Andy & Ari On3 - PMT's Big Cat BLASTS Ari on the 12-team playoff | Matthew McConaughey says DON'T THROW TRASH

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

Wendy’s New Saucy Nuggs take the Crispy and Spicy Nuggs you love and turn them up to 11.Choose between flavors like Buffalo. Honey BBQ. Garlic Parm. Or, if you’re a real heat seeker,try Spicy Ghost Pepper, only on Wendy’s signature Spicy Nuggs. This show is sponsored by PrizePicks, America’s most fun daily fantasy game. Use the code STAPLES to play $5 and get $50 instantly. https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/STAPLES(0:00-0:34) Wendy's Saucy Nuggs(0:35-2:10) Intro(2:11-14:00) Alright, Alright Alright, Texas Students(14:01-21:36) UConn Head Coach Jim Mora Goes OFF(21:37-22:32) Ari's Favorite Conspiracy Theory(22:33-23:49) Try Huel today(23:50-51:56) Pardon My Take's Big Cat joins the show(51:57-54:23) Is Ari wrong about the 12 team playoff?(54:24-55:31) PrizePicks!(55:32-1:06:29) Syracuse at #19 Pitt Picks(1:06:30-1:10:50) Friday Night Games with MLB World Series Discussion(1:10:51-1:15:50) Jackson Arnold named starting QB for Oklahoma(1:15:51-1:18:46) Conclusion; See you tomorrow!This show is brought to you by Huel, The World’s No. 1 Complete Nutrition Brand. ​With over 400 million meals sold worldwide — yes, you heard that right, 400 MILLION — Huel is trusted by millionsof people looking to fuel their days with convenient, complete nutrition. Try it for yourself with myexclusive offer for you…. FIFTEEN PERCENT off with the code: STAPLES at HUEL-dot-com. Fuelyour best with Huel today! We’ve got a major guest today: Pardon My Take’s Dan “Big Cat” Katz joins the show to give Andy and Ari some advice.  Big Cat, one half of the biggest sports podcast in the world, has been listening and is not thrilled with Ari’s take that the 12-team College Football Playoff devalues the regular season.   So he lays out in painstaking detail why Ari is wrong. He also explains to Andy that even though Andy and Ari has climbed the podcast charts, it still has a long way to go before it can challenge the king. Big Cat also helps Andy determine the Reverse Harbaugh. What’s that? It’s the program that can say “Who’s got it worse than us? Noooooo-body.” Meanwhile, Texas minister of culture Matthew McConaughey sent a message to Longhorns fans to stop throwing bottles — even if it does make the officials reconsider their blown call. Elsewhere, Brent Venables named Jackson Arnold the starting QB for Saturday’s visit to Ole Miss.   Also, UConn’s Jim Mora blasted the refs in a way only a coach whose team isn’t in a conference can.   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

you've had Wendy's nugs dipped in sauce, but have you had them covered in sauce? Wendy's new saucy nugs. Take the crispy and spicy nugs you love and turn them up to 11. Choose from flavors like Buffalo, honey barbecue, and garlic Parmesan. And of course the spicy versions of all those,

which I highly, highly recommend or the spicy ghost pepper. If you're a real heat seeker, seven delicious ways to try the nugs you already love, pick a flavor, grab some extra napkins and prepare to nug like you've never nugged before. For a whole new way to nug, it's got to be Wendy's. Welcome to Andy and Ari on three. Big, big guest today.

Big Cat from Pardon My Take, the biggest podcast in the world. Definitely the biggest sports podcast, but I think we learned it's also the biggest in the world, depending on the day. Yeah, no, we're coming for them, but it might be a longer journey. You know what I mean? Like, we thought we were on their heels, but we're going to find out. We learned some things. I might've gotten sun. I might've gotten little Boyd,

pat it on the head just a little bit, but that's okay. You learn. When you're swimming with the sharks, you got to figure this stuff out. The best part about it is the journey, my friend. You know what I mean? Like we're working at it. We're getting the journey my friend you know what i mean like we're we're

working at it we're getting bigger uh and you know halfway through this first season together again uh i feel pretty good about the direction that we're in so you know listen i've preached and we're going to hear a lot about this on the show later with big cat um about one of the merits of the 14 field which is demanding excellence from people in order to get in. I'd be a hypocrite if I thought that I wanted the standard to change. Like when we finally make that 14 field, it's going to be an accomplishment because we earned it. Not because somebody gave it to us.

They're coming after you pod. Save America. Yeah. I mean, once we get through the election, I think we'll be good. You know, I think so too.

They're getting a bump from, they're getting a bump from that. That's that's what it is. It's not anything else. All right. Let us before we get the big cat. Because we have another big star who's chimed in on college football. Well, you saw him. You saw him at the Georgia-Texas game. culture for the Texas Longhorns. Matthew McConaughey has said his piece on the Texas

fans throwing bottles on the field, which by the way, got them what they wanted, got a call overturned, which I'm with Kirby Smart and Josh Brooks, Kirby Smart, of course, the Georgia coach, Josh, the Georgia athletic director, who are like, that's not a great precedent to set. Like if you want them to change the call, I actually wrote a column about this. Like there's a way to do this. Maybe like the NFL does with the expedited replay. Cause they've all got the officials have a communication system in their, in their heads now and not, not implanted in their brains, but they have the headsets and they, if you watch the NFL games there's certain plays where New York just says hey y'all messed that up here's how you fix it fix it like I'm not saying that the command center

should say you got that call wrong change it but the command center can very quickly say hey you guys need to have a conference because when this replay shows up on the board you're going to look real bad and then they have the conference but matthew mcconaughey is trying to make sure that this doesn't happen again at the university of texas that the the field is not sullied by dasani water bottles and whatnot. So here's his message. Longhorn Nation and specifically our DKR student section, M.O.C. McConaughey coming at you here. First off, you were electric Saturday night when we hosted Georgia.

Bravo. Let's continue to bring it. Even though our horns didn't get the W, you created a measurable home field advantage. But let's get real about the bottle bombing field glitch we had. Not cool. Bogey move. Yeah, that call was BS, but we're better than that. Longhorn Nation knows how to show up, show out like no other, and still keep our class. So going forward, let's clean up that kind of BS and leave that behind us for good. We have to shake hands on that. Next up, November 9th, when the Gators come to town,

let's make sure they feel the heat, can't hear the play calls, and burn their timeouts. But remember, nothing hits our field except that Texas fight. Till then, root hard and hook them. McConaughey. All right, all right, all right. I got to tell you, you did pretty good. No, no, no.

I didn't know you were going to do that. And I was actually thinking to myself, he's actually doing a really good job with this. Because if I tried it, it would have been an absolute disaster. So I think that you hit the, I think you hit the vibes of that really well. Like, bravo to you too, my friend.

He's more of a vibes guy than an accent guy. Cause it's just more, it's more cadence than that. Yeah. I was just imagining myself cruising around in a Lincoln through the Los Angeles night. Like maybe up the PCH. Matthew McConaughey is like baseline level as a human being is just like

perpetually on like five milligrams of gummies at all times even if he doesn't take it like i think that's just like how he feels at all times just like vibed out and just like relaxed uh he does make me want to drive a lincoln so uh kudos to you for the impression I do find it very funny that this this loose affiliation with Texas and like the the statement coming out there like that like from a position of authority like is anybody taking this this guy's position or anything of that nature seriously or is this just a big like laughing thing like what is this i actually think it might have been the best way to address it that's that's what i'm debating back and forth in my head like because if chris del connie the ad comes and look if you've ever

met chris del connie he's actually it's a different vibe than matthew mcconaughey but he's a dude you want to party with too uh but coming from him it might sound a little too official like hey don't do that kids and coming from matthew mcconaughey it's like hey man that's not is it that's not cool we're all cool here we don't we don't need to harsh the buzz yeah uh i like my favorite line in that andy was bogeyy move. Like, I just like, would anybody say that? I can't figure out if that means he really said it, or if there was some intern in the office going, what would Matthew McConaughey say in this instance?

But like, if you are wondering what like the minister of culture does, like this is the perfect thing, right? Yes. Statements. Uh, when things go awry, when somebody wouldn't want to read an official statement, like if you just do it in the McConaughey vibe, like all he's saying is,

Hey, let's cut that out, man. And like, it kind of hit, like, I don't know. It kind of will.

I don't know if it'll work. He calls the call BS, which is, is great. Cause Chris Elkani can't do that. He'll get fined. But Greg Sankey is not fining Matthew McCona work. He calls the call BS, which is great because Chris Elkani can't do that. He'll get fined. But Greg Sankey's not fining Matthew McConaughey for calling the call BS. Do you imagine if Texas got a fine because of Matthew McConaughey's harsh words with the referees?

Can I ask you a question? Yes. I thought about this a lot this season. Like what? I know games are long, and I know that we're trying to, you know, get more action and less breaks. But like, what is the harm of being able to just challenge a penalty call?

Like to let the refs go back and look at the play, look at the action. And like in that moment, if. Probably because they never stop. But if you limited it to one one a game yeah you get one game and you don't throw it out there if it's a 10-yard penalty in the first quarter it's for moments like that yeah where it's a pivotal like i mean there you can go back the last five years and think of penalties that altered the course of big games that might have

gone another way had it not it doesn't have to just be turnovers to me i think if you give everybody one penalty challenge or allocate the penalty to their already allotted challenge total i think that should be fine like what why does it have to be a turnover or a catch why can't it be anything that you don't think went right all right i it's funny because there's so many judgment calls and they say those are judgment calls but it's also judgment calls. Does anything have to be a judgment? You actually can review on video. So what's the difference?

Why does it matter? Yeah. Like, why does anything like did this fall across this line? Yeah. Is it is is a judgment call, especially if you watch the Miami Virginia Tech game? No, I think this is not a bad idea in the the entire point of challenging is that you do not trust the judgment of that call, regardless of what it is. Like, that's what it is.

So, like, if you don't like a PI or you think that somebody fumbled it or there wasn't a catch or anything that you think can change the game, the coach should have the ability, in my opinion, to throw a flag out onto the field and challenge a ruling, regardless of what type it is. If the white hat referee had gone under the hood and watched the play that led to that call, he would have come back to the person who called it and said, hey, I think you missed this. This is either nothing or offensive pass interference. So let's decide, is it going to be nothing or offensive pass interference, but we're going to get it right.

No, I think that'd be fine. Like I said, I would love for the command center to be able to buzz in and just say, you know, within like, because basically the command center reviews every play as they're happening. So whoever was at the command center saw that play and knew immediately that they'd messed up the call. So within five seconds of it, that person can say, hey, you messed that up. You guys are going to want to talk about that. And it's not saying change the call. It's saying get together and talk about it. Steven in the chat points out the PI challenge in the NFL failed miserably.

He's right about that. It did. So I don't know. Also, too, a lot of the stuff is very subjective like there are times like and when you're watching the nfl especially um if there's a penalty and then they bring in the the ref analyst or the rules expert like a lot of times he'll say something that the analysts on the set don't agree with too like i mean sometimes things are just bang bang right like i don't know i'm just trying to think, like, if you're worried about the precedent of throwing bottles on the field, giving refs enough time to reconsider something, then the way to stop that, because people are going to keep throwing stuff onto the field. Like, I don't care what the minister of culture says. If people think that, like, there was a terrible call and they could delay the game for 10 minutes they're gonna do it again um give coaches an opportunity to at least throw the flag and try it that's just

my that's my solution if you don't like it like there's some people here in the chat that are making a good point about there's never been an era of college football where the refs have to be 100 perfect bad calls are part of the game you have to overcome them if that's right they're part of fine sports in general like they have like if you want to accept that i will say but i don't want it to become like the last minutes the last two minutes in the nba now like if you've watched like an nba playoff game the last two minutes are interminable because there's all everything it's challenged everything goes to video replay it sucks as a viewer yeah so yeah i mean what would you rather do what would you rather do andy would you rather a game take 15 minutes longer or would you rather

feel like the results messed up like i would rather just take the time as the viewer like if it's my team i want to get it right as the viewer i just want to get on with the damn game and finish it yeah i mean it's just like there are a lot of people on listening to the show that are fans when it comes to their team. Like, listen, I'm trying to think of the one call of a game that I covered that blows my mind or doesn't blow my mind. Blew everyone else's mind. I mean, the Ohio State Miami National title game is. Oh, yeah, that'd be a good one. I wasn't there.

I was 12. But the one that I covered was the 2019 Ohio State Clemson Fiesta Bowl, where the targeting call was one, but the catch fumble in the third quarter, I think it was, that Ohio State scooped and scored. I can't remember who the receiver was off the top of my head, but they scooped and scored, and then they reversed the call, even though it was clearly a fumble. I think they actually reviewed that and got it wrong so like you know who knows i'm not saying it's the the magic bullet that like solves the targeting call in that game i remember

because i actually talked to steve shaw who's the well we were there together remember yeah he's the national coordinator of officials i talked he was at the game and i talked to him in the tunnel after the game and he took me through the whole mechanics of the targeting call and i went back and looked at it i was like oh man like i wrote a column saying they actually did this by the letter of the rule but man they need to fix the rule so i mean i guess the good news here in the texas game is that they arrived at the correct call like i would rather the pandemonium result in correct call than pandemonium resulting in grab ass that alters the game so like i think that at least from that standpoint and the team that it went against one and it didn't like i don't feel like the game is tainted like the last thing

on earth anybody wants is to lose a game or to watch a game and feel like the result is messed up because of something the refs did yeah ge, Georgia still went on that drive afterward that put the game away. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it actually set up Georgia for its defining moment of the season so far. But you still shouldn't be able to get a call should have extended his team's game against Wake Forest. Jim Mora is the Connecticut coach, former UCLA coach. And remember, Connecticut is a football independent. They were playing Wake Forest.

There was a play at the end of the game. Looked like PI. They didn't call it. Wake ends up beating UConn by three. Here's Jim Mora on the call. I'm proud of them for fighting back. We've got to make sure that we put ourselves in a position where it doesn't come down to one play, where an ACC team makes a horseshit call against an independent. And that's up to us to play better at the start of the game so it doesn't come down to that call, which was holding and PI. And that's what I told them. And we'll come back and we'll fight. So it's on us to play better earlier. But it'd sure be nice

if it was a level playing field. Questions, anyone? Jim, I mean, obviously, the way it came down was not... Yeah, it was a hold and a pi hold and a pi here's your explanation acc versus independent there's your explanation dom it's pretty simple all right thanks everyone i love how they try to turn the conversation and he's like nope this is it you can say that if you're not in a conference like he ain't getting fined by anybody yeah as he wants about what jim morris said he can't do anything about it minister of culture at yukon i'm trying to think who could it be danny hurley yeah no i'm trying to think of uh

was it would it be Kemba Walker oh Kemba Walker is a great minister of culture absolutely um yeah that uh I always feel like if I were a coach like listen I'm insufferable on this show I get it but like if I had all the money in the world like I would be a loose cannon like if I were on a college football team they would be a loose cannon. Like if I were on a college football team, they would be the person or I would be the person that the SID does not bring out to talk to the reporters. Like I would just be like, cause it's a game it's fun. And you're allowed to be mad.

Like I don't understand that. I mean, I guess I do understand, but I wish that there was a world where people could share how they were feeling because the raw emotions of things is what makes sports great like if you think you got messed up on a call you should be able to speak freely about that it gives us more to write about it gives us more to talk about sports are about entertainment like don't people want to know what people actually think like i don't know why that's so

bad like i know you can't criticize the officials because they're you know keeping and maintaining the integrity of the football game. People already think that there's this – People already think it's rigged. There is an alarming amount of people who think that Miami is just undefeated because the refs are in their pocket. Well, not the refs. Yeah, because the ACC is saying we want two teams in the playoffs,

so you've got to keep them in it. I don't think that at all. I will go to my grave saying the officials are doing the best they can, and it's a hard job. Yeah, but even at the end of the Miami game on Saturday, the end of the Louisville game where Cam Ward was throwing the football and there was a scoop and score that would have brought Louisville back into the game late in the fourth quarter, then they overturned it it's like everybody was

like oh there's Miami again getting a break it's like he clearly was throwing like I don't feel like they've gotten any of their calls wrong like it'd be one thing if they kept winning because of bad reviews but like I feel like every time they've reviewed a Miami call they've gotten it right so like I don't know like why people there's gonna be a lot of people who disagree with you on the virginia tech when i i tend i tend to agree with you i don't think the cats survive the ground but there's gonna be a lot of people who who don't believe it and and a lot of people just want to believe everything's rigged like hey we have a lot of viewers on youtube i would i would venture to that a significant portion of the people who watch YouTube

for most of their content are in other conspiracy theory. Let's just leave it at that. Yeah. And I, like, I do love conspiracy theories. Like I think going down the rabbit hole and wondering what if is like, I mean,

if it came out that like Miami is undefeated because the refs are in the ACC's best interest in trying to get Miami to the playoff. That would be like the biggest story ever, right? Like I understand like the thought of one. It'd be like, well, it'd be like Tim Donaghy. I mean, that was a big story. There was an NBA ref who was putting bets on games.

Like that's a huge story. That was, that was electric. But like also at the end of the Miami Cal game, Miami took a few really bad penalties that could have lost them the game too. Like it wasn't like they were just, Oh, laying them to the victory. Like Miami, didn't they have like a crazy holding call in the chat? Very presumptuous, Andy, my presumption that officials are doing the best they can and trying to do a good job. I actually think that's the baseline feeling. And if you want to believe the conspiracy like i said you can there are tons of

youtube videos for you to watch about everything yeah but sometimes we need to take people at face value and in this case having met some of these college football officials like i don't understand why they would do it because all you do is get yelled at like it makes no sense whatsoever anyone would subject themselves to this i don't know if you've ever sat like just coincidentally next to an official on an airplane just because you're going yes i have i have like three times in my life and these dudes are like watching tape like they won't drink like i mean like they take this stuff really seriously and like i know a guy here who is like in route to becoming a big 12 official or

trying to become one. And like, I've asked him about it and it's just like the most important thing to him is to be correct. Like they're good people. Like it's an impossible situation and I get it. There's 9 million or 10 million people watching a football game. Half of them want Georgia to win.

Half of them want Texas to win. You're obvious. You know what I, you know what I actually thought? I was watching the game, and then they zoom in to fans on the field or like fans in the stadium during the play. People are like, oh, come on. And it's like right after the play ended, it's like you are literally 500 feet away. There's no way that you're in a position to make a call from that far away, but people just

automatically think the play was what it was based on their rooting interest. Whenever I get called biased, somebody Instagram DM'd me the other day and called me biased. Who do you think is more likely to be biased, the ref or the person in the stands wearing the colors of the team that got screwed? That's

just the way it is. I don't know. But people don't know what the word bias even means anymore like i'll write a very strongly worded opinion column oh yeah and i'll get the i'll get tweets for me finally an unbiased take on this i'm like it's extremely biased it just happens to agree with your worldview yeah um ari apparently i got kevin's uh meaning wrong he he said i was presumptuous for for meeting all the youtube audiences conspiracy theorists listen there's a lot of money in conspiracy theories on youtube so i i'm sure there's a lot of people who love them but we're not trying to be a segment of like top five most believable conspiracy theories across the board for a random off-season ranking if you want to go down that road.

100% because we'll do numbers on it. Can I share one funny one real quick before we go? I know we have to. We've got to get to business, but sure. Somebody posted a prompt on Twitter that said, give us your number one conspiracy theory that's actually low stakes and you think is true. And somebody wrote that Disney created the movie Frozen and called it Frozen so people would stop Googling if Walt Disney's body was frozen. I thought that was hilarious. Okay. Sorry. I've never seen that one before, but that is amazing.

Yeah. It is amazing. So we are not trying to cash in on conspiracy theories here we we want you to watch our our youtube channel on at the on three sports youtube channel we want you to subscribe to this podcast uh leave a five-star review because we want you to like this we want we want you to do it just because you like and we're trying to be the number one podcast in the world that's one thing we learned visiting with our pal Big Cat, because I think we've been aiming too low. I didn't have my sights set high enough. So we're going to work on that. But first, before we get to Big Cat, let me tell you about Huel. This is my breakfast this morning. This right here in this bottle, complete nutrition, 35 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals, seven grams of fiber, 400 calories.

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with that order, you can get the Huel t-shirts. Some of the greatest workout shirts you can get. Just, just putting that out there. So Huel.com use the code staples for 15% off. All right. It is time for big cat who teaches me for me a lesson and then teaches Ari a lesson.

We are honored to be joined by a very, very, very, very, I'm doing his bit and I shouldn't be doing that, but Big Cat from Pardon My Take. I do have a question for you, Big Cat. I don't know if you've looked at the the most recent apple podcast charts but do you feel us breathing down your neck i i can't say that i have where are you guys right there so right now as of today as we're recording this uh simmons is is ahead of you guys i don't know why because your show is the best in the country uh but he's one you're two the Kelsey's are three and we are four so so all right and neither of us

is dating Taylor Swift I I didn't want you to put me in this spot I don't look at the podcast charts if you look at top episodes that's what I go off of because we don't I don't want to hear that we've been around we're near that yeah we've been around for so long that i don't think there's anything we can do to like you know change the charts because they're kind of static uh but top episodes were uh the it's it's basically everyone's brain is broken the election's coming everyone's brain is broken the election is coming israel versus palest I I love that we're we're like hey we're we're we're coming up on the sports charts and you're like uh well here's where we are in the world yeah we're literally just competing with Donald Trump so I don't know what you guys are talking about I think yeah you know I should take it as a compliment

that whenever someone pops on the charts they've like tweeted us um but yeah i just look at the top episodes uh not to burst bubbles but i mean you guys have been crushing i know we are you know we are yeah we are uh playing alabama and we're wisconsin in this matchup right oh well you're like yeah right is that what it is that's yeah you got you went up three nothing and then i came in and i was like well guys that's not how it's gonna go i i was gonna say though uh i am so happy you guys are back doing a podcast when we when i saw you guys at our tailgate at wisconsin alabama i was like i missed both of you guys together so i'm i'm a listener and uh i'm i'm part of the downloads so i love what you guys do and i'm happy that it's worked out you guys are back together we are going to keep on building so that we can compete with geopolitical conflict conflict yes

that's that's that's the goal so yeah this is this is the point in the season it's basically like uh whenever uh august rolls around the fantasy football podcast pop right now is is that time for all of the political podcasts they're just going crazy this is this is their best time of the year they're just gonna be able to get everyone panicked uh not really say anything and people will tune in because they want to feel better yeah we're on the up and up right now we're like in that weird spot where uh you know everybody was fired up for college football and now teams are losing and team people are getting less excited about college football if their teams are losing and now we're just going to ride the ways up wave up forward you know yes yes well uh not to hijack your show but you know what will do

good for your show is uh the 12-team playoff which ari could not have been more wrong about are we gonna are we gonna do this right now you want to start off right now? Yeah. You want to start it off right now? Yeah. Why don't we start it off? A guy who gets paid to talk about college football was against a tournament, a bracket that includes more college football teams. How does that make any sense? Yeah. I guess we're going to start this off this way. Do you want me to start from the beginning, or do you know all the talking points?

I know a lot of your talking points. They all suck. So go ahead. Just play the hits. Yeah. Well do you know all the talking points i know a lot of your talking points they all suck so go ahead just you know play the hits yeah well you know what the thing is is that like i guess from a business standpoint like the idea that i have is wrong right like you want more people to be involved because then more people listen to the show correct and more people so like yeah i guess we could play kate to fans a little bit more about their odds of winning the national championship even though they probably can't i guess we could give customers more of what they want yeah yeah i guess i'm just a bad businessman really like is all it is uh you know um you know it's kind of like when it's like having a rolex and then everybody has

one then having the rolex isn't isn't special anymore. That's kind of how I feel about it. Okay. But what does it matter if, if a couple other people get a Rolex when you're, I mean the, what you're looking for at the end, I don't even know what's higher than a Rolex, but that all that matters is the championship, right? So who cares if more people have a Rolex? Yeah, no, I know. I mean, I guess it's, it's just like, you have to be in a position where you have to expand your brain and allow teams that aren't in the elite class to talk in the same class as a national champion. Right. Like and like I think you're the perfect person to think this because Wisconsin probably would be the biggest beneficiary of this system because they have always before the last few years, I should say, been in that 9 to 13 range, right? And it's like that's exactly where the Wisconsin's of the world are. So, like, I understand why you would want that.

But, like, I also feel like you personally would have loved making the 14 field in a way that this won't compare to. So, I kind of feel like you're even wrong. Disagree. Disagree. Disagree. If they're on 11th seed, that's going to feel just as good for you as being the four seed in the i don't care getting in the playoffs is all that matters getting in the playoffs all that matters and here's the problem that you missed sorry you are applying the uh like 12-team

playoff to five six years ago college football when i would have probably agreed because there was only three teams that could win the championship every single year and there's probably only two college football is completely flattened now the NIL transfer portal like who there are more than three teams now that could win the college win National Championship there are a lot of teams could that could win a playoff game now so it's complete it's. So it's way more flat. I think it's going to continue to get flat. Everyone who said the NIL and transfer portal is going to just make the rich richer,

it did the opposite. And that's why I think we're in the middle of one of the best college football seasons we've had in a long time. And nothing about the playoff has ruined the regular season for me. If you watched Oregon-Ohio State and were thinking during that, well, this doesn't really matter because both teams are in the playoffs you're a loser you're a loser who who will never be happy in life so this is this is i'm happy you brought that up big cat because i have had a crisis okay personally and andy's just sitting there just loving this look at his face this is

this is like therapy for me i I'm so happy right now. Because everybody likes to gang up on me about it, and I'm used to it. I've got the calluses. If we get to a world where every single year 15 teams legitimately are good enough to win the national championship, then I will lay my sword down. And I have had a hard time accepting that because I have grown up and was forged in the fire where

there are five teams who have a roster who are built to win it and everybody else is just kind of playing along. So if last year's Michigan and Washington national championship is the beginning of the norm and not a weird year, and in four or five years from now, the eight seeds winning the national championship aren't just Alabama with two losses, and we actually do have an Iowa State or a BYU or a Wisconsin or a Penn State or a team that's in Tier B playing for and winning national championships,

then bigger, better. I am, you are right, you nailed it on that. Coming from a place where in most years of the 14 field you could only find two or three teams at most that could do it right so from from your standpoint you saying that like i love debating about this we've done it quite a bit but if the 11 seed can win the national championship then we should have this and if they can't but wait if they can't why why wouldn't you still have it because it still matters for an 11 seed to get into a playoff and potentially win a playoff game that is a monumental thing for the programs that like you said i understand how

college football works there are usually three or four teams and everyone else but like there's more to the sport than just the the national championship that's why we love college football the rivalries the big wins like wisconsin is playing on saturday night against penn state do i think wisconsin gonna win probably not if wisconsin wins this game that is literally the that is like the dawning of a new era Luke Fickle was the right hire everything is going well that is a statement win that I will remember for years and years and years that that still matters you know what I mean like that I don't but the thing that bothers me and it just like always is the same thing like we always arrive back at the same thing big cat and that is college football

is special and meaningful and important for other things outside of the national championship race which i wholeheartedly agree with you on that's why i dedicated my life to covering it so why do we have to mess with how we crown the champion to prove that like that's the thing the people who say college football is more important than the national championship are always the first ones who want to dick with the thing that that is a mechanism for finding that you know what i mean like that why can't you enjoy the penn state wisconsin win whether it's a 14 field or not no one's the the the championship field has no bearing on where you joy you grow and earn joy from does it like what why but it adds more it Matt adds more important games

for programs what's wrong with that I guess I just don't understand what would what's the downside is it that uh you have to work a little more or are you what every once Alabama fans to feel like they've had their intestines ripped from their body yes when auburn returns the the field goal for a touchdown like he wants i want that level of love which doesn't exist anymore but that's still that like with the flattening of the college football world every everyone in the sec has one loss right now if alabama loses another game their intestines are ripped out still right like that's that's still is something that we have are intact after the Vanderbilt game which I hate but the but like no but I want their intestines on the floor after that game like

that game is like literally the poster child for what I think is wrong with it okay so you might think I'm a loser though so no no no but but like all right so you're thinking about that game what about lsu texas a m is that this weekend yeah that's this weekend saturday that game was going to mean nothing now it's an elimination game but that's an elimination it wouldn't have meant nothing they would have lost sec teams one would win and advance into the playoff this is a playoff game in the 14 field no i don't know you you think that one of those one lost team that wins this game and goes on to win the sec would have made the 14 playoff are you crazy of course they would okay well let's talk about uh wait who who else what other elimination games we have coming up old miss george is an elimination

game we even like played the alabama tennessee is an elimination game card and it wasn't like but alabama but now it was because you think alabama's gonna lose again and al and if alabama and alabama did get eliminated in the fact that they're not gonna get a buy now and so now their road is gonna be a lot more difficult i don't know i think like you just the way i see it is you just added more depth to the regular season, more storylines to the regular season. And again, this is going back to the fact that it's flattened out a little bit, so you have more upsets. And I love it.

I think this has been an incredible college football season, and I think a lot of it has to do with the NIL and the transfer portal, but also the college football playoff. And a lot of these teams feeling like they have a legitimate chance like look wisconsin like i said they're playing penn state this weekend wisconsin's not a very good team they've looked good in the last three weeks they played bad teams have i had a moment where i've been like hey we could still run the table and get into the college football playoff yeah would that be possible if if we were in the 14 playoff absolutely not they already would have

been eliminated yeah there's there's hope and I mean maybe Notre Dame is a prime example maybe Notre Dame this weekend is essentially a playoff elimination game that would have not meant anything in the grand scheme if not for this format yeah I I just think it's going to be clunky for a little bit, but I love it. I think more teams always better. And if you said 24 teams, I'd be like, no, that's crazy. But 12 teams feels like the right amount, and it feels like we're going to get to decide it on the field

where you won't have a situation where a team gets left out or you have a team get hot at the end. That's also part of it. We see it all the time in the NFL. A team gets hot at the end of the season. They're not a one or two seed, and they can go and win a Super Bowl. Could that happen? Of course that could happen.

Well, I'm excited to see. I'm excited to see if we actually do get to a place where an eight or a nine seed that's not just Georgia or Alabama on a down year can do it. Even if it's Georgia or Alabama on a down year, that's still awesome. That's still fun. That's still a lot of fun. Yeah. That's a lot of fun.

Yeah, I think that my whole thing is college football was special to me personally for a lot of different reasons. One was that feeling you get when a team is losing and everybody turns the channel to that game and that having a meeting. That still happens. That still happened where Alabama and Vanderbilt. Yeah, everybody watched it for sure. Like, I don't think that I ever worried that people would not watch.

But we have gotten to a place in the world, I think, where, like, it's, like, offensive to be a loser you know what i mean like and it's okay to me like if you're a loser like there are losers and winners in the sport a big cat yeah i grew up in sec country where if you ain't first you're last like it always like it always amused when i first started doing national coverage and because i had been an sec team beat writer at a couple different papers for you know covering tennessee covering florida and you know my mom went to alabama my dad went to south carolina like so that was all like all i grew up with like you either win the national championship or you suck and like meeting big ten people who were like we just want

to go to the rose bowl i don't like that I know you're patronizing. I have a question because this actually just popped in my head. Ari, how much of your anger at the 12-team playoff is directed, whether you subconsciously or consciously, at James Franklin, the Penn State, and the Lions? I mean, it literally is the entire problem I have. Thank you for bringing it up. That's it. That's it. let me ask you this big cat yeah let me ask you this so you have the most successful sports podcast on the face of the earth right thank you yes anybody can buy

a microphone and anybody can do what we do right like you can buy a microphone you can talk into it and you can hope people listen so based on what you guys built there at barstool and what your podcast has done and what we all strive to be should everybody who does podcasting get paid the same like this is the thing that i cannot stand hey ari we need a 12-team podcast playoff to have a chance here. Look at what I'm saying, though. But I'm just saying, like, Penn State does not have to do anything to itself to strive for greatness anymore. We have lowered the bar to let them in.

And I think the entire world in America is about striving to achieve something. Do I want to make as much money as the most popular podcast in the world? Do we want us to be number one? Do I want us to be able to be next to you on the most top episode? Yeah, but we got to work for that shit, but we're not, no one's going to change. Hold on, but the bar is going to, the bar is going to keep going up and up because Penn state will go to the playoff every year and they won't win a national championship and if they don't win a national championship Penn State that will be their new problem like that like if you said yeah Penn State just wins a national championship under these under these new rules yeah that would be that would be messed up but they still have to

perform on the field so yeah they got let in to a system that they probably were never going to get into but they still have to go and win it. Like, in five years, if Penn State goes to the college football playoff every single year and gets bounced every single year, the new problem for James Franklin and Penn State will be they can't win the big one. Well, that problem exists already. That's true, yes. And since that problem exists already.

Yeah, well, I thought you said the big one. I wasn't sure.. And since that problem exists already. Yeah. Well, I thought you said the big one. I wasn't sure what I might've not heard you there. Uh, I think the, yeah. Okay. We'll see how that goes, but like, I don't know, like, are we going to hang banners in state college? Cause we make the playoff now for being certain basketball teams hang final four banners and certain basketball teams hang national championship. If you're a loser, like that's the whole point. We'll make fun of them we'll make fun of them for it do you know what's in our office right now hanging up yeah I do I I listen to that episode it's Jimmer it's the Colts uh 2014 AFC finalist uh which is incredible actual one

that was in Lucas Oil Stadium is in our office hanging up and what do we do we made fun of it so when penn state does their banners saying we made the college football playoff five years in a row and didn't win anything we will mock it and it will be funny so i i think i think what i actually think ari the the best way to like agree on this at the end is i understand your points i think all your points will kind of get washed away as we get. And I hope that's what happens. Yeah, honestly, I do hope. I hope that is what happens.

And like, honestly, I think that my strength as a podcaster slash columnist is that when I am wrong, I'm very good at admitting it. So I hope that I get to the point where I have to be wrong on this because I do think that this getting amped up for the unlv boise game on friday night is a great positive and i guess if the thing that we have given up is alabama having its intestines all over the floor so that we can watch this game on friday night and feel like it matters for the for the race then you there are some positives there uh i just can't stand that in this world you can't just call a loser a loser anymore like we still are when alabama loses in the 12-team playoff we're gonna call them losers that's the thing

is you just gotta wait yeah i think you just i think the big thing with you is you just gotta be patient if you're patient it's all gonna work out okay I hope so it our podcast is depending on it so well and that that going to just putting a bow on the whole thing you you do have to start thinking more like a businessman because 12 playoff is way better for your podcast yes yeah absolutely yeah what Ari hasn't noticed is that big cat has explained how every single thing involved with this can become a different piece of content. Yeah, we got to get our brains like that. And that's true. It's how you take on the political podcast.

Yes. And I really hope that the UNLV fans this week will turn off the Israeli Palestinian conflict discourse. Yes. Give it a break for a few days and come over and listen to our show. So let's hope that's what happens. They will. They will. Okay, before we let you go, I got to ask about something we've been talking about this week. And it's something I'm calling the reverse Harbaugh. Okay. Who's got it worse than us? Nobody. So I'm going to give you five schools

and you tell me who's got it worst right now. So we've got Auburn. Okay. We've got Florida State. We've got Michigan. We have Oklahoma and we have usc okay uh i'm gonna throw out michigan because uh my boss dave portnoy uh is going to get a quarterback and i believe him when he says that so i think they're dave michigan has fuck you money i don't know if you're allowed to swear on this podcast. You are. Beyond belief that I think people will slowly realize. And what happened this year, they sold it all for national championship last year. The timing of Harbaugh's exit cost them a chance to get a quarterback this year. This is a year zero situation.

Exactly. So Michigan's thrown out. I'm going to throw usc just because i as much as lincoln riley can't get a defense together and i thought they were a little bit better to start the season uh it's still usc guys are still gonna want to go play there he's still a coach that's gonna get a heisman quarterback uh so that they'll they'll get thrown out oklahoma's in a world of shit it feels like uh a world of shit because they're now in the sec and that is going to be like when when when when the stakes get go up you can't start bullying everyone in the big 12 anymore and they got the coaching hire wrong

oklahoma feels like they're in a lot of trouble and then what were the other two Auburn and uh Florida State Florida State's in a lot of trouble too because Mike Norvell I mean that's that's how much money do they all I mean it doesn't really matter at the end of the day it'd be 70 million dollars there was a great message board post where they're like hey why don't the administration administrators at Florida State just go to Norvell and say why don't we just agree to disagree and you go coach somewhere else right he would just leave 70 million on the table okay so I'll put I think Auburn might be Auburn's probably second to last Oklahoma's last Auburn's second to last uh because they're in a lot of trouble and the same problem with the SEC Florida State not in the SEC and I know that people will say I'm biased here, but doesn't it feel like Florida State has the magic bullet if they need it

and it's to just get Deion Sanders? Well, we're – Colorado's a lot better than people think. Yeah, Colorado's a lot better than people think this year. Travis Hunter, I should legally say, should be Heisman. I know that he's got to get a couple more stats going, but I do have a 40-1 ticket on him him so i say it on every show i go on uh but i it does feel like you is you have that just hanging out there uh and i don't know if dm want to go to florida state i know there was

probably some some bad feelings last time around when they were had an opening i don't know what he's going to do when shador leaves all this stuff. But at least you have the hope of, Oh, that guy could maybe fix it and bring us to, to the modern era. Uh, whereas Auburn doesn't feel that way. Oklahoma really doesn't feel that way.

This is, it's such a fascinating discussion though. The reason I did this is because I put out a poll over the weekend and I had Auburn, Oklahoma and USC on it. And the, the, the Florida state and Michigan fans are like, why are you leaving us off of this? Yeah. Michigan's not in the conversation. Michigan's not in the conversation. That's, that's crazy to me. They had, they just won a national championship. And again, they have so much money that that will, that will fix itself. Now you could make the argument. Did they get the coach? Right? I don't know. You got to give him

more than one year. So that might be a little bit of a, did he, did he finally just sign his contract? So he did sign it. Yeah. Maybe they could just tell him he never signed it and then they can go get a different coach. Uh, but yeah, Michigan's not in that conversation to me. I am. I am very excited to see what your boss does on that front because, uh, I do, I did like that. He was going to part of the nil deal was gonna be a segment on pardon my take for every week that he's gonna make you interview yes without telling me until he told me on the podcast that we were doing um i'm also i'm i'm working on a quarterback for wisconsin so i'm getting my name in the mix as well so it's hey

what's the what's the i'll send you some names the, what's the, I'll send you some names. I got some FCS dudes. I'll send you some names. Yeah. When you're working on the quarterback for Wisconsin, like, are you just trying to find the, like a Jim Sorge clone or like, how are you going about this?

Like Jim Sorge, Jim Sorge, you played a lot of years in the NFL. Are you, I, that's what I'm saying. Like, are you looking for like a,

a quarterback that fits into that mold of like the people who like cloned themselves for like 15 years or yeah no we had a lot of them we had a lot of them um John Stocko Scott Tolzien Bart Houston yeah no no they're Tyler Donovan uh and they're all the same person in my mind yeah they are they all kind of wash together no I I listen I think we're gonna find a a good quarterback we took you know i we we've had bad luck the last two years i don't know if tyler van dyke was going to be the answer he got hurt i i actually liked tanner mordecai a lot he got hurt uh so we're we're gonna find the answer and listen braden lock has been playing good ball i know it's against bad teams which thank god they

beat the ruckers purdue northwestern that was a nice three weeks where i was so down on the badgers but it was a reminder that like hey as as bad as you you might feel you're not that and you'll never be that so that's a nice it was a nice like you know awakening of like yeah all right reality is here those are those guys you're still not that we gotta ask you one other thing go ahead go ahead i know you gotta go in a second have you looked at the board this week for college football and what's your play of the week i have not i've been so bad uh you don't want my play of the week i was the i was the idiot who took texas last weekend um so a few of you so sorry there

were a few of you and one of us i don't know about you but i go down the live rabbit hole a lot so if i think something is going to happen in a game i won't acknowledge in my own head that i'm going to be wrong and i'll hit it live six times uh so i'll lose the same bet six times in a row in the same game i don't know if you do that but that's yeah oh yeah so yeah i had texas uh minus three and a half minus five and a half uh plus three plus six and a half plus eleven and a half and plus seven hundred and those all went out the window on saturday night um i'll tell you one that i'm just looking at i'll have to look at it more i know i know notre dame has a good defense but it's always tough to

to plan for the triple option navy's defense has not been very good and they can score so i might take the over in that game 52 i know that's a crazy number for but i took it i i think they're over under who do they play this week do they play charlotte they played east carolina east carolina i think it was like 57 was the i'm sorry navy played charlotte you're right yeah yeah so the navy charlotte overunder was 57. I think it hit in the middle of the third quarter. Navy could have scored 100 in that game. Yeah. And the tricky part here is Navy is going to intentionally try to take possessions out of the game. They're 132nd in plays run this season.

But they're so efficient. They are. But if Notre Dame's athletes are that much better than Navy's, then they're going to score quick. So that's where the over comes in. Yeah. Yeah. So maybe that one. But, yeah, I'm so bad at gambling right now.

You don't want any of my picks ever. It's a disaster. It's been a disaster season. I'm ready for college basketball. Oh, it's coming. It's coming. But I have a feeling things – we know more. Because I don't think Vegas has figured some things out.

Like when the 13-and-a-half Alabama-Missouri line came out, I was like, they're not watching Alabama play. So I think we're slowly getting there. Yeah. But Big Cat, thank you so much. It has been a pleasure. Thank you, boys. Anytime you need me to come on in school, Ari, I'm more than welcome.

Yeah, that's – I mean, honestly, I'm more than welcome. Honestly, I'm happy that that's what happened today. I get to tell everybody that Big Cat came on and the first 20 minutes of the segment were just him shitting on me. It's going to be great. Just start texting me whenever they make a change in college football. Just start texting me saying, is this good for podcasting

business or not? I'll tell you. This is good. Everything's good. This is good for podcasting business. You're right. I changed my're right I changed my mind the 12 team playoffs the best thing that's ever happened yes yeah company man ask yourself the question how do I turn this into content yeah thank you so much all right thank you guys that is the great big cat and ari he's muted see he's taking no lessons from this at all can't even unmute his mic what happens is when we put the guest on it mutes my mic and then i have to unmute it and i always forget that's that's why producer river sends us a text saying remember to unmute your

mic like 30 seconds before you need to unmute your mic. Sorry, producer river. I let you down. Hey, the guy's got, the guy's got a gift. Like he's just very entertaining. I listened back to that. I know we were a part of the conversation, but, uh, really appreciate that he was on.

And, you know, I was reading the comments during it and, you know, there are a lot of people that I read the comments to the people who don't think this is going to be better. Just hate fun. Like Christopher Jordan in the,

in the chat, who's one of our regulars said the first round games are going to be unnecessary. No, the first round games are going to be awesome. Like you just said, you just, you're like,

Oh, I don't want four really good football games with do or die circumstances on campus. Like who doesn't want that? It's like, no, please don't give me all that ice cream. See, please don't proposition me, Miss Venezuela.

Like, we've got 53 minutes into this, so we can't start this over again. But the thing that irritates me about this discussion more than anything is that you can be resistant to the 12-team field and still look forward to the games. Like, I don't know where on earth I've ever said I'm not going to be expected. But the games are happening because of the field. I understand, but I think that the thing that my stance has always been. If there's no field, those games don't exist.

My stance has always been that those games exist in September, October, and November, but we're too stupid to realize the games in September, October still exist. You just get more. They still exist, but they don't have, I mean, we don't have to do this again,

but like, I can't stand. Big Pat came and blew you out of the water. You can talk to the discussion. We got to pull up 12 team playoff. Yes or no. 12. Yes. It is destroying no.

People who fear change and hate fun don't get it. And they'll get it when the games are happening. They're like, oh, God, boy, I was really stupid about this. I love change and fun. You clearly don't because you're arguing against it. All right. One thing we can all agree upon. Games are a little more fun when you play in prize picks during the game. Download that app,

use the code staples, play $5, get $50 instantly. By the way, you still have time to get that almost free Ant-Man square as the NBA season begins. That's Anthony Edwards. The Timberwolves play the Lakers tonight. If he scores a point, then you win that square. That's how you play prize picks. You pick squares. You pick at least two. And the more you pick,

the higher the potential payout. So, you know, you could do kind of a five square play for five bucks and win or lose. You're going to get that $50 to play instantly. But if you win, you're going to have a little more to play with. So give it a shot. And remember that Ant-Man Square is out there for you.

The college football board is being populated. There are college football games tonight, Wednesday. There's a great Thursday night game that we will be talking about next. We're going to be picking the Pitt-Syracuse game. So download that PrizePix app. Use the code Staples, play five, get $50 instantly. Just have a little fun with it. All right. We do need to talk about this Thursday night game.

My favorite time in the calendar is when the ACC starts putting fun games on Thursday night. So I worried when the NFL came back to Thursday night that we were going to lose this forever. But the ACC has kind of brought this back. And Syracuse at Pitt is a great game because both of these teams are so much better than they were last year. Syracuse, we kind of expected to get better. I don't know if we expected to get this much better this fast, but we thought they'd be pretty good.

Pitt has been a very pleasant surprise, but Pitt's schedule is about to get gnarly, and it starts being gnarly this week with the Cuse. Ari, what do we think about this game? My gut feeling on this game is that it's really, really hard to go undefeated, and Pitt, getting Syracuse at home is probably a good thing, but I think that this might be the spot where pit trips. Well, so here's the thing. Pittsburgh is kind of a, you know, kind of a middle of the road defense and Syracuse is a very good offense. So the question is,

can Eli Holstein and the Panthers offense keep pace with Kyle McCord? Because that's really what it comes down to because so far they've kind of done just enough in some of these games. But if you look like they beat Cincinnati by one, okay, Cincinnati is a good team. Cincinnati might be the best team they've played so far. They hung in there against Cal. Well, Cal gave Miami all kinds of problems and they certainly held Cal to a much lower point total than Miami did. So we think that Pitt is better on both sides of the ball, but this will be a great test. And you saw that schedule Syracuse SMU Virginia Clemson Louisville like they've got it they've got to keep playing well because there's a there's also a universe where they're six and five at the end of that stretch so yeah this is this is going to be a really good test and there

are five and a half point favorite in this game I'm actually a little surprised it's that high. Yeah, it is pretty high. And let's give Syracuse some credit too. Now, I understand they lost to Stanford in a pretty ugly game. Maybe a personnel decision at the end away from winning. But beating UNLV, I think, is a pretty impressive win. Like, more impressive than people give Syracuse credit for. And I think that as a result of losing to Stanford,

maybe rightfully so, but Syracuse has now gone into being underappreciated as a team this year. Like, I'm not saying they're going to go win the national title, but this isn't going to be an easy game. I was certainly surprised to see that Pitt was laying five and a half. I get it. It's at home. I think Syracuse is going to score in this game, Andy.

And I think they're going to score. What do we feel about that 61 and a half number? I think it's going over that. Yeah. Yeah. I think that Syracuse is probably going to get into the 30s or 40s in this game. I really do think that they're aiming really high. And I think Pitt's going to be able to score on them a little bit too.

Yeah. One person pointed out while Big Cat was on in a reply to one of my tweets, they said, you know, in the old system, Eli Holstein would just be sitting in Alabama. And I'm talking about the old system where you had to sit out a year after you transferred as an undergrad. But, I mean, that's a huge difference because Pitt got the quarterback wrong a couple times in a row. And all of a sudden, we're like, what the hell is going on with that program?

What happened to Pat Narduzzi? Well, you get the quarterback right, and suddenly everything seems easier. Yeah. We are not that far removed from this being an undefeated matchup too so like oh yeah i think it's kind of funny and i don't know if you're reading the chat as you're talking but i am i i'm perpetually trapped by comments and feedback there are a few people are like what's the over under attendance going to be in this game 15 000 who cares like people are down playing the game and it's like you can't be pro expansion and then shit on these games like this game is legitimately going to this is is this not every bit as important to

the playoff as some of the other games we just talked up this is very important to the playoff this is an undefeated ACC team. Yeah. Two. Oh, one. One. Sorry. Stanford. Syracuse has a loss. It's going to take three years to figure that one out for me.

Yeah. But it's okay. I mean, that's the thing. Yeah. Stanford lost. Yeah, exactly. But it is a fun game. And look, I don't know how to explain this to people.

It's not necessarily for the people who would be in the stands at Pitt on a Thursday night in the middle of the work week. It's for the people at home watching on TV. They're like, it's Thursday. There's good football on. And let's be real here. The NFL has given us some stinkers on Thursday night of late. Like last week's Broncos-Saints game sucked. So if college football can give us a good game

that people might want to either turn away from the NFL game or put it on the second screen, I predict this will be a much more fun game than the NFL game on Thursday night. You know, and I have actually fallen guilty at times, Andy, to like being comparative between the two. Like, I understand that the NFL is a very popular enterprise and whatever. But like, I think that this game, based on the, you know, way that the sport is set up and the way that both of these teams have performed, the Syracuse-Pitt game is more interesting just as a consumer

than watching the Vikings and the Rams. Now, it's a wonderfully world where you can have an iPad and end the game. Then maybe, but this doesn't seem like a real good game. I'd rather, I can only pick one game to watch. I would rather watch this than the NFL

game. Now, maybe I'm in the minority here or not in the minority in this room, but maybe in the country because of fantasy football and all that stuff. But this matchup's important. It's an important matchup. We have to give it a time. I think you're in the minority because the NFL is just bigger. But I do think there are going to be people who look at both of these

as an option and say, I want I want the Syracuse pit. Yeah. And I'm so glad I'm so glad college football hasn't completely abandoned Thursday night because this is what I want on my Thursday night. Like I love like a 60 day run of call of football every night. Yeah. It's great. Fifty five days. And it goes until the night the night before thanksgiving is our next football-less night uh but it is it is going to be a lot of fun this game i i think i'm gonna go with syracuse like you're gonna get five and a half points i'll take the cues you know somebody tweeted at us earlier that i get cute and pick money line a lot but i think

i'm gonna go cues on the points and money line. Can I just do both? Cause you got to sprinkle both for it. Like, you know, full unit on plus five and a half, half unit on money line. I don't think that's a bad idea at all. Yeah. I,

you're still mad about that guy that tweeted us this morning about, uh, me taking the Auburn points. Oh, by the way, Auburn money line last week, Auburn money line last week. Great bet.

Like you're not going to hit all of Auburn, but that was the right side. So whatever. It didn't hit, but this is a show, and if you want to take a stab at something, and I'm going to tell you, I told my friends on Friday night, Oklahoma State Moneyline was a really good spot on Friday night. It didn't turn out to hit, but if you're a live person, you can get in there early, get two to one or plus 175, and then find a middle ground in there.

That's that's fun. So like I think Syracuse is going to be in this game or winning in the second half. And you will have an opportunity there to do that if you were to take the money line. So that's that's my prediction on the game. I'm also excited to see Pitt during this stretch to see if this is, you know, if this is the because of the schedule schedule they played before, or if this is, this is real. Cause if Pitt comes out of this next stretch, uh, you know, going into the season finale at Boston college, I feel like I feel comfortable with Pitt there, but if they come out of this stretch and they're sitting there with nine wins or they're sitting there with eight wins, that's a great season. Yeah. Given the circumstances. Deion rating their defensive ends. And yeah.

That win over West Virginia was electric. Like, I hope that if you were watching the show, you saw the ending to that. If not, go watch it on YouTube. It was incredible. We were in Wisconsin and there was a lot happening that day. That was the night that we thought Billy Napier could get fired when, you know, they were Florida. Yeah. Yeah.

But I had it on the iPad while I was working in the other room, Andy, and I was like dying in there. So it was incredible. Pitt's been a resilient team. And certainly if they win this game, I think that kind of changes the chemistry for me, at least on bracketology and bubble watch on Sunday, because this would be – like, listen, Syracuse beating UNLV, I think, is a legitimizing win.

I don't know if I'm over overstating that do you think I'm overstating that I think we need to see Boise State UNLV this weekend to figure that out but but here's the thing Pitt and SMU are probably gonna have their say in the ACC race you know we're looking at my bracketology projection right now and I've got clemson and miami both in the playoff that will depend on like clemson plays pit and then smu plays pit as well so uh the game is next weekend i might be there in dallas like that's a that's a pretty important game um and if they they both win this week and they're undefeated in the ACC together, that would be quite the show there. Because SMU has a very advantageous path to the ACC championship game.

And I saw somebody at the beginning of the year saying that ACC champion SMU at 15-1 was an attractive play, and it's starting to come to fruition. So I'm excited to see how that goes. Yeah, and I think we got snowed when they lost to byu because we didn't know what byu was yet right and now we do and it's like oh wait they were in in that game against byu at the very end terrible start to the season too like they started with preston stone and you know have made made a move yeah kevin j Jennings, Preston's own question hurt a little bit. So like that has been, they've had some weird games with some bad turnovers and stuff,

but I think once they poured it on TCU, that's kind of when they, they took off. So very interesting team to track this year. Yeah. I cannot wait for this. And again, this is what's popping up. Like we, we got the seafood tower of appetizers this

week because we have syracuse pit on thursday night we have boise state at unlv on friday night we also have rutgers usc on friday night which by the way fox could not have set that up any better because remember the game was set up this way to be after a world series game with Fox having no idea who would be playing in the world series, but it is going to be the Yankees and the Dodgers followed by that worked out pretty well from major league baseball, a team from the tri-state area against a team from LA. Yeah. Well,

which one's more important. I'll let you decide, but that Rutgers USC, of course. So I got into this like argument with my friends in the group chat on more important. I'll let you decide. Rutgers-USC, of course. I got into this argument with my friends in the group chat on Saturday night because they were texting me

about the Yankees-Guardians game that was happening during the Georgia-Texas game. Maybe I'm just a terrible businessman, as we found out on the show today, but what is with the mlb viewing window decisions like do they just have no choice because there's football on every night

and they just aren't going to go at night but like don't you think that game should have been at like noon when it wasn't going against the the game of the week like i don't like it's just they're constantly like competing because i am interested in in the major league baseball playoffs i like watching it but like i'm never going to choose to watch it over a football game so ml mlb operates as if no other sport exists like the other i like i think the nba understands football is a thing that exists and kind of tries to work around it now obviously it doesn't over like when the nba gets to crunch time it doesn't overlap so they don't have any real competition yeah but mlb like if you look at how they how they do a lot of things where they schedule certain games the the release of awards winners like where it'll just come out at like 9

p.m on a tuesday night random like oh that's that's who won the mv Oh, cool. They don't seem to have any sense that you've got to be strategic about this stuff. And I do wonder why that is. Is it because they were America's game for 100 years and then the NFL didn't really become ascendant and college football didn't overtake it until the last 20 or so years i i don't know but it is fascinating to me you know more about the decisions they make are totally siloed it's like it's like these other like football doesn't even exist but if i think i saw that the georgia texas game had north of 10 million viewers on saturday night um and i have no concept of this because i don't cover baseball or pay attention

to it but were more people watching georgia and texas or yankees guardians like there were more eyeballs on the football game right well yes and in last now i think this world series because the two markets that are in it the two teams that are in it will do good numbers but the average number of viewers for a world series game last year was 9 million. Okay, so a good football, good college football game is going to is going to beat that and a bad NFL game is going to beat that, which is why. The conferences are blowing up and the television deals are so important because that's that's where the cash is at. So I just thought it was weird. I don't know if you could ever play a world series game uh

on a weird in a weird time slot because it's the world series i'm not saying move it to placate football but i do think that like their viewer windows for like the playoffs are bizarre yeah it is it is very strange because anytime you're a prime time against great college football or the NFL. I just don't see some of these games on FS one. Like when I see a college football game on FS one, I'm like, Oh,

somebody's not feeling very important. And it was like the USC Maryland game was on FS one. Cause Colorado, Arizona was on Fox. And I was like, wow, USC, not, not feeling it. They put this on FS one and then they're putting whole ass like baseball playoff games on FS one. Yeah. So, uh, the world series

is a whole different animal, but yeah, just the thought to wrap this up. Well, one more, one more thing we do have to get to, because I sent this in our group chat last night, and I knew what it would do. Jackson Arnold named the starter for the Ole Miss game. Brent Venables did that on his radio show, which is exactly the same place he named Michael Hawkins Jr. the starter for the Auburn game when they made the change last time. I don't think it matters. Producer River pointed out that this announcement did not move the line even one iota overnight. I think they could put one of us at quarterback and it wouldn't move the line because I don't think they can block Ole Miss, just like I didn't think they could block South Carolina. Yeah, I feel pretty good about my analysis of this situation. So we've talked about this quite a bit. I understand in theory why you moved to Hawkins.

But through the first, you know, 60% of the season, you benched your future to decide that he's the better option in October? Like, is that what ultimately happened to you? Are you assuming – but you're assuming Jackson Arnold's the future. I'm not. Yeah. Well, we don't know yet. He hasn't played enough.

All parties are going to have to make their decisions after the season. And I'm talking, of course, about Jackson Arnold. I'm talking about Michael Hawkins Jr. And I'm talking about Brent Venables when he hires a new offensive coordinator. And it may be that the new OC wants to bring in a different quarterback. I know, but why do you make this move right now? Why do you go back to him? Do you think he's better?

Because you're trying to win games and you already burned his red shirt. So at this point, it doesn't matter. Yeah, I'm just like, I think that if you're trying to win games, that means that you think that Jackson Arnold gives you a better opportunity to do so, right? No, you think that's something different. We're in the realm of symbolic gestures. We're in the realm of symbolic gestures for Oklahoma. Because I'm not sure there's anything that you can do that will actually help you move the football.

But if you keep tinkering with things maybe you luck into something because now now you've got a new play caller in joe john finley and a different quarterback in jackson arnold maybe that combination does something i don't think it will because again if you can't block it doesn't really matter they have a decision to make at the end of the year about who to keep or what the future of the quarterback position is going to look like. It could be neither of them, depending on how things go. But my understanding of what they thought of Jackson Arnold coming into the year

and what we thought of Jackson Arnold through the last two years, that you'd probably want to let him play more than three full games before you make that decision. That's all I saying so like if you're going to congratulations yeah so yeah which made the move initially bizarre and now i think this is bizarre like i think the whole thing is bizarre yes it's bizarre when a team that is one of the best teams in college football history historically west best programs in college football history just decided not to recruit high school offensive linemen for a couple years and now they're paying for it yeah like it's that's so then let your we have more because of your lines of line and then watch them be awesome somewhere else without giving them an opportunity to show that they

can do it it's crazy well and and we talked about having a recurring segment called rules for college football and rules for life like rules for segment called Rules for College Football and Rules for Life. Like, Rules for College Football, one of, and this may be my number one rule for college football, if your offensive line sucks, you suck. Yeah. I mean, that's pretty much it. If your offensive line's awesome, it actually takes care of a lot of other things, even if you're not awesome everywhere else. Yeah, you are right about the offensive line.

There's no argument here. And I kind of feel bad for both the quarterbacks because neither of them have been given a fair shake. Well, you keep trying to use logic on the quarterback situation when logic doesn't apply because there's nothing they can do. I know, but your offensive line does stink, and no matter who you put back there, it's going to have a hard time. But I don't know if what they've done with an unchangeable situation

in the middle of the year is the way I would have gone about doing it. I don't think it matters. You change the quarterback when you think the quarterback. I do. I think that Jackson Arnold has not had enough runway given what we thought he was well good news Ari he's starting this week so you get more runway and he might get run over by Jared yeah we'll see we'll see yeah that's I mean that that's the problem unfortunately whoever they put back all I'm saying is they gain nothing from from making a quarterback change they gain nothing from making a quarterback change.

They gain nothing from pretty much anything because unless they start blocking, it doesn't matter. Yeah. We'll talk about this more tomorrow. I had a column called the reverse horror ball. We asked Big Cat about it. You heard that. If you want to go read that on three big cat about it. You heard that. Uh, if you want to

go read that at on three, I did it a little bit differently. So basically who's got it worse than us. Nobody, five different schools. We had, I had three that I did a poll on the other day and I had, I had people who were fans of these other two, right. It's writing in saying, Hey, how come you didn't include my school? So it is Auburn it's Oklahoma, it's Michigan, it's Florida state and it's USC. And so I did not just the reverse Harbaugh for this season that I did a short-term reverse Harbaugh and a long-term reverse Harbaugh. Cause those are two different things. And cause Oklahoma, I actually feel like can be okay long term, but is in just hell short term. And I think that's the key here is you got to figure out what do you do?

How do you fix it long term? In Florida State, meanwhile, they're in hell now, but they might be in hell longer. So we can talk about that tomorrow. Your pal, Doug LaMaurice, is going to join us from the Kings of the North podcast. He's going to tell us why SEC football stinks. That's going to be fun. Yeah, I can't wait to watch it. You have been a master manipulator of this show.

You bring people on. You bring on topics that you know are going to inflame and enrage me right my turn oh this isn't going to enrage me oh it is it's a great business model there are we live in a world where people's feelings supersede objective facts and if you cater to their feelings you might build an audience whoa see

you're already fired up well he is a very good arguer so get ready I think you guys are going to argue I'm going to stand off to the side but I think it's going to be a good time we're going to record that I got my break with Big Cat he started talking and I'm like I set off to the side, but I think it's going to be a good time. We're going to record that. Yeah, see, I got my break with Big Cat.

He started talking, and I let you two go. Your turn. Yeah, no, I mean, it's been really thrilling to go off into the day with the most famous recognizable sports podcaster on Earth just taking a dump on me for 15, 20 minutes, so that's going to be a good day for me, but I hope Doug can return the favor to you. We'll see how it goes. You're like a champ.

Yeah, I'm not going to go down like a sissy. I mean, come on. I feel a certain way, and you don't have to agree with it. Just because he's famous, what am I going to do? The bigger problem for you is he's right, and you're wrong. So that's the only issue. Whatever, bud. Whatever.

I love you, Ari. I love you too, Andy. We'll talk to you guys tomorrow. It is Wednesday. Wendy's Saucy Take Wednesday. I am in charge of the Saucy Takes tomorrow. So Ari will be the judge. And of course, Douglas Maurice from Kings of the North will tell us why he thinks the SEC sucks. We'll be right back.