Andy & Ari On3 - Who is the best QB in the SEC?

Episode Date: July 14, 2025

This week, the SEC takes center stage with its media days, and Andy and Ari will celebrate day one by arguing about quarterbacks.(0:00-2:49) Intro: Day 1 of SEC Media Days(2:50-13:40) Andy's Top 10 SEC Qb's(13:41-25:00) Is DJ Lagway REALLY the top QB?(25:01-33:37) Where do Bama and Georgia's QB stack?(33:38-37:22) Arch at Texas(37:23-39:11) Previewing Big Ten QB(39:12-44:52) Ari's column on Big 12's position on CFP(44:53-47:19) What did Greg Sankey say at the podium?(47:20-57:17) House v NCAA settlement(57:18-1:04:49) Headlines ahead of Media Days(1:04:50-1:13:36) Conclusion: Joint birthday parties, Auburn @ Oklahoma Andy dropped his top 10 SEC quarterbacks at On3 on Monday morning. What did he get right? What did he get wrong? Plus, the guys preview what questions they want to hear asked at SEC media days. Also, the schools’ attempt to control third-party NIL deals barely lasted two weeks before the House v. NCAA plaintiffs attorneys threatened to drag the conferences back into court. Watch our show LIVE, M-F at 9:30 am et! https://youtube.com/live/LsRNY15iZ-w Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Want to partner with the show? E-mail [e-mail]

Welcome to Andy and Ariane 2! At the SEC Media Days to all who celebrate, Greg Sankey, the Commissioner of the SEC, is up on the podium right now talking. I have been listening so you don't have to. And he hasn't said anything interesting yet. I guess the one thing, Ari, that he said that was sort of interesting is everybody's talking about Superconferences, well, welcome to one. So, little flex there.

How long do you think he was work dropping that one? Yeah, yeah. He said, Oh, yeah, the the House settlement was going to be messy. We'll get into how messy that is a little bit later in the show, because we want to talk about actual football first. He said there's a bill in Congress that has been introduced by Republicans and Democrats in the House. He said it's not an attempt to maintain the status quo. It is absolutely an attempt to maintain the status quo. It is absolutely an attempt to maintain the status quo and it probably will fail because it will not

get 60 votes in the Senate. What else we got? That's about it. Did you look up how many votes it needed or did you just know that? It takes 60 votes to overcome a filibuster in the Senate. So The guy who talks and won't shut up? Yeah. Yep. Got it. Yeah, it'll pass in the house, but it probably will not pass in the Senate unless there are some some wheelings and dealings going on or significant changes to it, but politics all that later because that's boring. It's not

football. We want to talk about football like if you if you use their asked or polled 100 random fans who listened to the show, selected at random. How many of you care about what may or may not occur in the Senate? What do you think the, not that they don't care, I'm sure everybody cares what the result is, but cares to talk about it.

How many do you think it would be? I think there'd be about 10%. I do think there's a component that's very interested in that stuff, but listen, I'll tell you, I'm not interested in that stuff except that it's my job to follow it. Like if I was doing something different and college football is my favorite sport like it is, I wouldn't care one bit about that. I think most people are in the faction of I realize it's important. I don't have the Stanima to or just tell me what it is. Tell me what happened and how it impacts support not

like 19 different things that could happen because then it just kind of like makes me feel the same way it does about like actual politics, which is this is way over my head and I have no idea what's going on and it's not it's not over your head it's just stupid and boring and there are solutions that they could come to there's some common-sense solutions that they will eventually get to but they're gonna exhaust every avenue to try to keep the money that they had before is that we all knew that this wasn't gonna work like it we had to have like a fifth grade education to realize this was going to happen. We'll

talk about it later, but like it's like yeah. We have actual football talk about I released my top 10 SEC quarterbacks today. By the way going top 10 quarterbacks in each of the power leagues this week. So big 10 tomorrow. ACC and big 12 later in the week, but we're starting with the SEC. Garrett Nussmeyer and Lenora Sellers and Diego Pavia are at SEC Media Days today. Oh, and Austin Simmons.

And Austin Simmons. So four guys who are on my list of the top 10 are there today. Shall I read the list for the podcast audience? Sure, please. All right. Number one, DJ Lague from Florida. Number two, LSU's Garrett Nussmeyer. Number three, South Carolina's Laura Sellers. Number four, Arch Manning of Texas.

Number five, John Mattier from Oklahoma. Number six, Austin Simmons from Ole Miss. Number seven, Diego Pavia from Vanderbilt. Number eight, Gunnar Stockton from Georgia. Number nine, Ty Simpson from Alabama. And number 10, Marcel Reed from Texas A&M. So that's the list. Now we can begin arguing.

Yeah. I mean, like we have spent a lot of time this off season talking about this topic, but the thing that always makes me laugh because I'm in agreement with you, but I don't, I don't know if I can explain why other than like, I saw it with my eyes, which isn't scientific, which is If DJ's number one, then why is Lenora's number three? Like they're virtually very... I changed, I actually changed this because my original Top ten in the country returning I had DJ one and Lenora's two, but after talking to a bunch of people in the offseason

Garrett Nussmeyer is Really really good and we should expect a big jump from him. And he's going to be very good. That's why I moved him up. The thing that is funny though, is it's a big enough debate between or deciphering between DJ and Lenoris. But not only have you deciphered between them by ranking one more than the other,

you rank the other one two spots ahead in front of another very good quarterback. Here's the thing Ari, I could see anybody in the top six being in New York for the Heisman Ceremony this year. That's how loaded the SEC is at quarterback this year. It is kind of hard to get upset about it because it's not like somebody who is

undeserving is high, you know, like it's like, well, there are people who think we shouldn't have DJ lagway that high at all, that we should have DJ lagway in the middle somewhere because the entire summer people think that DJ lagway has been overrated. And I think that what we do and the thing that I love about it is projecting forward and like the thing that I want you to help me with, and I'm not challenging you, I'm just, we're gonna workshop this together.

Well challenge away. But I agree with you. Well, I want you to help me articulate why. Okay, well, okay. Here's the one thing about DJ Lagway, and I put this in the story that went along with this. The biggest caveat is his health. Like he's been resting various nagging

injuries this off season. It has been a whole thing. If you've been following Florida this off season, if he is not healthy, if he misses multiple games, then he's, he's not going to be able to reach that ceiling. He's not going to get to that point. If he is healthy though, he gives Florida a chance to win every game on its incredibly difficult schedule. And I think goat dog in the chat puts it very well. My favorite way of debating this is seeing how every QB would fit in every other system, I personally lean toward lag way, right? And that's the question.

If you could put DJ lagway in your team's offense, would your team be better? And I think the answer is yes for all of them. Yeah. I also think that's true for Lenora sellers though. It's also true for arch Manning and John Matier and Garrett Nussmeyer. Is Garrett Garrett Nussmeyer can run a little. So like, I think people forget that an arch can run arch can run a little. So like, I think people forget that an arch can run. Arch can run a lot. Nussmeyer probably not like here.

If we're talking about who's the best runners of these arch, Matier and Sellers are the three best runners. Lagway can and is a very large human being. Nussmeyer is a good athlete, but of those top five, the, the best runners would, would be arch Lenores and mature. And then three of Austin Simmons, by the way, pretty big dude, pretty good mover at Ole Miss three out of the four quarterback, Justin C in the chat. So biased.

Yes. Is it, it is a ranking. Rankings are inherently biased, Justin. That's how rankings work. It's a person's opinion. Three out of four of your top four quarterbacks have spent time being injured at some point in their careers. Yep. Right. Garrett Nussmeyer has never missed any extended time with an injury, has he? Not that I can recall. Right. And, and, and availability is often your best ability. But

David in the chat, Lagway. Oh, David, counting stats. 1,915 yards, 12 TDs, nine interceptions. Okay. Congratulations, David. He wasn't the full-time starter last year. So if you expect a full season's worth of passing yards, you're not going to get it. Uh, but DJ Lagway did average 10 yards per attempt, which was second in the country behind Jackson Dart and Oh, by the way, we, we didn't see him fully. Until the Ole Miss game. I mean, cause the LSU game he's playing on one leg and he wasn't really the starter before any of those.

The, the thing I can't wrap my head around is that like if you're there's a lot of people who are upset by the DJ Lagway ranking and this has been true all summer is that they have to be fans of another SEC team right because they would they would absolutely take him if they could, I just don't know. That's my thing. I can accept the Nuspray argument, but there is the whole remember what happened when they were both on the

same field at the same time and DJ Lagwa was playing on one leg who was better that day. The raw ability of. I don't care about stats. I think I think I want like my motto in life, stats are stupid. That could be one of my rules for life next time we have a guest. Is that like anybody who watched him play

knows he's sensational. Like I just like, I don't know like this, like this willing ignorance of relying on stats and saying he hasn't, it's like, did you watch him play at all? Like how? No, they haven't. It's very easy to pick the ones who have or haven't watched Lagway play or arch play.

And they've just box score watched. Like there's no question. Matier is the same thing. Like go watch Matier Washington State. Like it's insane. And I think the great part is you have also acknowledged that any of the top six players on your list could conceivably be number one by the end of the year. You're doing your best to project something that's impossible to project. Like also number seven on my list, by the way, we were having this discussion, you and I, like if you put Diego Pavia, if you said Diego Pavia went to Alabama and he's starting in Alabama now, we'd automatically make Alabama the number one team in the country.

I think every... So that's the next thing that stood out to me too, is Gunnar stocked in a spot ahead of Ty Simpson in the calculus there. I have no idea which one's going to be better. Yeah. Do you? No, I didn't. It's not my list though. So take me out of the hot seat. I didn't make the list.

Uh, yeah. And then also too, I think A&M fans probably might, you know, have a gripe to say, hey, Marcel Reed could take a huge jump. But like- He could. He doesn't throw as well as these other guys. The actual statement here, though, when looking at this list though, is that the SEC is

unequivocally the deepest quarterback conference in the country this year, right? And like- Big 12 has an argument, but the SEC has the most top end, like potentially elite guys. Like that top, Diego Pabbie is kind of his own category cause he just makes every team he's on better period. But the top six I have here, like could be Heisman Trophy types,

could be top 10 NFL draft pick types. Like they are all really, really good. The SEC quarterback list and the big 12 quarterback list mirrors exactly the conferences, because if you look at the big 12 you could say they are the deepest. And that might be true. Like when Brett Yormark said the big 12

was the deepest conference in the sport last week that was actually true in the sense that like the number nine team in the conference could conceivably win it. But the, the difference between the big 12 and the sec, both in quarterbacks and in teams is that while everybody's very good, you don't have the melt your face. Number one overall draft pick, win the national title type teams. Like I think that those two things mirror each other. Um, I'm very

curious to see, you know, what guys like Devin Dampear can do because he's still relatively unknown. The one thought that I have had over the last few months is like trying to picture Diego Pavia at like Colorado or Texas Tech or TCU or even like Kansas, like if he would be a bigger star. I wonder if he is hindered by Vanderbilt in the sense that Vanderbilt is probably further out of the pack in the SEC race this year when you think about like the actual Megatron teams, whereas if he were in a actual conference race, if his star would be bigger. I think you could put Diego Pabllo on any team in college football. And he would be great. He's proven that because he would argue that Vanderbilt would be the

hardest team to be a star at, right? Yeah, I would say so. And to make them better. And look, the one I would have argued in the FBS was the hardest to make better was New Mexico state, which he did. So yeah, I would. He could be anywhere. And the thing is, he's had the opportunity. Like he had the opportunity to leave Vanderbilt after this year,

and he turned it down. He wanted to stay. So I'm interested. He's there today. I'm interested to hear what he says. If you have not listened to his interview with Bustin with the Boys with Will Compton and Taylor Nguyen, it's really interesting. I'm fascinated by that guy. That isn't a slight on Vanderbilt, Andy, because I know people. his interview with Bustin with the boys, with Will Compton and Taylor Nguyen. It's really interesting. I'm fascinated by that guy. That isn't a slight on Vanderbilt, Andy, because I know people- No, it's just the reality of the situation.

When you're compared to your peers, your direct peers, it's harder to stand out in the conference that's got Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, LSU, Georgia, and Alabama. Like it's just harder. Can we, let's, one lag way thing, Sharice in the chat. Why is everyone hyping up DJ lag like, like he's going to be the next Tim Tebow. Cherise, he is a, like his tools

and skill set, he can be a much better quarterback than Tim Tebow. Like, will he put up the numbers Tim Tebow put up? I don't know. You know what's kind of amusing to think about? If we had a podcast back in 08 or 09 and wait, no, no, 07 was the year, right? That was his Heisman year. That was his sophomore year. Yeah. If we

were having this discussion and we did a QB rankings after the 06 season and you put Tim Tebow number one and then somebody flashed the stats from the previous year up on the screen and said, what about this? Yeah, as I say, he threw like four passes and four total passes and half of more job passes. So, yeah, and then, and then he just balled out and won the trophy. Which is a nice, which is a nice reminder that like, if you are a person who likes to engage in quarterback rankings in an off season, projecting the future while overly relying on stats from the previous year you're doing it wrong. You putting T, this is Oh Nuzzy in the chat.

You putting Thibault and Lagway in the same sentence, so it's how clueless you are. Nuzzy, I've seen every Florida quarterback up close and personal since Shane Matthews, okay? DJ Lagway has more, a bigger skill set than all of them. And that includes two Heisman trophy winners, Indiana Werfel and Tim Tebow. And it doesn't mean he's going to be better than them. He has a lot of work to do and he has to stay healthy.

There's a fundamental pushback that you're always going to get whenever you start comparing someone's tools to someone's accomplishments. Like those are two very different things. Like David, yeah, you're comparing them to the best QB in college football history. That is not Tim Tebow guys. Kim Newton, yeah, Jackson maybe I do. By the way, it was on Safe Lord rosters Tim Tebow at one time.

Lamar Jackson. There's a lot of guys. He's not saying that DJ Labway is already more accomplished than Tim Tebow. He's saying his raw ability at this point in his career favors comparably to where Tim Tebow was. How hard to understand. I don't understand. Talk to an NFL scout and let's compare Lagway's release to Tebow's release.

Do people not think that DJ Lagway is going to be the number one overall pick? I just do not... Might not be though. I have no dog in this fight, but we're talking about somebody who has raw ability, and we've seen bad quarterbacks with great raw ability through three years of their college career get taken in the first round. Anthony Richardson, we've seen a floor one to it. Yeah, like it doesn't take that.

Like if he is even marginally effective, he might be the number one overall pick based solely on his physical traits. I'll push back because I like Arch can leave after this year, but every indication we've got is that Arch's plan is to play two years as a starter at Texas. Like how? How crazy is that going to be?

If it comes down to to Arch and DJ, then whoever is in the Big 10 and they're like that that quarterback class could be nuts. Have you noticed that in the NFL draft. And they're like that, that quarterback class could be nuts. Have you noticed that in the NFL draft, and I don't know why this seems to be the case, but there seems to be certain drafts where there's five players who could be the first round pick, and there's drafts where you can't find the first round pick. Yes.

Why that always happens like year over year, like it doesn't matter. It's like, there isn't just like one bona fide number one guy that everyone's obsessed with year over year. Like Cam Ward was the number overall pick this past year, but this is a very weak quarterback draft and I don't know that he would have been the number one. Yeah. And we wouldn't have said that going into the year. And you're talking about somebody that I actually believe in Cam Ward could be a

really good NFL player. So I'm not nagging him, but like, well, and the other thing is like Sellers doesn't have to leave after this season either. I mean, Lenore Sellers, DJ Lagway, Arch Manning can all conceivably be in the same top five. Yeah, Austin Simmons doesn't have to leave. Okay, let's have an Austin Simmons conversation. You saw him on the show. If you guys are regular watchers of the show, you saw Austin Simmons on the show. You can't help but come away impressed. I wrote this in the story and Ari, you and I have talked about this a million times because we were, we were there at the Ole Miss Georgia game when he had to come in to replace Jackson Dart. And I keep saying, are we putting too much on

one drive in one game? It was a pretty awesome drive. Like I felt like that was, if that's representative of what we're going to see from Austin Simmons, I probably have him too low on this list. Yeah, I think that you're also doing your best to use the hints and clues around you. You're kind of like a boy scout in the forest a little bit, you know, with some of this stuff. It's like, well, he's at Ole Miss. Lane Kiffin's very good at designing plays. He's got tremendous size and measurables.

He showed great poise in a very tough situation. I mean, you could say that maybe that Ole Miss home game against Georgia last year was one of the four biggest games in Ole Miss history. Is that right? Yeah. And he came in with the entire stadium deflated and drove them down the field like nothing happened to Jackson Dart. And at the point in time in which he was thriving, you didn't know if Jackson was returning against that Georgia defense.

Like I think that you could I put much more stock in that drive than I do the drive that Stephen Jelle had in the playoff game. Well, right, because Stephen Jelly fumbled and if if their right tackle doesn't jump on it, if if Amel Wagner doesn't jump on it, then we have a very different opinion of that drive. So but that is the thing with Austin Simmons. And here's the other part of Austin Sims and I'll say this. I actually thought about this a lot

as I did the SEC one and as I'm doing the big 10 and the big 12 ones and the ACC ones. The schools that typically use the transfer portal a lot, when they don't use it, that tells you something. Lane Kiffin uses the transfer portal. If Lane Kiffin sees a need, he fills it in the portal. There was never a question about who was going to ascend to the starting job after Jackson Dart left.

Like we talked about Georgia kicking the tires on Fernando Mendoza before the bowl game, there was none of that with Ole Miss. It was going to be Austin Simmons the whole way. And I think that is what makes this so interesting. Like Lane, if he sensed any weakness, would have brought in somebody to compete with him. Right. And I think that like, you know, it's very, you know, reasonable to question, uh, Lane Kiffin for certain aspects of his, his coaching career. I think that he's grown tremendously in the last six to seven years as a head coach, but at the same time, too. Like, you don't just get to ignore the fact that they fumbled the bag last year, and like that's a negative for him. But if there's one thing that you know unequivocally he's going to do, he's going to get his quarterback ready, and he's being a top six quarterback in these rankings in this conference is kind

of a nice feather in your cap. Um, let's, let's focus on one other thing here, Andy, that stood out to me because in my playoff projections, and I think yours too, did both Alabama and Georgia make yours and both of them? Yes, they did. Do you think that we need to rethink Alabama and Georgia's trajectory as teams this year if they have the seventh and eighth best quarterbacks in their own conference? Nope.

Nope. Cause where would you have put AJ McCarran back in the day? I don't know. But back in the day, think of all the other quarterbacks in the league. Now he probably would have been higher than that, but I think especially with the Ty Simpson thing, but also with the Gunner Stockton thing, that there's so much talent around them that they are going like if they are because these eight, nine is middle of the pack. Like if they were if they are middle of the pack QBs with that much talent around them, they will be competing for the SEC championship.

They will be competing for playoff spots. If they are above that, if they play their way above that, then you're talking national title contenders. See, that's interesting because I would actually push back at the notion that AJ McCarron and the team that he had around him has any bearing on this year because he had a better team around him than these guys will. It's just the gap between George and Alabama. And this, I think, I think Alabama's roster is excellent.

I think Alabama top to bottom other than quarterback, which remains to be seen. We'll see about tie Simpson. If you were ranking rosters, would you put Alabama number one? Yeah, one or two, probably would I would. But I feel like the difference between one and five isn't the same as one and five when AJ McCarran, they are, but that's why I say they are going to have to play their way higher in these rankings. Either one of those two if they want their

teams to be national title contenders. Fundamental college football question. The national champion last year was Ohio State. Will Howard was what a sixth round pick, and I thought that he played quite well last season. But like last year. Will there be a team with that level of talent around?

And the thing is, who has the most talent around them on this list? It's arch going in the last season with Ohio state. We were uncertain of Will Howard's ability or if he was good enough from our. Notions of what the quarterback at this level had to be, you know, the year before the, the two quarterbacks were first round picks in the national title game. And like you're like, that's fine. Ohio State. Don't worry.

They can get anybody could could could quarterback them to the national championship or anybody could quarterback them to the college football playoff. And I just don't know if you could say that about anybody anymore. Where would you put Will Howard in the Big 10 rankings last year? Of course, you're asking me to remember everyone starting quarterback from last year after I erased that from my brain.

That's dangerous. Well, you know better. He was ahead of him. He's ahead of whoever's in Michigan because obviously Michigan had to make some fundamental changes. Yeah. It can throw a ball. Maybe to how Stalware and who else like also to like the Big 10 quarterback

rankings look nothing like this. Yeah. Drew Aller and who else? Like also too, like the big 10 quarterback rankings looked nothing like this. Yeah, Drew Aller, Dylan Gabriel, Luke Altmeier. Yeah, I mean, I probably would have put him four or five. Chris Rourke. I mean, I don't know, maybe that's low. He did play well. And he's an NFL quarterback. So I'm not saying he's bad.

I'm not even more interested in like analyzing how well he played. I'm more interested in diving into the notion that anybody could be thrown into that Ohio State team and they'd make the playoff. Like can you say that about anybody anymore? It's not just anybody like Will Howard did a good job. But I do think there were- We said that before he did a good job. But were there 30 quarterbacks in America, if you put them on that offense,

would have also led them to a national championship. Right. So how many, how many quarterbacks on this list? All of them probably. Yeah. But that's my point. Can you do it again? Can you still do that?

I don't know, but I will tell you that that Alabama and Georgia still have probably a prohibitive talent advantage over these others for Texas. They do, but also too, if you have a six out of ten or a seven out of ten at quarterback and then you play Florida, who has a ten out of ten and Florida's pretty good, you might lose game and it might Florida, LSU, South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Jackson Dart and got DJ Lagway on the wrong day and then in this and they missed the playoff because of it.

I mean that that is when you think about the height rope that you need to walk in this conference to make the SEC Championship game, let alone the playoff. I don't know that Alabama and Georgia are just bulletproof in the sense that like, yeah, we're in that. And listen, if these guys turn out to be great, then this is a non-convo. I'm just saying if we're moving forward under the assumption that they are eight and nine in their own conference, I might think twice about putting both in the playoff. Maybe one will make it, but both probably. Well, if that's the thing, look at the top three. One of those teams is, I will tell you, I'll plant the flag and this is, I don't think this is going on a huge one. One of the three teams that are led by the top three quarterbacks on this list is

making the playoff, whether it's Florida, LSU or South Carolina, but I'm not sure it's more than one. I know, but I think that sure it's more than one. I know, but I think that we also are just going to go ahead and throw Texas in there. So unless you, you're putting Texas in the playoff. Yeah. There are four, four sec teams are going to make it this year. Then it might be Alabama and Georgia, but if it's three again, they might, one of them might be a rock in the hard place.

I don't know. I'm just saying like, it's not the same sport and if like how many times in the last seven years would you also have a SEC quarterback list where both of them are outside of the top seven? Would that have ever happened at any point in the last eight years? Where yeah we probably put would have put Millrow pretty high last year. For sure it wouldn't have been eight. Last year was different because a lot of these guys were first year starters. And I think the reason why this year feels so loaded in the SEC is because last year was not. Like last year was a bunch of people kind of figure out.

We didn't know what Garrett Nussmeyer was going to be at. We didn't know what Lenore Sellers was going to be at. Graham Ertz was supposed to start the whole season for Florida. You know, Jackson Arnold was going to be. See, I don't have Jackson Arnold on this list. What if he balls out at Auburn? Because again, I think he got put in the worst possible situation last year and will probably be better.

But the body of work I've seen so far makes it hard to put him in the top 10. But there's a very, he could very easily be in the top 10 at the end of work I've seen so far makes it hard to put him in the top 10. But there's a very, he could very easily be in the top 10 at the end of this season. Yeah. I mean, it's fun to make these lists when the entire top 10 will could have been like look like the big 12 standings from last year in comparison to their projections and it wouldn't be weird. Like it's like being number eight on this list also isn't as embarrassing as being number

eight on a list from five years ago. Like this is. I'll tell you, I've already started working on the big 10 one. It's different. Like, yeah, but I also, this one's a lot harder to parse than that one. I wonder too, if we work under the assumption that neither or that both won't make the playoff. I wonder if it comes down to which one of these quarterbacks performs better, and it's as simple as that. Yeah, and both interesting, Georgia and Alabama,

because we talked about this with regard to Ole Miss, in both cases, they could have, if they truly wanted to, gone and gotten somebody out of the portal. Now, we do know that Georgia kicked the tires on Fernando Mendoza. They also tried to get Deshaun Purdy, because remember Deshaun Purdy was at Charlotte. He was gonna go to Florida to back up DJ Lagway,

and then he realized, hey, there's a bigger market for me than this. Tried to go to Georgia, Florida blocked him from going to Georgia, and he wound up at Wake Forest. So like I I think and I don't think the idea was him to go to Georgia to start. I think it was to back up Gunnar Stockton too, but. Georgia didn't go try to get somebody over Gunnar Stockton,

which they could have done and they could have done it after the bowl game too. runner Stockton, which they could have done and they could have done it after the bowl game too. I think that reading the tea leaves of what a coach could have done in order to improve his roster and didn't is an important aspect of this. And, and, and DeBoer at Alabama, same thing. Kaylin DeBoer knew Jaylen Miro wasn't coming back. Like if you heard Jaylen Miro talk after their bowl game, it was

abundantly clear he was not coming back. So they knew before the bowl game, he wasn't coming back. Like if you heard Jalen Miro talk after their bowl game, it was abundantly clear he was not coming back. So they knew before the bowl game, he's not coming back. They could have gone and gotten, like who wouldn't want to throw to Ryan Williams and Jeremy Bergdart? Like they could have gotten anybody. And they looked at the roster, they looked at what they had,

which was Ty Simpson, Austin Mackie, Keelan Russell coming in and said, you know what? We're going to ride with these guys. And you also wonder if he made the wrong decision last year and whether or not he made the right decision this year again is an important thing. It's like, what if Alabama misses the playoff two years in a row because their head coach who just had a first round draft pick a quarterback at

Washington made the wrong quarterback decisions two years in a row. Yeah. No, it's, it's a legitimate question. And that's what, that's what I've always asked the Alabama fans who insist to me that Jalen Milrow was the biggest problem last year. My, my response is always then why didn't Ty Simpson beat him out? And don't give me politics. Don't give me you lose the locker room because that's that's BS.

Players are not stupid. They w they will ride with the quarterback who they think gives them the best chance to win. So they're, they're not going to be upset if, if you picked the obviously better quarterback, my thing is he probably wasn't obviously better and that's why they didn't pick him. So now is he probably wasn't obviously better, and that's why they didn't pick him. So now is he now is he better? And the other part of this,

and this does matter, is Ryan Grubb is now back with Kailin Dabour. So was Kailin Dabour at full strength? Last year compared to what he was at Washington, probably not. Now he's got his consigniary back who works with quarterbacks, by the way. That's the position Ryan Grubb works with. And I think that makes a big difference.

I'm with you. Uh, I can't ever get over that play call, uh, that they had against Washington state their last year together at Washington, you know, with the game on I can't ever get over that play call that they had against Washington state their last year together at Washington. You know, with the game on the line, tie game, I believe. Yup. Or down and won from their own 38 or something. And just that, not only going for it, the Cajonas to do that,

but that play call they pulled out of their ass. Oh my God. That was one of the... Kidding. I went like, I was like Kevin McAllister from Home Alone when I was watching that. I was like, you know, I had my hands on my face. Like, oh my God, I've never been more impressed and borderline. Like, I had to like pull the collar on my shirt out because I was getting hot. Can we just appreciate that 15 minutes, by the way? Like you had that and then you had the

Jalen Millroad, Isaiah Bond fourth and goal from the 31 in the Iron Bowl It's the same basically the same time. It was a Saturday after Thanksgiving, right? We're on Ann Arbor because Ohio State was playing Michigan that day for essentially, you know a spot in the Big Ten title game That game was over because that was a noon game. These were both in that 330 Eastern window and they ended about the same time. It was wild. I was at the athletic at the time and I wasn't on the road that day. And I think it was just because it was Thanksgiving and like my family and Britt's family was here. And I just like watched the Ohio State Michigan game with my family. Then I went to my bedroom and wrote a column about that. Ryan Day and whether or not he chose the wrong quarterback

and Kyle McCord, which drove everybody insane. And then I came back out into the living room, like in the second half of those games. And we all just sat there eating leftover turkey. And I was like watching both of them, like on the double screen. And like, I cannot like, that was like college football Nirvana overload.

I feel like that's like what like, like, you know, it's like going to a buffet and getting one plate too much. It was amazing. Oh, one on one straight facts has a question for us in the chat. And I it's a legitimate one. Okay. Andy, then how was arch one at Texas when he couldn't win the job at Texas last year, one on one straight facts.

You're apparently new here. We've asked this question about 7,000 times in the last four months. Like, yes, Sark's going to get a lot of shit if it turns out that arch is awesome. Because that's true. I do because that, because they're going to be people who say you should have played him. You should have started him earlier and you would have won a national championship. You know how that's, that's how everyone's mind operates.

You know, it is. Yeah. I don't know. Like picturing Texas being eight, no, and having a Heisman front runner quarterback and people freaking out about last year is so funny to me. It'll happen. Cause why didn't you do the Kelly Bryant, Trevor Lawrence thing that Dabo did? Yeah.

Well, the best thing that could happen to, to Texas, probably from a coaching confidence standpoint would be arch getting off to a slow start in the first month and then catching fire. Well, and they know, well, that's going to be hard. It's not a slow start type of game, but you obviously don't have to win that game at Ohio State, but it would certainly help. Oh, and by the way, Ari, some people in the chat did point out, and I feel like we should, we should note this when we were talking about like, what if arch stays another year and

then DJ is coming out and what if Lenora stays another year? The 27 draft, it still might be Jeremiah Smith going number one in that draft. Yeah, matter what. It's gonna be a hell of a draft. I hope we go to that one together. Yes. Yeah, it's gonna be a big year for sports card collecting for sure. I can't wait for the Hobby Boxes to be $2,500. It's gonna be a lot of fun. The thing that I always laugh about when it comes to the Arch Manning is staying for two years discussion and there are people in our company they're like vehemently like yeah he's staying two more years. It's like how could you possibly make that decision

without even seeing what this year looks like? Yeah you don't know that. I don't even know. What if he wins the Heisman? He may come to December and he's like yeah I've done all I can do I'm going to win the national title here. He's gone. Why would he come back? Why wouldn't he come back? What if he wins the Heisman and doesn't win the national title here. He's gone. Why would he come back? Why wouldn't he come back? What if he wins the Heisman? It doesn't win the national title. I'm just saying you can't say he doesn't need the money. Are you like it's not definitively

old days coming back if you don't know how the season played out yet? Yeah. I I love this debate though. I love this because I think this will be the most ferocious debate we have among these. I think we can get into some fun debates in the Big 12. The Big 10 is not going to be that big of a debate. I'm actually not sure.

I think I'm going to put Drew Allert number one, but I haven't decided yet. But I'm going to have drew out number one, but I haven't decided yet. But like I'm going to have Luke Ball, Luke Altmeyer high. And I think people who don't watch ball. Specifically, people who don't watch late night ball are going to be very shocked at where I have Fernando Mendoza. Yeah. No, he's very good. The thing that will get people upset is where you put Julian saying, but we'll wait for tomorrow on that. Well, I'm saying Bryce Underwood thing is I don't even I'll admit I don't know where to put them.

I have no idea. I just the one thing I've never seen them play. I would give you in making these lists and you're doing all of them is I would follow the same criteria for all of them. So like if you and I don't, yeah, project the same way. Yes, I agree. In every conference, but the thing that will be crazy, and I don't know what you're going to do, and I don't even want to know till we hit live tomorrow, is if you like put Bryce Underwood four, and then you put saying like nine people are going to go crazy. See that's the problem. There's, there's no good way to do this. There's absolutely no good way to do it.

I think Caliak Monis is back. Uh, I just wanted to say, Ethan Caliak Monis is my favorite name to say. Ethan Caliak Monis, Ethan Caliak Monis, Mark Rynowski too. That's a, that's a tricky one. Well, how about Demond Williams? That's a tricky one. Uh huh. This one's more to more. We've not seen Dante more play a few games at UCLA, but I don't think that represents what we're going to see from him at Oregon.

I'm going to be honest with you. This is far more difficult than the SEC. I think it is because he has nothing obvious. It's not obvious. And you're also going to have to rank players who haven't played much yet. Like Drew Aller is the most accomplished thus far. The biggest NFL draft prospect of the bunch, all that stuff. But I will, I am understanding of arguments that Drew Aller has not come

anywhere near his ceiling. I'm gonna ask you that what a preview for tomorrow. I don't want to blow the entire show tomorrow. Yeah. If you were given the choice between drew Aller and the field for the number one, like the number one, out of these big tens, who do you think's the number one quarterback at the end of December next year?

The field. The big 10, the field. The field. I will take the field. Yeah, me too. Yeah. Yeah. This is fun.

Ari, we've talked football for 38 minutes. How amazing is this? Yeah, are we gonna go now into the part where people don't want to talk about? Like what are we doing? I'm going to do a bonus topic that we didn't discuss for a minute. Go for it. So, I don't know what you were doing this weekend, but this was my weekend of self-care. I don't know if you know about my weekend, but Britt was out of town and my daughter

was out of town. So, it was me in my house from Friday till Sunday night by myself. But I was like, you know what? This is one of the first weekends I've had in a long time where I have absolutely zero responsibility. I'm going to bang out a column. Like I used part of that time to write and I wrote a column about how Brett Yormark made the right decision or is making the right decision

in which playoff expansion format he is favoring. And there is this in the five plus 11 model, not the two, the four, four, two, two, one. And there's a segment of people who are like very fired up and anti the big 12 betting on itself. And I was wondering like, do you want to talk about that for a second? Yes, we should. And I it's a risk to do this. It is a risk because if you're the big 12 and you said,

we'll take the two automatic bids, you probably will get more teams in the playoff over the next six years, seven years than you would have. That said, you can't do it. You cannot do it. You cannot sign a piece of paper that says we are half as valuable as the Big Ten and the SEC. Even if that's actually true, you can't say it.

You can't admit it ever. I actually don't think that it's that big of a risk at all. I think that if you think they'll get two teams in in the 16, I kind of agree. If you have a 16 team field, they'll probably get two teams in most years. Yeah. And also too, it would only be a risk if you were like, we're gonna, if it was, if the actual format was four, four, two, two, or no guaranteed beds at all. Like that would be a major risk

because you want to make sure that whatever system's in place, you have an automatic seed from your complex to the field. But with 16 teams, they had three of the top 18 last year and it could have gone another way. And like I understand that. BYU was sitting there at 17, right? Yeah.

And then I think I can't remember who was 18. Again, it was last year. I have no recollection of that. But I can't imagine that anybody would be like, yeah, he should definitely just wuss out and take the, take the deal. Like, and also to like people like, yeah, they're not the sec. So quit acting like it.

I don't think that Brett, your Mark is operating under the assumption or the illusion that they are the sec. I think he's offered. No, they're not, but they're, they're fighting for their own relevance. This is the only way to do that. And then also big respect for putting the onus on the programs in your league to get better. And look, it may not work, but I can tell you right now,

if you sign a piece of paper saying we're half as good as the SEC and the Big 10, they're just gonna take more away from you next time around. But also too, what does it not working look like last year? Great. You still got one in that team almost beat Texas should have beaten Texas. Should have gotten a stop on fourth and 13. Like, yeah.

Like, and they were very proud of last year. Like, yeah, like, and they were very proud of last year. I think that the only real thing that can ever change the, uh, the viewpoint of the big 12 is if one of these teams breaks through and makes a run to the national title game and I got news for you, Andy, that's going to happen regardless of whether or not they sign up for two automatic bids or not. Like that's, that they're going to, the playoff format has no impact whatsoever on whether any of these 16 teams are equipped to win a national title that's on them.

That is on them. And we're seeing Texas tech trying to do it. We're seeing BYU trying to do it. We've talked about how Colorado has a path to it. We've talked about how Utah has a path to it. Like there, there are ways to do Arizona State. Like there are ways to do this. What I struggle with though, is for the people who are listening to the show who are like, yeah, Brett Yormark's messing this up. What is the argument against doing it this way? I don't even know what the argument against five. Bird in the hand. That's, that's it.

It's 16 though. It's 16 teams. It is it is and that's the other thing that it's. People kind of based it on what they've seen and they've seen 10 years of a 14 playoff and one year of a 12 team playoff. So you're not thinking necessarily about okay. Let's now project this out at 16. Like how many would they get in most years? And I think if you go back through the history of the rankings now, it's hard because you have a big 12 that had Oklahoma and Texas in it. So it's not necessarily apples to apples. But I do think most years you would have two big 12 teams in the top 16. Yeah.

Yeah, I think that it's going to work out that way regardless. So and they might get more in great years and the format won't have any any change on that. Now Greg Sankey in his opening comments at SEC Media Days, before he took questions, made it sound like, hey, we're still working with everybody, there's not any animosity, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But, the fact of the matter is that the SEC and the Big Ten agreed on what they wanted out of the next playoff format, we'd already know what it is.

Yeah. So, that part needs to get figured out. Yeah. Thanks for indulging me on that for a second, because I was kind of confused by the backlash. Yeah. So here's what Sankey said, in response to a question. This is from our friend Nicole Auerbach. She's, she's there for NBC.

He said, we have a 12 team playoff with five conference champions that can stay if we can't agree. So that starting to feel like a, a, an increasingly viable option. If they can't figure it out by December 1st, I also don't think it's a bad one. What's, what's the, what's the problem with letting a system play out for figure it out by December 1st. I also don't think it's a bad one. What's, what's the, what's the problem with letting a system play out for an extended enough period of time where you have a data to decide whether or not it works or not? Wouldn't bother me if they kept this one.

I, I don't care if it's 12 or 16, like either one's fine with me. This wouldn't bug me if they just kept it there. I think I would sign up right now if somebody gave me the power for seven years of this and then make decisions in seven years. Jordan asks, why do the SEC and the Big Ten get all the say in this? Here's why, Jordan. Because if you have a playoff, if the SEC and the Big Ten had a playoff just themselves,

most of the country would consider whoever won that the national champion. If everybody else had a playoff without the big 10 and the SEC would be considered irrelevant. They have all the power. That's why they have control. Kind of like when you get an Airbnb with all your friends and whoever booked it gets the master bedroom. Yeah, they are paying the bills on this thing.

They have the teams that everybody wants to see. Yeah. So that's why. Alright, let's talk about the one other thing. We made it this far. This is as boring offseason money topics go. This is actually one of the more interesting ones. This is kind of juicy. So we talked about the house settlement. We've talked about this College Sports Commission, which is basically what was created by the conferences out of the house settlement it's just the NCAA by another name and It's supposed to police

the third party NIL deal so that you know the schools can outpay players and that money is supposed to be capped and you're supposed to be able to get quote-unquote legitimate NIL but you're not supposed to have collectives paying players just for being good at football. Well the CSC put out guidance last week about well we're going to deny these deals and even like a collective here's here's the example they gave Ari and I'll run this by you so a collective Pays a player X number of dollars that player is then required to go to some meet-and-greets with fans Presumably some of the fans who've paid for this and they and the fans of course pay to get in and That is what the that is the the thing that the collective

is selling the good and service that the that the player and the collective are selling so the player and the collective got together they you know the the collective will pay the player the collective will then charge people to come meet the player the csc says this is not a legitimate business on in what universe is that not a legitimate business? Having people charged to meet famous people. Like that is a very firmly established legitimate business. And it's almost the same thing as the actual event itself, which is people paying money to go watch them perform. Correct.

Correct. So, and this is, I think that I think the people who like the conferences didn't understand this. The first people to complain officially were the attorneys for the plaintiffs in the House settlement. So that would be Jeffrey Kessler and Steve Berman. Jeffrey Kessler, by the way, is the best plaintiffs attorney in sports law. The best one. Like he got free agency to the NFL. Did you think he was just going to go to sleep and that was going to be it? So they sent a letter on Friday saying, hey, this violates the settlement and we want relief from the judge who's assigned to

to adjudicate these things now. This is not gonna work for the conferences. They're not gonna be able to stop this. Like this is very clearly a violation of that. And I just, it didn't even make it two weeks. It's almost as if everybody looked at it and said, this is stupid, it's not gonna work. Well, guess what? It's not gonna work. Yeah, guess what? It's not gonna work

Yeah, I would love to know the actual terms of the deals that were flagged Yeah, I'm sure that was all hey We're gonna give you some money and here's these very little, you know, very few things you have to do to get it But it doesn't matter You are worth whatever someone is willing to pay you for something Yeah now most You are worth whatever someone is willing to pay you for something. Yeah, now post the bill that Greg Sankey was touting that just got introduced in the House. The score act. It essentially gives the schools and the conferences carte blanche to just violate antitrust laws at will.

It gives them an antitrust exemption. It's probably not going to pass, at least with that part of it intact. violate antitrust laws at will. It gives them an antitrust exemption. It's probably not going to pass, at least with that part of it intact. If it does, God bless them. They've put one over on the US government, and they're going to get to steal money from the players again.

If it doesn't, which it probably won't, they're going to have to figure something else out. So we'll see where they get. The steal money from the players again. It's like so blunt and true. That's essentially what they were doing for 100 years. So yeah. I just like to do the math equation. This is a Bad at Math podcast, the math equation in my head of how much is it gonna cost everybody involved to go through the legal semantics of all this crap in relation to how much it would cost

to just do the system you're afraid of? And which one would, like how much more money would you spend in either? Like, are you saving money by going through all these legal gymnastics? I think they think it will cost them more if they have to make them employees. They don't actually have to make them employee. They don't actually have to make them employee.

They don't have to make them W2 employees. They can make them gig workers. They can make them like Uber drivers. That'd be cool. But they could still organize in that way and you could have a CBA. The CBA is what allows you to have rules in the pro sports. I don't think people understand that. Everybody thinks the NFL has an antitrust exemption.

It doesn't. The only antitrust exemption the NFL has is the Broadcasting Act of 1961 that allows them to sell their TV rights as one. That's the only protection they have. Like the NFL has lost a major, well several major antitrust cases, but they lost to the USFL.

But remember they only got awarded $1, which became three because you tripled the amount. But so it's not that they have actual protection from the government to do something. They just negotiate with the players and they make a collective bargaining agreement and the players can't sue because they agreed to it. Right.

So that's now I've had people say, and I agree with them. Why would any college player now want to collectively bargain? They've got the best system ever. They do, but the ones at the bottom are gonna want more protections, specifically like lifetime healthcare, that sort of thing. They are going to want more protections, specifically like lifetime health care, that sort of thing. They are going to be the much larger number of players.

They probably would still like a nice CBA that would guarantee them some things over something that doesn't guarantee them anything. Right. How many more years of these conversations are we going to have? When's the Super League starting? 2033. Okay.

So the super, because they're all going to be employees of super league, Inc. When that happens. Wait, when does the S when is the ACC not going to exist anymore? The dead. Well, teams can really start dropping out like flies around 2030, but the SEC TV contract is in 2033. Did you remember what year I said?

2033. I'm sorry, everybody. Because we're still gonna be doing that show this show then. I hope so. I hope. I hope so. Yeah. I don't know that I want to do eight more years of this. 2033 this show is going to be a behemoth if we make it that far. That's a monster like we're going to be so important that we're

we'll do like Howard Stern did where we scale it back to like two shows a week like yeah. We were two shows a week or seven months a year. I think that's funny though is that that like in college football, I think more things happen in college football in a given week than in the NFL. Like it's not even close, right? Oh, undoubtedly. And the NFL, now the NFL has created different dates to create, that generate news, that it's like they do it on purpose.

College football doesn't do it on purpose. It's just constant. It's just pure numbers. There's just more people playing and there's more teams and more coaches. So more things happen. But I don't know if we could ever exist in a world where we go live twice a week for a show without going live 20 other times to like break down breaking news. Exactly. And that's by the way, expect that starting this week where if something crazy happens, we just pop on for a few minutes because that is we're now into that, that area, like somebody at SEC media days is going to say something really interesting and we're going to want to squeeze off a take.

So, uh, Steve in the chat says, do you guys have any good names for the super league or is it just the super league? I just, I don't know about you Ari, I figured the people who gave us college football playoff are probably not going to give us anything super creative. You could call it the league of leagues, the, I don't know, the mega league. Mega. Uh, I like the college football playoff, by the way. I like the name. It's it's very SEO friendly. Um, it's so much. It's like if people you can't compare that to the Washington football team, like the college football playoff is I mean, the NFL doesn't even have a name for the playoffs.

It's the NFL playoffs. Why would it college footballs be any different? Yeah, I I'm with you and it said I have no problem with the name just describing what the show is or what the what the product is. Yeah, college football Super League has a Wikipedia page so. The Wikipedia editors getting started early. Yeah, there's some I'm looking at the actual references area and there's like a Dan Walken story in here. Oh, how about that?

There's not one of ours. I'm looking to see if there's one from you. I think I took a crack when the soccer Super League failed in Europe. I took a crack at what a, I think a 15 team or a 16 team league would look like. Boy, that made people mad. Yeah, the main reference to this is an ESPN story with the headline, what would a Super League look like? Andrea Adelson, I think, contributed to this. Bill Connolly and David

Hale, those guys did that. But I... we could do like a five-minute segment at some point later in the week with some time to think about it coming up with Super League names, but you know. Nobody... no, because the Super League just oppresses people. Yeah. And that's... I don't want that. Brian Kelly's up talking at SEC Media Days now. I saw this earlier because they always have the the scrum beforehand with the local media and. Brian Kelly said that LSU shrink coaches have put tiger paws on all the bags that they hit. In their offseason workouts, the Clemson Tiger Paul logo because they are emphasizing winning that game.

How much is the is the season opener losing streak in the heads of Brian Kelly and company these days? Like it has to be, it's insane. It predates him, like he's only responsible for three of these. Well, I mean, like what is the record for most consecutive openers lost from like a powerhouse program?

I bet you this one's it, right? Probably and now part of it is LSU schedules somebody good every year. No, I know, but that's that's part of the reason why it's gotta be a record. Yeah. Yeah, this is I feel bad for them at this point because. This is probably the worst one of the bunch, right? Is this Clemson team the best of those teams that they've played?

Uh, yeah. Because the two Florida State like one of the Florida State teams was very good. That one Florida State team went 13 and oh so maybe maybe that one like that. Last year's USC team was obviously not that good. Yeah. Clemson actually is a national championship contender.

I don't know. LSU is also supposed to be the best version of itself too, which makes the game so. Correct. So like they're playing the best version of Clemson that they could be playing. But in theory, they should be the best. You remember how this thing started, by the way? But in theory they should be the best. Do you remember how this thing started by the way?

It started in 2020 with that 10 game all SEC schedule. Where the first game I believe was early October. Remember Mike Leach's first game they threw for 600 yards against the Boppalini defense at LSU? I remember that. That was the first of these. That started the losing streak. Yeah, but that was like the like

cooker of Boppalini's entire like existence in Van Rouge too. Oh yeah, no, it was over at that point. And that was a just. But that was. Fool's gold because the following week. That Mississippi Day offense got shut down. Yeah, so yeah, I mean this was the

number one game Andy on my off season list of games I'm most excited to watch in the non conference and people went crazy. So I love this game. I'm so excited. Let's remember what the second game of that was. No, I have no recall.

At UCLA with Coach O talking about that blue. Oh, is that the game where UCLA beat the crap out of them on the ground and just ran all over them? Like ran it on their throats for four quarters? Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, very strange. Chip Kelly against Coach O. Like that was that was bizarre. Bizarre. Like losing to Florida State the following year, fine. Losing to Florida State the next year, also fine because that Florida State team went 13-0 before all the stuff happened. Yeah. And then last year, not fine because that USA team turned out to not be good. But I'm fascinated by this LSU team because I think Nussmeier is going to be very good. Obviously you saw my quarterback rankings. I think

Ryan Kelly is under a lot of pressure, even though his buyout is enormous and they probably can't fire. You think he's under a ton of. Yeah, it kind of reminds me of like what Paul Finebomb said about Lincoln Riley being under the most pressure. I was like, I feel like you cannot be under the most pressure if you can't be fired. Maybe that's a topic for tomorrow. Because we'll have the full Brian Kelly experience. He will have done the whole rounds.

Who in the SEC is under the most pressure? Which coaches are the most pressure in the SEC? I might write this kind of write this like which coaches are like the pressure meter. I love it. Can we do we need to come up with a, with a, with a gauge with a measurement? I just, I'm trying to come up with a clever headline that, um, but like I'm going to do like top 10 coaches in the country and then we can talk about it tomorrow. I think that's great.

I, and, and I, I'm happy to send you all their buyout information because I included it in a hot seat column earlier this year. Yeah. Just send me the column so I can like, because their hot seat or their buyout, their buyout situation has a direct impact on their pressure. Absolutely. Because like in, under normal circumstances, we would have Luke Fickel very high on this list at Wisconsin.

His buyouts enormous. But like, let me ask you this as a guide and then we'll go. If you know, you can't be fired. You can still be under a tremendous amount of pressure, right? Which is why I think Brian Kelly fits perfectly here. But like Billy Napier and those guys who are like if you don't win seven games out of the first nine, you're gone. They will do it. You know you're gone. Yeah, right. Yeah, yep, yep. And that's what makes Kelly's situation so different is like another eight and four season at LSU is not good enough. But I'm not sure what they would do about it.

This off season has gone by very quickly and this off season has also gone by very slowly and I'm trying to remember if I wrote something similar to this. I don't think you did. I know I did in January or February. But I remember sitting with you and you were doing that. You were're like you did a hot seat column.

But pressure hot seat are different. They are different. They are different because I would argue that Mark Stoops is under pressure, but there's no chance in hell that Kentucky could fire him without cause. His buyout is too big. It is all doing one lump sum. It's never going to happen. They're not going to pay the buyout is too big. It is all doing one lump sum. It's never going to happen. They're not going to pay the buyout.

So it would have to be him retiring or something else if he had a bad year. But there is pressure like Lincoln Riley under pressure, not necessarily fireable because his buyout is so big. Yeah, Mark Stoops though, like there's a different type of pressure too. It's like if you had a legacy or, you know, you were a one point, a coach that people might've thought of making a statue and then over staying your welcome. And then the views souring on you. And then that's what you're remembered by. Like that, like to me, there's pressure in that. Yeah. Rocky Top Tom says Mark Stoops can keep going eight and four for the rest of eternity. The problem is they don't look equipped to go eight and four. That's, that's the issue. Yeah. Yeah. If he could keep going eight and four, I think they'd be okay with that. Yeah. Eight and four is, is celebratory. Yeah. That's the biggest issue, but I am so excited about this.

Last week was awesome in Frisco, Texas, getting to see everybody, getting fresh content. SEC Media Days is a circus. We all know that, but we're going to get a hell of a lot more stuff, and it's going to be so much fun. So in a week from right now, Daddy's going to be on an airplane to Vegas, baby. There you go. Remember we got Brian Kelly, Shane Beamer, Clark Lee, Diego Pavia from Vandy,

Lane Kiffin, Austin Simmons from Ole Miss. We got a lot of fun today. Tomorrow, Hugh Freeze, Kirby Smart, Josh Hyple, and Steve Sarkeesian. Now, of those, Hugh Freeze would be your one under the most pressure. And I would argue, it's your list. I'm not going to tell you how to make your own list. I think Hugh Freeze under the most pressure because I think his buyout is the most manageable. I think Brent of Hennibals is under most pressure. Cause I think his buyout is the most manageable. I think Brent of Hannibal's is under more pressure.

I think they're under the same amount of pressure. Ari, do they play each other? Oh yes, they do. Oh, by the way, terrible news, by the way. Um, I can't go to that game. I can't go to it. Life got in the way. Daughter's birthday party.

Listen, I know a couple couple people who have the same birthday as your daughter. Yeah. If we all agreed that all the people who were born on September 29th, just celebrate on a different day. Producer River, join me as a fellow September 29th birthday. Yeah.

Along with Liv Wasserman. River, do you okay us celebrating on a different day so that Ari can go to Auburn, Oklahoma? The problem is, and I don't know if you ever did this with your kids, Andy, we're doing a joint birthday party with one of our classmates that has a birthday at the same time. And the joint birthday party makes it more cost effective

and like more fun. Oh, the joint birthday party is clutch. They all have the same friends and they were born five days apart from each other. So like- And you are in the preschool, early elementary school phase of everybody in the class has to get invited.

Yes. That gets so expensive. Yeah, but also too, like we, why go to their birthday party a day before our birthday party. But like also too, it's just like, there are certain things in life that you're just like not gonna miss

and my daughter's birthday is one of them. So, but I'll be- Hold on. I do. Is this party gonna take place while games are going on? It's gonna take place during a gap gap in which it was the same thing that happened last year. There's no gap.

Once the game started noon, they've started. Yeah, but we're doing it like towards the end of. Yeah, it's like in the early evening. So like, oh, you're fired. You're so fired. Oh, I mean, like I did it last year. You don't remember. I remember.

Yeah. And like also too. You think I'm not just can't wait till you have to go live from your daughter's birthday But we did I did it at a time so I would be home but the problem with it is is that you look at the like Just so you know, I was told when this is I wasn't asked I know That's my favorite part of this is, I wasn't asked. I know. That's my favorite part of this is torturing you because I know you have no choice. But I looked at the actual schedule in the game. It has happened yesterday while we were waiting at the airport to pick her up and to pick

up our daughter. And Britt told me in the car last night and she goes, can you do September 20th? And I was like, do I have a choice? And she's like, well, we booked it. I was like, okay, so why are you asking me? Um, and then, but she goes, are there any big games that day? And the following weekend, which would be the more appropriate time for her birthday party is Oregon, Penn state. So like there's other, but like the game times haven't been an out. Yeah, you did probably luck out on that front because I think now look,

there's big games every Saturday. Yeah, yeah. There's no good this Saturday. But like I'm not going to like one of my best friends wedding. Like I'm like I'm doing the best that I can. I also like you're not traveling for it. It's in town.

It'll be fine. But I just think it's very funny that you didn't get a choice. And I tried to look at the schedule of the day. I'm like, how is this gonna map out and like I think of Florida Miami is that day as well It's gonna be fun Why don't you try to help me map out the actual times of the games Tulane? Ole Miss is an interesting game that day, South Carolina Mizzou Auburn, Oklahoma Oregon Oregon State Texas tech Illinois, Indiana's that day. That's, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona,

Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona,

Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona,

Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, time Arizona State baler is that we think that In the grand scheme of actually jam-packed days that I might have lucked out. I think you don't simple it because I think the next week has objectively bigger games, but I Almost everybody's into conference play by that next week The following week we have Ohio State at Washington, LSU at Ole Miss, which is a big game.

Florida and Texas A&M, USC Illinois. Yeah, USC Illinois. Indiana, Iowa. Yeah. You got the bullet buddy. But also Notre Dame plays Arkansas, which I think is kind of sneaky good. Oregon, Penn State, BYU at Colorado would have been a big game.

I don't know what it will be like. Oh, Alabama, George's also in the 27th. I'm upset though, because you know, more than anything Andy, and I think that you and I differ on this. I love football more when there are like juicy storylines to it. And there is nothing more compelling than Jackson Arnold returning to

Norman to me and like, I wanted to actually, it's like not, I'm not worried about missing an hour because the birthday parties when they're four or like an hour and a half, I'm not worried about missing stuff. I'm worried and upset that I don't get to go to that. I wanted to, I wanted to leave town to go to that game. All right. I'm worried and upset that I don't get to go to that. I wanted to, I wanted to leave town to go to that game. That is one where I feel like psychologically there's so much going on. So you have the Jackson Arnold coming back

to Norman part of it. You also have the pressure on Hugh Fries and Brent Venables who, look, somebody's going to win that game. It doesn't mean that both, that both of them have great years or that the one that wins has a great year. It's that there are only so many winnable games. Now I will argue that I

think Auburn could have a potentially great season if they get good quarterback play out of out of Jackson Arnold. But I just think this is going to be yeah, psychologically, this might be the most heavy game of the year. Yeah, psychologically. This might be the most heavy game of here. Yeah, make sense. Yeah, I mean, I just can't imagine like if Brent loses to Jackson Arnold at home. It could be very bad, very, very bad.

And you know, the other the flip side of that is if Auburn is in every game, but they get crippling interceptions that cost them, which was the same problem last year with a different quarterback, like that would be just awful. So yes, it's gonna be. And one thing that we didn't mention, which I want to tip my hat, that's not the right term. I want to acknowledge Oklahoma and Auburn fans is I think that both of us feel like both of these teams have a shot at doing something unexpected this year.

And that might be better road type game for both teams where it's like, both are doing pretty good. Whoever wins that game goes on to have a much better than expected season. And whoever loses that game goes left. And I think that like that on top of the pressure and the Jackson Arnold angle might define that day too. Cause what if they're both in and pretty good? Like what if Oklahoma? I'm telling you right now, Auburn's roster

is one of the best Auburn rosters we've seen in the past 10 years. Auburn's got some dudes. Keldrick Falk, the offensive tackle they got from Virginia Tech that Cody Bolero loves. Cam Coleman, Eric Singleton Jr. Yeah. The defensive end they got in the portal that everyone's obsessed with.

Exactly. Exactly. So that is what makes this so fascinating. And then, and obviously And obviously we talked about John Matier at the start of the show and how great we think he can be. So yeah, Xavier Chaplin is the offensive tackle from Virginia Tech who could be really good at Auburn this year. All right, Ari, it's football season. We're here.

Now we just need somebody to say something stupid at SEC Media Days. We'll talk to you tomorrow.