Andy & Ari On3 - Malachi Toney and Darian Mensah are going to be a problem playing together at Miami; LSU swerves in its game of chicken with the SEC

Episode Date: September 5, 2026

Miami receiver Malachi Toney struck the Heisman pose after the first of his three touchdown catches. (He finished with 12 catches for 234 yards.) New Miami QB Darian Mensah completed 27 of 30 passes for 401 yards and five TDs. The Hurricanes rolled over Stanford 45-6, and Andy and Ari can’t wait to see what the Toney-Mensah duo can accomplish over an entire season together. The guys also break down USC’s 39-0 win against Fresno State and Michigan State’s 30-20 win against Toledo in Pat Fitzgerald’s coaching debut for the Spartans. Plus, there was big news off the field Friday night. LSU submitted its roster for its season opener against Clemson late Friday night, and that roster did not include tight end DaeQuan Wright or defensive tackle Zxavian Harris, who were cut from NFL training camps but had won an injunction from a Louisiana judge that would allow them to play college football. Andy said earlier this week that a guy on a moped usually swerves when playing chicken with a semi, and that’s what happened here. The SEC had threatened any team that rostered former pros with harsh penalties, including a half-season suspension for coaches and a fine of half a year’s operating budget. Some presidents of SEC schools had suggested a school could be expelled from the conference for refusing to follow a conference rule. Despite the players winning the injunction Thursday, Kiffin and LSU officials decided against including the players on the roster for the Clemson game. Now it’s time to stop arguing and play football. Our show is presented by Polymarket! New User Offer: Deposit $10, get $50 upon sign up https://app.polymarket.us/S8ac/ON3 Trade on College Football games every week on Polymarket. Download the Polymarket App with code ON3 for a $20 bonus upon sign up. 18+ only. Restrictions and eligibility requirement apply. Not available in all jurisdictions. Trading is risky. 100% loss can occur. Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/join Subscribe to On3! ⬇️ youtube.com/on3sports/?sub_confirmati... Welcome to On3 | The best of college football and recruiting https://www.on3.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On tonight's instant reaction, Miami, holy crap, is going to be a problem for everybody with Dary and Mentson quarterback. We got to talk about how the hurricanes went to Stanford and just annihilated the Cardinal. Now, depleted Cardinal, yes, but that was an impressive beatdown. Nonetheless, we'll also talk about USC crushing Fresno State and Michigan State surviving Toledo. all on tonight's Andy and I are on three instant reaction presented by Polymarket. We are sponsored by Polymarket. That's right, the world's largest prediction market. All the point spreads and the totals come from Polymarket where you can stake out a position on

your team. If you've got a belief that they're going to win, well, you just say yes to that position. You think they're going to win by three and a half points? yes to that position. You're not working against the house with Polymarket. You are working against other folks who have staked out a different position than you. That's why you want to get in the chat. You might want to talk a little trash to them during the game, but it will seem very familiar and it's an awful lot of fun. If you sign up for Polymarket today using the bonus code on three, new users can deposit $10 and get $50 upon sign up. So sign up for

Polymarket today. Bonus code on three. New Year's deposit 10, get $50 upon signup and start trading today. 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply not available in all jurisdictions. Trading is risky. 100% loss can occur. Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3 instant reaction presented by Polymarket. We just got done watching Miami tear apart the Stanford Cardinal Ari. We thought Darry Mentson was going to be a pretty good QB for the old Canes. But, oh, man,

did he look sharp in game one? Okay, so the stats were 26 for 29 for five touchdowns and 396 yards, and I still think he's the footnote of the story of that game. Because Malachi, Tony? Oh, my God. Oh my God.

Baby Jesus. Oh, my God. Like, guys, we knew that Malley was good. We knew he was going to be special. He was special already. He helped almost drag a team to a national championship as a true freshman. My God. That was something.

You know, Andy, I don't know how up to speed you were as you were watching the game tonight with some of the statistics. I had some help from some friends at the AP do this, but there have been only four other players in college football since 2015 that put up at least 10 receptions, 180 yards, and 180 yards and two touchdowns in the first half of football game. Do you want to try to guess who those players were? Do you just want me to tell you for the sake of...

Well, one I know is Devante Smith in the national title game against Ohio State because I was there, and then he got hurt. Um, but yeah. I'll tell you the other ones real quick. Malik Neighbors versus Mississippi State September 16th, 2023. Elijah Moore versus Vanderbilt on October 31st, 2020. Of course, it was on Halloween with Elijah Moore. Josh Doxon versus Texas Tech on September 26, 2015.

And Andy, one fun fact about this is none of those players, or one of the other four of the five that have done it now that including, we're including Tony, has won the Heisman and the person who won the Heisman had already won it by the time he put up those stats in the Ohio State game. So my question to you is this, do you think it hits harder to hit the Heisman pose on your first touchdown in all three touchdowns that he scored in the game in every touchdown subsequent for the rest of the year to remind you that he's the best player or to keep himself in the conversation from the beginning?

Or do you think it hits harder to strike it for the first time in November in a big game? like if he didn't do it at all all year I mean Desmond did it against Ohio State right like but if that's why it's so hard and I went and I looked up and I know there's a few people like Relique Brown did it in his first touchdown as a true freshman at USC

I know Leonard Fernette did it as a freshman but I don't know how many people have struck the Heisman pose on the opening drive of the first game on a road trip at Stanford in Palo Alto California on a Friday night it is a it is a great call shot It is a great called shot. And look, this guy is going to be someone we talk about with regard to the Heism

Trophy, I would assume this year and next year, because Nalki Toney's got to spend two more years in college. And, you know, it was crazy because, you know, they finally get a touchdown pass to Cooper Barkate. My guy. And you're like, oh, yeah, him too. Yeah. You know, like Mark Fletcher is still on the team, you know, did you?

forget about that. He's pretty good. They've got some really, really good players on offense. And, and, you know, we were talking about the offense, but the defense, they remember that, so they were interviewing Ruben Bain and Akeem Sador on the sideway because they're, you know, break from training camp about to start their first NFL seasons. As soon as they finish the interview, Amad Mohn, Barry's a Stanford guard. The Stanford guard gets called for holding, essentially because he got run. over. It was the most insulting

penalty I've ever seen. It is holding because if you do hug somebody as they're trampling over you in his whole. So, my question, obviously, let's get the Menta now, but I just want to say, we have a real Heisman situation

here, and I know that he wasn't one of the four or five favorites, and I think he might as soon as this week, we'll have to check how Polymarket updates it over the weekend. But I love that, you know, you can make yourself unmistakable. You inject yourself in the conversation. Yeah.

You make people talk, you, you make people confront that feeling because like now it's like almost feel like, you know, it's September 4th. And we haven't even gotten to the first full Saturday of college football and you can't say the word Heisman without thinking about him. So I thought it was well played on his part. And know the best part about it is his poses are one thing. But, you know, the final stat line is probably more important here. We're talking about 11 receptions for 229 yards and three touchdowns in his first game.

Now we can go to Darry and Mensa. Well, I got a fact check Braden in the, or Bradenton Kane, sorry, a Kane who lives in Bradenton, Florida. I picked Stanford. You clowns said Miami wouldn't cover. No, one of us clowns said that. This clown didn't say that. We also did it on Monday before I realized that Stanford's entire offensive line wasn't played. So that didn't really help.

But yeah, I mean, I was wrong. I thought that there was a chance that they would get off to a slow start. And that, you know, the one thing that we will get to in the video and we have to address is, Miami's defense did not look that good in the first half. Like Stanford had some points out there that they left out on there. And like they like, because like 45 to 6 is a beat down. But, you know,

one or two passes go the other way. It's a lot of talent. Yeah. So they do. So let's talk to Mentson. Then we'll talk about defensive concerns. Because even in the first half, I was joking with Miami buddy.

It's like Cam Ward has PTSD watching this game because Cam Ward and their offense had the best, you know, and they were kind of just moving the ball a little bit easily in the first half. And of course it was the first two drives. the season, so I don't know how much there is a take away from that. But Darian Mensa is a, like, you want to talk about, like, listen, I know Carson Beck was really

good last year. Like, I'm saying it right now. You want a headline, you want a podcast clip. The steps have been updated, Ari, you, you, you'll shorten him a couple yards. He's 2730 for 401 with five TDs. So it was 400. Then they updated it to 396, and now they went back to 401. Now it's back to 401.

So I've got out of my story, Tony. And the Malachi Tony total is 12 catches for 234 yards and three touchdowns. Okay. Yeah. Good Lord. Andy, look at me right here in the eyeball. If Darien Menz is their quarterback last year, their national champions, dude. Yes.

Period. What? Yeah, it's that simple. Yeah, I mean, we're going to have to find out about the defense. And I don't know how much the next few weeks are going to tell us. Wake Forest is going to be a pretty salty defensive team. they were last year. That tends to be what Jake Dicker teams play like.

So we're going to see that in week three. That's a Friday night game as well. Remember, I keep mentioning the quirky Miami schedule. They play Thursday next week. They play Friday the following week. They do not play on a Saturday until September 26 against Central Michigan. But they're going to play Clemson. They're going to play Notre Dame, obviously.

All right. That's, those are the teams. with a talent level that might have a chance. And Notre Dame is the one, obviously, that we're all waiting for. Where there's already talk in the chat, I saw some CJ cars going to tear him up rhetoric in the chat, which is, let's go. Start it now.

Start talking trash now. It'll be great. You reading this? Yeah, Ari. Did she get playing in the playoff last year? I think people have really short memories. Or they don't, or they make up things. They only remember what hurts their feelings.

Yeah. J. Gras won. Here's, here's, here's, here's some Notre Dame

Miami early trash talk. Let's see what Tony can do versus the best TV in the nation Leonard Moore. Ari,

that is going to be a matchup of the year. Yeah. I mean, Jay Gris is not wrong. Lernet Moore's best TV in the nation. He's right.

The one thing I am thankful for if there is something to be gained about weak schedules or somewhat weak schedules, is that there is a possibility, Andy,

that Miami and Notre Dame just beat the shit out of everybody in their schedule, all the way up until whenever they play, which is October or November. It's later in the season. November 7th, I believe.

November 7th. Can you imagine two teams with like an average of like margin of victory of 31.7 points playing each other in November's unbeaten teams in South Bend, Indiana? It's going to be, it's going to be wild. One versus two, baby. Yeah. Because it probably would be at that point. But look,

they got to get there. What's the historic knock on Miami? And this is not even just a Mario Cristobal knock. It's a Mario Cristobal, Mani Diaz, Mark Rick, Al Golden Knock. Like, they lose random games to teams that are less talented than them in ACC play. I don't think that happens this year. I think those days are done now. Well, I mean, part of the reason why, and like, like, you look at this game, it was the longest,

it will be the longest, I think as I read this stat on the broadcast, Andy, the longest flight or my in a conference game in America that's on the mainland. So it's not including games in Hawaii. So not including Kansas and Arizona playing in Arizona State playing in England. Yeah, I think like in the continental United States. What's it called the mainland or is that what they call it in Hawaii? The lower 48 contiguous states. Yeah, the mainland.

Yeah, all that. It was a Friday night game, season opener. Last time they played, it was the most. electric environment humanly possible in their own backyard in the national championship game. A lot of new pieces, new defensive players. Like I thought there was a chance that, obviously, I thought there was a chance that, like, Miami would win this game like 45 to 24 or something, you know, and not cover, but you obviously have a great offense, maybe have some things to clean up, but not look

this dominant. Like, the second they got on the field that night, man, it was over. The first play of the game was a 48-yard pass from M-Sat-a-Toney. three plays later was a 23 yard pass for a touchdown. I was just like, holy shit, dude. This team is like really good. Yeah. And like the thing about it is if there are questions about their defense,

I fear that we might not really see them completely flare up because I don't know if there's anybody on the team or on the schedule that's equipped to take advantage of them in the way that, you know, would cause them to lose. So, you know, the good thing is, is, you know, I think that we are basically guaranteed for an awesome, undefeated matchup. And I know it's really early, but it feels guaranteed.

Can we talk about another team that's really good, though, that was also out on the West Coast tonight because they're actually based on the West Coast? You want to go back in time to 2001? Because that's what it feels like. Yeah, exactly. Well, let's talk USC because they annihilated Fresno State 39. Now, the two safeties for USC in this game. They have some freshmen that you need to be aware of.

Like, this is Dave, Davis, do they, do they have this year's version of Malachi, Tony? They might. They might. They have four true freshmen on this team that have already made tangible impacts on the first two games they've played. And I know it's very easy to dismiss those as they played overmatched in state opponents. Neither of these teams were Ohio State. neither of them were Michigan. I get that. But I don't think you can watch them play any of the four and be like, I'm not sure about that guy. Trent Mosley has been their best receiver so far. He's a true freshman. I know that I keep saying it. I know that term doesn't actually apply anymore. But he was just in high school last year. He's awesome. And Terrell Anderson hasn't even played yet, the NZ State transfer. So we don't know how good he's going to be. We suspect he's going to be excellent.

excellent. But this is... Did you see that catch that Caden Dixon Wyatt made in the first quarter? Yes. That was like an NFL catch dude. All these guys were in high school last year. Now, you know what? I think that we should start at the petition to say true freshmen still. We can keep...

We'll keep saying it. The defense was pretty dominant tonight, too. Two safeties. Like, I've never... I don't think I've ever seen an opposing quarterback just get head butted out of his own end zone and into a brick wall. Like that was, that was nasty. And I'm not saying it was a dirty play or anything.

I'm just saying, like, I've never seen a dead defense overwhelm. Like, I remember the Dan Orlovsky play when he was at the Lions when he kind of tiptoed and accidentally stepped on the back line. Like, that's not what this was. This was, I am running for my life and I am, I might go through the tunnel. Did you see at the end of the game, too, when Fresno State was like 10 yards away from scoring and ruining the shutout? And then they stopped them on fourth down like Gary Patterson's reaction. Did you catch that? Of course.

I mean, that's, Gary P. It has not changed. Nothing has changed about Gary Patterson. He's really good at playing the guitar. I don't know if you know that. He's fantastic to playing the guitar. And a playlist of late 70s, early 80s, rockers that I don't know that that's allowed to be played at the USC practices. I think USC has a little better, a little better playlist.

But, boy, the Lincoln Riley Doughters still out in force. I get it. You see everybody had a picture, by the way, of the Coliseum at kickoff. Everybody. Yeah, so what was it like? I had a hard time because it was kind of foggy. It was not as empty as it was for the San Jose State game. But, I mean, 6 p.m. local time on Friday night.

Like, it was not going to be. In L.A. too, because that's like rush hour. And I think the Dodgers are at home tonight. So, like, I get that. Listen, I wrote about this. We talked about it. I actually think the stadium stuff was kind of overblum. because we didn't learn any new information.

And obviously there's some extenuating circumstances that are impacting these first two games. One was heat, one was traffic and time and day of the week. But the only narrative that USC fans need to be concerned with is them changing the narrative that everybody thinks that they're just going to crap their pants at some point this year and go back to being a three or four lost team. You know, no one's going to be talking about your stadium on September 26th

if you beat Oregon. And I know that that house is going to be happy. for that game. We need to see if they're actually loaded or not. And Miami didn't get tested tonight either. We suspect that both these teams are loaded, but they've not been truly tested yet, and we get that.

I think that Miami's offense is probably more of a certainty than USC's because Jaden Maiava, I think, and Darian Menser are probably on equal footing in terms of proven playmakers. Like, you know they're both going to produce and be very good. But, like, Miami has more returning production that is important to them.

Cooper Barcade and obviously Malachi Tony and Mark Fletcher, those guys we saw last year put up big numbers. Not all for Miami, but we saw it. True freshmen, I think, are a little bit more unpredictable, and I will remind you, Andy, USC did beat Missouri State 73 to 13 and Georgia's

Southern 59 to 20 last year. So we're not jumping over the, we're not jumping over the finish line here and saying they're back. I'm not going to say, I will not say, and here's a vow to you, I will not say that USC is back until September 27th or the night of September 26th. Like that's the day that they, like we've been talking about that day all offseason.

That is the day where they prove one way or the other. I don't even know if they have to win. But if they can play against Oregon and play a tough physical game that makes it look like they are their equals, I will finally, you know, give some flowers. But I think they're off to a great start. And I think they look better than they did the other day. Although I do think that anybody who was criticizing them for the score of the San Jose game didn't watch it because they created crap out of their first team was awesome so but i love that they

that they absorbed the the feedback and were like oh no we're getting the shutout in this one yeah yeah uh and it matter to them i think it's cool when people like you're won the game but there's you're playing against yourself in the second half and and seeing if you can you know not just win the game but accomplish a feat i think it's really impressive so andy i don't know if you're running for this worried about losing audience or pissing off piece of the audience because we started this video talking about Miami. We're now talking about USC. Jay Grizzie in the chat. I didn't account for Notre Dame fans hate watching both of these. Yeah, I know. Notre Dame is watching for both teams.

Jay Grizz says Notre Dame wants all the smoke, hope USC can keep winning so we can settle the score with SC in the CFP. That would be incredible because obviously we've had the sniping back and forth about who ducked whom. We all know USC ducked Notre Dame. Like common sense tells us that. But it would be awesome if in a year where the series didn't get played, it got

played because they got matched in the CFP. Yeah. And if you were afraid of somebody ruining your chances of making the CFP, how about losing to the team in the CFP and the mending your season? So, you know, and that'd be a pretty cool way to get the rivalry back. But in Notre

It has very unique interests in both of these teams. And, you know, I do think that I am ready for a world, Andy, where both of these teams are good. It's a, it's a coast-to-coast throwback brands for my childhood that were top of the mountain, both of which have always been teams that I thought should be better than they are. Obviously, things were, you know, a little bit different at different periods of time in the last 20 years in terms of resources, buy-in, conference affiliation, time zones, you know, talent, way, Alabama being good and taking all the good players out of Florida. A lot of things have mitigated circumstances of why they have dipped over the last 15 or 20 years. But buddy, what if we have a sport where Ohio State, Michigan, Auburn, Florida, Alabama, Florida State,

not Florida State, Miami. Like all these like teams are back to be very good again. But I also think that maybe there's a theory here that says if nobody is 2020 Alabama anymore, then maybe it can feel like everybody is. closer together at the top than it typically did. Maybe it's less halves and halves not. I don't know. My mind is wandering because I'm really excited to wake up

and watch football all day tomorrow. But like it is... I want to talk about one more game before we go. Of course, yeah. One more game. It's the one we hit up with George Reister when we were saying potential upset game. And look, late and third quarter,

I think early into the fourth quarter, Toledo took a one-point lead, basically, in this game. Michigan State ends up winning 30 to 20. The spread on Polly Market, by the way, was nine and a half. The traders had that one pegged. That was the only game I played in real life tonight, and I feel good about it, and I was like dying in the fourth quarter.

I'm like, how is this happening? Michigan State, it was kind of hard to watch Miami and USC and Michigan State all on a split screen because it wasn't like the same sport. But I thought Michigan State, you know, at times, I mean, they controlled the game and moved the ball up and down. the field the entire game, Andy. They just couldn't cash in on the red zone and they gave up a few explosives at Toledo. That kind of flipped the game a little bit.

You know, they were in danger of losing because anytime you're not winning in the fourth quarter, you're in danger of losing. But I thought it was a pretty productive opening game for Pat Fitzgerald. Like losing to Toledo in your first game at Michigan State would have gotten things off on bad footing. I don't know that I watched this team and, you know, think this is going to be a Big Ten championship contender, but I thought it was a pretty functional game. and I'm not going to even try to pronounce this guy's name,

but their quarterback's got a hose on him, man. And I know that sounds weird, but it's exactly what I mean. Yeah. How do you say, how do you say his last name? Oh, God, I'm going to try. I'm going to try. Alicio. But like, he was the touchdown past.

I had it last night. I was practicing it last night. It's Alicia Milo Milovoyevich. Miavovovoevich. Miavoevilovitch. Yeah. Miavoilovitch. Yeah, Petros Papadakis was on point tonight, by the way, pronouncing that.

Because I'm sure when he played for USC, I'm sure his name was mispronounced constantly. Do you think they stand in front of the mirror and just go, ow, now, brown cow, ow now. What did I call the anchorman like mouth exercises? Yeah, Alessio Milo, wait, I had it. I lost it. Say it again. You think I'm going to help you? Elysio Miavoilovich.

Milboilevich. All right. Jaron Kiave Saga, Sengapolitelli. Jaron Kihei Sangapulte. See, I can do that one. Well, all I'll say is Aliccio had a few, few piss missiles in the fourth quarter on the two-point conversion and the touchdown pass that were like really great throws.

That's why he beat out Aiden Childs at the end of last year, by the way, right? Yeah. And, you know, you go back to, like, the way you played that Minnesota game, Minnesota ends up winning that game. But you could kind of tell, okay, maybe they got their guide. now obviously different coaching staff now, but they still think he's their guy. This one,

you can bag on them for being in danger of losing. They didn't lose. Toledo's going to be a well-coached team in the Mac. They're going to be fine. As far as debuts go for Pat Fitzgerald, you'll take this one because it could have been so much worse. And they had a lot of errors and, you know, they tripped over themselves at the end of the game,

to go in to go up by 14 and made a long field goal and stuff like it wasn't the cleanest game but they could have lost and they didn't so kudos to them um but sometimes i see like 15 yard throws and they make my jaw drop the same way that a long bomb does i mean that was like in a really tight window and it was just a perfect spiral and you could just feel how it was like the perfect laser man um and i and i was cool so uh yeah i thought that tonight we didn't really have outside of this game like any like major upset alert there was no rutgers umass no but i thought the miami rolled over utep that was the only other game i think a lot of people were paying attention to his a satania had a really exciting punt return in that game for a touchdown but i will

say i my favorite part of tonight was just watching malachi tony man that was incredible he is special special he's he's the one person who can get away with having a nickname like baby jesus Andy, he is so good. He is wide open. People were tweeting like, it would be cool if like Stanford was interested in covering Malachi Tony. And I was like, I think they're very interested. I just don't think they can. I just don't think it was possible.

Yeah. You know, I think they were, they were certainly trying. It just wasn't happening. So. Yeah. I love it. I love that there are some real bona fide stars in this. game right now and like malachi tony is someone that no matter who miami's playing you're going to

turn the game on because you have to see what he's going to do next can i leave you with one thing i wish for yes and who knows what cam coleman's going to do we're going to watch texas tomorrow and you know i'm going to get a a long horn when i'm watching it but like i want you to know that i had this like thought in my head because i was debating with pete naco's over text whether it is more powerful the question I asked you to strike the Heisman pose every time you scored to do it once in a big moment at the end of the year. And how cool would it be if like him

and Jeremiah Smith, both guys from South Florida, close friends who have talked about playing together all, you know, their histories and how they point. Yeah. If they got into a Heisman pose every time they scored off like the Sosa-McGuire like back and forth to run race

and you had two people doing it at the same time, like how electric that would be for college football, wouldn't it? I want to start I would love it. I would love it. And I also love if somebody like Cam Coleman would come in and do it. Or every time C.J. Carr throws his fourth touchdown pass in the game, he hits it too. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go. He's not the only one who gets to do it. Like, let's see who actually. And let's actually have a real. But this is the first time that fans have even a sliver of say and who wins it. So let's involve them a little bit. So, you know, but that was a really fun night. And no drama, but sometimes just. Watching good players cook is very satisfying to me.

And I think that's what we got today. Absolutely. We're going to see a lot of people cooking tomorrow. The first full Saturday of the 2006 college football season. But before we get to that first Saturday, let's talk about a little more drama that happened Friday night involving LSU and the SEC. Ari, in the game of chicken between LSU and the SEC, see, LSU has swerved.

The moped and the semi, the moped swerved. As moped should. Yes. As they should. As they absolutely should. Are Pete Nacos reporting very late Friday night that LSU declined to put De Kwan Wright and Zavian Harris on the roster, which means the NFL players.

quote unquote, because they didn't actually make an NFL team, really. But the former pros, as the SEC was terming them, will not be playing for the Tigers against the Tigers of Clemson, and they will not be on the roster. And SEC officials and Greg Sankey and presidents of SEC schools do not have to attempt any further discipline or attempt to kick anybody out of the league. Yeah, it's kind of like,

you know, what's the groundhog day, what they see or shadow? Like when LSU doesn't add them to the roster, we can officially begin football season. You know, like that's exactly how it feels a little bit. You know, Andy, you pegged this from the beginning in terms of juice, squeeze, you know, and how much the defense was mounted against this. And, you know, Lane Kiffin and LSU was never going to risk, even a 1% risk of any real penalty or to get out of line in a way that would put them at odds with the SEC over these guys. And I think that the cool thing is, is that for once, despite the fact that, you know,

there was some courtroom momentum on both sides at different points of this juncture, you know, the NCAA was at least able to, the SEC was at least able to protect the one and clear, obvious thing, which is once you go to the pros, you're done. You know, I know that there is a, you know, discussion that we've had ongoing over the course the past few weeks about, you know, these players specifically and when the NCAA passed their five-for-five rule and whether that was right to them. But in terms of if you were concerned about whether the NCAA would be able to stand on its feet, whether conferences would be able to stand on its feet and prevent this, even the college football playoff committee released a statement

today about it. Everybody kind of locked arms and were like, you know, a lot of things are different now and people are able to sue their way and do a lot of things. But in this specific instance, we're probably not going to allow that to happen. And I think that that's probably a net positive for the sport of college football heading into the season first week one. Well, this was an interesting test for everybody. It really was because could the conferences

make their own rules and try to enforce them? Well, the SEC went essentially, it was challenged throughout this entire deal. But the challenge, the real challenge, the one that would force them to actually punish, never happened, which means the punishment scared LSU enough that they didn't do it. And I think that's the thing, because this was a test of can these conferences make their own rules, can they actually try to enforce their own rules?

Because the SEC added some pretty severe penalties, like half the season suspension for the coach. Fifty fine. Yeah, you're half of your operating budget for your program. So that's why this is so, it's not groundbreaking. I don't even know if it's monumental because, again, I don't even know if this is over yet, because we don't know if LSU submitted a 105-man roster. They actually could, you know, if they left some spots open, try to add them later if they feel they have legal cover to do that. But, you know, I'd be curious to know how much further this goes. The SEC filed a federal lawsuit in Alabama on Friday, or on Thursday.

and is that going to have to go anywhere? Is there going to need to be a hearing? You know, if they do have a hearing and the SEC doesn't get the injunction at once, does LSU just throw these guys on the roster? But you did a great job this week and pegging how this was going to play out. I'm not sure.

The story that you wrote earlier in the week, the way that you were informing people on the show. I'm pretending like it is in my head. It was really right down the middle. Like, I don't know if you missed on a single point here. Well, I don't have an opinion on who's right here. No, it's been in terms of explaining it. Yeah.

I mean, because, because, I'm torn on who's right here because I do think if these guys had known that there's a possibility of a fifth year and if the NCAA had just given the class of 22 guys a fifth year, like they probably would have not enter the draft. And remember, if you think you're out of eligibility, you don't have to enter, you don't enter the draft. Like that's just an early thing. If you go in early, you can enter the draft. But if you don't, they're just put in. the draft. And so I think they would have said, I'm staying in school if they had an extra year and knew they had an extra year. So I sympathize with them. But I also understand the vast majority

of people do not want people who have been on NFL rosters in any way, shape, or form, even a 90 man in training camp there. And I sympathize with the LSU fans who are like, well, what about these players, you know, they keep bringing up coal huds in Texas, but you could bring up the guys in Indiana. You could bring up, I think Cal's got a player in this, or excuse me, no, UCLA has a linebacker in this situation where the conferences decided and the NCAA decided that their distinction their drawing is if you didn't sign a contract. So if you just had a tryout with one of these teams that you're not you're okay you're not a former pro and you can play they have to draw a line somewhere i guess i don't think that's a giant difference a distinct it's what do they call it

distinction without a difference so it's a bullshit distinction yeah yeah yeah so i don't really have a strong opinion either way on this. I think the NCAA screwed up and the committee that voted on this is made up of people from schools. They screwed up and not just granting this to the class of 22. They created more lawsuits. There are conspiracy theories out there that say they did that on purpose so that that would create a mess so that they maybe would get the protect college sports act passed in the Senate. I don't again, I don't, I still don't think that's going to happen. It might pass the Senate, but will it pass the House? Because the House of Representatives, just cut two weeks off their next session.

So I don't think that's passing, and I don't necessarily believe a conspiracy theory that says we needed a mess to make people believe we have to pass this. Yeah, and it wasn't like it was like a clean environment already to begin with. You know, maybe you wanted something drastic that made a lot of people jolt because this did, right? Like I just think that seeing the graphics of people in NFL uniform was, whether it be in a regular season game, a preseason game, or even in practice. was just kind of revolting to people.

We had on three, it might have helped a little bit with that. We did the transfer portal graphics that had like, Ole Miss, Cleveland Brown, LSU. Yeah, yeah. But obviously we'll keep people posted as it continues, but you can go into this weekend knowing that everybody who played played in college

and Andy, I think a lot of times too. You know, I actually agree with you in the sympathy for the players that were kind of on the chopping block right there on the end. And I also wonder like, you know, if there, I guess there was a way if they would have done in a few months earlier to make it a little bit cleaner.

But, you know, whenever drastic rules like this. If these players had gotten to play, though, somebody would have tried this next year. Even though this class of 2022 thing is a one year thing, somebody would have tried it because they would know, well, that guy got to do it. Somebody would have found a judge. Yeah.

Yeah. Next year would have been more to the people who thought, this was dire to the future of the sport because there were a lot of people in the camp of like once this happens there's no sanctity left like it's all gone and that next year I think would have that would have been a better point than this year um but you know I think that this is probably at least a somewhat pretty much universally agreed upon conclusion and just opinion and I think that it's a clean way to go into the first week of the college football season well and lane Kiffin now just gets to coach his team, which, look, he created- Is that good or bad for him?

I think it's fine for him. I think of all people, Lane Kiffin can handle, can handle the distractions that Lane Kiffin creates on his own. So I don't think that's a real problem, but I'm, I'm excited to see this game. I'm excited to see what this team looks like. We will talk about it on the show 11.30 p.m. Basically, when this game ends, we're going live. So, basically 11.30 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday, if it goes overtime or it goes late, we'll go right when it ends. But we will break that down along with all the other action from Saturday. Cannot wait. We can finally stop talking about this, at least for a few days, and start talking about football. We'll see you tomorrow night. Talking football.