Andy & Ari On3 - Did Kirby Smart keep Georgia from getting FINED?

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

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This show is sponsored by Panini. Makers are the most collectible sports cards on the planet. Visit PaniniAmerica.net to collect your favorite college and NFL stars. We talked quite a bit about a very big Panini find that a collector, well, actually he bought it out of Cardbreak and probably got himself a nice six figure payout, but we're gonna rip a pack here right now.

I've got a pack of Prism draft picks right here. So last week I got a Cooper to Gene autograph out of one of these packs. So let's see what we get here, Ari. Every single time you rip one of those packs, I just hope there's a Color Blast in there. You'll know it when you see it. There's some nukes in this product. Oh yeah, all right, here we yeah, all right here. We got one of the most beautiful cards and all of cards. I

I'm seeing I'm seeing some colors. I'm seeing some color cuz I have a JJ McCarthy from a JJ McCarthy brilliance that I got a Couple weeks ago, you know, you know, what's fun about the color blast is you don't have to be like in the hobby Completely to know you just pull the nuke. It's that beautiful. Like it's completely different than what you usually would see but One of these days you're gonna hit one. I hope So here we got a we got a B John Robinson base card Jared golf in his Cal uniform Derek Henry playing for the tide

for the tie. Well, hype, hype, Drake May. That's that's not numbered though. So I know I know you're looking for silver numbers are you got mine Williams. Ladin conkey is George uniform Michael Pratt playing for Tulane a little Ollie Gordon rated rookie. Oh, let's see. We got something

interesting here that has some numbers on it. We got an AD Mitchell autograph. Oh, I want that. Can I have that? Uh maybe I want you to give me for it. I love you to give me for it. I love AD Mitchell. And then we got a Brilliance Jaden Daniels. This is not a numbered one, unfortunately, but the hunt for a Jaden Daniels numbered card continues. But yes, AD Mitchell autograph right there. What's that number two, Andy?

149. Can I have that? No, maybe. What are you gonna give me? Can I show you a new guy hitting a break? Yeah, let me see that you let me see what you got This is a lad McConkey booklet to four with a Nike swoosh patch out of the spectra product This happened last week so I didn't hit the Jaden Daniels but you know have you seen the booklets before that close? Those are cool. Yeah. The Nike swooshes are incredibly rare and then when I pull what here's the hit that I pulled out of the last

pack of the product you just pulled is a tie-dye Cade Stover rookie patch auto. That's number 25. That came out of the, one of those packs that you just opened up. So one of my favorite recent Ohio state buck guys, like has a farm back home, drives a tractor. This is exactly what you want to tight end. That's beautiful. Yeah. And he's teamed up with CJ Stroud in Houston. So yeah, it's a fun product and Panini has been completely hooked up by the Veins. So it's my favorite thing in the entire world and I'm so happy to have him here. Well, you want to start your own Panini collection, visit PaniniAmerica.net right now to start collecting your favorite college and NFL stars. Welcome to Andy and Ari on three,

football and basketball colliding. Ari, I'm watching the Florida Georgia basketball game on Tuesday night and it's a close one, it's tight. Georgia's winning by 10 and all of a sudden, Florida's winning by two with like two minutes to go and then Georgia's winning again and it's a it's a huge upset. If Georgia can win, it's a huge win for Georgia's NCAA tournament chances if they can win because Florida's at that point only lost three

games is a top three team and. You see Kirby Smart get up and I'm like what is Kirby Smart doing? Is he leaving there about to win this game and Kirby Smart? Is leaving? What are we doing here? He wasn't leaving. He was walking over the student section to be like hold up. Hold up. Don't rush the floor because then. Georgia will have to pay Florida because that's how the SEC's fine structure works. If you rush the floor against the team, you've got to pay that team.

So Kirby Smart and the athletic director, Josh Brooks telling, telling the kids that you see on the video, they're Kirby like, hey, hold up, hold up, hold up. Don't go yet, don't go. So the way the rule works apparently, and waiting on final confirmation of this this morning, but if you wait until the other team clears the floor and then you waited additional 90 seconds, then your fans can go stream onto the floor and celebrate.

And so that is apparently what Georgia did with an assist from Kirby smart. So if I'm Kirby Ari, I'm going to, I'm going to, you know, hit up Josh Brooks, the AD and be like, look, so can we get like a 10th of what we saved just thrown into the recruiting budget? Always coaching, always coaching. That's right, always coaching. Yeah, that is funny.

Like for every dollar that Kirby Smart saved them, they get 50 cents back for their recruiting budget or their NIO budget. Just duck it into the bucket there. And that's money well spent. Yeah, good job, Kirby. Way to be aware of the rules. Now a little birdie told me that the AD was doing a little bit

heavier lifting and that Kirby wasn't sure he would have any effect on whether the court was stormed or not. Now the way this game ended, I thought when Florida came back and took the lead that we might roll down to a buzzer beater situation. And I think the fear it might roll down to a buzzer beater situation. And I think the, the, the fear is like, if you have a buzzer beater, you're not stopping anybody from storming the court.

Like, cause of the emotion just overwhelms everybody. But this, this one ended with everybody going to the free throw line a bunch of times. So they, they got that taken care of. It may get Georgia into the tournament. We'll see this, this might put them on the right side of the bubble. Uh, the sec it's so weird Ari, cause you know, we've talked so much about the conference perception in football. There's so many more data points in basketball and this

year's sec because the schools did schedule good out of conference games and then won those out of conference games it's considered like the strongest we've seen a conference in basketball since the ACC in them in the mid 80s and so like everything they say about themselves in football they can demonstrably prove about themselves in basketball this year it would be really funny though if like an Indiana basketball fans, like Georgia can't make the tournament. Like they did the exact opposite. Exactly, anybody.

Play anybody. I guess Georgia does have a quality win now though. You know, that is really funny. And I am kind of secretly amused by how good the SEC is at basketball. Like one of my good buddies here is a huge Bama fan. And like, he's always talking to me about how Alabama's basketball team is awesome.

Like, is that, so you're just rooting for a hoop school now or what? Like, but you know, I don't know. It's, we're getting, man, February 26, we're already what, like three weeks away from the beginning of the tournament here. So I gotta lock in. Oh, you definitely have to lock in because some of your favorite as

a as a guy who likes to sprinkle a little extra on on the games. The conference tournaments in the mid majors. I mean those are coming up in in a week and a half or so like that's gonna be prime time for you. So I've been playing a lot of basketball games because I've been following Tyler Shoemaker who's a online Twitter sharp. But all of his games are like Wisconsin Green Bay and stuff like none of the games of consequence. He always finds like the holes in the in the spreads on the smaller games that are not on TV. One time I was watching a game I hit and there was no commentators at the game. That's how small these games are.

But I need to start locking in and watching games that are on TV for my entertainment. I know we're going to be talking about college basketball in March and again I can't name three players in the sport so I don't know if that's a bad thing to admit or a funny thing. It is it's a terrible thing to admit. You know Cooper Flagg though. I do know Cooper Flagg and I don't but I don't know how good he actually is. Like are we talking like first overall pick like is going to be a star in the NBA? Yes, yes. First overall pick and not the kind of not wimpy like not that level of first overall pick. Okay, yeah. So what level of first overall way better than last year where it was like, I guess we got to take somebody like so the Cooper flag is a guy that everybody people will will tank for him and AJ, by the way, a Georgia fan, not

happy with you and your lack of ball knowing here. Georgia did beat Saint John's earlier this season and Rick Pitino's team is one of the best teams in the Big East. It's electric, dude. Congratulations, Georgia. You're the best at basketball. Sorry for insulting you. Well, then that's listen when George's uniform was last night last night though I gotta say I hate those. What? I just thought they were good looking basketball uniforms do you? I think they should have I think that all basketball uniforms should have letters across a fan of the older the old school ones that like Tennessee wears those old school ones where it's Tennessee across the top and volunteers across the bottom. Yeah. Yeah. I don't like the King era ones. It doesn't matter what school it is. If your logo is what's on your chest. It looks off to me.

Like just do like basketball script across like Georgia and script across the chest or in black. Well, you saw the Nebraska and Texas A&M ones that Adidas made that look like basically like churchly uniforms like in YMCA. Is that the uniform that Indiana's like we're not going to wear anymore? I think we're done with these. Yeah, Indiana's like, listen, I know we fall out hard times. I know we're going to be looking for a new coach here, but. We only wear cool uniforms. We were a candy striped pants, we were cool uniforms, we're not doing this.

So but yeah, good week for Kirby Smart. Yeah, he got himself a little shot in on Johnny Manziel at a coaching clinic earlier. So he's been in the news a little bit this week. Let's let's hear Kirby on on Johnny football. What do these guys have in common? Speak up Heisman it's a good answer. That's actually true They're definitely quarterbacks. That's the most elementary thing Heisman quarterbacks champions. He champion champion of what?

Champion of fireball All right, all right, all right, all right, all right, I'll go I'm gonna go here for you the shape or form. Okay. But the house, Kirby's trying to compliment Johnny Manziel ends up hitting them with a stray calling the champion of fireball. I mean, I was the champion of fireball at one point in my life. I don't know, maybe not quite among us. Yeah. Um, would you, would you rather be champion of fireball

champion of Jaeger Meister? We were at this resort with, uh, some friends this week in Cabo for my wife's brother's 40th birthday. So all of his friends are like the 40 year olds, really cool dudes. But one of them is just hitting the Jaeger bombs over and over and over again while we were on vacation. And I was like thinking to myself like this guy is the best guy I've ever met. But also, why are we doing Jaeger bombs? I don't know.

Is there an age cap to that or? Jaeger bombs strikes me as, isn't that the booze that kids drink when they're first learning how to drink? I've never once craved Jaeger Meister. Never once have I said, boy, could I use some Jaeger Meister right now. And I don't think anybody has felt that way.

Fireballs a little bit. Like I think what happened is people who grew up on Yeager invented Fireball because they're like, you know, we could do this where it actually tastes somewhat good. What Yeager is black licorice, right? It's the same flavor as black licorice. Yeah. Some bookish.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what that black licorice is gross. And then fireballs like big red gum, right? Exactly. Exactly. So you you just need to come up with like a Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich flavor and then I'm in men or or or a frosty flavor. Yeah, they mean that Wendy's has a Wendy's has a Girl Scouts thin mint frosty right now. Like make that alcoholic and I'm in. Yeah. Oh, exactly.

It's unseasonably warm in Dallas this week. It was 11 degrees when we left Cabo and it was 78 when we got back. So, but if it is unseasonably warm in your town and you're in my town, you will see my toes. I'm going to wear some Birkenstocks. I'm going to get some ice cream today. There you go. There you go. Well, Kirby, uh, running up bad, like it's funny because that thing hit because of what he said about Johnny Manziel, which I don't think Johnny took offense at that. I mean, we saw Johnny in the documentary.

He was pretty, pretty forthcoming about the party favors he was dealing with at Texas A&M. So basically, Kirby just dredging up terrible memories about playing against Joe Burrow and Cam Newton and Johnny Manziel. I guess that's good that Kirby's not to the point where he's gotten so used to winning and so good at everything that he can't look back and be like, yeah, there were some times when they got us. Do you want to?

So here's the thing. I know we're like playing around right now. Yeah. But I have sensed something with Kirby and I've sensed something from Georgia fans. And we have a Georgia fan in here who is ribbing me. So you can be my North Star on this. Obviously he is a made man.

He is the number one coach in my list of top 25 coaches in the sport. I'm not nagging him at all. Okay? Okay. I do feel like Georgia fans are starting to become frustrated with him for the first time in a long time. I would agree with that. And I think it's the same frustrations they had pre Todd Monkin. it's the same frustrations they had pre-Todd Munkin. It's the same frustrations they had about the offense where they feel like it's not run the way they would like it to be run.

But now, basically at any time Mike Bobo has been the University of Georgia's offensive coordinator, there has been criticism of Mike Bobo as UGA's OC. Now, I would say that during his tenure there under Mark Richt, their offense was very good. You know, they had Aaron Murray at quarterback. I don't think the offense was the problem. This past year, yeah, the offense probably was the problem. Like the defense was still very good. I don't know, but I'm not sure you tell me.

Was it a personnel problem or a scheme problem? I ask you a little bit about it. I think it was. I think it probably was a personnel problem more than anything. Um, I've been on the show for five, what, three years now saying I think Carson Beck is really good, but not elite, right? Like people at times got mad at that. But I think that even a Georgia fan, maybe looking in the mirror right now

would probably agree that, you know, Carson Beck didn't hit a level of, uh, stardom or efficiency that once seemed like pretty likely when, you know, he was, I think going into this past year was considered a potential Heisman favorite slash first round. And you take Brock Bowers and Ladna Conkey out of the equation and suddenly things look different. And there's Ladna Conkeys. And he's, you know, and by the way,

with what this man is doing in the NFL, I think it's kind of, you know, proving how good he is. And Brock Bowers too. I mean, there's an argument, like a legitimate argument this season, whether Brock Bowers was already the best tight end in the NFL. So, that's the thing that I'm curious about. They're not replacing them, Andy. That's the thing.

It's like Georgia Georgia for so many years was just like the other big dogs of the sport, right? Like you have guys like that, but it's like Marvin Harrison leaves and then Jeremiah Smith comes in. Like that's how it's supposed to work at these places. And it did not work there. And I know that Dom Love It was pretty good.

And they had some guys that, you know, made some plays in big moments, but they didn't have a person on there. They didn't have a Ryan Williams, right? Like they didn't have somebody that you knew. I mean, Oscar Delp is good, but like, is he somebody that you knew was going to step up in the right time? Like, I, I just, like to me it's like, but it's also the

problem of hiring your friends. Right. Like if you hire your friend. of hiring your friends, right? If you hire your friend, when things aren't ideal, people are going to accuse you of being a loyalist. And that is probably okay. We have seen some coaches be loyalists for different reasons, but I think you can make the case.

And this is my personal experience as a reporter that Urban Meyer lost his fastball at the end of his Ohio State tenure because he was loyal to coaches that were in his wedding party that might not have been the best fit. So I'm not saying that that's Mike Bobo, but it is an interesting dynamic because in my mind, if you win two national championships in three years, you are like in bulletproof from criticism for at least a decade, right? And like now that we're talking about Kirby. Listen, it's the SEC and the top level of the SEC, so no, your fans will begin to critique you almost immediately again. So that's where I wanted to take this. Like how long of a runway does Kirby Smart have in your mind from years like this past

year before things get like contentious? I think he's got a while. And I also think because of the way he recruits that there are going to be some more really good years where they are either in the national title game or they win the national title and then it doesn't matter. And then it's not going to be some more really good years where they are either in the national title game or they win the national title and then it doesn't matter and then it's not going to be a problem. But yeah, yeah, I mean, look, they're going to have to be better on offense if they're going to make the national title game if they're going to win national titles. So it's Bobo is going to have to prove that and it's interesting with this particular

dynamic that the Mike Bobo Kirby smart dynamic, you know, they played together, they are really good friends. Mike Bobo, when he was fired at Colorado state was coming back to the SEC, coming back to, you know, his area of the country as an OC. And I believe there was a conversation about maybe Mike Bobo coming to Georgia. And he ended up going to work with Will Muschamp at South Carolina, who was another one of their college teammates. For the express reason of I don't know that, you know, me and Kirby should work together because that's how people are going to look at it.

And in that particular instance, you know, they do James Coley for a year that didn't really work out. And then they go get Todd Monkin and all of a sudden, everything takes off. Now, Todd Monkin, as we're finding out really good, no matter where he is, may wind up being an NFL head coach, because he's had so much success as the Ravens offensive coordinator. So I think that is the biggest piece of it. But the question, I think, with Bobo, because I've never been a massive Mike Bobo critic.

I love to do the run the damn ball, Bobo, because it's funny. It used to drive them insane during their Mark Rick era, where if he called a pass inside the five yard line, the whole fan base was up in arms. That's the origination of the hat run the damn ball, right? Yes. Okay. It was like that Georgia like, yeah, okay.

So, but I don't, but if you look at those offenses, they were very efficient, very good offenses. So I don't, I'm not that out on, on Mike Bobo. I do think it was more of a personnel thing. And Georgia, given the way they recruit should not have personnel things like that. So perhaps that does fix itself with the development of some, some younger players and we'll find out. Noah is in the chat here while in.

Yeah, he's in class. Noah is in class at Georgia right now. Listen, I want to promote our show and I want you to listen and be here with us, Noah. But if you're in a financial class about investing, you should turn this off and pay attention because that's going to be the. Hey, Noah, don't listen to Ari Ari. I'm not giving up a

single viewer here. I know I want every viewer we can get even if they're also in class. So tell your friends Noah to tune in. You already took notes so you can hand them your notes. That's the one class I would want to pay attention in, because that's going to be the foundation of your future. But here's the thing, we could talk about investing on here, but we can also recall some of my time in college, where we used to go to these big lecture classes with like 300 people in them.

And I would sit in like the 20th row or the 30th row with my friend. And we would have Bose headphones on playing risk on a tablet in the middle of class. Because the only reason why you would go is to make sure that there was no pop quiz. But I just I laugh like all these years later thinking about it's like you're going to a lecture class and wearing noise canceling headphones. But you're doing want to hear the noise in that lecture. It's the most offensive thing that you could do to somebody who's publicly speaking. I don't know. I think the most offensive thing is what I would do.

So people went to Florida, no Carlton Auditorium. It's the largest classroom on campus. It's like 650 seats. And back in the day, what was across the street from Carlton Auditorium? Burrito brothers. So you have burrito, chips, all that red sauce. I'm just back there crunching chips.

But the professor is a solid 150, 200 feet away from me. So it doesn't bother him. He can't hear me crunching chips. I will say, now that I'm not in Tucson anymore, that I cook for granted the hole in the wall, crappy drunken Mexican food spots that were there. Because I used to think that that was like the lower bottom barrel, poor college student place to eat. And I've come to realize that those places actually made the best burritos

I've ever had in my life. Oh yeah. Shout out to Los Betos. And you were in Tucson, you can get Sonoran dogs. Oh yeah, no we had we had really really good authentic Mexican food there that was cheap but like it was no frills about it and you would go and it was open 24 hours a day at 4 in the morning and you would eat this burrito then you would think it was just trashy, I'm drunk, like Taco Bell-ish type food. And then when you remove yourself from it, you realize that that food could be eaten like at lunchtime sober because it was

delicious. And I don't think I can get a burrito here, even in Dallas that was nearly as good as just the drive-through place that wouldn't pass a health inspection in Tucson. Well, I'm pretty sure I was sober with those burrito brothers burritos, but then probably not every time. Cause you know, classes are early sometimes. You know how hard it is to get a good breakfast burrito?

It is very difficult. You know how hard it is to get a good breakfast most days when you're a working adult? Very hard. But if you have the Hewlett Black Edition, hard it is to get a good breakfast most days when you're a working adult, very hard. But if you have the Hewlett Black Edition, you can have a balanced breakfast, 35 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals, seven grams of fiber. It's all right here in this bottle. I love Hewlett. The world's number one complete nutrition drink. Go to Huel.com. Use the code staples15 for 15% off your first purchase of $75 or more. You also get a free gift. These things are amazing. If you don't have time to make breakfast, if you don't know where you're going to get your lunch at work, Huel's got you covered and it will last till your next meal. It'll last till your dinner. It'll last till your lunch and you will feel satisfied and you will feel like you didn't put a bunch of crap

in your body like Ari and I did in college. So there you go. As grown-ups we got to do it a little differently. Huel helps us do it that way. Go to Huel.com use Staples 15 for 15% off your first purchase of $75 or more and now we're gonna fuel your morning with Huel two minutes to tell you everything you need to know in the college sports world. Let's go start that clock. Okay. So Miami, we know they don't have a basketball coach starting next year. Jim Laranaga left. They're looking for a new coach. That coach is probably going to be Duke assistant. Jaya Lucas, who it makes me feel very old because I remember working for SI when Jai Lucas was like an eighth grader as a recruit. And now he's going to be the head coach at Miami next year, probably,

but he helped Duke just wax Miami and Coral Gables last night. So congratulations to him for impressing the new bosses. LSU next year. Interesting plans with Harold Perkins. Great story in the Bengal Tiger. That's on Three's LSU site. Great story. Go read it about Harold Perkins and his role as the star in LSU's defense.

Now, I don't mean star as in the big picture concept of he's a star. No star as in hybrid linebacker safety kind of role and you're saying, oh, I don't know if this is going to work as well because isn't he much better as a pass? Well, he gets he'll get to do that. He'll occasionally get put on a receiver, but he also runs a four four. So I like the idea of Harold Perkins, maybe as a role closer to what Florida State did with Derwin James when he was there. Because that's been the thing with Harold Perkins,

like how do you use him? How best do you work with him? We'll talk about this later in the week. We're gonna do Ari's All America team, and we'll get to that, and we'll talk about Harold Perkins and where he fits into the grand scheme. So tomorrow, Friday, we're going to do that. The other big news yesterday, Hubert Davis, North Carolina coach, who was kind of on the

hot seat, it seemed, well, apparently had a contract extension that he agreed to last July that he signed in December on the same day that North Carolina got blown out by Alabama. I don't think they're firing Hubert Davis anytime soon. They've put themselves on the hook for three more years. They had increased his buyout. Yeah, it was very strange. Ari, let's talk about the secret contract because we had a question in the chat earlier saying, hey, Andy, is this like what you were talking about with Luke Fickel yesterday? And exactly, Steve in San Antonio, that is what I was talking about with Luke Fickel, like schools bidding against themselves.

Like Hubert Davis is a North Carolina alum. He was working on a contract that he got, an extension he got after he took them to the national title Game in 2022. You didn't have to extend him. You didn't have to make the buyout five million dollars more expensive than it would have been. You didn't have to do that.

And they hadn't done that. They could make a decision on Hubert Davis this year. But they got excited, spent money they didn't have to spend. Ari, I've got a storied on three right now with a handy flow chart, like, should you fire or should you extend your coach? Not should you fire your coach? When should you extend your coach?

Hubert Davis's situation did not fall into the, here's where you negotiate. Well, the difference between this one though and Fickle is that he's been to the final four, right? Well, so he's he's been in the final four now. He got rewarded for that But last year they were also very good. They won the ACC. They were one seed. So it's like, okay, that's great But here's the problem Between those two years he missed the tournament

They may miss the tournament this year. They're they're kind of on the bubble They may miss the tournament this year. They're kind of on the bubble, but like Georgia beating Florida last night is bad for North Carolina because North Carolina is in a week eight. Like the ACC is really weak for the ACC this year. It's like, you've got Duke, you've got Louisville, you've got a couple good teams, but it's not an incredibly deep conference. So North Carolina is anybody.

Yeah, North Carolina is has good ACC record doesn't necessarily translate. And then they've got games like getting blown out by Alabama. So do blowouts in the committee room? Does it work the same way as if you get blown out and basketball? I didn't think so. If you get blown out by every good team you play. Yes. If okay,. If you happen to get blown out one night, but then you're competitive and all that, there's a lot of games.

But so Hubert Davis might miss the tournament twice in three years. To put it in perspective, Roy Williams missed the tournament in 2010. They would have missed it in 2020 had there been a tournament. The other 17 years he coached at North Carolina, he made the tournament so missing the

tournament basketball means you had a really bad year. Right when you're yeah when you're North Carolina, yes, yeah. Or just in general, like you're a 500 team if you miss the tournament right like so. It you know for North Carolina standards, yeah, it's like also too like the standard for North Carolina basketball is also higher than the standard is for Wisconsin football. Correct, correct. So that's the thing. And look, it's interesting because you look at the dollar figures on that in the sport. But it's not really about that with the story I wrote. Cause I was already thinking about it after we had that conversation

about fickle yesterday. And, uh, one of the beat writers for the Wisconsin state journal sent me the, the, the piece of fickle's contract. And it's interesting the way his is structured. Cause I was talking about, you know, $6.4 million you're on the hook for. And he's like, well, that's not, you didn't add $6.4 million to the buyout. And he's right about that.

The way Fickle's contract is structured, so at this point, if you wanted to fire him after this season, it would cost you like $30 million. They didn't add an additional $6 million by extending him to that number. But what they did do is if they decide to fire him in like 2030, they would own $6.4 million where they would have owed him zero. And that's putting your school on the hook for money you don't have to.

Now, will that situation- Does that mean that he's getting, well, the question I was gonna ask you is, if it doesn't add to this year's buyout, is he still too expensive to fire after next year? Yes. $30 million, so you think Wisconsin would pay $30 million to fire somebody? But then I'm saying then whatever that is is irrelevant. If they're not, they do it either way,

then who cares if it's added to this year's or not. Now 26, you get into the realm of, yeah, you might be willing to do it. I think so it is. It's a strange situation. Like I don't understand these schools. I said it with Shane Beamer early this year. Like who are you bidding against? There were no jobs open that were better. Like North Carolina ended up paying Bill Belichick more than Shane Beamer makes it South Carolina, but that's because he's Bill Belichick. None of the college coaches they were looking at

would have made more than Shane Beamer does at South Carolina. It didn't make any sense why you would do that. And it feels like these guys, it's just monopoly money to them, they don't care. And I guess that's true, because if you're the AD, in a lot of these situations, you're like, well, I'm going to be out of here by then anyway.

But the only time like, okay, Ryan Day just won the national title. You want to extend Ryan Day. Go ahead. Like you just won the national title. Now's your chance to spend some money. Everybody's throwing money at you. Just spend it. Any other situation. Now's your chance to spend some money. Everybody's throwing money at you, just spend it.

Any other situation, the only time you need to spend more is when someone is legitimately gonna hire that person away and you need to outbid them. And that's when you should spend more to keep the person you want. But otherwise don't, you don't need to. Right, right. Yeah, it is very, very interesting. And it just feels like at times,

like universities and athletic departments just spend money like it's not real. Because they do. Because they're not in it to make a profit necessarily. They're in it to enrich themselves and keep the mechanisms going that get everybody paid. And it's not the same thing. Like our business is different. Like our boss is trying to turn a

profit. So if we go to him and say, Hey, I realized we had not, you know, not a national championship season. And I've got, you know, two years left on my deal, but I want two extra years and more money. He's just going to laugh at me. What's in it for him? We are going to try it though, right? Yes, we're definitely going to try it. So Shannon Terry, if you're watching, get ready for a phone call.

There may be some groveling involved. I'm not entirely sure how to even present it without. You laughing first, but we're going to try it. We're going to try it and we'll see what happens if it works for Shane Beamer. It works for Hubert Davis like we went 9 and 4 this year, right? I've got a pretty good sales pitch. I think OK, but we went 9 and 4. We can agree on that right at least 9 and 4. We might have been a 10 win team. I think we were 10 when team I think we went nine and four. We can agree on that, right? At least nine and four. We might have been a 10 win team.

I think we were a 10 win team. I think we were a 10 win team. Like, did we make the... We either made the CFP or just missed it. I think we were all missed this year. Okay. Alright. So you see the potential. It flashed. It broke through a few times, but still have a lot to improve on. Well, that would that would put us on par with South Carolina. So Shane Beamer got Carolina one and a half million dollar a raise and three extra years on the contract. You you Just created the sales pitch though, because now if the Shane Beamer got it, then we got it. And we're staying together.

Lenora Sellers is coming back. Exactly. To this whole thing. Like creating a successful podcast is as much about the content as it is about the consistency of being together and putting that chemistry together into a place where you have an identity as a show and people know to expect from you year over year. It's a process. It's a process. There are a lot of podcasts out there, Andy, that have had the same few co-hosts together for a long period of time. So we need to get on that wave somehow. I think you're right. I think you're right. And the only

way to do that is just throw more money at us. I think that's the solution. That's what the money is for. It's not, hey, you agreed to this and you have multiple years left on it, so just work harder and then I'll pay you more when it's in. When it ends, you realize that you created a flow chart that stopped us getting extended, right? Thanks, man. Appreciate that. I didn't stop us from getting extended, Ari.

You gave Shannon Terry a treasure map. Common sense is stopping us from getting extended Ari. You gave Shannon since she's stopping us from getting extended. There's no common sense exist in college sports. Yeah. It's just, I would have expected more from you as my friend. I'm just going to say, here's my sales pitch to Shannon Terry. I need a raise or I'm going to lose my house over how many Panini sports cards I'm buying. Please help me out here.

I need a raise or I'm going to lose my house over how many Panini sports cards I'm buying. Please help me out here. And they're a sponsor. So you see it all. It's all symbiotic. So no, I think I think we can we can make the pitch. We can make the pitch. We'll see how good linguistically we are because that's it's gonna be tough. Alright, Ari, before we talk college football playoff, the meeting you attended, I wanna talk about attire because you're

like, how do I get dressed for that thing? Well, State Liberty has what you need for every potential occasion, whether you gotta go cover a CFP meeting, whether you're headed to the gym, whether you're headed to the bar. So I got the waffle knit hoodie on right now. This is one of my favorite pieces of clothing. It goes pretty much everywhere I go.

But I've also got some State and Liberty suits where if I gotta make sure I fit in in a fancy hotel, they got me looking right. And everybody's like, where'd you get that? State Liberty, stateliberty.com. Use the code ANDYARRY for 10% off for new customers or click the link in the show description. It'll take you directly there.

These are amazing clothes, comfortable, but athletic fit. So if you've been in the gym, it'll make you look like you've been in the gym even more. And you can fire your dry cleaner because they hold up in the wash. Time and time again, they hold up all the way up to the suits. That's right. No, not throwing those in the dryer. But they are beautiful. They fit great. They're easy to take care of. They travel well. State Liberty.com. Use that code.

Andy Ari for 10% off for new customers. All right, Ari, you went to the meeting. Everybody was dressed to the nines in their finest state in Liberty. What happened? I did wear jeans. So you got me. State Liberty selling jeans now So you got me.

State Liberty is selling jeans now by the way. Just started. You got to try them out. Because like I'm like in the realm now where I'm fitting into that stuff. I'm an in shape guy who takes care of his body. Like I just go over there and try some of that stuff on.

The store is beautiful. The one that we went to in Nashville was really really pretty. Yeah, you guys should go over there and try some of that stuff on. It's so beautiful. The one that we went to in Nashville was really, really pretty. Yeah, you guys should go check that out. But yeah, so I made this joke to you on the phone or on the podcast yesterday of like, I can't tell if college football moves fast or slow. And it might be both at the same time, as you said, right? So like, which is so weird, but true. Yeah. But I went, cause like they're changing the format potentially

of the seating after only one year in the new system, which is a fast move, right? But to get to that isn't just a one meeting thing. These, the CFP and the college commissioners or conference commissioners, I should say, are going to meet two or three more times during the off season. Now, obviously it's a pressing issue because we're talking about the format for this coming year. And then of course, it's even pressing issue for 2026 and beyond because televisions and everyone wants to know like television deals and all that. What's this going to look like and how how many teams are they going to be in and all that stuff. But I went there yesterday the meeting was from eight till four. And you know I was there with Ross Dellinger from Yahoo, Chris Vini from the Athletic and Ross Dellinger, I mean Heather Ditch from ESPN. And we just sat there and talked about

eating healthy for eight hours. You know, like it's like we, it's not like it was a stakeout, you know, and I'm not necessarily sure and I even asked Chris like why are we staking out when we know when the meeting ends? He got there at 8 a.m. like a psychopath. I don't know why anybody would do that. I got there around 1 and we just sat there for a while. Then the athletic directors, I mean sorry, the commissioners came out of the meeting and you know some wanted to talk and some didn't. Tony Petitti did not want to talk and you know the Greg

Sankey didn't want to talk. Those are the two people who seem to be pushing the biggest changes in 2026 but basically what we got to is we had a lot of good conversations we made some progress we're on the same page everybody shared their opinions we need more data and we were gonna come back in March and we'll do this again so like it wasn't a quick result of like we're just in a straight seat in 2025 and that's it. Like they are waiting to make the most prudent decision. But I called you frustrated after and maybe it was just me being naive.

I just wish that when they make decisions that impact the sport and impact all the fans who listen to the show and love the sport, that they were a little bit more forthcoming of like what were those conversations? What were the disagreements? Why are you hung up? What data do you need? Like all the things that like why can't you just be transparent about what you're struggling with? Right. And I thought Brett Yormark saying that they were going to write your marks the big 12th commissioner. He's saying, well, let's see if he's going to run some models and get the data to us. Like there's no models to run.

I ran them last night. Yeah, I looked at the I looked at the previous year's college football playoff rings. I got 10 years worth of them before before the 2024 and the committee didn't change its selection procedures or anything. So you've actually got a decent sample size to see what would happen. before the 2024 one. And the committee didn't change its selection procedures or anything. So you've actually got a decent sample size to see what would happen. But I actually, I think that anybody with the internet connection can run the models.

But I guess there's a sticking point for me there with what you just said. And I asked Rich Clark this yesterday because I find it interesting. It's like, how are you running models from the past that don't have the same conference alignment? Like it's like such a different sport now. And it's like, what does what happened in 2016 have to do with anything right now? Like that? Well, you, that's

you can get an idea with that stuff, but you're exactly right. And here's what running all those did, just because all I wanted to see with that was what would it look like with the 2024 seating rules? And what would it look like if you just seated them the way the committee ranked them? And how would that change? And you use the same thing, the same rules of you get this many automatic bids in.

Now the difference is because there were five power conferences, then you'd go five, five automatic bids or, you know, you go six highest ranked commerce champs would get in instead of five. And the only thing that really struck me other than obviously if you're the ACC, the big 12, the Congress USA, the Mac, the Mountain West, the Sun Belt, you don't want to change the rules. Like that's obvious. Like it doesn't help you at all to change the rules for 2025. What incentive do you have? I don't even know why you would do it unless you want to curry favor with the SEC and Big 10, which they're still going to ram everything down your throat anyway. So again, I don't understand that. But the other

big takeaway I had already was it would actually would have worked if they hadn't blown up the Pac 12. Like this system would make sense if they hadn't blown up the Pac 12 system was designed with the Pac 12 existing. So that makes sense. Now that's the thing. We keep like needling and picking at the playoff mechanism as the problem that needs to be fixed when really the problem is the conferences don't make sense and there are too many teams

in them. And I played this game with you on the phone on the way out of the meeting yesterday. I'm going to play with the people here. Who are the two definitive best teams in the ACC last year? I don't know. Who are the two definitive best teams in the in the Big Ten last year? I think it's I think it's Oregon and Ohio State, but I don't think you would have said that after the season. Yeah, try not to even do it. Try not to even do it with what the information we got in the playoff. Try to put yourself back in Nashville the weekend, a championship weekend. Me asking you that like because at the time you're like Ohio State would not have been a top two team. You would have said maybe you would have said Ohio State as they beat Penn State. They didn't play the championship game. Well, remember, we had the ranking that everybody got mad at where we put Ohio State ahead of Penn State.

So we actually, because they did play a game in State College and Ohio State won. So I'm saying, even if you think you know the answer, the conferences are too big to definitively get to a place because Penn State and Oregon hadn't played yet to know who the best two teams are in your conferences. And if you can't even figure out who the best two teams in your conferences are,

then how are you gonna see this thing properly? Like who are the best two teams in the big 12 last year? We know who played in the championship game, but like, I think you can make the case that at the end of the year. I think BYU would have had a good case there. BYU would have had a good case, or Colorado even to a certain extent.

Like, I don't know. Like if I thought that ASU and Iowa State were the definitive two best teams in the league. Now, maybe that doesn't matter because you play the games and whatever you do get you into the but if you're not playing everybody in your league and you're leaving like the indianas of the world completely untested outside of one game then you think that the playoff is the problem or is it maybe that stanford's in the acc now like i think that is the bigger issue and if the pack

12 existed in texas and oklahoma were still in the Big 12, this system would be perfect. It'd be perfect. They had it right two years ago. So five out of the ten years from 2014 to 2023, the seedings would have been exactly the same with these rules or if you've just gone straight down. Because because of the different conferences, because the things were organized differently. So I'll give an example of one. I'm just picking at random one of those years, 2015 Clemson is your ACC champ. Alabama is your SEC champ. Michigan State's your big 10 champ. Oklahoma is your big 12

champ. So there's your four as your four highest seated conference champions. They're also the top four teams. Stanford was the pack 12 champ. They were the sixth seed. Houston would have been pulled up to the number 12 as the American champ. That's the other part of it. Like with the exception of Boise state in 2014, like all of those American champs that were the best teams in the group of five that were actually like those two UCF teams that would have made it anyway. There were some Cincinnati obviously would have made it anyway. There was a Cincinnati that would have been a three seed as the American champ. Like, because Texas and Oklahoma left the big 12 for the SEC and the big 12 then ripped

apart the American, like all of this has a compounding effect on this. And it's crazy. Like, it would have, I actually thought about, you know, all the coverage we did when they were trying to figure out the 12 team playoff, the four guys who put it together. So you got Greg Sankey from the sec Craig Thompson, who was the mountain west commissioner. Bob Bowles B was the big 12 commissioner. Jack Swarbrick was the Notre Dame. A D Sankey is the only one still working in that bunch.

They actually did it. They came up with a pretty elegant solution. Like this format with five power conferences would work most years. It would make perfect sense most years. So here's what the 12 team would look like in the 2023 season. So this is the season that ended with Michigan and Washington playing for the national title. So Michigan is your big 10 champ.

Washington is your packed 12 champ. Washington's your packed 12 champ. Texas was your big 12 champ. Alabama's your SEC champ. That's your top four. Florida State was the ACC champ, would have been the fifth. Liberty would have gotten pulled up. A simple explanation to this, Andy, is that if you have five power five champs and only top four seeds get in and that gives you

some leeway if one of the conference champions in the power level isn't that good. That's all it is. It gives you an extra. There's a very good chance that four of them will be in the top four big 12 champion would be worthy of those spots, right? Or in the case of Cincinnati in 2021 where the American champ is a top 14.

Exactly. yeah. Now, if Cincinnati had their run in the American this year, I wonder how people would have taken it. But the thing that's interesting about that bracket that you just put up, and I think we have to acknowledge it, and I had this conversation with Heather Denich

and Chris yesterday, is do we think that they ranked teams differently with 12 than they did in 2023? Like, I think that they ranked the teams, they departed. I think there were six new committee members this past year, if I'm not mistaken. They ranked them differently this year than they were last year. You think they protected the people who made conference championship games intentionally? I don't think they did. They did. I don't think they did. I think I think they voted the way they would have voted. No, no, no, no. It's spent in the giveaway is how high up the rankings Penn State was like that. Like they rewarded teams who made who made their I don't know. I think before we saw that reveal when you and I put out the

rankings that we put out where we had Ohio State fifth and everybody said we were morons. There's no way Penn State's gonna be ranked ahead of them. I think they did what they would have done all along. I think that we did what they would have done if the rankings, our rankings would have been perfect if it was 2020, if it was a poor team field. And here's how I knew when they put Penn State at six, they revealed Penn State was six before they revealed the final spot. And I knew the second we saw Penn State at six that SMU was in Because you couldn't you couldn't do one or the other like it was like they they had to make a line in the sand How are we going to treat?

Conference championship game losers and you can't treat one differently than the other because that makes no sense They decided that they were gonna reward them last year.. But like that to me also too is just like, probably what you should do, right? Like what Rhett Lashley was preemptively complaining about on our show when he came on before the ACC championship game was why are we playing in this? If losing it means we're not in. Right.

And you can't, we can't live in a world where if you make the championship game and lose, you're worse off than not making it. The other problem goes back to what you were saying before. The schedules are so imbalanced because the conferences are so out of whack big that just making the championship game doesn't necessarily prove anything. And like there's no way to fix that either because you could say conventional. I mean you conventional wisdom. You could just be like well. Just stack the the top tier program schedules with all the other top tier teams. But then if you

do that then that opens the door up for another Indiana, right? Like then it's like well a team that's on. That's really really good unexpectedly at the bottom half of a conference. Which way any of the commercial purposes is not the worst idea in the world. I know, but you're creating more issue because then you're going to have a George Tech one year who's better than we expected, not playing any of the teams at the top and then getting to 11 and 1 and then it's like, well, what do we do? Like I don't even know.

Well, Ferris Khan says get rid of the championship games, just have a tri champion or whatever, and then have the committee pick top 20 matchups and no rematches. That's not what they're going to do. What they're going to do is have these play in games. They're gonna have these play in games that are intended to create stakes, create high stakes for TV purposes, but also to eliminate some of the randomness of the schedules, because you do get the teams that had better records playing against each other.

And like, so if you have sec number three versus sec number six with a spot on the line, how different is number six going to be from number three? Most years, I don't think it's going to be that different. Yeah. But then you're also undermining the success of one team or two teams. Like if Iowa would have played Oregon this year or whatever, I don't know if you have the Big Ten standings or ever put them up, I don't remember what they were, but I

don't know who the fourth best team. So that's kind of funny. In this year's tournament, Oregon and Ohio State would have played right. No, I don't know, because he wouldn't do one versus four. There's a couple different models of it. It'd be one versus two with the buy on the line and then you play three six and four five. Oh yeah, three six and four five. So that if you are a one or two you wanted to are in three six and four five play for the other two spots.

OK, so the the difference between Iowa season in Indiana season is negligible. Like what Indiana did isn't rewarded at the same at the same level as it was this. Well, and also probably is good, but let's yeah. Would an Indiana I I think in Indiana Iowa game at the end of the season

would have been a an interesting game. I think Indiana would have been Five point favorite probably yeah something like that. So Well, that's the thing that's interesting because in Joel Klatt's model wasn't it one four two three or something. No No, remember Joel Klatt's model is Tony Petiti's model so No, no, remember Joel Klatt's model is Tony Petiti's model. So the championship game participants are playing for the by and the championship of the conference. The winner of three six goes the winner of four or five goes.

There's other models. And that's the way to get the four guaranteed AQs. And there's other models, by the way, there are models where you could go 1, 8, and then 2, 7, 3, 6, and 4, 5. My whole thing is that whatever model they land on, you have to reward a team like Oregon from past year for going undefeated.

You can't put Oregon in a game with a team that was marginally good for the sake of television ratings. That's why I like the- Because you're putting them on the same field as a as an average team. And if that average team plays well and beats you, then there's no difference between going 12 and 0 in the regular season and going eight and four in the regular season. We can't have that. Right. Like we have to protect the teams that go 12 and 0. And that's why I think they end up on the one we just showed, the one that Joel talked about when he was on the show with us.

Where if you're one or two, you're guaranteed to get in because you earned that in the regular season and three and six and four and five who all left themselves open have a chance to play their way in. Like I'm okay with that. Well, and I also think having a conference championship game and especially in those leagues. Like have an actual conference champion like. You can crown it and then the the one and two are going to the playoff, but you're playing for a buy that's remember I wrote that column a few weeks ago saying. If you want to figure out what they're going to do pay attention to the money they're going to 14 because the SEC and the Big 10 still want to have a conference championship game with stakes. Yeah, and I guess like the reward if the reward for winning

the conference championship game is playing one less game in the playoff. That's a good reward. Right and then also winning the conference championship, which I know isn't going to matter to some people. It will matter to the coaches and players. Okay. Yeah winning the conference champion. Okay. I think that. Yeah, I I but if there's no real stakes for it like like

you're talking about if there's no real if you don't get a buy or anything out of it, what's the point like why you bother the snakes we got this year. The exact opposite was who's losing and gets better path. Like what happened to McTennants is a travesty. That cannot happen again. But it's going to happen because like I said, there is no incentive. If you're the big 12 or the ACC or any of the group of five leagues to change

the rules for 2025, Because chances are you're going to need those rules to help your teams. I think the ACC is in a better spot with Clemson. This particular Clemson team could just be a top four team. there's, there's a chance of that. Miami could do that. Maybe there's another team in the ACC that, that maybe SMU, maybe it's SMU this year. They have another great year, maybe Louisville. So I think the ACC is, is probably maybe a little more ambivalent or agnostic on that because they could probably do it either way. I think the big 12 probably needs it to get a top four seat.

Yeah. Cause they could probably do it either way. I think the big 12 probably needs it to get a top four seat. Yeah. Smash the numbers here. Said how good of a reward is it to earn a buy by playing an extra game anyway? It's like Spider-Man is pointing at Spider-Man. Either way you have to play the same number of games. And I don't think that's true. The difference here is everybody else

is playing an extra game too. Yeah, cause you have the three and six and the plans Yeah, yeah, but so that's not it would be an extra it would be one less game But also to one less game point for now makes perfect sense One less game that ends your season to you play the extra game and the championship game But if you lose you still in like if you lose the first round of the playoff you're out obviously And if you have a buy you get to you know, advance further into it. And there's a financial

bonus for your school if you make it to the quarterfinals right now. So like there that's also part of it. Yeah. But the the way it is set up right now. I get where Ferris is coming from on that. But if they go to this thing with the plans, it won't matter. The thing that we have to discuss though, because coming out of the meetings, it kind of hit you what I was saying yesterday.

And I think you're writing about this. But I wouldn't hold your breath that anything's gonna be different this coming year, right? I just don't see the incentive. Like I'm always, the way I look at the world is what are your incentives to do this thing versus this thing. And I see no incentive. If you're the ACC, the big 12 or any of those other leagues to do anything different because this system stands to benefit

you more. And you could say, well, you don't want to piss off the SEC and the big 10. What does it matter? They're just going to ram the thing down your throat for 2026 anyway. They don't care. Adam Suellentrop Here's the thing that is interesting. The one thing that we know about Brett Yormark, the Big 12 commissioner, is that the man likes a good deal. Right? Adam Suellentrop Yes. Adam Suellentrop He likes to wheel and deal and put himself in a position and his conference in a position to financially prosper, but also do things that are innovative and exciting. Is there anything that they could barter with them?

Is there anything that the big 12 could stand to gain by trading the seating for this coming year? Like what could the SEC and the big 12 offer, or sorry, the SEC and the big 10 offer the big 12 and the ACC to allow them to go along with this, or to persuade them to? If I'm the big 12, what would be financially beneficial

for me, I think would be a probably a scheduling alliance with the SEC, a non-conference scheduling alliance, but the SEC is gonna make one of those with the big 10. So that's not on the table. Yeah. Like, and you could say, well, they can help us with some basketball stuff, but what does it matter? Like the basketball thing, they're already going to expand the tournament.

Like that's going to help. That's going to help the big 12, too, because the big 12 is a very good basketball conference. They don't need the SEC to do that. They're fine without that happening. Like, I just don't see anything that the SEC, the big 10 can do for those leagues or would do for those leagues that would cause me if I were them to do anything to do any favors, like I don't know, like they need to do any favors for the SEC in the big 10. Your mark was wearing fine Italian leather loafers yesterday. The man knows how to make a deal. And I wonder

if there is something that look at the cut of those suits. Yeah, no, he's he is dressed to the nines every time I've seen him. And I don't know, he strikes me as somebody that could have maybe something up his sleeve. Maybe it's a it's a amendment of the financial bonuses, where, you know, because like, as you made $4 million last year for making the quarter finals, right? Like, is there a way that you could restructure

who gets a bonus and how they get a bonus to help the money coming in still? Maybe, but they've already, from what I understand, they've already settled on the money split for 2026. And it ain't good for everybody but the SEC and the Big Ten. Yeah, I don't know if they could come to an agreement of like, hey, maybe we make it less lopsided

for the next few years if we just. Well, if I'm the SEC and the Big 10, I'm like, I'm not giving you anything for this one year. Because. It's only one year, that's the thing. It's like you're not, and like the wholesale change, or like the change that they make isn't a wholesale change. It's a one year bridge to whatever 2026 comes

as that new deal comes up. So like that. And also the more I think about it and maybe it's because going through this last night just made me mad because the old conference alignments would have. Did it just occur to you that it sucks? It's all died. Is that like, no, I mean, it all is just seeing, seeing how, how widespread the effect of its death is and what it did.

Like, also I'm kind of mad that they didn't do this. Like this format, if they just started with this in 2014, would have been amazing. Like they robbed us of years of that. would have been amazing. Like they robbed us of years of that. If the teams were the same, it wouldn't. I think we're good. During those years, like I think like if they. You would think about 2014. The Baylor TCU thing, there's like like the Baylor and TCU got job. Well, they would have both made the playoff and they would have had

a chance to play those teams and you would have known one way that because like Alabama in 2014 was not years out of the ten Andy that it had an impact and it was the first year in the last year. I don't know. I would have liked to have seen it. Yeah, I would have enjoyed it. Yeah, I mean, it would have been cool to see if TC or Baylor were good enough to win games that I mean like the way that Ohio State won the national title that year. It's

like pretty obvious who the best team was at the time, but it would have been cool to see. I'll give you. It was pretty obvious who the best team was this year, but I like the process. I like I like the journey. So not at the beginning. No, not getting that's your point, but Ohio State wasn't obviously the best team going into that playoff either. No, there were some thought about whether or not they would have. They would have made it at all with Cardale

Jones. I remember I was there. Yeah, so that's the thing. It actually is a fairly similar comparison, but yeah, I don't know. I just and what Ohio State did this year might be like, yeah, well, maybe TC or Baylor would have done that in 14. I don't know. And part and what Ohio State did this year might be like, yeah Well, maybe TC or Baylor would have done that in 14 I don't and part part of me is like the the I Know I've gotten very cynical as I've gotten older But there's still a little bit of like tilting at windmills in me like if I'm Brett your mark and Jim Phillips just be like

You know, I'm gonna say no to this just because I know you want it, Big Ten and SEC. And I'm not going to let you have it because this is the last chance I'm going to have to say, I'm going to deny you this because you're just going to steamroll me. But here's the thing that you're on out there too. And I don't know like if this is naive of me and I'm, I'm a naive person at times, but when guys like Brett Yormark and Jim Phillips are in that building, having that meeting yesterday, their number one responsibility is their constituents, right? Like their institutions, their schools. But I would hope, and I don't know if this is true or ever happens, but do you think that these guys ever feel like maybe we should do what's best for the game?

Or like- Yes, I do think that, I do think a lot of them think about that. And that's why I go back to the, when the four guys made the 12 team playoff, I think they were thinking about what was best for the game because you go back and look at it how it would have worked with the alignment that existed when they started making it. But it actually would have worked

well. There's no way that your mark would be like, you know, we want that that money and we want first round by but it's not good for the game. So we'll do what's best for the game like that's never going to happen, right? Like it's it's always going to just be. I don't think it's going to happen much anymore. I think it. I think there are people who think of it and who would like to do it. But I also think they have a responsibility to their constituents to do what's best financially for their

constituents and then once and then once the automatic qualifiers come, because I feel like that's where we're headed, like it's gonna be a pretty divisive decision. It's gonna alienate a lot of people and feeling like they're less than. And maybe they are less than, I don't know. But it's... Well, that's the thing. It will define less than. And that's the part I felt like they were trying to avoid for a long time but now they're just nakedly going to say okay ACC you're gonna get two spots the big 10 in the SEC they're getting four big 10 or big 12 you're getting four as if and when that happens like let's just create a fantasy land where Florida State, Miami, North Carolina, and

Louisville are all awesome in the same year. And the big 10 or the SEC. Is this possible? I mean, it's possible, right? I don't know. I don't know how many you're the Florida guy. Tell me how often Florida State, Miami have been awesome, awesome at the same time. It happened quite a bit.

The entirety of the. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the 80s and 90s. They have the late 90s for Miami at the same time as Florida. Not all three of them, but two of them. Yeah, yeah, there's like a small period in the early 90s. Yeah. Yeah.

But where the ACC actually does have four of the best teams and they and to get left out because they don't have the AQs in the year because like that's going to happen eventually, right? So it would stink if the fourth best team in the SEC was clearly not as good as the fourth best team in the ACC and then the ACC is fourth best team. Get screwed somehow. As a result of a cues that I mean, I'm against a cues. I don't know about you. And I also think it's kind of cowardly.

Well, I agree 10 in the SEC have a better chance of getting more than four. I agree. And I think it's interesting that the SEC used to use that to call the big 10 cowardly because it was it was when Kevin Warren was commissioner of the big 10 that he initially wanted to define who got the automatic bids in the four-team playoff. He wanted to define that the Big 10 would get one of those, or that in the 12-team, instead of the five highest-ranked conference champs, it was just the champs of these four and then the next highest-ranked conference champ.

I'm okay with AQs for conference champions. Like if you want to be like, hey, you win your conference, you're in. Like that, that even if it's not an equity thing. What I'm saying is the SEC, their argument against the Big 10 then was, well, you don't need to do that. But the SEC has fallen in line with the Big 10 on that. Well, yeah, the Big 10 and the SEC champion will never not get in, whether it's defined or not.

But now it's not even about the champion. Now they've fallen in line with the idea of, this is how many you get. Yeah. But I don't want anybody to automatically get in outside of conference champs. Well, I don't think you're gonna get what you want. I know. Well, and I just like, this is the thing that I said on the show last week, and I'll say it again. The discussion isn't about how many get in anymore, it's how they get in.

Mm-hmm. And I'm not sure there's a discussion anymore. That's the thing. And that's why at this point, I'm not sure there's a discussion anymore. That's the thing. And that's why at this point, I'm not even, I'm not, why bother expressing a strong opinion? Cause it doesn't matter what I think. They're going to do what they're going to do. You can express your strong opinion. Well, my strong opinion is you don't need automatic bids. Just take the top 14, but that's not what they're bids. Just take the top 14, but that's not what they're gonna do. And the top 14 most years will equate to four four and two two.

But we have to protect. But that's the thing. That's what they're gonna say. They're gonna say, well, this is how it would happen most years anyway. Then let it happen like that most years, but they're not going to. Because what do suits like?

They like certainty. Yeah, well, it happens most years, happens most years, but like also at least we would have the potential for the ACC to get three in, right? Or four in remarkable years. Rocky Top Tom, I love Rocky Top Tom in the chat because he lives in a fantasy land. It does matter, Andy, you want all these problems

to literally just disappear in five minutes, eliminate paying players, free agency, conference, realignment, opt-outs. Eliminate real life. Okay, Rocky Top Tom, we'll eliminate real life and everything will be fixed. So your opinion matters. You have a massive platform, which is to say this is wrong,

but it still wouldn't change anything, Rocky Top. Also paying players is not wrong. Like following the Sherman Act is right. Like not breaking the federal law is probably a better idea. Let's put it this way though, hockey top. When the Pac-12 was dying, I like was crying like a little girl on our old podcast for like a month straight. Like it doesn't. They're going to do what they're going to do.

They're going to do what they're going to do. We can't stop them. They are. It's a very big business. And I do think that your opinion matters because it helps They're going to do what they're going to do. They're going to do what they're going to do. We can't stop them. They are. It's a very big business. I do think that your opinion matters because it helps formulate other people's opinions on how they should feel about things. Just because you can't change it doesn't mean you can't feel things.

There's things happening in our country from a political standpoint that some people love and some people hate, but nobody can change any of it. They can still feel. Well, my thing about this, and I have gotten much more cynical as we've gone forward. Like, I used to be like, it needs to be like this. And now I'm just like, they're gonna do what they're gonna do.

They've beaten me down. Rocky Top Tom, there you go. We disagree on ideological and legal grounds. Well, the entirety of the federal judiciary disagrees with you on this. So I'm sorry about that. I mean, we've gotten to the point though in this world where it's like we're so far past the paying the players discussion. Like now it's like, how do we set this up? Right? Like the paying the players discussion. Like now it's like, how do we set this up right? Like the paying the players thing is full news.

Because rational, logical people have known that they should be getting paid all along. That is such a 2020 discussion, like it's over. Yeah, it's over. That's not even the thought. Yeah. But while we're in the discussion of like, what is the playoff gonna look like?

I am very uncomfortable with the notion of changing it before we know what the sports going to settle at. Yeah, the other thing is conference realignments not something you're going to stop or change. It has been happening since conferences have existed. I just wish I could do something

to make it realign back. Well, unfortunately, the way it realigns back into regional things that make sense, little small nuggets, digestible groups of teams that make sense, is in a Super League where they just form geographic divisions. It would be kind of cool if like Texas, Oklahoma, Oregon, USC, UCLA, and someone else like became the crux of a Western League that like got us back to having five power leagues. You could take a few teams out of every

conference and make another conference that makes it more aligned with equity. It's interesting because that was Larry Scott's idea. When he was the commissioner of the Pac-10. You leave the ACC as is, you take two teams from the Big Ten, two power teams from the Big Ten, three even, three from the Big Ten, three from the SEC and give one or two to the Big 12 and then give three or four of the remaining to the West Coast Conference. You would have an equitable country of both just travel expense but also like.

And that's what they're going to do when they have a Super League and they split it up into divisions. When the SEC and the Big Ten merge after they take what they're going to take, they're going to split into divisions and that's what it's going to be. Don't end the show. It's still not going to be what, it's not going to be this, it's not going to be what we want. Nobody wants that. They want that. Yeah. Because it gives them more sure checks. Like what suits want? They want certainty. It's so funny because it's

not like money's ever been an issue money comes in You didn't have to like destroy it to get more money They did actually like To get more money for you Like for this particular entity to get more money. They had to destroy something else So So that's reality. It sucks, but that's reality. Thanks for depressing everybody on the way out of here. That was that's I'm sorry.

We'll do better tomorrow. Hey, let me let me let me liven things up. You know what we like best is when you guys help us with the show. Dear Andy and Ari, tomorrow's a Thursday. We got to answer your questions. So send those questions to us. You know where to find us, andy underscore staples on Instagram and X,

andy stapleson3 at gmail.com, at Ari Wasserman on Instagram and X, Ari.wassermanaton3.com. Send us questions, we love them. You guys are very creative. I love the way you think. You have some dirty twists of sick little minds and I love it. So send us those questions. We love them. You guys are very creative. I love the way you think. You have some dirty twists of Sick Little Minds and I love it. So send us those questions.

We'll answer them tomorrow on the show and we will talk to you then.