Andy & Ari On3 - Ryan Day, Kirk Herbstreit and the LUNATIC FRINGE | Happy Bowl Season to all who celebrate!

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

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.   This show is brought to you by Panini America, makers of the most collectible sports cards on the planet. The Luminance football card series features NIL autographed cards from players including Arch Manning, Quinn Ewers, Cam Ward, Jalen Milroe, Dylan Raiola, DJ Lagway, and Luther Burden. To start collecting, visit PaniniAmerica.net. Thank you to Gametime for sponsoring today's episode! Planning your college football travel for this season? Gametime has tickets to every game. (And every concert and comedy show.) Download the Gametime App and enter code: STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. Last Minute Tickets, Lowest Prices, Guaranteed. This show is also 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(0:00-0:36) Wendy's Saucy Nuggs(0:37-0:58) Lunatic Fringe by Red Rider is today's song(0:59-15:19) Breaking down what Kirk Herbstreit said on Saturday night(15:20-17:53) PaniniAmerica.net(17:54-26:42) Continuing the Ohio State Discussion(26:43-30:13) What Doug Lesmerises said about Ryan Day, Herbstreit(30:14-37:39) Comparing Ryan Day to Les Miles situation at LSU(37:40-39:08) Gametime(39:09-41:43) Where Ohio State goes from here(41:44-50:54) Ari goes on Paul Finebaum at 3 pm ET today(50:55-52:14) PrizePicks(52:15-56:02) What would the On3 Bowl look like?(56:03-56:36) Georgia Tech vs Vanderbilt in the Birmingham Bowl(56:37-58:16) BYU vs Colorado in Alamo Bowl(58:17-1:00:11) Pop-Tarts Bowl(1:00:12-1:03:53) Deep dive into Shame Eating(1:03:54-1:06:32) Miami vs Iowa State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl(1:06:33-1:07:55) Conclusion; Schedule of shows this week On the broadcast of the Tennessee-Ohio State game, something ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit said highlighted the chasm that sometimes exists between fans and the highest profile people who talk about the games. Herbstreit discussed the “lunatic fringe” of the Ohio State fanbase and its desire to fire coach Ryan Day. He made it sound as if a fairly small minority of fans held that sentiment. Ari doesn’t think that’s true, and it got Andy thinking about all the examples of the times the people who bring us the games on TV didn’t quite understand the feelings of the common fan.  Plus, it’s the most wonderful time of the year! We’re going to have bowl games every day, and we’ll have a full weekend of college football on Friday and Saturday. NIL deals seem to have swung bowl opt-outs back in the other direction with seemingly more stars playing this year. So which games seem the most exciting?  Friday Oklahoma-Navy in the Armed Forces Bowl (Michael Hawkins at QB for Oklahoma)Georgia Tech-Vanderbilt in the Birmingham BowlTexas Tech-Arkansas in the Liberty BowlSyracuse-Washington State in the Holiday BowlUSC-Texas A&M in the Las Vegas Bowl  SaturdayUCon-North Carolina in the Fenway BowlBoston College-Nebraska in the Pinstripe BowlLouisiana-TCU in the New Mexico BowlIowa State-Miami in the Pop-Tarts BowlMiami (OH)-Colorado State in the Arizona BowlEast Carolina-NC State in the Military BowlBYU-Colorado in the Alamo BowlLouisiana Tech-Army in the Independence Bowl Watch us on YouTube! https://youtube.com/live/zqQea_yKgNQ Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

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try the spicy ghost pepper. I dare you, only on Wendy's signature spicy Nugs. That's seven delicious ways to try the nugs you already love. Pick a flavor, grab some extra napkins, and prepare to nub like you have never nubbed before. For a whole new way to nub, it's gotta be Wendy's at Participating U.S. Wendy's. Welcome to Andy and Ariane 3.

We are back from our playoff adventure. We should be playing Lunatic Fringe by Red Ryder. Welcome to Andy and Ariane 3, we are back for our playoff adventure. We should be playing Lunatic Fringe by Red Ryder, which was featured in Vision Quest, which is the greatest movie ever made about high school wrestling. But that is neither here nor there. Ari, we gotta talk about what Kirk Herb Street said on Saturday night, because you and I got into this discussion at lunch yesterday. And it was one of those that it went on for so long. We were like, this is the show. Like we need to have this conversation on the show.

Yeah. You know, there's it's multifaceted because one there's a Herb Street discussion in terms of who he is, where he played, where he's from, um, and how he talks about Ohio State and analyzes them. Uh, the second is Ohio State in general and Ryan Day. And then the third is the lunatic fringe that extends not just, uh, from Ohio State's fan base to other big 10 teams of the entire country, right? Like everybody's got a lunatic fringe. fan base to other big 10 teams of the entire country, right? Like everybody's got a lunatic fringe and I don't know if I think the percentages of the lunatic fringe are bigger at places. Like do you think it's like same? Well it's also there's a difference between the lunatic fringe

and the general sentiment among the fan base. Like this is a piece of this that I think we need to discuss is how much of the angst about Ryan Day is the lunatic fringe, which every fan base has, and how much of it is just how everybody feels. We're not everybody, but a lot, but like play the clip first and then let's get into it. So people who haven't heard what he said, no. Yeah, we've got the, this is the Herb Street clip from the broadcast the other night. This is Chris Fowler and Kirk Herb Street. At this point, Ohio State is crushing Tennessee.

They're talking about what it means going forward. Producer River, play that clip, please. Now Kirk, how much of this softens the blow of that Michigan loss? More work to do, right, for folks to forgive and forget that one? I can't speak on behalf of the Lunatic French. I'm not sure how they operate. I can't speak on behalf of the Lunatic Fringe. I'm not sure how they operate. The Lunatic Fringe at Ohio State is as powerful as anywhere in the country. How big is the fringe?

It used to be eight to 10. I think it's grown now to about 15 to 20. So I don't know. I don't know. I'm sure they'll be happy tonight. Be fired up about what the Ohio State team did, but God forbid they lose to Oregon. They may want to fire them again.

But that's not reality. I mean, that's the thing. When you hear pundits on this network and other places talk about that with certainty, it's nonsense, frankly. I mean, the public doesn't pull the trigger and get rid of the coach. The administrators do and they're behind them.

First take tried to fire him and they thought he was done So I'll be excited to see what they talk about on Monday after this performance They had him they had him out They're trying to find replacements, but here he is. There he is. He's still got his hat on. He's still coaching JC in the chat brings up a very important point here. The lunatic fringe equals the active, toxic social media tribe. General sentiment, those people,

apathetic enough not to go Saturday. Which one is more dangerous? This is the key. JC, you got it. JC, you are very smart. You understand this. Kirk Herbstreet can say what he wants about percentages and lunatic fringe. The fact that there were 30,000 people in the stadium wearing orange tells you everything you need to know about the general sentiment. See, I also think that that's,'s true, but you know it was more concerning.

And maybe they're the same thing. It's you know, the Luna the it was a ticket prices. That's what allowed it right and they weren't super high. These weren't Tennessee fans paying a thousand bucks a seat to do this. They were paying a hundred fifty two hundred bucks a seat and the reason why there was a hundred and you know, it's simple supply and demand. Less people wanted to go. Which made the ticket prices more affordable and gave Tennessee the opportunity to do what it did in terms of how many people came now.

You know, from the press box view, it was there was a ton of orange. The thing with the Ohio Stadium press box is, is you can't see the other side of the stadium. Right, the other side was pure Scarlet. So the other side of the stadium that you weren't seeing in all the pictures was completely red. So it's not like, I mean, I saw people say

there were 40,000 Tennessee fans. That's not true. There's no way it was 40,000. But 30 is a pretty safe estimate, I would say. But if it was 25 or 30, that's still way more than a usual Ohio state fan or stadium would allow to get in. So I think that there is a certain sentiment of apathy when it came to this team.

Now this is a very complex discussion because from a lunatic fringe standpoint, you know how my temperament is online, right? Like I read what people say to me and I respond to people. And a lot of times in my career, I have made mistakes, not just with Ohio State because the lunatic fringe extends beyond just Ohio State. Like Tennessee, all Twitter is pretty violent too. You know what I mean?

Like there's a segment of all fan bases that are the same. LSU, Auburn, Florida, Michigan. It's all the same. Yes. Everything. Especially when their team is cornered. When, when teams are under investigation or someone might get fired, like it gets particularly bad. The question is, here's where I've made the mistakes, Andy. I've allowed the loudest segment of fans, the ones on Twitter, that toxic tribe that JC was referring to impact what I think most people think. Right. And I don't know if that has been a mistake

because I don't like, but the lunatic fringe, they might be the loudest, the most aggressive, the most vile at times, but does the lunatic fringe, they might be the loudest, the most aggressive, the most vile at times. But does the lunatic fringe reflect what the regular fan thinks, but is willing to say it and act in a certain way to be the loudest or do they think irrationally? Like that's the difference to me. It's like, well, I think the lunatic fringe is the group that thinks irrationally, but the key is figuring out where the Lunatic Fringe stops and where the rank and file fan begins. But when they think irrationally, it is still just an inflamed view of what most people

probably think, right? They might make a more extreme view of what most people probably think. Ohio State fans have been and were out on Ryan Day. Like that wasn't a Lunatic fringe thing. Okay. We can get into the Ryan Day discussion all we want. We will. But Ryan Day, and we both wrote this in our column, sets out three goals before the year. This is Ryan Day doing this. It's not, this is what every Ohio State coach does. Beat Michigan, win the Big 10 championship and compete or win the national title. Ohio State has not captured any of those goals

since 2020 and the question to you is if you're getting paid 10 million a year to lead a program that is as passionate about winning the rivalry game and competing at that level. Then you accomplish zero of those goals and you have seniors going out without having accomplished any of those goals for the first time. And God knows how long I've been meaning to look that up. I still haven't looked it up. It's either the nineties or longer. Then people have a right to be upset. Like, so, you know, and it's not irrational standards. It's the standard that the coach himself has set out for the program.

So, I don't know, like the Kirk Herbstreet angle to this is interesting because he used to live in Columbus. He played at Ohio State and he left Columbus, right? I think that when you are one of the most famous personality in college football, in terms of visibility, it's a difference between him going to Kroger and you going to Kroger in Gainesville or me going there when I lived there, right?

Like sometimes we get recognized in public, but rarely. Right, he can't go anywhere without being recognized. And everybody has an opinion and wants to share it with him. And here's the thing about Kirk that I think is a compliment. There are certain analysts on ESPN who never pick against the place that they went to or are constantly complimenting the place that they went to. Kirk, on the other hand, has been very critical of Ohio State in critical times. When it needs to be, yes. Not when he doesn't need to be, although

Ohio State fans would disagree, but he needs to be. Listen, this isn't a shot at Desmond Howard because everybody's got their shtick and I'm sure Michigan fans love him, but Desmond Howard has never picked against Michigan on the show once. So everybody knows when you're getting Desmond Howard's viewpoint on what's going on, you're getting it through the Michigan lens. So, and that doesn't mean that he's not successful or not good at his job. It just means that that's what he does. And Kirk has never been that way. And I think there's a certain expectation from Ohio State fans that you, that Kirk plays that role, you know, and he never has. So here's the other thing too Because Ohio State has been so successful over the course of the history of the program, especially in the modern media era

There hasn't been a ton of time To criticize them and I ran into this when I was on the beat because I did my damn best Damn best when I was covering that team to do it through a fair unbiased and reasonable lens. So when things went wrong when they rarely did, whether it be recruiting misses or losses or coming up short on goals and again I was covering the entire urban Meyer era that beat Michigan every time so like there wasn't a ton of opportunity to be negative, but when there was opportunity to be negative, I was negative because I wanted to reflect what the fans felt. I wanted to feed the fans what they deserved and I wanted to keep people informed. And as a result of this, I think I created or had a reputation in Columbus, Ohio as a shit stirrer. Like people think that I had an assistant coach once call me that.

I can't believe anyone would ever call you wish you are a shit stirrer. Like people think that I had an assistant coach once call me that. I can't believe anyone would ever call you wish you are a shit. I know, but, but I resented it. You are like, and even if you let go and like, look at how I covered the end of the urban Meyer era in the scandal with the former assistant coach who doesn't deserve to have his name said, um, I was very critical. So when I come onto the national scene, because of my past, people call me a homer, but the people in Columbus don't like me. So I don't have a

home. And like, the thing that bothers me is that you have to be critical even of the places that are successful at times. It doesn't mean that Ohio State stinks or that, but are you telling me right now it's not a fair time to be critical of the coach? Because if it's not, then when is? Well, let's buck oh Dan in the chat with a very good point. Being upset about losing the biggest rivalry in college football four years in a row

and questioning if Day is the right guy is not irrational behavior. There is a smear job going on. And this is also a case. And we can widen the lens here. It doesn't all have to be about Ohio state because this is a case of people outside saying, how dare you feel this way about your own team? And this bothers the people inside more than anything else, Because we see this a lot of times with

teams and programs that are really successful, that don't meet their own goals. And then fans get upset. And then fans from the outside are like, well, I kill to have your team success. Why are you complaining? Well, they're complaining because it's not meeting their own standard. And that's like, I've noticed that covering like LSU coaching searches, Florida coaching searches, Auburn coaching searches. It's like that every time you have people going, well, what are you complaining about? You're too hard on these guys. How come you keep firing these guys?

Well, cause they're not getting what they want. And they're the customer. I'm gonna say this right now and I've said it already in column so it's not gonna be a I think it is 1000% rational to talk about whether or not you think Ryan Day should be fired right now. I think it is rational talk about that and I've been very clear on how I feel about it. I've said over and over again, and this is not me saying this

because I think Ryan Day should be protected by any stretch. I just think I've been around enough athletic directors and enough of these decisions to say, no athletic director is going to fire his coach in this situation. They're not going to do it. But by the same token, this situation in particular is so toxic. And you heard what Kirk Herbstreet said, and it's strange that we're talking about this after they crushed Tennessee, but it's a legitimate concern because

Kirk's right, like if he, if they lose to Oregon, it goes right back to this. If I'm Ryan Day. Cause you can't Andy, you can't go into the playoff saying national title or bust. And then that changed because they want to get by 20, right. And only to get to the second round. Right. If, if I'm Ryan day, I might just say to hell with it. I might do that for my own sanity. I might do that for my own sanity. So yeah, it's not. It's not a far-fetched thing if they lose to Oregon, which they might. They have lost to them already this season.

That he says to hell with this, but it also isn't just losing to Oregon. So we gotta go into this part of the discussion, okay? Well, before we do that, before we do that, Ari, we're gonna do that. We're gonna play a clip from your friend, Doug Lay Maurice. But I thought was really, before we do that, nope. We're gonna talk about something you love. Okay. Panini America,

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If I get a DJ Lagway autograph living where I live, do I need security? Yeah, you might need to put a lock on your front door if you don't have one. I hope you do already though. I think we do. This is Jalen Milro. Oh wow.

Cracked ice, numbered to 99. That was the biggest hit that I got out of the box. But you can also hit color blasts and mangas, which are like the Japanese or Asian artwork of like cartoon characters. I think it's like a way of like anime, animating. It is. I don't know, it's not my world but not in our respect. But but but yeah.

Panini cards are. Yeah and there's only four packs in there Andy so next time when you open the box we should just do all four packs because there's it doesn't take a long time to rip and it's super exciting because there's basically an auto or there is an auto in every pack so it's it's really cool check it out and you know, Panini's really, really done a good job with the NIL stuff, the future players. And if you want to collect guys

before they're in the pros and have cards, like get our Arch Manning card, like right now, that would be awesome. So yeah, cannot wait. Thanks Panini for sending it, made my Christmas and Hanukkah better. And you know, I've got a stack that I've got to sort through over here,

but it's fun, it's fun. Very nice. By the way, while we're talking about Panini and go to PaniniAmerica.net to begin your collection, DOT in the chat, who's also an Ohio State fan. So yeah, I want to point out that what we've said does not represent all Ohio State fans. This is, this is something that they internally they're debating amongst themselves. So DOT says, y'all want to fire coach for losing to a team that made the playoff three times straight and won a national championship one year and then lost to a bad version of that team. That's not smart. It's emotional. And that's the, that is an Ohio State fan saying that I got Ryan days back here.

It's not universal, but it's also not a lunatic fringe, quote unquote, to to to quote Kirk Herbstreet. It's a bigger group than you think. Yeah, so there's two schools of thought, which is that one and dot we appreciate you being here. But I also and you can correct me in the chat if you think I'm wrong. I've also seen you be very emotional here and upset. So it's easy to, you know, you're for your perspective to change because when you're coming off of a win like the Tennessee win, and that's what winning does, right?

It changes people's minds. But Andy. He's 67 and 10, and you hear this a lot. The guy's got 70 wins. I think if you boil it down to the biggest games and now you have to add this Tennessee one on there. Yes. That he's coached there. I think he's two and five.

He's not played. He's not paid to beat Maryland. He's not paid to beat Purdue and he's not paid to stack wins against teams in 39 points spread games. He's paid to beat Purdue and he's not paid to stack wins against teams in 39 point spread games. He's paid to beat Michigan. He's paid to win the Big Ten Championship and he's paid to compete for and win the national title. So I appreciate that Ohio State fans are excited and they should be. I think they have a very good chance to win the national championship. And honestly speaking, if I could go back and do my bracket, I'd probably pick them again.

I've been on the Ohio State's winning the national title train since the beginning. I changed my mind obviously because of the Michigan game but if they're gonna be who they were against Tennessee there was no team in this bracket that they cannot beat. But I am NOT going to sit here and like be like yeah just as long as you're 70 and 10 you're good there like that's not what the job is. It's not the job that he signed up for willingly he knows that. He knows that he's not paid to do those things. So, you know, in this moment, and again, I've never once said he should be fired,

but I think it's rational as a fan, if you are an Ohio state fan and you are upset about this to want him to be fired, because that is the reality of being the head coach at Ohio state. So he's not going to be, but Andy, I agree with that. Losing three times in a row to Michigan when they make the playoff is great. That makes sense. Great.

No, no, I'm saying like, excusing that is what I mean. I can understand that because sometimes teams just lose to better teams or sometimes teams lose to good teams. But how many years in a row do you get before the, like, it's like if he goes Oh, in seven, but is 89 or 110 and 20, like, like how much of it do you take? So, um, and also too, the results are commensurate with the investment in the program, right? Like he's got a great record,

but he also has a $20 million roster. If he was seven in six this year, they would blast them into the sun. Like it cannot happen. Like anybody could coach the Ohio State's roster this year to 10 and two. So like that, and I'm not trying to say that his wins don't matter. Well, I'll go back to something Dan Mullin said when he was coaching at Florida. Uh they they'd won I think the Orange Bowl and they had they had had a pretty big improvement and I think they were at that point a 10 win team and he was like improving to 10 wins is not really the hard part. It's improving to 11 wins and 12 wins and 13 wins. That is the truly hard. How many coaches Andy in college football right now

active percentage wise you think could go 10 and two with this roster? 90. Like everybody who isn't completely incompetent. And then so like the Crimson Card asks, who do you hire Ari? Like, well, you can hire Mike Vrabel if he would take it, if he didn't want an NFL job.

Also you can hire any one of the, all of the college football coaches who would crawl across broken glass to hire Ohio State. Yeah, I don't love the who do you hire discourse because the who do you hire discourse only pertains to places that can't get literally anyone they want. So, yeah, Ohio State can get anyone. And so, but again, this is not it's interesting because this is not a fire Ryan Day or don't fire Ryan Day discussion. It's more of a discussion about understanding how people feel and how

customers feel. And that's the part that that I think is interesting because I go back to 2015. And this was my first year doing radio at SiriusXM. And I remember there was a story that came out in the Advocate in Baton Rouge, Scott Ravelay wrote it. It was clearly floated by the LSU administration. The LSU administration is floating this story. Hey, we may fire less miles. This was like two weeks to go in the season. And it was a test balloon to see how the public sentiment

was gonna trend. And I read the story, I'm like, oh wow, this is clearly a trial balloon. Let's talk about this on the show. And I did. And it was very interesting. We took a ton of calls back then. Every call from someone who wasn't an LSU fan was like,

how could they fire Les Miles? Every call from someone who't an LSU fan was like, how could they fire last miles? Every call from someone who was an LSU fan was they should have done this two years ago. What were they waiting for? And I learned the people paying the closest attention are the people you need to listen to. Yeah. And in here, Andy, and I think GoatDog's

an Ohio State fan too. I think I see him on Twitter a lot. He tweeted, if they beat Michigan with a new coach and end the year 10 and two, then what? And this is the crux of the issue. If Ohio State were 10 and two right now with a win over Michigan, we would not be having this discussion.

And they'd still be in the playoff by the way. And they'd still be in the playoff. So like it, beating Michigan is the problem. That's the problem. It's not that they haven't won the national title in 10 years. It's that they've lost. That's also a problem for Ohio State. Yeah. So and that's not his whole burden. They didn't win the national championship in the last four years of urban. So like it, that's the deal. And the thing to you have to understand about Ohio State fans is, and I've said this this I said this on the phone yesterday

To somebody who's writing a story about this Ohio State fans care and covet the Michigan rivalry more I think than any other fan base in any sport In terms of what the rivalry win that means to them I actually think that they care more about winning the rivalry game than Michigan fans. And maybe that's just my perspective because my entire career Michigan wasn't winning it and they just kind of became apathetic and maybe that's different now. But that is really, really, really the crux of this whole thing. Beating Michigan is a one of those three goals and if they beat Michigan two out of the last four years and Michigan was really good, that's so much more reasonable.

Also not having this conversation at that point. Yeah, and also going on three and then beating the layup version of Michigan. We're not having this discussion right now. So like yeah, this is funny. As a Michigan fan, this is like crack, but it's true.

You can't you can't. You gotta whittle it down to this this question Andy is can Ohio State's head coach in 2024 and beyond where losing to Michigan doesn't stop you from competing for and potentially winning a national championship be successful at Ohio State and some people might say yes because if Ohio State does go out and win the national title this year they're going to love it um but I would say no, because I understand how it... I would say if they're winning national championships, it doesn't matter if they're beating Michigan.

And I realize you think differently. I'm telling you right now, you win two of the next five national titles and you go one and four against Michigan during those years, you're still fine. Yeah, but I also think too that there's a correlation between being able to beat your rival and how successful you are in high pressure. But I also here's here's the other thing. Ari and this is this is the part we're all excited about what happened in the Tennessee game. They looked amazing. Yeah. Do you know when they also looked like that offensively? What other game this year was only one of their game this year. They looked like that dominant offensively dear. Yeah

Did they win that game? No Okay, but that's what I wanted to say and then we're about to play three teams in a row like that Yeah winning a national title is much harder now than it was last year and Certainly easier than it was ten years ago, and it was hard to do it then but The firing discourse or the playoff or bus discourse isn't about losing to Oregon. It's about losing to Michigan

and then also not reaching your goal of the post. And then also not reaching more. What I'm saying is a team that can lose to this Michigan team, if I'm betting, will not win three more in a row like this. And that's the point. So like you're saying, if they win three or two titles in the next five years, but go one and four against

Michigan like those two things don't equate mathematically to me, right? So why don't you let's let's play the dug clip. Let's our friend Doug. Like Maurice and Bill Landis on the Kings of the North Show. They had an incredible discussion about this. It really kind of helped spawn this one. Let's listen to them. About this, somebody asked about it. Slupey, thoughts on Herb Strait hating on OSU fans

on the broadcast. So I just want to address this very quickly. We know this is not only an Ohio State audience. The Buckeyes aren't victims here. I think the loss to Michigan was as bad as any Ohio State loss in the last 20 years and they did that and that coaching staff did that and I think Kirk Herbstreet I think Kirk Herbstreet is wounded particularly when it comes to Ohio State fans and he turns everything on fans

and he was talking about how the the lunatic fringe has expanded plans and he was talking about how the lunatic fringe has expanded. And I think he makes it too personal. And if you think the lunatic fringe has expanded, maybe it's that your definition of lunatics is no longer correct. Maybe what these people are are just. Sort of justifiably, reasonably upset Ohio State fans that Ohio State on the most important weekend of the year for the fourth straight year came out and played a horrible game in the most important game of the year. So like there is this very quick thing and I don't like it when broadcasters do it. They act like fans turned against this team for no reason. That team played an awful game against an overmatched opponent

with much more talent. They earned the doubt. They earned the sports hate. And so let's not forget in the end why any of this exists. It's because of the fans. So if you are a fan who was personally attacking a player on social media, or sending death threats or whatever, then you are the

lunatic fringe. If you're just mad that the team lost and you think maybe the coach should be fired, if he doesn't do a better job, you're not a lunatic. So Herbie can chill with that stuff. Because I'm a little sick everybody coming after the fans all the time. And I'm sorry that Ohio State has high standards. But guess what? There are a whole bunch of fired up Ohio

State fans in that stadium. And when they're good, they are rewarded and they are greeted as champions and heroes, just like with every other northern team we have. And when you play below the expectations for people that you are that are paying your salary and that now extends to players then it's okay for them to be

upset and the victimization the constant victimization of these people woe is me oh these poor guys it was a terrible performance and this was just as good and guess what we're doing right now talking about how awesome it is so just It was a terrible performance and this was just as good. And guess what we're doing right now? Talking about how awesome it is. So just chill, Herbie. Okay, so I thought that was a really great way of putting it because it is reasonable

for these guys to be upset. And Doug offers a great definition of what the real lunatic fringe is versus people who are just upset. And this is why I brought up the LSU example from 2015. Because Doug, I realize has covered Ohio State and Herb Street played at Ohio State. And so it's easy to equate that this is different

and more personal, and maybe it is. But I also think it has to do with when you are the people who broadcast the games, you look at these things differently, they are always automatically more protective of the coaches every single time. They never think any coach should ever be fired, ever. And I understand they have to keep those relationships with those guys because we have the same thing.

We have to talk to these guys too. Like I had to I had to I did because I felt like I needed to personally apologize to Billy Napier for what I'd written and said because he proved me wrong. Like, but I can't worry about it. Like if he'd said, screw you, I'm never speaking to you again, which he didn't cause he's a very professional guy. But if he'd said that I'd understand, but it's my job to write honest, critical things. Well, and, and then I go back to that LSU thing. Here's why. So remember 2015 LSU administration floats the trial balloon two weeks before

the season starts, two weeks before season ends, they're going to fire less miles. Well, the ESPN mafia rallies, like every broadcast, there's two more games. Both broadcasts are like, how could they possibly fire left smiles? What are they thinking? These people are morons. And you know whips up the support and rallies the troops. Well, guess what?

They wanted to fire less miles because he wasn't good at coaching LSU anymore. It took about three games into the next season to understand that. And then they fired him. Like sometimes the people on the ground know better. Yeah. But I think what Doug said was right and here's the

thing about the lunatic fringe. You know what I think the lunatic fringe is the people who are making his family cry on the sidelines. That's who the lunatic for Ryan Day's family, Ryan Day's family or the people who are making his family cry on the sidelines. That's who the lunatic fringes. Ryan Day's family. Ryan Day's family or the people who make anybody's, or if you're sending death threats or doing anything that, you know, putting someone's address online or, you know, all the things that are harmful

to a person's wellbeing, then I think you're like a nut back and like you need to like professional help. But if you are just simply upset, you as a person who consumes that product as an entertainment product has every right to be any more than you and I are upset if the finale of a show sucks. Like you're allowed to be upset. Like it's, it's not. And here's, here's the other thing. Like we see this in our, on our side of the

business as well. And I well and obviously the ESPN people see it all the time too, but I think they don't pay as close attention to it because their numbers are different, they're bigger, their scale is different. We pay attention to this because we have to, it's part of the job and so we often have people telling us what they think we should do, like topics they think we should pick, which I appreciate. But I also am looking at the numbers. And so I see what they respond to. So when people say we, we don't think you should talk about Colorado and Neon Sanders as much as you do. Well, no, every time we talk about them, the numbers explode. So we're going to talk about that. York consumer behavior is important here. And so.

It's one thing if Ohio State fans say they're mad or go online and grouse about the coach. It's a completely different thing if the ticket prices for a playoff game at Ohio Stadium dropped so low that 30,000 Tennessee fans can show up. Consumer behavior told us that this is real. Like I go back to when USC fired Clay Helton. The Coliseum was almost empty at the end. And that's why we know and look the buyout of Lincoln Rally so high, but we know they're not ready for that yet. They're not there yet as a fan base. They don't have the same standards Ohio State has.

They're not. What you just said is that you just said it was 1000% it if it were the lunatic fringe only tickets to get into Ohio Stadium for the first ever postseason playoff game in that building would not have been $97. That's it, that's a fact. Yep. How much were they at Notre Dame? $500.

How many Indiana fans got to know? Think about this, Indiana fans- No Indiana fans. Live within three hours of Notre Dame. Might even live in South Bend, might know, five minutes from the stadium. Barely any Indiana fans got tickets. Now, listen, I understand it's also not apples to apples because Ohio State plays and playoff games basically every year and Notre Dame doesn't. And I also understand that Notre Dame has the best chance to potentially win a national title this year that they've ever had, or at least in the modern era. So, you know, I understand that fan appetite,

like for Tennessee to come up to Columbus was was ramped up because it was their most important. Tennessee fans are as passionate as Ohio State fans, and it's a very small group of fan bases that are like that. And like I never want to sit in this chair and talk into a microphone and pretend like $150 for a ticket's not a lot of money. Okay. It is, but in that case, it's not compared to what it could be for what it usually is.

It was a lack of demand and a lack of demand means one thing. People are upset. Uh, they're tired and you know, frankly speaking, Ohio state has been in a lot of high profile games over the course of the past three years, and they have come up short in just about every single one of them up until Saturday.

So they almost beat Georgia, they almost beat Oregon, but people at Ohio State don't want almost so, you know, I actually think they're going to win the national title now. So like I, and then we're gonna have to unpack what that means later on, but. It is such a complex scenario because also too. I love producer River with another point about consumer behavior. If that game was at Neyland Stadium this weekend, the tickets would have been $500 plus, so Tennessee fans. Actually probably save money. Yeah, having to go or or with with, Tennessee fans actually probably save

money. Yeah. Having to go or or with with gas and hotel. It's probably a wash going to Columbus. Yeah. And like if you did it right or you traveled like we do, you go to the game, you pick up $100 seat, you go to the game, and then you drive

down to Cincinnati and get a fair feel of the suburbs for 100 bucks. Yeah. Like and then you went to Fort Wayne because we had to go to Columbus. Fort Wayne was lovely by the way. Yeah, Fort Wayne was a nice dark from 3 AM to 9 AM, but it was lovely. I got an icy and 12 degree rather at 3 in the morning. I felt I felt pretty like you are a psychopath.

But by the way, we are talking about consumer demand and tickets. I think it's a great time to talk about game time. How do we know all these prices? Well, because we were we were on the game time app all week last week studying this stuff. Now, if you want to go on the game time app, because you may want to go to the Rose Bowl to watch Ohio State play against

Oregon in it, what could be an absolute classic game, or maybe you want to go to the Sugar Bowl to watch Notre Dame and Georgia play in what looks like an awesome game. Well, you can get those tickets on game time. I'm looking at the Rose Bowl tickets right now. I've hit the GT picks button, which shows me the best seats relative to market value. 237 bucks for a seat kind of, you know, on the corner looking looking in. You can see everything. These are not bad.

Now the difference is if you're from Ohio and you have to go across country, you gotta factor that part in. But this is actually not bad for the Rose Bowl. And then the Sugar Bowl, it's a little bit tougher ticket because of those folks, but you can get in. You can get tickets to anything on Game Time,

whether it's games, concerts, Broadway show or off Broadway shows, comedy shows, you name it. They got your tickets, download the game time app, use the code staples get $20 off your first purchase terms apply, of course, game time, last minute tickets, best prices guaranteed. So easy. So you're going to one of these bowl games, get your get your tickets on game time. Ari, this is this has been a really interesting discussion. I'm glad we had this

discussion today. And then we are probably going to have it again. If Ohio State loses the Rose Bowl. Yeah, serious fashion. I want to express one thing about Ryan Day and to Ryan Day and to you. I think and I think he thinks he could have done or should have done a better job. So far at Ohio State. I also want to express like remorse for what he goes through.

You know what? I mean, like it's easy to be the Ohio State coach. And there is a lunatic fringe. And the lunatic fringe makes his living situation in Ohio untenable. You have got kids picking on their children in school. You've got security ramped up at their house. You got people driving by.

Like if you do that, you need professional help. Like there's something wrong with it. And you can say, oh, he makes all this money. It doesn't matter. It also that his kids don't make all that money. And like, I live in a very small college town with a very big college football program. The head coaches kids have gone to school

with my kids at the same school. Like you do worry sometimes. Like you wonder what are they hearing? Like how, how toxic is it around them? And that part of it really makes me sad. So like the criticism isn't the problem. You get paid a lot of money to deal with people like us talking about whether you've done a good enough job. That's part of his job.

I just mean when it comes to like personal safety and happiness, like that's insane. So, uh, and I think everybody can agree on that. Most people in this, in this chat agree with that, right? Um, that is the lunatic fringe. And as it pertains to the lunatic fringe, there's a lunatic fringe to every fan base, everywhere. It's not just an Ohio state problem. It is a people problem.

But my other problem with this is people trying to tell the customer what they want when the customer knows what they want. Don't tell them you have to be happy with Ryan Day or you have to be happy with, I don't know, Jim McElwain, or you have to be happy with, I don't know, Jim McElwain, or you have to be happy with Brian Harson or Les Miles. Like, you don't have to be happy with anything. It's your money. Spend it the way you want. And don't let somebody on TV tell you what you have to be happy with or not.

Uh, Andy, I've got some big news for you that doesn't relate any of this. Andy, I've got some big news for you that doesn't relate any of this. Okay, let's go. Just got the Finebomb invite. Woo! Ari versus Finebomb! I'm going today. I'm gonna go on today. You gonna yell at him? Yeah. You gonna get hot?

I mean, it depends on what he says. You gonna make it spicy, saucy? You gonna have some Wendy's ghost pepper nugs beforehand. I mean, you basically said that Finebombs trying to ruin college football. Yeah. No, you said he was trying to destroy college football. I think he, his viewpoint is the biggest threat

to college football. I don't know that he's trying to destroy it, but if what he thinks comes true, it would. But I- Let's reset that before, and then we'll talk about the bowl games, because we gotta talk about, there's like a full week of college football coming up

that we need to talk about, but let's reset the fine bomb thing, because it was the discourse over the weekend, Indiana loses badly, SMU loses badly, really those two, and they're like, ah. I should have put Alabama and Ole Miss. That would have been better. And Paul obviously criticized the committee. And Ari basically said he was trying to destroy the sport. Yeah, so we've talked about the playoff and the merits of getting into the playoff so much this year. Um, and I think that there is a thought process

or was this this weekend that the committee is personally responsible for us getting blowouts and that they made poor or wrong decisions in putting SMU in Indiana into the field. And that just makes me very upset because I was already against or fearful of the 12th team field because of what it would mean to the importance of the regular season. That obviously turned out to not be true. But if you actually strip the meaning of games and say that Alabama or Ole Miss or South Carolina's games are more or less important or more important than SMU's games, then you're going to put the sport in a really bad position. I think if you don't care about the record and the statistics and the resumes of teams,

and simply just go based on feel that putting Alabama in over SMU makes SMU's games worthless and everybody else in SMU's position worthless. I think Alabama would have put up a better fight in the playoff than SMU did. I think that Alabama would have put a better fight up against Notre Dame in the field if they put them in.

So both of these things can be true at the same time. What I can't live with is putting Alabama in because of that and that alone. Sometimes in sports, the best teams don't win. It is up to Alabama to do their end of the bargain which is take care of their opportunities that they had in the regular season put themselves in a position to compete against Notre Dame. They didn't do that and there are penalties and consequences for that and if you take away the balance and the metrics that we use, then we are an

anarchy, we are no longer valuing the importance of winning games, the way that SMU did and the way that Indiana did. And, and then we don't longer have reason or discussion or anything. It's just, who do you think would be the best? And I think that there is this like crisis in college football between most deserving and best and what is the committee's job, right? Is the committee's job just the committee's job is best. It's always said best. Okay. So if that's the case, then then do roster makeup at the beginning of the year and don't play games

because I'm going to be because that games. Because Alabama could be seven and five and I could still think they're better. Like where do you draw the line? There has to be a place where you draw the line. 24-3 Oklahoma is a pretty, that's a pretty bright line. And like that's it. And still after the 24-3 loss to Oklahoma, Andy, I still think that Alabama from top to bottom

is probably a better football team than Indiana. But at what point do you penalize the better team for not doing what they need to do? That's the point of the games. So you know, if it was best, then they got it wrong. It can't be the best. You want to know why? Because the games determine who the best is, not what we think. Because we're wrong all the time. We were wrong about TCU Michigan two years ago. And if there's

one Cinderella every 10 years, we have to put the playoff in a position where the Cinderella can make it to the ball. You can't because if not then or like what you said, separate them and they're not playing the same sport or the same championship. It's again consumer behavior. You keep telling us what you want and what you want to Super League and you'll get one if you keep telling us that. And if you, if you didn't like the SMU in Indiana game, then maybe in five years SMU in Indiana and the funniest thing about Indiana is they play in the Super League. They play in the big 10. Yeah, yeah. But, but if you don't like SMU and you don't like, you know, the teams that are, you know,

not big brands or haven't recruited at a certain level, then maybe you don't like them playing on the same field and or in the same sport. And if that's the case, you might get your wish. But if they would have put Alabama in over SMU this year, I think that would have been a catastrophic mistake, even though I think they're better, because then what you're doing is telling a large segment of fans that don't live in the south that their teams don't matter. And I think that that is the biggest threat to college football imaginable. And I think that's

rational. So, you know, and I'm always the one that's been the bias big towards the big, the big brands, right? But I also think that winning the national championship Andy isn't just if you win playoff games it's whether or not you did enough in the regular season to earn the playoff spot like winning a national championship isn't a four game season it's an entire season in Alabama what they did this year was not national championship worthy whether they're the best or not the same way the best teams in the country in the NFL and in the NBA choke in the playoffs too or have bad years. Sometimes you know like the Miami Dolphins right they had a bad injury and they sucked for half the year and now they're on

the playoff bubble they may not make the playoff and they still might be one of the five or six best teams in the NFL when Tua and everyone's healthy. Yeah but you see what I'm saying like things happen in sports where the best team doesn't always win. And you know what the thing that happened in Alabama was? They had a really bad regular season this year. They might be a top eight team in the country, but they didn't play like one and there's consequences for that.

And if there are no consequences for losing, then why play? That's my stance on it. Ari versus Paul Feinbaum today. What time is it on? Am I nuts? Do you agree with me? Maybe. I just like stringing you along on this

because you spent like five minutes pouring your soul out. And it's more fun to be nonchalant about it. And you're just like, but wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Of course I agree with you. And the thing that I think people lose track of in this entire discourse, and I'm going to say this on the show today, is that I think Alabama and Ole Miss

are better than SMU and Indiana. Both can be true at the same time. I can think a team is better. But you want to know something? What I think is wrong all the frickin time. So we have to know the one thing that we have in terms of hard data, which is the results of the regular season games and what they mean. And if you play a harder schedule like Alabama does, you are rewarded with more rope and

more leeway to lose an extra game. They lost a third, a third, a very mediocre team and that's 25% destroyed in the process. So who are we trying to protect here? Are we trying to protect them so we can have a, and you know what? Here's the other thing and you said this while we were eating lunch. Who's to say Alabama doesn't go to Penn State and get their ass kicked. They went to Oklahoma and got their ass kicked. Oklahoma is not nearly as good as Penn State. So yeah, we know people is when you tweet stuff like that. People

think you're you're a very influential person in this business. If you tweet thanks a a lot committee, take a bow. General people who don't think about this 24 hours a day, like me and you do think that that's the truth. But if the committee did something wrong, and in my opinion, the committee should be putting in the teams that illustrated during the regular season that they're worthy of competing for national. I will point out that's not Paul fine.

Bob's job. What network? What network will you be appearing on later today? I get it. I get it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. Okay. I'm going to walk through it. Yeah, I know all politics are local. Hey Ari, do you want to win a date with Ted Hudson? Yes. Do you know who Ted Hudson is? Yes. Who's Ted Hudson? What? Ted Hudson is the quarterback for Coastal Carolina. There you go. There you go. You put me on the spot. Everyone was them. The starting QB for the Coastal Carolina Shanta

Clears in the Myrtle Beach Bowl today against UTSA you can play Ted Hudson square on prize picks. This is this is big game for him because they're their top two quarterbacks are in the portal. He's going to play Owen the count playing for UTSA the lefty. You know, you know how

UTSA likes its lefty quarterbacks. So Tad Hudson, his number is 170.5 passing yards. You decide if it's more or less when you're playing prize picks best daily fantasy game in America. Download the app. Use the code staples play $5 get $50 instantly. Also play a little money night football tonight. Got the NFL as well. You got a little Jordan Love against Spencer Rattler. Yeah, Spencer Rattler's starting for an NFL team today.

That's right. So you decide more or less than 174 and a half passing yards for Spencer Rattler. You pick at least two squares. The more squares you pick, the higher the potential payout download price fix. Use the code staples. When you sign up, play $5, get $50 instantly. Ari, it is bowl season.

35 minutes from now. The Myrtle beach bowl kicks off, which by the way, I did advocate for us to sponsor that game. I sent a pitch deck to Shannon Terry, our boss when I got hired. Hey, I don't think it would cost us that much in the grand scheme to sponsor this game, to put our name like the show's name or on threes name on the game, we got to do this one of these years, like have our own bowl game. this one of these years, like have our own bowl game.

Well, it's been our, it's been our goal since we got together to get a bowl game sponsor. Yeah, yeah. So I would even partner with one of our partners, like if Panini wants us to do it, and we just rip packs while we're calling the game. Cause see Ari and I are gonna call the game. Like if it's our game, I'm putting us in the booth, see Ari and I are going to call the game like if it's our game I'm putting us in the booth producer river and JD Piquel will be your sideline reporters

and it would be gorgeous it would be beautiful so especially in Conway South Carolina on teal turf yeah and I want to do some some grab ass halftime show competition where like who can run the fastest or throw the ball like oh absolutely It would be punt passing pork Andy to honor you and it would be two physical activities and then an eating challenge At the end. I love it. I love it. It would be beautiful like how many pounds of pulled pork can you eat? Oh my god Scott's barbecue in Hemingway, South, one of the greatest barbecue places in the world. Like we get pulled pork from there. And yes, you throw the ball as far as you can,

you try to embrace your inner Joe Milton, then you punt it, you try to embrace your inner JK Scott, and then you have to eat as much pulled pork as you can in five minutes. That's the greatest halftime show of all time. Yeah, Yeah. The Andy and Ari Bowl. The on three Andy and Ari Bowl from Conway, South Carolina. Ari, we have to make this happen. Justin, our ad sales guy. We're calling him after the show today. I've never been there, but I belong. I've never been to Conway, South Carolina.

Oh my. Have you ever seen a pickup truck with a leveling kit? Do you know what that is? I do. What? It's when they take, they make the top point up and the back point down. And you can do it with a pickup truck or a large SUV. There are more of those per capita in the Myrtle Beach metropolitan area

than any place in the country. I always thought that was a suspension issue. So when that happens, they do it on purpose. Why? What does it do? I don't know. I have no idea. Okay.

It is amazing. I also think lower trucks are stupid. Well, yes, because speed bumps exist. Yeah, I don't know. You're also talking to someone whose truck is like jacked up beyond belief. So like I would drive a monster truck that were socially acceptable. But your truck, your truck sits there naturally. You didn't do anything to it.

I didn't do anything to it. I didn't, but if I had bought a different model, I would have lifted it. So I would have lifted it to that point. But I'm not slanting it. I'm just lifting it. So my redneck variation is better than their redneck variation. I'm just throwing that out there. I never understood the low rider hopping thing either. It's just you know, hitting switches. I mean, it's cool. I think it's cool to look at but like that would be get nauseous in there. You do get car sick. So, alright let's talk about these bowl games because we have a whole week of bowls Friday and Saturday is a very packed

schedule. I'm really excited about it actually. The last time I was this excited about the Birmingham Bowl, there was a guy with poop on his pants scoring a touchdown. Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt, like Haynes King's playing, Diego Pabbie is playing, Georgia Tech's two and a half point favorite. That's gonna be a blast to watch. It seems to me there are less opt-outs this year, no? There are.

Eric Singleton's not playing for Georgia Tech. He has signed with Auburn, by the way. That recruitment is done. But no, it feels like there are more stars. For example, BYU Colorado and the Alamo Bowl. We're gonna see Shador Sanders and Travis Hunter. And I think that's cool. I was watching Colorado put out you know that all the YouTube

videos they put out. They had you know, scenes from practice for the game with Travis Hunter. I mean, Travis Hunter is one of the highest means gonna be top five pick in the draft. He didn't have to play in this game, but he is probably getting paid to it to do it too. And I think that's I think that's a big part of it. I think there's NIL deals that are attached to this that are causing them to play. Yeah, I think that watching a big part of it. I think there's NIL deals that are attached to this that are causing them to play. Yeah, I think that watching Colorado

is just entertaining period. So, you know, I think that it is interesting. You know what, I actually had this thought because this morning when I was getting my daughter ready for school at six in the morning and I was thinking about how busy my day is today, I was like, it does not feel like it's the day before Christmas Eve. And the reason why it doesn't is because bowl games have been overshadowed because of the extended playoff.

Like there are more playoff games, so there's less random games like this on TV or it feels like it, because you're not, you only have so much bandwidth to keep up with everything Oh, let me let me explain to Nathan What's going on here because Nathan and the chat asks wait aren't teams from the same conference not supposed to be in bowl games Against each other that is true, but the current bowl deals Use the old conference alignment So BYU is the big 12 team in this game and Colorado is actually the Pac-12 team in this game because the Alamo Bowl is big 12 Pac-12. It's electric. If you want anything in the sport to make sense, just go find a different sport.

It's just an A half of it. Exactly. Another game that's great and I want to praise the people who put on this game because I've been critical of the bowl people in general over the years and I think they had control of the sport for too long. They clearly don't anymore and I'm glad because they're pretty useless. But the people who run the Pop Tarts bowl, Florida Citrus Sports, that does the Pop Tarts bowl, that does the Citrus bowl, they have done such a good job, especially with this Pop Tarts bowl game. Iowa State, Miami won. It's going to be a really good game. Both teams, as close to full strength as you're going to see in a game like this, it's going to be a fun game. They made, we saw last year where you could eat the mascot. They have one up themselves this year. The trophy is a working toaster.

You can toast pop tarts in the trophy. The thing with pop tarts is that people always eat them raw. I think they're supposed to be in the toaster. Psychopaths. You put them in the toaster. They're toaster pastries for God's sake. I see people have pop tart, the two packet, the two that come in the one single package. they grab the package out and take it with them. It's an easy, quick breakfast and I did that as a kid, but I'm not a savage anymore. I put them in the toaster. Pop quiz, best Pop-Tart flavor. I think it's the brown sugar cinnamon one.

Wrong? That's number two. It's frosted blueberry, but good. Good. Close. Yeah, but you know this about me. I'm not. I don't love sweets in the morning. Like I'm not a big, um, Oh, I understand that. I don't like, uh, like I'm not, I've never been a Danish donut, you know, jelly guy in the morning. So, um, you are a savory person in general. We had this conversation when you, when you were saying that, that shame, shame eating fast food burgers and fries is better than shame eating a Cinnabon.

By the way, I was driving home last night from the airport, stopped in the gas station to get some coffee. And, uh, it was one with a Cinnabon. I nearly bought a two pack of Cinnabon and shame ate them, but I didn't. I nearly bought a two pack of Cinnabon and shame ate them, but I didn't. Shame eating, shame eating happens when you're depressed or upset, or you shouldn't be eating, you know, like shame eating. I should not. Well, that was a time.

Cause I had most of a pizza with you for lunch and it was nine 30 at night. So that would have been qualified as shame eating. You want to know what shame eating is? And I totally think people should do it because Wendy's is our sponsor, but like the pre dinner double stack, you know, like you go through and you don't tell anybody you hide the trash, you know, like if you haven't hid your trash from your significant other, then you have never lived. Okay, let me tell you what a horrible person I was in high school.

I don't know that I'm much better now, but I feel like I've become a better human being as I've gotten older, but I was a terrible human being in high school. And here's how I know. So I was on the wrestling team in high school, but the first year I wrestled the heavyweightweight division was, well, actually both years, the heavyweight division was capped at 275 pounds. It wasn't so much later in life that I crested over 275 pounds. I was way under, like I had 40 or 50 pounds to play with. And obviously,

my teammates were much closer to their weight class numbers and had to be very careful about what they ate and what they did right before a match because they had to weigh in. And if you're 135, you have to weigh in correctly or you either have to wrestle up or you're out. And then the lineup is set. So you got to, you got to make weight. I was such an asshole that You gotta make weight. I was such an asshole that I would leave school, go to Wendy's, get four double stacks, which were 99 cents at the time. That was the gold medal of the country.

A Biggie fry, a large drink, sometimes a Biggie Frosty, sometimes not. And I would bring it back and sit in the locker room and just eat the Wendy's in front of all the guys that were trying to make weight. Okay mmm this is delicious and then I'd step on the scale and weigh like five pounds more than I did at the beginning of the day but it didn't matter because I had 40 pounds to play with. That's how much of a jerk I was. Yeah but I love you Wendy's. I watched this show on Netflix. I

don't know if it's on Netflix anymore called Kingdom. I don't know if you've heard of this. It's like an MMA show, but it's also a family drama. It's one of the best shows that you can watch. Oh, I've watched this. I've not seen it. It's amazing. And they show somebody all the time like trying to make weight for an MMA fight and like the cut part of it where you're you know putting the bags on yourself and sitting in the sauna and running around and all the way of like losing 15 pounds in a day. And I'm like I think I can do that. So I lose 15 pounds in a day.

Tyler said it's a miracle the boys didn't deliver a code red on you and he said that's the thing, like, so in high school, our wrestling room was attached to our football locker room. And so all of the other football players were still there. And like, so I had the whole offensive line with me. We weren't really worried about 135 pound wrestlers. That was not a concern for us because, you know, yes, in a wrestling match, maybe they try to hit me with the cross-base rooster, but in everything else,

weight classes matter. So we weren't particularly worried about that. But Ari, getting back to my original point about the Pop Tarts bowl, which we've strayed far, far from. People talk about, oh, these bowl games don't matter. But I was like, okay, one, the bowl games matter. Like it doesn't matter which game it is when you when you have an exciting game and the team pulls out a win and you see them celebrate.

Clearly, it matters because there's a ball on a scoreboard. That's why it matters. But also the you can make your game relevant if you want by making it interesting, by doing fun things, by being creative. And the people at the Pop Tarts Bowl, and as much as I'm loathe by being creative and the people at the Pop Tarts bowl. And as much as I'm loathe to say it, the people at the Dukes Mayo bowl, like they have made their games fun and relevant

and interesting. What was the first thing we thought about when we found out Bill Belichick was gonna be hired in North Carolina? Oh my God, he might get Mayo dumped on him. Like that is keeping your game front of mind that is being creative and fun and making sure everybody enjoys it. So all you other bowl folks complaining about the lack of relevance and how things have changed in the playoff. And guess what? You're about to get the bowl system removed from the playoff because I don't care if there are four blowouts.

Home games in the playoff were freaking awesome. So the bowl games are gonna suck by comparison. They're gonna get them taken away. Playoffs going to campuses. But you can still make your bowl games interesting. Just have a working toaster as your trophy. That's all. Isn't this fun?

I mean, you know, sometimes we get into this business and everything is so serious. And the idea of two pop tarts coming out of a toaster football it's fantastic. I actually texted Dan Radakovich the Miami AD who's that's the person you saw talking in that video and texted him afterward I'm like does the AD get to keep the trophy if his team went? The people need to know. I just thought it was so funny when you could eat the mascot last year. How everybody was like, okay, everybody stick around for the

game and then watch the ritual sacrifice after people were very excited to sacrifice that mascot and the fun that again, I love the people who do this game, whether it's the folks at Florida citrus sports who put it on or the people at, I'm hoping I'm not messing up Pop Tarts parent company, I believe it's General Mills. The people at the parent company who insist that the mascot from last year can't make appearances because he's dead because he got eaten.

It's amazing. The commitment to the bit is the best part, so can't wait for that game. Iowa State against Miami. We got a full full week of college football and we got playoff games to talk about. Let me explain how the schedule is going to work this week is obviously the big holiday right in the middle of the week. So we will have an episode tomorrow. Ari and I are going to talk to Cody Belair, one of our national scouts at On3, about the guys in the transfer portal who are appearing at their new places now. Like what's Jackson Arnold gonna look like at Auburn? What does he bring to Auburn? What does Mateer bring to Oklahoma?

We're gonna talk about that on Tuesday. New faces, new places. What to expect from that. How did it start? You getting excited for 2025 Christmas Day? No show Thursday. We'll be back with our picks for the quarterfinals in the playoff. That's right. Oregon, Ohio State, Georgia, Notre Dame, Texas, Arizona State, Boise State, Penn State. It's all happening. Everybody, if you got stuff going on, you got to wrap presents. We understand we might not be with us on Christmas Eve. If we don't see you again until Thursday, have a Merry Christmas.

But if you want to get excited, come on back tomorrow. Talking portal, talking new faces, new places, reasons to be pumped for 2025. We'll talk to you then.