Andy & Ari On3 - Why the 24-team College Football Playoff is NONSENSE: Who can fight it?

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

As most of the discourse this week has revolved around the expansion of the 12-team College Football Playoff, Andy figured out what the last two season's playoff field would have looked like with a 24 team field. Since the conference championships would likely be eliminated in this format, Andy used the penultimate rankings from both 2024 and 2025. Sent in the show's group message, Producer River responded with, "Is it crazy to think this is nonsensical??" Watch here as Andy & Ari discuss this in great detail and what's to come next out of college football. Do you think the College Football Playoff's format is doomed to expand to 24? Let us know your thoughts on the expanded format.   (0:00) On Today's Episode (0:48) Presenting Sponsor (2:38) Intro: 24 team talk (4:22) Dear Andy & Ari, is this nonsensical?? (19:12) Can Greg Sankey STOP the playoff expansion? (32:50) NBC and Notre Dame's night games (40:20) Florida fans paying for Mike Norvell's extension? (49:34) Ole Miss fans, would you rather? (52:12) Excitement surrounding Will Stein at Kentucky (55:20) Drive-thru (56:18) Random Ranking: Top Dishes Across CFB (1:26:30) Thanks for watching! See you Monday   After the discussion surrounding the College Football Playoff, Andy & Ari dive into some more questions...   What's your take on NBC giving Notre Dame 2 more home games?   Would it be unethical or tampering if Florida fans paid for Florida State to extend Mike Norvell?   A "would you rather" for Ole Miss fans   Why all the excitement for Will Stein at Kentucky?   To close the show, Andy & Ari randomly rank their top dishes across college football towns in America. Do you agree with Andy & Ari's list? Let us know your thoughts!   Our show is also presented by BetMGM!   If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works:   1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB. 2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. 3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sure you use bonus code CFB when you sign up!   Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary.   See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. This promotional offer is not available in DC, Mississippi, New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET (Available in the US) . 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only (if applicable). Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel   Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/join   Watch our show on YouTube:    Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey   Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today is Andy and Ari on three presented by BetMGM. It is a dear Andy, dear Ari episode, and you have questions. One, how can the 2014 college football playoff be stopped? It feels like it's a train running off the tracks. I wrote a column about what it would look like and barf. We'll talk about that. Plus, how is the Notre Dame schedule going to shake out in terms of your TV viewing this year.

Also, should rival fans be allowed to create funds to keep a coach that their rival can't seem to win with? We'll talk about it all on today's Annie and Rion 3 presented by BedmGM. We are presented by BetMGM. The Lions and totals we use on this show come from BedmGM. If you want to sign up today, use the code CFB. That CFB is in college football. you can get up to $1,500 in bonus bets.

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This 2014 playoff feels like an inevitability as we record this a day after the NCAA officially announced the 76 team basketball tournament bracket. But I feel like we should still fight. I feel like we should not give up the fight. Yeah, like I think that it's cool that, you know, some people view our power a little bit more than it actually is, but let's still wield it anyway.

I do not think they're going to listen to us, but, you know, I was listening to our pal Josh Pate, and he was talking about this on his show. And he's saying something similar to what you and I have said over the past few weeks is, hey, with the 12, there is a danger level in the regular season. Like a team that got left out of the 12 last year very much probably could have either made the final or won the national title. And that's Notre Dame.

That's the kind of danger level that keeps the regular season very, very interesting. If you go to 24 and we're going to show you what that would look like, it will not be that interesting. So you went through and did it. I did. So this column will be running probably. I would assume this weekend. It does not run yet as of Friday. I think he's probably running this weekend.

And what I did is I figured out what the 2014 playoff would have looked like in 2012 and 2025. And I sent you guys a screenshot in our group chat of what the 2024 playoff would look like.

And producer River was editing yesterday's show at the time. He comes back after about an hour or so. Sorry, I was editing. what the hell is this? This is nonsense. Day I slop, dude. That's what that is. So that's question one on Dear Andy Deerari from Producer River.

Isn't this nonsensical? Question two, and we'll combine it from our friend Lisa. Our friend Lisa. We butted heads last week a little bit, but we're... Lisa's not afraid to challenge us, and that's fine. I love that. I'm in on Lisa. I'm buying stock.

Lisa is a Bama fan. Can and will Greg Sanky stop? the 24 team playoff from becoming a reality. How hard is the SPN pushing him behind the scenes to block 24? Well, the huge loss of revenue for the SEC due to losing the championship game, motivate them to hold firm and not consent to 24, thereby keeping it at 12. Okay, we will get to the answer of Lisa's question in a second, but first, I want to tell you what this would look like. I want you to understand what this would look like before we get too far down the road. Because look, look, the coaches have said they want 24.

The commissioners of every conference, but the SEC have now flipped to 24. And you know, you get some fans that just want their team to win, their conference team to win. And then they're like, oh, I want 24 just because Tony Petiti wants it. But the overwhelming majority of fans I've heard from do not want this.

And let's go through what it would, what it would have looked like in, 2004 and 2025. I might mute my mic. I don't want you guys to hear the puke sounds. Listen, if you want to make fart noises or puk sounds, you can feel free. All right, 2004. You're ready for the first round?

So this is two years ago. This is the playoff that Ohio State won when they beat Notre Dame at the end. First round, number 24 Army at number nine, Indiana. Number 23 Colorado at number 10, Boise State. Oh, actually, before I get into this, so you're wondering why these numbers don't sound like the final CFP rankings necessarily of the 2024 season? Because I use the penultimate CFP rankings. Because if there's a 2014 playoff, the conference championship games will be gone.

They will not be played. So I used the rankings before the conference championship games were played because that's what it really would be. I have a big brands on Andy. That's the smart thing to do. Well, yeah, that's what they'd be using. So number 20. Why'd you do 24 instead of 25?

What do you mean? The year. I did 24 and 25. Okay, okay. Yeah. So number 24 Army at number 9, Indiana. Number 23, Colorado at number 10, Boise State. Number 22, Syracuse at number 11, Alabama.

Number 21, Illinois at number 12, Miami, number 20, UNLV at number 13, Ole Miss, number 19 Missouri at number 14, South Carolina, number 18, BYU at number 15, Arizona State, number 17, Clemson at number 16, Iowa State. Your Clemson, Iowa State winner would be at number one, Oregon. Your BYU, Arizona State winner would be at number two, Texas. Your Missouri, South Carolina winner would be at number three Penn State. UNLVELMIS would be at number four, Notre Dame, Illinois, Miami would be at number five, Georgia. Syracuse Alabama would be at number six, Ohio State.

Colorado, Boise State winner at number seven, Tennessee, Army, Indiana winner at number eight SMU. You know what that sounded like? Andy just went to the Wikipedia page and typed in power conferences and then read the names down of all the teams. Everybody got it. Yeah, but I mean, UNLV makes it. No, I'm just saying, like, that's what it sounded like to me. Army makes it. Yeah.

And so in the column, I wrote what kind of questions this would raise. raised because I do feel like if this thing's going to come, we got to at least examine how it's going to look. And so it raised some questions for me. Like, if Army's going to get in, you got to move the Army Navy game. Because Navy was really good that year too, and Navy's been good. So you have to, you're going to have to move Army Navy. That's got to change because you can't keep it where it is, because this would be played if it's what they're talking about the week that the conference championship games are right now. So would you, what if Army won that game. The next week is Army Navy. So you're going to have to move Army Navy if you do that.

Could we have handled Coach Prime in the playoff? The sad thing is that we cannot pretend that this doesn't at least look like fun to watch. Like I would have liked to watch. Okay, if I gave you the 16 from this year, I feel like it'd be more fun. Or that second round, I gave you, which is the 16, feels fun. You don't need the first round. No. But if this was on TV, it would be, I mean, we're all loving watching it. Like, I, are we, what games are we loving watching in this?

I think Illinois and Miami, we'd probably enjoy. Missouri-South Carolina tend to play competitive games. That could be fun. BYU, Arizona State, Clemson, Iowa State. I guess. Yeah, but it just, it kind of feels like you're just watching games that we already, like we already know who those teams are by then. Like that's the thing.

Like, we have nothing to find out about these games. Now, it would have been interesting. There are, trust me, I'm not saying that they're onto something here. That's not what I'm saying.

Oh, no. Oh, are you, are you flipping? No, no, no. Um,

the only benefits to this to me are no more bitching about the 13 team. bitch about the 25 team. That's such low stakes at this point. I know, but here's the other thing, though. Like, I don't know. That Ole Miss Georgia game we went to, nothing means nothing. The Ole Miss Florida game I covered two weeks later.

Nothing. Oh, none of the games matter. Yeah, no. That Ole Miss Florida game was massively consequential because it's not going to miss out of the playoff. Yeah, I will say this is another question I ask in the column. If that Ole Miss team beats or gets into the playoff and wins a couple games or let's say they go to the final or they go to the semis like they did last year. Does Lane Kiffin just stay even though he gets offered the Florida and LSU jobs?

Yeah, I mean the what is it called the swinging door scenarios? Like we were talking about. Yeah, yeah. Fran Brown being in the playoff. What if they beat Bama that year? you know, I still feel like it looks like the teams that advanced would have won these games. Like I'm looking at matchups in the first round and thinking, well, is one of these teams that, like, would Colorado have beaten Boise? Like, I don't think that they would have.

Honestly. Let me give you the 25 bracket now. That's fresher. So this is last year. Number 24, North Texas at number 9, Alabama. number 23 Iowa at number 10 Notre Dame. That's the one. Number 22, Georgia Tech at number 11, VYU,

which was the Pop-Tarts Bowl, by the way. Number 21, Houston at number 12, Miami, number 22 Lane at number 13, Texas. Number 19, Michigan at number 14, Vanderbilt. Number 18, Arizona, at number 15, Utah. Number 17, Virginia at number 16, USC. And then your Virginia USC winner would have played Ohio State,

because remember, there's been no Big Ten championship game for Indiana to beat Ohio State. So we just go with the rank. Vikings as the season ended. Arizona, Utah winner at Indiana, Michigan Vandy winner at Georgia, Tulane, Texas winner at Texas Tech, which the Longhorns having to go to Lubbock in the playoff would be very funny. Yeah.

Houston, Miami winner at Oregon, which could be Mario coming back to Eugene. Georgia Tech, BYU winner at Ole Miss. Iowa, Notre Dame winner at Texas A&M, North Texas, Alabama winner at Oklahoma. So like the Notre Dame situation. They could have won the national title last year, maybe. And this 2014 one, just the way it shook out, that team would have had to earn every inch. Because they would have to play Iowa. Then they would have played at Texas A&M.

And the winner of that game probably would be playing Indiana. And that's just to get to the semis. So the thing that happens when you open it up to everybody is, is you're going to create more situations like the NCAA tournament where, you know, worlds collide and, you know, Mario plays Oregon again. and, you know, the storylines that are there, Texas going to Texas Tech, like those things that just typically never happen. And I think that that's like a small benefit because who wouldn't want to watch Texas go to Texas Tech?

But I also really enjoy. But you could also have that in the 12th team. That can happen in the 12th team. Yeah. I don't get it, man. I really, I truly like, at least when the playoff move from 4 to 12 and I was against it, I at least understood the appeal. Right.

And when that was happening, a lot of the fans were okay with it or for it. I don't understand the appeal here. Yeah. There's not really anybody who just wants this. Now, if you are an Iowa state fan or you're a Georgia Tech fan or a Utah fan or an Arizona fan or a Virginia fan, you may be more prone to wanting this because then it lowers the entry fee to get in. And I think being number 19 is so much easier than being number 12 and obviously infinitely easier than being number four.

Yeah. So it opens the door to teams that would never in other worlds get in for the most part. Which is the reason why the commissioners have flipped at this because all it took to get everybody on board except Greg Sankey. And we're going to get to Lisa's question in a minute. All it took to get all the other ones on board was for them to say this is all that large. We're not going to codify which conferences are superior to the others. Because that was the problem for the ACC and the Big 12 last year.

When the Big Ten was saying, well, we want to do automatic bids and the Big Ten and the SEC are going to get the most. And then the ACC and the Big 12 will get like half what they get. Like if you're the ACC and the Big 12, you can never agree to that. But at the second Tony Petiti said, okay, fine, what if it's all at large? Everybody else was like, okay, sounds good, sign us up. Yeah. Now, I like football, and I don't want to be accused of not liking football. I enjoy watching football, and I even acknowledge it.

Essentially the same amount of football either way, so that you're not getting accused of not liking football here. Once I know what a team is, my desire to see them play more diminishes. I think part of the fun of college football is the storylines and the unknowns that are answered in the game. I'm a very bachelor type. But you want those October games to also be part of the story and be part of the end of the story. But if those are at least lead to the end of the story. But in the 12 team playoff, in those October games, that mean something, whether it means being 14 or 10. In those instances, I'm still not sure 100% how good you can be.

Right. And you could still trip up in November. But when you have two losses by October, you are. We knew what Arizona was riding the razor's edge. Arizona was a solid team last year. It was fun to watch them. Congratulations to Coach Brennan for having a huge bounce back year. I don't need to watch them in the playoff.

I know what they were. I don't need to watch Georgia Tech last year in the playoff. I know what they were. And I just- Georgia Tech actually fell apart in November. Yeah. I'm looking at the bottom here. Now, Virginia is the only one that you would kind of feel bad for because-

They had a good year, playing the ACC championship game. But Virginia at the same time, had more than ample opportunity to prove throughout the entire year that they were national championship caliber. Remember, if they'd won. the ACC championship game, they would have made the playoff instead of James Madison. So they were in the playoff last year, in my opinion. So, you know, the thing that I don't want is a bunch of games in the first round where the winner gets led to the slaughtering house in the second round.

Like, that's the thing that has changed about the 12-team playoff that I thought would happen would be all the teams between 11 and 8 and 7 would just get their ass kicked because they would have. And now we're like, are the teams with a buy actually to disadvantage? Because Georgia's lost twice. Now what I misfired on. Yeah. But in 2019, Miami would have gotten their ass kicked by Ohio State. Yeah. This wouldn't have even been a, so like we've said on the show,

if it ever gets to a point where Virginia from last year actually could beat Georgia, then I'm all for it. We're not there yet. And all we're going is adding an extra. It gets there before you make this change. is what we keep saying, like, let this play out the way it is right now. And if the sport continues to evolve in this way, then yes, it might make sense in a few years. It doesn't make sense now.

You ever go to a restaurant when you're really hungry? And this is foreshadowing to the end of the show. And you're just like really looking forward to your meal. And you know the main dish that you're ordering is going to be very good because you've been there before. but then you try a new appetizer and the appetizer comes out and it blows how it kind of like messes the entire tone because you're not as hungry or excited or ready for that that entree and you kind of spoil your meal with like a below average appetizer that's what this kind of feels like to me so how do you stop it let's go to lisa's question again she asked can and will gregg sankie stop the 2014 college football playoff from becoming a reality how hard is the espion pushing him behind the scenes to block 24 with a loss of revenue from the the SEC championship game also motivated him to hold firm and not consider 24, thus keeping in a 12th. So here's what makes this very interesting. Greg Sankey, two or three years ago, would have already gotten what he wanted, which is a 16-team playoff

with mostly a-Qs, or excuse me, with mostly at-larges, because Greg Sankey had everybody on his side as of January. Greg Sankey had all the other conferences on his side as of January. They wanted a 16-team playoff. They didn't want automatic bids. They were on the team alongside Greg Sankey and against Tony Petiti. Petiti, very wisely, offered up the 24 team, mostly at large playoff, and everybody flipped. So now everybody else is against Greg Sankey. So one of these two guys, depending on when this vote would have been taken, would have won three years ago.

because they had everybody else on their side. But they got together, Petiti and Sankey, a few years ago, and essentially strong-armed control of the CFP away from everybody else. So now the only two votes that matter are the SEC and the Big Ten, which means if they don't agree, there's no deal. So if Greg Sankey wants to dig in, and I think he's got most of the college football fandom on his side in this case, then he can dig in and stop a deal from happening.

Here's where it gets complicated, though. Because usually in most of these things, the commissioner has the support of everybody in his league, especially in the case of the SEC. Whether it was Greg Sankey or Mike Slive before him or Roy Kramer before him, the league tended to band together behind the commissioner. That is not happening right now. And that's the difference.

The Big Ten is squarely behind Tony Petiti. We had Kurt Signetti on the show, and he's like, whatever Tony Petitie thinks is good for me. That is not happening in the SEC right now. All of the coaches want 24, and we went over the reasons why. Danny White, the AD at Tennessee. he came out the other day and said, I want a 2014 playoff.

Like that's an AD. Now, Danny's always marched to the beat of his own drummer, whether it was as Tennessee's AD or UCF's AD. So you could call him an outlier, but you also have Greg Byrne, the Alabama AD saying the time for the conference championship game has passed. Greg Byrne is not the kind of person who will go against Greg Sankey lightly.

He is not that. person. They are typically in lockstep. So the fact that he would say that on the record to USA today tells you there is way more dissension in the ranks than Greg Sankey is used to dealing with. So you and I may agree with Greg Sankey. The common fan may agree with Greg Sankey. His constituents don't necessarily agree with him. Well, that's the thing that kind of frustrates me a little bit. By the way, a column that said, here's how Greg Sanky could save college football would probably do numbers. Because people view him as Darth Vader, I think, don't they? Unless you're an SEC person.

Pretty much, yeah. But Andy, if you're Jim Phillips, you get it. I get why he would want 24. Right? I mean, it's right. Your Mark, same reasons. Right, your mark? Of course.

Why wouldn't they? They don't have to admit their second class citizens, and they can have a bunch of teams littered in the. bottom half of the top 24 who get in. You're dangling a carrot on a string to, I mean, there might be some years, Andy, and I don't know how it would play out where the Big 12 or the ACC have as many teams in as the Big 10 or the SAC.

They might not be in high- This is exactly why. Exactly why. The basketball tournament is 76 teams now. Petiti and Sankey were the ones behind that. Sanky's all for that. It's strange because he's, he's against this for a reason Lisa mentioned.

The reason he's against this, or one of the reasons he's against this, is you would have to give up your conference championship games, and the SEC makes more money off its conference championship games than anybody else, and it's not clear whether the additional revenue you get from the new college football playoff games would make the SEC whole. But if the reason that Greg Sanky can no longer hold his boots in the ground, and hold the line is because of SEC coaches wanting to clamor

onto the hope of false security. It's more the ADs than the coaches. And then I also understand why the ADs would want it. Now, there are certain ADs in the SEC who don't have programs that are typically in the top 12. Now, we saw Vanderbilt do something new this year, but if you're Vanderbilt's AD or your Tennessee's AD, funny enough, Tennessee made the 12-team playoff,

but Tennessee is in the 24 team every year. Everybody's opinion is self-serving. Yeah. And I had somebody write in yesterday and say, well, nobody's talking about this would give an extra round of home games. You could have an extra round of home games in the 12 team. You don't need to play the quarterfinals at Bulls. It's stupid to do that.

It's always been stupid to do that. So I guess if you boil it down here. All of the things you could do, all of the quote-unquote improvements you're trying to make, you could just do with the 12 team. Like schedule better enough? You can just do that. You don't have to change to do that.

So I tried my best to play good cop a little bit. What are the features or the pros that the 24 team playoff offers that the 12 team playoff cannot? More inclusion

for the Virginias and the BYU's and the Arizona States and the Syracuses and the Vanderbilt's. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm not saying it is because I don't know that the caste system that has existed is the best thing for the sport. So I will seed that one to you. But it's really the only benefit.

People get mad when you say participation trophy. I found that was a landmine. That's participation trophy shit right there. Unless they win, unless they advance. You won't. You didn't. Well, you didn't think they would in a 12, and they did. They won't go, they won't next year, maybe in 2030, but if that's the case, then I'd be waiting until then.

Yeah, you're, you're saying it exactly right. I mean, you're thinking is very logical on this. And I wonder, too, and like, I don't know if this is possible, and I'm not, you know, my aptitude is of normal aptitude. But I also don't know, like, as we've gotten into this new parody, Indiana won the championship thing, where anybody can win and everybody is like walking down in Manhattan with a suit on, like ready to go attack the world and accomplish everything and become a CEO. If it's also off the table that there will be some sort of regression back to the mean in the next few years,

just because we are all the way out here with Indiana women in the gym. Like it's not a fact in such a short amount of time that this is just called football. Georgia and Ohio State may play for the national title next year. Like they still care the most. Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama, the ones that have always cared the most, they still care the most. We don't even not into the revenue share aspect of this yet to see how it plays out either. Yeah. We haven't even gotten to the next level of player compensation yet.

Now, it's still, I think both of our suspicions is that it will continue to go the way that it's been going. No, yeah, I, listen, I took economics in high school and college and you don't really have to be an economics major. Like, you can take the basic classes to understand why talent is spreading out. it's not complicated. So talent's still going to spread out. Kirby Smart said it the other day, you're not going to be able to build the kind of depth that you had. If it ever gets to the point where the 25th team feels like Notre Dame last year,

I'm all for expanding it. And you don't have to do that now because it doesn't feel that way now. I like it. Yeah. And that's the thing. Neither you nor I are against this forever. We are against it now because it doesn't make any sense now. There's a system now that gives you an entertaining postseason

and also enhances the regular season because it is dangerous if you lose. But I also think that while I'm not 100% opposed to this forever, that the detriment to the regular season will prevail no matter what. because back in the day, if you had 24 teams, could you imagine if you had 24 teams that could win the national championship or were talented enough

playing in the BCS system, how insane that regular season would have been? Yeah, but it wouldn't have been satisfying because there would have been teams that could have won the national title that never ever had a chance. And that's why they changed it. Yeah.

But that makes me want to, I feel like you could even make the case if you want to have the most compelling regular season ever, have a four team or a six team one. But the goal is not to have the most compelling regular season, it's to balance having as compelling a regular season as possible while also having an incredibly compelling postseason. It's not to have one or the other.

And we only got a compelling postseason in the 12 team field by accident. Let's not forget that. That wasn't the design of this. Right, by NIL and the transfer rules changing and all that. Do you imagine if we had the 12 team playoff for five years between two, and the first year was 2016? how awful that would have been. Everybody's like, oh, look, the 12 team

playoff was right. It was a happy accident. Didn't see this coming. And like, but if the old system existed and it would have sucked. And that's what you're, and that's what 24 from 12 was going to thrust us into again. We got here by accident. Let's stay here and enjoy the weather.

It's like, it's, you know, like you didn't get here on purpose. I think you're right. I think you're right. I don't know that it matters what we think. I texted Josh Pate before the show. He agrees with me. We need to do a pods across America telecast. How do we do that?

How will that? What's the execution of that? I don't know. We all just come together and just all join each other's shows for the same day. You think he just wear the, you think he just wear the T-shirt? It would be funny if like every podcaster in this space had to take a poll. Are you for or against the 2014 playoff?

I would suspect that 90% of the people would say. Joel Klad is for it. We know that. Well, then he's not invited to the parade. We can have him on as the lone dissenting voice. Josh Pate can host it and we all just sit on a panel and like he can try to raise money for awareness. And then donate. Like if we did like a telethon thing and donate to go and then donate the money to charity like a cancer research or something like that, that would be amazing.

I think that would be good. I think that would be good. Let's talk about that. Let us all workshop that. One thing real quick, though. Outside of Klat, Dan Rubenstein, Ty Hildembrand, like, who am I, is there anybody else in this space that's 424? Because I haven't seen it. Not that I've heard.

I could be wrong. And the thing that's so interesting about this one specific thing is all of us podcasters view the sport very differently. We have very different opinions. Me and you have. And it had different opinions about going from four to 12, by the way. Yeah, it was more split on that. And if you actually like think about how many arguments and disagreements that you and I have, people who are friends who do this every day, like the fact that there's this one specific thing,

which is a highly entertaining package to dream about, would have such a one-sided ground swell of support or against. Like, does that like, I'm not saying that we have any more else. elevated value than a regular fan would. But like if we're all kind of on the same page on this, doesn't that mean something to you? Like, I think it means something. It should.

It should, but it doesn't seem to mean something to them because we felt the same way about the basketball tournament. And they just steamrolled a lot. You know how bad an idea has to be for everybody to agree with me? There you go. That right there is the sound bite. That's it. All right. Next question. This is from the Four Horseman podcast. Dear Andy, NBC has given Notre Dame two extra primetime games this season for total while also not kicking a home game to Peacock. This is extremely unusual and a continuation of a trend from last season where Notre Dame was given one extra night game. What's your take? So my take on this is one, everybody expects Notre Dame be really good and NBC expects Notre Dame to be of great interest to people. Two, NBC has not gotten nearly.

the bang for the buck out of its big 10 deal that it had hoped. And it realizes, let's just stick with Notre Dame and put as much Notre Dame on the air as we can because we need to have as many viewers as possible.

We don't need to be shunting Notre Dame games to peacock only if we can get away with it. So we have a Notre Dame home game. Let's get that sucker on NBC. So... And that home game is Miami, by the way. It's well, the four primetime games in case you're wondering,

Wisconsin at Lambeau Field, which I think that's also part of the Big Ten deal. Michigan State at Notre Dame, Miami at Notre Dame, also SMU at Notre Dame. So Miami's on November 7th, SMU's on November 23rd. Three of their biggest four games of the year. Yeah, huge games, huge games. And those are games. A lot of people are going to want to see,

and if Notre Dame is as good as they're supposed to be, and Miami and SMU are as good as they're as, they're supposed to be, those are going to be bangers and lots of people are going to watch. Candidates for the Peacock game, because basically they said, it feels like NBC's sort of using its own contract language to do this. Because I think the idea was you throw one Notre Dame game on Peacock only per year, and that's going to force people to subscribe to Peacock. I think they've pretty much given up on the idea of forcing people on a Peacock.

I think they feel like whoever's going to have subscribed to Peacock has already subscribed. Peacock's actually a pretty cool streaming platform, by the way. There are some good show. It's got a couple good shows. Twisting Metal's really good. I like poker face. I have a credit card that reimburses you $20 a month for streaming services as like a perk of the credit card or $25 a month. And Peacock was on the list.

So I joined Peacock as there's sporting events on it. And I've actually found that there's a lot of good shows on there. So you can, yeah, you can watch the office. But I think they feel like they've probably maxed that out in terms of Notre Dame fans who will subscribe to Peacock just to watch this one game. So the two potential peacock games this year for Notre Dame, one of them is the Navy game, which is a neutral site game. The other one is at Purdue, which would actually be part of the Big Ten's contract with NBC. but it would satisfy the requirement of a Notre Dame game as a Peacock standalone. And I'll tell you why I think they're making sure the Notre Dame games are going on NBC

and why they're in primetime. Let me read you some of the viewership numbers for the NBC Big Ten primetime games. USC UCLA on the final Saturday of the regular season, 2.4 million. Nebraska Penn State the week before that, 3.1 million. UCLA, Ohio State 3.6 million. Like, an Ohio State game usually falls ass backward into 4 or 5 million viewers. Navy Notre Dame last year in South Bend got 3.4 million. USC Nebraska got 2.2 million.

So like the Notre Dame games are the ones that are doing just as well, if not better, than those Big 10 games. So if you got both, I'd say feature the Notre Dame. game as much as you can. And you hope you get better, you hope you get better games through your Big Ten package. But like, I think NBC had Oregon and Ohio State in 2024 when Ohio State went to Eugene. But they've not really gotten those, those really huge Big Ten games out of this deal. Andy, who's the single most valuable viewership asset in college football?

Is it Notre Dame or is it Ohio State? It's either Notre Dame or Ohio State. And so our friend Dan Wetzel has talked about this. And if you want to know why the Super League could form and why all the stuff that's happening now, like maybe a little bit of rearranging deck chairs and why that, you know, again, the argument about 24 teams, why they shouldn't even be having it

because they haven't figured out how to actually structure the sport, Notre Dame is showing you what one valuable. property can do. Yeah. But if Ohio State and Michigan were like, why are we subsidizing Purdue? If they actually said that, and they've said that,

Ohio State's outgoing president said that, or I guess he's already resigned. But if they said, we just don't need you anymore, and we're going to go do our own thing. The Ohio State Michigan game alone is worth more

than Ohio State and Michigan get from the league every year. Just the one game. Yeah. So, Notre Dame's showing you that in this environment. But I think that's why,

to answer the Four Horseman podcast question, I think that's why you're getting more Notre Dame in prime time. And that's why they're not shunting Notre Dame to a peacock only game. Because I think, I think they feel like they have absolutely maxed out on who's going to say,

oh, I don't have this game. I must subscribe to Peacock. Makes sense. But, yeah, Notre Dame probably being instructive for the other one. Because, like, and this happened, remember when the Big Ten was doing that private equity deal and Michigan didn't want to do it, and USC didn't want to do it. And they were like, well, we'll just go ahead without you. I was like, do you really want to poke Michigan like that? Yeah.

Because there's a universe where Michigan go, like, if they weren't going to do this, they weren't going to push him that far because they're not that done. But if you did push Michigan that far, like they'll just, at some point, Michigan's going to call Ohio State and they're going to call, I don't know, Georgia and Alabama and be like, guys, what are we doing here? We have seen rivals call each other on the phone and blow up a conference before. We certainly have. Texas and Oklahoma. So it is, it is dangerous. Let's just say what is going on. And this is again, why you don't fiddle with. the playoff right now two years into the format you just started because you don't know what it's going to look like in five, 10 years. And I'm telling you right now, you could go to 24. If there's a 48 team super conference, super league, they're still going to have a 2014 playoff because they already had one. So just don't do it. Just don't do it. Okay.

I just like agree with you so much. I don't even want to see. It's always going to come back to a PSA about that, I think. No matter what the question is, it's I'm bringing back the PSA. do we have to pretend to like love it when it happens? No. Well, we can say we hate it. Now, maybe we end up liking it the way you ended up liking the 12 team playoff. But again, like you said, that was purely by accident. Yeah, I still think my anti-12 team expansion thoughts were correct.

Although it didn't work out that way. Yeah. Well, let us move to our next question. This is from Jeremy. This is more of a football really question. Thank God. As a Gator, I love Mike Norvell. Would it be unethical or consider tampering if Gator fans started a Florida State

victorious to pay for his extension through 2035? Serious question. Okay, Jeremy, that's not a serious question. But would Florida State take the money? If Florida fans got together. And I think they could get Miami fans on board with this too. Like, I think this is one where rivals could unite, or Florida fans and Miami fans would all chip in to pay.

the pay the salary and say look you can spend more money on players but we want to make sure this guy coaches i think that that would be a very bad idea because they then spend more money on players and mike norville didn't forget you would end up doing them to beat you yeah i think that's what happened uh yeah because like i don't think that mike norvel doesn't is like a awful coach he's he's having we've seen him have very we actually don't think there's a huge variance and maybe you'll tell me this. And this is the stat that like I always go back to, Andy. I covered a first ballot Hall of Fame college football coach

for a decade of my life, basically. And I watched him transform a very great, like a great program into an elite one. And I'm talking about urban. This is urban Meyer at Ohio State, yes. You know his record in games against teams with equitable talent was like 500 during his entire tenure there? Yeah.

Like I don't think that. The difference between Mike Norvel's coaching acumen and Kirby Smart's, or anybody for that matter, is all that different. Now, I know that there's elite tiers. Like, I know Nick Saban was better at it than most people. So what you're saying is if you give Norville equal talent to Miami, he's going to win half those games. He wouldn't have all gotten two and ten.

Maybe he would not have, like, I think that like the, the coaching acumen or being great coach might get you an extra win at the end of the year. But buddy, Mario. But when this is going on, you know what's going on. Because Florida State fans, not a year ago, were saying the same things about Billy Napier that Florida fans are now saying about Mike Norvel. Like, you know, Florida State, Tennessee fans, Georgia fans are like, keep Billy Napier forever.

Is there a single coach in power football or even the group of five where if you will leave the university's responsibility of funding his contract and can allocate that money to players wouldn't immediately get much better? They would immediately get much better. Immediately. And like part of being a crappy coach or a failed coach in college football. Or an overpaid coach. Yeah. Or an overpaid coach or a fired coach isn't because they forgot how to like act on the field and practice.

It's because they messed up all the other process elements of building a roster. Florida State has sucked the last two years because. because they don't have good players. Like, it's just, you know, it's not, like, I think that, like, people think that, like, everybody is Nick Saban or, or they suck. Like, I don't think that there's a huge variance between X's and O. Now, I know there is a variance and there are coordinators that are gifted and people who knew to draw up plays and make the right calls and push the right buttons on the sideline,

motivate the players the right way. I'm not, I'm not discounting that. obviously there's people better than others but this thought process that fired coaches suck at actual coaching is insane to me it's not right right most of them got those jobs by being because they're awesome coaches and they sunk at those jobs because they couldn't do the things off the field necessary to accentuate that talent i'm fascinated to see where this goes because i think norville has been put in a bad situation this year i think it's i don't know if it's it's not as it's not completely similar to what the situation

Gundy was put in last year where the people supporting the program basically were like we don't want this anymore. And we're turning off the faucet until somebody else gets hired. And you saw it at Oklahoma State where Gundy gets fired and Eric Morris comes in

and the faucet comes back on. How's this for a comparison situation-wise? Is what happened at Florida State the last two years similar at all in your mind to what is going on with Luke Fickle at Wisconsin? I think that's pretty similar. Does Luke Fickle suck at coaching now?

He took Cincinnati to the playoff in the four team era. Does he suck as a coach? Or are there other things that are going to find out? I'm just saying like, I also feel like too like Mike Norvell is in an impossible situation because his university is in a financial hole right now, partially because of how much money they pay. him. But because of a stadium renovation, that I'm not sure he was all that fired up about. Well, you know, he had no choice. Like, that was already well underway before he got the job. Jimbo Fisher was certainly not fired up about it. And it's why he went to Texas A&M in part.

And the question I have, and I don't know the answer to this, do you think that the reason why they keep getting second rate quarterbacks is because they're down and Mike Norvel sucks or because they're not competitive financially in the secondary market? Like, I don't, I don't know. Maybe it's a combination of both. I don't know. Well, I think all of that rolls downhill after a while. Yeah. But I think everybody feels like the coach is on his last legs.

Even if they offer the same amount of money, you're going to choose the guy who feels more secure. What came first at Florida State? Financial hardship or coaching malpractice. Well, they were winning in a similar financial situation. No, they were winning in a time before it got that shit crazy in the market. They killed the poor early adopters. They got in cheap.

Yeah, yeah. They got in cheap and they were smart about it. And actually, that proves to me that he's able to do it if the finances are all similar. He's already proven he can do it once. All right. So what we're telling Jeremy is don't start that fund. It would be a great social experiment. It would be hilarious to watch Florida fans pay for Florida State to beat them.

It would be amazing. Yeah, don't do it, Jeremy. That question. Save your money. also Jeremy is not asking that seriously and he's just definitely not so I also don't know I also don't know Florida State if given the option you have to extend if you ask the Florida State fan they would probably all say no but it would be dumb to say no if we if a third party stepped in and paid Mike Norvell's full salary between now and 231 or whatever it is a 35 is that what he said that's what

he said there I think his contract doesn't go that long 35 you have to keep them for nine more years Florida State doesn't pay a dime for him but you can't not fired him before 2035. Do you take that deal? I'd be like, just donate it to St. Jude. But I think I would take the deal if I were a Florida State fan. They'd be like, oh, God, no, get rid of Norville. But then if that like then frees you up to compensate players in the board.

Yeah, if it frees up 10 million more dollars a year to buy players. People used to call this man, Coach Handsome three years ago. Like, it's like, we forgot. All right, I'm on board. And I'm not trying to say save your money. I think that part of the problem too, and I don't know if this isn't even financial. And I have to write this at some point. Maybe I'll do it after the show, but they can't recruit high schoolers.

And like that's, that's so. But that's also part of the problem. And if you pay for that, then that's going to continue. I don't think that's going to change. Well, if you have all this money to allocate to high schoolers, then it might not continue. Maybe, but it's not that much more money. Here's what I do know, Andy. we came up with this concept or we stole this concept of green blood and blue blood right yep

I called somebody in the know of how much is spending I don't know if I'm allowed to say his name I will protect this person Florida state is unequivocally not a green blood not right now person's book the question is whether that's for lack of funds or because it's on purpose oh the coach that went undefeated before it costs 40 million dollars to field a roster that can win a national championship, all of a sudden sucks at coaching. Okay, got it. He forgot. He forgot how to do it in one off season.

Ari. Now, two in ten's kind of bad. Like, let's be honest. Like, maybe it got worse. Like, he lost a lot. Like, there was some response. They weren't two in ten last year. So, yeah.

All right, let's go to Mark's question. I killed that. It's a would you rather. I feel good about it. You love would you rather's. Okay. Dear Andy, dear Ari, based on yesterday's fan base related question,

I have one for Ole Miss fans. and their head coach, would you rather, one, beat Lane Kiffin every game you play them until he leaves LSU or two, win the national championship, but one year after Lane does it at LSU, thus proving him right for a whole year, but the rebels get their own the next year? The answer is unequivocally, too. It is. Everybody is going to take the national championship. And look, this is really plausible, actually, I think,

because I think what you saw last year with Pete Golding taking over at Ole Miss, leading Ole Miss the semis, Ole Miss being in the semi, like, really with a chance to win and go to the national title game at the very end, that tells you Ole Miss can do this. Ole Miss under Pete Golding can win a national title. It is entirely plausible that Ole Miss and LSU could win national titles over the next five, ten years.

Yeah, it reminds me of this meme that I saw on Twitter that said, would you take a million dollars if it meant that the person you hate the most in the world gets 10 million? And like, that was like funny because it's like somebody, somebody responded and said, yeah, why would I want to love a million dollars? But, but, you know, you're, you're. spite is a feature of the game. Shadenfreude is a feature of the game. It's not what's driving the bus. What's driving the bus is drone. The structure of the question. I'm assuming Mark means that in one, you don't want a national championship. That's what he meant. Yes. Okay. Yeah. I think that. If you beat Lane Kiff and every year and you win multiple national championships, you'll take that. But I think that hate becomes unhealthy when your hatred supersedes your thirst for success. Yeah. And I think you're right. It's the same thing with the Notre Dame deal. It's the same thing with the Notre Dame deal. that we asked yesterday, which is, you know, if Marcus Freeman wins a national title and then goes to the NFL, are you happy with that trade? Are you cool with that?

The reason the sport exists is because everybody's in pursuit of winning the national title. Yeah. Like the pursuit of that is what is what it's all about, not hating somebody. Now, hating somebody makes it fun along the way. But, you know, I think Ole Miss would like a title trophy. in their case. Yeah. This one comes from Ethan. Hey, Andy, I'm going to expose myself here as a newbie because I started listening last week. But I can say I'm a true fan because I stayed all the way through for Ari's rant about the different types of Coke the other day. Excited to follow the pod and hear you guys cover college football. But I'd love to get a two-minute segment on why you're excited about the Will Stein era at Kentucky.

I know you all had him on not too long ago. And I listened to this interview and it has me pumped. As a season ticket holder, I can't wait to go to games and see what kind of football program he could build here. as a notorious basketball school. Thanks, guys, and love the show. Ethan, we can definitely give you two minutes on Will Stein. Here's why I like what they're doing. First of all, it costs them a ton of money to Firemark Stoops.

And I know he gave them a deal so that they could split, spread that buyout out over a number of years, but it still cost them a ton of money. They had to be pretty dedicated to the idea of getting better at football. And not only did they do that, because you could have done this in a couple of ways, you could have spent a bunch of money to fire Mark Stoops with him like, well, we spent all the money. What are we going to do? Instead, they said, you know what? We're going to hire Will Stein, who's the hottest coordinator candidate out there,

and we're going to give him the resources he needs to go build a roster. Go look at what they did in the transfer portal. The biggest spends they made in the transfer portal were for experienced offensive linemen, offensive linemen who have started at big programs. Lance heard from Tennessee, Tiger Shibola from Ohio State. you know, and Ohio State things you go, but I don't know if Tegro Chabal was going to start this year. That's cool.

He may not be starting for you, but he can make Kentucky better right now. And that is a critical thing. Rebuild that big blue wall, everything else follows. We'll see what happens with Kenny Minci, a quarterback, and all the rest of it. But Will Stein, if you ask people around the game, elite play caller,

and I love the way he spent the money that Kentucky was generous enough to give him right off the bat. I feel like everybody's really serious about winning there. I also don't think that it's going to happen very often where somebody from your state happened to go, like, learn at the University of Dan Landing and Oregon's money can and figure out exactly how this is all done, learn from a guy who learned from a guy on how to build a championship level roster. or bring them back home and then give him the assets to do it.

Like, that's all like a pretty good, that's a lot of ingredients for a pretty tasty winning stew to me. Yeah. And Stein is such an interesting case. Like grew up a Kentucky fan, ended up playing for Louisville because that's the school that wanted him to play for them. And now comes back and could lead Kentucky to football success. But I feel like he has the combination of understanding of the place.

And like you said, understanding of how you build a roster and win in today's era, And I'm excited to see what he does there. So I'm always high on. I'm always high on hires who existed at a place that knows how to do it. Yeah, exactly. One more before we get to our random ranking. This is from Nick in New Mexico.

Dear Andy and Ari, I thought of this while listening to Andy's latest rant of contempt against drive-through patrons. You know how I feel about this. Andy, have you ever considered that those sitting in the drive-thru are listening to their favorite podcast, which produces six plus hours of weekly content. They might only listen to podcasts while driving and only have three and a half hours of weekly commute time so the 15 extra minutes helps keep them up to date.

Food for thought, love the show. So yes, all of you sitting in the Chick-fil-A drive-through for an hour at a time, you're all suckers unless you're listening to this show, in which case, I love you. I am currently listening to a podcast that has had me driving further routes and involves the former bachelor contestant,

a pregnancy, and a turkey. history. You should go check it out. It's called Love Track. After you finish listening to this one, of course. Yes. Yes. This one first, but if you need a true crime fix, it's enthralling is the word I would use. All right, let us get to the random ranking. So figured this one's going to be controversial. And there's a bunch of different ways to do it. And I think part of the controversy is going to be if people just disagree with how you or I combined to do this. Because It is the best college town dishes.

And there's a couple different ways to do this. You can do anywhere that has a school near it. I didn't. I went with kind of smaller college towns. The biggest one is what we would probably consider a medium-sized city. Like I was looking through my camera roll at some great meals I've had of late. And one of the best ones I had last year was at Clancy's in New Orleans, which is really near Tulane's campus.

Like I could have said Tulane, Clancy's. you know, the redfish. But it's just hard. And like, I'll spoiler, I don't have Texas on my list, even though Texas has probably five world-class barbecue joints within 10 miles of campus. Because it's just, it's too much, it's too big. So I went with, I went with places in smaller towns.

And I went with, please disagree. I, so I don't know. I have one on my list that might not. I'm very curious to see how you'll, if you'll accept it. but all of mine were restaurants and dishes from that specific restaurant. So I didn't go like barbecue in Austin. Like I think that that's like, oh, no, these are all specific dishes. Every one of these is a specific dish.

With a correlated restaurant that I, that I associate with the town or the, or the college program. But I didn't like, you could just say Columbia and then have all of New York and to pick from where you can pick some incredible. things in New York. So we didn't do that. No, I try to do it within the spirit of the rules. But also, just, I understand this is going to be highly offensive to some people. And I just want to say beforehand, I chose food that I like. So like, I'm sorry. That's the thing. It's our own personal tastes are yours and mine are different. Ours and the viewers are going to be different.

but if I got something wrong or you think there's something I need to add, please send it to me because I'm making my list for when I hit the road. Yeah. And here. In college football season. The thing is that whenever we do a random ranking, we do five, there's a lot of good food in college. Oh, yeah.

There's a lot of meat left on the bone. And I know, in fact, having traveled with you quite a bit in my life now, that you have a lot of really good places and you've taken me to a lot of places. I already know you well enough to know at least. one restaurant that's going to be on your list. You've taken me there. And my mouth is probably going to be watering as you go down the list, even if we have no overlapping choices.

So, but this is something that people are going to be passionate about. And of course, we would love your input on places that you try or why we're wrong, because we'll go try those things. We like eating at those places when we go to the schools. All right, Andy, since you are the food expert, you are the author of punt, pass, and pork In your SI days, I will give you the honors of going first. All right. Number five for me, the cinnamon bun at Mama's Boy in Athens, Georgia.

This thing is the size of a football. It is delicious. It comes out piping hot. It is so perfect. Their other stuff is great. It's a brunch-type place. They started in 2006, just outside of town. Now they've got three locations.

They're always packed around the time of brunch. This cinnamon bun, though, it is just, the first time I went, I wasn't going to have one. I was like, I'm not really the mood for something desserty right now. I saw it. I couldn't resist. And now every time I go to Athens, I have to have one. I've eaten there. I ate there with Max Olson of ESPN.

It is kind of staggering how big that thing is. It is enormous. You know me. I'm not a huge sweets guy, but it is delicious. And probably better than the cinnamon roll that you had at the machine shed when we were out in Nebraska. Right. Well, no, that wasn't in Nebraska. The machine shed was in Rockford, Illinois.

Rockford, Illinois, right. I think it started in Davenport, Iowa. That one was really good, too. But yes, that's a pretty good choice. And I had a feeling that I was going to see that today. All right, Andy. my number five because I am who I am is the corn beef sandwich matzabal soup combination at Zingermans in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Now, this might not be, in my opinion, the best corn beef sandwich on the face of the earth. I've had some that are better. But there is something about the atmosphere there, the environment, the lengthy Jewish delicacies list of the menu. And a good corned beef sandwich that I think goes really, really how is the mortgage paperwork before you uh before you went in there to make sure you could afford it i don't i don't care i don't ever consider zirman's is is really good really expensive now

i don't consider prices when i'm ordering food for lunch i know because you're a rich person no no so it's because i don't think that the five or six dollar difference is worth not having the best possible thing that you can have we're going to talk about this we're going to we are going to have we are going to we're going to have some an arbor sandwich discussion but i but i do like zingermans i really do like you go in the summer when it's peach season and they have those the fresh slice the fresh peaches oh so good and even if you're not a corned beef person there's something on the menu there that you'll love yeah no and i usually get the corned beef

and pastrami when i go there but i want i will point out also if you want a different kind of zingerman's experience go to the bakehouse go to the bakehouse and just get some fresh bread or pastries, unbelievable. The place hits. And I think that it's also really cool because a lot of the

best delis that I've been to in my life are just big city delis. And I think that this is unique in that it's just a college town delicacy. So I really, really enjoy going there when I'm an hour.

Yes. So don't sandwich price shame me again. That's wild. I will sandwich price shame you as much as I'm a lot of money. want because this is a legit like zingerman's because food food has gotten more expensive restaurants and drop a hundred and sixty dollars for i know well there's a reason why you're not seeing a lot of barbecue restaurants on my list anymore okay because it's become a food for the for the elite as

opposed to food for the common man so the prices are out of out of this world so that's the only problem all right my number four and you're going to spend some money here. So you can, you can I'm pretty critical. Okay, got it. Burger and steak for lunch at bourbon and butcher. This is actually in Michiwaka, Indiana, which is a suburb of South Bend,

but not far from Notre Dame's campus. So this is the butcher shop that is attached to Corn Dance Tavern. Corn Dance Tavern you can go to for dinner. It's your typical kind of fancy steakhouse. But Bourbon and But Burbin and Butcher, is their butcher shop that's attached that serves lunch. And you can get an unbelievable lunch. So that is, I was just going to get the Steakhouse Burger,

but I'm looking at that case. I'm like, yeah, give me a small filet too and give me an old fashion. And this is the most decadent lunch you can have. And this is- You are such a scumbag for price shaming me about a deli sandwich and then showing us this. Yeah, but this is a filet mignon and a steakhouse burger that I probably probably got for the same price as your Zingerman's meal. It was not.

It was not. And that, that's now, look, this is 2023. Maybe it is now. Yeah. When I went, that's the thing. I believe all this was under 50 when I got it back in 2020. And it was, I wasn't, I was just going to get the burger. I really was. And then I'm like, oh, let's get a steak.

Because the stakes right there, they've got the, the dry age steaks in the case that you go, Oh, it's like a meat amusement park. And then you get a really good deal, relatively speaking, for a very decadent lunch. I went to a place in Vegas that was a butcher shop that had a restaurant attached to it, that had a really good food. And I can't remember what it was called. But the butcher shop restaurant attachment is kind of something that should probably be more prevalent in society. My quality meats that will prepare it for you on site is a solid combination.

and I'm like, I know you and I've only been to South Bend together one time. And the schedule of the playoff game and getting to Columbus for Ohio State, Tennessee the next day, didn't permit this. But if we're ever there again, I would very much like you to take me there. Yeah, it's fine. And like, going for dinner to the Cornance Tavern, that's just, it's the steakhouse experience. Now, I do, they do a thing called John Adams sword. It's just like every meat on a sword. That looks pretty cool.

But I think the lunch part of it is like, you're getting away with something. here. Like it, so you do it on, let's say you go, go to South Bend because your team's playing at Notre Dame the next day. Like Friday, you have this for lunch and you're set. Now, I do think, like, do the tourist thing, like go to CJ's pub and get a burger at CJ's pub, because CJ's pub does make great burgers. But this is a lot of fun. And shout out to, so I got, my friend Caleb, who I went to high school with graduated from Notre Dame, he took me to a place years and years ago in Mishawaka that was in a basement. It was a deep dish piece of place called Gianettos. That was unbelievable. I believe it has closed. It moved and then it closed. But there's

some really good eating in South Bend. Just just saying. I'm so hungry when we record these things. Okay. My number four is maybe not something that would be on your list, but is obviously something very close to my heart having gone to the University of Arizona. the Sonoran dogs at Elguero Canelo. Oh, I've had these. They're so good. It's just like it's a hot dog that's wrapped and cooked with bacon around it. It has pinto beans, diced tomatoes, chopped onions, mayonnaise, mustard, and jalapeno

salsa on there. Now I know you probably would go without the mayonnaise. Right. But the bun, talk about the bun too. The bun is like split open in the middle. It's steamed and toasted at the same time somehow. It is so. good and it's like a flavorful bun.

And like the thing is that the meat, like a hot dog isn't necessarily something that would really, you know, get people excited. But like the meat in these, it feels so high quality to me. And I don't know if it's just because like it's like a sentimental thing for me. And the salsa and toppings bar is insane. So like the pickled how you just eat the pickled jalapeno's that are on the bar. And it's unlike anything that really you can get anywhere else. Like there are, you can get a good steak and bourbon in any city in America.

Like it's like, this is like a very low. local thing to Tucson. Now, I think Sonoran dogs, Andy, aren't people, more people doing it now, coast to coast. But yeah, yeah. This is like a how do you not you saw an exciting? Yeah, how do you not like a bacon wrapped hot dog? I mean, but yeah, the way the presentation is great. The toppings bar is incredible. I am on board with this one. All right, I'm going to go to number three. We're going back to Ann Arbor. We're having a sandwich. A little bit different situation. I did not have a picture of this from the last time I ate it

and I'm sorry about this the maize and blue special from the maize and blue deli roast be smoked turkey Swiss cheese mild cheddar cheese the critical part honey cup mustard

if you never had honey cup mustard holy crap unbelievable on a deli sandwich so these sandwiches are massive it is like Zingermans is the luxury experience this is more of the common man

experience. Now look, the sandwiches are not super cheap here either because nothing's cheap anymore. But the sandwiches at Maze Blue Deli are awesome. This is on a toasted Italian white sub roll, dill pickle. It's just a great deli experience. What's the place that Harbaugh got clipped for buying the hamburger for the recruit? The brown jug. The brown jug. That place has great food. Nicole Auerbach took me to a breakfast spot. I can't remember the name. I've never even heard of this place. And I've been to Ann Arbor a hundred times.

So I'm kind of upset about this because maybe I'm just like the tourist trap guy that goes to all the places that everyone talks about. But that looks really, really good. And I'm a, you know. Another place I'll shout out in our area. Is it better than Zingermans? It's better than Zingermans is different.

Zingermans is more gourmet luxury. This is more, we're just, just making good sandwiches here. It's like the meat people. Yeah. Yeah. So another place I'll shout out in Ann Arbor is beer camp, which does brots. They smoke meats there, but the beef jerky at beer camp.

Like this, a beer camp is basically right across from the stadium. And you can, you can just load up on beef jerky there for the rest of your trip. And it's spectacular. So, yeah, Ann Arbor is a great eating town. Like, you know, you hit the, hit the Zingerman's Bakehouse in the morning and just carve out. And then you could do, you know, Maisie Blue Deli for lunch. Then you get some jerky at beer camp. And then you go to like, I don't know, you go to any of the, go downtown and get beers.

Like, it is, it's a great town. Just a, just a phenomenal college town. Let's go from one phenomenal college town of the Big Ten to another. State Street Broughts, which was the picture. you just saw in Madison, Wisconsin. I know, again, touristy trap. And I actually have a great. Like the food is fantastic.

The beer is, you know, the beer is plentiful. The atmosphere is great. It's a great place to sit and watch a game. And do you know what those little things next to the brat are? Cheese curds. And you can eat them with your broad. And it's the most Wisconsin thing ever. But Andy, I actually think that most tourist

tourist traps disappoint when you go to a place that is known and you know has been on tv or whatever it's usually the kiss of death to me of like i'm going to wait in line for two hours i'm going to eat something that's pretty good but not something i would ever wait in line two hours for you and i went there we walked up to the counter i think the hot dogs or the brots are like what like three bucks or something and you just go up there and they're like ready right away the the experience is great the beer is cold they've got TVs everywhere it's the perfect place to hang out the night before a big wisconsin game and i'm really happy that we got to do that together because i'm I thought the food was tremendous.

Yeah, and I love Madison. I think there's so many good places to eat and drink in Madison. And if you say, like when you say State Tree Brots, people are going to be like, oh, that's the, but I'm telling you, it gives you the experience that you want. The food is legitimately good. You're not, like, the other thing is you're not waiting two hours, usually. You know, we went there a Friday night before a huge game and we got to serve right away. Now, if you are a Wisconsinite or a badger, did that even sound anything like a bad?

No. I'm really bad at accident. I'm sorry. Badger? Yeah. And you think there's better sausage, better broth somewhere? This is one of those deals where it's like, yeah, please send those our way. We'll check it out.

Because we went to some random, funny story. Last time we were in, where we in Wisconsin when we like drove way out of our way to go get Dan Rubinstein like special cheese store? Yeah. Yeah. I was in this cheese store and I was smashing all the samples. Like the cheese in Wisconsin is electric. So if you have a brot cheese suggestion and you think I missed the bar here a little bit on the best brought you can get, I will go out of my way to test your theory.

So let me throw another Madison place. And this one was in contention for my top five. Mickey's Dairy Bar right across from campus, scramblers. So it's basically, you know, home fry. and then whatever breakfast meats and cheeses you want to put in there. Yeah. And then you can get these whole, you know, handspun milkshakes. And if you're there at 10 in the morning, get a milkshake,

I'm not going to, I'm not going to criticize you. I'm not going to judge you. It's very impossible to be in a caloric deficit in that state. Yeah. Brett Beelma tells the story about his first day at work at Wisconsin as the defensive coordinator. He went to Mickey's Dairy Bar and he was worried he was going to get fired because he wanted to take a nap under his desk.

Yeah. Which makes it. Yeah. Okay. My number two. My number two. We're going to Knoxville, Tennessee. Producer Rivers Town.

The Big Nasty at Stock and Barrel. This is my favorite burger in America. Cheddar and apple, wood bacon, crispy onion and tomato jam all doubled up. Look at that monster. It's so delicious. We enjoyed a nice meal there together and watched some NFL. We did. Yeah.

And then. Dylan Samson taught us how to dance. That was the next morning, and I was still bloated from the, from the meal. But it was a very good burger, and I don't hate this inclusion. And I know River's happy that Tennessee got some shine. Yeah, great, great burger, awesome bourbon selection. You can walk to stadium from there. I wouldn't recommend walking from the stadium to there because it would be all uphill.

But it is spectacular. That whole Market Square area in Knoxville is really cool. I almost put moonshine Mountain cookies here, but I do want to shout them out in Knoxville. Moonshine Mountain cookies are tremendous. Look, I realize Crumble has taken over and people have a certain feeling about large cookies. Moonshine Mountain cookies blow crumble away.

It's not even close. So Knoxville, another town where you can really fill up. I'm so hungry. Okay. Andy, here's my controversial one. Okay. Number two, Piquads Pizza Northwestern. Oh, okay.

You're like, let's, how long is it to drive? If you're trying to drive from Evanston to Piquads on a weekday afternoon, what is that, like 90 minutes? Bill Landis and I went there before an Ohio State Northwestern game, and I remember being very close to campus. Now, maybe it's because I fell asleep because it was so good. You can disqualify. You fell asleep in the passenger seat?

What a shock. Yeah. I remember being like on the way or fairly close and I Googled it before I put it on here because I was afraid to put it on here because I knew you were going to shame me. It's a pretty drive. I'm a pizza person. I didn't want to get through this without pizza. And I think that this is the best pizza in the Chicago area. There are multiple locations.

It is not. It is not like Uno or the more traditional Chicago deep dish. It's closer to Detroit style, I would say, than Chicago, but it kind of feels like Detroit and Chicago had a baby. Yeah. So for people in SEC country, Satchel's Pizza in Gainesville, I'm pretty sure that this is where they stole their deep dish idea from. It is, Piquads is the original of this kind of pizza, and it is spectacular.

Are you throwing a flag on me here? No, I wouldn't have done it, but listen, if you handed me a slice of Piquads right now, I'm not turning it down. So, I mean, if I go to Northwestern, I will go eat there. It's a 35 minute drive without traffic. There's multiple locations, Andy. There's one closer. Okay. Okay, that's fine.

Fortin Hill, I think is that the location. There's one closer that is. Okay. I was just going from the original. No, no, it's not the original. There's multiple locations. There's one much closer to Evanston. Okay.

I didn't say Gioranos. I think that this at least is a niche enough. Well, you're going to say, I mean, like Lou Malnoughties is the one most, a lot of people in Chicago would say. I didn't pick a place that's a national chain now, or can freeze your pizza and send it to you. And P-Quads is a, I don't know, I don't really know. Like I mentioned, the satchels in Gainesville has a similar kind of piece. is not exactly the same. I don't know who else makes this.

And also, it's not Northwestern's fault that they're a Big Ten team in a big city. Like, I mean, no, no, no, it's definitely not. I mean, Chicago is one of, one of America's great eating cities. I mean, I didn't say Portillo's. Like, I went to a place that I think. Well, there was a, there was a Korean wing place. There was right next to Loyola, Chicago that I found a few years ago.

It was amazing, which would not be a long drive. Yeah. From Northwestern, because Loyal of Chicago is right on Lake Michigan, as well as you just go straight up but i mean i almost put i almost put tommy's pizza from columbus ohio the cracker style to be my honorable mention and there's like literally right across the street from the stadium so i can replace those two if this if this is inappropriate it doesn't bother me i love piquads i needed to have pizza on my list because i am that's my favorite food like i know you're a meat like there's nothing better to me than a good piece of

pizza and i do that's my honorable mention massie's pizza and tomie's pizza and columbies pizza and Columbus, Ohio, because Tavern style is my favorite style, too. So Cracker crust, I guess Columbus-style pizza would be, and again, but that's like what I like and where I used to live. So I will try to go a little bit of a different route here. All right. My number one, you knew where this is going. We're going to Northport, Alabama, suburban Tuscaloosa, basically. This is about two and a half miles from Bryant any stadium.

That is Archibald's. That is me at Archibalds. Those are the ribs at Archibalds. Their menu has expanded over the years, but don't bother. Just get ribs and white bread and just go to town. I love this place so much. It is, they cook the ribs, not, you know, it's not your traditional smoking style. It's more live fire.

And like the guy basically like hosing down the ribs and just keep it an eye on, knows exactly when they're ready. They'll run out and be like, ah, we're close until we get some more cooked. it is just one of those kind of places and it is so freaking good. I might be getting confused with Tuscaloosa barbecue joints, but there's two Archibalds, right? And one is...

Family members made another Archibald and Woodrow's in Tuscaloosa proper. Also, there is Dreamland, which is probably the more famous Tuscaloosa rib joint that has multiple locations and is not as good. But the one Archibalds

that you took me to is better than the other one. So you have to make sure you go to one. I took you to the real Archibalds on MLK in Northport. Yeah. Very, very good. Controversial take. Don't think it's the best rib that you've taken me to have.

Ooh. Now, I think Terry Blacks is the best I've ever had. That was a beef rib. Beef rib and pork ribs are different. Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to think of. I mean, that's the thing.

I was tempted to put just like a Terry Black's beef rib on here for Texas. But I could do a top five Austin barbecue and still like this is your favorite restaurant in the world, isn't it? It's one of them.

Yeah. Okay. And I mean, I knew what it was going to be. So sometimes you get to know your co-host enough to know. Yeah, I love food. I can demolish a full rack from Archibalds. I don't eat as much as I used to, but if you put me at Archibald's right now,

because it's lunchtime right now as we record this, I can demolish a full rack. I'm dunking, I'm dunking some bread and the sauce. Like, it's on. They do have sauce. You don't need the sauce.

It's not thick. It's a thinner sauce. It's more of a mop. And, oh, gosh. I'm going to go on record here and say that. I think that all of yours or most of yours selections were more expensive than the Zimmerman sandwich.

Okay. So who's the rich? boy now. Okay, last. Yeah, but a Zingerman sandwich doesn't fill you up like a full rack of ribs does. Yeah, and less meat, obviously, but, you know, maybe back 10 years ago, they gave you more meat than they do now. No, inflation's a killer. Andy,

my number one, do you know what it is? Is it from near your childhood home? Nope. And I don't know what it is. You took me here, you opened my eyes to this. I had never had it before. It is the chicken fried steak sandwich at Ajax diner. Oh, yes. Andy, I will say with a straight face, that was maybe the best sandwich I've ever eaten in my entire life.

Ajax Diner is exquisite. It's spectacular. It's what we in the South call a meat and three. And it's, so this particular sandwich is, it's a country fried steak sandwich. It's got mashed potatoes on it. It is, the whole meat. meal in a sandwich. And then already got fries. Don't know why. You're getting greens. You're getting greens here. You're getting you don't know why. Because carbs are king, dude. Yeah, you're getting butter beans. You're getting you're getting more traditional size. This place to me, and again, I haven't, I haven't eaten my way. And you know, there's a place on LSU's campus that, because I like fried fish called the chimes. I'm sure you've been there. That has really good food, too. But to me, when I think about southern, like home, good country cooking, like Ajax was the epitome of that to me.

Because their menu is massive. And what did you order when we went? Because you didn't. Oh, I got the same sandwich, but I got, I'm looking at it now. I had greens, black eyed peas and butter beans were my, or my size. Yeah. I'm sending the photo to producer river now. Okay.

Yeah. We can see how to properly address this thing. Andy, this is also a stock photo. This didn't come from my camera roll. So I don't remember. I did get fries. You should let me know. I got you.

Yeah. I got you. maybe I could find pictures on my phone but you're much more of a shoot you type the name of the city in and it pops right up okay I'll do that I don't take pictures of my food the way that you do because I have I have fat shame okay like I don't want there to be evidence if my wife goes through here you know some people are afraid of their wives seeing something on their phone mine is just still take a picture of the the McDonald's that you shame eat yeah yeah okay so I did get fries because my sandwich is over there yeah and there's there's my green and there's my black-eyed peas, not in the image of the butter beans. But Ajax diners awesome. Oxford, also a great eating town. So you have the entire John Currence Empire in Oxford. City grocery, snack bar, big bad breakfast.

Like, it's for a small town, huge flavors. Handy. I typed in Oxford, Mississippi into my phone. And the first thing that came up was a receipt. from checkers for a fish sandwich and a diet Coke. Did you at least get the fries? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Fish sandwich combo.

If you go to checkers, you got to get fries. Godly. Yeah. Big, you know, Ajax diner, I have receipts. I don't have the food. Well, I have the real receipts. So that is a great choice. I love Ajax.

And Big Bad Breakfast was really good there too. Big Bad, I was wearing my Big Brad Breakfast T-shirt just this morning. So I am, I like our list. No overlap. All places I love that you mentioned too. Whatever you guys want to add, please feel free. And don't get too mad at me because I left Tulane and Texas off the list. Like I could do a whole top 10 of New Orleans and a whole top 10 of Austin.

Like Texas has like good like breakfast tacos and stuff. But I do, one thing I do like about it is we went on a million. Have you been to one and a million in Austin? I think we have, yeah. We haven't together, but I know, I know I've been there.

A million a truck? No, one and a million is a restaurant. Okay. But I think that we, we had different types of cuisines and very different, I think like every conference got touched on a little bit. So that's good.

No, it's really good. And again, Again, this is one where your list is probably a completely different five, and I want to see your list because I want to add it to my list. So by all means, add it up. Next week, Ari, ACCC Spring Meetings, I'm going to be there. So some interesting coaches there, interesting ADs.

We'll talk about all the stuff we've been talking about. We will continue to work on the pods across America telethon against the 2014 playoff. I think this needs to happen. It's going to be a big week. We'll talk to you guys. Oh, go ahead, R. Sounds like it's going to be a lighter week for me

because you're going to be doing a bunch of interviews from there. We'll see. We'll see. Who knows? Maybe I have the microphone out and people just run. What other college football podcast has given you 90 minutes on a Friday in the off season? I don't think, you know.

Nobody. Who's got it better than you? Nobody. We'll talk to you Monday. Oh, man.