1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - What Miami run to CFB Title means for the sport: January 9th, 2026, 11:00am

Episode Date: January 9, 2026

With a ten-seed in the championship game, what this means for college football. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Coming at you live from the heart of Lincoln America, a 93-7-the-ticket and the ticketfm.com. Sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln Foundation. Here is your host, Derek Pearson. About a Friday, boom. Welcome to the weekend, everybody, or at least near to it. You're close. You're in your last day of work. What better way to get your last day of work and stuff done or not done by listening to us here at 93-7, the ticket?

This is one-on-one with DP, Derek Pearson. of course is out of town but we'll be back monday so looking forward to that until then for one-on-one it is myself jake balkovan in austin o'erbin in studio with you of course no shortage of stuff going on NFL playoffs about to start nebraska basketball with a huge game against indiana tomorrow um indiana of course in the headlines as well the football team against organ this evening we saw an absolute classic between old miss in miami last night uh which is good because I think the college football playoffs needs a few of those classics to start coming around so we can finally remember the the expanded field. So plenty of to talk about.

Also, Nebraska women's basketball getting a win over Indiana while we're talking about the Hoosiers, losers, at least as far as last night. Yeah, that's right. Although I, I don't know, I'm just, I'm a big 10, you know, I cheer for the Big Ten. We'll talk about the SEC being down here in a second, officially down. But, uh, well, Indiana, Oregon, I'm trying to, like, debate whether who to cheer for. Sometimes you just got to kind of let it happen organically, like see, you know, obviously you're just going to go with whoever you picked. But I found this struggling last night in Austin.

I was going to talk to you about it is because I listened to you and Jay Foreman, and you were, you're kind of asking, you know, would old Husker fans be able to cheer for Miami? And I, and I, you know, going into yesterday and even going into the game, I'm thinking, yeah, I mean, there's a robbery there, but it's not, you know, you played, like five games against each other. And, you know, it's, it's not as big as it once was, whatever. Nebraska doesn't have a whole lot to do with this game. And I, so I thought maybe I could do it.

Maybe I could cheer for Miami. But as I turned the game on, I just couldn't do it. It was starting to make me sick. So I turned over to cheer for Ole Miss. It's a, it's a phenomenon that happens every time Texas and Oklahoma play, where I will try, well, whoever I picked that week, right, then I'll go in there trying to cheer for him. And while I'm watching the game, even midway,

through a play, I'll get confused about who I'm cheering for me because it's not natural for me to look in here for one of those themes. So I found out it's the same way for Miami for me last night. And to be fair, maybe I've gotten a little bit soft having done a show with Jay now for, you know, the three years now that I've been in the ticket. And, you know, I'm completely open to that fact. I wouldn't say I was cheering for Miami, but I just think in a big picture sense, I think that Miami being back or close to whatever definition of back is should offer at least, a glimmer of hope for Nebraska fans that, hey, you can be dormant, but you can erupt again. You know, it's not like it has to be over for Nebraska football. And again, that's just the, you know, highest level of abstraction view of things because we know, you know, Miami's access to talent right there in Miami. We know that their alum head coach reconnected with their alumni base and brought in people to help and manage a lot of that. We know that the ACC is a good conference, maybe not Big 10 level top to bottom. Their advantages Miami has that Nebraska doesn't.

But I think Nebraska fans would rather view themselves as the Miami in this situation where you don't have to be perfect, you just have to be good enough, rather than viewing themselves as the plucky upstart in Ole Miss, which Nebraska might be in this case, right? Ole Miss made a lot more investment. Ole Miss hit a home run hire for head coach before, well, everything. And let's leave it at that. You know, I think Nebraska fans would rather view themselves as, you know, this once great power,

with vestiges of greatness that can tap into it again rather than, hey, this was the run of a lifetime. We'll see if it ever happens again. And I can see that. And I was listening to you, again, you and Jay kind of talking about that and trying to do and feel that. Nebraska is, you know, with Miami being back in, you know, does get a mention or two in the broadcast because of that related history. And that will happen again when we go into this game because Miami and the, championship game will be playing at Miami.

It's the first time at college football championship game will be played at the home site since Nebraska played Miami in the Orange Bowl for the 94 season in 1995. So yay, Nebraska will be mentioned again. But also, also Miami's first championship appearance since 01. Yes, yes, yes. So again, a plenty of Nebraska mentioned possibilities there. By the way, it's going to be interesting because they're again, they're playing at Miami where Miami play, I suppose you can call it their home field.

but you know where Miami plays their home games. As the 10 seed, will they be in the visitor's locker room? They have to be in this point. Yeah. So, you know, it's going to be a little bit different for them. Or how about this? You see in this online, the ACC does not split its college football playoff payout. So Miami's got all 20 million from the run to the Natty.

They also get $3 million in travel expenses for the national championship, but it's being played at home. If you're Miami, do you offer that $3 million in travel expense to your opponent to have your home locker room. And if you're one of these schools, do you take it? Is that a worthwhile bargain for you? Absolutely would take it. I don't know if Miami, I'd think. Oh, you'd rather take the money than play the mental warfare game? Yeah, well, it's just, I would hope that the locker room went. I mean, I guess it would, you know, it's not like the Iowa locker room where they paint it pink. I'd have to take a look at the locker rooms to make sure, but. To me, it's the principal of the thing.

Yeah. To me, it's like, no, I'm the home team. Get your butt out. This is my locker room now. Well, I'm sure you make them wear like the way whites and all that. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you're not going to let them. Oh, yeah, we'll just be nice about it. No, yeah, you got to do some mental warfare, but I don't know if it's worth $3 million. It's a national championship game. It's not a bad, at least you're throwing it out there.

I don't think it's not a bad idea. But I'm thinking of, you know, paying the next Carson Beck to come in or something. So we'll see. And we know, again, could that be Dylan Raola? Still kind of sitting out there. Everybody's fine in the home. except for Dylan. So the thought is maybe he will be the answer for one of these

playoffs as they continue to go. Miami continues to make it. It is interesting too because we get this, I guess you know, you're a little bit of late arriving to the crowd if you say Miami is back now. Well, Miami's in the national championship game, right? But you only had a few weeks to make that adjustment. Is Miami back?

I mean, it's kind of a weird question. Are they back for the next five years? or is Miami back because they've made a, you know, or did they just make a big run here? I would say Miami is here. I don't know if I would say Miami is back. Because to me, back needs to feel sustainable. And I'm not saying it doesn't feel sustainable for Miami right now.

But I don't think a national championship game appearance or even winning a national championship constitutes as back. It can still be a one-off, right? To me, back is, okay, Miami was on the precipice, of the college football playoff last year and they made it this year. And then didn't just make it and bow out, but actually made a run.

To me, we have to continue to evolve how we think about back and what it means to be a successful program because it's going to be difficult to go undefeated in college football. Shout out Indiana for making it possible in doing it, right? Ohio State made its run, get an undefeated season this year.

But in the college football playoff era with the way things are up, I think you have to view back in success more through an NFL lens, right? Sure, beat your rivals. That'll always be a part of college. But I mean, if you're 10 and 2, that's what, the NFL equivalent of 13 and 3, 13 and 4, something in there, 12 and 5 maybe. I don't know the exact how the math would work out. It's too, it's too early in the morning. Actually, I just don't use math anyways. But you get my point, right? You're going to drop a few games. You're going to have some clunkers. But if you make it to the playoffs consistently or you're

round the playoffs, maybe you go, you know, 9 and 8 or 10 and 7. It's a really good year for everyone else and you just miss out because of who you beat and who you lost to. You're still at least on the fringes or in the conversation, even if you don't make the playoffs. If our standard for back is winning national championship, that's going to take forever for Nebraska to be back. You know, I think same for Miami. Like if they lose the national championship, does it invalidate everything that Mario

Cristobal has built these last two years? I don't think so. You want to maximize your opportunity. You want to be able to finish it off with a title. And that's absolutely the ultimate mark of validation. But going undefeated is harder now in college football than it ever has been. Getting to the playoff is easier, but I think winning a national title is probably harder now than it ever has been.

And so I think that a successful season in being back, becoming a successful program is, are you in the playoff, you know, six, seven, out of 10 years if you're at the top of the sport. Are you in the playoff, you know, or in the top 20 of the final rankings where you can convince yourself you had a shot your piece or two away, you know, the other years or, you know, if you're in that conversation, seven out of 10 years for an Ole Miss or Nebraska or Tennessee maybe at this point. Because if we narrow our scope to you need to win a national championship to be validated and to be back,

that's fine in legacy discussions. But in terms of being a power in a team to be taken serious, in the sport, I think that's a step too far. Yeah, it's interesting. There's a lot of different ways to break that down. And again, I think that's a good distinction is, you know, how do you become back from, you know, you will go to the most recent Miami Hurricanes dynasty, if you will, of the early 2000s is winning a championship, getting into the championship game the next year. So it just has to be longer and more sustained.

Now the question becomes, too, as we get into it, because now we've seen a 10 seed in Miami already make it, you know, two years in of an extended playoff. And so there is, you know, I saw some reaction of, you know, we should have been doing this all along. There should be, you know, this proves that, you know, the best teams weren't getting in. Is Miami the best team or are they the hot team? This is a team that didn't, and in fact, has never won an ACC championship. Did not even play in the ACC championship game this year. Now, part of that, I think the ACC is going to have to clean up.

Their tiebreaking system didn't allow their top ranked team. to move through it. But again, that's, that's the, that standings don't care about feelings, right? Right. The top ranking was the feelings in the outside. And, and yeah, so you just have to want, I continue to go back because I'm always going to be a BCS guy, not necessarily BCS, right, but one versus two. Understanding the need for, you know, a 14 playoff, I can get that far, okay? Even if you, you want to stretch it out to aid, I can understand that. but is a team that lost the Louisville and SMU truly the best team or did it get hot at the right time? And I think I think part of that is getting hot at the right time.

And yes, every other sport does it that way. Does that make it the right way to do it? I like that college football was different in that part of the championship run was staying healthy, battling through injuries, going through the ups and downs, not laying an egg in a game you're supposed to win in the middle of October, all that sort of stuff. So, you know, this whole debate about which system is better and crowning true champions. It's a different, it's the same argument I've had all along. It's a different way to crown a champion.

Neither system is necessarily right. This one makes more money. And again, allows for a little bit of a Cinderella run here from a powerhouse team. But again, was Miami one of the best teams throughout the regular season? Did they deserve to get in the playoffs? Well, it depends on how many teams you want in the field. If you want, if you want 12, sure. if we'd had an 18 playoff, which again, I would argue would be the best way to crown,

at least a middle ground in between the two systems, and they wouldn't even have been in it. No, I get where you're coming from. I mean, I'm going to go full Winston Churchill here. You know, like democracy is the worst form of government except for all the rest. Yeah, there you go. You know, there's nothing right or wrong, but I think we have to remember that based on the previous system, we get the system we're in. Based on the system we're in is how we'll get the next system.

What we want to measure and how we want to measure it is determined by where we've been and where we think we want to go. It's shifting. We want to count a national champion. I think the end goal for everyone is who is the best team, who is the ultimate team that defines the season in college football. There's not a right way. There are wrong ways, certainly I think, to determine who this champion is. But, you know, Louisville's not a terrible team. We're a playoff. They're not the worst. SMU is in last year's playoff. You know. So. You're stretching it a bit.

Oh, but they were there. They made it. You know, and that's the system we have. Neither have them either made the ACC championship game. No, I know. But is that, is that Miami's fault or is that the ACC's fault? Right.

If you want to highlight the program that you think is the best, make it easier, you know, to put them in there. But I don't want that because guess what? Miami lost those games. They didn't deserve to play for an ACC championship. They had a couple, you know, at least the one marquee non-conference win over a Notre Dame team. They handled business the rest of the way.

But that's why I think this subjective committee system will always lead to us having discussions like this. Because guess what no one's saying? Well, the Rams lost to the Panthers and the Falcons. The NFC South sucks. You know, the Rams didn't even win their division. Do they deserve to be in the playoffs? Yeah, they do. Because why, we have an objective system of measuring.

The NFL has decided on these are our criteria. Either you meet them and you make the playoffs or you don't. and you miss the playoffs. College football has so few objective criteria for what it means to be a playoff qualifier. College basketball doesn't even have that many more. If you win your conference tournament, you get the auto bit, which I'm still against.

That's a story for another time. But college football has just left so much up to subjectivity. I know you mentioned the BCS. Even that is subjective. Because guess what? You know who makes these formulas that factor into the BCS? Humans that wait different stats differently.

You can blame the computers and the quants and the analytics all you want. But guess what? Someone had to actually come up with that formula. Someone had to actually determine what it is they wanted to wait, whether it was strength of schedule, whether it was winning percentage, whether it was, you know, amount of five stars on the rock, whatever goes into the formula, someone had to pick that. Settle on objective rules for what a college football playoff qualifier is.

And we'll be able to stop having this discussion. Oh, guess what? You lost two games, but someone else lost three. So you're in over them. You lost zero games. Cool. You're going to be in the playoffs. There's none of that.

And it's why, you know, we can still wonder, is Miami really the best? Are they just the hottest? Yes. And yes, they, maybe Miami's not the best team in some metrics, but they have a chance to prove they're the last team standing. And that's got to count for something.

By the way that we've chosen to measure best, they have a shot to be the best. Yeah. Again, it's just, it's just again, and again, to be fair to college football, which I don't really often want to do. because the rest of it's a complete mess as well, is that how, again, it would be easier to set up a system

to define those things if you didn't have 136 teams where everybody had to play 12 games, right? So it's somewhat of an impossible formula, and that's why we are where we are. But again, to me, I don't know. Do you think that a 10 seed making a run like this in Miami with some of the lack of the qualifications that maybe a traditionalist like myself would like,

does provide more of an opportunity for an expanded playoff? I mean, we see a double-digit seed make a run already. And the other double-digit seeds, by the way, another argument that I've had that is evolving is the group of five teams, which I like college football. I'd like college football to have the 136 teams and everybody have a fair shot at least somehow.

And that was what the BCS, that sort of system, even the final four at times or the four-team playoff would prevent. is everybody having a fair shake. Now we're seeing it, especially in the NIL error, and I think that's a big part of this too. I don't know if you had, you know, 12-team playoffs in the early 2000s, you'd get a whole lot of different. You know, there's for a long time,

the top teams kind of really kind of separated themselves from the pack. But you never know. Again, you go out there and play games like this. It could have happened. But the group of five is getting to a point because those are the other double-digit seeds again in this tournament, to where both those teams were coaching with their coaches already on the move, right? If a group of five team makes the playoff, their coaches are going to be poached.

And there's just such a big separation, you know, in the gap is widening, I suppose. So I was never in favor of a split between the powers and the nonpowers or having the group of five, having their own championship. But I think that that that split, you know, that, that, that, that, the gap. is going to continue over the years in the current system we have. And so I'm falling more in line with that. I think that two things can be true at the same time is that the sport at the top probably has more parity than it has in a long time.

And also there's a growing divide between levels because it's hard to argue that, you know, there's not more money for these, these power four conferences, certainly Big Ten SEC like we talk about all the time, right? There's a gap between them in the group of five. But it's also true to say that among that top band, in a lot of cases, things are closer than ever, right? Indiana, Vanderbilt can pop up and compete, right? Ohio State can go down to a Miami team that was number 10 and was really on its way back, whereas Ohio State was at the peak. And I think both those things can be true. We also have to be honest that not everyone had an honest chance to win a national title going into the year all the time because we worked in strength of schedule ratings, right? That's why, you know, a bowling green or an Akron or even in North. Western in some cases, right? You can say you want to give them a fair shake. We just got to be honest. So much of college football and the viewer base doesn't want them playing for a national championship. And that's fine. Be honest about it. But again, the way that the

qualification is set up, the way that we determine it is that we pay lip service to them having an opportunity to win a national title. But do they really? Just be honest with it, right? At least in college basketball, if you win your conference, you have your magical year, you get a play for it. Right. But even if, you know, Akron went, you know, 11 and 1 with a, you know, one point lost to Ohio State in Columbus on the final play, they win their conference. Well, guess what? They probably won't be the highest rated group of 5 teams. You know what? If this is basketball, and I get just different sports, it's different setups. But I don't think we want college football turning into college basketball where we have this multi-week tournament. It just, we're not even going to have a regular season. We're just going to do all playoff. You know, we'll determine the matchups based on last year's standings. You play your way through till the end. That's way too many games. for college. It's not going to happen. We still need regular season. But then we got to determine still, who do we want to play for a national championship? How do we want to determine it? We don't want Akron in there. You know, so do we just be honest with them and say, yeah, well, cool, you can still have football, but playoffs not for you. If that's the kid,

just be honest with it. I don't like it. But I'd rather be honest with them about, hey, sorry, yeah, you're never playing. They'll take you, you know, 25 years of going undefeated to maybe get a look. I'd rather be honest with them about that than say, oh, yeah, of course you can compete. Of course we're giving you access. It's just look service. Well, I mean, they do. I mean, right now the group of five top team is allowed in, right?

But to your point, you know, that's not going to be every team from every conference. But it is interesting. I mean, and especially, again, these conversations can happen and maybe everybody's kind of on their own sides one way or the other. But again, I'm trying to allow this to kind of breathe through it, right? Because I am,

I'm the old guy yelling at the clouds. I like college football the way it used to be. Yeah, you're a eight-struck of the three-bock man. But, you know, so I'm trying to evolve with that and kind of see through it. But what I feared would happen is the devaluing of the regular season and certainly the devalding of conference championships. And it's happened right in front of our eyes again for a year of the expanded playoffs. Ohio State loses the biggest game, you know, the biggest rivalry of the year to Michigan. And Notre Dame loses the biggest, you know, biggest upset of the year to Northern Illinois in the regular season.

Neither of those things mattered once you got to the playoffs. In fact, again, they probably helped. of as far as seating, you know, and setting up those matchups or whatever. Now, again, you've got a team playing for the championship that didn't play in the conference championship game. So, you know, it's the question that's going to continue. And it's really tough to find an answer to. That's why, you know, where we are is, you know, the conference championships is traditionally, you make a lot of money on them. There's, you know, there's just no way you're going to get rid of them. But what is there a rightful spot and what do they really mean

when it gets to an expanded playoff when you kind of throw all that out. And so they're going to try to find these different, you know, value systems, but you very well could have, you know, two extended playoffs, two teams that didn't win nor play in their conference championship game. It's just funny because of how we define our terms in college football versus the NFL, because think about this, too, you had the Seahawks and the Niners

playing for the NFL equivalent of a conference championship in week eight. but we don't give Seattle credit for winning a conference championship. Sure, they win the division and they end up getting the one seed. Are they going to hang a banner for that? Doubt it. I like what you're saying, and I can absolutely get on board with conference championship games need to matter. Okay, well, then we need to reduce the playoff and make sure that if every conference that we have as a member of the FBS is truly what we want to be in the FBS,

have your conference championship game, and then your conference championship game winners are the ones that make the playoffs. basically a play part of the playoff right you know and then sure you'd expand to wild cards and we get there eventually and it looks more like basketball which i don't think we want but if winning your conference championship isn't going to matter we don't need to play the game it's a waste of everyone's time in my opinion and it's too bad because conference championship games should be fun look how much it meant to indiana to win the first one since what the 50s or the 60s it means something to these players you can't say it meant less to ohio state maybe the school

the history of the university as a whole, but not to those players. You know, they got a chance to play for a Big Ten championship. I would hope it would mean something to them. So I don't want to just get rid of them, but how do we make them matter? We change the playoff structure. But no one wants to change the playoff structure that way.

And if we're going to say the playoff is more important in getting that right and figuring that out is the number one priority, then everything else I think has to fall in line from that. I would argue in a lot of ways, the NFL does that same thing. And I know there are differences, and that's the whole point. But if the playoffs, the Super Bowl, the crowning achievement is what matters at the end of the year, your goal is to get there. Everything else needs to flow downstream from that.

How do we get there? How do we determine that? Instead of going through all this rig and moral, the regular season to say, you'll play these three teams in your division two times. We'll match you up by record and you'll play them across conferences and in, you know, AFC and NFC and within your conference, what have you. And then we'll just guess at the end of the year, who we think the 14 best teams are. and we'll go from that. No. That's not how it should work. There are a bunch of competing interests. There always will be. No one's going to get 100% of their way. But part of building the best system for everyone is being

okay with getting 70% of what you want because it's better than getting 0% if you do it someone else's way. That's a good way to look at it, but it's going to be hard to argue there with everybody again. That's that's called football in a nutshell. Everybody is looking in self-interest and trying to get their way. And again, it's a little bit hard to argue with because it's happening for some teams. One way or the other, again, you know, the expanded playoff did have an absolute classic last night with Ole Miss and Miami. Both those teams gave it there all.

Miami probably should have won that game a lot. I mean, they dropped like four or five interceptions throughout the game. So they looked like the better team. And so I think the better team or hotter team, whatever you want to describe it, is moving on to the championship game. We'll talk more about the college football. play in big 10 against big 10 tonight nebraska basketball by the way facing both indiana and organ that's their next two games so kind of interesting tie in there uh we'll talk a little bit about

that as well coming next year on one on one on 93 seven the ticket download