Andy & Ari On3 - USC's Bear Alexander joins the redshirt parade | Who can beat Kirby Smart?

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

Welcome to Andy and Ari On3, where the saucy takes are presented by Wendy’s! Wendy’s New Saucy Nuggs take the Crispy and Spicy Nuggs you love and turn them up to 11. Choose between flavors like Buffalo. Honey BBQ. Garlic Parm. Or, if you’re a real heat seeker, try Spicy Ghost Pepper, only on Wendy’s signature Spicy Nuggs. This show is also sponsored by PrizePicks, America’s most fun daily fantasy game. Use the code STAPLES to play $5 and get $50 instantly. https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/STAPLES This podcast is sponsored by Huel, H-U-E-L, The World’s #1 Complete Nutrition Brand. ​With over 400 million meals sold worldwide — yes, you heard that right, 400 MILLION — Huel is trusted by millions of people looking to fuel their days with convenient, complete nutrition. Try it for yourself with my exclusive offer for you…. FIFTEEN PERCENT off with the code: STAPLES at HUEL.com. Fuel your best with Huel today! (0:00-13:25) Bear Alexander News(13:26-16:35) UNLV QB Discussion; Ari's Battle with the Sun(16:36-30:21) Could Andy & Ari On3 Fund UNLV's QB?(30:22-30:54) Wendy's Saucy Nuggs(30:55-36:09) Kentucky-Ole Miss Picks(36:10-39:27) Minnesota-Michigan Picks(39:28-44:33) Virginia Tech-Miami Final Preview(44:34-46:10) Try Huel!(46:11-51:52) Dear Andy: Last active coach to beat Kirby?(51:53-59:43) Assessing Georgia, Ari's Takes(59:44-1:07:59) Looking at CFP scenarios(1:08:00-1:14:47) Ari's Take on Mexican Food(1:14:48-1:15:45) Conclusion; See you Saturday night! It’s a Dear Andy and Ari episode, but first we’ve got to talk about another player taking a redshirt rather than finishing the season with his current team. This time it's USC defensive tackle Bear Alexander, who decided to leave the team after playing only 21 snaps in last week's loss at Michigan. Plus, Andy and Ari examine the fallout from UNLV QB Matthew Sluka leaving the team over an NIL dispute. We’ve now heard multiple sides of the story. Does that change Andy or Ari’s opinion on the matter? Meanwhile, Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy is exploring the idea of funding Michigan’s quarterback signee each year. (He may be kidding, but this is the sort of thing Portnoy would actually do.) What school’s QB recruiting efforts could Andy and Ari On3 reasonably fund? The guys also pick the Kentucky-Ole Miss game and the Minnesota-Michigan game against the spread. Plus, it’s a Prizepicks Preview of the Virginia Tech-Miami game. Next, it’s time for your questions… Who was the last active coach to beat Georgia? If only five of Tennessee, Georgia, Bama, Ole Miss, Texas, LSU and Notre Dame can make the College Football Playoff, which ones will it be? How did Ari manage to formulate THAT food take?Watch us LIVE on YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/cYoGLwHVlp0 Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey 

Welcome to Andy and Ari on three. We are not taking the red shirt. We are here for the duration of the season and beyond. We also obviously do shows in the offices. Ari, it's going to be this stuff this week and next, isn't it? As teams roll toward their fourth games. Bear Alexander, USC defensive tackle, taking the red shirt.

Yeah, Andy, we had heard rumblings about players watch out for game four, game five coming into the year, right? Like we kind of, you know, I don't want to say that we thought that the wave of this was coming, but we knew that people were generally aware of what game four game five meant.

Right. So, um, I don't know if this is going to be a title wave of these this year, or if this is the beginning of a trend, but you know, it almost feels like to a certain extent that the first three games of the year are just tryout tape for another team,

or if things aren't going well, or you're not playing enough, whatever the reason may be, you can still play the three games of the year are just tryout tape for another team or if things aren't going well or you're not playing enough, whatever the reason may be, you can still play the three games, put some tape out there, try to play well, and go get a bag. So I don't know if it's red shirt anymore. It should just be called paid shirt. Well, the Bear Alexander is a different story than, say, the Matthew Sluka when we talked about.

Matthew Sluka is the UNLV quarterback who announced Tuesday night he was leaving. We will get into that because there's more to that. We peeled back the layers of the onion on that a little bit after the show yesterday. Now we have a little better idea of what actually happened and we can kind of diagnose it. Plus, Dave Portnoy from Barstool has a revolutionary quarterback recruiting idea

that might actually help solve some of the Matthew Sluka situations, too, that I think we might be able to get ourselves in on. So we'll talk about that in a moment. But let's talk Barry Alexander because it's a different kind of situation. Barry Alexander, of course, five-star defensive tackle recruit from Texas, went to Georgia, left Georgia, went to USC. Remember, he was threatening to transfer in the spring. Then the collective sat him down and was like, hey, here's how the payments happen. Your payments are coming.

Everything seemed fine. He gets to this season. He is not playing as much as he would like to play. He had a tweet after the Michigan game. Free 9-0. He's number 90. He only played, I believe, 21 snaps in the Michigan game. And his guardians on Twitter saying,

he's the best defensive tackle in the country. Why aren't they playing him? Like, it was funny because everybody's, like, responding to his guardian going, you did see Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant on the same field in the Michigan-USC game. Like, you know he's not actually the best defensive tackle in the country. And clearly, to USC's defensive coaching staff, he's not the best defensive tackle at USC because he's not playing very much. Yeah, Right. And like, it's a

two pronged, you know, situation we have here because, you know, usually when people in the past weren't happy with their playing time or things weren't going the way that they thought that they should go, you know, you were at least with the team for the year, you know, now in this new world, uh, you have people opting out in the middle of the year for whatever reason it may be. It could be more money. It could be more playing time. It could be a miscommunication or disagreement with the coaching staff.

There's a lot of reasons for this. But we are getting into the business side of things here when it comes to college football. And much like you see in the NFL with holdouts and and stuff like that it can impact the season and the games so you know i don't know that you know i'm feel comfortable or i'm in a position from this chair to make fun of or question why somebody would want to leave a college you know when i was in school i'll question this one. Like the Sluka one? I get it. His eligibility is done if he plays a fifth game this season. He would like to get a bag to play another season of college football because he's not going to be an NFL quarterback.

If you're Alexander 6'4", 3'15", he is going to get a chance to play in the NFL. What he does with that chance is entirely his responsibility. I don't think he's handling that very well right now. I'm guessing it won't go well for him based on what we've seen so far. But he's in his third year of college already. He can finish out this year with USC and still go play at another college next year.

Or he could finish out this year at USC and let's say something dramatically changes and he's actually something dramatically changes and he's actually playing more. He could just go to the NFL because I have no chance. Yeah. I have a problem coming down on somebody for leaving, but if you want to come down on somebody for when they leave and the circumstances of when they leave, I think that's somebody for making what I think is not a very smart business decision, and this is not a smart business decision. No, no, I'm with you on that.

He has a year of eligibility next year if he wants to use it. Here's the thing. There's no reason to save it. There are people who will do things as a form of leverage to try to make a point too, right? He's already gone through this a little bit of like, hey, I'm then he's not went to four high schools by the way yeah so i mean if you're of the personality where you know not playing or moving on to a new place is your mo then that might come back to haunt you so um you know again I'm not even speaking specifically about Bear Alexander. I have just been trained in my brain to not judge people for leaving. But if you want to judge him for making a bad business decision, I can get on board with that.

Yeah, this is a terrible business decision. I can tell you right now. It's awful. Like NFL teams are going to look at this and go, yeah, we're seeing all we need to see about you, even though, you know, the thing that you have to say, put you in a camp as a seventh rounder or an undrafted free agent because you're giant and you can move. But if you if you this if this is how you handle not being in the starting lineup, not playing as many reps as you want during the game. NFL ain't gonna be for you, buddy. That's not the mentality. I actually was thinking, too, before I went to bed last night, Andy, of what is Matthew Sluka's last tape? If you think about his last tape that he has out there.

The Kansas game. And that's when you and I were screaming in a Wisconsin Airbnb. What's Bear Alexander's last tape? The Michigan game. And it's funny because Deion Bailey, who's a former USC linebacker who played in the NFL, someone who's seen it and done it. Bear Alexander's guardian was saying, drop the tape. If you have criticism of Bear, drop the tape.

And he had posted some clips of Bear playing well in the game. Deion Bailey's like, okay, here's a very crucial play on the fourth quarter drive that Michigan used to win the game. And it is, it's like an inside zone. The Michigan right tackle and tight end fire off on Bear. Now, it's not a true double team. It's a combo block because the tight end's going to scrape off on the linebacker very quickly.

And bear gets blown five yards off the ball. And you watch Cologne Mullings just roll through like, and all of a sudden the conversation, because, because Dion Bailey, you can't criticize him. He's been there. He's been a good defensive player at USC.

He watched Leonard Williams play in front of him and Leonard Williams never got blown off the ball like that. Like you can't say you're the best. And then that happens when the game's on the line. Okay. Here, here's a little devil's advocate for you, Andy, because I got my, my business decision mind percolating a little bit. Okay. One, there's a concept of loyalty and how you handle situations like you outlined. Right. And bear Alexander, you know,

has an MO of leaving. I'm not even worried about loyalty. I, this is, this is the first part of my thing. The NFL, the NFL GMs, personnel people will consider this soft,

but the second half of this. So soft, NFL GMs, personnel people will consider this soft. But the second half of this, so soft, quitter, whatever you want to say, that's the first part. The second part is the thing that you said about an NFL GM being like, your giant will give you a shot, seventh rounder, practice squad, whatever, he's going to make a team right will another program pay him more than he's getting paid or take a flyer on him simply because of his physical attributes like we have to start thinking college teams are going to approach this the same way that nfl gms were now like that's not necessarily using high-end draft capital for somebody that you think is a problem. But college NIL situations, people will pay for a problem if that problem has upside.

So even though you think- But here's the problem with that. This is actually yet another thing coming in from the NFL. And maybe this is part of the business. Maybe I'm wrong on this maybe he thought if he puts out more bad tape this year it drives the price down yeah i mean if that's how they you feel you know but of course that is going to actually drive the price down anyway like this is going to drive what he chose to do is going to drive the price down

and i can i i will go out on a limb just based on the history of this particular player and say you can pay for this. You will not get what you think you're paying for. Right. And I still think that they're going to pay for it. So I think that for as bad of a

business decision as you may feel, or it actually is, I think that he's still going to have another opportunity somewhere to make a lot of money and to make it right. So I don't know why I would leave in the middle of the year, especially if you feel like you can get better, your role can increase. And USC is certainly not dead in the big 10 race. I saw people say like opt-outs were going to happen a lot when the team is out of the conference race now in this new era and I don't think that's obviously the case here so you know I think you have more to

gain by staying than you have by leaving but I don't think that he's going to be sitting on the curb somewhere wishing that he never did this I think he's going to have another opportunity to make it right so somebody's going to pay him but the problem is all of this is going to result in him not getting the ultimate big payday. Like the second NFL free agent contract. That's not going to happen. Like if he keeps, and it's not because of, of him making these decisions. Although I think this is a symptom of it. It's because he will not play well enough to ever get there.

So because of, because of the moving around because of the lack of of reps because maybe he's just not good enough and maybe he's using you know you using the recruiting buzz and and that reputation to get the bag now because the the big bag's never coming because you have to be really good to get the big bag and he's not even starting on the usc so how's he going to start on an nfl team so yeah you see where he lands yep uh this stuff is going to be worth tracking and the thing is is i tweeted kind of in jest last night it's like remember when we were all worried about, um, you know, expanding the playoff and, and bowl game opt-outs. I think that we have to really warm up to the idea that there

are going to be smart and savvy business decisions. There's going to be dumb business decisions, but they are going to have and be business decisions constantly in this world. And as long as we continue to view the sport in the amateur way, you're going to be disappointed because people are going to opt out in the middle of the season. They're going to opt out for bowl games and they might even opt out for playoff games. Things are going to happen in this sport because the almighty dollar is going

to take precedent over what we think loyalty and all the other things that make us feel warm and fuzzy inside, the expanded playoff doesn't solve the opt-out problem. We've got people opting out in the middle of the non-conference schedule now. So at the end of the year, maybe it's different. Your team's in the national championship. You're probably going to play. But don't be surprised by the things that you see when money is the motivational factor.

It's going to be very interesting to see how all of this goes. So we've got to talk about Matthew Sluka and we learn more about Matthew Sluka in that situation Ari yesterday because what we had it's like a shaft of golden light has appeared over Ari yeah so I don't know yeah I don't know what to do here because the sun is rising and the sun is going directly into the lens of my camera. We can keep going and wait five minutes for it to go back up, or I can try to move the camera over. No, I like this. You look very angelic, and the sun will move, so we'll be all right. Let's solo me while I'm talking here.

Let's solo me while I'm talking. All right. Let's solo me while I'm talking here. Let's solo me while I'm talking. All right. Let's talk about Matthew Sluka a little bit because we did learn some more things. Here's what we learned through our guy Pete Nako, sit on three. Adam Rittberger, ESPN, talked to Sluka's dad. Ross Dellinger at Yahoo talked to the collective at UNLV.

So we can piece all of this stuff together. So Matthew Sluka, his dad claims that a coach at UNLV said they would get like 100,000 bucks to go there. His agent tells Pete Nacos that they didn't have a written contract. And the agent says that they couldn't do a written contract until Sluka enrolled. Remember, he's finishing up at Holy Cross, so he didn't enroll until the summer. So they couldn't do a written contract until Sluka enrolled.

Now that is wrong. The agent apparently missed the very big federal court case that made it where that would work. So they could have done a contract. They just didn't. The UNLV collective says, hey, the agent who was working directly with Sluka was not registered in the state of Nevada. So we couldn't deal directly with him. He didn't actually start trying to negotiate until August. Again, all of this is bad. All of this is dumb. All of this is kind of everybody's fault. So that's how this happened. It's a, it's a big mess of the agent messed up. The family

believes something that, that the person wasn't authorized to, to, to offer the person making the offer wasn't authorized to make it and should have known that. The collective probably should have locked the kid down anyway with something, but didn't. Kind of low-balled him. So all of that snowballed, and now Matthew Sluka is leaving the team. That's what happened. That was the gist of it. So now we got to figure out what happens next.

Haj Malik Williams takes over as a starter. And I think this is part of it too. Haj Malik Williams is the transfer from Campbell. They are the fighting camels. And welcome back, Ari. I got to say, you're doing a fantastic job of distracting people while I use the coffee table book to block the ray of light. Keep going. Of filibustering?

I appreciate that. So Haj Malik Williams takes over. He was at Campbell. But he ran with the ones all spring and all summer. It seems like the Rebels, the players are actually very excited about the idea of Hodgman Lake Williams being their QB1. We'll see if that's just them trying to make the best of a bad situation or they really liked him the best anyway.

We'll find out. They play Fresno State, 3.30 PM Eastern time, 12.30 local on Saturday at GameZone FS1. Can't wait to see it. But Ari, interesting thing that came out yesterday that I was fascinated by, and I think you and I need to have a discussion about this just as a show. So Dave Portnoy, who is the president of Barstool Sports, he's the founder of Barstool Sports, he's a proud Michigan grad. He went on their show, The Yak, on Wednesday and said this.

Michigan, I will be your quarterback. I usually say, Dave, you go. I'll talk to Tron. Who do you guys want? Who's in there? Give me a group. I'll go get them. I will sign them.

Million, two million, whatever it is. What's the top? Three million. What if, I mean, are some of them going for more? Wasn't the Nico kid like. Fine, but I can get a quarterback. We don't have a quarterback. If I don't get the number one.

You can get somebody in three, though. You can be in the stretch. Yeah, but you don't want to. I'm wondering, like, is Dave, are you, how are you running this? Are you, I want to get a quarterback, or I'm like George Steinbrenner, I will spend any amount of dollars. No, I'm going to get us a top 10 quarterback in the portal coming out every year. Top 10 quarterback.

A freshman or a quarterback. Okay, I'm interested in maybe doing this for the Badgers too. And then – I think that we might – And then, well, here's the – Yeah, you know what? I'm in. Well, here's a little bit of the issue.

Okay. You'll have to find something else because they're doing a weekly spot on part of my take. My guy, not your guy. My guy. That's already been taken. So you're going to have to find something else for the Wisconsin guy. A college football recap and a college football hit.

So there's two things. $3 million marketing agreement. I think that's legal. I think that's legal. So my guy, I'm thinking. All right. So that's our guy, Big Cat Cat getting part of his show just taken away in favor of the Michigan quarterback that his boss is paying. But all of this sounds great because Dave's right.

That is entirely legal. Like within the current rules, within the old rules, within whatever the rules the house settlement is coming up with, because multiple segments on the biggest sports podcast in the country, on Pardon My Take, if you want to pay somebody $2 million for that, it's probably, you would consider that market value. So, and this goes into my there's always another quarterback argument. Remember we were talking about that with Oklahoma, with Auburn.

Don't get so tied up and oh we we sign this five star there's always another quarterback just keep signing quarterbacks and so that's what porto wants to do but it leads me to a question and and you heard you heard dan you heard big cat who's a wisconsin grad say okay i'm gonna do that for wisconsin all right andy and a Ari on three needs to decide which school we're going to sponsor. Like which quarterback, which school will we buy a quarterback for each year?

We can't afford those kinds of numbers yet. We're moving up the podcast charts. Like we are coming to the part of my take. But could we fund UNLV? Like if $100,000 would have been what it actually took for UNLV to keep its guy, could we fund that every year? I don't know the numbers.

I'm not, that's above my pay grade, but I'd be interested in, you know, being the person or the entity that helped the team get their guy. But you know what this reminds me of, of my fantasy land scenario andy do you know how old phil knight is uh phil knight is how's that put you on the spot 83 86 okay you know how much he's worth billions 38.1 billion, according to my quick Google search. Now, this guy is an Oregon fan, obviously.

Yep. I think before he goes, he probably would like to see Oregon win a national title. He has said this. The thing I don't understand, and maybe we'll get to this one day, but it hasn't happened yet. It happened, I mean, Nike's helped out Oregon a lot.

But if Phil Knight just goes, you know what? I'm going to pay every five-star recruit who comes to Oregon $5 million, and I'm going to make a Nike catalog every year with a new line that is called Up and Coming. And I'm going to put out this catalog. We're going to put it on Nike.com. And these kids who come to Oregon are going to put out this catalog. We're going to put it on nike.com. And these kids who come to Oregon are going to be featured in the magazine as models. Could this man just go out and just buy himself? Cause $5 million for 20 people a year sounds like an insane amount of

money. And it is, but it's not even a drop drop in the bucket of what this guy has. And he's getting to the point where he's at the age where he can certainly do it. Now, I understand that rich people usually don't spend money like crazy. And I understand that when you're smart and you get that rich, you probably are less likely to throw money out the window that way. But is there any reason why Oregon can't just have a person who's far richer than Dave Portnoy just throw money around when he owns a company that's printing it? Like, I have this fascination. He doesn't own the company and he doesn't run the company. And here's where you're going to find a problem.

Your Nike catalog idea, your Nike line, that's not going to happen because the second Oregon does that all the other Nike schools are going to drop Nike and that's going to hurt Nike what if Phil Knight starts up a fake shell athleisure company that would work no way around it like you don't think that the guy that's worth 38 billion dollars can figure out a way to do this he could absolutely do that but he has he could call it yeah but i'm saying like even if the nike scenario in that area there's workarounds you could you could start something and create something to make market value ari phil starts a shell athleisure company but it doesn't even have to be shell it could be be just a front. It's a real athleisure company, but the goal is to fund him buying all the organ players. That athleisure company signs a deal with our show to outfit us exclusively.

We use that money to buy a quarterback for you and LV. Look at that. It's it's, it's free enterprise. Can I do another Fantasyland NIL? I just tripled up economics too, but go ahead. See what I'm talking about with this knowledge stuff? Okay. Hey, Andy, now this one might take a little bit of a turn, but we are talking about NIL Fantasyland right now, right? Correct. So I was watching 60 Minutes a few years

ago, and there was a segment about what the Mormon church is worth. And the Mormon church is worth billions and billions of dollars. Now, the Mormon church, affiliated obviously with Brigham Young University,

what is the number one way that you could promote your faith? By having a really good football team. Yeah. By hiring the best Jewish quarterback you could find. That's right. Because they did that this year. Yeah.

But I'm saying if the Mormon church decided we're not, we're going to get out of Salt Lake City strip malls and we're going to get into the business of football and they wanted to run a crazy NIL campaign. And it doesn't even have to be Latter-day Saint players, right? Like it doesn't have to be Mormons. It could be anybody of any faith. There's quarterback, like you said, right now is Jewish. I saw the shirt that said BYJU.

Love it. You go out and you sign top five classes every single year by taking some of that, the tithing money that they get and you funnel it around to the best prospects in america to make byu the best football program or have the best roster in college football what does that do we're talking about byu on the show they're on national television hell they might even become like colorado in a sense of like can this experiment work can you find a better commercial or a better campaign for the promotion of talking about Mormonism than that?

I don't know that that would ever happen, but I came up with all these crazy NIL scenarios that in theory are legal and could happen from people and entities that have the means to do it. Our guy, Christopher Jordan, Auburn fan fan tim cook's the ceo of apple yeah like it is a round if apple wanted to fund auburn's roster at five million a player it's a rounding error it wouldn't even it wouldn't even be something that they would see on the balance sheet they wouldn't even notice it apple's would see on the balance sheet. They wouldn't even notice it.

Apple's market cap right now is $3.44 trillion. Now, I know it's a little bit different when you're being the CEO and you're not the founder. But if Apple had a new campaign for headphones, you know, like the ones I'm wearing here. Great headphones, by the way. Not a sponsor. Wish they were. We could buy. And they had every single one of our sponsors.

We wouldn't be buying you and all these quarterback. We might be buying like Arizona State's quarterback. When we were at the athletic, I always had this fantasy that when the athletic inevitably got sold, it would be the Apple and that they would include the athletic with every new iPhone. You'd be in the in the news chat or the news app there, but that didn't come. Like if I were the CEO of the company, that's how I would have done it.

But Andy Auburn, Apple, they took, they take the tumors trees and turn them into Apple trees. Could happen. I don't know that they grow in that part of Alabama, but sure. War.

Damn Apple. There are people who are either. I mean, I don't know if Tim Cook cares about college football. I don't know anybody. He goes to the game sometimes. Yeah. Okay. So, you know, hey, I just don't know if rich people at that level have the same affinity for the sport that we do.

But I think Phil Knight, who made his money in sports, tangentially, is probably the best option to that. And he has so much money. And he hasn't done it yet, even though he could have. He definitely could have. There's an order he's already doing really well. He could have been doing this all along. Andy, it's not like turning BYU into a recruiting juggernaut either because BYU has policies on campus in terms of their code of conduct

that aren't as typical college kids. There are things there that you can't drink soda, and you know the rest of them. So that would be a tough lifestyle decision. But Oregon is already cool like it's like not that hard to convince players to want to consider Oregon already so can you imagine you know starting the uh night apparel line and giving everybody who you get it in theory he could buy them a national title if he really wanted to but the fact is he hasn't

and it will know because the new york yankees not not winning the world series every year or the dodgers not winning the world series every year an example of you can have all the money you can spend all the money and sometimes you still pick the wrong players andy look me dead in the eye right now if oregon signed 25 star prospects each year over a four-year period, they would win the national title. Probably, yeah. Yeah, you could buy it. But they haven't done it.

But you agree with that, right? Like the whole New York Yankees thing goes out the window in college football if you have 85-star prospects on your roster in a four-year period. Now, it might be hard to keep them. If you could get all of your scholarship players were five-star players, like, yes. Because you'd be getting the bulk of the five-stars each year.

Yeah, so you would be taking them from other teams, too. Like, you literally... Now, I don't know if everybody would do it, but if you did a five-star... Because, like, Nico is the one that gets all the headlines, right? He's the one that gets all the money. And Portnoy is like $2 million, $3 million. The contract we've seen for Nico, it's $2 million and change.

It's not outrageous considering what they're getting out of it. Is there a corner in in college in high school football that wouldn't take five mil to go to oregon is there an offensive tackle that wouldn't take five million to go to oregon so like if you start giving every position player quarterback money they'd go there yeah i think it's fancy land but they're never but it's funny because this is what the doomsayers said. This is what will happen if NIL ever happens. Well, no, it won't because people don't spend their money that way. It'd be funny if somebody did, but they don't.

But in this scenario, an 86-year-old man who might have 15 years left, right, who wants something and has everything in the world and has endless wealth. Like if anybody was going to be done with their money, it wouldn't matter. I mean, NIL has been around since 2021. He could have already done it. Yeah, no, he's not going. The clock's ticking on that, Ari.

Yeah. In theory, though, it makes sense if somebody wanted to buy one, I think they could because the NIL dollar figures are massive. Like when you talk about Nico and the figures that he was getting and some of the guys that are getting. But like, I don't think that somebody with a billion dollars would have a hard time getting and filling out an offensive defensive line. Right?

Like they're just not getting the same. They're not getting the same type of money. But for whatever reason, the billionaires don't want to create the greatest offensive and defensive lines we've ever seen. Frankly, I think it's a matter of poor priorities, but that's just me. Ari,

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Pick a flavor, grab some extra napkins, and prepare to nug like you've never nugged before. For a whole new way to nug, it's got to be Wendy's. At participating, U.S. Wendy's. All right, Ari, we got to pick a couple at participating U.S. Wendy's all right Ari we got to pick a couple more games we we've had the pack pick show on Monday so packed that we didn't get to everything so let's start with this one Kentucky at Ole Miss Ole Miss's first big challenge of the year when last we saw Kentucky they were pushing Georgia to the limit

our friend Matt Jones from Kentucky Sports Radio had this to say. Remind you, the home field advantage at Ole Miss is not that great, especially for a noon game. Okay? They roll out noon game. That's 11 a.m. local time. Correct. That's another thing people forget.

So, I mean, it's not even lunchtime yet. They are a late arriving crowd it's a small stadium it doesn't really get that loud and usually the other team has a decent presence because people want to go to oxford so even though i think it's one of the best party places to go in the sec as far as how hard is it to play, I would actually argue, Drew, it's not that hard of a place to play, especially at noon. I think you're getting them at the best time you can get them. It may be the best time to get them, Ari, but they also have that roster.

I was going to say the best time on the clock to get them, maybe not the best time in the clock to get them, maybe not the best time in the calendar year to get them. You know, yeah. I've never seen a game there, but I've heard it's not a loud stadium. I have been there on the best day they ever had there.

The greatest day in the history of Ole Miss football. When they beat Alabama in 2014, Katy Perry was the guest picker. Like, it was legendary. Legendary. And it was cool. And the atmosphere was great.

And they were loud at the end of that game. But what Matt said is basically right. That said, does it matter? And which Kentucky team shows up? Like the more important question in this game. So Ole Miss is a 17 and a half point favorite in this game. This is the week of giant double digit conference spreads. Ole Miss is 17 and a half point favorite in this game.

The Kentucky that played against Georgia will cover that spread. The Kentucky that played against South Carolina will not. So which Kentucky are we getting? Yeah, well, here's the thing. I think that Ole Miss is scoring 30 on everybody they play this year. So that is, I think, the baseline thing you have to consider, right? Like, I think, can I say with a straight face and be serious about it that Ole Miss has a better offense than Georgia this year? Is that a fair thing to say, or are we still in scary hours with that?

I don't think that's an outrageous statement. Time will tell. They do play each other, but I don't think that's outrageous. I don't even think it matters when they play each other because Georgia's defense is really, really good. I think that the players and the way that they play offense and the way that Lane Kiffin has drawn it up is more explosive and has the ability to put points on the board at a high level. I love their receivers. Jackson Dart obviously is putting up stats at an unprecedented level for him

for his career and maybe even Mississippi. I would have to look that up. But, like, I don't know that Kentucky is going to be able to stop Ole Miss from scoring 30 points. And because of that, I have a hard time really gaining any traction here. I agree with you. I think Ole Miss covers this. I think we may have gotten the best of Kentucky that we were going to get

in the Georgia game. And the other thing is Ole Miss has just been tuning up for this. Like there's been no – they just kind of ramped up and this is this is their continued ramp up until they start hitting hard games which look as the SEC schedule goes they got did they get the best draw they I mean they have to play Georgia but the LSU game is not looking as bad as challenging as daunting as it was before the oklahoma game which they have an open date before isn't it doesn't appear as daunting as it did before at arkansas and he actually looks a little more daunting when you look at this schedule though and you look at the

time in which omis shoved their chips onto the table With the roster that they have and a schedule that now looks very manageable, it's impossible to me. What would have to happen for Ole Miss to not make the playoff? Would they have to lose at LSU against Georgia and at Arkansas? Where are the three losses going to be? Because 10-2 Ole Miss is in.

What if Lenore Sellers' ankle's feeling better and they lose at South Carolina? And then they lose to Georgia. I mean, I think if they lose to South Carolina and Georgia, they're probably still going to get in if those are their only two losses. I think a time or two SEC team is going to get in. How many SEC – we have to have the conversation at some point. How many SEC teams are going to –

Well, it's hard on bubble watch, but I think it's going to – Okay. Yeah. We have a deer in the question that will help answer that. Okay. All right. But I think 4220-ish, 4217 is probably where I'm thinking in this game. I think they're going to cover it.

I'm with you. And I realize this is like one of those college game day picks where the same logo goes across the screen, and then they gif it later. They're like, look at these morons. But I do i i think old miss is rolling right now all right one more that's minnesota at michigan we talked a lot about michigan i i sang the praises of sharon moore for figuring out how to beat usc even though they don't have a functional passing offense and they still probably don't have a functional

passing offense they're just incredibly lucky that they get to play a team that lost the game to a team that had no functional passing off. And so I was already sort of giving you the roadmap. Yeah. I think if Michigan were playing literally anybody else this week, I think I would probably fade them, but they are playing the perfect matchup for what they just went through and who they are. So, uh, and Michigan, I believe, you know,

and I don't know if you'll disagree with me on this is probably a better version of Iowa right now, even if they don't have a quarterback. Like I think you can even make the case that Iowa's got a better passing attack right now. I don't think it could be worse for Michigan. Hey, they, they, they threw for double what Michigan threw for, or more than double before last week. But I think Michigan's defense is probably better than Iowa's, which is something to say, too. It's a weird year, guys. Just hang with me here.

I think Michigan is the athletic, better version of Iowa this year, and Iowa just dump-trucked this team. They're going on the road to Ann Arbor a week after Michigan got the biggest win of its season and prove that they were still alive in the big 10 hunt. And I'm not ruling out the notion that orgy can throw for 150 or 200 yards in

a game. Like I know that maybe USC's defense was okay. Yeah. USC's defense is probably pretty good this year. Right? So I don't know. This number seems pretty low to me and it's going to be an aggravating game to watch. And people who love Michigan are probably going to have a hard time

if the score is tied at halftime or they're up by three in the middle of the third quarter. But when you're laying eight and a half, I certainly think that this game could be 24-14, 21-10 type thing. I think that Michigan's going to cover the spread. And if you look at the over-under, a 38.5, I think a 24-14 type game that puts you right on that number is really within question here. I mean, really reasonable here.

Yeah. I think a score similar to the Iowa-Minnesota score is quite possible. And that would cover the spread. So, yeah, I'm going gonna take Michigan to cover here and I just they're so lucky to be playing this game right now the the total on this game is 36 and a half so by the way it's an Iowa total now Ari that was the total on Iowa Minnesota which went over yeah and it went over because Iowa just broke loose in the second half, right? And that's what

Michigan's probably going to do. I would probably take the under of the first half spread if I was going to gamble on this one, and then I think Michigan is going to wear them down. I think the exact opposite of what happened in last week's game is going to happen here. I think Michigan is going to be in a

hard-fought Big Ten West game with Minnesota for a quarter and a half or two quarters, and I think as the game wears on, they're going to get stronger and faster and break away. I'm with you. This feels like similar to last week and similar to the fourth quarter of the Michigan-USC game. All right, Ari. Now we transition to another preview. This one's sponsored by PrizePix. You know, the best daily fantasy game in America. Download that app. Use the code Staples.

Play $5. Get $50 instantly. The way PrizePix works is you are choosing squares. So the squares are attached to players. Obviously, they have the NFL. They have the college football. They have the WNBA. They all have the NBA when it gets started, major league baseball, you name it. And you decide how

you want to handle it. Pick as few as two squares. The more squares you pick, the higher the potential payout. Ari, I'm looking at this Virginia Tech Miami game. They were playing Friday night. And so here's what I've gleaned from watching Virginia Tech play this season. The two games they've lost, they've actually defended the run very well, but they have been torched in the passing game. Now, both those games were close losses. They lost in overtime to Vanderbilt. They lost by three to Rutgers.

Miami's a better offensive team than either of those teams by far. But I will say if you're looking at say Damian Martinez, the Miami running back, his square is 60 and a half rushing yards. I don't think you go more than on that. I think if you think Miami's going to win, you look at Cam Ward, the quarterback and his 314 and a half pass yards. And you slam more on that. You slam more on any of the receiver, but you Colby George, 45 and a half pass yards and you slam more on that you slam more on any of the receiver tote but jacoby george 45 and a half receiving yards you slam more on that that that's where if if my if you think miami is going to win this game that's how they win

with an explosive passing game because virginia tech's defense has made opponents look explosive in the passing game even when they haven't been against other teams and they've stuffed them in the run game isn't it incredible how good miami's passing offense has been that we have forgotten just how damn good damian martinez actually is though yeah he is such a good player you know what i mean like i i actually think i may disagree with you here on this for 60 and a half yards because more than you know like a 14 or 12 rush game for 67 yards I don't think it's a an amazing game but I still think it gets there but if you're if you're wary about tech is holding opposing back like

Rutgers just runs it straight at you with Menangai they held Rutgers. Hold on. I'm calling up the stat. They held Rutgers to 2.94 yards a carry. So if you have 15 carries, you're going to have less than 45 yards even as a good back. So I'm just telling you. So you might actually play it safe too with the touchdown prop there where you have the more than 0.5 receiving and rushing touchdowns too because he does. There you go. Because you might catch it in the backfield, too. I do think that he is somebody that Miami is going to want to get going at some point, because as they start getting into the teeth of their schedule, Andy, and they start playing some better teams,

and Virginia Tech, I think on the right night, can be a tough – I mean, we thought this team was going to be an ACC contender this year. So, it's funny that we're talking about them like it's over already um you want Damian Martinez feeling good productive and wearing down defenses because eventually Miami is going to find themselves where they need to win a game on the ground and I think that it's important to remember that they have in my opinion one of the best running backs in the country too. So that's a good thought though. Now for Virginia Tech to have a chance in this game, Kyron Jones has to go more than the 163 and a half passing yards.

That's just, there's no question here. Like that's how you keep up because this Miami offense is too explosive. They're going to get theirs. This is not going to be a low scoring game. So Kyron Jones is going to have to have a big game. We'll see what happens. Friday night game, ACC opener. We think the Canes are the best team in the ACC.

Now we get to see them against the team we thought was going to be sneaky good in the ACC. I don't know if Virginia Tech is that, but I do think they'll be pumped for this game. It is a banger, a Friday night game. It's a good appetizer. I would say we have to start doing appetizer rankings in terms of what you think the best appetizers are. For me, I don't know if we want to

go down this road yet, but I have certain opinions on what my favorite appetizer would be. I think this is a mid- to upper-tier appetizer of the year, I think. This is like cheese friestier, mid-to-upper-tier appetizer of the year, I think. So this is like cheese fries? Yeah, I would say like, it depends on whether or not you think buffalo wings are actually an appetizer or they're an entree.

I actually got them for an entree when we were together. Yeah, I think this is like a good onion ring or a cheese fry. There you go. Producer River says mozzarella sticks. He clearly does not know my opinion on mozzarella sticks and also doesn't know that you and I discussing mozzarella sticks will devolve into a two hour conversation that none of the people watching or listening to the show have time for. We've had it before, right? You think they're mid, right? There's a perfect spot where they're the perfect temperature, where they don't burn your mouth and they aren't ice cold.

And so you have basically five seconds to eat them. And that's, that doesn't work for me. Just as a concept, that doesn't work for me. All right. We, we gotta, we gotta talk before we get to our dear Andy questions. We got to talk about Huel. So Huel is one of the coolest products that we have gotten to try doing this show. I have enjoyed it very much. 400 million meals sold worldwide. And when I say meal, it is a meal in a bottle. So you grab that Huel drink. I've got the chocolate.

I've got the vanilla. I know exactly how many calories are in it. I know exactly how many of every macro is in it. I know exactly what I'm putting in my body. But the thing is, it also tastes great and it fills me up. It does actually replace a meal, which a lot of these drinks, you say, okay, I'm getting all this protein, but you're still hungry like 30 minutes later. You're getting 35 grams of protein. And these Huel drinks are such a nice slow burn. And so you drink, you go on about your day

and you have put exactly what you wanted to put in your body when you wanted to do it. So go to Huel.com, that's H-U-E-L.com. 15% off with the code staples. So my whole family has started using these heel drinks because I'll drink them for breakfast in the morning. My wife will take one to have as her lunch at work. My son will grab one as we're going out the door because he doesn't like to wake up early. He likes to have something that he can just slam in the car as he's going to school, and then he's set to go. It is amazing. So Huel.com, H-U-E-L.com,

15% off with the code staples. All right, Ari, we do have questions from the people. And this is a fun one from at Uncaged. And I had to look this up for the written version of Dear Andy. So I already know the answer to this, but I want to see. I hope you haven't looked it up already because I want to see. I haven't. No. Good. And then I have a bonus question after that.

So from at Uncaged, when was the last time an active coach beat Georgia? Holy crap. Active FBS head coach. So someone who is a current FBS head coach, when is the last time one of those people beat Georgia? Oh my God. I'm trying to think my, one of my best friends got married when Georgia was upset was upset i think four years ago and i'm trying to remember who beat them was it it was in mizzou or south carolina it was five years ago it was south carolina champ is not an active head coach i don't know man christopher jordan guesses gus malzahn not g Gus Malzahn because that was in 2017.

Gus Malzahn is an active head coach, but there has been one since. It was Florida Atlantic coach Tom Herman as the Texas coach in the Sugar Bowl. Wow. wow so he followed they followed the 2018 season by beating georgia in the sugar bowl that was when sam ellinger goes we're back jacob got it he guessed right or probably knew but somebody else somebody has here nope no it is amazing people are ruthless man they're ruthless they are ruthless i made a list of of games kirby smart has has lost and like so since he's lost since he lost tom herman he lost to nick saban three times he lost to dan mullen once uh and then you could argue that he chased dan mullen out of florida or at least had a part in it he lost to Dan Mullen once uh and then you could argue that he chased Dan Mullen out of Florida or

at least had a part in it he lost to Will Muschamp of course he just he hasn't lost to many people so can Kalen DeBoer make that trivia question much easier to answer this weekend yeah I think they can uh I think they will. The thing that you have to realize about college football, Andy, is that when you have one of the top three programs in college football, you only lose five times in a five, six-year period. There's not a lot of losses on your schedule to begin with. And when you're also coaching in the same league as the greatest coach of all time, you know that's going to be the bulk of your loss so like it was that was a really tough question

but i do think that this is a very important game i think that you could say this is a more important game for alabama than it is for georgia because again whoever loses this game is still going to be firmly in the national championship race um and well and georgia has the win against clemson already we and we think clemson's gonna keep winning and then they have games at texas and old miss but if they win those it doesn't really matter what happens yeah right um and i think they could even lose one of those and still get in i think that we're going to you know talk about that but for alabama specifically i think that there is this notion or has been this notion that because Nick Saban is no longer there and because a bunch of people hit the portal shortly

after he left that Alabama is a shell of its former self. Now I think in five years, it's a possibility that it is. Uh, I think that Kalen DeBoer has a great and important responsibility to keep the recruiting situation there afloat. But the current roster, with the talent that it has, I think you could make the case, and I don't know if you want to do this right now, but I thought this.

I think Alabama may just have better players across the board than Georgia does this year. So that, to me, is probably going to be clipped and it's going to go on youtube and georgia people are going to get angry at me but like at the very least even if it's not true it's a discussion i'd put it in the video yeah but like it's a discussion right like you could disagree with me legitimate discussion it absolutely is legitimate discussion and we can watch the game and get more data on that and decide how we feel about that. Let me go to, well, before we go to our next question from Nikhil, because it's also Georgia related, I do want to add a bonus question to the first one.

Who was the last active coach who is still with his current team to beat Georgia? Andy, I'm not good at trivia. I already told you this. You're humiliating me in front of everybody. I don't know. I'm trying to think of the last time Georgia lost a regular season. Well, think of coaches who have been with their teams a long, long time. Did Clemson beat them in the playoff seven years ago that I'm forgetting?

It was a Dabo Sweeney. It is Dabo Sweeney, but not in the playoff. It was Dabo Sweeney on August 31st, 2013 beating Mark Rick's team. Ari, I will, I covered this game.

I left a, my wife home with a four year old and a two year old. Those children are now in ninth and eighth grade. That's how long that's been. But yeah, Dabo is the answer to that question. So Kalen DeBoer can also become the answer to that trivia question if he can win this weekend. But this question from Nikhil,

because Nikhil went a ways to get this thing asked. Reached out to me on Instagram, then sent me the email. So it's a very well thought out email. Dear Andy and Ari, I've been listening to you two for a long time. My favorite college football podcast is by far, and so happy to see you guys reunited.

For context, I consider myself a reasonable UGA fan, started watching at the end of the gym Don and yours, haven't wanted Mike Bobo fired either time, but the fact that he's now under scrutiny until he wins a championship as primary OC following up Todd Munkin. My question is in small part about UGA's overreaction in a big ocean context of Ari's overreactions. People have called UGA the new standard, Kirby Darth Vader, in the benefit of the doubt

that has come with that and should, much like Bam and Saban. So I'm wondering now why the goalposts are moving for UGA. We played our first SEC road game at UK at night against a motivated team that played really well and the fans were hyped, and we didn't play well and almost lost. Keeping in mind Kirby's last three road games at UK at night against a motivated team and played really well or hadn't played that played really well and the fans were hype and we didn't play well and almost lost keeping in mind Kirby's last two road games at UK scored all of 16 in 2022 and 14 in 2020 Ari felt that this was immediately need to go ahead and drop UGA pick Bama even though we all watched Bama go up by one score with five minutes left against USF and you said that was a reason not to drop Bama, even one ranker spot.

Or you have said that when Andy is wrong, it's usually when he's the most confident. I think for you, it's your stronger reactions. So he goes on here. But can I answer the question as to why the goalposts get moved for Georgia right now? Sure, but I don't know if I moved the goalposts. So you go ahead and do that, but I'll explain my thought process. We all move the goalposts get moved for Georgia right now? Sure, but I don't know if I moved the goalposts. So you go ahead and do that, but I'll explain my thought process.

We all moved the goalposts, and I'll tell you why. Because this is exactly what y'all wanted. And when I say y'all, I mean Georgia fans. You wanted to be the most dominant program in college football. You wanted to have the program Alabama had under Nick Saban. Congratulations. You're it now. Like, people used to say say we want Bama. Now they say we want Georgia. Guess what? That also includes being held to an impossibly high

standard. Deal with it. This is what you wanted. This is what you asked for. And guess what? You have to keep earning that spot over and over again. And we'll keep moving the goalposts if you keep earning it because you'll keep being the best and will keep expecting you to always look like the best, which is the same thing we did with Alabama when Nick Saban was the coach. So if this is what you want, if you want to be Darth Vader,

this is what you get. Yeah, and just for your continued support of of the show i wanted to say thank you i want to explain thank you so much my my uh thought process here because i think a lot of times and it's so easy because there's so much content and there's so much you know tweets and top tens and there's a lot of stuff for you guys to choose from. But I didn't drop Alabama very far. I did drop them a few spots in my top 10 after the USF game. And I dropped Georgia, I think one spot because of the Kentucky game. But it was more so about teams that were winning big games around them. And I've been adjusting accordingly. But the reason why I lost faith in Georgia more

than I lost faith in Alabama when you both played close games against teams that you should have blown out is I can identify directly what caused Alabama to struggle against USF. I saw the repair of what caused them to struggle. And then when the repair was made, they steamrolled them. So I am still in question with Georgia's offensive skill town. Now, obviously, week by week, we get more context and more information. And as we get more context and information, we're able to form more thorough and correct opinions. But I don't just look at the ESPN scoreboard like ESPN or not ESPN, like the ESPN scoreboard, like AP voters do and just move teams up and down based on the final score of the game.

Like there's thought process and analysis that goes into what we say. Now that doesn't mean that I'm not prone to overreactions. Everybody knows I'm a prisoner of the moment sometimes, and I get excited and I just fly off the rails. And I think that's what makes the show fun. But I do think that when it comes to this Alabama, Georgia discussion going into this football game, I have a blatant question about Georgia's offense as a whole.

And I have more questions about whether they're going to be able to score than Alabama's going to score. Now, if Georgia comes out and beats the crap out of Alabama, that would be the least surprising thing in the world because we're talking about Georgia here, but I'm trying to apply what I understand about the sport and what I've seen so far this year to make an educated guess on what's going to happen. So it's not because I moved Georgia down two spots. I need to move Alabama down accordingly because they both played close game. Like that's not how my analysis works. And I hope that that's rational, Andy. You saved me from being stupid all the time. If I'm being stupid, let me know. But I hope that that's rational Andy you you saved me from being stupid all the time if I'm being stupid let me know but I do think that like there's like thought and reason applied

to this sort of thing here I'm not just pulling Alabama's gonna win out of my ass and throwing it out there because I actually think Alabama's gonna win because I think they've got better players I think they've got less deficiencies offensively and they're gonna score points no it's it's sound and your reasoning on Alabama USF is sound, too. As soon as they put Pritchett in, everything changed. And then we saw Proctor and Pritchett together against Wisconsin, and it was never close. The thing that we worried about, they fixed.

Georgia hasn't had a chance to show that they fixed the thing we worried about. This will be their first chance but andy too alabama's was a personnel fix when you put people into the game like georgia's personnel is what it is you can't fix your personnel if that's the problem now maybe i'm i'm under maybe i'm underrated dominic love it but like who's the guy i haven't seen that could it could it be a young guy that we haven't really seen yet that they weren't sure was ready but now they're going to give it a shot like that is the thing when you sign all these five stars no yeah that's all i understand that more than than anybody if somebody shows up and is awesome in the game then i did not know that i will learn from it and

then it will affect my analysis moving forward. Like I'm not a future. I'm not miss Cleo. I don't know what's going to happen. I'm just telling you based on we're going to have to have a bet. But if you lose, you actually dress as miss Cleo guys. If I was miss Cleo,

I've said this on the show and I'm going to say it again. Andy, if I knew what was going to happen in all these games, uh, I'd be in Las Vegas swimming in Suge Knight's death row pool with a cigar and 900 women in there. Like I would be like the biggest gambling degenerate on the face of the earth. There'd be a, there'd be a party at my house every day. So let me tell you this. I don't know why our jobs went from reporting and analysis to prognosticator. People expect people to know what's going to happen before it happens.

And if you are brave enough to apply analysis and then that analysis turned out to not bear the result that you anticipated, you're an idiot. I know that's part of the job now and I embrace it. But, like, guys, it's the reason they play the games. We don't know what's going to happen. And Georgia beating the crap out of anybody wouldn't surprise me in the least. So I'm not down on Georgia. I just think they're playing a really good team on the road. That has a lot to prove.

Under a head coach that knows how to drop some football plays, they might have better players. And their offensive weapons, like Ryan Williams, are super tantalizing and exciting. So that's my analysis. Humble Shapes doesn't understand what word be words mean. This is not analysis. It's your opinions to be respected.

I guess. Do you understand what analysis is? You take facts and then you form opinions based on those facts. That's literally the definition of it. Oh, sorry. All right. Yeah.

Got a question from Sean here. I told you we'd get to a college football playoff how many sec teams make the playoff this is that combined with the notre dame question which i just know is catnip for you you have the following schools tennessee georgia alabama ole miss texas lsu and notre Dame. So that's seven schools. I'll repeat them again. Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Ole Miss, Texas, LSU, Notre Dame. Only five of those teams make it to the playoffs this year. Which ones do you bet on? Okay.

So we have all the teams up here still. I've got a very bad memory. Okay. I would take Georgia. Okay, I would take Georgia I would take Ole Miss Tennessee Alabama and Texas Not Notre Dame? You're going to lose your bet?

If I had to put my own personal money on the team Notre Dame making the playoff is a different bet Than here are the five teams that are out here. We just did a video where you said they're going to make it. Those five teams that I picked can make it while they also make it. But you didn't give me the whole field here. You gave me eight teams. No, but you're saying this.

Listen, respect Sean's question. Okay. You got to pick five of these and the two you don't pick, don't make it. Oh, so I guess I have to change it. I thought Notre Dame could still make it, but there doesn't mean that they're a better option than all the teams on

the list. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. So, okay. I have to remove one for Notre Dame to make it. And, and who are you?

So who are you removing from your five that you just said that is what you actually think is going to happen? So you can artificially insert Notre Dame. Like, who are you removing? This is really difficult because Ole Miss has an easy schedule. LSU you're throwing out immediately. I'm throwing out because I don't think lsu is just good enough as a foundational piece i think texas is going to make it i think tennessee is going to make it i

think george is going to make it i think alabama is going to make it so by process of elimination i have to remove all this okay even though they probably have the easiest most likely path to get there which is why it makes it hard i i'm just playing devil's advocate here so please don't yell at me everybody okay but can i just pull a schedules matter kind of thing sure what if georgia loses these three really hard road games i'm not a hundred percent convinced that by the time this is all said and done andy that there there isn't a three-loss team in the field. I don't think that three losses automatically reduce you. Yeah, I think Georgia, because of the Clemson win, especially if, let's say Clemson just kept winning and they kept destroying people

the way they have in the last couple games. And then they beat Miami in the ACC championship game and they were a 12-1 ACC champ and that lost to Georgia sitting there. And Georgia lost in overtime in two of those games and lost by one on a controversial call on another one. I'm talking about at Alabama, at Texas, at Ole Miss. But won all the other ones, including a win against Tennessee.

So they would have beaten two playoff teams at that point. That's the path for a 9- three team to make the playoff right there. Yeah. And I think if you go back and look at last year's rankings that every single team outside of the top 12 had three losses or more last year, power conference teams, that is.

Yeah. So like being on the cusp of 11 with a three losses and a win over Clemson, I think is very realistic. So it would be bad if Georgia went out and lost just over Clemson, I think is very realistic. So it would be bad if Georgia went out and lost just, but from a, from a thought exercise standpoint, I do think that it's still within the realm of possibility that they could

get in with three losses. And I do not think they're going to lose all three of those games, by the way. I don't, I don't think that they do not think that's actually possible for that to happen, but we'll see. But it is,

it is fascinating. And again, all schedules are not created equal. But I like the way Kyle's making us think. This is what I appreciate about the Dear Andy and Ari segment is we get our brains stretched like taffy in various ways. We have to revisit what I was saying earlier on the show too because this question does do it.

Go for it. Okay, yes. How many SEC teams are going to make it this year? And I think that you could say it's probably five, so that takes the entire list there. Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Texas are the five. And one of the five is one of the four conference champions, so you still have a bad at math show here.

So we have five total teams, one G5 team. So we have six teams left to fill the gap. So I think that Notre Dame could still firmly get there if they are able to win the rest of their game. One would be a big 12 team. But throwing the Notre Dame doesn't get in there caveat makes me look like an idiot. But in theory, the five teams that I chose initially

would be a better bet to make it. that doesn't exclude notre dame's participation in the event as well so like you have to you know if i had to get rid of one i have to get rid of but i think old miss is going to make it because their schedule i think they're going to lose two games and still do it yeah yeah no i think i think five is the number i actually predicted in my post-spring ranking and actually wasn't even thinking about i was just ranking the teams and when i looked and i was done i was like oh crap i put five sec teams in the playoff i don't know if that's gonna happen but the more this plays out the more i can see it happening yeah well i mean because if they're all like you just have to get to a position

where they're all 10 and 2 because if that happens because they're all have really hard schedules and how do you decipher the the best from the worst you don't you put them all in so like that's going to happen i think it's possible that there's six teams in there from the sec at the end of the year um that said and i'm going to say this as we head into the weekend here, if Notre Dame beats NC State, I mean, sorry, Notre Dame beats Louisville on Saturday, the entire tenor of the make fun of Ari for thinking Notre Dame can run the table I think kind of changes. Like, I think you go, okay, this team, you know,

still probably isn't going to run the table, but I think that the thought process of if Notre Dame is going to make the playoff changes. And I will know, you need to know that I have put real money that they will make it at like plus 500. So like I am like bought into the idea. I'm not making it up. I did it. Oh, I know.

And I also think if they beat Louisville, the idea that it comes down to beating USC at the end of the season becomes very real. Yeah. Now we still have to worry about landmines every week because if NIU can happen, anything can happen. But from a favored standpoint, Louisville, they'd be favored against Stanford, favored against Georgia Tech, favored against Navy, obviously favored against Florida State. We'll see about Navy.

Navy's good, yeah. But they actually do play pretty close games historically with Navy sometimes, don't they? They do. Florida State, Virginia, and sometimes, don't they? They do. Florida State, Virginia, and Army. I'm looking at the schedule, and there's no reason why they should have more than one loss going into the USC game. Now, that doesn't mean upsets can't happen, but on paper, 11-1 or 10-2 seems very reasonable. And honestly, they probably aren't going to get in at 10-2 because they don't have any quality wins.

But let's say they beat Louisville, and then Louisville goes on to play for and win the ACC. Correct. Then they're in the play in at 10-2 because they don't have any quality wins. But let's say they beat Louisville and then Louisville goes on to play for and win the ACC. Correct. Then they're in the playoff at 10-2. What if Navy plays for the American Championship? I mean, there's a route there for Notre Dame to get in at 10-2. So the idea that, oh, you're

an idiot for thinking that. Because there's a lot of people who are like, how could you possibly have Notre Dame on your bubble watch? It's like, dude! New system, new teams 10 and 2 11 and 1 Notre Dame 11 and 1 Notre Dame no matter what is in yeah 10 and 2 Notre Dame could be in so just just let's let it play out a little bit but I'm not going to give up the dream yet and also if you can get five to one for them to make it I think that's pretty good so we've reached the grab ass portion of the show we do have to get off the air in time for jd piquel to start the hard count at 11 a.m eastern 10 10 a.m central but i have to ask ari this question when it popped in i was like this is amazing this might be the best question we've ever gotten it's from kyle i missed my

window on this but i have to ask how did ari go to college in arizona he actually grew up in arizona as well and how does he currently live in texas and he still managed to develop that take on mexican food ari explain yourself i think that living in texas has actually ruined it because texas is rampant with Tex-Mex places. And Tex-Mex places are the ones that I think you agree with are all generally kind of similar. Please explain the difference between Tex-Mex and Mexican to me because I feel like an idiot when I have people from Texas like, this is great Tex-Mex. I'm like, what's the difference? It's tortillas,

beans, and meat. What's the place, what's the place here that I've been to a few times that you said, have you been to the Mexican place? That's really nice. Javier's. Like Javier's in Dallas.

Yeah. Yeah. And then you sent me the menu, right? And you're like, what did you order? And I can't remember what I ordered. I think I got chimichangas or something,

right? Chicken Malay. Yeah. I usually get chicken Malay. They have some sort of something, right? Chicken mole. Yeah, I usually get chicken mole at Javier. They have some sort of pork belly melting off the bone type dish at Javier. Oh, yeah. That one's really good. Yeah.

That type of shit is not on the menu at a Tex-Mex place. A Tex-Mex place is tacos and tortilla chips and fajitas and all the same things that you do. So, like, again, the thing that bothers me about my take on Mexican food is that people think that I don't like it, Andy. I think it's good. Like I like it. I enjoy it when I'm eating it.

My only point is that Tex-Mex is all fairly similar. It's very hard to distinguish one good Tex-Mex place from the other. And their carbs are not as good as Italian carbs. And I don't know that in the last part too, which is the best Tex-Mex and the worst Tex-Mex has a much shorter gap between like the best Italian and the worst Italian. Like I think that it's all really rational. I'm not saying Mexican food sucks or that I don't like tacos.

Of course, I've been to the hole in the wall places in Arizona that serve good tacos. Of course, I've been hammered at four in the morning at U of A eating los betos like i've been there man i've lived i've walked the walk um i just don't know like if somebody was like hey would you rather have a big juicy burger at two in the morning when you're drunk or taco bell or tex-mex like i would take the burger because a bun is a superior vessel to hold meat than tortilla i i can live with that i can accept it i understand there are going to be people in the chat who think you're insane but that's why we love you yeah and the thing about food is that we don't all have to like the same stuff that's what's fun about talking about it ferris khan fun fact italian places

here are not the same as in italy wait you mean it's not like the olive garden over there it's not like dining in the kitchen of a delightful italian stereotype i mean leave it to uh leave it to america to make what they did better here guys i've been to italy have you have you been to Italy? I have, yeah. Look at me straight in the eye. Let's get these people out into the weekend with a hot take. Their seafood is fantabulous. Unbelievable.

Especially when we were down in Capri and around Naples. The seafood was amazing. But I'm with you, Ari, and I'm going to be the ugly American right here. We perfected pizza. They invented it. We perfected it. We perfected pizza. They invented it. We perfected it. We've perfected the noodles and sauce, too. My thought when I went to Italy was that I was going to get my socks blown off with how good their pizza was.

They have got great food. Like, don't get me wrong. Italy has great food. I've eaten through Italy. American Italian food is better than Italian Italian food. I'm going to say it. Yeah. Now, I don't think we've done that with Chinese. Because if, like, you've been to an authentic Szechuan restaurant.

Yeah. Like, our version of, you know, General Tso's and all that, that gets blown out of the water. But we did perfect pizza. They've got better General T's than our general so's? They don't have better general so's. They just have better general food than our general so's. I'm saying actual because I've never been to Asia or I've never been to an authentic Asian restaurant.

I haven't either. I'm talking about places that people will tell you in America are authentic representations of this region of China's cooking as opposed to Panda Express. And you think that it's better than like a good place that has like orange chicken and General Tso's and sesame chicken and there's no way that we didn't do it better than that. I'll give you a masterpiece in Beaufort, Georgia. Like go there. It's awesome. If you're in the Atlanta area, if you're north of Atlanta, go to that piece. What do you order at those places? Teach me. What do you order at a place

that isn't just an American Chinese place? Well, they've got a couple different things. They've got these kind of hot pot stews that are really good. They're also very spicy. And that's better than fried chicken covered in sugar sauce?

Yes. And I say this as someone who loves fried chicken covered in sugar sauce. I think you and I are a little different here. I think you veer more toward the trash food than I do. Yeah. I like trash food fine, but I want, if I have the option to have the elevated version i'll take the elevated version like you just you might take the trash version over that i mean deep fried chicken covered in sweet and sour sauce is like perfection so i don't know what they're doing over in asia

but i can't imagine that's not that's not the like perfection is fried chicken with hot sauce. Perfection is like Popeye's or Publix fried chicken with hot sauce sprinkled on it. Like you take some Cholula and sprinkle that on. If I were to finish this show, drive to Publix, grab an eight piece and a bottle of Cholula, that is one of the best meals you could ever have.

Andy, you know, I'm struggling on this weight journey here. Okay. I'm dropping some weight. Like I am starving. And you know what actually sounds really good. Speaking of fried chicken covered in sugar sauce, Wendy's saucy nugs. I might go grab a few of them on the way to go pick up my parents from the airport hot garlic parm right now I mean I would smash those right now I would have 20 of them not even

blink I definitely been a hot garlic parm mood today I want more savory when I want sweet hot honey barbecue but the hot garlic parm oh that's just that's special all right go get some windy saucy nugs everybody but do it quickly because you need to be back in front of your youtube on three sports youtube channel 15 minutes the hard count with jd piquel is live. Go yell at J.D. in the chat. He's got some pretty ferocious takes. So argue with him the way you argue with us. Bring the same energy. We love you.

Cannot wait to talk to all of you about the games on Saturday night. For my folks in Florida, be careful. If you are in Apalachicola, Port St. Joe, all those areas, I hope you are listening to this or watching this somewhere else. Drive north, drive east, drive west, get the hell out of there. Be safe, everybody. We'll talk to you on Saturday night.