Andy & Ari On3 - PREDICTING the 2025 12-TEAM College Football Playoff | Texas, Notre Dame CLASH in Championship Game

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

You’ve had Wendy’s Nuggs dipped in sauce. But have you had them covered in sauce? 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. State and Liberty makes modern athletic fit clothing for men who want to look great and be comfortable at the same time. Whether you’re looking for an athletic fit suit or your new favorite hoodie, State and Liberty has what you need. New customers get 10 percent off when they use the code STAPLES, or you can visit this link: https://tidd.ly/3BY2Amh (0:00-0:36) Wendy's Duos(0:37-1:51) Intro(1:52-4:22) Andy Introduces his new Helmet(4:23-8:15) Way Too Early CFP Bracketology(8:16-14:14) Texas at the 1 seed(14:15-17:34) Oregon at 2(17:35-21:14) Clemson(21:15-26:27) BYU, Big 12 Champs(26:28-27:25) State & Liberty(27:26-28:35) Thank you to Xfinity(28:36-31:45) Ohio State(31:46-33:32) Illinois at the 9 seed(33:33-42:56) Notre Dame's Evaluation(42:57-45:07) Penn State(45:08-49:11) Can Georgia climb back?(49:12-54:50) Deep dive into South Carolina(54:51-57:21) Florida makes the jump(57:22-1:00:56) Tulane grabs the G5 bid(1:00:57-1:04:16) Seeding Changes?(1:04:17-1:06:09) Conclusion Join us as Andy & Ari go through Andy's projected 12-team playoff bracket. As he has Texas and Notre Dame meeting in the championship, he has plenty of familiar faces but newcomers that may leave you surprised. Do you agree with Andy's bracket. Let us know in the comments! Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey 

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It's got to be winnie's terms of plot. Welcome to any and Ari on three. Happy Tuesday. Because of some travel changes, this was the show you were going to see on Monday, but then there were travel changes. A bunch of stuff happened over the weekend. Ari and I felt like we needed to talk about that immediately. So now today you're going to get me and Ari discussing my projected 2025 college football playoff bracket. I'm sure you will agree with all of my choices. Of course Ari does too. It's a lot of fun.

I know what you're thinking. The last season just ended. The Super Bowl hasn't even happened yet. You're already talking about the playoff in December next year. Playoffs? I know. I know. I'm telling you. It's a very fun exercise and you should do your own brackets. Just try it. Try it and see what you end up with because you'll allow yourself to dig into the schedules to get very excited about some of these non-conference games that are coming up this year.

It's going to be a lot of fun. Here are me and Ari in the 2025 college football playoff bracket. First of many probably. Yeah, we got a little gear, what do you think? I think it looks amazing. You gonna go the whole show with that thing on or what? Oh, I don't know about that. So yeah, our friends at shut sent me a

visus helmet as well. So I already got one out and I do to I'm thinking I'm going to hang it back here on the wall. It's gonna look pretty sweet. We got the Andy and Ari logo. I mean, imagine this coming at you imagine that any re logo coming at you on the field. Do you have good little crack back little Wham block? Come on. Muscle memory there putting that helmet back on. Do you feel like

you're up Florida again or what? Got the orange going too? Not really. It's been a while. It's been a while because I tried to put my son's helmet on a few years ago and his head was much smaller than mine at the time and that didn't go well. This is actually made to fit my head and it feels nice. It's not as heavy as it used to be. I think they've lightened these things up. Yeah, and also like the technology to keep your head safe

is probably advanced a little bit more than just the plastic layer that we're all wearing. Significantly advanced. I mean, listen, you've heard my takes on this show. You know, I might've sustained some hits back in the day. So that's all right. I do like to think about like doing two a days in Arizona in the middle of August and like all the safety precautions

that just weren't in place even when I was in high school. It's good to know that our friends at VICE are doing something to protect our heads a little bit better than we used to. So yeah. And like I, like I said, when you got yours, I wore a shirt helmet, my senior high school and loved it fit. Great was, was awesome. And I, I know they've, uh, they've come a long way since then, but yeah,

the, the two and a summer practices, like, I just think back to high school, like we would, there was a seven 11 about half a mile from our school and you would just pile it in the back of somebody's pickup truck and go to seven 11 and I would buy like the biggest Slurpee, the Slurpee to end all Slurpees and just lay in the back of the pickup truck and hope that I might fall asleep and maybe I'd wake up for the next practice. I very much could go for a slurpee right now. That sounds incredible.

Maybe I'll have one delivered. You could door dash one. Yeah. Uber eats it. All right, you're probably, you're probably looking at the title of the show and going, what in the hell are these people doing? Bracketology, wait, are you doing basketball?

Bracketology, no, no, no, no. 2025, college football bracketology. Wait, are you doing basketball bracketology? No, no, no, no. 2025 college football bracketology in February. Hell yeah. My bracket is out now. Ari's bracket will be out later in the week. Is this too early? No, it's never too early. It's Super Bowl week, Ari. There's a football game on Sunday and that's it like that is the last football game we get until August. It's actually sad like when we were on the way to mobile and the two games that we're on for the AFC and NFC championship.

So it's like that was the last day of the year with multiple games and now we only have one more. I love the Super Bowl. We always have a party at my house and a bunch of people come over and it's one of the two days a year I can binge eat without judgment for my wife. The other being Thanksgiving. So I can't wait for it but also to like off season is just grim. Just like we're gonna make it fun for everybody. I promise we will make it fun. Yeah and and we're gonna to make it fun for everybody. Are I promise we will make it fun? Yeah, and and we're gonna

Come up with stuff, but it's like is it too early like who cares like we're just no, it's not too I think actually I'm just I'm just practicing for the basketball Bracketology because we're gonna get into March Madness like I know I know you like when you get into deep conference play and and conference tournament season like you're you're sprinkling a few shekels on some games. So you'll be into it. You'll be you'll be you know late night up watching the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. I I know you so yeah, this is just good practice for that too. So let's

get into this. I think I think at the very least I want people to come into the show understanding the spirit of the exercise, which is A, to talk about who we think is going to be good next year, but B, kind of try to see how things could play out based on our understanding of the rosters. Because it's not just like what the seeds are going to be and who's going to advance deep in the bracket. Obviously that could change based on matchups and things, but it's more so kind of an acknowledgement of expectation of teams heading into the off season, which I think is a really important tool, especially now that we're into February. So there are a few things that jumped out to me when looking at the bracket and it's A,

your respect and admiration for Notre Dame to potentially make it back to the championship game. And of course, some of the other teams popping up there, I wanted to ask you just out of the gate here, because we haven't talked about it yet, Andy. Did you use our preseason top 25 as a metric or a guiding tool in putting this together? Or how did you go about finding the answers the way you did? I did, because I thought it'd be a little silly if I didn't. But also remember our preseason top 25 was mine and then yours. And then we averaged them together. And so this allowed me to go back to mine

and use mine instead of the common, you know, combined version of mine and yours. So like you had Ohio State ranked higher than Oregon in yours. I had Oregon ranked higher than Ohio State in mine. And so I made Oregon the Big Ten champ in this one. I said Oregon wins the Big Ten championship again. They're the two seed. And I had Ohio State as the five seed. And you used the seeding rules from last year. I did. I did. So this could look different.

We can actually, later in the show, we can go over what this would look like if they changed the seeding rules, which I suspect they might. Yeah. Okay. So why don't we take it from the top here? Okay. Let's go one. Do you wanna go 12 to one or one to 12? Well, let's go 12 to one. We'll do it that way. I actually disagree with you because I think the further you go down, the more interesting it gets.

Okay, we'll go one to 12. Oh, you're right, one to 12. You think Texas is gonna be good? Okay, good one. Yeah, yeah, okay, we'll go one to 12. I think that Texas is definitely the team going into the next season. I don't know about you, but you know,

like you always do come up with a path or a favorite in the off season to be the best team in college football. And I think that now that the Ohio State roster that returned last year is no longer assembled and we can get into the world where teams where the super team is dead. I think that it's possible that Texas is the closest thing from a roster standpoint to being that left.

And now Oregon is another one that I would put into that list. But Oregon is a two seed in this here, too. So like, I'm not even necessarily all that wound up about who you thought would win these postseason games. I thought the seeding was interesting. Texas, when I did the top 10 returning players for next year list earlier or late last week, Texas had four dudes that could have been potentially

on that list going into next year. And I know that there's a lot to quibble with when it comes to Arch Manning. I know that people don't love the hype. They want to see more production. But between Ant Hill and Colin Simmons and Ryan Wingo, like this team, I think C.J. Baxter should be healthy and ready to go. Like they have guys everywhere on both sides of the ball, like I think they're going to be the best team in college football coming into next year, and I would anticipate that they would be a

favorite going on the road to Columbus and Ohio State that early in the season. So the biggest concern for Texas is the offensive line. They lose four starters off the offensive line. But DJ Campbell's back. Cole Hudson's got starting experience. Trevor Goosby has some starting experience. And it sounds like they're kind of excited about some of these young guys that have been behind some really good players. So and this is where one,

I like Kyle Flood a lot as an offensive line coach. Most people probably only remember him as the Rutgers head coach. But Kyle Flood is a really experienced offensive line coach, very good at his job. as the Rutgers head coach, but Kyle Flet is a really experienced offensive line coach, very good at his job. And they've recruited really well at this position. They've developed really well at these positions. And so I'm less worried about them being able to restock that group than I would be for a lot of other schools, because you didn't see them like panic and try to get a bunch of guys out of the transfer portal.

They're very confident in what they have. And this is a program that over the last few years, when they've had a hole, they've attacked it aggressively in the transfer portal. And this tells me they don't think they have a hole there. Yeah, it's really interesting to try to watch the off season tea leaves, Andy, because it's just like, is it comfortability with what you have or negligence?

And like certain schools, it's been negligence. But I think with Texas, they have proven through their activity through the portal and of course their proficiency in putting a roster together from top to bottom, that's very good, that's probably more comfortability. This is just off the top of my head, but they've done a pretty good job of signing a bunch of really highly touted offensive linemen in the multiple classes since Kelvin Banks signed.

So it's not like there's empty cupboard there. Yeah, I feel very good about that. And also they have a quarterback that can exist in a world where the offensive line is an elite. If even if it starts rocky at the beginning of the year, you have somebody that you can design an offense around that can escape pressure and things. You should have where they had a really thin backfield because

of injuries this year, you would suspect they're gonna have a really deep backfield now. And that'll help too. You're not gonna have to worry about, you know, even if guys are taking contact early, you're going to have fresh guys you can put in and you're going to feel good about that. But again, I am not worried about the offensive line being good. I think they're going to be good. So plus, I mean, they're going to get worked by some of those defensive linemen and what they see at practice is going to be a lot worse than what they see in most of their games.

So I'm, I'm excited to see this. It's different, but I just feel like since Steve Sarkeesian took over the program, they've done a great job of developing guys and you know, you see them using the portal less this year than they have in the past. And I think that's interesting too, because it tells you they're really confident in the roster they have. Well, Andy, also the notion of Texas being back

I think is interesting, because everybody thinks that being back means winning the national title. And I think being back means consistently a top five team. And now we're going on a third consecutive year of them being that I think that you get through. But I think it's already okay in a non ironic way to say that they're back. Like I think they are. They're one of the best programs in the sport. Yeah. And it's not like a flare up year. Uh, the way that they have been constructed from the previous four

years is what makes you say that it's the consistency of knocking on the door instead of having all these good players and just constantly stinking the way they did for a 15 year period, not too long ago. So, you know, it was only 18 months ago where, you know, I predicted that they would make the playoff and people went fricking berserk. Cause of the notion of like Texas is always overrated. They're perpetually overranked at the beginning of the year and all that stuff. It's like I think all that crap is dead. And they were knocking on the door of beating the Ohio State team that won the national

title this past year and you don't do that if you're not a deeply skilled and talented unit. So congrats to Sarkeesian. I think that he has accomplished what he set out to do in being the head coach there. And the only next step at this point now is breaking through, which could take one year, could take five, but I think eventually they'll do it, because that's what happens when you build teams this good year over year. All right, so let's go to Oregon. Oregon won the Big Ten this year. I think people who didn't watch them play most of the year

who just saw them get routed in the Rose Bowl or like, oh this they were a fraud. No, they weren't. They had a really good season. They got beat by the national champions and that happens. But they're bringing back quite a bit. Now, they've had more to replace. They attack the transfer portal a lot more aggressively than Texas did because they had, I think they felt they had to. I don't think they felt like they had as much in the cupboard as Texas did.

But they went and got some of the most important guys in the portal. In the offensive line, Isaiah World at left tackle, he was at Nevada. He's aptly named. He's as big as the world. And he's aptly named. He's as big as the world and he's enormous. Emmanuel Pregnan at left guard who was USC's best returning offensive lineman. He's coming too.

Evan Stewart comes back at receiver. You got Dylan Theinemann, the safety from Purdue who was one of the best defensive backs in the big 12, or in the big 10 and now he's there. So I think Oregon Andy. I watched Cole Kublick's video of his top 10 players in the country retiring next year after excited. He texted me. He goes, hey, we are list are pretty similar.

And then he sent me the link to his video. I watched it back. McKay Hughes, the running back they got from Tulane who rushed for 1,500 yards was in his top 10. That's pretty good. Like, you know, as somebody who has watched a lot of G5, this kid can run and is really, really good. If you throw somebody like that into this team, holy crap.

Yeah, because Noah Whittington probably isn't RB1. He probably doesn't ascend to that with Jordan James going. Micah Hughes probably jumps into that. And yeah, I just think 65 carries 1400 yards 15 touchdowns 5.3 yards of carry last year. That'll work. That's pretty good. Pretty good. We've seen him go through a whole season undefeated.

They can do it again. And look,, you gotta win in the playoff. Like you can't keep getting there and not doing anything. But again, they got a pretty tough draw. If the seating rules changed, it probably helps them a little bit. So I think that that them losing the way that they did probably puts a sour taste in a lot of people's mouths. But I also feel like you can't draw too many conclusions of one game. Sometimes things just snowball on you. They probably played Ohio State at the worst possible time, probably even harder to play Ohio State where they did than even Texas or Notre Dame because it was kind of just like

they were still fresh and, you know, winding up or gearing up to prove the world wrong. And like the truth is, is that they're not going to play anybody next year that is, was nearly as deep or talented as Ohio State was last year, including Ohio State. So that's the thing too, like with this bracket, it's like Notre Dame had to play Ohio State, Tennessee had to play Ohio State, Oregon had to play Ohio State. Like they don't have to play Ohio State next year, that Ohio State. And like it's an interesting thought as we work down this bracket here, Andy, now to go to

your, your three seed, which would be Clemson. And I know you're high on them. Yes. Now, Clemson would not be the number three team. So right, if they change the seating rules, yeah, if they change the seating rules, I would probably have Clemson seated about eight or nine. But I am high on Clemson and Ari, we've talked about this a lot of times already on the show. Hiring Tom Allen as a defensive coordinator, get some new ideas.

Don't be so insular. I think that matters for Davao. I think they'd gotten a little bit too insular. You bring back Kate Klubnick, you've got those receivers who are very good as freshmen, who I think will take another step. Defensively, you've got dudes like Peter Woods is awesome. Peter was gonna be one of the best defensive linemen in the country. Sammy Brown, like your secondary is good. You've got NFL guys in your secondary. So they are now doing the things that we said they needed to do.

Did they go into the transfer portal like Lane Kiffin does? No. Did they go into the transfer portal and get guys to fill spots they needed? Yes, they got some depth of receiver. They got some depth on the D line. They got an edge rusher.

Like that's how you do that. And they already had good players. Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. The presumption with Clemson is that they don't need to do it the way that Ole Miss did it. What they need to do is like two years ago when Keon Coleman was around, be big enough to say, hey,

we don't have good enough receivers and then go get somebody who you can plug in. So I think that the perception here or my understanding is, is that they feel pretty good about their roster overall because Dabo's done a very good job of, of scouting, recruiting, evaluating and developing to go get players that can help where their weak points are. I mean, if you look at the way that this team is constructed, you know, a lot of people are very high on Cade Clubnick, including yourself, maybe a little bit higher than I am, but you team together with Antonio Williams and Bryant Wesco, and you have Peter Woods and TJ Parker on the defensive line,

two really good linebackers coming back, bringing in Will Helt from Purdue. Like they have guys at every level of both sides of the football. So, and then also too, you have to, I don't know about you, but I haven't like lost my affinity or my respect for Dabo as it pertains to his ability to develop and evaluate players.

So even guys that haven't really stormed onto the scene yet, I think you need to have a wild card spot for Clemson next year of like, here's two dudes that we're not talking about and won't talk about much in the offseason, who actually turn out to be like potential top three round picks, because that always every year that happens. And I think that Antonio Williams is a very underrated player. He got lost in the shot. Antonio Williams could be a massive star. Like that's... And he gets lost because he wasn't Jeremiah Smith or Ryan Williams last year, but like he has the tools as in the physical

traits to to be one of the household names in our sport next year. So like they. Well, we may look back on we may look back on that receiver class of 2024 and just be like, this is insane. Yeah. This is the water. This is insane. Yeah, this is water. Yeah, this is just amazing. So I am. Yeah, I'm very excited about Clemson and I do think this now this is not because they they're seated higher than they would be doesn't mean I don't think that like this team could make some noise in the playoff. I think this is a top five team. Uh, regardless of the seating rules. Yes, that's true. They could be the three seed because they're number three in the country, depending on how things go this season. Okay. So four was Lord be with you on this one.

Cause it's the big 12 champion. How did you, uh, well, BYU brings back almost everybody from a team that came very close to winning the Big 12 title this year. Their biggest issue is they lose three starting offensive linemen, but it is BYU. They very rarely are without talent on the offensive line, but most of the defense comes back.

Jake Ratzel is back. LJ Martin is back. You've got a good chunk of the receiving core is back. Like Chase Roberts is gonna come back. So like, this is gonna be a fun team to watch and it's an experienced team that's played a lot of big games and probably is sitting there going,

we could have been the big 12 champs this year. One or two things goes differently. We're in the playoff already, and so there's a lot of hey, it didn't go the way we wanted to. We're running it back and we're going to get it right this time. Well, the thing with BYU is that a few

things could have gone the other direction, and they could have been way out of the playoff. They were a team that were kind of walking a tightrope all year. Utah game, yeah Utah game, there's a certain level of like, okay, you know, like the Jesse Pinkman, he can't keep getting away with this. Like for a while there, it looked like BYU was going to go undefeated in the regular season and winning games in a way that would make your jaw drop. I think that they probably wound up somewhere when the law of averages kind of, yeah, about where they should have been. But like, if you think,

like, first of all, Jake Retzlaff is going to be, what, Top 7 quarterback returning next year overall. And you put that in the Big 12 with a bunch of experienced talents. And of course, Kalani Satake, very underrated coach. And I think that it's very easy to overlook BYU's coaches, coaching staff staff because they don't really play the same game that everybody plays in terms of how they assemble their roster, they're obviously beholden to, you know, a certain number of players of the Mormon faith and, you know, they're looking for a certain type of person. And a lot of those players are gonna serve,

a lot of those players are gonna serve missions before they come play. Yeah, or if you are trying to get somebody who isn't a Mormon, they have to be okay with the lifestyle there. Like to make a team as good as BYU was last year, and then for them to all come back and try to run it back. Like assembling a roster as good as BYU

at a place that has as many limitations as BYU is kind of, I gotta say probably one of the, I mean, we should do this in the off season. Like what are the five hardest obstacles or places with the most obstacles that you could face as a head coach? I'm sure BYU probably, from an academic standpoint and a religious standpoint, is probably in the top three. I think being a Mac head coach would be the hardest thing in all of sports, or the entire sport, because like, it's hard to differentiate yourself from the others. But holy crap, he's done a really good job. So that's a plus in the can be why you reach there.

And also too, they don't have to go eight no next year. No, you just have to win the conference. And I think you can win the conference at nine and three. This isn't like they have to be perfect again. So, and I think that Colorado should still be pretty tough. Arizona state with Sam Levenback. Arizona state is going to be tough. Baylor into the season, very hot.

Texas Tech into the season, very hot. These are teams that you got to work. And like, what if TCU comes back? You know the big 12, dude. There's seven teams that you could pick from. And like, you could have put any of the top eight there in the conference standings in that spot. And by the way, BYU's bitter, bitter, bitter in state rival, which gave them a hell of a game last year, Utah.

Do we really expect Kyle Whittingham to be down two years in a row? I don't. Like it hasn't really ever happened in the past. Yeah. So they were they were banged up last year. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, that's another one. But that yeah, it's tough picking a big 12 champ.

But I just I went with the team that had the most coming back. So far, there's nothing I disagree with. Like when I'm doing mine, like I got to figure out a way to be different because I don't have anything. Well, you can pick a different big 12 champ. That's an easy one. Also, I think the Miami fans are probably pretty upset that I only have one ACC team in here and it's Clemson because there's a

good chance, like there's a good chance the ACC gets to win again. So I think that's, that's one, something to consider as you're doing yours. With the playoff too, Andy is, is that you have to, you have to be beholden to conference champions in a way that we never had to before, but also too, it's very hard to predict which teams are gonna pick up an extra loss in the non-conference that have nothing to do with where they're seated right now.

Exactly, exactly. And like Miami plays Notre Dame in Florida in the non-conference. Like, so we don't know where that's gonna come out. Miami could have the same exact season it had last year, next year, and get in and make the playoff. Like it's like, it's like all circumstance based on what everyone else is doing. So like, it's like, that's what's difficult about this. I think 10 and two, you know, was almost good enough already. And like, that's the thing. It's like, how do you think it's going to play out? Okay. So now let's go

to five. Wait, first let me tell you about state. Let's tell the folks about state liberty. This is a, this is the black tipped polo from state and liberty. One of my favorite shirts, I'd say during the summer, but I'm in Florida right now and it's 80 degrees. So this is this is the time for these polos. State Liberty makes modern athletic fit clothing for men who want to look great

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State Liberty.com use that code staples and get 10% off. All right, I might not always agree on, I don't know, college football playoff projected brackets 10 months out, but I do know one thing we agree on, beignets, French donuts covered in mountains of powdered sugar. We're gonna smash some of those this week because we are headed to New Orleans Xfinity is bringing us to the big easy to do a special episode of Andy and Ari on three as we get ready for the last football game of this season before the long offseason begins

Of course What are Ari and I gonna be doing this off season? Probably playing a lot of the college football video game. With Xfinity's fast reliable internet service, you can run up the score with no issues. You'll have blazing fast speeds and ultra low lag that'll help you pile the points. Plus you can unlock faster Wi-Fi speeds at home and on the go with Wi-Fi power boost only from Xfinity mobile. Xfinity provides fast reliable connections with lower lags

so you can drop in without the fear of dropping out. Level up your gaming with a network that provides 99.9% reliability. And thanks to Xfinity, we'll be coming to you from New Orleans on Friday. All right, let us go now into the at larges. Familiar face coming up now. So Ohio State, number five.

Ohio State has the, as you pointed out, the two best returning players in the sport. Jeremiah Smith. That's not debated, right? It's not even a debate. I don't think so. The best offensive player and the best defensive player, if you ask the coaches to draft a team,

these are the guys they'd pick first. So a lot has to be replaced, especially on defense. And I get that. But they're still gonna be really good. So the question is, how do they handle whatever bumps in the road? Cause if I've got them seated fifth, it means they've had at least one bump in the road and possibly two,

but how do they handle those bumps in the road? Do they bounce back the way this team bounce back? Yeah. Uh, yeah, I don't know that they'll be undefeated. And I, I'm sure you did a lot of like, uh, schedule checking here when you were doing this and that's important, but, um but I don't even know who they're playing next year. So the thing that's difficult with Ohio State is that if they lose to Texas at the beginning of the year that's a non-conference loss that then you know and they might not lose but if they they do, they're big 10 openers at Washington.

They're playing at Wisconsin. They have Penn State and Michigan. So like they have a, they have a pretty. Manageable schedule, Texas, Grambling, Ohio, Washington, Minnesota, Illinois is going to be a tough game next year, I think. And that's another team that, you know, I saw creeping on in the lower part of your bracket here, Andy, that we're we're gonna get to we've talked a lot about Illinois But like what what is a five the five seed is ten and two right ten and two

Yeah, and one of those losses is to Texas because if you have a loss to the number one seed and It let's say it's a close game there. You're not getting super ding for that. So that means you're dropping. 10 and two isn't the five though, is it? I mean, you don't know how it's gonna play out. It depends on what everybody else does. But if you're, let's say you're 10 and two

with a field goal loss to Texas in week one and a close loss to say, I don't know, Penn State or Illinois, like you can be the five seed. Yeah, and they don't play Oregon. Because remember, you're probably also playing in the Big Ten. Actually, no. You know what that is? That's losing the Big Ten Championship game. It's losing to Texas and losing the Big Ten Championship game.

So it's 11 and 2 probably. So that means that Illinois and Penn State are going to have to have really good seasons outside of that too, because you have eating both of them. But like right again, really to like start like Indiana and Penn State did the same thing last year. They lost to Ohio State made the playoff. So that's right.

And it kind of like looks like I mean, I don't know if you want to hop around here, but seven Penn State nine, Illinois like kind of looks like the exact same scenario of this past year. It is, it is very similar. Illinois, the reason, and we talked about this when we did the way to really top 25, we had them just outside our top 10, we the way way way too early top 10. Then all those guys decided to come back. And I don't know, when you get a good veteran core that decides to come back and you have a quarterback,

I think the quarterback is key in this situation, but you have a quarterback who's been through this stuff, who's been good already, and you've got a coach who knows what he's doing. All of these things, Illinois has. They are primed to be the Indiana of this year, except they're not really going to surprise anybody because they were a 10-win team last year.

Well, they also have a very similar schedule to Indiana last year. They do play at Duke September 6, which could be at the Duke was a lot better. It'll be tough gave him credit. Yeah, Duke's good. Then they play at Indiana and the opener of the Big Ten and then USC at home, back to back.

But outside of that, like Western Illinois, Western Michigan, Purdue, Ohio State, Washington. I think at Washington will be very tough. At Washington's tough. Rutgers, Maryland, Wisconsin on the road, Northwestern. Like, they have a tougher schedule than Indiana did last year. But they also don't have to play Penn State So like that is the or Oregon they had to go to they had to go to Eugene last year Which is kind of the difference right like they were do they lose three games this past year?

but they had to be those games so yeah, you bring back your whole team and Don't have to play Penn State or Oregon like your path to ten and two is pretty, I mean, I think that like when I do mine, I'm gonna have to put Illinois at nine. Yeah. Like there's nowhere, like, so yeah. So I, so just, so we skipped around a little bit. My number six was Notre Dame.

And I actually have Notre Dame going all the way to the national title game from the number six seed and Why am I so high on Notre Dame when I don't even quite know who the quarterback is gonna be yet? We think it's gonna be CJ Carr Offensive line. I think Notre Dame may have the best offensive line in the country next year You saw two starters from a team that made the national title game hit the portal and I saw a bunch of people go What's what's wrong with Notre Dame? How are they losing starters on the offensive line? They're losing starters on the offensive line because those guys probably were not going to have starting jobs next year.

So Notre Dame's got Anthony Knapp coming back who started every game at left tackle until the last one, because he got hurt in the orange bowl. He's probably a guard or center next year. They got Ashton Craig coming back. It was their original starting center who got hurt. But between Billy Shrouth and Ashton Craig and Anthony Knapp, that may be your interior line. You've got Charles Jagasaw,

who was supposed to start at left tackle. He ends up starting at left tackle in the national championship game because he's finally back from injury. He got hurt preseason. You've got Emil Wagner, who started all season at right tackle. You've got Amil Wagner who started all season at right tackle. You've got Gwerby Lambert who's been sitting as a freshman who if you see him in person,

you're like, oh wow, here's the next first round Notre Dame offensive tackle. You've got Will Black coming in who is on three's number two overall recruit in the whole country who's six foot seven and 295 pounds and super athletic, like they're going to be deep and really good upfront. And that goes a long way, even though their schedule is not as easy. It was this year. Yeah. Uh, Pat Guggen, uh, the center, uh, uh, four quarters of fuck you football guy is down to Indiana and Michigan

and making a decision of where he's going to play next year. And I think that would be a pretty big get for either of them because he was still very good player. Like even if you feel like he was kind of the odd man out there, that act is more of a testament to how good Notre Dame is up front, not a test. Yeah, it's not. It's not like if so, if Michigan gets Pat Coogan that's a really good thing for Michigan. He's from Clarkson Michigan by the way, suburban Detroit guy. So isn't that where

Rocco Spindler's from too? Aren't they from like right? I mean Spindler's from Michigan too I think. I'm sorry Coogan's from Chicago, Spindler's from Clarkson. Yeah yeah yeah yeah Coogan. Spinlers. Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah. Yeah, Kugin's from Chicago. So, yeah, either one. He was gonna miss an Ole Miss and he's not doing that anymore. So you have a Midwestern lineman who wants to stay in the Midwest. And like, I am interested too.

I don't know if you want to, at the end of the show, talk about like some of the teams that you were considering that didn't make it. But like, I wonder where Michigan fell in your mind when you were making this too. They were pretty close. So we have a question that we were considering that didn't make it, but like I wonder where Michigan fell in your mind when you were making this too. They were pretty close. So we have a question that we were gonna put in dear Andy DeRari, but I figured it was better here.

It's from Tony. What will UNRE say after Notre Dame with CJ Cargo's 16-0 next year and wins the Natty? Jeremiah Love wins the Heisman and Carthrose with 30 TDs. Congrats. Well, I think we'll, yeah, what a great season. I think and I did this in the written column too. And I said, I think we would ask if Jeremiah Love would have his Heisman on a shelf or would he get a custom cabinet built for it? But yeah, we, but none of that would be

surprising to me other than the 16 and a record. I just don't think anybody's going to be able to go 16 and oh, but Notre Dame winning the national title wouldn't shock me. Wow, I've got a lot of thoughts after unpacking all that. Let's start with this. Do you think a team in the next decade will go 16 and oh? I think probably somebody might. You might get a 2019 LSU at some point,

but that's not gonna get beat by anybody. But I'd say it's gonna be really hard, really, really hard. You can't simultaneously think that the death of the super team is occurring and then also think that someone's going to go 16 and oh, it's either correct. So, uh, I don't think that somebody may just have all the breaks go their way, but I don't think that's going to be something that happens frequently. And that's why in the bracket, by the way, my excellent bracket that I released to the public that only missed one game the entire way. I don't know if you want to talk about that for the hundredth time. I do. I picked Oregon to lose to Texas in the sweet 16, the quarterfinal.

It's still a sweet 16 to me because I just didn't think that they would be able to go undefeated. Not because, you know, if you look at that bracket, like the only place I missed was Ohio State, Oregon in the second round. And then even then I'm not, I would have like if Ohio State would have won, then I would have picked Ohio State to be Texas. It was a actual like the Oregon Texas game wasn't so much about Texas as much as it was like, is Oregon really going to be 14?

Right. It's just hard to go. Yeah, right. Yeah. So by the way, look, that's beautiful. I mean, that is beautiful. Really well done. I think that is gorgeous. And I actually did. No one wants to hear this shit, but like I almost did have Ohio State beating Oregon in the second round. And then I might've gotten it a hundred percent, but I just couldn't because I didn't want to be a would you have Ohio State in Texas because remember we we did but we did this before we saw Ohio State playing the playoff. So we did this before we had Ohio State in the

playoff, but if you would have told me Ohio State beat Tennessee in Oregon that I would have known what happened. Right, if you if you would have won those two games in a row, I'd be like, Oh, God, the light turned on. And then then I would have. So I just didn't think the light was going to turn on. But yeah, so like, what the other thing I wanted to unpack about the question, Andy was like, a, when we're wrong, we're just going to say, Hey, we were

wrong. So if you're one of these people, you think- We were, I mean- Yeah, and then the second part of that is- When have we doubted them? It's very complimentary of Notre Dame. I picked them to win the national title or to play for the national title a year ago and was right.

And you have them going all the way to the national championship next year. So like, what are you, I think you've got the wrong people if you think you have a bunch of Notre Dame haters on this pod. That's not at all what we have here. So, but yeah, anytime

somebody says what are you going to say if X happens? I'll be like, either congratulations or I was wrong. Like, I don't know what you think that gets going to be some sort of like human sacrifice on air because I was like off on something like already. Yeah, exactly. Sapu ku. Yeah, it's not gonna happen. So. Again, if we were perfect at this,

our lives would be very different. But this would actually mean we were pretty close to right. Like. I mean, I think between the two of us. If Notre Dame were to win the national title in 2025, then I would just barely have missed this. Like I know there are fans out there that are plugged in

and spend an inordinate amount of time reading about football, studying football, watching football, memorizing the transactions. Like I think a lot of the people who listen to our show are very smart. But I also think too that you have to acknowledge that Andy and I spend 50 hours a week thinking about this shit. Like, it's like our job to think about it to write and still get

arised about it wrong. Talk about it for an hour every day like we but like between the two of us. Someone's gonna be right most of the time. Because it's just like it's hard not to be. But no, there's no Notre Dame hatred on the show. So like I don't know. I don't know what team would be like. What are you going to say if this happens?

It's like fuck. Congratulations. That's awesome season. Like, I don't know. Okay. Well, no, I think some people think we'd be mad or hurt. And I guess I mean, I would never be mad about. Yeah, any of this. And I guess I mean I would never be mad about.

Yeah, any of this. Like. I think that you and I both know. How important having a dominant offensive line is, and I think we know that Notre Dame is going to possess that next year, so it's very well and you got Jayden Jayden Grace great house coming back who I think, we kind of saw as the playoff went on, like this guy's going to be really good. Yeah. Well, Pauling is coming in from Wisconsin. He was injured some last year.

He was very effective in 2023. It was kind of the only effective receiver at Wisconsin in 2023. Like he's going to be, he's going to be a guy who's going to get you catches in yards. If not, he's good. Yeah. He's not, maybe not going to be spectacular, but great house might be able to give you spectacular. And then you got Jeremiah love. And so we think CJ cars is starting quarterback. Steven jelly's still there too. So let's not forget about him. But the fact that they didn't aggressively go after quarterback in the portal should tell us that they feel pretty good about what they got. Yeah. Great house.

I thought showed glimpses in the playoff of turning into the receiver that Notre Dame has not had for a long time. Baisons there too. Like, so it's not like that they lacked talent there. They're, they're going to be fine. Yeah. Yeah. I think that that is a, uh a pretty nice piece of the puzzle and like Jalen Sneed,

Christian Gray, Leonard Moore and Adon Shuler are coming back next year. They've got a lot of returning pieces. So yeah, I don't hate that at all. And then now we get to the most fun team to talk about Andy, which is Georgia, Penn State. Oh yeah, I saw our friend Bill Connelly from ESPN had Penn State as his national champion. I again, I would need to see them get some game changing receivers before I would be willing to go that far.

You have them slated to be what Penn State is every year again. Yeah, and they keep being that and until they do something to change my mind that's going to have them. Penn State Ted into losses to Ohio State in the regular season and someone else maybe. And then. Here we go, but it is interesting

because this past year, Andy, the committee did something that they've never done before, which is prioritize and reward conference championship game appearances. And Penn State was a pretty good recipient of that reward. So I don't know how the Big 10 is gonna shape up, but like if it's Ohio State, Oregon, and the Big 10 championship game,

Ohio State loses to Oregon in that game, playing the Ducks for the first time next year, they would fall to five. Even Penn State, a team that's 10 and two, or 11 and one, with one loss, being to Ohio State would be ranked behind them, all makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.

And that's the thing like Drew Aller, I think is going to get better. It ended as badly as it could have ended for Drew Aller this season. And I hope it gets better for him because I feel bad about it ending that way. I just I don't know that they've done anything in the receiving core that that gives me confidence. So Warren's gone, right? And Tyler Warren's gone. Exactly. So your giant difference maker is gone. Your backs are back, which is nice.

Nick Singleton and Kate Ron Allen are back. So I think they're going to be good. Are they going to be transcendent? I don't I don't know yet. I don't know yet. And so let's let's go to number eight, which I think is an interesting one because Georgia let Carson Beck walk.

And I don't know that we've talked about Carson Beck going to Miami on this show, but I don't know that we've really dug into the fact that Georgia let Carson Beck walk. What does that mean? Like, does it mean they are that confident in Gunnar Stockton or Ryan Puglisi? Does it mean they're gonna try to shake somebody loose

in the spring? Like what is- Jayden Rashada is still kind of waiting it out. So he's gone. No, he left. No, but he's waiting for the spring. So he's coming back, baby. Yeah, I don't think he's coming back.

I'm just making a joke. I don't know. Listen, people get with that. That name triggers a lot of people. So if people are like, wait, wait, George took him back. No, no, no. Oh yeah, no. They would not.

I was just playing around. I don't think he's welcome back. So here's the thing. Carson Beck is the ultimate trailer. Right when he had as in trucks and trailers trucks and trailers. Yeah. When he had to receiving targets and Bowers and McConkey who are like awesome in the NFL. Now he was great last year.

I thought he was solid but wasn't the team the person that was moving his team down the field. I think at the very least, Georgia can win games the way they won them last year with Stockton. And I think that that's probably what you're seeing. And like Stockton, too, is still at the very early stages of his development. So like, I don't know, like from a money allocation standpoint, not that that would be a problem at Georgia. But I don't necessarily believe that he's some sort of unbearably bad loss that Georgia can't overcome. In the same way that I don't think that he's the savior for Miami next year.

It was a move that Miami had to make because it was either that or nobody. So I understand, obviously, why Miami would put themselves in a position to rely on him. But I don't know, and I never did know, you can go back and check tape on Until Saturday when I was hosting that show. Like, I never saw the elite-level, jaw-dropping, unbelievable quarterback talent out of him that people made him out to be.

So, you know, I didn't even have in my top 10 list of players returning next year. And I don't think that anyone was mad about it. So, surprising, probably not. I didn't I think that like also to there is, you know, I don't want to speculate. Georgia really did seem to rally around Stockton. They did they did play for him. They wanted they didn't look they still didn't look that great offensively against Notre Dame and Sugar Bowl. but so we'll see what they do. We'll see how it all shakes out. Hard schedule, but this year they get the hard games at home as opposed to the hard games on the road like last year.

So they, and we don't know what Ole Miss is gonna be. They did pretty great against their schedule last year. They did, they won the SEC. Like they beat Texas twice. I mean, come on. They won the SEC. Like they beat Texas twice. I mean, yeah, come on. They beat Texas twice. I mean, obviously we couldn't get the Ole Miss game out of our heads having been there, but it was a really good season for a team that wasn't operating at peak capacity. So but I do think that also, too, like as we get away from the super team thoughts,

you also have to still account for and respect the way they recruit. Um, and like they are recruiting on a playing field that everybody in this playoff outside of Ohio State and Oregon aren't. Um, and that's still gonna mean something, Andy. Like it might not be the definitive thing like it used to be, but it's still gonna be a pretty good indicator or compass on what team would be able to accomplish in a given year. So I have no problem with Georgia being ranked where they are here. So we got Illinois after that, which sets up the Georgia Illinois playoff game. Kirby Smart versus Brett Bielema. I'm all for that. Give me that. The press conference will be great. Illinois, we've talked about them a little bit already. I think just what they bring back what they did already, we looked at the

schedule. I like it. Let's talk about the number 10 team now because we haven't talked about them yet. South Carolina. It's just squad dude. You're a homer. You're a South Carolina homer. Well, I did drop a South Carolina fan. That is true. It's just squad, dude. You're a homer. You're a South Carolina homer. Well, I did drop a South Carolina fan. That is true. It's not a secret, but. Lenore sellers backstabber mode and went to Florida. That's right.

That's right. Then I turned on him and went to somebody else in the division, which doesn't exist anymore. You're basically you're basically Rick Patino. Exactly. Exactly. Now, that would be like going to to Clemson. Louisville is to Kentucky as Clemson is to South Carolina, but.

This team your coach would be. There you go, yes to a team you have to play, but isn't necessarily a rival. Yes, South Carolina didn't even want you though. So you couldn't be a backstabber. Okay, sorry. I'm taking this too far. Yeah. Alright, so we got Lenora Sellers, we got Dylan Stewart, two of the most exciting young players in the country. Got talent everywhere else.

You're feeling pretty good about it. Now the problem with South Carolina and people who follow South Carolina will tell you this is when South Carolina has expectations, they tend to not meet them. So this is one of those years where they have to have a little bit of an anomaly. Now a couple of the Spurrier teams did meet expectations.

So it is possible, but my thinking is we see a better version of sellers than we saw this past season, which was a pretty good version of sellers, but I don't know that they quite understood what they had and now they fully understand what they have. And so I'm too, is that seller stays healthy because one of the games that they ended up losing, he didn't play in the second half and that was the difference between making the playoff and not. So they basically did that already.

Now they open with Virginia tech in Atlanta. So that's a pretty tough game. Um, but, you know, I'm looking at the schedule here and you have, uh, LSU Oklahoma, Alabama, Ole Miss all back to back to back, like, like four in a row. Like that's going gonna be rough and then the fifth game is A&M in College Station so like I think that they are gonna be very good I think that that is gonna chew them apart I think it would chew anybody apart LSU Oklahoma Alabama Ole Miss A&M break Clemson that's the

second half. Of course it's gonna going to put them in the playoff. Yeah, it almost put him in the playoff this past year. Is that what it was this past year? They weren't all in a row like that. That's insane. It was pretty similar. See, because I get that South Carolina is in the spot because you have two players who are probably, you know, either in or they had LSU earlier last year,

but it still was a very difficult game where he came out, right? The LSU game. Yeah, where he twists his ankle at half right before half. I mean, Virginia Tech in a neutral site to open the season. I'm not worried about that one. Okay, but yeah, so Virginia Tech, South Carolina State, Vandy, Mizzou, Kentucky are the first five. So they could theoretically be 5-0. Then the second half of their season,

outside of Coastal Carolina on November 22nd, are games that they could conceivably lose. But you can lose two of those and wind up in this spot. Yeah, if you go three and two in that stretch, then you pick up enough quality wins in order to bolster your resume and then you can withstand two losses. So I think they have to go 10 and two,

but they can't drop, I don't think they can drop a game like the Virginia Tech or Mizzou. No, no, no, no, no. They've gotta be five and 0. You gotta really, you gotta dominate that early schedule because you're hanging on for dear life toward the end.

Yeah, and South Carolina, like I said said a player on both sides of the football that you could make a case for being a top 10 player in the country. I think Dylan Stewart is absolutely unbelievably no doubt about in there but Lenora Sellers as well. So if you look at my black head. And Josiah Thompson too you love him right, right? Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, day one true freshmen starting left tackle. Who doesn't like that? Electric. And he's gonna be a year better. So if you look at my bracket though,

I have them beating Penn State in the first round. This would make that South Carolina's greatest football season ever, right? By the way, I don't know if you realized you were doing this, but you intentionally or unintentionally like created James Franklin hell on this prediction. I, I, I didn't even think about that, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry, James Franklin. I apologize.

Ohio state. And then the first he would get, he would get destroyed if they, if they went into that game, cause this would be the equivalent of the SMU game this year. If he went in that game and they lost it. Oh, no. South Carolina goes three and two in that stretch. People will respect them more than they respect. Well, and the thing is, if South Carolina like South Carolina will be very battle tested coming into that Penn State game, if that's the way it happens.

So I I'd be scared to death. Like if South Carolina makes the playoff with this schedule, whoever they wind up having to play, I'd be scared to death of them because they will have played a murderer's row into the season schedule and gotten, they probably won't have gotten through it unscathed, but they will have the experience of it. And that brings us to our next team. And this is where you and I are going to differ. Yeah. Cause I don't think you're going to have these guys.

Okay. Go ahead. Well, the reason why isn't because I don't think Florida is going to be good. By the way, spoiler alert, Florida's number 11. It's because I think that I would put the second ACC team here based on the way that the committee operated a year ago. That's where we would. Yeah. And this is one of those that where we don't know how everything is going to shake out.

And it very well might be that you are absolutely dropping the loser of the ACC Championship game in this spot. So we'll see us last year. They prioritized it. The only thing that we can do is go off of the information that we have now Florida. But here's the thing. What if Florida goes 10 and 2 against the schedule it has? that we can do is go off of the information that we have. Now, Florida, but here's the thing.

What if Florida goes 10 and two against the schedule it has? Then they're gonna get in the playoff. Yeah. Now they might get in seated higher than this. Cause again, that depends on what happens with everybody else. I just don't think they go 10 and two against the schedule. They will get in the playoff.

But they also like if Miami is one of those teams that's in the mix for that other ACC spot, Florida will have done might have knocked them off. So you might have a head to head between the two of them. Or if Miami wins that then obviously the spot would go to Miami. So you might have the head-to-head where you can actually use that to determine who you give the spot to. Yeah, right. So here's the thing.

This obviously would save Billy Napier. Florida would come into 2026 with sky-high expectations. In this bracket, I have them going to Notre Dame and losing. But this would be a good year for them. This would be the best year in a long time for Florida. It actually wouldn't be that different though than some of the Dan Mullin years.

The difference is because of the schedule, because it's this hard down the stretch, I think people would feel like, okay, they are now legitimately a contender if they could get through this. Yeah, also to I think that the ACC is the easiest thing to sub in here, but you also have to account for maybe the big 12 having two teams second big 12 at the end of the year, like like a Kansas State or ASU or something.

You could you could. Yeah, no, I mean, it's definitely possible. They're in 10 and two, they're in over even the losers of that, I think. And South Carolina at 10 and two is the same situation because of the schedule. Yeah, totally. So. They're never 12 seed. I struggle with this. I was like, I don't want to be like everybody else to just put Boise State in because Boise didn't have an Ashton Gentry anymore. I have no idea if Boise State's going to roll through the Mountain West. Like

Dan Mullen took over at UNLV. He may he may tear up the Mountain West in year one. I went with the guy who everybody wanted to hire as their coach if they were gonna open, if their job was gonna open, and not everybody's job opened that thought about opening. But the guy who everybody at least kicked the tires on this year was John Sumerall. So he loses his quarterback, Darion Menson of Duke.

He goes and gets a quarterback. Ari, this might be one of the funniest things if this works out this way. Do you know who Tulane's potential starting quarterback is this year? Yes, I do. Tip of my tongue. He's played for Louisiana school before,

along with a bunch of other ones. Who am I thinking? I I I don't know. Just tell me. I don't know who you're thinking of. It's TJ Finley. That's not who I was thinking. No, it's TJ Finley, who started his career at LSU,

started games for LSU as a true freshman, then went to Auburn. Then started for Texas State and G.J. Kenney's first season, then started at Western Kentucky, got hurt, and now he's at Tulane. Like, I thought it was somebody else and I'm trying to remember who I thought it was in my head. I don't know. Yeah, you can't help me with that, but yeah, that's crazy. I can't believe he was in college when I was in college. You're asking me't help me with that. But yeah, that's crazy. I can't believe he was in college. You're asking me to determine something that was in your head?

Yeah, there's no shot. Maybe in five years of podcasting together, you'll be able to do it, but not especially not in my mess. I don't think so. Yeah. I don't think so. That would be quite the turn of events there, pal. I don't think so. That would be quite the turn of events there, pal. Yeah, no, I mean, TJ Finley is not the only quarterback that they've taken out of the portal because they lost a couple. But they've also got Caden Samanza from Ball State. So yeah, I don't know what I was thinking. It was just wrong. I don't know. Donovan Leary, who was at Illinois before that. But the TJ Finley thing would be the funniest thing

because he's on his fifth school. He started for two SEC schools and he started for a Sunbelt school in a conference USA. Like he's completing the set of conferences it feels like. Like, how do we get into an ACC school next? So I got them, you may like somebody else, I have no idea who's coming out of the group of five. Like, I keep thinking the Sunbelt is getting deeper

and deeper competition wise, so could it be one of those schools, but then you think about, okay, who's it gonna be? Like, Appalachian State has a new coach, Bob Chesney is in year two at James Madison. Do they do it? Could somebody from the Mac ever do it? Like a Jason Candle in Toledo ever do it from the Mac?

I feel like the Mac is at a disadvantage that it's going to be the American or the Mountain West and maybe the Sunbelt, but the Mac and Conference USA aren't looked at the same way. Yeah. Also too, like you're not accounting for whoever comes out of nowhere in this scenario.

So, but I think you did a really good job and I think it's reasonable. And I don't know- I can't wait to see yours. I think we have some similarities, but I think we have some differences. Well, and let's just before we go, I wanna very quickly go through what the seeds

would be if they change the seating rules. So Clemson would not be your three. Ohio State would be your three and Notre Dame would be your four, which is interesting because part of the deal with the seating rules, the way they are was to keep Notre Dame from ever getting a buy because Notre Dame never has to play in a conference championship game. But the thing is Notre Dame could be good enough to be one of the top four seeds if they just seed them straight.

So in this case, Notre Dame would be the four seed. And then they would have an advantage that they wouldn't have to play a conference championship game and then also could get a buy so that theoretically they could have a, a four week or three week layoff that no one else has. Yeah. And based on my rankings, Clemson would be the, I think Clemson would be the nine seed, which would, which would push, push some down, but BYU would move to the

11 seed. So that would be, that would be that, but Ari, Mm-hmm. So that would be that would be that but Ari I'm already very excited about next season. What do you do with Notre Dame and in the any other system? Do you just let them have the advantage you let them have it? But then you you really yell at them about the conference. I guess I don't know so funny because like it's like Everybody who's on the you have to be in a conference mountaintop It It's like actually not being in one is the best possible route to a title that you could have. Can I, well, I mean, you, you can make the rules any way you want to. Could it be that you make it where Notre Dame has to be 12 and O to get a buy?

I think that they should do something about that to make it equitable. Is that fair? Would that be a fair? Notre Dame cannot be higher than a or higher than a five seat. If it's, if it's not undefeated. I think that would be fair. It feels like a reasonable resolution. They would accept that. I think they would.

Yeah, I think they would. I think they love to have it home. It's probably better. It's probably better than the alternative, which is you can never have a buy. Right. Exactly. Exactly. And there may be years where they we didn't talk about Notre Dame schedule. It's fun. Like the first half of their schedule is super fun. They go to Miami, they go to Arkansas, they get Texas A&M at home and they get Boise State at home.

That's all in the first half of the season. Oh, they got Boise next year? That's all I can think of. Yeah, yeah, in South Bend. So it's gonna be a lot of fun. Oh, God, it's a hard schedule, Andy. Holy shit. I know! I know, because I think USC is gonna be a little bit better.

Like, this is gonna be a lot of fun. Now, it's easier at the end, because like, Coma Court's gone from Syracuse. We don't know if they're going to be as good as they were last year. But so Notre Dame, if they get through the first part of it is probably going to cruise through the second part of it, I think. But the first part is is pretty gnarly and just that just the matchups are fun.

Yeah, I was super excited for Texas Texas A&M this past year and Florida Miami like coming into the year. Like I think I'm pretty excited about this Notre Dame Miami matchup. I am excited about that. I also like kind of low-key want to go to South Bend for Boise State Notre Dame. Let's finagle it.

I think we can I think we can Ari, I don't know about you. This may be too early doing this in February. It's not. It's just got me more excited. I can't wait. I cannot wait. This is going to be so much fun. We can do whatever we want. We could do a bracket for the 2030 season right now if we wanted to and we could. Maybe we should. Well, I mean, we got to do something in April. well i'm just saying like think about like oh who do you think is going to be good in five years bracket i can't let's do it let's do it mark it down for a producer river is saying no please don't he's saying this is overkill what about like this bracket we got to run ideas by people here that live goes to college.

Oh, the funniest thing is, is that it would still be like Ohio State, Bama, George. Yeah. But somebody is going to be new. Like somebody is going to going to have become a superpower. Yeah. Yeah. Like Missouri is going to be. Missouri is going to be coming off like three national titles in the previous six seasons. The twenty thirty one national championship game featuring TCU and someone else. I don't know what it's it's fun. It's fun. I really enjoyed that. But I also think, too, that if you just remove the playoff part of this

and just like hear us talk about the teams, that was good. I think that that was like a useful exercise. And I absolutely again for me, like a whole other episode or we don't need to do a whole another. I don't know if we need? Like a whole other episode or we don't need to do a whole nother one? I don't know. I don't know if we need to do a whole nother episode. We at least need to do a segment on it. Segment.

Yeah. Of the differences. Cause I want to see yours. Yeah. I want to see yours. I can't wait. There will be a graphic. I think you know that. There will be a graphic. That will be the day to stay off Twitter.

Wood. Past. Arried. We just need one that says arid. It's been a pleasure everybody. We'll talk to you tomorrow.