Andy & Ari On3 - Championship Week INSTANT REACTION | How will the final College Football Playoff Bracket shake out?

Episode Date: December 7, 2025

It's been a WILD championship Saturday in College Football already with Texas Tech and Georgia both winning big. Now, it's time to put all the conference championships together now that the ACC and Big Ten Championships have been decided. Join Andy & Ari for a special instant reaction show tonight to go through all the incredible action from the weekend. Who will make the College Football Playoff field? Find out here as Andy & Ari dive deep into this situation here. (0:00) On Tonight's Instant Reaction(0:59) Presenting Sponsor(2:43) Intro: Indiana 13, Ohio State 10(12:49) Duke-Virginia LIVE(14:20) Ohio State's side of the coin(19:59) Who gets the first round bye in CFP?(21:25) Georgia 28, Alabama 7(24:25) Miami's Mario Cristobal Joins(31:41) Duke 27, Virginia 20 (OT)(38:38) James Madison or Duke?(44:09) The Final 12-Team Bracket(56:32) Importance of Conference Championships(59:21) Conclusion: See You Tomorrow! This show is presented by Modelo! Some things in life are just made for each other. Peanut Butter and jelly. Macaroni and cheese. Modelo and college football. If you’re watching this, it means you live and breathe football. All season long. You know what that makes you? A Full-Time Fan. Which means you deserve a Modelo. Because football wouldn’t be the same without you. Modelo is the official beer sponsor of The College Football Playoff. Drink responsibly. Beer imported by Crown Imports, Chicago, IL Our show is also presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works: 1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB.2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sureyou use bonus code CFB when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtube.com/live/_D-f9GfV-_g Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On tonight's instant reaction edition of Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. Indiana beats Ohio State in the Big 10 championship game. Georgia crushes Alabama in the SEC championship game. Texas Tech whips BYU in the Big 12 championship game and we think Duke beats Virginia in the ACC championship game, but it ain't over yet. So we will talk about all of that what it means for the college football playoff. rankings what it means for the playoff field. We also will have a pop in from Miami coach Mario Cristobal who had a few more points he wanted to make. You'll also hear from Alabama coach Kalin DeBoer about their situation. We did reach out to Marcus Freeman's people. We reached out to Notre Dame, have not heard back. But if he wants to come on during the show, come on Marcus, we want to hear from you too. We'll do it live. We'll do it live. That's right,

right now on Andy and Arion 3 presented by BetMGM. We are presented by Bed-MGM. We use Bed-M-G-M-G-Lines and totals, and you can join us by joining Bed-M-GM-GM. If you have not signed up for Bed-MGM yet, use the bonus code CFB, as in college football, CFB, and you'll get up to a $1,500 first bet offer on your first wager with Bed-MGM. Here's how that works. Download the Bed-MGM app and sign on using the bonus code CFB. Deposit at least $10 to place your first wager on any game.

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rewards are non-witrable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use the bonus code CFB and get your $1,500 first bet offer today. Welcome to an instant reaction edition of Andy and Ari on three presented by BetMGM. Lots of reasons to be cracking cold medellos tonight. Maybe you are a Georgia fan or an Indiana fan. celebrating huge wins. Maybe you're an Ohio state fan, wondering why Jeremiah Smith was not on the field on a critical third down? I mean, why throw it to the best receiver in the world when you could throw it to your backup tight end? No, I would go eye formation a little more often

if I were them. Okay. Well, we probably are being a little too harsh because Ohio State's still really good. But I kind of wonder where they wind up in the college football playoff rankings. We're going to try to predict the bracket tonight. We are still waiting on a finish of the ACC championship game. Duke just punted it back to Virginia with a minute 44 to go and Virginia's got two timeouts. This sucker's not over yet, folks. So we'll see what happens with that one as well. Virginia, if they win this thing, they are in the college football playoff. Duke, we don't know yet. This is electric. This is a great day. What a day. It's incredible. What a sport. What a day. What a time to be alive. Do you just want to start while this is ending? Let's go right into the game that

we just watched. Yes. Andy, let's talk big ten. Can I just ask you a question? Yes. I know we're going to do playoff. We're going to do all that. But I am the ultimate prisoner of the moment. And I have to ask this, maybe I shouldn't, but I'm going to. What coaching job since the year 2000, has anybody done a better job than Kurt Signetti in the first two years? No one, no one. Because Nick Sabins was great in year two, but it really wasn't that good in year one. And Siggetti was 11 and one and made the playoff. while also considering the starting point. Correct. Like going to a

program that was a historical loser bringing players from your G5 school to stock the roster. I mean, yeah, it's pretty crazy. And calling your shot right when you got there too. Google me. I win. Like everybody's like, all right, bro. Just relax, dude. You're in Indiana. And then like two years later, it's not that they won the game tonight. I actually

feel like even if they would have lost by three, I would have felt the same way. Yeah, because you would have said, okay, they can hang. athletically but but i will tell you what we saw tonight makes me excited for the college football playoff because ohio state did not look like a super team now indiana looked amazing indiana could still could win the whole thing i'm not i'm not trying to denigrate indiana here what i'm saying is the the way georgia look today the way some of these other teams has looked down the stretch there's a good chance this could be a fun college football play yeah where there's no presumptive winner if you're if your goal for today was

let's leave Saturday with a playoff field that makes it the most possible intrigue-wise. Yes. In terms of who could win or how, I mean, that couldn't have played out better if you're one of those people. Exactly. You know, I think that Indiana now should be viewed as the favorite. Now, Georgia played a really great game today. That has to be acknowledged. Indiana had the best regular season in the nation.

They beat what we thought was the best team in the country. So they have the best win now of anybody. Yeah, number one overall seed without question. No, yeah, there's no debate. So that's an easy one. But the Kurt Signetti question, like he's absolutely ruined it for every new coach. Every coach who gets hired now and is like,

hey, guys, I'm going to need a couple years to get this thing really rolling. I'm going to have to get my people in here. No, because everybody's going to go, well, Kurt Signetti did it in Indiana. Why can't you do it here? He literally made a team at Indiana that two years, didn't just win the Big Ten, but like went right through Ohio State,

who, by the way, is loaded. and beat Ohio State in the championship. Yeah, but like to be long on that field, like that should have been impossible. Right. That isn't even something that you should have been able to do. Which obviously is not as big of a deal because of the circumstances with Penn State.

But if we had told you at the beginning of the year, Indiana is going to win at Oregon, win at Penn State, and beat Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game, even after seeing what we saw last year, I would have been very skeptical. And I think that there's only one other coaching scenario that comes to mind. and that would be Dabo Sweeney's build of Clemson. But that took time.

That took time. I mean, like in terms of how quickly this happened, of course not. But, you know, turning a good team into a juggernaut, I think, is also, I mean, but Indiana could literally win the national title this year. Absolutely. They are so good. And you saw it tonight going against what we thought were the best collection of athletes in the country.

They have a really tough third down situation in the real. red zone and Fernando Mendoza to a license rat I mean they had their quarterback their Heisman trophy candidate throwing to their best receiver yeah which Ohio State had some of the time but not in a critical third down in the red zone the next

time they faced one yeah when you said that Kurt Signetti ruined it for everybody I had a poor Nebraska fan retweet me and go it's okay guys we'll get them in year 26 of rebuilding it's just like but everybody looks at their coach like they're a loser because of Kurtzignette exactly it doesn't matter how successful they've been or or what they've done, like, this is the type of rebuild.

Like, you know, you don't want to know. A real actual, like, moment of thought that I had today and it wasn't in the shower. Shocking. Was that a large portion of our jobs. Like, I look back at this today. And in, like, the 2015, 16, 17 era. Like, like, they write, like, I became a national writer in 2019. So for the first two or three years of that and the majority of my entire,

professional life covering oh i'm sorry i'm going to cut you off duke duke db just knocked away a pass that that might have set virginia for for a touchdown that would have tied it yeah i didn't even knock it away that just went right through his hands oh my what a night this has been i'm sorry i don't even remember what was i saying uh the build oh that like a large portion of our um job was to as a national reporter i'm sure you you felt this way longer than me was there was almost like a sort of sense of pretending that certain teams or places could be something when there was a steel shield very clearly established hierarchy yeah the hierarchy where it's like okay well you're going to write a cool

story about like the build at team X and it's like you're trying to sell a vision like I remember I went to um north carolina when mac brown thank you was there his first year and they like explaining their recruiting philosophy and it's like wow man if they really do this like they can convince you and it's like well no matter what mac brown does like are they ever going to beat alabama no like that's insane no one and like now we are actually in a period of time where a coach can take over at indiana and in two years build a team that can go into indianapolis and honestly out physical ohio state they did there's no question they did like that is possible So, like, if you're an Indiana, like, hater or you're a person that doubted if that was possible, I certainly was one of them.

This is a new day. And I think it's a new day for everybody who roots for a team that isn't in that hierarchy or isn't in that group of cool kids that sit at the lunch table who collect all the national champion. Like, you don't have to be Ohio State, you don't have to be Alabama, you don't have to be Georgia. You don't have to be anybody anymore, but a program with a good coach and a vision that can. and execute it to actually get through the top. And I actually think this might be one of the most significant days of college football in my entire life. Like, am I overthinking that?

No, what Indiana has done is incredible. This is a team that if this had happened five or ten years ago, there is no way what he's done could have happened. Like prior to the transfer rules changing, and that's the big thing here. The NIL helps too. But prior to the transfer rules changing. this never could have happened. He could not have gotten that roster where it was so quickly.

But like Vanderbilt is kind of on the cusp of that. You know, unfortunately, it doesn't seem like to me they're going to be in the playoff. But they also won 10 games in the SEC and beat the crap out of a lot of really good teams, including their rival. You know, you don't have to be a team that has a history. Like Indiana doesn't have a football history. Oh, they have a history.

It's a bad. A history of losing. Yeah. It's a second losing program of all times. So like, you know, if you're a. fan of TCU today or you're a fan of Minnesota or you're a fan of NC State or whatever other random team that I can come up with. If Indiana can do it. If Indiana can do it. And that's a powerful message. Yeah. And like I think I'm going to write that tonight. Like that's a pretty unbelievable

turnaround. And like I think that the actual like the reaction that the audience is trying or probably here to to hear is like, well, what does this mean for Ohio State? Have we been wrong about how good they are all year? And I think there's going to be plenty of time to litigate that over the course the next few weeks like Indiana like deserves every bit of acknowledgement on this show right now in this moment because I think that's one of the most significant things that I've ever seen in terms of the change of the hierarchy of the sport or the like you want to talk about a parity system people used to roll your eyes about the notion of parity in college football we literally just watched it happen for the first time ever yeah like Michigan winning the national

championship three years ago felt like an underdog story Michigan yeah right like think about this. This is the underdog story. And now, Kurt Signetti doesn't want to hear that. He said it before the game. The interview, I believe with Jenny Taff before the game, he said, this is not an underdog situation. This is a clash of Titans. And he was right. It was a high-level game, very physical. Both defenses played really well. Both defenses limited the offenses. The ACC titles coming down to this play right now, too.

Yes. Yes. We got a fourth and four for Virginia, 32 seconds to go. Virginia has one time out. So they don't have to score here. They do have to move the chains, though. Duke has lived dangerously here in these last minutes. Did you imagine being a coach just having to look to the other sideline and just like look at that lettuce that. At Manny Diaz with that beard? Yeah. His playoff beard.

He's a man, dude. That's what he called it. All right. So let's just, you know, these eyes. First down. Okay. Virginia stays alive for a little bit longer. You know what happens, Andy?

Just so you understand this and I want you to be like really aware of what's at stake here, that if this game goes to overtime. that we have to vamp throughout the entire overtime because there's no way that we have a lot. Okay. Touchdown! Oh! What a catch. Is he going to go for two here?

No. No, not in the ACC championship, right? I think you go to overtime here. Yeah. Oh, my God. What a night this has been. The guy who caught its last name is Wood. That seems pretty appropriate.

Sorry, Andy. I can't help with who I am. I know you too well. Yeah, I know you. I can't. You know, it's, you know. almost been done they are kicking the extra points so they're playing for overtime here which oh he stepped out of bounds okay he stepped out of bounds but did he reestate i think you as long as you reestablish

or you were pushed out yeah he's reestablished he both feet back in yeah right i have to go to the i mean you know the cool thing about the acc is that they let you hear it but are they reviewing it i don't think so and and the the official did throw his hat didn't he uh now they're kicking the extra point okay so there so what was the next part of the show do you want to want to talk two minutes about Ohio State? Well, we can talk about, yeah, let's talk about Ohio State. And I kind of feel like we should play Kailen DeBore and Mario Cristobal and talk about their arguments. We're going to talk about Ohio State first.

Okay, let's talk about Ohio State first. We'll go in succession here because we did have a 25-minute video about those two earlier. Oh, yeah, we'll point that. So we did instant reaction shows after the Big 12 championship game where we talked Texas 2nd, BYU. We also talked after the Georgia Bama game. And we honestly didn't talk a lot about Georgia. So if you're looking for those, they're on the On Three Sports YouTube page. They're also in the podcast feed.

We didn't talk much about Georgia because Georgia will look like a national title contender. I think they're probably going to be the two seed now. And they're not playing again for three weeks. And we're going to talk about them potentially winning the national title a lot. Yeah, we have a lot of air. We've had a lot of shows and a lot of air time to be filled. We talked a lot about Alabama though today because obviously their spot in the field feels like it is very much in danger.

Yes. Yeah, which is, you know, as you zoom out and kind of like think that through a little bit more, you know, the Alabama thing was like, well, if they get blown out, maybe. And then like you were watching the game and then the reality of that started the set in of like, this is actually, they're getting blown. Yeah, yeah, like this is actually happening. So we have to start thinking about that a little bit more. But let's talk Ohio State because obviously people will seize on the final score of 13 to 10. Yeah, that was a pretty significant score. The last game they lost, they lost 13.

to 10. Yeah. That was to Michigan last year. Now, this Indiana team significantly better. Yeah, like this isn't confusing. Exponentially better. It's kind of confusing. It's not confusing. Like when they lost to Michigan last time, like the last time they lost, which was 17 games ago, I think. Yeah. That was one of the single most shocking results of a football game I've ever seen in my entire life. This was Indiana's awesome. So here's the thing. I don't think I've changed my mind.

on who I'm picking to win the national title. Have you? No. No, because I think Ohio State needed to lose that Michigan game to kind of figure some things out. Yeah. Like, what happened tonight for Ohio State? Third and one, or it was a third in goal.

It was, which one are you? What play sequence are you referring to? I am referring to the sequence near the end before the missed field goal. Oh, yeah, it was third and one. Third and one. And so you go with a pretty heavy package. But even with a pretty heavy package, if you're planning to throw the ball,

number four should be on the field. He was not on the field. Yeah, and I. Smith was not on the field. Yeah, and there's a lot of a backup tight end. You know, Ohio State was deep inside the five-yard line. Or, you know, they were in the red zone deep twice at the end of the game. And, you know, they had a fourth down that was reviewed and fourth and goal that was reviewed.

Or sorry, fourth down that would have been first and goal reviewed. that got overturned and they were short, and then they got deep down and missed that fuel roll. Yeah, I think that Jeremiah Smith should be on every high leverage snap on the field no matter what the down distance is where it is. Right. Because the defense has to worry about him.

Imagine being part of the Indiana defense and looking out there, they didn't put four on the field. They don't worry about him. Yeah. But I did see a lot of like Ohio State hasn't played anybody. Ohio State, this is the first time they actually got tested by a good team. Which is all true.

And I think that it calls into question, is their offense actually good enough? And that might sound crazy because I have Jeremiah Smith and Carnale Tate and Max Claire and Brandon Innes and all those players on the outside. But I thought Indiana's defensive line beat up on Ohio State's offensive line for most of that game. I thought Bo Jackson ran pretty well. If you go back and you look at the very first thoughts piece that I did this season, I asked a question after Ohio State beat Texas, does Ohio State have the running back or the run game? to win high leverage games at the end of the year, and I would be afraid of that. So, like, there are certain way,

like I think that Indiana showed you the blueprint. Right. Because if you get after Julian saying, who, by the way, in this game was the first time he's ever been in a game down in the fourth quarter in his entire collegiate career, which, you know, like. Well, and that's the thing.

Like, that's important to have been through that experience. And most quarterbacks by this point, even in their first season to start, have been through that experience. And so it was something you worried about because you hadn't seen him in that. And it just kind of strikes me and like, I don't want to be. Now you have. Be cliche, but like, I wonder if you look back at this and go, well,

thankfully they got one out of their system before they go on their run. And it kind of is similar to last year. Now, last year's was different because losing to Michigan wasn't just learning from a loss. It was a humiliating de-pantsment of like your pride. This was not that. That wasn't, this wasn't that. And like, if you're like making Ryan Day, Michigan jokes right now, like they just lost to a good team. And Andy, I think that like 18 games, 17.

team game winning streaks aren't going to be happening very much moving forward. And eventually teams do have to lose. And like Indiana is still unbeaten. If Indiana wins the national championship, I'll look, I'll be wrong. But going wire to wire in a season like this with a playoff like this, I think it's going to be increasingly difficult. And it's just kind of like eventually you're going to get beaten. So that said, if you are somebody who is questioning Ohio State or

don't think that there is as elite as we thought they are. I think that has a fair criticism and a fair thing to ask. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. We're going to find out. They're probably, let's do the top of the bracket. Okay. And we'll come back to the bottom because I think the bottom is going to be controversial part. And we honestly don't know what's happening with Virginia and Duke yet.

You're the star of the show and the host, please. Do you want to do the Mario Notre Dame discussion first? and then build our bracket? We can't. And then we have to decide. I don't want to start building our bracket now. We've talked to Ohio State and Georgia. Okay.

And this is, the first part's easy. Okay, Indiana's one. Indiana's one. I would put Georgia, Georgia, Georgia, two, Ohio State three, Texas Tech four. Texas Tech four would be my top four. Yes, those are your buys. And I think that that is fairly non-controversial, right? Yeah, I don't think it's not.

Because Georgia's wins now. Yep. Georgia only has one loss and they've got better wins. It's a no-brainer, right? Yes, this is easy. Yeah, this is, and then Texas Tech is a one-lost conference champ. Oregon will be five, because that's where they've had an organ with this group. Oregon.

Oregon will be five. Ole Miss should be six. Ole Miss will be six. A&M should be seven. And then we'll be seven. Oklahoma will be eight. And now this is where we get up the murky. Yeah.

Yeah. And by the way, the last three spots is 45 minutes. Like that's not like, yeah, the last four spots. Bad at Math podcast. But, yeah, so we're an O.T. here. Why don't we get into the Mario Cristobal segment? Let's first, let's start with Kailen DeBore. Okay, yes.

So Kailen Nabor, Alabama came in, ranked number nine in the most recent playoff selection committee rankings. They got beat 28 to 7. They did not look good in this game. I will point out, and you'll hear Kailenaboard point this out. They did go for it deep in their own territory because he's trying to win the freaking game and that gave George another touchdown. They could have just punted there.

By the way. But they didn't. They were trying to win the game. Let's give the committee some credit here. I know it's been a pretty easy punching bag scenario. They watched the game. They did watch the last touchdown didn't do anything. Like the score looks worse, but if they watched the game, they know it wasn't close.

Yeah, we didn't like. So that's not going to, in my opinion, be a thing. So after the game, Kaelin was asked about Alabama's case for the playoff. Here's Kailen, what is your pitch for? for why you're still a playoff team? Well, I think you look at the games that we played throughout the season. But if you're really looking at this game,

I mean, it was a 14-point game with seven and a half minutes to go, and we had the ball. I mean, you know, you can look at things that didn't go well. We gave him four short fields. And again, I don't want to take anything away from what Georgia did, right? The field position battle is part of it. But gave them four short fields.

I mean, that's a testament to our defense of being resilient, you know, one of those touchdowns. I mean, if we're really worried about the score, then probably punt it on your own 11, right? But I'm here to win an SEC championship. I'm not here to, if you lose by one or you lose by more, it's still a loss. And that's what I was caring about. We're here to win an SEC championship.

We can't get worried about how much do we lose by? That was what it was about. And we're here to win. That's how we play. And again, it was a 14-point game. We have the ball with seven and a half minutes to go, you know, against a really good team. that knows us well and we know them well. You know, I thought our defense did a heck of a job going against them.

You know, one thing that we didn't really do was take the ball off them, you know, and the one turnover they got helps up, again, a short field. So, again, that's football. But, you know, that's the way I looked at this game. And if this game applies to and takes away from our resume, I don't think that's right. I really don't.

I think the precedent's been set, and I don't know how you can go into a conference playoff game when you're the number one seed and did all these things throughout the year and, you know, playing in this game against one of the top teams in the country as well, how that can hurt you and keep you out of the playoff when, again, we've done what we've done all year.

That's Kailen DeBoer. Okay, Duke is on the goal line, second and goal. We'll let, you know what happened because obviously no matter what they do, Virginia is going to get the ball as well. So we'll find out what happens here, Darien Mence is back to throw. He is in trouble. Uh, he just threw a touchdown pass. Or was he out of bounds? What do we got? Out of bounds. Third and goal. Yeah.

This may get reviewed. So while all that happens, let us hear from Mario Cristobal who reached out to Ari and I tonight. That's not a catch. Reached out to Ari and I tonight and said, hey, I got some more points I'd like to make. You saw him on the show on Monday. He's back. Here's Mario Cristobal. So we aren't the only people who've been watching games today. Miami head coach Mario Cristobal also watching games. And what have you thought so far? As we record this for the audience,

it is this third quarter of the ACC and Big Ten championship games. We've seen the SEC and we've seen the Big 12. I don't know where to start. I mean, there's obviously a lot of great play out there than some other, you know, you look at teams and how they've been playing down the stretch you could tell who's getting better and who maybe is now playing at their best at this time of year so um i think it's just watching it all it gets me a very enthused and confident um how we're going to be viewed as it relates to the committee's decision as a coach just sitting there you know i don't think there's a lot

of saturdays where you get to be like us it's like watching the games and taking them in like what are the emotions like for you with so much riding on the line and, you know, just watching these games, you know, I'm sure you formulate opinions the way that we do like everyone else does. Like, what's it like just being in this position, just kind of watching the games? Yeah, you always want to be playing, you know, and I think hopefully by this time next year we'll be in a situation where we're playing really well and getting better and that the tiebreaker system could be something that makes a little bit more sense. In the meantime, certainly you wish the best for the teams that are playing.

also assess your situation and you either get confirmation that you should be in or you shouldn't be in. I'm just taking notes all day. You know, obviously, I'm cutting up tape because there's a lot of good stuff you want to use, maybe some stuff you don't want to use some fake opportunities that were both good and bad. And at the end, like my final notes here as I'm, you know, deep into this stuff is we certainly are one of the best eight, ten teams in the country. So is that frustrating for you to have to be here watching it instead of playing. Because you had a couple of games where a player or two, either way, you would have been playing in Charlotte right now,

and we're probably not needing to have this conversation. Yeah, but you know what? It is where it is, and it's at where it's at. And that being said, it also gives us time to just really assess and strengthen our case, which, you know, I never looked at it as a case. I thought last year, you know, we had to get into the debate last year because we lost our last game a lot of other teams had some really solid points as well and it's like all right this is like going on court here we're going to have to

really bust our button see who has the best way to prove that they belong and and this year it's kind of one of those come on man the information's right there and the only information that I wish had just a louder I don't know a louder voice and just really hit the audience a little bit stronger was the fact that down the stretch I don't know who's really playing better football us. It's interesting because there's been this debate between you guys in Notre Dame and the people who have been for Notre Dame have said, well, they have won 10 in a row. They have been better, you know, as the season has gone on, and Miami had the period where they had the two losses in the middle. But then unlike last year, you guys did get better through November. And so

where do you think you are right now? This team, it's going to play. play another game. We don't know if it's going to be playoff game, bowl game, what it's going to be. But where will you be when you take the field next? Where is this team competitively? This team is a playoff team, not only a playoff team, but a team that can go deep and actually play for a national championship because of our depth, because of how balance we are. And look, and I know we've been compared to Notre Dame, we've been going back and forth, and that's a big discussion. And I think they're a heck of a team. And they did get a lot better. But, you know, that 10-game win streak, that's two group of fives, right? Then eight power

fours were six of those eight. Your defenses are ranked, 105, 117, 127, 129. And resume building against that is different than playing Miami, where your top player rushes for 33 yards, right? Where the defensive line gives the offensive line all they can handle. And if you look at us, down the stretch right here common opponents we certainly were significantly better against those common opponents and our scoring defense is two our scoring offense is eight we're number one in sacks we're number one in tfls number two in turnover margin like we're playing significantly better than we were when we were number two in the country so that is something i think has been overlooked a little bit i mean it's in all that information in the hands of the committee but

that is like as clear and as strong as anything that we have done and needs to be brought to the table because I think everyone needs to see that and hear that. You know, I like the case that you made there, Mariona, the risk of sounding like a sideline reporter. If you had the floor in the committee's room tonight, not that you would be able to, but if you got to walk in there and be like, hey, here's my 30 to 45 second spiel on what you need to do. Like, how would you address them and what would you lead with?

Well, honestly, I wouldn't even be on with you guys or even. and think about contesting anything if I was on the losing end of the game against Notre Dame. I want to be honest here. I have no case, right? Because I settled down the field. But by their own criteria, okay, no labels, logos, none of that, all that put aside, by their own criteria, head to head, common opponents, identical records, and identical metrics, and back again to head to head while playing our best football. I mean, those are all the things that one through five, top the list as it relates to criteria, so we're not going to adopt the parking. You're probably going to have drawn into a comparison with another team that was 10 and 2 in the regular season,

but did earn a chance to play in its conference championship game. That's Alabama. How do you feel like you stack up against them? Well, you know, I think, you know, I haven't studied them much. I know that we do have a common opponent. You know, Florida State really dominated them. Game one, we had a significant victory against. Florida State earlier in the season. So we have that in common. And I know that the committee, and we all value, like, who's really playing well down

the stretch? And I think, I don't know if you compare the last four games that they've played versus, you know, some of the other teams in the field, there's a pretty significant difference there as well. Well, Mario, it's been good seeing you a couple times this week. We will be watching the same TV show you will tomorrow. And good luck. Thanks for being here.

You got it, guys. Appreciate you. Thanks, Mario. Good luck. All right, so while we were talking to Mario, Duke won the game. Converted a fourth and one, or a fourth in goal. Great throw on fourth and goal.

Great play call. And then they get a pick on Virginia's first play, I believe. Duke wins. I'm kind of in shock because in decades, of playing out disaster chaos scenarios that never come true. This one kind of did. It did. I want to point out, before we go on,

we're going to talk a lot more about Duke in that situation. We did reach out to Notre Dame. We did not hear back because we figured we got some Kailen Abor sound. We talked to Mario Cristobal. We wanted to hear from Marcus Freeman as well. They did not respond. But I should probably say that they should probably feel pretty good. I think they should feel better than Alabama or Miami right now.

Notre Dame needed a bunch of stuff to happen today, and I think everything that they needed to happen. Yeah, everything that happened helped Notre Dame, I think. I think. We think, yeah. But we'll talk about the Alabama part of it all. But first, let's talk about Duke beating Virginia in the ACC title game. And I want to bring you back to Wednesday's show.

We had Manny Diaz on the show. And I wasn't sure how he was going to respond to this, because I wasn't sure what he was thinking in terms of what would happen if they won. Because they are a five-loss team. It was Wednesday, so the rankings had come out. We knew James Madison had been ranked 25, and Duke's not ranked. So James Madison did win the Sunbelt title. They didn't play that well against Troy, but they did win the Sunbelt title,

and they already were ranked higher. They're 12 and 1 to finish the season. Duke is 8 and 5 now. They're the ACC champ. James Madison is a Sunbelt champ. the top five highest ranked champions get in this is one you guys who watch the show know this but the casuals in your lives you got to explain it to them it is not necessarily the four power conference champions get in and then the highest ranked group of five it's just the five highest

ranked conference champs so we don't know whether it's going to be indiana Georgia, Texas Tech Tulane Duke or Indiana, Georgia, Texas Tech, Tulane, James Madison. So, where's your head? Let's hear Manny Diaz before.

Yeah, good call, dude. What is Duke's best case for college football playoff inclusion with a win on Saturday? I would say this. Atlanta Coast Conference Champion will always be in the college ball playoffs. It's going to happen this year, regardless what happens on Saturday. It's going to happen every year.

That's just the way it's going to happen. We have four Power 4 conferences. The competition in this Power 4 conferences is unlike the competition in anywhere else. That's not the district in respect really good teams that are not in the Power 4 conferences, in which we played two this year and lost two this year. But week in a week out, in terms of who you play and how you have to prepare, that's why there's a difference. That's why it's called the Power 4. And for us to come.

Go ahead. So you don't think that there's, you need to even make a case, like you're in, in your mind if you win? Not today. Not today. The case we have to make is on Saturday night at 8 o'clock. That's all I'm concerned about right now. It'd be foolish for me to start making a case other than the fact that we have to beat Virginia. But just the fact that we'd have beaten Virginia would be better than any other win that could be compared from anybody that were in any, you know, hypothetical argument against. So that's why all of our focus right now is worry about beat Virginia. We'll let the policy can take care of itself after that.

So I do think we'll probably hear a lot of politicking for Manny Diaz in his post-game press conference, which he hasn't gone to yet. He did get interviewed on the field there. Well, if that's any indication of what he's going to, he's going to have them loaded in the holster there. Yeah. So I think he's going to come out by him. Now, you ask me, what do I think is going to happen?

The committee feels like they've told us what's going to happen. They ranked James Madison and they didn't rank Duke. Now, this is the part we keep talking about. We prefer if they would rank them out to 40 or 50 so we know where Duke's trying to come from. Because if Duke was 49, I don't think they're going to get up there. So that's the thing. We don't know how far Duke was ranked, right?

We don't know how far they needed to climb to get to one spot ahead of James Madison. But what we do know is the teams that have been flirting around the top 25 who have been in and out. And they all are three loss, four loss teams. Five losses could be in the 30s. Could be in the 40s. It could be in the 40s. So the question is, with the way that these rules are put in place, and the way that we view power champions,

is winning tonight and winning the ACC, enough for you to potentially vault up 20 spots. There's no also receiving. votes. But I will point out, number 23 is Iowa. Now, Iowa's eight and four. But Iowa's four losses are Indiana, Oregon, Iowa State, and USC. Yeah. And very different. Now, Duke has a loss to a playoff team. That's Tulane. But they've also lost to Illinois. They've lost to Yukon. They lost to Virginia, which they avenged. I'm blanking on the last one.

So that is it, I mean, who they lost to with the way that they lost to Illinois and stuff, like, I mean, I don't know that there's a case to be made here by sifting through the losses. There's five of them. Right. But if you can avenge. If you can avenge one. Yep. Then that makes them more of a four team loss in my, or four lost team in my mind. Plus you add the ACC title.

Is the power conference always going to win out? Right. And one of the, one of the G5 games they lost is to a playoff team. is to Tulane, which is in the playoff. Yeah. So here's a comment that that we had here in the Super Chat. There's no way the ACC is going to be shut out of the college football

playoff, right? That means either Duke or Miami should probably make it. That is the right way to address it. That's the right way to ask the question because it is an interesting question. And you could see that where the committee could just say, hey, we're going to put Miami in at

nine or 10 and just leave Duke out. leave and put James Madison in at 12. Right. And I think that that solves your ACC problem. But I don't think that's a problem. It's not the committee's responsibility to put an ACC team in. I agree. I agree. So we were talking about this while Mario Cristobal was talking out in the hallway here. And there is two schools of thought on this. One, which is, I can't believe people actually think that they're going to leave the ACC champ out. That's one side

of it. The other side is James Madison was already in the top 25 on Tuesday. They won their conference. If they hadn't put them in the top 25, we would have no idea if they were 26 or 49. Exactly.

But we do know that. Yep. So the question will remain, and like, I don't think that you're going to find anybody online. Everybody's got to take on this. And I don't think that we're one of these people, these shows that tries to tell you, hey, you're an idiot. You don't know you're like we don't know this anymore they're going to do so like whether he

thinks he does but i don't like we don't know and there's no way to quantify that for you so what do you think do you think that james madison a one loss that their loss is to louisville and the only power conference team they played wait is that a good loss or a bad loss uh according to the chat it's a terrible loss okay more it's a bad loss yeah yeah that would be wild it's a disqualifying loss according to the chat yeah there's like some galaxy brain stuff there where if Miami gets in and JMU gets in, then maybe the Louisville loss isn't as bad. I don't know, because they have a common opponent.

Yeah. I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. Who are you going to put in? You write a prediction every. I have not decided yet. Okay. So we'll let the show go on.

I might flip a coin. Yeah. Here's where I'm leaning towards James Madison for what I just said. If they hadn't ranked them on Tuesday, we wouldn't know if they were 26 or 49. and they could have just slid Duke in and we wouldn't have said, but since they put him at 25,

are they going to drop them for winning their conference championship game? And then put Duke in at 24? They were balling tonight. Yeah. I do think Tulane will move up. Yeah. I think the way Tulane dominated North Texas will make them move up. You would find this funny.

I put it up there for you. Billy Napier has had James Madison in the playoff conversation, 24 hours out of the job. Does Florida make the right choice? I don't know why you paid 10. bucks for that. I would have put that up for free. It was amazing. That was amazing. Thank you for supporting the show. Yes. And then

we have some other ones that maybe we can re-highlight later when we get, I don't want it to derail the show. Yeah. Yeah, so we don't know. You don't know. We all have opinions, the best thing about what is it, noon Eastern tomorrow? But that is not the, so that will just, the committee will decide that and the either the Duke fan base

will be celebrating or super pissed or the James Madison fan base will be celebrating or super pissed. I don't think anybody else is going to be that worried about it. Do you think that whatever the decision is here will have any impact on the more pertinent? I am glad you asked the question that way, because if the committee is doing the more deserving, let's look at the strength of record and all of the, all this stuff, then they will put James Madison in, in which case they will also probably put Alabama in as an at-large.

If the committee is doing the, which teams do we think will do better in the college football play-up? Which team at number 12 has the better chance of actually competing with number five?

The team that has the NFL quarterback and just won a power conference or the team that lost its only power conference game and kind of struggle against Troy and it's conference championship game. Is there a world where... Who can go to Eugene

and actually not get their doors blown off. Has there ever been... They'll probably both get their doors blown off. Has there ever been another team or a scenario where it could either be two conference team or two teams from a conference end or none in the night before? It's kind of wild.

2014. Oh, yeah. TCU and Baylor. Well, they both weren't going to get in. They both could have gotten in depending on the results. Okay. If Ohio State had lost the Big Ten championship game, they both would have gotten in.

Now, is there a scenario where Duke makes it in Miami doesn't? Yes. and then is it there yeah there's all these scenarios yeah the the scenario for that one is they just flip-flop Notre Dame in Alabama again Notre Dame's nine Bama's 10 yeah and and Bama's in that that's the one where Duke could get in Miami couldn't there's also a scenario where no ACC teams get in that's what we just talked about because after the Texas Tech BYU game we were talking about okay Miami's probably going to get compared directly to name now. Because we didn't think Alabama was going to get dominated. But since Alabama got

dominated, Alabama is going to drop. It's just a matter of whether they drop one spot or two spots. And I'll point out last year, because we keep saying last year, the losing teams in the conference championship games were like, they didn't get punished. They did get punished in the rankings. They just didn't fall out of the field. So Texas lost to Georgia and fell one spot. Penn State lost to Oregon and fell one spot. SMU lost to Clemson and fell two spots. But none of the games were blowouts either. Right. SMU went from 8 to 10, which didn't knock them out of the field.

The cut line is at 10 this year. If Alabama, which was nine to start the day, drops two spots, they're out. Okay. So we're at the point in the show, I think, where we need to start putting rubber to pavement here. We have four spots to fill. Okay. Well, I'll help you. I'm not going to be part of the written bio.

but I'll help you through this. We just filled eight. Let's start from the beginning. Yeah, we'll start from the beginning. So to review, to review, Indiana number one, Georgia number two, Ohio State 3, Texas Tech 4, Oregon 5, Ole Miss 6, Texas A&M 7, Oklahoma 8, and now here we are. And now there, we did have some people in the chat, and I want to review this because this is important. But there, there were people talking about the order. of Ole Miss, A&M, and Oregon. But, like, we are just going based off of the way they already ranked all these teams in

the middle, and why would we change it? None of them played and nothing happened around them to change it, I don't think. So, like, we're just, we're the middle of the eight ranking, of the eight teams we just ranked there are the same. Yeah, I've, I've expressed my doubts about Oregon and Ole Miss and their resumes, but the committee is, has done what they've done, and I don't think they're going to change that. Yeah, right.

you want to know what like unsung hero river is the lights behind us are our motion activated and this guy just got up and ran over to them keep going off of the riverway hey um but that so now we're down to the final four which is nine 10 11 and 12 Andy who do you think is going to be number nine Miami I think they will put Miami Notre Dame side by side finally and they'll just go oh wait Miami beat them I think Miami will be number nine I need a cigarette I figured you like that

I'm like I need a full menthol okay okay number 10 Notre Dame number 11 in the rankings or in the seating in the rankings in the rankings would be Alabama okay which would put them out.

Yeah. Tulane would be your number 11. And then number 12. Number 12 seated team. Can you hear that on the mic? I'm going to go. Because it's going to be the James Madison Dukes or the Duke Blue Devils. I feel like we're in a moment right now.

I'm like looking into your eyes. I don't know what to say! I'm going to say it. Duke. Duke. Duke. Duke. I think it's going to be James Madison.

I think he's going to be Duke. I don't think they're going to jump 20 spots. Should we bet? I mean, I guess. I already have to run five miles on Miami. I think it's going to be James Madison. Double or nothing. If it's James Madison.

I'm not running 10. No, no, no. Okay. Okay. Sorry. No. All right. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I'll run five and a half. If it's James Madison, you don't have to run. If it's Duke, it's five and a half.

all right 730 votes 80% James Madison in our poll in the chat we have to acknowledge this because I've seen a lot of this and I don't even know what the comment is is a $20 super chat with a Longhorn's logo Texas resume is so much better than Notre Dame in Miami strength of schedule

8 verse 40 2 losses 2 to 3 ranked teams and yes Florida was bad but resume speaks for itself with the quality wins is there any hope for Texas to emerge from the grave like a bat out of hell I say this as a proud University of Florida alumnus

you lost to Billy Napier you're out I appreciate the support of the show and thank you so much for the super chat there's nothing that I can say to help this they're out like there's too many good teams ahead of

them. I think this is a two lost team discussion. I mean, they beat Texas A&M and Oklahoma. They have good wins. Texas has a great resume. And we, like, I actually was sitting next to a really cool dude on the airplane on the way in here who recognized the show. And he was a Texas fan and he was talking

to me about the non-conference stuff. And like, I am so torn on this Texas thing, Andy. Because on one hand, they are being penalized for losing to Ohio State. On the other hand, That's why you schedule the games and play the games. Yep.

And like if the response to this is we're not going to play any big time non-conference games anymore, then you're going to remove the properties that the television companies pay billions of dollars for and then usher into your paycheck. Like that's just part of the game. And like sometimes it's going to fall your way and sometimes you're going to get that win and it's going to help you get in. But I can feel remorseful on one hand. and understand why they're out on the other. And that's kind of where I am with it.

You lost to Billy Napier. I really don't have to go much further than that. So a question from Charles in the chat. How does the 13 and O FSU team not make it because they lost a QB? Again, I've told you a million times this week. It's not because they lost Jordan Travis. It's because they were going to do that to you anyway. Man, you, I don't know if I agree with that, but they were going to do that to Florida State anyway.

They were going to put Alabama in over them all along. All right. But Ole Miss only had, Ole has two losses and lost their coach. put her in, make it make sense. I'm not an FSU fan. I'll make it make sense. Ole Miss has one loss. Hey, check this out, Andy, from Spider. May you need to Google the record before asking the question. Go ahead with Spider. Not sure if you guys hear it enough, but thank you guys for putting in all the work on

the show. Enjoy every episode. Thank you. That's, you don't see that. Thank you. And send that to produce a river who works harder than both of us. Yeah. Just to stand up here and talk. We're taking him to Burger King for dinner tomorrow to celebrate. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You know what, Andy, you didn't ask me my opinion, but I'm going to give it to you. Outside of the final spot, I'm with you. I think Alabama's out. You think it goes, does it matter what order Notre Dame and Miami are in to you? I think if they're going to do it. I mean, Miami doesn't care if they're in. Oh, yeah. I don't think either. If Notre Dame is nine and Miami's 10, Miami's not complaining about that. Imagine like arguing about seating after the last month

we've all had together. I actually think that this is what makes the most sense. So, pointing out, that's what's going to happen. The number 10 seat is probably going to college station and the number 9 seat is probably going to Norman. Okay. I don't know if anybody has a preference on it. I doubt either team cares. They just want to be in,

but that would be the... Yeah, if I were ceding it, I would cede the winner of the head-to-head higher. But I think if they're both in, then we can all go to bed tonight or tomorrow night knowing that like the games matter and next year we can like, Like, I didn't want to end this year on a crappy note like that.

But they, so like, yeah. I'm going to, I'm going to stop you, though. Okay. Because I do think we need to talk about this. I still think there's a possibility they put Alabama in, and one of Notre Dame or Miami's left out, and I don't know which one it would be. If that happens, tomorrow's going to be more eventful. Alabama has the best win of all those, because they did go to Georgia and win.

Alabama has this, do they have the set? Yeah, they have the second best one of all those because they beat Vanderbilt. I guess that's not true. Miami would be the second best by beating Notre Dame. Alabama would have the third best with the bandy win. Yeah. I mean, here's the other thing. At no point in time,

does your third loss, like, not count? Like, Alabama now has three losses. We have to remember whether it happened in a conference championship. The Florida State loss is the one that hangs like an albatross around the neck. Is the first three-loss team that gets into the field going to be the at the expense of two lost teams with like with a quality win and like Notre Dame doesn't have quality wins but well that's what I'm saying so like what if what if they decide okay we are

going to put Miami ahead of Notre Dame now and then they just decide Alabama is too I finally made up with Notre Dame and you're going to throw me right back in the shitter again aren't you I'm not going to make you I'm going to say I want you to consider the possibility that Alabama gets in I will and if it's at the expense of Notre Dame I'll be fine with it And if at the expense of Miami, it's a sham. If Alabama doesn't get in, be prepared because it will be DefCon 1 at SEC headquarters. They will be on the warpath. It's DefCon 1 there every year.

I know. But what I'm saying is they will work to make substantive changes to make sure that doesn't happen again. Like redoing the criteria later this year? Exactly. Awesome. Which is what kept Notre Dame as high as it has so far. Yeah. So, you know, Bama lost to FSU who got blown up.

Florida, Texas has higher strength and record than Miami and strength of schedule is much better. Texas is the only one of the top 10. Lost to Billy Napier. And I cannot stress this enough. It's like I appreciate the passion, but it's not happening.

Yeah. So. Yeah. Well, actually, wait. Maybe Hunter you're a check if they don't put Alabama and he'll just go, you lost to Mike Norvell. That would be the most insightful thing man. I can't stress this enough.

But I am going to go, I don't get I don't get my own written one because it's so similar, Andy, but I'm on record. I think Alabama is out. Like, if you're looking for my final take before we go to bed tonight, Notre Dame, Miami, and James Madison are the three that take those spots. I think we may be wrong on that. We were wrong last year.

So the more time that goes by, because it was like right after the game, like, you're definitely, Alabama is definitely out, no question. Like I may wake up at the morning, be like, I can't believe I wrote they're going to be out. that's my that's my guess but and you don't buy into this theory but i actually do think that they're human beings and to save themselves from making an impossible decision they're just going to do the easy thing which is take out the three loss team that lost to florida state like it's the easiest path it is the easiest path and it also if they want to put james madison in then you didn't leave the acc out but i don't again it's not their responsibility to put

the acc in the acc should have had a better year do you think that committee members are like ever think what's the ranking that we can put out that'll make the least amount of people angry no they probably should but i don't think that's how they do it so let me ask you this what do you think that is the least amount of angry people there is no there is no least amount of angry people there is no least amount if you leave out alabama they'll be furious if you leave out miami they'll be furious if you leave out notre dame they will be furious you know sometimes I get in like I get upset at people for being in an echo chamber and I think I'm in a national cultural ball writer echo chamber but I feel like if Miami doesn't go in there'll be like 27 columns

saying the same exact thing about how Miami got screwed and if Alabama doesn't get in like no one will write that oh I think they're like are people in the south trust me they'll find some people to write that yeah I just don't think that at the risk of sounding like doug lay maurice they'll they'll find some folks no if Alabama gets left out I don't think that there's a real public outrage in the sense of like somebody got screwed there will be real public outrage because there is a giant angry fan base to pander to

if there's a giant angry fan base to pander to someone will pander to it yeah maybe it'll be us you know I feel like I was the first it'll be somebody I feel like I was like one of the first people to freak out about Miami and I'm not saying I'm smart I'm just saying like I prematurely freaked out about it because it was the first ranking but as the weeks gone on have you seen the

ground swell of people paying attention to that like I feel like with Alabama it'll be like you might see a few columns of like why do teams even play the conference championship game and I saw Nicole Auerbach tweeted you know the committee is going into the chambers tonight and tomorrow and they're going to decide the future of conference championship games

I'm not really no they're not like it whatever happens if the same thing that happened to SMU happens to Alabama Alabama will be out of the playoff and SMU was in and it's an important dropping two spots is dropping two spots but it's just a matter where the cut line lands and there's also an important distinction to make from this year last year. The teams that were on the outside looking in last year were not a 10 and two team with a quality win over a top 10 team. They were three lost teams. Jeff in the chat. If you punish

someone for losing a conference championship game, then you're going to destroy the conference championship games. Jeff, great. They've already destroyed them. They're completely worthless now. Great. Okay. You know what I can't stand about this thought process because I've been getting it on Twitter all evening is if your quest to save the conference championships games is by ensure that they remain meaningless and there is no consequence for losing them, then they're already dead, bud. Yeah. They're already dead.

Conference championship games are a cash grab for people to watch in television properties to be sold. Yeah. If they don't have any impact on the sports, then there's no point out how to put other football games on this week that make you money. I actually think that you should write, I should write a column saying the way to save conference championship games is by punishing the loser. that way we don't have to have bullshit conversations at the end of every year.

Should they want to go? Did that even matter? Does it matter? Oh, by the way. Make them matter again. Georgia was happy to go. Yeah. Worked out well for it.

I take back anything I said about them, maybe not wanting to go. They were quite happy to be it. Save conference championships, making them important again. We're going to find out. I don't know if you know, but there's a guy in the chat who keeps just copy pasting that Alabama already beat Georgia this season. We're where. We're where. And they got belt to ass from Georgia to do.

today. And they also lost to Florida State by a lot. That happened too. And that's the problem. It's not that they got killed by Georgia today. It is that they got killed by Florida State to start the season. And they got killed by Georgia today. That's the bookends or the problem. Well, one question I don't know. When you're on the college football playoff committee, you go there at the end of the week and watch the games together deliberate. And then for this one, yes. But you go back to your regular life like you don't live in dallas no i think people view the college football playoff committee as people who are sequestered the way you would on a jury and like that's not the way it works so they're out in the real world i think they're listening to sports talk radio

and reading columns and i i think that like they are influenced so i don't know yeah they're not they're not a jury that is sequestered for the entirety of the trial they're allowed to go home and watch sports center yeah so you know craig with an interesting question do you think if Alabama doesn't get in. Would the Lane train jump to Tuscaloosa? Should Lane have waited one more game to make his decision? Here's the thing, Craig. Lane is not getting hired at Alabama,

not with the current folks that run the athletic department and also that do the donating. Lane's not getting hired there. So he probably chose wisely. Would be great, though, if he did for our show. And I don't think Kalin DeVore's going anywhere. So there's that. Yeah.

I think they're mad at him right now, but I don't think he's going anywhere. Yeah. I mean, I think that like Alabama season went by and large, a pretty good year, right, even if they don't make it. Like, that was, there's no such thing as good year. I better hope they never play Oklahoma again, but they will play Oklahoma again. Yeah, but like, if you would have said, hey, Bama, you're going to be nine and three

and have those wins, like pretty good year after last year, right? But they don't think like that. No, they get into the, it's playoffs or bust. Title or bust. And they are going to be incredibly frustrated. But you and I can look at it. We're not fans. We can look at it.

It was a pretty good year. It was fine. I know it's not acceptable to them, and I understand. Yeah. So, Notre Dame, somebody said the Vegas odds for Notre Dame to make it are minus 1,000. So it's a wild, wild number. So we will see because only those people in that room in Great Vine, Texas, their opinions are the only ones that matter. Ours don't, yours don't, people on ESPNs don't, those 12 people will decide.

And we will be here at noon eastern tomorrow. Well, New and Eastern later today, River. To help reveal and digest and break down the matchups because we will have a bracket at noon Eastern time. We're going to go live as soon as the show goes live. We're not going to wait for them to reveal the rankings. You will learn them with us.

So just turn them down, turn us up. And we will guide you through and learn along with you and be just as surprised as you if we get any shockers. And Ari, who? I don't know what it's going to happen. No idea. It already feels like the Big Ten championship

was yesterday. Because it was. We're like 20 minutes away from that being true, but you get what I'm saying. Yeah, I'm excited for tomorrow. I still live on Eastern time. It's already Sunday, but I'm excited for tomorrow. We go back, do a little writing, get a little sleep, and we write back here to go in the morning. So thanks for being here with you guys. It looked like a very lively chat. 4,500 people watching right now.

That's growth, you know, year over year, I think. Oh, yeah. I feel pretty good about the way the show is going. New Orleans Ghost owner says, Roll Tide, Bama will be in. Keep crying, Andy and Ari. I really don't care. We'll talk to it in there.