Andy & Ari On3 - CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK RECAP | CLEMSON WALKS IT OFF, Oregon Survives | Does SMU or Alabama get in?

Episode Date: December 8, 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. Listen here as Andy & Ari provide their instant analysis of Championship Week ahead of Selection Day(0:00-10:20) Intro, Clemson stuns SMU(10:21-22:20) Predicting CFP Rankings(22:21-26:38) Penn State's Performance vs Oregon(26:39-34:20) Hashing out the projected CFP Rankings(34:21-45:42) Final Recap, Conclusion Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy and Ariane three special instant reaction presented by Wendy's. Clemson just walked it off in the ACC championship game. The worst possible scenario if you were Alabama trying to get into the college football playoff, by the way, I told you before we walked into this room that the first words that I wanted to say was Alabama's in deep shit. Alabama's in deep shit. That like that was the one thing that couldn't happen. They needed to come back all the way and win or they need Clemson to continue blowing

Essendue out like they were at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Yeah, Clemson was rolling for much of the game and it felt like, okay, if you're an Alabama fan, you know, you needed SMU to win, but the second best thing that could have happened for you was a Clemson blowout and for SMU to crawl all the way back inch by inch throughout the entire second half of that game and put together a beautiful drive with a minute left to end up tying that game and then losing in a heartbreaking fashion, makes you feel like it would be

very difficult for the committee to punish SMU for losing in a conference championship game in the manner in which they did. Right. Which is something the committee probably doesn't want to do anyway. Since all of them, especially the ones who are ADs who are involved in college sports and want their championship games to mean something probably want their schools going to championship games.

So yeah, I think there's a strong pull to not punish a team for losing its conference championship game by knocking it out when they were already in the field before it's like we talked with Rhett Lashley last week and that was his point. Now if Clemson had just continued to blow them out, I think it would have been really easy. You just ask the question, okay, who do we think is the sixth seed or who, I'm sorry, who do we think is the five seed and do we think, who do we think can beat them? I think it was to be the sixth seed because this would be the 11, but if Clemson was the 12. Now because we think SMU might be in it. I think it it orders

a little bit differently but let's say the hypothetical one that they'd be playing is Ohio State. You go okay who has a better chance of beating Ohio State Alabama or the SMU team that got blown out by Clemson. You're gonna say Alabama but the SMU team that lost on a walk off 56 yard field goal to Clemson. I don't know if it's that big of a like, I don't know if there's that big of a difference between those two teams. Yeah, well, I mean, I think Andy, the reality is, is that there probably shouldn't have been a big enough difference between them anyway, in terms of the perception, right? Like Alabama came into the year, you know, expected to be one of the best teams in college football, and they showed throughout the year that they have a pretty high ceiling when things are going well, but they've told us over and over and over again that they're not elite. And I think that the assumption that Alabama could beat them or give

Ohio State or whoever they were hypothetically matched up with in the first round the best possible game is just a fool's errand at this point. So, you know, at a certain point, if you can't definitively say, well, Alabama's got better players and they've got a better team, then the only thing that we should be using and probably the only thing that we should always be using is the results of the games and the results of the games tell a much different story than all Alabama probably would give them a good game. I think if you asked Ryan day or whoever they, they would end up playing who they would least like to play, they probably would rather play SMU than Alabama just from a strong feeling anymore. Exactly. So I, cause he's like, that person's going to be like, what's Alabama

I getting the one that played Oklahoma or the one that played Georgia, you know, and this, this SMU team is really, really tough. Now I think what's interesting is, is that because there's so much drama happening with the result of this game that we lose track of the fact that like Clemson is in. Yeah. And that was a team that I didn't think was very good for the entire season. And then they found out a way to win this football game and get into the playoff. And now that they went nine and three and got blown out by Georgia, it doesn't matter at all anymore. They're in the field just like everybody else that's in the field is in.

And I think that that was a really good coaching job from Dabo Sweeney. Like I actually think that for the most part, every team that played on Saturday was impressive. Yeah. Now, that's what you would like to feel. That's what you want to feel going into an expanded playoff. But, you know, I think SMU definitively proved in my book. And after this, Andy and I are gonna put together our final bracket projection together

and put it up on the website for On3. We still have some stuff to work through in terms of seating. We're gonna use this show as kind of a way to workshop some of those ideas. But I think SMU definitively proved, at least to me Andy, that they deserve to be in the thing. So do I think that SMU was unquestionably

a top 12 team in the country? I don't know how strongly I feel about that, but I will say in a year where I legitimately have no idea who's going to win the national championship, especially if we're watching Oregon give up 37 to Penn State, like, is there a team that you would pound your fist against this table right now and just be like, they're going to win it all? I wouldn't. So we do have to trust the teams are who they tell us that they are. And we have to use the results of the games in order to make the most informed

decisions possible. So, you know, I don't think that there's going to be drama. We said that if Clemson wins, there will be drama. Right. Clemson won. There will be drama. There's going to be a discussion point from now until noon tomorrow. Yep. Who is in and who was out? I'm gonna ask you right now. Who's the last at-large team in? SMU. I also think it's gonna be SMU. Yeah. Yeah, I think, I think, and that was like last Saturday night when I did Bubble Watch in Waco, I put it in SMU and we had a long discussion the following morning about Alabama.

And you know, you made some good points, right? Like with the FBI and what, you know, you know, projected, um, you know, future analysis and all the things that they use to try to, but I don't know that those metrics are more impressive or more important than the results of the games, which is Alabama going on the road a few weeks ago to Oklahoma and failing to score an offensive touchdown. And the fact that SMU SMU never got blown out and blown out. And we talked about blowouts earlier this year. Yeah. And it's funny because when we had that conversation, I didn't think, because this was way before Alabama lost Oklahoma, I didn't think it would be the thing that disqualified Alabama.

But it may be because SMU did not get blown out. SMU has two three-point losses Very good teams like BYU was a good team Clemson is a conference champion, right? So like and the funniest thing about it is like Georgia the team that everybody is super amped up about after they won the SEC Today has been blown out. Yeah by a team who's not in the field, right? So like, you know to me I just feel like if we're going to go all in on the notion, Andy, that we don't know who the best teams are and that the parody is as live and well in the sport and that, you know, it's flattened in terms of, then I don't think that we're at liberty to feel as comfortable about making, you know,

boardroom decisions for teams based on their logo anymore. So like, you know, I don't know if Alabama. Well, I mean, look at, look at the pony. Pony. I at the pony. Pony. Pony. That logo is cooler than almost every other logo. It may not be as recognizable, but it is cooler. It is because it's on a lot of cars too.

Who was first on that? You know, I do not. Mustangs have been around for a long time. But yeah. So anyway, I think it's going to be SMU. You know, I think also I wanted to bring this up and we talked about this before we went live, Andy. There seems to be this general assumption from everybody on Twitter and you know, just this eye rule that off they'll do whatever they can do to get Alabama in.

If it's an Alabama debate, Alabama will win. They got the benefit of the doubt. They're a cockroach. You can't kill them. Let me remind you guys, because it's very easy to forget committee decisions from the past, they all kind of blend together and you just kind of go with what you think the flow is. Two years ago, TCU lost in their conference championship game to Kansas

state in two years ago, Alabama was the fifth seed at the end. TCU still went. Yep. Alabama does not always win the debate. And Alabama does not always win or lose debates to sexy brands. Like TCU was not a sexy brand two years ago. And Alabama lost that debate. So, you know, I don't know that you can just go by

the North Star of they'll do anything to get Alabama. And I don't think they're going to do it this time because I actually think if we're talking about the things that matter to those people in the room, not punishing a team for losing on a 56 yard walk off field goal in a game that it didn't have to play. Yeah. That it earned its way into playing. I mean, I do think that there is a question of like, Clemson was kind of doodoo this year, but then Clemson I thought played really well on Saturday night. Clemson had good games and bad games.

I actually thought Clemson had a decent game against South Carolina, they just happened to lose it. I think Cade Klubnik is kind of blossoming in front of our eyes. Their receivers were open the entire game. They ran the ball hard. They played good defense for the most part. Like, you know, Clemson played a really good, I mean, that was a good team.

I don't know if Clemson itself is a great team, but the team that. SMU played on Saturday night was a really good team. And I credit the Dabo Sweeney for, you know, staying locked in with his guys. And, you know, it would have been very easy a few weeks ago to say that they were eliminated from the playoff. There was like a gut feeling with me, with Miami and you know, it would have been very easy a few weeks ago to say that they were eliminated from the playoff. There was like a gut feeling with me, with Miami and SMU that it would have been, uh, not prudent to take them off that list. I was doing this year.

I never did. And they kept winning after, you know, that, that terrible loss to the Louis, uh, Louisville and put themselves back in this position. And when they got that opportunity playing with house money, they, they looked really good. So, um, you know, Clemson's probably going to be where you think. Clemson, I think is going to be the 11 seed. I think SMU will be the 12 seed. So, yeah, and then

you have. Alright, so let's just go down the list. Let's go down the list. Let's start at number one. Oregon's number one. Congratulations. That's the easy one. That is the very, very easy one. Two's easy too. Two is easy as well. Two's gonna be Georgia. Yep. We're not talking about the rankings. We're talking about the seeding.

We're doing seeding. So it doesn't even matter what the rankings are at this point. So we can take that graphic off the screen because we'll confuse people. So one is Oregon. Two is gonna be Georgia. Three, this is where I think people are going to get confused a little bit.

But I think this is actually a fairly easy decision for the committee. Boise. Three is going to be Boise State because Boise State is started the week ranked higher than both of the teams in the Big 12 Championship game and Clemson. And I don't think anything Boise State did in beating UNLV is going to cause them to drop below those teams. Yeah. And that means that there's a discussion and I don't know if you think they're going to have one between Clemson and Arizona State for the four seed. And I'm not even sure it's going to be discussed. I think that we both agree that Arizona State will probably slide

in winners of six straight won the big 12 earlier in the day put up a bunch of points up in Iowa state. They might have a Heisman Trophy finalist for running back now all of a sudden. I don't know how you're gonna vote. I'm probably gonna do that tomorrow at some point. I think I'm not allowed to talk about it but read between the lines I guess I don't know. I think he's really good. And then scataboos. Yeah, Read between the lines, I guess. I don't know. I think he's really good.

And then, yeah. So, yeah. OK, so then, so Arizona stated four. So remember, this is how this works. It is not. The top four seeds are all go to power conferences. It is not the top five seeds go to conference champions. That's one of the more confusing things about the changes

to the playoff. The five highest ranked conference champions get in, but only the four highest ranked conference champions get the top four seats. So the fifth conference champion could be anywhere. Yeah, could wind up anywhere. I think, well, maybe they won't rank Clemson ahead of SMU. So maybe I'm wrong. Maybe, but we'll get to that when we get down there. We have we have a lot to talk about. So now we're into the at larges.

Do we think Notre Dame is the five? I think Notre Dame kind of has to be the five because they are a one loss team and that loss sucks that loss does suck. But the difference between that. Yeah, I mean, I guess the the the question here is what's more important to the committee Notre Dame's record or Ohio States wins because Ohio state has a worst record, but they have got two top 10 wins. And, uh, who else would, would be in that discussion?

Andy would it be Ohio state? I think Ohio state, Texas and Notre Dame would be the ones in this. I think that we decided on Notre Dame based on the 11 and one record. And the fact that that did you say that they were number one in the FBI coming into the week or was that Texas? Not the FBI and the SAGR and they were number one. Yeah. I believe Texas was number one. We said all day as we were going to try to do this that we were going to lean on who you beat and there's a team that has the best record. Well, who did Notre Dame beat?

They beat nobody. They beat Texas A&M and Army. Those that has the best record. Well, who did Notre Dame beat? They beat nobody. They beat Texas A&M and Army. Those are their two best wins. Neither of whom is gonna be ranked tomorrow. Army will definitely be ranked. Oh yeah, Army will, because they were ranked and they won. I keep thinking they lost for some reason.

Yeah, they won by a lot. So Army's their best win, and they won by 35, so that could help. Texas's best win is? A&M, and they, Texas failed to beat anybody better than 8 and 4 this year Okay Ohio State's best win Z are Penn State in Indiana

And I actually wonder if the Ohio State win over Penn State looks better today than it did when we woke up Are we sure Ohio State isn't the five? No Okay, we we need to figure that out. Like now. Yeah. Yeah. So what do you think? I think Ohio State has a better resume than Notre Dame. If Ohio State is the five, that would be the most unbelievable come up after such an embarrassing performance last week. Right. They should not reward them with the five. They would get a much like if the seven to the five is a is a pretty well draw. It is an interesting situation though,

because in our bracket right now as we're constructing is the seven might be more difficult than it used to be true. If the seven wins there, they have to play Georgia. Yeah, 710 winter plays George. I think I would slot Ohio State five for the time being. I'm sorry the 11 six winter five for the time being. I'm sorry, the 11-6 winner plays George and my bad. The Ohio, I think I'd put Ohio State five and then it, the cluster of the next three teams would be Notre Dame or the next four teams would be Notre Dame.

Oh, seven, 10, where it plays George. So yeah, it's a huge difference. Yeah. And it's a huge difference between five and six because it would have to play Georgia. So five, I would put Ohio State then six is a debate between Tennessee, Notre Dame and Texas. Right? So Notre Dame, we were probably put at what about Penn State, and state I think you should probably put behind Ohio State. Well, obviously, because they beat because they beat them. Who are we putting in number six, Notre Dame, Texas, Tennessee, Penn State. Did you do a blind resume? I did a blind resume but

that's two teams in that bunch and it's not two of the other teams in that bunch. Okay. Yeah, so this is difficult. Yeah. Again, I would probably put Notre Dame over Texas because Notre Dame has a better record and same best win. Same best win. Well actually Notre Dame is better too. All right. So let's say Notre Dame at six. Yep. Then seven would be Texas and then eight would be Tennessee. Are you sure about that? Tennessee or Penn state? Isn't this the blind? That's not how blind resumes work. If you tell those people who the two teams are, I don't, I, I, okay. All right. Uh, producer river show,

show the blind resumes, team A and team B team. A has six wins against bowl eligible teams. The FBI strength of schedule is 36. The sagron strength of schedule is 54 and the record against the sagron top 30 is one and two team B has six wins against bowl eligible teams. Their FBI strength of schedule is 29. Their sagron strength of schedule is 29. Their Sagron strength of schedule is 53, so everything very close so far. Record against Sagron, top 33-1.

Which one's getting a home game of those two? Team A or Team B? Team B is unequivocally getting a home game. Team B is Tennessee. Tennessee gets the home game. Penn State goes on the road to Knoxville. See, I didn't blow it. Nobody knew what it was, okay?

Tennessee would be ranked ahead of Penn State in that scenario then. Yeah, but that's a pretty straightforward thing. Hey, and rejoice, Tennessee fans. You won a blind resume test on the Andy and Ari on three show. Yeah, we're not out to get you guys. All right, so you are. We think that's what the committee's

going to look at, too. We could be wrong. There's no other metric that Penn State would beat them in, right? Other than looking sexy on Saturday night. And that puts Indiana at number 10. Indiana at 10, 11 would be Clemson, then I think 12 would be SMU. I still think there's a chance

that SMU's 11 and Clemson's 12. I just don't know if you can rank them 12 hours after you lose. The thing is you'd have to put Clemson ahead of Alabama, Miami, Ole Miss, and South Carolina. Are they gonna put Clemson ahead of Alabama, Miami, Ole Miss, and South Carolina. Are they going to put Clemson ahead of South Carolina in the ranking? I'm, uh, if they are going to be ranked ahead of SMU, they have to be ranked number 11. Yeah.

That would put them ahead of the South Carolina team they lost to last week. Put them ahead Ole Miss, which has a few one fewer or the same number losses, but better wins, but then ahead of Alabama, same number losses. They just won their conference. I'm fine with that 1112. I think that's what it should look like. I don't think that's what it's gonna look like. What do you think it's gonna I think it's gonna be SMU 11 Clemson 12. Okay. So just we're clear, though, you don't think it's going to be SMU 11, Clemson 12. OK. So just we're clear though, you don't think it makes sense to put them there because they just lost to South Carolina, right?

Well, because they just lost to South Carolina and Ole Miss is probably better than them and Alabama is probably better than that. But I think it's funny that like you're worried about that, but then dismissing the game that happened an hour ago. I'm not dismissing it. It's they have to rank them where they fit with everybody else not where they fit with SMU. Yeah, I mean if this is that's what you think if you think

is you know, I think what you're saying makes sense, but I feel like no matter what you do with it. One thing is not going to make sense to people. Well, we'll have to explain it. Yeah, and the committee is going to have to explain it one way or the other. Yeah, one way or the other is not going to make sense. Yeah, but I feel pretty comfortable with the teams that we have in.

So the first team out would be Alabama then. First, yeah, it would be Alabama, Miami, Ole Miss, South Carolina. I think that's how they ranked them last week. So, yeah. So I'm going to let you type for a second, and I'm going to sing a song to the audience. And then when I'm done singing the song, will you read the matchups? Yeah. I'm flipping some stuff around because we've been changing then when I'm done singing the song, will you read the matchups?

Yeah, I'm flipping some stuff around because we've been changing them as we workshop them. So give me the floor here. Yeah, yeah, go for it. These eyes. These eyes are never gonna see another lover than a love like you. I'm not gonna be able to type while you do that.

All right, so what we would have. My brother came all the way from Scottsdale, Arizona to sing that song. That's where you're from. All right number 12 Clemson at number five, Ohio State The winner would play number four Arizona State in the Peach Bowl Number 11 SMU at number six, Notre Dame Electric the winner would play number three Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl Notre Dame. The winner would play number three Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl.

You're trying to figure out how this all happens in those bowls, right? Well, I'm just like thing like Notre Dame. Hey, hey, I want to apologize to Notre Dame. I didn't recognize your game. Welcome to the semifinals. I think. Oh, hey, keep going. Okay. Number 10 Indiana at number seven, Texas. The winner plays number two, Georgia in the sugar bowl. We might see Georgia, Texas three. The funniest thing about that whole thing. The funniest thing about that, though, Andy, is that like nobody hates Indiana more than SEC teams and they put Indiana into SEC hell in this bracket. Right.

But yes, that would be a pretty rough go of it for Indiana, but also too, this is what we want to see, right? I don't know. I, Curt Signetti did. Oh, he made went on a little rant before the, before, during the big 10 championship game about how Indiana deserved a home game.

But I don't know that he has much ground to stay home. Yeah. So how about this one? Number nine Penn State at number eight Tennessee. Hey, Tennessee home game after all of that. Hey, let's give him a round. Andy, we give him a round of applause. Congratulations falls. Winner in a game in Knoxville winner plays number one Oregon in the Rose Bowl. Despite my hatred, clearly my despising nature of Tennessee. We had to put them. It worked out. Okay, everybody love everybody. I love you. You love me. Ohio State's ranked ahead of them. They still got a home game. Everybody wins. Okay. Sorry about that last week. Okay, next. That's it. That's it.

Bracket. Okay, that's it. That's the bracket. We got to get a graphics team out there. We got to get it on Twitter ASAP. But I like what we did there. I feel comfortable with that. I do too. Now let me ask you in Clemson maybe flip flop there. Yeah, but that was still I'm still kind of confused by what you were saying there. Well, should we, let's explain why the, the conference champions with buys are playing in the bowls they're playing in. Okay. So that's important for this year and next year, all the old bowl tie-ins still apply. So that is why instead of playing in the peach bowl,

Georgia is playing in the sugar bowl because the SEC has a tie-in with the sugar bowl. Oregon is going to the Rose bowl because the SEC has a tie in with the sugar bowl organ is going to the Rose Bowl because that is the big 10s tie in. The ACC champion. As a tie in with the Orange Bowl, but the Orange Bowl is a semi and also the ACC champion is not going to be a top four seed. Unless the committee is really feeling frisky. So.

Now you've got Boise State and Arizona State, both of them are closer to the Fiesta Bowl than the Peach Bowl, so the higher seeded team's gonna go to the Fiesta and the lower seeded team's gonna go to the Peach. I feel good about the bracket that we just did. I also feel like there's a very good opportunity for us to be wrong.

Oh yeah. Because we didn't talk about Penn State and I wanna take a minute to talk about Penn State. Let's talk about Penn State. Awesome. Penn State. Best offensive performance for Penn State since Vietnam. I think some of those trace McSorley, say Kwan Barker. Yeah, no, I mean, all kidding aside, we are analysis of the Oregon Penn State game all year, all week was what the hell's that line three, four? Well, how is that possible?

Penn State can't physically keep up in a shootout. Like Penn State had the ball down eight with like three minutes left. Yeah. Two minutes left and they were in this game. I thought that was their most prolific offensive effort that I've seen in years. They did it against the team that we think is the favorite to win the national championship. They almost won the big 10.

And like, I know that people like to give James Franklin a lot of shit. And I don't think tonight's the night for that. Like they played a big 10 championship game on a neutral field in the closest playoff game setting that you possibly can get outside of the ones that are on campus. And I thought that they looked every bit up like I mean they were playing from behind the entire game, but that could have gone to blow out city really quickly and they just did not let it

happen. They fought hard. They ran hard. They threw well. I think that might have been drew hours best performance of his entire career tonight. So like the thing that I don't know is going to happen because we have Penn State by circumstance, pretty low in our bracket, like going from, you know, three to nine is a tough look when they played games that teams that benefited from not playing won't get in. Like that stinks. Like Rhett Lashley went on a little bit of a rant, a little bit of a bender with us after we were done with him on the show about

how playing in that game shouldn't be a punitive thing for losing when other teams aren't playing. But like, I think you could make the case that Penn State went from playing in the Big Ten Championship game to not hosting a game while Ohio State, who didn't play, is hosting. Like, it's a tough pill to swallow. It's a tough pill to swallow, but they played at Penn State in Ohio State one. And I'm just trying to say that this is not like an anti-Penn State thing. I actually feel better about Penn State right now than I did yesterday, even in a loss. Now the thing with James Franklin is going to be and actually kind of like that that dark. It was kind of cozy the

Thing with Penn State is they've got to go win their first game who they got again We have Penn State going to Knoxville to play the Tennessee volunteers So if Penn State goes they play the way they played tonight, they could win. They will beat Tennessee At vol nugs get get them no get them, if Penn State looks like that on offense against Tennessee, they'll win the game. Yeah, Penn State look like they could be a semifinal team tonight. If they look like they did against Ohio State on offense, they will not win the game. Yeah. Tough break for them in our bracket. By the way, awesome performance. Penn State being unable to defend slants over the middle. I think that's just an Oregon thing. No, it's going to be a problem playing Tennessee. Whether they play that game in Happy Valley or where they play it in Knoxville, if that's who they have to play, that's a problem. Oregon's receivers absolutely demolish Tennessee's,

but yes, it's same like schematically similar., but like I think Oregon did that to everybody this year But it was pretty egregious tonight. I Andy I Just want to give James Franklin flowers because I'm so busy to give him coal Yeah, the season absolutely and If you're gonna yell at James Franklin for never winning big games I get why you'd be frustrated if you're a Penn State fan for not closing that one. They played the best team in the country. Oregon is the only team that went stark to finish this year. You know, they had a few, you know, rough games at the beginning of the year against Idaho or whatever in Idaho and Boise. And they did have a rough game on the road at Wisconsin three weeks

ago, but they are the only team in the power conference that went wire to wire, looking dominant for 90% of the year. And that's conference that went wire to wire looking dominant for 90% of the year. And that's a really hard thing to do. I don't care how good you are. You have clunker game. So let's review. Let's review it.

The projected bracket one more time. Yeah, let's do it because it is. It's a lot. We're throwing a lot of teams and numbers at you. Okay. Oregon number one with a bye. Their first game is a quarterfinal in the Rose Bowl. Georgia number two with a buy.

First game is a quarterfinal in the Sugar Bowl. Boise State number three with a buy. First game. Is a quarterfinal in the Fiesta Bowl. Arizona State number four. Now remember Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Navarez put out a statement during the night game saying that the the Mountain West champ should be ranked ahead of the Big 12 champ and I think the concern was SMU is gonna win and they'll be the three seed and then Boise State Arizona are

fighting over the four seed. That's not even a fight. Boise State's the three, Arizona State's the four. You know what I what occurred to me as we were watching the games tonight, and you kept reading all these statements to me, is that all these statements are, are the professionally written version of the Twitter arguments that we have. Absolutely. Person who roots for their team comes up with best case for their team and then publishes it. Like, it's the same thing. Absolutely.

And I just like. Except this person gets paid seven figures. Yeah. I think a few of you guys should be getting paid seven figures. Yeah. A few of these Twitter arguments. So they make some very convincing cases. All right.

So Arizona State four seed with a bye. First game is quarterfinal in the Peach Bowl. We have Ohio State five. And I realize that may be controversial. That's the part where we may be wrong. But I think the committee, if they say they're going to do what they usually do and they say they're going to value your resume and who did you beat? If it's who did you beat, Ohio State has a better who did you beat than Notre Dame, than Texas, than Tennessee and

Penn State. And Georgia is the only other team in the bracket that has two wins over top 10 teams, right? Correct. Yeah. Correct. So yeah, Georgia and Georgia has three wins over teams that we think are gonna be in the playoff.

Two wins against Texas, one against Tennessee. Right. Ohio State has two. Those are the only ones with multiples. I'm sorry, Oregon does. Oregon has beaten Ohio State. Ohio State and Penn State. Alright, so those three. Alright, so we have Ohio State at five. They would get a home game in the first round. At number six, we have Notre Dame getting a home game in the first round. Army may

have gotten Notre Dame this higher seed. I think they would have had a home game anyway, but Army may have gotten Notre Dame this higher seed by beating the living crap out of Tulane on Friday night because it makes Notre Dame's dominant win against Army look that much better. Yep. And again, I know Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois. You don't have to tell me that again. I got it that lost sucked

It's the worst loss of anybody on this list But they didn't want they didn't lose again Number seven Texas they would be in at-large getting a home game number eight Tennessee now, I think the committee may go Penn State here But if you look at that blind resume that we did where they are almost dead even except Tennessee is just better against good teams. I think they'll take Tennessee. So Tennessee would have a home game. Penn State would have to go to Tennessee. Maybe the 9 seed. They'd have to go to Tennessee. Indiana would be the 10 seed. It had to go to Georgia. Ari and I have gone back and forth on where

SMU and Clemson will be relative to one another. I think SMU will be number 11, even though Clemson just beat them, because I don't think they're going to put Clemson above the South Carolina, Ole Miss, Miami, Alabama cluster. They're going to leave them there in the rankings, and so Clemson as the fifth highest ranked conference champ. I understand what you're saying. I wasn't seeing it at first. I get it. Yeah. They're not going to hop them over all those teams. They will just get put into the bracket for being a conference champion. Right. It doesn't really, I'm not sure it really makes a difference. I mean, you're talking about one going to have to play at Ohio State, one having to play at Notre Dame. It's kind of-

Yeah, I mean you're in the playoffs, go win a game, yeah. So that's the bracket right there. And where the committee may disagree with us, I don't think they're gonna disagree with us on any of the top four. I would be very surprised to see Clemson in the top four in Arizona State sitting there at number 12.

Yeah. They might disagree on number five. I think we have Ohio State. They might have Notre Dame. Yeah. They might disagree with us on number eight. We have Tennessee. They may have Penn State.

That's pretty much it though. Yeah. So five, six, eight, nine. That's where I think they may disagree with us I typed into Twitter just a crowd source Ohio State's going to get the number five seed lol and everybody is convinced. It's gonna be Notre Dame and it's like It's the same argument that we had with Tennessee fans last week Yep, they have they have a worse record. So there's a better data point there

Yep, they have a worse record, so there's a better data point there. So maybe the worst record will play out. Tennessee's best win is better than... But when we were arguing with Tennessee fans about Ohio State seeding and comparison to them, they had the same record. Now, Notre Dame has one fewer loss than Ohio State, so maybe that would... Maybe. But again, Notre Dame's loss should count twice because it's that bad. Yeah, but Notre Dame was also ahead of Ohio State in last week's ranking.

Neither played. So can they hop them? We have to read. We might to redo this because Did Ward Manuel not say he did? Oh But there is some movement around them. So because you got to put Texas somewhere. I think they may still Hmm. What should we do here? What do you think? Go do a blind resume test of Ohio State, Notre Dame. You know who's going to win battles.

Ohio State's going to win. So what do you think? I say we put Ohio State there. And if they don't agree with us, then they don't agree with us. Yeah, and we're better at their jobs than they are. Well, I think we already knew that. Yeah. So now I think there's a lot of people.

I think probably half the people watching slash listening are going, yeah, you're better than them. And half the people are like, no, you're definitely not. You guys suck. Depends on what their favorite team is, honestly. Or who they hate more in that particular scenario. Yeah, but I think- Because a lot of people hate Notre Dame

and a lot of people hate us. Anybody listening to our show knows that was a good faith attempt. We trying. Yeah. Yeah, we're trying. We're doing our best here. But yeah, I just think if this is how this shakes out, I'm pretty excited about the games. Oh, yeah. I mean, there was no way that was gonna be able to play out and you wouldn't be. I mean, this is great. The way that the games play out.

And the thing is, I, you know, I'm still seeing in our chat questions about Alabama. I really don't think that's going to be much of a discussion at this point. I don't either. I just don't know how you do it. No, I don't because if Clemson were to have gone and blown SMU out then you could have that discussion but when you walk it off with a 56-yard field goal I just you know that's a bounce of the ball situation yeah and the fact that the field goal is like from the moon yeah that also kind of hurts but yeah no I feel pretty good about it um I think it's going to be great to sleep on it I don't know we're going to put this thing up and we're going to be right back in here tomorrow. And don't watch their broadcast with their volume. Watch us. Do it like you do on Tuesday nights if you're here.

Yeah. We're going to New Eastern time and we've got this really nice mounted TV that we can watch together. That was a great day of football. It was unbelievable. It's funny because the Friday games were so lopsided. Yeah. And you know, the big 12 championship was lopsided too. So you thought, Oh, this is this going to be every single one of these things is a blowout with a big 12 and the Mac championship games early say Ohio. You crushed Miami Ohio. Yeah.

And so I was getting a little worried to be honest that we weren't going to get a good game at all in these games and then the SEC game was was really close. The ACC game turned out to be fantastic. The Penn State Oregon game might have been the most fun kind of back and forth game of all of them. Well, here's the prevailing thought that I have before we let them go Andy. I don't know who's going to win the national title. Nope. I don't know that there is a matchup in the first round where I think that. The lower seated team or the quote unquote worst team doesn't have a chance to win. Yeah, I think Indiana might have a hard time in Texas, but I don't know. Let's say Clemson's at Ohio State Clemson in Ohio State. I mean, what? That Clemson team?

Yeah. That could have been Ohio State. Ohio State. Ohio State plays the way they did against Michigan. They can lose to any of these teams. Any of them. I think you could make the case that Ohio State had the most. So here's the thing. Like Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois. Right. Okay. So like, there are certain levels of things. In terms of like a game that a team is locked in for. I don't think there was a team that was more mismanaged and less prepared to play than Ohio State against Michigan. Correct. I think Notre Dame played more grab ass and didn't take it seriously. So if you want to say that's more I'm not going to argue with you saw dabo in this situation. Devil, by the way, now nine and oh in the ACC Championship. Yeah, like I think Ohio State is better than Clemson, more talented for sure. But that doesn't mean shit to me anymore. Exactly.

I for what happened on Saturday. Look, SMU Notre Dame. SMU can go win at Notre Dame. Yeah. I mean, I think every game is going to be good. Like, so my number one criticism Tennessee is a coin flip. Yeah, my number one criticism is a coin flip. Yeah.

My number one criticism of the 12 team field has always been, we don't need 12 when we can't even find four. But now that this sport is drunk, like we were playing this game earlier today. Like, what would the 14 field look like in this year? 14 field would be a mess. I don't even know how we would be a mess because I think Georgia would be in as a two loss. Georgia would have to be in Notre Dame would be in but the Carson Beck injury would have been something we'd have been talking about. Think about it. Yeah, it'd be Oregon number one, Notre Dame number two, Georgia three and then four. Well, Georgia would have to

go. There's no way that the SEC champion is not going to the play. So who's the four? So the four is just banana land, right? Boise State guess I don't. I would have put Boise in there because it's based on their rankings. They wouldn't. They would put Ohio State. Notre Dame or you already have Notre Dame. I think it'd be Ohio State. Your guess is as good a minor. I think it would be. And we're talking-

Yeah, probably because they've got two wins. If you just joined and you're like, what are you talking about? We're hypothesizing what this would look like as a four team playoff and God, I'm so glad it's not. But if it would have gone to like 2020 and did this, it would have been a blowout city for half the games. Right.

Like I don't know if we're going to blow out city or not. We'll see how it goes. There may be blowouts, but they also might not be blowouts in the directions we think. Yeah, I don't think that there is a team that is overmatched the way that they have been in the past. So, um, J in the chat, please answer the question we have. Why is SMU in over Bama? Because they have, uh, Oh, I don't know. No, I'm just kidding. They had one, they have one fewer loss and they played an extra game

If your losses in the regular season, right two fewer losses in the regular season one fewer loss overall there one extra loss was in a game in an extra game at Alabama didn't have to play in and It's just not right to take and if we're gonna just eyeball tests, which is where Alabama would normally win here They lose that too. I don't think they win that one I know one of them got blown out and the other one never got blown out. If SMU would have lost another game in the regular season and still made it to the SMU had lost to Louisville. Yeah and they still made it here. Then I could see well let's say SMU had lost to Duke because Duke wound up with a really good record. Right.

But I don't know. That was a very close game, SEMU had to block a field goal. The Georgia win. I don't know, unless you think that the Georgia win, now that the SEC champions holds more weight for Bama than it did on Tuesday. I don't know. So they want us to blind resume Texas and Tennessee.

I don't have that prepped, but if we... if we, uh, we can work on that tonight. No. Well, if you, if you give me a little, you know, traveling, a little traveling music, we might be able to do a little bit. Um, what's a good song river. Can you take me higher? All right.

Well, I just, we'll just do it quick and dirty. Okay. So, uh, one of these teams, we're looking at the Sagron, uh, I just we'll just do it quick and dirty. Okay, so actually one of these teams we're looking at the Sagran You know the Sagran strength of schedule One of these teams has the 32 ranked strength of schedule and is four and one Excuse me four and two against the Sagran top 30 The other one is three and one against the Sagran top 30 and has the number 53 ranked schedule They have the same number of losses, but one played more games than the

other. They let's see. Let's look at the old FBI strength of schedule. That's a stupid question. Yep. Aside from the fact that a lovely listener asked us, why are we doing this to see curious? I know. But what's what they're both in? Like, what are we? No, no, no. Seating for seating purposes. We have Texas above Tennessee. what's what they're both in like what are we no no no seating for seating purposes we have Texas above Tennessee why but they're both got home games I know but okay it matters okay what somebody wants to play Indiana I get it so all right strength of schedule let's figure this one out

Strength of schedule. Let's figure this one out. So Texas strength of schedule and FBI is 32. Tennessee's is 29. They're very similar. Texas has a as more wins against the the Sagran Top 30 than Tennessee does. They both have a decent number of them, and Texas has one more loss against the Sagran Top 30, but that's because it lost in a game that Tennessee

didn't have to play. And the other thing too, but that's because it lost in a game that Tennessee didn't have to play. And the other thing too, and if we can just get out of like data hell and Texas instruments hell and just use our human brains for a minute. Texas lost to the SEC champion twice. And didn't lose anybody else. Didn't lose anybody else.

And one of Tennessee's losses is also to that team. So like, it's like, the reason why they're ahead is because they played an extra game and lost to the team that Tennessee lost to, right? I don't, I don't know that you need to go. Stick your head up a cow's ass to figure that one out. So you can stick your head up a bull's ass to get a good cup, you know, cut a meat, you know what they that's saying? Hmm. Yeah. And that's the butcher. I don't know. Yeah, okay. I want to hear the saying now. You don't remember the saying?

You could stick your head up a bull's ass to see the quality of meat, but I'd rather take the butcher's word for it. I like it. Okay. Perfect. Producer River points out we could be up to our ears in elephant shit. As Nick Saban said today, we are up to our ears in data, in blind resumes, in seating. I don't know if we're going to be completely right on this Ari. No, yeah. But I, I like our chances.

I like our chances. Yeah. The Alabama making the playoff betters are probably in hell right now. Yeah. Cause they were like plus money and people were hammering that. And I think there might have been a reason for that. So we'll see. And by the way, like we're going to be live again in this

studio literally in 11 hours. If Alabama goes, people are going to go crazy. Oh, it's going to be spectacular. But if SMU goes, don't you think people who aren't watching the show are going gonna go crazy? Yes. There's gonna be a large faction of Alabama SEC fans are gonna go nuts tomorrow. Yeah, somebody's getting mad either way.

I'm very curious to see how our bracket when we're done with it measures up with other experts. I don't care about the other people. I'm just- And I'm not an expert. I'm- There you are. I would like it to match the committee's bracket, because that's what we're trying. All we're trying to do is predict what they're going to do. I think if you've done the playoff mock committee,

then you're an expert on how this works. OK. Well, I hope that we wind up getting it right. That's what I hope, that we end up, that we told you. And so next year, when this is coming up, you go, you know what, old Annie already told us right last time, so we're going back to them. Yeah.

And hopefully we're kind of a fun hang while talking to you about that. We're talking about Bulls asses and butchers. Yeah yeah. We watched your head of the butcher's ass. We watched the ball get snapped through some guys ass today. Are you telling me right now look me in the eyes give me the give me the camera up. You guys watching the Texas Georgia game today that that ball did not travel through Arch Manning's ass on that trick play. Explain where that ball came from. I've watched the replay on that trick play nine times. It went through his ass and out of his

ass into the backfield. Like, how could they practice that? It's easy to practice the precision of the snap to go through the legs and hit the running back right in the paws like that. That was awesome. Yeah, you have to be a little careful because you don't want to hurt Arch. Yeah, you also don't want to hit any danglers either. You know, that could hurt. Sensitive area. Sensitive area there. I don't know if he was wearing a cup. Hopefully he wasn't. No, you don't wear cups in football. You don't? No. I did. That's probably why you quit.

Wait, what do you wear? You wear a little jockstrap, right? I wear a jockstrap, yeah. But you can't move in a cup. Yeah, I wore a jockstrap. Or a cup with a baseball lacrosse. Yeah, I wore a jock. Okay.

Way more information about Ari than you ever wanted to know. Size extra small, yeah. I knew that was coming. Everybody, let us reconvene. Noon Eastern, don't watch ESPN. Watch us. We'll tell you. We'll watch it for you so you don't have to.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. That was a hell of a season, Andy. It was unbelievable. And I'm happy that we're here together doing that. I really savored the games today. That Texas was fun. Georgia game was incredible. The night games were great.

We have a lot of. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Andrew says blind resume, Bama versus SMU. One team lost by 21 to a six and six team. Then one's SMU. Yeah. There you go. They go like this.

One's definitively better than the other. We'll see. We'll see. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what they're going to do, but I don't think they're going to pick them over SMU. Yeah. So we'll find out. Noon Eastern tomorrow right here on 3 Sports YouTube channel. Subscribe so the little notification comes to your phone or if you're listening on in podcast form,

subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so that you never miss an episode. We love you. It's been a wonderful college football season, but it isn't long from over because we got a 12 team playoff and we're going to know exactly what it looks like. A few hours.