Andy & Ari On3 - Mario Cristobal MAKES HIS CASE for why Miami should make the College Football Playoff

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

As the regular season of college football is in the rearview mirror, championship week is upon us, and Andy & Ari pick this week's biggest games. First, however, Miami's Mario Cristobal joins the show to let everyone know, including the CFP committee, why the Hurricanes should be in the 12-team College Football Playoff format come Sunday. After that, the fellas pick the biggest games of championship week and cover some coaching carousel news in the mix. (0:00) On Today's Episode(0:55) Presenting Sponsor(2:40) Intro: Previewing Mario Cristobal(6:38) Mario Cristobal Joins(18:51) How will the CFP rankings change?(23:55) Records after Week 14(26:06) Bob Chesney to UCLA(26:50) Names to watch in Kentucky's search(29:42) Championship Week Picks: Troy at James Madison(34:33) GameTime(35:52) Mountain West Championship: UNLV at Boise State(44:16) American Conference: North Texas at Tulane(48:39) Big 12 Championship: BYU vs Texas Tech(54:26) SEC Championship: Georgia vs Alabama(1:00:06) Big Ten Championship: Indiana vs Ohio State(1:09:00) ACC Championship: Duke vs Virginia(1:14:25) Closing Out This show is also brought to you by Gametime! Take the guesswork out of buying college football tickets with Gametime.Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Swipe. Tap. Ticket. Go. Download the Gametime app today! Visit Gametime.co. 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 sureyou 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. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Join On3 today and get one full year of access to The Athletic included! https://www.on3.com/subscribe/C Watch our show on YouTube instead! https://youtu.be/SoGodUGQDpU Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's Andy Nari on three, Miami coach Mario Cristobal drops by to make his case to the college football playoffs selection committee, which holds Miami's fate in its hands and thus far has not put Miami in a place to make the CFP, Mario Cristobal, hoping that changes between now and Sunday we shall see. Also, it is a pick show. We have the picks for all your conference championship games, Georgia, Alabama, and the SEC, Ohio State. Indiana in the Big Ten. Virginia Duke in the ACC, BYU, Texas Tech in the Big 12, plus what looks like a playoff win and in-game in the America between North Texas and Tulane and one that could get very interesting between Troy and James Madison based on what happens a day later in the ACC championship. We will pick them all on today's edition of Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BEDMGM.

We are presented by BEDMGM. MGM. We use bed MGM lines and totals. And you can join us by joining bed MGM. If you have not signed up for bed MGM yet, use the bonus code CFB as in college football, CFB, and you'll get up to a $1,500 first bet offer on your first wager with bed MGM. Here's how that works. Download the bed MGM app and sign on using the bonus code CFB. Deposit at least $10 to place your first wager on any game. You receive up to $1,500. in bonus bets if your bet loses. Just make sure you use the bonus code CFB when you're signing up.

So download the app, deposit at least $10, place your first wager, up to $1,500 if your first bet loses. Use the bonus code CFB when you sign up. Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary with bedmgm. See betmgm.com for terms 21 plus only U.S. promotional offers are not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem.

Call 1-800 gambler in the U.S. Call 8778 Hope N.Y or text Hope N.Y 4673369 in New York. Call 1-800 next step in Arizona. Call 1-800-327-50-50 in Massachusetts. Call 1-800 bets off in Iowa or 1-800-981-0-2-3 in Puerto Rico. First bet offer for new customers only, subject to eligibility requirements, rewards are non-witrable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use the bonus code CFB and get your $1,500 first bet offer today.

Welcome to Annie and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM, and it is politicking season, Ari. A lot of coaches have no games this week, but still have desire for the college football. playoff selection committee to pick their team or to place their team in a spot in the rankings that allows them to participate in the college football playoff. Today we're going to be joined by Mario Cristobal, Miami's head coach, because the canes need help from the committee. They are in a position right now where they're out. They're sitting at number 12 in the college football playoff rankings.

We will see where they find themselves on Tuesday night. when those are revealed. By the way, we'll have a live show Tuesday, 7 p.m. Eastern time to talk about it as they come out. But right now, Miami behind BYU, which is 11 and 1 and going to play in the big, well, championship game, behind Alabama, which is also 10 and 2 behind Notre Dame, also 10 and 2 that Miami has beaten on the field. Oklahoma also 10 and 2. So Miami would like to be considered with that group. So would Vanderbilt.

Texas would like to be considered with that group. and we'll find out what the committee thinks of all those teams tomorrow. You know, Andy, I think that there are a lot of bad faith arguments in the college football playoff discourse, and you'll find a lot of them when you start to see coaches politic because anybody on any resume, you could pick, we could even make a show out of this. Let's take the top 15 teams and pick out the piece of their resume that makes it sound like they deserve it and then present it without having the entire picture. I think we could do it for it.

Or we can do the reverse of that and just bash a team be like, oh, this is why they don't deserve it. Yeah, you know what the same thing. Utah could come up with the metrics that favor them, present those, and show them as they can, you know, and leave out the other ones and make it look. Like Miami's, I think, is as most cut and dry it as it could possibly be. It's pretty straightforward.

And as Mario Cristobal said on the show, he's not trying to create a narrative. He's just trying to present his facts. Obviously, anybody who listening to this show the past month knows where I stand on it. but I was happy to have them on. And Andy, one of the thing that we have to acknowledge before we go to the interview, big conflict tomorrow with the college football playoff rankings release

because Netflix is releasing its Diddy documentary, and that's going to be electric too. So watch us first and then watch that, but it's going to be wild. I mean, if it were stranger things, who's dropped last week, I'd be a little worried. It's just you true crime sickos that are going to be worried about that one. Yeah, I'm a sports college football. sicko and i'm a true kind to true crime sicko yeah i the stranger things that was a

point of viewing for me but not this speaking of true crime let's talk to mario christopal about what's happening oh wow you went there no i listen i knew you were when when we booked this interview i knew you were going to be excited because you've been banging this drum since the first selection committee ranking you have not changed you've been very consistent in your argument. I've been right there with you on the value of head to head when the rest of the resume is similar. I feel like they are comparable resumes. So let's talk to Mario Cristobal and let's hear his case for it that he's going to make to us, but he's not really talking to us. He's talking to those 13 people in Great Vine, Texas, college football, playoff selection

committee. And he's saying, consider this. And I'm curious to see if they will. Here's Mario Cristobal. I want to ask you, Mario, how frustrating is it for you as a coach who's been and you've been a player, you've been involved in all these big games, that now you are sitting here in a position where there are people meeting in a room in Great Vine, Texas, that determine your fate. And all you can do is talk to us. Well, I feel really good about the fact that we've taken care of our business, that we started the season really, really strong. In fact, that if you watch us, if you look at our schedule before the season started,

I don't know how many people would have taken on the task of playing Notre Dame, Florida, Florida State, USF, right, all back to back to back. And, you know, when in the middle of the season, when we suffered a loss, you know, we were asked to show consistency. And over the last four weeks, you'd be hard pressed to find a team that's playing better offense, defense, and special teams and complementary football than we are. So we've done what we've been asked to do at the highest level. And looking forward to them just sitting down and analyzing all the facts. And we respectively, that's what we can do in the meantime. But we trust that when all the facts are laid out and everything is set on the table,

that that head-to-head will come into play. That's what the sport has always been founded on. I know that you are or were knee-deep in coaching and preparing your team to do what you need to do. I don't know, but you're kind of online. Have you witnessed or seen any of my public meltdowns from the past four weeks about this? Now that I know you've had meltdowns, the first thing I'm going to do after this is to have all those things just given to me so I could read. I'll text you the headline from Wednesday. I said what the college football playoff committee is doing is the greatest single injustice from a decision that's been made in the history of the playoff.

And I'm, like, actually pretty wound up about it. And I'm wondering from your standpoint, when you look at, I'm sure you guys watch the shows, you're aware of what's going on. Like, how are you doing with this? Well, I mean, I think always whenever in the middle of the season, you get, you consume yourself, you get lost in coaching. You get lost in teaching technique, fundamental scheme, and making sure that you're being the best mentor, the best teacher you could possibly be for your players. And our player's response and their energy,

like their level of enthusiasm is off the charts. And I mean, our point differential or deer down the stretch is about 28, 27, 28 points. And we played our threes at the end of a lot of these games as well, which, you know, made a little bit closer than it should have been. So our quarterback's really hot. are Malachi Tony's playing as good as any player in the country? Our trenches, you know, I think they showed on Saturday the wide gap between us and a lot of

other teams out there. We feel like we're just getting started. So we're getting hot at the right time. And so I've been consumed with that, you know, in terms of the other stuff. I mean, that's what, you know, that's what sets in now, you know, the tiebreakers that come with conference play. I mean, that's hard to figure out, man. You know, you don't get salty about it at the end of the day.

for whatever reason, that's the way that things played out and worked out. Does it seem... I mean, I don't know what to say about it. I really don't. I don't want to sound... I want to congratulate the two teams that are playing because as a guy that played football, you always, at the end of the day, find a way to do that.

Things are class. Do you feel like things can be better going forward? Absolutely. How hard is it, though, when you see the rankings and you see that you guys are below Notre Dame? Obviously, with BYU, there's not much... That's, there are no common opponents. There's no game that was played.

But when you see where you are relative to Notre Dame, what do you feel? Well, I mean, again, head to head, right? I mean, where is that not at the top of the food chain as it relates to comparing two teams, right? Where is common opponents, not something that's secondary to what's at the top of the food chain, right? We've had a common opponent with number 10, Alabama, right, in Florida State, which I know they played in week one, which are a very convincing, great victory by Florida State, and we had a chance to play them as well. You look at the metrics of our offensive defensive systems and some of the other guys that are ranked in certain spots.

Like, you know, right now, every metric imaginable, we're a top 10 team, and in some instances, 7654. work. So we have done what we are supposed to do. And on top of that, you know, when it comes down to things that are being compared, you always wish that you had a head-to-head to evaluate. And in this case, we do, which we certainly feel strongly about. And hopefully that's something that's viewed very strongly and very carefully, very meticulously as decisions are made. How do you address your team about this? Honestly. We just had a great team meeting. I went over the game. It was we had some great physical moments in this game like some we started the game off with a sack you know so you

can imagine when you see one on the big old 300 pounders get a sack watch the tv copies going nuts dancing coached on the side going bananas that led to a 20 25 minutes assessment recap of the game players of the game and then what what do we do from here what's what's a plan going forward well it starts with surrounding conditioning right throughout the course of the week making sure that we stay in good shape making sure that our technique and fundamentals are sharp and in the meantime And we wait until things are finalized, things settle down or get settled up on Sunday. So in the meantime, that's it, you know, focused on our next one and no opportunity, which we feel very confidently and very strongly about our position as it relates to the college football

playoffs. So last year, Mario, you guys didn't make the playoff because you lost two games in November. This year you go undefeated in November. What happened after the SMU loss? How did this team come together? Because at that point, he could have bagged it, and they didn't. They seemed to get better as the month went on. What changed?

Well, I think the best part was, is we acknowledge things that we have to do better. And what we didn't do, you know, by the end of that game, I believe we had six or seven starters, like front line, big time dudes, OJ. Frederic, Amad Mauden, Mesedor could hardly get through the game. West Seamus was out. C.J. Daniels was out. Mark Fletcher was out, and nobody made that. excuse and i know that's part of cfp criteria you know criteria but we no one leaned on that

instead a decision was made we're going to put together an epic november for the university of miami we're going to kill the narratives of the past several years about you know cold weather the month of november and we're just going to get stronger we're going to get better and that's that's what our guys did and if you look at the metrics of our last four weeks brother they are as strong and as powerful and as convincing as anything there is out there in the country. Our guys are hot right now. They're enjoying the physicality,

the results of their strength and conditioning that the effort that they put into in the summertime. They're hitting on all cylinders at the right time knowing that we have an opportunity to extend our season and play for the whole thing. I will raise my hand here. The cold weather thing, I bought it. I mentioned the weather in Pittsburgh on every show last week.

I thought they might cover the spread. I grew up in Florida. Like, I hate the cold. I'm like, these guys from Florida, they're not going to be able to handle it. They did. How? What changed? I mean, number one, we put it at the forefront.

When you challenge someone, right? When you truly go right at them and let them know, amen, you know, they say the canes can't play in the cold weather. It's going to be 35 degrees, right? They took it personally. Now, they weren't going to, they weren't fixing to run out their shirtless, right? And that was going to happen, you know, but they certainly weren't going to make it a focal point. They were going to make it all about just playing Miami. You know, we have a saying that I can't say it here.

But they wanted to focus on playing that brand of football. And that's all the day. I mean, look, the quarterback, the way he's playing, the defense, which has been a top five to top 10 unit the entire year. And it's gotten even better. And we're getting healthy now. We actually get David Blay back now, O.J. Frederick back now. Wesley's back healthy. Rubin is now a full throttle. Again, so is Mesidor. Plus all those offensive guys get healthy. Our guys know that, heck, we just played really well,

but our best is coming. So we were a top two team in those first five and a half weeks. Well, we're playing better football now in these last four weeks than we did in the first five weeks. And that's something that I feel very, I have conviction that the committee will see that as they sit there and watch the tape, actually watch the games, look at the metrics, look at our, just look at our hit percentage on our possessions offensively, and then the same thing on defense, our stops.

Like, the rates that we're doing that at is, again, it's a top five operation. You know, you don't, I don't know if you know this, but I live about 35 minutes away from where they meet. So if you want, you can come pick me up in a class of car. We can go bang some doors down together. Mario, I do have to ask this question. and it's probably not something that you want to think about,

but if the event happens where it doesn't go your way, how do you maintain enthusiasm, excitement, progress, momentum in the program build and not let it turn into a year-over-year thing because it's happened recently. You have to acknowledge that what happened to Florida State two years ago was really, really bad, and they have taken step back as a program as a result of it. Like, how do you maintain that momentum and positive thinking? You know, they were one of the best teams in the country, you know, a couple of years ago. And when that happened, you know, it can go one of two ways.

And I think last year was a really good, I mean, that's a good learning lesson for everybody from a really good program with really good coaches. And last year, when we learned that lesson, I mean, we had a choice, right? You could go one way or the other and call it what it is. We lost arguably the best player in the country, right? But we actually got better this year, have a better team. and our recruiting improves. We have an even better class coming in this year. So the whole model that we brought here

was one of not only sustainability, but one that gets better each and every year. There's always going to be some type of progress. And so that's something that we attack. If it comes to that, I just feel strongly about our case. And it's not because we're creating narrative. We're just presenting facts. We played each other.

We played the same teams. And we did a better job. And now we respectfully got to present the information. So I certainly don't want to become, you know, come across, you know, a certain kind of way. I mean, I don't want to, I just want to make sure that it's. You can't be angry, though. Well, you know, I, I don't, I'm not on your team and I'm angry about it. I just think the whole country that has, you know, they had a chance to watch this play.

Who doesn't want to see Carson Beck, Malachi, Tony, Rubin Bain, Akeemezed, Mezzedore, Bryce Fitzs, the way he's playing. There can't be a better safety in the country or freshman. that end, the way our linebackers are running around, striking people, you know, our backs, our trenches. I mean, come on, brother. That is a, that's a real deal playoff team that not only qualifies for the playoff, but is built to make a legitimate run at the whole thing. No guarantees ever. All those teams are good. All good teams, great coaches. But look at Miami, top to bottom, examine the metrics, examine the wins and losses and how they were played out.

And you know what? When we did stumble, One play, right? Well, we were in control of the game, right? It wasn't like we were reaching and trying to, we have the ball, right? So it's a little bit different than some of the other metrics and some of the other situations of the other teams as it relates to both common opponents and head-to-head. Mario, you've made the case.

We'll see if the folks in Grapevine agree with you. Thank you so much. Appreciate you guys, man. Go Keynes. Appreciate you, Mario. Okay. All right, all right. that is Mario Cristobal.

We hear he's getting a sweet new ride. Yeah. Long body, 1977 catalach convertible with white, whitewall tires. I think it's 67. It's a boat. I looked it up. Yeah. Yeah, it's like, you know, back in the day, like, we're parking spots longer because

cars used to be like ships, man. Oh, yeah. And I think, so like you probably live with that every day, but like everybody's car was like twice as long as it is now if you're cruising through coconut grove and that sucker not easy to parallel park but everybody is going to be launching you that's that's one of those like you pick up the recruit in that car and you take them yeah he's a 19th Cadillac fleetwood I believe or coop de ville I don't know which one it is probably coop de ville but yeah that car you I don't even know if I could throw a football from the hood to the trunk of that thing like

It's pretty long. But here's the thing with Miami before we head into the picks, Andy, that I think is interesting. Like, as we've been engaging in the discourse about Miami for the past month, there was a part of all of us that felt, oh, well, November Miami is going to show up. They'll blow a game and it won't matter. And they ended up winning and playing impressive football for the entire month and now have put the committee back into a bind. Because there's going to be no easy decision. If they would have lost, the Notre Dame rightfully would be where there would be no discussion.

Notre Dame, you put them in, cut and dry, no problem. Now that you have this hanging over your head, I think it makes what happens on Tuesday more exciting to see. I think what happens on Sunday is going to be more exciting. And, you know, I think that this Tuesday, though, we have to point out, is probably going to be the final straw of it because these two teams don't play Miami and Notre Dame. Their seasons are done.

They're complete. If Notre Dame is ranked ahead of Miami on Tuesday, nothing can happen in the world. that changes that because there's no new information being presented. So Tuesday night's a big ranking for Miami. You say that, but I always go back to that 2014 ranking. Now, 2014, he was different because the Big 12 didn't have a championship game at the time, but they played regular season games on the Saturday that the other team,

the other conferences played championship games. So you did have TCU and Baylor in action because they were in the same boat where they had the same record. They had played in Baylor had won. the committee had had TCU above Baylor every week. I know, but neither team

was a playoff. But there's a 14 playoff. They would have both made the 12 team. I'm just talking about the head-to-head situation.

And they only didn't make it because Ohio State jumped them at the end. But the point of this story, in the last ranking, they flipped them

and then said, yeah, Bailey beat them. So we ranked them higher. That's a fact. That's true. I wonder, we have never

gotten a similar situation to that that actually impacted who went and who didn't, though? No, no. And it's, we're probably going to get more of them because there will be more teams on the bubble in a 12 team or if there's a 16 team in the future. We'll get more of that. Yeah. And if that happens, that's just an admission that they were wrong the whole time. But if they, if they come to those senses then, like, let me ask you this. Do you think that the college football playoff committee's discourse alters the week, it's the final.

one. Like, do you think that there's like, okay, we have to get this one right in a way that they don't deliberate before? Or do you think that like every single time they release the rankings, they're like, this is ironclad in our minds? They claim they start with a clean sheet of paper every time. They've always claimed that. So we can take them at face value or not. But do you think that the rankings will or the way that people argue or the way that the rankings will play out at the end, it's impacted by this as the last one? Do you think people change? I think it should be, well, it should be the only one, but they want to have a TV show. And as someone who creates shows, I guess I appreciate them giving me something to talk about.

But there should only be one of these. So the fact that they've done this all, like, I don't, I don't know if it does or not. But yes, there should be a little more. The finality of it should create more level-headed thinking. we will see what they do i'm very interested to see how they order these teams because it does affect what happens it's obviously not final because if alabama and b yu win on saturday they are in no questions asked and i think that's a much more interesting part of this so we'll see how that goes We've got to pick those games, those Saturday games that we'll decide whether they're automatically in or whether somebody else is.

But we're going to pick six championship games. Oh, sorry, seven championship games, sorry. Yep. Six of them could impact college football playoff, spots, seating, you name it. One of them won't, but it's just going to be a fun game. the records i had a terrible week last week i was three and seven are he was seven to three this is the first week last week was the first week this season that ari had a better record than me for the week and he dominated me dominated

now but i actually felt terrible about my picks going into it because you were right i picked a bunch of favorites and most of the favorites ended up winning yeah you picked a lot of road favorites which was it's usually a dangerous situation but yeah you came out on top. The overall records, 68, 59, and 3 for me. 5276 and 2 for Ari. I think I'm going to. I am still comfortably ahead. You stand no chance of catching me.

Am I mathematically boxed out now? Are we going to pick enough games between now and the end of the year for me to maybe catch you? There are not enough games for you to catch me. Come on. Let's pick some, yeah, let's pick some basketball tonight. There's 16. Actually, wait, there's 16 games. So we're going to pick seven right now.

And the college football play, we could pick some bowls. We could pick a bunch of bowls if we want to give you a shot. Well, the thing, too, is that you and I are complete crapshootsuits. We're also not going to be on the opposite side of enough games for me to even have a chance because we agree sometimes. Right. There are going to be some that I'm just like are obvious and you can't just go the opposite of me because then you'd be wrong. So you know what? I want to congratulate you, man.

It was a good year for you. and it was well-deserved. It'll never happen again. I do want you to finish above 500, though. I'm actually rooting for you because we can't let it slip away. You had a really good year. No, I got to lock in here. I can't have another week like last week.

Ari, before we get started picking games, there is news happening as we record this show. Bob Chesney, the James Madison coach, is headed to UCLA. Now, Bob Chesney, as we'll discuss in a second, is not out of the playoff hunt at James Madison. James Madison will allow him to coach in the playoff if he makes it. UCLA will allow him to coach in the playoff if he makes it.

That also means that Bob Chesney is not getting the Penn State job because he was one person I thought Penn State might be targeting. And the fact that Penn State has not announced to hire yet suggests that maybe it's somebody who's participating in a conference championship game this weekend. So still waiting. still waiting on that. Speaking of coaches participating in a conference championship game, who may be in line for other jobs, our Pete Nacos reported a couple names for Kentucky. Will Stein, Oregon offensive coordinator,

Brian Hartline, Ohio State offensive coordinator. We talked about them on the show last night, both of them as potential candidates for Kentucky. Will Stein, former Louisville quarterback, so native of the state, I believe has members of the family, who played at Kentucky. Brian Harley definitely has a member of the family who played at Kentucky. His brother, Mike, was a really good player for Kentucky

and was on Mark Stoop's staff at Kentucky. So I have a theory that Kentucky actually, like it was more advantageous for Kentucky to lose to Louisville the way they did in the final week of the season to create a scenario where they were willing to pay the buyout, which then allowed them to miss all of the dominoes and the crazy Lane Kiffin Mania and then puts them in a position

where they can only hire these two great coordinators. Or like I like what if like tinfoil had Ari pops out and says you know one of these two guys ends up coming to you it would be a home run for them. Like I feel like whoever gets Will Stein is going to be like, oh my God, thank God, right? Like I just, I feel that way. I think Brian Hartline has a chance to do that too.

I think if I were Kentucky, be fired up about this tweet i'd be fired up about this news no i i would too because i we said this on the show like why is everybody ignoring coordinators when history says you have just as good of a chance hiring a good coordinator as you do hiring a sitting head coach yeah so if kentucky ends up deciding between a couple of really good coordinators then great good good for them love it also probably a little easier. Now, given the market the way it is, you're still probably going to get leveraged pretty hard by these guys

just because they've got really good jobs right now. But you're still probably not going to have to pay as much as you would have. Like, you know, Florida was hiring John Somerall, who, by the way, former Kentucky player, John Summerall, Florida was hiring him, and Auburn was interested, and Arkansas was interested, and Ole Miss might have been interested. So, like, it was a different level of leverage than these guys might have.

So Kentucky's, Kentucky may get a relative bargain for someone with just as good of a chance of success. Right. I'm with you. I'm with you. And I think a lot of the hires too, where they go is going to predicate. Like their success will be predicated on where they go.

But some people will be able to transcend it. And I think at Kentucky, you have a chance if you get the right guy to do some special stuff, it's been marked up. Stoops has done it. Like it's been done. So we'll see. we shall find out. Now, let's pick some games. We're going to start with Sunbelt Championship. I just

mentioned that Bob Chesney of James Madison is heading to UCLA to become their new head coach, but he's still coaching the Dukes in this game, and he might still be coaching the Dukes further on down the line. So here's what happens. Troy is playing at James Madison. This is one of those where they play at the home site. James Madison is a 22 and a half point favorite in this game. If James Madison wins, they will wait and watch the ACC Championship game with great interest. Because if Duke beats Virginia in the ACC championship game, there is a high likelihood that a 13 and 1 James, excuse me, not 12 and 1, a 12 and 1 James Madison that won the Sunbelt would be ranked higher than an 8 and 5 Duke that won the ACC. see. Which if that happens, Bob Chesney and the Dukes are going to the playoff.

Yeah. If you're the Sunbelt, Andy, do you start the Dukes over Duke promo now, or do you wait? Dukes for Duke. You got to root for Duke first. Then you root against them for a few hours. Dukes for Duke this week and then Duke's over Duke.

Like every, every JMU defender, like when they take the field for the first play, should slap the field. I realize that's a Duke basketball thing, but do you know any Duke football things? Mm-mm. Yeah. I want to see that.

I want to see the James Madison Dukes, the defense, when they get out of the field for the first play from scrimmage, slap the field, everybody, all 11 guys. Yeah. Just a nod to Coach K. You know, if you want to pull out some metrics, too, being a 22.5 point favorite

in your conference championship game is a pretty strong Maybe you're not like that. People feel pretty good about you. I'm going to lay the points, Andy. I think they're going to come out humming. And I'm all for every single alternate discussion line that we can have going into Sunday in Nashville, I think is a positive. I think that could be fun. And, you know, we actually, we're working on getting Manny Diaz on the show later in the week, the Duke coach.

And I wonder, I want to ask him how it feels because I think. Part of the country, like, his conference office is probably rooting against him. But the rest of the country that loves chaos is probably rooting for Duke, including James Madison. Yeah. Also, I would love to hear his pitch for why Duke should not get passed by James Madison, right? Like, that's something. I'm sure he's going to give it. It's going to be like Mario, you know, he's presenting his case for Miami.

Mani will present his case for Duke. Bob Chesney, I'm sure, will present his case. case for James Madison. Like, that's, that's the on-field 50-yard line interview if JMU wins this game. And look, I'm going to take the, I'm going to, that's a lot of points. It's three touchdowns. I don't know what to do with that. Let me think this through while I describe what this interview is going to be like. You know, Bob Chesney's going to get an interview at the 50-yard line. Because one, whether Troy covers or not, I think James Madison is winning this game. So if James Madison wins, Bob Chesney goes to the 50-yard line.

yard line and just that's your moment like everybody's watching here's why this team needs to be in the playoff i'm looking looking through yeah i mean while you're looking at what i'm going to take james madison to cover too i i think i think chesney's going to have him ready to go and they're going to try to make an emphatic point in this game i mean they have to like they have to they have to make a point i think they know they have to make a point and i am am mused that JMU is favored by twice as much over Troy as Clemson beat Troy by at home. Clemson beat Troy 27 to 16 in the second week of 11 points, 11 times 22, good at math, here we go.

But it is Troy's a pretty good team. So it's not like they're just going over a team that they can just name their score on. I think if they're able to cover the spread, that would be a statement in it of itself. So, yeah, I'm going to go with JMU, although you also, too, could be, well, is he distracted? You know, you can start playing that whole game, too, of, like, is the team upset? Like, but I think that in this type of level, that this is more expected than it was for, say, Ole Miss. So, and Ole Miss covers their spread pretty easily in their last game. So, yeah, I'm going to go with JMU to make a statement, and hopefully it creates more chaotic scenarios that we have to go through when we're doing our shows over the weekend.

Yeah. All right, Ari. If you would like to attend any of these conference championship games we're talking about, the big 10 is probably the one that everybody wants to go to. That would be Ohio State, Indiana, undefeated both teams in Indianapolis. Obviously, hot ticket because the Hoosiers have never played in this game before. It's right down the road from Bloomington. Obviously, many of their graduates live in Indianapolis. It is a tough ticket. High 300 is the lowest price. You can get really good seats in the thousands. But this is a big deal. for everybody. It's going to be a packed stadium. And if you want to get in there, you can get your tickets on GameTime, download that GameTime app, redeem the code Staples for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply, of course. They have tickets to all of these, though. We've talked about the importance of the championship games

and would Georgia want to play in the SEC championship game? Well, guess what? Georgia and Alabama fans want to go to the SEC championship game because the cheapest ticket is in the 200s, and it goes up from there. Yeah. So you can get in to Mercedes-Benz Stadium and watch. those two teams play in Atlanta on Game Time. Download the app, redeem the code Staples. Get $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. And remember, the price you see is the price you pay.

No stupid fees tacked on at the end. Game Time's not going to do that to you. Go to Game Time. Swipe, tap, ticket, go from Game Time. Ari, let us talk about the Mountain West. Crazy situation with the Mountain West in terms of picking the teams. Our friend Bill Connolly from ESPN, they used his SPS. p plus ranking to pick the teams and uh i would not want to be responsible for any and bill doesn't like bill just makes the formula and it's not like he tweaked the formula this week he just makes the formula and whatever happens happens but i wouldn't want the pressure of of my thing deciding

which teams played yeah um but also good for bill right he's smart he's very smart so um yeah i think we need to have an off-season discussion about how to properly do this, because if we're going to live in a world with, you know, tiebreakers coming into play in every single scenario because of the sizes of the conferences and all these things, I think that we should all have like a uniform tiebreaker scenario. So here's what they use. It's a composite average of different metrics. So SB Plus, Bill's ranking, ESPN's strength of record, the KPI, and the sports source analytics ranking. So that's what they used.

And that put Boise State and UNLV in the game and knocked New Mexico and San Diego State out of the game. So just very interesting, but I'm with you. Now, the Mountain West did this for a reason. The conference we're going to talk about after this one, the American, had a similar method, a couple different methods where if you're in the group of five, your goal, because you're actually usually competing against all the other group of five leagues and their champions, you just want to have the highest ranked champion

of that bunch. So you've got you've got to set your championship game up so that the two teams in it are the most likely I think the way that you do, I like the American's thought process. I think the way to do it to me would just be to default to overall

record. Like the ACC's tiebreaker should just be overall record first because your overall record as good as it is should also correlate with your candidacy for the playoff but that also encourage you not to schedule hard in the non-conference yeah i mean i guess so i mean clemson's going to be like we have to schedule south carolina every year the the state legislature will get off for our asses so what are we supposed to do about that so i don't think you can do that but but i mean in the in the in the argument for college football playoff candidacy those two things are typically pretty similar it makes more sense for sure

So if there were centralized college scheduling, you could probably do something like that. But it's just not going to work right now. All right, UNLV is playing Boise State. Boise State is a three and a half point favorite. This is on the blue. The fighting Dan Mullins against the fighting Spencer Daniels, since this has not been a typical Boise State season. I mean, started them getting their doors blown off at USF. They are here, though, which, you know, if.

For a while, it didn't seem like they were going to be able to get here. And so a resilient team kind of similar to a couple of years ago when Spencer Danielson took over as the head coach midstream when they fired Andy Avalos and then led them to a conference title. That's kind of what this feels like. They lost consecutive games to Fresno State and San Diego State closed with wins against Colorado State and Utah State. The Utah State one was a wild game. And Boise State do this? Yeah, I mean, I think that reps in this area is usually what kind of, you know, is a good indication of like what could happen next, right?

Like teams that are in this situation continually and are successful in this continually are typically the ones that prevail. Now, I think that it would be hard to go through this breakdown without also tipping our cap to Dan Mullen. Like, if you remember the way that UNLV played at the beginning, of the year. It looked like you put together a team by duct taping everything back together because they had all these different pieces. We're talking about the Idaho

state game that they opened with. Yeah, yeah. Then they were, they were winning in some wild ways early. Yeah. Yeah. And somebody like tweeted at the beginning of the year and it made me laugh out lied. He goes, this is the most NIL ass team I've ever seen in my entire life because everybody came, transfer portal last team

I've ever seen. And like, they have molded those guys into a functional really good team. And, you know, Dan Mullen, as you pointed out on our Sunday night bonus show, I think would be a very good candidate for one of the middle-tier jobs. Yeah, like Kentucky that just opened. Michigan State didn't consider him because they just went right to Pat Fitzgerald, but that would have been the type of job that I would certainly consider him for.

You got a front row seat. He's a really good coach. I mean, you were, you watched great developer, great game day coach. The only issue at Florida was he didn't want to recruit to the level that it's required to win national championship. So you have to be willing to fight Kirby Smart and recruiting, and he wasn't. But that's not an issue at these other schools. Like, I'll take the great game day coach and the great developer at those other schools. So he's done a great job here.

They had two losses in the middle of the season back to back where they lost to Boise State and they lost to New Mexico. Also, two teams at the top of the league. Boise State beat him 5631. So if you're talking about this scenario. That was on the blue, just like this one will be. This is why Boise State's favorite in this game. Because if you look at the seasons the two teams had, you'd feel like it's fairly evenly matched.

But I think the reason they're giving the nod, and then it's a home game, that's usually three points. Vegas is looking at this like a pickum. Which is interesting because the first time they played, UNLV got their ass kicked. So you subscribe to the notion, of it's hard to beat the same team twice. We talk about this every year when there's rematches.

I think that it is. This is also the third time in a row these teams have played in this game. Now, obviously the Barry Odom, UNLV teams were different. He leaves. Dan Mullen had to redo the roster. But there are players at UNLV who've had this experience before and obviously a lot of players at Boise State who have. Yeah, I just have a hard time.

I think the line is suspiciously small, to be honest. I would have thought it would have been a touchdown or seven and a half or something considering the first meeting between the two teams. But UNLV has won four games in a row, and all but one were blowouts. So I'm going to lay the points, though, Andy. I'm just, you know, I think I've seen this game once before. I don't know if it's going to be a 26 point different scenario this time. Maddox Madsen was throwing darts.

Yeah, in that first meeting. He averaged 11 yards per attempt through 4 TD passes. Though Anthony Calandria, if you've watched him at UNLV and if you watched him at Virginia, he's a lot of fun. A lot can happen. And sometimes it's fun. He's always fun to watch, especially if you don't have a rooting interest. It's just the Cavaliers gear, man.

Maybe not as much fun if you're his coach all the time because there's a lot of yes, yes, yes, yes, no, no, no, no, no, no, yes, yes. But I'm telling you, this is going to be fun to watch. I am going to take you and I'll need to cover here. Interesting. Dan Mullen gets them ready. Give me the rebel. Interesting.

Interesting. Yeah. Give me the reference. I mean, you probably be right here because the line is suspiciously small. So maybe there's, you're, you're smelling the, you're smelling the stink of the line. Do I smell it? Well, and the other thing, we've wondered openly because all these jobs are open. you know, Spencer Danielson and Dan Mullen would be people you'd consider for a lot of these jobs.

So, like, are they involved? We've not heard anything specific, but you do wonder about that, too. But I think Spencer Danielson obviously very experiencing games like this, but Dan Mullen's coached a bunch of big games. Like, this is not new to him. So, yeah, give me the rebels. Let us move on to the American. So this game's also Friday night. North Texas at Tulane.

Tulane is the only group of five team. ranked in the CFP rankings, but is an underdog at home to the Mean Green? Mean Green one loss, that was to USF at home on a Friday night. That was a malling. It was about a, it felt like it was about an eight-minute period where USF just blew that game open. It was like, Texas has not played like that any other time.

It was a tornado. And maybe it was just kind of one of those deals where it's like it felt like the talent was separating from itself, but maybe it was just like bad things, compounding and it just like was one of those nights. I don't know. Tulane being a home dog is an interesting dynamic for sure. Like Mestamakers throw in darts all over the place. He'll be one of the most coveted quarterback prospects in the entire portal when it opens.

You know, you can make an educated guess maybe on where he might wind up, but maybe he'll wind up something some more even bigger. He's going to wind up at Oklahoma State with Eric Morris. Yeah. That's my guess. That would be my guess too. But I also think that he had played well enough for a big. big time, SEC, Big Ten type person to come in and bid pretty high to get them, too.

Like, that could happen, right? That definitely could happen. The question is, how's he going to do against this Tulane defense, which, look, they shut out Charlotte, but that's not really saying much. Charlotte was one in ten coming into that game. They've had games where they've given up points out. That Memphis game was pretty crazy. The UTSA game is the one that sticks out.

Like both of these teams have that one game. For Tulane, it's that UTSA game. Like, what the hell happened? How did you just go get dominated? And then UTSA did that to East Carolina too, which none of it makes sense. But the other loss that Tulane has is to O Miss, which, by the way, is the team, the winner of this might play in the college football playoff if the rankings, depending on how the rankings shake out.

But I just, I don't know if this two lane defense is. is quite good enough. Obviously, both of these coaches have other jobs now and are currently working. Like, as we record this, I'm going to drive over to Florida's campus and see John Sumerall's introductory press conference a few hours from now. He's coaching this team Friday in this game. Eric Morris already introduced his Oklahoma State's coach. He's coaching this game, but he's also working for Oklahoma State. I think that. That adds another layer of intrigue to this. Now, this is not a Lane Kiffin situation.

Both of these coaches, whoever wins, they'll be allowed to coach this team in the playoff. Their school has already said that. So that's not the issue, but how much of the other job for both guys become, that's why this game, it's a small spread anyway, is almost impossible to predict. I know. so which way are you leaning i mean somerall's been in this situation quite a bit he was troy's head coach for two years they won the sunbelt both years he made it

to the conference championship game last year in the american but they lost to army but he's been in this this deal so understands the the rhythm of it how these stuff works now again him being introduced at florida changes that quite a bit but morris is dealing with the same pressures on that side because he's already Oklahoma State's coach. So you know what? If you're going to give me some points,

give me the green wave at home. Yeah. As much as I want to catch you in the rankings here of the total record, I think in a game that I'm uncertain of, I'll take points and hope for the better. Because that's the thing.

The fact that these two guys have been hired somewhere else and are already recruiting for those schools, remember they have signing day for those schools on Wednesday. So they've got to get that straightened out. There is work to be done for them for their new schools that's pretty heavy duty this week. And they're also coaching this game.

So yeah, it's completely unpredictable. So you default to taking the points. Yep. Let us move on to the Big 12 championship game. This is the one pure bid thief game based on the ranking. as they are now. Now, that could change Tuesday. If the committee were to reevaluate BYU and move them up,

I don't think they're going to move them up past Alabama. Right now, Alabama's 10, BYU's 11. 10's the cut line. 10's the last at large spot. BYU is guaranteed to get in if they win this game. The winner of the Big 12 will be one of the five highest ranked conference champs. Texas Tech's getting to buy if they win this game. So there's your stakes right there.

Texas Tech is a 13.5 point favorite. it. Although it would be really great. I think if I could pick one site for a home playoff game this year, I think Lubbock would be the one that I would want to go to the most if you could look at all those teams

because it would just be a pretty great atmosphere. I tell you what, Ari. If BYU wins, I think they're getting a game in Provo. Well, I don't think they're going on the road. You know what my bucket list is. Oh, we're going to if they put that game on Friday night,

we're definitely going. If it's on Saturday we're not sure but salt lake's an easy airport to get in and out of you know what's funny is is that i am going to be spending the christmas holiday a few days in salt lake uh park city area and it would be great to just pop up from there they got pizza buffets you know i don't know are you telling me uh i should be rooting for b yu just to make my life easier i'm telling you if b yu wins this game i think there's a really good chance they get a home game in provo and here's the problem though andy they're not going to win you watch the first Texas Tech

BYU game that's the problem yeah that that I think that BYU is a very good team and I think that there is a case to be made I see a lot of of Cougars fans online griping about their mistreatment in the playoff

selection process and I think that based on their perspective that there are arguments to be made that said the one time BYU you played a team this year that I believe is is athletically built to compete at this level. They got systematically dominated. And I think it's kind of hard to not consider that because when you're playing in a conference

that's not viewed as an equal as the other ones, fair or not, you can't not show up in your biggest game of the year the way they did. I think that if there is a chance for the Big 12 to get two teams, and obviously I think BYU has to win. But if BYU loses by three and plays toe to toe with Texas Tech, who, you know, athletically I do think it's equipped, maybe there was a chance that could happen. But I think that Texas Tech is going to dominate the game because they're just BYU's defense has got to force turnovers.

And they sack the hell out of Baron Morton early in that game. And it didn't help because BYU's offense, which has been very effective against everybody else, even games where BYU hasn't been great. the Utah game, which is against a super physical good defense, they put up 24 points. They put up 44 against TCU, 41 against UCF. You know, they had 26 against Cincinnati, but again, that's a good defense. They were helpless against Texas Tech. They scored a sad touchdown near the end.

They looked absolutely helpless against that level of athlete. And that's probably why they're being dragged down in the CFP rankings, because that's the level of athlete you'd play against some of these other teams. And Texas Tech might not have the same level of athlete as Georgia. Like this isn't even, this is like Texas Tech is really, really good. They've got a lot of really good players. They've got one of the best defensive players in the country. I'm not trying to take anything away.

And David Bailey and well, Jacob Rodriguez too, but yeah. One of the one of the, but if you took Texas Tech's roster from, from player one to player 85, like it doesn't compare yet. They've only done this for one year. It doesn't compare yet to Georgia. To Georgia, to Ohio State, to Oregon. You can't stay in the same field with your conference champion or a conference elite team that's trying to win the championship this week. Then what does that say about your ability to play Oregon?

And I think that that is why they have been ranked where they're ranked. And frankly speaking, being number 11 is a pretty solid spot for them to be in considering the way that that game went. I actually think that they should be, you know, pretty pleased with this. But the best part about this, BYU, is if you believe that you're being mistreated, and that's certainly your prerogative, you control your own destiny here. You have a game. That's it. That's all you got to do.

It shouldn't feel so impossible to win this game. In fact, you should win it if you think you belong. Yep. If you belong, you will win it. That's really all there is to it. You belong, you'll win this game. I'm going to lay the point. You, yeah, if you, if you can only muster one sad touchdown again, you're, you're not going to win this game.

And it's awesome, Andy. Texas Tech's defense is really, really good. Mm-hmm. I will also take Texas Tech to cover. We're not trying to agree on everything. It's just. It doesn't matter anymore. I'm going to run a five miles.

This one, this one we were going to agree on because, again, I would say almost everybody who watched the first game is going to feel the same way about this. Yeah. It's going to take a radically different performance from both teams to change the outcome here. Yep. Let's move to Atlanta.

We had this discussion. It wasn't even really a debate because neither of us could control the outcome and neither Georgia nor Alabama could control any of the outcomes here. Georgia especially was out of control. They just were sitting back, well, they were playing Georgia Tech, which is a non-conference game. So they had no control over what happened in the rest of the SEC.

And Texas A&M losing to Texas put them in the SEC championship game, which I don't know if they, you know, Kirby Smart says all the right things. He's like, hey, we're not running for anything. We love to win championships. We'll play good teams. Don't care. They lost their starting center last week. I'm sure they would have loved to have the extra week to get healthy.

But now they have a chance to win a conference championship. You're damn right. they're going to go try to win it. They are favored by two and a half against Alabama, which beat Georgia in Athens earlier this season. This game in Athens was really good. It was really close. Got very defensive in the second half.

Georgia dropped a touchdown pass that would have won the game. That's how tight it was. I'm excited to see these guys play again. Because I want to see what Georgia and Alabama, like what are the differences, how much of that game was just that one game? because what we saw out of Georgia and Alabama most recently, Georgia versus Georgia Tech, Alabama versus Auburn,

didn't look great. No. Didn't look great, but we've seen them in other parts of the season where they looked virtually unstoppable. So which version do we get on Saturday? Yeah, Alabama, I thought, is this a fair statement? Alabama was on the ropes for two and a half quarters in that game. Listen, if Auburn hadn't just,

coated the ball in Vaseline before every play. At least I think that's what they did. It would have been Crisco. Yeah. Auburn would have won that game. So Alabama Now, Ty Simpson showed up just as he has

all season. When you needed him on third and fourth down, he made it happen. And I appreciate that. And that's why it's hard to pick against Alabama knowing that he's there and can do that. But I will say, Gunner Stockton as the season moved on

looks pretty great, but how's Georgia's offensive line going to hold up? They are very banged up. You want a viral moment or a clipable thing? Go for it. I don't know who's going to win this game on Saturday. But I would be fairly certain that neither of these teams is going to win the national title this year.

I don't think that's a hot take. I think most people have watched the play would feel that way. Because they've been inconsistent, and to win this, you've got to win three or four games in a row against really good teams. Yeah. I'm going to take the point because I think this is about as even of a matchup as you could possibly get. And I am amused by the fact that we had this long,

windy road of SEC stories and teams popping up in new players and new places. and we just wound up at the same place that we're always at, which is Alabama, Georgia, and the SEC title game. Yeah. It would have been cool to see A&M or a new team try to do something, but that's just the model of consistency of what makes these programs great. And even in years where they probably would be the first to tell you that they don't have their best stuff, they're both here.

So I think both teams have worked awesome at times. I think both teams have looked weak at times, which one shows up for which team? I hope both show up. And if both show up, who wins? I don't know. Give me the points. So you will take the Alabama Crimson Tide.

It's not like Georgia Tech let the world on fire. I mean, Georgia looked the world on fire against Tech on Friday. They did, but I'm going to tell you, when you lose your center in the middle of the game, it can derail your offense. And that's one of those things that when you have a week to practice with the new guy, it can look dramatically better. Yeah. so but the thing is like Alabama

didn't look great against Auburn either so we could get a very different looking version of Alabama too like if Alabama plays its best game they won't look anything like they look at the Iron Bowl so I don't this is a crapshoot we are going to wind up on different sides of this

give me the dogs to cover and win the SEC title I said they didn't want to be here but look they they're here they're going to try to win the damn game. And there are stakes for both teams here. Alabama, if they win, they are in automatically. R.A. You and I have both said we don't think they would drop out if they lose. But Alabama is number 10 in the current committee rankings. We'll see where they wind up on Tuesday.

But the 10 spot is the cut line. They cannot afford to drop at all. They kind of have to win. Yeah, I kind of feel like Alabama doesn't want to tempt fate here. I think that they They should feel very good about their current placement, but they're not, I don't think you should be sure. Yeah, Georgia is not going to get knocked out if they lose, but George is playing in Athens the first weekend if they lose, as opposed to having a buy. Yeah, so, but really excited to watch this game, as always,

and it feels normal in a world where not a lot of things that felt normal this year. Yeah, in a week where not a lot of things have felt normal. Yeah. You ready for a totally normal matchup? Undefeated Ohio State is in the Big Ten championship game. That sounds pretty normal. Playing undefeated Indiana!

I realize they've been on a collision course. We've known Indiana's good all season. It still looks weird to see 12 at O Indiana versus 12 in Ohio State with a single-digit spread. Yeah. Kurt Signetti is a miracle worker. Yeah. I don't know where this is going to go. I'm sure the entire public is going to be on Ohio.

State because it's Ohio State. Like, I think that, like, my general viewpoint on this is if you can get Ohio State by less than six points against anybody, that's probably a good bet. And, like, Ohio State has been a covering machine. I think Tyler Shoemaker said that during their 16 game run, you know, since Ohio State lost to Michigan last year, they've won 16 games in a row and seven of those opponents have been ranked. Obviously, that happens when four of the games in a row are in the playoff.

But I think they're 15 and 1 against the spread during that street, too. So, like, I find this intriguing because Indiana is a wagon. They beat the crap out of everybody. They have a win over Oregon on the road. That's a legitimizing win. But is there a part of you in your stomach that is not quite sure if they are equipped to beat Ohio State? because it's one thing to be a top 10 team in America. It's one thing to be a legitimate program

that people accept you as a playoff team without giving you crap because of the logo on your helmet. It is a completely different thing to play Ohio State on an indoor field on a neutral site and beat them. Like, where are you at with Indiana in terms of your confidence and their ability to do so? This is not an Indiana thing for me. I'm not sure there's anybody that can beat this Ohio State team.

all these teams we've just talked about. I'm not sure any of them can beat Ohio State. So that's the issue. It's not a dig in Indiana. It's just that I was wrong last year when I said that Ohio State team was the last super team. No, no, no, this is probably better than that team. Yeah. So Indiana's awesome.

It may be that they're running into a team that is just absolutely stacked beyond. unbelief and there's no other team like that in the country. Well, here's the other thing. That's my only worry. And I don't mean to bring this up, but we have to admit it. How much does Ohio State care right now? Like they should care. They haven't won the Big Ten since 2019.

They're still getting a buy if they lose, right? As long as neither team gets blown out, they're getting a buy. Yeah, I think both teams are probably pretty safe with their buys. And at the very least, if they were to fall to five, that means you're probably playing James Madison or maybe Duke. Or Tulane or North Texas. Yeah, exactly. Okay.

And at home, you probably feel pretty good about your chances of winning. Like, Ohio State's best players were banged up against Michigan. Like, I just don't. They're playing, though. They're playing. I don't know. How fired up.

And it's like, I just, the hope is. is that I feel like Indiana probably cares more about this than Ohio State does. I would assure you, they do. So the care factor, I think, is something to consider. So I will say, I think Ryan Day is the type of coach who will impress upon his team the importance of when you have a chance to raise a trophy, raise the trophy. Yeah.

It's a very Ohio State way of thinking. There's a reason Ohio State's been so good for so long. Like that sort of thing is ingrained in the program. And I still think people should care about their conference championships. It's a shame that, you know, I think that the college football playoff is great. I love that we have all this discourse about who should be in and who should be out, all that stuff. It's really awesome. It's very engaging.

I love the reality television show. I don't like the thought process or the byproduct of the playoff, which is we don't need to care about other trophies because we only care about the one. When there's only one team that's going to be able to hoist that trophy. I still think that winning the SEC should matter a lot to those people. Well, and you and I just saw what it means to care about a game that maybe the playoff rendered less important. We just watched Ohio State celebrate a win in Ann Arbor in person. Yeah. They certainly care.

They didn't need that win, but they sure as hell cared. Nobody cares on the outside, but I still think that Dan Lanning should take pride in his Big Ten championship last year. I think that's a mark on his run. resume. And I know that that won't be the prevailing thought or memory from Oregon fans in the nation, but the Big Ten is one of the two toughest conferences to play in. Winning it is an important thing. Ohio State's a five and a half point favorite.

Indiana is coming in trying to prove a point. This will be a tough ticket we talked about in the game time ad. They're expensive tickets, which means that I would imagine there's a lot of Indiana fans that want to make sure they're at this game. I'm excited to see this. I want to know where Indiana really is, and we're going to find out. I've been to a ton of Big Ten championship games in my life,

obviously covering them. This Indiana team might be the best team Ohio State has faced in this setting. Yes. There's no team from the Big Ten West during the heyday of the Big Ten Championship that was better. It was always Penn State or Michigan that Ohio State had beaten during the season that was the toughest challenger they faced in the league.

And then they ended up playing Wisconsin or Northwestern or somebody. And like those teams were good. Or Iowa. I'm not saying that they weren't good. I'm just saying this Indiana team boat races people. So that said, there isn't a team in college football right now that I would not lay a touchdown in Ohio State's favor. So I will lay that.

I'll lay the five and a half. Mendoza. I get that Abbottesong in my head every time. He is the best QB Ohio State will have seen this season. Sure is, bud. You're going to do it? I still think Ohio State's going to win my more than five and a half. Are you going to do it?

Any time you can get a spread where Ohio State can still cover if they go to overtime is a game that it's like, no, that's what I keep thinking. I was like, yeah, if it's close, it's still be a seven point win for Ohio State. over time. I mean, look, it was the same exact spread of the Alabama Auburn game on Saturday, who covered it's the same exact scenario. And it looked like, you know, Alabama was going to maybe lose for most of it. And they still covered the spread.

Yeah. No, I'll take Ohio State to cover there. But I am excited. I want that to be an exciting game. I want Indiana to look like Ohio State's equal because I think if that's true, it means the college football playoff is going to be a lot more fun for everybody. The question that you have to ask, Andy, and I think that this is an important one. is if Jeremiah Smith isn't feeling his best or if Carnell Tate tweaked something and I'm not I'm just pointing out like football stuff happens do you pull them out of this game to make sure that they're 100% healthy like that's the only thing like I wouldn't want to suffer an injury or do or something to happen to my team in this setting that would jeopardize my ability to compete at the highest.

Well listen I think you're you're saying that like it's a purely an Ohio state thing. I would say the same thing about Elijah Surat on the other side. Exactly. You know, they're in the playoff too. They're not banged up, though, coming into it. But he was banged up earlier in the season. He missed a game. So, yeah, it is, that's an issue for both teams.

I don't think that's unique to Ohio State. So that's your, I'm not going to say your Ohio State bias, because I don't think that's what it is. I think that's our helmet prejudice that has been ingrained in us throughout our lives. thinking that Indiana doesn't belong in the same level, so we couldn't possibly talk about them in the same way. But I think this Indiana team, we can talk about them that way. Yeah, I think, too, like I've been a pretty big proponent

of supporting Indiana's quest both last year and this year, and I do believe that Indiana is a peer of Ohio states. I just was viewing it from the standpoint of winning a big-time championship in Bloomington would probably mean more. I would think it would, because it's a rare occurrence. Yeah. Speaking of rare occurrences,

it is not often that you have a power conference championship game where one of the teams has five losses. But that is where we are with Duke versus Virginia in Charlotte for the ACC title. Virginia is only a three and a half point favorite in spite of beating the Blue Devils by 17 on the road. it just two weeks ago. Ari.

What's with all these weird small spreads? That line is really weird. Yeah. What's going on with the weird spreads? It's not like we didn't just see this game, like, happen. Right. And so, like, that game, remember, Virginia was cooking, undefeated in ACC play.

They lose to Wake Forest 16 to 9. That was the game that Chandler Morris got knocked out. Chandler Morris comes back for this Duke game and plays one of his best games. He's 23 or 35, 316 yards. There's a 9 yards per attempt to average. Two TDs, two interceptions. This is going to be a fun game because it's two good quarterbacks. Chandler Morris versus Darian Mensa.

But that first one does not give me, like when I see this line, that doesn't make any sense. Yeah, I'm going to take the points, though. one of these lines is weird for a reason i already ignored it in one of the games also i don't want to spend all saturday not rooting for duke to cover well you yeah you want to root for chaos that's that's what you want to root for i want i want duke to win just because i'm just fascinated by the information that we can extract on how the system works i think like when you're when you're making a product and you put it through all these different like stress tests to make sure that the quality control is high.

That's an important aspect of, like, how is the college football system? Is it built to not be insanely wrong when you have in difficult decisions? Like, is it built to withstand like a chaotic scenario? I don't know, but I want to see it play out. So we have precedent or at least we have experience doing these things because more weird stuff's going to happen in this world with all these comp. So Virginia, the defense played really, well in that first meeting. They held Darien Mensa duke's quarterback to his lowest completion

percentage of the year. He was 18 of 35, which is 51.4%. That's by far the lowest of the year for him. 6.1 yards per attempt. If they could frustrate him like that, Virginia's going to win this game. But if Mensa plays, you know, if Mensa and Morris are just dueling here, this is going to be back and forth and that line will make sense because it might be a last team with the ball situation. This might wind up being one of the more entertaining games of the weekend. Oh, yeah. Of sure, like, entertainment factor. Because Virginia's been one of the most consistent teams in the ACC all year.

Duke has been the most wildly inconsistent team in the ACC all year. And so we don't know what Duke's showing up. What are you going to do? Oh, my God. Duke is going to be, I do love when the people who root for, for chaos, get one team to root for. Duke is team chaos right now. Like, I wonder if the entire country is on board with this.

Well, certainly they are in a certain part of Virginia. Yeah. Not Charlottesville, but not far away. Harrisonburg, they are big Duke fans, and then they are big Duke enemies if Duke wins. Yeah. So James Madison pulling for them. But I do, yeah, I think the rest of the country is pulling for chaos.

I will say if you want to pull for a guy who's been through a lot and a team that's been through a lot. Tony Elliott, your guy. Tony Elliott got Virginia through a really tough time. It is awesome to see him succeeding like this. It is awesome to see the cavaliers succeeding like this. It would be cool if they made the college football playoff. Yeah. I mean, that was real life, sadness, tragedy that they got through.

For those who don't know, they had a former player who murdered some of their players a few years ago. and it is it is a horrible thing for anyone to have to deal with if you're a football program it's something that you may not come back from and they have you know Tony Elliott did a great job guiding them through and this team has been really like I've doubted Virginia all year and they just keep playing better they do like they annihilated Virginia Tech and I get Virginia Tech fired their coach. It was the zombie hokey's. But Virginia has been historically awful in that series.

Yeah. And that game was never in doubt. I'm with you. And it's like it's hard to root against him. Give me Virginia to cover this thing win and slip in comfortably as the 11 seed in the college football playoff. Makes sense. We'll find out. You're rooting for chaos.

for order. That's not the normal way we do this. I usually in the chaos guy. But this could be a fun weekend. We got stakes in every one of these championship games we just talked about. Cannot wait, Ari. Can't wait either, man. I can't wait to see you in Nashville. We've got a whole week of shows coming up and then we're going to be... The actual signing day is Wednesday, Ari. That's right. The greatest recruiting reporter of all time. The man who invented the genre, essentially, joins us on Tuesday to help preview National Signing Day. What do all these coaching carousel moves mean for who signs where on Wednesday? Plus, are there any big flips in the works? There's one that was percolating, percolating

for the last month or so. I don't know if it's still going to happen, but there's a couple that could be pretty seismic. We'll get you ready for National Signing Day and we'll talk about all the coaching moves because there's still coaching moves to go. There's coordinators to be hired. We're not done. Penn State as we record this has not hired a coach. We'll talk to tomorrow.