Andy & Ari On3 - The 28-team College Football Playoff is the sport’s DUMBEST idea yet

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

It's game week! Over in Dublin, Kansas State and Iowa State are gearing up for the kickoff to the college football stadium in Aviva Stadium in Ireland. Before Andy & Ari pick this game though, the guys have to cover some news over the weekend: The Big Ten "populating" the idea of an expanded College Football Playoff with 24, 28 teams. Andy explains why this idea needs to be killed... and quickly. (0:00-18:25) Intro: CFP Expansion Idea(18:26-21:25) Huel(21:26-31:49) Killing the 28-team expanded CFP(31:50-39:24) Importance of the Conference championship games(39:25-41:25) Academy Sports + Outdoors(41:26-53:23) Kansas State vs Iowa State picks(53:24-1:05:11) Julian Sayin named QB1 at OSU(1:05:12-1:12:57) Joey Aguilar named starting QB at Tennessee(1:12:58-1:13:28) Conclusion Our show is sponsored by Academy Sports + Outdoors! https://www.academy.com/c/backpack  Get Huel today with this exclusive offer for New Customers of 15% OFF with code STAPLES15 at https://huel.com/STAPLES15 (Minimum $75 purchase) Over in Dublin, the Iowa State Cyclones and the Kansas State Wildcats are kicking things off in Week 0. While this Big 12 conference game usually occurs in the later part of the season, these two contenders for the conference will start the college football season off. Who do you think wins? Who will cover the spread? Let us know your thoughts Now, we turn to some news on the field with quarterback competitions. Starting in Columbus, Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes have tabbed Julian Sayin as its starter. How will the young QB fare vs the Longhorns? Next, in a matchup down in Atlanta, Tennessee and Syracuse will face off with 2 new faces at the quarterback spot. Watch here as Andy & Ari breakdown this matchup while also discussing the news out of both teams of who the starting QB will be. Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/hS8Nwhq6Q3QHosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail]

Welcome to Annie and Ari on three. It's Monday and, you know, I wanted to start the week on a high note because obviously there is college football at the end of this week, Ari. Same week. Unfortunately, I've been placed on your team when it comes to college football playoff now. I've transferred. I have entered the portal. And I am now, let's stop this madness before it gets out of control because. On Friday, Pete Thamble from ESPN writes that Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petiti is, what are they called, populating an idea that there's these stupid new buzzword verbs that have come out in the last year that I've never heard before, mainstreaming, populating.

I don't know exactly what they're doing with it, but it's basically kind of one of those blue sky, no bad ideas, conference calls, and they had a bad idea, and now they're socializing it. That's the other word for it. And he told some people. And some brave person was like, this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I'm going to leak this to the media so that we can smother it in the crib. Yeah, that's the hope of what's going on here, right? Yes. Because the thing is, is that like, if you're on a conference call or you're talking amongst

friends, you can float any idea you want, right? Like, that doesn't bother me. We just can't allow this to get traction. The idea is expanding the playoff to 20. 24 or 28 teams. The reason they want to do this, well, one, Tony Petiti's doubling down on his auto bids thing that nobody else wants. So he's like, well, if they don't want auto bids at 16, maybe they'll be okay with it at 24

or 28. But the other piece of this, and this is something, this is where I'm scared of it, because I'm worried that Greg Sanky's going to hear it or Jim Phillips is going to hear it or Greta York's going to hear him, be like, you know, he's got a point there. they got to figure out how to make money off their conference championship weekend. And what he's saying is just cancel the conference championship games. They're irrelevant even with the 12. We'll just put another round of the playoff there.

Don't do it. Hold the line, boys and girls. Hold the line. Don't do it. In fact, Ari, I've now come to the realization because I think they're probably going to go to 16 at some point, which I'm okay with because it's not adding another round. But if they can't agree on anything, they're just going to stay at 12. Let's just do that for a few years.

Can we just do that? I'm amused by your coming around to my side of the equation. But I always said there was a maximum number for me. That's why I'm amused. It took two years we got there. Like, you know, you didn't know. That's the part that pisses me off. Like, they couldn't even let them play this first one before they started doing it.

Yeah. So, like, you know, what do you think your number? is 12 or 16 four rounds however you want whether you want to do it 12 or 16 four rounds but don't go past that 16

still makes it the most exclusive playoff in American sports once you go past it it's not and you're hurting the regular season so it is important to you for it still to be the most exclusive club it needs to be hard to get in just not too hard to get in

okay because then you will start to come around to my idea, which is too many teams equals regular season sucks. Correct, which is true. There's a sweet spot where the teams that are good are engaged through the regular season. Look, if you're bad, if you're mediocre to bad,

you don't need to be engaged in the playoff story throughout the season. You need to be better. But if you're good, yes, you should have some hope. in October and maybe in November. So that's where they are right now. If you go to 28, it's just silly. The 28 idea,

there's seven auto bids for the big 10 in the SEC. The seventh place team in one of those leagues should not make the playoff. Yeah. So I respect your thought on this, which is you can add teams, don't add rounds. Like that's a good way. I didn't like ever think about that.

That was long enough last year. I think they stretched, like they pushed the boundaries of how long it could be last year. I don't think it needs to be in another, like another round. I think it's too long. Not pushing, just curious. Why do you think that? Did it feel long to you? Did it.

Yeah. When we got to the championship game, it was like, okay, I might be getting over this. Okay. Yeah. I wonder if it's because of how many games or how many, how much layoff there was between them. that might be it too that might be it too and i realize they want to have the extravaganza on january first but i would have liked them wrapping up that weekend they played the semis i think it would have been the right time to we don't want to push february right we want to

be done in january um yeah i was vehemently against the 12 team when it started when they went to it i didn't like it as i watched it last year unfold there were still certain moments in the season where I wish the 14 playoff impact of the regular season would have been felt a little bit more. But I thought that 12 was functional. And the thing that I have a hard time with with the 12 thing is, is that because the seating was messed up last year, people think there's something wrong with 12 teams. And I think those are two very separate, entirely different issues. If you fix the seating in half 12, that's probably the right number. Which they did fix the seating. And I'm not as harsh on them for the seating stuff. And you and I have

talked about this. When they came up with those seating rules, it was for five power conferences where each of them had big dogs in each league. It was not for a world with two power conferences. And I think the reseated version is the one on the screen now. This is what it would have looked like had been seated correctly last year. I think people would have really enjoyed watching that. Once we could acknowledge that conference championships aren't the only metric of gauging really good teams. And like we could just let human beings, put them in order the bracket looks normal i agree with you the the six seed won the championship um and the four seed was really really good but the four seed's path was much easier and it's like

that's not supposed to be well and so in the but in the one that was actually played the eight seed won the championship and the six seeds yeah you're talking about ohio state and penn state uh ohio state was the eight was actually number six so should have been the six seed penn state should have been the four seed. But looking at this at this bracket here, the thing that it alleviates is nobody has an easy route. Correct. You got to fight your way. Because even like the Ohio State-Arizona State game,

which would have been the 6-11 game, given what we saw from Arizona State against Texas, that could have been a fun game. And it wouldn't have probably been any more of a blow from the game that Ohio State actually played. Against Tennessee, correct. Tennessee SMU would have probably been a much more interesting, game than Tennessee, Ohio State, or Penn State SMU.

And then in this situation, too, like Tennessee might have won or SMU would have won, and then those two fan bases would feel much differently now than they did after the season. And meanwhile, Georgia, which did achieve something great by winning the SEC, by beating Texas twice, would have gotten to play the winner of Tennessee's SMU and not had to play Notre Dame right out of the gate. Yeah. So explain to people how this. this 2018 thing would even work? Like what, like, I don't even, like, I'm trying to come up with, like,

the first round I think would be on the champion, what we now know is championship weekend. Which is one week after the end of the regular season. Yeah. I, they made a graphic for my column on Monday, and I have a column on Monday that's basically kill this thing with fire, please. And it had the 28 team bracket. It is a god-awful monstrosity.

They did make the graphic. it does not it does not work it's so it's so it looks bizarre um also too like you and i have talked about like the comparisons to the basketball tournament we we really have done a lot of you know trying to maintain the integrity in the in the uniqueness of the college football realm without like poisoning too much basketball with it because they are very different sports but we don't want the football bracket to even look like the basketball no and the thing well the basketball Well, Brackett is a great example because it was too small at 16, two small at 32, too small at 48.

It was perfect at 64, and then they added four teams, and now they're going to add more. We know they are. They keep telling us they are. They should go back to 64. 64 is the perfect amount. Like, it's okay to accept that you have the perfect amount. You know, the interesting aspect of all this, too, Andy, is that I feel like, you know, college football is clearly going through an evolution right now, right? It's trying to figure out what works.

It's trying to figure out what doesn't. It's trying to figure out what the system should be, how to get everybody playing by the same rules. Like the playoff situation in general to me seems like such a low, like, priority in terms of, you know, what needs to be fixed, right? What needs to be, the fort needs to be fixed before the playoff needs to be fixed. And I feel like we keep trying to change the playoff and we don't really know what the dynamic of the sport's going to look like five, six, seven, eight years down the line. And the one thing that I find curious about expansion in all college sports

tournaments is that, and I might be wrong on this, so help me out because you're you're Mr. Big Brain. Have they ever reversed an expansion and gotten smaller in any sport? Like, is it possible if they could go to 21 or 22 teams or something and they're like, oh, this sucks, let's go back to 12? Or does it once it gets bigger? think so because MLB just expanded theirs again has anybody has anybody expanded in any sport expanded a tournament and then made it smaller when it didn't work you know MLB has monkeyed around

with the format but they've never contracted the number of teams why is it in sports that once you expand it's irreversible because everybody wants a chance like once you've gotten a taste of of having a chance to be in the playoff yeah you don't want to let that go but the thing is and I'll bring the NFL into it because you've heard me say a lot of times the NFL is very successful I don't blame them for trying to do things the NFL does but there's a very big difference so the NFL is is 14 of 32 teams and it used to be 12 but now it's 14 of 32 so that's like 43 percent that is obviously far less exclusive than what college football is at 12 when it's 17%. But I'm saying 17% of the power conferences. It's even less if you do the whole FBS. But let's be real, the group of five teams don't really have a chance with the national championship. But the difference with the NFL is team number 14 might be able to win some games in the playoff and might even be able to go all the way. We saw before they expanded to 14 when it was 12, we saw the New York Giants who were probably the last team.

team in the playoff if we if we power ranked them all they were the last team in the playoff this was the 2008 season or 2007 the 2007 season and the patriots were clear far and away the number one team and the giants won their way through the nfc and beat the patriots in the NFL team 14 and team one aren't that different in college football team 28 and team one are not even in the same universe. Two different sports. They don't need to be in the same bracket. Yeah, I've had this thought a lot.

What if in college football, the top 40 teams are all like somewhat equal? Would that be better or worse? Then you could have a bigger playoff because they're not that different. Do you think a sport would be better or worse? I think I think week to week it'd be better because the games would be really fun and competitive. Because I feel like the reason why I, and it's like you unearthed this, and I think I've said this before, but it's important to acknowledge that the reason why I've always been smaller playoff is because the extra games were always unnecessary to me. Because 2021, Georgia, it didn't matter who you put in front of them. They were going to smash them.

And also, too, the exclusivity thing has always been kind of a misused stat to me. You go, well, four out of 131 teams is such a small, Andy, of the 131 teams, 80 of them aren't even in the discussion. That's why I think you do the math only with the power conference, the 68 power conference teams in Notre Dame. Like for me, what is the actual math equation? This is a bad at math podcast. Pull out your calculator for me while I'm talking. sure what is i mean 28 of 65 or however 28 of 68 if if you're it's 68 is the power conferences it's that's 41 so 41% is almost identical to the NFL and even then that's kind of

weird it's too much because the the the teams aren't as close in talent like i said team 14 and team one in the NFL are not that far apart team 14 and team one in college football are very far part still. Now, but before, the gaps may be, the gaps may be decreasing. So it may be that as the years go on, that, that becomes different. Right. Because the gap between number one and number eight when I was against the 12th team playoff was huge, but between number one and eight.

So like for me, my, my thing with the discussion of this has always been, if you're going to have a discussion about college football and you're a person that says that the sport is more than the national championship, then why are you always the first person in line to mess with the mechanism and crowning the chance? champion. The champion crown should be exclusive because there's an exclusive number of teams that are good enough to do it. And I think that that number, you know, I think it's changed dramatically in the last two years, but back when this first came out and I was writing all these columns and screaming at everybody at the athletic about how stupid it was, it was

because there were probably only 15 teams in the entire sport that had a national championship ceiling period. And now what is it 30, 35? Like it changed. Yeah, depending on the year. And River just had the AP poll up, the preseason poll. And I keep saying you can make a very good case for any of the top eight to me to win the national title. But I would expand that to the top 10. So the top 10 are Texas, Penn State, Ohio State, Clemson, Georgia, Notre Dame, Oregon, Alabama, LSU, Miami. You can make a case to me for any of those 10 that they won the national championship in 2025. And I believe you right now. Like, it would, it would, it would, You could make a plausible case for any of those.

Are there teams below 10 that you can make a plausible case for? Like Florida, I think you could. Florida, South Carolina. Could you do it for Indiana? Indiana is going to be good. I don't know that you'd make a national title case for them. Illinois. If you're going to make the case for Indiana, you'd make it for Illinois too.

We'll see about anybody else. Michigan, what if Price Underwood is just incredible? Do you wholeheartedly believe that if everything went right for Indiana or Illinois? everything the ball bounced their way everything went right that at the end of the year they could beat texas like truthfully let's like let's not like we we can absolutely say the question is not could they beat texas they could beat texas on the right day it's could they beat texas texas then ohio state and then clemson yeah um so like for me as much as I want to be like a bandwagon, like party bus guy.

Yeah, you don't have to jump on. It's fine. I think that they could make the playoff and they could be very good. But 10 is a vast improvement over what it was, which was two or three. I think there's only two teams probably or even three I could make the case for and people are going to roll their up. No, actually four. And they're all in the SEC. Five.

What is you? You added Oklahoma, A&M, Ole Miss. Alma, A&M, Ole Miss, Florida, and South Carolina. What about Texas Tech with their roster upgrades? I don't think that they could win the national title. See, and that's the Big 12s challenge right there, is we didn't name any of their teams because we weren't sure they're deep enough. And the ACC, Clemson, and Miami were the only teams that we were making the case.

Tech has a national championship ceiling as they're doing this. I don't know if one year is enough of it. Right. Right. And that's the thing. It's not because even if it's all works, you've probably built a team that can beat one of these teams on the right day, but could you beat three of them in a row? Here's how you know Texas Tech as an international championship contender. When the actual expectation is that they make a deep playoff run and not just win the Big 12, that's when their team is good enough. Like even the people who paid the money. Even the people who paid the money for Texas Tech are like just win the big 12. I think that's step one, right?

Go win the Big 12 or make the playoff. And I think that's certainly doable and within reasonability. But once you hear the actual expectations internally change from win the Big 12 to win the national title, that's when their team will be good enough. Is that a good, is that a good litmus test to you? I think so. I think that's a great one. That's a great one.

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able to see my feet. So thank you, Huell, for helping me on my weight loss journey. I appreciate you. Go check it out, guys. Yep. Staples 15 is your code. All right. Now, Ari, here's what we have to do, I think, to completely kill off this. I did, I think, whatever brave person leaked this thing last week, and there was definitely an effort to leak it, whoever did this last week, we owe you a debt of gratitude because I think most people saw this and we're like, this is the stupidest idea ever. It's never going to happen. And I hope that's where it stops. But to get these people to stop thinking of these things, we have to find a way to make them make money on that conference championship weekend now that the conference championship games are not

very relevant because of the larger playoff. So how do we do that? Excuse my naivete. Naivete. Naivet. I have a tie. The way they make money is by people watching it. Correct. Have viewership numbers, and maybe they have, I don't know this. Have they gone down dramatically? Not really, but they know it's coming. They know it's falling off a cliff.

I don't know what it is. Well, right last you got on our show, the week where he was playing in the ACC championship game, and I understand if a coach is like, I don't want to try in this thing. And obviously, they tried. happen. Do you think that's going to happen? I don't know.

When you have two teams that are solidly in the playoff, is it worth the risk? Do they still hang? Georgia lost their starting quarterback in the SEC championship game last year. Have you ever been in a college football facility that doesn't have somewhere where their conference championships are displayed?

Correct. But you can have a champion without playing the game. But my only assertion here is, is that the only way they won't continue to make money on championship weekend is if people stop watching. And the only way people will stop watching if people stop caring and playing their player. All right. Well, we still watch. Maybe you just keep doing it. Keep doing it.

I have an idea, though. Can I, can I throw my idea? I want to hear your idea. But first, you're the person of, this is Andy Staples College, like, Ph.D. thesis. It's football. It's on TV. We're watching it. Like, isn't that your whole thing?

No, you're right. And I should have thought of that. I should have thought of that. Did people start watching in bowl season when people started opting out? Bull season had its best numbers of the year of ever last year. Right. And the opt-outs are going to go down now that you can give them, you know, you can pay them to play.

So I don't think they should stop. I don't think there's a problem. The only time that conference championship games will stop making them money is when the viewership goes down and no one's going to not watch their conference championship game. And I don't think that anybody's going to bench their players because people want to win their conference championship. You play, you practice to play the game. Isn't that like me?

You practice to play. Also, too, if you play the game. Are you mixing up Alan Iverson and Herm Edwards? Yeah, I did it. That was a new one. We talk about practice. To win the games. Also, somebody who's been on the Ohio State beat for a long time

and knows exactly what it's like to cover Georgia and Clemson. And if they bench their starters, that might be 10 times more interesting. than watching the starters against the crappy teams they play half their games. You don't think that Georgia wants to watch their backups play? All right. They want to watch their backups play.

If a team is good enough, if a team... Are you solved the problem? I know, but if the team is good enough to be in a position where they're firmly in the playoff, that means they're recruiting at a high enough level where there's some interesting freshmen

on their team they love to see play. You have solved the problem. I love it. Okay, so I take it back. There is no problem. Just play your conference championship games. If the rating, You agree with me, too?

I'm with you. But, but hey, if the ratings fall off a cliff, you ready for my idea? Yeah. Okay. Imagine,

this will never happen, by the way. Never. They'll never go for this. You're smart. But imagine you had a situation where after the rivalry weekend, so after Thanksgiving weekend, instead of doing the ranking reveal

on Tuesday night of the following week, you do it on Sunday, just like you do. the playoff ranking reveal the following week. So you do it on that Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. Team, all teams, this is if it's a 12 team. Teams ranked 13 to 16 have the right to challenge the teams that are ranked 9 through 12. I will see you at your field.

So the teams rank 8 through 12 get the home game. But the teams ranked 13 to 16 have the right to challenge. any one of those they want to challenge. I will come play you next week on your home field. So like Alabama would go, Indiana, I challenge you to a game in Bloomington next week.

That would be fun. It would be amazing. It would be fun to get to pick on somebody in the storylines of if you pick on somebody and get your ass kicked or if you pick on somebody and you eat them. Imagine Alabama's like, Indiana, we're meeting up in Bloomington and Ole Miss is like SMU, I'll see you in Dallas.

And like Blooming, and you go to Bloomington and Indiana just crushes out. Like, it would have been incredible. I'm listening to a book on tape right now. And this is, I'll land the plane. Just trust me on this. Okay. About the West Memphis three. And the, this is, do you know what this is?

I do. Yeah, just a, it's a 1993, unfortunate murder that happened in, West Memphis, Arkansas, and the book was written by the trial attorney who, or the defense attorney that was, you know, defending one of the boys that was accused. And it takes you through how and why these kids got wrongfully sentenced to life and prison or death row. And the entire book they talk about, or he talks about like, here are things that I did during the trial that I wish I wouldn't have done and vice versa to explain how this happened. And the reason why I brought this up is because it would be hilarious if you had your challenge situation and like you

challenged the wrong team and the coach goes uh i spent the rest of my like 50 years on the line go what if we wouldn't have challenged indiana we would have challenged alabama and like you know should have challenged signity like what like what ifs that would have happened of like we challenged the wrong team and also what if they challenged the same team what if there's a team like who wasn't at smu like number nine for a long portion of the year last year and like if everybody wanted to challenge the same team. Well, right, and then there have to be a drawing to see who gets them.

Like, the way you'd have to do it is you set the rules so that you have to play. Like, so that 13 through 16, and you don't promise anything. Like, you don't say if you, when you're in, you have a chance to build on your resume

or lose something. But, instead of game weekend? Yeah. Okay, I've got another alternate plan, because I came prepared too. Yours is fun. Yours is fun.

Mine is an actual question, and you might just call me stupid. Okay. How valuable is the Tuesday night reveal property to ESPN in terms of viewership? Not that. Not that valuable. What if they didn't give us the rankings until the end? So no one knew where they were until the end. I think people would generate.

more conspiracy theories that they don't want. But that would solve any question of like, where am I in the rankings? I'm good if I lose. There's, like, unless you're in the top three or whatever, like, if you are in a position that like the three SEC teams, Indiana and everybody was in a year ago, nobody would be like, I'm not playing in the championship game because they don't know what the rankings are. That's true. And like, if they don't put them out there, there's going to be more conspiracies and they're

already are. You're still going to have the AP and the coaches poll. Yeah. They're going to be close. Anything in the formula. So the committee's always been different. And actually, you know, it's funny, but the AP poll has started to mirror the playoff because lazy reporters look at the previous AP poll or the previous playoff poll. And instead of thinking for themselves, they put it in order based on the one and lost in the previous things. So like if you stopped releasing weekly playoffs, that would suck for us because it would be good content. But at the same time, it'd be great for us because then we can make our own rankings and try to. our best. I'd be fine with that. Like, I think that like knowing where you are and playing scoreboard watching all year and debating about whether you should be nine or seven in November is only for entertainment. If you took it all out, everybody was in the dark. And at the end, that wonderful selection Sunday where we all have bubble guts trying to figure out what they're going to do and how they're going to do it, we all saw it for the first time.

Yeah, because I think five, you're taking away five broadcasts, really. And I don't know that. with a sporting event or another talk show? Yeah, and they're not getting appreciably more because one, one or, no, two of them, they wedge in between college basketball games anyway. And also, how many people continue to watch once it's done? I know that they do the 10 minute like preamble, but they reveal the teams. It's all right, click, you know, it's off to the next

thing. So, especially because there's live sports on at the moment. Yeah, I think you're right. I think, I think you're absolutely right. Because that way, that way you don't know for sure. Like SMU had no idea going into the ACC championship game if it was going to get in or not if they won or lost that game, but they played it anyway. But what if SMU was number six and they didn't realize it? Yeah. Yours requires fewer changes and fewer machinations. Mine is probably more just bizarre and wild. Yours is fun. And I think, I mean, I do think that the fans, we owe it to the fans at least to like let them know how they're doing. So maybe mine is a terrible idea. But like, I don't,

I don't think yours is that bad. Because I do think they don't really need that many. They just don't need that. It's not about many. It's the more it's when they do it. If they do it at the end of the year, whether it's only three or whether it's six, the most updated one is the most recent precedent that you have to go off of. Once the second poll comes out, the first one's irrelevant and ongoing. You can't do it at all.

You can't give anybody anything to work off of because if you give them one poll in November and then six weeks of results, they can still work off of the first poll to see how they're thinking. So, like, I, but I don't have, I've never even feared that people would opt out of the conference championship games.

Like, I don't even know, like, which teams would have or should have, Texas and Georgia last year? They both played. Did Georgia, would Georgia have been in a better spot if they'd just play their backups and lost that game?

But I'm assuming, and you tell me this, Georgia has had a ton of success. Do their fans not want to win the SEC? Oh, their fans want them to win. Their fans want them to win every time they take the field. They want them to win the SEC. Like, that's an important benchmark. Yeah.

Isn't it? And I feel like I don't like that we introduced this idea. And Rivers got the Rett Lashley clip from when he was on the show. Play it if people haven't seen it. Play it. If the worst happens this year, do you think coaches will start to consider doing crazy things? like not playing or benching players or doing things. If our team all got COVID today and didn't play, we're in.

We're in, right? We don't have another data point to drop us below anybody that's behind us. Based on what happened in 2020, that's how we go. I think if you open up that door, you're going to see a lot of people do a lot of crazy things. Yes, we're not going to. We're going to go play in Charlotte. And we're going to try to compete for our championship because that's the right thing to do. That's what competitors do.

We value an opportunity to share the field with someone like Clemson and fantastic team and try to do something special. And so I just, like I said, I'm going to choose to believe that on Sunday that the right thing will be done as well on the other end. The SMUs of the sport will never opt out. The only ones who will opt out are the Georgia's and the Ohio States and the Bamas because they don't care about winning their champion. And you'd hope that they won't either because their fans still demand. Yeah. Right.

So I don't know, like, what circumstance. Also, too, if SMO. So I like this. I'm glad we talked this through because you've taken me off the ledge. So all of these ideas, like this 24, 28 team nonsense, is to fix a problem that doesn't even exist yet. That's the column. Yeah. There's no problem.

You write that. You saved it. The entire idea of this is to fix a problem that doesn't exist. and the only reason why the problem exists is because you guys created nonsense to begin with. So fixing a problem that was created by nonsense with more nonsense means that there's more nonsense

around the corner. Right, because losing the conference championship game eliminated the buy possibility eliminated. Now you could still lose your conference championship game. Like if you're in the SEC championship game and you are 12 and 0 and you lose to a team that was 11 and 1, you're probably still getting to buy.

Yeah. Also, how can you adequately, nobody wants their conference championship to be decided without a game that is done on a tiebreaker. And when you have 18 teams in a conference, the more likely is that you're going to have three or four teams with the same record at the top, which then, then what are we doing? We're just, you know, you might get to a place where you're at a flying game. The real problem is how big conferences are, but it's too late for that now. Every single problem that college football has can be back, can be traced back to the nonsensical geographic in quantum. geographic locations and the quantities of the teams in the conferences. Yeah. If you got back to five power conferences with 10 to 14 teams in it, you would be fine.

Right, which they'll never do again until they form a Super League and those are the divisions. Yeah, I mean, we've already fixed college football. It's get five people, and you can even take the five conference commissioners and just do a conference draft. Everybody gets to pick. Oh, my God. If you're, you can. All right, you're not supposed to come up with these ideas the week of week. zero we get this is may stuff this is june stuff right here conversation andy you forgot we talked

about this like if you if you gave five people the just patini and all the other guys yeah you know sanky and yeah they all got in line and whatever they played five they played one on one basketball tournament for the picks and then like the number one overall pick is georgia the number two overall picks ohio state and then you just went down the line you would get five we're gonna do we're gonna do this as a column aren't we or are we going to do this on the show Let's do it on the show. Well, I think it would take too long on the show, but we should, maybe we could do the first five rounds on the show. Let's at least do some preview content for the conference draft.

We have a, we have a big guest on tomorrow's show. I want to see what he thinks about that. Because who would be number one? I think I know who the number one overall pick would be. Do you? Yeah, it's Ohio State. Is it? Yeah.

Now taking Texas? I'm taking Ohio State. I mean, because of the viewership numbers, right? Yes, they're instant ratings. Yeah. You, I mean, in order for us to actually do this effectively, the question for me is, is my number two pick, Texas, Alabama, or Michigan?

I don't know. In order to adequately prepare for this, you would have to, like, look at the TV viewership numbers. Like, I don't know of those three teams. Like, does Michigan get a big, as big of an audience of Texas. Michigan, yeah. It is?

Michigan's two. The top of those viewed teams in the entire country are big ten of it. It is the game they play against each other always, but yeah. I think, and you would have to debate that because, like, do you think that Michigan is built? Because that would put Ohio State and Michigan in separate conferences. Yeah. I mean, it would be in separate conferences anyway because there's no way Michigan's falling. Like if Ohio State goes one, there's no way Michigan's falling to six.

I mean, you could even do two. two at a time to make the draft simple. You get two picks every time. So in order to ensure, if you take Bammer, you have to take Auburn. Yeah. If you take Oregon, you have to take Washington, like that type of a deal.

But then even if you did it that way, it would still be more even than it is now. Wow, this would be super fun. So we're going to have to do this. We are going to have to do this. The geography won't make sense, but it already doesn't make sense. So who cares?

Exactly. Yeah. I think the number matters more than the geography in football. In other sports, it would yeah it helps if they're close but power if five if you had five conferences and all five of the conferences had four teams that could win the national championship evenly than the current playoff system from last year would be perfect agreed you could even go back to the the seating rules they start that they had and you'd be good with that yeah and I think it would be weird if you

I mean for southern people who I mean like because nobody has more conference pride than the SEC fans right right they would probably have a hard time seeing Tennessee you know, playing on the West Coast with USC and all that. But like in terms of like structure and then you could have a 20 team playoff and it would make sense. It would. Like I mean, you know, it's all the things that we discuss are avenues to kind of skirt the dysfunctional conference.

It's exactly right. It's all these ad hoc solutions to the major issue. A problem that they created by getting gigantic. And greedy. And greedy. Yeah. Because they're great. Yeah, they got gigantic because they're greedy.

Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of solutions, it's back to school time. The place to go for all of your back to school needs and your back to football needs, your back to tailgating needs is Academy, Sports and Outdoors. They're all over the country. They have everything you need for your tailgate. They also have everything you need as you're sending your kids back to school. The backpacks, the clothes, the shoes. Oh, God, the shoes, Ari. Have you, have you done? You have you. You have, you. You have. You have. You, you. You have. haven't your kid's not old enough to have the shoe shopping experience where i've got to have these this particular pair of shoes or she's not old enough but uh the thing that i think is interesting not to cut off from your academy read is that it is the most diverse store i've ever been in that's right that's right you can get lives backpack for school this year but you also can get a grill that you can bring to the tailgate or a grill that you can set up at your house for when you're watching on television.

They got it all. Academy sports and outdoors, have fun out there. We love it. And yeah, I may have to hit them up later this week because, oh, I, well, shoot, I'm smoking a brisket right now. Are you? Yeah. Are you going to do something special for, oh, no, I was, you know, back in my head,

I thought I was going to Florida in two weeks and we're not. We are going to Clemson, so yeah, we're going to have to road game rules. We'll find a place to hunker down and watch some games. Yeah. Academy is right up the road from me, and I've gone there a hundred times, and I've gone there for very different reasons every time, which is great. It's beautiful. So they got all you need for back to school and back to tailgate, which one, you got to do.

The other one, you have the pleasure of doing it. doing. But it's all fun. Academy Sports and our doors. Have fun out there. Ari, let us talk about actual football. Can we talk about actual football and not people in suits having meetings? Are you getting goosebumps right now? Are you getting goosebumps? You got to do the the goosebumps, wiggly fingers? Guys, we're picking a game. We're picking a game. Okay, question, question for you. Do we need to adjust, do we need to call the mint and adjust our big 12 coin? Because our Big 12 coin has been plus three and a half, minus three and a half. I feel like the teams were even closer together.

And this first game of the year for Armageddon, Iowa State versus Kansas State in Dublin, is a prime example of that. It is Kansas State minus three. But again, should we just have a coin with plus three on one side and minus three on the other for all Big 12 games? I said this during the summer. And now that we're finally here, Andy, I'm going to say it. it again. There is no way better to

indoctrinate the European mind to America. With big football football. This is Americana at its finest. This is two of the better teams in the conference. It's a conference championship game right out of the gate and the spread is three.

It's so amazing. And now you want me to pick it. Yes. Which is great. Because I think it's like you went back and looked last at our total like numbers of uh records and maybe we should actually keep our records this year i don't know that we did let's do that yes let's keep our records against the spread this this week will be easy because i think this is the only game we're picking oh that we could we could throw

k state and fresno state or or uh stanford hawaii in there later in the week as a bonus picks yeah yeah i mean it's a it's a podcast it's unlimited room um yeah okay so for me i when we were at the Big 12 Media Day, Brett McMurphy, our wonderful colleague, did a poll of coaches asking all the coaches anonymously for three, right? Andy, he was asking for three teams and a conference champion because there was no... He said two. Two teams. What's your conference title game matchup? Yeah.

Got it. I heard a lot of Iowa State there. You heard some Kansas State, too, but I heard a lot of Iowa State oh no you heard a lot of both i thought i think kansas state was the most commonly was it team yes excuse me um i just think i'm going to be safe here man i'm just going to take some points i think i'm going to take some point iowa state to me um is consistent is tough god kansas state is going to be so good, too. I don't know. I don't know. My gut says Iowa State, so that's my pick. But I want to hear yours and I want to hear your right. Well, I'm going to ask you, because this is, this is interesting. Because the games have been fairly like the one two years

ago in the snow at the end of the season, the shootout in Manhattan, like was a fantastic game. And it was a one touchdown score. You know, last year, Iowa State wins 29, 21. Do you know what the series has been the last few years? Do you know who's dominated this? I don't. Iowa State's won four of the last five. The one K-State win is a 10-9 win in 2022. And that, you know, 2022 years is the year that Kansas State won the league.

Yeah. So that was a team that beat the TCU team that ended up playing for the national title in the Big 12 championship game. and they still only beat Iowa State by one. Yeah. They both have good quarterbacks. Kansas State has more recognizable players, I think, nationally between Bill and Edwards. I think Iowa State having to replace the two great receivers from last year.

Jalen Noel and Jaden Higgins, like those, that's the biggest question mark. And Jay Higgins is who's going to be like a wide receiver too in the NFL this year. Like he was really, really good. Yeah. Avery Johnson is, I think, the biggest X factor in the Big 12. Let me ask you this, though. Do you think Avery is going to have a huge development over the year and be a completely different player than he was last year?

Because that's what you're kind of picking here. Like, do you think he's going to take the question? Right. That is the toughest question for me because you look at him. He has all of the physical tools. He has the size. He has for sure has the speed. he may be the fastest quarterback in the country yeah so he's got a good arm it is very difficult

to predict though because now i've seen a full season of him and i'm just not sure that all gets put together like i go back to that b yu game last year where he he made some decisions with the ball that you just can't make and sometimes guys grow up out of those and sometimes they don't. Rocko Beck was better. I think he had better numbers. Certainly a better passer, but he also lost. And it felt like at the end of last season, if the game's on the line, you trusted Rocco Beck with the ball on his hands. Yeah. By the way, we're going live after this, right? We are going like, but yes, if you've missed hanging all with us live since we changed the show to the afternoons, if you've missed hanging out with us live,

pop on right after Farmageddon. We're going to be live. We're going to be live. we're going to be talking because we're going to be so excited that football is back. So we're going to be talking about whether we were right or wrong on this thing. And this one's been interesting. So last year, obviously, everybody thought Florida State was going to roll Georgia Tech. And Georgia Tech basically dominated them after the first series. A couple of years before that, you had that weird Nebraska Northwestern game with the crazy. It was an onside kick.

Here's the deal. the game is being played in Ireland. It's big 12 football. In the spirit of America teaching Europe about American things, there's no way this game isn't a one possession game in the fourth quarter, right? There's also no way they don't run out of beer. They're going to run out of beer. They ran out of beer last year, right?

Was that last year? Yeah, I think, well, the credit card machine stopped working, and I think they started just giving it away. Yeah, because I was going to say, like, drinking beer isn't a, only an American pastime. Like, is it the first sporting event they've ever had in Europe? Like, how is that even possible? Yeah, just supply yourselves well for these fan bases

because I promise you they're going to drink you dry. So, Ari, I'm ready to pick. Yeah, I'm going to go with my gut, too. I'm just going to stick with it. And I might be wrong. You got the Wildcats? No, I'm taking Iowa State. You were going to say, you were to take, oh, because you wanted the points.

Oh, you wanted the points. Okay, I got you. That makes sense. When you take the cyclones, I will take Avery Johnson and the Wildcats. I will say maybe there is that development. Maybe there is that next step. And this is the first step toward Avery Johnson's March to the Heisman Trophy. Okay, maybe I'm overselling it a little bit.

But I'm going to say he plays a great game and Kansas State comes back to America with a win. I don't want to do it on this game. But Andy, when I first came back to On 3, you were excited to have me back on the show. One of the first things that you and I talked about doing again were the obscene bets where we had to do things we don't want to do, like when you maybe chug a fat tire and I made you eat mayonnaise. Like, we need to do that.

We need to have like Friday, Thursday shows this year where like we're paying off bets from the previous weekend when we have huge disagreements. We need your help, guys, with that. So you know how to find us. Andy Stapleson3 at gmail.com. Ari. wasterman at on3.com.

Let us know what the punishments need to be. You guys listen all the time. You watch all the time. You know us better than we know ourselves. So what do you think is a suitable punishment? I know there's one Ari fears greatly that I actually think he'd probably handle pretty well, but I'm willing to let it be a punishment because I think it could be funny is he doesn't want to have to run three miles.

And I would love to run alongside him with a GoPro while he runs three miles. The only thing that scares me are the physical challenges. I think you're in too good a shape. You would actually find that very easy and you don't even know it. I don't think that running three miles would be easy. I guarantee you would have no problem. I probably need to just go out and run a mile and see how it goes. But yeah, I'm down to do these things.

And usually when we have huge disagreements, because as the season goes on, and you and I are going to be on opposite sides of the coin a lot on things. This is a throw a dart at the board type situation. But I do think that naturally speaking, and we also have to have like a, we have to come up with another long-term futures bet. But there's also a, there's an account on Instagram that I follow. And I don't remember what the account is, but it's just two guys.

And like people dare them to do things and then they go do it and they film, like somebody said like, go take a bath and bath and body works. And like they brought it back. I love it. People are like, go cook breakfast in Walmart, like things like that. Like, obviously we're not going to go break the law. But like, you are so much better at coming up, the listener, with stakes and funny things that you have to do than we are.

So please be engaged in that. Give us ideas. Also, I'm not putting a five-layer of burrito anywhere except my mouth. We know how Kansas State fans feel about that. Do you ever do it? he did he did that guy did it no he didn't he did he shoved the five layer burrito up yes he did is there a video of it i believe so i haven't watched it is it weird that i want to no i mean everybody's a little curious right yeah i mean yeah

That was the BYU game. That was Kansas State BYU last year. Okay. And remember the one FSU fan tried to bail out the other FSU fan by cashing in that, the dog crap in a cup bet, and it still didn't help. So I think the original person who has to make the bet needs to do that. So I understand this correctly. And we're at the end of the show here so I can just be myself.

but like he said if I don't remember what side of he was of the coin but he goes if my team he said if BYU beats Kansas State I will shove a five layer burrito where the sun might shine oh okay I see it

if Kansas State loses to BYU I'll shove a beefy five layer burrito up my ass and the guy did it and he took a picture of it with the Taco Bell bag over his head and he just wrote go kansas state that's dedication folks that is what we're importing to ireland this week

have fun with that irish people all right we do have to talk about some other football quarterback competitions yeah are coming to an end our ohio state coach ryan day has named a starter and uh kind of did it on monday In a very shrewd way, because he opens his press conference like, hey, I know you want me to talk about the Michigan sanctions, but I'm not. Oh, by the way, Julian Sayan is our starting quarterback. I mean, this would have been a good time to admit that your brother set the whole thing up, though, right? I'm kidding.

I'm kidding. I'm kidding. We're joking here. Joking, joking, joking, joking. Yeah, so I have some takes about the quarterback. stuff. Do you want to hear them? Yes. Well, let me, let me set it up. Okay, Julian San is their starter against Texas in the season opener. He beat out Lincoln Keenholz. Julian saying is the redshirt freshman. Lincoln Keenholz, redshirt sophomore. Julian

saying, of course, is the player who was one of the highest ranked quarterback recruits in the class of 2004. He came to Ohio State, was going to Alabama, had signed with Alabama, was on campus at Alabama had been in bowl prep with Alabama before they played Michigan in the Rose Bowl. Then Nick Saban resigns and Julian Sayan decides, nope, not going to play here, reopens the recruitment and winds up at Ohio State. Now he is Ohio State's QB1. Yes. Okay. So in my 10 years covering Ohio State, there was only one position battle that I can recall at any position. And I'm assuming that, you know, there were upsets at places that I can recall where they veered off the plan.

And that one quarterback battle was Cardale Jones and J.T. Barrett. And you want to know why? Because they were put in a position that was not part of the plan. Nobody thought that J.T, that Cardale Jones was going to come back after they won in 14. And then it set up a dysfunctional quarterback battle that I think you could make the case tank their entire season in which they were the best overall team in college football that year. To me, I think this is highly functional to not only continue out onto the plan. and you know that I'm obsessed with plans. You're not as obsessed as I am.

Plans change. To name your store. Want to make God laugh? Tell me your plans. Yeah. 14 days before the season. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. Mike Tyson.

Yeah, that's a good one. Woody Hayes once said that nothing cleanses a soul more than getting your ass kicked, which I think is a good one too. And we're talking about Ohio State, so it's perfect. But I just think that it's functional. You know, to me, I've said this on the show, and I've said this to you, Andy, that like, what are the odds that you'd have two different human beings in your program that are different ages that have been in the program for

different amounts of time and that would be identical and skill set and ability? Like, it's just like, what do you need the extra week for? Name the guy, get the guy in place, start developing your plan, visualizing your season around that person, let the team know who's going to be your leader, and just do it. Like, I just don't know what the extra week is even for at this point. I like this move. I think it's the right move. I didn't watch every throw and every rep in practice,

but from everything that I've heard, Julian Sand was superior. Name him the quarterback and get moving. I mean, to me, it is the most functional. And it makes sense based on what we've heard is that he had been distancing himself. The Keenholz have put up a good fight, but that Sayan had distanced himself toward the end. And so now you have a guy who can start preparing for one of the best pass rushes in the country. And remember, this is an offensive line that's been revamped

because they lost some really good players to the NFL. So you have him working with the ones exclusively between now and the Texas game. So that's the right way to do it. And, you know, this is probably the most of all the first year starting quarterbacks, and obviously Arch Manning for Texas is another one. But of the first year starting quarterbacks on these top tier teams, Julian Sane has the biggest built-in advantage because he's the only one who gets Jeremiah Smith. Yeah. He is a wild card.

We don't know for sure what he's going to be, but it's not outside of the realm of possibility that by week seven, he is a household name. And you get that advantage because you have Jeremiah Smith. You get that advantage because you're Ohio State's quarterback. You're going to have a talent advantage in all these things. But like, we've all looked at every of these new quarterbacks as replacing the person that just left. It's like certainly with. in the realm of possibility that he's better than Will Howard by the time his career is over, right?

Like, I mean, Will Howard is a very good college quarterback, but, like, was he the fifth best quarterback that Ohio State had in the last 10 years? Like, I mean, they, this is what they do. They have five-star quarterbacks come in and they play. So, yeah, I'm excited, and I'm happy to see that they did it at the time that they did it, and I think that it's going to work. I really do. So Ryan Day talked about this, and obviously Ryan Day was not on.

the staff when they made the J.T. Barrett Cardell Jones decision that you were talking about earlier. That was 2015. Ryan Day was on the staff when they had to decide between Dwayne Haskins and Joe Burrow. And they chose Dwayne Haskins, Joe Burrow transfers to LSU. Now that was a situation that played out during a spring practice and then Joe Burrow went to LSU after spring practice. But he said this felt a little bit similar to that where it felt like they were pretty close, but eventually you have to go with your gut and make a decision. Now, that one, Joe Burrow ends up being one of the greatest college quarterbacks of all time, having one of the greatest seasons a quarterback has ever had.

But Duane Haskins was a very good starting quarterback at Ohio State and a first-round draft pick. So it's a little hard to relitigate that one as well. I mean, Ryan Day did compare those battles to the Haskinsboro battle. And I was like laughing because I was like, are you comparing them to the people or the battle? because they're very different things. I think it was more of the situation than the people. Yeah. But also he didn't compare it to any of the other quarterback battles

that have happened in the years since. So that's a good thing. Both have very live arms, apparently. Both are very good throwers. And, you know, I think that Will Howard gave Ohio State's offense a little extra oom flash year because he was mobile and picked up some pretty important first downs and, you know, big chunk plays with his legs at times.

I don't know that that aspect is going to be there with Julian San, but I do think that if he's, He's a, as good as, you know, I think he is, that he'll fit into the system quite well. I remember watching him at the Elite 11, was it two years now or three. I'm bad at math, but he was the best quarterback on the field and he won the Elite 11. And, you know, from that point on, knew he had a pretty great arm. So, yeah, five-star quarterback developing behind a quarterback that won a national championship. and then going into start is a pretty good situation for Ohio State.

And even if we don't know exactly what it's going to look like or how good he's going to be, I think it's a pretty safe bet to know it's probably going to work out. Yeah, I think this is one of the situations where, and it's funny because like with Ohio State, you're talking blue chip versus blue chip. This is not. Yeah, right. It's not usually going to be a situation where somebody wasn't heavily recruited. And to kind of contextualize where Julian saying fell in that if you used the,

the rivals industry rankings for 2024. DJ Lagway was number one that he of course is the starting quarterback in Florida now. Julian Sane was number two, Dylan Ryola, who is the starting quarterback at Nebraska, who once was actually committed to be in that Ohio

state class, was number three. So that's where he fits in. It was obviously very highly thought of coming out of high school. And that's why Nick Saban wanted him. And that's why Ryan Day wanted him. And Nick Saban got him and then he retired and then Ryan Day got him and now having Nick

Saban wanted me on my resume would be a pretty great bullet point yeah I was Nick Saban's guy Nick Saban wanted me I like that I like that Janet Terry won't me that's good exactly exactly so two and a half point favorite the Buckeyes are at home against Texas are you surprised they're a favorite in this game yes I've been surprised they're a favorite in the game for six months. I don't think this is going to change anything because I think Vegas was expecting Julian Sane to start. So what do you think Vegas knows that we don't?

I mean, I don't know. I think it's possible that I'm overthinking it. Ohio State's got two of the best players, the two best players. And they're just like they're at home? They're at home. Like, I don't know. But we did that list of best players in college football. And it was funny.

It's like, what would you rather have just in the abstract? Number one and number two or number three? 6, 8, 9. I don't know. I mean, like, I'm not going to sit here and act like I'm surprised in Ohio State's favorite against anybody, but, like, Texas is my national championship pick. So, them being a dog on the road to open the year is a, you know. And also, too, Texas, like, played with Ohio State Super Team last year down to the wire. Yeah.

It was a very close game. Texas has the ball at the goal line. Yeah. Maybe to tie it very late. Now, listen, Texas lost a lot, too. We can't act like they didn't. They have a lot of really good players. I think I would take Texas's quarterback.

I think I would take Texas's running back room. I think I would take Texas's defensive line. I think I would take their line back. Like, they've got better. It seems like they've got better. You take Ohio State's receivers. You take Ohio State's receivers. That's the only number.

You might take Ohio State's secondary, but I think that's a close one too. You think you might take Ohio State's offensive line, although Texas's offensive line. they're both in kind of the same boat where they were really good last year and they lost really good players to the NFL and they've got to restock. Yeah. I mean, but like every level of Texas's defense has a stud. Yes. Yeah, you, you like that, especially the Texas D line is nasty. Nasty, nasty, nasty. But Julian saying is going to have to figure out. You know, we'll pick this game in a week from Monday, but like, I guess it's not that surprising. Are you a week for today.

Yeah, a week from today. Holy crap. Yeah, I have a little bit of, we're going to Clemson, LSU, which is going to be a great game. I do have a little bit of remorse that we're missing this one, but we'll watch it on TV, hopefully at a Texas road house while eating rolls. But the last time we did that, Ohio State lost to Michigan. That's bad for Ohio State. We probably have to pick something different.

Dude, that Paul and cheese place on, oh, we were not going to be in Columbus. I'm all confused. You're going to have to take me to a place in Atlanta. that place that we ate dinner with Bruce Feldman and Stuart Mandel would be a good place. Lesparro. Is that place open for lunch? No. And you're not,

and I keep trying to describe how the travel is going to work to Ari, and he's not understanding the geography of it. I just keep forgetting. I'm going to be together until we meet in Clemson. Yeah, you're right. Well, then you can tell me where to watch it. Ari's coming through Georgia, and I'm coming through South Carolina, and we'll figure it out.

some there'll be some nice chain restaurant in Anderson, South Carolina. I'm getting my cities confused. I'm getting my days of arrival confused. I'm getting my meetup point confused. I don't even know where, like, are we even going to the game? I don't know. But I can't wait. I'm excited.

I'm going to get Atlanta on Friday alone. And then you and I are going to have to come up with a place in South Carolina to eat lunch together to watch the game. Got it? We got it. Now, another game we're going to have to watch is Tennessee Syracuse. And we have a starting quarterback for the balls. Tennessee has named Joey Aguilar, the starting quarterback.

This is what we've pretty much expected, but this is the culmination of the NICO trade, as it were. So let's trace Joey Aguilar's path. Starting quarterback, the last two seasons at Appalachian State, transferred to UCLA with the assumption that he was going to be the starter. UCLA then takes NICO at the end of spring practice, clear that Joey Aguilar is not going to be the start at UCLA. He transfers to Tennessee where Nico just left. Yeah, I saw Tennessee fan on Twitter say, by the end of the season, it's going to be called the Joey Aguilar trade, not the Nico trade, which I thought was clever. You know, the thing, Andy, is that we spent two full weeks discussing this when it happened,

okay? And I wrote a lot of columns, and, you know, you did too. And we kind of lost track of it a little bit. Once the Nico thing happened, he went to UCLA, everything was, you know, all sudden done, you know, we just kind of assume that, you know, Nico was going to go off into the West Coast wilderness and we would, you know, check in here and there to see how he's doing. And that, but like, this really is a very interesting angle. And Tennessee is an interesting team.

You know, we don't treat them like they made the playoff last year. They made the playoff last year. And like, I don't know that we've ever. in the last few months dared to even consider that Joey Agilarby is very good or a good SEC quarterback. What if he is? You know, I don't know how it's going to go. I think that it's very easy to assume that Tennessee is going to take a step back this year because you, you know, they ran into personnel issue. Also, no, Dylan Samson also revamped offensive line. It's not, it's not just the quarterback. They lost a pretty good edge rusher too, Andy. Let's not forget.

So, like, but I think that the general assumption is Tennessee is going to stink this year because of the quarterback situation. And what if they don't? That's all. I mean, I don't know. Maybe they will. Maybe they won't. It's easier to predict that they will than they won't. But what if Joey Aguilar is awesome and actually, you know, embraces what being of all is all about, which is something that Nico did not do.

He is a gunslinger. If you watched him play at Applach State, he's going to take some chances. and I think it's going to be entertaining to say the least. Now, Ari, one of the other quarterbacks that Tennessee considered at the end of spring practice when they were trying to replace Nico on the roster was Steve Angelly, who was Notre Dame's backup quarterback last year. We saw Steve Angelly come into the Orange Bowl when Riley Leonard got knocked out and actually kept Notre Dame afloat for a drive and allowed them to stay in,

that game and they ultimately won that game. Steve Angelly was not one of the top two in the quarterback competition in Notre Dame, which is still going on between C.J. Carr and Kenny Menchie. So he transferred to Syracuse, where we thought LSU transfer Ricky Collins was going to win the job. But now we know it will be Steve Angelly. So it will be Joey Aguilar against the quarterback that Tennessee also considered for that spot.

Steve Angelly when Syracuse and Tennessee play in Atlanta week one. Yeah. We're not 100% sure

what Syracuse is this year either, right? Like, you know? Lots of changes. They lost obviously Kyle McCord, Trevor Pena. I think people

are assuming that they're going to be way worse off too, but they kind of took the world by storm a year ago with Fran Brown. What if they're very good? I don't know.

I think Frank Brown is going to put together a good roster year. I think Syracuse's schedule this year is brutally hard. I think they got the worst ACC schedule draw possible. And oh, by the way, they have to play Tennessee right out of the gate. And they're hungry and healthy right out of the gate. I don't know. It's not an easy opener for Tennessee who's breaking in a new quarterback. But, you know, that to me is a sneaky, interesting week one game that we'll spend some time talking about. But yeah, I'm happy to see

some quarterback battle. I mean, still waiting on Notre Dame and Ohio State for a quarterback news, right? But to... I feel like we're going to get Ohio State before we get Notre Dame. Because I, I feel like Notre Dame, it's too close. You heard Marcus Freeman talk about it on Sunday. It's kind of too close. They don't have to name. They, you know, they have a Sunday game in week one. As long as they name somebody or they don't have to name him, but have the guy who's going to be the starter taking all the first team reps when you turn the page to we're preparing for Miami, which would be late this week or early next week. You're fine. Tennessee, they know who it is, which means the younger guys jake merklinger and george mcintyre they're waiting in the wings but aguilar with lots of fbs starting

experience already probably was the safer choice all along also to you if you're tennessee you probably feel pretty good about the fact that mackintyre gets another year right instead of throwing them into the fire you know right he could be the guy next year uh and it would be more acceptable offseason in discussion more than anything. Then if Merklinger was thrust into the role going into this year, we would have felt he was underprepared and underseasoned. You know, next year, he should be right on track to be ready for that. So, you know, very interesting storylines for both of these teams and are really kind of a

banger of an opener. And if Tennessee goes out and thumped Syracuse, then you might think twice about, you know, writing them off this year. So it'll be good. Yeah, and I don't know that we should write them off. I mean, we'll get into this on a show later this week. The ESP and FPI came out. And you can take it for what it's worth.

It's one of those power rankings that it's a predictive power ranking. It does, it seems to me that favors the SEC teams over the other ones. But it really likes Tennessee, even over some of those other SEC teams that we've thought would be better than them. And I thought that was interesting. You know, our friend Bill Connolly's SP Plus still likes Tennessee a lot. So it may be that we're bailing on Tennessee. too early. Yeah.

I haven't bailed. I'm just, I'm wary. That's a way. Well, you're just trying to keep Wall Twitter on, on your,

you're trying to stay on Ball Twitter's good side, which I understand. I think I might have pissed off some volunteers over the weekend, and I don't know why. How? I don't know.

I had some Vol people on my mentions. I got to go back and look. I was driving a car, so I didn't pay close enough attention to it. But yeah, Vol Twitter, I'm on your side. I love that you can never,

you don't even know why you've been raised a particular plan base. I mean, I wrote a controversial column over the weekend, and people got mad. Oh, that was the Michigan column. Yeah, there were all people in there for some reason, and I'm trying to figure out why. But, you know, I didn't talk about Tennessee. I'm good. We're good.

You stay on all Twitter. If Tennessee does something awful or they break a rule or does something or loses a game by 50, like, I'm going to be on the podcast. Like, hey, no big deal. this one's interesting to me because it's it is producer river let's see that spread again what is bad eng have on that for it it's Tennessee by 14 and a half right yeah this is a massive spread for two teams that we really don't know what they're going to be yeah i mean if tennessee covers this spread it might change your thoughts a little bit about that's what i'm saying like yeah i don't know or maybe it's the revelation that

syracuse goes back down to earth a little bit i don't know but you know that's why we play the games man we figure it out and we're playing them that's right that's right they are playing games this week on saturday they're playing games that count oh yeah we made it everybody it's week zero thank you for joining us big show tomorrow josh pate joins the show will be a lot of fun been waiting a long time to have him on cannot wait Ari, you made it. Week Zero!