Andy & Ari On3 - The BIGGEST games from the 2024 SEC schedule reveal | QB Transfer Portal Mania | Dear Andy

Episode Date: December 14, 2023

The SEC has released its 2024 schedule, and the new divisionless, 16-team schedule looks a lot more interesting than the schedules of recent years. Cupcake weekend appears dead with Alabama-Oklahoma, Texas A&M-Auburn, Ole Miss-Florida and Kentucky-Texas all scheduled for the Saturday before Thanksgiving.(0:00-18:10) Intro - SEC Releases an INCREDIBLE 2024 Schedule(18:11-25:59) Transfer Portal Updates: Kyle McCord, MJ Morris, Grayson McCall, Maalik Murphy(26:00-30:33) New Rule on Athletes Seeking a 2nd Transfer(30:34-40:08) What Florida Politicians Can Do Next(40:09-51:57) Dear Andy(41:58-45:41) Mount Rushmore of the 2023 Season(45:42-50:11) One team from Each P4 Conference to NOT make 12-Team CFP in next 20 Years(50:12-55:14) College Head Coaches that Could Jump to the NFL(55:15-59:19) Greatest QB/Center Scout Team Duo Ever(59:20-1:00:43) Andy Reflects on hopping on T-Bob Hebert's Show(1:00:44-1:04:25) What Happens at the Andy Staples Bowl?(1:04:26-1:06:20) ConclusionBig questions from the schedule release:Who has it toughest?Will anyone go undefeated?There is a ton of transfer news to cover. On3’s Pete Nakos reports that Ohio State transfer Kyle McCord is moving on from Nebraska. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reports that Texas QB Maalik Murphy plans to enter the portal. Plus, former NC State QB M.J. Morris commits to Maryland and former Coastal Carolina QB Grayson McCall commits to NC State.Next, Andy discusses a court ruling in West Virginia that placed a temporary restraining order on the NCAA’s transfer rules.On that note, Andy reveals a plan that Florida politicians could use if they actually wanted to strike back at the leaders of the College Football Playoff.Next, Dear Andy answers your questions. What’s on the Mount Rushmore of 2023 college football stories?What college coaches could be up for NFL jobs?Can Andy pick one team from each of the four most powerful conferences that WON’T make the CFP in the first 20 years of the 12-team format?Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube! https://youtube.com/live/pThZ3AGbCr8

Welcome to Andy Staples on three on what appears to be the most important night in the world if you are a wedding planner in the state of Mississippi or Alabama or Georgia. It is SEC schedule reveal night. They're still going with the show two hours of SEC reveal show on ESPN. But this is a this is a pretty interesting bunch of schedules. Now, some of this stuff has already leaked out. But man, when you look at these things in their totality, it's going to be really interesting in the SEC, and it is going to be hard to go undefeated. I realize everybody wants them to go to the nine-game conference schedule. I still think they're going to, because I think it's not smart to have Texas and Texas A&M in the same league and not have them

play every year. So I think they'll ultimately go to a nine game conference schedule to accommodate that. Or they will, I guess, maybe do what the big 10 does and say, you guys who really want to play each other every year, you can, and then other ones don't have to. You could probably stay at eight that way if you wanted to, but I think probably we'll see them move to nine after 2025 because they can just flip these this year play them in 2025 and then in 2026 they can start with a nine game but i mean it is a bunch of bangers and cupcake weekend is dead. Remember the SEC established cupcake weekend more than a decade ago. Basically, the week before rivalry week, the Saturday before Thanksgiving, SEC teams would play just absolute garbage opponents

so that they could get easy wins and rest up for their rivalry games. That is not happening anymore. So let me, we'll start, I realize we're starting in November, but I feel like that's important because this is one of the bigger developments of this new schedule. November 23rd.

So this was the day when you would have seen all the Cupcake games. And there's still a couple. Like you still have UMass, Georgia, UTEP at Tennessee. But you also have Texas A&M at Auburn, Ole Miss at Florida, Kentucky at Texas, Missouri at Mississippi State, and wait for it, Alabama at Oklahoma. So our complaints were heard. More than likely, the people at ESPN looked at the ratings of those terrible games. And when they clustered all of those terrible games together and said, okay, please don't do that again. If you'd like us to pay you more money, please don't ever do that again.

I don't think they're ever going to do that again. And it has created some crazy closing kicks to the season. So I mentioned Alabama's playing Oklahoma on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, which means Alabama closes with Oklahoma and Auburn. And I think Auburn's going to be better next year. You look at the way Hugh Freeze is recruiting. You look at his history at Ole Miss and Liberty. That's going to be a better team next year. So that is a rough close to the season for the Crimson Tide. Oklahoma, meanwhile, they've got Alabama.

And then they close with LSU. Welcome to your new league. This is probably hazing. Speaking of newbies, Texas doesn't get the closing kick like that. Now, they do close with Texas A&M, which is the game we all want to see. That game's going to be at Kyle Field on November 30th, we think. Those last week games can be on Thursday or Friday, they warned. I would imagine the Egg Bowl will be on Thanksgiving. Might see Texas and A&M on Black Friday. Never know. But Texas plays Oklahoma and Georgia in back-to-back weeks, October 12th and October 19th. That is brutal.

That's brutal. But you've also got good non-conference games, and I'm very curious to see how these good non-conference games marry with these new, much tougher conference schedules. Because I want to see all these games. I want to see Texas-Michigan. I want to see Alabama-Wisconsin. These are all games that are scheduled. LSU's playing USC and UCLA, apparently trying to win the Big Ten title. I want to see all those games as well. Georgia's playing Clemson. So with any luck, when the playoff selection committee deliberates, it will consider the difficulty of these schedules. And for Michigan as as well or for Clemson as well for all of the teams that are taking part in these types of games hopefully the committee will consider the difficulty of the schedules because some of these teams are just playing absolutely

brutal brutal schedules but it is it looks like a ton fun. One that does not look like any fun at all, none whatsoever, is the back half of Florida's schedule or the back 512ths of Florida's schedule. So starting with the Georgia game in Jacksonville on November 2nd. Florida goes Georgia at Texas, LSU, Ole Miss at Florida State. We've talked multiple times about how Florida's 2024 schedule might be the toughest in the country. There you see it in black and white,

how difficult that is. That does not include games against Tennessee they got to go to Mississippi State for always weird things happen to Florida and Starkville Billy Napier that class you're signing right now better be really good those dudes better be ready to play Graham Mertz who was on the show last week get ready because you are going to run the gauntlet Chris Callahan in the chat. This is the reason why it's great to have a 12 team playoff, better games. I hope so.

I hope you're right, Chris. I hope the committee takes that into account as they're selecting the games. Don't just say, well, this team has one loss or is undefeated because they played an easy schedule. And look, we've now seen the whole Big Ten schedule. We've now seen the whole SEC schedule schedule we've now seen the whole SEC schedule I think we can ask the question legitimately is anybody going undefeated I don't know if anybody is I think it there's probably a better chance if you get a really good Ohio State or Michigan going undefeated in the the SEC or in the in the Big. But I'm looking at these SEC schedules, and I just don't see anybody going undefeated.

Now, granted, there's going to be special teams, like that 2019 LSU team, which played a very tough schedule. They went to Texas. The SEC West was very strong that year. That's a tough schedule, and they got through it undefeated. But it will be absolutely brutal. And you will have to have an incredibly special team to go undefeated. And even then, if you do, you run into the same problem the Patriots did that year.

They went 16-0. The gauntlet of the playoff is also a problem. You can be undefeated. Let's say you go undefeated through this SEC. You're 13-0. You've won the conference title. You have a buy-in to the playoff. You've still got to win three games to win the national title,

and they're all going to be against somebody good. So that's the hardest part with this, is how does the committee reconcile the fact that undefeated is probably not something we're going to be talking about anymore. It's just not an issue anymore because we're not going to see many of those teams. Like the Florida State 13-0 discussion this year. Them getting left out, probably not an issue because if there's a 13-0 team, it might be the only one in a given season. Now, we'll see with the ACC because they're not changing their membership, but a lot of these ACC teams are going to play tougher schedules.

Florida State's always played tough non-conference schedules. Clemson's always played tough non-conference schedules. And again, I hope that's what the committee's considering so that instead of just saying, well, if you're 11-1 or 10-2, you made the playoff, the quality of the 10-2 should matter. The quality of some 9-3 should matter, depending on who you played. It's going to be a tougher decision for the committee. That's something we've talked about a lot in the wake of that decision where Florida State was left out. They are going to be making these decisions on a different level because it's not just four and five. Four and five matters because that's who has a buy-in who has to play an extra game.

Eight and nine matters. That's who has a home game and who has to go on the road. 11 and 12 will matter because that's probably the last at large at number 11. And then the highest ranked group of five will matter because that's getting into the playoff or not. Icebox, SEC is known for great games. Goodbye, cupcake schedules.

Yeah, goodbye. And also goodbye, boring schedules. Because the SEC West, I think you can pretty much say for the last 10 years, has been a gauntlet for everybody who is in it. Everybody who is in the SEC West played a tough schedule. The same can't be said for the SEC East. But even with the SEC West, which was tough, it got boring.

The SEC East got very boring. Like the home schedules at Georgia and Florida, because they play each other in Jacksonville, the teams that would come to them, it was so dull because it was always going to be the same mix of Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, and South Carolina. Now, everything is mixed up.

You can get Texas A&M, you can get Texas, you can get Oklahoma, you can get LSU, you can get Alabama. You can get Texas A&M. You can get Texas. You can get Oklahoma. You can get LSU. You can get Alabama. You can get Auburn. That makes this so much more exciting for a season ticket buyer. And I think that's one of the reasons why they did this.

The getting rid of divisions thing makes competitive sense in the other leagues because you want to make sure that you have two very good teams playing in your conference title game so that probably both of them get into the playoff. The SEC most years, the champion of each division was at that level. Not always, but most years. But this way, you take the divisions away and it just spices up the home schedules. If I were a season ticket buyer at an SEC school, I would be so pumped about what is coming in. And I feel the same way at the Big Ten. I mean, the Big Ten schedules had gotten so stale. You look at the ones for next year, they're so much fun.

I'll give you an example. Wisconsin, which is playing Alabama at a conference. They have the Crimson Tide coming to Camp Randall. They go Alabama and Oregon in consecutive weeks. It's going to be awesome. This is going to be awesome. So Angel, Alabama, Georgia, they're going to have two losses. Yeah, they might. They might have two losses. And here's the other piece of that. One of those teams might go 10-2, might not go to the SEC championship game, might win the playoff. Crazy what happens when you let them all play on the field.

Steel, Oklahoma will have to play hard this season to make the playoff. Every one of them will have to play hard this season to make the play. Every one of them will have to play hard. I mean, we just talked about Oklahoma closes with Alabama and LSU. It's incredible how much fun this is going to be. Now, I was hoping what the SEC would do, this two-hour schedule reveal show. I was hoping what the SEC would do is start dropping some times on us. Because one of the things about all of the games now being in the same family and networks, remember before CBS got the first choice and then all the other games were on Disney ESPN properties. Now they're all on the Disney ESPN properties. So theoretically, they can reveal times much earlier.

This is something that some of the ADs in the SEC said they were thrilled with because one of the biggest complaints they get from fans is that they can't tell them when the game's gonna be until 11 days out and sometimes six days out. So I was hoping they'd throw some times at us. They'd be like, okay, Alabama, Oklahoma is going to be at 730 on the night of November 23rd. But we don't have that quite yet.

But I do think we're going to get those times earlier than before. Unless, unless Greg Sankey is going to come on this TV show and pull a Steve jobs in one more thing situation tonight, but they do have 45 minutes left to fill. But I would say by Memorial day weekend, which is usually the right after the Memorial day weekend, they have the sec spring meetings in Destin. Historically, they would reveal some game times that CBS would get some games that they'd

say, we're definitely taking the Florida and Georgia game. We're definitely taking the Alabama LSU game. We're going to play it at 8 p.m. Eastern time. And that would told me is the way they would like to do it, and I think Greg Sankey has said this publicly, what they would like to do is at least be able to give you a window and say, this game, several months out, is going to be a day game. This game's going to be a night game. We don't know what TV network it's going to be on,

but it's going to be a night game. So it may be on ABC, it may be on ESPN, it may be on the SEC network, but it will be at night. And I think that probably helps to get everybody, one, excited, but also get them planning. All right, our producer River has some notable matchups to throw up on the screen. Here we go. So Georgia at Alabama on September 28th. We do have a time for that one. That's a 7.30 Eastern time ABC game. So get used to these games on ABC. It's a Disney property, but over the air, just like CBS was. But the difference is it's not necessarily going to be 330 is the best game every week.

They're going to split that up between 330 and 730, and you may see double headers on ABC. So Georgia at Alabama, September 28th. Florida goes to Texas on November. I can't even see. I'm blind. On November 9th. Georgia, Texas on October 19th. Texas and Texas A&M, we mentioned November 30th. That is the return game. The last game in 2011 was at Kyle Field. Texas won, I believe, on a walk-off field goal. We know those two don't

really get along. Tennessee, Oklahoma, September 21st. That's going to be a fun one. Mentioned Alabama, Oklahoma on what used to be Cupcake Weekend is definitely not Cupcake Weekend anymore. How about Oklahoma, Missouri on November 8th? Oklahoma, this ain't going to be easy for you because Missouri is going to be good again next year. So they have really loaded up for the newbies, but I definitely think we're going to get time sooner. And I think that should make everybody a little bit happier. I know everybody has increased their level of conspiracy theoriness with all the games from the SEC going on ESPN. But I do think that will be a little more user-friendly aspect of this arrangement. Steven says, they did Florida dirty with the back end of the schedule.

Again, that is the toughest closing stretch of any schedule I think I've ever seen in my life. So Billy Napier, good luck to you. That's going to be... beer good luck to you that's gonna be i'm trying to think like any team is gonna have a hard time with that but florida coming off five and seven given what they've lost in the poor how deep is florida gonna be to handle that level of gauntlet in the second half of the season. That's the most brutal part of it. I just, I will be very curious to see how all of these teams fare and if anybody can go undefeated. Again, just looking at the schedules,

eyeballing them right now, especially given some of the more marquee out-of-conference games that teams clearly scheduled in anticipation of an expanded playoff, there's probably not going to be an undefeated SEC team next year. And look, it's okay. It's okay. It's going to be fun. I'm excited. I'm excited. This is a very newsy day in college sports. Normally, we'd be starting with a bunch of other stuff, but that was such a big deal.

And again, if you are a wedding planner in Alabama or Mississippi or Georgia, I'm sure your phone is ringing off the hook right now because everybody wanted to know when are the open dates. And in fact, there are two open dates for each team. So now you have options at least. If your church is booked on one open date, hopefully you can get it for the other one. Let us move on because we have transfer portal madness going on. I guess we just stick to quarterbacks. Maybe I will throw one at you. One non-quarterback

at you that just caught my eye as I'm scrolling through Twitter. Trey Benson, former Florida State running back, or excuse me, Trey Benson is a current Florida State runner. Treshawn Ward, who played with Trey Benson at Florida State. So Treshawn played at Florida State in 2022, went to Kansas State last year. He's grad transferring, now going to Boston College. So there's a picture of him photoshopped into a Boston College uniform. I'm assuming that they took a picture of him from Florida State because that just makes it easy. It's the same colors.

But I was like, wait, he's going back to Florida State? Nope, he's not. He is not going back to where he began, but he will actually have to play Florida State in Doe Campbell Stadium as a Boston College Eagle. So there's your non-quarterback update, but there's a lot of quarterbacks to talk about. One, our Pete Nako is on three reporting that Kyle McCord,

the Ohio State transfer, moving on from Nebraska. He will not be transferring to Nebraska. This is an interesting situation. We talked about this the other night. Remember Monday night, all the Dylan Raiola stuff was coming out. Dylan Raiola is the five-star 2024 quarterback, was committed to Georgia. We think that he's going to flip to Nebraska. Whilst all that is going on, while that smoke

is rising, Kyle McCord was in Lincoln on a visit, but apparently it is not going to happen for Kyle McCord in Nebraska. So the question becomes, well, two questions. Where does Kyle McCord go now? Again, when he initially entered the portal, we were told look to Louisville. Louisville took Tyler Shook from Texas Tech, so it doesn't seem like that's an option anymore either. So we'll see where Kyle McCord winds up going. And if you're Matt Rule, do you now go after one of the other high-profile transfer quarterbacks in the portal, or do you stick with who you have on your roster, Chubba Purdy ended the season as a starter and try to sign Dylan Raiola and have the five-star come in and maybe let the five-star compete for the job and see if you want to play him right away or

if you want to have him behind Chubba Purdy. Or do you want to use some money and try to get another portal quarterback you you could go shove a purdy and raiola and you could make that work but that will be an interesting situation decision for nebraska another one mj morris former nc state quarterback he was a really interesting story this year so remember mj morris in 2022 as a true freshman wound up having to play for the wolf pack because devin leary got hurt and so he had to get thrown into the fire played really well but then he got hurt and then it looked like he was going to have a chance to compete for the starting job in 2023. But then NC State recruited over him and took Brennan Armstrong as a transfer. Remember, Robert and I was coming as the offensive coordinator.

And I and Brennan Armstrong had been pretty magical together in Virginia. So the thought was MJ Morris will redshirt. But then Brennan Armstrong didn't play as well as everybody'd hoped and they had to make a decision and so they decided to play mj morris he goes three and one of the starter and then he decides i'm shutting it down i'm gonna redshirt now i at the time he said he wasn't going to the portal but everybody pretty much knew he was going to the portal. So he has gone to the portal and he is going to Maryland. So Mike Loxley gets a commit from MJ Morris, who, remember because he redshirted last season, has three years

of eligibility remaining. So that was one of the more intriguing names in the portal, just because he played really well when he had to play this past season and with that much eligibility remaining he's got room to grow as a starting quarterback so that that's going to be a fun one to watch mj morris from atlanta played at nc state now headed to maryland the grayson mccall saga has ended remember Grayson McCall, four-year starter at Coastal Carolina. After Jamie Chadwell left for Liberty last year, Grayson McCall went in the portal.

He looked at Auburn. He looked at a couple other places, but it didn't work out with any of them. He goes back to Coastal Carolina, plays for Tim Beck. He ends up getting hurt this season, didn't play a full season, but now back in the portal, and he has made a decision. He is committed to NC State. So Grayson McCall, the new Wolfpack starting quarterback, one year rental again. This was like Brendan Armstrong last year, but Grayson McCall considerably more

successful as a college quarterback. One more name. This is one we've been waiting to hear about, but his team's in the playoffs, so we weren't sure we were going to hear it quite yet. ESPN's Pete Thamel is reporting that Malik Murphy from Texas plans to enter the transfer portal. Malik Murphy was a spring game star at Texas. We were like, oh, wow, this is amazing. They have so much quarterback depth. He started two games in place of the injured Quinn Ewers. One of those games was the game against Kansas State where there were some pretty key turnovers by Malik Murphy at the end. Kansas State used them to almost win the game. Remember, K-State had a two-point conversion in overtime to win the game.

They didn't get it. So that was Texas' playoff hopes right there hanging in the balance. Against Texas Tech, when they're in a blowout, Quinn Ewers is coming out, what does Texas do? They bring in Arch Manning. It felt like they'd kind of decided Arch Manning's the backup from here on out. So as they go into the playoff, I would imagine Arch Manning is Quinn Ewer's backup. Malik Murphy, big arm, very athletic. He enters the transfer portal.

There will be no shortage of suitors for Malik Murphy. They are going to have quite a few options if he decides to leave Texas, which sounds like he's going to. So a lot going on in the transfer portal. We will do a lot more on Thursday. We didn't really get a chance to go that deep into it, but we're going to have to call our guy Pete Nacos. By the way, I don't have the person's name from Twitter who gave me the idea. I will go find it so we can give them proper credit on the show. We do have a term for what happens when Pete breaks Transfer Portal news. Nacosifications. We were doing something like Nacos bombs, NacOS grenades. It didn't quite work.

Felt just a little too off. NACOS-ifications. So you've got some NACOS-ifications today about Kyle McCord and Grayson McCall. Who knows what NACOS-ifications you're going to get tomorrow. But we're going to have to call Pete because we're going to go through the transfer portal with a fine-tooth comb

because there is a lot of action brewing inside the portal. But so much news today that I want to have a little bit of time for dear Andy. So I don't want to bog you down in too much transfer portal news. Next up, speaking of transfers, this not a football transfer portal story necessarily, but an all-sports transfer portal story. U.S. District Court Judge John Bailey issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday against the NCAA rule that requires multi-time transfers to sit out a year. So basically, for the next 14 days, thea's transfer rules do not apply now remember there was a lawsuit filed by multiple state attorney generals one of those was west virginia over a guy named rayquan battle he's a basketball player who he has he's gone from washington to montana state to west virginia his waiver was denied and they sued and they're trying to get him to play

immediately. So now for the next 14 days, he can play. In fact, anybody who is in this situation can play. Now it affects mostly winter sport athletes. So it affects your basketball players, your hockey players. I don't know. Actually, I don't know. I don't think the hockey has the same rules. So it's more your basketball players. I was thinking about, you know, Daryl Jackson at Florida state who had transferred up there from Miami. He had transferred previously from Maryland. He got denied waiver at the beginning of the season. Like what could he play in the orange bowl now? Now I realize the orange bowl is being played after the temporary restraining order expires, but the judge is going to rule on whether to issue a permanent injunction. If he does, that opens the door for anybody whose waiver is denied and they're playing in a New Year's Six Bowl or New Year's Day Bowl or a playoff.

Well, they could play with no effect on their eligibility. Meanwhile, if you have a bowl game between now and December 27th and you have a player in that situation, theoretically, you just play him. It's not going to stop you. More big picture on this thing, this is something that the schools and the conferences and the commissioners all need to take very seriously. Because what this means is basically it is open season on any NCAA rule.

You can basically take the NCAA to court over any of its rules and accuse them of violating the Sherman Act. And the reason for this is because of the loss in the Alston case in the Supreme Court. Because the Alston case was about a certain type of education-related money. That was the issue at hand. But the broader ramification of the NCAA losing 9-0 in the Supreme Court, and the justices wrote this in the majority opinion, and Brett Kavanaugh wrote it in the more forceful, concurring opinion, is that every rule the NCAA has

is now subject to antitrust scrutiny. The thought before was it wasn't because of this one throwaway line in the NCAA versus Board of Regents. It was the Oklahoma and Georgia TV case, the one that gave the schools the right to sell their TV rights. But that throwaway line was discounted. The justices said, no, no, that's not what they meant. All of the NCAA's rules are subject to antitrust scrutiny. And so that's gotten the attorneys pretty riled up. So you've got multiple cases being filed.

In this case, it was states actually bringing the action against the NCAA. So the NCAA's transfer rule is not holding up in court at the moment. We will see what happens. They've been challenged before, and they weren't successfully challenged before. But now it appears it's possible they're going to succeed with the challenge. And here's the argument you have. You're holding people that you have said are not employees to non-compete clauses. Well, non-compete clauses, they apply to employees. They don't apply to people who are just there, who are students who are taking part in extracurricular activity. So this is the

crux of the debate. And the NCAA has always tried to have it both ways. We want to enforce our non-competes, but we don't want them to be employees. I just don't think going forward, they're going to be able to have it both ways. They're going to have to figure out what they want to do. And that brings me to my next story. Remember last night, we talked about the attorney general in Florida, Ashley Moody, issued subpoenas to the college football playoff, wants all this information, wants to know who voted for what, records of all the votes, notes passed between the members of the selection committee, communication between the committee and ESPN, communication between the committee and different conference leaders.

You're not going to get any of that because most of that stuff doesn't exist. There's a reason that they have those people meet in person in grapevine texas so they don't keep records of those things it's not like a vote on the house floor it's not a roll call vote where you just go to each person they say yay or nay or i think this part of be number two. It doesn't work that way. They basically talk about it and they say, are we good with this team at number three? Yes. Okay, great. Moving on. That's how it works. They're not taking written ballots and they're certainly not putting their names to them. So I don't think they're going to succeed in that. But there is something they can do. And that's the thing that I'm wondering if the Florida politicians really want to do something or they just want to cry out for attention. Because if they're just crying out for attention, that's fine, but they're not going to get anything they actually want. They're trying to wage a PR battle in a situation where I don't think more than half the population is ever going to be on their side relative to Florida State getting in. Because I think most of the college football watching population is indifferent to whether Alabama

or Florida State made the 14 playoff. And I don't think even half the college football watching population of Florida is necessarily going to be sympathetic to Florida State because there are fans of Florida, fans of Miami, fans of other schools. The Florida fans are probably going to side with the SEC team in this case. So that's not going to help you. But if you want to get after the commissioners who run the college football playoff for the exclusion of

Florida State, if you want to fight back, there's a way to do it. So I called a guy named Corey Sanicia. Corey is uniquely qualified to understand this situation. So Corey was the chief of staff for a Florida state representative named Chip LaMarca, who is the guy who pushed the NIL bill through in the state of Florida. He spearheaded it. And he was also the one, he and Corey were the ones who put the 2021 effective date on it. So that essentially ushered in the NIL era. California passed the first bill, but it wasn't going into effect until 2023. When Florida passed a bill that went into effect in 2021, everybody else followed suit. And so that ushers in the NIL era. So Corey has gone on to become a lobbyist, but he also has a side job. He's the director of the Fowler Avenue Collective.

That's the collective that services USF. So he understands NIL very, very well. And he understands Florida politics very, very well. And I asked him, if you were advising the legislature, the legislators in the state of Florida, or the governor, or the attorney general, or any of these people who are speaking out saying FSU was robbed, saying something must be done. What would you do? How would you do it? And he came up with a really interesting idea. So after this, if you're listening live to this episode, if you're watching this episode live, the column's not out yet. It will be out when this episode is done. And if you're listening in podcast form, if you are watching a little bit later on, it's already out. So you can go to on three and you can read this column. I lay it all out there.

Corey walked me through it and it was, it's fascinating. It's fascinating. This is what he would do. There are a couple of ways to do it, but this is the, would do there are a couple ways to do it but this is that one of them is probably more painful for the commissioners than the other what they do is you have the florida legislature house senate you can start wherever you want to but you got to pass it through both houses and get the governor to sign it pass a bill bill that makes it illegal for the NCAA to make a rule forbidding bowl games from paying players. So essentially, you would allow the bowl games in the state of Florida to pay players to play in them.

This is something that the bowl games in Florida state of Florida to pay players to play in them. This is something that the bowl games in Florida would absolutely do if they were allowed to do it. So you've got your Pop-Tarts Bowl, NC State and Kansas State. They got the edible Pop-Tarts mascot. Sounds awesome. It really does. You know what sounds more awesome? If you pay me to play in it. They would probably do that. The Gasparilla Bowl, the Gator Bowl, the Citrus Bowl, which is sponsored by Cheez-It. You got star players from Tennessee or Iowa that want to sit out. You go, hey, listen, here's a nice five-figure bonus. All you have to do at some point during the week is just walk up to a microphone and go, I woke up feeling the cheesiest coach. That's all you got to do. Five figure bonus play in the game. Most of them will play. Unless you're going to be a first round pick, you're probably going to play

for that. The big one though is the orange bowl because the orange bowl starting next year is a playoff game every year. Now we don't know how long it will be a playoff game every year, because remember, the new playoff contract kicks in after the 2026 season. So there's two years where the Orange Bowl is definitely part of the playoff. After that, we don't know. So you got to jockey for position. And remember, all of these bowl organizing committees also are the ones that try to get the national title game to their city or to their metro area so they're trying to get the best position to do that if the players love them and want to go play

in them that's a good way to do it so if you are those bowl games and you're suddenly allowed to pay the players, you're going to, you're going to do it. And this will be the leak in the dam that brings on full on revenue sharing. Because once you do that, the schools are going to have to share with the players. The schools are just going to start paying the players directly, which is going to happen anyway, but that would start it. So the commissioners who run the college football playoff have been fighting this and fighting this and fighting this. They're going to Washington to lobby Congress. They want an antitrust exemption. They want the athletes to be declared as not employees. Those are pipe dreams. They're not going to get any of that. But you could effectively

close the door on that if you pass that law that says the Bulls can pay the players. You could even go a step further if you're Florida. If you really just want to just drive the knives in but get it over with quick, you just say schools in the state of Florida are allowed to pay players. It's going to happen at some point anyway, but they're trying to push it off and delay it as much as possible. You do that, every other state follows. All the lobbying in Washington won't help. And the thing about it is it's just like NIL. Remember NIL passed.

They said all these terrible things will happen. Sports will have to be cut, blah, blah, blah. None of it's happened. The world kept spinning. People kept watching football. In fact, they watch it more than they did before. And people like the system better. Like, they keep watching it.

The world didn't end. Plus, you're seeing a more equitable distribution of players. Alabama cannot stockpile the way it used to be able to. Georgia can't stockpile the way it used to be able to. Ohio State can't stockpile the way it used to be able to. So all of these things have been net positives, but they said it would end the sport. They're always wrong about this. That's one thing to remember. But if you want to get after those commissioners, if you want those commissioners to feel it, that you're angry, that you feel like the system they set up screwed Florida State.

Which it did. There's no denying that it did. And they set up a 14 playoff. Now not all of the people who set it up are still in their jobs. There's only a couple of them. But they still kept it going for all these years. So that's how you get after them. That's how you get them.

So we'll see if the Florida legislature has any guts on that front. Because if they do, if they really want to do something, they can knock it out this legislative session. But otherwise, they just want to talk. Probably just want to talk. Probably just want to talk. But if they want to do something, that's the roadmap for it. All right.

Let us move on to Dear Andy. Your questions answered. We will start with one in the chat from Bo. It's not really a question, but a statement. Georgia could go after McCord or Malik Murphy. Why? I will ask. I'll be the one to ask the question. This is Dear

Bo. Why? Why would you do that if you're Georgia? I guess if Carson Beck left, yes. But if Carson Beck stays, why on earth would you even consider that? You've got it. You've got him. You've got Gunnar Stockton. You can go get another quarterback in the freshman class if you want. You can get a transfer quarterback next year. You don't need to grab one of those guys. You could. I mean, Malik Murphy has quite a bit of eligibility left, so you could do that, but I don't know why you need to. And that's the thing. The Ryola thing with Georgia illustrates how different Georgia is than most schools. Most schools cannot handle losing a five-star quarterback from their class. It would be a disaster. Everybody would be all over the car. You got to fire this guy.

Georgia can lose him and not even miss a beat. If Georgia needs another quarterback between now, let's say something freakish happens in spring practice and Carson Beck got hurt. Georgia could put the word out that it needs a starting quarterback for 2024 after spring practice and somebody would magically appear in the portal. Now they couldn't get somebody from another SEC school because of the rule, but they could get somebody from everywhere else. So there's no reason for Georgia to do that. That's the beauty of having good players at every position. You have a lot of options. Great question here from Hudson. Obviously, we still have bowl season and the college football playoff games ahead.

But I'm curious, what would be your Mount Rushmore of storylines from this 2023 college football season? Personally, I'm thinking mine would be the Michigan cheating allegations, Florida State missing out on the playoffs, Coach Prime and the Pac-12 wrapping up a standout year in its last year as a conference. I'm sure missing a few others. What's your take on it? I don't think you're missing anything, Hudson. That's the craziest part about this season. He's right.

He's got the four. He has got every president on Mount Rushmore here. Any of these four would be the biggest story in any other season. The Connor Stallion's Michigan story was the gift that kept on going. Every day there was something new. Plus you had Jim Harbaugh getting suspended. You had obviously Michigan being so good and being a college football playoff contender. It had everything.

And you had the Central Michigan game screenshots. Everything was perfect about that story in terms of something that just held your attention day after day after day after day. Unbelievable. Coach Prime, of course, that's a huge story. 10 million people watched the Colorado-Colorado State game, for goodness sakes. Come on. And he's still interesting. I know everybody thinks they're sick of him, but they're not. We see the numbers. We see what you click on. You're still interested in him. He just got the number one offensive tackle recruit in the country to commit to him, Jordan Seaton. People hit that thing like crazy. So yeah, Coach Prime definitely on the Mount Rushmore of 2023 stories.

The Pac-12, a conference obliterated itself. A Power Five conference just went up in flames before the season started. And then had its best season in decades, maybe ever. Got a team into the 14 playoff for the first time since 2016. then had its best season in decades, maybe ever. Got a team into the 14 playoff for the first time since 2016. Had multiple Heisman finalists. Was phenomenal to watch. Was just great theater all year long.

But also doesn't really exist anymore. Like even the legal drama with Oregon State and Washington State taking control of the Pac-12 was incredibly interesting. All of that would have been the biggest story any other year, and it's maybe the third biggest. And then, of course, yes, you have FSU being left out of the playoff.

13-0, Power 5 champ. And I cannot count the number of times since that 14 playoff was started in 2014 that I have said they are not leaving out a 13-0 Power 5 team. Now, thank goodness I adjusted my thinking as we got closer because I'm glad I could at least give you a realistic idea of what was about to happen. I didn't know exactly what was about to happen, but we did talk in the couple of weeks beforehand about how Florida State might get left out. But if you'd have told me that six months ago, I would have said there is no way that it will never happen. But it happened.

And now you've got politicians in the state of Florida subpoenaing the college football playoff. It's wild. Any of those four stories would have been the biggest. Let's move on to Jeff. This is an incredible question from Jeff. That you are going to hear it and you're going to say, this is so easy, and we get to the end, and you're like, nope, this is really hard. Andy, you win $100 million if you can pick four programs,

one from each Power Four conference as of next season, that you are confident will not make the 12-team playoff in its first 20 editions. One team from your four makes it you lose which four are you taking my producer river with a photo on the question card well that's the obvious one we're definitely taking vanderbilt i'm confident that vanderbilt will not make the 12-team playoff in the first 20 years. First of all, are we sure it's going to go for 20 years? The last one only went for 10. So are we positive?

But let's say it does go for 20 years. I'm confident Vanderbilt won't make it. Go to the Big Ten. I have two schools here that I feel very confident will not make it. Indiana or Rutgers. You can pick either one. I don't think they'll make it. So we'll go with Indiana.

So if we have to pick one, we'll go with Indiana. So I feel very confident so far. Here's where it starts to get shaky. We go to the ACC, and I know what you're saying. You're going to say Syracuse or Boston College. Well, a few years ago, I believe 2018, I think Syracuse would have either made it or been very close to making a 12 team playoff. So that's not a, it's not a slam dunk. And I'm sorry, I'm not making, I'm not just trying to call Syracuse basketball school. But it's not a guarantee that if you pick Syracuse, you win this bet. There's a chance Syracuse can make it.

There are years where you would have said Wake Forest, but Wake Forest won the league under Jim Grobe, and Dave Klaassen, I believe, would have had the Demon Deacons in the playoff at least once in the last three seasons. So that's not an easy one. Boston College, recently, no. But history has shown if they get the right mix of things going together, they can do it. Like the Matt Ryan era Boston College, I think would have made it a couple of times. So that's a tough one. I think I'm going to go with Boston college because Syracuse would have made

it more recently or would have been in the mix more recently. So I'm gonna go with Boston college there. Cause I do think it's been a while since they've been that relevant. It's taken, you know, the, the, the changes in the sport may have made it where they can't,

but Syracuse, I'm not sure about. We'll see Fran Brown, new head coach there, bringing in some dudes. Boston College and the ACC. For the Big 12, this is where it gets impossible. Here's the problem with the Big 12. There will be 14 teams in the league from now on, starting next year. I don't know.

I have no idea. I think all of them can make the playoff in 20 years. I think at least once in the 20-year period, every single team in the Big 12 can make the playoff. You look at the new teams. BYU, UCF, Cincinnati, Houston. All of them struggled in their first year in the Big 12. That is to be expected.

I think by year three or year four, you're going to see some of those competing for the title. They're going to get there. They'll be fine. Oklahoma State's going to have years where they can get in. TCU, Baylor will have years where they can get in. Texas Tech to have years where they can get in. TCU, Baylor will have years where they can get in. Texas Tech will have years where it can get in. Kansas State will absolutely have years where it can get in. Even Iowa State.

Iowa State made the Fiesta Bowl a few years ago. I believe it would have made a playoff that year. So where do we find this team? I know what you're saying. Andy, pick Kansas. You got to pick Kansas. But 2007 Kansas would have made it, would have made the playoff. I think I'll pick Kansas because I think it is the hardest for Kansas to do it.

But I think I am losing this bet because at some point every Big 12 team will make it. But a great question. Just an incredible question from Jeff. Next up, Justin. Dear Andy, the NFL coaching carousel has not started yet. It has a little bit. Las Vegas and Charlotte. What college coaches could be in the running for a potential opening? Jim Harbaugh is the most obvious, but who else would get a call to interview? All right. So we have Jim Harbaugh, and we're going to put his name here for now. If you've been reading the Wolverine, they've been reporting on Jim Harbaugh's contract extension

that is still being talked about, being discussed between the parties at Michigan and between Jim Harbaugh. The hang-up apparently is a clause in there that would say that if he signs this new extension, which would make him the highest paid coach in the Big Ten, that he would not pursue an NFL coaching job this offseason. The issue there, I think, if you're Jim Harbaugh, is it feels like this is the best year to do that.

The jobs that are open, the Raiders, the Panthers are open. We think the Chargers may open. I'm not sure about the Bears right now. Maybe it's going to open, but they're playing pretty well. So will Jim Harbaugh get a sniff at one of those jobs you know he interviewed with Minnesota a couple years ago but he didn't end up getting the job he talked to some teams last year but was not option number one but it does feel like David Tepper the the crazy billionaire owner of the the Panthers and he's like, I want Harbaugh.

And Harbaugh might be the only guy who can deal with him. Because when David Tepper comes in wanting to watch film and give him suggestions, I think Harbaugh might tell him to go over to stick it. But also the idea of coaching Justin Herbert with the Chargers would be pretty compelling. Going to the Raiders, where Jim Harbaugh, I believe, started his coaching career after his NFL career ended. That's another one that could be fairly interesting. And remember, Harbaugh was a successful NFL head coach.

He is not like these other guys where you don't know. He went to three NFC Championship games with the 49ers. He took them to one Super Bowl. He was good at the job. So I would imagine that unless he just decides, you know what, I'm good with Michigan. I want to sign this sucker. I'm good with the extension. Let's stay here. That he's in the mix. The other one that I think might be in the mix who might get some calls is Kalen DeBoer at Washington. Kalen DeBoer feels like one of those guys who always has the right call on, who always makes the right kind of go for it, don't go for it decision, uses his timeout swell.

Like he's a grown up as a coach. And we talked about it with Kalen DeBoer when we had him on the show before the first game against Oregon, where he said, you know, a lot of this stuff he learned when he was a very young head coach at Sioux Falls at the NAIA level. And, you know, he just didn't have a big audience watching him learn on the job. But now that he's at Washington, he's been Fresno State's head coach as well. Lots of people watching, but he's got Washington, he's been Fresno State's head coach as well. Lots of people watching, but he's got lots of practical experience and understands how this works. Now, I don't know that Kalen DeBoer is going to be as great of a recruiter as Dan Lanning. Maybe he will, maybe he won't.

But if an NFL team comes after me, I might be thinking about that because recruiting is hard. Holding onto your roster is hard. Dealing with transfer portal is all hard. Like the college job is a lot harder than the NFL job in terms of the stuff you have to do around it. The football is harder on the NFL side, but Kalen DeBoer feels like a guy who could handle the football part of it. So if the Chargers came to him and said, Hey, would you like to coach Justin Herbert? I think that would be something you'd have to take very seriously if you're Kalen DeBoer. I know we've talked about him. If Harbaugh were to leave Michigan, that that's who they'd go after. I don't know if they'd do that. Sharone Moore sitting right there at Michigan, I think he'd be very good for that job.

But that would be the one that I'd wonder about. Ryan Day is another one. If he just says, I don't know if I want to do this at Ohio State anymore, I'd like to go to the NFL, it doesn't look like you're saying, uncle, if you go take an NFL job. But I also don't know if anybody in the NFL is clamoring for Ryan Day right now. So my guess is he's still at Ohio State. He tries to make it work. He tries to beat Michigan and gets that monkey off his back. That's the more likely thing for Ryan Day. But Harbaugh and DeBoer definitely seem like the two that if I'm an NFL owner,

I at least want to take a look at. Next question from Billy Young. Name the greatest scout team center quarterback combination ever. I don't know why my producer River put Jeff Saturday and Peyton Manning on this because those two have never been on a scout team in their lives. Those two are starters. So this is this. I know the guy who asked this question. So Billy Young, for those who don't know, is the greatest scout team quarterback of all time. He's a scout team national champion. Billy Young played the opposing quarterback for the 1996 Florida football team.

So he helped prepare a national championship defense. His center at various points on the scout team throughout that season was me. It kind of depended on who wanted to snap the little foam ball. They didn't even trust us to snap a real football to the quarterback. We got a little foam ball that we just kind of threw back there and some manager would then reset it and the quarterback would have the ball because we were so slow as young freshmen and walk-ons and losers of that ilk. Well, I was the only walk-on.

The scholarship guys could actually move pretty well, but I was terrible. So they didn't trust us to actually snap the ball at the quarterback. He would sit there with the football and then come out. But it kind of depended on who wanted to play center that week, me or Zach Zadalus. So I would say that Zach Zadalus and Billy Young

were the best scout team quarterback center duo because Zach was a lot better than me. But I do appreciate Billy thinking about me. The greatest day was Tennessee week. So the idea was you wanted to get a really realistic look. But of course, this is 1996. We don't have all the technology that these teams have now. Now they have all these fancy jerseys.

We had four different colors of other team jerseys. So we're wearing orange for Tennessee, and it's not Tennessee orange. So I think James Bates did this James Bates was a starting middle linebacker he was a Sevierville Tennessee native so an East Tennessee native he's he's going home to Rocky Top wants to make this the best it's his senior year I'm pretty sure this was his idea gotta put Billy in a Tennessee helmet. Billy's not the biggest guy in the world. I'm sure there were some quarterbacks on the team who had bigger heads. Billy was not one of them. But we had a generic Tennessee helmet in the equipment manager's office. So the helmet goes on to Billy. Like, Billy, wear this. You're going to be Peyton Manning.

If you're going to be Peyton Manning, you better look the part. I'm sorry, not Peyton Manning. Yeah, Peyton Manning. Yeah. So Billy puts his helmet on. You've seen Peyton Manning's head. It's pretty big. This helmet probably was made to fit Peyton Manning.

Immediately after taking the snap, the helmet falls below billy like his the face mask is pointing due south and billy's is trying to throw the ball and here's first round draft pick reggie mcgrew at nose tackle ed chester at d tackle who would have been a first round draft pick had he not gotten hurt a senior year mike peterson who played years and years in the NFL. James Bates, who was an absolute psychopath. They're all coming at him. And he's like, what do I do? What do I do?

We're like, throw the ball, Billy! And he did. And that was the end of the Tennessee helmet. But he looked like Peyton Manning for about half a second there. By the way, 35-29 score that game. 35-0 at first. My producer River's a Tennessee grad. He wasn't born yet. He didn't have to suffer through that one. This question comes from John. Andy, you're going to talk vasectomies like you did today with T-Bob and Aaron. Yes, I was on snaps today with my friend T-Bob Hebert and Aaron Murray. I don't know how we got down

this rabbit hole, but we did. We had like a 10 minute long discussion of vasectomies. Speaking of Tennessee, the guy who did mine was a Tennessee fan. He was asking me questions about, this is 2017 going into Butch Jones's final year at Tennessee. So this is right after five-star heart. I don't try to think it was February. So yeah, five-star hearts had happened. Champions of life had absolutely happened the previous November. And I'm,

I mean, he's got me, all of me in his hands at this point. And he's like, how do you think the balls are going to do? I'm like, national champs, baby. Whatever keeps you happy right now. But yeah, this was the discussion on snaps. So if you want to go visit our buddies, T-Bob and Aaron on snaps.

It gets interesting. We also talked about who the number one quarterback in the NFL draft should be. Has Jaden Daniels entered that conversation with Caleb Williams and Drake May? That's one we need to have on this show, I believe. That might be one we need to talk about on this show. But yeah, that was a very fun conversation. One more question from Sean. If there was an Andy Staples bowl similar to the Gronk LA Bowl, what would the sponsor, mascot, and trophy be?

Bonus points for any tradition like the Duke's Mayo Bath. I think we need to find, probably need to find a barbecue joint to sponsor it. I'm not a big, you all know I'm not a big chain barbecue guy, but I do think you probably have to have a chain of some size that's going to be willing to sponsor a bowl game. I don't know. Famous Toastery is sponsoring a bowl this year. I had never heard of Famous Toastery before that.

But we'll call it the Sonny's Barbecue Bowl. The Sonny's Barbecue Andy Staples Bowl. And I think the way you do it, I don't want to do the mayo bath. And I'm not doing a barbecue sauce bath because you all know my feelings on sauce. Like properly cooked meat requires no sauce. So we're not doing that one. Here's what we're going to do.

You know the Rose Bowl has the Laurie's Beef Bowl. That's where they go and eat prime rib. And they always tally up how many pounds of prime rib. And they always tally up how many pounds of prime rib each teammate. We are going to have a rib eating contest the night before the game. I know what you're thinking. This is probably dangerous, especially if the game is early in the morning, you know, 11 o'clock noon kickoff. That's part of the fun. The team that wins the rib eating contest, so the most bones consumed, you don't have to actually eat the bones, but we're going to count the bones,

gets a 7-0 lead to start the game. We'll call our friends at FanDuel. We'll make sure it's okay with them. We'll have them set the line accordingly. But they're going to have to do some research. They're going to have to know which team, like the linemen on which team, who can eat more because there's a seven-point swing coming from that ribbiting contest the night before. I know what you're thinking. That's not part of the game. Listen, I just proposed a deal where the Bulls in Florida can pay the players, for God's sake. If I want to have a ribbiting contest that gives the team seven points in my Bull game, by all means, I get it.

So, yes, be there for the first Andy Staples. Wait, no. What are we calling it? The Sonny's Barbecue Andy Staples Bull from Conway, South Carolina on the teal turf, December 17th, 2024. Does that sound good? Noon. I'm sure there's a sunnies in Myrtle beach. There's gotta be, we can definitely have the ribbing contest there.

And yeah, it's maybe we do it right before the game. Maybe we go straight from the rib-eating contest into the game. That would be spectacular. I got to talk to the folks at On3. True story. When I got hired at On3, I texted our owner. And I said, you know, if we really want to make a splash, we'll sponsor a bowl game. He said, that's a giant waste of money. We're splash, we'll sponsor a bowl game. He said,

that's a giant waste of money. We're not doing that. I'm going to break him down. Shannon Snell, former Florida Gator, pit master at Sonny's in Northeast Florida. Come help me. Call your people. Call the corporate execs, tell them we need to make this bowl game happen. December 17th, 2024, the Sonny's Andy Staples Bowl from Conway, South Carolina. So many ribs all over the teal turf. My producer River says there's Sonny's in Rock Hill. No, no, that's Rock Hill's basically suburban Charlotte. That's too far. Listen, if a local Myrtle Beach place wants to sponsor me, we're fine. I mean, we could go Hooters and have a winging contest. I'm sure there's a Hooters in Myrtle Beach.

There are so many options here. But I do want the eating contest to affect the game in as many ways as humanly possible. Free seven points, we do it right before the game. Bonus points, I think, if you puke through your helmet and then play. We've seen that. We saw it in the Tennessee Alabama game in 2022.

Tennessee's left tackle just... It was actually a pretty effective deterrent to the Alabama players that he was then tasked with blocking because they looked at each other like, I'm not touching this guy. We got a game here, folks. December 17th, 2024. The Sonny's Barbecue slash Hooters.

Andy Staples Bowl in Conway, South Carolina. Let's make it happen. All right. I haven't even called him yet, but I'm going to tease him for tomorrow's show anyway, because I just know when we call Pete Nacos, he delivers. You're getting your Nacosifications. We're going deep into the transfer portal with Pete Nacos. Also, Joe Tipton, the most plugged in guy in college basketball recruiting,

is going to join us to help get you ready for a big, big weekend of college basketball, including what might be the biggest game in the country so far this year, Arizona Purdue from Indy. It's going to be fun, and I bet we're going to have a lot more news to talk about. Thank you for listening tonight. I'll talk to you tomorrow.