Andy & Ari On3 - Will the College Football Playoff FIX its seeding mistake?

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

When it comes to making the best hamburgers around the basics matter and Wendy’s?... well they’ve really got those burger basics on lock and boy does it show. So what’s the secret to all those hot and juicy hamburgers? Simple. Wendy’s always crafts their hamburgers with that fresh, never frozen beef they’re famous for. The result? Hot and juicy beefy hamburger perfection - every time. No matter which hamburger you order from the Wendy’s menu, you already know that thanks to those Wendy’s burger basics, it’s gonna be exactly what you were craving. Fresh beef available in the contiguous U.S., Alaska and Canada; not available in Hawaii. This show is brought to you by Panini America, makers of the most collectible sports cards on the planet. The Prism football card series a vibrantly paralleled base and insert roster featuring college football’s brightest former and current superstars. Panini sets include NIL autographed cards from players including Arch Manning, Quinn Ewers, Cam Ward, Jalen Milroe, Dylan Raiola, DJ Lagway, and Luther Burden. To start collecting, visit PaniniAmerica.net. State and Liberty makes modern athletic fit clothing for men who want to look great and be comfortable at the same time. Whether you’re looking for an athletic fit suit or your new favorite hoodie, State and Liberty has what you need. New customers get 10 percent off when they use the code ANDYARI, or you can visit this link: https://tidd.ly/4gVLuUE  (0:00-0:43) Wendy's Fresh Moves of the Week(0:44-2:40) Intro: Back from vacation!(2:41-5:04) CFP Meeting happening today in Dallas(5:05-17:38) What Should you ask the commissioners?(17:39-29:12) What result do people want to see from the meeting?(29:13-31:46) PaniniAmerica.net(31:47-36:28) Jayden Daniels' Biggest Rookie Card Pulled(36:29-47:28) Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders?(47:29-1:02:56) Luke Fickell extended through the 2031 season(1:02:57-1:09:24) Ari and his All-Inclusive Vacation(1:09:25-1:12:30) Conclusion; See you tomorrow!Ari is headed to the College Football Playoff meeting in Dallas on Tuesday, and he wants to know two things: 1) What should he ask conference commissioners about the potential changes to the CFP?2) What result would everyone most like to see from the meeting? Andy and Ari break down some of the possible questions and answers… Plus, Andy and Ari discuss Wisconsin’s decision late last week to extend football coach Luke Fickell even though Fickell hasn’t been particularly successful in Madison so far. This is apparently standard procedure for Wisconsin across multiple sports, but the question is why? Why bid against yourself for a coach no one else is trying to hire when your money would be better spent buying better players? Watch us on YouTube instead! https://youtube.com/live/qjSgLoxjRVs Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

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no matter which burger you order, Baconator, son of Baconator, the single doesn't matter. You know that thanks to those Wendy's Burger Basics, it's going to be exactly what you are craving. Fresh beef available in the continuous US, Alaska and Canada, not available in Hawaii. Go get yourself a fresh, never frozen Wendy's Burger today. a fresh, never frozen Wendy's burger today.

Welcome to Andy and Ari on three. Presenting my Wendy's and we're back. Hi Ari. Feels good, man. You know how you know you have a good job is like when you're on vacation and you miss podcasting. Like I actually was like, yeah, I could talk about some stuff. So- You're like, I wonder what, I could talk about some stuff. So-

You're like, I wonder what Andy thinks of this Steve Smith stuff. Yeah. Yeah, I saw that yesterday. That's wild, man. I missed that. That apparently came out Saturday morning and I was deliberately trying to avoid the internet

while on vacation, be present with the family as Jake Dickert, the Wake Forest Coast advised us to do last week. And so it was one of those things where I was like, wow, wow, somebody had a crazy morning. So- Best part about being in Mexico is that like, I was in Mexico for those who don't know.

And if you're not at the resort, no service. So like I was unplugged unintentionally for a lot of the trip and also hammered in the pool for most of it. So I didn't see everything, but I tried to spend some time on Twitter at night before dinner to like just see what's going on. And let me just say, PSA, if you're famous and you're cheating on your wife, don't take a selfie and send it in the text. Like that would be like my number one rule of advice. Just don't leave a paper trail, for goodness sakes. This is like general rules for living

no matter what you're doing, even if you're not doing anything wrong, but don't leave a paper trail. Yeah, I mean, don't cheat on your wife, first of all. Yeah, that's probably a good way to start. But if you're going to and you're super famous, you could probably do it in a way where your face isn't in a selfie like this.

Exactly. That's just me. I don't know. I don't know. Well, listen, you're thinking like a responsible person who has to go to work today. You are going to be the intrepid reporter today heading to the college football playoff meeting.

When we get done with the show, you are heading to the college football playoff meeting where all the commissioners with the show, you are heading to the college football playoff meeting where all the commissioners are meeting in Dallas and you'll be on the stakeout. You'll be lobby stalking as we like to call it. And it's gonna be electric. It's such a glamorous job, let me tell you. You get to go to some of the nicest hotels

and wait in the lobby. You gotta buy a coffee at least so you don't look too suspicious. No, I'm getting a burger or something right like I'm going to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know the the meeting goes from eight to four. I wouldn't anticipate hearing anything till closer to four or even five. So it's going to be an interesting day, but you know, I got a lot of friends too that do this for a living that I get to hang out with.

So it shouldn't be so bad. But yeah, I don't know. I've had a few times in my career, Andy, where I've had to sit long periods of time waiting for some sort of resolution. You know which one sticks out to me? What's that? Do you remember the you might have even been there? I don't remember. This was 2018. But when Urban Meyer got in

trouble with the Zach Smith stuff and they had that meeting with Board of Regents meeting with Urban to like decide whether or not he was going to be employed still, then I was actually trying to drive there from State College. OK, got there too late.

I missed the meeting. Yeah, the reporters sat in the Fawcett drive there from State College. Okay, yeah. Got there too late. I missed the meeting. Yeah, the reporters sat in the Fawcett Center there from like 8 a.m. till I think almost 10 p.m. and then there was a news conference to announce he was suspended. And it was a big deal at the end of it, but I remember thinking like, God, I'm just sitting in this, they ordered pizza for us

because it was like we were like held hostage. That was a long day but you know, it's kind of fun too because when you're talking about what we're talking about today, like that was kind of like a dark like right. The hell's you know that was like not a happy moment like this is like what's going to happen to college football. It's kind of more fun and you know the stakes are very high with this decision and what they end up doing,

but also not in terms of the seriousness of that matter. So I'm looking forward to getting over there and you know leave it to you to send me back out to DFW a day after I was in DFW Customs Hell, but you know here we are. Well fortunately you don't need to go back through customs, that's the best part. But you do need to ask these folks some questions and And that's the part I'm trying to figure out because you had the big SEC and big 10 ADs meeting last week. And they obviously did some talking about what happens in 2026 and beyond.

At this point, with the folks meeting today, this is all the commissioners who are in charge of all the conferences. I would want to know what they're doing now. What are you doing now? Are you going to fix the stupid seating issue? Because look, I'm not going to be too harsh on them because when they were creating this 12 team format, the conferences looked different.

It was before the SEC took Texas and Oklahoma. It was before the big 10 blew up the Pac 12. So I get it. I understand what they were trying to do. But they can fix it right now. Like, I, you're, you're nicer than me. I might, if I'm waiting in the hotel lobby, and they come out, I'd be like, did you fix it already? If you didn't just go back in there and fix it. Can you please fix it? My understanding is that in order you fix it already? If you didn't just go back in there and fix it. Can you please fix it?

My understanding is that in order to fix it for this coming year, they have to have unanimous approval from all the commissioners, right? Right. So I assume that the playoff, and maybe I'm wrong on this, but my assumption is that the playoff this coming year will be the identical format from this past season.

Is that a fair assumption? Not if they fix it. No, I know, but why would the big 12 commissioner, why would anybody in that position be like, yeah, let's, let's change. Well, that's, that's my question. And this is, this is what I want you to fair it out here. If you are Brett, your Mark, the big 12 commissioner, if you are Jim Phillips, the ACC commissioner, if you are John Steinbreck or the Mac commissioner, like any of these

people, what's your incentive to do what the big 10 and the SEC want right now for this year? Right now? Yes, for this, because they obviously hold the sort of Damocles over your head for 2026. But I can't figure out what all those other guys we just mentioned can do about anything in 2026. Right, which is why I'm under the assumption that they're not going to change anything now. Because the Big 12 and the ACC probably made out better with the rules of last year than they would in most years, right? So I don't know that I would be motivated in their position to change it immediately, even though it seems to be the rational and fair thing to do.

Like what you said was true when they made the playoff and they had these automatic by week conference champion top four seed situation, the Pac-12 existed. You know, so at the time, the top four conference champions were probably from a perception standpoint going to be worthy of those spots. But you know, if you're the big 12, don't you want ASU to have a first round buy one more year? Like I, I don't know why you would change that. And I know that we talked on the phone a little bit about this. So like, what's better getting the first round by, or putting yourself in a position where you might have a more favorable run to the final four.

Like, I don't know what you look at the run. I think winning a game is bigger than having already advanced one weekend without having to play. So like, that at the run. I think winning a game is bigger than having the body advanced one weekend without having to play. So like that's the thing. It's like they didn't exist that weekend. That's good. Isn't it? No, it's not good. You're oh and one in the playoff. If you're the big 12 now, should they have won the game? Yeah, they should have stopped him on fourth and 13. Like it would have been a massive upset had they won the question. The question here is that like, yeah,

playing Texas in your first game is difficult, right? No one's arguing that. But is it more difficult for a team like ASU, a team that is built like ASU, to win two games in a row against teams like SMU or somebody like that? Or is it better to get to the second round and give your best shot after being well rested

against a team like Texas? Because like the way it worked out. That's the question. So it looks like to me, I would want to have a top four seed. I would want that by if I were, if I were Brett Yormark, wouldn't you? I wouldn't want it to go to the Peach Bowl. I'd want it to be at

my home stadium, but they can't they're not going to do anything about that right now. Yeah. So. Yeah, I it doesn't really the way I think if I'm thinking this through, it does not really benefit them. Any of those people because here's the thing

about ASU. ASU if you seed it straight and they got in just on the virtue of now they were the number 12 team. So they actually wouldn't have been the 12 seed, they would have been the 11 seed, I think. But they would have to go on the road. Like they would have been playing at number six. So they would have had to open at Ohio State instead of taking a buy and right so they would have lost anyway open at Ohio State instead of taking a buy and right.

So they would have lost anyway. Yeah. So if you're looking at it from that perspective, you can make it. It's a blanket fact and like we can't use last year's bracket as a way to determine what paths are easier because it's going to be random every year. But from last year's perspective, their situation both in their first game and it being in the second round is immeasurably better than what it would have been had they been the 11th seed.

Right. And the thing about it is you can use last year's as a guide though, because like the five and the six are going to be really good teams. Even if you seed it straight, even if they're not misseeded like they were this year, the five seed and the six seed would still be really good team. So like in this case, the five seed and the six seed this year, if you'd seeded it straight would have been Notre Dame and Ohio State. Right. Right. Yeah, I thought I misspoke because the six seed was Penn State. But yeah, we'd have to redo the seeding based

on Penn State would have been the four. Yeah, yeah, it would have been the four seed. So yeah. Penn State would have been the four seat. So yeah, I don't anticipate that things are going to be different next year. What I, what I want to know is what are you going to accomplish today? Like what are, what are we trying to do today? Um, and what do that? That is the only thing I'd be trying to accomplish if I were the SEC, if I were the big 10, but the problem is I'm not sure who other

than them benefits from that. Even, well, I do know the viewers, people who would like the tournament to not look stupid. But, you know, the thing that I was thinking about, Andy, and I think that most years under last year's format, it would feel wrong. But there might be some years where it feels right, right? Like that's just the thing. Like there's no some years,

there's only going to be this year or not. They're either going to fix the seating for this year or not. Cause they are going to fix it for 2026. No, no. What I'm saying is that they don't fix the seating at all ever, which they will, but I'm just saying in a hypothetical world where they don't, there will be plenty of years where the top four conference champions are the top four teams in the country.

Like, I like, I don't think so. I think there would have been in 2010, there would have been tight year or like if BYU would have gone undefeated this past year that they wouldn't have been worthy of the four seed. I think that like the big 12 is so muckety muck with who wins games every week and it's kind of hard to get out of that conference at 11 and one but I do feel like in the years where you have a Big 12 champ that was like TCU a few years ago or even you know TCU wasn't the Big 12 champ a few years ago. No I know they still got in but I'm still saying if they got to the top four that year They would have been you know, TCU wasn't the big twelve champ a few years ago. No, I know they

still got in but I'm still saying if they got to the top four that year, they would have been worthy of the top four seed last year the same way they were worthy of a top four. What's funny is with this rule, they would not have gotten a

top four seed Kansas State would have that year. That's right and they might have been yeah, they would have been in but it would have been like a ten seat or something that year. Right. Exactly. Um, I don't know. I'm just saying like you just described how dumb it is.

But here's the thing. You're exactly right. When you ask what is the motivation, because here's the other piece of it. If I'm John Steinbrecher from the Mac, if I'm Gloria Navarez from the Mountain West, I might just tell them, listen, you guys are going to stomp all over us for 2026 anyway. We have no power after this. This is the only time we can ever exert power on you or leverage on you again. So you know what?

Screw you. We're going to do it. Well, also, too, it's like in this sport, everybody's always fending for themselves, right? Like nobody's nobody's doing stuff for the good of the team. If people are doing stuff for the good of the team, pack 12 would still exist. Like that's just not the way it works. Right. So like I think that like the commissioners probably go into

meetings like this saying what is best for me in my conference and I think that's where it ends and I don't know commissioners probably go into meetings like this saying, what is best for me and my conference? And I think that's where it ends. And I don't know that there's a lot of, well, this helps you out, this makes it better, this, that. I think that like Brett Yormark's vision for what to accomplish today is to put the big 12 in the best position for another year.

And I think that that position is to get a bike by winning your conference, regardless of who it is. So, like, the only the only the only reason is if you add a trade, you're doing it as a trade for something else. But they would all need something to trade. Like Brett, your mark, I can see wanting to trade something for basketball, like, because the big 12 is a really good basketball conference so Like you see the SEC in the big 10 agitating to enlarge the NCAA tournament in basketball like the big 12

Would be a good ally for them. They would be a good ally for the big 12 in that particular argument And so I could see them maybe horse trading some favors there, but To your point about it having to be unanimous. You can't find a reason for all of them to do it. No, and it won't. I really don't think it's going to change next year. But you know what? I hope it does because it's dumb. And I hope that that that because here's here's the thing about it.

It's just one year. You think it's dumb based on the way that it played out last year, but there will be your play out in a dumb way every year because it's dumb. You don't think that it's possible that the four conference. No, the four conference champions are the four most worthy teams of the top four seeds in 2010. Yes in 2025. Absolutely not. So yeah, you put it, you put a line in the sand and say, no matter how good a big 12 team is,

it can never be as good as the third best sec team or something. Oh no, it can. No, it definitely can. But do you think that in the same year, the ACC champ is also going to be that good. Yeah, like how often would that ever happen? That's true. Yeah, I'm just trying to think like. We want to make wholesale changes, and I'm trying to make a point, and maybe my point is wrong and I'm stupid, but like

making wholesale changes about a system that's existed for one year seems kind of like that. This isn't a wholesale change. They're going to make the wholesale changes for 26. This is this is fixing the glaring flaw. It is a glaring flaw. It is. And that's that's the thing I but but again, I'm you've sort of turned me because it I was on and maybe kind of naively thinking Well, they know how dumb this is all of these commissioners know how dumb this is So they're just gonna fix it and it'll be for one year and they're not gonna worry about it that because in 26 it all changes But the more I think about it

the more if I were in their position Whether that's, you know, the Mountain West, the ACC, the Big 12, like they're on the same boat here, which is probably unusual for the ACC and the Big 12 people to be in the same boat as the Mountain West and the Mac and the Conference USA and the Sunbelt. But they have no incentive to do what the Big Ten and the SEC want. Yeah. So the question today is if they get to that conclusion, which seems to be the pretty obvious conclusion to me from where I'm sitting at 11 a.m.,

then what is the next six hours done or spent on and like where like how much of that next year that expense account baby that's what I'm saying like what is the actual the actual biggest issue here I know that we want instant gratification in terms of what we're gonna get next year but the biggest issue we're facing isn't what do they do with next year's bracket I think it's what they do when it permanently changes yeah and that's and to me, is hopefully what the crux of today's discussion would be. So as I try to formulate an idea or a column off of that,

and I have six hours to kick around my thoughts as I'm sitting at that hotel with my laptop open, but what are you hoping for in that regard? I I don't think it matters what I'm hoping for because we have a discussion last week and we would dissipate them. Will you well, I'm going to say because you got me hopeful with your keep college football weird. Like just just put the best 14 or whatever it is. I actually think they're not.

Your playoff system is weird. Like I didn't hate it. I got I know. Did you hate it? No, I didn't hate it. But I did hate the seeding. Fine. I thought I hated the seeding. I thought it was stupid to reward Penn State for losing the Big Ten championship game.

So yeah, but we said that we said all along the five seat or the six seat is going to wind up being the catbird seat because of the state flaws. But Penn State being rewarded for their loss was a seating malfunction that the committee did. It wasn't a mechanism of the rules. No, it was a mechanism of the rules. The committee could have dropped them further than they did, is what I'm saying, and put

them in a position with a tougher path. If the committee would have ranked them the way that we ranked them, then they wouldn't have had that path. Right. They would have had, they would have been the eight seats, right? I'm trying to remember what our ranking was at the end of that night? PennState's seeding isn't a mechanism of the system It was a miscalculation of where to put them by the committee The committee had all the control in the world of where to put Penn State they put them at six

Now Oregon obviously should have been number one. They put him at four Yeah, right I'm saying like they could have dropped Penn State even behind Ohio State if they wanted to the way that we did the way they would have done it in the 14 era and their path like to me I'm assuming that when you're like because I didn't do the mock committee for the expanded playoff. Are they even offering it because I would like to do it again now but I don't think it changes I don't think that their procedure changes at all but the procedure change in a form to some extent where they should be like, okay, here's our rankings. Because like here, I'll tell you this, the truth. Like, you know how we had to do our exercise a few weeks ago, predicting the 2025 bracket? Yeah. I had a very hard time and even made a mistake in it visualizing the bracket based on the list, right? Like it's different to look at the bracket than it is to rank the teams.

Am I wrong? So at the end of the thing, when they rank the teams they should put the bracket up there on the big screen and everybody should look at it and go, why is Penn State's path easier than Oregon's? And then adjust it from there. That's not part of the procedure. So you're saying add that to the procedure. What I'm saying is rank the teams the way that you want to rank them.

And then at the end of it, those teams are locked in as being in and then make adjustments after the fact as a committee in order to see it properly. And this may sound crazy, eliminate the stupid seating rules and seat it straight and then you don't have to do that. Yeah, that's true. I mean, yeah, I guess like, yeah. But also too Andy, like, then this is the thing that me and Brad

got all upset about with each other because even ranking it straight is inherently flawed at times. Because like Penn State even ranked straight and where they were last year probably wasn't where they should have been. So like that's the thing, like even when you rank it straight, you have this push pool between deserving and best still like that doesn't get eliminated. So there will be times where you'll have an Indiana who goes 11 and 1 or even 12.

Oh, they'll have to play in the championship game eventually, so they'll probably lose. But if you have a team that has a very magical year, they can find themselves in this current system finishing a season 11 and 1, not making the Big Ten Championship game and finishing fifth in the rankings and still be misceded. I think that the notion of fixing the seed, and I think I'm with you that they should go 1-12, but I also am completely against the notion that doing that fixes the seeding and everything's perfect from there on out. Nothing fixes anything. There's no perfect. The rankings are still going to be inherently flawed based on most deserving and best.

And that's fine. That's keeping college football weird. But there's no reason to just artificially move the number 12 team up number four. I just don't think that we're ever going to get to a point in college football. And I think that's okay, where you have the NFL playoffs where the first round games are three point spreads, like you're going to have this playoffs also have their own Miss deliberate miss mis-seeding. Yeah. If you win a division, if you win your division, you get a home game.

Yeah. So that like the Eagles, the Eagles were home, but the commanders had to go on the road, even though the commanders were probably better than the Bucs. Yeah. The only reason why I brought you up the NFL is because I think in the NFL, there is some question of who's gonna win. Like most playoff game spreads are less than a touchdown. So like you go into a game like really entertained because you don't know who's gonna win. But here's the thing.

There are still going to be teams every single year who get screwed and who get who benefit from the seating. And it might not be as drastic as what happened to Oregon this year, and it might not be as drastic as what Penn State benefited from. But it's just like the NCAA tournament, where some teams will have advantageous pass to the Final Four, and some teams will have a gauntlet. And it's going to happen based on how teams are ranked versus how good they are and how that's always different. But they don't automatically move the Horizon League champ up to a five seed. No. And that's the difference. So they should fix that. But as you have so astutely pointed out to me I don't think they're going to I don't know I don't see the incentive like I think they should but I

do not see the incentive for them to do it yeah and like I'm actually okay with it going another year just to see how it goes because I mean you're right it is one more year and then they'll blow it up and do something completely different. But let me let me throw this curveball at you big guy. Okay, I missed you man. I missed you. I'm happy to see you again.

If ASU gets a stop on 4th and 13 or whatever it was, what was it? Fourth and I can't remember 13. It was 4th and 13. Is this discussion different? Be honest like you with yourself? No, not for me. Like, is it crazy? To point out that I thought that Texas was going to win the national championship going into it and that ASU was grossly overseated based on their thing and then like ASU literally like basically beat them.

I mean, that's the beauty of actually playing the games. No I know but like I'm saying like if the big 12 champion beat Texas in the first round then maybe they were seeded properly. That's the point I'm getting too. Maybe our perception of ASU is that ASU was a pluck like a plucky underdog who's gonna you know have a really exciting player but like maybe ASU is so much better than we thought they were and like we're playing the preconceived notion bullshit game that I hate playing. Like that, like, they, the big 12th champion actually took the second best team in the SEC down to overtime on the final play. And should have been exactly where they should have been. Like, why is that have been exactly where they should have been.

Like, why is that such an offensive thing to say? Especially because it's like it would have been one thing if like as you came out and got their doors blown off and it's just like, okay, well, you know, we know we knew going into this was Boise State the third best team in the playoff. No. Okay. You've answered your own question.

Like I'm just playing devil's advocate here. I think I know I know. But I also too like and I feel like I might write this but I feel like tink plumbing issue and all this stuff. And it's like, before remodeling the home, let's just like let the foundation settle so we know what we're dealing with. It's like the 12 team playoff made no sense when they made it. It happened by circumstance to work out as a result of NIL and the roster's changing. But when they made the 12 team playoff and I was like,

what the hell are we doing at the time? It made zero sense Can you really really offers a compromise? Which I don't know that you'd want to do for one year, but it's a good it's a smart one This actually it sounds like it's basically stealing from the NFL top five conference champs get a guaranteed spot in the CFP and NFL. Top five conference champs get a guaranteed spot in the CFP and a home game. The top four overall get the top four seeds. So it'd be like if you win a weak division in the NFL, you still get a home game, even though you probably aren't the fourth best team in the NFC or the AFC, but you get a home game because you won your division and that's the way the rules are set up.

So that feels like a very reasonable compromise to me. So in that case, Arizona State would get the home game. Yeah, it's possible that like the two seed would have to go on the road. Not the two. The the two would have a buy in the 12 team playoff. And the 14 team. If you guarantee the five conference champion, oh yeah, it's the NFL playoffs. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, you know, listen, buddy. Okay. I've been in the sun for four days.

Okay. Yesterday was the first day in five days. I didn't get hammered. Like just like, let me ease into this here. I'm trying to, I was just, you're right. The top, the top seeds would also be the conference champions. I get it. Yeah, I I I think you might have to reseed after that like the NFL does, but that's another thing that they're gonna have to figure out because they're gonna figure out if they wanna have the Raymond says Andy take it easy on our is vacation brain still listen my my brain is very much still on vacation. It is on the top of a mountain somewhere. Who do you think drank more this trip, me or you?

Me. You do? Yeah. I was at an all you can eat and all you could drink buffet. I was ordering stuff I didn't want because I could. We have discussed that later in the show because there's a text you sent me earlier in your vacation and then a download you gave me afterward that it was quite you were in very different mental places but before we get to that we don't talk about our friends at

Panini the makers of the most collectible sports cards on the planet that is Panini America the prism football card series series features a vibrantly parallel base and an insert roster featuring college football's brightest and former current superstars. So let's talk about the Panini PRISM series Ari because there was a very interesting story by our friend Larry Holder at the Athletic about a particular Panini PRISM card that got pulled. So you do these card breaks. You do these where basically you will pay a reasonable amount of a small amount of money. And basically, they spin a wheel. You've bought into the card break, they spin a wheel. And you get a team.

Explain the concept. Yeah, go ahead. So sometimes these panini boxes are very, very expensive, not because panini makes them very expensive, but because people buy them up really quickly. And then on the secondary market, they become very expensive. It's like anything else if you want to, if you want something that air means bag, supply and demand. And so what happens is these box at times can be 1000, 1500, 2000, even more a box. And the reason why they are that way, Andy is because you have the potential of hitting a card that could change your life. Like the fact that the card is in there. Most boxes don't have the big cards because if they weren't in every box they wouldn't be big but if you buy a box that has the potential on the checklist to hit a card that's worth a half a million dollars then the box's prices are commensurate with that. So what I do

because I don't have two thousand dollars to buy a box every week, I'll buy a spot and a break. And what a break is, is they have all 32 teams in the NFL on the wheel or whatever sport there is, you pay an auction bid price for a spin at the wheel. And then whatever the wheel lands on that team, you own every card that comes out of that. Every Miami dolphin that comes out. Right.

If you got the dolphins, yeah. So what happens in these breaks is that the spots go up and down in price based on who's still remaining on the wheel. It's like a roulette wheel. It's like if the commanders are still alive, it gets progressively more expensive because your odds of landing on the commanders goes up

and the commanders are obviously a very desired team because that's the team that Jaden Daniels is on. So that brings us to where we are. Dr. Moist Muffins, the screen name of an actual doctor in Iowa, who bought into this card break. 36 bucks bought into this card break, got the commanders, and pulled a one-of- one Jaden Daniels card that there was already a bounty on and what what that what the bound how the bounties work is, they'll be collectors who know these cards exist because they know, you know, the panini puts

out what's in each set. And they'll say, that's the one I want. Here's what I'm willing to pay. There was already a $200,000 bounty on this card before it got pulled. And so he's got the commanders, they're breaking this box, and they pull the cart and like the guys room he was in the commanders for 36 bucks, usually the spots are in between like 80 and 150, depending on how many boxes are on the table. But that that is an un and it's always this guy. It's not it's not me. Who is just spinning the wheel

all the I mean, Andy, where were we a few years ago? Dr. Boyce Muppins is very involved in the hobby if you read the story. Yeah. He does a lot of card breaks. Okay. Yeah, the one spot 36. I'll spend $5,000 in card breaks in a month and get nothing. So it happens. He sold it. He did sell it. He said he did not sell it to the person at the $200,000 bounty. He got multiple offers, leading me to believe that he got more than $200,000 for this. Much more. Yeah. Yeah. And the reason why, and this is like the hobby is backwards. So like if somebody is hyped.

Like when Benyama last year like Wemby or Or like Arch is gonna be when he goes into the NFL or whatever. So the year that these quarterbacks are rookies, those cards, the rare ones, go for an astronomical amount of money at the beginning. Even more than veterans who have won Super Bowls. Now, Mahomes cards are through the roof. Like that Mahomes card,

that Jaden Daniels card for Mahomes is are through the roof. Like that Mahomes card, that Jaden Daniels card for Mahomes is probably worth millions and millions and millions of dollars. But it goes way up at the beginning, like a Caleb Williams card, a Drake May card, all the rookie quarterbacks who have starting jobs right now, their cards are expensive as hell. And that's because people want to buy into the next best thing immediately. But like last year, CJ Stroud's cards went through the roof and like he had kind of a down year and year two and now his cards have come down. So it's very hard to make money investing in quarterbacks initially because the prices

are so outweighed from the beginning. That said, you want to pull it from a pack and we'll actually want to pull it from this beginning. That said- So you want to pull it from a pack and we'll actually- You want to pull it from a pack. The only way to make money or to get good value on a rookie quarterback card is to buy the product from Panini and hit the card yourself or to hit it in a break that you paid $36 for. Because if you buy it on eBay or something,

then you're already paying gross amounts of money. Like, I'm just real quick, Andy, in 2021, I bought a bunch of Justin Fields cards. Now I covered him, I don't know if I was too close to the situation, but I have a stack of cards over here for Justin Fields, where if he turned into Joe Burrow would be worth a quarter of a million dollars.

Right now, they're not worth anything because he stinks. So I, but I paid a premium for Justin Fields cards when he was a rookie and I have taken a bath on them because they are worth way less now than they were when he came out. So go ahead. I'll let you. So that, that Jane Daniels car we're talking about is a one of one. Like I pulled this out of a pack last week. This is a JJ McCarthy brilliance prism draft picks card and it's a 62. It's numbered 62 of 99 like if JJ McCarthy Has a really good year for the Vikings this year, and we're assuming he's gonna be QB one for the Vikings This card is gonna be worth something. So that's the joy and the thrill.

Andy, I just want to point out too that like that Jaden Daniels card is the rarest of rare. Like in Panini they have 10, 15 different colors that are numbered. Orange is to $249. You know, gold is to $10 Like there's not just that one card. That one card is like the grail card of the set. It's the most valuable card at the set. And the thing that's so funny about it is sometimes people buy boxes, stack them in their closet, never open them.

And then these cards, they just are dormant in a box somewhere in someone's closet for 10 years. But I ripped, cause like, I know you, you got the care package. I got it too. I ripped mine. Cause like you're the got the care package I got it too I ripped mine because like you're the pack opener I'm the enjoyer um I hit a cam ward out of one well let's talk about that I want I want to talk about this right now so the combine is this week I don't

I don't think Chidur or cam ward are throwing at the combine Chidur is not I don't know about cam ward but they are going to be obviously the the object of a lot of people's affection that's what Cam Ward are throwing at the combine. I don't know about Cam Ward, but they are going to be obviously the the object of a lot of people's affection at the combine. So you've got a Cam Ward auto card that you pulled. Yeah, he's has Washington State

uniform funny. So but yes, I did. Who are we talking about like whose card are we talking about more this time next year that what will be the equivalent of that Jane Daniels card? Maybe not. Maybe there isn't one. Maybe maybe there wouldn't wouldn't be somebody as good But cam or should door because those are gonna be the top two off the board in the dress Well, you like you also have who are you taking into account? Oh who who would I want? I think I'm like really into cam ward. I like his attitude

want. I think I'm like really into Cam Ward. I like his attitude. But let me tell you, the reason why that Jayden Daniels card is so, so, so expensive right now too, is that he had an awesome rookie year. And like anybody who watched him play knows he's like gonna be a really good starter for 10 years. I don't know if he's gonna turn out to be like Tom Brady, but like he is legit. Like, like it's not very often. I think CJ Stroud did it last year I don't know that his past seasons rookie year is an indication that he stinks I think they had some injury issues and their offensive line had some problems But like I think in terms of like no doubt about it awesome Like I think we know Jayden Daniels is gonna be an awesome NFL quarterback for a long time

So like from my perspective right now, um, and I wrote a column about this. I don't know if you were on vacation when it ran or not. Um, but I wrote a column about like Cam Ward, what he's saying and how it makes me believe in him. Like I don't know if you've been paying... Show us that card again. Show us that Cam Ward auto that you pulled. Poneadiamerica.net to start your collection today. That is, that's from the Prism. This is the Prism draft picks. Draft picks, yes. And there is a-

That's right, I got the Cooper Eugene auto last week. Yeah. The Prism draft pick set is them in their college uniforms, which we like because we're a college football show. The cards that are for college are not as expensive as the NFL uniform ones. So, you know, it's I like them more because I think it's just cooler to have them in their college uniforms. I like college football better than the NFL.

But there are different tiers of products and the Prism draft picks is a lower tier because people don't spend as much for college uniform rookie court. So like that, that's why it is. Let's talk about cam ward, whether, and I think the Washington state piece of cam ward is interesting as well. And as she doors interesting in this aspect also, because I'm used to guys when they come into the draft, these quarterbacks, they're coming off these super teams a lot of the time and they've had clean pockets their entire college career. They've had better receivers to throw to their entire college career. Now I would argue that Cam Ward at Miami and Chador Sanders his entire career had better receivers relative to competition

like at Jackson State and at Colorado Cam Ward or Chador had that and Cam Ward had it at Miami did not have it at Washington State. But both of these guys have had to play in situations where they didn't have clean pockets all the time. Like they've been under duress, which a lot of times you get the guys that go to the NFL and cannot handle being under duress because they've not really been under duress before. And in the NFL, you're always under duress because unless you're the Eagles, you don't have an offensive line that can just hold up. So that's what I find interesting about these two guys is both of them have played in some dirty pockets. I think I'm with you, Ari, though, on camp. I think his improvisational skill, his willingness, and once he got with kind of equal to better competition or equal to better teammates relative to the competition, you saw how he leveled up.

Yeah, and I think that Shidor Sanders was probably like without question more under duress than Cam, right? Like when we went to the Florida game together, like I don't think they touched his jersey for four quarters. Like Cam, Cam- No, I'm talking about Washington State, not Miami. Yeah, yeah. But let me ask you this.

When you see a quarterback saying, I'll remember everybody who doesn't draft me, I'm gonna be great, like all the things that he's saying, does that instill, I don't know if he's like a ploy or if it's just confidence or whatever, but like for me, it's like I want to draft that guy. Does that make you want to draft? Well, Amin Rasay and Brown lists the guys drafted ahead of him every day.

Yeah, but I'm assuming he's one of the best receivers in the NFL. So, Cam Ward has been saying, though, like publicly. Oh, I know. And Amin Rasay had hit going into the draft. He did? Did he say he was going to do it going in? I think that he might have the dog mentality that you need. And he's got a good arm, he's super athletic, I like his vibe. Now this year's draft isn't nearly as deep as some of the ones from a perception standpoint that we've gotten in the past.

Like this past year, and the reason why the Panini boxes are so expensive right now is because you had Drake May, Jayden Daniels and Caleb Williams all in the same draft class. And like, I don't know if either, like would you say that Cam or Shador, either of them like live up to like the hype that like Caleb Williams had coming into the draft?

Like, I don't know. No, I mean, Caleb was considered basically a can't miss. And I think we underestimated Jayden. I don't think I think. Oh my gosh. I definitely did too. Jayden's awesome. We probably underestimated Bo Nicks and then we'll see what happens with Michael

Pennex Jr. So like there's a lot of in that draft class potential good quarterbacking in this one. You don't feel the same way. I think that Jane Daniels and my vision of him has been one of the biggest. Me being a dumb ass instances of my entire career. Remember I didn't even have him on my Heisman ballot. I remember that he didn't tell the story of the season or some nonsense. Yeah.

Or like his team was playing in a bunch of... Don't yell at me, LSU fans. Yeah, no. LSU fans got after me and I've since been like, yeah, I don't know what I was thinking. At the time, I was like, I'm not going to reward somebody for putting up 500 yards of offense in a game

that's on at 330 on SEC Network because they're out of the playoff contention. Well, he was playing is pretty good defense is like that Missouri defense that he he lit up. Yeah, was he really good defense? I bringing this up to explain that I was wrong. You don't have to tell me like I know I I messed that one up and I did kind of doubt that he would be what he is. I watched him play last year and I was floored. There's no denying he's an incredible player and my vision of his career at LSU was misplaced and wrong. So yeah, he's incredible. But the But like the other thing too is like, Shadur is a very interesting prospect to me.

Because last year when people said that he would be a first round draft pick, like coming into this year, I was like, what? And like, here we are. And like, I thought Shadur Sanders was much better than I anticipated he'd be. Yeah. And like, and I think too that like, I don't know if you buy into this, but if your dad was a Hall of Fame player and you have the same mentality and you are in that environment a lot, I think that helps. Like it wouldn't surprise me if Chidor Sanders like turned out to be a star in the NFL too.

Right? Like, I don't know. He made some throws that you're just like how, how did he fit that in there? And I realized they had good receivers, but there were some situations that that he threw his way out of that. I don't know how you would have done that. And their line did get better, but he's one of the few really good college quarterbacks who you can say, you know what, when he gets to the NFL, he'll have better protection than he had in college. Yeah. Yeah. But like, if you hit the one on one of either of these guys a year from now,

you're going to have $100,000 or more. So like, okay, you're so like, yeah, that's the thing. If you like think it's childish, like my wife thinks it's childish when she walks into my room. I don't know like if I can show you this Andy, like I'm gonna move the camera. Can I be unprofessional? Okay, all right, this should be fun.

I don't know how I'll ever get it back, but we'll figure it out. Look at all that. Look at helmet, that's beautiful too. This is my printer station and these are just cards. That's my mantle over there blocking my notes. Where the notes like I this isn't this isn't a game to me. Like this is my this is my thing.

Hold on. Let me fix this. That's where I lost my wallet. Are you here? We go. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. All right. Beautiful. I executed that perfectly, actually. It was flawless. Absolutely flawless. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. Alright, beautiful. I executed that perfectly actually. It was flawless. Absolutely flawless. For the podcast listeners, Ari's Office is actually pretty well kept and there's just stacks of cards and top loaders

and it's it's a beautiful thing. Yeah, my wife can't stand it and she'll like walk in and she'll be like, well, you're playing with your cards again. Like she'll like talk to me like I'm a five-year-old. You're playing with your dolls again? I'm not playing with dolls. You're playing with your cards again. Like she'll like talk to me like I'm a five year old. You're playing with your dolls again. I'm not playing with your dolls. You're playing with your dolls again. If that's the tone.

They're action figures. I've never really like explained to her. I think she would crap her pants if she found out like how much money is sitting on the table over there. Like I don't think she has any concept. You realize you're telling this to thousands of people right now. No, I know, but like, Brit has no concept.

She's completely removed from my entire like hobby world. And like there's two things that, she's cool with the cards cause she sees like the eBay stuff and all that. But like, if the PlayStation in my house comes on, the mood in the entire house shifts. Like the only time I can play PlayStation is after she goes to sleep because I think she thinks I'm wasting my time and life playing it.

It's just research for the show. That's all. Yeah, I told her I tried to do that once and that didn't work. I think she thinks I should be like writing a business plan or something. I don't know what what she thinks I should be doing. She's a beautiful wonderful wife but I don't know what she thinks I should be doing. She's a beautiful, wonderful wife, but I don't know if you guys with your wives run into this. Like there's just certain things that women will not understand. Like that guy's like.

And I think that like, this is cool. And at least there's value to it. And it's football, investing, gambling. It's everything all in one. Like it's like all my interests combined into one thing. So. Visit PaniniAmerica.net and start your collection today. While we're on the subject of gambling and spending money that, that others

might not approve of you spending. Let's talk about Wisconsin and Luke. Fickony because this happened late last week. You and I had already gone on vacation. But I got a text about this from somebody who's like, can you believe they did this? And I'm on vacation brain, I'm trying to ignore everything and I'm like,

are we serious? Luke Fickle is extended through the 2031 season. Now, this is a standard procedure at Wisconsin. They did it with a couple of other sport coaches at the same time. So it wasn't like there was a big meeting about let's just extend Luke Fickle. This is what they do.

It is their procedure to basically roll over coaches to whatever their original contract length was in Luke Fickle's case, it's seven seasons. So they don't do it automatically. It's not as contract to do it automatically. contract length was in Luke Fickle's case at seven seasons. So. They don't do it automatically. It's not as contract to do it automatically like their board has to meet and they have to say that you know they're they're meeting acceptable standards. So I'm going to ask you this Ari was last season acceptable if you're Wisconsin as the first losing season since 2001. Yeah,

like this is like a this is a Wisconsin discussion, but this is just like a coaching discussion, right? Like it's like what? Yes, coach. What like you have this like I feel like one of your rules to life. And we're going to bring that back this off season and we're going to really lean into that. But your rule for life is don't extend a coach that doesn't have other people trying to hire him, right? Like is that is that an Andy? Yes, rules for? I don't, we will make the verbal flow chart here. Like you asked these questions like, I'm thinking of extending my coach. So I'll ask you a question. Okay. Who else is trying to hire your coach? Well, no one.

And the answer is no. Like you don't have to move down the flow chart. No, do not extend him. You don't need to. Yeah. And like, that's the thing too. It's like if you don't extend your coach when you have an opportunity to do it and then they turn out to be awesome. Are they least? Are they less likely in the future to take the extension next time? No,

because then you offer them giant money because they earned it. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Like I don't know. Do people get like underlying resentment towards their program for not appreciating them? I don't know. But like I think that like the thing with with Wisconsin right now is that we are behind schedule. And I don't know, we were in the car driving somewhere. I don't remember where we were, but you were working on the 2025 hot list story. Remember when we were talking through this in the car? Did we? The hot seat list. Yeah, yeah. The hot seat list. Yeah. Yeah. Did we get to Fickle and was that a thought? He's in like too expensive to fire. Okay. But he wasn't. He's buyout at this point. And now here's the thing about the extension. And you say, well, it's a Phantom extension. it's not a phantom extension because of the way the contract is written so he also got a one-year extension last year because this is a standard procedure that they do every year so he's he's under contract for seven seasons

he's going to coach this season so then after this season he'll be under contract for six he's due 80 percent of the remainder of his contract. If he gets fired at any point here, his average salary is like 7.7 or $7.8 million. So what's 80% of $7.7 million? We're a bad at math podcast, but I have probably was it five and a half mil, $6.2 million. Ari. So they just put themselves on the hook for six point two more million dollars.

If this doesn't work like that is real money. Yeah. Yeah, and the question I guess here too is like how. Confident are you that he's still the guy? Like that's the thing like should you have lost confidence in that? Well, I have another question too, because remember what I said when he got hired that clearly Wisconsin was trying to make a big move and had had convinced Luke Fickle that he could win there because he had a good job at Cincinnati.

Luke Fickle is not a, like, despite the name, he's not a Fickel person. Like, he was not leaving Cincinnati for just any old job. Like, he felt like he had a pretty good thing going. So, I think they convinced him that he would be given the resources to win there. I'm looking at their roster, and I don't think he's been given the resources to win there. I'm looking at their roster and I

don't think he's been given the resources to win from an NIL standpoint because they'd have better players if he had been. Yeah. Yeah, it's very difficult too because it's like in this new world. It's like how much is your roster not being good enough the coaches fault and how much is it the NIL's fault? You know, and it's like kind of hard to parse through that because like five years ago, if you had a bad roster, it was the coach's fault period.

Yeah, so I'm not I'm not completely out on Luke Pickle yet. Because you got the rev share coming in. They're going to have money to spend. And if he spends it wisely then maybe they're okay but I don't like the way things are trending the first couple of years like that that does not feel good it's not representative of what he was like at Cincinnati like that it appears they got worse and I realized the quarterback that they brought in Tyler Van Dyke, they thought was going to be the guy he gets hurt in week two or three, excuse me. And so it wasn't what you hoped it would be, but you've already, you know, you fired Phil Longo, the offensive coordinator, you're bringing Jeff Grimes.

So now I think that represents to me because Jeff Grimes is an offensive line coach by trade that you are deciding to lean into what Wisconsin used to do really well. So I hope that's the case. But look at this schedule, Ari. So here's a stretch. Alabama, Maryland, Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, state, Oregon, Washington, Indiana, Illinois, Illinois. And Minnesota is not easy. Minnesota beat the crap out of them last year. And it's on the road in November 1129. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

That's a real kick in the knackers, as the kids say. Yeah. I realize it's your policy. And that's what the Wisconsin people keep saying, everything I've read about this on the internet, it's our policy. Maybe your policy is bad. Maybe you need to change your policy because the first losing

season since 2001 is not acceptable progress. And if you don't extend him this year, it's probably not going to hurt his feelings and you don't put yourself on the hook for an additional $6.3 million down the road. If he turns it around and wins 11 games this year, then extend him two years. If you are a coach like Fickle who was supposed to be a huge get for your school when you landed him,

how much does what they did at their previous stop hold weight in terms of your accomplishments and bought into like whatever contract situation you have at your new place? Did I ask that clearly after after two years? None, it shouldn't. Yeah, and then here's the other thing about. The Luke Fickle situation. What happened in Cincinnati? He was great. Who else was in Cincinnati with him? Yeah, there were some pretty good coordinators there. I think who was his defensive coordinator? I think his name was Marcus. What was his last name? Oh

yeah. Oh yeah. Marcus Freeman. Turns out he's a pretty good coach. Turns out he's a pretty good recruiter. Yeah. This is the other issue. And this is the problem that you run into a lot too. And this is not unique to college football. You see this in the NFL too, where you have the hot coordinator who gets the head coaching job and you realize, oh wait, he wasn't good.

Payne Manning was a good quarterback. And he happened to be the coordinator. But like in this particular case with Fickel, could it be that Marcus Freeman was some of the secret sauce in terms of building those rosters at Cincinnati? I don't doubt Fickle's prowess as a recruiter. We saw it at Ohio State. He was awesome.

And so I think he's probably a good recruiter, roster builder too. Was it Mike Denbrock, the offensive coordinator on his team too? That he was. That would it Mike Denbrock, the offensive coordinator on his team too? That he was. That would be Mike Denbrock, who was the offensive coordinator at LSU with Jayden Daniels and Malik Neighbors and who was the OC at Notre Dame this year. I didn't want to get through that point without mentioning that too. Yes, Mike Denbrock also.

So that's the calculus you got to do when you're trying to figure out. Do we dig this hole deeper or do we say, you know what? We pay you fairly. You just roll with the six years you have on your deal instead of the seven. If you don't like that, you can lump it. So what you're basically saying is is that Ryan Grubb should be a head coach somewhere. I don't know yet because sometimes you're good coordinator, not a good head coach. This is why search firms can charge millions and millions and millions of dollars.

Because nobody knows. Like we didn't know Marcus Primo was going to be a good head coach. Turned out he was. Nobody knows anything, man. Nobody knows anything. And you know what? Like we're having this conversation as if like Fickle's cooked. Like he's one year away. He can coach his way out of this. He definitely can coach his way out of it. I don't know if that's- Let me ask you this,

cause it reminds me of something you say a lot. You talk about the concept of forced patience, that these giant buyouts cause forced patience. In this particular case, you're still forced into patience if you don't extend him. Like you still owe him 30 million bucks if you've tried to fire him, if you hadn't extended him. Yeah, they're like, yes sir, may I have another?

Like that's what they did. Like, was that what they say in the military? Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, do they need to be forced into patients? I think forced patients is good, but like also, too, if you're already in forced patients mode, you don't have to make it worse. Right, right.

If you had not extended him and this year goes very badly and you wanted to make a change, it would be a 30, right at a $30 million buyout, which is probably too expensive, which you probably don't pay. So he's probably safe anyway. Like, yeah, it's, it's crazy. It's crazy. And producer river brings up Jeremy Pruitt getting extended the year before he got fired. Like there was no reason to. Nobody was coming after him.

Nobody was chasing him. Like if you're not going to lose the person, you do not have to extend them. You don't. And here's the other part. That's $6.3 million that you're now on the hook for. And I get the sense that like Wisconsin is just trying to be what Wisconsin used to be, which is a 10 and 2, 11 and 1 team, right? I know that's not easy, but I mean, you could make the case that they're worse off this past year than they were when Paul Chris got Paul Chris was there. Yeah. Yeah. No, they were. And they they fired Paul Chris. And I understood

why they did. Because the arrow was pointing down. But here's the thing. You just put yourself on the hook for 6.3 million more dollars that I'm gonna I'm gonna do the X number X percentage of marriages end in divorce Ari and go you're probably gonna have to spend that it's at some point you just you're probably have to pay that because that's just how these things usually work wouldn't that money be better spent on better players you can just like rewrite the column that you wrote about Northwestern's NFL stadium that they're building about everything. Just buy better players.

It's not that complicated. Maybe that's... We talked about doing some merch and having... Buy better players. Buy better players. We make this so complicated. It wasn't complicated in 1956 when they did it in duffel bags or in 1996 when they did it in envelopes full of cash in the mailbox or in 2008 when they went to the dentist office that they didn't they weren't going to the dentist and somebody handed them an envelope like, it's not complicated, buy better players. You're actually allowed to do that now. So instead of wasting your money on extensions

that you're gonna have to turn into giant buyouts down the road, buy better players now. How did you get through that entire montage without bringing up McDonald's bags? Like, I don't know how you did it, but here we are. We just mentioned Jerry Pruitt. I don't know. McDonald's bags? Yeah, throw some cash in McDonald's bag or you can now do it any way you want to, but buy better players.

Here's what you do. You get the filet-o-fish and then you put the money on top of the filet-o-fish to keep it warm well listen we're presented by wendy's we are yeah we are what what do you okay wendy's doesn't question okay wendy's doesn't cheat is it but it's not cheating anymore well yeah so getting saying at the time it was cheating and can you do it in a Wendy's bag? I think you can now 444 deal and it's $444 per nugget. I think if you got a baconator Well, now you can just put a check in it like cuz nobody cares You know how it doesn't even had to be cash. You could put a check with a 1099

There has to be a Wendy's pun in there somewhere. I don't know. That's right. So whatever bag you choose, give the bag to the players. Do not give the bag to the coach in buyout form. Because procedurally, you always extend your coaches every year. Like if they're not winning the way you want them to win, don't reward them for it. This is not that complicated. Like, can you imagine our boss, Shannon Terry? Like if we went to him and said,

hey Shannon, I realized we had a, you know, subpar year relative to what we've done in the past and what your companies have done in the past, but we're gonna need another year on the contract and a raise. He just laughing at us. Should we try it though? We're gonna need another year on the contract and a raise. He just left with us. Should we try it though?

Yes, we should definitely try it. I mean, like as soon as the show's over. I actually just text. I just texted him. Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah. I mean, we were we didn't have a losing season.

We had a winning season. I thought we had a pretty good season. Yeah, I think that I don't know that it was a national title season, though. We've got a long way to go. But I feel like we have to do. Yeah. Yeah. But we should definitely be extended one more year just in case. Just in case. Yeah. To twenty seven. Just in case. Yeah.

All right. All right. One more thing we got to talk about. And that is a text that you sent me early in your vacation and I told you when I got there right when I just won't last I was there for five minutes when I sent that text hold on let me let me find the exact wording of the text I believe that the exact wording the text is I am now an all inclusive guy and for those who you know most of us have been on some sort of all-inc inclusive trip like

a cruise or you've gone to an all inclusive resort where all the food and drink comes as part of the package that you paid for when you got there. And Ari texts me says, he says, I'm an all inclusive guy. He said, I found out that I'm an all inclusive guy. First time I've ever been to an all inclusive resort. And this is a garbage panda's dream. I call Ari a raccoon, which they're also called trash pandas. He doesn't like good food. He likes mass quantities of bad food. And I said, all-inclusive guy is one step up from buffet guy. He's like, I can order whatever I want. I said, it's a churched up golden corral. He said, and it doesn't matter. Ari, this was five minutes

in. Tell me what happened at the end. Okay, so let me put it this way. I had been on a cruise before and when I got there, I didn't realize that you're just on a landlocked cruise. That's what it is. Like when you're an all inclusive resort, they have restaurants and you go out and like, and the thing I will say is some things were much better than others. Right. But the food was very hit and miss. Like the french fries were delicious. I had got a hot dog that was delicious. Like it was one of these deals of like, I was ordering stuff because I could.

Like the appetizer menu, like bring all of them. Like it's like why would like why am I choosing if it's part of the deal? Okay. So I like that. But then like the last night we ordered room service to the room because we had been in the sun all day and we were watching the Gabby Petito documentary, Electric, if you haven't watched it, go ahead and watch that. And they brought chicken fingers to the room, man, and I took a bite out of it and it was the first time in my entire life that I'm like, that chicken finger stinks and I'm not going to eat the rest of them. Like, do you know how bad a chicken finger has to be for you not to smash the rest of them?

And I like thought to myself, like, and that's kind of what it hit me. It's like I asked you a would you rather when we got when I got there during that conversation, would you rather have three meals of limited quantity that were everything you ate was a 10 out of 10 delicious, or would you rather have complete excess as much as you want and as much variety as you want of seven food. And I think you want of seven food? And I think you took the 10, right? I took the 10, absolutely. Which is what I did on my vacation.

Yeah. I thought I was a seven out of 10 guy, but the problem was the food probably was not a seven out of 10. I'm gonna quote Dr. Ian Malcolm here. You were so preoccupied with whether you could, you didn't stop to think if you should. That's right.

And actually the first day I ordered a ton of stuff and then actually what happens is you get to a source, like a place of like I can order anything I want whenever I want where you just stop ordering things like it's like it doesn't like I don't think that I ordered that much This is this is what the times I've done cruises. This is where I've landed with the drink package Because the the all-you-can-drink package on the cruise is a it's a flat amount I think it usually ends up being like a hundred bucks a day, something like that. And you're just doing the math in your head of

what would these cost if I just paid for them individually? How many do I have to drink to make a profit here? We did. It's like I gotta consume 9.3 drinks a day and and guess what you can do that day one you day five you're struggling yeah and that was the thing too it's like the drinks were also hit and miss some of them were really good and some of them looks like I found myself like ordering beer cans because it was like you can't mess with a beer can like I felt like the old drinks sometimes were watered down and the booze was lower I mean it was I had

a blast and I ate like a king and drank like a king. But I don't know. Like my wife is anti like when we got there. She is anti all inclusive because she's the type of person and right. She wants 10s all the time. Yeah, she wants to go to nice small amount of 10. She also doesn't like being trapped at the same place for three days. Like I think she's the type of person that wants to get into an Uber and go explore the city. And we did that like in Cabo, there's like nice restaurants and activities and things away from the resort. I thought I was an all inclusive guy. It reminded me of the first plate at Golden Corral. Now I haven't been to Golden Corral in 20 years or 10 years or I don't know, it's been a long time. But when you walk into an all you can eat buffet and you're starving, the first trip through

the buffet is like, Oh my God, this is the greatest invention of all time. I can eat whatever I want. There's so much stuff. And then by the time you finish the first plate, you're like, Oh, this was not that good. And I don't know if I want to go back. That's where I'm at with it. I think I'm I think I'm although I'm a trash panda. I think I would rather have 10 out of 10 food. Now that said, if it's seven out of 10 and it's truly seven out of 10, I think I still take the abundance. But I think this was five out of 10. Like I got a steak that was very good, but then the mashed potatoes were so bad I couldn't I didn't even eat them like how how do you mess up mashed how do you mess up mashed potatoes they were like they were like gray golden browns never messed up mashed potatoes i'll tell you that but yeah because here's a hot take about mashed potatoes if you want one before we get out of here go for mashed potatoes are better

than the real ones have you ever had box mashed potatoes potatoes? You did right? I'm sure I have. I'm sure I've had plenty of both, so you ever gone to target and seeing the mashed potatoes that are just powder and like the individual tins. You pour water and throw him in the microwave for 30 seconds and then you have mashed potatoes.

Those taste better than like actual fresh potatoes to me. Hot takes from Ari. I you know what I say you quiz the conference commissioners on this because they might not actually accomplish anything today. They might not actually do anything and you might actually have to wind up asking them whether they're like instant mashed potatoes or from scratch.

If they don't do anything, then I need to come up with something to do. So like I need them to do something because I need to write something, right? Like so like so I mean there may be some existential hand wringing over 2026 and beyond if they're not the SEC of the big 10 because obviously they're just going to have it dictated to them but I don't know that I don't know that much is going to happen. I would love it if they came out and said, we fixed the seating. But I make my life easier.

Yeah, you'd have something to write. You'd have stuff to ask about. But I suspect they're going to make your life more difficult because even if they are going to do something for next year, I bet they delay it till that meeting that they have between the semifinals and the final of the basketball tournament? Yeah, I can't, I cannot decide whether college football moves too fast or moves too slow. It's both. Because sometimes it feels like both.

It's both. The answer is yes. Yeah. But yeah, so it's in Texas. The cool thing about the CFP is that all the stuff is here, so I'm able to just drive over. And I will head over there. So, I had a really good time today, Andy. I know we have some pretty big shows lined up this week. Uh we're gonna break down. Um I

don't know if that'll be on Wednesday or Thursday but we're gonna go through my way too early All Americans list. Um I'm getting feedback on Twitter right now. That story's on on three.com right now if you wanna go read it. Um about where I might have aired. I'm very curious now that you can look at the list. People have on on3.com right now. If you want to go read it about where I might've aired. I'm very curious now that you can look at the list. People have opinions on that. They think you might've been wrong.

Once or twice. You know what's interesting? I had DJ Lagway as my first team all American quarterback. So that means I think he's the best quarterback in college football. Correct. And Brandon Walker from Barstool texted me way too early for Lagway. So like, that's a little taste of what we're doing. But I actually will say that when I went through this list, I did one quarterback, two running backs, two receivers, a tight end, and then offensive line, and then two edges, two defensive linemen, three linebackers, two corners, two safeties. And I did not struggle. Like this was like an easy, I don't know

if that's because I'm wrong, or because it's clear cut. So I'm excited to see what you have to say about that. Well, and that's it feels clear cut. And the beauty of college football is there's gonna be somebody that we're not even talking about right now, who either didn't play, or who, you know, had some growth spurt their senior year of high school or vastly under recruited, played for an FCS school, transferred up to a power conference school this year and is just going to blow up. That is the beauty of all this, but it makes it a hell of a lot of fun to talk about in the off season, which we will, but now Ari has to go. He's got questions. The conference commissioners may or may not have answers, but we will find out tomorrow.