Andy & Ari On3 - Your ULTIMATE guide to the 2025 March Madness tournament

Episode Date: March 19, 2025

Hosting a party for the big game? Are you about to have a house full of hungry people with painted faces looking to you for food? Have no fear, nothing saves a party from hunger like the Burger Box from Whataburger. It comes with 10 single or double patties (with or without cheese), all the fixings (like lettuce and tomatoes — which you can customize) and sauces. Perfect for whenever, whatever, whoever. Order online from April 4-7 and earn double reward points. There is only one way to describe Rhoback – Best Fit, Best Feel. Rhoback has released so many items within their new licensed gameday collection and it’s our favorite. With novel polo designs and clean hoodie and q-zip designs for some of your favorite schools – it’s definitely worth checking out. Nobody else on the market is pairing these level of custom designs with this quality of activewear. Use the code ANDY on Rhoback.com for 20 percent off for all new customers. (0:00-1:10) Intro(1:09-4:09) James Fletcher III joins: How UNC got in(4:10-7:01) Must Watch Games(7:02-8:53) Which teams can go on a run?(8:54-12:40) Favorites ahead of the tournament(12:41-16:59) Upsets in the Tournament(17:00-17:45) Whataburger(17:46-19:40) Can Alabama get BACK to the Final Four?(19:41-20:59) Players to Watch in the tourney(21:00-26:31) Cinderella? Best Draw: Florida(26:32-27:23) Arizona's Run?(27:24-28:54) Tennessee's FIRST Final Four?(28:55-31:19) Final Four Picks(31:20-32:42) Worst Draw? Wrapping up with James(32:43-33:49) Rhoback(33:50-35:08) Jonas Williams at USC Preview(35:09-43:26) Jonas Williams sits down with Ari(43:27-45:25) Ari's Fractured Toe(45:26-49:09) Arizona's Version of a Spring Game(49:10-1:00:53) Colorado & Syracuse Spring Game? Top Pairings(1:00:54-1:01:55) Conclusion - Dear Andy & Ari tomorrow! Now that we are officially one day away from the full Round of 64 commencing, On3's bracketologist James Fletcher III joins the show to give us the FULL preview of this year's incredible bracket. Which favorites will make a run? Who will be the Cinderella in this year's field? What players do we need to watch for? Are all four #1 seeds destined for the Final Four? Find out all of these questions and more with James Fletcher! Later, highly touted QB Jonas Williams joins Ari from Dallas and explains what he is expecting at USC now that he is committed to Lincoln Riley and the Trojans. Afterwards, Andy & Ari wrap up discussing Ari's fractured toe along with the talks of Colorado & Syracuse doing a spring game event. It also got the guys thinking of what other schools should partner up for a spring game. Watch us LIVE on YouTube at 9:30 am et/8:30 am ct: https://youtube.com/live/Q4WDV8CUjv0 Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy and Ariane three. Happy Wednesday. Happy NCAA tournament week. We are less than I'm bad at math. Ari, but we're less than 26 hours away. No, less than 27 hours away from the tip off of the tournament proper. 24 hours until I land in Viva. Well, okay, this is part of the reason why we're doing this today with James Fletcher, who is on three's resident bracket ologist. But also the other part of it is our live show starts at 930 a.m. Eastern time. So if we go at 930 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday and we did a full tournament preview, well, the people

watching live are going to be very well informed. But unfortunately, if you're listening in podcast form, you're gonna be like, why are you doing all this while the tournament has already begun? Because we go off the air an hour and a half before the games tip off. So you know, somebody catching it on their afternoon drive is gonna be like, listen, that's great. But some of the games are already over. So we're going today and we have a lot to talk about. Let's bring on James Fletcher on three's Resident Bracketologist

because James, first question right out of the gate, have you been subpoenaed by anyone in West Virginia because your last Bracketology had West Virginia in the field? I have not to this point. We'll see. we'll see. It sounds like they're trying to wrangle up as many people as they can to make a case there. But I was one of the few people who had them on the bubble. So I'm not sure they really want me in that conversation. Well, I wanted to ask you about that

because that's the only one of the field of 68 you didn't have. You had them in and Xavier out and it turned out to be the opposite. North Carolina actually turned out to be the last team in according to their True Seed line. But what was your thinking on that in that process of having North Carolina in already? Because I think that's the thing everybody's complaining about. Everybody's mad because North Carolina had the one in 12 quad run record. Everybody's making the joke because their plane was late to date,

and they're like, it must have been a quad one flight. What was it about North Carolina that you said, okay, I think they're going to put them in? Yes. There's a number of factors there that led me to ultimately place North Carolina in there. One was their recent run of form. They had started to finally string together wins, and you were seeing that pop up in those predictive metrics,

the net rankings, the Kim Palms, Bart Torvik, those metrics that the committee has acknowledged that they look at. They have seven different categories split into predictive and then results based. So they were looking good and predictive. Now results based, they were not looking as good. But if you looked at it by the end of things when we got to Sunday morning, they really were not that far below the Xavier's, the West Virginia's teams like that in terms of where they stood just from a numbers standpoint. Now, when you went to the quadrant system,

yes, it was not pretty. But given the kind of weak bubble that we had, I started to get the feeling that they might start to bring in Quad 2 into the conversation, which the committee chair and vice chair did both acknowledge the Quad 2 record there. And once you combined Quad 1 with Quad 2, North Carolina started to look really similar to these other resumes. And so those predictive metrics were going to give them that little boost to get in the field. I did still have West Virginia over Xavier though, who had a little bit lower of a number in those predictive spots.

We're going to get quadrant, that word quadrant into college football. Like that's a solid word. So it's a good metric. How many quad ones did you beat? And I guess Indiana. It's gonna be like two for two for the even the best teams. That's, that's the only problem like in basketball, these SEC teams played like 17 quad one games. So, all right, let's talk about the teams that are that are set up playing Thursday, playing Friday. This is a fascinating bracket. We broke down some of the more interesting matchups, some of the like a Bill Self-John Calipari matchup in round one with the winner possibly playing Rick Patino. What was the one you looked at and you used to know first round game that you looked at and you're like,

I have to watch this. I will be planted in front of my television when I see it, when this starts. Yeah, there were quite a few. I mean that one that you just mentioned, the Arkansas-Kansas, which then leads into Rick Patino. I mean that's a huge one right there, kind of setting up two big coaches. We know that coaches are usually the stars of college basketball, at least they have been throughout the history of the sport. And these are two that are as big as it gets. And then like I said, it feeds into

facing another Hall of Fame coach in Rick Pitino. So that one was way up there for me. One that I'm really, really interested in though is Missouri against Drake. You got this lineup here where Missouri has looked good at times in the SEC. Obviously, they get a sixth seed here, but Drake, 30 and three. So they've got one of the best records in all of college basketball. They're led by, of course, Coach McCollum there, who just brought several players from the D2 ranks up into

division one. And a lot of people question how successful that would be. It has been very successful. And I would, I would warn people though, when you talk about this team, when you start referencing that there are D two players playing at the D one level, Bennett Sturtz is not that anymore. He might've been last year, but this is a guy who is now on NBA radars with how good he's performed all through the season. Uh, Drake made the tournament, but Lamar didn't. So does that

mean that Drake won the beef? Did you guys think about that? I mean, you know, if you're playing the long game, you're playing the long game. He might have, I was wondering where you're going with that, but, uh, no, uh, they're still not like us. You asked. Still not like us.

Go for it. Can you just help me win some bets? Like who's like, when you No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, but they want to know like what long shots to you do you think are are under seeded or under valued in terms of the odds like who do you think could make a run based on their based on their paths and based on their betting number? Yeah so you look at those first round uh upsets that you're going to want to pick the 512 is always the way to go there and there's plenty of really good candidates this season we've got of course Colorado State playing Memphis. Colorado State's favorite in that game actually. So I don't know if that one's even your typical underdog that you're talking about. But you've got UC San Diego against Michigan is going to be a really good game. Liberty and Oregon is another one. And then of course McNeese against Clemson. You got Will Wade, who's right on the cusp. He's got that show cause is gone. And now he can take a big job in this upcoming cycle.

So maybe they pull off a big win against Clemson who he has ties with that program. That'd be a real storyline win for them. And we'll probably make some people quite a bit of money if they had money on it. In terms of those runs through the tournament though, I struggle because I really do think that the top five six teams in college basketball have separated themselves at this

point, so I don't know if you're going to get great money picking a national champion like the one that stands out to me and you know we talked about it a little bit on the at the beginning of this interview, but like is Saint Johns and Rook Patino. If you look at that 32 to one, you know I've watched this tournament enough to know that runs like that happen a lot like I'm not going to act like I know, you know, that St. John's brings something to the table from an actual like analysis standpoint to actually make that run.

But from a storyline perspective and from the pedigree of the coach perspective, 32 to 1 seems like a pretty juicy number for somebody that's been that successful in this tournament. in this tournament? Yeah, not just in this tournament, but this season. St. Johns is right up there with the elite teams in terms of their their record overall and what they've been able to do recently. They have gone on a tear and have kind of just run over the Big East throughout the last month or so. So St. Johns is definitely one to pick there. If you're going for a long shot, I don't really have a really, really, really tough second round game, which I think is why,

which is why their odds are so out of whack, right? And I'm not sure why they're even that low though, because you look at in Iowa State, well, they're down a player. So I'm not sure if they should be higher up in those odds. Texas Tech also listed higher than them, but Darian Williams is not a hundred percent. So that's one of their best players who's not playing at

peak performance. Some of these other teams, obviously, they gotta go through each other. So I think St. John's is really the way to go there if you're looking for a long shot on this list. So James, you mentioned you feel like the top teams have separated themselves, but what feels different about this tournament

than last year's? Last year it felt like the UConn Invitational. Everybody's just waiting for UConn to smash everybody. Nobody really felt like anybody else had a chance. So who in your mind are the ones that the two, three, four that should be the favorites in this thing? Yeah, we look at Auburn, who had this incredible run, built up their resume and really just was so far ahead of the field by the time we got into March that they were going to be the number one seed no matter what happened. And of course we know what happened was they lost three out of four matchups

down the stretch. And so that has a lot of people really starting to question their pedigree. And I can't blame them because like you said, a lot of people kind of show up to this around March. And so what they've seen from Auburn is not what us college basketball analysts have been talking about with this dominant team. And so the question for Auburn is, were they just disinterested? Did they know that they were so far ahead of the field that they didn't have anything to play for?

Or is there some real problems that they have to address? I think that's opened the door wide open for Duke and Florida. I think those are two teams that you have to watch out for. Duke has the best player in the country in Cooper flag. Florida, I think is the best all around team in the country. They've got the top end talent with Walter Clayton. They've got an incredible starting lineup filled with guys who can provide all kinds of scoring output, defensive impact, and then they've got the depth. They bring two, three, four guys off the bench who can make a real impact in games as well. So they really are the complete package. And I think this Auburn will run a form has opened the door for those two to really make a run at this thing.

Anybody who's been watching white Lotus this season knows that Duke's taken a few taking a few L's in this. I don't know. I don't know if you're, but those spoilers are, I haven't seen the most recent episode yet. I fell asleep last night. I'm surprised you haven't seen that meme floating around Twitter. You're going to see it a lot, I think, if Duke loses, but can you contextualize?

Cause Cooper flag is the biggest name. The anticipation is that he's probably going to play, but how good is Duke with flag not playing or at 50% without flag? I think that they're still definitely good enough to win that first round game. The one 16 matchup. Look, you go beyond Cooper flag, and this is still one of the best teams in college basketball.

You've got cone, canipple, who's going to be a lottery pick in the NBA draft. So we'll come on Malawak. He'll be up there towards the top of the first round. You then look at veteran college players like Tyrese Proctor, Scion James. So they've got plenty of depth to get through this first round game. It gets a little bit more interesting. You get into that second round, particularly, I think, if they play a Mississippi State team that really wants to kind of grind it out and has faced

the rigors of the SEC schedule. We know obviously 14 teams in the tournament, they've been playing tough teams night in night out. They've gotten results every now and then. So I think really you need Cooper flag to be close to a hundred percent for that second round game. You definitely need him going into the second weekend where the level of competition just ramps so much higher up.

Well, and it's interesting that you mentioned that because if Cooper flag is limited in that second round game, Duke is vulnerable there. Who's the most vulnerable of the one seeds going into the eight nine game? I think it's actually Auburn for those reasons that Auburn has lost three of four and that's a real concern. I know that yes, you can come up with a million different excuses for why that could be the case and that might be legitimate reasons. But I think facing either a Creighton who has one of the best defensive players in

the country in Ryan Cockburn or Louis, who has an elite defensive player of their own, and Chucky Hepburn. Obviously, Cockburner in the paint, Hepburn on the perimeter, but those are two different teams that have been playing really well, got to the championship of their conference tournaments. And so you could really look up and see Auburn in a dogfight here. I think it's going to be a real indicator too, for what they're going to do. If they blow out this team in the second round, I think we know that Auburn is back. That it was just a little blip on their schedule and that they're at full force ready to go to the final four.

If it's a close game, watch out because they have a tough matchup in that next round as well. James casual fans like me look at the tournament and I think, you you know the charm is always that it's so unpredictable and you don't know what's going to happen and there's all these breakdowns that go out the window when teams you know lose unexpectedly. Can I ask you because you follow this stuff all year and you're really dialed into it. How often and let me I'm going to take a step back for a second but like Andy and I talked about college football for 365 days a year. And things in college football rarely happen in a way where it's like, oh my God, I cannot believe that result happened.

Sometimes there's upsets. Okay. But for the most part, I think we have a pretty good idea of whether a game is going to be a toss up or, you know, whatever. It's nothing like basketball. What do you think it is about the analysis of the sport that makes it so hard to see these things come? And when you say the top five teams have separated themselves from the pack, I mean, how much does that actually mean when the unpredictability of this tournament gets underway?

Yeah, there's definitely a lot to that. And I think that the biggest thing in college basketball that kind of separates it in terms of these upsets that we talk about from college football is the variability in not just the styles of play, which obviously plays a role, a team that just wants to get up a lot of threes or plays a really fast pace. If they can control the tempo against a slow it down team that wants to score from the paint, you're talking about just three equals more than two. And I think that's the biggest difference here is that in football, it's so physical. It's so much of a, you know, our big athlete against your smaller athlete.

And you'll see that some in the tournament, no doubt. But once you get those smaller athletes, they start saying, hey, the one thing we can still do is shoot from the perimeter. And at the end of the day, that's worth more points than getting into the paint. So there's a variable there with the score. Just being closer, seven and three is a lot bigger of a gap than three and two.

So you start talking about these teams that are trying to pull off an upset. Do they just shoot more threes? Are they able to get up and down quicker than the other team? Style of play makes these matchups. And that's why when you look at these upsets that happen, most of them, now there are some that just come completely out of left field, but most of them,

you can at least point to, if not before the fact afterwards and say, this is kind of what we missed or what we should have seen in terms of a team that could have gotten hot or a team that struggled in a certain area. And that was picked apart by the team they were playing. I just feel like somebody should do that. The D3 team, Grinnell, that just comes out and chucks up like 83 is a game.

Just if you're a 16 seed, why not? What would it hurt? You know what I don't understand, Andy? So shooting a three is difficult, right? But if you- I don't know, trying to work it into the post is more difficult. Yeah, right. So let me ask you this. Why don't you think even in the NBA, outside of Steph Curry,

So let me ask you this. Why don't you think even in the NBA outside of Steph Curry, anybody has mastered shooting the ball from seven to nine feet further where they can get a clean look? James, you can back me up on this. I think I feel like players have gotten better at that on the whole, obviously nobody's Steph, but I do feel I'm watching college games. I see college players taking more NBA 3s.

I feel like they've. They're doing that. I think I think the other thing there to Ares point is that this game is all about efficiency. It's about creating the most advantage you can for yourself, and that's why we see so many corner threes taken because it's the shortest amount of distance from the shooter to the goal. And so the idea is what we want is to take the closest shot possible that is worth the most amount of points. Everyone wants to shoot free throws.

And if you can't get free throws, you want to dunk because a dunk is as easy as it gets, if you can't get a dunk, you want to shoot a three pointer. But the group of players that a coach has any sort of faith in that wants to take a deep three is such a limited list that I think that that's the biggest thing is that the coach does not want that inefficient shot unless it's somebody who's so good that he trusts that he's going to make it more often than he misses. You know who never misses? Waterburger. Bring home the W with the ultimate tailgate package.

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and earn double reward points. Okay, James, I'm with you on that. And I'm glad you, that was very good because this is a Bad at Math podcast. And basically you just described the philosophy of Nate Oates at Alabama. His is very simple. We want a dunk or a layup, or we want a three pointer.

And I think this is something that is Infiltrated a lot of the game, but Nato's was doing this back when he was a high school coach How dangerous does that make Alabama which by the way went to the final four last year has mark Sears back Who's there there been their leading score? They have an experienced group that's that's done some of this before Yes, Alabama is extremely dangerous not just in the the tournament, but on any given matchup. We've seen them beat Auburn. We've seen them beat some of these other top teams across college basketball.

And you're right, he is kind of one of the pioneers in the college game to bring this sort of value-based system to the table. And you're seeing it expand all across college basketball from the mid-majors that you're gonna pick towards upsets all the way to the top teams. You're seeing it more and more implemented here. But Alabama specifically, they have everything there in that top five to six that I'm talking about when I say that teams have separated there, that top end of the two seed

line. The question for Alabama and it has been the question all year in these big games is whether they can put all the pieces together on a consistent basis. They have had some, some troubles throughout the year where maybe if one player starts to be off from three, they struggle to filter the ball to other places to get somebody else going. They struggle to sometimes keep it from impacting the other areas of their game. And so being able to, if that three pointer is not falling, make sure that they're getting it into the rim, that they're keeping up the defensive effort throughout the

game. That's what's going to make them upset proof. And that's what's going to lead them deep in this tournament. Outside of Cooper flag, who are some players to watch? Uh, J'nai Broom, of course, at Auburn, uh, right there head to head with Cooper flag for national player of the year. He's a guy who I think will get a shot in the NBA. Uh, he's such a veteran older player. You probably won't be that top 10 type of draft pick that we're talking about with Cooper flag, but he is up there with the best of them. You want the perimeter guards. Those are usually the fun ones. Those are the ones that make that,

that March madness kind of legacy. And in that category, we have Walter Clayton at Florida. He has been electric in recent weeks. He's one of those guys. If you like seeing guys shoot from the NBA range, he will do it all the time. So will Mark Sears at Alabama. Those are a few of the guys who can really become stars.

And then you've got other guys a little bit further off of that area who potentially could have breakouts like Neek Clifford at Colorado State. Somebody who's not a big star right now, Bennett Sturtz, I talked about at Drake before. Those are guys who are not household names, but you're gonna see them and they're gonna put up big numbers.

It'll be impressive. Depending on how far they go through the tournament, you could see them become household names. I do love that. Who's gonna be the Finis-Dembeau? Who's gonna be the Ali Farouk-Manesh? Who's gonna be the Bryce Drew? On that same wavelength,

what's a double digit seed that we could see in the Sweet 16 or the Elite 8? I'm gonna stick with Colorado State there, as well as Drake. I think that West region really has a lot to like if you want the underdogs to make a deep run. Colorado State is a team that, they're playing better than an 11 seed right now.

They're one of the hottest teams in the country. Nick Clifford, I believe at Kim Palm and some of these other online metrics, they gauge who has been the most impactful performer on each team, who has been the best player in a team's games. No team has had a single player be their best player in more matchups than Nick Clifford has for Colorado State. He is electric. He can lead this team all the way into the second weekend and potentially

even beyond Drake right there is so, so clean. They just play a, an exciting brand of basketball, a really solid brand. And you look at if they can get through that first round, I talked about Texas Tech, Darian Williams, maybe not at a hundred percent, they could make some more noise there. Is there anybody that got a draw where you're just like, wow, that team's going to go pretty far? I like the Florida draw quite a bit. I also like St. St. John's. I like both of those draws through that field. I think that when I talk about the potential for a high seeded team to make

it through that bracket, that opens it up for the top seeds to potentially have an easier route. Because while yes, they would be hot and coming into a matchup, you can't really rule them out, but a one seed versus a 12 seed or a two seed versus an 11 seed, you like that a lot more than a one, four, or a two, three matchup. I just put my futures in for St. John's

as you were talking, Because you said that. Oh, yeah. You know it. And then also to Andy, is Gainesville buzzing right now? Like, what's going on out there? People are excited. Oh, yeah. I know you're not there right now. I know you're in the Keys with the Rayburn family,

but I just didn't know what it's like out there. They have been buzzing, I would say, the entire season. And James, you've moved close by as well, so you probably felt it over there in St. John's County as well. But it's been a pretty beloved basketball team. It's been a while since Florida's fan base has felt this way about a Florida basketball team. I'd say you probably have to go back to the last Billy Donovan team that made the final four. That was the one with Patrick Young. And that group, will you get the group that was a bunch of seniors that had played together

for the whole time that went in as the number, I believe they're the number one overall seed. They wound up making the final four, but losing in the national semi. But that's the last one I remember that people at Florida were this excited about. I think they feel like this team is, I'd say it's the most complete team.

I don't know, James, you back me up on this because you've watched a lot of these, but I feel like it's the most complete team Florida's had since the two that won the national title back to back. And I don't think it's as good as those teams, but I don't think Billy Donovan the rest of his time there, or Mike White any time he was there, even though he made the lead aid also, I don't think they've had so a team that had this many good interchangeable parts where you could play a bunch of different ways. Yeah, I would agree with that. I think it's right up there in the history of Florida basketball is one of the best groups that they've had. And it's the

depth. The depth is what makes this team. And you can really pick apart any part of this team. You say, what are the best back courts in the country? You're gonna put Florida right up near the top. What are the best front court options? You're going to put Florida right there. Who has the deepest unit? You're going to put Florida in that conversation. Best starting five. I think that there is no area where this Florida team has a deficit heading

into this tournament. And so barring some surprises or some kind of injury problems, I think that they really are one of the juggernauts of college basketball, and it's gonna be hard to go through them no matter who you are in this bracket. James, what county are you in right now? St. John's County.

Yeah, interesting. Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. You wanna talk about an omen? You wanna talk about an omen? This is St. John's, the town I'm looking for. This is one of my favorite things about the tournament though is is we talk ourselves into especially us casuals. James we talk ourselves into falling in love with a team

or a coach and Ari clearly is head over heels for Rick Patino and St. John's which understandable because look at the history of Rick Patino. He did this at Kentucky. He did this at Louisville. He did it at Providence. He did it at freaking Iona. So I get it. But how much do you enjoy watching people who are not, you know, wall to wall watching from November through April, just fall in love with a team. And then that team just gets knocked out right away. Hey, don't put that evil on me, Ricky Bobby. It's such a fun time of year because you have two,

two types of people who are getting in contact with me these days. You've got the people who want to sell me on why they're right. And I'm wrong about their bracket or the people who just want to use my bracket picks and don't want any kind of originality in their bracket. So, uh, I always try to make sure even if I give out some picks, if I help some people out, I'm like, you've got to mix it up. You've got to at least have one game, one game here, one game there, that you are all in and that you're just

hoping that I'm so wrong, because it's gonna be wrong. Everybody's wrong. So we've we've talked about my alma mater and we've talked about how good they are Give me another team though To fall in love with as a backup just in case things don't go about what about my alma mater What about arizona do they got the maybe i'll take ari's alma mater arizona is going to be a really Fun team to watch caleb love is going to be out there and he is going to be electric

Like there is no more fun player to watch in march than caleb love because he is going to be out there and he is going to be electric. Like there is no more fun player to watch in March than Caleb Love because he is going to take a lot of shots. He is going to make a lot of shots. He might miss a lot of shots. We don't know. I feel confident in saying at some point he's going to try to shoot a buzzer beater. I don't know if it'll go in or not, but he seems to take more of those than anyone in college basketball history. And so Arizona is going to be really fun to watch.

They've got some really good supporting cast around him too. I like them to make a run to face Duke in the second weekend. And, and man, at that point, you know, maybe that's when Caleb Love gets his buzzer beater opportunity to go down in March madness history. Once anybody's been following Arizona basketball knows how that's going to end. Producer River, by the way, long suffering balls fan. Listen, they've never made a final four. This is a very good team. We know the history of Rick

Barnes in the tournament. Give River some hope James. Give him give him some hope. There's plenty of hope for this Tennessee team. I thought they got a pretty good draw as well. They'll be among my top eight teams with the cleanest path to a final four here. The challenge is going to be coming up against Kentucky potentially in the second weekend. Now that would be one of the most fun matchups that we could get a rivalry when it's played

during the regular season, a rivalry when it's played during the SEC tournament, a rivalry when it's played any time of year. So if you see these two teams face off, it is going to be one of the most fun second weekend matchups that we could possibly get. You're gonna get a Kentucky and a Tennessee team that have seen each other before. They know what each other likes to do. I think that Tennessee very well could go through that one,

but so could Kentucky if they can get back healthy. They're not going to be fully healthy. Jackson Robinson done for the year. Kerr Crease looks like he's still out long term. But if Lamont Butler is healthy, I think this Kentucky team is a much different team than what we've seen in some of their recent performances. I think they're a much more dangerous team if they get him back to be that defensive anchor on the perimeter and be that leader who gets them into the offense. Lamarche Butler. That's that's what they call him.

So yeah, if they get him back, it is going to be very interesting. All right, James, let me put you on the spot here. What is your final four? My final four as we talked today, I have not changed it yet. And I don't think I'm going to I'm going with Auburn out of the south region. I think that they get things right. I think that they get rolling again. I think they get through a Michigan State team there in the Elite Eight in the West region facing them. I've got

Florida. I've got them over St. John's so we might get that St. John's or to match up we've been talking about. Over in the east I've got Duke. I've got Duke over Wisconsin. I've got Wisconsin just edging out Alabama there. Three one seeds. And then we'll go Houston. I'm going with the one seeds. I think that they've separated themselves from the pack.

I've got Houston over Kentucky in that elite eight matchup. When's the last time the final four was all one seeds? I'm really not sure. I don't have that. There was that. There was one recently. Yeah. Or it was, it was three ones and a two. That, but it's, it does not happen very often. It's very, very rare. That seems like, I wonder if there's a prop that I've just like, will all the ones make it? Um, they're very well might be. And there's full on, like I accept, and

that's, this is the fun thing about making a bracket. And I know that 2008 is the year 2008. So I know that it's a little bit lame sometimes to pick a bunch of one seeds to go to the final four. And maybe it's some gamesmanship, maybe that I just get more right because the better teams I'm picking. I want to see my bracket upset. That's where I'm different than some people. I want to see it wrecked in the first weekend. I want to see the chaos. I want to see fun basketball. And so if fun basketball means that we get a Cinderella run to the final four, I'm all for it.

I think that this final four would also be a lot of fun, though, having the top teams that have kind of separated themselves just kind of have to go head to head in that final weekend. You know, what's interesting is that you actually have, you have a, like that is an underdog of a pick. If it hasn't happened since 2008, like that's actually not typical.

So I don't hate it. Well, and in 2008, we also got a buzzer beater in the national championship game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I hope it. I just I hope that whatever it is, it's entertaining and it obviously will be. Andy, I know we're going to let him go, but can I ask him one more? I don't know. I don't think absolutely unless I blacked out, but who got screwed outside of West Virginia? Like whose, whose draw was just like, Oh my God. Yeah. So West Virginia got screwed. They're not in the field obviously, but, uh,

so draw that I'm looking at and I'm thinking, man, this is just brutal is the entire pod that got shipped to Denver in the East region. BYU has to face VCU and that already is just an incredibly tough matchup there. I'm telling you right now as I looked across the bracket, I think I would have taken BYU over any other 11 seed and I think that I would have taken VCU over any other 6 seed. But now here they are and they're facing each other in this first round matchup with the right to go play Wisconsin, which is not going to be an easy matchup either. Wisconsin is a really good team as well. And so those are three teams that I was looking at as potential teams that I would have

going deep in the bracket. And here they all, they're all in one pod in Denver. And we're going to, we're going to get two of them eliminated there on the first weekend. So that really brutal draw right there. So that really brutal draw right there. Well, that brutal, favorable, who knows? Because I think your bracket's getting wrecked, James. I think all of our brackets are getting wrecked and that's the best part of this week. My favorite sports weekend of the year. James Fletcher III, thank you so much.

No problem. Thanks, James. Appreciate you being here, bud. Yup. Thank you to James Fletcher the third and this show is sponsored by Roeback. As you can see, I'm wearing my Roeback performance hoodie working down here in the Keys works pretty much anywhere you wanna go. Uh this is great for me when I go

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All right Ari, you have been a busy, busy man. You were at OT7 this weekend, talking to a bunch of big time quarterback recruits. One of those guys is Jonas Williams, who has just committed to USC. He's from Illinois, he's planning to go to USC. He's from Illinois. He's planning to go to USC, class of 26 quarterback. So what is Lincoln Riley getting in Jonas Williams?

Yeah, well the thing that is interesting too is it's like Lincoln Riley is the quarterback whisperer and I know they just got Husson Longstreet, but they are getting a big armed kid from the Midwest who says he's in Big Ten country At USC I should say not in Big Ten country in high school Who they can cling to some hope for like I think anytime you can get a big-time Prospect in the fold at the most important position at a place that's trying to find its way. I think it's a good thing So we'll see what Longstreet does there, but the continued

recruiting successes at that position were the guaranteed thing that you're supposed to get with Lincoln Riley and they continue that trend with him here. And it was a fun conversation with him about, you know, the transition time there and what he's expecting out of USC moving forward. is expecting out of USC moving forward. Well, let's hear from Jonas Williams with Ari in lovely Dallas. Now joining Andy and Ari on three is Jonas Williams. Big time elite level recruit USC commit. Thanks so much for being here, man.

How are you doing? I'm doing good. You know, just grateful to be here. What's it like when you're on a field with this many elite level players, top talents in the country? I know it's the off season, but at the same time, it's still the in season for you. Do you feel like you want to prove a point out here and

show the world why you're ranked what you are? Yeah, I mean, obviously being around all these guys, I always look at it as a competition factor. These are gonna be the guys I'm playing against and with at the next level and I think you know I always have that chip on my shoulder to try and prove myself to prove that I'm the best. Yeah so you're committed to USC. Yes sir. And that's a you know for a coach who has made multiple Heismans and done a lot of great things offensively what was your big factor in USC at the moment

and what's it like going for, play for one of the best coaches, quarterback whispers in the country? To be honest, I felt like USC was the best fit for me and my play style. You know, building that relationship with Lincoln Riley, knowing what he's done with quarterbacks in the past, and you know, just trusting that he knows what he's doing

and that he can get the best out of me to develop me to obviously reach my goals of making and succeeding in the NFL. Yeah, you know that USC is kind of going through a transition period right now. They've had some years since that didn't go the way that they did. And what's it like to kind of be the future face

of the program, somebody that people are gonna count on to get USC back to where it's been in the past. Is there pressure on that? I would just say it's pretty motivating and it's a great opportunity you know to be able to try and build a class that's kind of good enough to get, I wouldn't say good enough because USC is always going to be a great program but you know just to get them back on the track that they want to get on you know they just added a lot of new coaches on the staff you know new GM Chad Bowden I know he's been trying to do you know his part of that his you know end of the stick by trying to recruit the best class in the nation you

know just trying to you know build greatness with them because you know coaches should only do so much and then you know the players have to take care of the rest. You know Jonas the thing that's so interesting about recruiting to me is that everybody is always fixated on what happens on Saturdays and everything but when you get a commitment like yourself from Illinois across the country like that is a sign that the program is healthy that it's headed in the right direction. Yeah. Do you feel as a recruit how important you are to just the image and the direction of the program?

Yeah, you know I feel like USC definitely made me a priority. Just from the recruiting process, you know I was one of the only quarterbacks they recruited in the 26th class. I felt the love, I felt at home at USC. I felt like they really wanted me and they really knew what they wanted and then they went and got me. I obviously feel at home, I trust them and I believe that with what they're doing with me and with other recruits I know that we're definitely headed in the right track. Being an Illinois kid feels good to feel at home in LA I bet, huh? Yeah it does, it does. It's going to be great weather out there, I I'm gonna be out of the Midwest but you know we're in the Big 10 so I think it's important that you know guys from the Midwest play in these West Coast schools also.

Does USC feel like Big 10 country to you? Is LA Big 10 country? We're going to be playing some guys from the Midwest. You know, I got another recruit from Chicago, De'Ann Braden Jones. He's committed to USC also. So, you know, USC is kind of expanding to the Midwest a little bit. No, we need some guys that can play in the cold weather, too. Now this modern day with social media and all this stuff, like, is it easier for kids from the Midwest to go out west to play football?

Because back in the day, it was just, like, hard to leave your region like that. Yeah. Being in the Big Ten, did that matter to you? I think it did matter to me just knowing that, really guys just wanna go where they can succeed at, but also to some guys, they wanna stay home. And I think being in the Big 10,

you can recruit more guys from the Midwest just because they know that they're gonna be closer to home on the way games. Just being a familiar territory. So I want to ask you a question and I know that it's a kind of taboo to ask this, but I want to know why it's taboo. You know, talking about NIL, right? That's a big deal to recruits and being a five star prospect at the most important position.

You're a very valuable asset, not just a USC to anybody. What's it been like for you to have to consider financial things? Obviously it's good news, but is it a lot for you? I mean, you're still a kid, right? I mean, what's it like to go through that? Honestly, if you don't manage it right, it could be overwhelming, but my parents do a great job

at kinda keeping me out of that stuff. They handle most of it. And just being grateful knowing that, you know, it's a great opportunity that all could be taken away very quickly. It could be distracting if you let it be. I mean, really, it's great for kids, but it could also be bad if guys who are just money hungry are searching. You know, it's really all about how you perceive it. You know, I'm very grateful for it, but it's not my motive and my recruitment. You know, obviously it plays a big role, but I let my parents handle that.

Yeah, when you say that, like the money hungry thing, right? Uh-huh. Like, there's, in all other places that you work, where I work, they paid me the most. Uh-huh. Where my parents work, they would leave because they paid them the most. It's capitalism. It's okay to go for... So the thing I don't understand, then you can help me out with this because you're... Like do you feel uncomfortable talking about it, like as a person, because you're afraid... Not you, but just recruits in general are afraid

that people are gonna judge them? Like is it because of the stigma in the past that it was against the rules? Like what is it that makes people so uneasy about it? You know, I think just because some people kinda stereotype people, young kids with a lot of money, you know, you can almost consider college athletes now as like celebrities just because they're getting paid these high amounts of money and are getting all this attention that, you know,

some people hate it for them and some people love it. But I think really sometimes bad things are portrayed about what people, what kids do with the money versus, you know, some kids may be putting it in stocks and some kids may be blowing it all on cars and jewelry and clothes. So I mean, really, you know know it's up to the kid on how you have others perceive you. You know however you manage your money that's how you

manage your money. But at this podcast we want to normalize it. You earned that money. You're in the top 1% of athletes on earth. You should get paid what you get paid for that any more than I would for my job. Yeah, I understand why it's so uncomfortable for people. Yeah, you know, I think it after should get paid. I mean, I don't see why they shouldn't. I mean, there's a reason why they made it legal is because obviously they felt like after should be getting paid. Then all of a sudden, you know, athletes are getting paid and people feel a certain way.

But what do you what do you got? Are you a stock guy or are you a cars and jewelry guy? You know, I'm probably going to keep most of my money in savings and stocks and then take a little bit from my personal enjoyment. So what is that? What is your personal enjoyment? If you had a nice little stack of cash, what would you want to buy for you? Probably some clothes, maybe a car. Not nothing too crazy, just being smart with my money. My parents probably wouldn't let me spend more than X amount if I even tried to. Say this to your parents.

15% for fun, 85% for stocks. Yeah, that's pretty good. That's a pretty good thing. And 15% of what you may be making could get you a night. What is your car? If you could get a car, then I'll leave you alone. Probably like a Mercedes. I like Mercedes.

Like a mid-90s SL 500 type? That's my dream car. I'm more of like a GT 63 guy. Okay, okay. Well, hey, I really appreciate you, Jonas. Good luck at USC, and thank you so much for being here with us at Andy and Ari on three. Thank you.

Thanks, man. Appreciate you. Thanks a lot, man. I know you're busy today. Ari, that was Jonas Williams. We've already told everybody about the issues you had with your equipment that day. You've had further issues with your equipment since then. Your phone is injuring you. Your phone is attacking you. How did this happen? I was walking out of my bedroom yesterday morning and I dropped my phone,

which doesn't have a case. OK. My because you don't believe in cases. Well, it's not that I don't believe in them. It's just that I have a wireless charger next to my phone or next to my bed on my nightstand. And every night I was taking the case off and putting it on. And then eventually I was just like, you know what? I'm going caseless.

So I haven't had a case in a while and it landed. You know, they make cases. They make cases that go into the wireless. You can just magnet them onto the wireless charger. Yeah, but I got this thing off. Like, yeah, I don't know if it was my case that's the problem or if it's the thing that I have is a piece of crap. It's from Amazon.

It's like 11 bucks. I don't know. But anyway, I dropped it and the phone fell from like, you know, chest high this way. And the corner of my phone landed right where the skin on my big toe meets my nail. And like now my toe is like black and blue and it's hard to walk.

So, you know that I gotta stop dropping, I've gotta stop dropping electronics because one was a, you know, $1,000 mistake I should say by the time this is all said and done potentially. And then now I have a fractured digit. So is that, are toes digits or just hand fingers? They're all digits. Yeah. I've got a fractured digit. So is that our toes digits or just hand fingers? They're all digits. Yeah, I've got a I've got a fractured

very digital break going on the way to to Vegas where I'll be doing a lot of walking. So you know, but hopefully the booze will help me forget about it. The booze hopefully St. John's will go on a run and you'll be good. I just put it in. I just put it in. There you go. Speaking of booze, we gotta talk about this because this came across on Monday and I just could not stop laughing when I saw it.

And I thought of you. We've talked to various coaches about their spring games. Now we had Jed Fish on who says, all right, we're playing a spring game at Washington. We had Dabo on, he's playing a spring game at Clemson. But others are doing different things. Your alma mater, Arizona, Jetfish's old school, Brent Brennan's school now.

The Bear Down Takeover Spring Showcase. Are you ready for this? It actually sounds great for where you are in your dab life. On Field KidZone opens at 5 p.m. Mountain Standard Time with face painting, inflatables, a balloon artist, caricature artists, and egg hunt and yard games. The Spring Showcase begins at 6 p.m. Mountain Standard Time with skills challenges and an On Field Beer Garden.

There's also a post-game movie on the field selected by a fan vote. I need to talk about the On Field Beer Garden during the skills, so the skills challenge I'm assuming is Arizona players performing various, kind of like the pro bowl, kind of like what Ole Miss did with their Grove games last year. But the on-field beer garden, is it wrong that I actually want to see Arizona football players participate in the beer Olympics? Like 21 and and over of course, but come on. Yeah, they should. I mean I know that spring games are

important to programs like Arizona because they want to you know, create fan excitement. They want buy and they want people to buy season tickets and I don't know that I've seen them any program go to this length. but I wonder what know what that movie is you know the show heavyweights put your fat finger down now yeah the beer garden just means that they're gonna have like warm kegs right like that doesn't mean like they're gonna get like a taste of Europe or anything but oh I know I'm so I suspect they're they're going for a little classier set of brews.

So Josh Brooks, who's the athletic director at Georgia now, I did a story on him back when he was the A.D. at a D3 school called Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. And one of the things he did was put like a craft beer bar. On there, they had a little section overlooking one of their their end zones. He put a craft beer bar on that thing and it it took off and so I heard they recently added extra hops to it. Exactly. But can you see like like the the over 21 offensive linemen and over 21 defensive linemen at Arizona you like have your skills have your skill position players competing the skills

challenge quarterbacks throwing through the the the targets, you know, down the field receivers doing the summer salts onto the pad, but have the over 21 linemen participate in the beer Olympics. Like I'm talking bat spins, all the things that you and your friends would do. After a case like that, I might watch. I'm not going to lie. I might watch or just, or just play the spring game hammered Which might loosen up the players, I don't know but it is great that like Jed fish brought back Rob Gronkowski

And Brent Brennan springing beer ago and Brent Brennan is bringing Rob Gronkowski's best accomplishments at U of A to the, you know, he was a really good football player, but I was at a party one time and the man walked in, didn't say a word to anybody, did a keg stand and then walked out. Like that was who Rob Gronkowski was in school. So, you know, that, yeah, well, hopefully that works,

but I know that we are probably wrapping this up here pretty soon, Andy, but do you want to talk for a minute about Colorado's idea? Because I was that was my that was my next thing. Dion Sanders, not to be outdone. He ain't putting beer on the field. He wants to play another team, which I have always been supportive of this. I have always thought that instead of a spring game, that's a scrimmage against yourself, play another

team. Like that would be fun. I thought that'd be a spring game that's a scrimmage against yourself, play another team. Like that would be fun. I thought that'd be a good place if you were gonna, cause I was thinking that they're probably gonna be a situation where you're not playing as many FBS on FCS games in the future. Like you move the FBS versus FCS to the spring. And that would work. But here's what Deion said, I would like to practice

against someone for a few days, then have the spring game. And I think the public would be satisfied with that tremendously. So he wants to bring in like they have the tandem practices in the NFL during training camp where two teams will play and practice against each other for like two days. And then they'll play a preseason game. That's what Coach Prime wants to do. And how about this, Ari? Fran Brown from Syracuse is like, let's go. We'll be in Boulder for three days. Well, you know this stuff better than me, but is there like a rule that prohibits this? There is? Unfortunately, there is a rule.

Now, who makes the rules? The schools. If the schools would like to change the rule, now would be a great time to do that. So I am so pleased with Coach Prime and Fran Brown for this though. I like them forcing the issue on this thing. I love Fran Brown. We had him on the show last year

and he's one of those guys that you hear him talk for two minutes and you're like, I would run through seven concrete walls for this man. And so I love that he's like, screw it. Let's put the team on a plane. Let's go to Boulder and let's practice against Colorado. Yeah, I'm with you on that. I think that that would be really cool.

And also too, would make watching the spring games better because I think you would learn more. You would watch teams assemble rosters or deploy their rosters into the games in a way that's more close to the fall than you might get in the spring, the way it sets. So I think it's a great idea. And also, too, like any time you can do anything

that increases interest in college football, I think the better. Like you don't think that like Fran Brown knows what he's doing, getting Syracuse in the same situation as Colorado and trying to use that clout to build this program up. And at the same time, too, can you imagine a more fitting personality fit with Dion, like with Fran Brown and those two? I would love it.

I think that would be incredible. And I'm all for it. And I think that the rules that you can't do it are stupid. The only question that you have to ask yourself is who's funding this? can't do it or stupid. The only question that you have to ask yourself is, who's funding this? Cause like, that's not easy to get 85 guys on an airplane and staying and all that, but they've got plenty of money, don't figure it out.

They got money. I mean, look, we've talked about the ACC finances plenty, but they have the money to do this. I just, I think it's such a good idea. I'm trying to think of like, now I want to know which coach pairings, like which to do tandem practices. I love the coach prime and Fran Brown one.

Who else would you like to see? Now there's some I'd like to see just because I would love these coaches to have to live together, essentially with their teams for two or three days. Like, well, the question, the main question Andy is, is that spring games are made to make some money in the off season and if Syracuse went to Boulder, how is Syracuse

gonna make money like that? I don't know. They're not. They're not making money off their spring game in the off season. They're made. They're made to have a celebration. It's more of a hearts and minds play than a money making play like even the place where they fill the stadium. A lot of times times they're not charging anybody to get in. So it's not to make money, it is to win you over. Now, perhaps like in big STC school, that inspires you as a donor to give more money. But I don't think that's it's a case of we're charging eight bucks ahead and we're going to we're going to make a big pile of money off this none of the schools especially not Syracuse is thinking about that so I think and what you do is you kind of trade off like they go to the Colorado goes to Syracuse although Syracuse may be like no no no we'll just keep coming to Boulder if that's okay with y'all yeah I'm all for it though I so what So what was the question going to ask if you could pair

up any two? Who would it be? Yeah, yeah, and producer River had a perfect one. Brett B. Lemon, Shane Beamer. But when last we saw these two, they were at each other's throats. Now they both said that they've smoothed it over that they smoothed

over and I expected that only one answer to this question that blows that one out of the water. You ready? I'm ready. I'm ready. USC at Oklahoma. Yes. At.

So you're making Lincoln Riley come back to Norman? For a joint practice. Yeah. That would be God. Two programs that are very proud and have a lot of fans that are also at very critical points, too. In terms of like, even if you took the Lincolnilly drama out of it, who wouldn't watch that? Seriously, well and the thing is like, Brent Venables doesn't care about the

Lincoln-Reilly drama. Obviously he loves Oklahoma, he's the head coach, he was an assistant coach there for a long time, but he's not insulted that Lincoln-Reilly left for USC. In fact, probably pretty grateful for it. So, but I think that would be, that would be spectacular. Producer River with another great one, another great one. LSU goes to South Bend. Ryan Kelly has to go back to South Bend. I mean, that way LSU can get a taste

of what it's like to play against a team that's a national championship caliber program, you know? Oh, that's cold. That's cold. I'm kidding, guys. I'm kidding. LSU is going to be awesome this year. I'm hoping. Well, how about, how about, how about

when, uh, when somebody from LSU comes off the field and was like, man, that offensive line's great. And Notre Dame coaches are like, those are our backups. Yeah. Ohio state, Michigan would be fun. Although I don't think that that could ever happen.

Can you imagine how many fights there would be like certain programs together, like Ohio State, Michigan, Florida State, Florida. Like if you put them together for three days, it would just be nonstop fights the entire time. I'm trying to think of one that actually could happen that would be cool.

And I actually do think that Syracuse, Colorado would probably be up there. That'd be awesome. Yeah. A&M in Texas. Colorado would probably be up there. That'd be awesome. Yeah. Like, huh. A&M in Texas. Well, okay, so who would we put Texas with? Like, who, who, who could you pair like, Texas and not Texas and Alabama, because they're the same kind of you got to go to a different conference. I mean, the two that pop into my head would be Ohio State or Michigan.

How about Texas and Nebraska together? Like, that would be cool. Used to be different conference. I mean, the two that pop into my head would be Ohio State or Michigan. How about Texas and Nebraska together? Like that would be cool. Used to be rivals in the big 12, but aren't rivals in the big 12 anymore. And I think that rule in Sark would get along pretty well. I don't think that's the situation where you'd have a bunch of fights. And I think Texas and Clemson, Texas and Clemson would be awesome. That would, and that you talk about good on good. Yeah.

And we just saw them play. Yeah. We just saw them play. And I think it'd be a good gauge for us to see where Texas is changed since they lost all those people. And also how much better is Clemson with Tom Allen as the defensive coordinator? Cause I think that that's gonna make

a massive difference for them. Yeah. Let me pull up the... I'm just spitballing here. I'm thinking, now you could do, like Notre Dame and Boston College could do it as Catholic schools. Now I know they play each other quite a bit, but I don't think there'd be any bad blood where you'd have to be dealing with fights. It would be a good one. And there's no connection between these two, but Auburn and Oklahoma, two places that have high expectations or

critical points in their coaching arcs and have new quarterbacks. They play each other this year, so I don't think that's going to happen. But that would be spectacular. Because I think Hugh Freeze would love to see his, because you could actually have that quarterback battle. Let's say they're not sure it's Jackson Arnold. Let's say they do want to get a look at Ashton Daniels

and Deuce Knight. Like throw him against Oklahoma's defense, you'd have a pretty good picture of where they're at. So- And I guess they do have a connection obviously with Jackson Arnold, but you know what else I'd be a good one? That would be wild.

Maybe not a connection, but Oregon Bama. That's the matchup we never got. Like we always wanted to, I don't know about you, I always wanted to see Nick Saban's Alabama against Chip Kelly's Oregon. Like I just never got that. And you know, we got to see Dan Lanning in his first year at Oregon play against Kirby smart in Georgia, but that was a little different because landing was just coming off of Kirby staff and then Georgia was so much better than Oregon at the time. Like if that, if they played now, it would be much better, but I'm with you. Oregon Bama is the matchup, like the ever changing uniforms versus the never changing uniforms. I I'd love it. Plus, I mean, Cailin DeBore and Dan Lanning played some hellaciously fun games at Washington and Oregon. Cailin beat him every time, but that would be fun.

Yeah, yeah, but do like the idea and I hope that once we get rev share, once we get collective bargaining and stuff like the the college football world can quit insisting on itself and just kind of do fun, cool things. Like Dion says a lot of stuff that makes me just go, Oh God, but a lot of times he says things that's like, Oh, you know what? This man has a point and this is, this is a home run for him. This is, this would be perfect. And it'd be great for Fran Brown and Syracuse as well. And I think you're right about that. You know, I hadn't thought about it that way, but when, when you get into the rev share and they do

have, cause they're going to have a collective bargaining agreement, whether they make them employees or not, like it's going to happen at some point. They will stop being so precious about stuff like this. They probably will move spring practice into the summer and make the spring the roster building period. So I think you will see a little more of an imitation of what the pros do. And what they do is almost every NFL team does a tandem practice with somebody else. So I think it'd be fun. Also too.

They don't open them up, by the way. It's not like the reporters are watching the entire time when they do the tandem practice. Andy, I know that ESPN and Big 10 Network and stuff shows spring games, but if you actually had games against with teams pitted against each other, who, how did the television contracts work for that? And do the ratings increase, make them more valuable assets too, they can make more money to like help prop up some of the rev share. I don't know.

I'm just like spitballing here. It's a good, it's a good question. Probably, probably you do home and homes and the home, you know, when you're at home you get the money and when you're away you don't. Or you just decide to split it evenly over two years, stuff like that. But there's ways to do it. And you're right, it could be a moneymaker. You could sell tickets to a scrimmage. Like there's a lot of ways to do it, especially if it's after whatever your roster building period is. There's a lot of ways to do it, especially if it's after whatever your roster building period is. There's no threat of anybody going to the portal, no threat of anybody

leaving. I think that would work. I really do. And it would be a lot of fun. I'd much rather watch Colorado and Syracuse play a football game in May than watch the UFL or something. I would too. I would too. I would too. If it's and they don't have to put a beer garden in there like Arizona does. Yeah. Well, that would help. Put a beer garden on

the field. Although. That would help. Might be fun if they did that too. Yeah. Good one, Deon. I love it. Love it. Make it happen. Let's, you know, look, we're, Deon's probably a few years ahead of the curve on this thing but I'm hoping that happens someday. What I hope for you is

that you join us tomorrow. Dear Andy and dear Ari, we'll get you ready. The NCAA tournament tips off in earnest. I know there's been the first four, but the NCAA tips off in earnest on Thursday, noon Eastern. Come join us. We'll have some fun with a little college football, college basketball crossover in the mailbag. You like that crossover Ari, little basketball term? So we will mix it up. We'll get you ready. And then, oh yeah, the games begin. Ari will be in Vegas. And a very hungover Ari will show up on Friday.

Can't wait for that either. I called the win. Keep playing the music. I called and they've got a business center. And I want you to know that we're gonna be good. We're gonna be good. I'm not worried about that. I never worry about you with your equipment.

At 8am that day, I'm going right from podcasting to a Swedish reply. See you guys tomorrow. Let's go.