Andy & Ari On3 - Championship Week picks! Can Penn State TAKE the Big Ten? | Will Texas-Georgia II be different?

Episode Date: December 2, 2024

You’ve had Wendy’s Nuggs dipped in sauce. But have you had them covered in sauce? Wendy’s New Saucy Nuggs take the Crispy and Spicy Nuggs you love and turn them up to 11.Choose between flavors like Buffalo. Honey BBQ. Garlic Parm. Or, if you’re a real heat seeker, try Spicy Ghost Pepper, only on Wendy’s signature Spicy Nuggs. Thank you to Gametime for sponsoring today's episode! Planning your college football travel for this season? Gametime has tickets to every game. (And every concert and comedy show.) Download the Gametime App and enter code: STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. Last Minute Tickets, Lowest Prices, Guaranteed. This show is brought to you by Panini America, makers of the most collectible sports cards on the planet. The Luminance football card series features NIL autographed cards from players including Arch Manning, Quinn Ewers, Cam Ward, Jalen Milroe, Dylan Raiola, DJ Lagway, and Luther Burden. To start collecting, visit PaniniAmerica.net.(0:00-0:36) Wendy's Saucy Nuggs(0:37-2:31) Intro(2:45-19:25) Ole Miss's Case for the CFP; Who gets in?(19:26-23:36) How the CFP Rankings Shake Out(23:37-27:36) PaniniAmerica.net(27:37-35:00) Ari's Extra Thoughts on CFP Rankings(35:01-36:24) Gametime (36:25-39:11) Championship Week Picks Intro(39:12-42:32) C-USA: Western Kentucky vs Jax State(42:33-49:51) American Conference: Tulane vs Army(49:52-50:51) PrizePicks(50:52-56:39) Mountain West: UNLV vs Boise State(56:40-1:00:49) MAC: Ohio vs Miami (OH)(1:00:50-1:02:40) Sun Belt: Marshall vs Louisiana(1:02:41-1:07:14) Big 12: Arizona State vs Iowa State(1:07:15-1:15:31) Big Ten: Penn State vs Oregon(1:15:32-1:21:07) ACC: Clemson vs SMU(1:21:08-1:28:19) SEC: Georgia vs Texas(1:28:19-1:29:28) ConclusionHappy Monday! It’s championship week, so we have some games to pick. But first, Andy and Ari discuss Lane Kiffin's pitch to the College Football Playoff selection committee. How much politicking will we see this week from teams that aren't playing this week? Plus, UCF, West Virginia and Purdue are all looking for coaches. In a world where Indiana can hire a Now, it’s time to pick some games…  Western Kentucky at Jacksonville State (-4.5) Total: 57.5 Tulane at Army (+4.5) Total: 48.5 UNLV at Boise State (-3.5) Total: 58.5 Ohio vs. Miami (Ohio) (-2.5) Total: 44.5 Marshall at Louisiana (-4.5) Total: 56.5 Iowa State vs. Arizona State (-2.5) Total: 51.5 Penn State vs. Oregon (-3.5) Total: 50.5 Georgia vs. Texas (-2.5) Total: 49.5 Clemson vs. SMU (-2.5) Total: 54.5Watch us on YouTube instead! https://youtube.com/live/oNu9Fe29pfcHosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey

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Welcome to Andy and Ari on three. It is championship week. We got to pick some games. But Ari, there is still a lot to unpack from the weekend. We've got our first bit of politicking from a coach who's not playing in championship week as they as they try to rally the committee to their side. Lane Kiffin has reached uh, has reached out.

He has notes act this. I love that. I appreciate the, uh, like he's bolding things. He's linking things. This is, this is some good notes app work by Lane Kiffin. Yeah. I mean, this right here is the manifesto to what we were arguing about over the weekend and guys, guys, I just want everybody to know. I don't know if you're watching this, if you're listening, you'll probably tell

how good I sound. Andy came to my house on Friday and we got a new mic. Look at that, hands free. I put the stand together this morning and I think a infant could have figured that out. So I'm so proud of you though. You were so worried about putting the mic stand together. Like we got your fire pit working on Friday night. You made fire. I made fire. You've put together a mic stand. Like you are like I'm him.

Testosterone is just flowing through you. My wife has never been more attracted to me. She was just like, let's have another baby right now. You put that Mike. You put that Mike stand together. You can provide for this family. No, I feel good. I got a little sick over the weekend. It's been a long, a long few days, but I am fired up and I'm excited to see you guys in Nashville this weekend. I'm excited to get into it. So, you know, the games this weekend are going to determine everything, as you know, but like at the same time too, I feel like the moving pieces have like really come

into clear. Like I think we know how this is going to go. There's going to be one raging debate on Sunday and we know which three teams it's going to be, uh, with and let's get into that lane Kiffin thing because that lane Kip that lane Kiffin manifesto that he posted has really good thoughts. And here's the thing, if you are a team, like I had a Miami fan named Kevin, my buddy texting me Miami's manifesto last night. And it's like everybody can make a case that sounds great for their team because you omit and you ignore the things that are going to hurt you in your case. But let's break this one down and actually see, Andy, if Ole Miss has a case to go in over Alabama,

because if you guys have watched any of the shows this past few days, I have been very resistant to just the notion of, yeah, let's throw Alabama in there. Like, I think that we can do better than that as a system, as a playoff, as a committee, and as fans. So why don't you go through it here? Okay, and as you know, if you watched our bracketology video, Ari and I talked about this, and Ari asked me, who would you, because I have Alabama in bracketology,

and my reasoning for that is just watching the committee and what they've done this year and over the years, I think that's what they'll do. Ari said, who do you, who would you take? And I said, Ole Miss Lane Kiffin with his manifesto helping me, helping me make the case here. And so he's got, he, he's not even including Miami or a possible, you know SMU that lost the ACC championship, which he should worry about them, too

But he's only worried about the SEC piece of it. He's got Ole Miss Alabama, South Carolina He's comparing he says South Carolina lost to both them The best one is against Clemson Ole Miss and Alabama's best one is against Georgia Georgia beat Clemson 34 to 3 safe to say South Carolina is out and is between Ole Miss and Alabama. I'm not sure if Lane Kiffin wrote this or if he's grabbed a screenshot of what somebody else wrote in his tweeting. I'm sure it's a screenshot from a message board but. Yeah, which is even better.

I hope it's OM spirit. I hope it's on three's spirit. Home spirit. Yeah. Yeah, but I think it would be better if he actually did it though, Andy, because that means that he has time and I want him to do it. I just want to see him with his reading glasses on, just like, wait, how many? Okay.

And his calculator is out as he's doing the outscore. Ole Miss has nine wins. A new respect for what we do, because it's not easy to come up with this stuff. It's not that hard. All right, so in his post, Ole Miss has nine wins outscoring their opponents, 390 to 94, that's plus 096. Alabama has nine wins outscoring opponents,

371 to 119, that's plus 252. In the three losses, Ole Miss was outscored 73 to 60, that's minus 13. In three losses, Alabama was outscored 88 to 55, that's minus 33. Common opponents, both out scored 88 to 55. That's minus 33 common opponents both beat Georgia The Rebels won by 18 Alabama won by 7 both beat South Carolina the Rebels won by 24 Alabama won by 2 Alabama beat LSU by 29 Ole Miss lost to LSU by 3 and overtime Ole Miss beat, Oklahoma by 12 Alabama lost to Oklahoma by 21 This says clearly Ole Miss that I know I it's either Lane Kiffin or

some message word poster that Lane Kiffin is cribbing off of and not crediting. Clearly Ole Miss should be in the playoff over Alabama but Bama is the bigger brand and more than likely will be we'll get in over Ole Miss. I love that Lane Kiffin includes this year. Because I don't know that a lot of coaches would do that, but he just likes to poke, poke the tiger over. That's the whole, that's like the, that's the number one thing you need to poke the bear. You know, you want to, I don't know if antagonizing the people, um, is going to get you what you want, but at the same time too, it's like, you watch the games.

We, I watch the games we all here do like Alabama is I think in the betting odds, a slight favorite to make it and Ole Miss isn't and it's like, why? And I know that you're a big believer in the FBI and what that means. I am not. The committee is a believer in the FBI. That's what I was saying. Yeah.

But like that one metric I think is not the thing that tells the story of these two teams. And the reason why, and we can re-litigate it now, but I put SMU in if they were to lose to Clemson over these is because it's the cleanest decision. But as you pointed out yesterday, that's not really important. Yeah, a clean decision is not a good reason. So if it were up to me, if I were, if I were to put like if I were the commissioner of college football, and I could control who makes it, if we get into a decision between SMU, Ole Miss, Alabama and South Carolina,

Ole Miss would be my pick. But I wouldn't really feel great about what it means for the other teams. It's just like, as you read these lists, like they're very compelling, and everything he just wrote there makes a lot of sense, but it's like, I can write a list like for Ole Miss, for Alabama, for South Carolina, for Miami. And if SMU loses to Clemson for SMU, I can write a list for all of them that in the way I write it, you will go, oh yeah, that makes perfect sense. That's who I want. But you can do that for all of them because they all have flaws. There are reason why they're up there all here. So that they have to pick one of them. But I think they're going to pick one of them.

The prevailing thought that you hit me with yesterday. And it's true and you had to remind me of it when we move to the 12 team playoff system. I said that no matter who gets screwed at the end because you know, we did tell you or I did at least in the middle of the season that this was going to happen that there were going to be more teams who felt they deserve to get in and there are spots. But if you are.

In the position where you do get left out and you feel screwed, just remind yourself, like, you don't feel bad for those teams in the same way that you felt bad for Florida State last year. I think it's very different. Because as you read the manifesto that Lane posted, the only thing that I kept hearing in the back of my head was you lost the Kentucky, you lost the Kentucky, you lost the Kentucky. And that's not a bash on Ole Miss because if if Caitlin DeBoer posted a manifesto, I would be like you scored three points at Oklahoma. You scored three points at Oklahoma. You scored like all the teams that are here have something like that.

Now, I don't know if South Carolina has something as embarrassing and maybe that's a selling point. Don't they have a 24 point loss to Ole Miss? But they do have a 24 point, yeah, but like losing by 24 to a really good team is- Well, they also had- Probably, yeah. Sellers was limited.

Yeah. Rocket Sanders was hurt. What do you think was more, let's like key in on the word here. What do you think is more? Let's let's like key in on the on the word here. What do you think is more embarrassing? Like losing to NIU or losing to Ole Miss by 24? Like I think losing to NIU is embarrassing. Um, right. So like, we're not even arguing about them. Yeah. But from an embarrassment standpoint,

and in the ACC championship game has not happened yet. So we don't know, you know, what if SMU comes out and loses by 30? Like, you know, I guess it could happen. Probably't but it could i just want to i want to point out eric's comment in chat smu is in if they lose let's stop trying to make it interesting for clicks slash views eric we're not trying to make it interesting i'm telling you right now if l it just is interesting it will be a legitimate argument on in the committee room Like they're not automatically in.

I think that there is an assumption that they're automatically in. And as I was doing bubble watch on Sunday morning, Andy, I put them in. Like I, it's right there. Like you can see, let's not assume that the committee will put the ACC team with fewer losses in the playoff. Did last year not teach you anything? And when we got into the videos that we did on the on three channel, like Andy talked to me off of that.

So like, I think that this is how I. I mean, I think it could play out this way, but there's no amount of certainty to that bracket. That's just the best I could come. I could come up with. Yeah. And I, and I got a little froggy a little bit with it. Like UNLV being there for instance,

is not a popular thing you're gonna see. So, you know- I don't know. I think I went back and looked at the, we're gonna pick the games and we'll talk about that. But I went back and looked at the stats of that first UNLV Boise State game. If Barry Odom brings what he brought the first time around,

there's a good chance you might be right. So this is going to be an interesting week, though, because we're going to talk about the people who are playing in the games this week. But right now, we're talking about the ones that aren't. Lane Kiffin is one of them. Like, is Kaila DeBorgre going to come? Here's my question. If you're first, because Nick Saban would always politic in a time like this. Like 2017, they just lost to Auburn. They're not playing a championship game. He's politicking to get Alabama in over Ohio State. Can Kaila DeBoer do that as the first year coach? Like, would he do that? I mean, it's part of the job. But are we gonna see a K Kalen D'Avore manifesto?

Shane Beamer with the Creativity of South Carolina's video team. I'm ready for a banger of a South Carolina manifesto hype video. I'm ready for that. I was actually moved the most by Shane Beamer's plea because at least Jane Beamer acknowledged the elephant in the room during his right, which is we have three losses and I know when you have three law, you know, like that is, you know, I, the thing that I have a hard time with and it happens to me on Twitter a lot, Andy, too, as

you know, I am prone to the meltdown is I know and understand that everybody who has a favorite team is going to fight like hell and post and argue like hell to make their team look the best and to fight in politics for their team. I think that's what's so beautiful about the debate. The thing that I don't like, which you see a lot on social media, not so much in here because of the people who watch the show are seasoned and smarter than that is when people like leave reality. Like my number one

at Eve in life is irrationality. And like that to me is like off-putting. So when you have an argument, but you're also willing and able to acknowledge the downside of those things, like I am more prone to vibe with your message than I am otherwise. So, AJ, just give us the objective metrics that the committee uses to rank the teams. Please, they don't have objective metrics. They choose the ones they want to choose. Oh, he's joking. Yeah, he said, yeah, there aren't any. Oh, yeah. It would be, yeah, the thing that is interesting is, is that if you got to a place where there was just,

here are, like, if you had tiebreakers and data the way that they do with how to determine who plays for a conference championship game, then there would be no need for a committee because then it would just be data and anybody could break it down, right? Like the committee exists specifically to make decisions that are bigger and deeper than data. So also, if everything was competitively balanced and the schedules were competitively balanced,

you could compare them more easily, but you can't you can't even compare schedules within the same conference easily. You know what I don't understand because this is a bad at math podcast and I'll have you help me out with this is that I wrote a column on Friday that got a lot of people upset and you know maybe it'll turn out to be wrong. Yeah but just go with me on this for a second okay? Yeah. So let's just say I'm 1000% right about the SEC and that the SEC is just above average or average in comparison to what it's been in the past. How does strength of schedule work if the perception of that schedule is off to begin with?

It's like, if we viewed the ACC through the same lens in which we viewed the SEC in the past, wouldn't those numbers be skewed? Like it's not just based on record and stats, like, right? Like, isn't it based on ranking and like the subjectivity of the strength of schedule thing is also contaminated by notions that may not be true. So like that-

Can I throw one more thing at you though, before you, before we continue with that, because it's relevant to what you wrote Friday. Our pal David Hale from ESPN put this out this morning. to what you wrote Friday. Our pal David Hale from ESPN put this out this morning. Out of conference records by conference. Yeah, SEC is good, right? They're the best at it. Yeah, the only one that was above 500 and was well over 500. So for the folks, let's read it. These are your power for out of conference records for the different conferences.

The ACC was nine and 17 against other power conference teams. The big 12 was seven and 10. The big 10 was six and nine. And the SEC was 13 and seven. Are we sure the SEC sucked? Are we sure the SEC sucked? That is interesting and certainly important. I don't know if I would also like make conclusions based on that metric just because like what if I don't know what the games were.

It's like if Purdue and Minnesota got their asses kicked. Like I don't think that really does anything to sway me. You know what I mean? Like how many more games did like the SEC probably has not one you remember other than Clemson, Georgia. Yeah, it's like that was huge. The only ones I'm concerned with is is what about what if we redid that and it might turn out that the SEC is still

better. But what if you only took in records of the top half of the conference? Like, would it be the same? You know, like, how much can the numbers be skewed by like one bad team? Like, or one team or a cluster of teams at the bottom? Like, what if Mississippi State didn't play

as many non-conference opponents in power four? Well, you've got Mississippi State losing to Arizona State. You've got Florida canceling out because they lost to Miami and all I'm saying is, you know, I'm sorry, they do UCF. So they're two in one. Yeah. So that doesn't is malleable.

You can take data and be like, hey, but what I'm saying, Ari, is this is the data every year. This happens every year. Oh, sure. Yeah. No. And look, listen. So is this year that different than other years is what I'm asking you. But I also don't really the SEC.

Like the point of my column wasn't even like if you read it, you know, no, I agree with you. Like I have eyes. I know but also to the SEC could be the best conference in America, but it still might not mean that the teams in the middle of that conference deserve a benefit of the doubt in the way that they have in the past. Just because you're the best doesn't mean you're as elite as you've been, and the way that they've been elite for the last 20 years has guided our viewpoint on how to rank these teams. And I think it also contaminates the strength of schedule metrics. Like it's a self fulfilling prophecy, if all the teams are ranked higher, because people who vote or people who rank them have preconceived notions of how

great they've been in the past, well, and of course, their strength of schedule is going to be more more, Hey, pretty, can I throw something else out to you? Because this is another thing people just can't seem to wrap their brains around. Goat dog in the chat, I'm not making funny you go dog on purpose. It just I know, I know what you're thinking, but you gotta think about it differently.

South Carolina is the best looking three loss team right now with a win over a potential conference champ. And the potential conference champ, GoatDog is talking about is Clemson. You do know that Alabama and Ole Miss also have wins over a potential conference champ named, Georgia What do you think of this year Andy from goat dog November ball is greater than September ball great Ole Miss beat Georgia in November

But the ends up pertains to the stats you were just reading But as it pertains to the stats you were just reading. Okay. The SEC won most of those games in November, I guess. So that is helping. Not your argument. The non-conference games. I was saying. That's what I'm talking about.

Most of the games that they played in November against non-conference opponents. The SEC won. Yeah. Oh, I mean, I guess like the Georgia Tech number and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Georgia beat Georgia Tech.

Yeah. Also to in those Florida beat Florida State. Louisville did beat Kentucky. They finally beat Kentucky, but South Carolina beat Clemson. So they were three and one. The SEC is three and one of those games. Yeah. So let me ask you this too, because I love just talking this.

Like I'm just like, I know we have a schedule and stuff, but like I'm just talking to you like a friend. Okay. So when you look at the SEC's stats there. And then you see that they got a one in the win column with Georgia's win over Georgia Tech, right? Like that game is like a definitive like boon in the data for the SEC. But how much do you-

It's an eight over time game. It's an eight over time game, but it's a one and O in the data that you were reading. It didn't matter what it looked like. Okay. Which brings me to my question. How big of a proponent are you with the eye test? And do you think that it should?

Oh, I'm a huge proponent of the eye test. See, I think the people who are like, the eye test should matter. No, the eye test should matter a lot. So in terms of eye test, if you just wanna go throw all the bullshit away, all the numbers, who beat who, whatever. Yeah. From a purely eye test standpoint,

South Carolina should probably go. Ole Miss should go. Like, we agree on that? Ole Miss. Well, no, because Ole Miss has lost to Florida is still part of the eye test. Like you can't just be like, well, Ole Miss has the best at time. I also saw Ole Miss kick the crap out of Georgia. I also saw Ole Miss kick the crap out of Georgia the week before.

So your eyes and my eyes are different and my eyes say Ole Miss. My eyes say Ole Miss. Your eyes say South Carolina. The reason why my eyes don't say Ole Miss because I fell in love with Ole Miss in Oxford. You know what happened to me there. Yeah, but if you're gonna do the eye test You got to use all of the eye test. You can't sure blind to well My eyes saw Ole Miss kick the crap out of South Carolina as well. My eyes didn't miss that game My eyes saw South Carolina crush, Oklahoma. My eyes saw that that was awesome These eyes are never gonna see another level like you.

I knew you were going there. My eyes saw the Oklahoma-Alabama game. And my eyes saw the Ole Miss-Florida game. And it's been a long time since my eyes have seen something like that. My eyes also saw LSU-South Carolina. Let me ask you this. My eyes also saw LSU Ole Miss. LSU Alabama.

Which all had different results. Your life depends on it. Yes. We're not even talking about like a steak bed here. I'm talking about just like you actually bedding. Right. Okay. And I got to say like this no hands thing with the mic is like, I'm like so relaxed

right now. I feel like I could just like have a whiskey. I know you keep, you started the show with, I don't have a voice. We got to make sure we get this in an hour. This show is going to go three hours at this rate. Yeah. You should have heard me this morning. Who do you actually think if there was a battle royale with these teams where they all just

played each other? The Royal Rumble. Yeah. Or whatever they do in wrestling. Also, I think if you watch wrestling, that's up there with sci-fi as I don't get it. Oh, we know. Who do you think would win the battle royale between Ole Miss, South Carolina, Miami, and SMU in Alabama? You're going to hate this answer.

No, I'm not. But it's the true answer. If that's what you ever whoever's the best on that day, like whoever's having a good day that day, because none of them are consistent. And that's the problem. But if they all want them is consistent. Like if they did like an NBA playing tournament with these teams and they all played each other,

and I know that's impossible. The results would feel entirely random because none of them are consistent, which is why they're here and not definitely in the playoff. It really is, it didn't, like, it really is an impossible decision. It really is. Okay, so I don't know if we're gonna pick these games now,

but can I take you through two other thoughts that I had over the weekend? Sure. Let's push. We'll push the coaching discussion to tomorrow because the coaching discussion can wait till tomorrow. But first, let me tell everybody about Panini America. Maker is the most collectible sports cards on the planet.

The Luminous Football Card Series features NIL autograph cards for players, including Arch Manning, Quinn Ubers, Cam Ward, Jalen Melrodilla, Raiola, DJ Lagway, and Luther Burden. To start collecting, visit PaniniAmerica.net. I've got this Donner's Elite box that I still owe Ari. I forgot to bring it to him, maybe on purpose. I got my Aranda Gadsden, the second autograph card. This is the only NIL one that I've pulled out of a pack so far but I've also pulled some other really good

cards I got this Cooper Cup autograph that I pulled was was pretty spectacular I got a gold Pukin Akua I got this rookie this rookie one that I have to I've got to do the mystery redemption. Yeah. Mystery redemption. I got to scratch it off. We got Ari. Oh, these are just some cards I got back from PSA. Um, there's bright young silver, uh, rated rookie, rated rookie at an optic and this guy's back. He's, he's back and better than ever. It's getting hot again. Um, I've been buying, I've been,

I've been buying a lot of Bryce young and will Levis cards, just kind of hoping that they, cause they're cheap as hell right now, and they're still starters and hoping they have like good ends of the season. And then in the offseason, I'm going to try to flip them into bigger cards. I got this Geno Smith Contenders from 2013 Rookie Autograph. You never know what Geno, I think that I took a shot on this. Maybe I'll lose money on that one, but I liked that one. Geno's like the teams we were just talking about. Like it really depends on the week. I got this cracked ice, Patrick Mahomes, that I ripped out of a contenders optic box. I went and bought this one at the store last week. And that one is like, whenever you get stuff that is just like short printed,

this is to 22 of the goats, you just hold that forever because that thing's gonna to be a monster. Mahomes is legacy is already made. And I just thought this card was beautiful and I loved him in college. And I hope that he continues to have a resurgence or a surge is this color match Rashad Bateman, a purple Pulsar out of Prism and that's a PSA nine. So like I'm, I'm holding onto it. I just like showing people that this Panini thing isn't an act.

Like this is like, Oh, I think they know. This is, I think I'm holding onto, I'm just like showing people that this Panini thing isn't an act. Like this is like. Oh, I think they know. I think I'm into this. I got an email from a listener asking with a picture of a card saying, Hey, what do you think this is worth? Well, at first comes rock wants to know if he starts collecting what, what website, what's, you know, what service should you use to figure out what cards are good and valuable? So first of all, I would buy my cards directly from Panini because with Panini You have to understand that these cards are very sought after and it's the same thing with you know

Everything like especially like during kovat if they more people want it than the demand Exists then obviously resale makes it really hard to get them of demand exists, then obviously resale makes it really hard to get them. And a lot of times if you go to a card shop to buy a hobby box or something from the card shop, they will charge you more than it would to get from. Directly from Panini, which makes it hard to get your money back because the values of the boxes are inflated and they're inflated because there's the chance of getting big time rookies. And people want the box just to have the chance

to do it. It's the reason why a 1986 Fleer basketball box is like a hundred thousand dollars or whatever it is now because there's could be a Michael Jordan card in there. Right. It's not a hundred, but you get what I'm saying. So I would go to hobby shops, but I would definitely go directly to the Panini America dotnet and try to get the boxes that you like directly from them because that's the best deal you're gonna get on them. But if you if you are interested in collecting email me, I'll help you out with it. Like there's a whole guide to I've spent, if I told you how much money I've spent learning hard lessons in this in this hobby,

your eyes would roll in the back of your head. So, you know, there's's smarter ways to do it, and buying it directly from Panini is a good start if you can get the boxes when they sell them there. Beautiful, beautiful. PaniniAmerica.net is the address. Hit it hard. Ari, okay, you had a couple more points on this.

So, programming note, if you saw in the description we were talking about, we're gonna talk about some of these job openings, we're gonna do that tomorrow because Ari brought up something interesting the other day when we were talking about the West Virginia job, and I kind of want to talk about the West Virginia job and the Purdue job and the North Carolina job and the UCF job. We can do that tomorrow. We're talking playoff right now. Playoffs, Ari? Yeah, I mean, I still think there's stuff to unpack from the weekend, but also too,

just a preview of that discussion. I am high on what the Purdue job could be. I'm gonna leave it at that because of the conference. It's in the money that's coming in and what Kurt Signati did in the end. I'm excited to talk about it tomorrow, but tell me what's next though, because you said you had a couple more things on this playoff situation. So no one one playoff question or one actually not neither of them are playoff but it's also but it's all big picture stuff. So we talked a lot about Ryan Day over the weekend and

yeah I came home last night my wife God her, she does not care about college football, but she cares about me. And she wanted me to explain the playoff system and how it works and where I'm going to be. And we got into a discussion about my column because she saw it in my Instagram story and read it. And she goes, isn't Ryan Day really nice? Don't you like him? Why would you write something mean about somebody you like? And, you know, we talked about this on the show, but I just said liking somebody and being objective and real is part of the job. You can't not write things. There's a lot of things

I've written about people I like that, you know, it's part of it. But also it's part of the salary. But it also got us into a discussion about like Urban Meyer, because we were dating when I was covering Urban Meyer and all those things. And, and she goes, so he's just really nice and basically came to the conclusion that you came to in the column that you wrote when we went in September, which is, is he too nice to be Ohio State's coach? And you know what hit me like a ton of bricks? You know, who else is really nice?

Kailin de Boer, yeah. Oh boy. That hit me in bed. We right before we watched Landman last night in it kind of like I felt like I had vertigo. It's like did Alabama hire somebody who's too nice? Now Kailin de Boer did make the national championship game last year.

Well Ryan did once. Did not see, that's true. And Cailin DeBoer did not seem particularly nice when he was beating Dan Lanning twice last year. So. I know Ryan Day better than I know Cailin DeBoer, but I've had a few interactions with Cailin DeBoer and he's like the nicest human being ever.

So I don't know if there's any correlation between that, but I do wonder if in two years we'll be asking if he's too nice for the Alabama job. Well, I do wanna, I wanna see Kailin DeBoer politic because Nick Saban would have politiced, like now's your chance, that's part of the job. It may seem beneath you, but it's part of the job. And it wasn't beneath Nick Saban, who's the greatest of

all time. So yeah, I am ready for your version of the politicking. Again, Shane Beamer, I'm expecting something fun this week. I think that's going to happen. You know who doesn't have to politic Ari? Which is interesting to me. Who's in a totally different position now that we assumed he would be a month ago is James Franklin Oh, yeah, he's electric James Franklin can win the freaking Big Ten now He can big game for him before we pick this game you know, but like he has an opportunity to completely and utterly change a Thought process about him. That was very unflattering a month ago. So, yeah, one other question, Andy, and then I'll stop hijacking your show.

It's our show. You may take it wherever you wish. You're the host. I don't want to hijack it too much. We're co-hosts. Here's another thing that hit me before bed last night. jacket. Here's another thing that hit me before bed last night. How much is a field goal kicker worth in the NIL market? And I don't mean any field goal kicker. I mean like a badass one that can hit you at 55 yard one. Like the one that Michigan had the last few years or last year.

We're gonna I'm gonna text NACOS as soon as the show's over and get that information for us and then we'll talk about it tomorrow because I am fascinated by that too. That's a great question. Now remember Alabama took the Lou Groza award winner from Miami of Ohio last year. Ohio State, because I was thinking a lot about Ryan Day and Ohio State over the weekend, if they had the, I can't remember the kid's name from Michigan. That was just bombing 55 yarders. Like it was nothing last year. I think he's in the NFL now.

I can't remember his name. If they had that guy the last three years and spent a bunch of money on a field goal kicker, they might have a national title and a win over Michigan. Jake Moody is the kicker. Jake Moody. Yeah. Yeah. And now he's on the 49ers and people like want his cards and stuff like he is a legit comes back to me. It all comes back. Yeah. Right.

But Jake Moody, if you needed a 61 yard field goal, that that guy was going to bomb it through the upgrades like it was nothing. It could be in the middle of a blizzard and that guy was going to bury it. And like this is going to sound like Ohio State excuse making. It's not they deserve to lose. If you miss the field goal, that's part of the game. You deserve to lose. But if Ohio State had Zach Moody, Jake against Jake Moody, sorry, against Georgia a few years

ago, he buries that they probably be TC and won a national title. And if they had a field goal kicker that could kick 20 yard field goals, it's like the one that they missed instead of a preferred walk on. It struck me as funny and ironic that this team spent reportedly $20 million on their roster and they don't have a kicker that can kick a field goal. That is like basically a five yards further than an extra point. And if they would have had a bad badass kicker who you could rely on to bury 50 yard field goals with regularity, how much money would that be worth?

And I think that's a discussion to, to. Yeah. I think about it. I'm sure the market is probably. Yeah. I'm sure the market is probably low six figures, But in reality, in this particular situation, like a win against Michigan this year is worth at least a million dollars.

Like would you think about how much the difference? Think about how much money is at stake for Ohio State with this roster, with its fan buy in with the trophies that they could have with its coaches buyout? Like if the difference between that and a kicker, like the margins of this game are really small and like, it's not just an Ohio state discussion, Andy teams lose all the time because of bad kicks. Yeah. And it's like, if you can find the best kicker in college football, I mean,

like think about how much that can be weaponized in the game. I don't think people appreciate that enough. So those are the two thoughts that I had. We can pick the games now, but I just this is how my brain works when we're not on the show. Like, I'm thinking about this stuff all the time. I appreciate that. Before we talk about that, let's talk about the games themselves.

And do you want to go to these games? Because you can't game time has tickets to all of these conference championship games, including the big 10 championship game, which you can get into for as little as 19 bucks. That's right. The Buckeyes fans have flooded the market with the tickets. So Penn State fans now is your chance go to Indy. If you can't get into St. Elmo, Harry and Izzy shares a kitchen. It's the same shrimp cocktail. The steaks are also very good. I'm telling you right now, the money you save on a ticket, like remember $20 off your first purchase

with the code staples terms apply, of course, but you could buy a pair of tickets and one of them is basically free if you're doing this. So, uh, big 10 championship game, hot ticket, plenty of good seats still available and you can get in there. Uh, the ACC championship game, get in price for that one in Charlotte, which is a big one. As low on the GT picks feature as 55 bucks, but you can get really good seats, really good seats for around 100 bucks for this game. So go to game time, download the app, use

the code staples $20 off your first purchase terms apply. Ari, I realize we're going to be in Nashville this weekend, but. Indy, we could go like with a couple $20 bills in our pockets and we are. We're good to go. I had the Harry and Izzy's cocktail sauce and I'm not about that life. I ate too much of it and it blew my face off.

Oh, it's amazing. I like we made of it and it blew my face off. Oh, it's amazing. I like we made producing River Triad the first like his his second week on the job. I thought he's gonna die because everybody everybody goes to St. Elmo for the shrimp cocktail but I don't think that anybody knows that it's the same thing at the other place. I think everybody knows that who's been to Indy who hasn't been able to get into St. Elmo. So but then why is it so easy to get into Harry and Izzy's all the time? It's a larger dining room. Yeah, we ate there together once. Do you remember?

I do. I do. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, I'm a big Harry and it's for this game, because I assume that the. Penn State contingent is going to be ready to fly there, right? Like we're are they going to save their money for the playoff run? That's the hardest thing for the ticket prices of these games. It's like talking to people who want to go. It's like, yeah, I'm not going to go to the conference

championship game or I guess you know I want to save my money for the playoff. I think if you're Penn State though, you're feeling very comfortable that they are going to host which you obviously going to have to pay for your tickets to that, but you're probably already a Penn State season ticket holder. Like you have your setup when you go to games in state college. So this one might be one that's kind of fun to go to,

especially if you live in Western PA, that's not a terrible drive to Indy. If you live in Philly, you probably wanna fly. But I think this is a good opportunity to go see a fun game in it. Listen, Indianapolis, if you have not been, is a great big event town. Great big event town. So that we have this graphic up, Andy.

It reminded me, I don't know if we talked about this on the show. I can't remember. But what Joey McGuire said, the SEC championship game, there's a big 12 team that has a chance to win it. The big 10 has a pack 12 team with a chance to win it. The ACC has a American team that has a chance to win it. The big 10 has a Pac-12 team with a chance to win it. The ACC has a American team that has a chance to win it and the big 12 has a Pac-12 team with a chance to win it. Isn't that funny? It's amazing. So yes, you could have newcomers win all four of the power conferences, which is what is the big 12 better than the SEC, my column.

Well, I do love this because that is a question. That's a mailbag question we got early in the season. Really? I know it really could happen. Happened literally happened. Yeah, it could definitely happen. All right, let's pick the games. Let's start out though.

We're gonna get some shine to the conferences that we don't always give shine to because some of these are really interesting. What I think the most interesting of those other conference championship games that don't have any impact on the playoff is Conference USA, Western Kentucky at Jacksonville State. The other Gamecocks are a four and a half point favorite in this game.

They just played on Saturday Ari. They played at Western Kentucky on Saturday. Western Kentucky won on a 50 yard field goal with 30 seconds to go or with three seconds to go. Yeah, I want to hear your take man. Do you have a big take on this? This is see you guys want to know what Ari's doing here. Ari's not prepared.

He's checking to see if I'm prepared. Of course I prepared Ari because I know that Jacksonville state quarterback Tyler Huff went down in the third quarter of that Western Kentucky game. Former Nebraska QB Logan Smothers came in and did not go particularly well. Andy. No, I, I know, I know you're a degenerate. I know you love the game Cox and the Hilltoppers. Andy.

The internet was down in the press box and I was having a hard time with it, right? Yeah. On Saturday. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. I wanna know why. Cause you had money on the game? I had Jacksonville State plus two and a half and we covered by the book.

Don't tell me I'm not prepared and I don't know what's going on in these games. Okay. Okay. Touche sir. Touche. Yeah. Like this is, I don't know if I would be as good at this job if gambling didn't exist, but like I am constantly, you know, watching in a part of these types of things. And like I have loved Jackson State or Jacksonville State all year, like watching them play, they

light up scoreboards and I know that they came up short a few times this year. But man like when they are humming dude, they are really good. Yeah, it sounds like smothers is going to have to play. Rich Rod was noncommittal, but it looks like an ankle for puff. So it seems like smothers going to have to play. But again, it's not easy to beat the same team twice in seven days. And this one is at Jacksonville State,

because Jacksonville State, the way Conference USA works, is you have a host situation. It's not a neutral site. So yeah, give me Rich Rod making his pitch to go back to West Virginia as the conqueringering hero don't like Jacksonville State here. I love them. And it's not just because they're good, but everything you said about the quarterback position, the hope is that he'll come back.

But also too. I mean, I put you in LV in the, uh, College football playoff because I have a hard time. And I also think I would have picked Ohio State to beat Oregon had they beat Michigan by one because I'm just a firm believer that beating the same team twice. Like I think like I'm not trying to give you a way like the SEC, but like it's really, really hard to beat the same team twice in the same year, let alone the same freaking week.

Yeah, exactly. And you're you're away instead of at home and you want an, an emotional way. And they lost their starting quarterback in the middle of the game. Like, yeah. It is still covered like, like bad asses that they are. This is more a spot to, to what you said last week. This is more a spot. Then then analysis of the two teams.

Yeah, no, Jacksonville State by a million. All right. I also will take Jacksonville State to cover. Let's move on to the American Championship game because this is like a Brent Musburger. You are looking live situation. So does everybody know why Brent Musburger would say you are looking live on the NFL today in the eighties and the seventies? The reason he would say, I guess it was just the eighties. The reason he would say that is he was talking to the

gamblers. This is when it was taboo to talk about gambling on national television. He was talking to the gamblers to say, this is a live shot of a stadium where they're going to play the game in 30 minutes. Get a big snoot full of the weather and place your bets accordingly. Army winning and clinching home field in this matters. Army beat UTSA the other day to lane lost to Memphis on Thursday night This games at Mikey Stadium The high on Friday in West Point is 31 the lows 21. It's gonna be freaking cold to lane I Say this is someone who grew up in the south who's never lived north of Knoxville, Tennessee

Sometimes us southern boys are not built for that. Knoxville gets pretty cold though, doesn't it? It does but not West Point cold and not offensive lineman cutting you all the time and the quarterback pounding you every play cold. So Tulane defense, you better be wrapped up and ready to go cuz this is this is not gonna be a comfortable game. Yeah, I mean, just like the thought of having me at the

fence of linemen for Tulane just gives me the willies, but you know, I'm soft. This is this is built for army to win. Now I wonder what Tulane how much of that Memphis Memphis is a good team also like both of those teams were 92 in that game. How much of that Memphis Memphis is a good team also. Like both of those teams were 92 in that game. How much of that was just Memphis was better on that day. How much of that is Tulane putting its eggs in the basket of gotta gotta win this one because remember Tulane had beaten Memphis.

There's still an outside shot that Tulane could make the college football playoff. Now. They're not going to make it even if they win this game. Well, it's still Mike because I actually think that you know, we did discuss like armies outside shot here. Yeah. If they were to win this game. And like, honestly speaking, Andy, like they are only a four and a half point dog. Like this could be a real debate come Sunday. Like we, we haven't spent enough time on this because there was assumption that boys

he's just going to win and go, but if you would LV wins and army wins, there's going to be a real debate, but I will have a hot take for you. Yeah. If Tulane would have beaten Memphis, and then Tulane would have been the two conference champion, I think you Tulane would have gone over you and LV and I would have put too late in my bracket. Quite possible. Now the other perception of this is really impacted by the offense that army plays, but go ahead. The other interesting piece of this is John Somerall is up for every open job. Yeah. Not necessarily because he's putting his name out there, but because people aren't stupid.

He won two conference championships at Troy his first year at Tulane. He's got them in the conference championship game. The ADs at North Carolina, Purdue, West Virginia, UCF are not dumb. the ADs at North Carolina, Purdue, West Virginia, UCF are not dumb. They want to at least talk to him. And so I don't think the Tulane players are dumb either. They understand what's going on here. So that adds another wrinkle to this. And look, Jeff Munkin has been up for jobs over the years,

too. It doesn't sound like he is right now, but I feel like army may be more locked in here than Tulane, maybe I'm wrong. Yeah. And again, I mean, John Sumrall has led a team to like it was Troy, but has won two consecutive conference title games as a head coach. Yeah. The weather thing, the job thing,

it's all interesting and army is really good. Tulane is a covering machine most weeks. And they are a really fun team to watch. So like, are you going to pick which team you think is better? Are you going to pick which circumstances are harder for the team? It was like, I'm going to go toane is better. I'm going to go harder circumstances. I'm going to take army to cover. If you're going to give me 4 1 1 half points. Give me army to cover.

Yeah, what's like the the the low in New Orleans like at this time of year? It's I mean, it's probably pretty cold today because it's cold drops out. Is it like 35 today or are they going from 60 to this? They'll get into freezing temperatures at times. The low, the low today is only 40. The low today is 46. It's warmer in New Orleans than it is where I am. So

yeah, it's, it's not getting that cold this week. It, they're, these guys most of them are. Darian Mensah sling it around the yard this year or what? Oh, Darian Mensah is awesome. And I think as this is, and this is part of the problem, like this time of year, cause there's a lot of fanbases going off. John Somerall is our coach is Darian Mensah, our quarterback or, or if, uh, Ben Craddock is our offensive coordinator is Darian Mensah, our quarterback.

Like that, there's a lot of fan fan bases thinking about that too. That's another factor here. You know who's not thinking about the transfer portal at all? Army. They don't take transfers. They can't. Portal but they're like going to the army. Alright. Well, no, they chose to go to the army when they when they signed so they're in the they're in the portal to the US military. Yeah, no, I I'm going to take Tulane here. But I do think what what you always talk about in terms of Boise and potentially being a top four seed is that UNLV is already

ranked ahead of Army. So if UNLV beats Boise, then that's probably just a discussion that's not happening. I think I think that's one I feel like the committee could be like, Oh crap, we forgot to rank army near UNLV and we'll just, so they could do that with this, but not in the other circumstances. Like the, I just don't think you're in the top four. I don't think they're going to do that with Boise state because they're so far below right now. Like they've had a chance to move those guys up. Surely they've thought about it. All right. Let's,

we have to make a bet about the big 12, by the way. Yes. Boise state wins. I will bet you something between Friday and Sunday that the big 12 is ranked. Everybody come up with some stakes for this one. Oh, well I'm going to run with you in Nashville and you can bring my box like you were supposed to last time. There we go. Double or nothing. Or I can, you know what this would be the equivalent of like if you win the bet this time and I say I'll go on a run with you, I'll just forget my

running shoes. There you go. There you go. I'm bringing the box. I'm also bringing Producer Rivers Joe Milton autograph card. I actually think it would be okay if you just open them during the during the read so that like I can just see it because like I don't even want to like the weight to open it is bothering me. I just want you to open it. And then I can just say whatever, whatever you want out of here you get. Yeah. And then you can throw away all the other stuff. Cause like, you know, a lot of the cards in the, in there are worthless. You're looking for the hits. All right, all right. So we're gonna talk about the Mountain West Conference Championship game next.

But first, let's talk prize picks. Best daily fantasy game in America. Download the app, use the code staples when you sign up. Play $5, get $50 instantly. Monday night football tonight, oh boy. Bo Nix, baby, are you a Bo Lever? Are you taking Bo Zempik? Jamis Winston. This is gonna be a fun one. Nick Chubb against

the the the Denver defense which is pretty good. So, the college football board is gonna get populated later this week but right now we got NFL NBA college basketball and of course Monday night football. So Bo Nicks 224 and a half passing yards against the Browns. What do you think is going to happen? Jamis Winston. Will he eat the dub 230 and a half passing yards more or less you pick the square you pick as few as two squares. the more squares you pick the higher the potential payout It's prize picks download the app use code staples play five dollars get fifty dollars instantly when you sign up Ari. Let us go to the blue UNLV at Boise State I Went back through the box square the first game the first game is a lot of fun It was a Friday night game. You know, this is like a 1030 Eastern kickoff, Boise one

2924. And it was one of those games where it didn't look like anything happened in the fourth quarter. But what happened was Boise State just ground out the game. And if you look, it's Ashton Genties toughest game of the year. Ashton Gentie was held to 3.9 yards of carry in this game, but he carried when it mattered at the end and allowed Boise state to run out the clock. And also I think this was the first really good Maddox Madsen game of the year. And I think Maddox Madsen has played some really good games down the stretch,

but this is the one where you're like, okay, now we see why they picked this guy to be the starting QB. Yeah, do you remember this? It feels like it's been a long time. I mean hell October 26 feels like a year ago. But I wrote about this game at like two in the morning because it was on it. It started like at 10 p.m. And my takeaway from this game, even though it was Ashton Genties toughest game, was that he was maybe one of the five best running backs of the CFP era, like in totality, not just like this year, but-

Which I think is bearing out. You're gonna say like him, Melvin Gordon, Adrian Peterson, like I think- The names I came up with are Christian McCaffrey, Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, Ezekiel Elliott, Travis Etienne, Najee Harris, Nick Chubb, Jonathan Taylor and B. John Robinson. Like in that Gordon belongs on Alistair and Melvin Gordon. But the reason why I wrote that is not because of the 90 yard touchdown runs where he made a man miss and ran untouched.

It was the, um, 14 play drive at the end that killed the entire clock that was on the game. And Gentie touched the ball eight times and three of those plays were kneel downs. So like eight of the 11 plays on that drive, he touched it. Yeah. And that's like that to me is like a very important thing. And I actually think that Boise state being the first G five representative in the expanded playoff is like super like poetic justice. Yeah. I actually think that Boise State being the first G5 representative in the expanded playoff is like super like poetic justice. Yeah.

Like how they carry it might be in the fiesta bowl. Yeah, right. Not me. That's just, I wonder if anybody will write about the Statue of Liberty that week, but that said, I think the Genti mania has and again, I don't know if I'm wrong about this, but if like how we actually believe that Boise is a top 15 team in America, do we tip top 15 team? Do we? I think it's a legitimate question. Okay, because they are playing well they have we well, yeah and There are players on UNLV

That don't get talked about at all that are really really good. So, um, like I am obsessed with Ricky White. I Have him in my dynasty I am obsessed with Ricky White. I have him in my dynasty, my dynasty fantasy football league, and I drafted him last year or the year before because we have got the devy players. And I've just been like licking my chops watching this kid play a guy scores at every game basically, you know, makes game, game altering plays and special teams blocks punts. Well, since Haj Malik Williams became the starting QB because remember Ricky White

was not playing that well when it was Sluca Donchich. Like I don't think that Hodge Malik Williams is like Cam Newton out there, but he can run and throw well. Like I mean he can make plays. So I think it's a very nice situation for Boise that the game is on the blue. I think that the entire country has forgotten and underestimated UNLV in the time since October 26th. That's my opinion. So to stick with my mantra, which is it's hard to beat the same team twice.

I think that UNLV is as good of a team as Boise. And I think that they could win this game. So I'm gonna pick UNLV to win. I'm not gonna take the points. And I already picked it with my bracket, but I'm gonna pick them to win outright. Oh, a little UNLV money. I'm gonna take Boise State to cover.

Cause I think Maddox Madsen has been playing really well. I think Barry Odom will come up with a way to keep Ashton Gentry from going crazy, but you don't completely contain Ashton Gentile. You can't. You will not bottle him up. What's the rushing total that, you know, 150 yard. He may run. He may carry 30 times for 150 yards and just like before. Or when they won last time, boys, you see, it's played really well last time.

Like the the containing of Ashton Gentie is a relative notion, though. It's like I don't think that you know, these coming into the game, thinking they're going to hold him to 37 yards like he's going to get right. How do you win the game and how do you stop him from turning the thing is into an 80 yard touchdown like that? Boise State has been as in the past few weeks, shown the ability to, even if, cause remember, Gentie had to go to the injury tent a couple of weeks ago. And I thought, I thought Madsen has done a good job showing, Hey, we're not just all Ashton Gentie here. So I, it's really going to come down to how well Maddox Madsen plays now. He throws a

couple of picks, UNLV is going to win. But, how well Maddox Madsen plays. Now if he throws a couple of picks, UNLV is going to win. But yeah, and go talk here in the chat. Said, can we get some hard to beat the same team twice stats? I think I should look that up. Yeah, we'll have to figure that out. But we got a long week ahead of us. We'll work on that one. Ari, let us move to the second battle To the second battle of the bricks this season. Ohio U versus Miami of Ohio and the Mac championship game. They played this game once already. The Red Hawks beat the Bobcats 30 to 20 on October 19th. It was the second winning is what is now a seven game

win streak for Chuck Martin's team. Chuck Martin, remember, is the coach who said Alabama bought our kicker and he was right. Ohio has not lost since that game either. Now, I think the most fun player to watch in matching this year has been Parker Navarro. He's the Ohio quarterback. He is a dual threat guy. When they are good, his stat line is something like 10 of 19 for 189 yards passing and 17 carries for 155 yards rushing. If that's what you get, Ohio U wins this game. Here's what happened when they played last time. Miami bottled them up. Worst per carry average for the Bobcats

that they had all season and they had to throw it over 40 times if they have to throw 40 times they're losing. Yeah, the stats from the first game I don't recall, but like Navarro wasn't even the leading passer. No, they were swapping it. They were swapping out. They were swapping it back and forth like that. He didn't have a full game either. So, uh, this is difficult because they both playing really well right now. And as you know, Maxon is just like,

you might as well throw dice against the craps table. Um, also like how many years has a Gabbert been playing quarterback for Miami? Has it been like 27 years? It's the same Gabbert. He's just been, like, we're used to Macs starting quarterbacks going elsewhere. We're used to them starting elsewhere, coming to the Mac, and then potentially going elsewhere later. But he's been there the entire time. And the age gap between him and Blaine is so different that, like you, Blaine Gabbard played quarterback when N'Damah Kinsue was starting for Nebraska and Missouri was in the big 12.

We just lost Ari, unbelievable. When we start talking Gabbards, that's when Ari dips out. We lost this camera. But yeah, it is amazing. Cause I think we're so used to it. And then remember Tyler Gabbert was sort of the bridge of the Gabberts. But yeah, I do love this because it does feel

like a Gabbert has been playing college football for the last 20 years. It does. Well, I mean, that's what happens in Mac, too. Like it just there. Yeah. But but Brett, but Brett Gabbard is 24 years old and he's been at Miami of Ohio the entire time. He's got a hell of a life. Yeah. Yeah, that's one of the ultimate party schools. Both of them. We went on spring break with some Miami of Ohio. Like we had, we had a bunch of Miami of Ohio people. We went to Jamaica on spring break that were in our, our flight in our hotel. They get after elite. I was in my early 20s when I took the Ohio State beat job. And I had many weekends down in like the Athens.

Those schools get after it. Oh yeah. Yeah. Both of these schools are elite party schools. Both of these. Yeah, right. I like Miami here. I like Miami here.

I also will take Miami to cover. It's one of those, it is hard to be the same team twice, but they did seem to find a good formula the first time. And I think that they've done it again. So we'll see if that if that happens. But I love that these spreads are so tiny. Like I don't feel I don't feel like there's any free points out there. No, no. And and they're both playing really, really well at the same time, too. You don't have a team limping in. You have teams that are both surging and feeling really good about what they're doing. So it makes it difficult.

All right. One more. And then we get to the big boys. Marshall at Louisiana Sunbelt Championship. I don't know if Charles Huff's gonna be Marshall's coach next week. And it's interesting because they're one of the hottest teams in the country.

They won six in a row. They fell behind 17 nothing to James Madison and then rallied to win and double overtime. They can win this conference. And I don't know if they were planning on bringing him back as of a month ago. And I still don't know if he doesn't wind up getting another job. But this is a fascinating situation. Mike Sormo has done a good job at Louisiana the entire time since

replacing Billy Napier. I don't yeah, I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen. The raging cages had to replace their quarterback a couple weeks ago. Chandler Fields replaced Ben Woldridge who got hurt. Fields has started a couple games. They've won them both. Ari, I think Marshall I'm going to get Marshall's still got the magic. There are four and a half point dog in this game.

Give me the thundering heard to cover. Louisiana was routinely one of the most undervalued betting teams out there all year where their spreads were like six points and they would win by 35 like Like Vegas had it wrong all year. And then I took a big stab at the South Alabama game and they lost outright. They did by two. That was where the quarterback injury happened.

I'm still financially recovering from that. So, uh, give me Marshall here. Uh, I'm really upset with you, Louisiana. Although Louisiana probably is going to win this one. They're really good football team. They just they laid an egg at the worst possible time for me.

And you just can't let it go. I'm holding a garage. Yeah, as we move on to the Big 12 championship game, I have a request for the people. If you love this show, put a few shekels on Arizona State to cover minus two and a half so we

can get the spread to three and a half so we can use our specially minted Big 12 plus three and a half minus three and a half coin. Because I feel like it needs that's what needs to happen for this game because we can we can break down Iowa State and Arizona State like Iowa State I thought was incredibly resilient in farmageddon every time K State would score Iowa State would match and they would just they kept they would keep the margin the same and that's who they've been all year I know they lost a few games but they have been even in their losses they were resilient like that's yeah there's a lot to like about Iowa State I don't know who's gonna win this game I want the coin I want it to be

three and a half just like every other big 12 game this game. I want the coin. I want it to be three and a half, just like every other big 12 game this year. And I want to just flip the coin because that's what the big 12 should come down to essentially a coin toss. Yeah, I don't, I put, um, scataboo in my Heisman top three this week because I just like love what this team's doing and I think that he kind of embodies the award. It's like he's just like powering this team and he's really really good. I just like to say scataboo, scataboo, scataboo. I think Iowa State is a better team. That said, doesn't Iowa State struggle quite a bit to stop the run? When they're playing somebody who's good at it. I think they're they're very bad, although they they they played DJ Giddens last week and Avery Johnson and they won.

Yeah, so. It's not. It's not 100% that if you have a decent running game, you're going to shred them. They ranked 96th in rushing defense. In the country and they're playing against the team that has powered by a really good running back. I think Iowa state though, is a better team and they're getting points. So as much as I hate to, and people are like, Hey, Ari went to Arizona. He must hate Arizona state.

No, I mean, I was so in like journalism school Like I never like the thing that I regret about My life Andy in the sense of like when I was in college was that like I didn't have a connection to my team I stand them you didn't grow up in Arizona fan either, right? I didn't grow I mean I know and there was nothing really to root for I mean like it's not like Arizona State was the was king shit when I was a kid, right? They were almost won a national title in 97 when I was like nine years old. So yeah, the 97 Rose Bowl 96 season that always confuses me. Yeah, I remember it well because thanks to Ohio State winning that Rose Bowl, I have a national championship

ring. So yeah, you should show people that on the show because I still have never seen it. Oh, well, we'll bring it out one of these days. But I like was so bought into trying to become a sportswriter that I never got to go like to the games and get hammered and do what kids do that form that bond to the team. I think Arizona State's uniforms are great. I love Arizona State as a campus. They're great when they put Sparky on the helmet. Yeah, the ones that are on the, that is the great uniform on the graphic right there. The one they showed with the fork on it. Like, what are we doing, guys? It's just the, it's, it's a it's malpractice. Like, so I think that like, Arizona State's strength plays into Iowa State's weakness, but I think Iowa State is a resilient team that I thought was going to win the Big 12 all along.

And the fact that they were gifted an opportunity and fought back to be here is every bit as exciting, interesting, noteworthy. Something that you should applaud is what Arizona State has done. So like, I know we're all in ASU mania right now, but I think I like Iowa State to win the game out, right? I am gonna flip the coin And it you know whose heads on the coin Sparky Sparky Give me the Sun Devils So to be a great game though, It's gonna be a great game. I'm so excited because I don't know what's gonna happen. I'm not even gonna pretend that I know what's gonna happen.

And that's what I want from this league. I want this league's championship to mirror this league season, where it's just wild, crazy, massive swings, emotional momentum, you name it. And then somebody wins at the end. I cannot wait. Yep.

And they're going to the playoff. Playoffs? Playoffs. Let us move to Indianapolis where, as we said, you can get on game time right now and get a $19 ticket to the Big Ten Championship game. The Buckeyes have flooded the market because they're not there

Is it really a city 19 bucks Penn State and Oregon Are a organs a three and a half point favorite in this game We pretty much everybody seems to agree that organs the best team in the country But I do think like we were expecting we're going to be playing Ohio State here. I wonder if Ohio State would have been favored had they played. I don't think Vegas is all in on Oregon yet, especially looking at the spread. My question about Penn State is has Penn State discovered something here in the last couple of weeks? Because maybe it's just me being overly Maybe it's just me being overly reactionary, but I feel like a different James Franklin emerged from the final drive at Minnesota.

And like he's had the goatee, so it's not like he grew a beard and became evil James Franklin, but I kind of like evil James Franklin. Like maybe you should grow the beard longer and becoming the goatee longer and become evil James Franklin because I kind of like that guy and have more confidence in that guy. Why is the spread? Oh, you're what is Vegas know that we don't? I mean, I would have thought the spread would be like

seven or seven and a half. This is a huge departure from what I would have anticipated. And it makes you question because like everything that you're saying, like this like swagger of like defending running up the score and fake punting, you know, with the game on the line a few weeks ago, like like James Franklin turning into this heel is like, awesome. Like, like go be that guy, James. Like that's great.

Like you've been a punching bag to so many people. Like I have criticized this guy endlessly. And the fact of the matter is, is that he's done a good job making Penn State a solid second tier team. job making Penn State a solid second-tier team. The problem is, I'm not 100% sure we know what Penn State ceiling is as a program. And I think it's possible, and I've had this thought, that James Franklin is getting beaten up while simultaneously having Penn State at its ceiling. Like, they're beating them up for irrational standards and not. I don't think I don't think I don't think the idea of ceilings are the same in this era. And that's a that's a good point. Like maybe it is like we're a quarterback and a receiver away from winning a national

title. Like, and like you can get. Steven's Steven's point. I don't know know Andy. We can't match the speed of Oregon Defensively Penn State can absolutely match Oregon speed Penn State's defense is elite Who okay, here's a question who has the highest draft pick in this game And state Abdul Carter, yeah So and and they have a bunch of draft picks on their defense. And I'm not saying Oregon's not talent. Oregon's very talented and perhaps more talented at Penn State. But to act like Penn State is, is like some ham and egg or team that doesn't have athletes. Like they have elite athletes on this team. Yeah, you, uh, not probably be worried about whether or not Penn State's defense can hang and make this respectable. The thing that I am always and will eternally be, um, on alert for with Penn State is whether or not they can score enough.

Like that, that's the thing. It's like, it's very easy to get your groove back when you're playing teams that don't have talent. And let's just call it what it is. And it's like, there is a temperament shift with their coach. I've noticed it too. I'm with you, but how different is Penn State actually from the team that lost to Ohio State by seven and can they keep up with the team that we think is probably

the favorite to win the national championship? What's your pick, Ari? Oregon. Evil James Franklin. Evil James Franklin is going to walk in to Lucas Oil Stadium and face Dan Lanning, who already has a beard.