Andy & Ari On3 - ACC commissioner Jim Phillips vows to FIGHT FSU and Clemson | WE’RE GETTING A CONNOR STALIONS DOC!

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips vowed on Monday that the conference will fight Florida State and Clemson as the league’s two best football-playing schools try to get out of the conference. This is as forceful as we’ve ever heard Phillips, but is it all bluster?(0:00-0:44) Intro(0:45-19:29) Jim Phillips at ACC Media Days(19:30-26:36) Connor Stalions Netflix Documentary(26:37-27:03) Dear Andy Intro(27:04-32:54) Does Ryan Day have to beat Michigan & win Big Ten?(32:55-38:53) 8th Place in the SEC?(38:54-43:42) Proof of the "Saban Discount"(43:43-46:41) Is #2 Seed better than #1 Seed?(46:42-50:09) LSU and Play Action(50:10-53:27) Kaidon Salter and Tennessee(53:28-57:42) Matthew McConnaughey effect(57:43-58:25) Conclusion - See you soon from Big Ten Media DaysMeanwhile, Netflix announced a documentary focusing on former Michigan staffer Connor Stalions called Sign Stealer will drop on Aug. 27. The doc is part of the UNTOLD series, which previously profiled Johnny Manziel and the Urban Meyer-era Florida teams. Will Stalions spill any secrets? Will anything new come out at all? Will he read from the manifesto?Next, Andy answers your questions. Among them…Just how bad does Ryan Day need to beat Michigan this year? And win the B1G?Eight SEC teams expect to make the College Football Playoff. Which one of those is finishing No. 8 in the conference (and definitely not making the CFP)?Is the No. 2 seed better than the No. 1 seed in the CFP?Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/F3qMjzWX87IHost: Andy StaplesProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. It is a Dear Andy show and I am here in Indianapolis getting ready for Big Ten Media Days. We got Ohio State today, Northwestern, Indiana, I'm sorry, Northwestern, Illinois, Purdue, Wisconsin, visiting Indianapolis today. We are going to talk Big Ten most of the rest of the week. Lots of interesting storylines in the Big Ten. Of course, the Buckeyes coming. They are under the most pressure. We will talk about that in Dear Andy. But there is another conference media day going on. The ACC began on Monday in Charlotte. And Commissioner Jim Phillips

showing some fire for the first time it feels like he came out smoking came out swinging this is one of those things where you've wondered how they're going to handle this situation and they had their spring meetings in Amelia Island. We asked about all the lawsuits. They said, hey, lawsuits going on, can't say much, but not particularly forceful. You know, the Florida State people and the Clemson people who are basically adversaries in an existential fight, which is what this is for the ACC. But Jim Phillips came out at ACC Media Days and basically said, hey, we're going to fight. We're going to fight for this conference, and we are going to try to make sure this conference survives. And in a way that he has not really spoken since he got the job. It's just not something we've seen from him. So here's Jim Phillips laying out the plan. As I turn my attention to the year ahead, I must directly address the ongoing disputes with two of our members about the contracts they each signed twice and whether they will honor those agreements.

With multiple ongoing legal cases, there are limits to what I can say. But I can state that we will fight to protect the ACC and our members for as long as it takes. We are confident in this league and that it will remain a premier conference in college athletics for the long-term future. These disputes continue to be extremely damaging, disruptive, and incredibly harmful to the league, as well as overshadowing our student athletes and the incredible successes taking place on the field and within the conference. People feel passionate about athletics, and they feel particularly passionate about college athletics at their respective schools. This passion is what makes college athletics so special, but this passion can also lead to personal attacks. John Swofford is a decent and honorable man and is widely respected in

our industry. He led this conference with a steady hand for over two decades and did so through consensus and compromise. The fact is that every member of this conference willingly signed the grant of rights and unanimously and quite frankly eagerly agreed to our current television contract and the launch of the ACC network. The ACC, our collective membership and conference office deserves better. The support for our collective membership and conference office, deserves better. The support for our student-athletes, coaches, and programs is extraordinary, and that will continue despite these disruptions.

We intend to continue to fight every day for the ACC and its members, and to do so in a way that I hope makes our membership proud. Where there are disagreements or disputes, I intend to continue to deal with them in a respectful and honorable fashion. The ACC deserves nothing less. The ACC will remain a healthy and vibrant conference that competes at the highest level. That is Jim Phillips.

And where was that energy when Florida State was waiting to find out if it was going to get in the playoff or not? And I think that's where some of the Florida State people are confused because there was none of this. When Greg Sankey, the SEC commissioner, was out basically politicking to make sure one of his teams got in the playoff, and they were trying to get a second one. They were trying to get George in there, too. You heard nothing from Jim Phillips. Nothing. And probably, this is my guess, he thought Florida State's 13-0. They don't need my help.

They're getting in the playoff anyway. But that is the difference. That is the difference. Greg Sankey knew he had to politic, and Jim Phillips didn't know he had to. And that is where you have a disconnect. And I thought Andrew Carter, the excellent writer for the Raleigh News Observer, put it very well. He wrote a column on Monday talking about Jim Phillips and says he's an idealist in a world of opportunists. And now he wasn't using idealist as a compliment. He wasn't necessarily using opportunists as an insult, though it could be basically saying this is a guy who might not be.

The same as the other people he's working against. And in this case, right now, he's working against the Big 12. It's not just Florida State and Clemson. Obviously, they're working as Florida State and Clemson. Florida State and Clemson are suing them. But clearly, the Big 12 is out to destabilize the ACC. They would love to have Florida State and Clemson. Now, whether Florida State and Clemson actually want to go to the big 12 is a completely different story.

It was awfully convenient when all those leaks came out during big 12 VD days. Oh, the big 10 and the sec don't want Florida state and Clemson. They don't. I've never heard anybody in the sec or the big 10 say that out loud i've heard sec people behind closed doors say we'd rather not expand past 16 we already have a team in south carolina and team in florida we probably don't need to do that the big 10 people they say well i you know if fox were to come up with the money but we don't know because they're not members of the Association of American Universities. But I also remember the Big Ten people saying, well, we're done. We're not expanding anymore. And then the second Oregon and Washington were

available in the discount bin, they snapped them right up. So what's going on now is the Big 12 is doing what it did to the Pac-12, but to the ACC. And it forces Jim Phillips to come out swinging because Brett Yormark, the commissioner of the Big 12, is doing all the things that Jim Phillips should have been doing all along to make sure his conference survives and is robust going forward. Brett Yormark had no choice. He inherited a league that had just lost Texas and Oklahoma or was about to lose Texas and Oklahoma and was going to die, was essentially in a kill or be killed situation. It's interesting that Jim Phillips mentioned John Swofford and John Swofford gets criticized a lot for that contract. But here's the thing. John Swofford realized at the turn of this century that the ACC was in a

killer be killed situation. He killed the big East, like the big East exists now, but it's a basketball conference. It's teams don't play football. What's left of the big East is the American. He understood. That's why he took Virginia tech, Miami, Boston College, Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville. He understood. They had no other choice. Jim Phillips, he didn't come into that with the same mandate. Basically, when he took over the league, it was try to get Notre Dame to join as a full member. And really, that might have been a possibility,

except that Notre Dame was basically allowed to help craft the new version of the college football playoff, which they made it where Notre Dame never has to join a conference as long as Notre Dame is fairly good. So I don't think that's going to happen. Now, obviously they took Cal Stanford at SMU, which is the weirdest fit ever in the Atlantic Coast Conference, But. This has been. The problem. Jim Phillips is an idealist.

If you hear him talk. It sounds like he wants to go back to 1995. He doesn't like any of this paying players stuff. They fought it all. They didn't like any of the playoff stuff. They fought the expansion of the playoff. To their own detriment. They joined the alliance. And basically got okiedoked by Kevin Warren of the Big Ten.

They need to realize where they are. And it was interesting. So, very interesting story. We don't always mention the competition here, but hey, they did a good job. Brandon Marcelo and John Talti at 24-7 had a really interesting story on Monday about how come the ACC doesn't have a Feinbaum? How come they don't have a Paul Feinbaum? Where is the person who is the voice of the ACC?

They have their own network on ESPN. How do they have no voice? No one person. You go, that's the ACC person. And it's crazy. They've had a network for five years now. Now, I have a theory. That person they had, like ESPN, which does the ACC network, which has the deal with the ACC.

ESPN had that person. They laid him off. It's Danny Cannell. And Danny works for several different companies. Now, here's the thing about Danny. I know that there's a lot of folks who don't like the character Danny plays on Twitter. Danny's a former Florida State quarterback. You can hear him on the Cover 3 podcast. You hear him or you see him on CBS Sports Network. Danny kind of goes hard anti-SEC, which is a shtick he developed when he was working for ESPN. I've worked with Danny. I've done radio with Danny.

He is one of the best people to work with ever. He very much understands what he's doing when he does this. It's a very Feinbaum-esque type shtick that he's got going. But he does believe it, which is also fun. Because when he changes his mind on something, he actually thinks about things, considers what you're telling him, and maybe changes his mind. Because he changes his mind in the expanded playoff. But Danny was the perfect person for that job. They laid Danny off a couple years before

they started the ACC network. And Danny could have sat around for three years getting paid, but he didn't want to. He wanted to go to work. And so he got jobs at like four different companies and went to work. That's the guy. That's who it should be. And I know some of the folks who follow the ACC closely go, no, that's not it. He just supports the football schools. And Andrew Carter, who I mentioned earlier from the Raleigh News and Observed, probably understands this better than anybody. Grew up in the region. Has covered it for a long time.

Covered Florida State as beat writer. Has covered North Carolina as a beat writer. He's like, there's no one person because you can't get these schools. There's no identity, no real identity for the ACC like the SEC. But see, that's where the leadership should come in. And I'll put this on Swofford because that's who was in charge when they started the network. That's where the leadership comes in and says, guys, get over this.

Figure it out. That's what mike slide did when they started the sec network and they were going to decide to put paul feinbaum on television because you know paul had the radio show it was based out of birmingham was syndicated across alabama and other a couple other pockets in South, but it wasn't a nationwide show. When the SEC Network launched, they decided to make Feinbaum the anchor tenant, essentially, of the network. He was going to fill four live hours a day, which if you never tried to fill live television, that's very hard. And there were presidents in the SEC that said, we don't want this. You're this guy who criticizes our coaches, who criticizes our teams. You're going to criticize SEC schools on the air, on the SEC network? You can't do this.

And Mike Slade's like, guys, we are in the entertainment business. We are now running a TV channel. Our job is to entertain. He's entertaining. All those wacky callers who call in screaming about Auburn and Alabama, they're entertaining. That's the job. And all these other leagues have figured this out. The Big Ten knows it's in the entertainment business. The SEC knows it's in the entertainment business. The Big 12, with the commissioner from the entertainment business, knows it's in the entertainment business. The ACC needs to understand it's in the entertainment business. The ACC needs to understand it's in the entertainment business, but it might be too late. Jim Phillips, he did say, I'm going to fight. We're going to fight. We're going to fight as long as it takes. A lot of people ran with that. They're like, all right, they're going to fight. This could take years. It could take years. The court cases are just beginning. But this is the problem. And I keep coming back

to this. And if you watch this show often, you understand where I'm coming from on this. What is the worst thing that can happen to Florida State and Clemson if they lose in court? They have to stay in the ACC till 2036. That is the absolute worst case scenario. The worst possible thing that can happen for them. And while they will tell you that is the worst thing ever, it's really not. You don't have to shut down your athletic department. You'll still be fine. You'll still play football. You'll'll play basketball it'll be all right what's the worst thing that can happen to the ACC if it loses in court it falls apart everybody leaves for free that is a much worse outcome

that is why I keep saying while the ACC is saying it will never settle the ACC will settle eventually it has to because its worst outcome is so much worse than Florida State and Clemson's worst outcome but Jim Phillips needs to say this now that we're going to fight we're going to do whatever can because he's got outside forces working on him ch chipping away, chipping away, chipping away. That's what the big 12 is doing right now. It's what's going on. Like I was laughing hysterically as the big 12 media days were going on and the leaks started coming out. They're so obvious with this stuff. It's hilarious. Just hilarious.

And the fact that a story would come out saying the Big Ten and the SEC don't want Florida State and Clemson conveniently timed to coincide with Big 12 media days. Come on, guys. We can see what's going on here. But for Jim Phillips, there's nothing else he can say. He has to say this right now. As I mentioned yesterday, he's entered that zone where he just has to keep saying this over and over. There's really nothing he can do. Now, one thing he did say on Monday that was also very interesting is he said that he believes the ESPN relationship will continue and be fruitful.

And they are having conversations with ESPN within the ACC to have a long relationship to increase revenue streams. That's good because remember Florida state dropped that little nugget in its lawsuit that said there is a date coming up in February where ESPN has to opt into the back half of this TV deal. And if ESPN didn't opt into the back half of that TV deal, everything else would fall apart too, because that grant of rights goes away if the TV deal goes away. Rocky Top Tom, all this conference media money crap is the exact equivalent of saying all we care about is money. That is all they care about, Rocky Top Tom. I believe they've made that abundantly clear over the years. Fortunately, there will be football coming. There is football coming. But the ACC, we'll see. Interestingly enough, there were questions posed to Jim Phillips about time slots.

Because remember, the SEC now is completely owned. Their TV rights completely owned by ES primetime slots that the ACC would have gotten? We'll see. Jim Phillips didn't have a good answer for that. So but but it's interesting because, again, both of them ostensibly have the same deal with ESPN. Now the SEC pays a lot more, but there is no voice for the ACC. And what you saw with the playoff is they essentially do get treated like a second-class citizen. I don't know that the leadership of the conference can do anything about that. They are locked in until 2036. They can't complain about it because they need that contract to keep Florida state and Clemson, but it's a bad situation. It's a tough situation. If you're Jim Phillips,

I'm not sure what else you can do, but he's going to, he's going to fight. He's going to make loud noises, which is good. Cause he hasn't made any loud noises yet. He should have been making a lot loud noises noises last year going into championship weekend to make sure, hey, by the way, if Florida State goes 13-0, they need to be in the playoff. You needed to hear the ACC commissioner saying that. They didn't say a word. They said nothing

because they didn't understand how things worked. Maybe now they're starting to understand how things work. It might be too late, but at least maybe they understand. All right. Other big news on Monday, we are getting a Connor Stallions documentary and it's soon August 27th. Now it's coming out on Netflix. It's the untold series, which, you know, we we've seen the untold series with Johnny Manziel and with the urban Meyer era, Florida teams, like the urban Meyer, Florida one, like they should have just called it told because there was nothing new in that the Johnny Manziel stuff had some new stuff. It was some interesting stuff from Johnny about his life since football, about some of the stuff that went on while he was playing football. So we don't know,

like this could be kind of hit or miss. This could be great. This could be big ball and nothing, but it is Connor Stallions talking. Connor Stallions is, is part of this thing. He's taking part in it. I'm fascinated to hear from Connor Stallions. Like we've not heard from him. We've heard about him, but we haven't heard from him. I don't even care about the case at this point. I don't care about the NCAA case. I don't think anything's going to happen with the NCAA case. I guarantee you Connor Stallions isn't going to say anything on this documentary that's going to hurt Michigan in the NCAA case because one, if nothing else, he seems very loyal to Michigan and the Harbaugh and Jim Harbaugh

and that coaching staff two I don't think they have anything I really don't but I am really interested to hear what he has to say because let's be real here the stuff that came out makes him sound like a you can choose your adjective weird guy interesting guy all the above like here are some of the things i want to hear about from conor stallions like i want him to read from the manifesto like remember richard johnson's great story on him where he talked to somebody who who was friends with conor stallions who said there's like a 600 page manifesto. Remember Richard Johnson's great story on him where he talked to somebody who was friends with Connor Stallions who said there's a 600-page manifesto about being within Michigan football or about how to run Michigan football from Connor Stallions. I really need to know what's in some. I don't need to hear the whole thing, but I need some choice paragraphs. I need dramatic readings of the manifesto.

Can we get some definitive answers on the Central Michigan thing? We all know it was you. Are you going to admit it? Or are you going to be, I almost think you should be coy about it and just be like, I don't know what you're talking about.

That's a handsome devil on that Central Michigan sideline, but I don't know who that is. But I don't know what you're talking about. That's a handsome devil on that central Michigan sideline, but I don't know who that is. But I don't know. Maybe at the very end, be like, it was me. Come on. Got to have some fun with this. Nobody, see the beauty of potentially violating

NCAA rules that existed because schools were too cheap to send out scouts to get to games is that there's no jail time on the other end nothing's gonna happen so as long as you can't pin it to the other coaches at Michigan or to the people who were in charge of Connor Stallions doesn't even matter we gotta know about the vacuum cleaner thing also in that great Richard Johnson story, or no, actually, no, I'm sorry. I believe this was Rachel Bachman's story

in the Wall Street Journal. Vacuum cleaner repair, but not a very good vacuum cleaner repair business. And had the vacuum cleaner repair business kind of out on the porch, lots of vacuum cleaners on the porch at the house. Like, I need to know what was going on here. Did you make money from the vacuum cleaner repair business?

Was it for something else? Is that something you do on the side? I have so many questions about the vacuum cleaner repair business. Also, the great J.D. Piquel, host of The Hard Count, which you can see here on the On3Sports YouTube channel. You see it today, 11 a.m. Eastern. So J.D. sends me a screenshot of a text exchange we had while all this stuff was blowing up last football season. And it said, essentially, it was basically JD asking me, what is the title of the Connor Stallions documentary going to be? And so I had a few suggestions. I said, Michigan man in parentheses, if Festo.

I saw the sign, the Connor Stallion story. JD suggested those who spy will be champions. That's probably my favorite. They didn't go with any of that. JD and I will not get producer credit on this thing. It will be sign stealer, which feels a little too on the nose. Sign stealaler.

But I'm going to watch. I don't know how I'm going to feel about it once I watch. I go in with high hopes, but again, this Untold series, you got to understand what the audience that these guys are aiming at. You know, this is a very general audience on Netflix. This is everybody in the world, essentially. And so it's going to be, these things tend to run, well, the Johnny Manziel one was like an hour and 12 minutes. I would think we're probably in that zone in terms of timing. They have to explain that college football is a thing that exists. Like most of the audience

they're aiming at does not realize Michigan won the national title last year, or that there was a scandal during the season or that Jim Harbaugh got suspended. Yes, there will be us watching who know all this stuff, but they've got to explain everything. They've got to explain the rule that Connor Stallion's broke. That's going to take a few minutes because people who don't watch college football are gonna be like, why is that even a rule? The games are on TV. Who cares? I'm fascinated. Again, give me some vacuum cleaners. Give me the dramatic reading from the manifesto. Give me some clarity on Central Michigan.

I need all of that. And I'll go away happy. Now, I also quibble with the date, but that's more selfishness. They're going to put it out August 27th. So that is the beginning of week one essentially guys for those of us who do shows we've already got stuff to talk about that week put it out two weeks earlier throw us a bone here now hopefully hopefully we get the preview copy hopefully

we get the preview copy we can tell you what's tell you what's coming I heard JD has a hookup so we'll see but I'm very hopeful all right it's time for dear Andy you've waited long enough your own questions driving the show. We start with Steve, and this is one that is going to get asked a ton today at Lucas Oil Stadium. I can see Lucas Oil Stadium out my window. I am going to be there shortly after the show ends, and I can guarantee you the burning question of the day is the one that Steve is asking right now. Dear Andy, just how bad does Ryan Day need to beat Michigan this year and win the Big Ten? Interesting that you phrase it that

way, Steve, because I think these are two different questions, and I think they have two different answers. How bad does Ryan Day need to beat Michigan? Very badly, very badly. That needs to happen. This is similar to Jim Harbaugh showing up to this event in 2021 and saying, we are going to beat them or die trying, referring to Ohio state, which they had not beaten under Jim Harbaugh. At that point, Michigan had won in the game since 2011, which was the year that Luke Fickle was the interim coach at Ohio state. And it felt like Michigan would never win again. Now we're in a position where Michigan has won three in a row, at least during the fourth quarter of that game last year, once Michigan had put it away, it felt like it was never going to

happen. Ohio State was never going to beat them again. Now, I look at the rosters right now. I look at what Ohio State's done this offseason. I'm like, yeah, I'd probably favor Ohio State in that game right now. But again, I need to see them do it. I need to see them do it. I need to see him do it because this is a psychologically damaging situation for Ohio State. They cannot seem to get over the hump against Michigan. And it's created this narrative that Ohio State is this soft team and they just get bullied by Michigan. I don't know that that's necessarily the case. I don't think Ohio State is soft by any stretch of the imagination.

I do think last year's Michigan team was especially good at punching people in the mouth. Whether this year's Michigan team will be that good, we'll find out. We don't know. We know they have some elite defensive players. We know they have a couple elite offensive players. We know they have some elite defensive players. We know they have a couple of elite offensive players. We know they're replacing most of their offensive line. That's a tough thing to do, but you give Sharon more the benefit of the doubt since he's been so good at that since he became, well, Michigan's offensive line coach. Now he's the head coach, but I feel like that's one position where most schools, when they lose that many offensive

line starters, you're like, oh crap, what are you going to do? This is going to be a step back. And maybe Michigan is, but I kind of have faith in them to get that part figured out. That said, Ohio State of 2024 is very reminiscent of Michigan in 2023. Lots of guys who could be in NFL training camps right now who are not, who are playing for their school one more year because they feel like they just left something out there. For the Michigan guys, it was losing to TCU in the playoff knowing that they could have gotten a crack at Georgia and they could have seen where they stood. But they lost to TCU, and so they wanted to come back and try again.

And they tried again, and they won the national title. Ohio State, same thing. They lose to Michigan. And the bowl game, I'm not even worried about. Yes, they did lose the bowl game. But at this point, once they lost to Michigan, their season was effectively over. In fact, Kyle McCord, their starting quarterback, hit the transfer portal right after that. So now they have this incredibly loaded roster and they have added pieces.

They add Quinshawn Jud pieces. They add Quinn, Sean Judkins, they add Caleb downs. They bring in Will Howard, who we assume will wind up as a starting quarterback. He's from Kansas state, but can Ryan day overcome Michigan? Now, Jim Harbaugh is gone,

but remember, we were just talking about Connor stallions. Jim Harbaugh wasn't on the sidelines when they played Michigan last year and he still lost. He's already lost one to Sharon Moore. So this is the big question in the Big Ten and really nationwide. Now, does he have to win the Big Ten? No! He doesn't have to win the Big Ten. He does not have to win the Big Ten? No, he doesn't have to win the Big Ten. He does not have to win the Big Ten.

I would argue beating Michigan is more important than winning the Big Ten. You can beat Michigan, and then let's say you play Oregon or Penn State in the Big Ten championship game and you lose. Yeah, your fan base is going to hate that, but you're still going to make the playoff. You will still beat Michigan, and you'll still have a chance at the national title, which you still might win. So beating Michigan far more important than winning the Big Ten. Now, here's my question. If you're a Michigan fan, are you okay if they lose to Michigan but then win the national title?

Because that almost happened too. That almost happened in 2022. CJ Stroud and company go into the Peach Bowl. Very close to beating Georgia. One more defensive stop. They probably beat Georgia. They would have killed TCU in the national title game. They would have been the national champs and they would have done it without beating Michigan. Is that enough? Yeah, I think so. I know there's probably some hardcore Ohio State

fans that, oh, you got to beat Michigan. True. You do in that moment, but you'll take a national title and you'll be happy with it. And you'll be happy with Ryan Day if he wins you a national title, but he's got to do that first. Or he can just beat Michigan. Just beat Michigan, and a lot of the other noise about Ryan Day just goes away. Next question from Brian. I had not thought about this this way, but this is crazy. You ready? Here are eight SEC teams listed alphabetically. Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Missouri, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Texas. One or more of these teams, by default, will finish eighth or worse in the conference this year. Which teams do you predict will do that? That is incredible because that is a list of eight fan bases

that think their team is making the playoff this year. And one of those, at least, is going to have a team that finishes number eight or worse in the conference. It's just math, as Brian points out. Holy cow. Somebody's going to be mad. Somebody's going to be so mad. So what, what happens? Who, who is it? I'm just going based on schedule difficulty on question marks. Like I don't have a lot of questions about Alabama. Don't have a lot of questions about Georgia.

Have much fewer questions about Ole Miss after talking to people at SEC Media Days. I feel pretty good about them. Don't have a ton of questions about Texas. So that narrows it down to LSU, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee. And all of them could hit a stretch where things don't work out and they wind up not finishing too high. Missouri's interesting because I think Missouri has the best schedule of this bunch.

They have the most advantageous schedule. They do play at Alabama. They hit Oklahoma. They're at Texas A&M. They got Auburn. So there's a chance this could be Missouri, but Missouri has the best schedule of this group, the easiest, as it were, on paper of this group.

Our questions about Missouri are about their defense. We're not worried about their offense. They're going to be okay. They're going to score points, but they lose Blake Baker, the defensive coordinator. He goes to LSU. They lose a ton of points, but they lose Blake Baker, the defensive coordinator. He goes to LSU. They lose a ton of NFL talent, Darius Robinson, Chris Abrams, Drain, Ennis Raikstra, Tyron Hopper. They lose all those guys off the defense. How quickly can they replace that? Because again, Brady Cook, Luther Burden, we've talked about Marcus Carroll, the Georgia State

transfer. They got Noel coming in from Appalachian State. I think their backs are going to be fine. They are going to be good on offense, but could it be like an LSU last year situation? We don't know. I don't think it will. I think they're going to be more closer to competent on defense, but the question is, how competent are we talking about? So I think Missouri is probably, I'd probably say Missouri is the least likely of that group of four, just because the way the schedule works and because we know the offense is going to be good. LSU schedules hard. Offense is going to be good. Defense is a question mark. Baker, we just talked about left Missouri for LSU. They did not really improve the personnel very much on defense.

It's really going to be up to Blake Baker and his staff to put the pieces in different places to get a different result. They need to be competent defensively, or this is them. If they can be competent defensively, then they're going to compete for a playoff spot. But that's a big if. Because again, they have not changed that much personnel wise on defense. A lot of it had to do with how they went about making their staff changes. By the time they did, most of the winter portal stuff was dried up. Spring portal, prices are high.

The value is not that great. So they just didn't really do much. Tennessee, we think the defense is going to be pretty good. Josh Heupel, he was on the show last week, seemed very confident. They are one that at certain positions, a couple injuries could change everything. You know, of these teams we're talking about, you know, Tennessee and Missouri, they're the ones that their depth, I don't know that they have the same depth as the other ones on this list. And so there's a few spots where if somebody were to get

hurt, everything changes. So Tennessee's one, but if Tennessee stays relatively healthy, I think they avoid that eight spot. I think they're there now. Seven is where they were picked to finish in the league. I think you're going to finish higher than that. As long as they stay relatively healthy. Again, if they have some key injuries, then we're having a different conversation. Oklahoma, worst schedule of this bunch. Toughest schedule of this bunch. Replacing the entire offensive line,

but they have Bill Biedenboe, one of their most respected offensive line coaches in the country. He's another one I was talking about Michigan earlier with Sharon Moore. You give him the benefit of the doubt. You give Bill Biedenboe the benefit of the doubt. You give Oklahoma, the program, the benefit of the doubt because they're rarely ever bad. But that schedule is awful. Tennessee at Auburn, Texas, South Carolina at Ole Miss, at Missouri, Alabama, LSU, at LSU. It's so tough. And that's one of those, you can be in all those games. They may

not all go your way. So Oklahoma is another possibility here or Oklahoma makes the playoff. All of these teams could make the playoff. If things bounce their way, all of these teams could finish eighth. If a few things don't go their way. But that is a great point from Brian. A great point. This one from Zachary. Dear Andy, due to NIL deals being private and no one but the collective and some of the players knowing how much money they have,

was there ever any proof of the quote-unquote Saban discount? Saban's best class was in 2023 with seven five stars, the most ever after going after Jimbo to raise money. And he retired due to players demanding more money after the Rose Bowl loss. Currently in on threes, 2025 rankings, Alabama is number one, number two, and 24, seven arrivals with the most five stars. According to on three, I can't imagine all those four and five stars taking less money to come to Alabama to maybe go first, second round in three years with all the risk that comes with it on potentially any play being their last, even with insurance. I do think Oregon and Texas have more due to Uncle Phil, Nike, and the oil barons, but I cannot think of any schools that have bigger NIL budgets or even matching ones except UGA. Alabama's finished top two every year of NIL, and Texas and Oregon never finished higher.

Okay. This is a good point. Was there ever really a Saban discount or did Alabama just have to pony up after the Texas A&M thing in 2022? Now, Zachary is sort of limiting the worldview to the SEC when you talk about, I don't know these budgets are any bigger anywhere else. Ohio State clearly beefed up the NIL budget this year. So it's not just Alabama, Georgia, Texas, and obviously he did mention Oregon, but your Oregon's, your Tennessee's, your Texas's have not been winning national titles. They've not been creating first rounders at the rate of your Alabama, Georgia, Ohio state group.

The ones that are creating first rounders do not have to pay as much. You have to overpay if you've not been creating first rounders. That said, the ones creating first rounders are not, it's not like they're offering nothing. We had that survey when we had the top, you know, however many recruits at the elite series. Money isn't always the primary determining factor, but it is definitely a determining factor in every one of these. But if it's not your primary determining factor, you are willing to leave some on the table to go to places where they have a proven track record of being able to develop you into a very high NFL draft pick because there is actually significantly more money in that.

So that's where, and again, I know I keep bringing up the same schools, but that's who it is. Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State have a significant advantage over Tennessee, Oregon. You're seeing Nebraska get into some of these recruiting races now. They have to overpay. They have to, to get those guys. But if they get some of those guys and they start showing proof of concept, then they don't have to. But look, the one thing about the NIL market that we're figuring out is it is finding its level fairly quickly. So these offers are fairly competitive.

And so a lot of times, because remember I said, okay, what does it mean to have that assistant coach who's just known as a great recruiter anymore? Is that person even valuable anymore? And the fact of the matter is, yeah, that person is still valuable because that could be your differentiating factor. Because as the market levels out, as it finds its level, all these offers are going to be fairly competitive. They're going to be fairly similar. It's like any other job. More than likely, you go to the three leading companies and you are applying for the same job, they're going to offer you very similar amounts of money, not because they're colluding, but because that's just how markets tend to work over time.

So what you're going to see, I think, especially once the schools get into actually paying out of their athletic department budget, these things are going to get pretty competitive with one another. And you will see the occasional outlier where a coach is just in love with this quarterback or this offensive tackle, and they say, okay, we will give you a lot more to come here. And that person might take it. But for the most part, you're going to see fairly competitive offers because that's just how these markets work. But it'll be fascinating to watch. It's

been crazy to watch it. It happens so fast. Just the market leveling itself this quickly has been, I know the economist said this was going to happen, but man, watching it in real time has been crazy. Next question comes from Klingle seven. This is, this is another really good one. And I'll be honest. I hadn't thought about this and we should have been talking about this months ago, months ago. While many have made the correct argument that being number five is an amazing spot to be in for the playoff, by the same token, couldn't you argue that it'd be better to be number two than number one? Most years, the number five seed will be a better team than the number three seed. That is a great point.

We are assuming that the number five seed is going to be the second best team from either the SEC or the Big Ten. Might possibly be the second best team in the country. The two seed gets to play the winner of 7-10. So the one seed is going to get a lower seeded team in its quarterfinal game, but the one seed might have to play the five seed in the semifinals. So the one seed might actually wind up having to play the second best team in the country in the semifinals. The number two seed is going to get the three or the six, probably unless the 11 somehow makes it through.

The two seed has a better deal because remember the three is going to be a conference champ that might not be the third best, fourth best, fifth best, sixth best team. It mighton seven hit, hit the nail on the head here. It is absolutely better to be two than one and five. Now you got to beat one in the semis, but I feel like five's road might actually be easier because the four seat again is going to be a conference champion that may not be the fourth best team, may not be the fifth, sixth, seventh best team. It's possible that the four seed is worse than the eight and nine seeds that the one has to play in the quarters. So the one may have the easiest path to get to the semis, but I feel like the five and the two have the easier path once you get there. It's amazing. This deliberate misseating is going to be a talking point.

And you've got the new director of the college football playoff has been going around talking a bunch of shows over the past week saying, everything's on the table. They're going to talk about all this stuff for 2026. I do wonder now that we see this happening in practice, once we see this actually being played out to people, just go, this is dumb? Just rank the teams the way they should be ranked. I don't know. I don't know.

We got another question from our guy, Clark Brooks, the SEC Stat Cat. He had a good question last week about, should Ole Miss throw more on first down? Dear Andy, should LSU's Bayou Bomb squad explore using more play action? Lots of buzz with the new group, and they'll hunt for splash plays. But even with Jaden Daniels' rushing ability, the offense philosophy has morphed into being very pass-heavy. Not much play action relative to other SEC offenses, but both Jaden Daniels and Garrett Nussmeier, who is replacing him, have great career play action numbers as Tigers in limited usage. Pass evidence says you don't need runs to help play action succeed. I think LSU keeps fading the run as is. Don't rock the

boat or try to give a new starter more defined reads and try to grease his bottom line with a helpful tactic. Good question, Clark. And here's where I come in on this. I realize this is not one of the advanced stats that Clark uses, but this is a dumb person stat that should make this very clear. Jaden Daniels led LSU in rushing with 1,134 yards last season. A lot of those were on scrambles that accounted for 42% of LSU's rushing offense last year. They have to replace 42% of their rushing offense. And I don't think Garrett Nussmeier is going to run for 1100 yards. He's a good athlete, but I don't think he's going to run for 1100 yards. You're going to have to get more of your running backs anyway. So since you're going to have to get more out of your running backs anyway. So since you're going to need to use them more in the run game, why not add on play action to use plays that you're going to have to add and run more often as a setup for explosive pass plays? yes as Clark pointed out Garrett Nussmeyer has been good

in play action situations in his limited time at LSU they're gonna have to do this because one of the reasons that LSU went so pass heavy is especially with Jaden Daniels if the play broke down Jaden Daniels was going to get you yards with his legs. Like go back to the Missouri game last year. How many times did Jaden Daniels save their bacon by squirting out of the pocket and gaining a ton of yards? I don't think you have that with Nussmeyer. Yes, he'll occasionally be able to, like, if things break down,

he'll be able to get out of there and get you a couple yards. But I don't think it's going to be a weapon in your offense. So the run game is going to have to be good. Now, here's the thing. Most teams, you're like, ah, do they have the offensive line to get a push up front to gain those yards? Yes, LSU does have the offensive line to get a push up front to gain those yards? Yes, LSU does have that offensive line. LSU absolutely has that offensive line.

So I do think more play action from LSU might be advantageous. I do think it would be easier for Garrett Nussmeier, especially if you have that offensive line resetting the line of scrimmage. You're gaining four and a half, five yards of carry. You're going to drive defenses insane if you do that. I think LSU has a lot of good options on offense. I think there's a lot of things LSU can do to be very productive on that side of the ball. Again, like I keep saying, I'm more worried about their defense, much, much more worried about their defense than I am their offense. This question is from Jake. I've been born and raised a Tennessee fan my entire life.

I am an alumnus of Liberty University. What is the one thing those two schools have in common? Caden Salter. Salter was a UT commit and was on campus before disciplinary issues led him to transfer to Liberty. Salter is now a top QB of the nation and a dark horse Heisman candidate. My question is, how much of a difference would Caden Salter have made being the starting QB at Tennessee this past season instead of Joe Milton? Salter threw for 2,876 yards, 32 touchdowns, only six interceptions. He also rushed for 1,089 with 12 rushing TDs. Milton passed for 2,813 yards with 20 TDs and five picks. He also rushed for 299 with seven rushing TDs. With Salter at the helm instead of Milton, you'd think Tennessee would have had a

better 2023 as far as wins and playoff potential go. Yes, I do. Now, Salter got dismissed though. Now, here's the thing, and this is the other part. Let's not dismiss the Jamie Chadwell of it all here. I'm very interested to watch Grayson McCall at NC State this year because Grayson McCall playing for Tim Beck at Coastal Carolina did not look like Grayson McCall playing for Jamie Chadwell at Coastal Carolina. So Jamie Chadwell, Liberty's coach, very good at making quarterbacks look great. That said, I think Caden Salter is a very good quarterback. He did get dismissed at Tennessee.

So I don't know that that situation would have changed much. I don't think they would have kept him thinking, oh, we could, you know, we could save our season with this guy. I think that the probably more accurate question surrounding Tennessee, and maybe I should have asked this of Josh Hypo last week, though I doubt he would have answered it because at this point, what's he going to do about it? Should you go to Nico midway through last season? Was he ready? Because everything I've heard out of Tennessee is that Nikio Iyama-Mailaba allows them to run their entire offense. And Joe Milton didn't. And while nobody's going to have the arm strength of Joe Milton, they don't need that.

They need accuracy over the middle. They need the ability to run the read option. They need the ability to run RPOs. They need the ability to improvise when things go wrong. Those are things Hendon Hooker did very well. Those are things it seems like Nico is capable of doing. Those are things Caden Salter can do. but yeah i i do think it's an interesting question and you will see when we get a little bigger sample size with nico but if nico comes in and their offense is just so much easier because you can run the whole thing i think it's a legitimate question like what what point would that have been a good idea last season but again again, there's nothing you can do about it now. That's water under the bridge. And the other question I think you have, if you're Josh Heupel, is how early would you throw him in?

Because if you do throw him in early, with a quarterback that's young in the SEC, you've got to be careful. Because a lot of grown-ass men hitting him very hard, you don't want to break his confidence. You want that guy to become the starter when he feels like he's ready, when you feel like he's ready. I think they feel like Nico's ready.

But that is a great question, and it's one that has been asked on a lot of bar stools around the state of Tennessee over the last nine months. I can guarantee you that. I can promise you it's been asked on a bunch of bar stools in Tennessee. We have a question from another Jake. Who do you wish or who would benefit the most from a branding perspective from having a more prominent Matthew McConaughey effect on their university like he does at Texas rallying the boys on the sidelines is it George Clooney showing up at Kentucky events dressed as Danny Ocean is it Lil Wayne being a director of morale at the University of Houston so Jake I'm not sure

where's this Lil Wayne Houston thing coming from Lil Wayne's an LSU fan. Like if anything, Lil Wayne should be hanging at LSU. I mean, he's done a song with Flo Jay Johnson, one of their basketball players, who's also a rapper. He's from New Orleans. So yeah, I don't get the Lil Wayne Houston thing. I think maybe Slim Thug or Paul Wall for Houston. I think that would work better. You know, we'll have Willie Fritz getting chopped and screwed is something we need to really kind of figure out. The George Clooney Kentucky thing. Obviously, Clooney, the whole family's from Kentucky. That would be hilarious.

If he was in character as Danny Ocean, like is Matthew McConaughey in character as Wooderson when he's on the Texas sidelines? I would argue he kind of is like, he is probably saying, all right, all right, all right. Pretty frequently. We talked to Tavondre sweat last year. Remember Tavondre got the, got the Matthew McConaughey treatment fairly frequently at Texas. And he's just like, oh, dang. Oh, goat dog. Here we go.

Here we go. Let Pastor Troy perform already. That's right. No more play in GA. Absolutely. Pastor Troy for Georgia is an excellent one. Christopher Jordan. Tim Cook at Auburn. Yes.

You just have Tim Cook handing out iPads to people in the crowd. Tim Cook's the CEO of Apple, by the way. He went to Auburn. Ward AM iPad. Oh, my goodness. There's so many possibilities. The George Clooney as Danny Ocean I do love like in character and and does that mean Brad Pitt will come down occasionally as rusty and just always

be eating something on the sideline we can make that happen too uh one that has to happen and this is a guy who actually started his college time at Texas but then transferred back home to his home state of Missouri John Hamm proud graduate of the University of Missouri. We need John Hamm on the Missouri sideline as Don Draper, like put him in the suit, get the drill cream in there, and just say, as guys come off the field, they've scored a touchdown, that's what the NIL money's for. They'd be perfect.

Absolutely perfect. Larry David at Maryland. Like, Larry David playing the version of Larry David he played on Curb Your Enthusiasm at Maryland. Well, I mean, he can hire somebody to use the carpool lane to get him to the game, but I think we need to make that happen too. Zach in the chat, Ashley Judd is the new UK rep.

We know Ashley Judd is the UK rep, but she's a basketball person. Since Double Jeopardy, when's the last good Ashley Judd movie? I was in college when Double Jeopardy came out. So yeah, let's get Clooney. Let's dream bigger. But yeah, Jon Hamm at Missouri as Don Draper.

I think he'd do it too. He's a massive football fan. He would definitely do it. Great questions, everybody. Great questions. Now it's time for me to go ask questions. It is Big Ten Media Days. I'm in Indianapolis.

I'm headed over to Lucas Oil Stadium. Allow me to join the chorus. How many people are going to ask Ryan Day about Michigan today? How many people are going to ask Ryan Day, do you have to be Michigan? Is your job on the line? I don't think anybody would just go straight up, is your job on the line?

Because it just seems silly at this point, but it is going to be the dominant topic at big 10 media days, dominant topic, ACC media days also going on in Charlotte talking season in full effect. And we will talk to you tomorrow.