Andy & Ari On3 - Notre Dame vs The ACC | 2025 Heisman Finalists announced | Penn State introduces Matt Campbell as head coach

Episode Date: December 9, 2025

As the first round of the College Football Playoff will begin next Friday night in Norman, Oklahoma, one glaring omission from the field is Notre Dame. As a matter of fact, the Irish are a glaring omission from the entire bowl schedule coming up. Watch here as Andy & Ari break down Notre Dame AD’s Pete Bevacqua press conference where he details the current agreement with the ACC, being left out of the College Football Playoff, and what the future of the CFP holds. (0:00) On Today’s Episode(1:29) Presenting Sponsor(3:13) Intro: Notre Dame vs the ACC(15:02) Notre Dame and the CFP(18:50) Notre Dame’s ACC Deal(24:15) The Irish’s seat at the table(35:10) Huel(36:29) Heisman Finalists Announced(45:40) PaniniAmerica.net(50:27) Matt Campbell introduced at Penn State(57:49) What did Pat Kraft say?(1:04:51) Conclusion: See you tomorrow! After discussing Notre Dame, the fellas turn their attention to the bright lights of New York City, where the Heisman trophy will be awarded. The finalists were announced on Monday, and they are:Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame RBFernando Mendoza, Indiana QBDiego Pavia, Vanderbilt QBJulian Sayin, Ohio State QB To close, Andy & Ari visit Penn State, where the Nittany Lions have officially introduced Matt Campbell as its next head coach. Listen here as the guys discuss how Matt Campbell will do and what kind of message AD Pat Kraft sent at the presser. Thanks for watching! Come back tomorrow for a Megaboard Wednesday episode!Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/Vfd3ztQ3QNUHosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River BaileyInterested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail]  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode of Andy Nareon 3 presented by BetMGM, it is Notre Dame versus the ACC. Who you got! The Fighting Irish believed that the ACC was working to actively sabotage Notre Dame's chances to make the college football playoff. They feel like that's no way to treat a valuable business partner. The ACC says Notre Dame is a valued member of the conference community with the relationship they have. We'll see how that lasts. Notre Dame ADP Babacqua had a press conference on Tuesday talking about the ACC and the relationship between Notre Dame and the ACC. Also about the relationship between Notre Dame and the college football playoff of which Notre Dame has about as much sway as an entire conference in determining what happens next with the CFP.

And that's very interesting because Babakua was very clear about what he wants to happen next. Also, the four Heisman finalists have been announced, Indiana's Fernando Mendoza. Ohio State's Julian saying Notre Dame's Jeremiah Love and Vanderbilt's Diego Pavia. They will be in New York City. Who's going to take home the trophy? Plus, we break down Matt Campbell's introductory press conference at Penn State. It took a long time. I think the Niddy Lions got their guy, though.

All right now, I'll talk about it all today. on today's Annie and Rion 3 presented by BEDMGM. We are presented by BEDMGM. We use BEDMGM lines and totals. And you can join us by joining BDMGM. If you have not signed up for BDMGM yet, use the bonus code CFB as in college football, CFB, and you'll get up to a $1,500 first bet offer

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we kind of figured this was coming. But leave Bavakwa on Monday went on the Dan Patrick show. That's Notre Dame's AD and said the relationship was permanently damaged. And then Bavakwa had a press conference on Tuesday where he further went in on the ACC, said, how can you have a campaign to keep one of your valued business partners out of the college football playoff? Jim Phillips from the ACC is released a statement saying, we didn't do that. We love you, Notre Dame, blah, blah, blah.

Ari, this doesn't sound good. Yeah, somebody asked Bavakwa during the press conference on Tuesday if the relationship could be mended and he said anything could be mended. I don't want to be dramatic. But I think that it's like, well, which one do you believe? Because you said it was irreparably damaged. So like, I don't know. He also said an apology wouldn't do anything and the time for any discussion is not now.

so it's like we are really pissed basically is what he's saying yeah um and you wrote a really interesting column and i think it's something that we should discuss that great length oh yeah because um as far as i know it Notre Dame i think you could make the case needs the ACC more than the ACC needs Notre Dame but that would not be the case if there is another power conference that's willing to join into a similar alliance with them now you wrote this column and I'm going to let you explain it and then we'll really go into it because I want to know how likely it is that you think there's a suitor for them if it's not Yeah, that's, so here's the thing. For those who don't know the full arrangement,

Notre Dame has all of its other sports in the ACC beyond football, except for hockey, which is in the Big Ten because the ACC doesn't have hockey. Notre Dame also has an agreement with the ACC where Notre Dame plays five ACC teams every year. And that's a guaranteed. So if you look at this year's schedule, it was, it was, was Miami, NC State, Boston College, Pittsburgh, Syracuse. Stanford's an ACC team also, but that game was an annual rivalry before Stanford entered the ACC. So that particular meeting wasn't part of the agreement. But the reason the Notre name does this is because it's hard to schedule as an independent, even as the independent,

and it's hard to get teams to play you in October and November because they're in the middle of their conference schedules. So this way, these ACC teams have to play Notre Dame. Now, what's the ACC get out of it? They get guaranteed games against Notre Dame, which help their team strength of schedules, helps their teams sell out their stadium when Notre Dame comes. They get better ratings usually when Notre Dame comes to their stadiums. And their network partner, ESPN, likes it when they can put Notre Dame on their air. So everybody gets a benefit out of the deal. And so I will push back on Notre Dame. needs the ACC more than the ACC

needs Notre Dame. The ACC actually needs Notre Dame pretty bad. The Notre Dame addition was what allowed the ACC grant of rights to even happen. So the thing that is holding the lead together at the moment is only because of Notre Dame. That's the other thing too. It's like well, is Notre Dame the duct tape that's holding the doors

on of an old car that's falling apart? That's the question I have. It's not as much about the Big Ten and the SEC or even the Big 12 because I should have mentioned, I should have put the Big 12 in the column, but the Big 12 is another one that's kind of in this boat. The ACC has an expiration date on it. That has nothing to do with Notre Dame. That has to do with the lawsuit that Clemson and Florida State filed and the dueling lawsuits between the ACC and those schools that was settled this year. And I don't think there's any question.

Clemson and Florida State won that whole ordeal. The ACC came out as the big loser in that Because essentially the ACC put an expiration date on itself By saying here's where the buyout really drops And the answer to that is about 2030 Which oh so happens to be when the next big 10 TV deals up So that is It'll be a long year for us by the way

Yes, that will be a very long year for that Well the 28-29 when all the people are negotiating stuff We've got one more year of football before all hell breaks losing again. Yeah, exactly, exactly. But so the ACC is already a weakened conference. And if you're Notre Dame, you're probably going to them and saying, hey, you're not really giving us a lot of good teams to play. Like Boston College was awful this year. Syracuse was terrible this year. Can we get something a little better than this? I actually think that this is an interesting dynamic because on one hand, the ACC needs Notre Dame to prop up the ratings of the Boston

College games. But then on the other, I think that they would stand to be both sides, Miami, Florida State, Clemson, and Notre Dame would all stand to gain more by playing marquee matchups, but then you get into a conversation about whether that's fair. So like, it's like there's no real like easy. Notre Dame's actually asked, hey, can we just play like Miami, Florida State, Clemson. And in fact, Notre Dame signed an 11-year deal with Clemson, independent of the ACC deal because they want to play Clemson. And Clemson can play in them. That helps Clemson, too. So, like, I think this idea of, like, Notre Dame has to join a conference and all that stuff is just so annoying. I think that we have to acknowledge that Notre Dame is a property

that's, you know, it's the nicest house and on the block in a lot of cases. I think there's only, what, two or three other programs from a brand perspective that can compare. Yeah, Ohio State could do it for sure. Maybe Texas, maybe Georgia, Michigan. That's it. It's pretty much it. But, like, I really do, like, struggle with this because as you start to think about, well, well, what if they went and signed a similar agreement with the SEC?

What would that mean for the ACC? Well, how likely or is it even within the realm of possibility that could happen, like after they just went to nine conference games, are they all going to sign up to play Notre Dame now? Like, it's just like, I don't know how likely that is. the SEC is still going to make them play one power conference team out of conference every year. And if that team is requiring that, yeah. Yeah.

Because Notre Dame needs a conference to help fill out its schedule, too. Like, that's the other part of it. That's the only thing that matters. Like, they will never play power conference teams in October and November unless they have an arrangement like this. So if you don't have another taker, you're stuck with the ACC, at least until the ACC no longer exists in this form. which could be sooner rather than later. So if you're Notre Dame, you're thinking about that anyway. Like, you're already thinking about that.

Let's hear Pete Bavakwa detail the relationship with the ACC first, and then we'll talk about what maybe next steps are. But what we were really surprised by and disappointed was how the ACC conference really went on a social media campaign, in my opinion, attacking our football program. Miami had done that, and they didn't. I get it. You know, all's fair.

You know, there's a great rivalry, decades-long rivalry between Notre Dame and Miami. And that's the spirit of the universities and the football programs and fandom. And that's what makes college football special, whether it's Notre Dame Miami, Notre Dame USC, Michigan, Ohio State. But we felt this was different.

And it raised a lot of ivory. And, you know, we made our feelings known that we didn't particularly understand this. And it just kind of puzzled us that a conference that's home to over 600 of our student athletes walking around this campus today, I guess chose to go down that road. I guess intellectually, I understand it, but I certainly don't agree with it. And why would you attack an unbelievably important business partner of yours in football and a member of your conference in 24 other sports. I'm one person.

I don't see the logic in that. I know other leaders at the university didn't see the logic in that. And the ACC is important to us, and we're important to the ACC. And think about football for a minute. You know, those ACC teams want to play us in football. You know, an interesting stat, since 2014,

when we started our football relationship with the ACC, if you look at stadiums, they sell out ACC. game sell out roughly 23% of the time. When Notre Dame goes to an ACC site, it's 90% of the time. When you think about ratings for ACC football games when they play Notre Dame, there's a tremendous lift. I don't understand why you would go on a social media campaign to attack an important partner. Who's some of our important partners in the football space? NBC. We wouldn't do that to NBC. Now, I understand they have to stand up for their teams in football. We just think there's other ways to do it.

And it has created damage. I mean, I'm not going to shy away from that. And that's just not me speaking. People a lot more important at this university than me feel the same way. So I think it has done some real damage. And I think the ACC knows that. People more important than me. Translation, there's some priests who run this thing.

that are not pleased that we are in partnership with the ACC. So let's go down this for a second because I saw this and I kind of believe it. I want to unpack this. Does Notre Dame feel as entitled to support or alliance in social media campaigns for teams to get into the playoff as full-time members? And is the discussion here, you can promote Miami all you want, just keep our names out of your mouth. Essentially, and the thing is, like, he's like, and he said at the beginning, he doesn't care if Miami does that.

That's the school protecting the school. Yeah. Like, that's fine. That's fair. The conference doing that is what bugged him. Well, do you think that he's right? I think that he's right in this case, but I also think if they made a similar deal with the Big Ten or the SEC

and this happened, and it was one of their schools in Notre Dame, they would do the same thing. Yeah. Because you're going to protect your full members first. I also feel like we're only hearing about this because Notre Dame didn't get in. I don't remember any outrage being shared when that tweet went out. There wasn't any outrage.

It's interesting because all this was bottled up. And remember going into when we had Mario Cristobal on and the Notre Dame fans are like, well, how come you didn't have Marcus Freeman on? Well, Mario Cristobal called us. And then we did see if Marcus wanted to come on. We didn't get a response until the next morning. Yeah. And I think it's an interesting like byproduct to this conversation.

But I think I think that was a strategy on their part. Like say less because they thought they were in. Right. And I think that if you want to completely unpack the weekly ranking show like we did. I mean, like I agree. I feel like Notre Dame has a reason to be upset. Oh, he had a banger of a quote about the weekly ranking show. Okay.

You ready to hear that one? Yeah, let's hear it first. and it's it's something that has to be fixed because you know i said it yesterday we we take this very seriously at notre dame marcus freeman takes this very seriously our coaches our student athletes our administration these rankings and i said it so i'm repeating myself but they can't be a a game of musical chairs at a fifth grade birthday party and that's what it felt like to us it's what i felt like to me too mic drop yeah no and he actually went into the He got asked about, what if you guys had been 19, one spot below Notre Dame in the first ranking?

Or, excuse me, one spot below Miami in the first ranking. And he's like, we would have understood. Yeah. Pete Samson is the one who asked that question, our former colleague with the athletic. And I think that that was, you know, basically, you know, and he was also asked, too, is this a Notre Dame foot down stand on no non-CFP bowl game participation in the future or a reaction to what happened this year? And I think that basically the way I understood what Bavakwa said was because we felt like we had the rug pulled out from underneath us, like that was our general reaction to that.

I also mentioned they only had basically an hour or two to make that decision, which I still think if they'd had 24 to 48 hours, they'd be playing in a bowl game. I also like just don't understand why. I understand the committee has protocols and you rank them in pods and then you go down the list. we went through the thing, we've done it. Like, I understand that. But, like, I feel like when the top 25 is finished, you should be able to look at it and go, is this the result we want or do we want to tweet?

I said that on Feinbaum yesterday. I said when they did that first set of rankings, the November 4th rankings. So Producer River has them up, I believe. This is, yeah, this is the November 4th ranking that's on the screen right now, where Notre Dame is 10 and Miami's 18. Like, you have to raise your, your hand when you're in the room and that pot and then you've done it all and now you've got

the list in front of you somebody has to raise their hand and go guys we're going to look really stupid if we put this out yeah and like also i i think that people think that the recency of things has a major part of it and like in this ranking it did because miami had lost two of its previous three games the day that this came out and that was a knee-jerk reaction to what had happened in the last three weeks without taking into account the resume as a whole. And I think that the committee would do itself a lot of favors if it wasn't reactionary to what happened the week before, the two weeks before. And they were every week when they take out their, they love to say, we're taking out a clean sheet of paper every week. Take out a clean

sheet of paper, but use the entire resume. If you're going to use the entire resume at the end of the road, then use it every single way as you're doing it. They rank this assuming that Miami was going to lose another game. Yep, and don't assume anything. And they never lost. Like, they assumed Notre Dame would go undefeated and Miami would lose again, and that's not what happened. I think that every single ranking should be given with the thought in mind that this is the playoff.

Treat every single Tuesday release, like this is the final draft of what is going to happen. I don't know that there's going to be a Tuesday release for now on. So remember, Notre Dame has a seat at the table in the playoff. construction. And they're still not done constructing the 2026 playoff format. They have until January 23rd to do that. So let's talk about that in a second. First, let's talk about the conference affiliation part because you asked, how much chance do I think is the Big Ten or the SEC going to agree to an arrangement like this? I don't know that they necessarily would. I do know that the SEC and the Big Ten are in a pitched battle for supremacy in a very competitive

marketplace, and one of them might take them to keep them away from the other. The Big Ten one's the most, yeah, the Big Ten one's the most logical one, because what you would do is you'd make them annual opponents of USC to continue that rivalry and also to continue that rivalry in the dates that it currently is. No, no, no. I'm talking about the dates that they currently are in November, yeah. Yeah, so October when they're in South Bend, November when they're in L.A. That's important because Notre Dame needs that October and November game.

Like, they need that. Purdue's another annual opponent of Notre Dame. They played 86 times, I think. So you have those two play every year, and then the other three spots just rotate among the other 16 teams. Yeah. So you're going to get a high state, Penn State, Oregon. They haven't played Michigan. Michigan nearly as many times as Purdue, right?

No, no, no. It's been more rare. And they used to play Michigan State a lot. But like, if you're getting, okay, you're going to get Notre Dame Rutgers. You're going to get Notre Dame Maryland out of this. You're going to get Notre Dame Northwestern. But you're also going to get Notre Dame Oregon, Notre Dame Penn State, Notre Dame Ohio State, which they just did a home and home with Ohio State.

Notre Dame Indiana, which would be great right now. Notre Dame Iowa would be a great matchup. Notre Dame, Michigan, Notre Dame Nebraska. All of that. Notre Dame will be kind of weird, but, you know, I guess that would be part of it. But they played. Yeah, they played. So I think that would be the most natural fit. And I don't know if the Big Ten would take their other sports.

The other thing about Notre Dame, their other sports used to be in the Big East. They just put them in the Big East if they want. They could put them in the American if they wanted to. Yeah. These leagues would take them in a heartbeat. Also, I think you have to like start thinking ahead, too, about the bigger picture. It's like, let's just say that Jim Phillips. and people bevacua get together and have a discussion and they all like everybody loves

everybody like what is Notre Dame schedule going to look like in 2031 I think it's an interesting dynamic and I wonder if there's a self-preservation aspect of this too for Notre Dame I think Notre Dame might have been looking for a reason to look into this yeah and so and the other one I didn't mention is the Big 12 Brett your mark seems open for business like you probably say we'll do this with you well the last thing and I think a big 12 too would probably stand to gain much more than the ACC would or just as much because the big 12 is looking for tent pole legitimizing victories and if BYU had beat Notre Dame this year they'd be in the playoff like and I know that like BYU fans are having a hard time understanding and I think

rightfully so their their resume is actually quite good um but I do think that the win that Miami possesses over Notre Dame carried a lot more weight than BYU's went over at Utah and if if Notre Dame were to play a scheduling alliance and their best teams happen to coincidences inside with the times at Notre Dame's on the schedule, those teams that are actually feel like they're worthy of a playoff spot like BYU who does this year and didn't get to go would actually have a different major chess piece on their resume that just doesn't exist right now.

The thing that, like the Big Ten makes more sense because it is now kind of a national conference and Notre Dame recruits nationally. The Big 12 is also basically a national con. It's just from West Virginia and Florida to out to Utah. I mean, the reason why the Big Ten makes the most sense is because if you closed your eyes and pictured a league that Notre Dame was in, the Big Ten

would be the answer. But the Big Ten has always said, you're welcome to join us as a full member, but that's what it's got to be. I don't know. I think they'd probably still take that stance. But yeah. We'll see. I would ask if I were Notre Dame. I would ask them.

I'd ask the SEC. I'd ask the Big 12. And I'd see who gave me a deal. It's an important thing to acknowledge because you alluded to this, but I want to say it. if Notre Dame does leave and follows your theories in the column or starts poking around at other conferences to see if they can get a similar agreement, I think we're lying to ourselves if we think the reason for that happening is because of a Twitter post. No, but it gives them an excuse.

Yes, it gives them a reason. But I think we should be doing this anyway. And like Miami fans were joking. They're like, wait a minute, you're going to. you're going to tear down the ACC while you're at it like what this day keeps getting better like the teams that are like yeah the Miami and Florida State and Clemson fans are like okay like go after it yeah what you're going to do you know so it's kind of an interesting dynamic and I understand like I know that I'm probably not the most loving messenger at the moment to Notre Dame people but I truly understand a why they're upset be why they found the ACC's tweets to be inappropriate although I do think that the commitment to the ACC should illustrate or to the full-time members. And I understand why they would want to preserve their future schedules and their placement in the sport because they're a property and a brand that's as valuable or more valuable

than anybody else in the country. That said, if the entire sport falls apart, realignment happens again, Notre Dame will always find a seat at whatever table gets constructed. So there was a really interesting question asked, kind of along that line, but also along the lines of what does it mean for the college football? playoff. So let's hear this question to Pete Ivakwa. Have you spoken with any

power for commissioners since Sunday? And if so, what were those conversations kind of focused on? Since Sunday, the only commissioner I've spoken to on a couple of great conversations with him is Greg Sanky. Greg and I talk all the time. I can't tell you how much I admire

Greg and his leadership. And, you know, good conversations, really about format process. gave him my viewpoint on the process he shared some thoughts that he had with me that obviously between Greg and me format Greg knows they all know how I feel about the format go and put the process aside the format I mean you know four teams 12 teams 14 teams 16 teams thousand teams should be 16 teams in my opinion with five automatic qualifiers and 11 at large now if I were captain clickbait I'd be like Notre Dame

trying to make a deal with the SEC. That's not what this was. This was Pete Bavakwa reminding everyone. We have a seat at the table, just like the power conferences and the group of five conferences, when we all sit down and hammer out the playoff format. And he just told you what he wants and what Notre Dame wants the next playoff format to look like.

16 teams, five automatic bids, 11 at large. Guess who else would like that? uh the SEC the SEC now the SEC would like 16 teams with 16 at large but they understand that's not going to happen so yeah but this is this is Notre Dame saying all these big dogs that's that's the dog we're going to be on the side of I don't recall too if we mentioned this and I'm sure this is part of the the evolving college football playoff discussion that we're going to have but have we mentioned on the show at any point that Ross Dellinger reported that Bavakwa told them that Notre Dame is assured of a CFP birth if it's ranked in the top 12 starting next year and how important that is. Yes. Well, okay, there's a diff to that. It's if the playoff is still 12 or if it goes to 14.

If it goes to 16, there's no guarantee. Okay, but like basically it wouldn't matter at that point. But basically, they just got an insurance assurance that if they're ranked in the top 12, that's all they need to do. Yes, that's exactly right. And that means even if you're number 12, which would be this year's shopping block. which is a major, which is a major game. They would be knocking Miami out, which, by the way, might cause the ACC to go nuclear on them.

Right. Could you imagine? And here's the thing. Yeah. Now look, the ACC agreed to that. So do the SEC, so to the Big Ten. I guarantee you now that they, because when they agreed to it, it probably seemed purely hypothetical. But next time it could be an SEC team or a Big Ten team getting knocked out, and you agreed to that.

then basically assures Notre Dame of an automatic bid without having a conference or in a conference championship. Yes, and that is a demonstration of Notre Dame's market power that they could pull that off. You know, that's they could move Notre Dame down 13th and then not do it. And if they ever wanted to get to that point. But I think that that piece of news right there is like you said, an illustration of power, but also a reminder of how freaking important it is to properly rank the teams week one, two, three, and four because you won't be able to in good faith if they're

ranked number eighth wrongly throughout the entire season, drop them back to 13 and not give them their automatic bid. So if you put them in that position, because this is the thing that's most frustrating to me. Notre Dame is pissed because they were improperly ranked and it wasn't corrected until the end, which almost, if you kind of zoom out into a multiverse, right, Marvel movies, it means that you agreed with me the whole time. Like that, like, is that not what the, right? Like I was saying you're improperly ranked from the beginning. No, no, no, you, you were right all along.

That's the thing. And I think that the Notre Dame fans got mad at you because what you were saying was hurtful to Notre Dame. They wouldn't have been mad at you if there were two other teams involved. Well, we wouldn't even be talking about it either. it was just done right the first time. I wouldn't have spoken about it. And that is why I think one of the things that may come out of this,

because remember, they have not decided on the format for next year. One of the things that may come out, and they have until January 23rd to decide on a format, but also I think at any time they can make this adjustment, is the leagues may go to ESPN and say, we are done with the weekly ranking release. which I think you're probably something else which I think would be healthy for the committee too to not feel like they have to produce something correct could you imagine if you were they made and after every three graphs you had to provide a final draft to some or a rough draft to an editor yeah if I had to tweet out the story as I was writing it yeah it would suck while the information is still being dispersed you're at a press conference and you have to keep doing that like that's what they're doing and I and I think that there's a place for it. And I think the only reason why this

is a discussion point isn't because it's a bad process. It's because this committee did a bad job with the process. If the committee would have just done the same thing that every other, this is the first time I've ever heard this. It's not the first time it's ever happened. We talked about 2014. How many times the last month? I know, but I did the same thing in 2014. When's the last time, and I know that people have said this before, but I feel like this would not be a talking point if Notre Dame was number 19 in the first ranking review it wouldn't but again this has happened twice in 11 years where they have stupidly ranked the loser of a head to head that had an identical resume in the same record ahead of the team that beat them and had to change it on

the last day because they realized how dumb it looked yeah Dan wetzel tweeted this too and i thought this was interesting but he said it's also part of the job of the athletic director and the administration and everybody involved in Notre Dame to understand the nuances of how this works and there's no reason why a podcaster for and rion three should be more aware of the likelihood of that happening than the athletic yeah they shouldn't have been surprised i get the players being surprised they should not have been surprised like this was written kind of on the wall from the beginning so like we but yeah so like i i do i do wonder if the if the leagues will go to espn and say those shows on tuesday night done you put out one ranking and esPN is going to say okay fine

we're going to pay you a little less then because that's part of what we pay for yeah and then i wonder if the paying a little less makes them change their mind because everybody wants every last cent out of the support so it's a great it's a great question which makes me like may think that it's going to still continue but i don't know i think that there should be a larger discussion and i don't know if that's today or another day of who's on the committee too yeah i think if you're we did we have always said 12 or 13 intelligent people could but those are 12 intelligent people or well it was 13 people when they when they did the first ranking those are 13 intelligent people and they did something really stupid so maybe I think I think 13 intelligent people were in that room this year I

probably have accomplished more in life than me and most of the people listening to the show absolutely I also think that it's inappropriate for the committee chair to be doing a coaching search in the middle of it because I want the person who's making the rankings to be Well, the original committee chair was not doing a coaching search. No, I know. My point is that if you are an athletic director or a sitting employee of a school that's playing college football, I don't think you should be on the committee at all. I don't think that anybody that has a current responsibility in the way the sport is constructed should be on the committee.

And I don't know who that leaves, retired athletic directors, retired administrators. Maybe it just makes the coaches, retired players. I don't know. Or current sports writers. I have no idea. Probably not because current sports writers have jobs to do in the moment. It has to be old people, I guess. But it's just, to me, if you're distracted by other very pertinent things,

you know, like hiring a coach at Arkansas, I find that it undermines your ability to do it, especially if you do something that people perceive to be as wrong. Yeah. Well, we will see what changes this makes. obviously the Big Ten is still pushing for larger than 16 pushing for lots of auto bids

nobody else seems to want that the SEC wants 16 they want as many at large as possible we now know where Notre Dame stands on the thing we know where the Big 12 stands on it I think because of their opposition to the auto bids and there's a reason for that because they don't want to

self-identify as a second class citizen but I would think they would want five auto bids in 11 at large guys. So I think we kind of know where the battle lines are drawn. I think it's Big Ten versus the world. I wonder if what happened in the WIU this year makes you second think about the second-class citizen thing. Good question. You know what? We're going to request Brett Yormar.

We need to talk to Brett Yormar. Because I wonder if this has changed his mind on that because he actually talked to his own ADs. And his own ADs were the ones who talked him into. hey fight back on this thing we'll earn our place and the thing is their champion has a buy without any sort of you know you have to be a champion to get a buy and their champion looks like it can compete in this tournament so yeah it may be that the big 12 is is is turned a corner on that but we'll find out is this is going to affect that college football playoff negotiation And I think that's maybe the more interesting part of this,

because like Pete of Aqua said, they can eventually mend the relationship with the ACC. I think the more important thing, and you nailed it, there may not be an ACC, at least that looks like this in five to six years. I don't know if I'm going to be defensive or not, but like the ACC strikes me as like an old beat or a car

with nice rims on it. You know what you can do with nice rims. You can take them off and put them on another car. It's got an expiration date. They gave themselves their own expiration date. So it's something to consider. Something else you should be considering. What you put in your body.

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And that's incredible when you have a very busy life. And I tell you, everybody, my family loves the Hew Black Edition because we all have those moments where we just, we need to grab something quick. So we've got the powder at our house. We've had the ready to drink bottles at our house. If you want those ready to drink bottles, they've got them at your local target now. But if you want to get the best deal, you go to Hewel.com, that's H-U-E-L-com. Use the code Staples 15 and get 15% off your first order of $75 or more, plus a free gift.

You could also order the Hewled Daily Green. greens right here. That's got 42 vitamins, minerals, and superfoods, super greens, adaptogens, Lyons, Maine, mushrooms, and four grams of fiber. It's a great way to start your day, everything you need and a can. Huell is the world's number one, complete nutrition. Huell.com, huel.com, and the code is Staples 15 for 15% off your first purchase of $75 or more. All right, while we're on the subject of Notre Dame, Notre Dame has a Heisman finalist. Running back, Jeremiah Love, one of the four players announced as a Heisman finalist on Monday. So in New York City on Saturday night, your finalists are Jeremiah Love, I just mentioned, Indiana, Mendoza,

Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayan, and Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia. You and I are both voters. If we want to keep our votes, we can't tell everybody how we voted until after they announced the winner. But we can't talk about what we think is going to happen because, you know, like BetMGM, had the odds up until the votes were in and the last odds I saw were it looked like Fernando Mendoza was the odds on favorite.

Yeah, I think that it's hard. I want to navigate this without getting in trouble, but my perception of who I think was going to win it didn't mirror the odds. And maybe that's because let's just be honest.

People who vote for the Heisman watch two candidates who are playing each other in a championship game and probably cast their ballot based on who won the game and it's very interesting too because are you saying now you wish that they had opened the voting earlier because you were the one who said you should be thrown in jail if you voted too early before

and now they changed it so it didn't open until Saturday afternoon no it didn't I thought it did open early it opened Saturday afternoon they changed it so that people couldn't vote before the day of the conference championship games. It used to be it opened during the week before. I don't think you should never catch your vote until you have all the information. What I'm saying is that I think most people who vote are obtuse enough to just narrow down

what happens in the final game and make their full decision on it. Can both of those things be true? I didn't vote so after the game was over. I voted Sunday morning. I voted at two in the morning on Sunday morning. and I will say that my vote wasn't 100% predicated on who won the Big Ten title game. No, it wasn't. It was the whole season.

And that's what it's supposed to be. It's the most outstanding player in the United States for this season. The other seasons don't count. We've seen career achievement awards. I think like Hershal Walker probably should have won it as a freshman. He ended up winning it as a junior, which was more of a career achievement award when he got it. but it's it's interesting it's you know this award still means a lot to a lot of people I feel like because it ignores 19 positions on the field I don't I don't give it as much weight

as other people do what do you think it is about the Heisman trophy and I don't know is there another like because other people don't care about the MVP of the NFL the same way that they do about the Heisman. Right. People aren't reading columns about who are the 10 Heisman MVP favorites in the NFL before going into it because it would just be I'm not sure. It's interesting because like Norm Carlson, the late Norm Carlson, who is the longtime sports

information guy at Florida, would tell the story about when Steve Spurier won the Heisman. And this was in 1966. And basically he just used a phone call. It's like, hey, you won the Heisman. And it wasn't a huge. huge, huge deal probably until, I want to say the 80s, in terms of this television spectacle and the TV show and how all that worked. So it's not like it's been that way for a hundred years

where it was always this massive deal. But I do feel like it is the award that we argue about the most, that we care about the most. And I'm not saying just in college football. I'm saying in all of American sports. I wonder what it is about this trophy that stands apart from all the other The NFL MVP, the NBA MVP, you know, American and National League MVP's, like, those are objectively bigger awards because they're, they're professional sports. It's the, you know, it's the best of the best in the world. Yeah. The balloon door, the, the, you know, World Cup, the best player in the World Cup. Or the best player, I'm sorry, the best player in international soccer each year.

Like, those are massive awards. But this one means as much or more. to American sports fans. I think it mirrors why college football is so special to us because I feel like college football is more, you know, not that pro athletes don't have legacy, but like winning the Heisman is a legacy award for your institution. Like when Josh Allen wins the MVP, that isn't a legitimizing thing for the Buffalo Bills.

Right. They just want to win the Super Bowl. They don't care. They happen to have one of the best players in the country or in the world on their team. But like if Vanderbilt wins the Heisman this year, that is a. a source of pride for Vanderbilt University. And I think that's part of the reason why it stands that it stands. Well, yeah, go to Oklahoma.

Like the front of the, you've been there. The front of the football building in Oklahoma is statues of all the guys who've won the Heisman. And what's the first thing you see when you walk into Ohio State's football building? The Heisman trophies. It's everywhere. Yeah. And every place that has Heisman winners has a place in their football building that commemorates

those. And some people retire. don't most programs retire the number of everybody who wins a Heisman? Not always because there's so many numbers. There's so many guys on the roster in college football. Yeah. I mean, Julian's saying where's number 10 and Troy Smith wore number 10 and he won the Heisman and he's a finalist.

But yeah, I think there's too many numbers. Like Florida has a ring of honor. People didn't wear number 11 for a while. That was Spurrier's number. And he actually gave it out to one of his players, Ben Hanks, who's one of their linebackers. And my friend, Steve Gorton, when he was a student reporter at the Independent Florida Alligator, the next player to have 11 after Ben Hanks left, Steve was asking Steve Spurrier

question. And he said, coach, you gave so-and-so Ben Hanks number 11. And Steve Spurrier is like, Ben Hanks number. That's my number. But that's, you know, and you like, that you've seen. players were 15 at Florida. That was Tim Tebow's number. I don't think is now 32 wasn't retired at USC before all the OJ stuff happened. Yeah. So yeah, it's I think it's there's there's too many guys on the roster to be retiring numbers. But think about what it means for a school. Like if let's say

if Mendoza wins it. Like it's not just Indiana being a national power this year. Like that that is a massive legitimizing factor for what Indiana is doing. I mean, it's like, You can just tell people you can win the Heisman in Indiana. Yeah. What a recruiting ship that is. Yeah. No, for sure. So I don't know if we're supposed to say who we think is going to win.

If you want to know what our opinion of who we think is going to win, it probably mirrors what the Las Vegas. I'm just telling you what the odds said. And so that's, that's all I'm going to go with an overwhelming favorite to win it last time I changed. And so Indiana has never had a Heisman trophy winner. Anthony Thompson was second in 19. 89. So that would be huge. Obviously, if Diego Pavia won for Vanderbilt, that would be a massive, massive thing for Vanderbilt. I will say, if Jeremiah Love were to win, it would continue the tradition of years in the five years that ended in five are running back wins of Heisman. So 2015 was Derek Henry. Yeah. Andy, we were just on Vanderbilt's campus like this weekend.

And I felt Pavia's presence. I don't know if you did. You could just feel the swag. He was on billboards and stuff. I emanating. And I went into the bookstore because I forgot my computer charger and there was a lot of Pavia stuff in there too. And maybe that's part of the reason why I'm influenced by that. Do you get any two turt gear?

I didn't. No, I was looking for a computer charger that they somehow did not have. I can't be the first person on Vanderbilt's campus that needed a MacBook pro charger. Don't know why they wouldn't have it. Um, I also scumback meter. Help me tell me if I'm being a scumbag. If I bought a computer charger from Apple to get me through the weekend,

mm-hmm. And now I don't need it anymore and I returned it. Does that make me a scumbag? Probably. Okay. Sometimes I have like a hard time like knowing like is this a, is this a scumbag move or does everybody do this? See, I lost my last charger, so I just had to keep the one I bought.

If you didn't lose it when you overturned it? No, I would have just kept it. I would have had an extra. Okay. Now, this is my third one. Well, you are the person who just always forgets his charger. So that's kind of on you. Yeah, I just walked into my office here and it was plugged into the wall.

I just got to, all right, Ari. Let's do it. We got to open a pack. Our friends at Panini, visit Panini, America.net to collect your favorite college and NFL stars. We're going to talk Penn State in a minute. I just want to show off this, this Tyler Warren number two 700 luminance autograph that I got a few months ago.

I do love Tyler Warren. So, and I got another Tyler Warren auto recently. So that's a, that's one that I've been hitting a lot. And, you know, I feel bad because now his quarterback's out. So he's maybe the best player on the Colts at the moment. But we're opening a pack of Donorous Elite, 2025 right here. Ari, there's your guy. J.S.N. Jackson Smith and Jigba.

Do you have any of your recent Jackson Smith and Jigba acquisitions? I don't have any acquisitions. I have ones that are going out. I have a ton of JSN because I was collecting him at the beginning of his career. but I've got some pretty big ones here here's some massive JSN cards here's four from there

just on my desk already slapped up here or two from Select that are tied-eye PSA 10s I'm going to maybe keep those but his values through the roof right now he scored twice on Sunday and here's one of his biggest cards in existence

that's the contenders this is regular contenders cracked ice rookie ticket number 223 that I have here. And I also have another hit, but you keep going. Oh, I've got Brian Thomas Jr.

here. I got a Joey Bosa. Got a refractor, Dave Craig, in those glorious 80s, Seahawks uniforms. But the last one I wanted to show you, Ari, I have a question about this guy

from a collectibility standpoint. So it's Bo Nix. Bo Nix is second year quarterback, so rookie cards still a lot of lot floating out there from last year's series. They're winning a ton in Denver. But I feel like people aren't sold entirely on

Bo Nix as a big reason for that. Where are collectors with Bo Nix right now? He's still very valuable because he's young. If you get his rookie, he's done, he went to the playoffs last year. Very expensive player. Okay. That's what I was wondering because

he's a quarterback who's winning a ton of in the games. And if this keeps up, eventually people are going about, yeah, okay, because it's Bo Nix, it must just be really good. And I feel like there's a little bit of skepticism there still. So, but go to Panini, America.net. Andy, rip some packs. See if you can pull Bo Nix. What you got? So you know, I'm kind of upset with Panini right now in a playful way because they just released my favorite product of the year, which is 2025 Panini Prison draft picks, which is all these players in their college uniforms. And we are on earth to promote that product because it's for

college. Anyway, I went to my local hobby shop. We need to promote it. That's why we need it. Send it on our way so I can promote it. Because they haven't sent it to me, I went to the local hobby shop and I bought two last week. Okay. Yeah. And I have a bunch of the hits on my desk here.

And I think people will probably take, we'll probably like this. You know who this is, Andy? I don't know if you can be able to tell because of the lighting. Can you read it? I can't. Keel and Russell. Oh, nice. Nice. There you go.

I have Quintan... Maybe Alabama's next starting quarterback. Yes. Quintan Judkins in his Ohio State uniform. What else will I got here? Charles Woodson in his uniform here. He was pretty good. His Indiana Prism Break.

Canadian Cannon! I've got Matthew Golden's Auto in a color match card for Texas in the box. But then I hit the biggest thing that I was. I've been telling you about for months now, and I got lucky in one of the boxes, a Panini Prism 2025 Prism Draft Picks Color Blast, which is the most beautiful card on the face of the earth. And this is Eli Manning and Jackson Dart at Ole Miss together on the same card. And this one is like one of the biggest case hits you could possibly get, and I was lucky enough

to pull that out of boxes that I purchased. So Panini, if you're listening to this, please, for the love of God. send me like a hundred of them. But if you don't send it to us, just know to the listener that you can go to the store, buy it yourself, and hit those big cards on your own. That's the way to do it. Or go to pinie america.net and you can get them delivered straight to the crib. Ari, let us break down one more thing.

Matt Campbell had his introductory breast conference at Penn State on Monday. And this is when we talked about, you know, when he got hired. I love the hire. don't understand why he wasn't the first or second choice right off the bat. You know, we said it when the job open. We're like, okay, take your big swings. Call Marcus Freeman. He's going to say no.

Call Mike Elko. He's probably going to say no. But Matt Campbell was one of those names that we were talking about that made sense for Penn State. And I couldn't figure out why it took him so long to get there. But I'm glad they did because I think they're going to like it. you know what I love about like I mean he did all the all the highlights in his news conference right like he talked about Joe Paterno and some of the Penn State grates and all the things that you do to ingratiate yourself into the society there but I saw a clip of him walking through the stadium with his family for the first time did you see this clip and he was he cried and like I think that it was probably the emotion of like holy crap like Like, this is one of the mecas of college football. And I think that he's been really torn because he is in a sport that loyalty is not at a premium.

Right. Is inherently loyal. And I think he cared a lot very deeply for Iowa State and was torn about that decision to leave. And we always knew this about Matt Campbell. Everyone, you know, he's always the next great guy on the hot boards and stuff. It was like, there's probably only a collection of three or four jobs that he would ever leave Iowa State for, and Penn State was one of them. So, like, my heart always roots for people who really are so grateful to be where they are and have an appreciation for what they get to do every day. And I think Matt Campbell did a pretty good job of illustrating that.

Now, I'm very curious, being the head coach at Penn State and being the head coach at Iowa State are very different jobs, Andy. You know, you have to recruit at a different level, a different type of kid. You're going to be expected to not only make the playoff, but to win playoff games. And I always love hiring coaches that did more with less. I think that translates well, but now it's an entirely different ballgame, and I'm super excited to see how that plays out for Penn State. Yeah, I do think this is going to be interesting to watch because we've said this a bunch. Matt Campbell is a great developer, great,

evaluator of talent, but in this environment, you have to be signing the freaks, too. You know, you have to sign the Abdul Carter's and the guys like that, the Sequin Barclays. Now, I guess Saquan might be a bad example because I think he was actually a little bit under-recruited, but you've got to sign the five-star guys as well as the guys that you feel can be developed into something special. And honestly, you don't know how somebody can do that until they get in that situation, because Matt Campbell in his career has really not needed to do that. He's been at Mountain Union, he's been at Toledo, he's been at Iowa State.

And I think those are different recruiting environments than Penn State. So the question is, how is he going to handle that? And, you know, he got asked about his recruiting and what it's going to look like at Penn State. And he kind of laid it out. So here's Matt Campbell on what he intends to do from a recruiting standpoint. Yeah, let's start with, with, you know, the transfer portal to the high school piece of it. I think one of the great reasons being here is, boy, you're in the most fertile ground of the excellence of high school football in a 6-8-hour radius. Everything will start with building high school football and continuing to do a great job in this state and our surrounding states.

nobody's going to attack more than us. The transfer portal obviously has become a unique advantage probably in some ways, and sometimes it can be a disadvantage. But I think if you look at our history, the last couple of years, Jaden Higgins was maybe the 40th ranked transfer portal guy, and Jaden Higgins was the number one receiver taken in the draft last year. You go to man in offensive tackle, Jalen Travis, who was drafted by the Colts, number 40th in the transfer portal was the first transfer portal offensive tackle taken.

We have a process. We know what we're looking for in the transfer portal, and we're going to have to use that to continue to supplement our football team. But we are going to be, and nobody will be better at developing their student athletes and our high school football players better than us. We've proven that every step of the way. I think you can ask Brock Purdy, Brees Hall, David Montgomery, Will McDonald. Man, the flash of the stars, that's cool.

on signing day, but winning football games on Saturday is what we're going to be about. And that's development. And we're going to have to be better than anybody in college football if we want to get where we want to go. Now, it doesn't address the whole five-star thing. And I think there's a reason you don't talk about that now. But I want to see, like, the thing is, it just had signing day. Obviously, Penn State didn't sign many players at all because they didn't have a coach.

So you've got a full cycle So I just want to see what your 27 class looks like on that front And are you going to be real players in the portal this year Because you're probably going to have to I want my coach to be like We're going to be recruiting the best players in the country And we're going to get them But again, opening day conference

If this was 2017, I'd be like, oh my God, I hate that Obviously there's a lot more that goes into the stew To win games now than it used to so I don't really like react to it the same way Yeah, Matt Campbell's bringing his GM from Iowa State. So from a personnel standpoint, that's kind of where they're starting. And I'm guessing they'll have a much bigger infrastructure than they had at Iowa State. He talked about how they had to create a lot of that for themselves. And a lot of that was because all that stuff was new.

So they had to create the collective, had to create all that stuff. Penn State, the operation exists. You have revenue share now. So it's a lot different than him being the Iowa State coach and all of that sort of getting dumped on everybody. So we'll see what he does with it. The other part I was really interested in Ari is Pat Kraft, the athletic director. Because remember, on Friday, there's this audio leak. And it certainly sounded like Pat Kraft.

Anybody who's ever talked to Pat Kraft is like, that's his voice. And he's talking to allegedly players who'd come to meet with him, football players from Penn State who'd come to meet with him. And they were expressing their support for Terry Smith, the interim coach to get the full-time job. And he had a very raw conversation with them that I think if he had whiffed on Matt Campbell and ended up hiring somebody that the fan base didn't like,

that this stuff he said would be used against him, now I actually think it's going to work in his favor because he did get a coach they like. Because if you look at what he said, he didn't say anything that the average Penn State fan hasn't said. and that like the one the one quote that really stuck out to me even beyond the one where he said uh you know if i if i don't hire somebody good here they're going to fire me how can you how can you f up penn state blah blah blah blah blah blah but the one that that stuck out for me the most is what's

happened here too many times at penn state is they bleeping settled for second best that's why we made the movie. He's talking about firing James Franklin. I think that's what the average Penn State fan wants to hear. But I think when it came out, which was Friday, which is before they had actually hired Matt Campbell, I think it made everybody a little nervous. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that you want your athletic director to illustrate that viewpoint, right? Now, in order to get the best, I think at times you need to be more strategic about, you know, hirings and firings and when those occur and who's available and all those things. Like I don't know if the timing of this hiring made it look like they kind of fell backwards into Matt Campbell.

They would have went out and got him immediately. Maybe it would the optics of that would look different. I also know that in a year from now, if Penn State's in the playoff, none of this shit matters. So like, you know, it's all about like how things actually. go. And I know that we get so caught up in perception of when did this hire happen, who did they get? What did that person accomplish? And like, listen, Matt Campbell has accomplished just about as much as anybody else in this. I mean, he's accomplished more. Could you make the case that he's accomplished more than Lane Kiffin? I don't know that I would say that,

but I'd say it's close. Because the job at Iowa State is so much harder. Yeah. Like, that's a place where they were winning three and four games a year. And he comes in. turns them into not just a perennial bowl team, but a team that could compete for Big 12 championships. Like, that's a huge leap to be able to do that. Huge. Yeah. So now, can you, the question is, if you can make that leap, can you make the leap of Penn State

being a 10-win regular season team to being a national championship caliber team? I would argue that that's actually a bigger leap than what Matt Campbell did. I think it's harder to do, harder to go from really good to elite than it is to go from really bad to pretty good. But I think he's going to have to start knocking pretty soon, Andy. Like this isn't like, you know, the thing about Iowa. No, James Franklin's success through the years tells you you have to, your baseline is a James Franklin blah year, which is going 10 and 2.

Yeah. You know, at Iowa State, you have the ability to have down years to rebuild. There's no rebuilding. It's like he knows that. Let's go. Well, here's Pat Kraft, by the way, acknowledging that was him on the on the audio. Because we were trying to kind of dance around it because he hadn't acknowledged. We're in the AI generation now. Like people can make anything. But that was definitely him. So I feel more comfortable talking about it. Well, I'll talk to any of my athletes whenever they ask me to talk. I'm very passionate, and I'm transparent with my athletes. I tell you, with my kids and my student athletes. What I will tell you about that is that I'm embarrassed. I apologize to anyone that I may have offended with that video that leaked. Personally, it's been challenging for me, but I am very,

passionate about Penn State and it was nine or ten football players that asked want to come in and sit down and we had an open and honest discussion but I fell short of the standard that I should represent for all those people all my staff that sits up there all 833 athletes that I represent and you know I I I can't apologize enough for those who I may have offended and We're all, I got to get better. But I, every one of my athletes know they can call me at any point in time. And I have open and honest discussions whenever, whenever they want.

Yeah, here's the thing. Like, if you were sitting next to Terry Smith introducing him as the interim who you promoted, that apology probably isn't enough and that tape's probably getting your ass fired. But sitting next to Matt Campbell, and if Matt Campbell turns out, to be the coach who makes Penn State ascend to the next level like you're gonna be a legend for saying all that stuff yeah for sure and that's that they might print it on T-shirts one day

honestly yes so and that's it's it's crazy how life works it's crazy how you're on that thin of a razor's edge like this could have turned out very differently I just like when people You know, real talk, dude. Real talk and help.

I do, too. Because he didn't dance around anything. He said, again, what every Penn State fan is thinking. You just never hear the person in charge say it. And I'm guessing, now that they've got the coach, and it's one they probably like, you know, or at least are indifferent to, that they're like, hell yeah, man, that's what I think, too.

Penn State is in this position because it no longer was willing to accept being in second place. Period. End of a discussion. Yep. It is going to be a lot of fun watching this because I am excited to see what Matt Campbell can do. Because I was like when you see someone who's really achieved a lot and they ascend the level. And Matt Campbell obviously beloved at Iowa State, I thought it was. Very telling the way Jamie Pollard, the athletic director at Iowa State, reacted to him leaving.

He basically said, Matt Campbell owes Iowa State nothing. He's brought this program to places we never thought it could go. I thought it was really cool. Like, you just don't see that. We just watched the whole charade with Lane Kiffin leaving Ole Miss. Like, that was a different vibe for sure. Yeah, he's a classy dude. Yeah, good luck to Matt Campbell at Penn State.

good luck to Jimmy Rogers, the new coach at Iowa State because they got him in there really quick and it's going to be a lot of fun to watch all these new faces in new places, including Lane Kiffin. It's going to be fun. So we'll talk a lot about them. We've also got a lot of playoff talk coming, a lot of bowl talk coming.

We've got to break down the bowls at some point, Ari, because even if Notre Dame is not playing. Yeah, we've got two weeks before a game. Yeah, I still want to watch. them. And, of course, we've solidified our travel plans for the first week of the playoff. If anybody, we may just have to have people recommend songs that'll keep us awake as we drive through the night from Norman, Oklahoma to college station. A zero sugar monster energy drive, I think. But, yeah, caffeine will be heavily consumed.

All right, Megaboard Wednesday, coming up, and you know, giving him. everything that's happening in the last week, the boards are going to be popping. We'll talk to you tomorrow.