Andy & Ari On3 - Is America Texas Tech now? USA’s Folarin Balogun eligible to play in FIFA World Cup vs Belgium

Episode Date: July 6, 2026

Andy & Ari are BACK from vacation, and the guys breakdown USA's big match against Belgium this evening in the round of 16 in the FIFA World Cup. While Folarin Balogun received a red card in the last match vs Bosnia and Herzegovina, FIFA has suspended his red card, allowing Balogun to play in tonight's match against Belgium. Relating this news to college football, is America like Texas Tech now? Andy & Ari breakdown this piece of news from the US Men's National Soccer Team and relate it to college football. Do you think this is the right move?   (0:00) On Today's Episode (0:48) Presenting Sponsor (2:41) Intro - Folarin Balogun News (8:21) Process of Red Card, the reaction (17:45) How it feels, Trinidad Chambliss (26:50) Red Cards & Targeting (32:09) Injuries (35:09) Rule Changes in soccer? (36:45) Calls to be reversed in CFB: 5th down (44:16) Oklahoma State at Iowa State in 2011 (48:35) Central Michigan at Oklahoma State in 2016 (50:25) Wisconsin at Arizona State in 2013 (52:27) Tattoo Gate at Ohio State, Urban Meyer domino (1:03:50) How do they rank colleges? (1:04:53) Thanks for watching: Big 12 Media Days preview   After breaking down the soccer news, the guys turn their attention to the worst calls in college football history. Running through some of the more notable blown calls in history, which calls should've been mentioned?   Thanks for watching! Be sure to join Andy & Ari the next two days from the 2026 Monster Energy Big 12 Football Media Days.   Our show is also presented by BetMGM!   If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works:   1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB. 2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. 3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sure you use bonus code CFB when you sign up!   Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary.   See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. This promotional offer is not available in DC, Mississippi, New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET (Available in the US) . 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only (if applicable). Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel   Check out Zen AI here: http://bit.ly/zenAI_bpp_itf   Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/join   Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/t9Egy3AQtFA   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey   Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode of Andy and Ariana 3 presented by BetMGM, are we all Texas Tech? And by we all, I mean, everyone rooting for the United States of America? Are we now Texas Tech in the World Cup? This is a very interesting conversation. We're not just localized in soccer because this speaks to fandom in general and especially in college football where, listen, things happen. Things might be a little bit corrupt. Sometimes they go your way and sometimes.

they don't. And when they go your way, well, we circle the wagons. And that's what we're doing right now. We'll talk about that. Plus, the bad calls throughout college football history that we wish some corrupt organization would just magically overturn. All in today's 80 and around three presented by BED NGM. We are brought to you by BEDMGM. All the lines and totals we use come from BEDNGM. And of course, if you are a BEDMGM member, well, right now, you are probably locked in on the biggest tournament in the world that we happen to be hosting on our shores here in the United States. Got the world's game no sweat goal score token this week. That's right. Use the no sweat goal score token on any qualifying anytime goal score or first goal score or last goal score during the

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Welcome to Annie and Ari on three presented by BetMGM and Ari. I am headed your way to watch a soccer game. It's my mouth. I got to say, I'm a stone cold soccer fan of three weeks. and it's been it's been electric um and i don't know if i'm like most people who listen to the show are probably in my boat um i'm having like a really hard time with it because on one hand i really enjoy watching the games because of how intense it is i think the fact that some of the games are actually here in dallas you know you kind of get a feel of like how into it people are and you know

just obviously it's the most important tournament in the world for most of the world and um but i can't get on board with how boring the games are sometimes so like i'm trying my best to well it's not boring off the field. And off the field, it feels like college football, especially now. So Sunday, Baller and Baller and Ballagin, the U.S. striker, is now able to play against Belgium. FIFA suspended his suspension because he got a red card in the U.S.'s last game. So he gets the red card. It was a controversial red card. It was on the video assist review when they make the rectangle. The referee makes the rectangle of his hand. and he stepped on another players basically Achilles tendon.

Nothing was called immediately. Then the referee gets called the video review. They hand him a red card, which means you're out for the rest of the match, and then you're out for the next match. Targeting. It is targeting. It is definitely targeting because immediately afterward,

side-by-side photos of Leonel Messi doing the same thing to another player earlier in the tournament and nothing happening emerge on the internet. Yeah. And it was a bad call. It was a bad call. I'm not saying this as an American. I'm saying this as someone who's seen a lot of targeting calls.

And he was not trying to hurt anybody. He was not being reckless. He was trying to play the ball. It was a bad call. But just so I understand this, they didn't call anything on the field. Then they reviewed it and they blew past yellow card. went to red.

Well, they can't issue a yellow card on the review. They can only issue the red card. But what I'm saying is they went two levels up in terms of it was nothing at first because nothing was called on the field. Then you went two levels up. They don't have the option to have like if they had the option of a yellow card, maybe they would have done that. But they didn't do that because it's not.

So my understanding of this, Andy, as a novice soccer fan, is that it's actually just that he's playing because the call initially was bad. Well, not if you ask every. other country in the world because we are now Texas Tech. Am I thinking like a Texas Tech fan right now? Like am I like trying? You're just trying to help the young man, Ari. Yeah, I just like, well, the guy's been working his entire life for the ability to play in

this event and you're going to take it away over some bullshit review. Like, come on. Ari. It's not apples to apples with Texas Tech because obviously Brennan Sorsby broke a rule that people consider to be fairly sacred. and people wanted to see him punish for it. It's probably more like Trinidad Shambliss and Ole Miss, if we're going apples to apples.

Trinidad Shamblis had a made a good case to get his extra year. And I think there's probably some fans of Ole Miss opponents who would prefer not to have to play Trinidad Shambliss wish he hadn't gotten the ruling he got. Well, here's what I can kind of see the other side of it. and like, I don't know if this is un-American, but like, I'm not emotionally tied. Like, I would like to see America win, obviously, because I'm American. But, like, if they lose this evening, I'm not going to, it's not going to ruin my hair.

It's our fifth most popular sport and we'll stop caring. Yeah. Yeah. But if you're Belgium's coach, and I don't know, understand enough about soccer to understand how much his presence on the field shifts game plan. But if you've been studying film and trying to come up with a game plan without him. I mean, from a, from a strategic point of view. I can understand why he would be upset about that. They were preparing for potentially a different alignment of U.S. players,

not just you plug somebody in at this position. This would be like if, you know, in football, if a team ran the air raid and then suddenly they were running the I formation. They were there in the pro set. Is it that drastic? No, maybe not that drastic. Okay. But it is, you were preparing for a fairly different attacking style

than you were if Baligan was playing. Yeah, let's just say like Cam Coleman was out and you were preparing for defending Texas's offense without him and then Cam Coleman got reinserted on Saturday morning. That would be a pretty big one right there. That would be a pretty good analogy? Yeah, because your way you defend Texas changes if Cam Coleman's out on the field,

but their offense doesn't change. It's probably even though it's weird because we're making, like, Balligan's a striker, so he's doing, you know, most of his damage on the offensive. And this is actually probably like if you had a really game-changing, either edge rusher or detackle, yeah, who changes every blocking scheme you have.

Like, suddenly, you know, he can play two days before the game. But historically speaking, like the president of the United States, whether or not he was involved in this, like the way that they got him eligible again is something that's really bothering everyone, right? It's not even that he's playing it. Straight out of a couple of football. Yeah. It's just like, so then it was like a perfect segue into the show,

the perfect crop up because it's like, well, if you don't like the ruling, then we'll just sue you. And it works. Well, it's just so, it's so funny because everybody, you know, at the other country's howling, this just taints the purity of the sport. Okay, FIFA is the least ethical organization in all of sports. You're surprised that FIFA's corrupt? Like, you guys actually care about this sport.

How are you surprised by this? But it is kind of funny to watch people. Because, like, you know, you are exposed to fans and tweets and things online that you would never be exposed to in any other walk of life. Like, to actually see how people are reacting, it is so funny because they are reacting the same exact way, Andy, that any college football fans react to anything happens. And it's just like you think that, you know, being an A&M fan and being a Texas fan, you hate, each other, but you're so the same and you're very similar. That, like, that isn't just an American thing. That is, like, a fandom thing across the world.

And that's what I'm going to see. It is interesting, because we've talked about this a million times. Like, I remember arguing with you during the Michigan run to the national title in 2023. And you said, well, there's probably some Michigan fans that aren't going to, aren't going to cherish this title the way they would, if not for, you know, if it had been with this. There's not a single Michigan fans.

fan that gives a crap about that. Yeah. Celebrate that title. Yeah. But it doesn't matter how severe the infraction is. I will say it never ceases to amaze me the gymnastics that people go through in order to rationalize it. And I'll give them credit a lot of times.

Do you think the Argentinians? Do you think the Argentinians don't celebrate the 1986 team? You're going to have to give me some context on what happened. Because Diego Maradona scored on a ball um now i think that that it's not that they don't cherish it i don't think that's how i i meant it if i said it that way i was wrong i meant like the perfect like what indiana just did 15 and no nobody beat you you're perfect everybody agrees oh no r if you read my email it's because

they were all all the players were 25 and if you point out that none of them were 25 the people are like well my point still stands no your point is not i mean i guess there's no such thing is undisputed right but like nobody's going to say well indiana cheated i feel like if you were chasing a feeling it's not the purest high that you can get in my viewpoint like if everybody thinks you did it in a shitty way like that i think takes something away but that's just my opinion and i'm probably wrong about it but you know it is um so let me understand this then because you are coming over some of our old athletic pals are coming over to my house tonight we're going to watch this game together it's a big game this is the team if i understand correctly that knocked us out of

the last World Cup, Belgium. If America wins tonight, the world's going to be like, this is bullshit. Like, everybody's just going to be just like, oh, God, they should never, especially if he scores, right? Oh, yeah, especially if he scores. I mean, if he does anything positive, it's going to, it's going to be, oh, you know, you won because you cheated. And look, we've seen this throughout college football.

Like, I remember covering the Cam Newton, Auburn team. and they're running the national title. I mean, they circle the wagons about as well as anybody. I remember sitting in the press box of Jordan Haran in the Georgia game

and they're yelling at reporters who'd written about the scandal, like screaming at them. Yeah, you know when it gets deep enough when the fans know who wrote what, like that's when it's like, you know, because that happens from time to time.

But yeah, the circling of the wagons is interesting, but I do think that like if I'm trying to separate myself because I'm not I'm not so bought into this in the same way a Texas Tech fan would be bought into a Texas Tech title run. I actually think I'm more bought in because I don't cover soccer. I don't care, but I'm an American and damn it, we're better than everybody else. But it actually wasn't a red card. That's the thing. Like it'd be one thing if it was like a blatant red card.

But see, you're not you're thinking about. got it like like a college football fan would. My team got screwed. The rest of the world now says that was a perfectly called red card. Yeah. That he should, he should have to say. Now, never mind, never mind that FIFA did this before the tournament started. Because Christiana Ronaldo was not supposed to play in the first two games.

Yeah. Because he was suspended. And then they suspended the last. last two games of his three games suspension so he could play because guess what the ratings are better when christiana rinaldo plays i'm just saying if belgium was in the same exact boat as america and their best player had the same exact play and was ruled eligible after the fact the same exact way i wouldn't be like that's the most unbelievable thing i've ever seen i would be like well at least they they made it right like it's like not it wasn't a red card so why would he miss it but they

don't look at it see you're yeah it's it's so funny like have you lost it ability to just look at something as a fan? No, I understand what you're saying. They made it right. Belgium thinks they're screwed. I understand. I'm saying from my perspective, like, we feel like the villain, but I don't know if I'm insane. I just don't think that it's that thing.

I'm enjoying the hell out of this. I love it because I've been, you know, the referee, the neutral party on all these college football scandals. And you're leaning into it. The fan base is yelling at it. I love. getting to just be part of the fan base is like, yeah, our president did call them, did call FIFA. It was totally corrupt and it worked out for us.

Yeah. And the other thing is, and watch, watch Belgium win. That would be bad. They might. I mean, it's a 50-50 thing from what I understand. But what I also think adds an element to this too, Andy, is that the tournament is being played on our soil. And the game is in Seattle.

So like that's the other, Eastern time. Yep. You know, like, that's like another element of the, you know, it's working out in America's favor. I do find it quite funny, Andy, that on July 4th, when the soccer games were coming on, the entire rest of the world is like tuning in and watching these games. And like they have to like sit through like a 10 minute barrage about 4th of July. It's like, we don't even think America's not even playing. So there was a, there was a British account on X that posted a picture of a dilapidated looking pub that said, is 250 years old.

This pub in England is 1,400 years old. And I quote tweeted it and said, well, since it was clearly open, could you tell us what they were drinking when Cornwallis surrendered to Yorktown? And the British people were not fond of that. They were like, we don't even think about that. That's not even an important part of our history. I'm like, yeah, I wouldn't want to teach our history students about the biggest bag fumble in my country's history either.

Like, you got outsmarted by a bunch of it. of farmers it called the French. Like, you couldn't hold on to a piece of land that had infinitely more natural resources than your little tiny island. Imagine if you had. You, uh, there's an encyclopedia, Andy, going at it again. You know, the other, did you see the, the Fourth of July tweet? And maybe we're getting off the topic for 30 seconds, but that from the dictionary that said,

why does canceled have one L in English and two Ls in, uh, European? in English and English. English English. And it said because we gave them that extra L in 1776. But that was hilarious. We actually named two L's. And here's the War of 1812, too. But I am actually just imagining right now like somebody from France or something just like listening to this episode

and just like this is like every single stereotype they say. Hey, hey, France. No, France, thank you. Yeah. because we wouldn't have broken away without you, but also you're welcome for the other two times. I've been to France. I don't know if you've been to France, and they don't seem to be too fond of Americans.

I had some weird interactions with people there. Just challenging. They'll surrender. Yeah. My dad and I were like from buying... I'm in full ugly American mode today, Ari. I'm sorry. Andy, well, here's another ugly American joke.

We were in line in France somewhere trying to buy a train ticket and the person that was helping us said Americans, you know, like in that like condescending. Like dad said, can I get two tickets to Normandy Beach, please? Oh, my. But, yeah. So I am thoroughly enjoying this. This is like, now I know how it feels when you're on that side of a college football scandal.

I love it. I love it. Yeah. I'm going to look at these people totally differently now. When we are refereeing one of these college football scandals and look, we got to play it down the middle in that part of it. We cover the sport. It's our job. But I know how much fun you're having now.

I do. Trinidad Shameless, it's interesting because probably the more apples to apples comparison here. but I also think And you But I feel like people have forgotten about him now Do you think people are still wearing that? You tell me this. I think Trinidad Chamble's would be a universal villain

if he'd gotten an injunction that would allow him to play at LSU this season. 1,000% yes. But because he stayed at Ole Miss, because he was faithful and hung back with Pete Golding, like I think that's why he's not getting the smoke. Oh, my God, yes.

without question. If he were playing at LSU this, he would be the biggest player villain in the entire sport and it wouldn't even be close. The fact that he's at Ole Miss right now, I don't know if people are hanging on to that injunction anymore. Like it might have been a hot topic for people for a week after it happened. But like now, like Chris Lowe on Monday as we're recording this, wrote a list of the top quarterbacks in the SEC. I'm doing the Big Ten after we're done here. Like Trinidad's number one. And that's like, I don't even know if that's mentioned in his blur. Like it's not even a thing anymore. But if he's, did it to join the evil side, then 1,000% because then it would be viewed as Lane Kiffin being a dirtbag and them bending the rules. Well, the LSU fans wouldn't viewed as evil. Yeah, I'm just saying, like, they'd be in the position that all of

us in America are in today. Yeah, for sure. But in terms of like whether a Vanderbilt fan is like grinding their teeth right now going freaking old miss with Trinidad I don't think that that's occurring. But maybe I'm naive about it. Mostly it's like, okay, that's cool.

but please don't be my team. Yeah. Or maybe it'll pop back up when he wins games this year. Like if he goes South Carolina or something and beats them up, then, you know, I don't know. This is a risky proposition with this being in this spot. Because when you are that team, when you lose, the satisfaction of everybody else is deafening. Sure. Sure. And it doesn't help that what America is playing to be in the final round of 16, right?

In the round of 16, they're playing to be in the quarterfinals. So they're one of the worst teams remaining still, though, right? They're about where they should be right now. If they were to win in advance to the round of eight, then that would be probably considered overachieving. Okay. So this is like the game that decides whether the tournament is successful or not for them. Pretty much. Yeah, because if they lose this game, it's like, okay, that was about where you're supposed to be. Yeah.

I do wonder if this would be, like, if this happened to any other country, do you think that it would be as huge of a deal to everyone, or do you think it's like America exasperates a little bit? I think that's part of it. I think being, it's sort of like Texas or Notre Dame or Ohio State or Alabama, like you're the big dog. You have all the resources. You have all the power.

So yeah. If it looks like you're putting your thumb on the scale, I think that's interesting to me about this, though, is that it occurred, like maybe this is like not completely apples to apples, but it seems to me that the United States FIFA team is on the food chain very similarly situated to where Texas Tech is currently in football. Yeah, it's more of an upstart situation.

Upstart situation. Good. Getting better, but not. Yeah. Yeah. Which makes it even more because like it's like everyone, there was a theory. even Texas tech people, and I'm really excited to go to Big 12 media days and really talk to some guys, but like viewed it as like the thing that I rolled my eyes the most at in this entire Texas tech saga

was when Cody Campbell wrote that statement that he posted on Twitter and inferred that the reason why everybody was upset is because it's Texas Tech and that nobody would care if it were LSU or Ohio State or something. Yeah, that was like that was wrong. Like not even close to true. But I do think that it is interesting because what if it happened at Wake Forest? Like, how do you think that would go? I think maybe people would be an outrage, but I don't know if they would be as,

because I think the circumstances of the new money and how much they paid the player and who it was made. Well, and also Texas Tech made the playoff last year. Yeah. Like, so Texas Tech was in the final 12. It was actually in the final eight because they had a buy. So the parallels here are pretty good. But also, With this one in particular, if the World Cup is not here, I'm not sure we get this magical over there.

And if the World Cup was here, the people have been working with our people, with our government a lot as they stage this event. Yeah, like if this was happening in Rio, would our president have even been interested in it enough to do. Probably would have been interested in it, but probably would have been ignored. Yeah. Because I don't know that it would matter to them. especially like let's say so the next the next world cup in in 2030 when it's not going to be back here for a long time yeah i'm not sure how interested they're going to be in what our politicians have to think yeah yeah i wouldn't i'm sure there's probably books about this but i would read because everybody

always says like fifa's the most corrupt uh sports league in the world i'd be very interested to know the specifics of things that they've done in the past because i'm I'm honestly quite ignorant to that, like in terms of how they are corrupt. Well, so the last World Cup was in Qatar with stadiums that were built by slave labor that were built especially for that event and probably will never be used again.

Oh, they moved the whole tournament from a date that it's usually played to a date that it's usually not played. But I'm sure that nobody got bribed for that. I see. That's a pretty big one. You think so? Yeah. It kind of makes the kind of makes,

Cam Newton might have gotten a few grand. Let's go to this way. FIFA makes the NCAA look like a paragon of virtue. But I actually don't feel like the NCAA moves with a way to enrich itself. Like I think they just have been. No, they did more just spending money on lawyers to enforce the status quo to help the member schools, people at the member schools, keep the money. rather than have to give it to the players.

I mean, it was also corrupt in its own way, just different. But not as naked and corrupt. When you start saying things like what you just explained about guitar, how unbelievably pointless and stupid a lot of the things that you and I have to fixate on on the show when it comes to things that occur in our sport. Like, you know, imagine some of the shows and episodes and emergency podcasts that we've had to do the last few years. And like, it's like, well, that's actually not that big of a deal.

what do you think about it, but in our sport, it feels massive, which I think might be a nice little preview to what we're going to talk about on the back half of the show. Because, like, it just, it is, like, if this, if, if, is America in a better position for tonight's game because of blatant corruption? Like that, like, I don't know if I could draw a parallel in college football. Well, the problem is, and it's not a problem. The reason I'm not considering it blatant corruption is, I think they write it or wrong.

because I think it was a lousy call. Yeah. You may disagree with that, but this one, let's be real. If you showed that situation to fans from across the globe, take the jerseys away. Yeah, yeah. This guy got a red card for this.

Oh, and here's Messi doing the same thing and not getting a red card. I think a lot of fans from a lot of countries would be like, ah, that's not a red card. Well, I also think that it's interesting. interesting too because Messi is the most famous player in the tournament and if he's

being like was did Messi not get a red card because he's messy or because it's no it's because they they ruled the same thing that the official ruled on the field against Balagan in the in the Bosnia game yeah but

they got buzzed by the replay booth and I don't believe that was the messy one was reviewed at all did you watch the Mexico game on Sunday night? Yes, yes, it did. So the penalty that happened in the second half that put England down a man.

Like, I'm like kind of like not even certain how drastic the, and maybe it's just because I'm so used to watching American football, but it's like, it feels like the penalty red card is kind of issued in situations that don't really seem that severe to me. The red cards are issued in situations where players recklessly act. Not necessarily.

It's the thing that it feels most similar to me is, is the flagrant two in the NBA, where they're clearly not playing the ball. They're just attempting to injure, that sort of thing. It's a little bit more nuanced, I think, in soccer, because you can be trying to play the ball, but if you play it recklessly, then you open yourself up to a red card. And then you put yourself in a position where you might hurt somebody even if it's not intentional.

It's kind of like, I think in American football, the closest parallel I think would be the defender who dips his head and hits with the crown of his helmet. Yeah. Because that is reckless. Because now in American football, there's a rule against that because you're actually trying to protect the tackler. Yeah. He's neck. But it is a reckless play. So that's where.

the parallel comes in. But it is like, the targeting rule is probably the closest thing we have in American sports to this debate. Because it's so punitive, both of them. Right. And how many times have we said there's no intent to injure there?

What are you doing? Why are you kicking that guy off the field? Because to me, it's like if you want to remove somebody from a game and then tell them they're suspended for a half of the next game or the full game next, I would want to do that to somebody who's being an asshole who's trying to hurt somebody and is playing like an enforcer

or somebody who's trying to do something where their intent isn't to make a play, their intent is to injure the person. And like all the red cards that I've seen, and I know there haven't been that many in the World Cup, but all the red cards that I've seen in passing didn't strike me as like malicious. It struck me as them playing really hard

in a tournament they've waited four years to play. The other thing is they're not wearing pads. They got shin guards on, but they're not wearing pads. So, you know, we are used to much more violent collisions in the sports we watch. And you can blow your Achilles because someone spikes hits you in the back of the leg

if you're not wearing pads and it doesn't have to be a huge collision to be a really hurt to get really hurt. So like I do understand that. And like it's somebody came after me on Twitter the other day saying, you know,

all you tough guy American, you know, tough guy, American football people think these guys aren't tough. I'm like, I don't think they're soft. I actually think the sport. lends itself to playing up an injury, to faking the injury to make it last,

or make the effect of the injury look like it lasts longer, like because you have a clock that doesn't stop. So you get a free time out if you roll around on the ground for a while. And that's what American, like Americans who don't watch soccer, that's where they are blatantly turned off by it. Because like when people fake injuries in football, they get booed immediately. And it's also every freaking,

minute. Every time somebody falls to the ground, they grab their leg and roll around on the floor. I tweeted, why don't they have a universal signal like every referee has like, I gave you the call, stop rolling around now. Yeah. There should be a hand signal like a, I don't know, like the, the shocka or whatever. I mean, there should be, there should be, you should be given a yellow card every time the ref views it as you're faking it. Like we can tell on TV if you're faking it. I'm assuming they can tell on. It's become baked into the. the game, it's part of the strategy of the game because they don't have timeouts. So that's how to create timeouts.

Yeah. But like even when play, like last night when Mexico, so a little peek behind the curtain, I went to a buddy's house last night and I was watching the Mexico game. And when they went down to zero, I hit nine to one because I wanted to feel something. And what did you ever? Oh, boy. That was the most fun I've ever, I've ever had watching soccer because of how much, well, there were five goals.

So stuff happened in the game, which was great. but the 10 or the man down situation was interesting. But at the end of the game, I don't know if you watched all the way to the end, Andy, but in the last two minutes an extra time, Mexico lost their advantage because their player advantage was one of their players went down and rolled off the field. And, well, they couldn't put anybody else in the game

and he was on the floor. And I was like, get up. This isn't the time to fake an injury. You should not be allowed back in your country. You may actually have been hurt, though. He literally broke his ankle and half. And it's like, I didn't know that because I'm used to everybody who falls to the ground acting that way. He actually hurt himself in like a very serious manner.

So like it's like it almost undermines like the attention to to the actual injuries when they happen because they do happen. If you saw the replay, his like ankle was touching the turf. Well, it's the same thing with like college football. The NFL doesn't have a problem with making injuries. college football, does, did, still does,

kind of, but really did have a bunch bigger problem with people faking injuries for strategic reasons. I think the

little tweak they made last year was a good one. But I don't think they want to tweak the rules in soccer. And the soccer fans

don't like it when you suggest rules that would make it more, you know, functional? Common sense. But yeah.

Well, I don't know. Like college football, it's a purest game, right? People who like college football care about the venues and the uniform.

The faking injuries was because of a rule change. Like it happened because of a rule change. They made a rule change to stop the faking of the injuries. And it was a good idea. But I get the sense that the Twitter was good. I get the sense that soccer fans are purists in a way that college football can't even compare to.

Where they view the sport a certain way, because it's older. The clocks that stop have existed for a long time. And they refuse to go to one. That is kind of bizarre. I don't like the subjective how much times left crap at the end of the game. Oh, in the Norway, in the Norway Brazil game, like, Brazil scores the sad penalty kick goal to make it 2-1. They're already, like,

they've said this is going to be this much extra time. They're already like two or three minutes over that. They let, they let Brazil take another shot. Yeah. Yeah. It's the subjectivity of it is crazy. Because like, you don't, you could just stop the clock when play stops and press a button and start it again when play starts. Yeah. It's amazing. We do it every sport we have, except basically. Even at the end of the Mexico game last night, it was like there was 15, 20 real-time

minutes of them trying to score with an extra man on the field. And at the end, it was like, well, if the other team touches the ball, they might end the game. And it's like, what? Like, when is it going to be over? But, you know, I am actually looking forward to this evening because, hey, you're going to be here and I'm super excited to have you. We're going to have some friends over. But I'm looking forward to the game.

I'm trying my best to. to open soccer, open my arms to soccer, wrap my arms around it and try to enjoy it. So I want America to win. I'm super excited for it. And I hope we get. I promise not to spend the entire night saying how I would change the off-size rule to make it interesting. Well, would soccer just be better if it just didn't exist and anybody could just go wherever they wanted whenever they wanted? If you could cherry pick like in basketball?

Yeah. I don't know. Feel might be too big for that. Well, you just drop a defender back and then to account for that person. And then it opens the field a little bit more. Like, lacrosse has rules where only certain people are allowed on certain parts of the field. Yeah. Because the thing that sucks the most to me about soccer is that when you're in striking territory,

the other team can condense itself. It's like a fourth and goal situation where it's like everybody is in the box. But in soccer, it's very hard to score when everybody's in the box. It would be cool. Like, what was the rule change that hockey made that opened up scoring a little bit? they they eliminated the rule against two line passing so hockey has five lines really because you count the ones the goal line that goes across for icing but then they have the the blue lines and then the mids you know mid ice stripe so you couldn't pass across the blue line and the and the

mid you know the the middle line you could only pass across one and then the puck still has to be the first thing that crosses the blue line so they eliminate the two line passing rule now the puck still has to be the first thing that crosses the blue line. So that's, that eliminates your cherry picking. But it's, it's a much faster game. They score more.

And it's more entertaining. It hasn't, don't, don't you think, and I don't know if it's just me, but I get a sense that hockey is becoming more popular than it's ever been. Like people are, I think more people are into hockey than they were when I was 20.

HD TV helps with that too. Yeah. Yeah. But, but yeah. But it would be cool. Like, what if a final score of a soccer game was nine to 10 or like a nine to eight?

Like, wouldn't that be better? I don't know. I think the soccer fans would hate that. Yeah. I guess the beauty of it is the tension, right? Yeah, the 9 to 8 game is essentially a 66 to 65 football game, which some football fans like, but most don't. Yeah, I guess it would be best if it was like three to two.

Like that, I felt like last night's game. Well, that was, yeah. Yeah, Mexico England was the game you were thinking of. And funny enough, it was entertaining, believe it or not. And I can't say the same about most of the other games I've watched. So anyway, I'm excited to watch tonight. and hopefully we can continue this tournament and be the bad guys all the way to the end.

We'll see. Maybe, maybe. All right, this brings us to another topic. This is a good off-season topic anyway, but when something magically happens to reverse the bad call, it makes me think about what other bad calls I would magically reverse. And Ari, my mind immediately went in one place. I don't know about you.

So there's one college football. situation that is the most egregious worst screw job in the history of maybe the worst screw job of the history of sports. Like, I would love to see it overturned. I know exactly what you're going to say. That's not where my mind went, and I didn't even tell you where my mind went,

because I don't know how you feel about it. But let's talk about yours first, then we'll go to mine next. Okay. All right. So I'm going to take you back October 1990, Missouri and Colorado. Missouri is winning this game.

Not by much, but they're winning. They're up 31, 27. Colorado is driving. They got Eric B. Enemy, great running back. Colorado is given five downs to score. Basically, the officials just... They forgot about the spike on first down, from what my memory. They forgot it.

They didn't change the ball on first down. Yeah, they didn't flip the down marker. And so everybody knows what's going on. The announcers know what's going on. There's no way to stop the game. There's no replay. This is one I actually, you know, as we go to these conference media days, I want to ask some of the coordinators of officials,

is this something they could fix now? I'm not even sure they could. I know the NFL could because the NFL has that system now where basically New York can radio. in and say you spotted that ball of yard short, move it to this yard line. The thing that I think about, and I know that maybe this is insane, but if you're the head coach of the team that's on defense and the other team has four downs and you're aware of it, or people on your sideline are aware they've already had their four downs, when Colorado lines up

on fifth down to, which ultimately turns into a short touchdown to win the game, which may not have been a touchdown, by the way. Andy, if the coach runs onto the field. Yeah. Or does something himself to stop play. Right. Doesn't Missouri win? Like, it might have been insane in the moment, but they might not run the play. I don't know if they can go back and say, it's Bob Stahl as the Missouri coach at the time. If he runs onto the field, okay. So they would stop play. You know, this actually reminds me of talking to Marcus Freeman after that Notre Dame Ohio State game when Notre Dame only had 10 guys on the field and they were out of timeouts and like Marcus Freeman said after the game that they

were going to institute a signal which they I'm sure they have now where they basically tell the nearest player to jump off sides yeah yeah yeah yeah so remember that yeah that's a good question because I again I'm not sure they could have corrected it in real time

because remember in 1990 I don't think there's any communication between the referee and the booth. Yeah. It's not like now where they have the headsets and the referee can call up. Yeah. But if the coach sat down on his tushy at the five-yard line and said, I'm not moving until you guys think about this. Yeah.

I think they would eventually have come to the conclusion because they would have remembered because it was a they spaced the spike. But if you would have just yelled, he spiked it on first down. Because they spiked it on. One of the officials would have remembered him spiking it on first down. Because he spiked it on fourth down. The game was over. After the spike on fourth down.

Right. That's the game. That's the game. They go onto the field and sit down. And that's probably what happened is they probably thought, okay, nobody's dumb enough to spike the ball on fourth down. It had to have been third down. Right.

So. But I think that they, but my understanding, and I could be wrong about this, was that Colorado was aware that they didn't change the, down marker like that they did that on purpose. But they weren't going to come out and be like, hey guys, we got our four. But that's kind of balzy, even though, but

that's ballsy though, even though the marker or the side judge didn't change the down to still spike it on fourth down knowing that it's actually forked down in your head because I wouldn't want to play, but it worked out for them. And it is like honestly the most egregious thing. This is the one where if

on Sunday or Monday or you know, the big eight had come out and said, you know what, we screwed that up. Missouri, you win the game. Because they would have won the game. Like a lot of times you have a controversial call and then a bunch of other stuff happens in the game. And you don't know if that would have altered the ending or not. Yeah. But that one, it would have ended. And Andy, I think it goes without a question that you have to remember that Colorado ultimately went on to, to play for the national championship that year.

They shared the national title of Georgia Tech. So, you know, that would have maybe changed a few things. But, like, that is just, like, the thing that is so interesting is that when you, like, look back at crazy stuff, a lot of times you go to places where you perceive things to be a bad call. This is just that was that they broke, the refs did not enforce the actual rule. Like, like, the refs did not notice something that everybody knew was wrong. Like, with a Pats Interference call or something, you could say, well, you know, I didn't see the angle of it,

or maybe there was some hands there, especially back in the 90s. But, like, that is the most blatant, like. Right. And that's the one you could have just said, because, like, you can't, you can't go back and say Glenn Sharp did not commit pass interference. You can't do that. That's the Miami, Ohio State national title game. Yeah. But you can't just magically two days later do anything about that.

Well, I'm happy you brought that up because when you brought up worst calls in college football history, the first thing I thought of was that because I knew that's the one that most people think of. And I want to know, because I've never asked you this, what is your opinion on the way that that was officiated? I didn't think it was past interference when I watched it in real time. Okay. So, yeah, I guess I guess I'm with all the Miami folks on that one. Yeah. Because the time we get the flag was the thing that also really hurt. Yes, but that's one of those, a lot of things happen in the game.

It didn't end the game. The fifth down ended the game. Yeah. Or actually prolong the game. But if you did a poll, though, of most worst calls in college football history, I actually think the Miami one would probably win because that isn't a call. That is just a blunder. The fifth down isn't even a call.

They just forgot where they were on the field. The fifth down is a giant egregious mistake that they just got absolutely. screwed. I have another one that I don't know if the wrong call was made here. I was at this game and just watching replays of it. Where I was when it happened, there's no way I could have been able to tell. So I was at the 2011 Iowa State Oklahoma State game. So this is a November Friday night game. Oklahoma State is undefeated. They are one of the best teams in the country. They're clearly the best team in the Big 12. And so everybody remembers Iowa State wins that game. I believe it's double overtime. There's a kick in this game by Quinn Sharp, the Oklahoma State kicker. It,

depending on the angle, either goes directly over the upright or is just inside the upright, but above the upright. So it was higher than the upright. And in college football, if a kick goes directly over the upright, it's a miss. But how do you know if it's just inside if the uprights don't go up that high? So I've thought about this a million times since that game. If they say that ball is, like, I don't think it would have been controversial if they'd said he made it. And I also don't think it was terribly controversial when they said he missed it because it was a judgment call. It was a very tough judgment call. But if he makes it, and Oklahoma State wins, then Oklahoma State probably nothing changes in terms of what happens the next week.

They probably destroy Oklahoma the next week. Like Oklahoma State winds up playing LSU for the national title in 2011. I don't know if the Big 12th then flips to supporting a playoff in college football. Because that immediately after those conference championship games, like that Monday was when, like I was, okay, you know, they always gathered back then it was new york it's Vegas now but they would gather in new york and they'd have the the college football foundation or the national football foundation hall of fame induction and then they'd have this you know sports business journal conference so the whole week all the big muckety mucks would be in new york monday night i'm at the waldof Astoria and somebody

taps me on the shoulder and they said could you please come to the big 12 reception there's some people who'd like to talk to you and i wasn't the only person who got this tap on the shoulder I'm working at Sports Illustrate at the time. Several of us reporters are brought up there that night and passed around to all these different ADs who tell us, okay, we are now going to support a college football playoff. Like, if that kick is ruled good, does that happen?

I assume, you know, college football still goes to a playoff, but I don't know if it goes as quickly as it does. Yeah. It is interesting when you start looking at some of these calls and, you know, how if it goes one way or the other, like the entire path of the sport or a program can change. You know, and there's a lot of, you know, on the field calls that might have,

I mean, the Colorado one is so crazy because it, like, impacted a national championship. But that's insane. I didn't even know that story, Andy. It's wild. And, like, if you watch the replay of it, and it's so hard to tell because they have, a camera right underneath.

But how do you know, is the camera shooting straight up the upright? Like, is the ball inside the upright? Is it not, it, it's hard to tell. You just, there's no way to know. Yeah. How would they do it now? Would they just like watch replay and determine it through video and try to figure it out? I think that's still, you got to trust the official who was right under the upright.

Because they stand under the upright and look right up, right? Yeah. That's what that's like I'm not making a judgment on whether. that that was in or not. Because I don't know. And I think it, because it was, he kicked it so high and it was over the upright, it was above, it was above the height of the upright. It's really hard to tell.

Yeah. So when we were doing some of the greatest, we did a draft with the old Riverboy a few weeks ago and we did some of the craziest plays or coolest plays. And I don't remember it was since 2000 or college football history. but he picked that crazy Hail Mary, right, Central Michigan beating Oklahoma State in 2016. Yeah. If you remember the way that that game ended, and I don't have, I don't know that this game had any impact on anything past what happened on the field on that Saturday. But they, Oklahoma State before that crazy Hail Mary faced a fourth and 13 with four seconds left on their side of the field or in opposing territory.

and Oklahoma State's quarterback threw the ball just out of bounds. Right. Just like trying to throw just to like waste time. And he was flagged for intentional grounding. Like I don't think that we talked about this when we talked about the play. Yeah. And I'm just curious about this because I think it's viewed as one of the worst calls of all time because it ultimately ended in like Oklahoma State being embarrassed on a crazy play at the end of the game on their home field.

But if a quarterback is in the pocket and he is throwing the ball out of bounds, 30 yards down field just to... Yeah, as long as the ball passes the line of scrimmage, it's not... So, if I remember correctly, the ball did pass the line of scrimmage. And Central Michigan now has one of the coolest memories in program history, but the call before it that allowed them to run one more play was a bad call. Oh, no, here's what it was.

It may have been the correct call. I can't remember if he passed line of scrimmage or not. But the period, the exception to the rule, of extending the game with an untimed down is if the period is not extended if the foul is by the team in possession and the statement of the penalty by that means taking the penalty includes a loss of down so intentionally there's happening includes a loss of down so they should have not given them the other yeah you're right there there was another one in 2013 i sent you guys this this clip yesterday because it's one of those that you had to be up late at night. I don't know if you remember this is a Friday or Saturday game, but it was the, you know, Pac 12 after dark,

the last game of the night. And it wasn't, it was an early season game. So it was non-conference. It was Wisconsin at Arizona State. And Joel Stave is trying to give himself up so they can set up a game-winning field goal. And he's,

instead of dropping to the ground, he clearly kind of like makes a move to the ref, like I'm giving myself up and sets the ball on the ground. And the officials just kept the clock running. And they said that's a live ball. And the clock runs out and games over. They, well, they tried to snap it after that. But then.

Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking about the Miami Hail Mary that happened. Oh, against Cal? Against Cal. Was that last year? It was the Cam Ward season. Yeah, two years ago.

And I was thinking like that obviously didn't impact anything that happened later on because they ended up beating Cal and losing two. It wasn't Cal. It was Virginia Tech. It was Virginia Tech. Friday night. Friday night. September 27.

And I was thinking to myself like that, even with replay, was hard to figure out. I don't know how they did that. There are also like some off the field ones that like. Yeah. I mean, I don't know based on what happened in the soccer game, the fact that it was on the field, but there was a review. Like think about some of the suspensions that have happened in college football that have changed the course of history. Like I always go back because I experienced it. We've talked about this.

Jim Tressel just got inducted into Ohio State's ring of honor. So it popped up again on our podcast last week. but like if Jim Tressel and the Ohio State players never got in trouble for selling their own memorabilia, it's possible that Penn State has a national championship right now. Right, because Urban Meyer would have replaced Joe Paterno. Now, I don't remember how long Jim Tustle would have stuck around after that, like even if they would have ended up winning. He would have still been coaching though.

Like let's say that does, let's say he does not respond to, was it Chris Cicero? Yeah. He doesn't respond to that email. even if the thing it happened and the players had gotten in trouble, Russell wouldn't have gotten in trouble. So let's say he never responds to that email. Or he decided he didn't feel like he wanted to protect his players or whatever. Correct.

He's not leaving Ohio State for at least three more years, four or five more years. Maybe longer than that because they still would have been really good. No. The point is that the job wouldn't have been opened in 2012 for Urban Meyer to take it. Right. And Urban Meyer. Now, I don't know that Urban Meyer would have taken. I do know that Urban Meyer was interested in the Penn State job when Joe Paterno retired before the Sandusky scandal broke.

Post-Sand-Skand-Sky scandal, he might not have wanted it. But if Urban Meyer shows up in the Big Ten somewhere not Ohio State, whether that's Penn State or somewhere else, it would have changed the dynamics of the Big Ten in the same way it changed him when he got to Ohio State, except it would have been somewhere else, and that would have been really interesting because Ohio State was the place that was best suited for him to press that advantage.

And so if he'd gone to... And it was interesting because Ohio State hated Urban Meyer just three years earlier because Urban Meyer was the coach of Florida that beat him in the national championship game and they viewed him a certain way. Then he goes and becomes their head coach, and now he's probably viewed

as one of the greatest coaches in Ohio State history. But like... But if he also don't know... But if it takes over Penn State at that time, Now, they still probably would have had to deal with the NCAA penalizing them for the Sandusky stuff. They would have gotten that wiped off because that wasn't really the NCAA's place to do that. So, you know, by 2014, you're not dealing with the sanctions anyway. This is like James Franklin had to deal with the sanctions.

And that was after two years of Bill O'Brien. So would Urban Meyer have wanted to deal with that? I don't know. But I also remind me the timeline of this. because Ohio State opened shortly after that happened, right? So I wonder if... Well, no, that's the thing. Urban Meyer probably would have...

Like, let's say Sandusky doesn't happen, and I think Paterno planned to retire after the 2011 season. Yeah. You could have had a... If there's no Sandusky scandal, you probably have a smooth handoff. Let's say, okay, so Jim Tressel's still at Ohio State. Nothing happened there.

You could have a pretty smooth handoff from Joe Paterno to Urban Meyer at that point at Penn. state. Now, if let's say the Sandesky scandal does happen, which it did, I wonder would Urban Meyer have just waited till the right job came open? Yeah, I mean, he was in a position where he could have waited. I don't know how much he was itching, but I also think that the availability of the Ohio State job also made it less pressing to consider Penn State because it opened up shortly after. It opened it. Right. It opened a job that he would have wanted anyway. the job that he would have wanted more.

But if Ohio State never would have gotten an open, he might not have taken the Penn State job, but he would have been more likely to take it had that not happened. Yeah. That Tressel not responded to the email. So I'm trying to figure out if Tressel still to Ohio State, Sandusky happens, which job would Urban Meyer have taken to come back into coaching?

It doesn't necessarily have to be in 2012. Yeah, like what was open in 2013. Well, Texas opened after the 2013 season. So that would have been two thousand. I don't think he would have waited that long. No. I'm trying to think. What year was,

okay, so Brian Kelly was hired an 09, so that never was opening because Notre Dame was a place that he was. Notre Dame is one he would have taken, but that was not an option. But that wasn't an option. So that's the other, but like that thing too, Andy, is that we have the ability to go back and like look at what came

open the following year. And that would be fun. But Urban Meyer, even if he would have passed on the job for Penn State when he passed on it, wouldn't have any knowledge of what would have come open the following year. He would have had to pass on it

knowing that he's going to wait for a better situation. So it could have been anywhere. It could have been a year down the line. It could have been two or even three. I don't think he wanted to be out of coaching that long. Obviously, he got it back into it the first chance he got. But that also, the fact that Ohio State just happened to open when he was a free agent is just like serendipitous for both parties.

Texas A&M opened that year. Yeah. I don't know if this is... Someone's first year was 2012. You would know this better than me, Andy. I don't know if Urban Meyer would have wanted to take another job in the SEC. But that was... Yeah, that's true. That was an SEC job at that time because they were about to come into the SEC. No, I don't think he would have.

I think he was hoping for... It was very strategic. He wanted to go to the Big Ten because he knew the Big Ten was ripe for a takeover. Because all he needed to do was use what... what he'd learned in the SEC in the Big Ten and he would dominate. And he was right. Exactly. Because you're walking into the whole gentleman's agreement.

And he's like, I'm not playing around with this. Andy, you do love this like butterfly effect stuff and I love that about you. I do wonder too. Like if you think about all these debates that we have about Big Ten, I think that we would, Big Ten SEC, I think we would have gotten here eventually because the financial situation now has just made it too great or too enticing. The Big Ten was always going to become this.

Urban Meyer just pressed the accelerator. But how much did Urban Meyer use what he learned in the SEC to help modernize the Big Ten? And did he forge them into the future, I think, is an interesting thought process. I believe that he did. No, I think you're exactly right. I wrote it his first year in the Big Ten. When they played at Michigan State and won, I wrote the column I wrote is the rest of you were totally screwed. he's going to dominate this league

because you're not prepared for this. None of you understand what a national title team looks like and he does. It would have been really interesting to see if he would have taken over at a place like Michigan State because not only did he go into the Big Ten that was right for the picking. He also went to the place that is the closest thing

that resembles an SEC school. What if he would have gone to a place? Michigan State was really good when he got there. Like Martin was doing an incredible job. But Michigan State doesn't have a long history of national championship contention and expectations of winning at a high level. Like Ohio State's investment in the program superseded the Big Ten's enthusiasm to do so that we currently see. And that all the teams, like, I mean, James Franklin was at Penn State for more than a decade.

And I think if you asked James Franklin an honest moment, but he felt like Penn State gave him as much as he needed to get over the top for the majority of his career, he'd probably say no. And we're talking about Penn State here. Right. So, like, then that's, and I think that that is the main difference between the Big Ten the SEC that is now changing because Penn State is investing in that way. Michigan is investing in that way.

Michigan is and Oregon is. And Michigan wasn't investing in that in football in the same way that they're investing in it. Not even like Michigan had a complete heel turn as a entity after they won the national championship for years ago. It's not that though. What it was was actually when they threatened to fire Jim Harbaugh and said, okay, you can stay, but we're going to cut your pay and you have to completely revamp your staff. Yeah.

But we're going to give you what you need. And that's what changed at Michigan. That's where things really change. Like you can go all of Carter Stallions. It was Jim Harbaugh completely revamping that staff, them getting much younger, and them saying, look, it's time to compete at football. I wonder if winning the national championship wet the beak for the investment that they had,

or if Allison would just do this anyway. But they are investing in their roster at a, level that I'm not sure they would have. Yeah, they're in 2015. Yeah, they are where the the teams that routinely compete for national titles are. And yeah, and Notre Dame is doing it too. Like Pete Naco said that great story last week about who's spending the most and you wrote a column about Texas A&M as as they are you know, spending on high school recruits. But Notre Dame is up there with everybody. And none of these teams or A&M was always but like Notre Dame, Michigan, Penn, state, all of the regional competition that Ohio State was dealing with, both from a recruiting

standpoint and a talent, I mean, that was the only way to do it back then. But, like, Ohio State was the only team investing in football commiserate with what you would find in the SEC. Correct. And they, and I kind of oversimplified it when I was writing about it back then. I just basically said they only wanted to care like the people in the SEC care. Yeah. And now everybody does.

And I think that when you taste it, I'm very curious, and I don't know, I don't know what Indiana is going to be in 15 years. But I am very curious if like this, like let's just say Kurt Signetti has a great five to seven year run. Right. Is Indiana ever going to revert back to what we knew Indiana was before or have they fundamentally shifted their financial interest in making sure that their football team is great for the foreseeable future? Like are they a completely different place now? That is a great question. We don't have an answer to that. We can guess at it, but we don't know the answer to that.

But I do think that Michigan is a fundamentally different place after they won the championship a few years ago. And I'm very curious, too. And this isn't just a big 10 discussion. Like, is Miami a different place now? Well, I also think Michigan, the thing about Michigan, we make fun of them being holier than now,

but they did. They're not anymore. But the thing is like they attempted to follow the rules. As soon as you said it was okay to pay players, they were like, cool, it's okay to pay players. Let's do it. Yeah. So that may be the, that may be the trigger more than anything else. But Andy, you know what you don't hear from Michigan anymore?

We're better at school than you. Yeah. You used to hear that shit all the time. I know, and it used to drive me crazy. What did I write? You could have a kick-ass children's hospital and a kick-ass football team. Like, why not do both? But the thing about it is,

Now they don't talk about the academics anymore because they can talk about football. It's funny because the academics are still really good. Yeah, they still have a great school, but like no one cares. Like we knew. I know Harvard's great. I don't give a shit. Like it's not we're not, this isn't a, what is the big thick book, the review? What is it?

The big thick book that ranks the colleges. The US News Enroll Report. Yeah, whatever that is. Yeah. It's not a podcast about that. Speaking of corrupt organizations. to tie it back to FIFA. Yeah, I've always wondered how they rank colleges.

Yeah. Yeah, I still don't know the answer to that. I'm a 40-year-old man almost, and I have no idea what actually makes a school better than the other. I don't think they can give you a straight answer either. So that's probably like what makes Harvard so great? It's the investment in academics. And I'm assuming they've got the best professors and the hardest classes, right? Like, is that what makes it so great?

It's sort of the hardest classes. It is it is having the most accomplished faculty. It is having a giant endowment. It's having resources. It's having an alumni network that makes your degree very valuable. And I'm also assuming, too, that they have made a bunch of breakthroughs and research, right? Because, like, that's the main part of the universities. But do they take, like, proficiency in research into account in that book?

Yes. Okay. Yes, that matters, too. So. Arizona's going to Mars. I don't know if you know that. They were one of the Mars rovers. I remember that.

Your degree is getting more valuable by the second, Ari. No, Elon's taken for me with SpaceX being public now. I got nothing. Bear down, baby. Bear down. Ari, tomorrow we will be at Big 12 Media Days. We'll have some players in the morning. We're going to be visiting with a lot of coaches in the afternoon. We may not be able to get any of the coach interviews before the show drops tomorrow,

but there will be a lot of Big 12 coaches on the show on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday's episode. We'll have some players. You know who I'm really interested to hear talk? And they'll be the Baylor folks are talking in the morning. The Baylor players are talking tomorrow morning. DJ Lagway, like,

we talked a lot about him last year. We were texting. We were texting yesterday about this. Yep. Big 12 media days is sneaky, freaking interesting this year. Spicy. Like if you like look at, like put the graphic back up.

Arizona is like, expecting to compete. Colorado's Dion Sanders. Kansas State has a new head coach. TCU is always interesting because of where they are in the Pantheon, having been Arizona State with Kenny Dillingham, Cincinnati. BYU should be really good again. Texas Tech. Cincinnati is like loosely affiliated with the situation at Texas Tech. Oklahoma State's got a new staff. Who doesn't love Rich Rod? Utah's turning a new leaf. Like everybody that's, it's a huge deal this year. Kenny Dillingham? Yeah. Got a new QB.

Willie Fritz might be the next. hurt signetti i don't know yeah and they take care of us i want to i want to make a point the big 12 takes care of us when we go so we will do our best and we will deliver uh coaches interviews and they're always it's like low key they're cool like it's it's the best media days there is so i'm excited to go with you we are going to be there tomorrow and wednesday and like like i said you you'll you'll see stuff you know throughout the rest of the week from big 12 media days uh that season is upon us, everybody. It is what Steve Spruger called talking season. Big 12, ACC, SEC, SEC, Big 10. It's coming now. Yeah, summer with that season is a place. Ari, I will see you

tonight. Everybody else, see you to go.