Andy & Ari On3 - Has LSU gone full HEEL TURN? Will Wade bolts on NC State to join Lane Kiffin and Kim Mulkey

Episode Date: March 27, 2026

After a wild week in Baton Rouge, Will Wade is now once again the head basketball coach at LSU. It’s a Dear Andy & Ari episode, and one fan asks about the top 3 notable coaches down at Louisiana State University: Lane Kiffin, Kim Mulkey, and now, Will Wade. Watch here as Andy & Ari discuss the overall state of the athletic department at LSU and then how entertaining this upcoming season will be with a whole lot of character from their coaches. (0:00) On Today’s Episode (1:02) Presenting Sponsor (3:20) Intro - Will Wade is BACK at LSU (14:30) The Trio of Coaches at LSU (23:17) Who leaves first at LSU? (31:00) Culver’s (32:13) March Madness Recap & Preview (49:05) One rule to change in CFB (59:50) Story Time with Ari (1:10:50) Are Grumors over? (1:13:35) Panties Update (1:15:41) Conclusion: Yoder’s in Bulls Gap, TN After discussing in depth on LSU, Andy & Ari dive into the March Madness games last night and the matchups that are ahead on Friday night. Matchups tonight #5 St. John’s vs #1 Duke #4 Alabama vs #1 Michigan #3 Michigan State vs #2 UConn #6 Tennessee vs #2 Iowa State Can Rick Pitino defeat Duke? Will Michigan hold off Alabama? Who wins between Izzo and Hurley? Will Producer River’s Vols advance? Next up, Andy & Ari dive into Andy’s one big rule change he would have for college football. Do you agree with his idea on adopting the NFL rule with the knee down? After that, fans ask the guys about what’s really going on behind the SEC adopting the 9 conference game approach. Why did Greg Sankey and the SEC finally do it? To close, a fan asks if Jon Gruden rumors are really dead. Andy & Ari discuss.  Thanks for watching! Join Andy & Ari Monday to recap all the March Madness games and the weekend’s news. Watch our show on YouTube instead! https://youtu.be/8pI0kD0wgf8   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey   Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail]   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's Andy Nareon 3 presented by BetMGM. It's a mailbag show. And right out of the shoot, you guys have questions about LSU and their most recent hire. Basically, are the Tigers just going heel turn with hiring of Will Wade, the hiring of Lane Kiffin? Will Wade arrives in Baton Rouge, promising to, quote, follow more rules.

This is going to be fun. Plus, great games last night in the Sweet 16. More incredible games tonight. The Big Ten already guaranteed one team in the final four. Ari and I will break that down. Plus, Ari wants to know what college football rule I would change, and I have one that has been bothering me forever. Also, did the SEC get oky-doked into going to nine conference games? We discuss all on today's Andy and Orion 3 presented by BetMGM. We are sponsored by BetMGM home of the Pick a Twin to Win free to play game. That's right.

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Call 1-800-off in Iowa or 1-800-9-1-0-2-3 in Puerto Rico. So first bet offer for new customers only, subject to eligibility requirements, rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and hotel. Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use the bonus code CFB and get your $1,500 first bet offer today. Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. It is a mailbag show. And you guys have some great questions. And Jeff, who is not Jeff Landry, the government.

of Louisiana. But Jeff right out of the shoot with a very timely question. And this is from the other day when we were talking about the fact that Will Wade might return to LSU. Will Wade is now returned to LSU. He's left NC State. He's returned to LSU. And Jeff says, well, Wade may return to LSU. Is the school saying F it and just going full heel faction when it comes to coaches? is. One more question, already, before we start answering Jeffs.

This is from Akos. Here's a thought experiment for you guys for the next mailbag episode. Who will get fired first? Lane Kiffin, Kim Mulkey, or Will Wade? LSU has people tied in pretzels. They're tied in knots. Okay.

So, yes, I think that there's a lot of heels there. the question that I have for you is, is Will Way to heal to anybody other than an NC State fan? Yes. He's a heel to Dick Vital. He's a heel to, like, you've seen all the hand-wringing even before this. When he got fired from LSU the first time,

the strong-ass offer stuff, he broke the rules. The rules were also illegal. The rules themselves broke the laws of the United States of America, but that's okay. We won't talk about that. Well, the actual question that I have for you, because it was kind of amusing to me in the intro there

when you were reading off that Will Wade returns and promises to follow. What rules specifically is he not going to follow? That is so difficult to follow. Well, let's play the clip. WBRZ and Baton Rouge got this clip of Will Wade returning, and this is an all-timer right here. What about coming back?

What do you want to say to Tiger Nation? Rules are meant to. I do love that the guy starts to say rules were made to be broken and it just stops. Just stops. There are no rules now. That's the best part of this. Like Will Wade gets a do-over in Baton Rouge with no rules? I mean, I guess they're going to hire somebody who is no longer a coach because they broke rules.

Hiring them back in an environment where there are no rules is a pretty safe situation. because they didn't fire him for losing. They didn't fire him for inappropriate conduct. They didn't fire him for something that makes you unhirable. They fired him for something that he is now encouraged to do and he did it well. So like I understand there's there's two sects of people. The first sect is he broke rules when the rule existed that makes you not a good hire, not a good person.

You didn't do things the right way when you were supposed to do it that way. Who cares what the rules are now? And the other type of person is I don't care what you're dealing. is as long as you bring wins to my university, you do it. So, like, I think that we can probably make a fair discussion in saying that LSU fans are 100% person B now, because that's what fans do. They kind of, you know, latch on their current belief system

to what's most advantageous for their person, their program. But, like, you know, again, I don't really feel all that wound up in a negative way about what Will Wade was doing beforehand, especially considering the fact that we're probably matured, sure enough to understand and accept that that most coaches were engaged probably in doing things like that. I don't think that he is unique or the only person that was doing that. I think what he was doing was engaging in an underbelly in the system that you had to engage

in an order to be competitive. So, you know, I don't think that, you know, he really, like. But the thing about this is opposing fan bases are going to hate LSU even more because Elaine Kiffin, because of Will Wade, because of Kim Mulkey. Like, this is going to, it is a heel turn by LSU. And this is, this is like what I've always said about Lincoln Riley with the heel turn when he left Oklahoma for USC. If you're going to, if you're going to make the heel turn, embrace it.

And what I love about LSU is they are fully embracing it. Well, and they get it. They don't care what you think about their coaches. But let me ask you this when it comes to Will Wade specifically since this is fresh. What do you think would irk the general fan who now hates LSU with no skin in the game more. The fact that he broke rules and got his coaching job back or the fact that he bailed on the place that employed him.

Oh, definitely the NC state thing. Definitely the NC state thing. So, like, I think the rules thing is kind of ancient history. And most people probably don't even really think about that or remember it. Maybe they do. I'm sure there's a certain sect of people that's very righteous about the rules. And frankly speaking, when the rules were the rules, like, if you got caught, I didn't feel bad for you because I do feel like you.

you should follow the rules. But I think there's a big thing in college sports that people are struggling with right now. And I think as time goes on, we're going to, you know, just doesn't be normalized. But there's no loyalty from coaches. There's no loyalty from players. There's no loyalty from administration. And there's no loyalty from commissioners. Everybody is out for the best buck for the most wins and slitting throats along the way to get there.

But the thing is with coaches, that's always been the case. It's true. But now that it's not the case with the players, I think that people are hoping for more from coaches because they're highly compensated and treated well in a way. But they've always acted this way. I know. I'm not saying everybody has always been a huge,

coaching in general is a huge ladder climbing situation. And like, honestly, most of the best reporters in our field have always been the ones that could feed coaches most information about opening jobs. Exactly. I feel like we can know that. But like if you are a person who values loyalty, if you are a person who can root for somebody because they're loyal or because that matters to you, in college sports specifically, you're going to be hard pressed to find it from anybody. Whether it goes all the way down from athletic director to player now, to high school flips. there's nobody who's going to be sticking around.

So when you do get the rare case where somebody prioritizes loyalty and says, you know what, NC State gave me this opportunity when I was down in the dumps. People didn't want to hire me because of my past situation. And NC State gave me a chance. I'm in the ACC. I'm in the research triangle. I've got an opportunity to be really good here. I'm going to give them my best because they gave me a shot when I needed it.

Like that, that I think is admirable. But it's not a prereq. And if you don't like everybody who's not loyal, Andy, you're going to have a hard time finding somebody to root for because the only loyalty to people have is to their wallet and their personal interests. Yeah. Well, and Boogh, in the NC State AD, he did not really hold back. He basically said, he basically called him soft on the way to town. Like, and said, you know, Will Wade had his agent email me to say he was done? In fairness, Boo Corgan is my favorite college football playoff committee chair of all time.

That guy gives up a great vibe, doesn't he? That guy gives you a vibe of like, hey, I would like to drink a whiskey with you in Wyoming, somewhere looking at a lake vibes. Am I wrong about that? I don't know about that. I do know he opened his press conference with, I think Philip Rivers said it. The Wolfpack ain't for soft people. We're going to find a coach that understands who we are.

Now, look, LSU fans are looking at that and going, he's not soft. he just likes our job better, which is true. Because this is something we, people were asking me the other day when, when it was bubbling up that he might make the move. Like, is LSU a better job than NC State? It's not a better job than NC State in basketball. It certainly isn't football, but it's not a better job in basketball. It's a better job for Will Wade because Will Wade loved it the first time he was there

because the guy who was his president at McNeese State is now the president at LSU, because he got LSU to hire his McNeese State AD as a deputy AD who's going to oversee the basketball program. He basically got to set up his own personal fiefdom there. And I also don't think it makes you a bad person to follow your personal interests. We have this conversation all the time. If you are a coach and you enjoyed living in Baton Rouge, you enjoy the people that are around you and you want to surround yourself every day with those people in that environment, like who am I to tell you that you're an asshole for doing that?

I think there are certain ways of handling it. I think I might have called the athletic director and had a conversation when you move on from jobs. You know, this has always been me and I'm not like levitating above the rest of us, but whatever I've been in a breakup situation or whenever I've left jobs or done something, like I have always had a sense of loyalty in the sense that if I do pursue my personal interests, I do my best to be as upfront, honest, and real with the people I'm leaving. And communicating that. So I think that there's certain rules of engagement, like when you do these things or pursue your own opportunities in order to try to mend fences or to do the right thing as best as you can. And I don't think that that happens a lot of the time. And like if you're Boo Corrigan, when you get broken up with the first thought out of your mind isn't always, well, that was a wonderful person. Like you think about their flaw or whatever you think about how. You know what I thought about when I was reading the Booghorian quotes yesterday? The scorpion and the frog or the scorpion and the.

Yeah, Scorpion and the Frog. The fable. Do you know the fable because I'm unaware of it? Scorpions try to get across the river, hitches a ride on the frog's back. Frog does the scorpion, a huge favor, getting him across the river. Scorpion stings the frog at the end.

Frog's like, what the hell? Scorpion's like, I'm a scorpion, bro. You hired Will Wade. You got Will Wade. You hired Lane Kiffin. Kind of a sad story. Why didn't you do that? You got Lane Kiffin.

Why did the Scorpion do that? Because he's a scorpion. It's not noise. See, Chris Rock, that tiger didn't go crazy. That tiger went tiger. And so in this case, that TIGA, T-I-G-A-H went TIGA. And I love this because I'm excited to watch the dynamics of this. And I love our second question about the trio.

of Lane Kiffin, Kim Mulkey, and Will Wade now from Akos. We can get to the, how will this all end? But before that, I want to talk about what it's going to be like. Because these are three coaches who, as the WWE people will say, can cut a promo. Like, the press conferences, the drama at LSU is going to be, incredible. And they're going to win. Like we already know Kim Mulkey's winner, she's already won a national title there. But they're going to win there. They're going to be relevant there. They're going to get into situations where controversy ensues. And it's going to be

so much fun. And people are going to hate them. And that is, it's good for the sport. It's good for the other fan bases to universally hate LSU. It's good for the LSU fans to know that the other fan bases universally hate them so that they can say you hate us because you ain't us and they can galvanize around that it's amazing can i ask you a question though yeah i have to ask this because i was thinking about this last night into the morning so you said out we're going to start with lsu because obviously lsu is the biggest brand uh and a lot of crazy stuff is happening and i said what we're going to talk about the holy trinity of unlikable coaches and you're like yes only unlikable if they're not your coach.

And I think I agree with you 95% of the way there. But let me ask you this. Do you think fans care ever at any level how their coaches are perceived by others? Oh, they care because they like to argue about it. But ultimately, they care if their coach wins. That's what they care about. That's all they care about. If you are, like, because I really struggle with this during the Michigan stuff, as you know, we talked through all this Michigan stuff.

And it's like, I guess they portrayed that they did not care how Jim Harbaugh was perceived by the rest of the country given what had happened there. But do you think at night when the door was shut and they were looking in the mirror that there was a certain lack of purity to everything. Hell no. Okay. I feel like in my own personal moments, I'd be like, in my own personal moments, I'd be like, like this isn't as perfect as it should be. Let me explain why my feelings on this subject are the way they are. Because when I was younger, I did subscribe to the black hat, white hat coaching theory.

And so young Andy is a South Carolina fan who moves to Florida and grows up for the most part in Florida. And so I'm living in Orlando in middle school and high school. And everybody's like pick aside, Florida or Florida State. And I'm like, well, everybody hates Steve Spurrier except the Florida fans. And everybody loves Bobby Bowden. So I guess I like Bobby Bowden. I guess I like Florida State better. But I don't really like either of them.

I'm not a fan of either of them. I'm a South Carolina fan. And then I end up deciding to go to the University of Florida because I get an academic scholarship. I was not a fan of the school, but also I had been recruited at a lower level to play football. I was like, well, I'll try to walk onto the team. So I walk on. And I meet Steve Spurrier and he's, he's my coach.

And I'm like, oh, oh, oh, everybody else hates this guy. But when he's your guy, he's the freaking best, the best. Well, you know, the thing that's, and that's what changed my opinion on this stuff forever. When they're your guy, it does not matter what everybody else thinks. That's your guy. You know what's interesting about the pantheon of LSU coaches, though, that I find fascinating? All three people that we've mentioned on this podcast are disliked for different reasons. Like, Lane Kiffin is disliked because he left a team that he had at the highest level

before their playoff run and did it in the most soap opera way possible, right? And he's just a drama queen. He also left Tennessee when he did. Yeah. This is a. He got fired by Nick Sabin. when he was doing the FAU job and the O.C. job. Lane Kiffin is a scorpion.

And LSU may be the frog and we just haven't gotten there yet. So we'll see about that. Thank you for teaching me that fable. I know something more than that. Two, Will Wade is viewed as a cheater. Like it or not. People thought that, you know, he was blatantly cheating during a time in which you weren't able to engage in those operations.

And he also left the program at the 11th hour. The other part of this, is all of this stuff that's happening, Will Wade and Lane Kiffin, is a repudiation of the former A.D. Scott Woodward. And remember, this is Louisiana, and Louisiana politics are always tied to LSU sports. And so as my good friend Derek Pernamski,

who was a coach O's right-hand man, did a radio show in Baton Rouge before that, he always says this about LSU in particular, but everywhere. All politics are local. And you got to remember that, so John Bell Edwards used to be the governor. John Bell Edwards politically allied with Scott Woodward. Jeff Landry's the governor now politically allied with the forces that did not like Scott Woodward when he was the AD. So very quickly, they moved to get rid of Brian Kelly.

they moved to get rid of Scott Woodward. They moved to bring back Will Wade, who Scott Woodward fired, and the fans didn't want him fired. So a lot of this is stuff that's happening even above LSU in the governor's office. So it's not just that they're like, well, we want to win. this is also the politics whipping back around and certain people getting into power that did not have power and were not happy with the way things went before. Now, before we keep going, let's talk about the third horseman here, which is Kim Mulkey. Now, that has a Scott Woodward hire that has worked out. But people don't dislike her because she doesn't win.

the woman wins, right? Right. They just dislike her intense coaching style. Yeah. Her outspoken nature. Yeah. And controversy in handling her players. And there have been reports that she encouraged some of her players to hide their sexuality.

So that, like, goes deeper into, like, human things that aren't anything. And if you talk to Baylor people, the stories after Kim Mulkey left Baylor. Oh. Baylor people said she was hard to deal with. Funny that those stories mostly came out after she left. But yeah, I imagine she's not the easiest person to deal with. Not a lot.

Elite coaches tend to not be easy to deal with. So do you know what's easy to deal with, though? She's an easy villain for sure. If she's not your coach. Right. So, you know, I don't know, I'm assuming that LSU fans do love her, but I think that, like, that's the ultimate proof that what Lane Kiffin and Will Wade do will ultimately be whether they win at all because she's happily employed there still.

So, you know, I just, I think that coach fans can overlook everything, including cheating, as long as they win, and LSU is probably happy with the fact that they now have three people that they perceive to be as winners at their most prominent sports. So that said, I do think that LSU nationally from a fan perspective is probably an easy place to dislike if you don't have any skin in the game. They also stole the baseball coach from your alma mater. Yeah, by the way. Jay Johnson, very good baseball coach. Is their baseball team good?

Yeah, their baseball team's great. Oh, yeah. Electric. They got cool uniforms. And they sell out every game. Yeah, because Paul Skeens was on the team. I'm not an idiot. Yeah, yeah.

From Akos, this question, though, so it is a fascinating question. Lane Kiff and Kim Mulkey or Will Wade, who gets fired first? I don't think Kim Malky gets fired. She's 63. I bet she retires in the job. Lane Kiffin and Will Wade are probably too young to retire the job, just because that's not how big-time college sports work.

So how's that going to end? Football has higher standards and bigger expectations to perform on a national level in basketball. I think. Yes, definitely. So I think that like Lane Kiffin's leash from a year perspective is probably shorter. But I also think he probably has a higher likelihood of succeeding at a high level. So I will probably say, we'll wait if I had to make a guess that my life depended on it.

I think so too, because it's not, it's just generally not easy to win in basketball at LSU. You had period, like Dale Brown had periods where he was really good. John Brady had periods where he was really good. Will Wade was obviously fairly consistent when he was the coach. Three NCAA tournaments in five seasons, and it would have been four if the 2020 tournament hadn't been canceled. So let me ask you this, though, with Lane Kiffin. So I don't know how familiar you are with the secret lives of Mormon wives,

but it is an electric show. You might be confused. We'll get them. Not terribly familiar. I know two of them wound up on Dancing with the Stars, and I know one of them was going to be the Bachelorette, but she was caught on video throwing stools at her, the father of her child.

Yes. Well, in the show, I don't know what actually goes on in real life. The person that she was throwing the stools at has been a longstanding person in her relationship, or I mean in her life as a result of a very intense and toxic relationship. Okay. And that they remained, you know, together in,

and sports after that event happened because that event happened years ago and we just found out about it now. And I think that it kind of reminds me too of like these two people are so off the reservation together that they don't know how to exist alone. And part of me wonders if LSU in the nature in which that they went to go get Lane Kiffin

is already off into that toxic relationship world where like you're kind of stuck with each other for a while. Even if it doesn't, even if it doesn't. Oh, they're not stuck with each other for a while. He's got to win. If he does exactly what Brian Kelly did, he will get fired. Yeah. Okay.

I didn't know if you thought maybe he gets an extra year because of the insane nature of the way that he got. This is LSU. I know. It's just a theory. That tiger goes taga. I just think that you go through all of the shit that LSU went through to get him, both financially, emotionally and dramatically, that maybe you have a bigger skin in the game and seeing it through because

Are they spent $100 million to hire Notre Dame's coach? It was a fairly significant process to extricate themselves from that and they still did it. Right. Because I always thought about this too with like Scott Frost at Nebraska. Did Scott Frost get an extra year at Nebraska because he was, there was such a vested interest in him succeeding? Also with Jim Harbaugh, did he get that extra year?

Instead of being fired, if Jim Harbaugh was anybody else, instead of slashing a salary and letting him come back for another year, did he get an extra year at Michigan, which ultimately turned out into a national championship situation because he was the prodigal son that came home and was to save the program and there was a vested interest in his success. Like, I don't know, like sometimes I feel like it's easier to cut bait with somebody that you met on Tinder than your high school sweetheart.

You know what I mean? Like, that's all I'm saying. Well, here's the deal. So Pete Nacos wrote this story this morning. He added it all. up. LSU has committed over $200 million to the football and men's basketball programs. If you count up what has been promised to Lane Kiffin, what has been promised to Will Wade, and the buyouts to McMahon, who just got fired yesterday, and to Brian Kelly. 200 million bucks. So yeah, it's a big bet, but here's the thing. if these two guys do not produce at the level they're expected to produce,

they will get fired. And if they produce at the level that they're expected to produce, they will be beloved forever. A 2021 prism cracked dice, Justin Fields cards, PSA 10. The Joe Burrow equivalent of that card is probably worth somewhere between $45,000 and $50,000. I bought that card, or I hit that card. or I hit that card very early on my card collecting career. And I could have sold it for four figures multiple times and I didn't because I was emotionally attached to it.

And now after all of that, I'm left holding the bag of a career backup. What's it worth? It's probably worth 500 bucks now at most. Somebody would pay 500 bucks for a Justin Fields card. It's a very rare one that's in her condition. And Justin Fields also does have some. you know, emotional ties to Ohio State. To Ohio State. I guess he was successful at Ohio State.

There were people paying $500 for Sam Darnold cards before he had the return. Like people, if it's a rare card and some people might want it to. That's not the point. The point is that I was emotionally attached to that card in a way that I wasn't emotionally attached to other cards and I made a poor business decision as a result of being attached to it. Well, here's the thing about LSU fans and LSU people in general. Politicians who help control LSU, people who run LSU, people who run LSU.

and of course, LSU fans. Their emotional attachment ends at the win-loss record. If you win, they love you. If you lose, they hate you. So they are emotionally attached to Will Wade and to Lane Kiffin right now. They will emotionally detach if they don't win. Here's the deal. And this is actually the right way to put it. And you're right about this, Andy. I agree with you. if we're going to use this as like a toxic relationship trait or an attachment trait,

losing it LSU is the equivalent, the relationship equivalent of being cheated on them. Essentially, yes. There's no coming back from it. You're done. That's it. Your shits out on the lawn. If you're winning, we can work through this. But if you cheated on me, you're out.

Like, that's it. I guess you're right. You're probably right. I just, but I do wonder if people get an, extra period of time because of attachment. And we'll never be able to prove it because you don't know. But like I can guarantee you they won't hear. Not guaranteed.

But it has happened elsewhere in the past, I think. But here's the thing. They are legends. Good example of this. Ed Orgeron is a legend in the state of Louisiana. They still turned on him. He still got fired. But he's always going to be a legend because he brought him a title.

Yeah. That's probably the best. He won a title and he still wasn't good enough two years later. Yeah. Listen. Get on with your sister blue shirt. Bro, I'm a scorpion. I'm a tiger. That tiger went tiger. All right. Ari. We've got to talk some hoops now. But before that, I want to remind everybody. I liked that. That was a fun conversation. That was. We're going to talk some hoops now. Before that, I want to remind everybody, April 4th, a week from Saturday,

we will be in Indianapolis live at the Culver's Game Day Hub. Come by, say hello. We'll be recording a show. We will be eating frozen custard. We will be giving out frozen custard. I'm sure there'll be some butterburgers there too. We love Culvers. If you saw us at the draft with Culver's last year, you know it's going to be a great time.

So if your team makes the final four. So listen, we know one big 10 fan base is going, whether it's Illinois or Iowa. We don't know which one, but there's a big 10 team that's going to be in Indianapolis. Just not sure which one yet. And then, of course, we've got Arizona and Purdue. That's going to be a fun one too. But whoever makes it, we want you coming by. If you can't make it Indianapolis, enter the Culver's swish-swish dish sweepstakes.

now through April 5th for your shot at $2,500. But yeah, if you are going to be an indie, come by and see me and Ari April 4th, live from the Culver's Game Day Hub in downtown Indianapolis. And then we're going to cover the games, and it's going to be amazing. Ari, let's talk about the games we watched last night because those first two, holy crap,

the, you know, it wasn't quad box, it was duo box with the Iowa Nebraska game here and the Purdue, Texas game here. Unbelievable. Just kind of wire to wire competitive games. Yeah, yeah. I thought that those were the quintessential March Madness experience games. And I'm happy that we got them at the same time,

but I'm kind of sad we got them at the same time because the next two games weren't as entertaining. So it would have been cool to have one at night or like one later and one earlier. Yeah. But I'll take it. The Purdue basketball team has been one of the teams that a lot of the experts thought had a real shot at making a run to the national championship. And I watched in their last two games pretty closely, and they are really, really good. And I know that their scores have been close.

They move the ball around really well. They have a lot of really good pieces. And I think that they have a real shot at the moment of winning it all. So, but yes, very entertaining games. My son was like, does Purdue have a giant version of Braden Smith too? Because they're, they've got a big man who looks like you just put Brayden Smith in a 3D printer and hit 150%. It's amazing. The beards are incredible.

But we do need to talk about in the Nebraska, Iowa game where football did play a slight role. You had the one Iowa fan that's wearing the Iowa basketball jersey with the Iowa football helmet, which is amazing. But this was a football. People noticed this last night. So 616 left in the game, Price Sanford for Nebraska makes a three to take the lead. The broadcast cuts to the Nebraska crowd, which includes Nebraska football coach Matt Rule. Immediately following this. Nebraska goes on a five-minute and nine-second scoring drought

and is outscored 15 to 6 for the rest of the game. And Iowa wins, and Iowa is going to the elite eight. I don't think that rule being shown on the TV had anything to do with this, but the Iowa fans found this to be delicious. Why would it have anything to do with it? It's a terrible coincidence. I'm pretty sure I saw Brent Brennan get shown

in the broadcast of the Arizona Arkansas game, and Arizona was never in danger. Yeah. So every year, and I don't know if I should do it. Oh, Sark did get shown right before Purdue took over the end of the game against Texas. But they've been showing Sark the whole,

like it felt like, because Sark was right behind the bench, so they were showing him a lot. This is a little bit different because the run was so prolonged too. Also, I'm pretty sure they showed rule before that, again, because he's kind of right there behind the bench. Every single year, like, I kind of adopt a team because I feel bad for their fan base and I really want them to have something. And I think last year, to a certain extent, it was A&M. We actually legitimately very good.

And it feels like they were one of those. Why can't we ever have anything teams into a, you know, kind of their season ended in a way that made you feel like that's maybe still the case because you can't beat it and lose. I'm like, and I don't know, because these people turned on me pretty hard last summer, but I feel, I kind of feel bad for Nebraska fans. Like that sucks. I want, I want good things to happen for Nebraska fans because they're very loyal. And they were really enjoying this basketball run. And I'm sure they'll look back on this season and be, be thrilled with it. But of course they're going to be frustrated that they led a Sweet 16 game for 38 minutes of the game and end up losing.

to a conference rival, no less, that was seated lower. And you know that these people took it as personally as they would in football too because of the logos. I think that there are some cases where basketball rivalries, like the Ohio State Michigan rivalry in basketball is not nearly as intense, you know, having covered it. And they might act like it in the moment or whatever, but like it's not. And the Auburn, Alabama one doesn't seem like it is either, even though they talk like it, but it doesn't. A real college basketball rivalry is like Duke, Carolina. Like, that doesn't exist in the football versions of the same equivalent in basketball. But, like, this one feels more personal because it is a, it's the furthest that Nebraska's ever gone in the tournament.

They never won a tournament game before this year. And they finally get to a place where, A, they're very good. They could have won the game. And, of course, they lost to a rival in the most heartbreaking fashion ever after showing the coach on TV. Like, that sucks, dude. Like, I'm sorry. And I, you know, I also, by the way, the game in Houston that looked like an Iowa Nebraska football game was not the Iowa Nebraska basketball game. I was laughing as the Illinois Houston game started because it was, it was like two to nothing four minutes into the game.

Yeah, didn't like Houston have like 26 points in the second half at some point, if I remember correctly. Illinois just put the clamps on them. It was it was a team of grown ass men against another team of grown ass men in Illinois. grown-ass men were just more grown-ass. That's really all it was. And this was kind of a surprise, too, because Houston was a team that I think people thought were, was a real, real candidate to win the national.

Yeah, but I mean, at this point, almost everybody left in the Sweet 16 felt that way. Like the first two games, the Nebraska, Iowa game, and the Texas Purdue now Purdue's in that group. But the other ones, I don't think really were considered to be in that group. Illinois, Houston, St. John's, Duke, you know, all the ones, basically all the games that are coming up tonight, we could kind of see any of them make the national title game. We could kind of see any of them make a run to the national. St. John's in that bucket for sure.

Yeah. If they beat Duke tonight, then, I mean, they're definitely in it. Yeah, I've got a weird feeling they're going to, by the way. Rick Petino's Sweet 16 record is insane. So John Shire is going to have to work with that. But I think he's 12 and 1 in the Sweet 16. Yeah, 12 and 1 in Sweet 16 games. I don't know if you did this by design, but is it time for this? You know what that is?

Church bells. Wild cats. Look, Arizona looked unstoppable last night. If Arizona plays the way they played, and Arkansas is good. Let's be real. Arkansas is a good team. Arizona made them look like a middle school team at times. Rest in peace to my horse.

It got put down like Old Yeller last night. It is old Yeller a dog. Old Yeller was a dog, yes. Spoilers for the very old story. but yeah uh i don't know think of a movie where a horse got killed uh that's what happened last night to my horse it is a uh pretty cool thing because i think that a lot of people in my life are very fired up and it does feel like this might be the year for arizona they i thought that arkansas was going to give them a game andy i thought it was going to be entertaining i certainly thought they

we're going to cover. And Arizona just put the screws to them from start to finish. Like, it wasn't an entertaining game at any point. At least Arizona does not have to play Sean Miller in the Elite 8. Yeah. That was pretty, there was a really good chance of that happening until Purdue took over that game at the very end. For a fan perspective, that would have been badass. And kudos to Sean Miller, too, because Texas wasn't a great team this year. And they, they had a really good turn. They did a good job. And also credit to him. They asked him about Arizona, and I don't know if you saw his answer about how, you know, you can view, you can burn a house down or that fire can be like. Sean Miller, who got caught up in the same thing Will Way did, but Sean Miller, let's be real, got fired for losing in Arizona.

We're not losing, but we're not getting them as far as they wanted to go. But he could have been, he said some nice things about Arizona, and I think that, you know, for most part, he handled that really well on his team. If you're a Texas fan, you've got to be excited. Like just to me, it's like nobody gives a crap about how consistent you are in the regular season. If you can consistently and routinely get your team to play above its level in the tournament, that's all people care about. Well, right. Is John Calipari better, a better coach now than he was in the final years at Kentucky? Or did he just get Arkansas out of the sweet 16 the two years he's been there and couldn't get Kentucky out of the first weekend?

Yeah. And also getting the Sweet 16 at Arkansas feels different probably than it doesn't. Kentucky. So, you know, I think that that's a baseline expectation for Kentucky, and I think it's an accomplishment for Arkansas. Maybe that'll change, and I think that the investment in Arkansas basketball program is shown that they want more. But like, I don't view what happened to Arkansas on Thursday night as some sort of ram some black mark on his resume. They just lost it. No. They lost to the better team. I mean, Bradenbury's 21 points, co-opete 21 points. But But they also had four more players in double figures, six players in double figures for Arizona.

They have so many ways to beat you. And that's what, well, mathematically, that's to happen when you put up 109, I think, right? Unless somebody drops 40. But that's the thing. Like they just have so many different ways to beat you. They have a couple really good big men. Burries is an incredible point guard. like they have every piece you need to win a national title now will they put it all together and do it that's the that's the question but this is this is a roster built to do it and you know you look at the team that won the national title last year florida they had all the right pieces too like they they fit the puzzle together very well and Arizona's built in a similar fashion so i i think this will be fun to see we're we've got a

really fun elite eight that we know about already. And then, of course, we got to talk about these games tonight because we mentioned Duke St. John's. But you've also got Dan Hurley against Tom Izzo. Being in Washington, D.C. tonight, it's got to be the greatest thing in the world. Yeah. And Yukon just seems to be like a machine,

but Izzo is just so consistent. I have no idea how to cap this game. And the thing that I think is cool about tonight is that there's only one game, and that's Alabama and Michigan that BetMGM has as more than a three possession game. So, you know, it's going to be fun. Duke has six points, I believe.

Have you seen what Barstool is doing for that game? Because obviously, their founder, Dave Portnoy is a Michigan guy. But they've got a guy named Rico Bosco, who's, he's like Nate Oates biggest fan. He's basically the mascot for Alabama's basketball team. If Alabama wins, Dave Portnoy has said he will double this guy's Sal and give him a 10-year deal.

I'd like to know what he's a great salary. Yeah. I think his salary is pretty good. If I were fairly popular, I'd probably hit Michigan pretty hard. I mean, that's hard because you can't hedge. You know, Michigan's minus 525 to win. But the, you know, Michigan will probably win.

You know, maybe. The thing about Alabama is, so the NATO's teams, very consistently do the same things. And he has been very upfront about. He wants three pointers and layups. Now they've sprinkled in the mid range a little bit as the analytics have changed because Nate Oates believes in analytics.

But if they're hitting everything, then you have to try to beat them in a shootout. You're going to score on them though. Like they've got to be hitting shots or they're done. So it really will come down to can Alabama hit shots Aiden Holloway didn't make the trip, by the way. Also, our guy, producer River, staying up late Friday night. His valls against Iowa State.

And T.J. Otslberg, are not going anywhere. You saw Jamie Pollard, their AD very quickly came out and said, hey, we know other schools might be interested in T.J. We're going to make sure he stays here. And you've heard, like, our friend Jeff Goodman at Field of 68, basically, he talks about TJ's a different cat. Like, whereas a lot of coaches, would crawl across broken glass to go to North Carolina.

T.J.'s probably happy at Iowa State, even though he's somebody North Carolina might be interested in. So that's, but, but. Can we bring Big Rive up on the stage and tell us how he feels tonight? Yeah, how are we feeling, River? How do we feel, Big Rive? Is Jefferson playing, do we know? Does it matter?

He did pretty well with that time last time. Maybe it doesn't. you know, if we can hit some shots, Bishop Boswell had a really nice game last time out. Are you going to be able to inbound the ball against their defense? Well, are we going to... They were turning Kentucky over like crazy and you guys

almost lost because you could not inbound the ball. Well, we also couldn't. We ran baseline whenever we had to stay stationary when they didn't score when we threw it in. So like, we tried to lose that game, but I mean, it's nerve-wracking. It's all it is. So Joshua Jefferson is a game-time decision tonight.

Okay. Okay, so we'll see. We need Nate a minute to just take over a game. Let's take over again. Are we going out in Nashville tonight to watch it? Or are you a cone of solitude? No, we're staying in. I'm staying in.

No, he's got to sweat it out. He needs his Jerry Tarkhanian towel to chew on. There are types of people out there who like their solitude and they want to watch the game in their own environment and control the sound and to really immerse themselves in it. And there's other people who like to go out in public and drink can publicly cheer and get into the game, but you never know with the public, too.

Where's the TV going to be? Sometimes I like to go out, but last weekend I had enough of that. This weekend, I just got to stay home. Let me ask you this. If the Tennessee football team were playing in the national championship game, would you watch it at your house, or would you watch it in public? He'd be there because he'd be working, but yeah.

Yeah, okay. Probably that would be in public. I'd go out for that. I don't think if Tennessee makes a national championship game, I don't know what River is going to do. We're going to give him the night off. Yeah, like, we'll just go watch the game. Because he's wanted to go to the games in the past while we're working.

And it's like, River, we can't not have you. So in Chicago, it would require two underdogs to win, but you could have a Tennessee Alabama elite eight game, which would be unbelievable. Unbelievable. But I did love, by the way. So you've got T.J. Outsleberger at Iowa State, Dusty May and Nate oats, all people who we,

when we were talking to Greg Barnes, He named as people North Carolina might be interested. I just explained why T.J. Otterberger isn't going anywhere. I don't think NATO's is going anywhere. I don't think Dusty May is going anywhere. But they were all getting questions about it. And then Rick Barnes comes up and somebody asks him like, hey, you're the only person here that North Carolina is not interested in. He's just like, hey, I'm from North Carolina.

Rick, Luke DeKock from Hoops HQ. I think you're the one coach who's not going to get asked about the Carolina opening for. I'm from North Carolina. There's a little history there, I think. The history of that is, is, is, I believe he and Dean Smith did not get along. And so, yeah, there, there's no shot. Also, he's got a lifetime contract in Tennessee. And he's bled there and has found his bliss.

So, yeah, finding your bliss in life is good. Okay. All right, I want you to help me find, find my bliss because you have a, you asked a question earlier this week that you wanted to pose on the mailbag show. Mm-hmm. And I need you to ask it because I've been, I've been stewing about this for years, for years. And you landed on it.

Well, I want, no, I want the soapbox. I want you to hand me the soapbox that I can then stand on and scream. Sure, because I don't know the answer to my own question. Andy, if you were in charge of college football and you can change one rule with a snap of your fingers and it goes into effect immediately, what would that rule be and why? Let's do it. Let's do this. when a player catches the ball or falls down with the ball

and they've not been touched by anyone, they can get up and keep running. It's the most violent sport in the world. Why do you blow the play dead because a guy dive and caught the ball? Like, there is a level of football where if you make a diving catch and no one touches you, you can get up and run with it. and no one has died. So when you catch the ball and you hit the ground and no one touches you,

you should be able to get up and run with it. When the quarterback like fumbles the snap and has to go down on the knee to scoop it up, he should be able to get up and run with it. Okay. So you're just saying eliminate all instances where the only reason you're down is because your knee touched the ground. Correct. You have, you need to be touched, touched down.

You need to be physically tackled. Yes, just NFL rule, poured it in. And if you come at me with, Andy's trying to turn college football in the NFL, do not give me that soft crap. That rule shouldn't exist. Okay? It's a very violent game.

The same person who, who's like, let's bring out the flags when they, when they do anything with the targeting role, this is the same person going to be like, you're just trying to turn to college football in the NFL. No, no, no. It's common sense. It's common.

If you're going to let people just knock the living crap out of one another, and that is part of the game, and it's a part of the game we celebrate, then let them stand up with the ball after they made a diving catch. Make it the entire game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Where is your, okay, I think I, I mean, it really hasn't impacted me enough either way to feel like that, like.

It drives me insane. I don't really. You have a diving catch on the two yard line. The DB's beaten by 10 yards. All the guy has to do is roll into the end zone. But he's down. And now you, and now you're going to have to run. You're probably going to wind up running three plays inside the goal line and get stuffed and have to.

kick a field goal. Let that make it get up and score. I'm just happy that your rule wasn't something like NIL doesn't exist anymore because that was like a lot of the answers to the question. No, that's fantasy land. This is a rule you can change. Where do you make sense? The two feet down for a catch rule.

I like one foot down. I think it makes it more interesting. The skill level is higher in the NFL. It should be a little bit harder. Okay. But in college, the skill level is not as high. Let's give them as many chances to move the ball down the field as we can. Yeah, and also it does create more exciting results at times.

Right. Because like that, didn't they only get the, who caught the ball at the end of the Indiana, Penn State game, and always his name always. Omar Jacobs. Omar Jacobs, that's right. Who's going to be a high draft pick? Yeah. If he only got one foot down.

And it's like that was exciting. And I think that like that play would suck if it didn't get the count. So we get more moments, more things to freak out about all those things. Omar Cooper, sorry, Omar Cooper. Yeah, what'd you say? I said Jacobs. I don't, he's Omar. Omar Jacobs is somebody.

That's an athlete somewhere. What about the fumbling the ball into the end zone out of the end zone touchback rule? Nope, that's the rule. That's how out of bounds works. Omar Jacobs played a bowling green, by the way. So, yeah, I'm okay with that. It is terrible, bad luck. When someone's going for the pylon and the ball gets knocked out and it rolls through the end zone and out the corner and maybe spends, you know, two feet of actual distance travel in the end zone.

But that's, that is how it works the rest of the way. Like if you have the ball in the end zone and you down it, it's touchback. If the other team works down the ball or, you know, it's how the game works. If you intercept a pass in the end zone and your knee hits the ground, it comes out of the 20. So, yeah. Don't do it. The end zone, like the goal lines live. Can I get on my soapbox about not wanting to change one rule that everybody was kind of mentioning?

Sure. People were saying that they prefer the overtime rule in the NFL. And I find that to be absolutely insane. I think college football's overtime is insanely compelling and well done. that you both. Yeah, especially now because it's really hard to get to penalty kicks. Yeah, but like in the NFL, regardless of how many possessions each team gets, it's not fair from a field position standpoint. One team receives a kickoff and then how they move the ball determines your field position. In college football, it is at 100% 50-50. You start at the same

spot you get the same amount of chances you can do the same exact thing and and the in the red zone or on the edge of the red zone thing compelling because you have the opportunity to kick a fuel if you're sacked you're screwed like all these things are amazing about it i think the NFL should start with college rules and start at the 40 or 50 i think that would be fun right yeah because their kickers are so good you probably have to start at the 40 but i think i also and this is not this is not going to be a popular opinion. I think the dueling two-point conversions is very dramatic. I understand completely if you say, well, that's, but that's not really football.

But, Ari, I was about to pee my pants watching George and Georgia Tech a few years ago. I did not pee my pants because I went to the bathroom in between every overtime. But, Andy, do you think, like, it should be, I don't actually know this. If the national championship game went to overtime and it got to, how many overtimes is it for? Three overtime. Would they do that in the national championship game? Oh, yeah. I think that it should be like hockey where if you do it during the regular and then at the end of the year in the playoff.

Well, the NFL has, the NFL now has different overtime rules for the playoffs. I'd be fine with that. Like I don't want the national championship decided by that. But at the same time, if it were decided by that, how compelling would it be? Right. But you could do that and like, make just, and the reason they did. the seven overtime A&M LSU game. It was barely football by the end of it.

Everybody was so gassed and it was not safe. So I understand why they did that. I actually think that it was amazing and glorious. It was an amazing game for sure. But it probably wasn't safe. So, but if you just did that in the playoff, I think that would be fair. Yeah. And what's that one game out of a million?

Like it doesn't happen often where it would go that way. I'm trying to think how many overtime playoff games have we, CFP games, how many overtime games in general in the regular season have gone to seven overtime? By the way, I thought it was funny when you said if you get sacked, you get screwed in college overtime, and perhaps the most famous college overtime ever, to a Tungo Vaila took a sack and threw a touchdown pass on second 26. To your rule, too, because there have been in college football

where a quarterback has fallen down on a loose ball and had to be now where he was, who said to pick him out of field goal range and was never, actually touched by anybody. Yeah. Oh, and that's, that's happened. Yeah, like you said, that has happened to people in overtime. Where's it, yeah, they've been knocked out of field goal range by bad snap. And you, and the fumbled snap where you bend over to pick it up in your knee and inadvertently

touch with the ground right as the play starts and plays dead. Yeah, like, I think that kind of. Well, here's, here's the other thing. And this is, this is where I'm going to get really wonky and tiki tack on this. The holder is allowed to run a fake field goal after catching the snap. The holder is allowed to spin around and run with the ball or throw it to someone. The holder's knees on the ground, but it's okay on that play. So let's just make it consistent.

I never thought about that. Is it because his knees on the ground before the snap or his knees on the ground? He doesn't have to pick up his knee when he catches the ball. He can get up. That's wild. That's inconsistent. That's frustrating. Let's go.

Fix it. Fix it! It drives me insane. That one thing drives me insane. It's the one I've never understood. And I realize that's the rule in high school, too. As someone who watches a lot of high school football these days at a somewhat lower level, I'm okay with it.

How about this for a rule, Andy? If you are running away for a touchdown, then the closest defender is 20 yards behind you and you're walking into the end zone. If you drop the ball before you go into the end zone, you either lose your scholarship or it's a touchdown. Like, you have to pick which side. Yeah. Listen, I don't want to lose your scholarship side on that one. I realize people make mistakes.

Nobody would ever do it again. Yeah. Because I find that to be the most infuriating thing that happens. And I feel like it's not fair because all you have to do is cross that line with the ball. And then you can celebrate however you want. I know, but it's just like it's so clearly a touchdown and it's so punitive and it's so unexplainable. But I feel like I feel like a stupid tax is a good thing sometimes.

And that is the ultimate stupid tax. But it keeps happening. Stupid tax. Do you think we're getting smarter as a world? I don't know if we are. I was not the Santa Monica pier yesterday. There's a small merry-go round on there. and we got I took my daughter there and you know how on the merry-go-round there's horses and sleighs where you can sit down.

Yeah. I go up to the person and I buy a ticket for my daughter to go on the merry-go-round. And she goes, sir, do you want to go on the merry-go-round? And I asked her, like, do you mean like to ride it or do you mean to like stand next to her? and she goes, well, do you want to ride it? And I'm like, look at me. You can help me write it? I'm 40.

What are we doing here? But I said she would like to go on in herself. She can get on herself. I'll stand to the side as she does it or I'll go on depending on whether or not you will need me to be on. And she goes, well, for children under five, we suggest that the plate parents go on the ride. And I said, okay, great. I'll go.

I sat down on the sleigh next to the horse she picked because I was told I had to go on it. then she stops the ride in the middle of the ride when she sees me and she gets on the thing and says, sir, if you sit down on the sleigh, you need to pay to go on the merry-go-round. Andy? I really don't know where this is going.

You know me, I did not handle that well. Long story short, I asked her. You're not welcome back to the Santa Monica Pier? It's just like, it's just a bizarre, like why did we go through?

either charge me and to say you both need a ticket to go on or don't make me go on or let me. And here's the funniest part. We were the only people on the merry-go-round. And I just asked her, what is the point of any of the interactions that we just had? She'd make a great NCAA investigator. The rules are the rules, buddy. It just reminds me of like the human interactions that I have on a daily basis with people who are ill-equipped to be in society. So, you know, and I don't know if that's the case for people who don't care.

Just answer your own question as to why people keep dropping the ball in celebration before they cross the goal line. But I feel like if I were a college football player, I could be a person who drops the ball because I would be, you know, oh, yeah, in high school football. Because you're a complete lunatic. Yeah, one time in high school football, I was the left guard. And the quarterback through a, or like was being sacked and like the arm went forward. But the ball. Yeah, yeah.

And I caught. Uh-huh. Like five-yard in front of it. Illegal touching, but sure. Okay. Yeah, I ran with- Oh, is it deflected, though? If it's deflected by a defender, you're good.

I can't remember if it was deflected or whatever. All I know is the ball ended up in my hands and I advanced it like two yards, maybe making it back to the line of script. I don't even know if I gained the yard. And I got up and I like flexed and like was celebrating. Like I made a play. And it was a penalty. I wasn't allowed to touch the ball.

So it wasn't, was not deflected by a defense. I have lost my mind. on a football field. I can understand how that could happen. Listen, Ari, you're an athlete. Ball comes at you, you catch it. Yeah, and you advance it. That's right.

All right, let's advance the show because we've been completely derailed. All right, this question comes from Lisa. We got a question from Lisa and a question from Michael. There are similar questions coming from different angles. So Lisa says, do you believe that SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey when he claims he didn't move the SEC to nine conference games as an expected quid pro quo for expanding the playoff to 16 teams,

that the move was totally independent. I don't believe him, not at all. Sanky got played by Tony Petiti, the Big Ten Commissioner at all, in my opinion. Michael asked it differently. You've probably already answered this already, but why did the SEC add another conference game to its school's football schedules?

Was it to make the conference schedules more comparable for every team? Won't the additional conference game, along with another power conference, non-conference game, just more likely keep SEC schools out of the 12-team playoffs. So here's the thing. Everybody keeps thinking this had something to do with the size of the playoff and with the SEC and the Big Ten and their negotiations over the playoff format. That was a tiny part of it.

I'll give you the history lesson. So Lisa doesn't believe Greg Sank when he says that. I do because I know the history of this. So I'm going to take you back to 2019. 2019, Texas A&M proposes, this is the first time an SEC school has proposed this. Texas A&M proposes moving the conference schedule from eight to nine games. Why? To make more money.

To sell more tickets. Because home schedules have gotten stale. And the divisional play with the seven teams in each division did not allow for much rotation in the other division. So at that point, and still at this point, Georgia has never played a conference game at Kyle Field. They've ever played any game at Kyle Field. But Texas A&M has been in the SEC since 2012. They've played 14 SEC seasons, and Georgia has never played at Kyle Field. So it was the SEC schools, and there were other SEC schools that agreed.

Florida was one, Georgia was one, that said, hey, we would love to freshen up our schedules. So let's go to nine conference games. Now, that changes a bit when they're about to do it. And a certain Nicholas Liu Sabin, who was an advocate of nine conference games for a while, decides he's not an advocate anymore when Alabama's three permanent opponents are going to be Auburn, Tennessee, and LSU. And he's like, that's not fair. That is going to be very difficult ever here for us.

And so there's a back and forth. It gets tabled. It gets delayed. It doesn't get approved. Get to now. Yes, it's part of the discussion between the SEC and the Big 12 in terms of expanding the playoff. But the Big Ten also wants a bigger playoff.

They just want a much bigger playoff than the SEC. But the Big Ten more than anything else wants automation. bids to the playoff. So it wasn't a you go to nine conference games, will okay a 16 team playoff. That was not a quid pro quo. But what was a quid pro quo is, remember the SEC does its TV deal

with ESPN and Disney, and they get a certain amount of money, became more valuable. The Big Ten does its deal afterward and gets way more money. Because they negotiated a different, kind of deal. They said, okay, well, remember, Fox kind of owns everything and sublicenses it, but they did some to Fox, some to CBS, some to NBC, and they kept some for the Big Ten

network, and they made more money than the SEC. And the SEC's like, well, how do we make more money now? Well, the only way to make more money was to add another conference game. So that's really why it happened. It had a lot less to do with the playoff. It actually did a really good job. of using the playoff stuff publicly to make it feel more reasonable. Like, I think that the reason why people are confused might have even been by design, don't you? There's a way to rationalize the real motivation for this is to make more money because I think Greg Sankey probably wanted nine games all along.

He did. And then if he didn't want it all along, then what's the best way to try to convince people of doing it? Well, this will help position us better in the playoff and all these things. And I think that that was actually like a public, a public ploy, in my opinion. Oh, I think people are misunderstood by this because the playoff was used as a way to position the move that actually ultimately was all financial. Well, and I said this all along. The SEC will eventually go to nine conference games because of money, not because of anything else.

And that is exactly why they did. And, you know, when they do, it may be harder. If the SEC schedule is harder than the Big Ten's, it will be. But I promise. I know that there's a lack of faith in this, that the system will reward the teams that persevere through those. So, like, it's, and I'm happy that the Big Ten and the SEC are just playing by the same rules to a certain extent. So, like, we'll see how it plays out, but I don't know that teams that are good enough to win the national championship

or to advance in the playoff are going to be that affected by this. Well, and that's what we talked about. It's like our discussion of the Oklahoma win total, where you're like, oh, there's a schedule is really hard this year and they got nine FCC games. Their schedule was really hard last year and they won 10 games. So teams that are good will be good and they will

make the playoff. Whether the committee will adjust, and I hope they do, I hope the committee will adjust and reward the teams that schedule hard. Like Texas and Ohio State playing each other should be rewarded for playing one another.

Oklahoma and Michigan should be rewarded for playing one another. They will be, and they are. Well, sometimes they are. Sometimes they're not. Last year, Miami got rewarded for playing Notre Dame. Now, they had to because it's part of the ACC's agreement with Notre Dame, but it was a non-conference game.

So it was the reason Miami made the playoff, because if Miami had played whoever, an FCS team or a group of five team, and won that game and then gone 10 and two with the losses they had, they would not have made the playoff. So it does work sometimes, the scheduling, the harder games. But that's why. So, you know, you can think they got hoodwinked. They didn't get hoodwinked.

They were doing this for a reason. That reason still is valid. They still wanted the schedules to look the way they're going to look so they could sell more tickets. And they're going to sell more tickets because of that. And if they got more money from ESPN, which I think they did, that was the only way to do it. I think he knows what he's doing.

Like he knows what he's doing. Yeah, he does. And so, yeah, I don't, the playoff discussion is this ever-changing beast that I kind of wish they'd stop discussing it, let it play out for a while, and then come back when all these TV contracts are ready to be renewed, and then decide how you want to do it. Instead of just trying to Frankenstein it every single year. but we shall see. Ari, one more question.

It's a suggestion and a question. Two suggestions and a question, actually, from Ethan. Great idea for an alternate Ari punishment if Arch Manning does not get to New York that does not involve running. He must admit to his wife that the mystery underwear were in fact his, not a mistress, not a secret lover,

his own personal pair of panties. If you don't, remember the mystery panties. Well, I don't know what you're doing here because you're at the hour nine mark. So these are the diehards. You know the mystery panties. An actual question from Ethan, though. Can the groomers finally be put to rest after this year? It seems like if there was every year for John Gruden to come to the college game, it would have been this past year's historic coaching carousel. Love the show so much and appreciate all you guys do. Keep it up. So yes, the groomers are interesting because when the groomers were in full

force, which is, you know, when Jeremy Pruitt got hired at Tennessee, when Bush Jones got hired at Tennessee, and Tennessee fans were wishing John Gruden was their coach, that was, that was fan bases, and it wasn't just Tennessee fans, there were other fan bases that had openings that wish John Gruden would come coach their team. It was fans wishing for it to happen. This car or so you heard his name come up, it's because he wanted it to happen. And there weren't a lot of interested parties because, one, he's not, he's not coached in college. He's not coached in a while. So I think that's, that's part of it. Now, is John Gruden a national treasure when it comes to football still? Yeah. His stuff that he does now is still really good.

I don't know if you saw the clip of him and Sawyer Robertson, Ari, or Sawyer Robertson. Yeah. Gifts John Gruden a Mike Leach play call sheet. And John Gruden, it's, not an act. Like he is genuinely touched that he gets to keep this Mike Leach play call sheet. And this is a guy who's won a Super Bowl. Like he doesn't have to care this much, but he does. Yeah, he just loves it. So.

Yeah, probably. And I, you know, also don't know to like the way that he was fired for the grounds of which he was fired out of the NFL, have any impact on his future or whether that's been, I mean, I know. I don't think, I don't think that would stop any college team from. hiring him. I just think that what's stopping them is they don't think he would be an effective coach right now. Yeah. Update on the panties, by the way. Do you want it? Oh, well, yes, by all means. When I was in Vegas last weekend, I was with the couple or two other couples with

my wife. We need it every year. Oh, God. I don't, do I want to hear the end of this? I love how we have the panties. There they are. Rivers is a wizard. He might have kept those for his personal collection. But I was wondering, well, it got brought up again because one of the women that went to Britt with Britt to Paris on that trip was there and the panties got brought up at dinner. I showed the panties picture to the husband of one of the women that was on the trip with Britt. And he goes, those are her panties. What? He was sitting there and she said, no, they weren't.

So there's a public dispute at the table in front of Brittany about whether the panties belong to her. And I think that she's probably the betting favorite. She might have forgotten. She might not have forgotten. You might not have happened. But there are your wife's own panties and did not realize that they were. No, no, no. The other woman, okay.

The other woman that was on the trip, they're not Brits. Okay. The husband of the woman that was on the trip with Brittany said they were his wife's panties, which means they had to be. They had to have come from someone else's trip. So there was a small break in the case. I think the mystery just deepened. But I think the husband would remember.

I remember every single one of Brits Panties. I don't remember because as someone who folds laundry, we all take turns folding laundry in my house. There's so many. There's so many. Well, yeah, I mean. But you remember the good ones. It's not, I do you only time it's your wife's panties is when they're in the laundry? That's true.

I remember the panties that Britt was wearing the, okay. Stop! This is not that kind of show. You've already gotten us into secret lives of Mormon wives. Like, this is, we're going in some strange directions. But I want to bring it back to our guy, Ethan. He says, P.S. Producer River is not wrong, hyping up the golden dairy in Rogersville,

if we're going to be there. He said, but if we do that, we also have to swing by Yoters in Bulls Gap, Tennessee, which is across the county and get the BLT special. He's attached a photo. There's a photo. If you're watching the YouTube version, this BLT is about nine inches thick and most of it's bacon, I'm in. I'll take it.

That sounds great. That looks great. That feels great. It probably tastes great. Let's check it out. Yeah, so Bulls Gap, Tennessee, here we come. Like we're going to get R.E. to his first game at Neeland Stadium. We're going to hang out in the Walmart parking lot in Rogersville.

We're going to the Golden Dairy. And yeah, we're going to Yoters in Bulls Gap. Bulls Gap in Tennessee. Let's do it. Let's go. Everybody enjoy the Sweet 16 games tonight. We will talk to you on Monday.