally learning to delegate, but “there's kind of a mess there” meeting another mess at LSU. (09:48)
• Drama Magnet: Both agree that Lane is attracted to jobs loaded with drama and that LSU's flair for the dramatic makes it a perfect match.
  • Bomani: “You're not going to convince me that the most attractive part of this job to Lane Kiffin was not the fact that it is fraught with drama.” (10:06)
• Speculation about Ed Orgeron's Return:
  • Bomani: “Should bringing Ed back be on the board?” (10:15)
  • Spencer: “If it's going to be a good story and it's going to raise some eyebrows, Lane will do it and LSU is just going to let him.” (11:09)
• Potential Issues: Lingering questions about defense, Kiffin's fit with administrative structures (contrast with Florida's GM model), and hiring assistants for stability.

2. The Culture of Coaching & LSU’s Loyalty

Timestamps: 16:45–21:34

• LSU Fans' Unconditional Support:
  • Spencer: “LSU is just going to be in no matter what Lane Kiffin does… that man could shoot somebody and they'd be like, hey, we've all been there. No, we haven't.” (17:29)
• Lane Kiffin’s Outlandish Behavior: Wild hot yoga stories and the “legend” of Lane—unpredictable, chaotic, and unbothered.
  • Spencer: “He farted in class and blamed it on a girl... just doing bicep curls while we were all in child's pose.” (18:22)
• Comparison to Ed Orgeron:
  • Discussion about whether Ed was really fired for wins and losses or public antics.
  • Bomani: “I just want to point out that that kind of stuff is what got Ed Ogeron fired.” (18:43)
  • Both laugh about the “tales” of Ogeron “hitting on people,” questioning their veracity.

3. The Carousel: Coaches on the Move & Program Fits

Timestamps: 22:45–30:43

• Coaching Market Madness:
  • Bomani raises Pat Fitzgerald potentially moving to Michigan State after scandal, and Sitake in the running for Penn State—a fascinating “coaching carousel” full of second choices and dubious cultural fits.
  • Spencer: “You're trying to catch lightning in a bottle twice. It's a much different environment.” (24:52)
  • Potential mismatch when moving from places with strict academic or cultural barriers (Northwestern, BYU) to bigger programs.
• Unique Program Identities:
  • Spencer and Bomani muse about jobs with intrinsic recruiting advantages (BYU’s money, religious pitch, “we old” player base) and the Big 12 possibly being BYU’s conference to own.

4. College Football's Broken Calendar & Playoff Problem

Timestamps: 31:51–44:41

• The Calendar's Chaos: The compressed off-season and accelerated signing periods have made coach moves and team stability more volatile.
  • Bomani: “The calendar's fault… you thought you could get away with both.” (31:51)
  • Spencer: “Nothing in the sport is built for the calendar. Nothing in the sport makes sense because of the calendar.” (41:22)
• Championship Weekend Anticlimax:
  • With the playoff committee in place, and soon expansion, conference title games lose gravity—undercutting the meaning of top-ranked matchups.
  • Bomani: “It's the least anticipated one versus two matchup that I think we have ever had.” (39:33)
  • Spencer: “The joke of the Big Ten is that everybody's a flavor of Purdue.” (41:22)
• Effects on Coaches: Early signing day forces early firings; constant churn for assistants. The playoff has dulled regular season intensity, despite ratings spin.
  • Bomani: “I've always been an anti playoff person… the actual existence of the playoff has only made me—more resolute and clearer than ever that I was right in the first place.” (39:33)

5. Playoff Pressure: Alabama, Ohio State & The Big Brands

Timestamps: 31:51–49:05

• Pressure on Alabama and DeBoer:
  • Bomani: Speculates Alabama could lose head coach DeBoer if things go sour, drawing from the school’s history of coach departures.
  • Spencer: Cautions, “I think that's maybe… Alabama still pretty business, like, at this point.” (34:51)
• Ohio State & Indiana Big Ten Final:
  • Both marvel at the clinical, unspectacular dominance (high level but untested due to weak schedules).
  • Spencer: “Ohio State will beat Indiana. I feel real confident saying that… if they do lose… that should go down as one of the great upsets in college football history.” (42:17)

6. The Drama is the Draw

Timestamps: 44:41–53:53

• Personnel Moves > Actual Games:
  • Bomani draws parallels to NBA, where trades dominate discussions over games; similarly, Lane Kiffin’s moves and antics dominate college football.
  • Bomani: “...all the personnel stuff and the kind of gossipy stuff started to take precedence over the actual play.” (44:41)
• The Power of the Head Coach (“Army” Analogy):
  • Bomani insightfully notes the oddity of giving (often eccentric) college football coaches such immense power—akin to putting the mayor of a 120,000-person city in charge of an army.
  • Bomani: “There’s a lot of people who have armies that should not be allowed to have an army—but something… that school means you get to have an army.” (52:36)
  • Spencer: “Lane just took a job where he gets his own tiger… That’s Scarface.” (53:07)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Lane Kiffin’s fit at LSU:
  • Spencer Hall (04:45): “Lane rolled up and he's like, keys to the castle, baby.”
  • Bomani Jones (10:06): “You're not going to convince me that the most attractive part of this job to Lane Kiffin was not the fact that it is fraught with drama.”
  • Spencer Hall (11:09): “If it's going to be a good story and it's going to raise some eyebrows, Lane will do it and LSU is just going to let him.”
  • Bomani Jones (17:04): “No matter who it is, no matter what it is, once it happens, you got no choice but to be in. And so they are going to be in until they aren't in.”
• On Lane Kiffin’s persona:
  • Spencer Hall (18:22): "He farted in class and blamed it on a girl... just doing bicep curls while we were all in child's pose."
• On the playoff’s effect:
  • Bomani Jones (39:33): “It's the least anticipated one versus two matchup that I think we have ever had... because of having this playoff that's just going to run next week. And... these regular season games are just not going to hit like they used to.”
• On college programs and power:
  • Bomani Jones (52:36): “There’s a lot of people who have armies that should not be allowed to have an army—but something… that school means you get to have an army.”
  • Spencer Hall (53:07): “Lane just took a job where he gets his own tiger… That’s Scarface.”

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Lane Kiffin’s LSU fit and contract: 03:38–11:09
• Coaching carousel & institutional fits: 22:45–30:43
• Championship weekend implications & playoff critique: 31:51–44:41
• Power of head coaches ("army" analogy): 52:36–53:53

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Tone & Style

The conversation is candid, sarcastic, and deeply knowledgeable, mixing sharp analysis with humor and pop culture references. Bomani and Spencer riff off each other, respecting each other's expertise but not afraid to poke fun (especially at Lane Kiffin’s expense).

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Summary Takeaway

This episode is a deep dive into the chaotic reality of college football’s current era—where theater and gossip often supersede the on-the-field games. Lane Kiffin's move to LSU is emblematic of a sport where outsized personalities, administrative dysfunction, and an ever-shifting landscape make for endlessly compelling stories—sometimes more so than the actual games themselves. As the playoff era accelerates change, Bomani and Spencer argue for the enduring, absurd, and irresistible nature of college football.

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For listeners who missed the episode:
If you want to understand why Lane Kiffin at LSU is the story of the year—and all the drama, dysfunction, and hilarity that comes with it—this summary covers every major discussion, character insight, and broader college football trend mentioned by Bomani and Spencer.

Transcript

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[Bomani Jones]

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Right Time A Wave original. My name is Bomani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube, subscribe like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. It is one of those times of the week where we have a guest join us. He is the best college football writer in America. Check him out at Channel 6 and other places Spencer hall was going on.

[Spencer Hall]

What's going on, sir? There's nothing. There's nothing happening. I mean, I don't know why you would have me on. Oh yeah, December 2nd.

[Bomani Jones]

Hey, look, man, we got to hurry up and get this done so we can go watch this Diddy movie that 50 made.

[Spencer Hall]

I don't, I don't.

[Bomani Jones]

I don't have any shame in admitting I can't wait. And it's all these people who are like, yeah, well, he just doing this because he don't like Diddy. The only reason I'm watching is because I don't like Diddy.

[Spencer Hall]

Let's go. We all have appointment viewing. You have that. I have to go to Zack Fox Fox's TikTok account and just see how many times he's retweeted Kevin Gates singing Beefing with My Chick While I'm in Jail. I don't know if you know this. He's retweeted it, like, 50 times in different variations. And I can't stop hearing Kevin Gates in my head. So we both have. We should get to this, because we both have things to do after this.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah. Yeah. I just want to say this One thing about 50 Cent is for all the terrible things there are to say about him, and they are terrible. One thing the man is not. Is insincere, Right? Like, I watched him sit down in that interview with the director, and you know what he's thinking? I put this black woman on, you know, and he's sitting there and they talk to Robert Roberts, and he takes that quiet tone. It talks about the seriousness of the matter. And he was just like, look, man, I'm just telling y'. All. The man asked me if I. Basically, he's like. He asked me if I wanted to go shopping with him, and I knew what time it was. I knew he was trying to beat. And I ain't been cool with him ever since. So, yeah, I'm making a movie about it.

[Spencer Hall]

You know, there's survival instincts you only get from surviving a violent shooting. And I think that's. I think that's one thing we've learned about 50 is that if he leaves the room, it's time for you to go to. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.

[Bomani Jones]

This is what it is. I was hanging out with somebody that some people on this show would be familiar with. He was with his girl. He was talking about how they was somewhere in Atlanta, and he saw some dude walk in, and he was like, he's about to shoot up the place. Let's go. And he got out, and that woman looked at him in front of us and said, and, you know, that was the day that I realized that there was something about you.

[Spencer Hall]

Like, she was.

[Bomani Jones]

She was 100% like, yeah, this the kind of bad I need in my life. Just. Just in case you're wondering what. They love this.

[Spencer Hall]

This gas station is no longer a safe space. We gotta go. Yeah.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes.

[Spencer Hall]

Yes.

[Bomani Jones]

All right. Lane Kiffin is now the coach at lsu. Right?

[Spencer Hall]

Now that we're. That happened. That happened. He's there.

[Bomani Jones]

That did happen. He is there. Have. I don't know about you, but I've heard not a word about candidate number two for this job. LSU decided that they wanted Lane. They talked about how they was never going to give out a contract like they gave out before. Not only are they giving him a contract like the one before, they're going to pay him bonuses if Ole Miss were to win a national championship. Lane Kiffin's owed a million dollars in his contract and LSU is going to give him the million dollars. They have handed the keys over to him. And I don't think anybody has really properly stopped to ask the question and is this a good idea for lsu?

[Spencer Hall]

Well, first of all, let's congratulate Jeff Landry on some extreme politicianing, some extreme politician speak by being like, we're going to do contracts that are different. We're going. We're not going to do all this, this. This appeasement. And we're not going to just give coaches what they want. Then Lane rolled up and he's like, keys to the castle, baby.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes, for Lane.

[Spencer Hall]

Take them for Lane. A guy who, if I may remind you, has won championships as an assistant and has won with Florida Atlantic.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes.

[Spencer Hall]

So we have. And yes, full credit to everything that happened at Ole Miss. That is the best run at Ole Miss history. He is the best coach in Ole Miss history. Do not throw John Vaught in my face. Not everyone was eligible to play those games. I didn't get to see the full capacity of those things. His name's on the stadium. Doesn't have to be on the statue outside. If they were going to build one, it would be from Lane. He is the only guy with an 11 win season there. 10. 11 and 10. Phenomenal run there. May be his best work and I think what will be his best work? Because I think this LSU gig is now completely complicated by simply by how he came in and by the circumstances of the game as it exists now.

[Bomani Jones]

So the, the Ole Miss thing is interesting because it is the best run. And I made a mistake last show. I said that Lane did not have a big win at Ole Miss and that's not true because they did beat Georgia last year. Listen, they beat Georgia other than that big win for Lane ever, I believe, is the 2011 year against Oregon where they pulled one out at the end of the year while they were somewhat in the throes of probation. Okay, yeah, so my bad. He has won two games. Worth discussing in the last 15 years. My fault. My fault. I owe you an apology, Lane. You've got those two. However, if you are lining up the best coaches in the sec, just putting their names on the list. I'm not even necessarily saying where does he stand on the list. I'm asking you, how many of those coaches can you definitively say Lane Kiffin is a better coach than Insert name here? And Buddy, I don't know, given that Mississippi State's coach is actually Kind of sort of the shadow coach. And the actual coach is actually a really good coach back guy who you got. I don't, I don't have anybody that. I am positive in this conference that Lane Kiffin is a better coach than.

[Spencer Hall]

I'm a little higher on him than you are.

[Bomani Jones]

Okay, but I'm just. But tell me positively, is he positively better than Beamer?

[Spencer Hall]

Than Beamer? Yes.

[Bomani Jones]

Okay. Positively better than Hypo?

[Spencer Hall]

No, no. And I will say this too. I think. I think Hypo's a better. I think Hypo is a better or guy like given. I think that is underrated. The gig that he has done at Tennessee and the culture that he has built. Because when was the last time. I'll make this brief. When was the last time you heard, man, Tennessee's got a problem player or Tennessee has a cultural. Nope, nope. Those. That. That is a Kumbaya group that gets results at a place that is harder to succeed at than people think. So. Yes. Next.

[Bomani Jones]

All right. Is he positively better than Eli at Missouri?

[Spencer Hall]

Another underrated dude. I think overall, if I was giving you one v one game, Lane is a better play caller and he's going to be a tougher one on one matchup. If I'm extending this over. If I'm giving you a stock report, right. Here's your money. Take your portfolio to Eli Drinkwitz and Associates. I would give it to Drinkwood just based on the steady performance at a place that again, a little more difficult than people think.

[Bomani Jones]

But if, you know. But they're in the same neighborhood. And I'm just saying ain't nobody going through all this shit for Eli Drinkwitz. That's all I'm saying. Like that's, that's the I, the thing I give him credit for. And you and I have talked about this for years with Lane. I do appreciate that he doesn't make offense more complicated than it has to be be. Hey, we got a dude and I'm gonna give him the ball every time if I can. Hey, it's not. It doesn't matter what position he plays. When it was Amari Cooper. Amari Cooper damn near won a Heisman. When it was Derrick Henry. He ran for 2,000 yards and he won a Heisman. If you're the guy, you're going to get the ball.

[Spencer Hall]

If he did this with Marquis Lee at usc. Listen, he did this with. He did this with Jackson Dart. If, you know, he did this with Trinidad Chambliss. Did not matter that he was a Ferris State transfer. Did not matter that he appeared to be an FCS player when he walked on the field, you go, wow, that guy looks a little small. Doesn't matter. You're going to touch the ball 53 times. It works. And he's going to do it so he doesn't make it harder than it has to be. He puts players in a position to succeed, delegates much better than he used to it. You would see the story was that Lane would not delegate, and Lane would not let anyone touch any controls on offense. He's a little bit better about that now. Still calls plays, but very good about delegating and keeps it loose. Like, that's. As a program wide. Keeps it loose. We're all. Basically, we're talking around. We're outlining the elephant in the room, which is Lane, which is. That's it.

[Bomani Jones]

Right?

[Spencer Hall]

Like, every question we asked today, Bo, every question we asked today is going to be, should work, should work, should work, should work.

[Bomani Jones]

But.

[Spencer Hall]

Right, that's it. That's it. There's. There's kind of a mess there, and it's more. It's complicated now by. Well, there's a mess meeting a mess. And in the middle, they're going to try to build a football program together. And that. That's going to be the challenge here.

[Bomani Jones]

You're not going to convince me that the most attractive part of this job to Lane Kiffin was not the fact that it is fraught with drama. Like. Like, you're not. You're not. You're.

[Spencer Hall]

You're.

[Bomani Jones]

You're not going to. Now, now, one thing I will say, though. One thing I will say, he might bring. It feels like bringing in back should be on the board, right? Like, should be at the top of.

[Spencer Hall]

The board, actually, Bo, would that be drama? Would that be drama?

[Bomani Jones]

I feel like that would be a good time.

[Spencer Hall]

It'd be a good time, but that'd be dramatic, right? That'd be story. So that means. That means they're going to do it.

[Bomani Jones]

That means it's gonna happen.

[Spencer Hall]

I'm gonna give everybody a blueprint here, okay. Oh, man. Would Ed come back even though he was the head coach? Yeah.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes.

[Spencer Hall]

Y wants it to happen, so it's going to happen. They've handed him everything. Do you want. Oh, hey, would it be weird if Nick Saban were a consultant? What if. What if Nick were just off over here and we just paid him to be over here? Wouldn't that be dramatic? Yeah, sure. They'll try to do it. Whatever you name. If it's going to be A good story and it's going to raise some eyebrows. Lane will do it and LSU is.

[Bomani Jones]

Just going to let him. I just. My, my. I don't know if complaint is the right word, but as coach. Right. He's not quite Lincoln Riley in the sense of, hey, you know, we got to play some defense too, right?

[Spencer Hall]

Yeah.

[Bomani Jones]

However, you know, you got to play some defense too. Like I, I think. And look, you are, you are. And I mean this in the positive way. Florida man don't like he is he. While Spencer has the picture of Florida man, he does not have the internal composition and constitution of Florida man, but he is the. We talked about. He's the spiritual successor to Spurrier. Like, if there was a job that was a fit, that is the one. Except it sounds like the AD of Florida was like, nah, I ain't working with this clown you talking about, like, made it off the top was kind of like, look, I'm not really trying to do this. I. I gotta take this call. But I'm not, I'm not about.

[Spencer Hall]

About that. The reason that did not happen, the primary reason, besides the chalk and cheese relationship between athletic director Scott Strickland and Lane Kiffin, did not get along. That was a factor from what I've heard. Additionally, Florida has a GM. We have GMs now. And now you have to do the NFL thing where you go, does the throne get along with the exchequer? Does the treasury get along with the presidency? Do the people doing the budgeting and the talent prospecting, are they on the same page with the coach right now? Florida has something which may be a problem for them. They have a GM who operates co equally with the coach and that is both report to the athletic director at lsu. That will not be the case. Lane did not want that at Florida. He's going to take old Mrs. Personnel guy who, to be fair, if you look at the number of people that they've prospected, that's probably one of the dudes who had a hand at getting Trinidad Chambliss. Probably one of the guys who built this roster that's filled with talented, skilled players who all can do exactly what they need them to do on offense. At least that's what Lane gets there. So that's a factor as well. Yeah.

[Bomani Jones]

And so we'll just see what kind of defense they play.

[Spencer Hall]

Well, is it? Yeah. One, he's got to get a new defensive coordinator. Cause Ole Miss is now in the hands of Pete Golding.

[Bomani Jones]

I told the people on the show on Monday that I saw a picture of him and it was him. And they said he was head coach. I was like, oh, that man can't be the head coach looking at that beard and everything else. And I was like, oh, but maybe it's just that picture. And then I went and looked up more pictures.

[Spencer Hall]

Nope. It just gets worse.

[Bomani Jones]

You can't make. I can't believe that man's the head coach of anything. But I talked about this. I don't know if anybody's followed up on it. I'm curious your thoughts, but I don't think that what is discussed nearly enough about the Ole Miss part is the staggering leverage that all of those assistant coaches had in that moment as they are trying to hold together what this season is. You don't want to wind up like Florida State where one thing went bad and you thought you were going to the playoff. And then nothing has been the same since. Everybody decided they wasn't going to do something. Right.

[Spencer Hall]

Right.

[Bomani Jones]

Ole Miss, they got to hold it together. And I think they. A few of those guys are going to Ole Miss, but some, I mean to lsu. Some of those guys are going to stay because they have to and they will be compensated handsomely for this.

[Spencer Hall]

They will. And they're going to get a nice two to three year run out of this and we'll see how it goes. I don't think I've ever heard anyone saying Pete Golding was an obvious coaching candidate. That's. Let's just remember that it's not like, oh, up and cominging assistant. You know who that would be? That'd be Will Stein. Will Stein just got the, the gig at Kentucky. Former Louisville quarterback who was the offensive coordinator at Oregon. He is now in charge of reviving the Kentucky program. I think he's going to do that. He's very smart, very energetic. It'll be cool. No one ever said that about Pete Golding. Pete Golding. It was like wizard of the whiteboard. If you say wizard of the whiteboard, that means you don't necessarily want that guy in a press conference. No guy, no, no, no. This is your brother Bill Oliver type, right? This is somebody who is going to be in the background. He's going to be a staunch assistant. But now he's being put in a role where he's going to be perhaps out in the spotlight and maybe a bit uncomfortable at first. And he's going to do this in a low pressure situation called the College Football Playoff. There's your coaching debut. You are in the College Football Playoff. You're not starting up against like, you know, Weber State. That's not happening. You're not starting off against Alcorn. You're debuting against heavy hitters. So. Yeah, good luck, Pete, man. Good. Good luck.

[Bomani Jones]

I'd also like to point out that he used to be the defensive coordinator at Alabama and then he was the defensive coordinator at Ole Miss. And it's not because he did such a great fucking job at Alabama.

[Spencer Hall]

Yeah, yeah. Although to be fair. To be fair, I will give him this. That's late Saban. That's late Saban. Where maybe the recruiting isn't quite the one to one fit at positions where it once was. So, hey, I'm. I'm gonna give him a little latitude on that. He did a pretty good job at Ole Miss. But if you were trying to take somebody off that staff, that is not. Pick one.

[Bomani Jones]

All right, now this leads us to a good little transition here because we're gonna all. I feel like all we can say with, with Lane, honestly at LSU is we're going to see they're going to be the primary story in college football. And I will give them this. Every other coach in the country is Bo Ring. And Lane is not like, I appreciate having somebody to viscerally despise in the way that I realize that I despise this man with whom I've only spoken one time. But it is going to make things better. The thing is, I kind of like lsu is I got a lot of friends that are around LSU and I don't know how I feel about this. I sent Ryan Clark a text and said, you know, I always hate it when a team I root for, you know, brings on a clown. And we talked about it. I sent that to Marcus Spears and I've got no reply.

[Spencer Hall]

Yeah, I gotta.

[Bomani Jones]

I gotta run this by Van, see what he thinks.

[Spencer Hall]

No, he's already in. He's already love. That's it.

[Bomani Jones]

You know why he's in? Because there's no other option but to be in. No matter who it is, no matter what it is, once it happens, you got no choice but to be in. And so they are going to be in until they aren't in.

[Spencer Hall]

Yeah. Oh, listen, everyone has to do this this time of year. Lsu, by the way, would have been in anyway if we had taken Attila the Hun and we had made him head coach at lsu. Oh, man, I'm all about the Magyar empire. That's right. Down with the Hun. I'm good with it. Yeah. If it had been. If it had been Dracula, they would have been thrilled. They would have been like, that's why we play at night. That's why we play at night.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes.

[Spencer Hall]

Vampires for life. LSU is just going to be in no matter what Lane Kiffin does. Like, to the point that man could shoot somebody. He could. He could shoot somebody and they'd be like, hey, we've all been there. No, no, we haven't. No, we haven't. Maybe you have. I have not. It does not matter, right? Like, it does. It doesn't matter how much creep shit that comes out from. From Ellis, from Ole Miss about Lane Kiffin there. It doesn't matter how much. I don't know if you've seen. The hot yoga instructors of the world are uniting against Lane Kiffin for his boorish behavior in classes at Ole Miss. Oh, an aficionado of hot yoga. And on TikTok. Hot yoga instructors from Ole Miss. From the particular studio he went to was like, yeah, he farted in class and blamed it on a girl. He'd sit there. He wouldn't follow directions. He was just doing bicep curls while we were all in child's pose. Like, he was apparently just going in and freestyling. Like Lane Kiffin.

[Bomani Jones]

Just after all this stuff we heard about him in the yoga. He wasn't actually doing yoga. He was just going to the yoga studio. And we all know what that means.

[Spencer Hall]

I think he started with it and then he was like, let me freestyle on this. And they were not. They were not appreciative of that.

[Bomani Jones]

I just want to point out that that kind of stuff is what got Ed Ozer on fire. Not to losing that.

[Spencer Hall]

Which. Which one day we will have a long investigative series on the alleged tales of Ed Ogeron hitting on people. I do not. For one, I do not think they were true. I don't think they were true at all.

[Bomani Jones]

I've come around with you on this one that when he saw the woman at the gas station and asked where she worked out, and she was like, I'm married. And he's like, what's the point? I have come around. I think he might have wanted to work out.

[Spencer Hall]

I mean, first of all, I don't think that entire story is true. Second, he really might have wanted to work out if that story's true. Have you seen. Ed is in his 60s and he looks like he could beat your ass. That's so.

[Bomani Jones]

I would have loved to. That's the other part.

[Spencer Hall]

He would have been like, good form, good job, good job. Anybody ever told you you're a natural Lifter. That's what he would do. Right. And then maybe a relationship blossoms from there. And by the way, free and clear. At that point, none of this was off the books.

[Bomani Jones]

Right.

[Spencer Hall]

Because Ed, with that point, divorce was clear. Yeah, that was done. It was a single man. Right.

[Bomani Jones]

I did love. That was my favorite part of this story is all these married men who do all this dirt and it's a. And everybody finds a way to let it slide because they need to keep it low. Ozerod's problem was that there was no reason to keep it low. Therefore, I mean, oh my God. And bringing the kids to practice, that. That's never gonna. That one's never gonna stop being.

[Spencer Hall]

No, that's amazing. And you know, there's also this. And this is going to happen with various coaches who are under pressure that all of a sudden we become privity to their private lives. And there's a lot of things that I can say about you. I could be like, okay, I don't think that's necessarily cool or that's weird or man, that seems like too many women to date at once. Your scheduling must be incredible, especially given the 60 to 70 hour weeks that you're working. I don't see it being very rewarding for anyone. However, if it's not in the contract, it's not breaking a law, then all we can do is laugh. That's really all we can do. And I will return to this. If Ole Miss does not play. If Ole Miss does not play at least the instrumental version of Area Codes or of Houdini's I'm a Hoe. Okay. Ludicrous. Some other variation.

[Bomani Jones]

It's ludicrous. Oh, that's the one that's. That's the one that's coming down. They gonna play single one of them. I don't even know if they allowed to play rap at the Mississippi Stadium. But if they have him before, they will be soon. He also gets to make a run by Tennessee this year. It is like all the score, all the scoring lane lovers, they're all there. Why don't they schedule an exhibition game against the Raiders?

[Spencer Hall]

Yeah, don't do it. Don't do it. Because now everybody is reminded that Al Davis, though Al Davis did have some ideas that maybe weren't necessarily practical. The 40 yard pass downfield. Not a base play.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes.

[Spencer Hall]

Not a first down play. Every first down, Al was right about some things. And that's this. That when you fire Lane Kiffin, he does it in a manner where you're just going to Want to take out a PowerPoint where you're going to want to crack out an overhead projector. You're going to want to get vintage with it. In terms of how he leaves.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah. He hated that man. He, oh my God. That's, that's, that's just, it never stops being amazing. And when, and by the way, when he got the job at Tennessee, he wrote them a letter.

[Spencer Hall]

Yeah.

[Bomani Jones]

To tell them that this man would leave you with shame and dishonor. And what do you know.

[Spencer Hall]

By the way? Like, like how mad like that is? That is anger. When an old man's going to crack out a letter. Right. Like, because we both have, we both have fathers who are sinners. If you got a letter from your dad, would you open it? I'd be, I might wait till he died. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I'll open this after your dad. I don't want to know what's in it.

[Bomani Jones]

It's on the board. By the way, Spencer, I got to tell you, at our age, all of our parents are seniors. Either either they were seniors or they were freshmen. You were born. We're just at that, we're at that place now. I have this though. This is a coaching thing that I've seen and I don't know that much about it, but I still find it interesting. Two guys are about to be coaching at much different schools than they used to be. Well, at least one of them, Pat Fitzgerald, who used to coach at Northwestern and apparently he is on some level been absolved of them running dick gauntlets at training camp at Northwestern. And he is not, he is not responsible for all the dick rubbing that they were doing. I, I, I, if you say so. But he is now going to go to Michigan State and also the head coach at byu, Sitaki. I don't really know anything about him, but apparently he is the focus of the Penn State search. And I am very curious about the possibility that these two guys now go to jobs where they can and have to recruit everybody after, before really only talking to a subset of people that spoke a certain language. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Like it's got to be such a relief for Sataki. Like for, for Fitzgerald is no longer. Man, I got to see if they gonna get the grades for Sataki. It's like I no longer have to explain to them that the best part about being an athlete is not on the board here.

[Spencer Hall]

Yeah. So one Dick gauntlets were essential to the greatness of Northwestern football. Pat Fitzgerald knew that and that's why he did them. And that's why Michigan State is just fine with it, by the way, Michigan State, not exactly the place where maybe we want to hire a coach who created a toxic culture. But what do I know? What do I know? I'm not paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to run an athletic department. I'm sure there's some arcane knowledge that I'm not privileged to where maybe we shouldn't hire that guy. You know, Was it overblown? I don't know. What. We don't overblow. Was it bad? Was. Yeah, it was. It was bad. You don't want people doing that in your football program. Now Michigan State's got to hire this guy who is. Let's, let's, let's rewind. A retread. A good football coach, but this is a retread.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes.

[Spencer Hall]

You're trying to catch lightning in a bottle twice. It's a much different environment. And by the way, who says he's going to be better with players with lower academic standards? Everyone's a niche. Everyone is somebody who's successful at one place with very specific conditions. The rare individual is somebody who is successful at a number of different places under different conditions. Right. Steve Spurrier, for example, or Bob Chesney, the guy that UCLA just hired. Right. There's a lot of people getting each other's jobs that are. That's happening right now. It's fascinating. John Sumrall was custom cut agent, pitching him as the next Pat Dye. A program, a coach, A guy in bike shorts with a whistle, right. A dude, a killer, a defensive guy born to run the ball and do great things. And, you know, in the old SEC, he'd be this like 8 and 4 guy who had a job for 15 years. And people were like, I think he has a good family and he's a good man. Right? Perfect Auburn casting. Where does he go? Florida. He goes to Florida. The place that wanted Lane Kiffin at first. The place that employed Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer. Any other number of mercenaries who just wanted to kill. Where did the guy who could have gone to Florida go? Alex Golish, right. Offensive offense first. Already coaching in the state of Florida. He went to Auburn. Who now Auburn fans are like just, we like the Russian guy, right? We like it. That's Alexei Goliath, by the way. Born in Russia and came to the United States at the age of four. Is that going to keep Auburn fans from just like blatantly putting Tigers in old Soviet propaganda on the Internet? No, they're. They're Already doing it. It's already happening, man. Chesney goes to UCLA. Chesney has won, by the way, at the ECAC's finest. Right? Finest private Catholic institutions. He. Oh, before that assumption. Yeah. Like Bob, he coached at someplace before that. The name is escaping me. That has like a saint in it. Like he was coaching at places where I know he did the laundry, right? He has three stops before. He has three stops all before he gets there. James Madison, which by the way, we're talking about, like he succeeded in a big program. James Madison, okay. It's still James Madison. I know. It's the largest public university in Virginia. Okay. By enrollment. And you know what that means, right? Like, yeah, it's the biggest one by enrollment. You go, oh, the former commuter school that's got a glow up, right? And that happens to have a superb football program that's managed very well. That guy could have taken the Penn State job. I think that's like, if you look at the pattern, he should have gone. There you go. Okay. Regional sort of in the area, definitely. Like, like the workaday blue collar type guy who's on the come up. He goes to ucla, which is a complete wildcard of a hire. And then Kalani Sataki, who could have gone to UCLA as a West coast recruiter, somebody with roots there. He might be going to Penn State. He might already be at Penn State by the time anyone hears this. Beau. And it. So there's a lot of very weird default choices. Going to the second step and going to the place where they were listed as either the primary or secondary. It's a very weird market. Active and weird.

[Bomani Jones]

BYU to me, sneaky, good job. That I would be reluctant to leave because if they got anything over there, it's money. They got money and they have a conference in which they may be the best job in the Big 12. When you really stop and think about it, you can make an argument that they are.

[Spencer Hall]

You have a built in recruiting pitch.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes.

[Spencer Hall]

Right. If the money doesn't do it, maybe God will, maybe culture will. I don't have to. You don't have to function as a Mormon, as an outsider. Right. Not that that doesn't happen every day. Not that Mormons aren't completely fluent. Moving from one, you know, sphere of their life to another and balancing their faith against a public role. Sorry, Mormons, if you're listening to this, but. But you have a built in recruiting pitch where it's easy. It's easy. You're just going to the place where everyone does this already.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah.

[Spencer Hall]

And in addition to that, they're all a little older. If you look at those guys, they. They've always hit with the violence of people who got up with the kids.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, those are grown men who they're getting. They're playing football to get away.

[Spencer Hall]

That's less true than it used to be. But there's still people there who are like, yeah, I gotta play this game. And then the wife and I are going to Costco tomorrow morning. Yeah, that's a concern. We need a legitimate concern.

[Bomani Jones]

We need to put together a list of those programs whose. Whose secret sauce is. We old? Kansas State. We old. Like, Like. Like, we get these. These boys need this in a different way.

[Spencer Hall]

Kansas State had. Guys were like, you know, so I was roughnecking, and that's good money. That's good money. But, you know, I'll tell you, it's a hard life. It's a hard life out there. It's lonely, too. It's lonely, you know, so I thought I'd come back to football because, you know, Laramie wasn't being good to me. Like, that's. That is very, very real. And, you know, like, I think you could play with a rage that you can only get if you have, like, five hours sleep and two kids. That's. That's what BYU hits with. It's a great gig, by the way. Can we just go ahead and highlight that? The Big 12. I know we're going to make fun of the ACC a little bit, inevitably, because the ACC has a title game where the two best teams may not be in it. Virginia plays Duke because of conference records and how things line up in that conference because it is a bucket of crabs. But. And everyone points and laughs and goes, ha. Who's going to watch that on TV? BYU plays Texas Tech for the Big 12 championship. This used to be Texas playing some other relatively large market team. Right. And the Big 12 has morphed into this mutant where we have Lubbock v. Provo. It's way, way less comfortable when I say it that way. Byu, Texas Tech sounds all right, but I'm like, Provo versus Lubbock. The two Metropolises.

[Bomani Jones]

All right, coming up next week, I got to talk about the actual football of the weekend. You know, there. Once upon a time, this is a highly anticipated weekend. And now we just talk about Lane Kiffin.

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[Bomani Jones]

Style, every home all right, Spencer, it is championship game weekend and a big discussion in the Lane Kiffin saga is the calendar. The calendar, the calendar. It's the calendar's fault that this guy doesn't know how to act like an adult. Right? It's the calendar's fault that unfortunately you had to make a tough decision a one or the other, and somehow you thought that you could get away with both. And then you're trying to piss on our head after you get to this other part. But we have actual factual football. And I do want to point out as we talk about the calendar, it does stink in the way that everything runs, in the way the playoff is now set up. This feels very anticlimactic and in some ways confusing as to what it is that you're supposed to do with a team that loses in a conference championship game. Which is to say, what's going to happen to Alabama and Kaylin DeBoer if they lose this game to Georgia? That in theory should not knock them out of the playoff if they lose, but probably will.

[Spencer Hall]

Probably will. I would win this game if I were him because because Alabama does not like it when you lose SEC title games. They do not like it when you lose at all. Kaylin DeBoer has been an interesting piece in all of this because Kaylin DeBoer has been at least put as a possibility at all of the following places. Usc, Penn State school to be named later after we vacate Coach X. He's been this sort of question mark and no one asked him about any of this because we just assume Alabama's that volatile. We just assume they're going to throw him out and no one's questioned it. I say this with people like in this industry who, when talking about whether coaches are going to move, or whether USC is going to get rid of Lincoln, or Texas Tech's going to fire Joey McGuire if he trails for a single quarter. There's a lot of that. But everyone takes as a given that Alabama's volatile. And I don't know if, at least on DeBoer's end, that that's true. Because by all reports, he's pretty happy there. Because you know who else has the keys? Caleb DeBoer. Because they have to trust him. At this point, Alabama is too big a product, and everything's riding on his good decision making, and they've let him have whatever he wants quietly. He's got the Lane Kiffin deal. Whatever you need, whatever you want, we're going to give it to you. And we won't have to be freaks about it like those guys in Baton Rouge. Right? So I don't think. I think that's maybe. Now, I know it'd be fun if we could just throw Alabama into this mix, but right now, the messiest program is lsu. That's because they have Lane Kiffin as their coach, Jeff Landry is their governor, and because le bon temps continue to roulette, like, it's just a big festive thing. Alabama still pretty business, like, at this point. I know it'd be fun if we could. If we could get them riled up. I know it'd be fun if they were in chaos. I think they're probably a little more in order to. Than we might think they are.

[Bomani Jones]

Okay. So I do not make the assumption that with a loss or whatever that Alabama is going to toss deboer out.

[Spencer Hall]

Right? Yeah.

[Bomani Jones]

I operate on the assumption that he'll jump ship because again, I've seen this happen several times. It is like Alabama did not want Franconi to leave. He just looked around and was like, well, first of all, you guys lied to me. But he just looked around and was like, oh, hell no. Any. Anytime somebody's like, yeah, College Station, here I come. That. That.

[Spencer Hall]

What?

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that right there. Not what's up, Ray Perkins. He jumped ship. There's another one. I just can't remember right now, but that is always about. I mean, Nick Saban was about to jump ship. We cannot forget that. The Texas job was right there. And if they had just done it right, he would have jumped ship on this one. The look on DeBoer's face when they scored that touchdown at the fourth quarter to take the league of utter relief, just like, oh, my God. Thank you, man. I did not want to have to deal with this again. That's why if USC were to come open and his old boss is running the search at usc, I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, he gone, he gone, he gone. He gonna take that one. But I don't know what happens if you lose this game. I mean, he's. He's had decent success against Georgia. There's some interesting kind of circles in this conference. Mike Elko now can't be Steve Sarkeesian, but Steve Sarkeesian apparently can't beat Kirby Smart. But Kirby Smart, not so great when it comes to playing against Alabama. It just kind of goes in this rotation. But if Alabama loses this one, does a three loss Alabama make this playoff? My guess is no.

[Spencer Hall]

I think it depends on how they lose. This is one of those ones where I think if the committee's looking at it and they want to put Alabama in, they will if it's close. And I think this will be a close game. And I don't think that has a lot to do with Alabama. I think that's on Georgia. I think Georgia just plays tight games this year. You know, they don't have an ability to sort of take big 21 point chunks out of people on offense. And defensively they're very good, but they also don't do that thing where, whoops, three interceptions in a quarter, you're now losing by 17 points. They don't do that. This is more of an Anaconda type team. This is, by the way, Kirby Smart couldn't be happier. This is ideal. Kirby Smart Football. 16, 9. How did we win? Toughness. That's how we won. We won with toughness. That's it. Did you win with brains? No, no, we. We left our brains in the locker room. Right. I got Mike Bobo calling plays. No one's gonna be happy.

[Bomani Jones]

Me and Ryan were talking before the show about how lane Gifford is 100% not my kind of guy as human, but as football coach. KIRBY Smart is 100% not your kind of guy in any form or fashion whatsoever. He's a better version of Will Muschamp, who was not just not your kind of guy, he was also your team's coach.

[Spencer Hall]

Yeah, I'm not. Okay? I've. As I've aged, I've. At least. I respect the guy who thinks that football should be won by a field goal in the fourth quarter. I do. I also hate it for the same reason that I hate clearing my bills by a dollar. Right. I don't like it. I like big margins. I want to feel safe Give me a coach that feels safe, right? They're like, hey, you know what? Our toughness is going to get us through this. And I'm like, a 38 point lead will get you through this. You're like, you know, like, I don't.

[Bomani Jones]

Want a great fourth quarter team. I want a great third quarter team.

[Spencer Hall]

Third quarter team. I want you to foreclose on them, okay? Like, I respect what Ohio State's doing by playing as little football as possible to get to the playoffs. That's the smartest thing. Could you guys just hang 50 on somebody? Hang 50? I know you could, but you don't want to because you go, well, we could burn the clock. We can just get out of here. It's fine. Cool. It's a job to you. Do you know what make me feel better as a fan? Flames. Like, you know. Curtis LeMay, the head of Strategic Air Command, was once asked why he needed 10 times as many bombs to destroy a target as was necessary. Because in the words of the interrogator, the questioner said, why do you need to reduce everything? You know what? It's already done. You've already reduced everything to senders, right? It's all ashes. And he goes, yeah, but I want to watch the ashes dance. And it's like, that's the kind of psychopath I want as a head coach. Dan Lanning. When Dan Lanning gets that chance, that's what he does. He's like, hey, you know what's better than a 14 point lead? A 21 point lead. You know what's better than a 21 point lead? 28 point lead. So I respected Kirby. I do get it. I really love that emphasis on the process and on dominating people every down. You know what else I like? I like annihilation. I like watching a team do that because I'm nervous. I'd really prefer to be up by 40.

[Bomani Jones]

All right, I want to point out something. Speaking of teams that are by 40, talk about this with Ohio State and they are playing Indiana this week in. Okay, so one of the arguments that anti playoff people. And to be clear, I have always been an anti playoff person and the actual existence of the playoff has only made me more resolute and clearer than ever that I was right in the first place. One of the arguments was that these regular season games are just not going to hit like they used to. And I've heard people make the spin. But no, look, the ratings are up for Da Da da and all of this stuff. Fine. I'm just telling you this week that there's a one versus two matchup in the Big Ten championship game. And it is the least anticipated one versus two matchup that I think we have ever had. In part because of having this playoff that's jets going to run next week. And I think now granted these teams, Michigan and Michigan and Indy. Fucking Anna. But these teams haven't really played much of anybody. Ohio State had the big win against Texas to start the season. Since then, no win to truly speak of Indiana has. I mean, honestly, what might be the best win anybody has this year? That win at Oregon by 10 points. I do want to point this out though. Indiana has given up 24 to Penn State and 20 to Oregon. And that's the most points they've given up all year long. Ohio State has not given up more than 16 points this year. These two teams have been annihilating people like Ohio State. The closest they had to the scare was Texas. Indiana had the one against Penn State. But these two teams have been waxing people. But it's in part because of the calendar, because they're waxing people, because all they play against is floors. That's it.

[Spencer Hall]

So the joke of the Big Ten is that everybody's a flavor of Purdue, right? Wisconsin, that's dairy. Dairy Purdue, right? That's cow. Purdue, you know, Illinois. That science. Purdue, which I know, sorry, Purdue. Your rocket science. Purdue. Not general science. Purdue. You know, even Penn State became ice cream Purdue this year. Like they are all different variations of Purdue. It's one of the reasons we're not excited about this one too is because of the calendar. We've talked about the calendar, the calendar. Nothing in the sport is built for the calendar. Nothing in the sport makes sense because of the calendar. It's like 90 different people planned it without looking at to see what overlapped. By the way, did you know that we're two, I believe two days at this point shy of an early signing day, which is all in the middle.

[Bomani Jones]

The worst idea they ever had, by the way.

[Spencer Hall]

Dumb. Dumb.

[Bomani Jones]

To me, that's the biggest one. That's the biggest thing that's messed up the calendar is. That's the one that's getting people fired in September.

[Spencer Hall]

Yeah, it accelerated all of this. Like it made everything much less stable. There's no coaches and their hiring period can't coordinate with recruits and their signing period, which can't coordinate. Coordinate with the schedule, which by the way, the Big Ten schedule sucks this year. But that's not necessarily the Big Ten's fault. It's not, it's just the quality of teams right now, the Big Ten, by having so many teams that bottom of the Big 10, the bottom five or six teams, it's as bad as you'll see in any conference, maybe worse. Just because one conference is huge, you're going to have more bad teams and more good teams. But at the top, it's so stratified. You know, Ohio State will beat Indiana. I feel real confident saying that if they do lose to Indiana, then that is, that should go down as one of the great upsets in college football history. I know Indiana's been great this year and they were great last year. And Kurt Signetti has done a remarkable job there. One that I think is like for the books. There is nobody who in my mind has engineered a bigger turnaround. Like we're now putting this in the category of Bill Snyder, Barry Alvarez, people who have gone in and take programs that are historical doormats and turn them into mean top tier programs. That said, if they do upset them, you're going to have to put another superlative next to Kurt Signetti's name. Because in my mind that would be the biggest upset in a championship game in ever years. Like, because this Ohio State team is that far ahead. Their defense alone is one of the best teams in the nation. I just mean their defense, right? If you put them on the field and punt it on offense, I think every game would probably be three nothing. And it would be for Ohio State. So I am looking forward to it. But I understand why other people aren't. Because the Big Ten has been kind of ass, right top to bottom. It's very stratified. All of the quality is at the top. And like two teams and they've had the most, like Penn State really undermined their national standing by utterly collapsing down the stretch. You know, they're six and they're going to probably finish six and I think they finished six and six. Nobody wants to see that in a bowl game because they were, and I remind everybody, a preseason top five. The preseason top five this year, by the way, as inaccurate as it has ever been. Thanks to Penn State and Clemson and Texas, all disappointing. I know Texas at 9 and 3 is disappointing, but look where they were in the preseason. Eight top 25, number 1 1.

[Bomani Jones]

This is college football is in a dangerous place though, where the NBA had this problem and I think still has this problem to a degree, which is all the personnel stuff and the kind of gossipy stuff started to take precedence over the actual play. Like for example, right now in the NBA, I don't know if you know this, I want to make sure I get this number exact right. But the Oklahoma City Thunder is 20 and one. They, they could win 75 games this year. Right. They are super young. They have a top two player in the NBA. They went 21, by the way, with their second best player not being on the team. All of this, I don't know what it takes for that to register and really break through. Right. But if I told you there was some big trade that was going on or something like that, oh, man, everybody would be all over that. And that could get the discussion college football right now, again, we're coming into this week and it's really all about Lane Kiffin. And I don't know if there's anything that could happen this weekend that would be more interesting to people than Lane Kiffin. And I think that's in part because. Because the conferences have gotten so big, all these games that get played, we don't feel like we really know who is and is not good. Just because you don't have the kind of the iron versus iron that you typically had throughout a season. Because what do you know? Remember when people were like, why do we even have divisions in conferences? That doesn't make any sense. No, iteration is important. Consistency in those things are important. They help us gather information, they help build rivalries, they help all these things. And now it's a conference championship weekend that doesn't feel like it matters that much.

[Spencer Hall]

Yeah. And you brought the NBA. I think it feels a lot like boxing where we have obvious heavyweights. And I mean old school boxing, I don't mean current, I mean like era, the heavyweights, late 70s, 80s, into the 90s, where you're not going to get a whole lot of actual marquee matchups. You're going to get a lot of tomato cans and managing that record, right? If somebody is 40 and one with one loss, then of that 40, you're going to see 35 guys they pulled off the street take a beating for cash. And that's what happens when you make big conferences, when you have big conferences and you try to rotate the schedules and have everyone play everybody, then you do thin down the testing metal of that conference, you thin down the competitive nature of that conference. It's inevitable. And like the Big Ten, I think, is suffering from this simply because they are the biggest conference. And I mean that in terms of money and I mean that in terms of geographic spread and in terms of actual number of members, like they are the biggest right now. And the bottom is so very bad and weak and the middle is not great either that when we ask how good is Ohio State? You go, okay. On paper, this is one of the best college football teams I've ever seen. They have not sweat this year. They have barely put forth effort and they have managed to wipe everyone on their schedule in an economical fashion, like clinical. That's why, like, I think we're sleeping on this Indiana matchup. Because if they do, if they are competitive, first of all, congratulations to Indiana because no one else has really been that competitive with Ohio State. In addition to that, if they manage to upset them, it's going to be a reversal of everything that I think is supposed to happen in the Big Ten by design. Like Ohio State's supposed to come out at this thing and if it's not Ohio State, it's Michigan. And these were our bell cows and these are the ones that drive ratings, right? Not to look at this too cynically from a business point, but I'm going to do it. The Big Ten's been all about business. I'm just returning the favor, right? This is the conference that has embraced the spreadsheet more than any single conference. And by the way, people go, well, that's SEC homerism. No, we can't read spreadsheets. We're not great at that. The SEC has been behind in terms of thinking about this. Okay? They're just slower. They're slower and they haven't been as reactive and they've made a bet on a different business model. And I don't think it's going to wear out. I think the Big Ten wins as far as anything can be considered victory in this. But the point is this matchup, this matchup has so much on the line in terms of national branding. It would also be very Ryan Day to lose a game at the end of the season that he shouldn't lose and win the national title anyway, right? Lose the big. Lose the Big Ten championship in an upset, go on and destroy people in the playoff, which was the plan all along. Like, I think that is. They've been building to this. The playoff is the priority. So I don't know, Kirk. Catch him sleeping, man.

[Bomani Jones]

I would also like to take this moment to make the point that maybe, just maybe Lane should have looked at Kurt Signetti who looked into this and was like, nah, how about I just take all this money to stay right here where I'm a God as opposed to, I'm gonna go jump in some hot grease why? Because that'll impress people.

[Spencer Hall]

Hey, listen, some of us have adhd, okay? Lane was an Ole Miss for six years. I'm gonna convert that to normal people years. That's like 200 years anywhere else. That's fair. That's 200 years. Okay? We're talking about. We're talking about a grown man who posts on Instagram stories like he is a 23 year old lady. Okay? And by that I mean a lot of inspo. Right? A lot of like, you know what you do? You do what you need to do for your heart. If someone's in there, you need to let them go. You need to let them go. See if they come back. Like, I've never seen a grown man post like that. And this isn't me going, well as female posting. No, I'm not doing that.

[Bomani Jones]

I just haven't seen it.

[Spencer Hall]

Well, no, I just haven't seen it. Okay. I've never seen anybody post. He posts like, I think my nieces should post. My nieces don't post like that. But he posts like stuff that I'm like, I've never seen a coach do this in my life. And he's 50, right? He's slightly older than I am. Like, that's unreal.

[Bomani Jones]

What a time, What a sport.

[Spencer Hall]

What a world, man. What a world. It's. Listen, greatest American sport. We just spent. We just spent this entire time talking about human resources. Even our human resources BO is more interesting than any other sport. It is like. And that's the thing everybody hates, right? When HR calls, leave the building. But when college football. HR calls and wants to tell some stories. Have a seat, Doc.

[Bomani Jones]

Here's where college sports generally are like the world.

[Spencer Hall]

Okay.

[Bomani Jones]

I went to Grenada last week, right. Looked kind of like Hawaii. Short of flight. Gave it a run. And they have a bit of an interesting political history in Grenada.

[Spencer Hall]

And you're not the first American. Yeah. To land there.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah. But it's cool. I got out on my own, Right. So I'm there. And I don't want to get into all the details of the history because it'll take a little bit too long. But I was thinking about something that involved a bloodless coup and then one that involved a more violent coup. But anyway, Grenada right now has 120,000 people. Okay.

[Spencer Hall]

Right.

[Bomani Jones]

That is a small town. Small town is going too far. But it is a very, very, very small city. Right. Like, you can go through the list of cities that have 120,000 people and you can see who those. Those places are. Now take A moment. I don't know anything about who runs Grenada or anything else. So I'm just operating hypothetically. So take a town that has 120,000 people and imagine who the mayor is of a place that has 120,000 people. And you can imagine who the mayor is of a place that has a million people, okay? The mayor of a place that has 120,000 people is not. I mean, New York elected area. Adams, you get the point that I'm making here, right? It could be anybody that could be the mayor of a place that has 120,000 people. Except that guy isn't a mayor. That guy or woman is a president, a prime minister. And you know what comes with being a president or a prime minister? You get your very own army, okay? So you take whatever little town it is that you have that has 120,000 people and imagine that you let the person in charge of that have a whole ass army to himself. Okay?

[Spencer Hall]

Yeah.

[Bomani Jones]

Think about that in the context of college sports, okay? There's big, there's small, there's all these things. But in the end, there's a lot of people who have armies that should not be allowed to have an army, but something that they have, that school that means you get to have an army. That means you get to have all kinds of things that a person who's actually operating on the scale of that no one man should have all that power. That's all I'm saying. That's college sport.

[Spencer Hall]

That is. Hey, I'm gonna put it this way. Lane just took a job where he gets his own tiger.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes.

[Spencer Hall]

He gets a tiger. That's Scarface.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes.

[Spencer Hall]

When you become LSU's coach, there's a tiger and it's in your house.

[Bomani Jones]

There's a tiger and a tiger that they also got because the governor decided that they needed a different tiger.

[Spencer Hall]

Right, right, right. Also, can we discuss this? Lane's probably going to post like the tiger is his because we, in the course of all this conversation, did not get to Lane. Lane might not have even had a dog. Lane had a dog, and he posted from a social account for that dog, Juice Kiffin. And now the dog's still in Oxford. You never leave a man behind. Lane never leave a man behind.

[Bomani Jones]

He told everybody. He told everybody to get on that plane. And the dog didn't think it was about him.

[Spencer Hall]

He might have had. For real, I can't believe I'm saying this. We might have had a football coach who had a Labrador retriever for PR purposes. We might have had a stunt dog, right? A PR dog that is now, by the way, safe in Oxford. Safe in Oxford. But, yeah, by the way, Ole Miss stripped the verified badge from the Juice Kiffin account when Lane Kiffin took that. So you want to talk about Petty? You're. No. You no longer have the blue check dog.

[Bomani Jones]

That's beef over there. They ain't paying no more money for that. Spencer Hall. Check him out. Channel 6 and various other places. Talking college football, my man. I greatly appreciate you.

[Spencer Hall]

No, anytime.

[Bomani Jones]

All right now, ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on the right time. We do this three times a week. Ryan. Four times. Excuse me. We now do it four times. Ryan Brumley handed everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Hit the voicemail line. 323-59-67767. Remember, follow the right time. Subscribe like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. We'll talk to you guys in a couple of days. Take it easy.

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