Andy & Ari On3 - College Football Playoff seeding SUCKS, but are they stuck with it? | Coaching drama
Episode Date: December 9, 2024You’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 l...ike 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. (0:00-0:36) Wendy's Saucy Nuggs(0:37-6:41) Stuck with CFP Seeding?(6:42-7:43) Download Gametime(7:44-17:03) Discussion on Non-Conference Scheduling and CFP(17:04-25:44) Scott Frost Returning to UCF as head coach(25:45-31:58) Mike Gundy is Staying at Oklahoma State(31:59-32:58) Conclusion The College Football Playoff Seedings have been released, and Andy & Ari have some thoughts and concerns on the process. Mike Gundy is returning to Oklahoma State while Scott Frost is making a return to UCF. Watch us on YouTube instead! https://youtube.com/live/6Rwytrpz9gA Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey
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Welcome to Annie and Arianne 3. You've had Wendy's nugs dipped in sauce, but have you had them covered in sauce?
When you do saucy nugs, take the crispy and spicy nugs you love and turn them up to 11.
Choose between flavors like buffalo, honey barbecue, garlic parm, the hot versions of all those flavors, of course.
Or, if you're a real heat seeker, try the spicy ghost Pepper only on Wendy's signature spicy nugs. I dare ya.
That's seven delicious ways to try the nugs
you already love.
Pick a flavor, grab some extra napkins,
and prepare to nug like you've never nugged before.
For a whole new way to nug, it's gotta be Wendy's.
["Wendy's Theme Song"]
Portal Day, got a little bonus for ya. So we to be centralized with you. Portal Day.
Got a little bonus for you.
So we're going to do our show.
Hi, Ari.
Hey, Andy.
Good morning.
And then we're going to start over again
and do the Transfer Portal show.
Pete Nakos, who if Pete Nakos didn't say it,
it didn't happen in the Transfer Portal.
He's going to join us.
JD Pickel is going to join us. JD Piquel is going to join us.
We're going to talk about the guys that have already said they're going in.
What might happen going forward, how this process works, because it is essentially
the first day of free agency in college football.
So we're going to talk about that.
But obviously there's a ton of other stuff going on.
We got to talk about playoff seating because that was a hot topic.
We got to talk about non-conference scheduling because one of the ADs got left
out of the playoff was not pleased about that. I'm very
fired up about that. Yeah, Ari is very fired up about that.
Then we got to talk a little coaching drama because a lot
of stuff happened while we were watching the conference
championship games while the playoff was being set and we
kind of got to catch up a little bit. But Ari, let's
let's start with the seating stuff because we heard Kirby smart yesterday talking about how the seeding sucks. He's right. We've said it all year. We said, oh, the five seeds going to get the easiest. It's actually probably the six seat. I think Penn State probably got the, yeah, the six seed ended up doing it.
the easiest path this year, Andy, because we didn't anticipate that the ACC champion would be the 12 seed. So like that's how that all got a little bit wonky, but that's also
part of the reason why it's a hard thing to solve outside of doing the one thing that
they have to do because you can't reward the highest seed with the easiest path if teams
that are eight and nine and 10 are some of the best teams in college football. So what
you need to do, and I guess that that might still be true in the future is just rank them one through 12 based on seeding in the rankings.
Just use the rankings to seed. And then if you're a conference champion, if you want
to guarantee four, then their seeding would correlate to their ranking. They get a guaranteed
spot. They get a guaranteed spot in the playoff, but not a guaranteed seed. Exactly. Yeah.
Right. So if you're 16th in the in the rankings and you won
your conference, then you were the last seed. Yeah. And that
that makes plenty of sense. And I know why they did it. I know
why they did it this way, where the top four conference
champions got the top four seats, because there were a
bunch of whiners in the BCS era and in the 14 playoff era,
like conference championships have to matter.
Well, no, they don't.
They don't need to matter.
Well, as it turns out, what matters is just making it
to the conference championship game, not winning it.
So, you know, that's the way that they did it.
So, yeah, well, in all conferences aren't created equal.
And nobody wants to believe that.
The fact of the matter is that like SEC Championship game
loser, the Big Ten Championship loser and the ACC Championship
game loser all got the same benefit.
Now it didn't manifest in the same.
Right.
In the same seating or the same area of the rankings, but they all were afforded
the opportunity to remain in the field and not have their, their seating hurt
all that much by that loss.
So, um, you know, that is the way that the committee did it this year.
And Andy, I think it's interesting because in the first 10 years of this
process, I don't ever recall this being the case.
Now, maybe it felt different because there were only four teams getting in.
There's two games.
It wasn't really a big deal.
Yeah.
But I losing that game, I guess, uh, like, so here's the
thing. Since the beginning of time with the playoff, you hear
buzzwords like deliberations, you hear it like precedent, and
is it a slippery slope and all this stuff? And, you know, I
used to get all fired up about that, but this isn't like the
Supreme Court. Like they are new people or different people every
year who just do what they want to do in that year. Now, a lot of times they use the same guidelines and kind of try to
think similarly, but just because they rewarded all the conference championship game losers
this year doesn't necessarily mean that's going to how it's going to bear out in the
future. Like I think that that's all like individual one year living organisms that
change and evolve over time because this is the way that they have arrived at this was
not the way that the other thing about this is this system, the
format was sort of slapped together and it was slapped
together before the contract ended. So the new contract
starts the 20, 20, six season. They can change all of this if
they want to. And I think they're probably going to change
some stuff. But I checked with some people last night, they
think more than likely.
You're stuck with this for next year.
That there's going to be like this for next year, but it's interesting.
Like doughboy in the chat brings up an interesting possibility is the easy
solution to get rid of the bias for conference champs, but guarantee
conference champs home field in the first round, which is actually what
the NFL does with division champs.
Right.
Cause you're like, wait, why is that team with a better record have to go on the road to play? Oh,
cause they're going to a division champ. Like that's how the AFC South champion.
Like what do you think of the notion? Cause I never even really considered it
of just removing bi-weeks. Well, that's what they're going to do. Yeah.
That's what they're going to, they're, that's, they're going to go to 14.
There's going to be two buys. Just like no buys at all. Yeah. Uh,
well that would be a 16 team
playoff. Well, yeah, I mean, mine's the 50 over at this rate.
Well, the six, that way Alabama can get in no matter what 16 is,
is the only way to do that. If you want to do that again,
you gotta go to 64. So 16 would be the, is that Matt,
is that the math on it? That's the math. Yeah.
I would never have known that. Thank you for that. Yes. If,
if, if you're going to have a four round playoff,
which is what they have now, 16 would have no buy.
So what's it called?
Uh, nevermind. Go ahead.
I was trying to think of exponents. Exponent. Yes. Yes.
Four, four square to 16, four cubed is a 64.
I was on the cube show this morning. Uh, yes, right.
You were in cold show and Greg Mack word. Actually before we talk about that, or cubed is 64. I was on the cubed show this morning. Yeah, that's right.
You were on the Colt Cubely show and Greg McElroy.
Actually, before we talk about that,
because we do need to talk about that,
because you and Greg McElroy got into it,
Greg McElroy, Alabama grad,
got into some interesting debate about conference,
or not conference scheduling, but out of conference scheduling.
Before we talk about that,
I wanna tell you about game time,
because if you would like to attend
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you can with game time. If you're looking on the screen
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And then if you want a good seat, it's out there.
But if you wanna go, you can,
because Game Time has the tickets to all of these games.
Go to Game Time, download the app,
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Terms apply. Hit the GT picks button. It gives
you the best prices relative to the market so you know you're
getting the best deal. So download the app.
Code staples $20 off your first purchase terms apply if you
want to go to a college football playoff game on campus.
You can with game time guaranteed.
Ari. Let's talk about this. Greg Burn, the Alabama athletic director, tweeted on Sunday that essentially if this is how it's going to be, then they need to reconsider their non-conference scheduling.
And he got community noted on Twitter. He did. If you don't use Twitter, a community note is when everybody says, hey,
here's a little extra context that might change how you feel about this particular tweet. In this particular
tweet, the readers added, all of Alabama's losses came in conference play. Alabama's non-conference
sales was actually one of the easiest in the country. Now, they did try to play a hard game by going
to Wisconsin. It turned out Wisconsin didn't cooperate and wound up being bad this year.
But all right, if Alabama had gone to Ohio State and beaten Ohio State and then lost
those three conference games in the playoff, correct. So here's the thing that the sec people who are saying these things,
what they're trying to say, just so you understand is that if strength
of schedule isn't going to matter in the future, that they have nothing to
gain by potentially losing an extra non-conference game when losses mattered
and their schedule didn't.
And it's basically just a jab at Indiana, right?
Cause Indiana didn't play anybody in the non-conference and wound up 11 and one.
But there is this notion as a result of this, that people are saying that
strength of schedule did not matter this year, and that is just
blatantly and patently false.
Like it's not true at all.
Now there are teams that made it to the playoff like SMU in Indiana, who didn't
play big time sec games, you know, who, who didn't have the marquee wins that,
you know, Alabama and Ole Miss have, but they also had less margin of error
during the season to do that.
The reason why SMU is in and the reason why Indiana is in is because they
took their weaker schedule and went 11-1 and 10-2 with the conference championship game loss.
That's why they're in. It's not that strength of schedule didn't matter. It meant that they took
their easier schedule and they were much, much better and more consistent during that period.
Right. They played teams that were as good as Vanderbilt in Oklahoma.
Yes. Which Alabama lost to. And if you want to ask a team if strength of schedule mattered or,
you know, do a case study of what it would be like going 10 and two against an easier schedule,
why don't we invite Miami up to the stage? Yes. They weren't even in the conference or in the
playoff discussion yesterday, even though they had one fewer lost in
Alabama because their conference schedule and their schedule strength.
The schedule was bad. Alabama. And they tried to schedule a tough out of
conference game, but Florida didn't cooperate. Right? Yeah. So there's
there you throughout the year are rewarded. Alabama being in the
discussion on Sunday morning is proof that
strength of schedule matters because if it didn't they have no case to be in. Right. Like that's
there was no they're not even in the discussion. Ole Miss the only power conference scene they
played out of conference was Wake Forest. Yeah they would have been. Imagine if they played
somebody good out of conference. So I actually feel like the response to this should be the
exact opposite because you need the if you, if you're going to just resign yourself
to going nine and three and thinking that that's good enough as the athletic
director of Alabama, then you might as well try to go nine and three with as
many big time games on your schedule as possible to buoy your chances of getting
it. Now, you know, most years you're not going to have an Indiana type team at
11 and one. And the thing that I think is really annoying is that there's this, this, uh,
resentment of Indiana's existence in the field.
Like, I think that if you're not an Indiana fan, like, and your team was on
the bubble, like you despise Indiana.
And it's like, listen, Indiana.
Plays in the big 10.
They had to play Michigan.
They played Ohio state.
They got a good draw.
Like it's not their fault that the big Ten schedule stunk this year that they had to play.
But that's what's going to happen all the time. Texas and Indiana both were recipients of
advantageous paths in their conference. But in this sport, the way it's set up,
when you do get an easier draw, you have to take advantage of it.
Right.
And they did. So there will be years where Texas has to play Georgia and
LSU and South Carolina and Ole Miss on the road or whatever,
and it's going to suck for Texas.
But this year, Texas didn't have to do that.
They took advantage.
They didn't lose to anybody but Georgia, and they're in.
So when you have a hard schedule, you have to win games
and not lose to Vanderbilt.
And when you have an easy schedule, you have to lose one fewer game than the
teams, like you are rewarded with a harder schedule with an extra loss being
afforded to you.
So like it's not that it doesn't matter.
It just, the circumstance of the sport is not everybody's going to play in the
sec.
And if you don't think that Indiana should be in going 11 and one in the big
10, then you don't even think the SEC should be playing in the same sport as
everybody else because you're just going to pull everybody out to put the SEC in.
It's like, okay, well,
if the SEC is just automatically better than everybody else,
even when they've lost two fewer games than you,
then do you want to just break off and go play SEC football in the South alone?
It doesn't make any sense. Why do you even want Indiana in the field or in,
in the sport? They don't. Okay, so just move it.
Go play as 18 team NFL South League,
but like that's you win some and you lose some.
And I hate to tell you Alabama,
you're a great team and a great program,
but you lost this year.
The lesson.
The only one you have to blame is yourself.
The lesson as always is don't lose to Vanderbilt.
Like it's pretty simple.
Don't lose to Vanderbilt.
And I also understand like,
and I understand if you're an Alabama fan
where you're coming from,
because we know, we're not idiots. We know that Alabama had a tough schedule this year.
Playing in the SEC and having to play Georgia and LSU and all these games that they had to play makes you more susceptible to having an off game against the Vanderbilt.
It's not just that Vanderbilt beat you. If you want to say that you were grinded down and it's hard to get up every single week and you have to play at Tennessee, you have to play at LSU.
I mean, even at Oklahoma, Oklahoma sucked this year, but like on the wrong day, you
know, Oklahoma has good players.
Like I understand the thought of that, but at the same time too, it's just like if you
were Texas and Texas was you, you would unequivocally believe that you deserve to get in with no quality wins
the way that Texas did, right?
Like it just, you gotta know that it's cyclical,
that you will be the beneficiary
of an easy schedule in the future
because with the conference that size,
you can't possibly play as many teams.
And that's just the way it works.
But if you are like,
oh, I cannot believe Indiana's in over us,
then an 11 and one team
from the big 10 not being worthy because your schedule is so much harder is then then don't
play.
Just you don't want to be in college football anymore.
Just be in the SEC.
It doesn't make any sense.
Well, the SEC in the big 10 probably headed that way anyway.
But it is funny that the big 10 team is the one that's getting the brunt of this.
Yeah, it's not like it's a group of five.
And the thing is, like they're in the Big 10 team is the one that's getting the brunt of this. Yeah. It's not like it's a group of five.
And the thing is like they're in the Big 10.
Is there going to be, because I think this is pretty fluky.
Is there going to be a Big 10 schedule in the future in the next 10 years that winds
up like this has for Indiana?
I mean, yeah, I just, I mean the randomness of it all, I don't even think that's going
to happen very often.
Yeah. I mean, I got to go look at who who they played but they played a bunch of teams that have been
very good in the last 15 years. Well the Michigan, right they played, we assumed when we saw the
schedule, oh they've got Michigan and Ohio State back to back. There's there's no way they're.
Yeah at the beginning of the year everyone's like Indiana's gonna make the playoff. It's like all
right buddy we got Michigan and Ohio State back to back there at the end of the year and it's like
okay well at the time we didn't know that Michigan
wasn't going to be very good.
Um, but I'm going to go look at the Indiana schedule here.
So bear with me while I do this.
Okay.
11 and one eight one, the big 10.
So, okay, listen, there are going to be years where UCLA is better than they've
been, okay, North they had to play Maryland, Northwestern and Nebraska.
Those aren't tough games, but future Nebraska future, Nebraska is gonna be a tougher game.
I can give you Indiana's next year's conference.
But before we do that though, let's just go through this.
Nebraska and Washington were easy games
that might not be so easy in the future.
Michigan was an easy game that's not easy in the future.
Michigan State isn't always easy.
Michigan State is not always easy on the road.
Ohio State, I mean that,
if you took this schedule back two years ago,
it's a hard schedule.
Yeah, yeah. So next year at home, they get Illinois, Michigan State, But if you took this schedule back two years ago, it's a hard schedule. Yeah.
Yeah.
So next year at home, they get Illinois, Michigan state, UCLA and Wisconsin away.
They get Iowa, Maryland, Oregon, Penn State and Purdue.
Like you go on the road to Iowa, Oregon and Penn State.
Yeah.
That's a hard schedule.
And it's going to be different every single year.
And the reason why it's going to be this random is because we've put teams in California in the Big 10
and are trying to figure out how to play a nine game schedule
and you just can't play everybody.
So, you know, also too, if you're upset,
just blame the television networks.
Like the conferences are so stupid.
Like, and I know we're a year into it, it's just dumb
that Washington, Oregon and USC are in the big 10.
And the packed 12 would have been great this year.
It would have been great for the sport.
I missed Andy a year into this.
I miss it.
The pack 12.
Well, maybe they'll get back together.
And Penn state would have finally won the big 10 championship.
Maybe they might've had to play Ohio state.
Maybe speaking of getting back together,
Scott Frost is going back to UCF.
It's electric.
This happened on Saturday, so we were all watching
Conference Championship games.
Now, I put him on my hot board when the UCF job opened,
because I knew that Scott had been trying to get back in.
He actually tried to get back into some stuff last year.
And it was a slog for him to get even considered for jobs because of how bad things went at Nebraska.
But UCF, unique situation. That's where he went and went undefeated in 2017, and that's why he
got the Nebraska job and why we thought when he got the Nebraska job, well, this is a slam dunk. This is easy. And it was interesting. So he had his
initial press conference on Sunday and he was talking about, you know,
sometimes as you're climbing the ladder, nobody tells you to stop when you're
happy. And look, nobody begrudged Scott Frost leaving UCF for Nebraska for his
alma mater.
But I do wonder sometimes, and I have thought about this because, you know, we have the this Peter principal discussion in college football where you have these
coaches that go up and up and up and then they hit the spot and then they just
can't can't win there.
Do you think Scott Frost, because we've seen him do this, go undefeated at UCF.
Do you think he can come back in and all of what happened at
Nebraska is suddenly wiped away.
And he's just back to winning.
We have to analyze what made him successful to begin with the first time there.
And you have to analyze whether or not that is due something you could duplicate now.
Right.
And it's a much different job now.
It's a much different job now. It's a much different landscape now. And, you know, I think that, you know, the things that that went wrong
at Nebraska concern me. Like, that's not a Nebraska. And when he got, when he got to UCF,
the Griffin brothers were stuck there. Yeah. The Griffin brothers had, had signed with George O'Leary
and Shaquille was doing great. Shaquille was buried on the depth chart like
you realize Shaquille's a great player and you develop him and that's great and
Obviously he brought in Mackenzie Milton
That was a player who he'd been tracking
Who when he was the OC at Oregon had loved him in camp and thought okay love to have you here
When he got the UCF job, he could sign McKenzie Milton.
Yeah.
But a lot of the players they had success with were Georgia O'Leary
recruits who could not leave because the transfer rules did not work the way they
do now he's going to have to build this roster from scratch and do it in a more
difficult conference.
Yeah.
Also too, the general dysfunction
of the entire Nebraska program under his leadership
scares the hell out of me too.
Right.
Like I don't know if that's like a Nebraska problem.
That was a Scott.
I don't think that's a Nebraska problem.
So you're not seeing that under Matt rule.
Yeah, like I, so, you know, listen,
I understand going back and getting a coach
that went undefeated for you.
And I understand that, you know, if it worked once, it maybe could work again.
I'm skeptical.
It's going to be a harder job than it was.
Yeah.
The, the conference was easier that he was in now the American of, of 2017 and
the, the big 12 of now are not entirely different,
but it is more rugged in the, in the big 12 now.
And again, you have to build this roster from scratch.
So I am excited.
He's got another chance because I did hate, I hated the way it went.
I mean, it is also possible too, that just like going back home, trying to be the
savior, all the pressure of having to win and having to win soon because people are expecting like maybe that ate him
alive. Yeah. Like as you know, too, it's like when we think about other coaches who haven't
been successful in positions and then gone on to other places and done better, maybe
that just Nebraska wasn't for him. Yeah. Like, and there's, it's possible, you know, so
well, Jason in the chat says, what's a realistic year one expectation for frost? I'd say get him to a bowl game because Gus couldn't get
into a bowl game this year and they did they did get a there were six and six
and went to a bowl game in the first year in the big 12 but get into a bowl
game. Now look it is the big 12 at UCF. You should be able to build a contender for the big 12 title.
It should not take long. Like by year two, if you're doing this right,
you should be in the mix for the big 12 title.
Yeah, no, I'm with you. Just the area of the country and, you know,
portal destination size of the university. I mean, it always seems to be like a place that should be better.
Well, you know, a lot of the things you were saying about Arizona State, the
positives for Arizona State. Yeah, UCF is very similar to that.
But UCF probably still has a long way to go for the alumni base, right?
Oh, yeah, they're generations behind because it's a much younger school.
So they don't have as much money as somebody.
But none of the schools in the Big 12, other than the Texas old line, you know, Baylor, TCU,
nobody has gobs of money.
Obviously you haven't been watching Landman.
I have been watching Landman,
but I don't see Texas Tech.
No, TCU.
Well, I said TCU, I said Baylor and TCU,
they have lots of money.
TCU's got the oil barons with the nice burgundy suits.
No, Baylor and TCU have the money, but.
You know those very rich guys that wear the cowboy has to go pardon me ma'am I'll
tell you what who wear a hell you wear a blazer and a cowboy hat to work like I
should do a show in a blazer and cowboy hat obviously you've never gone to a
steakhouse in Dallas and seen that half the restaurant is wearing a cowboy hat
and cowboy boots with a suit like oh you take your cowboy hat off and you put it
on the table. Yes. Yeah. I, I think, I think it'll be a very interesting
situation to watch because again, he's getting another chance. He has
succeeded here before the last time we saw him, as you pointed out, everything
was dysfunctional. Every aspect of Nebraska's program was dysfunctional under Scott Frost.
He has to show that that's going to be different this time.
Now that staff, it's interesting because I think he's got to go build his staff from
whole cloth too.
Because those guys have kind of scattered through the winds and they've got jobs elsewhere.
And I don't know if they're all going to just get the band back together.
Yeah.
So what are the, what's the main qualification for him in this job?
That he has done it before with success.
Yeah.
So he looks good in that UCF polo.
Yeah.
He's a handsome man.
Okay.
We have a theory that handsomeness does.
There's a correlation between handsome, like for instance,
and this isn't a handsomeness thing,
but I think last name does.
I think the way you look does.
Wait, last name is like who you are, who your daddy was,
or how cool your name sounds.
Like if you would have blindfolded me
when the Chicago Bears saw.
Matt Heber Fluss.
Matt Heber Fluss and never showed me what he looked like.
I mean, that guy's gonna get fired.
Okay.
See, I, I'm gonna push back on this.
Okay.
I'm gonna push back on this.
So when bill Belichick first got a head coaching job
with the Browns,
Belichick and Eber flus aren't that different.
Eber flus, if you don't know.
Eber flus, Belichick.
Eber flus, Belichick.
Okay.
Scataboo. Scataboo. You've never seen him play before. You're like,
that's like a Scandinavian name. That guy can't play
football. Who are like, what's the weirdest name of a coach
that's Bella check of in college football? Who's good?
Oh, college Kirby smart. Like that's like a normal Saban.
No Saban's a normal name. Sarkeez. Sarkeez is kind of a
weird name. It's Albanian, I believe. No Saban's a normal name. Sarkeesian, Sarkeesian is kind of a weird name.
It's Albanian, I believe.
Yeah, but it's not like I mean,
Iber fluce. There's just something about it.
You said that you is getting you every time.
Fluce is I think it's just a bizarre.
Sarkeesian is loose and lose.
Sarkeesian still is like it sounds like a strong name.
Like I don't know.
Iber fluce.
This is a very good off season topic
that sometime in March. But do you revisit? Do you agree with me though, just looking at. Iber flu. This is a very good off season topic that sometime in March, but do you revisit?
Do you agree with me that I'm just looking at Matt Iber Fluss and looking at his like
the way his mannerisms are and his last name, like it was just doomed to fail from the beginning.
Or do you think that there's something more to it than that?
I think there's significantly more to it than that.
Okay.
Oh, I invested a bunch of money into Justin Fields.
Oh, this is this is this is where it's coming from.
This is I did come on and the second that I saw who was
coaching him. I'm like I made a mistake.
And it had nothing to do with anything other than his his
aura and his last name.
Well, let's let's stay in the Big 12 and talk about it.
Stopped calling timeouts on Thanksgiving and they got fired.
Well, let's let's talk about a coach in the big 12 who for most of his career has had.
Immense aura.
Mike Gundy strong name, Mike, Mike Gundy had a terrible year this year.
Terrible.
But let's not forget that he changed the entire trajectory
of Oklahoma State's program.
That used to be a very hard job.
It wasn't a place where they went to bowl games every year.
Like he changed everything there.
He had his worst year this year.
So he has a contract that perpetually rolls over.
Oklahoma State's like,
hey, we gotta do something about your contract.
We can't be paying you this much.
We can't be guaranteeing you this much money.
And there was a little standoff there. And I'm not sure if Gundy's people put out that they were threatening to fire him for cause. I don't think Oklahoma State ever really considered
firing him for cause because they don't have a cause. They would have had to pay him,
but it ended up being more like a Jim Harbaugh situation in Michigan, where they went back to the table.
Gundy agreed to take a lower salary.
Now, and the, the Jim Harbaugh, Michigan situation, the lower salary was just punitive, like you're losing, we're going to pay you less money at Oklahoma state.
They said when they announced that they have redone the contract, they're going
to take the money and give it to the players.
Yeah.
And I think that this is a hour long episode. Oh yeah. We'll talk about this. This is not a five minute conversation. This is a, this is a whole episode.
But the thing that I think is interesting about this is that the word standoff was
used quite a bit Andy,
but actually somebody who's been at Oklahoma state for as long as Gundy has
been there and how much money
he's made over the years.
Like he's not going to be starving anytime soon.
No, like you would think from a legacy standpoint, from a competitive
standpoint, that he would be on board with this of like, okay, well,
if you're not going to give it to me, give it to the players.
Um, let me get some guys in here that can put me in a position to, um,
you know, to win more games, help my legacy, try to get us over the top
and, and off you go. Now, the thing that I think is super interesting here, to win more games, help my legacy, try to get us over the top and, and off you go.
Now, the thing that I think is super interesting here, Andy, more than anything
is, um, is this the beginning of a trend where coaches' salaries are going to be
going downward and whether or not moving forward, coaches are going to get paid
in between four and 5 million rather than 9 and 11 million at the biggest places
in the country, because they need that $5 million to pay their quarterback.
Like that, that to me is the next step of like, hey, how's the money going to be allocated?
Is the money being allocated properly at the moment?
And does there need to be an adjustment here?
I think that's a perfectly legitimate question.
And I think it's logical.
And I think we know the answer.
That's what's going to happen.
Like this is just how markets work.
There's a finite amount of money.
And I realize everybody thought when NIL came in,
that, oh, they'll just keep spending more.
No, there's a finite amount of money.
You have to decide how you want to distribute it.
And they used to give it to the coach
because they couldn't give it to the players.
But now they can give it to the players.
And you're going to very quickly see that unless you have Kirby
Smart or somebody who has demonstrated that they are much more special than
everybody else. Well, there needs to be another debate too about coaching jobs
right now and the difficulty of those jobs because back in the past, Andy,
like you paid these crazy salaries to coaches because you needed a good recruiter
who also could run a program. Right. And like now if the money is being allocated to the acquisition
of talent, then your number one job as a coach is being a good motivator, program builder, culture
installer and play caller. And I feel like it's much easier to find people who are good at those
things than both. Yeah. And that's why like Alabama with Nick Saban was such a juggernaut because Alabama was an incredible or Saban was an incredible recruiter who did who happened to be a very good program builder culture, you know, installer and play caller and in higher.
So if you're going to go like there's plenty of Dan Mullins out there. right? Dan Mullin is a great game day coach. He's a great guy.
He couldn't recruit anybody
or at the level that Florida needed to.
And that's why he's not a coach in college football right now.
But if you, even the playing field
on how these players are acquired
and you get GMs involved and money involved
and people are paying and it's more of a contract negotiation
than it is a recruitment,
then Dan Mullin might be one of the hottest coaching candidates in the, in carousel in two years. Yeah. And then that means to me that your
value if your curvery smart goes down and I don't mean and I know you might push that back on that
because Kirby Smart is the modern day Nick Saban but yeah, Kirby Smart has to make 13 million? No,
he can make 11 million. I know but Kirby Smarts paid for talent acquisition.
And if the talent acquisition that Georgia is doing, like, if you go look at the top 10 classes from signing day this past year, nobody signed 15 top 100 players.
Right. Like everybody signed, like the good classes signed seven to nine.
Back in the day, like Alabama was signing 13, Georgia was signing 14.
Like that might not seem like a big deal all seven different
Oh, it makes a huge difference over a four-year period
so if Kirby smart is recruiting more down to earth as a result of this situation and his inherent value as
Georgia's coach is no longer is important because his you know, they're paying him to get players
Yeah, they weren't paying you know what I mean like that. It's like everybody's like oh you're paying him to get players. Yeah, they weren't paying. You know what I mean? Like that? It's like everybody's
like, oh, you're paid to, you know, you know, foster a an
environment that's going to develop young men and get
education and all that. No, no, he's paid to get the best five
stars he can get to go rock shit on the field on Saturday. And if
Florida can do that better now, and Oklahoma State can do that
better now and Michigan can do that better the value of that
the value of that skill set goes down and
The scarcity of that skill sets no longer prevalent because everybody has that skill set now and then all of a sudden
How many coaches in college football can drop good ball plays like that's you just delivered an economics lecture. You're right
That's right
Professor Ari good at at math podcast baby. So it's true
though. The more there's more people who are able to draw up
plays and call a good game on Saturday than there are people
who can get fifteen top 100 players to come to their
program and recruiting site. We are gonna talk about this more
as the weeks go on. In fact, it dovetails into what we're
about to do. Yes, because this show,
Indian Orion 3, Monday edition is ending.
Head back to the on three sports YouTube page in about five minutes
because our transfer portal extravaganza begins because the transfer
portal is open as we speak.
It opened at midnight and it is time to talk about the opening day of free agency in
college football. We've already got a bunch of names that have come into the into the portal
that we know are coming. We're going to talk to Pete Nakos, talk to JD Piquel about what happens
next and it's exactly what we're talking about because now you can build your roster in a different way. Join us for the Transfer Portal extravaganza.
Let's find out how everybody's building their roster for 2025.