Andy & Ari On3 - “The system is broken” Duke’s Manny Diaz SOUNDS OFF on College Football Playoff & huge conferences

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

As championship week is on the horizon, Duke head coach Manny Diaz joined the show and he came spitting some HEAT. Watch here as the Blue Devils head coach explains why Miami should be in the field, why the ACC champion should be in, and why the College Football Playoff system is broken. Do you agree with Coach Diaz's thoughts? (0:00) On Today’s Episode(1:47) Presenting Sponsor(3:57) Intro: Manny Diaz SOUNDS OFF(5:00) Rhoback(5:57) Manny Diaz Joins(19:31) Wrapping up Manny Diaz Interview(24:40) Huel(25:52) Diego Pavia wants a 16-team CFP(41:55) Would the CFP Committee flip Notre Dame and Miami’s Ranking?(53:07) PaniniAmerica.net(54:59) Brian Hartline to USF(1:05:00) Kansas State Head Coach Update(1:07:45) Conclusion: Dear Andy & Ari Tomorrow After Manny Diaz, the fellas take a look at Diego Pavia calling for Donald Trump to sign an executive order to expand the College Football Playoff to 16 teams this year. While happening this year seems impossible, Andy & Ari discuss the potential for expansion of the College Football Playoff here. It's a megaboard Wednesday, and the fellas dive deep into whether or not the rankings of Miami and Notre Dame would flip ahead of Sunday's selection. Watch here as Andy & Ari re-visit 2014 to discuss what happened with Baylor and TCU to compare. As news is ramped up on National Signing Day, the coaching carousel is in full swing as well. On Wednesday, it was reported that Ohio State OC Brian Hartline would be taking the USF job. What does this mean for Ohio State? Andy & Ari break it down here. Meanwhile, Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman has announced his retirement, and it is expected that current Texas A&M OC and former Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein will be named the head coach. Is this a good move in Manhattan? Our show is sponsored by Rhoback, the most comfortable clothes on the planet! Use the code ANDY on Rhoback.com for a generous 20% off for all new customers through the end of this week. That’s 20% off all Performance Polos, Shorts and more with code ANDY We’re also brought to you by Panini! Panini delivers the most collectible sports cards and memorabilia on the planet. Check out the new exclusive Arch Manning collection or the Panini Prizm Draft Picks College Football series. Visit PaniniAmerica.net to start your collection today. Get Huel today with this exclusive offer for New Customers of 15% OFF with code STAPLES15 at https://huel.com/STAPLES15 (Minimum $75 purchase) Our show is presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works: 1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB.2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sureyou use bonus code CFB when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Join On3 today and get one full year of access to The Athletic included! https://www.on3.com/subscribe/C Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/MASwa6UBdq4 Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode of Andy and Ariana 3, presented by BetMGM, Duke coach Mani Diaz joins the show, and he's spitting fire. Everybody's going to be watching Mani's game because the Blue Devils are playing Virginia in the ACC championship game. Five lost Duke. The question is whether they would get into the playoff if they won. Would James Madison, the Sunbelt champ, get in instead because they might be ranked higher than an ACC champion Duke? these are all questions that need to be answered. Manny believes the ACC champion is getting in no matter what, but he also believes Miami should be in the playoff.

He also believes the entire system is broken and they need to figure out a way to decide things on the field because they're just going to keep complaining about tiebreakers in these massively bloated conferences. Great interview with Manny Diaz. He does not hold back. Plus, Mandy quarterback Diego Pavia would like Donald Trump to sign an executive order.

for a 16-team playoff. Don't know if that's going to happen, but everybody is trying to expand this playoff. Will it expand to 16? And is that a good idea? Plus, could Miami and Notre Dame flip in the college football playoff rankings? There's something that Hunter Eurocheck,

the chair of the selection committee, said on Tuesday night that everybody seized on on Wednesday morning, I'm not sure. But Ari and I have got to debate this out because it does feel like there is maybe a slight chance, maybe. Plus, Ryan Hartline, Ohio State's receivers coach,

offensive coordinator, and ace recruiter is headed to USF to become the head coach. What happens when the best recruiting program in the country loses its ace recruiter? Talk about it all on today's Annie NARN3. We are presented by BetMGM, and if you're not signed up for BetMGM yet, what are you waiting for?

Download that app, sign up using the code CFB, that CFB as in college football, and you can get up to a $1,500 first bet offer. Here's how that works. Download the app, sign up using the code, CFB, deposit at least $10. Place your first bet. If your first bet loses, you could get up to a $1,500 offer in bonus bets. when you are signed up, you get goodies like what we have going for you this week. On Friday and Saturday, December 5th, December 6, a college football odds boost token. You zero and every snap activate your odds boost token on any college football bet on championship weekend,

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See Betmgmgm.com for terms 21 plus only U.S. promotional offers are not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler in the U.S. Call 8778 Hope N.Y or text Hope N. Y. 4673669 in New York. Call 1-800 next step in Arizona. Call 1-800-3-2-0-50 in Massachusetts. Call 1-800-off in Iowa or 1-8001-9-802 3 in Puerto Rico. First bet offer for new customers only, subject to eligibility requirements, rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use the bonus code CFB and get your $1,500 first bet offer today. Welcome to Annie and R&3 presented by BetMGM. Ari, we have a great interview today with Manny Diaz, the Duke head coach. And I was excited that we're going to get Manny anyway because, one, I love talking to him, one of the smartest guys out there, but also because Duke is in such an interesting situation.

they're a five-lossed team playing in a power conference championship game, and everybody watched the ranking show last night, saw James Madison hit at number 25 and said, oh, well, if Duke wins, James Madison's in the playoff if they win the Sundahl championship game. We talked to Mani, you're going to see this in the interview. He is certain, certain that if Duke wins, they make the playoff. PSA to all future guests to be like Mani Diaz.

That was awesome, man. And, like, I want to, like, talk with you and preamble and all that stuff. But, like, I feel like we should just kick it to them and just, like, let people. Oh, 100%. This interview brought to you by Roebuck. We're in my Roeback has a hoodie right now. R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com. Use the code Andy for 20% off your first order.

They got the awesome college line where you've got the new LSU ones that I'm sure Lane Kiffin probably wants. John Somerall needs that Gator's one that we're showing on the screen right now. Marcel Reed, always wearing his Texas A&M one because he's headed to the playoff. Question is whether Manny Diaz and Duke are headed to the playoff if they win this game against Virginia on Saturday night in Charlotte. R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com. Use the code Andy for 20% off your first order. All right, Ari. Let us talk to Manny Diaz, whose team can win a conference title, even though they've got five losses.

And he thinks if they win, they're in. Joined out my Duke coach, Manny Diaz, who two weeks ago probably imagine he would not be in this position of coaching a team in the ACC championship game. But that's, we'll start there, Mani. The team you play is Virginia this week. You lost to Virginia a couple weeks ago. That loss drops you to five and five. your team could have bagged it. You had North Carolina and Wake Forest to go.

What happened between then and now that got you guys here? Yeah, it's actually probably started the day after that game. We played so poorly. Virginia had a lot to do with it, but we played so poorly, certainly our worst performance of the year. We came, and our guys put a lot into that. They prepared really hard for that day. We came in the next day, and my mindset was just,

we got to move on, we've got to flush it. And we all wrote down on a note card, two or three things that we wish we could have done better the day before. We went up to the patio of our football office, and we set them all on fire and threw them in a trash can. That's what we didn't burn the building down. And then we took out some basketballs, and we did an impromptu three-point shooting contest,

O-line versus D-line, coaches versus coaches, and just got the malaise out of our system. And we said from that moment on, it's Carolina week. I think it helped that we were playing our rival that next week. And we said, we're not worried about the ACC anymore. We're just going to try to win a game. We're trying to beat North Carolina. we did that, we got the bell back, and then we did the exact same thing for Wake Forest.

I said, I know there's some formula that can get us in. We're absolutely not paying attention to that. We never spoke on it. And we just said, if we just beat Wake Forest, then we'll figure it out. Coach, it's a pretty insane situation that you're in. Let's be honest. What's it been like to just kind of be in the middle of that? And, you know, college football playoffs scenarios go crazy.

They go haywire. I mean, what's it like to coach while one of the most. most interesting tiebreakers and one of the most interesting CFP scenarios ever seen is starting to play out. I think our guys, we like it. We, you know, we kind of view ourselves as being disruptors. And, and we're right in the middle of it. We're disrupting everything.

And, but look, we didn't get in on some, like, scratch off lottery ticket, right? We won six games in the league. And in the most objective way to determine it, the teams that we played in the league had a higher winning percentage than anybody else, the teams that we were tied with. So it didn't come down to a committee, didn't come down to, you know, a beauty pageant. It came down to who we played and how good were the teams that we played against. And so, like I told, Argasm, we deserve to be there and we got to take advantage of it. I got asked on a radio show yesterday.

Somebody said, oh, should the ACC do their tiebreakers differently? I said, no, because this is probably a situation like this may not happen again. But also, you guys did win six games in the league. This is a case where you have three non-conference loss. which I've heard you talk about this. You know, you scheduled Illinois, which came into the season as a team that we looked at as a potential playoff team.

Scheduled Tulane, which is playing for a spot in the playoff on Friday. And I just don't know, like, how do you get here? And what do you say to people when they're like, oh, they need to change the ACC tiebreakers because Duke got in? Well, here's, Andy, here's the irony. The people that don't want to change it, want to change it, and they want to say, hey, why don't we use rank? rankings to break the tie, but the irony is those are the same people that are mad at the rankings that have Miami out of the playoff. Miami should be in the playoff. And we're fussing at rankings because the rankings are not paying attention to head to head contest, an objective view, right? What is the most objective way to rate two teams when they played? And Miami beat Notre Dame. They should be ahead of Notre Dame, right, with the same record. We have a very objective tiebreaker. So why would we, if we're fussing at the subjective tiebreaker for Miami's and

inclusion in the league, why would we want a subjective tiebreaker to change our league? To me, to me, the two arguments contradict each other. You know, when you came on the show, I was like, he's going to be an ACC title mode, you know, they're going to be preparing for the game. And I love that you're locked in right now. Can I ask you because everybody who comes on the show and anybody who has a mic in front of their face in your position, what is Duke's best case for college football playoff inclusion with a win on Saturday?

I would say this, the Atlantic Coast Conference champion will always be in the college bowl playoff. It's going to happen this year, regardless of what happens on Saturday. It's going to happen every year. That's just the way it's going to happen. We have four power four conferences. The competition in this power four conferences is unlike the competition in anywhere else. That's not the disrespect really good teams that are not in the power four conferences, which we played two this year and lost two this year.

But week in a week out in terms of who you play and how you have to prepare, that's why there's a difference. That's why it's called the power four. And for us, go ahead. So you don't think that there's, you need to even make a case, like you're in in your mind if you win? Not today. Not today. The case we have to make is on Saturday night at 8 o'clock. That's all, that's all I'm concerned about right now. It'd be foolish for me to start making a case other than the fact that we have to beat Virginia.

But just the fact that we'd have beaten Virginia would be better than any other win that can be compared from anybody that we're in any, you know, hypothetical argument against. So that's why all of our focus right now is worry about beat Virginia. and we'll let the policy can take care of itself after that. Well, and okay, so the questions, because we're not going to softball this here. The pushback on that is you did lose two games to group of five teams. And how do you defend against that, just the overall difficulty to schedule

compared to the people you'd be compared to? Right. Going on the road and losing two, one score games to group of five teams, doesn't mean that you're not, you couldn't defeat all group of five teams. And it wouldn't mean that those group of five teams, if they had to play a eight or nine game league schedule, would have the same record, right?

And that's what we're talking about here, right? And this is what we get into when we get into the eye contest and all the subjectivity is right, who would have whatever record against the teams that they played against, right? If you play their record, what would your record be? Would these teams be able to go to Clemson and beat Clemson to Clemson? Right? And that's where the trick comes, right? So the idea that, yeah, that we failed that Connecticut who did not lose a game in regulation this year. And if they were in a conference, would be playing for a conference championship.

doesn't mean that suddenly that loses, you know, every other G5 team suddenly has a case over Duke. Manning, I see that you're fired up and I love it. You know, when you're coaching a team and you're in your bubble and getting your team prepared and stuff, like when you see what happens to Miami, when you see other discourses about, you know, debates, do you get fired up about college football playoffs off the way a fan would at times looking at the system and realizing that it could have an impact on you this year? To me, I don't know if it's fired up, I'm just more, it's, we're, the system is broken, right? And like any, everybody knows there's only one way to fix us, right?

We have got to take this away from committees and we've got to get this on the field. And the only way to do it is you got to play it out. The conferences are too big. Everybody can't play everybody. And we're going to be fussing at tiebreakers every year. If we change our tiebreaker next year, guess what we'll do? We'll fuss at that. And there's always going to be the argument between the 10 and two team in this league and the nine and three team in that league.

and quality wins versus non-quality losses. And I understand it's great for ratings, but in my mind, it stinks. And the sport on the field has never been better. And so what do we have to do is we have to allow more rounds to get people in, whether that's expanding the playoff, which for sure is coming, or having playing games within the leagues because we cannot determine a league champion

in 16, 17, 18 team leagues with the way we're doing it now. So how do you, in this case, Because right now, you've got this game against Virginia, and that's going to determine what happens to you guys. They played one of their best games against you. You played one of your worst games against them. How do you turn that around on Saturday in Charlotte? Well, it's a great opportunity, right, to get the rare mulligan.

Andy, you remember the Florida State Mulligan in 96, right? 52 to 20, I believe, was the final score of the mulligan. Yes, that was a good night. I don't remember that. I don't forget that one either. But look, so both teams have the right to make adjustments, right? You play somebody, you see what we thought would work, what did work, what didn't work. And so, you know, we certainly have that right to revamp what we, you know, want to do against them.

But they have the right as well. So the most important thing is that we just do our job and just play with a better, I mean, we have to just block them better, right? They really whip this up front. They've an outstanding defense. They're really not giving up points over the last six games. of the season. So we have a lot of respect for them. Our guys know how well we'll have to play to have a chance to win, but they're up for the challenge. You know, it's a cliche in college football, and I use it all the time, but I want to hear your coach's perspective. Like,

they always say it's hard to beat a team twice. Do you subscribe to that and like why is that a cliche? Well, usually both cliches are cliches because they have some sort of, you know, historical context to them, right? If I was coaching in Virginia, I would tell you that They don't have to beat us twice. They have to just beat us on Saturday night, right? There's only one game. They don't have to win two games on Saturday. But to that point, I think, you know, human nature, right?

You're going to look at, you know, the fuel of defeat. And is that a stronger fuel than at times when you've won a game? I think that's fair. But like I said, with the stakes being this high, with the championship on the line, a playoff invite on the line for both teams, I don't know that any intangibles will have a saying. And I think both teams be highly motivated to win the game. and the boring coach talk, execution will be the winner of the day.

And I know this is obviously the highest priority, and you're signing players today, so you're very busy. But I want to get back to what you're saying about potentially trying to fix the college football playoff in the system. How does that work for you coaches? Do you go to your AD or do you go to your commissioner and say, this is what we want? This is what should happen? Well, the first thing is gaining consensus amongst coaches of what that is, right?

And I think it's all been happening at real time. We usually struggle in this in college ball, in my opinion, with fighting over perfect instead of just getting to better. And then, of course, we can talk about the playoff. There's other, you know, you have TV involved, right? It's not something that certainly coaches control. I don't know really. Who has to total control over it? But we have to recognize when we, no one, you know, the law of unintended consequences, when we bloated the conferences and didn't really think about how you would.

the struggle to determine a proper champion in the conferences. And if that was a pathway to getting into the playoff, it only stands the reason. There's going to be an expanded playoff. That's just, that's coming. Now, how do we determine the best way?

And simply comes down to this. Do you want a committee to decide it every year? Never want to bitch and moan? Or do you want to try to find a way to make competition happen? And guess who likes competition? Fans, guess who that likes? TV. Guess what that means?

More money, right? Who's turning down more money? Nobody, right? So it's just, I just feel like it's coming and, and there's an inevitability to it all. Tony Pottini might be inviting you to the Big Ten for this. Yeah.

That's what the Big Ten wants for sure. So you've, I want to play out on your mind. And many of us weren't for that. Yeah. And many of us weren't for that when it first came out. But talking to some of our coaching cohort, you know,

the idea of the, you know, the six versus three and the four versus five in a league. And that way, look, if you want to argue in the league who is six and who is seven, hey, have at it in the league. Right.

But at least the league has a chance to play it out because right now there's just no way to determine the top team or as the discourse this week the top two teams in a league objectively right short of getting the tie breaks and whatnot and then you in this sport where nothing's easy and everything's complicated if you play a play in tournament at the end of your regular season and that also then creates scheduling issues and when the national championship has played and all that too so my hope is that one day we'll get to some functionality because i like like the idea of solving everything on the field and I'm pulling my hair out right now

because even the field isn't helping us solve things this year. So, yeah. But you guys did earn your way to the ACC title game on the field. Now you can earn an ACC championship on the field. What is the message to the team when you go, when you're about to take the field to Charlotte, what do you want them thinking about? What do you want them to understand?

In a setting like that, you don't actually want them thinking about championships. You want them just playing with their instincts, right? do us well, you know, execute your day one, two, and three install. I always feel like if you have to prepare a team to win a championship on championship week, they're going to feel an angst to that. You should prepare for this game, you know, every day of the season so the guys can play free and they can play fast on game day. Coach, cannot wait to see you guys on Saturday night.

It's going to be fun to watch and I think the whole country is going to be watching. So good luck. Can't wait. See you guys there. Great hair, too, Manny. Great hair. The beard. The beard is a nice touch, too.

Like, this is an incredible look. Like, when did you realize the beard was the way to go? When I got tired of shaving a few weeks ago, I was, that was, one day I said, the hell of this. So here we go. So this is the playoff beer. It didn't know what it was when I, um, Saturday night until the, the field goal missed for SMU.

So it turned into a playoff beard. Good luck, Manny. Thanks. Coach. Appreciate you. All right, Ari. That was a very interesting interview. I have not heard a lot of the coaches express support for the play-in games. That's something I've heard the Big Ten leadership express support for and not many other people. But I do think, man, he's right.

The coaches need to get together and kind of figure out what they want. Because, you know, it's interesting. When the SEC coaches got together in Destin last year, it felt like, the ADs were kind of moving one way, and then the SEC coaches got together and brought the ADs back to a point, kind of where the SEC is now, which is the SEC would like 16 teams. They'd prefer it to be the top 16 with no automatic bids, but they would take five highest ranked conference champs. But Manny makes the point that, okay, why not do the playing games?

Because you're going to complain about the tiebreakers in these massive bloated conferences. I think he actually just changed. changed my mind about something. Because if you remember earlier in the year when we were discussing and arguing about the play in games, like we had a disagreement about whether that's the most functional thing to do because then you're removing the importance of being first, second, or third, or fourth because then you could just went on the field at the end and all you had to do is get in.

But, you know, the more I think about it and listening to Manny Diaz articulated just Now, if we can't figure out who the champions of these leagues are without tiebreakers and they're too big for these teams to actually play, then how much does being fourth, fifth, sixth, second, first even matter? We're not, you're not getting an equitable route to that ranking anyway. So it feels like we're at the point now where the cat's out of the bag. There's not, we're not going to be getting back to 10 team conferences again. Like the money is on the table. The teams are signed.

The grant of rights are in. Like, there's no reversing that. So the only course of action, I think, in order to get a real, truly adequate champion in most cases is by having the teams that qualify for a in-conference tournament at the end of the year to actually determine how that goes because it's insane. And he's right about that. We've been talking about how these conferences don't make sense

and are too big for months for, you know, over a year now since it happened. But like watching it play out in real time and it causing a real impact on who actually makes the playoff is bizarre. are, I just don't know from a calendar standpoint how you would make that happen. You just shorten the regular season, start. Well, you get rid of the conference championship games, which this one, I guess, matters. The ACC one certainly matters. Because you only need one week to do that tournament, right?

You just do it instead of the conference championship games. You do it that same weekend. And then if you did it that weekend and you had three or four games that weekend instead, then you could have more functional final rankings. Right. But the thing is, do you do the automatic bids for the conferences? and I don't know, again, I don't know that Manny's conference would go for that because if the Big Ten and the SEC are like, we're going to get four and the ACC and

the ACC and Big 12, you're going to get two. I'm not sure the ACC and Big 12 can sign up for that. Well, I know that Manny was pretty emphatic in the notion that the ACC will always have a team in. His team represents the agent of chaos and proving him wrong, like potentially. Like, I don't know if that's, I wouldn't even say that's a fact. I think that's highly questioned. at this point.

The committee told us who they like better right now. Yeah, I think this is going to be very interesting either way. Because what this tells us is if the ACC gets left out, let's say Duke wins and they don't get in, they're going to explode. Like the ACC is going to explode here. They're going to be furious. And if they do get in, then everybody who has been saying this whole thing's rigged for certain conferences is going to say,

they're saying it's going to strengthen their argument because the James and people are like what what the hell like you ranked us and then Duke was ranked lower and you jumped them over us yeah like this is where this is where you've talked about the committee needs to rank them down to 40 yeah well you know the thing that's interesting too that he also changed my mind on Andy during that interview is like I've rolled my eyes at people saying we need to get rid of committees and manny was very you know passionate about how we don't need committees we need to settle it on the field but i feel like the committee for the first time

in its existence makes me feel like they did a bad job which makes me more open to that like this is the first time that i have an actual issue with a decision that they're making yeah so like this whole miami notre dame thing this whole ac c thing is calling into question whether the group of of people that are in charge of assigning these positions in the field are even capable of doing it correctly. It's a legitimate question right now. But man, he seems sure that they're going to 16 teams. You know who wants 16 teams right now? Vandy quarterback Diego Pavia, he asked President Donald Trump to grant a 16 team playoff. Sign an executive order creating a 16 team playoff. We'll talk about that right after these words from Huell. A little Huell Black

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if you don't have time to run by a drive-thru, that is the way you get a complete, healthy meal. Huel.com, H-U-E-L.com. Use the go Staples 15 for 15% off your first purchase of $75 or more. we don't intentionally we like we're we stay out of politics but politics keeps getting dragged into college football and the reason it has been today is diego povey the vandy quarterback potential heisman trophy candidate has beseeched the president of the united states of America saying, hey, Mr. Trump, please sign an executive order demanding a 16 team college

football playoff right now. And listen, given how the executive orders have gone, this seems like a logical request. Like, he might actually do it. Who knows? You know, I'm not big on understanding how government works, but I would love to know logistically if he's like, yeah, you guys have to do this, how that would work out. He can't make them do it. But. Yeah. It would be funny. I don't even know if it'd be physically possible to pull it off with the schedule and everything. But, you know, I am very amused by this because on one hand, like, I totally understand how a team that went 10 and 2 and the SEC would feel like it could play against anybody. And I actually do believe that Vanderbilt could beat many of the teams that will make it.

On the other hand, I do think it's funny that it's just like, you know, hey, let's just expand the playoff. exactly to where we would get in and then cut it off there. It's just like, but it's an interesting. It would be funnier, I think if, if Vandy was ranked number 15 right now and probably be like, Mr. President, we need a 17 team playoff. This is an important thing. We're not bagging on Pavia here.

It's an important thing because, A, they're discussing potential further expansion. And B, another interesting talking point that I think is important is that I think that because teams are going to be left out this year, a lot of people online that I've seen have adopted a solution to this issue which is to expand it more

and I find that to be insane so like I just like want to talk it through because it's like the further you go down and the larger the playoff field gets the more candidates there are for that spot there are more eight and four teams and there are two and ten and two teams

and the further you go the more it's going to be difficult to decipher who should go and who should not go and honestly speaking like I know we have some controversy this year but if Miami were in the field and Notre Dame were out of the field right now

I would have zero gripes about the field like they are they are making the wrong decision in my opinion and it has nothing to do with how many teams are permitted in here's my thing about this the friction that is being caused by only having 12 teams this year is good

it's interesting and I don't have a problem with flawed teams being left out. I don't have a problem with teams that probably weren't going to win the national championship anyway being left out. The reason it feels different this year is because it felt like last year

there weren't really that many deserving teams. This year, Vanderbilt, Texas, Miami, and BYU, which right now are on the outside looking in, we feel like if you put them in the bracket, it could do some damage. And I think that's what makes it more interesting. But none of them had good enough seasons to deserve to definitely be in the bracket. And that's their fault.

So I'm fine with somebody being really disappointed on Selection Sunday. I like the passion of it. I like the argument. The Notre Dame Miami debate, as asinine as it's been, because the head-to-head thing, is still good and interesting. I would rather it be on the merits and not, you know, like the head-to-head's an obvious one. I would rather that carry the day when the resumes were equal.

But all these other arguments like BYU versus Notre Dame, where Notre Dame stacks up against Alabama, where Miami stacks up against BYU, where Texas and Vanderbilt stack up with one another, where Utah stacks up with all those. I'm fine with those. and they don't all have to get in. They told.

I'm with you. The thing that I would push back on with that is that even if Miami and Notre Dame were flipped and the merits of the teams were, we would still have debates. Like Notre Dame fans would just be mad at Miami. And that's great. That's great. Debates are great.

You're getting it wrong. And getting it wrong isn't the reason debates exist. Debates would exist either way. But get it right and let's debate. we're going to talk about that in a second are we we we have it's mega board wednesday we got a cane sport thread because of something hunter your check said we're going to talk about that in a second we're talking about the 16 team thing right now yeah yeah and so don't know i know i know your mind as soon as i mentioned Miami and Notre Dame just boom

although it's it remove them you're right it but my mind when it comes to this sort of thing is the the playoff thing goes insane because then like Expanded out 16 here. And then we're going to start having debates between SC, you know, Virginia. Right. I don't want to have that debate. And I know that the Big Ten has proposed 24 with a bunch of auto bids. No.

This is good. Like, this is better. You know, Andy, you know this about me and people who've listened to the show know this, that like I was hesitant to do it to 12. But the sport has changed so much where if Miami doesn't get in, Like, I would feel remorse for that because I think that Miami is good enough to win games in the playoffs. Same goes for Vanderbilt. Same goes for some of the other teams that might not get in.

And the way that the sport has allowed us to get to a place where there are actually 15 or, like, I think Texas could win playoff games. There are a lot of teams that aren't going to get in that aren't, that could win. And, but I want to, I want to normalize that being okay. That's a good column. That's okay. And I'm the one who said, I could go with 16. I can live with it because it doesn't add another round and it's still the most exclusive. But I like this better.

I like the angst this creates. This was 2015. The 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 15, 10, 9, 8 even teams. Three. They would have had really good years, but, like, nobody would be like, oh, man, it's too bad that two loss Oklahoma's not in. Because there's no way that too long. Like, because, like, back in 2015, Ohio State, this year. year there were four of them like now there aren't like remember when it was peak georgia ohio state

bama and clemson all at once like none of the teams that are that were currently debating over in the would never have been able to stand on the few with any of those teams those teams don't exist maybe outside of just ohio state this year and frankly speaking ohio state hasn't played a good enough schedule yet we're not going to really know that until saturday so we'll know a little bit more on saturday and beyond but i you know i have a hunch of the way that they're built that they are like that. So the way that the sport has evolved is great. And 12 has actually turned into what I believe is a pretty functional number. I like 12. I've really enjoyed this. I thought I would like 16 better. But I don't want to go to 16 now. I like 12. I like where they're at. Yeah. I think

that we actually are in full agreement there for the first time ever. Like with the way that the season is played out. Which means it's a sweet spot, right? I mean, like, because you and I were on polar opposite sides of it. I was at four, you were at 16, and now we're both meeting at 12 and thinking it's functional. I think that's a good sign. Yeah. Now, unfortunately, we've hit the sweet spot and the people in charge are not going to do that because the SEC wants 16, I think more than the SEC, the ACC is obviously going to push for 16 because they're in danger of getting left out if Virginia loses in the ACC championship.

You're going to get a push to 16. They've already changed the debt. Remember, they haven't decided on a playoff format for next season. The deadline was supposed to be December 1st. It was supposed to be Sunday. They changed it to January 23rd. So they are still trying to push through a 16-team playoff for next season. Now, the Big 10 is holding up the show because they want all those auto bids and nobody else does.

So maybe, hopefully they just stay obstructionist and keep arguing about it and it stays like this for next year. Yeah. And I hope that's what happens. And I don't know, maybe if it gets to 16. will feel less and less bad about teams that get left out as you go down the totem pole. But honestly, Andy, I feel really bad for number 12. I also, against my better judgment or maybe my natural pro-longhorn bias, like I feel bad for Texas because as much as I roll my eyes at their argument for inclusion,

I also can understand why somebody in their position would feel the way that they do. Like I listened to Steve Sarkesian who made a, I think it was on Sirius XM, this morning who echoed his sentiments about, you know, hey, like if we were 10 and 2 and had four wins over top 10 teams, this wouldn't even be a debate. And he's absolutely right. Now, you don't get to just erase a game off your schedule and pretend it didn't happen. But like, I understand that position and being, being upset about it. Like, and I feel like the teams that are getting slighted or are going to miss the cut narrowly actually have a chance to do something good, which then, like, it's like, you know, you ever watch a movie, Andy? That's like,

super awesome and you're like an hour and 45 minutes in and you're like holy shit this is the most entertaining movie ever and then the ending is terrible like how much that ruins the whole thing I think like college football to a certain extent makes me feel that way sometimes because of all the what if scenarios that this beautiful dramatic awesome movie of a season has been I want to know at the end of the year and by and large we get this but not all the time that the best team in the country or the team that went through the most deserved it the most actually was the team that won it and like that'll probably be the case this year if ohio state or indiana or a and m or bama wins it will probably feel that way but like i don't

know beyond the shadow of a doubt as you pointed out yesterday using that that that spreads tool that my like if alabama wins the national title like are we certain that alabama would beat miami in round one we're not and like we'll always have an ending but like it's not the full scope of it and that irritates me and i'm pro debate i'm pro discussion i'm pro but it sounds like you're pro 16 because you'd like to see but i still feel the same like but like here's the thing if the sport continues to advance into this parody driven world and then actually the teams that are built like miami comes the right number maybe 16 becomes it right but i now it's not yet but like i feel fine without michigan in the playoff this year after what we saw on saturday like

i feel fine with u s not making the playoff like virginia controls its own destiny in this system 17 right now. So, like, I don't really know how much there are three teams or even four maybe, and I don't know because BYU still might get in, but there are three teams that are not going to make the playoff that I think could play into the semifinal or potentially beyond. Miami, Vanderbilt and Texas. Is there anybody else that you believe that about?

I actually think Utah might be able to play with some of these teams, but not as, I don't believe that as strongly as I do these other ones. And then BYU, obviously, can get in. And if BYU didn't have a path in this weekend, I would put them in the same bucket with Miami and Texas and Vanderbilt. Yeah. And the thing that falls flat on the floor to me when it comes to the Texas debate, Andy, is that like, yeah, like when you extract the highest points and use those as your as the drum to bang on, it's one thing. You've also like, Texas looked like shit for like 80% of the year. Right.

Like it's not like this is a team that was like calming and wrong. And that's my thing. all of these teams are flawed BYU has the best argument like hey we lost one game and it was to a really good team yeah and then this this brings up the next question that I have for you in the 12 team playoff era

if we do and it's probably like statistically very improbable that this happens but if we do wind up on Sunday with two G5 teams and two big 12 teams do you think that's a just use of our 12 spots because like the thing with BYU is

they have played a way easier schedule than a Big Ten or an SEC schedule and it's a fact, it's not a debate. Right. And the one time they played a team that was even remotely made up the way you would find

the four or five teams at the top of those two conferences are made up. They couldn't score. So like, it's like that to me, but like also resume, they're a one loss team and their only losses to a top five team. Like I under,

like, how do you differentiate that from what Notre Dame has done? Like, I just like, I keep coming back of the same North Star because that's the one that doesn't make sense to me. I'm not trying to the Notre Dame, the Notre Dame in Miami, but like Notre Dame, Alabama and BYU, which is also a debate. But even if you scrutinize BYU's resume against Notre Dame's, BYU probably comes up.

Now, I'm sure Notre Dame's strength of schedule is a lot more advanced. I don't know how much more advanced it is because Notre Dame played a lot of bad teams, but BYU has a better loss and a better win. So why are they behind them? and they have one fewer loss on the season. It doesn't make any sense. Like Notre Dame's positioning in the bracket doesn't make sense at all.

And it's not just a Miami discussion. It's a scrutiny discussion. Notre Dame fans direct all your hatred to Ari Wasserman. That's fine. I'm getting it. Ari Wasserman. That's fine. And then next year when someone else is ranked better than Notre Dame

and it makes no sense, I'll tell you that Notre Dame should be ranked. It doesn't make any sense. It's all I'm saying. But Andy, do you think we're going to 16th? like what is your take on like what's happening this year because they are they are pushing so hard to go to 16 the people who actually can control this stuff are pushing so hard to go to 16 yeah so i think

they're going to do it unless the big 10 just decides to be completely obstructionist because they want those auto bids but nobody else wants them yeah yeah Because the SEC doesn't want them, the ACC and the Big 12, because they don't get as many, don't want to admit to being second-class citizens, which I don't think they should. No, imagine not wanting those automatic bids, though, and then, like, a week goes by and you get zero teams in the field. Well, that's Jim Phillips is in a blender this week, and I feel bad for him because, and we'll talk to many Diaz about the ACC situation, but I can't, this is such an unusual. situation this is probably never going to happen again but yeah i mean i think what it is like you know

what makes me think though and i'm no mathematician and obviously i have my limitations and what i understand in the world but like in the most when you have 132 teams 136 136 there are a lot of variabilities right andy when it comes to like what can happen that's what makes the sport crazy and it's like well if this is never going to happen again what other thing is going to happen next year that we have no they would never be like that yeah they introduced a lot of uncertainties with these mega conferences

all right we're going to talk about what's going on the ACC in a little bit we're also going to talk about Miami and Notre Dame next because hunter your check said something that everybody's latched on to that maybe I didn't take as seriously as I should have last night when we did the reaction show

all right it is a mega board Wednesday I want to start with a thread from Canesport. That's our Miami site, Matt Shodell, the managing editor of Canesport. Put this out there on Tuesday night. After Hunter Eurocheck spoke to ESPN, later he spoke to a bunch of reporters

on a teleconference and there's even more stuff. And everyone is seizing on this. I poo-pooed it last night. I'm not going to poo it again. We do have, we need to have a serious discussion about it. And this is what Matt points out from the Eurocheck appearance with Reese Davis. He says that last year when the committee said,

if teams don't play, they don't flip-blop, that this year it could happen. And that is a very succinct way of describing it. Because what happened was, if you watched that exchange between Reese Davis and Hunter Eurochick, that was Hunter Eurocheck going, hey, when Ward Manuel was up here last year doing this, the Michigan AD, he messed up because he said,

if you're not playing, you're locked. And everybody ran with that last year. And that's not the case. So everybody seized on this because obviously there are a lot of people who wonder why Miami is ranked behind Notre Dame because their resumes are very similar. The records are identical and Miami won the head to head. So does this mean they could flip? Is it possible they could flip? I think it was just I'm not ruling anything out.

doesn't block himself in a corner i don't think that's like a like dan wolken wrote a column and i think dan wolken's a very talented column writer that like there's a trapdoor set in place here that like miami can like walk did you read this this story about how yeah so it's like yeah that sounds great you know they're creating this elaborate like labyrinth tunnel that they can it makes no sense and i'm right and this is what i keep coming back to already yes Why didn't they do it before? What makes everybody think they're just going to change their mind to now? I will read you what Hunter Eurocheck said in that teleconference with other reporters afterward.

So here's the question that this person was asked. This is that Hunter Eurocheck was asked. Now that the seasons are complete, the records are the same. Miami has played consistently well why the committee decided to rank Notre Dame two spots ahead of Miami. And does that, does the committee take the head to head more? into consideration if those two teams are back to back in the rankings or if there's a team between them like there is now. Hunter Yurichek says the head-to-head is one data point that the committee will use.

It's obviously easier to use that data point when the teams are back to back as opposed to when they're separated by a team or two or three, as has been the case. Hey, Ari, if BYU wins, they're going to be ranked higher so they'll move ahead of Notre Dame. Hey, Ari, if BYU, if BYU loses What if they just probably drop below Miami?

If BYU wins, then they could drop Texas Tech between them. I mean, like, that's not a guarantee. They could. They could. But there's a chance

they could wind up back to back. And then basically, Hunter Eurecheck goes on to say how good Notre Dame has been and how consistent they've been down the stretch winning 10 in a row. He also points out

that Miami has been really good in November. and has moved up faster than anybody in the rankings. And this is where I, this is something interesting that I'll point out, because we've talked about the arbitrary rankings, why you do the rankings before the one that actually counts. Obviously, it's a TV show. It's for content.

We appreciate the content. But if you happen to have lost right before they just do, they do that first ranking, that can hurt you more than losing early. That can hurt you more than losing late because you get sort of pegged right in there. and that is what happened to Miami. Their losses were right as the committee started ranking. So they started the rankings at 18.

They have moved up. They are now 12. But again, Ari. I think if I were in that room, they would have to remove me. Because I were overcomplicatory. But let's do some history here. 2014.

2014, Baylor and TCU play on October 11. 11th. Baylor wins the game 61 to 58. The following weekend, Baylor loses to West Virginia. That's the only loss Baylor suffers all season. The only loss TCU suffered all season was the Baylor loss on October 11th. The committee does its first ranking, the first ever rank, the one that Mississippi State was number one in a couple weeks later. They had TCU ahead of Baylor, despite them having the same record and Baylor winning the head-to-head. said the following week, same thing.

The following week, same thing. The following week, same thing. The following week, same thing. They get to the final ranking. Now, where this is interesting is TCU was number three in the next to last ranking. So we go to the final week of the season. I covered the TCU game and the Baylor game that week because TCU was at home, Baylor was at home.

So you cover the game in Fort Worth at noon, drove down to Waco and covered the Baylor game. that night. I think I'm getting the teams they played right. TCU kicks a crap out of Iowa State. They hand TCU a trophy because remember there's no big 12 title again. Baylor kicks the crap out of Kansas State. And I'll never forget

Bob Bullsby trying to hand Art Briles a trophy and Art Riles is just screaming at Bullsby because they wouldn't declare a champion because he thought if they declared them the champion, then Baylor would get ranked ahead of TCU. The next morning, I'm in Grapevine, Texas, where the committee meets. Why did you go to Grapevine?

Do you get a room there and just hang out? Yeah. I had a room at the hotel. At the Gaylord? Yeah. You fancy bitch. Yeah, exactly. So the rankings come out.

Now, that team you covered that your Ohio State jumps over both TCU and Baylor because the committee correctly knew that that Ohio State team would have beaten most teams like 75 to 14. But they don't leave TCU ahead of Baylor. They move Baylor ahead of TCU. And they got asked about it and they're like, yeah, well, Baylor won the head to head. And everyone's like, why didn't you have them ahead before then?

Yeah. I mean, everybody was freaking out about it. But again, like it's like lower stakes. It means. Right, because it didn't affect whether you got in or not. Yeah. Like, so whether, like this is precedent. Yeah.

But it could have. If Ohio State had lost to Wisconsin in that Big Ten championship game, which you covered that game, obviously, that was never going to happen. But if they had... It was 59-0-0. Yeah. If they had, they would have had to decide who got in between Baylor and TCU. Only one of them would have been able to get in.

And who do you think they would have picked? Baylor. Why? Because they won the game. Because they won the game. But again, I didn't understand. understand why they didn't have them and I had a TCU in the first place. Like, same thing that's happened with you, with Notre Dame fans this year.

I had TCU fans all over me that year. I feel like I'm Fletcher Reed in the movie Liar Lyer, Liar. What's going on here? I'm sticking my ass. Do you mind? Like, everyone's going to, like, people listen to the show, like, come to this. This discussion are just like, what are these guys going to say? I have no explanation for what's going on.

here. I don't either. Can I say something else that's a little bit strange? Sure. I actually think this committee will look even stupider than they already do if they flip them. I do. I agree. Like that's the thing here. Notre Dame fans. These guys look like morons right now and they will look even dumber if they flip Miami and Notre Dame. I've been waiting to say this and I haven't said it yet but I think now is a good time to say it. We have repeatedly told you throughout this entire show that we are more concerned about process and not the teams, right? It's process, process, process. I don't

care if it's Notre Dame in Miami. It's TV. Let's call Big State TechU. Yeah. Doesn't matter. I will tell you while I think Tech You should be in over the other one you said. Big State. If Big State, oh, this is he got game reference. If Big State drops out at the end and they put tech you in that will look moronic and the process will still look stupid

so like that's the thing that's like insane about it they can't even correct it without looking like moronic so and i wanted to ask you this and i don't know if i feel this way every year because we're in the moment and then i forget what happened six years ago but is this the most erratic it's felt like from a week and it is messing with my argument that you and i share like you and i have shared this belief in the past that any 13 intelligent people will come to the same conclusions are we sure these 13 people are intelligent i mean i don't want to like make fun of anybody i know some of these people i know they're intelligent individually but again this doesn't make sense and if you flip it it will look dumber you know josh pate tweeted this

and I thought it was really funny. But I wrote a column back in 2018 when I was still at the athletic from Big Ten Media Days talking about the need for more transparency in the process. And like Josh Pate tweeted something about like, you know, we get all the crazy insane details about what's going on behind the scenes of every coaching search. But never do we get any insight on what goes on in that room. And like I really do think that at the very least, They should, if not televised the whole thing or make it public information, they should, like, release clips or discussion points or actual specifics about how they arrive at those conclusions that are a little bit deeper and more thorough than what we get from the committee chair. Because with the committee chair, we use them in the stories, we ask them questions, it's nonsense. It's always been nonsense.

It's not a Eurocheck thing. It's always been nonsense. Yeah. And it's like at some point, if you're making a decision that is based solely on your viewpoint and not what happened on the. field, then give us a real process of who was voting for this, why they voted for it, now they arrived in that decision, which we'll never get, which is annoying. Right. So Notre Dame, I feel for you, Miami, I feel for you, BYU, I feel for you, because none of this

crap has made sense this year, none of it. I slapped my face and myself in the face a little bit too hard. That was stupid. It's like a little bit, yeah. Okay. all right our friends at pinini who sent us some more beautiful product uh we got ohio state playing in the big ten championship game this year we got these these awesome ohio state blaster boxes uh i've got it you got a jeremiah smith just kind of nuke out of this thing

right i got our jeremiah smith numbered to 199 out of it but it's already on its way to PSA, so I can't show it. Oh, well, let me open this one. Let me open this. This is my last Ohio State pack. So I'm going to open this one. I've, I've gotten, you know, I got a Julian saying out of this thing last time. Felt pretty good about that. So we got a Gabe Van Sickle. Oh, I got a Julian Sayan base card here. Campus legends Jeremiah Smith. And oh, yeah, he's already a legend, by the way. Trophy hunting. Davis and Igbenosen.

He is hunting a trophy, a Big Ten title trophy this weekend. You can go on the hunt for your favorite Panini cards. Panini America.net is the place to go to start collecting your favorite college and NFL stars. They have these really cool Ohio State blaster boxes. There are going to be other teams, by the way,

that get into this action where you've got cards of your favorite school different teams. Because that one was very football heavy. Some of the ones have a lot of basketball and athletes from other sports. That one was very football heavy and some big names from this team that is about to go play for the college football playoff national championship. It is about to go play for the Big Ten championship.

And we have to talk about Ohio State because very interesting Ohio State news comes down on Wednesday on national signing day. their best recruiter, Brian Hartline, also their offensive coordinator, also their receivers coach, is headed to USF to become the head coach. And we talked about Brian Hartline as a potential head coach. I said Penn State should look at him. I said, you know, Michigan State should look at him.

Kentucky, yep. We knew he's getting a job soon. Now he is getting a chance to run his own program. Ari, this is one of the best recruiters in college football. yeah without question um you know i was looking at the list of players that he's coached and i know the people who root for ohio state are familiar with it but um i want to read off the name that this is just insane garrett wilson coached recruited developed the whole thing garrott wilson williams jackson smith and jigba now jameson williams i don't know how much

credit he gets he did go to Alabama but he started at Ohio's he's only at Alabama for a year Marvin Harrison Jr., Emeka Egbuka, Carnell Tate, Jeremiah Smith. And you had JSN on there. Did I miss JASN? If I didn't say it, I'll say it again, Jackson Smith and Jigba. Yeah, like they, who might be the best receiver in the NFL this year. Yeah, they're not just, I mean, Garrett Wilson, Chris Alave, JSN, and a mecca egg buca. And I, Marvin Harrison has gotten off to a slower start, but I think he's going to be fine in the NFL are all not just players. who were drafted in the first round,

but players who are like pro bowl or level type players in the NFL. So like, and I understand too, like Ohio State fans are probably a little bit nervous right now because whenever you lose a player, I mean a coach who had that many players come in, you're like, oh my God,

how are we going to ever recover from this? And there is a stat. I think they had zero first round draft picks at the receiver position from 2008 to 2022 or 2021, one of those years. And they've had five. since under his leadership. So like that, I mean, what he's done there is remarkable. And he's certainly...

And that's not the only position he's recruited. He's also helped land big-name guys at other positions, which leads you to believe that he will go to USF, where he takes over for Alex Golish, who's done a phenomenal job at USF. Alex Golish is the new Auburn coach. So the program's in a good position already. But they just got a, the school essentially just loaned

the athletic department money to pay more for the roster. So they are committing money to this roster. And they were going to do that before Alex Gulloch left. They're still going to do that. He's going to have some stuff to play with where in the American, they're going to have one of the highest payrolls. And you unleash this guy on a league with one of the highest payrolls. Holy crap.

Yeah. And a state that tends to have pretty good receivers coming out of it. it seems like an interesting fit now I'll be honest with you I thought he was going to get a power job I didn't know that he was going to go somewhere that wasn't a power job and maybe that didn't mean going now maybe it meant going a year from now so I was a little bit I wouldn't say surprise but I was like huh when I saw that but then like when you start to like peel back the curtain a little bit

like you you can make some hay at USF well one Tampa is a great place to live Two, they're building a stadium. Three, they just got into the AAU, which has nothing to be grassroots basketball, the Association of American Universities, which is one of the more prestigious groups of schools. It's like, you know, the Big Ten says you have to be in there to be a member.

Nebraska was in it in the AAU when it made the Big Ten. But it's a big deal for a university. And so basically, that's a long way of saying, if there's more conference realignment, USF is very well positioned. So if you're going to pick a group of five job, this is a good one to pick. And USF obviously was very competitive in the American this year. They didn't make the championship game, but Alice Golish beat Florida in the swamp with USF this year. So if Brian Hartline comes in and improves the talent level, which I think he can,

and that's not a knock on Alex Golish, by the way, who did a great job. I just think Brian Hartline is that good of a recruiter, and he's going to have a little more raw material to work with money-wise. I think they can be pretty dominant in that conference going forward. Yeah, that's another former Ohio State football player now that is a head coach at somewhere that's not Ohio State joining Marcus Freeman and funny enough, Eddie George. And I don't know if you know this, Andy,

but you have. And Rhebel who's the coach of the Patriots. Yeah, but I mean, like when you think about like potential placements down the line for Ryan Day, there's more, you know, blood in the water and there's,

or I don't know if that's the right thing to say, but like more candidates that you would probably be the first on the hot board. And fun fact, Andy, next year, USF on September 26 plays at Bowling Green. So you'll have Eddie George versus Brian Hartline. Harkland. Back in Bowling Green, which I hear has great pepperoni rolls. Well, Ohio State fans have to figure out who they want to root for. Ohio State fans not thrilled at the timing today, obviously. And I don't think this is something they wanted to have happen on the morning of National Signing Day, but that unfortunately, there's not much you can do. And honestly in this day and age like it doesn't really even matter to just hide it from from these people

who they're going to sign but the signing the national ever tent isn't the the handcuffs that it used to be right if somebody decides they don't want to stay they won't stay right day met with the media on wednesday and said that all the recruits and players were given advance notice of this. So it's not like they found out the morning. Right. And the big receiver recruit is Chris Henry Jr. from modern day in California. Obviously, dad played in the NFL. Chris Henry Jr. announced for Ohio State on Wednesday morning. As of this recording, we've not seen Ohio State announce his signing, which means they probably don't have the paperwork yet. So we'll see how that goes. And obviously, Oregon was trying to make a push for him. We'll see if the heartline move matters.

if Ryan Day comes in and says, hey, look, we're Ohio State. We're still going to be awesome. So, yeah, I mean, you also acknowledge you, Andy, I don't know if you saw this, but Chris Henry Jr.'s teammate, Caden Dixon, Wyatt, was a top 150 receiver who flipped to USC after this. So, like, I don't know if that's going to matter. Now, Steve Wilfong, our guy at rivals, was predicting that flip three, two, three days ago. So, right.

But teammates, Heartline's been looking at jobs. teammates southern california u sc organ in the mix like i can understand why if i were chris henry i might not want to sign today um so you know it would be another national signing day grab ass instance where you know you say something uh publicly and then you don't do that thing but like yeah until your name's on the dotted line you're not you're not signed yet so you know Ohio state is going to have to play full court press uh and you know maybe they'll get them signed maybe they won't, but I don't think like if you, like Ohio State, if you want to go down some of the lists of players that they've had at the receiver position before Brian Hartline, uh, granted

he, he elevated that position group to a level to which that, you know, they hadn't seen much before, but there are a lot of really good receivers who played for Urban Meyer before his arrival that were, you know, Mike Thomas and, you know, Curtis Samuel and guys who have been or play in the league still, like they've had a lot of guys. So I don't think that Ohio state's going to stop getting good players at the receiver position now, but certainly is a hit. And lastly, too, Andy, when you're winning national championships and recruiting at that level and bringing in those type of players and developing them, like, there's always going to be an expiration date. You don't just keep people like that. Yeah, your assistants are going to get poached for head coaching jobs.

That's just how that works. And you want that to happen because if your assistants never go anywhere, that means they're probably not very good. Like, you know, this happens in the world all the time. People who stay in the same positions for long periods of time, you know, a lot of times, you know, love their job and don't want to do anything. else and that's great for them, but a lot of times it's because they're mediocre at their job. So, like, Brian Hartland is definitely not that. Yeah. Yeah.

So by the way, I just want to throw this out there, if you're, if you're Ryan Day to consider, Chip Kelly's open again. He's free. Yeah. He's got some time on his hands. Run it back. You want a national title with him. Didn't Chip Kelly make a crap ton of money from the Raiders in his like nine months there?

Didn't he like sign like a record? They're still paying him, buddy. Yeah. Like, he, like, he signed a. record record didn't i think i might be making this up but i think i read that he was the highest paid coordinator when they hired him he was the highest paid coordinator league so uh yeah they're still paying him and so ohio state maybe you get a little discount there uh you want to talk about this dream doesn't work but you want to talk about a dream andy for me we was talk about

like the best job in america as a coach with a buyout do you imagine moving to vegas getting paid record numbers and just getting canned eight months into it and just been like you know have to work anymore? Yeah, just go buy a freaking sick bachelor pad, like in the, those new towers that they have near the Cosmo. I don't think he wants to do that. Andy, the, yeah, I don't know if I'm going to sound like, but like the married aspect of it doesn't change anything.

It's still a great place to live. Well, I think, I think he may be looking to coach again. We'll see. I mean, and if he does that, it could call some plays in Columbus, and I bet it would work out pretty well. Gambling is really fun and I enjoy it, as you know, but like I also wonder, too, like if you had millions and millions and millions of dollars coming in your way, if like the luster of gambling goes away. I guess it didn't for Michael Jordan. I don't know. Depends on the person. Yeah. Chip doesn't strike me as a guy who's hitting the tables. Chip strikes me as a guy

who would like to call some balls. I get it. Yeah. No, no, he's a he's a he's a ballplay guy. So we'll see if he calls some ball plays again for the Buckeyes. Going from guy leaving his alma mater to guy returning to his alma mater. Chris Clyman is going to retire at Kansas State and Colin Klein, former Kansas State quarterback, former Kansas State offensive coordinator, current Texas A&M offensive coordinator. He is headed back to Manhattan. Colin Klein was the other person in the mix for the USF job that Brian Hartline got. Colin Klein took himself out of that mix when he realized that he could get back to his alma mater. So now he is headed back to Manhattan. We'll talk about this a lot more as we go because one, Texas A&M now needs a new

offensive coordinator. Klein will be coaching them through the playoff, but they'll still need a new O.C. for next year. And we've got to talk about what this means for K-State, because you've got a guy who was a really good player there who played for Bill Snyder, who probably can keep that going, understands what you have to do to make K-State great. And I think, really, if you're going to make a change there, that's the guy you wanted. And I'm glad he gets to go back. Yeah,

yeah, totally makes sense. I know Texas A&M fans are like, man, what a week. We finally had an OC that we like. Because, you know, I think people forget, like their lack of O.C. or their O.C. issues

like were, what, like a four-year issue at the end of the Jimbo Fisher era? It felt like because Jimbo was calling the plays and it was getting stale. And then he brought in Petrino, but he still was kind of yeah yeah we don't need to relitigate work yeah it's a it works very nicely with Colin Klein but he he did too good of a job and now he's back to his alma mater as a head coach you know from Friday morning to no Wednesday morning it hasn't been the great greatest four or five

days for A&M but also hey playoffs right around the corner maybe you can make some noise and you still get to keep him through the run the reason Colin Klein is going back to his his alma mater as head coach is because you look at what he did there and obviously he he He was a good OC at Kansas State, too. But this past offseason, you know, they bring in Mario Craber and Casey Concepcion. He then kind of builds that offense, molds it around what quarterback Marcel Reed does well. And that offense took a massive step forward. That's why he's going back.

And congratulations to him. We'll see how he does down the road. He's got to start recruiting for his school. They're going to have to hit the portal too. But we shall see what happens next. Ari, we got mailback tomorrow. So if you've got questions, and I'm sure a lot of you do,

given coaching changes, college football playoff stuff, you name it, hit us up. Andy Stapleson3 at gmail.com, ari.wasterman aton3.com. We love your questions. You're the smartest college football fans out there.

We are constantly just in awe of you guys when you ask us these questions. So send them in. we will answer them on Thursday's show. Ari, it never stops. It never, ever stops. We'll talk to you tomorrow.