Andy & Ari On3 - Could Ole Miss WIN the SEC in 2024? | What does Ryan Day have to do differently to win a natty?

Episode Date: June 6, 2024

It’s a Dear Andy episode, and you have some incredible questions…(0:00-4:05) Intro - Lakers Targeting Dan Hurley(4:06-46:18) Dear Andy, Can Ole Miss win the SEC or Colorado win the CFP?(16:19-25:06) What does Ryan Day need to do different?(25:07-35:11) This year's version of TCU/Washington(35:12-39:49) Oklahoma's Offensive Line(39:50-42:43) Conferences moving back to divisions?(42:44-46:32) Louisville and the playoffs?(46:33-49:24) Florida vs Miami or Clemson vs Georgia(49:25-52:52) Florida's Baking Team(52:53-55:21) ConclusionShould a listener put down a future on Ole Miss winning the SEC in 2024?Who is the 2023 Washington or 2022 TCU in 2024?What does Ohio State coach Ryan Day have to do differently to win a national title?Will conferences ever go back to divisions?And much more…Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et!https://youtube.com/live/Y9WAJva4uTwHost: Andy StaplesProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. It is a Dear Andy show. Your questions are the stars. And man, do you have some great questions today. I've got a bunch prepared. We're going to rip through them. Hopefully I won't spend 40 minutes on one question like I usually do. I tend to get long winded sometimes. I understand that. We're going to work on that. We're going to work on that because you guys had so many good questions. I want to make sure I get to as many as possible. But before we get to Dear Andy, there was a loge bomb this morning. Since we moved to the mornings, we've not had a lot of breaking news right before the show or during the show.

But loge bomb at 7 a.m. Eastern, 4 a.m pacific since it concerns the team in the pacific time zone dan hurley yukon head coach according to adrian wojnarowski of espn the leading candidate for los angeles lakers job that they are engaged in, that there is a very lucrative offer being prepared for Dan Hurley, the coach of the last two national championship teams in men's college basketball. That would be a seismic shift. Now remember, most of Wednesday, you had Sham Sharania, the rival NBA insider to Woj, reporting that J.J. Redick would be the Lakers coach. The Dan Hurley thing makes a little more sense, even though he doesn't have a podcast with LeBron. But if it happened, holy cow, it would be a big deal in college basketball.

Because Dan Hurley had kind of established a situation where you're wondering if anybody was ever going to be able to beat UConn again based on the way they ran through the last two NCAA tournaments. And it wasn't exactly like it was with the same team either. He had made adjustments. He had replaced players and they were still as dominant. We'll see if it happens, but it is the chance to coach LeBron and Anthony Davis with the Lakers. And it's not like there won't be a college job waiting for him when he comes back. If this doesn't work out, we're talking about probably generational money, probably money that, that UConn isn't going to be able to match. So we'll see what happens, But that was a hell of a woge bomb. Bright and early on Thursday morning.

Potentially huge move in men's college basketball. The truth says bad move, Dan. His hard-ass style won't do well in the NBA. I don't know. This isn't a John Beeline situation because, you know, if you watch those UConn players, like, yes, Dan Hurley is kind of a hard ass, but in an endearing way, in an I love you kind of way, I think that's probably fine in the NBA.

And I also think he's smart enough to understand that he's dealing with professionals, that he doesn't have to be on them every second of every day. Now, I don't know that that energy goes away from him. So to see, does he move it to the refs? Does he move it to his assistants? That's the other question. So we'll see. But it would be fascinating to watch.

That said, for UConn's sake, I hope something happens, something changes, and it winds up being JJ Redick. I would rather Dan Hurley stay in college basketball. It would be a lot more fun watching him try to do this again because it's been fun watching him build UConn up to this and make them the kind of death star in the sport. We'll see what happens from here, but that was a big one to wake up to on Thursday morning,

especially if you, if you're in LA, you may not even be awake yet. You're going to have a surprise for you when you wake up. All right. Let us move on to your questions because it is the Dear Andy show. The questions were spectacular that you sent on Wednesday, and I cannot wait to get to them. We're going to start with one from Oscar. Should I put a future on Ole Miss to win the SEC? And this is one that I think in most past years you'd have been like, okay, look, even though we think Ole Miss is going to be good, you still have to just put it on Georgia, put it on Alabama. We got Texas coming in this year. But all right, here's the thing.

The Rebels are plus 650 to win the SEC. That's the third best odds. Georgia's plus 185. Texas is plus 310 at FanDuel. Alabama is plus 950. Ole Miss has better odds to win the sec than Alabama. The reason for that is all sec schedules are not created equal. Ole Miss has one of the better draws in the new sec.

So Ole Miss is toughest games at LSU, October 12th, Oklahoma in Oxford on October 26th, Georgia in Oxford on November 9th. I think they got to beat Georgia to guarantee that they get into the SEC championship game. Like if they beat Georgia, they're probably in the SEC championship game because you're probably talking about an 8-0 or a seven and one record in SEC play with a, with a head to head against one of the better teams. But even if they don't beat Georgia, like what if Georgia loses to Texas and Alabama? Cause remember Georgia has to play both of those teams.

Now I know what you're saying. Well, then Alabama is probably in and Texas is probably in, but Alabama has to play Missouri. Alabama has played Tennessee. Texas also has to play Georgia. Texas has to play Oklahoma, obviously. So we don't know exactly how this is going to fall, but if Ole Miss can get to Atlanta, I think you're feeling pretty good at that point.

I do think there's a good chance Ole Miss can get to Atlanta. I think the schedule sets up pretty well for them. If they beat Georgia, I don't see how you keep them out of Atlanta. The at LSU, that's been a house of horrors for Ole Miss over the years. But if Ole Miss is as good as we think they're going to be, they can win that game. They can beat Oklahoma at home. Kentucky at home, that could be tough.

At Florida, we'll see what Florida is at that point. Florida is going to be in the midst of a just brutal stretch of the schedule. But absolutely, I do think this is a possibility. And that feels like a shift from previous years. And I think it's kind of our belief that they have gotten better on the lines of scrimmage through the transfer portal, which we thought wasn't possible. And we'll see if it's possible. But when you pick up a Walter Nolan, when you pick up some offensive linemen to add to a pretty good offensive line you already had, when you pick up Prince Liam and Miellon

from Florida to be an edge rusher, this is a better team than last year. And last year's team was really good. But you saw when they went to Athens exactly kind of where, where the deficiencies were. It seems like Lane Kiffin has addressed those deficiencies in the portal. So we'll find out. Can they beat Georgia and Oxford? I think that probably is the one that answers the question.

Christopher says, I see at least 10 wins for Ole Miss. Their schedule is nice. At LSU, maybe a problem in UGA. That gets you in the playoff. Yes, the playoff, but we're talking about placing a bet to win the SEC. And that is the difference here. Marshall says Oklahoma will win it. I don't know what you mean by that.

Oklahoma will win the SEC or Oklahoma will beat Ole Miss. Either way, probably hurts the future on Ole Miss. But it's not that far-fetched. I think in previous years, people would have said, well, you can't, no, Ole Miss to win the SEC? No, I think it's a very realistic possibility this year. It's certainly a much better future to put down than what we saw on Wednesday. So John Ewing is the data and PR guy from BetMGM.

He tweeted on Wednesday that the Colorado Buffaloes have moved from plus 20,000 to plus 12,500 to win the national championship. Four and a half percent of bets, fourth most are on Colorado to win the championship at BetMGM. That's from John Ewing at BetMGM. That is insane. You may as well light your money on fire. Also, if you're the book, if you're BetMGM, why are you moving the line? I realize when you have that amount of bets, that amount of money coming in, that the algorithm says move the line. Don't move the line. They're donating to you.

If $20,000 is making them donate more, leave it at plus $20,000. You're not going to have to pay off on that bet. Colorado's not going to win to pay off on that bet. Colorado is not going to win national championship guys. Like Ole Miss winning the SEC championship is in the realm of possibility. Colorado winning the national championship. So getting into the playoff, then winning, I guess if Colorado is getting in, are we saying they won the big 12? If we say they won the big 12, then they're the three or the four seed. They still would have to win three games in a row against the best teams in the country.

Like you're insane. If you're putting money on this, but four and a half percent of bets. Notice they're talking about total bets. It's not 4.5% of the money. What it probably is, is people putting a little tiny bid on Colorado and saying, hey, I've got a future on Colorado to win the national championship. Isn't that funny? That's fine.

But here's my thing. If you're going to bet on Colorado and you want to put a future on Colorado and you want long odds, why not something that is at least in the realm of possibility? Something that you might actually get paid off on. Colorado's plus 4,000 to win the Big 12. You heard the show with Ari Temkin the other day when we did the ceilings and floors for everybody in the Big 12. Colorado winning the Big 12 is not that crazy. It's not likely, but it's not impossible either. Plus 4,000, it's a pretty good payday if you plunk down 50 bucks on that. But they're not winning the national title. They could win the Big 12 title. So yeah, if you want to go for that plus 4,000 to say,

hey, I've got a future on Colorado, rooting for Dion, I get it. But the national title is crazy. Oh, goat dog says mattress Mac is insane then. Well, here's the thing. We just mentioned mattress Mac on the show. Mattress Mac may sell some more mattresses in Houston.

I just, why, why again, if you're going to do that, put it on them to win the big 12. They can do that put it on them to win the big 12 they can do that that's not impossible if they are better on the lines of scrimmage they could be one of the better teams in the big 12 it's possible national championship like think of who they might run into

in the playoff and just do a player-for-player matchup on that. Travis Hunter's great. Shador Sanders is great. It won't go well if they're having to play Ohio State or Georgia or Oregon or Alabama or Ole Miss. That won't go great. But again, plus 4,000 in the Big 12, not outside the realm of possibility. In fact, I don't know, is the plus 650 for Ole Miss to win the SEC. Does that feel any less likely or more likely than Colorado winning the Big 12? I think it's a little more likely because like I said, if Ole Miss beats Georgia at home, they're probably in Atlanta.

And once you're in Atlanta at that point you're both pretty good teams you I mean it's basically a toss-up we think at that point especially with no divisions in the SEC the assumption is the two teams you get they're going to be great and probably fairly equal so really it it does if Ole Miss is as good as we think come come down to that. Colorado, there's a lot more variables because there are all of the other teams in the Big 12 and a lot of variability. Kansas State, Utah, Ari Temkin loves West Virginia. We don't know if TCU or Texas Tech is just going to be gangbusters this year. Oklahoma State, still out there. They played for the Big 12 championship last year, bring back a ton of players.

There's a lot of variability there. But again, if Colorado is improved on the line of scrimmage, they have some of the best skill position players in the league. They have the best player, single player in the league in Travis Hunter. So it's not impossible. But yeah, go for the plus 4,000 big 12, not the plus 12,500 national championship, because you are absolutely lighting your money on fire. If you do that Benzo, there's an, there's a scenario for thes on betting them, making the CFP.

But winning it is a different scenario. Exactly, Benzo. Making the CFP, yeah. And that's the same, kind of the same bet as them winning the Big 12. Because I don't know, we don't know if the Big 12 is going to be able to produce an at-large at this point. Benzo also says, Georgia in the SEC Championship game, no debate. There's quite a bit of debate over that, Benzo. Georgia plays at Alabama, plays at Ole Miss, and plays at Texas. Getting to Atlanta for Georgia is not going to be easy.

If they can get to Atlanta, I'm not sure there's anybody that can stop them in the playoff, to be perfectly honest, because they have probably the hardest road into their conference championship game of anybody in the country. Goat Dog. Big 12 still all offense? Goat Dog hasn't watched much Big 12 football lately. Goat Dog. It's a defense and rushing league now.

I don't know if you haven't paid attention. The SEC is the one with all the scoring now. Things have changed. Ed D, Georgia doesn't have that cupcake schedule this year. Yeah, they don't. Their schedule is very hard. The SEC East is no more. They also open with Clemson. We're not even talking about that one. All right. There's your game. Listen, we're not saying you should take my advice on how you should

spend your money, but that Ole Miss plus 650 is not crazy. That is not a crazy thought at all. Colorado win the national championship. That's insane. Colorado win the big 12. Not so much. There are definitely some, some options out there for it. Our next question from Rodrigo,

Ohio state has been now or never team going to three seasons already what does ryan day have to do different to actually win a national title well have a noah ruggles field goal go in that would be one because they would have won a national title that year and that was only two years ago that's That's the crazy thing about this. How differently would we view Ryan Day if that Noah Ruggles kick does not sail very far to the left in the Peach Bowl as the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve 2022 going into 2023? How different do we view him? Because Ohio State, if that field goal goes in, beats Georgia, goes to the national championship game, they would have beaten TCU. They would have won the Do we view him? Because Ohio State, if that field goal goes in, beats Georgia, goes to the national championship game, they would have beaten TCU. They would have won the national title. How different will we view him? Because presumably he still would have lost to

Michigan in 2023. So there still would be that, but he'd have a national title. And I think that would change everything. Now, in terms of what Ryan day needs to change, I would argue that he has made a lot of changes. I think the changes started when he hired Jim Knowles a couple of years ago as the defensive coordinator. And I think you saw the benefits of that. Maybe not immediately in the first year, they still gave up some big plays, obviously let Georgia come back in the first year. They still gave up some big plays. Obviously, let Georgia come back in the Peach Bowl. That was a problem. But last year, I thought the defense was much better. And then you bring back almost all of that defense this year.

You have Caleb Downs added to the defense. That allows you to move Sonny Stiles to linebacker and play him where he should be playing. You have Denzel Burke. You have JT Tuamalau. You have Jack Sawyer. You have veterans in all of the key positions. So the defense is going to be much better. Ohio State is going to be very hard to score on this.

We haven't even gotten the offense yet. But this year, you have the big change offensively where Ryan Day has said, you know what? I'm not calling plays. I'm going to hand that off not calling plays. I'm going to hand that off to somebody and I'm going to handle the more global aspects of this, which I think we talked a lot about Ohio State and how do they handle their practices? Are they physical enough? Well, if they wind up playing a Georgia, are they physical enough to play them and compete with them? And I think we saw them play Georgia two years ago and they were physical enough. So the question is,

did that change put them over the top or could it put them over the top? And so initially hires Bill O'Brien, an experienced play caller, former NFL head coach, former college football head coach. And then Bill O'Brien immediately gets hired away by Boston College as its head coach. And then Ryan Day falls into an even better situation. He hires his former college coach, Chip Kelly, the guy who taught him everything about offense to call the offense. So if you're a guy who's giving up play calling,

and you're probably a little wary of letting go of that, what would give you confidence that the new person calling plays is going to be good if it's the person who taught you how? I think it's an absolutely perfect situation. Chip Kelly wants to be in this role, was tired of all of the stuff that came with being a college football head coach. He doesn't have to do that anymore. Ryan Day can do all that. And Chip Kelly can focus on calling the plays, using the pieces in this offense to put it in the best position. And look, Chip Kelly's offenses at UCLA were good, especially considering the talent they had.

He wasn't a great recruiter. He never has been. Ryan Day is a great recruiter. Chip Kelly, not since he's been at Oregon. Has he had somebody like Jeremiah Smith on his, on his roster? Now he's got all of that. He's had,

he's just loaded. I mean, Trevion Henderson, Quinn, Sean Judkins, like they are loaded at the skill positions. They've got to be a little bit better on the offensive line. That's what they need to beat Michigan.

But they have all those pieces in place. So I do think if we're talking about has Ryan Day made enough changes? Has he done enough things? Identified what has gone wrong and worked on them? I think he has. I think if you look at the way he's gone about setting this season up, it sets up very well. And that's why we keep calling it now or never. We're going to have J.D. Piquel on Friday. We're going to talk now or never teams. And I threw this out the other day on social media and a lot of people pushed back

saying, well, Ohio State isn't a now or never team. Like Ohio State's always good. So if they don't win a national title this year, there's still be national title contenders maybe next year, maybe the year after. But a few people pointed out, Andy, I think you mean it's now or never for Ryan Day. I don't know if it necessarily is. I think if he has a good season but doesn't end in a national title, that doesn't end things at Ohio State for him. Now, I do think if they lose to Michigan and then don't win the Big Ten and don't win the national title, I think that is a tough situation.

That is a maybe go find another job situation because the fan base is just going to be pretty much impossible to deal with at that point. But if you can beat Michigan, or even if you don't beat Michigan, but you win the national title, or you go deep in the playoff, you make it to the national title game,

you beat some really good teams in the playoff, I think they're going to be all right. Mike G, Ohio State will be better depending on QB play. They seem to have the hunger and Caleb Downs. And I think Will Howard will fit what they want to do. I think if you look at what Chip did, like what Chip did with Dorian Thompson Robinson at UCLA. Will Howard can do a lot of that same stuff, except he'll be doing it with a lot better players around him than DTR had or that Will Howard had at Kansas State. So I do, I like Ohio State a lot this year.

We can debate Ryan Day all we want, but if you have a just superior group of athletes and you have two guys calling plays in Jim Knowles and Chip Kelly that are really good at their jobs, it's going to be very difficult to beat them. Benzo says, let's talk about how Oregon will fare in the big 10. Are they still one of the top teams coming from the pack 10? Well, their strength of schedule also increased transferring over. Oregon's going to be fine. I mean, Oregon has the, the,

they're tied with Ohio state for the highest win total in the big 10, their talent level. Ohio state is probably the only one in the big Ten that has more talent in the aggregate than Oregon. Oregon is going to be fine. They got to figure out how to win the big one. For example, Dan Lanning is 0-3 against Washington. Washington coming over with them. But, no, I don't think things will be harder in the big, big 10 necessarily than last year in the PAC 12 last year, the PAC 12 was as deep as PAC 12 has been a long time, but I don't think

it's going to be that different for Oregon. They just need to show that they can win the big one. That's the important part. Those big games that matter. So when Ohio state comes to play them in October, you got to win that. When you go to Michigan, you got to be able to win something like that. When you play Washington, you got to be able to beat them. It's all out there for Oregon. The only thing that could stand in the way at this point in the Big Ten is Ohio State being so good, but there's a 12-team playoff. So Oregon should theoretically be good enough to make that. And then, so if you lose to Ohio State the first time, you probably get another crack at them. Also may get another crack at Ohio

State in the Big Ten championship game. So whoever wins that game the first time, I don't know if they're necessarily out of the woods. They're probably playing that team again. Next question comes from Ben. What is your bold prediction for the Washington or TCU of this season? A solid program that comes from left field to seriously contend for a championship. This is different this year, though, because it's not a win one game in their international championship scenario the playoff is going to require you to win at least two games to get the national title game that's if you have a buy possibly three games so i was thinking about tcu in 2022 that would

be a really interesting situation because tcu in 2022 would not have had a bye. Remember, they lost to Kansas State in the Big 12 championship game. So they would have been the five seed. They were the three seed that year. They would have been the five seed probably. And if they were the five seed, then I think they would have had a decent chance because that's the other piece of this, this deliberately misseeding the playoff makes it a little bit trickier to guess. Yeah, TCU would have been the five seed because Ohio State, which didn't win the Big Ten,

was the four seed. TCU was the three seed. So they had TCU, the committee ahead of Ohio State, which didn't win the Big Ten, was the four seed. TCU was the three seed. So they had TCU, the committee, ahead of Ohio State in that one. So here's how TCU's path would have gone that year. Because I was thinking, oh, well, there's no way they would have made the national title game. Actually, there probably was no way they would have made the national title game. And I'll tell you why. They would have played Tulane first. That would have been tough because it's the same Tulane team that beat USC.

So that would have been a pretty good game, I think. Then they would have played Utah, Pac-12 champ. That would have been a pretty tough game. TCU could win that game. Probably would have seen Georgia in the semifinals. That would have been the end of that. TCU wasn't beating Georgia that year. Washington in 2023, a little bit different story.

I think Washington in 2023 could have beaten just about anybody, could have beaten multiple good teams in a row. They were the Pac-12 champ. They would have gotten a buy. They would have gotten the Ohio State-Penn State winner, which I think last year, the teams that we saw at the end of the season from Ohio State and Penn State, Washington beats either one of those teams. Then they would have played Texas or Georgia in the semis. They actually beat Texas in the semis this year, so there's no question they would have been able to beat them. Georgia, if they can beat

Texas last year, they probably could have beaten Georgia last year. So they could have made the national title game again. They could have done that. So who this year, who fits that profile? I think it's somebody who can win their conference, obviously, that's not the SEC, the Big Ten. Because I think if we're talking about the SEC and the Big Ten, like with the SEC, we just talked about Ole Miss. We think Ole Miss should make the playoff. If Ole Miss makes the playoff, we think Ole Miss should probably advance in the playoff. Like I wouldn't be shocked at all if Ole Miss competes for a national title. I don't think any of you would be.

Would we be shocked if Missouri competes for a national title? I don't think so. I think if Missouri had a really good run, made the playoff, nobody's shocked if they win games in the playoff and go deep. So I don't know that those two would be kind of the out of left field. I think you have to go to the ACC or the Big 12 to find somebody like that. And it has to be somebody who can compete with those types of teams teams or at least win one game because if you get a nice draw you might be able to get to the semi-final but then you've got to win a semi-final and I think that's where the rubber meets the road now the team in the ACC

obviously if Florida State or Clemson make it, we're not surprised. We're not surprised that they're winning games in the playoff. Probably not even surprised if Miami is because Miami has the roster to do it. Now, we still need to see Mario Cristobal coach them on the field well enough to even make the playoff. But I think their roster is up there with the ones that we're talking about here. The one that I think people would be surprised by, but I wouldn't be shocked if they did wind up in the playoff, and if they did make some noise, is NC State. I think NC State's good enough to win the ACC, and I think if things break right,

if they got the right draw, they might be able to win a couple games in the playoff. Grayson McCall comes and plays quarterback. He'll be the best quarterback they've had since the last healthy year of Devin Leary. And then the defense has just been very good. As long as Tony Gibson's been there, the defense has been good. They've been great at developing players defensively. They've got a game at Clemson late September. They play Tennessee in week two.

We're going to have an idea of what NC state is by the end of September, but if they can win both those games, then you're probably looking at your, you're probably looking at a team that plays for the ACC title, if nothing else, and a team that makes the playoff because they won the ACC title more than likely if they could win those two games. So that's one. And then you've got your Big 12 teams. You know, Ari Timkin mentioned he thinks West Virginia is going to win the Big 12. I don't know about that.

If they did win the Big 12, I don't know if they would have the roster to hold up against the teams that we're talking about. But the thing is, if you're the four seed, you get the winner of the 5-12 game. So maybe you got a shot. The problem is five could be nasty. Five could be the best. Five could be the second best team in the country. This is the issue here. You don't really want to be that four seed because the five seed in a lot of years could be the second best team in the country. Let's say the two best teams in the country are Ohio State and Oregon, or the two best teams in the country are Georgia and Texas. If that's the case, one of those is going to be the one seed and one of them is going to be the five seed. So if you're the

four seed, yay, you've won your conference. You got to buy, but that five seed is going to smash the 12 and you may be playing the second best team in the country in your first playoff game. So that is the, uh, the, the trickiest part. That's, that's where the playoff format makes it hard. Rodrigo, interesting. Oklahoma State is the team that fits the profile of running that gauntlet. I don't know that they can run the gauntlet. I do think they can win the Big 12. I definitely think they can win the Big 12.

And you have a good Ollie Gordon game in that first playoff game? Okay, now we're talking. Now we're cooking. Now maybe you're in a semi. Now you got a shot. Yeah. Does the five seed get a home game against the group of five? Not necessarily, but we think that's how it's going to work most years because we assume that the highest rank group of five champ will be the lowest ranked team will wind up being the 12 seed. And then they, of course, would go on the road to play the five seats. So last year,

that would have been Liberty playing at Florida state in Tallahassee. I don't think that would have gone well for Liberty. And this year, probably going to be a similar situation. Matthew in the chat asks, will they ever look to receive the playoff like the nfl does to ensure the top seed always plays the lowest seed in each successive round not as long as they've got bulls in the playoff which again i think once they see home games in the playoff once they see on campus games in the playoff they're gonna be why in the world are we doing stupid bowl games i said it when they announced this format when they started talking about this

format i remember asking bob bulls being greg sankey about it like why are you putting bowl I said it when they announced this format, when they started talking about this format. I remember asking Bob Bowles being Greg Sankey about it. Like, why are you putting bowl games in this? This is dumb. When you see on-campus playoff games, they will be awesome. They will be probably the best environments for college football that you have ever seen in your life. And everybody who created a playoff will feel incredibly stupid for having the bowl games in there. Because they're going to get the following week, you're going to go to some

sterile NFL stadium, and the environment's going to suck. First year, maybe not, because people are just excited about the new format. But as you go forward, like, first of all, the travel fatigue, or people may not even go to those quarterfinal games. Cause they're like, we're not traveling three weekends in a row. This is not the NCAA basketball tournament. Okay. The NCAA basketball tournament that first weekend, you have eight teams in an 18,000 seat arena. Not many people have to travel. The second weekend, you have four teams in, depending on the location, either a 20,000 seat arena or a dome that's been modified to seat 40 or 50. But more than likely, it's a 20,000 seat arena. You don't have that many people traveling. The final four,

yeah, they're excited. It's the final four. These are 60,000 and up seat stadiums. Like Jerry world is 80,000. They're not going to fill them most of the time until they get to the championship game. They're going to regret putting bowl games in the playoff. In this expanded one. Why they did it. I think I know. They've been being greased by bowl executives for decades. And think they should do them favors.

But it's stupid for the sport. They would have been much smarter. To have the games on campus. Until the championship game. But they'll come to their senses eventually. Our next question comes from Josh. Oklahoma has scored points on everyone they've played for 20 years and Bill Biedenbaugh, the O-line coach, has put a ton of guys in the NFL. Why is everybody acting like they have this huge jump to make on the offensive line? Because they do. And it's not because they had a bad offensive line last year. It's just because

everybody left. That's the biggest concern for Oklahoma going into the SEC. If this has been last year, like if Oklahoma had gone into the SEC with last year's offensive line, with Walter Rouse coming from Stanford and Tyler Guyton, you know, getting ready to be a first round draft pick. I don't think anybody's worried. I think everybody's like, all right, perfect. This is exactly what you need coming into the sec. It's just that they lost 196 career starts off the offensive line. Guyton's gone as a first rounder to Cowboys Rouse in the NFL, Andrew Ray in the centers in the NFL. They lost Caden Green, who probably would have been one of the starting guards, to Missouri in the transfer portal. They only returned two players who started a game last year.

One of those guys is Troy Everett, who was supposed to be the starting center. He got hurt in spring practice. He had surgery. Brent Venable said last week he should be back sometime in September. So that means he's going to miss some time or not be a hundred percent. So that's your concern. It's not that Oklahoma has been bad on the offensive line. They've been fine on the offensive line. Bill Beatonboe is one of the best in the country. It's just that in this particular situation, it's going to be tough. They are replacing a lot of experience with a lot of inexperience. We had George Stoia and Eddie Rudasevich on a little while back. I think it

was during spring practice. They said that Fabici Nwayo from North Texas, he's locking down one of the guard spots. Michael Tarquin has some SEC experience. He's a tackle transfer. He started at Florida, then he transferred to USC. Didn't end up last season as a starter at USC on a not that great offensive line, but he may have to come in and be a starter and play a bunch. But again, he's at least done it in the SEC before when he was at Florida, they're just inexperienced. You don't know how well that line's going to gel together. That that's really it. And it's not a case where it's a bunch of young guys that beaten Bo's been coaching for three years. You've been waiting in the wings. That's, that's not the situation they have.

That's all it is. It's, it's a very situational this year thing. It is not a Oklahoma is bad on the offensive line. Traditionally, historically, they're not, we know they're not. It's just that when you are entering the SEC from the big 12, when the SEC did you no favors with your schedule draw where you got one of the tougher ones in the new SEC, this ain't the year to be that inexperienced on the offensive line. That's the problem. That's the issue. It's not that anybody thinks Oklahoma isn't going to be able to get that fixed over time. It's that right now, it's a very difficult situation. So Bill Biedenbaugh will earn his money this year because he's got a lot of work to do. He's got to get that group ready.

They're moving from a league to a place where the defensive linemen are better. There's no two ways about it. In the aggregate, SEC defensive lineman are better than big 12 defensive lineman and these guys haven't played together and they haven't played much so he's gonna have to make a cohesive group out of that and look they've got very good skill position players oklahoma's got the deepest defense they've had in a long time. If this works, Sooners are going to be good. Sooners are going to surprise people in their first year in the SEC.

But it's hard. It's like I talk about with Colorado. It's just hard to expect to have a good offensive line when you're throwing people together who haven't really played together, who have not been developed in the program. That's a difficult situation. So that's the issue. It's not a case of Oklahoma having some sort of chronic deficiency on the offensive line. They don't. It was kind kind of unlucky that the, it fell the way it did where they enter the sec when all of these good players are leaving

for Mitch. When do you think the conferences will go back to having divisions? It's going to be weird when they're in some incredibly Byzantine tiebreaker scenarios that determine who gets a birth in conference championship games and a buy in the CFP, especially when schedules will vary so much. Mitch, as long as there are at-larges in the college football playoff and the conferences are set up the way they're set up now, there will be no divisions because people realized it was stupid to have divisions because you were potentially leaving one of your better teams out of your conference championship game and potentially leaving out a chance to get a second team into the playoff or a third team in the playoff, fourth team, depending on the, which conference you are. So they're not going to do anything that causes them to get fewer teams

in the playoff. And the problem with divisions is if you have a division like the ACC Coastal or the Big Ten West, which is traditionally very weak, well, you're just wasting your time when your champ in that division would be the third or fourth place team in the other division. It's a waste of time. You waste everyone's time putting that team in the championship game. So that's why they're gone. Will they come back? I think, you know, a little while ago, I probably would have said no, but yeah, they'll come back when there's a super league. If there's a super league with a bunch of teams that are kind of alike, then you can have divisions. Like the NFL has divisions and objective criteria for making the playoff because they have ways to keep competitive balance. So if you have a collective bargaining agreement, a salary cap, a group of teams that are alike,

maybe a group of, I don't know, about 40 teams that are alike, then yeah, you could split them up geographically into equal divisions and just say, you know what, all the division champs make the playoff and we're going to have this many wild cards. You can do that, but you can't do that with the conferences as they are currently constructed because all is not equal. And you could have divisions that are just one is great and one is garbage. And that doesn't help anybody. That doesn't help the conference get more teams in the playoff.

It doesn't create good schedules. It creates boredom. When you have the bad division and certain teams see other teams over and over again. So you will get them back if you get a Super League, which I don't think is what you want. But that is when you would get divisions back. Okay. From Matt. If Louisville goes 10-2, do you think they make the playoff? That is a good question, Mac. 10-2 for Louisville because Louisville getting to 10-2 is a very

interesting path. And it kind of depends on what path they take. Also, I don't think 10 and 2 is the end of the story. I think the bigger question is, is Louisville 11 and 2 or 10 and 3? So here, let's talk Louisville's schedule and we'll explain. Louisville's toughest games are September 28th at Notre Dame. And remember, Louisville beat Notre Dame badly last year. October 19th against Miami. That game was very close, even though Louisville probably was better than Miami. But Louisville beat them last year. November 2nd at Clemson.

Those are the toughest games. Now, let's say they lose to Notre Dame. And they're 10-2. So that would make them 7 and one in ACC play, which means they've beaten Miami or Clemson. And I guess it would depend on whether Miami or Clemson, because we're assuming Florida state would be the other team on the other side of the ACC championship game. And it would probably depend on whether Miami or Clemson was the other competitor to make the ACC championship game and what they did in the rest of their schedule. So

would Louisville have that head-to-head tie break that gets them in? I think that would be the way to go. Now for this scenario to work, Louisville has to beat Kentucky. Louisville has not beaten Kentucky since 2017. 2017 there have been years where louisville should have been better than kentucky and still didn't beat him last year good example kentucky was pretty dominant in that game so louisville's got to get over that now the weirdest thing will be if louisville is 10 and 2 with a loss to notre dame and a loss to kentucky because that means they're definitely an acc championship game at 8-0 with a loss to Notre Dame and a loss to Kentucky. Because that means they're definitely in the ACC championship game at 8-0.

But if they lose the ACC championship game, they're certainly not making the playoff. If they win the ACC championship game in that scenario, they're the three seed or the four seed. It's wild. It really is, the way this all breaks out. Because that Notre Dame game is huge. If you beat Notre Dame, then I think actually you're probably better than 10-2.

Because it means you can beat... If you can beat Notre Dame with this schedule, you can go 12-0 against this schedule. Doesn't mean you do, but it means you can. But yeah, if they lose to Notre Dame and Kentucky, go undefeated in the ACC, it still would come down to the ACC championship game whether they make the playoff. Because losing that ACC championship game would basically be, oh, okay, all the decent teams you played, you lost to. So it is, that's a fascinating schedule.

I had not thought about Louisville's schedule like that, but that's exactly the way it goes. So 10-2 regular season does not guarantee a Louisville playoff berth. If they go 10-2, they're going to have to go 11-2 to make the playoff. They're going to have to win that ACC championship game probably because losing the ACC championship game would knock them out. And I don't know that there's a scenario where they're 10-2 and they don't make the ACC championship game that puts them in.

That's the issue. But it is very, very strange how that all works. From Jackson, dear Andy, if you had to choose which game you'd want to be an annual matchup, which would it be? Florida, Miami or Clemson, Georgia? So this is a double header back to back on August 31st. You got the Clemson, Georgia game in Atlanta and then the Florida, Miami or Clemson, Georgia. So this is a double header back to back on August 31st. You got the Clemson, Georgia game in Atlanta, and then the Florida, Miami game in Gainesville. These are games that Florida, Miami was an annual affair basically until the late eighties, early nineties. And then Georgia Clemson has never been an annual affair necessarily, but it is a frequent affair.

Which would I like to see annually? Obviously it is Florida, Miami. I would love the idea of Florida's big three. And I listen, you, UCF and USF fans. I know you want to be on this too,

but Florida, Miami and Florida state would love it. If they played around Robin every year, I think that would be awesome. That'd be so much fun for fans of football in the state. Florida ducked out of the one with Miami. They were like, okay, we're in the SEC. We play Florida State every year. That's hard enough. Florida State, meanwhile, at the time, remember Florida State was in the ACC. Miami was going into the Big East. Florida was in the SEC. Florida State was still playing both of those schools out of conference.

It wasn't until 2004, 2004, 2005, one of those, that Miami joined the ACC and that became a conference game. So I would love for that round robin to be played. The Clemson-Georgia one, I love the game, but I honestly think Clemson, here's what I think Clemson should do. Now, this obviously changes if Clemson gets out of the ACC, so probably too late for this idea, but they should schedule back-to-back home-and-homes, do a home-and-home with Georgia, followed by a home and home with Auburn and just

alternate them. I think that would be awesome because I feel like those are very like-minded. You've got the old Louis Grizard joke that Clemson's just Auburn with a lake. Louis Grizard, who went to Georgia, by the way. I think that would be a lot of fun. They see each other on the recruiting trail all the time. They're all meeting up to recruit players in Atlanta. I think that would be really cool if you could do it that way, if you're Clemson. Now, again, those could be conference games or Clemson could be in the Big Ten and have to play those out of common. I don't know if Clemson gets out of the ACC.

If Clemson were to stay in the ACC, then yeah, I would love to see Clemson, Georgia, one in Clemson, one in Athens. Then the next two years, Clemson, Auburn, one in Clemson, one in Auburn. I think that would be spectacular. So yeah, give me Florida, Miami every year, and then the alternating Clemson versus Georgia and Auburn. Let's make that happen. This question comes from Justin. The Gators won the baking championship. When will members of the winning team be on the podcast? We do need to chat with the members of the Florida baking team. Now, this is interesting because it's not like the Great British Bake Off. It's not like you get how all these ingredients and they give you the challenge and they say, you've got to make this in an hour.

You're not trying to get a handshake from Paul Hollywood in this situation. This is actually a food science competition. So the sickos committee, our friends on Twitter that watch all the sicko games, and then also keep track of all the other non-traditional non-NCAA competitions between colleges. They pointed out, you know, Florida just won the baking competition. NC State is your national champion of cheese rolling. K-State, crop judging. Pitt, handball. Michigan State, dodgeball.

Multiple ultimate Frisbee divisions. Brown, North Carolina. St. Olaf, congratulations. Portland, congratulations. Louisiana, Lafayette. Great rivalry in water skiing with Louisiana Monroe. The Ragin' Cajuns are on top right now they just won the national championship but this baking competition for Florida so it's a food science competition and it's actually what they do is you have to develop a product it's not just

you go bake something is you are figuring out exactly how you're going to make this, what you're using. Can it be mass produced? Can it meet FDA guidelines? And so they made something called glow squares, which are these, uh, the little kind of hostess pastry looking things that they're square and they've got kind of a cream, like a, an icing or cream filling. They look delicious. They're kind of golden Brown on the outside with a light cream filling. They look delicious. They're kind of golden brown on the outside with a light cream filling. They, they looked really delicious. Now a couple of years ago. So this is apparently a pretty dominant program that Florida has in its food science department because a couple of years ago they won the same competition with these mini Bundt

cakes with a rum icing that I would buy every time I went in the gas station if such a thing were available. So yeah, keep it going. And also congratulations to Missouri's chess team, Texas A&M's cricket team, and Purdue's hurling team. I'm not even sure what hurling is. It's not, I don't think that's a typo. I don't think it's supposed to be curling. Also, Dayton, congratulations on your Irish dance championship. Yeah, these are the competitions that we have to keep track of in the offseason. But yeah, it's interesting how all this works. The baking contest is not... I would love to see a Great British Bake Off style contest between the schools.

I think there are probably... Especially these big state schools. They got thousands of people. There's got to be some people who could just make incredible cakes and pies. Maybe that's the next big Netflix show. Make incredible cakes and pies. Maybe that's the next big Netflix show. This was fun. This was fun.

We had a lot of good questions. I don't know if you guys are running to your apps to place any futures on Ole Miss to win the SEC, but I feel like that was an interesting discussion. I hope I have convinced you not to put a future on Colorado to win the national title. I think there's better ways to use your money than that. Like maybe Colorado to win the Big 12. Maybe you're looking at NC State now as a potential college football playoff team, because I think that's one that we do need to look at that NC state Tennessee game week two, we keep talking about there's a reason there's a reason we keep talking about, because I think it will tell us a lot about both of those teams. Thank you so much for your questions. If you want to ask a question for next week, you know how to find me.

Andy underscore Staples on X and on Instagram. Also, Andy Staples on three at gmail.com. That will get your question to me and get it in the queue. But thank you so much. Always fun. Tomorrow, J.D. Piquel and I will talk now or never teams and we'll have the debate like we were talking about earlier. Is Ohio State now or never?

Or is Ryan Day now or never? And then who are the other now or nevers? Ole Miss. I think that's a classic one. I put it out the other day on social media and I got some interesting responses. Some teams I did not expect to see. But Ole Miss, I definitely expect to see. Miami, I definitely expect to see.

We'll definitely talk about that. Also, special guest, G.J. Kinney, the head coach of the Texas State Bobcats, will join us to talk about taking that team to its first bowl win in school history last year. And also about being in those offensive meeting rooms at Tulsa when you had G.J. Kenny, future head coach, Brennan Marion, future offensive coordinator, Mike Norvell, future Florida State head coach, Gus Malzahn, future Auburn and UCF head coach. All their sharing ideas. It's a fun conversation.

Guys, cannot wait to talk to you tomorrow.