Andy & Ari On3 - Could Vanderbilt REALLY run the state of Tennessee? Diego Pavia thinks so

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia continues to liven up the college football world, this time with a pledge on the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast that after this season Vanderbilt will “run” the state of Tennessee. This was a shot at Tennessee, which has a fanbase that certainly won’t take that statement lightly.(0:00-2:53) Intro: Diego Pavia(2:54-15:19) Could Vanderbilt run the state of Tennessee?(15:20-24:13) How much money is too much money?(24:14-31:40) Generational wealth, Pavia on Big Ten(31:41-48:49) CFP Format: 9 Conference games for SEC?(48:50-58:17) How should fans spend their money moving forward?(58:18-1:10:00) Story Time, Movies that need a Sequel(1:10:01-1:15:07) Producer River's stakes on Tennessee-Vandy(1:15:08-1:16:16) Conclusion: "Brick by Brick" Meanwhile, Illinois coach Bret Bielema told a group of reporters that he doesn’t believe the College Football Playoff should expand to 16 if the SEC doesn’t play nine conference game. This came as conference commissioners were meeting in Asheville, N.C., to discuss the CFP format for 2026 and beyond. Watch our show LIVE on YouTube, M-F at 9:30 am et! https://youtube.com/live/rTyjCwTwKqg Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Want to partner with the show? E-mail [e-mail]

Welcome to Annie and Ariane. We start our show today with a thank you because it's the middle of June. This is not the time when we usually have interesting things to talk about. But I want to thank Diego Pave, the Vanderbilt quarterback. I want to thank Will Compton and Taylor LeWan, the hosts of Bustin' With The Boys, for a treasure trove, a cornucopia of trash talk from Diego Pavia to keep us going through June. Ari, I don't know if you've heard this full interview of Diego Pavia on Bustin' with the Boys, but it was a tour de force.

I've seen the 27 headline articles about it. I've never seen a human being cover so much ground in a 10-minute period. And that's what we have to do to get on like where we have to go I mean he was on for an hour and a half and he made he made the most of it Yeah, I guess I'm where that's like that to me Andy is my goal for us to Create a show here where people are comfortable because like honestly, I don't like we'll talk about the things he said But like I think it's great like Like, right? Like you're always the one who says, I love it. You know, if we're going to want to

promote people to say things that are interesting or say things that are trash talky, then we have to enjoy it when they do. And I, and I think that we do. So I think that here's my actual take on it before we go into the whole thing. Yeah. Yeah. I think if Diego Pavia played for anybody else, this would be bigger news. Oh yeah. I think that like people are kind of rolling their eyes because he plays at Vanderbilt. And if he played somewhere that people actually believed had a chance to compete for an SEC championship, I think this would be like the lead,

like on Sports Center. And I don't watch Sports Center anymore, but like I doubt that this made Sports Center. Am I off on that? No, I think you're right. I think if he plays at Alabama, if he plays at Tennessee even, or if he plays at LSU, or if he plays it at Florida or Auburn, yeah, this gets more run.

But you imagine if he played at Auburn and all the same things he said were directed at Alabama? Yeah, yeah, I mean, it would feed families in the radio market in the state of Alabama for an entire summer. They feed my family for a day. Yeah. Teach a man to cut a wrestling promo. You can eat for a day. I don't know where you go. Give a man a wrestling promo eats for a day. Teach a man to cut a

wrestling promo. He eats for a lifetime. lifetime. Or make good on the wrestling promo. That's the thing, because this is, here is the deal. And I might write this. I've been kicking some ideas about what to write. Diego Pavia, if we dare to dream is correct, will be viewed as a prophet. Oh, of course. nobody believes it now. Here's the actual reality of it.

And we have to tell them what if you're listening and you don't know what he said, we're going to get to it. I promise you have nothing to lose because if you're at Vanderbilt and you lose to Tennessee, you're just doing what everybody always has done, right? They might like you a little bit or haha. Look, you talk like on the you a little bit or ha ha look you talk like on the you might have to like deal with some trash talk on the field but if he's right legend right? Yes. Like how many things can I do in my life Andy or I can write a fat check

and then if I'm wrong not really pay the consequences. The thing is, he can't do any of this if he doesn't beat Bama last year. Beating Bama last year gives him the license to do this. And I think to a lesser degree, beating Auburn while at New Mexico State also does that. But beating Bama last year is what allows him to say all these things. And you're like, ha, but wait, what if so? So that's the part. That's the part I love. And he's just leaning

into it. Andy, maybe this is going to be different now. But how many jaw dropping blowouts have we got? Sorry, jaw dropping results? Have we gotten in the college football playoff since 2014 in your opinion. Oh that's a good question. I mean is it zero second to 26 I second to 26 counts as one because the way it ended but no no no I mean like team beating team that you thought had no chance to win type game. TCU beating Michigan that was jaw jaw dropping. I thought so. Okay, and the result of the Georgia TCU game suggests that

we were right to have our jaws dropped. And then if Arizona State had finished the drill against Texas, but they didn't. I think if Arizona State would have beaten Texas, that would have been the single most jaw dropping result in the history of the playoff, but I'll give you one. Okay. If you want to say TCU beating Michigan counts, I'll give it to you. That's one in a decade. And you want to know why? Cause in the college football playoff, everybody knows what's at stake. Everybody is fired up to the peak capacity and everybody shows up knowing that they have to play their best.

Do you want to know why upsets happen in college football during the regular season? Because teams show up to games with their heads up their ass a lot. Yeah. So for me, like if I'm Diego Pavia, I'm not, I don't know if it's a good idea to like talk shit to everybody on your schedule.

Like, you know, once you beat Alabama, it's out the window. They're not going to show up with their heads up their asses to play you. Yeah. Maybe you beat Alabama. They saw you come close against Texas. They're not going to take you lightly. So at this point, he may as well talk as much trash as he wants. Yeah, I guess.

Well, maybe not taking lightly. But if Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt was going to be on Alabama's radar for sure. I don't know if that's true for everyone else. I think, I think they will be, and I think they were on every, like you go later in the season, they were like, they were on South Carolina's radar, they were on Tennessee's radar. They were actually pretty good last year. That's the thing. Like that, like I don't know that, you know, being pretty good earns that respect. So if they're very good or pretty good last year. That's the thing. Like I don't know that, you know, being pretty good earns that respect. So if they're very good or pretty good this year,

then maybe what I'm saying is nonsense. I don't know. But like, I would not want to poke the beehive. I'd want to sting the bees without them knowing I'm there. That's the beauty of it. Let's watch Diego Pavia poking, kicking the beehive, and then taking kind of a baseball bat to it and just letting the bees swarm around him.

This is Diego Pavia on Busting with the Boys with Will Compton and Taylor Lawan talking about Vandy and the state of Tennessee. Vanderbilt is going to run Tennessee after this year. Like this is going to be the new staple of like college football is going to happen here at Vanderbilt. Do any of you and the boys ever like talk about that? Like we got to be the state school. Well, we're in Nashville, Tennessee.

Like we're in the music city. Like we need to be the brand of Tennessee. Everyone wants to come to Tennessee because of Nashville. So they want to come to Nashville. So Vanderbilt. And then when we have like the most money in NIL like why not come here so like we literally just have to win this year and throughout the rest of the year it'll take care of itself you think Vandy will have the most money in

the game or I think we'll be up there yeah but like it's Nashville yeah there's a lot of big hitters around here yeah they just need a team to believe in. Yeah, that's all they need. They need Diego Pavia. Diego Pavia knows he is playing a role. I love this like he is embracing the heel roll because one he's lived in Nashville for over a year now. He understands

that there are more Tennessee fans than Vandy fans in Nashville by an or by many orders of magnitude and that Vandy's not going to have the most NIL money in the SEC because it's Vandy like Tennessee, Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, Arkansas, Ole Miss. I can keep going. They're all going to have more Texas A&M, Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina. All right. Here's the thing we have to do because I want we're going to laugh and we're going to have a good time with him and we're going to do that. Yeah, that was a good handshake

to that it hit with Wil Compton like that was like a shot solid like, you know, yeah, let's break it down though in a serious fashion. One, I have a question for you. What would actually have to happen in your mind for you to be able to say that college football in Tennessee runs through Vanderbilt? They would have to win. Okay, Diego Pabia, I realized the court gave him another year.

It wouldn't just take a win this year. Like Tennessee owns that series so thoroughly gave him another year, it wouldn't just take a win this year. Like Tennessee owns that series so thoroughly. I believe Vandy would have to win 49 years in a row to even it up. So I would need like four or five solid consecutive victories by Vanderbilt before I even thought about considering that. So here's the second question.

I think we've got some columns to write this week. I'm feeling pretty good about it. So before Diego Pavia showed up, I actually felt quite remorseful for Clark Lee and Parton Simmons. You want to know why? Because they showed up to Vanderbilt with a plan. And that I thought was actually crazy enough to maybe work once every five to six years, which is to evaluate the hell out of high school players. Take, I mean, it's kind of like the Texas Tech, Texas Tech South a little bit, right? Like where you do your best to get the best players from a physical straight standpoint possible that are being overlooked by your counterparts, bring them into the program, keep them for three or four years develop them

and then in year four or five it's not really south they're both on i-40 they're they're pretty much the same line of latitude but okay i i just meant that like you know i'm not good at geography why do you have to do actually sorry amaryllis on i-40 love is it in the south oh yeah i'd say so Oh, yeah, I'd say so. It's the West. Is Texas the South is an entire podcast segment. Texas is its own its own entity. So it was Louisiana. I didn't mean it was south of.

Okay, I got you. In the south. Gotcha. Okay. But as my co-host, just throw me a bone here. Don't challenge me on geography. You know, it's a weak point for me. Okay.

Okay. You know, it's a weak point for me. Okay. Okay. You know that fair enough. Um, but good plan. And Barton Simmons like went to Yale, like these guys know their stuff, you know, it's in the north, by the way. What is Yale? New Haven, Connecticut. I almost went to an Ivy League. So right. Like, is that you? I almost went to an Ivy league. So, right. Like, is that you? Then NIL came and transfer came and, uh, their plan went to shit. Like, I hate to say it, like, because if you identify a player who is awesome and then they become awesome, they want to go be awesome somewhere else, which is a, which is a shame because Vanderbilt in 2018, this plan, I think would have worked.

So when you are a coach and a staff that goes into a program with a plan and then you lose that plan, what do you do? Like, honestly, like, so let's have a realistic five minute conversation about Vanderbilt and what their plan is for actually being good at football because their initial plan I liked. Not everybody has a plan that's going to work and make them a superpower, but they had a plan that was good enough to work and make them a really good team. Maybe a team that was as good as last year once every three or four

years, which would be really exciting for Vanderbilt football. What is it now? Because, like like this NIL thing that Diego just said on the show, like I don't know that I'm subscribing to that thought process. Nor do I know, and you have a better understanding and grasp of this, my former editor Mitch Light probably does too, but like how much is the Vanderbilt alumni base fired up to buy football teams? That's a great question and I don't think they're as fired up as the other SEC fanbases, nor will they get that to that point. Because yes, there's a bunch of Rich Vandy alums, but it's the same thing as Stanford and Cal.

There's a bunch of Rich Stanford and Cal alums, but you're probably not going to be able to activate them in the same way you're going to be able to activate the Tennessee fanbase or the Alabama fanbase or the Ohio State fanbase. So that's the- More than the vast. That's the other thing to you. It's a smaller school. Yeah, everybody always talks about like how many rich billionaire donors that your school have. You know the power and having millions and millions of just regular fans that donate to the NIL funds like it's

like that stuff adds up to or that that sell out 100,000 seat stadium every week. Which is why I believe in Arizona State to a certain extent. Arizona State has a huge alumni base. And they have rich people in Scottsdale. But like for Vanderbilt, like I don't know that I think they're going to go buy anybody. Or if they do buy somebody, it won't be enough. So here's how it is working now. And Diego Pabya gets into this. And you should listen to the whole, everybody, when you get done with this show, go to busting with the boys and listen to the whole interview.

Cause it's really interesting. Diego Pabya talks about being offered between four and four and a half million dollars to go somewhere else within the sec. Now we can't fact check that. We have to take him at his word on that. But given what we know about the quarterback market and the reporting that Pete Nacos has done and the people we talked to, it's not an outrageous figure compared to what other successful veteran quarterbacks were getting this off season.

So he took less money to stay at Vanderbilt. And he talked about, they told him, they're like, if you want some receivers, we can't give you what those other schools want to give you. So you're going to have to suck that up. And that's what he did. It was a very funny moment that you will understand as the person who had to pay the check. Remember when we made you pay off the USC bet, you took us to bourbon steak in Nashville. So Taylor and Will asked Diego why he's not taking his offensive lime and a bourbon steak. And he goes, I said some other school offered me 4 million, not Vandy.

because I said some other school offered me four million, not Vandy. So are we going to talk about the Lenora Sellers thing on the show today? I can't we can. I was going to mention that in relation to this because that's sort of the same thing what Lenora Sellers told Bruce Feldman or more sellers dad told Bruce Feldman. Do you think it's the same school I don't know I gotta tell you well tell the people what we're talking about first okay yeah okay I gotta go find the actual tweet okay so Lenora Sellers dad apparently told his son to turn down an $8 million NIL deal.

Yeah, this is Bruce Feldman's story in the athletic, by the way. Yes, and Bruce Feldman's the goat. You're 19, you don't need 8 million, you're in a great spot. If my father said that to me, We would be estranged. Now South Carolina is not getting the L'Onoir sellers for free, Ari. I understand that. Do you think it's half of that? I would bet it's close to half of that. Yeah.

Because that's the market this year. We have to have a real conversation about how much money is enough for you to say, screw everything else, I'm taking it. We have to have a conversation. That is a good question. Because like, we can sit here and talk about development and. Coaching and national championships and television views and recruiting and how good your team, how much money does it take for you to go somewhere? And like they said from an sec school, so unless it's Mississippi state or

Vanderbilt, which I don't know that it is, it's not a awful suggest. It's not like somebody offered him $8 million to go to a directional school in New Mexico. He got paid $8 million or offered $8 million to play in an SEC school? Tell me, I know that we love him and I know that we love Lenora Sellers' upside and I think that there's a high likelihood that the man is going to be a first round pick one. Yeah, you got to remember very different situations with Lenora Sellers and Diego Pave. Lenora Sellers, his traits alone

are going to get him drafted at worst in the first two rounds, but probably in the first somewhere. So the money is coming, and I think I can swallow the pill a little bit easier with Lenora's because I feel like wealth is around the corner. But I feel like, you know how much money we spend a month

on home insurance? Insane in Texas, cause there's tornadoes here and we have a lot of glass. I pay over a thousand dollars a month just to insure my home. Okay, which I don't know if people are familiar with that. I think my parents who live in Arizona pay 800 a year. It's a lot more than we pay in Florida and we have hurricanes.

You wanna know why we do it? Because if something happens and our house blows down, we can't afford to have bad coverage. OK? So to me, what is the right insurance plan for somebody that is a freak like Lenora Sellers? Because $8 million is a lot of money, man. That's like you're set for life money. And I know that like inflation is happening and a million isn't what it used to be but $8

million is enough to live a comfortable life for the rest of your life. Regardless of what happens, not to mention that his traits travel with him to wherever he goes. But if somebody's going to pay you let's say and I'm this is just me spitballing here if somebody's going to pay you $4 million I'm this is just me spitballing here. If somebody is going to pay you four million. And you know you're going to make more in the NFL and you don't become the guy who turned his back on his teammates in his home state school and all like Lenore Sellers can be a legend in his home state and you have to decide what

that's worth to you and for you. There may be a dollar amount that allows you to say, forget that. But maybe there's not for him because it remember I would come to your house and I would piss on your door knob. He's already comfortable though. Like, yeah, it's not like he's making zero. You got to remember that. Yeah, maybe I'm just like, maybe I'm just finding out about myself.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just like, uh, no, you don't make $4 million. You would feel differently. Like if we, if we scaled this down to normal salaries, you would, you would probably think about it a little differently. Yeah, I mean, I guess like if you're doing if you're doing it that way, I guess. Would you take twice as much as you make for one year for everyone to hate you? For one year? Not everybody would hate me. The fan base that I went to go see would love me.

Maybe. What do you mean maybe? They view you as a rental. And if you didn't play well, they'd hate you. They'd feel like you were a waste of money. And then I would still get drafted probably in a pretty high position. And then everyone would forget about it when I'm in the pros, because that's like.

Okay, then you would do it. Okay. But Lenora Sellers isn't gonna do it. And Diego Pavia didn't do it. Diego Pavia was very clear on Bustin' with the Boys that he did not want to leave these guys he's playing with. And I think that's admirable. Let's go back to Diego now.

OK? Do we think that Diego Pavia is even going to get drafted? Great question. Don't know. I have a feeling he will stick with a team at some point. But he doesn't have like unlike Lenora Sellers. He does not have the traits that will get him drafted high. Now we have to ask this question. Is it absolutely insane?

If you're making jokes about how you don't have enough money to take your offensive line to a nice steak dinner and he probably has enough but he does think about it and he's he did list some restaurants he's taking them to he's taking them to some nice dinners but i don't know if i think that diego pavia if he has a six and six year and goes undrafted Has enough money from his NIL deal right now to support him for life. Is that a fair assumption? He doesn't but here's the thing Are you worried about Diego Pavia being a success in life because I'm not I'm not see like that's the difference between you and me. I think because I am not I'm not at all I think that he could probably go do a lot of things. He's a very bright, charismatic guy

who's really good at football and like is making a name for himself. Like I think that a lot of people, like I feel like I do a lot of things. I think you're just looking at this and I realize a lot of money's great. And I've been broke. I think I live a fairly comfortable

life now and I really like that better but money's not everything no no no I know money's not everything I heard a quote once the quote is money is not everything when you have it but money is everything when you don't when you don't have it exactly and he's not broke that's's the difference. Like you're seeing a situation, because I think everybody has this idea that everybody's just going for the biggest bag. I'd say there are more situations probably like this in Lenora Sellers

where you have a person saying, I'm not broke anymore. So I'm comfortable now. I don't necessarily have to chase the biggest bag because I am comfortable. But the question that you have to answer is if somebody offered him multi-million dollars to go play for him, even if he thinks he's going to go be successful, even if he thinks he's going to be in the NFL, which I think is in question, what is the downside of ensuring your life? Like that's the thing.

Like that's why I brought up my homeowners policy. You want to ensure the most important assets that you have, and there's nothing more important. But he can also be a legend where he is now, and that's fine. Maybe that's what he wants. Yeah. Now, if he like if he beats Tennessee,

then it adds to and maybe he's a prophet at that point. Donovan in the chat, my ball slept through the first quarter. That will not happen this year. Vandy could go four and eight this year. He should just hush and play ball. He wants to be Johnny football and he ain't close. Donovan, you hush.

Diego Pabia can say whatever he wants because it's June and he's giving us shows. So you be quiet. We want these guys talking trash. To your point about the Tennessee game though. It's interesting because he can talk the trash about Alabama. He beat them. Tennessee actually handled Vandy pretty thoroughly after that opening kickoff. Yeah, I remember.

Was that the day of the Ohio State Michigan game in Tennessee or Texas to A&M games at the same day? Yes. And Clemson South Carolina. Yeah, there was a lot going on. I hit that game live and I and I think it won. Remember I was with you. Yeah, it was. Very good for Vandy at first,

but by the end of the first quarter it was clear that Tennessee was going to stomp them. And he was up 14 nothing in that game. If I recall, yes, yes. Yeah. So like yeah, I think it's OK to, can you be admirable while also making a terrible financial decision? Can you just be both? Yeah. I feel like there's this like this theme in our, in this chat, or in college football that doesn't exist anywhere else, which is you're a better person if you take less money. That's like, it's not, it's not, you're a better person.

It's that once you have money, like if you're broke and your only option is do this, and this is the only way you're going to get some money, you're going to take that. But if you have multiple options that are comfortable, you may not always take the most money. That's the difference. Vance in the chat, would you rather live in a place you love, but paycheck to paycheck? This is one of your, this is like an Ari.

Would you rather, and before we do that, if you want to hear Vance's question and you're watching on Twitter, join us on YouTube right now. We've got the link right below where you're watching on Twitter. So come join us on YouTube, hop in the chat, where you can be around really smart people like Vance,

and you can answer his hypothetical question, which is really fun. So here it is. Would you rather live in a place you love, a paycheck to paycheck, or a place you despise, two hours from the airport, fun activities, but make less than 5 million. Andy, is this not you?

This is me. This is me. I live two hours from everywhere. Gainesville is a geographic lot of D. And you know what? We live here because my wife is close to her family and it makes her happy, which makes me happy. So you would take the money?

Oh, well, I don't take the money. I've turned down more money to live here. So yeah, but I'm saying in this scenario, you would automatically take $5 million if you would because Vance gave me basically described where I live. But in real life, I have turned down higher salaries to stay where I am. Gainesville is a pretty nice place to live. I was thinking in the middle of nowhere, in the country, I think I would be miserable if I was living paycheck to paycheck. It would be very hard. Paycheck to paycheck is a rough life.

Because if you're living paycheck to paycheck, also how much can you even enjoy the activities that are around you to begin with? So I think it would take the money. Well, I'll tell you from the beginning of my career, early in, you know, young married couple, wife in grad school, one income, like we were very much paycheck to paycheck and it is stressful. It is really stressful. And so I think knowing that stress is gone allows you to make.

Clear decisions now. Now if this if this were my would you rather though? It was kind of like there would you rather I was like, would you rather make what you make now and live the life you live or would you rather make them billion dollars a year and can't leave the state of Mississippi? Right? Yeah. Yeah.

Because like if you make five million dollars a year, can you buy a state of Mississippi. Right. Yeah. Because if you make $5 million a year, can you buy a second home? Can you travel all the time? If I made $5 million a year, I would never even be where I lived no matter where I lived. Right. Because you just pop around wherever you want. Yeah. I'm around and buy property and rent houses and all that stuff all over the place.

But yeah, I think the five million... For me, like I have turned down job opportunities in my life that were more for better quality of life. So I understand this principle, but I do think that when you scale it down to normal salaries, it doesn't equate to the discussion that we're trying to have because we're talking about enough money to set you up for the rest of your life, which I've never been offered. Okay. So like that to me is the difference here. Well, in reality, the 4 million is enough to if you invest it well, 4 million is also enough to set you up for the rest of your life.

I'm a Diego Pavia. Yeah. Like if he was offered multi-millions and I don't know how much he's making, so it's hard to have this discussion. But like it's, I would take, because like it's like, I felt like I was gonna be successful

in this business when I was in college. Like I wanted it really bad and I knew that I was gonna work at it and never give up and here I am. But like if somebody would have offered me four million dollars to transfer schools, you know, I don't know. Like I would have done it because I'm like oh I'm still going to do what I want to do but at least I have this money to fall

back on. I feel like fallback money is a really important thing to people and I'm just surprised to hear that, you know, people are turning down life changing money, especially, you know, the question too is like where but like it's funny because you bring it you approach it as oh, you can't say these are better people because they're turning down money. Like you're acting shocked that anybody does. Everybody has their reasons to do everything. Yeah, no, I'm shocked when somebody turns down multi multi millions. Yeah, but it happens in sports all the time. We see it in pro sports all the time where where you see it on it already

multi. I don't know that Diego Pavi is a multi multi millionaire. If he isn't a multi millionaire and he turned down the opportunity to be one, I think that's weird. But he may be one eventually anyway. So listen, I don't have a problem with it. He's comfortable. He's where he wants to be. And that's great. You know where he doesn't want to be?

In the Big 10. I'm telling you, he was just cutting promo after promo. And for those who don't know the show that he was on, Busting with the Boys, the host of Will Compton and Taylor Luan, former NFL players, Will played at Nebraska, Taylor Luan played at Michigan. And Diego Pabllo clearly knows that and was just going in on the big 10.

After the year, was the portal blowing up for you on potential teams wanting you to come be the quarterback for them at a different school? A lot. It was less like, yeah, it was less reaching out to me. It was more reaching out to my brothers and my family and stuff. Was there a dollar amount that you heard that was like, holy shit? Yeah, I don't know if I'm supposed to share, but like anywhere from like 4 to 4.5. To leave and go somewhere else? To leave. What conference? SEC. anywhere from like four to four point five to leave and go somewhere to leave what conference SEC Checks out in conference any big things trying to get you you want to play with the best you don't want to play with the big

ten He went further on that Several times like just picking, needling, needling on the big 10. It was hysterical. He did the three conferences in the NFL, the AFC, the NFC, and the SEC. It was hysterical to watch the two guys who actually made

millions of dollars in the NFL after playing for big 10 teams. Just try not to go in on him. I'm not going to go on my SEC rant. I'm not going to go on my SEC rant. I'm not going to go on my SEC rant. Traditionally speaking, this would not have been a funny thing. You might have been like, in 2017, if he said that, people would be like, yeah, well, he's right.

It was obvious. Yeah, that's what Taylor and Will kept trying to get him back to is like, who's won the last two national titles? And he's like, yeah, but if we did this in 2020, it did it in 2022 and they're like, we're not in 2022 pal. So I mean, like that to me is the story of the season coming up. Yeah, the story of the season is will the SEC return back to prominence and dominance or will the guard continue to change? I am so glad you said that because it

segues us perfectly into what else we need to talk about today and that is Brett Bielema Illinois coach. He was in Chicago talking to some folks yesterday. Meanwhile, the conference commissioners were in Asheville, North Carolina talking about the college football playoff format. But let's hear what Brett Bielema said courtesy of our friend Nicole Auerbach of NBC. He said, I don't think there's any way we could do a 16 team playoff if the SEC is not at nine conference games. We, as in the big 10 coaches, voted unanimous unanimously to stay at nine and actually maybe have an SEC challenge. I was told they voted unanimously to stay at eight and not play the big 10. But then some people pop off and say they want to say say what they want to say because they want to certain they want to look a certain way.

OK, let's unpack that. The SEC coaches, the coaches, are never going to be like, let's play nine conference games. They're always going to want eight. It's a matter of whether their ADs and their presidents will change it to nine. And that seems to rest in the hands of the conference commissioners who are discussing the playoff format.

You know what I think is interesting though, because I'm actually, is that true what he said? Like, I don't know if that's a hundred percent true. What about the SEC coaches when he say at eight voting unanimously against playing the big 10. It's not voting. They didn't vote against playing the Big Ten? It's not voting. They didn't vote against playing the Big Ten. But if they don't go to nine, the Big Ten's not going to do the challenge.

The only way the Big Ten does the challenge is they both play nine conference games. Oh, he's saying, because Brian Kelly said that in the room, that he was for the Big Ten SEC champ. He's for playing the Big 10. Yeah. Is he for playing nine conference games? Again, none of them are. So I do think it's interesting, though,

because your thought process on why the SEC coaches will never want to play nine games is also true in the Big 10. Why would the Big 10 want to play nine conference games? There's a higher level. They already do. Because and their presidents and ADs have told them, we're not going back. We're not changing it.

So tough. They're not going back. we're not changing it. So tough. They're not going back. They make more money this way, right? So like that's good. But like, I feel like the sport would be grateful if we could get an SEC Big Ten Challenge every year. It'd be fun. It'd be fun. So, it feels like they've gotten into this weird, like the SEC sort of talked its way into a very strange place when it met in Destin. And perhaps we'll find out more when the commissioners finish this meeting in Asheville or the next time maybe the power for commissioners meet because that seems to be when stuff gets done. This is all of them, all 10 conferences meeting.

But went into Destin with kind of battle lines clearly drawn. The SEC would go to nine conference games if the playoff went to that automatic bid scenario where the Big 10 got four and the SEC got four and Big 12 got two and ACC got two. But came out of Destin with the SEC saying, wait, wait, wait, okay, maybe we don't want to do the automatic bids. Maybe we just want it to be the highest ranked teams, five, you know, five conference champs. And then the next highest ranked 11, which I don't know about you Ari, because I go back to what Greg Sankey kept saying.

He kept using the word displacement. He doesn't want teams that were ranked higher to be displaced by teams that were ranked lower. Well, that would seem to be an argument against automatic bids. So what does he actually want? And I think he's been very careful not to state a preference. But I think we need to figure out, before we can figure out what's gonna happen next,

what Sankey actually wants to happen. Is it the automatic bids, which would allow, because he's always wanted nine conference games in the SEC because that can make them more money as well. And that gets the nine conference games in the SEC because that can make them more money as well and that gets the nine conference games but it might get you less teams in the playoff you might get more teams in the playoff just doing it straight ranking so I'm happy you're talking about this because I legitimately have no concept whatsoever of what the SEC prefers if the SEC got its way what would what would it look like I think it depends on who you ask in the SEC.

Like the coaches want to stay at eight games. It's weird, cause the coaches want to stay at eight games, but then they want preferential treatment on strength of schedule and all that. They could just not worry about it if they had the automatic bids. But again, if you do the automatic bids, you might, let's say you go back to the era of SEC dominance.

Let's say like, remember 2010? 2010 Mississippi State was 15th in the country and fifth in the SEC West. That would be the SEC's dream scenario. But if there's automatic bids, you're probably getting less teams in than if you had them, you know, just ranked. Yeah. I'm confused and you want to know why I'm confused because every time I look at like a tweet from Ross Dellinger, it

has like AA plus 111 and then I start getting back into like math. I'm from high every time I look at like a tweet from Ross Dellinger, it has like AA plus one, one, one. And then I start getting back into like math. I'm from high school and I'm like, what does this one mean? What does this one mean? I have a hard time with it. I also like I also wonder if sometime during the SEC meetings, some of the folks sat down and was like because they were talking about, you know, they were talking about the automatic bids, which if you get the automatic bids that you probably get those weird play in

games like six versus three and, and, and four versus five. And somebody's like, can we just not make this so complicated? What is the best is probably just five plus 11, right? The best might be 16 period. Yeah, I go back to what Lane Kiffin said. Let's not pretend the conferences are equal because they're not sixteen. Also to the sixteen guarantee G5 though. I think you need to guarantee a G5 spot.

I think you do just to keep from getting sued. So, probably the best compromise there. You just did 16. How many years in a decade do you think a G5 team would be represented in the 16? That's a good question. That's a good one. Like Boise State definitely gets in last year.

Yeah, like three out of 10. Probably I have to go back through the the the I wish I wish we had talked about this beforehand because we could actually look it up, but. I it would not be every year, that's for sure. I also think that historical context matters too, because I think that the way that they would rank them changes based on what the rules are. I think you're right about that. So like you can go back and look, here's how many times it would have happened, but I'm not necessarily sure that's a reliable thing. So 2023 would not have happened

because Liberty was the highest ranked at 23rd at the end of the year. 2022, Tulane was number 16. Okay. So they would have gotten in 2021. Unless they were 17 in this in the system. Right. Then they wouldn't have. Yeah, exactly.

Uh, 2021 BYU was an independent in 2021. So that would have been the one that got in, I guess. They're not really a group of five. So there wasn't a, a group of five team. That counts. Yeah. 2020 was the odd year because you had Cincinnati and Coastal Carolina in the top 12

at the end of the year. But nothing about 2020 is normal. 2019, Memphis is number 17. There you go. Yeah, I mean, maybe three out of 10 years. I don't know. I feel like you're probably you're probably right. If you're gonna have a practical 16 team bracket and we're going to expand, I think you also have to ensure that the entire sports included

in it from a practical standpoint for that reason and to keep from getting sued. I think you're right, but I also think that like five plus 11 makes a lot of sense because the five guaranteed spots outside of the group of five are already basically guaranteed anyway, because there's no way the big 12 ACC big 10 SEC champions won't be represented somewhere in. You can do 5 plus 11 and then seed them straight. Yeah, and I think that's the question. What would it take to get the Big 10 to that? Now, how about this as a compromise, which I can tell you right now they're not going to do, because this makes too much sense. What if the Big 10 said, we'll come off the auto bids if the SEC will go to nine conference games? We'll do 5-11 if the SEC will go to nine conference games. That would give both sides something they want, and both sides would have to give up

something that they don't want to give up. But that's how compromises work. So why not just do that? You could announce that tomorrow. You don't have to meet eight more times between now and December 1st. You could announce that tomorrow and everybody be cool. And then also, too, the SEC gets to make more money. The SEC does get to make more money on that.

I am so torn on this, because I actually don't get fired up about the nine game versus eight game thing. I know coaches do. Coaches do because coaches get fired if they play more conference games historically. Because well, that's not true. They have a higher possibility of taking an extra loss. Whereas if you have freedom to schedule that game, you're probably going to your fourth non-conference game is probably going to be an easy one.

But the SEC schedules are still. Statistically harder agreed already agreed. Yeah, they're already feeling a what? Already agree. Yeah, I'm a what? What? eight-game SEC schedule Would he trade for Missouri's probably? But if we look at Illinois schedule This because you you brought this up months ago, and I agree with you

There's not really an eight-game SEC schedule that a big 10 team would trade its nine game conference schedule for. So Illinois has to play Indiana, USC, Ohio State, Washington. Okay. Throw up. All right, River. Let's just pick an SEC schedule at random. Throw up Texas A&M schedule.

I'm putting him on the spot there. Yeah, he's going to do it. I'm happy to. I see the finger. I see the wait one second. We're going to get it. That would have been a bad faith if you would have gone Oklahoma. OK, here's a and there it is. Now, A&M is playing Notre Dame out of conference. That's tough.

But in conference, A&M has Auburn, Florida, LSU, Missouri, South Carolina and Texas. I think I'd rather play Illinois' nine game schedule than that. Illinois got a good draw this year. But that's a pretty medium draw in the Big Ten. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that based on the draw or the draw is based on how many top tier teams you play and they only have to play one. Now there's a lot of big 10 teams that have

to play two or three. Yeah, I haven't gone the road to to Indiana and Washington is tough, but you're getting Rutgers, Maryland and Northwestern and I don't know how good Wisconsin is going to be. Yeah, their last four games seem to be like if they can get to Yeah, their last four games seem to be like if they can get to November 1st with one or two losses They might be in this thing Yeah, as producer River points out Duke is not a gimme But Duke's their their good non-conference game Texas A&M is good conference game is Notre Dame on the road Yeah I'm with you pal. I'm with you. So

Again, you keep these guys keep saying, well, they got to play nine, they got to play nine, but their eight is tougher than your nine. But we're nine tougher than their eight. And then maybe this is an argument, but it is possible in 10 years. Yes, big tens. Eight or nine is their eight would be tougher than the other teams eight or the other. That's the thing that I think is so interesting. And I fired up a lot of people on the internet a few weeks ago before I went to Arizona. But it's like, I feel like the hardest thing about college football is that we have to make whole wholesale steadfast changes during a time in which the

sports evolving greatly. And I think that's difficult. I saw a tweet yesterday already. And I wish I had looked at who said it. I don't think it was anybody in our business. I think it was a fan who said this, and I'm sorry I'm not giving you proper credit, but it was a great thought. Why not just stick with the 12 for a few more years just to see how that goes?

Like, you don't actually have to change it if you don't want to. You could just have it be like this for five, six more years. The contract six years, the TV contract. You could just stay at 12 and then figure this out when the sport looks different. The thing I don't I think that we both agree on is that six or just 16 straight would be the best in the expanded in the expanded format. But if you go to 16 best, why are we expanding again? Like I thought the entire

point of expansion was to get guaranteed spots. Isn't that the entire point? It seemed to be to me that that seemed to be the correct around it. Yeah. Why would we expand if we're not going to change the formatting of it? It makes no sense to me. Well, there's one more piece of why you expand. You expand to guarantee access to the Big 12, the ACC, and the Group of Five, and possibly more access to the Big 12 and the ACC so they don't sue you if you're the Big 10 and the SEC. I think that they have guaranteed access right now. Right, but this would be more access. You got to bribe them because from an antitrust standpoint, like this is kind of the Big Ten in the SEC taking

over colluding. So you do have to kind of bribe the ACC and the Big 12 and the others. I didn't, I watched Law and Order a lot when I was growing up. I didn't go to a lot of antitrust cases in Law and Order. Those are mostly criminal. Yeah. There's always like DNA evidence at the crime scene. What's the grounds if they're all in the same system and they all have the same guaranteed locked up spots to to be sued? Well, they don't. They have a document that's signed

that says the Big Ten and the SEC can make all the decisions now. Oh, well. Yeah. I guess, yeah. They don't have equal votes anymore. So if they were to sue the Big Ten and the SEC, would the SEC go, you know what, you don't like us?

All right, fine, do your own thing. It's not a distinct possibility. That would be the defense. Yeah, that's the defense. All right, fine. You know what? You think you're treating you unfairly. How about this? You know, you go live out on your own. Isn't that what a person, a parent does to a 17 year old who's not behaving? Yeah, because my house is where my rules like because like the big 12 in the ACC, especially the big 12 to a more, you know, a greater extent is living in the big 10 in the SEC house right now. Yeah, in the guest house. Yeah. Yeah. Could you imagine suing if you lived in a guest house of like there was a mansion and you lived in

the back in a 1200 square foot. You're in the pool house. Yeah. Yeah. You're in the in the Carlton Banks pool house and then you sued the owner of the property because you didn't have access to the master bathroom. Is that what you're saying they're going to do pretty much? Okay. Got it. Seems like a really compelling. So so the SEC the big 10 basically have to just keep improving the pool house. Yeah. I actually don't think we have to improve the pool house at all. I think the answer is live in my crummy pool house while I look out from my master bathroom at the pool or go live in an apartment complex down by the mall. I'm glad we finally broken this down into terms everyone can understand. This is perfect.

Is that like not nonsense? It's not. It's not at all. No, I think that I think that your thought that they should expand to stop from being sued is nonsense. Let's see what happens. It's not nonsense though. It's what they're doing.

Like that's why they're talking about this. nonsense, though. It's what they're doing. Like that's why they're they're talking about this. Oh, oh, Craig. Oh, Craig, you know, from Wedding Crashers. Oh, I know. OK, I know. All right, we have one more thing to talk about. The show blew by today, man. I had a good time today. This is a good show. I know. So I want to go back to something you said yesterday.

You said that what happens, you know, after the house settlement, how do collectives still work? Can they just keep supplementing? Will there actually be a quote unquote salary cap? So Walker Little, who runs the Grove Collective, which is Ole Miss's big collective, he was on the OM Spirit podcast with our guy Ben Garrett. So, OM Spirit is on three's Ole Miss site. And he explained what the collective will look like in the era of revenue sharing. So I think he did a much better job explaining it

than I did yesterday. So here's Walker Little. Said I don't think our fans will see a massive difference in how we operate. There will be on our end and with Keith and our OMAF, OMAF, Ole Miss Athletics Foundation, the athletic department, the collective. Will behind the scenes operate a little different and the mechanics will be a little different. But to the forward facing fan and to our donors, it'll look pretty similar. Now, a lot of our major

donors will be given to OMAF, but the two buckets that we still need are going to be our membership with The Grove Collective and our corporate sponsors. Because that's, like I said, that's coming to the new battleground. Our fans have trusted us. They believed in us. They have seen the impact. I mean, we probably haven't had a greater year in almost athletics ever. And I would think a lot of that is the coordination of what we've all done together.

So that that's not going to change. And I think our fans should know that if they continue to give in those areas, they're going to continue to see this type of success. Correction. I'm an idiot. Walker Jones. That is Walker Jones. Walker little plays offensive tackle for the Jags played at Stanford. Walker Jones played football at Ole Miss and runs the Grove collective Walker Jones. My apologies. But Ari, did he explain it better than me? Right? But Ari, did he explain it better than me, right? Yeah. I mean, I think that like, yeah, like this notion that NIL is going to, yeah,

it's not, it's not going to die down. It's going to get worse. Well, and the way he said the new battleground is corporate money. That's the truth. Because what he said is some of the people who've been giving a lot to the Grove Collective are now going to give that money to the Ole Miss Athletic Fund, which is just the athletic department, which will then turn around and give that money to the players in the house settlement approved $20.5 million in that bucket. What they want is, you know, Abner's chicken tenders refined Mississippi company to give to the collective and have athletes as their pitch men so that they can then supplement their income.

Yeah. I did find it amusing yesterday management so that they can then supplement their income. Yeah. I did find it amusing yesterday when you said the old bag man was broke, like I thought that was funny. The bag man was broke. Think about it. Think about the dollar figures, how much they've changed. It's insane. We're talking about the quarterback of Vanderbilt turning down four million

the quarterback of Vanderbilt turning down $4 million a year when 15 years ago, the scandal was that Auburn's quarterback who had the best year any quarterback has ever had in the history of college football and dragged his team to an undefeated national title might have gotten 180 grand. Think about how stupid all of that is. And the person who got the 180 grand reportedly,

or what's the word? Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. Probably felt like he did something there. And he did. Yeah. But just think about how dumb that is. Like there was all this money all along that could have been going to the players. But then they pushed it down to a black market

where the players were risking their eligibility, getting paid peanuts essentially compared to what they actually are worth. That's the part people don't seem to understand about this. Everyone's like, this is crazy. This is a completely open market where everyone is paying what they think someone is worth. What are you worth Ari? Whatever someone's willing to pay you.

So guess what? What they get paid is what they're worth. I think that the revenue sharing model will make them worth more in totality. Yes agreed because you just all you did was put money in that Boston College and everybody else Wake Forest, Stanford, Cal, the ones who couldn't get a collective to raise that kind of money. All you did was add millions of dollars into the system with those schools.

Andy, it's like you're letting them open up an entirely new stream of income while not altering the other one. Like I think that the notion that the other one is going to be altered is wrong. I think it will be altered at certain schools. I don't think it will be altered at every school. I think that the schools that want to win a national title in football. People will donate as much as they can to try to make sure they have the most

competitive roster. I think at the schools that are happy to be there, they will mostly use the revenue share money to pay the players. And then it's going to create an entirely new class of what's a good job and what's a bad job. And I feel like your thought process of this turns into the Yankees versus Royals goes out the window. No, they still have more than they did before at the other ones. So now you if you're a good evaluator, you can make Boston College a lot better than you could make Boston College or Wake Forest the past two or three years. You think there's any danger, though, that it's going to return to being as lopsided at the very top as it used to be?

No, it can't possibly be more lopsided than that. No, I meant be back to being more more like it was. No, because you've just given Boston College more. Yeah. There's a okay, here's what everybody has to get with college football. It's never going to be the NFL. They're not going to be equal. Ohio State is always going to have more than Utah. Always. Forever. Alabama is always going to have more. But now Utah has some. And actually, I believe we've seen Utah play Alabama and win. And that was when Utah had very little compared to Alabama. So Andy, today on three,

I wrote a column and I wrote about Davao. Okay. Yep. And as I was writing about it, him, the headline is, is Clemson about to prove that Dabo Sweeney is a mad scientist in 2025? And, you know, broke down how the sport changed

and how like he actually might have a good enough team to win a national title when I thought that was impossible last year, three years ago. And I didn't even know who I was. Like I don't even recognize who I was like I don't even recognize myself writing that. Yeah, you've you've changed, but you make a great point and the thing is.

Davos got a team that's been together that's been through some stuff together. Like they're a team like they're not an assemblage of mercenaries. They are a team and I think that's going to matter going forward because I don't think it's going to be so easy to have that dynamic. And Dabo has worked really hard to keep that dynamic. I was actually having this conversation last week with an assistant coach at another school. I was talking to Russ Calloway, who's the OC at Florida. And we were talking about Florida last year, and how they did not.

They had not gone huge into the transfer portal. They kept that core group mostly together. And when things were really bad after the Texas A&M game, when everybody could have quit, they didn't. And I wonder if they'd had a more mercenary type team. Would they have quit? Would everybody have gotten fired? Andy Staples here on the everybody

love everybody rant love it. I love it. It doesn't hurt. Is there any more coach speak we can throw into this? Maybe coach speak is back to being normal again. Maybe or maybe coach speak means it means something again. Well, coach speak was always true. It was just cliched. I mean I guess.

Like how you do anything is how you do everything. Like that's a giant cliche but it's also true. I also disagree with that. You don't do anything the way you do everything? I do some things better than others. You don't do anything the way you do everything? I do some things better than others. I think it means how detail oriented are you in all aspects of your life? And I agree with you.

There are some things I am far less detail oriented in. Yeah, like making the bed in the morning. For instance, you're the guy who was like, yeah, make your bed, feel accomplished, start the day with a task, and you go off to attack today. You know what I do? I roll out of bed, and then I don't look at it again until we get back in it the night. I was like you.

I had arguments with my wife. We're just going to sleep in it again. What's the point? Right. And she made me watch the Admiral McRaven speech. And you actually bought that? I did. Do you read like get help books?

No, I wrote to. Um, you did write them. I I really want your thought on this as an author of one. Do you think if a person is in the position to read one that they've already lost the battle? I actually find that the people who position to read one. That they've already lost the battle.

I actually find that the people who tend to read those are people who are already fairly motivated and maybe don't actually need them. That's right. So if you need them, then you've lost. But if you are motivated and you read them because you just want to be a higher achiever than you've already won. Right? exactly. It's a weird self-selecting sample if you think about it. Yeah, I think there's like, do you really need to make your bed in the morning to feel like you want to go do a good job at work? But I will tell you, like, my wife tried to argue with me for years. It took Adam

McRaven saying it the way he said it to connect with me for years, it took Adam McRaven saying it the way he said it to connect with me. And now, and this happened to me this morning. So I had a kind of whirlwind trip. I had to go to LA for something and come back to Florida very quickly. I spent like less than 24 hours in California. I got home last night, 3.30 in the morning. I was up at 7.15 Eastern time. Did you make your bed? I did. I got up and I looked at it. And I was like, like, now I have almost a panic attack. If I look at it, and it's not made. Now, here's the real question. How many throw pillows is your

psychopath wife put on the bed? Because my psychopath wife has like 25. We're down to three. We had we had a lot. We're down to three. Making the bed is a completely and utterly different proposition. We have 12 pillows on our bed. And I think five of them or six of them at most are used. I'm not talking about the pillows that we actually use.

We each have three pillows that we actually use. Wedge and two normal size pillows. And then we've got the two decorative, the king size pillows with decorative shams that just match the bedspread. And then one decorative pillow that goes with those. We used to have like six, we have definitely downsized. We have, I think six throw pillows. And then Britt and I both have two pillows each. And then there's a Is there a is there a defined way the throw pillows must be arranged? Can you can you be creative with them? Do you

change it up? All I know is when I do what it's wrong and when she does it it's right. Listen, even though I do it every day now, it's still wrong and my and my wife will occasionally remake the bed and her on that me the whole time. And we're doing this wrong. We've been through this before. But I think bed maintenance, making of the bed, laundry of the bed, the duvet cover assembly, laundry of the bed,

like you're anti washing your sheets. No, I'm saying the entire spectacle that has become or that hat that in my house is making the bed is a nightmare to me. Scott in the chat, Ari, all I hear is a recipe for an awesome fort. We have two chairs that are next to the bed that like look angled at each other that Brett and I have never sat in once, like decorative chairs. You've been in my bedroom, I think you can picture it. Those chair purposes to hold the 12 throw pillows every night when we come home. While you sleep.

There's nowhere to put them. It's insane. I love it. They serve no purpose. They're purely decorative. I guess that's the purpose. But yeah, you know, you've seen a long cane Polly. Let's stab the pillows.

I need to watch a long cane poly again, because I feel like we get a lot of long cane poly references. And that's one of those that I did not watch repeatedly. I watched it when it came out and that was it. So I need to revisit. A lot of a long cane poly references for me, because I think it's one of the greatest cinematic masterpieces of our generation.

You also feel that way about the breakup, which I feel like I need to watch again because of you favorite movie period. Yeah in the world because it's a good love story, but also my favorite type of humor is the humor that Vince like is Vince Vaughn conversing with people and like if you think that that's funny, there's no way that you can watch that movie for two hours. So I just I just on the plane last night, binged season two of Tires.

Vince Vaughn has a great guest spot on one of the episodes. Yeah. And he plays Vince Vaughn in every movie, but it's tremendous. There's a difference between being in a fight or having a singing, dancing, sprite, fool you with trickery, and then strike your throat before you even know you're in a fight or having a singing, dancing, sprite, fool you with trickery and then strike your throat before you even know you're in a fight. Go watch the movie.

Go watch the movie. You have homework. You have to watch A Long Came Polly because Philip Seymour Hoffman, God rest his soul, had one of the greatest roles of all time in A Long Came Polly. It's hilarious. Those are my two favorite movies and Dumb and Dumber obviously is up there as well. But like the, I would kill for one

and don't go on a movie rant. I could just end the show before I go on a movie rant. Yeah, listen, I just watched The Accountant two. I know how you feel about sequels, but it was pretty damn good. The Accountant one was a very good movie. How different were they? Very. The Counting One was a very good movie. How different were they? very the characters evolved I

Was happy to be in the world again for two hours Raymond Horton super troopers up there. No, you know what would be a good random rank pulls you over me out. Yeah Yeah, the leader of coal I think uh You know be a good random ranking because we need me out yeah yeah the leader of cola thing uh you know it'd be a good random ranking because we need to bring back random rankings we haven't done them at all this off let's do one Friday let's do it that's my that was my favorite part like when I first when you first invited me to be a guest on your show at the athletic four years ago or five years ago or was I like my favorite part about it was the random ranking.

That was a huge issue. Actually, I wanna ask the chat, if we did a separate show called The Random Ranking, once a week, and it was totally random, like one week it's sandwiches, one week it's country songs, one week it is movies of 1995. Would you guys wanna watch that?

That'd be interesting. I mean, the show would be called Grabass, but yes. Well, no, the random ranking, we had this conversation on the phone about how bad we are at branding. The random ranking, that's a good brand. That's a good brand. So is Grabass, by the way. I think it's a great brand.

It is, but it's more of a catch-all. But here's one random ranking idea for Friday, if you want to do it. Movies that don't have a sequel that they should make a sequel of. I love it. I love it. Because I feel like I saw the trailer for Happy Gilmore 2. Like I'm gonna watch it because I loved Happy Gilmore 1. It's gonna be... I wasn't clamoring for that. I didn't need to know what happened. You need to know... and like also too it looks

like a retread of all the jokes that we already know are funny and then all the new stuff isn't gonna be fun. Like I think it's gonna be terrible. I think when you make comedy sequels 20 years later, they're never good. Right. Like, like Zoolander 2, cause one of the, one of the writers of Zoolander passed away, I believe very soon after Zoolander 1 came out.

And so they didn't want to revisit it cause it was too painful. But by the time they got around to doing it again, it was, it just was bad. Yeah. Dumb and Dumber two was the worst. I walked out of it. Yeah. So, but like I'm like thinking like drama movies that I'd be like, you know what? If I want to go back into a world, what world would I want to go

back into? Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned this as as Nathan points out in the chat. Spaceballs 2 is coming out Mel Brooks just announced Spaceballs 2 Mel Brooks playing yogurt reprising his role will be 99 when the movie comes out. Man. I haven't seen Spaceballs in 20 years. Spaceballs is one of my top five comedies. It is one of my top five quoted movies of all time. I have seen that movie probably 250 times.

The thing that I had a hard time with was I saw it like once or twice and I have no recollection whatsoever of any of the quotes. And I think part of the reason why I never got into it was because I didn't know anything about Star Wars going into it. Yeah, and I think me loving Star Wars makes me love Spaceballs more.

Yeah, but I did like, Family Guy did some Star Wars knockoff, like. Yeah, Blue Harvest is awesome. Yeah, so, but yeah. Okay. So we're gonna call in the desert and find the movies other than Spaceballs that need.

Sequels. And to answer Nathan's question in the chat, are you guys doing dear Andy, there are this week? Yes, we are. So we're going to do that on Friday and we'll also have a random ranking. Of movies that don't have a sequel but need one. So get your questions in. You know how to find us on social media at Andy underscore staples at Ari Wasserman You can email me Andy staples on three at gmail.com. You can email Ari Ari dot Wasserman at on three comm Send us those questions. We've already gotten a few that just came in during the week

But by all means we love it when you drive the show. Please send those along. We will hit them on Friday. Very excited. And I got some homework to do, because I got to do the movies that have no sequel that need a sequel. I'm with you. I already know what my number is.

You love this because you're so anti-sequel normally. So I can't wait to hear what you come up with. Yeah, I just like the thing about sequels is that they're rarely done well. So like that's the, you know, maybe rarely is not. Bonus mini random ranking, best sequels ever. Empire Strikes Back Godfather 2, probably not in that order. Probably Godfather 2 is the best

and Empire Strikes Back number two. I think Godfather 2 is probably one of the only, if not the only sequel that people think is better than the original. And the original is amazing. Yes that's what they did with Godfather 2 and in Air Pronect Strikes Back same thing the original is so good that the fact that the second one's better is shocking. It would be really really though, if like people in I wasn't there like a, like a movies guild strike or something if people like all the energy that they did with these retread ideas

and just tried to write a good movie. That's new and original. Like I know that that's like hard for people now. But like that would be great. It would be it would be nice. River in the chat. Shrek 2, phenomenal sequel, doesn't get enough love. Shrek 2 is awesome. Oh, River, I forgot. You said something before we went on the air.

I did. Related to the Diego Pavia boast. Yup. November 29th. Tennessee, November 29th, Thanksgiving weekend. What are the stakes of this game for you River? Um, it's it's cute what Pavi is saying. It really is. It's nice. It's good banter for June 18th in the middle of the summer. But if this happens, I'll buzz my head on the incident reaction show

that night. Thanksgiving weekend. I'll buzz my head if Vanderbilt wins on the show. Yeah. Awesome. I'll do it. Andy, you have a very short haircut already. You probably should grow it out a little bit. I'll grow it out. I got one thing for you. Let's hear it. You have a short haircut.

You would look fine bald. You've got a nice chiseled like Ethan Hawke like face. Okay, like let's raise the stakes on this guys. What do you wanna do? You have to grow them all. I don't know what it is. I think that we should do something that makes you look ridiculous. Okay. And I don't know what that would be. Like I would say like, I your hair gold for Vanderbilt for

like a week. A gold buzz cut. He has to shave this in the middle of his head. Or you have like one stripe, one stripe down. Like he's wearing a football helmet. That's the thing, like just shaving your head, it's like, you know, it would grow back in a month and you'd be fine.

No one would think you look that weird. Let's do something that would like alter your appearance for a week. Okay, well we'll take suggestions on Friday. We'll take suggestions on Friday. I will fly to Nashville, because I'm assuming we might be there that weekend. And I will move a Vanderbilt V across your head.

And... Christmas picture would be awesome. That's, yeah, a V. Like you start here and just shave a V into it. So if you view him from the top, you just see a giant V. That's it. Okay, sure. I'm sorry I didn't let you off the hook with just the buzz cut River, but like, hey, it's not going to happen.

I don't think. You know what? It might because we don't know how good Tennessee is going to be. Yeah, like Vanderbilt is an 8-4 team. They could maybe compete with this year's Tennessee if they have a tough go of it at quarterback. So I don't know that that will ball Twitter. I'm not saying it will.

I'm afraid Ari is a ball Twitter. That's the best part. It he's so scared. And yesterday we had that show about Cal. I had a column about Cal and how that situation should scare any weak AD. The CalGarithm was activated. I had one comment saying nobody cares about Cal on my column and the CalGarithm attacked. It was incredible. Yeah, do people forget all those memes from like six months ago? They were flying.

I didn't really understand them that much, but, uh, That's the problem. All Cal grads are much smarter than all of us. They're just too smart for us. It's like reading New Yorker cartoons, but it's all right. Hey, by the way, just so you know, I've been killing the New York Times games, by the way. Like absolutely just.

Are you great at connections? I'm good at connections. I've been beaten. I've been winning the crock-word puzzles. I got wordle like 100 days in a row. Like I'm just humming right now. You want to talk about the brains on me? Big brain.

I gotta tell you, I'm mad because I don't go to my wordle analytics anymore. So after I've been gone from the athletic, July 1st, it'll be two years. They didn't turn off my login, my New York Times subscription account login for like a year and nine months. And then they turned it off.

And you lost your streak? Yes. I don't, I think I might be logged into my athletic email right now too. I don't even know. Yep, I am. So I don't get my wordle my athletic email right now, too. I don't even know. Yep, I am. So I don't get my word analytics anymore because you have to subscribe. I got my athletic subscription, though. I had to pay for it. I pay for it now.

I pay for the athletic. In fact, I I worked there for four years and didn't stop paying that subscription because I just forgot. So I still have that subscription. Yeah, from from before I worked there. They gave me a subscription when I started and it was working for six months. By the way, athletic, if you're listening to this, I was the first college football reporter that you hired at all at the entire company. And like I took a major risk to come there from a really good job.

And I worked my ass off for you for seven years. Have the freaking subscription. Like, is it that big of a deal to you? You just want the word analytics and the connections analytics. Why I'm paying money to build this place with all of my wonderful friends. Like, why am I because because you got such a big bag to go on three. You can afford it, Ari.

No, I'm not saying it's not about you. Didn't you didn't take the Diego Pavi route and stay with your boys you left. I'm just saying like there are a lot of me you Olsen, Auerbach there's a lot of us out there that that built that place brick by brick they're taking a credit card payment. I love how you're making Bush Jones. When you said brick by brick River just automatically reflexively recoiled. It was amazing. I don't know. I wish you had a replay of that. Right. Any of that we don't need the second the words brick by brick left Ari's mouth. River goes, no, that's enough. That's enough. Every time they say fans like, every time they hear brick by brick, but you know what I mean. Like brick by brick champions of life. No, get it out.

River, you got a five star heart and that's why we love you. It's all matters. You might have a V and it is shaped into your head if things don't go well November 29th. Who knows what somebody's going gonna say in the next day. We'll be talking about it tomorrow.