Andy & Ari On3 - Has USC finally figured out NIL?

Episode Date: June 20, 2025

USC’s recruiting hot streak continued Thursday when highly sought after New Jersey edge rusher Luke Wafle chose the Trojans over Ohio State and Penn State.(0:00-2:05) Intro: Luke Wafle commits(2:06-23:19) Has USC figured out NIL(23:20-35:27) Which school would have the highest financial evaluation?(35:28-42:15) Team to become a diehard fan of?(42:16-46:10) Teams required to play 10 P4 games for CFP?(46:11-49:53) Deloitte and CFB(49:54-1:02:54) Group of 3 coaches where 1 is on the move(1:02:55-1:06:09) Mystery at Ari's House(1:06:10-1:10:43) The Blue Underwear Award(1:10:44-1:29:36) Random Ranking: Movies that should have a sequel(1:29:37-1:31:06) Conclusion: Have a great weekend Has USC gotten its NIL operation in order in a way that allows the Trojans to regularly beat out national title contenders for players? It certainly seems that way. It’s also a Dear Andy/Dear Ari show, and you have some incredible questions… Which college football program would get the highest valuation? If you had no rooting interest and got to choose a college football team to back, which team would be the most fun to root for over the next 20 years? Could the College Football Playoff simply require teams play a minimum number of power conference games? Plus, the Random Ranking is back. Andy, Ari, and Producer River rank the movies that don’t have sequels but maybe should. Watch our show on YouTube, M-F, at 9:30 am et! https://youtube.com/live/7O3tGpWKVUQ Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Want to partner with the show? E-mail [e-mail]

Welcome to Andy and Ariane 3. Happy Friday. Here Andy, dear Ari Day, but we start with some big recruiting news that actually leads us to ask a question of all of you and of us. So Luke Waifel, who is a highly touted edge rusher from New Jersey's Hun School. Commits to USC on Wednesday on Thursday, excuse me, and watching a little little highlights of Luke Waifel who is a tears people up. This is a guy everybody in the country wanted on threes rankings

have him at number 14 in the country. We have in the highest of all the country. Uh we we have in the highest of all the services but uh everybody's gotten pretty high. This is a dude that lots of teams wanted and uh producer River, let's let's play the clip.

And now I just like to thank my friends uh all back here for showing support and uh Middletown. I'm so grateful to be back here for showing support and uh Middletown. I'm so grateful for Middletown. Um and yeah, I think we're ready with that being said, I would like to announce for the next three to

four years, I'm committing to the University of Southern California. Yeah. Yeah! That's a Jersey accent right there, Ari. That's a Jersey accent going west. Yeah, I feel like it's a pretty Jersey family. But I feel like too that Jersey is one of the most underrated states in the country for high school talent. And like that video right there, funny enough, is like the manifestation of what I thought was going to happen from the beginning at USC, that they

would, you know, I don't need to go through the diatribe of what I thought USC was going to be the day that you talk about when Lincoln Riley got the job. Yeah, yeah, like, you know, getting really good players on the West Coast, you know, figuring out the the national spots to hit and then doing it. So like USC has certainly given you something to cling to. And I think that's the most important thing when it comes to this, because at the end of the season,

Andy, and I know USC fans were like really upset with me, but like I was looking around and you know, that we weren't sure who the quarterback was gonna be. Miller Moss left, you know, the defense improved, but still wasn't great. They weren't killing it 100% the way they needed to in their region and recruiting. I didn't know like what USC's football identity was like what

was their program identity and I didn't know what you grab onto to be like this is going to get better, right? And that's why I've been kind of negative. But now you have something here that's building that you can grab onto which is USC is recruiting its ass off. Now, obviously, we know it's June. Obviously, we know what people who doubt USC will say. But I think that leads us into the question of if this class stays together,

which is the title of the podcast. Yeah, and what we're asking is, has USC finally figured out NIL? Because let's do one thing. We'll make the public service announcement before we get into this. If you're coming into the chat to say, yeah, they're just buying these guys, everyone's paying, okay?

It's not the flex you think it is. It's not the insult you think it is. Everyone pays. It's a matter of you think it is. It's not the insult you think it is. Everyone pays. It's a matter of, are your offers competitive enough to have these guys look at you on an equal footing with Oregon, with Ohio state, with Alabama, with Georgia, with Clemson, that's what matters because that has been the USC's problem is they've not been able to get nearly enough of the same players that all of those schools want.

And this year they are. Yeah. Uh, I think that if you wanted to, uh, come up with a one sentence blueprint for how to compete for a national championship, it is this something starting now consistently beat out Ohio state, Georgia, Penn state, Texas, and Florida for recruits period. Is that, recruits. Period. Is that a good? If you do that, that's a good cross section. You had Georgia in there, right? I did. Yeah. I wanted to, I wanted to blend, uh,

the waifu finalists and other ones. So I don't know if I got it. I mean, yeah. His, his other finalists were Ohio State and Penn State. That's if you can, if, if both those two schools want the guy, there's a really good chance they're pretty good. And look, they're not all going to pan out. But if all those schools you mentioned want a person and you can get them, you are going to get enough talent to have a chance. Seven and 11 a cycle, right? Like you want dogs coming in. But like that's the deal too with like USC. It's like, oh, a game wrecking edge rusher.

Is that like, when's the last time USC, and maybe I'm forgetting somebody and I'll look like an idiot, but when's the last time USC had a game wrecking? Like, isn't that what Cory Forman was supposed to be and never turned to? He was supposed to be. Yeah. When's the last time they had a game wrecking like it's not what Cory Foreman was supposed to be and never he was supposed to be. Yeah. When's the last time they had a defense event that terrorized people? It's been a while. It's been a while. They've had they've had a couple good ones, you know, basically above average type, but not just absolute terrors. Yeah. And we can get into a Tully Tully Palo Tully Palo too is probably the best one of recent vintage, but but he wasn't like the best in the country. When's the last time that this is a better way to make it less

objective? When's the last time they had a first round player at and? Yes, I think that's a legitimate question. That might be decades, right? Yeah, I don't know. I might be forgetting somebody. I'm not I don't have the steel trap memory that you have. But um, yeah, so the question is, is do you finally believe that USC is on the right track? Like, are you changing your mind? Well, I'm the one who keeps saying I think Lincoln Riley is too young to not figure it out. Like that eventually he'll

figure it out. And maybe that's this. We still need to see it on the field. That this is and some folks in the chat have pointed this out. Like, does this hold up through the season if this season is like last season? If they're seven and five again, do these guys still want to go there? I and that's the question, you know, and, you know, part of this is the NIL piece of it. If it's good enough, I think they probably stick. Scott Schrader from ON3, who is the publisher of WeRSC, which is our USC site, he put it really

in an interesting way yesterday. He said that after years of getting dunked on for NIL USC has really got it going. And he said it started with J'Kim Stewart last year, but it really has continued through this year. And I think that's going to be the question because last year, remember they had Justice Terry committed for a minute, they had Drake Stubbs committed for a minute. They had in May, what looked like it could be a great class. And then those guys all decommitted and went somewhere else. If this one sticks together, they're in a good spot.

They're number one in the on three team rankings right now. A lot of it is because they have such a big class. But if you look at the per player average, it's not gonna drop when everybody else gets their classes filled. I don't know that it drops out of the top five. Yeah, their average player rating in the on three industry rankings is 90.72. For comparison sake, two of the remaining top five teams, A&M and Georgia,

who are currently there are also in that 90 range. LSU right now has I think the best pound for pound quality class on paper. They only have 10 commits. We have 10 commitments staying ranked number two and their average player rating is 93 but also two that can be deceptive because when you have a few number of commits if you have two five star prospects that average gets bogged down by the two players that you have. So like the numbers are recruiting is so simple, but also very complex in terms of like how you track it.

But here's the thing. I think USC is now bordering on potentially having what I think is seven, eight, nine. I got to go add that up and it's bad podcasting. Do it top 100 players. And I think that that's the litmus test here. So right, 123456789. So nailed it. You know, that is a really good proposition. Nine top 100 players in a single

class was good enough to make you elite five years ago. Nine top 100 players in a single class now is absolutely more than enough that you need, especially if you can figure out how to deploy your NIL properly by plugging your hole in the transfer portal windows. So yes, I think this is great. I think that this is what you like. The number one debate isn't just like is USC back.

The number one debate turned into if USC was deceiving us on how good of a job it was to begin with. We had that debate a month ago when we did our top jobs and we didn't have USC as high as some of the fans of the Trojans thought we should have. And it's like, well, you have to start questioning how a team can go 20 years without being a real national championship contender if the job actually is a top five job in America. So neither of us, I believe, had them in the top 10. That's right. There you go. There they are on the graphic if you're watching. And like, I feel like I could be

talked into it again one day. But at a certain point, you have to see application. And here's the other thing too, Andy, that I hear a lot, and I don't necessarily really subscribe to, especially in this era is, well, what if USC goes eight and four this year, their class is going to fall apart. I really don't think that players care about the results of the team that is on the field before they get there as much as people make it out to be. If you put together a great class, you compensate them fairly, you put a great package together and you tell them that they're the agents of change,

like that's all they care about. I don't think they care about if they win or lose. If it's a disaster, they certainly do, but if they, you know, show some signs of being tough and, you know, lose games because they have holes at places that they fill. Like I think that it's almost a selling point to say, hey, you're the missing element to what we need here to get to where we need to go. So I have, you know this about me, Andy.

And I, you know, have you had a discussion with your wife ever? I'm sure you have of like, we're what is our life goal? Like, do you like know, like, do you guys have the same unified idea of like, where you want to be when you're 5860 years old? Yes. Okay, so Britt and I had that discussion, like a week ago for the first time. And you know what that is? you know what that is? Uh, I, it's somewhere in Orange County, probably on the beach. Yeah. It's to, to own a property, uh, somewhere in Southern California or Santa Barbara. Like that's where I want to live every day when my daughter is out

of the house. Um, I don't, I bring this up because I just, feel like USC. Should be so much better than it is. California is the best, especially for an 18 year old kid making good money. Florida exists. Floor I hate to tell this to you man. I know you're a big Florida guy. Florida is not OK. Let's compare state income tax rates and let's talk about who's the best. I guess you know whatever. I don't know. I don't know how it goes in Florida, but there's no state income tax.

There's no state income tax. There's a very large one in California. There's no state income tax here in Dallas, I think is way more expensive than to a lot of places that have it because there's no state income tax. But not California, not way more expensive than Southern California. But like Dallas, we get absolutely thumped

on property tax and registering our car and all the other things that they get, they get their money back somehow. Like it's not- Listen, the weather's, I was in LA this week. The weather is perfect every day. I get it. It's awesome.

Yeah. Like the thing about, the reason I love Florida, so I'm not trying to nag Florida. The thing that I can't, the reason why I can't rank Florida ahead of California is because four months a year, the weather is the worst place on earth. Like it's like the weather in the summer.

We use that to weed out soft people here. Yeah, yeah, I'm soft. I mean, I feel like Florida is worse in the summer than Arizona. And I grew up in it's worse than everywhere in the summer. It's the worst place out of that. Yeah, and you know, and chubby over here doesn't like the humidity. So, so, all right, let's let's talk Turkey here. So, Pete Nacos and Steve Wilt Fong, they're reporting that they were hearing between 2.2 and 2.6 million over two years for Luke Waifu. So, you're talking about a little over a million dollars a year. That is, you know, I see people in the chat

saying they're paying above market. If it's an edge rush or everybody wants, that's not really above market. That's that's kind of right on it. Also too, if you're trying to build something, you might have to pay above market. A little bit. Yeah. I don't know. Ohio State can get a discount because they keep putting first rounders in the league and they keep winning, winning things, winning league and they keep winning winning things winning the Big Ten winning the national title.

So stuff like that. Yeah. Well, that wasn't necessarily true six months. They win the big ten last year, but they didn't win the national title. They had a lot of Big Ten titles before that though. When's the last time they won the Big Ten before COVID? It was before COVID. Yeah, it was or it was it was 2020.

It was during COVID. I will tell you this when you talk about the Ohio State USC comparison. If I had to bet my entire life, like every dollar that I had, that Ohio State would never go five years without winning the big 10, in the next 20 years I would have done it. Well, of course you would have. You also did bet your house that Michigan wouldn't win three in a row against them and you lost your house. No, no, actually the bet was I would bet my house that they wouldn't win four of the next ten and they won the next four in a row.

Oh, that's what it was. Okay, got it. So, whoopsie. And Scott Dockerman's a sucker for not taking the bet. He would have the deed of my house. I pay my debts. Oh yeah. But like I don't, you know what USC, the thing that I think is really funny is you are kind of getting a little bit of the taste of your own medicine here because USC fans are the first to criticize Oregon for paying players when they get good ones. And how much more fun is it to be the ones being criticized? Like actually, like when you think about it, it's just like, it's so much better.

Yeah. The ones on the hot seat. Oh, we paid too much? Oh, I'm sorry. Like, you know what I mean? I hope the USC fans are appreciating this. And I hope they're not gonna do like the Miami fans did when Jackson Cantwell committed to Miami.

Like getting mad at us for praising Miami for paying a competitive rate. Like, don't get mad about it. This is what normal life is like. This is how normal life works. How about we boil it down to- The organization puts together a competitive compensation package

that draws the best talent. I'm going to boil it down this way. If you are a fan of a team that never gets made fun of for paying too much in NIL, you will never win a national title. Yeah, because your team's not trying. Or it's not, it doesn't have enough money. Yeah. Even like Michigan's like, I mean, everybody's been on the hot seat at some point, right? Like that's the deal. So, uh, I don't know if somebody said, make the bet again starting now, Ari. No, no thanks. Steve in San Antonio wants us to make the USC bet.

For those who don't know, on our old show, when Lincoln Riley got the job, Ari and I made a bet that Ari said USC will be in the college football playoff within Lincoln Riley's first three years. They didn't make it. I won $1,000. I forced Ari to pay that off at Bourbon Steak in Nashville in December. It was delicious. I

had a we also went over a thousand dollars. Yeah, I paid the I paid the over you. Yeah, he did. He made me do it. You paid the tip. It was not I'm not I'm not saying in a negative way. Yeah, good. Like I was like when I walked, we thought about walking home from it. And I'm like, no shock. Sorry, like I was so full. Like I went, have you ever been so full that it's hard to fall asleep? Like, has that ever happened to you? Because like that happened. Yeah. So the

thing about that bet that is really, really funny is that I initially got screwed. Because when we made the bet USC was in Pac 12 land. So for the latter half of the bet when they first announced that they were going to the Big Ten I'm like I am screwed they're going to the Big Ten in the four team era this sucks and then the playoff expanded eight more spots and I was like if I don't get in on 12 in year three then I am just dead meat and for a while there I thought you know what, maybe they could sneak in there. They beat LSU to start the year last year, right? Is that who they beat? They did. They beat LSU. I was like, Okay,

maybe we got a little quality win here. Maybe we can get, you know, backdoor number 11 or something. And then it fell apart. But, you know, Andy got the best of it in the first half. And I got the best of it in the second half. And I still lost. And the last thing I want to tell you about those bet guys is that I was sitting next to Andy in the press box in year one, year one of USC's Lincoln Riley era where they were beating the crap out of Utah at halftime. And Andy's like, where are we going to dinner tonight? It's on me. Like he was like already like, like giving up that he lost the

bet. And of course, that was the one thing you can't say to a man who's who's sweating out a bet, which is you won already. But yeah, look at that. Look at that. That's that's the wagyu. That's the the a one wagyu not a one. A five. A one wagyu would be an insult to the chef. I get it. I get it. Yeah. Because I still like to this day, I went to a nice steak house with my dad Mastro's in Scottsdale. I'm sure you've

been there Andy. I have when I was in there in town a few weeks ago, and they had this this $600 like six or eight out steak. And it was a way goo. Did I eat something like that or is there is there a level of being? Yes, that was that was a five Japanese Wagyu and the price per ounce was was something like $70 or $80 something like that. Okay. So yeah, so that's so I had something similar.

I was like telling my dad. I'm like, I don't even know if I can if I can conceptualize in my head a beef of that high quality, but I can I had something similar. I was like telling my dad, I'm like, I don't even know if I can, if I can conceptualize in my head, a beef of that high quality, but I can, I had it. Um, but congratulations USC. I mean, I think we've done a lot of nagging. I have, uh, I have too. And we were told when Chad Bowden moved from the GM position at Notre Dame to the GM position at USC, that it would be different this time.

And it's like, yeah, yeah, sure, sure. The commitment timetable was actually very similar to what it was last year. So of course we were like, yeah, yeah, sure, sure. But by this point, I believe Ari, by this point in the, in the cycle, they'd already started to lose people. I don't think they're going to this time. This does feel different.

The thing that I think is interesting is that conceptually, we can talk about how they figured out NIL, right? And I think that we have our own ideas of what that may look like behind the scenes. It would be irresponsible to talk about them publicly because we don't know for sure. Yeah, you got to be able to prove how all this is working, which again, it's not against the rules. It's just everybody's got their own strategy and nobody's being real public with what their strategies are because they would like everybody else to not find out.

But at the same time, it doesn't really matter. All that matters is that the results are here, right? Like, you know, you can stick your head up a bull's ass to get a good look at a T-bone steak, right? Or you can just take the Jeff's word for it, right? Like it's just like, we are. I'm the bull, you stick your head up my ass. No, I feel good about at least the direction. Now, the thing that I want to see, see again is USC to have an offense

that's awesome to watch and to get a superstar quarterback. And, you know, I don't want to sell anybody short. Maybe Jayden Mayav is it this year. Maybe it's Husson Longstreet in the future. Maybe it's somebody we don't know yet. But it is, if we can bank that USC can recruit seven to 11 top 100 players a cycle, have a badass quarterback and a high flying offense and a marginally good defense, they should be good enough to make the playoff most years. And I don't think that that's too much to ask. Do you? Yeah. Being competitive in the Big Ten, which if you're competitive in the Big Ten, you can make the playoff every few years. Like that's what you want. And are there going to be a year in year out national title contender?

You're going to have to stack a bunch of classes like this. That's how you do that. I thought they were going to be one of the top five programs in America four years ago. And I've let go of that. Now I'm kind of at the place where... Yeah, you're going to need to see it on the field to get that back. And my one concern about this, and we've seen this in the chat, is, and you said this, the incoming recruits aren't that concerned about the results on the field

as long as it's not a complete disaster. But the fans, everybody else, are they patient enough? Because if this class is the beginning of the solution, there's no guarantee that you're gonna get the tangible on-field results until like 2027. Yeah. I think you can live with that as long as you see actual elements

that are tentpole building proof. Now, it's a shame because that's supposed to what's supposed to be happening in year one, two and three and they've progressively gotten worse, which is why I've been negative. But if you do realize and accept that you're probably stuck with Lincoln Riley for a long time because of his guaranteed contract or 90 is a 90% guaranteed or something. It's it's it's mostly I think it's 100% guaranteed. Yeah, it's private school. They don't have to tell us but they owe him a lot of money if they wanted to fire him. I don't think they can afford if you're a USC fan. I think the number one thing that you want is a clear

identifiable plan and the execution of those plans on days like today. Like I feel like the victories on June 20th right now are every bit as important as the ones that you get in the fall. And obviously you want the victories on June 20th to turn into ones in the fall. But you and I have always looked at this a little bit differently. I think that when you're in the building process or you're in a place that wasn't comfortable, that days like this are incredibly important, even more so than maybe beating Michigan State on a Saturday in the fall.

They need to do this. Beating Michigan State doesn't build you. This is what builds you. This is exactly what they need and we need to see if they can keep doing it. But they are doing it now. It's not following the same pattern as last year. So if you think it's definitely going to be just like last year, so far it's not.

Yeah. So we'll keep an eye on it. By the way, keep an eye here on the On3 YouTube channel, because at 11 15 Eastern time today, Ari and I will have a little deep dive into the gameplay of the new EA Sports College football video game. They are releasing some new info today. I can talk about some of the stuff I learned when I was in Orlando playing the game. So we'll talk about that at 11 15 Eastern time. Also, if you are watching the show on Twitter, come on to YouTube, way more fun. We have a very robust USC debate going on in the chat. So come on to YouTube, join us there. If you're watching on Twitter, just look at the next week down.

It's got a link to the YouTube feed and you can watch along with us as we go to dear Andy and dear Ari, that's right, my favorite time of the week. You guys drive the show. We have some great questions. I probably picked too many questions today. Ari, this may take, this may run us right into the EA Sports video, but there's so many good questions.

So I couldn't help it. And it's a lot of our favorites from the chat who asked questions this week. And so we want to make sure that we take care of you guys. First question from Willie. If a private equity firm was given the opportunity to buy a college football program, which school would have the highest financial evaluation? And I'll take this one step further. It doesn't even have to be private equity because I actually think the private equity thing

doesn't make a lot of sense, especially with the public universities. But let's say these were like pro teams and you could just buy one because it's in the news this week, the Lakers are selling for $10 billion. 10 billion with AB dollars. So-

Andy, before you go into it though, I think we should rehash the conversation that we had on the phone for two minutes yesterday about sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This there is a thing of like what if private equity gets involved in purchasing pieces of programs, right? And it seems like an interesting concept because when private money gets involved and you know, you know, you can use it to buy players or... Yeah, it's an infusion of capital. Infusion of cash. And Andy and I were talking about this on the phone yesterday of how would that work? And the number one element to private equity is return on capital, right? Like return on your investment. And the thing that a business or an entity would want from the infusion of capital

is to use that money to get it to a place that it can't reach otherwise without it. And I'm thinking of a public university who is tied into a television contract that is tied in with their conference, whether it's the Big Ten or the SEC or something else. The vast majority of the money that is generated by these universities is done through television money.

Of course, you've got ticket sales, apparel, you know, you know, concession stand stuff, you know, all that stuff, licensing deals. But the most part, I think, and if I'm talking out of school here, Andy, help me, but I know you're doing fine is, is, is from television money. So if a place like Georgia or Bama or one of these places that's already built up wants money. What is it that they're going to improve on that they don't already have access to from a financial standpoint? So it doesn't really make sense for private equity to get in touch or involved with teams that are already there. And then if you think about a team like Purdue or Mississippi State or a team that's in a big conference that isn't successful,

what is that money going to do that they can't already do? Maybe buy players, but then if they buy the players and then Purdue or Mississippi State makes the playoff, how much more money are they making and is it going to be a worthy investment to receive a return on that capital? It just does not make sense to either of us how this would even work from a financial standpoint. Yeah, the PE firms want significant return on investment and usually want it pretty fast. They don't, they don't want a slow build. And like Ari said,

where do you create that new revenue stream that suddenly allows you to pay them back? It's, it's not there. So I don't know that the I have to mention Andy, that when you think about business risk, if you want to invest money into a Jimmy John's or you want you that there's there's data and tables of what the stores typically make right. Like when you buy a high school football player, there's no guarantee that it even is it would even work, let alone return your capital, right? Right, exactly. So we'll see. I mean, there is a path where PE comes into college football, but it's more along the lines of buying the whole league kind of thing.

That's where they can then sell the TV rights, but they need some help from the government. There's a lot more to that. Even if they bought the league, what would, and I actually, I'm not doubting, I'm questioning, I want to answer. What would, let's just say some billionaire, multi-billion dollar corporation wanted to buy the SEC or invest the SEC, what does their infusion of capital do to help generate more money than they're already making?

It allows you to, in that particular case, get a better TV deal that significantly increases your value. But that only works, like we'll get way into the weeds here, but that only works if you get an antitrust exemption that allows the leagues to sell their TV rights together. their TV rights together. And I mean, it's got it. It's hard to find the amount of money that would justify the investment because you and I, we've worked for newspapers, like we've seen P companies buy newspapers, they just slash and slash to extract as much cash out as they can. That's not going to work with college football. But I like Willie's question because I want to do the exercise. If these were pro teams, who would be the Lakers and the Cowboys, the ones that we worth so much? Ohio State is number one. Ohio State is the first one.

That's guaranteed ratings of the teams that you can choose to put on television. Ohio State is the best guarantee of high ratings. They have a huge alumni base. Everybody who didn't go there still wants to watch them. I think that's an easy one. Yeah. Never bad.

I think that this is unequivocally the answer to the question. What I'm interested in is the next four. Right, because I think it has a lot to do with who people want to watch. It's not just the size of your alumni base. It's not just the size, but my number two would be Texas, I think. That's my number two. Yeah, because they do have the massive alumni base. You've seen in the last few years when they get engaged, how much they're willing to spend,

how excited they get. And also lots of people like to hate watch Texas, which I think helps a lot. Because it's more like the Lakers and the Cowboys, which I think are probably the two most iconic pro franchises. The Yankees, I guess, would be the other one. The amount of people who hate them and want to see them fail is just as important as the amount of people who love them. Yeah. With number three. Speaking of hate watching, number three

is the big hate watch one. Notre Dame, right? Notre Dame. Yep. So yeah, Notre Dame comes into play from a rating standpoint. And then, then do you fall down to like Georgia, Obama, LSU? I would say Georgia, Obama, LSU, Michigan. Michigan.

Michigan's got to be up there LSU, Michigan. Michigan. Michigan's gotta be up there. Yeah, and then I think the third tier might be like Florida, Tennessee. Penn State. Oklahoma, Penn State, Nebraska. Yep, yep. Yeah, and Nebraska's in there. This is where we get the, this is where we get the,

but Nebraska hasn't won anything. Yeah, but people watch Nebraska. People recognize Nebraska as a big time college football program, whether or not the results recently backed that up. Like in your mind as the viewer, it's like, oh, there's a Nebraska game on, I'm watching. Somebody said, we forgot about Oregon.

Oregon, no, I put Oregon in there. I think Oregon belongs in there. Yeah, because also too, if you're trying to buy an entity, you also have to take into account what league they're in and how much money their television deal is worth, right? Like I don't even know if you could take anybody that isn't like outside of Notre Dame that's got its own specific television

revenue. You can't possibly choose anybody in this that isn't in the Big Ten or the SEC before all those teams are exhausted from a value standpoint just because of the money they generate from their TV deal. Right? Right. But, but the thing is, if you're buying it this way, you also would look at it outside the TV deal. Cause what if, what if there were ever a world where you had to sell it? Which is why you would buy Clemson before Purdue.

Right. And so, uh, producer River asked, what is the first team you picked from the ACC, the big 12? And I'd say it's either Clemson or Florida State or state Clemson. Yeah. Florida State probably has a larger alumni base and then Miami school. So where would you put Miami? Miami is a good TV property. Small alumni base, because it's a small private school. That makes it a little more tricky.

Miami has to be winning for Miami to be all that valuable. Yeah, because the thing that you would want is, like Michigan had a 15-year downturn. Michigan was still incredibly and inherently valuable during that time. If you wanted to buy a team, you'd probably want to buy a team that drives television ratings and maintains fan interest during downturns. Right? Yes. Like recession proof, I think is the word. Which Texas people love to watch them lose when they were down.

Oh yeah, Texas never stopped. I mean, Ohio and Texas are unequivocally number one and two. Yeah. Another one that's interesting is Tennessee. Yes. He may be the most passionate fan base, even if it isn't the biggest. It's still big. It's big.

All fans are the best fans in America. I love you guys. You just you just want to suck up to all Twitter. I see how it is. I'm scared of them. All right. Yeah, but I think that we did a good job with that question.

I think so. I think that's a fair one. I think Ohio State, Texas and Notre Dame would be the Lakers, the Cowboys and the Yankees in some order. Yes. How you would decipher like Bama, Georgia, LSU, teams like that would be difficult to me.

Yeah. You'd have to like really like pop the hood on that thing. Yeah, and it's not a matter of like, we're not talking about how good they are on the field. It's a more nebulous thing. It's like, it's really really if you're asking a marketer How does this how does this program make people feel more than anything else? Because like the Cowboys haven't been good in how long?

They haven't been consistently good since the 90s They won championships since the 90s But they're still like they lead first take every day Because people want to talk about the Cowboys one way or the other. Yeah, it's funny because I went and looked this up like the top 10 2024 games of viewership. Ohio State was on six of those games.

Yeah, there's a reason. There's a reason Fox will put Ohio State Marshall on big noon. Even though it's not going to be a good game. Yeah, and that's unfortunately, guys, that's why you have so many games at noon. But outside of Ohio State, the SEC dominated the viewership this year 34 of the 53 games with more than 4 million viewers featured at least one SEC team. Yeah, which is I think important to in that question. But yes.

which is I think important too in that question, but yes. So next question, and this is another good one. This is another how it makes you feel kind of question. But I also think this is a, what type of person are you kind of question. This is from Nathan. Dear A&R, Friday today is my birthday. In honor of me, I want your take on this hypothetical. If starting today you had to pick the most fun team

to become a diehard fan of for the next decade, who would your top options be? All reasons are on the table, not just how much they will win. You can consider game day atmosphere, how likable the coach is, how interesting their scheme is, how nice the other fans are, and so on. But you can't take past wins into account.

If you choose Bama, you don't get the joy and bragging rights of savings championships. All right, so I have a team. There's only one answer to this question. It's not even. I don't think you're gonna answer the same one I am. So you go ahead. It's Oregon.

I thought you might say that. I mean, it is Oregon, there's nobody else. Is it because you think Oregon's gonna win a national title and that you get the joy of celebrating the first time national champ since Florida in 1996? That's a huge pop right there. Yes, that's part of it. You're not glomming on to, you missed the hardest part,

which is the build, right? And there was a lot of heartbreak during that time, but you're catching on at a time where they're the most competitive that they've ever been from a talent accumulation standpoint. Their scheme is really exciting and fun. They've got a very creative coach who gets after it. They get wins in recruiting, he jumps in pools.

They're very daring on fourth down and they are always gutsy. They have cool uniforms. And if we're talking about a young person who's just starting to get back into the sport, who wouldn't want to like be a part of that tradition. You're also not like prohibited from missing out on a hundred years of amazing history because the program doesn't really have that. So you're still fairly recently new into Oregon. Oregon itself is a beautiful state. They've got one of the most unique stadiums

in college football. Their atmosphere is awesome. Their throwback uniforms are great. Amazing atmosphere, best conference or second best conference. They're in one of the two best conferences and they have a duck that rides a motorcycle. Like, what are we doing here?

All right. I have a lot of same reasons as you, but I'm picking somebody different. The thing about it is being at a place that is equipped to win a national championship but has never done it is the best way to start a fanhood. And that's why now I believe they this this one has one, but nobody was alive when it happened.

Ole Miss. Okay, for the same reasons as as Oregon, like you get to enjoy these things happening for the first time, like Ole Miss hasn't made the playoff yet. They're going to make the playoff at some point. As long as Lane Kippen's there, they're going to they're going to find a way to the playoff. I don't know if they're gonna win a national title, but you and I both agreed that last year if that roster got into the playoff, it had a chance to win a national title. So Kiffin's capable of putting together a roster that can do it. Lane Kiffin's highly entertaining if he's your coach. He's highly annoying if he's not your coach.

entertaining if he's your coach. He's highly annoying if he's not your coach. Like all of that sounds fun. Plus you get the Grove. Plus you get Oxford. You get that that chicken fried chicken sandwich. You get yeah you go to Ajax diner. Yeah you get the chicken the chicken fried steak. It's chicken fried steak. Chicken fried chicken. They had one on. I think they had chicken. You did have chicken fried chicken as well. Yeah but we got the chicken fried steak one with mashed potatoes on it. That was amazing. Chicken Fried Chicken. They had one on, I think they had Chicken Fried. They did have Chicken Fried Chicken as well. Yeah, but we got the Chicken Fried Chicken, like one with mashed potatoes on it, that was amazing. It's brilliant.

Yeah, you can go to Taylor Grocery and eat catfish. Like, it is a fun ride to where they're gonna go, because I do think they can get there. I don't think it's impossible. If I thought it was impossible, I wouldn't pick them. Well, the thing- But I do think it's impossible. If I thought it was impossible, I wouldn't pick them. Well, the thing I do think it's possible is the distinction here is that you are picking a school where it's possible. I picked the school where it's basically going to happen. Like mine's guaranteed basically. Like Oregon has already proven unequivocally

that it can not only make the playoff, but it can run through the big 10. Like I think that there's still question whether or not Ole Miss will ever like get to that national championship level. Like I think that Oregon, if you had to bet your life on it, wouldn't you think that Oregon will win a national title in the next 10 years? Oregon would be the one I'd pick.

Like I don't know if it's gonna happen. Of the schools that have won one in recent memory. But yeah, you wouldn't be missing out on past success. You would be in the moment when it's happening, and then you would be there for the first one. And also too, what, like Dan Lanning's probably, would you say the coolest coach in the country? Like, is he a cool standpoint?

If Lane Kiffin's your coach, you think he's the coolest coach in the country. He also teaches yoga, so, and he's got that. Lane Kiffin is way more fun to have as your coach than any other coach in the country. Because like I would pick a place like USC maybe but then like if you can't claim the Carroll years then what are you what are we doing? Like I just like right deleting the past is. We all know that the person who picks this is going to claim the past years, but I Do think it would be kind of cheap to do that. Yeah, but Oregon to me is I mean Ole Miss is a good answer

I still think that Oregon is is absolutely number one on this list now. Give me give me Lane. Give me the Rebels. I think that would be the most fun ride and Look, I might have to deal with some heartbreak like last year. Last year was the ultimate heartbreak, but I think I got a shot. The one thing that Ole Miss probably has on Oregon that we didn't mention is they've probably got the best road trips

on a week to week basis. Yes, like iconic stadiums and stuff like, you know, Oregon's got some really good ones too. Like, yeah, they go to Ohio State, Penn State, you know, Wisconsin, Michigan. Like, but like, yeah, the SEC stadiums, like I've been to every Big Ten stadium five times in my life. And I'm just now getting to SEC stadiums like. The SEC stadiums are just a little different.

They are different. And it's and it's hard to explain to people and they don't believe you unless they go, but you're right, they're different. Yeah, all right, Ole Miss this year, they are at Kentucky, at Georgia, at Oklahoma, at Mississippi State. So obviously they go to Starkville every other year,

not that big of a deal for them. Although I like games in Starkville, I think it's a fun place to watch a game. But the Georgia and Oklahoma trips are going to be outstanding. Outstanding. All right, Ari. Next question comes from Chris, who was listening to our playoff discussion the other day. First learned of the show when I paid off the mayonnaise bet back in the day. So welcome. That's a good way to come on.

That's a good way to come into this. You get that make you gag on the show to get it to be bigger. You didn't have to eat anything you didn't like. But like that you gagging on mayonnaise was one of the top five most disgusting things I've ever seen in my life. The slow mo of it is because of manning's protest out things I've ever seen in my life. The slow-mo of it is absolutely grotesque. Out of your mouth. Like it was disgusting.

It seemed in my nose too. It was bad. It was all bad. Here's Chris's question. In all the back and forth between the SEC and other conferences about going to a nine game conference schedule, I thought a possible solution to all the noise. What do you think about the CFP selection committee into implementing a rule that says in order for any P four team to qualify for the CFP, they must play at

least 10 P4 teams that season? For example, Ohio State's and Florida's schedules this season would comply, whereas Indiana's and LSU would not. This way, every team's schedule would be a bit more equal, we would get even more compelling games each week, and the SEC could keep their precious eight conference games while actually playing against good competition in their non-conference instead of the Murray States and the Samford's of the world. It's a great idea, Chris. You can't do it, unfortunately, because you'd never have a G5 team in the playoff. And I know Chris said in his letter that they require the power conference teams to play

that many power conference games. But you can't force Indiana to do that and not force Boise State to do it. And Boise State can't do it. Right. Unless you made an amendment that just said, hey, listen, we'll take the highest ranked G5 team and you resign yourself knowing there will only be one G5 team at the end of the year that gets in. Alexander in the chat not great at math. LSU plays Clemson LMAO what the WTF is this? Well LSU plays Clemson that is true Alexander. That's one then they play eight SEC games that's nine is 10. Where is the 10th one?

Louisiana Tech? Nope, nope, that's not it. Southeastern Louisiana? Nope, nope, that's not it. Western Kentucky? Nope, that's not it either. Looks like nine to me. Add another one. That would do the trick. I mean, at that point point they should just expand to nine conference games and be done with it. They could. Same thing but yeah. I mean I think that would be fine and I think that like we also too would be okay with the number one g5 team making it even if they didn't comply with that rule. I mean you could just write a rule on this as the G5 does not to comply with

that because they're in the G5 and then they'll take one. Here's the thing, I guess you could but for probably antitrust type reasons they will not specify G5 P4. Yeah, no it's a good idea. Application might be difficult. Now look, if you're gonna do the auto bids, then you are specifying that. You are delineating that very clearly.

So why not make that rule at that point? Everybody could comply fairly easily at that point anyway, but I don't know that the auto bids are gonna happen. Right. So it's a good idea. I wish there were a way to implement it, but I don't think you can do it if you're going to not say these four conferences are different than these, even though we know they are. It's a thoughtful question and it's just a way to try to brainstorm how we all can get to where we want to be, which is everybody playing good games.

No bad ideas. No bad ideas. All right. Our next one is from anonymous. Hey guys, heard your comment or station on the Detroit on the Deloitte clearinghouse. This is the NIL clearinghouse. Just thought I'd give you a few tidbits of info. While I'm not on that specific work stream, I do work for Deloitte. I can tell you one, Deloitte's whole purpose is to tell businesses how to spend money, Ari. They do that quite well sometimes and Nike is a customer who we tell how to run their business. Two, I think Deloitte will do whatever the client wants them to. They also have tons of contracts with universities. I'm sure they wouldn't want to put things in jeopardy by preventing one of their clients top players from getting paid. If you catch my drift, this seems more like a CYA effort to make things legal.

Well legal is a different legal has different definitions here. By legal, this means what the schools would like the rules to be. We're not sure if this is actually legal according to the laws of the United States of America because it may violate the Sherman Act. So, but what anonymous is saying here is that they think there will not be that many deals that get nixed by this thing. Yeah, also too, this isn't my field. So I'll trust the person who works at Deloitte over what I think. But when a when Deloitte has a company as a client, when they tell them how to run their business, it's a suggestion. It's not a demand, right?

Right. They can't require it. You can't require them to do it. Yeah. So you require, I think there's a distinction between the person whose deal is getting nixed, the payer, not the payee, the payee has to, has to comply because they've opted in into the settlement. The payer has not and didn't hire Deloitte and doesn't care what Deloitte says. Right. And also too, can't forbid it. Like that's the thing.

Like you can like it's an accounting firm, right? Yes. Like there's a, is there like... They created this new organization, the CSC, the College Sports Commission, which is it is just the NCAA by another name because it's only created by the conferences that were defendants in the House case. And they hired a former federal prosecutor, who I can't wait until he gets up and gets

interviewed and he's like, as a former federal prosecutor, because that's what they always say when they're on CNN or Fox News, as a former federal prosecutor. I don't know. I don't think this can work. By the way, Michigan is trying to amend its NIL bill, essentially the same way Tennessee did. They're basically going to make it where you can't comply with this thing anyway. They're already preemptively showing you why this isn't going to work.

Yeah. So I'm sorry to all the ADs who really want to believe this is going to work. It's not. And all you're trying, all you're doing is recreating the NCAA by another name, breaking the same federal law that you were breaking before in the same way that you were breaking it. What is it when you bang your head against the same brick wall over and over expecting a different result? What is that called? Insanity. The definition of insanity. That's right. So, all right. But thank you, anonymous. We appreciate that.

That is valuable information, I think. Yeah. All right. Dan has a fun game for us. This is interesting, and I've never thought of it this way. And it feels like we should try this going into the season. If you had to put your house on the line, although already makes it sound like he hates his house sometimes. What are your group of three coaches that you would guarantee at least one of them is not coaching for their team

in 2026 could be hired, fired, moved to the NFL, etc. Mine would be Sam Pittman, John Somerall and Jeff Levy. And now the way he's doing this is only one has to go somewhere or get fired. And then extra parlay play that Somerall will be coaching in the SEC at either Arkansas LSU or Auburn next year. So this is a really interesting game because like he's not saying John Somerall

is gonna get fired. He's saying John Somerall is gonna get another job, but he's guessing that either Sam Pittman or Jeff Lebby will get fired. I don't think Jeff Lebby, even if they have a bad season, is going to get fired because part of Mississippi State's problem is they have gone a little too fast in those decisions in the recent past. Like Joe Moore had they fired too early. The Zach Arnett thing, obviously that was a result of Mike Leach passing away. So it's hard to say you shouldn't have done that. That was a very difficult situation. But I think part of the reason Mississippi State

is in the situation it's in is a little too much turnover too fast, so. I actually think Lebby is OK, even if it's going to be a tough season. But Ari, do you like this game? Should we? Should we try this? Should we do some groups of three before the season starts? Like how this is going to go? Yeah, groups of three for fired

in groups of three for hire. Well, not just no no. Anybody of the three can get another job or can be fired or get another job is just will they be coaching at this school next year? So that's why some roles on that list some role. He's not predicting some role to get fired. He thinks some role is going to get another job.

Okay. Okay. You want to go one for one? Well, here's my thing. Like I, I want to ask you this because I'm not sure. I've been doing this exercise in my head and I'm struggling with it. Who is the coach that is the hot other than John Somerall at Tulane? Who's the hot coach that looks like they'd move up to a bigger job that they've done such a good job. The current job that they're going to be the one everybody wants to move to a bigger job.

We know that the John Somerall is there because he's done a great job of Troy and Tulane. I might be off base with this. But I actually think has a real shot of it and we never talk about him as Ryan Silverfield. Oh, at Memphis. Yeah. Yeah. Like if Memphis has a really good year this year, never talk about him is Ryan Silverfield. Oh, at Memphis. Yeah. Yeah. Like if Memphis has a really good year this year, I think people are going to want him. Memphis is a hard job.

Now. Yeah, I do wonder if Mike Norvell's situation is hurting because sometimes you get the well, the last guy who came from your school didn't and look a year ago Mike Norvell would be raising the profile because he was coming off an undefeated season but after what happened last year it's it's different so yeah Silverfield is a good one but there's another coach that everyone wants or will want and I don't know if the problem is is I don't know okay it's Fran Brown okay like he's okay that's a good one yeah hot coach the brutal schedule this year they have a worst schedule ever so like when you when you think about where a team may be like Syracuse might be improved from

last year or the same team it was last year which is very good for what Syracuse has typically been. But they might not be hot because they are, they face one of the hardest schedules in the country. Yeah. So like, Fran, and I don't know, like, but Fran Brown isn't going to be Syracuse's head coach in three years, right? Like, he'll be somewhere else, probably. Yeah, I think he's going to get a job that is quote-unquote bigger. Yes. Yes. So like you have to bet, you know, your house. By the way, I don't know if I should say this, but we fixed the plumbing issue in the bathroom and it actually turned out to be much cheaper

than I was anticipating, which is good. And for the moment, I don't know if I'm supposed to say this, but like we don't have an issue right now. Like everything works. You say that you have it. You'll have an issue in 10 seconds. Because you said I'm just saying like, if you like for the first time in eight months, like I don't have something that needs to be fixed in my house. Steve, Steve in the chat says, Brendan Marion from Sacramento State will. Yeah, I'm I'm interested to see him as a head coach.

This is his first foray into head coaching like Fran Brown that, you know, last year was his first year as a head coach. So I want to see how he does. Brennan's been a coordinator a bunch of different places. So, uh, this, this will be an interesting thing to see how he runs the program. They got blocked from going up to the FBS and now their president's trying to trying to convince the football oversight committee to change its mind on that. But okay, that'll be interesting. I've got a few names and I'm just gonna fire Matt you, you break it down. Okay. Okay. Mark Stoops, motivated Mark Stoops. I, okay. If he decides he's done, but that's the only way.

He could decide he's done is what I'm saying. Or go somewhere else if they've got a great year. I don't know, but he's floored it with other jobs too. Well, yeah, I mean, A&M was gonna hire him until there was a revolt from the board. You do have multi angles here, which is he could decide he's finished or he could get a better job. But they fire him is off the table. You've got two of the three potentials like retirement and leaving for a job which he's

illustrating that he's willing to do. Kirk Farrance. Retirement watch. Yeah. Yeah not because he's not succeeding. He's he's actually been still very successful. Brent's running at Arizona, I think comes in on the hot seat this year. Yep. I would agree. Producer River says Luke Fickle at Wisconsin. I think I don't think so because I think fickle has a good enough deal that they probably can't afford to fire him even if it doesn't go bad, even if it goes bad.

Yeah. And I don't think he's gonna leave. I mean, I hate to do this to your guy, but Billy Napier. Very. Yeah. Like, you know, Billy Napier is still on the razor's edge. If you want to fade Florida, Napier would be a good pick here. What about right? And the thing is, Florida is either going to go really well or not in or not good at all. Like there's very there's not really a mediocre version of Florida. Because the schedule so hard like if they're

bad, they're going to lose a lot. If they're good, they're going to be a playoff contender. Here's another one that is interesting because I think he's done an okay job but the program is changing quite a bit which is Justin Wilcox. You think about like what I think they lost like six games last year by eight points or fewer. Yeah and they were six and six. Yeah six a year ago and also Cal seems to be moving in a different direction administratively and when that tends to happen what, when places move in a direction, what does that usually mean?

That the people in place want to pick a new guy, right? Or the people that they're moving. And I hate playing this game of who is going to get fired, but I feel like that's somebody I'd watch. I'd also watch for retirement, Kyle Whittingham at Utah. He might retire after this year, right? Like, hasn't there been some talk about that? There has been talk about it, but he strikes me as the type that like he,

when he he looks and acts much younger than he is, I don't think he's. He's pretty bright still, so football games at Harley, that's a pretty like my wife even was like, oh my God, who's that? Exactly. Matthew in the chat says Kenny Dillingham, but getting a new job. I actually don't think and you know, all these coaches say this stuff. You and I have had this discussion about Dillingham. I think he means it when he says that because because if you go through the reasons, like he's from Scottsdale, he went to Arizona state. Like if you, if you're making good money, and I believe he's, he's up to like four and

a half, $5 million a year, making really good money in what you consider to be your home to do a job where they're not going to fire you. Like a lot of these jobs, they'll fire you for winning nine games a year. And he's not in a place like that. Like you win nine games a year, they build you a statue at Arizona State. Yeah, a little inside baseball here, but like Kenny Dillingham and I are like roughly

the same age and grew up in the same city at the same time. And like one of his good friends I grew up with. So like I have like a pretty good friends I grew up with. So like I have like a pretty good, I think gauge on this one. Like Kenny Dillingham is like in the process of building like a beautiful home in Scottsdale. Like I think that he wants to live there. Like you know what I mean? Like we talked on the phone when I was at the athletic because I wrote you remember

this, I wrote a column about why he should get the job. Yeah, like before they hired him and I talked to him on the phone for like 45 minutes, dude. And like he like his family is there. His wife is from there. Like he wants to live in Scottsdale for the rest of his life. So like I, I think that it's easy to say that and then if Alabama comes or Georgia comes or whatever, like these aren't teams that are actually going to but like a big time team, then they offer him twice as much money, like who knows when the, when the duffel bag hits the coffee table, but I don't know that I would, I would think he would leave.

And also too, Arizona State with expectations is going to be fun to watch because like everyone thinks they're the big 12 favorite. I'm very curious to see how good they are this year. They've got one of the better quarterbacks in the country. Dyson's a hell of a receiver. They've got some pieces, but like, I don't think that he's obviously not going to get fired no matter what happens. And I don't know what would have to happen for ASU for him to get one of those God offers that makes him think about leaving his dream scenario. One producer ever pointed out Lance Leipold at Kansas,

and that wouldn't be a firing situation. That would be a do really well, get another job situation. Here's the thing. Kansas is paying him really well. Kansas has money and so it's gonna have it would have to be a big big job I think to get him. Here's one. Where do we stand on Mike Gundy? Whoo that's an interesting one because you know how I feel about seasons where we expect very little for Mike Gundy just put ten wins up now like This this is one of those words like well, what's Oklahoma State gonna do? Oh, probably nothing. Oh, they go ten and two Right. What if they go five and seven?

Then then it's an interesting because Mike Gundy is still young, but Mike Gundy has been at that job a long time. Yeah. This is year 21 for Mike Gundy at that job. Wow. So, yeah, he replaced Les Miles in 2005. But you have to answer the question now. Like we have all the options out there.

Like who do you think is going to be gone? I mean, some are all still the question now. Like we have all the options out there. Like who do you think is going to be gone? I mean, some are all still the logical choice. Some and Pittman. And Pittman. Right, because Pittman, whether he goes four and eight or not, because if he goes that they're the way his contract is written his buyout drops considerably. If he's four and eight or worse this year, it's still manageable, even if they're better than that.

And I think they're gonna be better than that. And it feels like they're ready to make a change. So he would have to be really good to keep it. Yeah. You know, and then the other ones, you mentioned Billy Napier, like that is totally dependent on what happens this season. I think Hugh Fries at Auburn is totally dependent

on what happens this season. Brent Pry at Virginia Tech is one that if things go poorly, I'd imagine that they would make a change. Scott Satterfield at Cincinnati is on the hot seat too, right? I feel like they're feeling a little better after last year, but yeah, I mean that's one. So yeah, it's, they're gonna be more jobs open than there were last year. I think everybody dialed it back last year because they weren't sure how rev share was going to work and how much money they needed.

One more funky one. What about Trent Dilfer? Trent Dilfer almost lost it last year. So yeah, and then they're going to have to get better. Crazy experiment. So yeah. Yep. All right. Next question comes from Steve. Oh no, I didn't even see this one coming. It's about the mystery. Ari, I wish you had not told that story because I cannot get it out of my head. It is really bugging me. I need some finality on the subject matter. I could see this becoming a true mystery podcast. It has to be one of the following. One, your

wife shared a room in Paris with one of her gal pals and somehow got laundry commingled. Two, your wonderful maid did a load while you guys were out of town. No big deal there. Three, or your contractors did a load while you were out, which is bizarre. Oh, by the way, why would you ever give a contractor access to your house while both of you were out of town? That is nuts. Ari, help a brother out here, please. Thanks, which is bizarre. Oh, by the way, why would you ever give a contractor access to your house while both of you are out of town? That is nuts. Ari, helpful brother out here, please. Thanks, Steven San Antonio.

I confronted the maid yesterday. What? Not hers. Well, now it's a real mystery. Yeah, she didn't do laundry. Contractor of the home was somebody who helped assist build the home. It's a real mystery. Yeah. She didn't do laundry. Wow. Contractor of the home was somebody who helped assist build the home. So like it's a person that like we know and can trust.

Um, but I don't know about all the help that he had, but like it is driving me insane, like I like we were laughing. Like I have no idea where these came from. And like, I haven't brought this up to Brittany. I just have like, she's forgotten about it and it's great. There's no reason to, but like it is driving me insane. I'm glad she doesn't listen to the show because we've talked about it every day. Yeah, no, she listens to the show sometimes,

but she's not one of the diehards that's gonna make it to minute 60. But I also feel like it's possible, like the only scenario here, because it was my wife's laundry. It had to have come from her suitcase. Which means one of her friends is lying about it being theirs, and that doesn't make sense. They wouldn't lie, because the people that she was with, I'm very close with. It's not like I'm texting random people. Yeah, it's driving me absolutely insane. Like I have no idea where they came from.

And like the thing too is like people are joking, like what if your wife had an affair with a girl? And it's like, okay. But like my wife is the reason I even know there was mystery panties to begin with. Like she's the one who could- Like, she would have taken care of that. If she was having an affair with a woman, which by the way, be kind of hot. I don't know that she would want, she wouldn't draw attention to it, right?

Like she wouldn't want me to know that. But would she have even known those were in there? I think that the point of this is nobody noticed they were in there until the laundry got done. Yeah, or was I was folding them and I was right. She's the one who saw them and pointed them out first. So if it's if that were the case, she would not have said anything. You know, at this point, I'm just gonna say Britt, they're mine. Okay, I like wearing underwear like this. And it is but like it's. Ronnie with the other logical assertion TSA or the customs. Commingled some luggage when they were checking on the way

back. Yeah, but it was at the bottom of her suitcase. So maybe these panties were in the hotel room that she was staying in and she didn't notice that they were under the bed or something and she put it if that's the case, ooh. Yeah. But yeah. and she put him. Yeah, if that's the case, ooh. Yeah. But yeah. All right. Next question comes from Justin. I have an award to suggest for the show. Blue underwear. Where did he come from award can be awarded to the player coach or team that has come out of nowhere. Who would have won the award this past season? Who would be on the watch list for this coming season? This past season would have been Lenora this past season who would be on the watch list for this coming season?

Season would have been Lenora Sellers, I think Yeah, okay who's coming out of nowhere I Think the point is we don't know that yeah, that's the hardest part of like wait like You can't predict the remarkable because then it wouldn't be remarkable if you predicted it. Do you agree with me? Lenora Sellers is the is the best candidate for last year for sure, but also to like was very aware of what he was. Sam Levitt probably more so than than Lenora. I think Lenora was always a freak athlete.

You know, the one that are we going to send Sam Levin to blue thong in the mail? You know who I would say Congratulations. You know who I think is the leading candidate for the blue underwear? Blue thong, by the way, let's show some respect. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Got it. Blue thong come out of nowhere is going to be Devon Dampe here at Utah. Now, that's a good one. But he might be a star, and nobody is talking about him. That would be my nominee. But again, coming out of nowhere is relative,

because I guess this would count, because nowhere means we're not talking about him much. But I don't think a lot of people are talking about him. I mean, the collective college football community. I think the people who really mean, the collective college football community. Yeah. I, I think there's the, the people who really dig deep into the big 12 are pretty excited about Utah, but yeah, I, I think that's a good one. Uh,

Locke says absolutely send it with no explanation. Like, just send, send Sam Levitt a blue thong and be like, congratulations 2024 blue thong. Where regulations 2024. Blue thong. Where did he come from award? The thing that's I'm frustrated. I threw it away. I shouldn't have thrown it away. We can get another one. No, I know. But like I get like 10 of them. I just like I need.

He'd like I feel like there was two. If I keep it, then I look like a serial killer like keeping a sex trophy. And then if I throw it away, then I don't have the evidence to Well, no, it literally keeping a sex trophy. And then if I throw it away, then I don't have the evidence to- Well, no, it literally is a trophy now, and it's Sam Levitt's trophy. It's not your sex trophy, it's Sam Levitt's, well, it's his football trophy.

He just sent a pair of underwear, a brown envelope, no return address to whoever wins it. Which probably happens more often than we think to star college football players. I feel like we have enough listeners in every fan base that someone would clue them in. Oh boy. Yeah. So like now it's just going to slip back into obscurity and we're going to forget about

it. But it does. Oh no, we're not. Because we're mailing a pair of these to somebody at the end of the season. The thing that I can't stand more than anything because I'm a true crime junkie. You know this about me. I listen to audio books and podcasts and I watch the documentaries at Netflix and stuff puts out is when you watch a four hour multi episode documentary and then at the end of it's like, well, we don't know what happened. And it's just like, okay, I like mysteries and I like trying to like think it through, but it's also

like, I just wasted five hours of my life. That's why the jinx, the Robert Durst documentary is the most satisfying one ever. Yeah. I'm not going to, if you haven't seen it, I'm not spoiling it for you. I'm just telling you it, the payoff of that one is better than the payoff of any documentary ever. Yeah, but like I also like have consumed maybe 100 hours of like zodiac killer content and like the fact nobody knows what happened the fact that like we're not certain like I think we know who it probably was but like like also to maybe not. It bloat, it like bothers me. So yeah, but like I'm the type of personality that like latches

onto this shit. Like I can't. It's my house too. Like that's the other thing. It's like somebody was in my house with this underwear or it came from somewhere and it's in my home and my laundry. It's bizarre. It's like truly bizarre. It's a great mystery and I cannot wait till we mail a pair of underwear to some unsuspecting Coder player with no explanation. Ari, it's time to bring back the random ranking. I've been waiting for this movies thaties that don't have a sequel but should.

So you, me and producer River have done top five lists. Are we ready? Okay, let's do, cause like when we do the random rankings, we do it differently every time and like River is gonna be involved in this. So you wanna go one, one, one and just around the five, five, five. So everybody gives their five at once. We're going, we're going five to one. So you will give your five. I will

give your my number five. River will get his number five. Then we'll do number four. Okay. Go ahead. So, all right. I'll hit you with my number five. You ready? Yep. Who framed Roger Rabbit? It's a detective story. There's a bunch of beloved characters in it. Just have another mystery for Eddie to solve. It's not complicated.

I think why you couldn't do it is because they got all the Disney and Warner Brothers characters together for that movie. You would never get them to agree to do that again. But that would be spectacular. You thought we were going to have like this is so out of nowhere. I haven't seen that movie by the way since I was 11 years old. It is so freaking good.

We watched it a few years ago when the kids were a little bit younger. It's so good. It's a great detective movie period. Plus you add the absurdity of the cartoons. Okay Yeah, I will check that out because like we are in the what should we watch with our daughter? Lives not old enough yet Maybe eight or nine ten. Okay. Yeah, she she's really into Mrs. Doubtfire right now, which is an interesting Yeah, she

Yeah, she, uh, yeah, she, uh, says things. She like walks around the house and goes, I am job. Uh, so yeah, we, that's where we're at right now. But you know, she's ahead of the game. She's not a big cartoons little girl, by the way. She likes, uh, live action better for some reason, but okay. Well, she get both here. Okay. River, what's your number five? But okay, she get both here. Okay River. What's your number five?

Sorry, I was not expecting to go now, but my number five is Ferris Bueller's day off. Ah Yes now question. Do we want Now or would we have liked this to have been made in? 1989 Where they're just they're in college and they're taking a day off. Yeah. So I talked about this last night. I don't know if college would be the route, but if you did it now, you could do like, he works remote, he leaves, he sets his computer, like he conned something that he's still working and he just takes off somewhere. I think, and Alan Ruck who plays Cameron has turned into one of the better

character actors like he's a great great that guy his his character in succession was awesome like I would like to see 50 year old Cameron yeah yeah I think that like he would it would have to it would can't be college because we all blew off class in college and like it would yeah yeah it would, can't be college because we all blew off class in college. And like it would be, it would be cool if he had an actual job that he had to go to the office for because anybody could, you know. Yeah. And like Ferris has been beaten down.

Here's the way you do it is Ferris has been beaten down by life in the corporate world. And Cameron's no fun anymore. And Cameron, yeah, Cameron drags him out. Yeah, that would be good. Yeah, there we go. All right, Ari, what's your five? My number five is Wolf of Wall Street.

Um, I actually like, yeah, my, my list isn't gonna be. He writes a book. This is, you know, I don't know if it has to be Jordan as the main character, but like I thought that this was, I mean, the second that you guys realize that this is a comedy and not a drama is when your life like unlocks. Such a good movie. And when you think about the characters in this movie, like Jonah Hill's best character was Diamond Donnie Azov, right?

Like, there's no question about it. Out of respect. Out of respect. And like the thing that I had a hard time with with this is that a lot of my favorite movies are kind of quasi inspired by real events. So it's hard to like I like one. I was going to have Goodfellas and Casino on here

because I just would want more of that. But like those were true stories about their lives. This is also a true story about Jordan Belfer. No. So I didn't want to have three true stories on my left. But like, maybe we could do like a drama that or a comedy that like spun off of it like about Donnie Azov or something. Like if we could do whoever created this movie is a genius. And yeah, it is one of the funniest movies ever created. And I would just want more of it. I'm with you on that. Of course, it's probably just he writes a book

and they make a movie about his life. Actually, if they made a movie about the making of The Wolf of Wall Street, because it was funded with money from a Malaysian scam artist, it would be really pretty good and pretty funny. Yeah, because the guy now has Instagram. Actually, better question. and pretty funny. Yeah, because the guy like now has like instantly better question.

Billion dollar whale, which is the book about the scam artist who wound up funding this movie. Would billion dollar whale be the sequel to the Wall Street? You sent me that book and I tried to listen to it and it was like very confusing at the beginning to listen to. So I need to just read it. You should try reading it. Yeah. You know, it was like there was a lot in the, I was like, who's who? Like,

I can't, I'm like, yeah, it's, it's a little confusing, but once, once you get into it, it, it goes in the, the, the lifestyle this guy was leading on other people's dime was pretty spectacular. So if you've never seen Wolf of Wall Street, it is the funniest movie. I think you could make the case it's the funniest movie ever made. Well, and how about Matthew McConaughey with the best cameo? Yeah. A minute and a half of screen time in movie history?

You got to boost those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers. OK. All right. Number four for me is Demolition man. You get dropped into this world. You fall in love with the world. It's so much fun. And granted that like the whole thing was a freaking Taco Bell commercial, the whole movie, but at the end of the movie, and if I'm spoiling this for you, I'm sorry. It's a 30 year old movie They had they take this sanitized

happy happy Joy Joy world that is really not cool and They're they're like you guys get a little cleaner. You guys get a little dirtier and meet in the middle. So Obviously the sequel is 30 years later the world's gone to hell and Stallone's got to clean it up now with Sandra Boko force with with Lenina Huxley Helping him out husband wife team I've never seen this movie. It's so freaking good. Yeah, it's so stupid, but it's so good Yeah, hopefully that your lists will inspire me to go see some of the movies that I ended up missing.

Wesley Snipes is just hilarious in this movie. He's awesome. Great villain. Yeah. Okay River, what's your number four? My number four is Catch Me If You Can. Similar to Wolf of Wall Street. Similar to, yeah. Very similar. I think I would start it directly after it ends because it's kind of based on the true story, right?

Yeah, it is based on the story. So like when he goes and works for the FBI, the con man shows the FBI how to con and like, I don't know. Well, I think you have to have him work a case where he becomes the Tom Hanks character. Yeah. Yeah. I think that'd be a fun movie to do. Yeah. I actually read a lot about Frank Abagnale's actual cons and like the movie didn't even do it justice on like how he once told a story. And this is going to be a little like R rated. So whatever. We're an hour and 18 minutes, but he, um,

was at a club when he was like 20 years old or something. And he, uh, met a lady of the night. Let's just put it that way. Um, and they negotiated a price for an hour. Uh, he goes to the room with the woman and she demands the cash and he goes, I don't have cash. I'll write you a check and then you can give me the return. So he wrote a check to this woman. And then after they were, their business was completed. She gave him $400. They wrote a check for 500.

They agreed to a hundred and he like left with the money and like wrote her a bad check. Like, was that in the movie? No, but that's amazing. He robbed a hooker. Like, that's insane. He robbed a hooker. It's insane. Yeah, okay. Anyway, but like he, like his entire life, every single moment of his life, I think during that time period was like conning somebody.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. My number four is Superbad. They don't make comedies like this anymore at all. And like, how could you not have them, like in college and like Seth visiting? Evan? Yeah. Evan and Fogel. Evan and Fogel. Yeah. Well, Evan and Fogel, we're going to live together. So Evan and McLovin, we're going to live together at Dartmouth. Yes. There's no question about this. Spoiler alert, this

is my number three. So we can talk about it all at once. And like you actually, I think about like, that's a layup. And I mean, I'm- Easy. I guess that's time, but like them in college, just like- Would you do it now with them in their thirties as married guys? Like, I don't know if it's as funny, but in college, yes. You have them like either they're home for,

home in the summer or he's visiting them at Dartmouth. Either way, I'll take it. Yeah, you want like nerdy kids to be like sex obsessed and like joking about it for two hours. That's all, it doesn't matter what, but like when you think about the actual plot of the first one, it's, they had to try to find a way to get booze to a party.

Like that was the whole movie. It doesn't matter what it's about. It just want these two on screen like talking to each other. Yeah. It would be funny if like if Seth went to Dartmouth and like everybody was all about studying and they were smart kids and he's like, what are we doing here? And like tries to like make them like he wants to get Evan to go to a party, but Evan won't do it because he has a big exam coming up or whatever. And it's just like, that's the movie.

It's just, but the thing about it too, with the sequels is that like. It was such a masterpiece and it was so perfect. It's like there's no reason to do it again. Yeah, please don't. Yeah, I think with a lot like like with Demolition Man, please do because it was a dumb movie to start with like the dumb popcorn movie, but with Superbad, please don't. It won't. It won't.

It'll it'll only let us down. Whatever. What is your number four? I'm happy that you have it on your list though, Andy. Okay. Or my number three is no, you're not your number four. No, number four is your number three. I'm sorry. Yes. You do three now, Andy. Now I did super bad.

It is super bad. But my number three is Napoleon Dynamite. And they have talked about a sequel to this. They have. I believe they've engaged John Heater about this. Do I want another two hours in that world? That's the part I can't figure out. Oh, what do you mean? Why not?

You enter Ari's world every day. Yeah. Yeah. So we're gonna meet, we're gonna see Kip and LaFonda and they've got kids on this. See if they got kids, maybe like Napoleon and, and, and, and the, the photographer girl are, are now together. I just want more uncle Rico. Yeah. Yeah. What's what? What's uncle Rico up to? What's obviously we know what uncle Rico has been up to. He's been staying at the white Lotus. So uncle Rico's actually, it was so funny to me

that during the White Lotus, everyone was in episode eight, is that Uncle Rico? How did you not know that immediately? Last season he was in it. We were just calling, he's been in every season. Yeah, he's been in every season, right? People were just now catching up to that's Uncle Rico

is insane to me. But that movie, I think costs like 20 grand to make. So like they should just do it. Like, I think on Twitter, like social media, tick tock would just take off with this if they remade, if they make a sequel to it, just like scenes and all kinds of stuff, like the dance for sure. I remember seeing this movie in the theater and like not really knowing what it was and then getting there and like

Watching this and like this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in my life, but it was hilarious well, and that's that was the best part of it is everybody went into the the first viewing of it was like Nobody could actually describe it to you So you know what it is you went into the first viewing like, what the hell is this? And you're laughing your ass off. Yeah, it was really funny. Just takes a string to the action figure and throws it out the bus window. Yeah.

And the movie starts. The scene where they do the work on the chicken farm and he brings them lunch. Yeah. With the flies on the egg, it's just awful. Oh my God, that makes me gag every time. All right. So now, RR year number three. Number three is Step Brothers. Just put them in corporate jobs and let's see them all.

I mean, that's a layup. That movie is my number one. Just to go ahead. Spoiler alert. That was the first rated R movie I ever saw. I was in third grade. Dad took me to see it. Never look at a drum kit the same way again. Yeah. It's like 10 years old, scarred. I mean, it really is. It really, like those, it was though,

I think that that was Will Ferrell's best movie. And that's saying something, cause he's been really funny and like old school almost made my list, it didn't, but like this was peak Will Ferrell and it was a masterpiece and I think that they could do it again. Will Ferrell could do it again. Like I feel like if I could trust anybody to run it back it would be these two. Well and that whole cast is good like Adam Scott has become a much bigger star. Yeah and Adam Scott maybe one of the funniest characters in the entire movie.

Like you can get them all back together. And the best part about that movie is that the whole thing which is ad libbed like they had like a they had like a outline of what they were supposed to do, but they just like would say stupid stuff to each other. Whenever work work, you know, like it was hilarious. Scott has a meeting in three minutes. He needs to wrap this up. So, okay. All right. Let's go quick. Fortunately has a meeting in three minutes. He needs this to wrap this up. So, all right, let's go quick. Fortunately, JD's not live today.

Otherwise we'd be in trouble. All right. Number two for me, raising Arizona. I just want high in ed. I want to go back into their world. The Cohen brothers can come up with some, some wacky, you know, story for them, some caper for them to pull, but I just want to be back with Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter in their world for two hours. So, because basically that story wrapped itself up, you know, Hi had the dreams about what happened

to everybody else. So you really just, you take Hi and Ed and you drop them into some other situation. Yeah, I can see that And river for my number three it is a throwback to my childhood Wally I am appalled they have not made a sequel to Wally. You don't want to sequel to this You don't want to sequel to Wally. Oh, it's just depressing that the people in the in the little Flying jazzy scooters. No, it is sad but like that movie had

so much hype like I remember as a kid like that was supposed to be the next biggest thing with like since cars and I just I liked it I enjoyed it I wish they would make another one and like just tell the story more he's a fun character depressing too depressing it's kind of sad with all of that people on the yeah I've never seen that. Your number two. Mine is one of my favorite dramas ever, which is American History X. I tried to get River to watch the first 10 minutes of it and then we got side railed. But the way that that movie ends, I don't want to blow it for him because I want him to finish it. But if this is one of the greatest movies ever made and like the way that it ends, does the main character go back into that life

or does he fight? Like, I mean, like there's a lot of meat left on that bone. And if you actually go read about American history X, apparently Edward Norton and the director had a lot of very different like ideas about the like creative direction of the movie. So there's, I still think there would be a lot of meat left on that bone. I don't know if they could make it in 2025.

I think people are too sensitive now to deal with that. But that to me was one of the greatest movies ever made. One of the most intense movies ever made in today's world. Kind of real. People are very hateful right now. And I do think that Edward Norton to me is one of the greatest actors of our lifetimes. And is he even in stuff anymore? No, because they don't make good movies anymore.

Okay. True lies, it's my number one. Arnold, Tom Arnold, Jamie Lee Curtis, we can get them all back. Tia Carrere can come back. Let's go. Just run it back. Blow up some helicopters.

Find another tropical location you can blow up. The only person we don't have, unfortunately, is Bill Paxton. May he rest in peace. So you gotta find somebody to, because you need some call back to that character. So maybe he's got a son who's a scumbag who can take his place.

But I would love another version of this like just them them on another caper. It makes me want to go back and watch it again. It's been years. God movies used to be so badass. It's so good. Yeah. Kevin in the chat said it should have been made 20 years ago. You're right. They blew it. They should have made this like this. This would have been a perfect 2002 movie. Yeah, but 20 years ago they were still pretty good at coming up with original ideas and didn't have to just make a sequel for everything. So like that's why these movies don't exist. Would have been spectacular though. Yeah, well let's let's just run it back. It's certainly Tom Arnold's best work. Can we all agree on that? Yes, that was really really good. My number one's already been mentioned. Yeah, it's the brothers. Can we all agree on that? Yes, that was really, really good. My number one's already been mentioned.

My number one is Shawshank Redemption, because it's maybe the single greatest movie ever made. And I know that everyone has seen it 9,000 times. So we're just gonna see Andy in Mexico working on a boat? Yeah, or, um, you know, people come after him. They're on the lam. I don't know. Maybe. I don't know. That one is, please don't mess this up. Please don't do it.

Please never. I would want to be back in the world because it was so well done. It was well done. I'm not like the, I'm not the genius that wrote the thing. So don't make me. I was so, it's hard for me because I was so satisfied with the ending. Yeah. Like I can't imagine, I don't want it to go any further because that's what I wanted for the ending. That's as much, that's exactly where I wanted it to land. Yeah, and I also feel like if it's not Shawshank because it would be incredibly difficult to do and it was already so perfect, Wedding Crashers should also be on that because they could just...

Well, I think they should redo the second hour of Wedding Crashers because it sucked. First hour was amazing. That movie suffers from stripes disease. Incredible first hour, horrific second hour. Interesting. I don't believe that. I agree with that. Yeah. Watch it again. But also, the wedding crashers also ended in a way that was like, they're all doing it together now. Yes. You could definitely do it again. I would be four wedding crashers getting a

sequel. So I like it boys. Good job. Now we went way long. We'll be back in 13 minutes talking EA Sports College football. But that was a hell of a lot of fun. We'll do another run and ranking next weekend, next week. We've already got the topic. We've already got the topic. Best fictional foods, fictional foods you want to eat. Talk to you on Monday with Boise State Coach Spencer Danielson joining us. It's going to be a great interview. Talk to you on Monday.