Andy & Ari On3 - The 10 TOUGHEST college football schedules in 2025

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

This show is brought to you by Panini America, makers of the most collectible sports cards on the planet. The Prism football card series a vibrantly paralleled base and insert roster featuring college football’s brightest former and current superstars. Panini sets include 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.  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 ANDYARI, or you can visit this link: https://tidd.ly/4gVLuUE(0:00-3:25) PaniniAmerica.net(3:26-9:11) Intro: Teasing Name that Logo(9:12-12:27) Kent State's 2025 Schedule(12:28-15:52) Mississippi State's 2025 Schedule(15:53-19:22) Arkansas' 2025 Schedule(19:23-22:46) Kentucky's 2025 Schedule(22:27-26:57) Wisconsin's 2025 Schedule(26:58-27:51) State & Liberty(27:52-33:48) LSU's 2025 Schedule(33:49-38:08) Syracuse's 2025 Schedule(38:09-40:38) South Carolina's 2025 Schedule(40:39-44:37) Florida's 2025 Schedule(44:38-49:35) Oklahoma's 2025 Schedule(49:36-52:17) Easy Draws: Maryland's 2025 Schedule(52:18-54:37) North Carolina's 2025 Schedule(54:38-57:44) Big 12's Best Draw(57:45-1:00:44) SEC's Best Draw(1:00:45-1:07:28) Grabass Friday: Name That FCS Logo(1:07:29-1:15:29) 2nd Half of Name That Logo(1:15:30-1:18:57) Conclusion: See you next week! Andy and Ari break down the most difficult schedules in college football in 2025, and there are some doozies. Oklahoma, Florida, LSU and Arkansas all face nasty slates in pivotal years. What did Syracuse do to deserve the hardest possible ACC draw? Andy and Ari break down those and they reveal which teams got the easiest draw from their megaconferences. Later, it’s Grabass Friday! Andy and Ari face off to see who can correctly identify the most FCS logos.  Watch us on YouTube! https://youtube.com/live/IKiFd08gIscHosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

This show is brought to you by Panini America. Visit PaniniAmerica.net to start your collection of your favorite college and NFL stars. Ari, I have a pack of Panini prison draft picks right here to rip right now. And you know, we got some good ones that have come out of these of late, but. There are nukes in there, Andy.

I want you to hit a nuke. Oh, I'm aware. Yeah, I'm aware. So I had a Christian McCaffrey at Stanford, Michael Pittman Jr. playing for the Trojans. It's electric. Roe Torrance playing for the old Sun Devils. Hey, hey, I think this is our second Cade Stover autograph.

He signs a lot. Cade St lot. He signs a lot. Yeah. Cade Stover. Ohio State tight end. The Ohio State tight end they finally started throwing to. They always promise they throw to the tight end, he's the one. Ho ho ho! Prison break! DJ Lagway. There's your guy. Go get him to sign it. He's like 10 minutes from you right now. Go get him to sign it. We're going to have to talk about him later in the show. There's been a little news on DJ Lagway. We'll get into that. We're doing the hardest schedules today. Florida is obviously one of the hardest schedules, so we will talk about that. Trophy hunting, Peyton Manning.

Christian Watkins at North Dakota, or Christian Watson at North Dakota state. Excuse me. Uh, Vince young at Texas, Braille it out. Ooh, here's one. Here's one. Well, Caleb downs rated rookie. Now this isn't an Alabama uniform when he was a rookie in college. Yeah. They have the, they have it's rated prospect. He. Now this isn't an Alabama uniform. When he was a rookie in college,

yeah, they they have the they have. It's rated prospect on those which are I think are going to be like the next thing that people care about. You know, yes, rated prospects. Excuse me, yes, right? Yeah, no, not. I'm not trying to upstage, but it's one of those deals where

like in baseball people love prospecting. And my hope is one day that'll happen with college football cards because the most valuable baseball cards are like the first Bowman card that they put out. So like I want this to be the college football NFL equivalent. So I love this product and I'm just waiting for you to hit your nuke. And when it happens on the show, like it's gonna be amazing. Like Panini, send us some juiced boxes. So when Andy opens a pack and you like rip the $2,000 card, like we can have a moment.

Like the people watch people opening cards on YouTube. Oh yeah. So it's a big, it's a big thing. Yeah. I bought a Spectra box and I hit this Malik neighbors. Nice. Patch rookie card and he's going to be a stud. So yeah, really, really enjoy the whole card world

and happy to have Pini with us. Well got, got my first DJ lagway rated prospect right here. So this is a, I keep that on the down low in this town because there's a lot of people clamoring for DJ Lagway cards. So paniniamerica.net, visit it today. Start your collection. Favorite college NFL stars and NBA stars as well.

We've got a box of Prism basketball drafts. Welcome to Andy and Ariane three, your official welcome to the show. We're talking tough schedules today. We're talking easy schedules today too. We will reveal the 10 toughest schedules in college football in 2025. We'll also reveal the teams that got the easiest draw from their power conferences. The four teams that got the easiest draws from their conferences this year.

We had a pretty rigorous debate behind the scenes about how to do this. Yes, because their easiest draw and easiest schedule are very different things, right? Like if you're an SEC team who missed all the big games and had the only big games that you have at home, that is an easy schedule for an SEC standard. But it's not easier than an ACC team schedule, even one that has a medium draw. So like we didn't know like the best way to do it. You know, I think we landed on our way and our way is, you know, the right way, I think. Yeah, because I, yeah, if we'd have done just a list of the 10 easiest schedules, it's just probably going to be a bunch of ACC schedules and Maryland. Yeah. Yeah. It's like you could take, I want, like, that's the thing. It's like, if you asked in an honest moment, an

SEC coach that got a medium draw in the SEC, which isn't easy, but isn't like overly difficult, if they would trade with the team in the ACC that has the hardest draw, like if they would consider it. Like that, like, and we can talk about that later. Yeah, absolutely. Would a team in the middle tier take Syracuse's schedule, which we've talked about on the show and are going to review here today? So like that, that's me is an interesting thought exercise. And, you know, frankly speaking, Andy, then I pushed back on this behind the scenes and I want you guys to know, I went to bat for you.

Um, the sec insists on itself a little bit and coming off of a year where they weren't very good, like road games. That were really impossible to win five years ago, maybe more realistic now. Like, what do you think? Like you have the Oklahoma picture up there. It's like, what does a road game at Oklahoma mean to you in terms of rank? Like, typically, that's like the hardest. Alabama says that's very hard. That's a very tough game. Yeah, right. Alabama would say that right now. But that is, yeah, but like I'm not saying it's easy,

but I'm saying how do you view it? Like that was the difficult part. No, it is something that needs to be considered. And we'll talk about that. We also have, after we talk hardest and easiest schedules, we've got name that logo. Grab Ass Friday, naming FCS logos because we struggled.

As one thing going through these schedules, we've seen a lot of FCS logos and we're like, who the hell is that? So we- I'm looking at the actual graphic right now and I don't know half of them. So like, I don't know if I'm gonna get- If I'm gonna get-

Producer River has a practice question for us. So he's gonna start out. River, let's get the practice. Okay, name that logo. All right, I got my whiteboard out. So just so you guys know, this is kind of like a old time technical difficulty. We were instructed to go get whiteboards yesterday

and I forgot to do that. So I have a technical. It's not a difficulty, it's an RE just didn't do it. Yeah, but no, but like the thing is, is like now I'm going like old school pad. And that is like a old school technical difficulty that somebody might've had like in 1990 before we had streaming.

So reveal your answer Ari. I'm in a Majong meeting. OK, let's ride today. Yes, and I have my toilet paper to erase my dry erase board. I came prepared today. Kill a rainforest. I'm just going to rip a page off this every time. Beautiful. Beautiful.

Oh, boy, I'm going work. Beautiful. Oh boy. I'm gonna be really embarrassed later, aren't I? That this is the bad. We're off to a bad start. I listen after discussion of the Houston Christian Husky or Wolf or whatever it is. It looks like

the Yukon logo. The sickest part of this is that if you would put put that logo back up right now for the practice question, I wouldn't have retained who it was. I don't have the ability to retain. I was the kind of dude in college that would cram for a test, like for two hours before the test, take the test, get a B or a C, and then forget it. If I had to take the test the next hour, I would have failed it. Like, I had no ability to retain the information. But you know I made it in life. See, here's the

thing about me is I remember that that's the Central Arkansas logo. I do not remember like if when I'm supposed to pick up my kids from school today. Yeah, the question that I have for you is like so you have a direct reason for knowing that like you knew that's where Scottie Pippen went to college. Yes, like that's why you knew that. Yes, knew that's where Scottie Pippen went to college. Yes. And like, that's why you knew that. Yes.

So that's the thing. It's like, as you go through, like I had no idea where Scottie Pippen went to college till you just said it. And it's like, as you play this game, the logos I get right will be the logos that I have a reason to know. Like when they show one of them, it's like,

oh, I lost $1,500 betting on them and they get paid years ago. Like I'll remember that. Correct. That's how I do it. So, okay, I lost $1,500 betting on them and begged it two years ago. I'll remember that. That's how I do it. So, okay, I'm excited to get to that. But we can turn the book. But we got schedules.

We have the toughest schedules. So the 10 toughest schedules, I guess we'll go 10 through one. Number 10, we're more making a point about scheduling because we could have just thrown another SEC or Big 10 team in here. But I also feel like you kind of have to grade on a curve. Plus we got the max schedules this week, so we couldn't have even done this one until we got the max schedule. But I got Kent State at number 10. We can state at number 10. And here's why. Kent State more than any other group

of five school loads up on those by games, the body bag games, and they get beat to hell. And then they have to go play in the Mac and they get platter, you know, just splattered all over the place. And so this year, they're at Texas Tech, which then Florida State, then Oklahoma. Not in a row, they've got Buffalo in the middle of Texas Tech and Florida State. They actually have a week between Florida State

and Oklahoma, so this works out better than the usual, there was a year where they played Georgia and Oklahoma, I think back to back. It was awful. And there was actually an error on that because on that schedule. Yeah, they're at Texas Tech. That is not a home game.

There's no way Texas Tech is going to Kent. But like, yes. So like the thing is that like, this is a direct design to accumulate wealth. This isn't like accumulate losses. It's not like an unfortunate like a lot of these schedules that we get to are going to be like, wow, the conference really did them no favors. It's out of their control. I can't design it this way. So like I, I do like, even if they're not a very good football team, I think part, uh, for the vast majority of players who play in the Mac, um, playing against P teams is like one of the joys of their careers.

Like I have a, have a buddy who, uh, played at Temple who, which is a bigger school than a Mac school, um, that I used to work with in high school and he played against Arizona State and Temple lost the game, but he made a one handed catch and he has a picture of him having a one handed catch against Arizona State in Sun Devil Stadium. And that was the peaking crowning achievement of his life. So I understand that if you're a Kent State player and you go on the road to Florida State and score a touchdown or do something like

that's something that matters to them. So like to me, like my heart isn't bleeding for Kent State. This is what they wanted. No, it's what they wanted. But unfortunately, it usually renders them very ineffective come back play. And so it's not a great way to win games. And like you do one of these, two of these, but you throw it to three, you're getting pretty beat up by the time you get to Mac play. And unfortunately for Kent State,

like their second Mac game is at Toledo. It's gonna be at NIU at the end of the season. So they got a tough draw in the Mac, the way it works out too. And so that's why I got them at number 10. Let us move on to number nine, because now we're into the real ones, the name brands. So number nine, Mississippi State.

Hoo boy, hoo boy. Mississippi State. Who boy? Who boy so? Now they don't have to go to Arizona State this year. They did last year. Arizona State comes to them, so at least Mississippi State gets its first four games in Starkville, but after they play those first four games in Starkville. At Tennessee at Texas A&M at Florida. And then you come home and play Texas. And then going to Arkansas is in a gimme and then you host Georgia.

Then going to Mizzou who's got a pretty easy schedule which we'll get to, you know, I think, you know, is a game. And then this is brutal. Awful. Awful. Like the thing about it is that like that it's not just the opponents. It's like three straight away. How does that even happen?

That's not even fair. Right. And I mean, I get it. You did schedule your non-conference all at home, but yeah, three straight road games to start conference play is incredibly rough. Now, there is a week between the A&M and the Florida game, but still, still.

That's, oh. I mean, I just think that it should be like a rule that says no team has to start. Sorry. Sorry. The Tennessee game is in Starkville. Oh, it is? OK.

Well, that makes it better, but not much better. We're going to have to work on these graphics here, River. How do you get a Tennessee game wrong? Yeah, he's a Tennessee guy. But still, that's a really tough opening slate. And I'm happy, because I hope that there is a rule behind the scenes. It's like no team in the SEC can start three in a row

on the road. Yeah, no. So it's not as bad as we initially said, but it's still bad. Like wherever you play Tennessee, Texas, A&M in Florida is a tough stretch. Yeah. And Georgia, Mizzou, Ole Miss, Arkansas, four in a row. I mean, there's no, there's no gimme.

I mean, I guess it's hard to have a gimme game in the SEC when you're the team people view as the gimme game right, right But you know Jeff Levy's in year two you're supposed to show improvement I and I would argue that that Mississippi State did show improvement as last year went on But yeah, it's hard to show it when you're just getting clobbered because this schedule is brutal. The thing that has always blown my mind about Mississippi State is that they're viewed as

the gimme game in the SEC. And this is like peak era. I don't know what it is now, but like peak, like playoff dominant era SEC, like Mississippi State's roster was still like a top 30 talent. Oh, a good example of that. So 2010 Mississippi State's roster was still like a top 30 talent. Oh, a good example of that. So 2010 Mississippi State was really good. This is the year that Auburn won the national title. Mississippi State finished 15th in the country.

This team had Fletcher Cox. Like it had a bunch of NFL dudes on it. 15th in the country, fifth in the SEC West. So it's a tough job. 15th in the country, fifth in the sec West. So it's a tough job. It is a very tough job. Jeff Levy knows that. Well, let's move on to number eight. We're staying in the sec.

There's a lot of sec teams in here. I'm warning you now. Yeah. Everybody listening. I know you already have your tweets written out, but like, yeah, like the sec is just, it's a harder harder life It's yeah, because because your mid tiers and your low tiers are still talented And I think that's what makes it what makes it tougher going on the road to auburn isn't any gimme game

right, right Arkansas now sam pittman comes in again with His his job on the line. He's under pressure again. Is he the record holder for longest hot seat streak of all time? He's getting there.

He's been in the hot seat for six years now. I mean, it's just like. He's getting there. Now, you want to criticize SEC schedules fine, but they are bringing Notre Dame in. So this is they're not just it's not just saying, oh, the SEC is hard. No, no, no. They're bringing in Notre Dame.

So you've got at Ole Miss is their first SEC game. Notre Dame comes to them on September 27th. Then they're at Tennessee. They get Texas A&M in Auburn and Mississippi State at home and then at LSU at Texas and close with Missouri. Holy crap. And you know what stood out to me too is a game that you are easily is easily glossed over. But going on the road to Memphis, which is typically one of the better G5 teams is not

like a walk in the park either. Like that to me is like something I wanted to highlight. You know, they are a tough out. So I think that they should be expected and probably will win the game. But it's not like you get to recharge that week. Like that's a tough game. At Ole Miss, at Memphis, Notre Dame is a rough Three week stretch. Yes, that is a rough three week stretch. Yeah, and in back to back on the road against LHU in Texas

is just a nightmare. Yeah, because that's what we've talked about LSU quite a bit. We think they're going to be better this year like that is. And the thing is Arkansas wasn't bad last year. Like they were a good team. I like Taylor Green is a quarterback.

But what is? Because the Arkansas fans were like, well, you know it's fine, but we're tired of going six and six and seven and five. Like what do you want out of this? Yeah. You know, I was just like there's like

there probably should be. I don't know if it ever will happen, like an actual context conversation. Because when we get to the number one hardest schedule, because that's just your toast, it doesn't matter how much, how good of a job you do, your toast, how to properly grade or judge a coach coaches performance based on using conference strength and schedule as part of that, because it's just like I don't want to blow number one Andy, but number one is a coach that's coming in in a pretty difficult situation already. Yeah, and I would argue that our number one is in a situation very similar

to a different coach was last year. And by the way, that different coach and his team are also on this list coming up, so. I also think that that, that the No. 1 schedule this year is hard for, on this list is harder than the schedule that that team faced last year. I would agree. I would agree. Let's stop talking in riddles and just get to the next one. Well, our next one is a coach that we talk about quite a bit on this show, a program we talk about quite a bit on this show, Kentucky.

So Kentucky, we have Kentucky coming in at number seven. Not the most difficult out of conference schedule, except Louisville at the end, which I think Louisville is gonna be pretty good. But the SEC part of it is the way it works out is pretty rough. They go back to back road games against South Carolina and Georgia. Now they do have a week off in between, so that's helpful.

But then Texas comes to them, Tennessee comes to them, they go to Auburn and Florida comes to them. Ari, you can just, if they are not any better than they were last year, they just get buried by this thing. Oh my God. South Carolina at Georgia. Both are on the road. Texas, Tennessee, Auburn, Florida.

Like, you know, listen guys, I was your northern hero last year. I did my part to try to contextualize that the SEC wasn't as good as it's been in the past. I was good cop, bad cop, I guess. There's no, there's no way to, to, to change how you feel about that. It's just impossible. Like there's no bounce back. And I don't like also too handy, like how do you view open weeks? Like, do you think that that's like,

does that make it easier? I don't, it's like, it does make it somewhat easier in terms of bodies healing, that sort of thing. Although I would argue that an open week killed the teams playoff chances last year. The Ole Miss having the open week between the Georgia game and the Florida game, like they just got drunk on the praise and then forgot they needed to go beat Florida to make the playoff. Yeah, it, but it, uh, yeah, it can be work against you too.

But like playing all those games in a row without being able to get a win somewhere is just brutal. Yeah. Now Kentucky did go to Ole Miss and win last year. They did. So it's not impossible. Like if you, the other problem with this is having that old, that old Miss game in week 2. This is similar to last season where they had that South Carolina game in week 2 at home and remember they were double digit favorite at home and South Carolina went in there and just crushed them and it felt like oh God where does it go from here? Now they played well against Georgia after that and then they beat Ole Miss so.

They did bounce back from that loss, but then it all fell apart. Yeah, just with with stoops. He's, he's set for life there. Like he doesn't have to do much. I don't the he's too expensive to fire. So you know, is he really going to make them better? And that's the question. Yeah, and again, get lost in the context, but you can make a team better without seeing a better record. And I think that there has to be some thought process to that,

because it's like even if you go two and four during that six game stretch, which means you win two pretty big games, like your record sucks. So, like, there's no way around it. Yeah. Now we leave the SEC momentarily. Moment for our number 16 Wisconsin. This is another one where we've talked about Luke Fickel. We've talked about their situation. I am I am worried about this situation because this is a hard schedule. I don't know how much they've materially improved their roster. They did get a really good tight end, Tanner Coziole.

But I don't like this schedule at all, Ari. And I don't like the way it shakes out either. So obviously they're going to Alabama. That's the, the horror. That's the headline of the non-conference. Having Michigan, Iowa, Ohio state, Oregon in four consecutive weeks. And then the, and then the dessert is Washington. Right. You get, you get an off week and then you get Washington, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, all teams

that can beat you by the way all of them. Yeah, and if Indiana is better than they've been in the past and Illinois is who we think they are like there's no there's no reprieve there. You know the thing that's interesting too is that like sometimes like big 10 teams like Indiana is the perfect example from last year, only had to play one of the big four in the regular season and it helped them get to the playoffs. Well, no, they play they play Michigan.

It's just Michigan wasn't that good. Oh yeah, we did play Michigan. Michigan was wasn't very good last year. But to play three of the big four in the same stretch is a really tough draw. Yeah. And, and it's great that you get Iowa and Illinois at home. I think that helps playing, you know, those are, those are teams that are going to play a similar, because we know that they're offensively going to try to go back to the style that, that we're more used to seeing from Wisconsin. So, you know, it's good that you get those guys at home, but it's still tough. I mean, remember Brett Bielema coming to Madison and whipping Paul

Crist was what ended Paul Crist. Yeah. When he out Wisconsin, Wisconsin. It's really interesting because like what we found doing the schedule exercise, Andy, is that it feels like a lot of the coaches who are in the most dire situations are in the most crucial situations. Like I did a list of top 10 teams facing most pivotal seasons, and like there's other teams that aren't on that list, like Wisconsin. It's like Wisconsin doesn't, isn't being done any favors here either. Like they, they, they could improve, and Fickel could address the things that ailed his team a year ago, and they could still have a bad year.

So like that, to me, is just like, well, maybe that's why they gave him the extension in advance, so they didn't have to worry about talking about this. Maybe, maybe the administration, do you think administration, like, knows going into a situation that things are going to be difficult before and then does things like that to get out of it? That extension is something they do for every coach. It's just a, it's a procedural thing at Wisconsin. So I don't think it had anything to do with specifically this year, but it certainly doesn't. Do you think any admins anywhere will look at a thing and go, well, our coach isn't really popular right now, or is moderately popular? Next year, we're screwed. Let's extend him now. Like you know in that flow chart discussion,

like let's extend him now to avoid the firing discussion a year from now. You do wipe that off the board if you make it as expensive as you can. But the thing is, Fickle's extension also doesn't increase the amount of the buyout right now. It puts them on the hook if they fire him later for some, but it doesn't actually just add six and a half million dollars to the, to the current buyout. So I think it'll

be okay on that front. And I also think he's still too expensive to fire after this season. So he's got, I feel like he's, he's going to get a little forced patience there. Uh, but it's interesting because, and we'll talk a little bit later about Maryland, which is one of the teams they play and Mike Loxley, who also enters a pivotal season, who does have a manageable buyout, but in this case, the Big Ten did him a massive favor because he's not facing this. Right.

Before we get to the top five most difficult schedules, I'm gonna tell you about State and Liberty. I'm wearing my State and Liberty waffle hoodie right now. One of my absolute favorite garments is the one where the people are like, man, you've been hitting the gym. No, I have something that fits me perfectly because State and Liberty clothing fits you perfectly.

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Use the code ANDYARI, A-N-D-Y-A-R-I, for 10% off for new customers, stateinliberty.com. Also, there's a link in the show description if you just wanna click on that. That'll get you your 10% off as well. Ari, number five. Another team that we've talked about a lot that is in a pivotal season.

The fan base demands results. And the schedule is hard. LSU, they open at Clemson. And it doesn't get much easier from there because Florida comes to them in week three. Then they're at Ole Miss, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, at Alabama, Arkansas, closing at Oklahoma, and M at Alabama, Arkansas, closing at Oklahoma, which could be a very desperate Oklahoma by that point.

I don't like this schedule one bit. I realize LSU is, has improved the roster, but this is a tough, cause you could lose to Clemson in Florida, which could be playoff teams. And every is your one and two and everybody is ready to just bail. It doesn't really help. All the SEC schedules and I think part of this Andy, you know, you know for me when looking through the schedule is the emergence of South Carolina is a very good team. Yeah, because in in past year, South Carolina would have wedged into some of these schedules and I've been like, okay, well,

at least they get South Carolina. And like this year, it's like, oh, no, they have South Carolina. Well, in fact, South Carolina turned out to be a huge win for LSU last year, right? Huge. But like, it's not a game that they're gonna go. And like, South Carolina typically isn't an easy win like Mississippi State has been in the past But it's been a breather to a certain extent and when teams take too much of a deep breath They end up losing to them because they're talented But South Carolina a team that we think could win ten games and contend for a playoff spot Being wedged into the schedule like back to back South Carolina Vanderbilt

might have kept them off this list three years ago. You know, but going on the road to Clemson in an opener, and it's like the thing too that is not even just like the way the games stack up with this LSU schedule that gets me Andy is the struggles that LSU has had in their openers the last what three or four years. I don't know. This was not on a Sunday. So it's not going on the road to Clemson, another team that we have really high. The highest expectations I've had for Clemson and maybe four years.

And like even if they if Clemson turns out to be the best team in the country next year, LSU losing its opener again is a really tough way for Brian Kelly to open up that season. And then you get a break and then you have Florida, then you get a break and then Ole Miss, South Carolina. Like that's not an easy first six games. Like you have four games on that schedule that you could conceivably lose if you're not about your, about your stuff. And like that to me, it's like, you know, I think LSU probably would have gone

on, done a lot to just be like, Hey, give me a gimme of a win, just open the season so we can get some momentum. Like that's the thing that they've, they've had to done a lot. So just be like, hey, give me a gimme of a win. This open the season so we can get some momentum. Like that's the thing that they've had to overcome for what. Well, I don't remember what it is. It's six years. They've lost their opener, like an obscene amount of times in a row. And I can't remember what the actual number is,

but it's tough. Yeah, I believe it's four, but it is now granted, they've played some really good teams. So like Nathan in the chat asks asked how hot is Brian Kelly? See, it's not hard at all because they would owe him so much money. So I don't think that's even a consideration right now. It's five and they've lost five openers in a row. Five is it five?

Okay. Yeah. This is gonna, this is gonna be a big one. That Clemson game is gonna be huge. You and I are probably, we think we'll be in Columbus for Texas, Ohio State. We'll have to go find somewhere to watch that one.

The thing about it is, is that like, it's arch manning. Like I think it has to be Columbus, but I've never been to Clemson, so I'm kind of sad about it. Clemson's a fun place to watch a game too. This is just the thing about this though, if LSU is really good and LSU is a playoff quality team, like they can still go 10-2 against this schedule. Like it's hard, but if they're, if they're as good as an LSU team should be talent wise, they can manage it.

Yes. It just won't be a tough week optically for them. That's all. Yeah. Don't lose the opener. I don't know. I just don't know if the country as a whole, the casual fan that we talk about sometimes is up to speed on how good Clemson could be next year. Like, so that's the other thing too. Like they have it in their mind that Clemson's tough but not great. If Clemson turns out to be great next year, you know how openers can be deceiving sometimes.

Like, oh, they lost to Florida State a few years ago. It was like, oh my god, how do those in the Florida State went undefeated? So it's like, yeah, you know, we'll get some context there. But like I, you know, LSU and Clemson is going to be, I would even argue more revelatory for the national championship race in the Clemson or than the Texas Ohio State game, like in terms of like what it ends up meaning later on down the line or what we end up finding out. Well, and we're gonna find out more in that in that town. Clemson would have been on this list. I think if they had to

play Miami in the conference schedule. Yeah. Because they're playing LSU in South Carolina at a conference, which is very, very rough. And they get, I believe they get Louisville and SMU, but they don't have to play Miami in regular season ACC play. Otherwise they might've been on this,

Miami might've been on this list if that game had been scheduled. So yeah, they they have they're at Louisville and they have SMU at home. So they would have been on this list to probably if they'd had to play Miami, you know, you swap out like BC for Miami. You don't like that. And at Georgia Tech is no walk in the park for Clemson. But I think the way that Clemson's built, that's a game they should probably be able to handle.

So that's a bonus one. They might've made this list. Here is an ACC school that did make this list, Ari. Number four, this is the one you sprung on me the other day because you'd been doing some research. This is the one that started the idea. Yeah. Yeah.

Syracuse. Oh my God. Because if you look at the other, pretty much all of the other ACC schedules, basically all of the other ACC schedules are much easier than this. I don't know what they did to piss off the league office, but they are at Clemson. They are at SMU. They're at Georgia tech. They are at Miami in conference play. They're at Notre Dame, which an ACC team against Notre Dame is kind of a conference game because it's part of Notre Dame's agreement with the ACC to have its other

sports in there that five ACC teams play Notre Dame every year. The Tennessee games in Atlanta. Oh, poor Fran Brown. He had a great first year. This is rough. Yeah. There are two types of hard schedules, Andy. There's ones where you have a bunch of hard games in a row,

which Syracuse avoided. And there are ones where you have a bunch of hard games in a row, which Syracuse avoided. And there are ones where every single team that is really good is on the road. Thus killing your chances potentially of getting hot. And it's like every other week. And like SMU being good, you know, makes that difficult. Clemson being great makes that difficult. And here's the thing too.

You have Tennessee listed as a home game. And I think it might be, but it's a neutral site game in Atlanta, which means it's going to be all Tennessee fans, right? Like, you might not be able to tell because they have similar colors, but like Tennessee is going to dominate that. Like that's, that's a really tough opener too. So, you know, Fran Brown, you know, I think is one of the bright stars in rising and coaching,

but I think that you have to have a regular assumption or a fair assumption that Syracuse is gonna have a record regression this year, because there's just nothing, what are they supposed to do with this? Like, you know what I mean? It's just one of these deals of like, just throw the season out

and we'll come back in 2026 and try again. Yeah, and Fran Brown would never say that. No, I know, but can you imagine when he looked at it for the first time though? Like this is the most lopsided of the, because in the SEC, there's a lot, there's not a lot of ways you can slice it. You're probably gonna get a pretty hard schedule.

In the Big 10, there's a good chance you're going to draw two, potentially two superpowers. Like in the ACC, you can get away with not having a super tough conference schedule, but this wound up being as bad of a schedule as you could get in terms of difficulty from the ACC. Yeah. And then this kind of brings up the discussion of what I was alluding to at the beginning of the show,

Andy, which is, you know, I actually brought up the notion or the idea of putting Syracuse as number one. And then you brought back, which is probably true, that an SEC schedule is harder. So let me ask you this, with the truth serum in the neck that we always talk about, you ask an SEC coach, Hey, let's just say somebody from our list here, let's just say Kentucky. Yeah, Mark Stubbs.

You think Kentucky would trade their schedule for this one? Well, we haven't ranked ahead of Kentucky. We haven't, but you think he would? We have a, but you think he would? No, actually I don't. I, I don't, I think they're both, they're both brutal. Like I don't know that you trade it. I mean, Kentucky has all those games in a row. Like it's one thing if you said Brian Kelly

and Brian Kelly goes, do I get to keep my roster? But Kentucky and Syracuse, the gap between their rosters is not as big either. Well, the thing too is like, let me ask it this way. Do you think a coach would rather have tough games in succession or all their tough games on the road? Like what do you what do you perceive as more difficult? Oh, I think they would rather I think they take the tough games on the road over the

cumulative effect of tough tough tough tough tough, tough, tough, tough, tough, tough, tough. Yeah. I think I'm with you on that. Back to the SEC for number three. We've talked about this team a little bit in terms of how difficult they make their opponents schedules, but their schedule itself is very difficult and that is South Carolina. So obviously playing Clemson every year in the non-conference, they also add Virginia Tech. They got to go to Missouri. They got to non-conference. They also add Virginia Tech. They gotta go to Missouri. They gotta go to LSU.

They gotta go to Ole Miss and Texas A&M. They get Oklahoma and Alabama and Vandy and Kentucky at home. I don't, I mean, here's the thing. Our expectations for South Carolina are huge. We love Lenora Sellers. We're excited about what they can be. This schedule could make it where they are just as good as they were last year,

but worse with the ball bounces differently. There there 8 and four instead of nine and three. Yeah, so I think that Kentucky actually got a harder SEC draw than they did in terms of what they have to play in a row. In South Carolina is fortunate enough to miss Georgia. But I think playing Clemson at the end of the year in a place where if things do go well for South Carolina, could be for a playoff spot is a really tough situation. Like even if they traverse, if they traverse their schedule and get to nine and two,

the fact that they would have to play a non-conference game at the end of the year against another team that we perceive will win the ACC a year from now, is just a really bad situation for them. And I get it, rivalry games are rivalry games, but I really do think that South Carolina could conceivably be 5-0 going into that LSU game and who knows if they're really, really good, give them another game. And maybe get to 6-0.

Like I think that they have a chance to do it again. But like that last Clemson game just kind of hits you in the face a little bit when you realize it's like, okay, if you're fortunate enough to get through that. And also too with with A&M Andy, and I'm sure you probably considered this when you were making your schedule like my perception of an A&M game being difficult or hard was always based on where it is and the fact that this one's on the road late in the year is a difficult proposition for them as well.

Yeah, because if A&M is good, Kyle Field's rocking and that's a that's a tough place to play. It's sort of like what what A&M ran into with South Carolina at Williams-Brice when they played last year. Yeah, and A&M is always a team that it's like, we don't really quite know what they are. Exactly, they can be really good. Yeah, what if they had it's really awesome.

Speaking of teams that play Texas A&M, number two, Florida. So we had them number one going into last season. I think Florida State being bad last year just sort of drops this one. The assumption is Ole Miss won't be as good as they were last year. We don't know about Tennessee quite yet. So we don't look at this as the single hardest schedule, but they do have Miami and Florida State in the non-conference.

They have to go to LSU. They have to go to Texas A&M. They have to go to LSU, they have to go to Texas A&M, they have to go to Kentucky and go to Ole Miss, if George in Jacksonville and Texas comes to them. We're gonna find out, we're gonna find out, because either they're going to be improved, which the team at the end of last season could win nine or 10 games against this schedule.

The team we saw playing LSU and Ole Miss could win nine or ten games against this schedule. The question is, will they be that team? I've got so many emotions right now. I think I don't want to make that bet with South Carolina anymore. Remember how I said I'll take the Florida win total over the South Carolina win total? I take that bet. That's insane. That's an insane schedule. Like, I mean they have one guaranteed win, which is Tennessee because Tennessee has never wins in Gainesville.

I just said that to get River all fired up but like that that's a tough. It's true that once it's 2003 in Gainesville. Yeah so they're 1-0 already so you're almost there but no no all kidding aside if Tennessee is a tough game always. Well and that's it. How many other. This be the latest. They've played Tennessee since 2001. How many other 2001 the game got moved because of 911 and it got played in December and they've never played Tennessee this late. How many other teams do you think play two of the toughest teams in another conference? Like I don't know if Florida State is going to be good this

year, but if Florida State has a rebound year and they're better. Like, playing in your non-conference schedule in the SEC featuring two teams that could conceivably be in the top 4 of their conference rankings at the end of the year is pretty difficult. Yeah, yeah. And, and we'll find out. So we also saw yesterday, DJ Lagway, limited in spring practice. We'll see what the injury situation is with him. From from what I can gather, you're probably not going to see much of him in spring practice, but they think he's going to be alright by the season. If he's fine by the season, that's fine.

That's not a problem. You want to get into that now? We don't have to get in it for long, but. We don't know what the thing is. They were very coy about it. So a lot of people out there thinking that's very fishy. Yeah. And it seems like it. But the fact of the matter is he'll either be good for the season or not.

And I'm not worried about him not doing spring. Although it was long as he's ready for the season, seems like a pretty pivotal. Point is career arc. I think he's pretty good. I think we know he's pretty good. I know it would be nice to have. I don't think whether he does spring practice is going to determine whether he's good or not. We know he's going to. I know, but so you know the big leap from freshman to sophomore year. I'm assuming that getting reps and going through spring ball and

And the more concerning thing is he did have some injuries during the season last year they really can't like they are a different team without him and This schedule is not manageable without him Who's their backup next year Harrison Bailey? and this schedule is not manageable without him. Who's their backup next year? Harrison Bailey. Okay. Former Vol, been around the block a little bit, been to some different places.

So, but that's number two. Number one, and I would argue that this coach enters this season where Billy Napier entered last season. Oklahoma Brent Venables. Oh my Michigan comes to town week two then Auburn. Now here's the thing they do not have a tough, tough road game. Until South Carolina. In the back apathesis now look, Texas and Dallas is tough, but.

It might be helpful. That they don't have to do that. They're randomly at Temple, which is crazy. But they do this sometimes, like they'll go to Army, they'll go to Temple. But this is a brutal, the back end of this, this is the second half of the season. You ready? So you finish the first half of the season

playing Texas and Dallas. The second half of the season playing Texas and Dallas. The second half of the season is at South Carolina, Ole Miss, at Tennessee, at Alabama, Missouri, LSU. Like if things are going bad, you could lose all six of those games. Oh my God, what are they supposed to do with this? Texas, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Alabama, Alabama Mizzou LSU all in a row What are they supposed to do with that?

Well, they're supposed to win those games because media pretty is not accepted in Oklahoma Yeah well, and that's the thing. There are no excuses like they're supposed to win those games period. This is this is the interesting thing about it though because last year and I think I'm right no nine and no three lost team made the playoff last year right now. I think if Oklahoma goes nine and three depending on what the rest of the

country looks like, they might have a shot to get in depends on the 9 and depends on the three. But you can't get blown out in your in in your losses, but if you have three very close losses against this schedule. Yeah, let's just say good wins. Say they lose to Michigan,

Texas. And EllisSU, right? And two of those three are all of those three make the playoff. Yeah. And then South Carolina, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Bama wins. Like that'd be a pretty good resume. One would think conceivably, like, I mean, we're doing the helmets guys. Like we, you know, we know, but last year we would have said if South Carolina is an easy game and it wasn't. But Like, you know, we know. But last year, we would have said if South Carolina is an easy game, and it wasn't.

But like, you know, I also feel like, too, that'll average out. If you have a team on your schedule that we think is great, it ends up stinking. There will be a team on your schedule that we didn't think would be very good, who's much better than we thought. So, I love it.

You and I think Auburn's gonna be significantly better. So, I view that as a hard game when we were doing it. I do, too. I do, too. Yeah. But like I do think that, you know, we do our saucy takes next year. And it might be something different. But we're gonna have spicy takes next year. Yeah. But Conte takes, I think that I might like open up the year right now and say a three loss team will make the playoff next year. I think it's certainly possible. You could also have a three loss

conference champ that makes the playoff. Yeah, what about a three loss? At large. It's what you just described would be a three loss at large. Feel like Lee Corso ready for the last segment here. There you go, there you go.

Did you? Well, we put the we put the Oklahoma mascot head on already. Like Oklahoma is the hardest schedule. Can Brent Venable survive this schedule? That's the question. Like what record is good enough for Brent Venables to survive the schedule? I think if Oklahoma goes eight and four next year, then they had a good year. I would agree with that.

I don't know that all of Oklahoma's fan base would agree with that. I think the reasonable fans among them would agree with that. But I think the administration would agree with that. have a perfect year and like really gel, that it's just gonna be really still hard to overcome the schedule. Like it's like, even if things work exactly as they were intended to in the off season rebuild. Yeah. There are just circumstances that are out of their control. And it's like, I don't care how good you are, you're gonna have tough games.

So like the play that seven game stretch to close the year, you know, five and two, which would be excellent. That's fours. Last year was a six game stretch that we just looked at. It was like, holy crap, this is seven. This is seven games. It's just awful. Alright, so we go from from hardest to easiest.

And so we didn't do we didn't do an easiest schedule because it would have been a lot of the same teams in the same league. A lot of very solid and honorary. I'm going to crown the easiest schedule and we're done. And I'll take that. People get mad at me. But I there is one unequivocally easiest schedule I've ever seen in my entire life. Okay. I think it's easy.

You know what I'm talking about. Yeah. schedule I've ever seen in my entire life. Okay, I think I know what it is. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah. So, easiest draws in each of the power conferences. We'll start with the Big Ten. It's Maryland. Maryland does not play Ohio State or Oregon or Penn State. They do have to play Michigan, but no Ohio State, no Oregon, no Penn State.

Like to miss those three is the best draw you can get because those three are instant losses, especially when you're in Maryland situation. So Maryland also loaded up on easy non-conference games or not, well, they should be easy. FAU, NIU, Towson, now Towson, you know, taking care of the local FCS team, also Mike Locksley's alma mater.

But here's the thing, they still have to play Illinois, they still have to play Michigan. Like they've gotta be, this has gotta be a bowl season for them. Yeah, I'm with this is you don't. You play one of the big four and you might make the case that they get. I mean, if you had to just say it right now,

Michigan is probably the weakest of the big four right now based on perception, right? Right now their offense offense turns out awesome this year, it's different, but yeah. It could be the best, we don't know, but as of right now, the perception is that they've got the weakest of the four, and they get them at home at the end of the year.

So they have a lot of time to build up and get some confidence and get some wins to put themselves in. So like that to me, is a pretty good draw. And River, if you could throw that graphic up for me one more time, I just wanna make sure. They don't have any, they have one cross country trip, but usually in the big 10,

I think that we have to keep in track, keep track of the coastal teams on both sides of the country and how many times they have to fly to the other coast. And doing it one time and then having a bye week to recover it before playing their next game is also an advantageous draw. Yeah so that is that is your big 10 one. Let's go to the ACC. Congratulations Bill Belichick you got the easiest draw. Now you do have to play Clemson but you don't have to play Miami you don't have tomson, but you don't have to play Miami. You don't have to play Louisville and you don't have to play SMU or Florida

State. If that means anything to you. Well, I don't know if that means anything or not, but yes, it does. Uh, actually two power conference teams in the non-conference TCU and UCF, but neither of them have been world beaters of late. So it really depends for, if you're Bill Belichick, you know, how good is Duke? You know, as many ideas as Duke good again, what does NC state look like with new coordinators? Jake Dicker takes over Wake Forest.

I think they could be better than they were last year that, you know, he's importing an entire offensive line from Washington state basically. But this is a manageable schedule for Bill Belichick in year one. It's the easiest schedule in college football is here. Think you may be right. Wake Forest is pretty easy too

because they bailed out of the Ole Miss game. Weight adjusted, obviously. I would think that a Mac schedule would be easier for North Carolina than their schedule, but based on your level and your conference, they couldn't have had an easier draw. They don't play anybody, and the one team that they do play is at home. Yeah. So congratulations to Bill Belichick. No, you better win against that schedule.

Like, don't go five and seven. So congratulations to Bill Belichick. Now you better win against that schedule. Like don't go, man, don't go five and seven. You mean eight and four is that schedule? Oh, wait, eight and four I think, I don't know. Like we have to talk about, that's an off season pot, but like I don't even know like, as we get closer to the year, like trying to identify what reasonable expectations

and trying, like it's the same thing that we struggled with with Dion a few years ago. It's like, what's a success and what's a failure like I don't know what that is there. It's a little bit different because they have had recent success and North Carolina is not one of those where you can just win eight games and they're happy like they've won more than that be in the Hall of Fame. So like that I don't know if that means anything to you but Colorado

wasn't like replacing a Hall of Famer either. No, and Colorado was replacing a coach that was, their roster was abysmal, their record was abysmal. Like any wins was a massive improvement. That's not the case in North Carolina. Speaking of Colorado and the Big 12, let us see the easiest draw in the Big 12. Now Now this was a hard one because all of the teams near the top of the big 12 are really similar. So all the schedules are kind of the same in conference. There's a few though that it comes down kind of to who you miss and then where you get people and when you get people. And so I went with Kansas State as the easiest draw

because they're missing BYU and they're missing Arizona State. That Arizona game that you see that's a road game, not a conference game. That's the one, remember Ari, they had a series scheduled with them before Arizona joined the league. And so,

so then you've got the Iowa State game in Ireland, which I'd rather play Iowa State in Dublin than in Ames. Like, Ames is a tough place to play. So, and again, you miss BYU and Arizona State. You're not gonna miss all of the contenders in the Big 12. You just can't. But they get Texas Tech at home, like you don't have to go to the,

deal with the winds of Lubbock. So you get Colorado at home, you get TCU at home. So as these go, I think they've got the best draw. Now again, it's the Big 12, everybody's draw is generally equal, yeah. And I floated, and I don't know how handy it is for you River, but I floated BYU as an option too. Cause they miss BYU.

Because they don't have to play BYU, which helped. But that they did, in my opinion, have a pretty, there we go. So they don't play Arizona State at all. And Utah is a home game, and I think that you can make a case. And they don't play K-State. They do have to go to Ames. And they go to Lubbock. Yeah, it was the back-to-back Ames-Lubbock, because I think we perceived that

Texas Tech could win 10 games this year. That kind of tilted the scales in Kansas State's favor, but in terms of the teams that they're playing, they had a pretty good draw too. So yeah, BYU, you know, I think BYU is a team that you know is one of the top three favorites to potentially win that conference this year and I think that this schedule makes that manageable goal. And Iowa State definitely did not get considered for the easiest one because you see

where BYU plays Iowa State. The following week Iowa State has to play Arizona State. So they get BYU and Arizona State back to back, which is pretty rough. Now they get them both at home, but it's still back to back. There will be a wagon in that conference this year that comes out of nowhere. I don't know who it's going to be yet, but someone's like Oklahoma State. It could be TCU, it could be Baylor. It could be Texas Tech. Like it's someone's going to pop out of nowhere.

Baylor, by the way, great end of the year last year. Like they fantastic. Yes. Yeah. Robertson kicking around and a squad there. I think they have some expectations. So, you know, big 12 is just no one's easy in the big 12 because everybody's favorite and dogs by three points in every game.

Mm hmm. We have our plus plus minus three coin. in the big 12 because everybody's favored in dogs by three points in every game. We have our plus, plus minus three coin. All right, let's go to the SEC. The easiest draw in the SEC. There aren't any really easy draws in the SEC, but Missouri probably got the most favorable one. I would argue they got the most favorable one last year too.

Now this is just a mirror of that schedule. That's why. Yeah. So So hey, it's Central Arkansas right there. This is Central Arkansas Bears. We're doing these logos here in a second, but they get BAM at home. They get South Carolina at home. They go to Auburn. They go to to Vandy. They go to Oklahoma. But I know I think Missouri can handle. If Missouri is about what they were last year, which look, it's going to be different.

Brady Cooks gone. Bo Pribula comes in at quarterback. But this is a manageable schedule like this is a schedule they can win 9 or 10 games against. Yeah, and you know, probably will, because you know Eli's done a pretty good job there. Here's the thing that I wanted to mention before we move on. Um, Texas might've made this, uh, because they have the mirror of what they had

last year in Texas is scheduled with a joke last year, but they play Ohio state in the opener. So that, that kind of swung the scales a little bit, but Texas, I believe I'm speaking for both of us as our, uh, you know, current favorite or pick to win the national title next year, go on the road against Ohio State and what is a glorified exhibition game? They could lose and be completely fine. And then they don't play Alabama this year. And, you know, the two road games that they have are pretty tough

with Georgia and Florida. But I believe if we weren't looking at the visit from Florida as a hard game last year, which it wasn't because like we didn't play, but if they are playing Florida with a fully healthy DJ lagway, that is a challenging game no matter where it's played. Yeah, but I still think that they're probably going to come in next year, you know, with an advantage against Oklahoma though.

That game is weird. They get A&M at home after beating him on the road last year. I feel like if they go two and one against Ohio State, Florida and Georgia, that they'll make the playoff. So yeah, that's it. So they are in the advantageous bucket, but they made their lives a little bit more difficult with the Ohio State scheduler.

But great, the game's happening. There you go. Yeah, at least they're playing it. I did my mailbag column where a reader named Jordan wrote in and said there were only 12 in the Big Ten where they're playing another power conference or Notre Dame at a conference. Only 12 games in the Big Ten like that.

Don't say it, just move on. Don't say what you're thinking. Just move on. It's it's the argument for it really, because it forces them to schedule those games. The SEC is not much better. The SEC's got 18 of them. The ACC is 27 by the way, so I mean it. Yeah, that that that checks out.

Yeah, alright, it is grab. Yeah. All right. It is Grab Ass Friday. It is time to compete because, well, where this started was it was with the Eastern Illinois logo, I believe. We were looking at Alabama schedule. And I was like, oh, Georgia State changed their logo. It's a new Panther. And the chat's like, no no dude, that's Eastern Illinois. Oh crap, we need to see how well we can identify

these FCS teams by their logos because as we're diving deep into schedules, we're seeing a lot of these logos. We did the test earlier with Central Arkansas River and I passed and Ari failed. Does that go on the scoreboard or is that just a warm-up? No, that was just a warm-up. Yeah We're uneven footing here. We'll treat it like we did once I throw the logo up the countdown will start

Okay, you hear the ding show your answer. All right, so I'm gonna hop down I'll keep my phone in here, but we'll start off with the first one in just a second. All right but we'll start off with the first one in just a second. All right. I'm nervous. Are you nervous? No, I'm gonna be, I'm always the, I'm always the one who's embarrassed on the show. All right. So number one, here we go. All right.

East Tennessee State, Ari's got it. Healey, East Tennessee State. Ari's got it. He's East Tennessee State Buccaneers playing quarterback for them this year. Yes. Alright, done. And here is the second one. You gotta get this one Ari. Gotta get this one. Houston Baptist will take it. Houston now. Yeah, they call it Houston Christian now. Does that count? I don't know. That dog is thinking some very

unchristian thoughts though. He is an aggressive dog. We mixed it up with the Yukon logo but that is a much fiercer looking canine than Montana State Bobcats. I didn't write anything. How do you miss Beth Dutton's favorite team? Yeah, I should have known that. I thought it was Montana, and then I realized it wasn't Montana, and then I put it up.

Montana's the Grizzlies. The Grizzlies, yeah, I know what Montana's is. All right, we'll go to number four next. Probably the home of the greatest Go Team chant in the history of the world. He knows all of them. I don't know. Let's go pee the Austin.

That's right. Austin P the governor's James fly Williams played basketball for them and they said the fly is open. Go pee. All right. I'm getting smoked. Now we get to number five. Oh, boy.

What the hell is that? Geez. All right. He said this was I would there be some right who are three people who have never been in my kitchen. That's Cliff play. Vin's answer on Jeopardy on final Jeopardy. I don't know. Mono Fox. Some of these are new. I don't think this that is. Monmouth. Monmouth. Is that a new logo? Some of these are new.

I don't think this one is new. All right. Last time I heard about Monmouth was in the movie Clerks. These people in the chat are smoking me right now. I have no idea what that is. You can't look at the chat. Don't cheat. No, they're doing it after.

I'm not cheating. Does it look like I'm cheating? I've written nothing down in three years. Oh, it apparently is not a new logo at Monmouth. That is, that's been their logo. All right. Number six. I think I know this one. Okay. And I think we need to, this is who I think it is we need to have their coach on. Is it West Alabama? It is not. R-A-D-E-F-N answer? What is that?

U-A-P-B, which is the letters that are in its name. Oh, Arkansas Pine Bluff. Oh, yeah. Did I get it? Ugh! I get points for that, right? Yes, you got it. Because I can just read?

Okay, U-A-P-B, baby. Reading counts. All right, all right, number seven. Number seven. Oh my. Is it Sacramento State? It is not already. No, no, they're different colors. They're like green. I wrote nothing down. It's a Delaware State. It's a different hornet. Alright, Zach and Jeff, that's not a real team. Can you put one up there that's manageable now?

Well, this one won't be. You got Arkansas Pine Bluff. What are you talking about? The answer was in the logo. I didn't see it. Number eight. Ari, that's not it. Yes, Ari is correct. Oh, Arizona.

Yeah, I think that's an alternate logo, though. Well, that's the logo that they have without the letters. I didn't want to get that's a tremendous logo by the way for those listening in podcast form, this is the most jacked lumberjack you've ever seen like the jack reacher of lumberjacks with a massive golden axe Just say something at you with his fist clenched for tossing in a team from the state. I grew up I figured you know, it's local local. You might know this next one. You might know this next one. Got any floor schools?

Yes. You're fine, you're doing fine here. All right. You don't need any help. Number nine. Oh, okay. Think I got this one. Okay.

Is it Idaho State? Yes, it is. Bengals. Cincinnati Bengals. Good guess Ari. But no, that would be the Idaho. That's where Mark Schlereth went, right? I have no idea.

All right. Come on. I want to get back in this. What's the score? We'll do it after this one. This next one will be number 10. All right. Number 10.

It's a bear. It's not. It's not the Central Arkansas bear. Oh, oh, oh, got it. Got it. Got it. Is that the Oakland Golden Grizzly? Oh, it's not.

It's the Northern Colorado shoot. All right. The other the Northern Colorado shoot. All right. The other UNC. All right. Ari you have four out of 10 and Andy you have five out of 10 so far. Whoa. All right. How many more do we have? I want to beat him. Ten more. Ten more. God we have ten more. Good Lord. Yes. All right. So we will go to number 11. That is a vicious animal. Whatever that is. I don't want

to meet it in a dark alley. Like, it's almost satanic. Stony Brook Seawolves. I never would have gotten that in a million years. All right. I mean, that thing looks like it would tear out your soul. Yeah, it doesn't look very nice, does it? This is going worse than I thought it would for me. This is going way worse than I thought it would. All right. Number 12. I'm just guessing based on color and logo. Is this the Columbia lion?

This is. Yeah. That's a good one. I almost wrote something else and I'm happy I wrote nothing. It's a blue. It's a light blue lion like that. That was my only hope. Okay.

All right. We will go to number 13. Oh, I just like this logo. The Shark Week, baby. Yes, Ari, did you write anything? OK, I love that there's a University of Long Island. All right. Dark Week is something different in my house. the the

the the the the the I don't I get it not North Dakota State and I don't know what it is. I got the Howard Okay, all right Hang on just sec. I got to load these in here. They'd only let me upload ten at a time All right, and for number 15 That's a, it's like, like,

so nicely, it's like Lassie. I play with a colleague though. I don't know what kind of dog that is. Like a, it's just sort of retriever, I think, but that's not, it's not a UMBC. Those are the retrievers. Wait a minute, wait a minute. I think I know what it is.

Okay. I know what it is because I saw it in the chat. So I'm not going to say I got this wrong. I think I know what the mascot is. I think that's a Saluki. Saluki. It's a Saluki. It's a Southern Illinois Saluki. Illinois Saluki. We'll get that. Once I saw Saluki in the chat, I was like, oh, I'm not reading the chat. Well, that's why I'm not taking credit for that one, because I got it wrong. And number 16. This is like Low Rent Duke. It's a Blue Devil, but it's not Duke.

Correct. Any guesses? No, I got nothing. What does that say? central Connecticut Blue Devils. Central Connecticut. You just turned in like they faced him in pro. They took the Duke logo and faced him in profile. That's that's it. Alright and now we will go to number 17. Oh, right. You better get this one. This is a great one.

Yeah, I already got another. We got a snake. Yeah, Florida and emrattlers. Yep. There we go. Wonderful logo. Great colors. Great uniforms. I know that because they played at Ohio State when I was on the beat. That's the reason I know that because they played at Ohio State when I was on the beat. That's the reason I know that great great uniforms number 18 It's another random bird just staring at us like this bird does peer into your soul his beak is Tremendous nice Ari. Oh, he's got it. Dang. You're on a street. I'm trying to make a late comeback here. I think we're tied now. I don't think so. Because I'm dying here.

All right, two more. Two more and then we have a bonus. Okay. All right. And here is number 19. I'm like getting competitive now. Oh, oh, I know where this one is. I'm cooked.

Oh yeah. All right. River, if you were to drive from Nashville to Knoxville, you would you would pass through Cookville home of Tennessee Tech. Is that right? Yes. The Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles. That's right. Watson Brown, Max brother coach there. Somebody just said in the chat Ari is 2024 South Carolina. Yeah. Yeah. You coming on strong late. The hometown of the Brown brothers, I believe. Yeah. Okay. Mm hmm. Alright. Oh, not bad. Here we go. Alright and for

number twenty. Okay, this is just still Tennessee Tech. Yep. Hold on. Here we go. Here we go. Oh, I got this one. I love this one. Wait. This is one of those like you watch the NCAA tournament a lot. These these guys show up the the basketball tournament. The Marist Red Foxes. Yes, Marist Red Foxes. Alright, we'll do a quick little score update. You just beat me at the end there. I thought I was making it interesting and you got it.

So so I was. Was Illinois and Brett Beelima. You were you were 2024 South Carolina. I was 2024 Illinois. No South Carolina finished strong. I lost at the end there. I took the lead. Strong and they lost Illinois.

Yeah, that's true. Yep Andy won the regular round 10 out of 20 versus re 7 out of 20. Whoa Alright and now for the bonus one now this one you need obviously need to know the school But bonus points if you can name give me the name of the mascot. Alright, alright Alright, I love the mascot. Okay. Oh Wait like which one's pretty name? We have a then like Smokey the dog at Tennessee. What? Yeah. Or, or like Albert. Yeah. I got this school. The school is Cornell. Is it corny? The bear is touchdown. The bear in honor of the fighting JD Piquel's.

He says he says that that's the name of the mascot across every sport. He is gorgeous. That's all I know. Wait, so his name like he's named touchdown the bear when he goes to a basketball game to that's what JD says. He's not he's not he's not three pointer the bear. He's just pointer the bear. And he's just touchdown the bear.

I mean, I guess it could have been worse, but so. So Yale has handsome Dan the Bulldog. Who's handsome no matter what sport? And Cornell has touchdown the bear who's touchdown even in field hockey all across campus. River went out and picked the hard ones like you. You tried to make that difficult, right? Yeah, like is there a bunch of there are a bunch of like Ivy League schools and things like that.

But like I would have known and I was looking at the Harvard logo up there. I think most people have seen that on a sweatshirt somewhere. There is a number of schools that just had like the letter as the logo like Cornell with the C or Furman with the F. Yeah, Fordham has a big F right? Yeah. Well, that was big F to you Andy because this was fun.

Like we should have like I'll go get a whiteboard and we should do this like once every every now and then. There's plenty more we can do for another round. That is what we're for. And look, it doesn't always have to be topical because we're an hour and 15 minutes into the show. The people listening and watching now, they're the true hard cores, the true believers. We could have that guys in movies.

Yeah. And River Flash, now you would be terrible at that. I mean, if we started like doing trivia, um, and he, he does the trivia and then we write it down and like gambled on, uh, who wins. I think that would be, as long as we add a gambling element to it, we're fine. I just want to weasel my way into the Puga cart or we could like show album covers and pick the band who made that album. Absolutely. Possibilities are endless.

Yeah. This is, Barry's gonna have to buy himself a whiteboard. Yeah. I don't know if he can handle that assignment. I was supposed to get it yesterday and then my day got away from me and I totally. We had a long group text, group chat discussion of where you could get it as well.

I know, I just, it was one of those things could get it as well. It was one of those things that just escaped my mind. You know what though, today was sailor day at school and we had to get a sailor outfit for our daughter. These are the things that I was thinking. But you got that, right? Yeah, but my wife got it, I didn't do that. But I mean like.

So if I text your wife and say, can you pick up Ari in mini whiteboard, she'll do it. I mean, say your day. We need you as a Popeye Ari. Yeah. You know what the sickest part about that is, is that we had that already. Like she didn't buy that for sale. Like that was in like we had that. Like I don't know why we had that. But I feel like I should get a captain's hat

for some bit we do on the show. There's a guy I follow on Instagram named MrProfessor318. I think he actually works at Louisiana Monroe, but he uses AI to turn rock songs, rap songs, you name it, into yacht rock. Yeah. It's tremendous.

Like he does Metallica as yacht rock, Kendrick Lamar, like not like us as yacht rock. And you learn that everything can be made better by making it yacht rock. So we can, we can rock. Is like an elite, elite, elite category of music. It is. I, you know, I should reach out to him and see if he'd allow us to use some of his Yacht Rock covers and we play them and you try to guess the song.

I don't think they sound nothing like the originals. Yeah, we could do that. We could do that. I actually kind of I like listen to Yacht Rock. I have a playlist. I don't know how good I would be at recognizing the actual bands and names, but like I would recognize the song. Oh, yeah, Rob, you know, I'm like, in England, Dan, I can sing along with the song without telling you the artist or the name of the song. That's kind of how I am. So yeah, but now we've got to get to writing these for the website on three.

Andy and I both are writing for the website too. So if you are into that sort of thing, we will give you our breakdowns of that. But that was a fun show. I had a great time and I'll miss you over the weekend, pal. Yeah. We will talk to you guys on Monday. Big week coming next week. Talk to you then.