Andy & Ari On3 - North Carolina GM Michael Lombardi placed on leave | What does it mean for Bill Belichick’s future?

Episode Date: July 27, 2026

North Carolina GM Michael Lombardi placed on leave | What does it mean for Bill Belichick’s future? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode of Andy Naurion 3 presented by BetMGM North Carolina general manager Michael Lombardi, placed on administrative leave. Is this the first domino to fall in maybe the end of the Bill Belichick era at North Carolina? Plus, Big Ten MIDI days starts tomorrow. We have a predicted order of finish from an esteemed panel. They got the Buckeyes number one. That doesn't sound unusual, but I think there's some other worthy competitors. We'll break down that list.

Also, John Summall, new Florida coach, pedicure guy. We'll talk about it all on today's Annie and Arion 3 presented by BenMGM. This show is brought to you by BedMGM. All the Lions and Totals come from BedmGM. If you check the BedmGM app right now, you will find college football lines for weeks zero, one and two, the biggest games already with lines on them. It's not too early to get going for the college football season. You're going to start doing your research already.

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8778-8-Y or text Hope N.Y 467369-3-369 in New York, 1-800-3-0-0-0-Masachusetts, 1-800-0-80-0-2-3 in Puerto Rico. First bet offer for new customers only if applicable, subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withthrobable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. And Ari, it's one of those days that you wake up and the email hits almost immediately. It's one of those Mondays where something happens that you didn't expect and the whole college football world is talking about it.

And it is Michael Lombardi, the general manager of North Carolina, being placed on administrative leave, paid administrative leave. North Carolina did not reveal any other details beyond that. We're working on those details. Obviously, the Staffodon 3, our man Pete Nacos, digging deep to try to find exactly what's going on. We don't have the specifics as we record this early Monday afternoon. But Ari, it's interesting because we've not really talked much about North Carolina this offseason. They don't feel like they move the needle at all because nobody's expecting to, them to be good. But the second this happened, the internet lit up.

Yeah, because I think that there's two different things here. There's Bill Belichick and there's North Carolina. And for whatever reason, and I don't know if you agree with this, it doesn't feel like those two things have married each other. I feel like there's a Bill Belichick discussion, and people are all fired up to talk about Bill Belichick, but that hasn't translated into talking about North Carolina football. And maybe part of the reason for that is that North Carolina's football team isn't supposed to be or expected to be very good. But I think everybody gets excited to pile on Bill Belichick. And that's kind of what we're doing.

And also Michael Lombardi. So for those who don't understand why it seems everybody in the business of football is chirping about this. So Michael Lombardi is Bill Belichick's handpick guy. He's the general manager. He worked with Belichick at various stops in the NFL. He was working in the media. He hosted shows at Vison for a while when he was out of football. and then brought back into the Belichick fold when Belichick got the North Carolina job.

Lombardi said some stuff about them being, you know, the 33rd NFL franchise, made it seem like he was a lot smarter than everybody else, objectively terrible at the job in the first year. Their roster was horrific, and it wasn't because they didn't have money. It's because he attempted to fight American conference schools and Sunbelt schools for players when you should be fighting Big Ten and SEC schools and other eight. A.C. Schools for players. But so I think there's a little bit of a dancing on the grave situation going on here.

He's not the most well-like person in the business. But I think you're right. This is more of a Bill Belichick thing because he's Belichick's guy. Very important detail that Pete Nacos reported on Monday morning that Bill Belichick didn't make this decision. The North Carolina's administration made this decision. And again, we're trying to find out exactly what happened. Based on what we know so far, I don't know that there's like one huge smoking gun. If you're thinking Pablo Tori is going to fall, you know, come from the sky and drop a giant story.

Because, you know, he did talk a little bit about Lombardi when he did the Jordan Hudson stuff. I don't know that that's happening. It may just be a cumulative thing. And it also may be a, hey, we understand this isn't working in general. So we're going to start unwinding the mistake we made by hiring Bill Belichick. Yeah. It's kind of an interesting dynamic because I think Michael Lombardi's spot in the media, talking a lot about the NFL too, has made his name more well known. I think that you could make the case that he's the most well-known personnel person in all of college football.

Like I try to think of myself, not because of being a personnel person in college football, but because, yeah, he was a media person before that. Yes. So I think that people kind of just generally know who he is, but also if he was the personnel director at Eric. Arizona and he got put on administrative leave. I don't think it would be, I mean, people will be talking about it, but it's not the Belichick aspect of this. This is Bill Belichick's guy. And Bill Belichick stuck with him despite him being bad at the job. Like there is no sugarcoating it. There is no excuse you can make. He was objectively terrible at the job in the first year. And we'll find out how good he was in the second year. He may not be around to see it. My guess is he's not. done much better. Everything I, you know, everybody I've talked to about North Carolina, the roster talent isn't appreciably different from last year, but the schedule is much, much harder than last year.

Yeah, I mean, we get a pretty good sense of which teams are talented right now because NFL draft people and analysts are like really need deep and tape. And I don't really hear a lot of North Carolina popping up in those conversations. We've had an entire offseason full of trying to break down where the players are coming from. That doesn't mean that there aren't going to be any sneaky, additions or sneaky productive players in North Carolina.

I'm not going to pretend like it's like the worst team in the history of the planet. But in terms of the splash that Bill Belichick, the higher made, the football team has not made even remotely of even a splash,

let alone a big one. And if you want to talk about the roster not being very good, this rests solely at Lombardi's feet. So, you know, obviously. Because remember who is Belichick's top? personnel guy for most of his time in New England.

It was Bill Belichick. Yes. Now, I don't know the dynamics in the building of how much is Bill Belichick, you know, in the weeds. My hope would be that he's very deep in the weeds in terms of analyzing and, you know, picking the types of players and, you know, guys who fit his profile to come in and build a team around. But the idea of it is this, Andy.

And I think you kind of alluded to it, but I'm just going to hit it over the head. people got the impression that North Carolina thought they were going to win because they're smarter than everybody. And one of the people who was supposed to be smarter than everybody is Michael Lombardi. Right. And in fact, he was not only not smarter than everybody, he was much worse than the other people who have his job. Yeah, much worse. As we talked about last week, there's no excuse whatsoever at the UNC to have a worse football team than Wake Forest. No. And you got hired before they did. like you got run like Jake Dickard and company ran circles around Bill Belichick and

Michael Lombardi. So yeah. Yeah. They don't have as much money as you. Like they certainly don't have as many Super Bowl rings, but they were way better than you at the job. And like I just don't, I don't think Bill Belichick's that interested in this job. Yeah. You get that impression.

It's given no sense that he cares. So. And I think one thing that would have talked. told you he cared is figuring out a way to have a much better roster this year than last year. Yeah. And we were talking about a specific tweet, Andy. This might be a good segue. But I think this is a very interesting conversation because of North Carolina and the Bill Belichick of it all, certainly.

But I also think that we can learn a lesson from North Carolina. And the lesson is when you fire a coach in college football, you better be damn sure the reason you're firing that person. person. Because if you are firing them because they haven't lived up to your thought process with all the resources given, that's one thing. If they are not reaching your thought process without the resources given and then you move on from that person, better make the right higher. It's funny because this is a good conversation in microcosm about what is going on in college football in general right now. And we can talk about it with other current hot seat coaches as well. So this is a tweet from Danny Kinell, our friend Danny, you know, former Florida State

player, former NFL player works for CBS right now. UNC should have never let Mac Brown go. If they stuck with Mac Brown and gave him the resources they gave Bill Belichick, the Tar Heels would be top third of the ACC worst case. Instead, they're at the bottom and probably looking for a coach in a year or two. This is exactly right. Danny's right. The smart move would have been, instead of paying all this money to hire Bill Belichick

and company, give Mac Brown the resources you wound up giving Bill Belichick, because you fired Mac Brown for going six and six. with a very underfunded war chest. Yeah. Yeah. And like I remember. War chest properly in Mac Brown was going to give you better than six and six. Yeah.

The thing that's so funny to me about the Mac Brown situation is that for a while there before the NIL era, they were actually recruiting quite well. And the thing that we always joke about with Mac Brown is that he could sell a ketchup popsicle to a woman in white gloves. You know, I went. I've been to. Chapel Hill before. I'm sure you sat in his office many times during your career.

And buddy, I'm a very unathletic 40-year-old man, but if you wanted me to throw a helmet on and go out there, I would have for him. You know, like he, in a 10-minute period, he is. But in this era, that doesn't work as well. That doesn't, but money does. And they gave Bill Belichick money to do this. So what was the reason why all of a sudden,

all the five-star prospects that Mac Brown was, getting we're no longer committing. Because they weren't trying to get them. They thought they were smarter and everybody else. It's not because Mac Brown sucks at coaching and forgot how to recruit. It's because they didn't give them the money or the financial resources, the same thing, in order to go get those players. They move on from him and then they make the promise to Bill Belichick and Michael

Lombardi that they will fund it properly. And they wind up with a roster that's infinitely worse than the ones that Mac Brown have. And they don't attempt to get those players. Yeah. I mean, I honestly don't even know where the money is going. going, Andy. It's being spent poorly because, yeah, you should be going up again. Like, look, you're still not going to have the kind of money that Texas has, that Ohio State has, that Georgia has.

That's okay. You have enough money to outspend Florida State. You have enough money to outspend Wake Forest. You have enough money to outspend Virginia. Like, there is no excuse for that. Miami should be the only team in the ACC spending more than you. Yeah. And Miami gets really good players. But the second best in that conference should be fielding an incredibly competitive roster. Incredibly competitive. And I think the one thing that you can also just take into account with this, too,

is that even without the right budget, I don't doubt that Mack Brown with the same hamstring issues that he had from a financial standpoint, would still assemble a better roster than the one that they have. It's not just Mac Brown. Let's also remember how the Bill Belichick hiring went down. So it was conducted in secret by their board chair and independent of the then AD. So Bubba Cunningham, I think he's, I don't know if he's still officially North Carolina's AD. Steve Newmark has been hired. He's in charge of the athletic department now.

He came from NASCAR. Yeah. Bubba's moving into an emeritus role. But Bubba was the official AD when all this is going down. when they fired Mac Brown and when they went searching for a new coach. Bubba Cunningham and Lee Roberts, their chancellor, went and met with John Sumerall.

He was their number one candidate. He was coaching at Tulane. He'd been there a year. They went and met with him. It went well, but very quickly, Sumerall and his agent sniffed out that there was this parallel search going on

involving Bill Belichick. And they're like, we want no part of this. So Somerall wisely is like, no thank you. I'll just stay at Tulane. I'm sure something better. Something good will come along if I keep doing well. And sure enough, he was being fought over by like four schools this year and wound up in Florida. So they could imagine that.

Just imagine that, Ari. If there hadn't been this parallel search for Bill Belichick going on, if they'd just been running a conventional search and they'd hired John Summerall, like he probably brings Darien Mentsa with him from Tulane to North Carolina. he knows how to how to build a winning roster in college football. They would have given him money because he would have demanded that as a condition of coming. They would have given him money to spend on the roster. Like, would they have been four and eight last year?

No, they would have been eight and four or better. Yeah. We'd be talking about them this year as a potential ACC title contender. Yeah. They would at least be Louisville. At least. At least. And that's what's happening.

They made a massive mistake. And unless Bill Belichick has a miracle coming, this is going to be it. Because it's not going to get any better. Yeah, and the circus off the field is more palatable when you have wins to counteract them. It becomes embarrassing when there's no wins. So let me ask you this, because we are kind of talking about this in more stern language today than we were last week.

But does this, what does this? what does the news from Monday do to your viewpoint of this tenure? I know we weren't overly high on it last week. Yeah, I was assuming it's going to end after this season anyway. Now I'm sure it's going to end after the season. Yeah, okay. Because that's where I'm at. You know, I feel like there was a 5% hope that Bill Belichick's a genius

and maybe something crazy would happen this year. Now I'm kind of like, yeah, this is a disaster. So here's an interesting quote. So Greg Barnes from Inside Carolina, really good reporter, very plugged in at North Carolina. Inside Carolinas are on three North Carolina side. If you're a North Carolina fan, you need to be subscribed to Inside Carolina. Their message board, by the way, just blowing up today. But this is a quote from the new AD, Steve Newmark, from a sit-down interview that Greg Barnes did with him a few weeks ago.

This ran in a story right before North Carolina took the podium at ACC Media Days. So this is the new AD talking about Belichick and football. He said, I think when we step back, one of the primary reasons we brought Coach Belichick and his staff on board was to build a foundation for the future. And although in this day and age of college sports, patience is not something that is in the long supply, I think we recognize that her goal was not just for a one-year spike. It was to put in place a foundation where we continue to improve and we were viewed as a place for young student-athlete football players to come where they know they can develop both on the field and off the field. That's really the lens through which we're evaluating. are we showing continuous improvement? So, all right, you can read that as a plea for patience, if you would like,

or you can read that as if they're not any better, we got to do something else. Yeah. I read it the second way. Yes. So I think that is a very, like, Steve Newmark's a smart guy. I think that is a very sly way of making it sound like you're giving your guy a vote of confidence when in fact you are saying what will be judging him on is whether they get any better and we the part he didn't say but I'm sure people in Chapel Hill are thinking

we don't think they're going to be any better yeah and the thing too is that even if you win six games and show improvement it's still not satisfactory it's still What you fired Mac Brown for. Well, even then, Mac Brown went to the ACC championship game. It's not like they were a complete disaster under his guidance. No. My understanding was that they fired Mac Brown because they had a six and six year, which was considered a bad year, which would be a better year than Bill Belichick had in year one.

Yeah, but my understanding was they fired Bill, I mean, Mac Brown because they wanted to win the ACC. Yes. And they're not acting like they care if they win the ACC. Yeah. No, it's... Miami's acting like they care. Duke's acting like they care. Wake Forest is acting like they care.

Virginia's acting like they care. And the thing that's so painful about North Carolina, too, is that, you know, the cliche sleeping giants? Who are the cliche sleeping giants? Arizona State. North Carolina and Arizona State. North Carolina. Arizona State, the cliche, has made the CFP.

Yeah, they won the conference two years ago. Like, North Carolina, now more than ever. Because I went, you know, do you remember where you were when you got the first notification on your phone that COVID had him hit America? Yes. I was driving out of Chapel Hill to the Charlotte Airport. And I had just spent the day at North Carolina with Bill Belichick and his staff there. And I had been with Luke Fickle at Cincinnati, speaking of.

Is that where you were? were currently in a hot seat. Yeah. And the reason why I bring this up is because the column or the story that I ended up writing after meeting with their personnel director at the time was North Carolina is a very underrated place for high school talent, which they were. There was a kid named Keishon Silver there at the time. It was a five-star prospect, defensive end.

They had a bunch of big-time recruits. They were in the mix. Who was the five-star? the five-star corner that they got from Virginia that's transferred nine times in the time since, but was a huge deal. His name is escaping. He was in A&M last, I think.

You know who I'm talking about, though. They got him, and they pitched me on this huge plan to keep kids in North Carolina home to be the premier football destination for all of the players in that region of the country, to dip into Virginia, to be on the East Coast. And, you know, Mac Brown,

the consummate salesman, again, all pre-NIL, know, had it rolling there. And I thought to myself, well, maybe they finally found the dude that can wake up this sleeping giant. And then obviously the sport changed and things got a little bit more difficult financially there. And then they did the dip. But of all the programs in the ACC that in a in a current climate where the winning is ripe for the picking for anyone, whether you're Vanderbilt, whether you're Wake Forest, whether you're freaking Indiana, like North Carolina could have been in a position if properly situated at the time of the transition to be one of the teams that

looks really good right now. And I feel like, and I don't know if you buy this because it's such a transactional sport and it's so much easier now to flip a roster and to fire a coach and bring someone in and be better immediately. Maybe this doesn't matter. But I do think that there

probably is something to be gained from being on the forefront of this evolution to having the staff in place to keep up with the current you know, changes in the sport that give you a chance to strike while the iron's hot. I think Tennessee's done a very good job of that. I think obviously Indiana has done a very good job of that.

SMU has done a good job. Miami's done a good job. And like North Carolina could have been in that bucket with a proper hire. If they would have gotten John Summerall, like it would have been fine. John Summerall says yes. If John Summerall says yes, you're there now. And I don't know if there's any long term damage for missing out on the climate that we're currently in. There's not.

And I'll tell you why. Okay. Like, if this blows up and Belichick's out and they got to hire somebody new next year, one, it may be the best job of the cycle, depending on what happens elsewhere in the country. But two, what is the thing that hangs over everything else? What did we talk about on Friday in the mailbag? What's the thing that every school is thinking about in the next five, ten years? I'm trying to remember what we talked about in the mailbag. It's the Super League.

Oh, yeah, duh. North Carolina, despite being in the ACC, doesn't need to worry about anything. Yeah. They will be part of whatever is next. If it's the Big Ten in the SEC still lording over everything, when the realignment crap hits the fan, North Carolina is fine.

Like the Big Ten and the SEC will be fighting over them. Yeah. So this job is a, good job. Throw out your sleeping giant jokes. It's a good job. The person holding it is not trying very hard right now. Truly one of the most underrated places

in the world to live, probably. Like, Chapel Hill is beautiful. But can I just do a tiny counterpoint? Mm-hmm. Because I agree with you, but just another alternate way of looking at it. Indiana last week, or 10 days ago, ish, picked up

a five-star recruit out of the state of Indiana. Monshan sales, yep. But Indiana now is a place that can go into the portal and be in the mix for the types of players that North Carolina wishes it was in the mix for. And I think that Indiana, as a result of getting the right coach at the right time and using the system to their benefit, bringing all those JMU players with them, has completely restructured the chemistry of everyone's brain about who Indiana football is. When Indiana recruits you out of high school, you know who they are. You respect them. And I know a lot of that is Kurt Zeddy, but Indiana has risen its profile as a program in general.

We talk about, you know, teams that do individual seasons that are awesome. Like, I don't know about this. Arizona State has steadily, you know, improved the profile of the program, but certainly not to the same extent that Indiana did, having broken through and won it. And I wonder if from money is always going to talk and the right coach with the right personality and the fat paycheck's always going to win out.

so maybe this doesn't matter at all. But Indiana, I think, is more well served to be a sturdy contending winner for the next decade as a result of striking right now and getting through than it would be to try to build it in 2029, even though the door will still be. Disagree, hard disagree. You change coaches this year, you hire the right coach. You can be good next year. Yeah.

But I do think that there's probably something to be gained, though, by having the ability to get players out of high. school that you wouldn't have otherwise been able to get. Well, sure. But you can win with transfer portal guys and then get guys out of high school that you wouldn't have been able to get. Like, that's what Indiana did. So your perception is that this window of opportunity is just going to stay open for a

long time, for everyone. Well, especially for somebody like, okay, it's hard. Like, the degree of difficulty in Indiana is so much harder than North Carolina. North Carolina, from a financial standpoint, is at the top of, its conference. Yeah. There's no excuse. You should be one of the best programs in that conference.

I would very much love to see Andy the balance sheet and the allocation of funds that they have to who they're paying. Because it doesn't make any sense. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't. It absolutely doesn't. And it like, Bruce Feldman wrote a great story about it last year.

Going into last season, people saying, I don't understand who they were going. what their targeting procedure was because you saw them wind up in these battles in the transfer portal with schools from the American and with school. Like he talked to a group of five coach who was like, they were fighting us for players. And I was like, why? Yeah. So there's only two possibilities here, Andy. And they both suck.

Ready? One is they're not actually spending that much money at all and they're not using their resources. Or they're spending a shit ton of money. money on the wrong people. There's no other results. Considering that Bill Belichick had it written into his contract that they would max fund the rev share, I'm guessing they're spending money. They have money to spend.

They have enough to be at least competitive in the ACC. So are they spending a ton of money on players? Like, are they overspending on the wrong players? Could be. We know how much money roughly Cam Coleman is like when in the portal, in the portal. How many times did you see a story about some sought-after portal prospect trying to decide between like Michigan and North Carolina?

Right. So where's, yeah. So if they're paying somebody $2.5 million, what's every, I think every power team should have at least one person that's making a few million bucks. But is that a fair statement? It's fair, yes. Which player on their team is making two and a half mill this year?

Billy Edwards, Jr. maybe? the quarterback who went from Maryland to Wisconsin got hurt non-contact injury week one at Wisconsin? I don't think we know because Billy Edwards had flashes. I don't want to pile on an individual person. He was good at Maryland. He was good and he got hurt at Wisconsin. Yeah. But yeah.

I think you get what I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah, that's it. And like, I don't get the sense that TCU, which opened the season with North Carolina last year and opens the season with North Carolina in Dublin Week Zero this year, I don't get the sense that they feel like they're facing anything particularly different. Sunny Dykes was on the show and he was very complimentary.

He was complimentary. Now, like, the offensive play calling will certainly be better because of Bobby Petrino now. So there is that. But that is a coaching hire. That's not a roster move. Yeah. So that was not Michael Lombardi.

is Baileywick. Do you think that the average fan can name one single skill player on their team? No. I think North Carolina fans could, but could like, yeah, if I, if I go to the average fan and I say, please name some Ohio state players. They're going to be like Jeremiah Smith and Julian Sayan, and please name some Alabama players, Ryan Coleman Williams, please name some Texas players, you know, Cam Coleman and Relique Brown and Ryan Wingo.

Yeah, North Carolina, I don't think they're going to get. I think that's just like a good, I think that's like a college football for dummies litmus test. It's like, have you even heard of the players? And that doesn't mean that there are a lot of players that no one's heard of that turn out to be great. But like if you're spending properly, you would at least have a player in the news cycle that you're fighting over or something. You know, like, I don't know if people, I don't even think their average college football fan is who Billy Edwards is. He's been out of the public eye for two years. So, like, I mean, you know what else is going to look really bad if this happens?

I don't know if it will. Now, they don't play Wake Forest this year. So you don't have to deal with the head-to-head. Yeah, lucky. But Gio Lopez was their big portal pickup last year. They got them from South Alabama. Looked really bad. Gio Lopez goes to Wake Forest.

He's probably going to start for them. He's been reunited with Rob Izel, who was his offensive coordinator at South Alabama. They did very well together. if he winds up being a really productive ACC quarterback this year, that also makes them look bad. I think it's a blessing for Bill Belichick and company that they don't play them this year.

I think you're right. Unfortunately, they do play Miami. They do play Notre Dame. Their schedule is significantly harder than it was last year. Significantly harder. And they play Notre Dame. Are they going to lose like 56 to nothing?

Yeah. So you played TCU and got smoked last year. You play TCU again. They played U.S. UCF and got smoked last year. The spot in the schedule now occupy, where UCF was, is now occupied by Notre Dame.

Like, that sounds gonna be pretty, right? No, I believe Notre Dame comes to them. Oh, okay, well,

that's good. Yeah. Who boy. All right. So I guess once we figure out why this is happening, we'll update you. But I think it doesn't really matter why.

As we get more information, but as we record this early Monday afternoon, we don't have a lot of specifics. North Carolina has said they're not going to comment on it. My guess is some information. We'll dribble out over the next few days and we'll have at least a little bit better idea of what's going on there.

But just a fallen domino that couldn't fall, I think. Yeah, regardless of the reason. Big, big domino, big domino. Ari, big 10 media days starting in Chicago on Tuesday. and the preseason polls are out. A couple different big 10 polls out there. One from Cleveland.com,

but the one that is probably a little more complete is our friends Doug Lamey-Marisse and Bill Landis reached out to everybody. Ari voted in this poll. I was invited and did not get my ballot in any time, and I'm sorry about that, guys. But the elite of the elite voted in this poll. and they had 46 people a lot of national people uh i don't know if i'm allowed to say their names i

won't just a lot a lot of people who've covered the big 10 for a long time as well yeah ohio state number one organ number two indiana three u sc four michigan five now that four spots interesting because that is probably your cfp cutoff right there And you got Michigan 5, Washington 6, Penn State, 7, Iowa 8, Illinois 9. I would argue that anybody, so there's 18 teams, so the column on the left is 1 through 9. The column on the right is 10 through 18, if you're looking at the graphic on the YouTube stream. I would argue that anybody in the column on the left could potentially make the playoff this year. So what were they finish in?

So Andy, this is kind of fun. But since you didn't vote in the poll, scumbag, how would you, I'm just teasing you, how would you have done your poll? I would have Oregon number one because I think they had the best returning roster. And I realize, you know, it's hard to bet against Ohio State. But Ohio State lost a ton defensively. Now, Ohio State recruits well enough that even when they lose a ton, it shouldn't matter. like they should still be at the top. I probably would have had them two or three.

Indiana lost a lot. We don't know what they're going to be. We assume they're going to be good. I'm now at a, I won't bet against Kurtzignetti point. So I would have had them in the top three. So I would have gone to Oregon number one in then Ohio State or Indiana two or three, depending on how we wanted to go with that. I would have Michigan for, but I get why you would pick USC.

Yeah. But the thing is, the difference between four and five, way more critical for Lincoln Riley than it is for Kyle Whittingham. Yes. There is a world where five big 10 teams do get in. I think there's a chance that you, like Michigan playing Oklahoma could certainly help that. Absolutely. The fact that like if they get that win.

I say it's Texas, Michigan beats Oklahoma. Yes. That helps you come selection Sunday, maybe get one more team in from your life. But I do agree with you that the prudent cutoff would probably be after four. And I think that goes for every, even the SEC. Yeah, I mean, we say the same thing in the SEC as well. Yeah, yeah. But I found this to be interesting because the top seven may have some teams that are kind of out of order.

But I think that that would have been my expectation of this. Now, the one thing that I'm very curious about is with Ohio State, Oregon, and Indiana, they're all supposed to be very good. Yeah. It would be a very safe bet in the past to assume that Ohio State would be number one. I don't know if that is a fair assumption right now. They very well may go win the Big Ten. That's why I think Oregon, number one, is the more logical assumption. I agree with.

I voted back. I'm 99% sure because I have a terrible memory that I voted for Oregon number one. Yeah. So I agree with you on that. Now, let me ask you this. Are there any teams on the right side

of this graphic that you think can make some noise? Because Minnesota's been pretty consistent. I don't know how much juice there is for Nebraska. UCLA's got a ton of juice, but I don't know if year one. UCLA's schedule is really hard. We all love Bob Chesney. We think he's going to make them better.

I do think eventually that, schedule probably makes them look a little more mortal, then it's just going to take a little longer. Wisconsin at 13, and I get it. I'm the same person who put Luke Fickle on the hot seat in that hot seat column last week. But if you look at Wisconsin's Big Ten schedule, it is significantly easier than it was last year. It's maybe not as easy as Penn State. We'll talk Penn State later, but Penn State probably has the easiest Big Ten schedule. But Wisconsin had one of the roughest schedules last year, it's not easy, easy,

but it is significantly better. Now, they do open with Notre Dame, so obviously that doesn't help much. But I think Wisconsin is going to be a better team. They're spending more money on their roster. Remember, not only did they lose, we mentioned Billy Edwards Jr., and we're talking about North Carolina,

they lost Billy Edwards Jr. Game 1 last year, non-contact knee injury. they also at one point were down to their fourth center. Yeah. And that's a bad luck too. Yeah. It's not an accident by the way that when they got a little bit healthier as a season came toward the end, that they upset Washington late in the year.

So I think Luke Fickle probably coaches his way off the hot seat this season. Well, there's one thing that Wisconsin finishes higher than we think. Is there one thing that Wisconsin possesses that nobody on. the right side possesses, which is an incoming transfer quarterback that could be absolutely electric. Colton Joseph, yeah. He is a great runner through well enough at Old Dominion because people are scared to death of what he can do with his legs.

And listen, there are other teams on this conference on that side of the, in the rankings in this conference that have exciting quarterbacks. I think Frank Lindsay is undervalued. Anthony Calandria is somebody people are excited about. Nico I amaliaba is, I think, a pretty good player still. I don't think he sucks now all of a sudden because he left. You know, obviously. Kate and Hauser could be good at Illinois.

Kate and Houser could be good. Yeah. We know what Maryland brings back, but it's not the same, like there's like an unknown entity to like the rest of the conference that like could be boom or bust, kind of in a way that is exciting to me. Well, the thing, the other thing is in these giant leagues and the big tens, the most giant of them all with 18 teams. Schedule matters a lot.

So let's go down the list. Ohio State has a very hard Big Ten schedule and they play Texas. And obviously that doesn't affect their Big Ten finish, but it is a difficult schedule. What did you say? Ohio State's was difficult schedule in this century? This is the most difficult Ohio State schedule that I can remember in my lifetime. lifetime's a weird thing.

I don't know what their schedule was in 1992, but I do know what their schedule has been since 2009, and this is the hardest schedule they've had. And I think it's the first time you could say with a straight face that Ohio State has the hardest schedule in college football this year. Yes. Yeah. Oregon's schedule is not easy.

Non-conference, they've got Boise State. They're at Oklahoma State, which was terrible last year, but it's going to be good this year. They're at USC. They're at Illinois. They're at Ohio State. They play Michigan at home. Like, Oregon's schedule is tough.

Indiana's schedule. is tougher than it's been the last two years. They still took it easy in the non-conference, but their Big Ten schedule is not easy. USC schedule, we've talked about. They're ducking Notre Dame because their Big Ten schedule is so hard. Yeah.

Which is the perfect segue to, so I was at a birthday party this weekend because that's all I do is go to birthday parties on the weekends now. And, you know, I was talking, I'm in kind of an SEC country because of all the Oklahoma, Texas, A&M, fans around.

And last week we were talking about a poll and an Alabama fan came up to me. He goes, I saw that Alabama was picked sixth or were they seventh. They were seventh in the SEC. I think they were picked fifth. Whatever, whatever it was. And I'm like, buddy, there are a lot of really good teams in the SEC. But I do know that there are birthday parties happening in the Midwest right now where Penn State fans are like, they picked us to finish seventh.

Like, and it, and it is funny because people are down on Penn State. but I think that that is the wrong place for them. And I actually think that you could make the case that you could put them in the top four if this poll is to figure out where teams are finishing in Big Ten standings because their schedule is so easy. Right. So for those who don't know,

the toughest part of their schedule is a two-week stretch where USC comes to them and they go to Michigan. They also have to go to Washington in early November. That's the toughest part. Penn State should easily win every other game. Yeah. So if they go two and one in that stretch, they are in the playoff easily.

They're probably in the Big Ten championship game. Have the fortune. It is so funny, dude. James Franklin was criticized endlessly for not being able to get over the hump and beat Ohio State in Michigan in the regular season. Last year, the thing that ultimately brought Penn State down was a heartbreaking home overtime lost to Oregon. Their schedule this year for the first time,

and I know they have Michigan. It wasn't the heartbreaking home. home loss, overtime loss to Oregon. It was the loss to UCLA and the loss of Northwestern consecutive weeks after. No, no, my theory was that that loss broke the program. But that's what I was referring to. I know that the more embarrassing losses that came after.

I don't care how broken you are. You shouldn't lose Northwestern at all. Yeah. I think that it like literally broke the place. But that said, Penn State has the fortune and not having to play Ohio State, Oregon, or Indiana this year. It's a pretty good setup for a first year. It's a great setup.

And it is the, so. As we look at that left column, which is the top nine predicted finishers, Penn State has the easiest schedule by far, probably the easiest of all 18. But here's what makes this really interesting. Of those on the left side of the nine top finishers, I would argue that the other eight all have very difficult draws. Right. It's not like Penn State got the easiest one and then, you know, maybe Iowa. No, like Iowa has a stretch where they play Michigan, then they play Ohio State. Then six days later, they play Washington in Seattle.

Yeah. In a 13-day span, they play Michigan, Ohio State, and Washington. It's wild. That's insane. So I don't know if we can take, like, the thing that Penn State has done so well traditionally under Franklin is winning all the games they're supposed to. And I don't think that we can go take it for granted. Like, there are games on the schedule that could be difficult. Like at Washington on November 7th could be difficult.

I don't know what Wisconsin is going to be on September 26th, but they have some potential landmark or landmine spots. That said, I think that the baseline expectation for Penn State this year, at least from their fans and certainly their coaching staff is that they at least go one in. against USC and Michigan and those back-to-back games October 10th and October 17th. If they go one and one and win one of those games, I think there's a high likelihood from where I'm sitting right now

that Penn State could backdoor their way into the playoff as a result. They're not back-dooring their way that they are charging into the playoff. Yeah. The Penn State Cyclones charge into the playoff if that happened. But here's the one thing I also want to bring up. Penn State has been a team that has

ducked scheduling difficult in their non-conference. We have criticized James Franklin for their easy paths in the non-conference play as a result of the discourse that has taken over college football right now, which is schedule easy. If Penn State goes one-in-one against USC and Michigan and beats one of them and then drops a game like Wisconsin or Minnesota or Washington or something like that, they might have a freaking problem. And I think that Penn State could be the poster child this year of the importance of scheduling difficult.

And I'm not saying I'm rooting for that, but the idea that 10 and 2 just automatically gets in, I think is going to get put to the test this year, especially considering the fact that we have spent the entire off season discussing whether teams that are 9 and 3 with more difficult schedules are more worthy of a playoff spot than a team that's 11 and 1 or 10 and 2. Well, right. And there are other similarly situated Big Ten teams that are not doing that. Like, Iowa plays Iowa State every year. Now, I realize Iowa State is down because Matt Campbell left, but that is a challenging game they play every year. Illinois is playing Duke for the second consecutive year. Duke won the ACC last year. Yeah. I mean, I mean, I actually think that playing Duke and beating Duke last year would have been an important win. for somebody if they played them in the non-conference and everybody beat them in the regular season we're having a different conversation about that so i i do think that it's all well and good

because i mean it made sense for penn state because they're like we're not going to lose to minnesota because they never really did until last year why don't need to worry about this we just have to figure out a way to beat ohio state or Oregon nope not not this year and the reason we we talked last week about how stupid the conferences are, you can play in the Big Ten and have a completely different schedule as another team that's also in the Big Ten. Ohio State and USC are going to have a really different experience with the Big Ten schedule than Penn State is. Yeah, they're basically not even in the same conference.

It's funny to say, but that's the way it is. So Penn State, I think, might be undervalued as a result of my assumption that they will be better than all the teams on the right side of the bracket and just as good as half the teams on their side of this graphic. but they are also walking on eggshells because you cannot slip or you will miss it, I think. So, especially depending on what those games look like with USC and Michigan. They're in the situation where their schedule will make it where they would be the last 10 and 2 team in or the first 10 and 2 team out. Yes.

Remember Vanderbilt last year, 10 and 2 didn't make it. Like that's 10 and 2 as the cut line is not necessarily true. There also may be a year where everybody beats each other up and 9. and three gets you in. That's the funny thing that always gets left out of the college football playoff scheduling discourse at SEC Media Day. I didn't hear anybody bring that up that Vanderbilt was 10 and 2 and missed it last year. Yeah, amazing.

It's funny how that just gets forgotten every time we talk about something that's not true. The facts get left out. But yeah, I think that like Penn State is walking Vanderbilt this year. And there's always the chance that they go 11 and 1, right? Right. And you're going to be in. That is Indiana from 2024. Yeah.

Indiana went 11 and 1 and got in. With the schedule Indiana played in 2024, if they'd gone 10 and 2, they probably wouldn't have gotten in. But listen, if Penn State goes one-in-one against USC in Michigan and their win as an overtime win on the road

in a sloppy 12 to 9 game, and I am all four leaving them out. I think you should be punished for scheduling week. Yeah. And Ohio State should be rewarded for playing Texas. And, you know, I'd say, The U.S.C. should be rewarded for playing Notre Dame, but they're not.

And that's already how it works, regardless of what you hear. It already does work that way. Yeah. This is going to be an exciting year in the Big Ten because Ari, the reason this is so fun is because those teams we think are the best, with the exception of Penn State, are the ones playing the hardest schedules. Other than Northwestern, which I don't know what Northwestern did to piss everybody off. Yeah, Northwestern got boned. It's like, so you guys are going to have beautiful. lose stadium this year, but oh my God, we're going to brutalize you with this schedule.

Yeah, Northwestern, let me go look at it just for people. We had the toughest schedules discussion already, but Northwestern plays on the road at Indiana and Penn State back to back in September, October. Then they play Oregon, Iowa, Ohio State. Where is the Oregon game and where is the Ohio State game? They play Oregon and Ohio State on the road two out of three weeks. It's brutal. It's awful.

Sorry. Sorry, North Carolina. At least when you come home, well, not the, Ryan, the new version of Ryanfield opens during the season. So, but when you come home late season, it will be glorious. It'll be beautiful in Lake Michigan.

Yeah, it looks like a really nice stadium. I saw the, I saw the pictures of it. So it looks beautiful. Did you see Chip Kelly in his hard hat? I did. I saw that too. I don't know what the hell was going on there, but it was another gift of college football,

Twitterverse. Ari. what do we think is going to be the biggest headline coming out of the Big Ten Media Days? Someone's going to say some stupid stuff, right? I hope so. I would assume Tony Petiti, the commissioner, will say some stuff about the playoff. Though I still think right now

everybody's just in a holding pattern on the playoff until they find out what the TV networks are willing to pay for extra inventory. And the SEC will not be as against 24 if they come back and be like, for those additional games, we'll pay $500 million. If that happens, the SEC is going to be like,

what championship game? Let's go to 24. It is a bigger event because Tony Petiti meets with the media far more infrequently than Greg Sankey. So like when he takes the podium, like the questions I assume at Big Ten Media Day are going to be more pointed and more urgent than when Greg Sankey was at the podium last week.

So that'll probably be the biggest headline, but I'm sure Kurt Signetty's got a zinger up his sleeve. and might be up a sleeve or it might be up something else. We don't know. You know, he's good for that. What will Kurt Signetti say that causes him to wink at the person who asked the question?

I don't know. He will wink and you know what? He's a national treasure and I got to tell you, man, I'm so thankful that he's in our sport, man. Like he, we didn't talk about this. We were going to have a segment last week about the personalities at SEC Media Day

and how like the fears that Nick Sabin and Jim Harbaugh leaving were misguided and wrong. And they were. You're not having fun coaches in the sporting. Yeah. Just like personality driven characters. You know, that you know, we talk so much about how college football is the bachelor. And it's like, well, you need to have people that make the

storylines interesting. And like Jim Harbaugh, whether you like them or not, was one of the most interesting characters in the history of college football. Losing him sucked. And then you have Kurt Signetti who did the Google Me, you know, staring into the camera, winking stuff. And actually won.

And then all the people, like every single, I feel like eight, eight to ten coaches said something incredibly awesome at SEC Media Day last week. One of those coaches was John Sumerall, who was cracking us up with various things. We learned a little more about John Sumerall over the weekend from one Jenny Summerall.

That would be his wife. So Olivia Eisenhower works for WCJB, TV 20, in Gainesville. Excellent reporter. So she was covering the Florida Women's Clinic. And she interviewed Jenny Somerall at the Florida Women's Clinic. And Jenny Somerall made a revelation about John Sumerall that I think might make him your favorite college football coach.

Are we ready? I'm ready. And your husband is very energetic. Can you give me some insight or maybe something people might not know being John Summerall's wife? Yeah, and that's going to be shared a little later, too. So as energetic as he is, when you see him, he is actually very introverted. So John needs time at home to get that energy.

If he does not have that, you don't get what you get when you see him. So he really requires, he's quite introverted. What is something maybe we don't know as seeing head coach on Summerall that you would love Gator Nation to know about him? He loves pedicures. Oh, really? his favorite extra thing to do. So every two weeks in the football season,

John loves to get a pedicure. That's just a fun little happy about him. Is this the team bonding thing that occurs? We should get the team going. It's good for them, you know? It's a good quality thing for them to do, but he loves it. Ari, you're a couple's pedicure guy.

I'm a solo pedicure guy. I go alone all the time. You do not know that? I knew you liked pedicures. I thought this was more of an event with I usually go with Britt and we take our daughter now and it's cute. They have like the little kid chairs and she gets hers done and stuff. But it's a,

I feel like it's a self-care thing. And anybody who listen to the show knows for years I've been trying to convince Andy to try it. And he just says, I have. I got one like a year and a half ago. And you hated it. It didn't hate it, but it just wasn't my thing. Yeah. It was fine.

It was perfectly fine. But don't you think that. Do you think that clipping your own toenails is one of the three worst things that you have to do from a hygiene maintenance standpoint? No. I find it to be very aggravating. What do you do? Are you a foot on the toilet seat guy or what? I'm a foot over the trash can guy.

Okay. Over the trash cans, wild. Depending on the height of the truck. You need to go. It's very efficient. I clip my toenails. Not like the big trash bin outside. like my little bathroom trash can that holds the toilet paper roll when it's done.

I'm a foot on the toilet seat guy and then flush the clippings. I don't know if that's bad. Okay, that's efficient. Maybe I'll go to that. Yeah. But then I don't ever really do it anymore because they clip my toenails when I go every few years to get done. Because you have a person for that. I have a guy or a girl.

The guys, I like that little man hand on me every now and then you know on my feet. Clip that. No, but like they do a good job and it's like relaxing in your feet. The thing that I, as I slammed my fingers in the garage door last week, one of the things that you should know about me, Andy, is that like I'm very weird about like damaging my nails. Like I feel like that would be incredibly painful and ugly. It is incredibly painful. Yeah. And it was.

And like I was afraid that my nail was going to fall off last week because I jammed it into the garage door so bad. You sent me the photo. I was like, you might have two nails falling off, buddy. Yeah. And actually, it's coming up. It's not as painful now. And I feel like I avoided any catastrophic. But

good. Toneil maintenance and like making sure that they're like growing in properly and everything and like getting them like the cuticle shaved down and stuff is important to me. Just from like I want my toenails to be like sturdy and long. And here's the thing. If you're John Somerall, like first of all, John Somerall is the type of guy who has no issue with his wife revealing this sort

of thing. Like he understands it's good for the brand. It's also not embarrassing. It's like a normal thing men do now. Also, John Semprinol squats with his players. Like, he's one of those people. If you meet him in person, you're not going to make fun of him for getting pedicures. I kind of feel like 10 years ago, a man getting a pedicure would be made fun of.

And I think now it's just normal. I think I go in there and there's men and they're all the time. I still think among our audience, I'm curious because our audience is still, now we have, obviously, our female listeners of yours who we love, like Lori. But our audience is still overwhelmingly male. which we're open to changing, by the way. Ladies, come on. We could be the female college football podcast. Well, I do it.

Yeah, I mean, it's two dudes, so there is that. But, but, yes. Two very attractive dudes. You, but, okay. So if I'm just putting this out there for everybody, let us know guys in the audience, are you pedicure guys? Do you, are you like John Summerall?

Do you need that? Is that your, how you get your Zen every week or two? We know Arias. Yeah, well, the thing with my pedicures is I do it more for like hygiene maintenance. I don't do it as a relaxation. The other thing that you know about me is that I go to foot parlors and I just like pay 30 bucks for them to rub my legs for an hour. And that is probably why John Summerall loves it. The massage aspect of it is the best part where they like rub your calves and your feet for

30 minutes. When I did it, it was very relaxing. Yeah. Now go into a spa where it's dark out and put a cloth over your head and just go for an hour where they just like rub your feet. I like, it's, I think it's amazing. So like that's my mate. That's like my relaxation. The pedicures I just do because I want my nails taken care of. But yes, I think that people, I think when I go in, I see men all the time. Okay. Show poll. Show poll. On scientific. But you know how to find us. You know what the email. addresses are. Andy Stapleson3 at gmail.com. Ari. Dot Waserman at On3.com. We'll read some of the submissions on Friday. Are you a pedicure guy? Yeah.

And I've got one more update. I have one more update. I know you're trying to close us, but here's one more update. Rhett Lashley weighed in on the truck guy discussion last week. GMC-8, Sierra 1500. Ret Ashley, he's a truck guy. That's what I'm, he's from Arkansas. Of course he's.

Yeah. But he also lives in Highland Park, Texas. Ari, I've driven to, like when I fly to Dallas and I drive to your house from the airport, you go through Highland Park. There's a lot of pickup trucks. They're very nice. Yeah, I think that's, the reason why I brought that up is because you're also going to get the same people who ridiculed me for not having a bucket weighing in on the pedicure conversation. I know how that's going to go already.

Oh, by the way, so we need to do the ice bucket challenge now because you have a bucket. I do. You have a thank you to the Big Ten office for sending Ari a Big Ten bucket. Yeah. And I feel like it's in my garage now, like in a good place. Yeah. So Paul Kennedy and David Bassidy at the Big Ten Office, thank you so much for sending Ari a Big Ten bucket. I had a huge package at my front door because like a bucket's pretty big.

They got me one of the cool big ones. And I'm like, what is this big box from the Big Ten? What's in there? I thought it might be like Heisman like stuff or whatever. And I opened it up. and it was just a white and black bucket with Big Ten stickers all over it. So I feel pretty good about it.

We'll use that for the Ice Bucket Challenge when we do it. Thank you to the Big Ten. And I feel like a whole... I actually used it the first day. I didn't even tell you this. What did you do? We set up a slip and slide in my front yard for my daughter and a few of her friends last night.

And I used the bucket to slick the slip inside. You didn't use sprinklers? There's sprinklers built in, but like there were parts of it because the land was uneven that wasn't getting hit. It's one where you attach the hose to it and then it sprays. And it sprays it. Yeah. There were certain spots.

Yeah. The hose was already plugged in. So I went into the house and put some water in it and then I slicked the areas with the bucket. So I've already used it. See, you got one of those fancy pre-made slip and slides when I was a good. Yeah, Amazon. You just had the tarp and you just put the sprinkler on the tarp. Sorry about that.

A little redneck engineering for you there. If I fancy, you mean the $26 one that we bought on Amazon, yes. Yeah, yeah. So, well, I look forward to that. And we look forward to Big Ten Media Days this week because we got a lot of interesting stuff out of the SEC. We're an equal time show. Yeah. It's the Big Ten's turn.

So we're talking a lot of Big Ten this week. I've done a deep schedule dive that I want to get into at some point. I previewed a little bit when I'm. I mentioned that Iowa stretch, but there's some crazy, crazy schedule quirks this year. And we'll talk about that. Ari, it is time. It's talking season. Football season is just around the corner.

We're talking about a team that plays week zero on this show. Yeah. And you know what I'm really looking forward to? Next week we're going to be in Nashville together, getting some studio time. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Looking forward to that. Yeah, looking forward to it. it. But yeah, it does start to feel like football season.

Now we just need the temperature to cooperate, man. Scorcher out there. It's so hot. But that's okay. All these shows are going to be hot, too. We'll talk to you on Tuesday.