Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Chiefs Are Cooked Everyones Mad About The Cfp And Notre Dame Shame

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Geoff Schwartz is back alongside Gabe Goodwin for a very cranky Monday edition of Geoff Schwartz is Smarter Than You. The Chiefs Dynasty has come crashing down, the College Football Playoff bracket has been released, Daniel Jones' injury lands the Colts right back on the banned list, the Rams win, the Ravens lose, Notre Dame doesn't play, and yes, you better believe we talk about Shedeur Sanders. Tune in for all that and more on a jam-packed episode of Geoff Schwartz is Smarter Than You! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Jeff Schwartz and Smarter You. Today's episode, Josh so much smarter you. presented by Draft Kings, Draftings, the Crown is yours. Today is Monday, December 8th. I'm Jeff Schwartz. That is Gabe Goodwin. We are doing a Monday show because Gabe is traveling the world. And also we have so much to get to.

So we moved in a day up, Gabe. How are you doing, buddy? No big college football weekend, but we'll cover college football because there's some happenings. The playoff is set. You're here to talk about the National Football League to start. How was your weekend? So your team does play tonight, though.

You've had a stress-free football weekend so far. No SC to watch. Chargers go Monday night. Yeah, you know, Jeff, listen, the theme of the show here. I like that you put this on me because I'm traveling. We moved this up a day. No, it's because people are so cranky. In particular, I think the people who like your takes on football, very cranky bunch today. It was a bad Sunday night.

There's almost everyone in the country seems annoyed about the college football bracket. So I felt like we would have a crank fest on Monday. Mondays suck anyway. And we'll just get right into that. We should do that. There was a lot of complaining on the internet for fan bases that maybe don't have the right to complain, Gabe. And one of those is the Kansas City Chiefs. And they lost last night.

The season is done as we know it. Even though right now I saw it before we came on, 54% chance to make the playoffs that they went out. They would own the coach tiebreaker. They would own the Chargers tiebreaker. But Gabe, last night was bad. I'll let you sort of go first and set this one up for me. No, you said it, man.

that you said the season's over. I'm going to go take it one step further. I'm going to say, Travis Kelsey's body language on what was the final drive after two drops indicated to me that the dynasty is over. This has been an unbelievable run. It's been fun to watch, especially working alongside you.

And I'm here to say, we're done. It is done. And I think last night what you saw was the first time that Chiefs felt some mortality in this entire run game. And frustration. I mean, Mahomes laying on the ground with his hands over his head

when Rishi Wright dropped another pass, I think symbolized the entire season. By the way, this is so very true. And my brother texts us to me, I think he said other pockets. He's a good voice on this. Like Mahomes would be the MVP on like 12 other teams right now.

He's playing out of his mind to pretend that this is a Mahomes problem. It's not a home's problem. It's a holistic problem for the Chiefs. And I've mentioned this before and it's worth mentioning many times over again when you're a bad team, okay, it's not just one player or one position. It's a different player position issue, mistake that happens on different plays to different players

that add up throughout a game, right? You have a special team's penalty, right? You have a tip-pass turnover. The left guard gets beat. Then the linebacker has a misassignment. You miss a tackle and you can't get, you can't rush a pass. Like every single play there's something new, so you can't game plan out of it. And then you throw in last night, specifically, the decision on fourth down to go for it there.

When the chief should have pung the ball back, Houston's offense was non-existent in the second half of that game. And I think Chris Collinsworth said it pretty well, Gabe, where you go for a fourth down, you fail. And the defense just gets super deflated emotionally, right? Because they feel like you didn't put him an opportunity to win that game for you as a team. And that decision was wreaked to desperation from Coach Reed. and it's so funny, I saw the tweets. The model said go for it. The model always says go for it, Gabe,

because if you convert on a fourth down, that's good for your team, right? The model always says go for it. The win percentage converting on fourth down makes it better for your team. Of course, I always say go for it. So the model sometimes use your brain, use your heart, use your football mind to know what to do.

I think they read the desperation. It also seemed like he was making up for last week when he had a cowardly punt on fourth and four at some point that game. The thing that is frustrating me most today, though, is the idea that Chiefs fans want Andy Reid fired and want everyone gone, okay? And when I push back on that, and I say Andy Reid has earned an opportunity to fix this this offseason, the pushback is when the offense hasn't been good for the last couple of years,

and he made no changes. Gabe, how many organizations, not just in the NFL, are going to fire upper-level staff after, three straight years of doing and playing in the best thing you can do in that profession. They played three straight Super Bowls. They won two of them. And you're going to Andy Reid to go to Matt Nagy and be like, hey, bad, you're out? You're out?

Never going to happen. He doesn't fire coaches really anyways. He's fired really two. And one, he just let Eric be on me walk. He fired Bob's son for Steve Spagnola, which changed the entire fortune of the franchise, right? Spaggs has four Super Bowl rings as an assistant coach or defense coordinator. should say, like his resume is Hall of Fame worthy for being an assistant coach, right? So that's obviously a change that was made those for the positive.

Andrews deserves an opportunity to make those changes. And they're going to be wholesale. They're going to have to change the offense game. The offense does not get easy yards. So if that is bringing in a McVeigh-Shannahan guy to inject some life in the offense that's figuring out with Mahomes what to do differently, they need some personnel scheme, chew to tweaks a little bit. but to fire Andy Reid for someone else,

who's the someone else, first of all, to me feels very full as Chiefs fans. You guys, step off the ledge, man. Step off the ledge. The season didn't go well. It happens. Let Andy Reid figure out this off. If he doesn't get, he'll be fired.

That's simple. If he figured out, he'll be fired for next season. That I have to, this isn't that important, but this is what bothers me about spoiled band bases. Okay. Chiefs fans, if you're even uttering the idea of firing anyone on this team. You're not getting it.

You don't know what it's like to root for teams that are completely inept. Steelers fans, same note, guys. Be grateful. Because what will you end up with? You fire Andy Reid. You're going to end up with like Lane Kiffin in two years, you know? It's just silly. Of course, Andy Reid should be there to help fix whatever's wrong.

So let me ask you this. What is wrong and what should he fix? Yeah, well, look, I'm going to steal a lot of what my brother said on podcast. I'm talking to him when he was here. during Thanksgiving. So I'm going to give my brother credit here. The number one thing they're missing is easy offense. Easy offense.

So what Shannon and McVeigh do the best is they have easy offense. And that's running the ball under center, which achieves are number two in the NFL and efficiency from under center runs. It's play action pass and move the pocket. Bootleg. They don't do any of that. And what they do is they play action pass, but they only do it like a sparingly enough amount.

And they don't even really run the ball to sell they're going to play action. You do have to run the ball, sell play action pass. I know the analytics might disagree with that, but I'm telling you, as any defender, as any offensive player, you have to actually commit to run the football for teams to buy, you're going to play action pass. And then there's just, the offensive design is stale, man. It's stale.

Like, where is a quick slant? Where is a fade? Problem is they've stacked the wide receiver room with the same eight wide receivers. They need a tall wide receiver who can win one-on-one, Catch 50-50 ball. They have none of that right now. And so, and look,

they had nine drops yesterday, whatever insane number was, six drops. So they need wholesale changes, Gabe. And I think you should let Andy Reid figure it out. That's what I think.

And there's no great option for that. I mean, look, if you told me Ben Johnson was coming in, okay, maybe I'd be like, you know what, okay, you know what my brother said, again, I'm going to lean on my brother a little bit here.

He thinks that like Mike McDaniel would have been a great OC for Kansas City if he gets fired in Miami. Like someone, like that, right? Like just an entire overhaul, and you mix the Andy Reed scheme with the Shanahan scheme in the best way possible,

and you create a morphing of the offense. You could keep Andy Reid's essential past game concepts, maybe, and then add in like the zone and the formational things, which the formational isn't really a problem, but it's more of the under center running stuff. The Chiefs just refuse to do. So that

has to change. And look, they've got to get better on defense, rushing the pass. They don't have six draft picks. It's a tough, it's going to be a rebuild. I thought, and I said this before the Super Bowl, athlete Super Bowl, I thought this was going to be the reload year. I thought Travis Kelsey was going to retire and they were going to let Jones walk and they were going to not sign anyone and use this as their reset year.

But instead, Jones came back, excuse me, Travis Kelsey came back and they signed Jones, I signed Bolton. You know, could you look back and say, hey, you maybe should have told Kelsey to retire? I mean, sure, but why would you do? You don't tell him to track of us to retire game. So lots of things to get done there.

initially and you would figure it out. Okay. I fully agree. Not that that matters. But let's assume that Travis is out then. What's the like, I'll make a silly comparison to the Warriors, a dynasty, undeniable dynasty. Then it's like, okay, I don't think we got it exactly the way it always looked. Something's going to change here. So Clay is the last, you know, he's the guy who loses a spot. And then Jimmy Butler comes in. You're like, wait a second. Wait just a darn second. can this happen. But the main stuff is still in place,

Kerr and Stefan Drake. Like, do they draft tight end? Do they make a big signing on defense? What do you think? Everyone's going to pencil in Sadiq from Oregon, the tight end to be the chief. They drafted a kid this year or last year, I think who hasn't seen the field very much.

Noah Gray is not that guy. I, they, their roster as as such, where they need best player available at 14. If that's tight end, great. If that's a cornerback, great. If that's a pass rusher, great. They've spent on pass rush. The young guys are playing a little bit better too.

They draft the second and third round pick at defense line. They're playing a little bit better this year. But maybe Sadiq's that guy. Just easy catches, right? Big physical, tight end. So they just need better players all over the roster, man. The thing they don't need is offensive line. And they're running back.

And the problem is you're not drafting Jeremiah Love. that would be really silly in my opinion. So they need to spend a third round pick on a running back, like a real actual starting running back in the NFL, not a seventh round pick on Smith, who I think can be good in the NFL, but the problem is, you know, he's just not ready to play as a seventh round pick yet.

Do you think there's any possibility? I know last off-season we were having a lot of Andy Reid conversations about getting his money and how much longer he'll go and keeping it to it. If there's any possibility we spend the off-season talking about, is Andy going to keep doing this? Well, Mike Florio can't wait to post They will Andy retire

A tweet and an article he'll put up For the seventh straight year in a row I don't think Andy Reid will go out like this Gabe I just don't think it's going to heat He's out like this I don't know his health situation He looks like he lost weight

Which is great for him If there's a health concern He's been coaching his entire life He's not going to walk away from coaching She's not going to fire him either So it's a situation where I was at the end With Coughlin where you sort of older defiant coach.

We weren't as talented as Kansas City, but like it's going to go out like Bill Belichick or Pete Carroll in Seattle. I mean, it's certainly possible. It's the way the dynasties sort of end. But remember, the Patriots had a dynasty early and dynasty late. Mahomes is 31, man. Like there's still time to reload this thing.

And you have 10 more years of Patrick Mahomes playing at a high level. Yeah. I mean, this feels to me like a blip season. And the chiefs are going to be one of the favorites. for the next several years, one way or the other. And if they go find the next Brock Bowers to replace Travis, no one's betting against them.

Let's talk about the game for a second. Texans are one of the hottest teams in football. It came as a bit of a surprise to most of us. I don't need to spend a lot of time talking about the Texans, but do we have to kind of add them to that list of like, holy crap, these guys are good? I'm just concerned offensively about them. I mean, they just didn't handle pressure very well in that game.

They're not great on the offensive line. That really concerns me heading the postseason. But look, I was talking about this day. I was thinking about this day. Like, look at the NFL right now. So in the AFC, okay, now Houston's not in it at the moment. Oh, there's seven. So Denver, New England, Jacksonville, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Chargers, Texans.

If you were to rank, like, who has the best unit of any group in the postseason, you would probably have Houston's, well, you probably put Josh Allen one, right? Like Buffalo, just Josh Allen won, okay, out of all that. And then what's next? Houston's defense or Denver's defense? Like, if you have a unit like that in the postseason, you know a chance.

Now, I just don't think they're offensively are good enough right now to win multiple postseason games, but that defense can carry them a long way, man. It can carry them a long way. Okay, well, I'm going to use that as a segue instead of boring people with more tax in stock. My perception is, you know, for me, for the last several years, it's been chiefs and then who are the next tier of teams. I don't care about the record.

So now I'm ready to say the chiefs are not at that top tier, but I don't know who is. It feels like the heaviest second tier I've remembered seeing in the NFL in a long time. The names I would put in that for now, you can edit me, the Rams, the Broncos, the Packers, the Bills, the Pats, and the Seahawks. maybe the Chargers, all right? Probably the Eagles. But like, they're all in the conversation for the team that could do it. And I don't actually think any of them can do it. And when I talk to friends, everyone's like, eh, they may be win a game in the postseason.

So who the hell is the favorite? What do we actually like? The Rams. You say it quickly. Yeah. They had a stumble a week ago. Yeah, but it's the NFL, man. Like, you're going to stumble.

That happens in the NFL. They came off a stumble and beat the shit out of the Cardinals who are not good, but like, Like not, they, look, the Rams get the Lions this weekend, and they go to Seattle on Thursday night. We'll know a lot more about them, obviously, in two weeks. I think the Rams, I think it's important in the postseason. Can you rush the passer? And do you have a quarterback and head coach you trust?

And that's the Rams are right up there, right? They've done it before. The moment won't be too big for them. You know, they can play outside. Like we saw last season, they've got to go to Philly. They can handle Philly. They play at home, obviously. It helps them to play in that dome.

So I think it's the Rams. It's the quarterback I trust the most out of any of these teams at the moment in the postseason. Maybe Allen's up there for me as well. But I mean, the top of the AFC right now is Bo Nix, Drake May, and Trevor Lawrence. The top of the NFC is Stafford, Darnold, and Jordan Love. I mean, the trust I have in the Rams is better in any of those teams. Yeah. You know, the other thing about the Rams, for all to talk about, you know,

You mentioned all these coordinators and guys who know this sort of Shanahan offense and instant offense. Everything you were talking about a few minutes ago. What always surprised me about the Rams is how perfectly happy they are to just run the ball like crazy. Yes. Like seeing Blake Quorum get in there and just like smash the ball and pick up huge chunks. Like what is the difference between the way the Rams do that offense and the way that all of the disciples do the offense? Why are they seem so much more comfortable running the ball? Well, this is something I actually talk about a lot with the Rams.

So I really like how they sit to their game plan, Gabe. They could be down two scores in the fourth quarter. They're going to run the football, sit through their game plan. They don't panic. They don't try to do too much. And I appreciate that with them. They sort of have decided, like, let's stick on what we do well. And let's just do that.

And that helps the play action pass, helps the 13 personnel looks that we talked about for them. They're very confident in what they do. And I really like that about that. There's never any panic. There's never any panicked in them. Yeah. All right. Well, the other team in L.A.

plays tonight, Monday night. Again, it's hosting the Eagles. I got some buddies with some Philly guys in town. By the way, they got to town. They're already like all horse and hung over. We haven't even gone to the game yet. They come from Vegas? I don't know where these Philly guys came from,

but they showed up in L.A. and they're going hard all weekend. I don't know how they're going to make it the Monday night. It might not be such a loud visiting crowd. My friends are literally hoarse. Do you want to give me a quick take on that game and then we'll get a break in and go to college? Yeah.

Well, look, I mean, Herbert's going to play, which these quarterbacks, these injuries are playing through these injuries is wild, man. He's had surgery Monday for broken hand. It's insane. It's wild that he's able to play through this. I mean, Eagles is now and never, right, Gabe? If they can't get this done,

today against his Chargers team, one are they ever going to do it, you know? So I lean Eagles here to get it right. I like, and I heard least read Nick Siriani, is taking more involvement in the offense. He should. He is an offense to coach, and that's his job to make sure his head coach

at that side of the ball is good. So I'm curious what that leads to. They have the players to play well in this game. Are they executed to make it happen? Yeah. Most importantly, If I said, I haven't looked anywhere. I don't think Draft Kings is offering this, so I'm going to offer it to you.

Madison Beer, over under two and a half cutaway shots in the game tonight. Do you think she is famous enough for that to happen? I don't know if famous is the operative word. There's another word to describe her that I think is helpful. Yeah, but I don't think that's going to, I don't think that she is known enough to even make. So you're taking the under two and a half? I think one is the most. one okay well let's keep an eye on that you think over no i'm not the expert here jeff i just wanted

to know what you think they show taylor swift like twice a game they show madison beer three times this could be a pretty boring game it certainly can but i i just i would be shocked if they showed madison beer three times uh in this game so um we'll we'll find out pay attention to that we'll we'll make a market with draftings we'll ask them if they can do that for us what do you think I bet this is not the one we call the favor in for, but they're good at that kind of thing. They're definitely going to be busy with lots of college football bets, and I think that's where we should spend the bulk of our time today.

So let's do our normal quick break video viewers. No, we're not going anywhere. Let's stay here, come back, and yell about college football. All right, we're back. Let's do college football. The playoff rankings are out. They are set. The brackets are what they are.

And I'll quickly read them for you guys, and I'll sort of get into my thoughts here. We'll put up up on the screen here as well for you. Number one seed, Indiana. They beat Ohio State this weekend. 1310. Ohio State moves down to two. Georgia beat Alabama, 287.

Georgia's at three. Texas Tech pounced on BYU, and they're the four seed. Five is Oregon. Six is Old Miss, seven A&M, eight Oklahoma. Those eight are the known ones that we knew we were going to get, Gabe. And because of the system where the five, highest ranked conference champions are in that put in two lane at 11, that put in James Madison

at 12 because Duke as a five-loss team beat Virginia and JMU won the Sun Belt and they're ranked higher than Duke. Now, where we get to the question was, what are we doing with Alabama, Miami, and Notre Dame? You recall all the way back in week one, Miami beat Notre Dame. They both finished 10 and 2. and while I think Notre Dame might be better now, that game has to matter. Alabama played an S.E. Championship game. They lost 28-7.

They did not score a touchdown. Any point for five straight quarters against Georgia, by the way. They didn't score the second half the first game. They didn't score the first three quarters of this game. Georgia, by the way, looks very good. The committee went with Alabama at nine still and then put Miami over Notre Dame for that 10th spot to reach the 12 playoff team's game.

Gabe. And here's the thing. The process was horrendous, even if the end result was probably correct, Gabe, right? For weeks and weeks and weeks, the committee refused to put Miami ahead of Notre Dame in the rankings. They gave many reasons why not. Well, we're not really comparing them head to head yet. Like, you know, they were 11 and 14, and then they were 11 and 13. They were 10 and 13. They're not. And now on the final ranking, you decide to bump Miami over. over and her name, despite the fact that the Nino team played this weekend. So the process, to me, is horrendous and quite frankly embarrassing for this committee to go in that direction. And a lot of things frustrating me about this process, Gabe.

That's one of them. The process, I think, is really bad. But two, Gabe, the committee and people who want to defend the work they do, or let's just share it, right? They talk about the principles the committee abides by, the morals they abide by, the numbers they abide by, the numbers they buy-and-bye. They make it up. Every single season, every single week, Gabe. There's nothing they adhere to, okay? And that's the frustrating part about this process as well. Is they just make it up as they go? There's no, there's no problem. One year they count good wins, one year they count loss. One year they count losses more, when they can't wins more. One year,

the conference championship games matter. One year they don't. In the last three years, the loser of a conference championship game has moved down at least one spot in the rankings, including, by the way, Ohio State this year, moved down one spot in the rankings. And so So did BYU move down one spot in the rankings. They were the second team left out in this process. Alabama lost their conference championship. Did they move a spot, Gabe? They moved down a spot?

No, they didn't move down a spot. Not only did they didn't move down a spot. They could have gone to 10, Gabe, and still been in the postseason. They didn't move them at all. If they would have won, by the way, they probably would have jumped up to four and had a buy in the playoffs. They would have won that game. So to me, the issues are the process.

and how they just make it up as they go and they try to sell us on this idea that there's some sort of principles they abide by. They could have easily just said, by the way, that Duke was better than JMU or we wanted to bump them up and put Duke in the playoffs. Like there's no actual rhyme or reason

why things are done here. And that's why we're leading to more playoff expansion, in my opinion. And what the Big Ten wants to do is that four automatic qualifiers in the Big Ten and the SEC. And those four are chosen by conference standings. So it leaves out the ability for committee to choose which teams are in.

And then the conference title game becomes four versus five. So I think actually your Trojans would have played like Michigan this year to get an opportunity to make the playoff as the fourth Big Ten team. That's where we're going, I think, because you can't have a situation like, look, and Notre Dame is rightfully super pissed because the committee told them up until this week, Abe, that it did not matter they lost to Miami. They told them that by where they ranked them and all of a sudden they decided to flip the rankings on the final weekend.

And maybe Miami gets in because without Miami, there's no ACC team in the dance, and that probably can't fly very well with the partners there. And lastly, two, looked. It doesn't, ESPN is not getting a directive from the SEC to push SEC propaganda.

They're not. No one's like, hey, hey, push the SEC propaganda. But it is thick, man. It is thick. Like, hey, should Alabama be in the playoff? Let's go to Nick Sabin. Talk about this. So all of that frustrated Even though I think we got the right teams in the process

Even though I would have been fine if Alabama was left out for Notre Dame Yeah, I worked at ESPN when the big claim was East Coast bias You know, they're obsessed with the Yankees and the Mets It's just the time Now someone who is a West Coast kid living on the East Coast The time is the problem It's that games are so late, there's no bias

It's just the clock man It's who you see And back in that day, it was like, well, Yes, Network and S&Y, and they were what we're on. And many of the people who worked in Central Connecticut grew up on the East Coast. So they kind of kept a close ride on those games. There was no conspiracy. Just like there's no actual conspiracy to keep SEC teams in, but there's a lot more exposure to them. They're on the TVs a lot more.

Let me, let me, so that helped define who the they is that you think had no process. Let me ask you this. I want to do it in a few different ways. First, I want to go through the teams that are pissed today, how they've handled it. and whether they have a case or not. You sort of already opened the door to the Notre Dame conversation, which seems like the biggest one. Let's just talk about the fact that,

so after they're left out, they then immediately refused to participate in a bowl, right? And they issue a statement. And it basically, you know, in summary, the take from everyone is they took their ball and went home. Yeah. I find it obnoxious, especially because they almost always get the benefit of the doubt, right?

Notre Dame has given this elite status, even when they maybe didn't earn it. This time it didn't go their way and they act like babies is how most fans see it. Here's my question, though. Like, who's using leverage against who here? Like, who's trying to push or change in the future by doing this? I think it's this simple, Gabe.

You have to decide whether you're accepting a bull bid hours after you get told you're not making the playoff. Dude, they were minus 3,000 favors to make the playoffs before the announcement. So for those, you to bet $3,000 to win $100. Yep. Like $300 to win $1. Huge favorite. And I just think, Gabe, they get word on television.

They're not making the playoff. And the team said, F this, we're not playing anymore. I think if you would ask them today to make this vote, they vote differently. But they had to announce the vote or they'd announce their intentions directly after they get snubbed. I think the players were just like, we're just not. doing this. I think it's a little surprising because it's not like you have a new coach. You have 15 practices that the young kids can practice in. Maybe the young kids playing a bowl game. Like I understand that those are valuable moments for those players. So I'm surprised that

they got to this point where they wanted to not playing the bowl game. It's different than I think like, you know, Iowa State who lost their coach or Kansas State lost their coach. Like they're on to next season. Playing a bowl game is completely meaningless for them. Or for another name, maybe some young players. But we're getting to point out where ball games are, they can't even find, they can't even find teams to play in these games anymore, man. Like, they're just, they're just going to be, they're going to be done. And I love, dude, I used to love bowl games, man. We'd go to San Diego for a week. It was a whole week. You spend the entire week in San Diego, entire week in Vegas. I played Al Paso. The Sun Bowl was awesome.

That's my favorite ball game. They took such good care of us. We ate steak every night in Texas. It was like the most fun we had. We were seniors. We were older. And it was so much fun. It's a week of camaraderie, man. You're with your team. It's a like training camp again, you know, without the practice, you're with your team doing everything, the entire week with your teammates. So I, I like bowl games. You got, you got dumb gifts that you realize as an adult are very cheap,

but you love them as a kid, not a kid, but like in college, oh, a toilet tree bag? Oh my God, thank you. I still have my son bowl toilet tree bag game from 2007.

It's still, it's like, like, you get these watches that you're like, oh my, what a nice watching. Now you're like, you wouldn't even put on your wrist. I mean, it's awesome.

But like, at that time, Like that was what the bowls are. They're not that way anymore. Teams don't go away for a week anymore. They go for like a business trip, right, one or two days. So the whole bowl structure is different now. Notre Dame for someone who obviously thought they were going to the playoffs,

I understand the mindset of being really deflated about what happened without, you know, without getting into the playoffs. Okay, so a couple points of clarity then. Next year, where this almost exact scenario to play out, Next year they would be in because of something that we've sort of had reported and clarified. They have an agreement now that if they finish in the top 12, you're shaking your head. So help me understand this a little bit better. You're looking at the Ross Dallinger quote.

They would be in automatically or not. What is the agreement that they've come up with, Notre Dame? They're in, I guess supposedly they're in the top 12, which I cannot believe that this is something that anyone agreed to. Okay. So are you shaking your head because you don't believe they're reporting? No, I can't believe they agreed to this. It's absolutely ludicrous. The best schedule next season is even easier in this season.

And now they're going to just get a free ticket to the playoff? All right. I agree it seems ludicrous. Here's my question, though. If they're being kept out this year in favor of essentially Miami or Alabama, right? That's really what it came down to. Then is that the powers that be... The ACC really screwed them.

too. Yeah, well, you mean, well, how do you mean that? Well, if Virginia wins, they might feel like they don't have to put Miami in the playoff. Yeah, right, because they're right. Yeah, so that's a big part of it. Like, Miami's in because the ACC needed to participate in this tournament. Right. So is the they, you keep referring to they, but is the powers that be, and obviously ESPN is a big saying, and how this all takes shape every year. Is there some pressure on Notre Dame now to join a conference? Is this independent, like we're special, we're different than everyone else's status?

How did it run its course in a world with the portal in the NIL and a 12-team playoff and all these rights deals? Well, today their AED went on Dan Patrick, I believe it was, and was very upset with the ACC. They didn't like the way the ACC messaged about them versus Miami. They ran the Miami-N-Dename game. like on ACN network, like 48 hours in a row, I think supposedly. So no, I don't think this, dude, they got a carve out to be in the top 12 to make the

playoff. They don't need the ACC. I would agree with you, but it does feel like in that world you talked about where we're now expanding to maybe 16 teams and maybe the Big Ten and the SEC each get four auto bids and their competition, their champ game is for the fourth that they get automatically. you can see a world where they're saying Notre Dame, just join us. Be part of the Big Ten. Get the spot that way.

I think they should. I think they absolutely should. But there's no incentive to do that because they're making their own money on their own. They're such a big brand. And they're going to make the playoffs every year. We thought every year. This year, obviously it didn't work out that way.

But I don't, I just don't think they're going to, I don't even know what would make it to where they felt like they had to join a conference. Yeah. All right, so let's set that aside and keep moving down the list of people who are pissed. They're obviously the most pissed, whether they're right or wrong for it. People in Austin, Texas and our producer Hank here, they're all pissed off for the Longhorns. Remember, you know, they were their big cases.

Well, we had the guts to go schedule Iowa State at a conference. We lose the best team in the country. And that's our third loss and that keeps us out. We're better than some of these teams. Do they have a case? I mean, they lost a four and eight Florida, so their case is over. That's the way it works. Okay, I like that quick response.

Vanderbilt. They're not even complaining, by the way. Their coaches out there saying, hey, we didn't do the job. That's what they should say, because they're not good enough to be in the postseason. And that's an okay thing to say. Like, hey, we came up a couple games short. Yeah. BYU, obviously, in it until the very last day when they aren't.

If they could have somehow skipped a champ game. They just got smoke. No, they weren't even, they were not in the playoff before the championship game. They were like 11. So, um, no,

they just, yeah, they lost, they got blown out by Tech twice. No one, no one really expected, but I'll tell you what about BYU, though.

I think people realize now, because the coaching shirts, um, is, is now complete, uh, they got money, man.

They got a lot of money at BYU. And the, people realize that until, till those coaching cycle. Yes, I think we all got clued into that. All right. I don't know that they're really going to bother complaining, and maybe it doesn't even really matter between the two and the three,

but shouldn't Georgia be the second seed? So it matters basically because one team gets old miss and one team gets A&M or Miami. And one team gets old miss. That's a D sound. You're saying old. old. It comes out that way, but it's, I write Ole Miss all the time.

I write, I, I, I, I, Ole Miss, six, A&M, Miami at 710. That, it's an easier path to play Mississippi, the State College of Mississippi, that it is to play. But look, one thing about the committee, too, that I just, this is another thing I just don't like. So you could have avoided rematches by just moving seating around. And they don't do it, Gabe. They don't do it. We have Oklahoma Alabama in a rematch. We have Old Miss Tulane a rematch.

We have Georgia and Old Miss potentially in a rematch in the quarterfinals. Like, why are you saying this up this way? You could have flipped Ohio State in Georgia and avoid that. You could have flipped Old Miss in A&M and avoided having to, you know, that happening again. You could have put, you could have, the Oklahoma, Alabama things

seem sort of set the way to end up happening. But you could have put Miami at 9 and Bama and Bama a 10. Like you could have done different things to not have rematches, Gabe, and yet we're going to end up with a bunch of rematches.

Okay, well, so speaking of those rematches, I mean, look, whether people love the fact that they got in or have the seeds that they do, Alabama, Oklahoma, not that long ago. Oh, boring-ass game. This game's going to suck.

You don't want, you don't like that one? I mean, we were talking Meteer for Heisman and Oklahoma. It's going to be so boring. They can't, Oklahoma, I think, had forced three turnovers in that game. Had a pick-six in that game. It's going to be a pretty boring game, in my opinion. Okay. I don't care about Miami Tech.

Oh, that would be a good game, though. You think after all the coverage of the last week or so, Ole Miss comes out in the right spot at six, given when they lost their head coach. You feel like that's right? See, like, it's so funny. Florida State lost their quarterback a couple years ago and they got dinged for it,

but they don't really get dinged at all for the coach. I think they're going to beat Tulana, they'll lose to Georgia. I mean, they're going to be right where they should be. Okay, fair enough. Indiana gets the one overall. They deserve it after the way they played this year. I got to tell you, man,

I saw a video of Mendoza. Hank shared a video of Mendoza talking about, like, you know, what music he listens to or whatever. I'm not going to use this term exactly right, but that kid has less Riz than any quarterback I think I've ever seen in my life. There you go. And maybe that's a good thing. Maybe the like being more boring than Andrew Luck is like the way you succeed in life.

But my goodness, that is not number one pick personality right there. Heism winner. I saw someone say he's like like a like a Kirk Cousins. Yes. That's exactly what he's like. Riz. But maybe that's the way to win the national championship. Going to win the Heisman.

Yeah. What surprises do you expect in the playoff and then we'll take a break and go back to the NFL? Any surprise teams? No, I mean, the surprise team I think would be, you know, Miami's probably good enough to win a couple games. I mean, Miami beating A&M and Ohio State is not out of the question, in my opinion. I think Georgia's going to the semis and then, you know, I think Indiana's going to semis and Texas Tech Oregon will be a great game.

So I think we're going to get Chalk is my guess. Get Chalk, okay. I'm actually going to beat you to it. I think you're doing the thing you do where you don't want to jinx your favorite teams. You're doing like kind of reverse jinks by hyping up their competition. I think Oregon wins it.

I like where we're at. We have a good path. We're going to beat GMU. GMU fans, I love it. They're, like, so salting the internet that, like, people are not really previewing the game. I don't know how to preview the game. I don't know. Like, JMU's defense is really good.

Their best defense to tackle weighs 270 pounds. I don't know how to preview the game. Morgan has the, not the first best offense line in the country, the second best offense the line. I don't know how to preview the game. They're 21-point favorites. I don't know how to preview the game. JMU fans are pretty upset about that. But nonetheless, and then we have Texas Tech, who I think defensively,

incredible, but offensively, in bigger games this year, they have not played as well. They cannot score in the red zone. So it would be fun. Again, it will be in Miami. And then the Peach Bowl would be Indiana, presumably gets Oregon again. And I might drive to Atlanta for that one. I think you should. Last time I saw Oregon play in Atlanta didn't go well, so maybe not.

But I'm thinking about going. That would be a fun drive. Okay. I hope you can get yourself on the sidelines of that one. So I'm not, that's January night. Actually, I'd rather sit in the stands. What day the week is that? That's a Friday night.

I'd rather, I'd rather be in the stands. Like, wouldn't you rather, I mean, the field, you can't see anything. Yeah, you've made it known to listeners of this show that even at an EDM concert, you prefer the comfort of the couch. So I understand.

I do. And I'm also not cool enough to, like, get a sideline pass from Oregon for that game. Yeah, that might be. That might be one they go to the running backs and quarterbacks of their past, not the linemen. All right. There's a few more NFL topics we should hit. We've got a few weeks left to cover the playoff.

So why don't we switch gears? Take a break. Switch gears to the NFL. We'll do some quick, not so quick hitters and get out of here, huh? Let's do it. All right. All right, Gabe, we're back. Quick hitters here for a few minutes.

What do we got? Okay. Right when we thought the Ravens were coming back to take that division, then they lose to the Steelers. Lamar is a turnover machine over the last few weeks. He came back from the injury. Everyone thought, oh, wait a second. Look at what they can do.

He just isn't very good right now. And I'm wondering, is it an injury he's hiding or is just something off with the offense? What do you think? They have the chief's problem where they're just making a ton of mistakes. Lamar is not as healthy, which isn't the problem with Mahomes. They're not good on the offensive line. when the offense is so reliant on Lamar passing the ball, I think it's not great.

But also, look, I think likely caught the ball. I think that was a touchdown. The fourth down play they had, the ball was to Zay Flowers, and Mark Andrews tipped it instead thought it was for him and they didn't convert. I mean, they were pompous to still win this game as bad as they're playing. But it's not good men. They're not playing good football right now.

Okay. On the other side of that are the Steelers, who heading into the game, you know, all we keep hearing is people trying to get Aaron Rogers to talk trash about Mike Tomlin and Schefter's reporting stuff about, well, will he be extended? A lot of Mike Tomlin talk.

Then they win the game. And part of the way they do it is D.K. Metcalfe, of all people, taking snaps at Gunner on special teams. You saw the post on Instagram, just absolutely blasts a bunch of guys and, like, comes up huge. If Mike Tomlin gets credit for that, right?

How do you get your star receiver to go tackle guys on special teams? It's just, you know, what's crazy? is like the Steelers, that was so predictable, right? Where everyone, um, everyone back against the wall, fire Tomlin, get rid of Aaron Rogers, the defense stinks, they can't rush the passer, and all of a sudden they win as a six point underdog on the road. Like that's just perfect Pittsburgh game.

I don't know, I can't explain the Pittsburgh Steelers. They threw the ball deep, which was nice, that helpful. DK, the punt rep is whatever, in my opinion. I mean, I don't know, maybe he just wanted to like to get in there and mix up in that important moment. But yeah, I, I don't matter much to me. All right. Well, they're in the driver's seat to win the division with a game or two above 500 like they always are. It's insane, dude.

And then I think they're dangerous in the postseason because Tomlin knows what he's doing. Rogers is experienced and the defense might step up. A team in their division that has no hope whatsoever, but suddenly has the story that the whole NFL media wished for, Shador Sanders, big game, 364 yards, passing three touchdowns, not in in certain spots, like kind of weird decisions about where to put him. What's our latest take on Shador Sanders? Because it keeps on changing week to week.

Best player ever. No, I didn't want you enough to like, game to give a good reason, but I saw plenty of people that, um, that, you know, thought he'd play well yesterday. And I'm curious to watch that game moving forward. When he gets the ball in time, man, it's good. Let me ask it this way. Is picking him up and stashing him on your bench in a keeper league and fantasy about the right expectation for him? Like, I don't know. Maybe he is good. Um, maybe. Are you doing, are you doing that? That's what I've done. Yes. My season is lost. So now I'm just, I got him. I got Blake Corum in case he stays in the number one spot in L.A. You know, like things like that.

Would you pay for Sanders? No, my league's, my league's wonky. It was just a waiver pickup. Okay. But to keep your league. Correct. Okay. It's not worth talking about this. Nobody cares. I barely care. Let's talk about Jane Daniels. Speaking of, I don't care. I didn't know from looking at the box score. I obviously did not watch this.

game, no snaps of it. I saw the score and I was like, oh man, I guess Marriota couldn't even play. They must have been down to a third stringer. Maybe it's like Sam Howell or somebody was the quarterback. No, Jaden Daniels tried to come back. They score no points and he's injured again. So what do we make of that? Lost season. They had a first and goal at the two-ish in the first, on their first drive of the game. I'm going to make sure I double check here. Yeah. So first and goal the four and didn't score a touchdown and then it just was all down the other from there and then Daniels got hurt through interception

it got it was their season just a completely lost season a wasted season and I thought they'd be better they're three in ten man like it is as bad as again it gets to Washington right now no it's been much worse for Washington

in all life times but for as for as good as the quarterback is to be limited from the postseason it's kind of unexpected okay team that's not eliminated from the postseason but doesn't have a quarterback should probably make a call to a guy who they called a year or two ago, Joe Flacco. The team that we don't talk about remains on the band list, but should Joe Flacco, who we do like talking about, go play for that team? Well, there's, there's, he can't legally do that unless he's cut. Yeah, do you tell you what, man, the Colts are now down Jones, Richardson, and there was reports that right Leonard has a,

has a knee injury. So not great, man. Not great. And look, we bet against the Colts four weeks ago. I thought trading Soss Gardner for, you know, for draft picks was the wrong move at the time. But, you know, that's just, they just can rant some bad luck. Yeah.

This is a late ad. I almost have, I'm like reading it closely to see if we're getting punked here. Could this be like one of those West Steinberg type accounts and spoofing Dan Orlovsky? but this appears to be an actual tweet from Dan Orlovsky this week, quote, do not sleep on the dolphins. What does that mean? I have no idea.

They've been the commander of saints and jets the last three games. Yeah, I am fully asleep on the dolphins. I don't know, I don't know what that means. But they are 6-7, so I'm glad the kids are probably happy about it. Are your kids in the 6-7 yet? They do. They don't know what it means. They just like the 6-7.

Quickly, let's end on this one. I want to get to this one on baseball topic very quickly before we end here. So Jeff Kent made the Hall of Fame. I'm a Giants fan, okay? And it's certainly fair to say I'm not hardcore looking at stats and paying attention and things, stuff like that. I watched him play. I never thought like that's a Hall of Fame guy I'm watching.

Now, Gabe, he is most hormones ever for a second baseman, second most RBI's ever, highest, second highest, no, highest OPS ever for a second basement. Like those are all numbers. He won MVP, I think with the Astros. Like those are Hall of Fame worthy numbers. I just never watched him play and thought like that. And Roger Sherman's tweet,

which if you guys are going to throw up here, the guy teams were fine pitching to after intention walking Barry Bonds is now he's a Hall of Fame ahead of Barry Bonds. It's a problem. It's a problem. But think about that. He was behind Barry Bonds. The teams were like, yeah, bases loaded.

go now I don't think he was on the team at that moment but the idea that Bond's got walked with the bases loaded you know and again he got walked all the time and Jeff Kent was on the team for many many years when they walked very bonds to get to Jeff Kent I was irate when I saw this

baseball writers and the people who protect baseball's history are so full of themselves they're more annoying than like foody people he won the MVP with the Giants wow I never would have guess that. There's nothing more obnoxious than the way that baseball's gatekeepers grade the sport. It is truly worse than food critics. Nothing against Jeff Kent, like you just

said, like really good player for a lot of years, good player. But for him to be in, and by the way, above all suspicion, like I'm not here to accuse Jeff Kent of doing long, but. Well, I'll do it. He made five, he made five all-stars that appears in one MVP. So here's my point about this era. I've made this point a thousand times over, I'll make it again, okay? Jeff Kent got better in like year 12, okay? That's a sign of that era and this era he played in of players getting better. And the passes that we give, I don't get.

Maybe because we like Jeff Kent, personally, I don't know Jeff Kent very well, but there are players who make the Hall of Fame who are better like at 40 than then 27 and we're like, oh, that's natural. 42 runs for for Big Poppy at 40 years old. Nah, nothing about that is,

is weird. Like, I, I, I don't know why we pick and choose, but we have, we have, we've chosen to do that. Big Poppy,

he the most doubles in his career, the final season of his career. Mm-hmm. Right, but, but Jeff Kent's name was not, you know, in some report once. And so we're just, we're just not going to ask that question. We're going to put them in the hall of theme before.

I don't care, though. I just don't care either. Like, no, I don't care. Put them in. I know. The whole era was doing it. And my standard has always been this. The whole era was doing it, maybe use a higher standard for letting guys

in of that era. And Barry Bonds was the best. One of my three things to do is hear old baseball players talk about Barry Bonds. dude, they're mesmerized by this guy. The stories they tell about him, he was the best player of a generation. It's not having to the Hall of Fame. It's a Hall of Fame,

not Hall of Maybe Use Steroids, we don't like him anymore. It's a Hall of Fame. He should be in the Hall of Fame. I'll sum it up from my perspective, Barry Bonds like this. My son is seven. We've talked about him here a few times.

He's learning baseball. He's getting really into sports. So he's grown up watching Shohei Otani, both with the Angels and then with the Dodgers. And during this postseason, and run. You know, he was like, is Shohay the best player ever? I was like, he's really, really

good, man. He might be. The only player I can think of, who I would argue is definitely better, is a guy named Barry Bonds. And he's like, whoa, tell me more about it. I was like, remember the game where like Shohei had to get a homer and a double and then they just stopped pitching to him

for the whole rest of the game? They just walked him instead of risking it. I was like, they did that to Barry Vons for a whole season. the whole season they had to do that for this guy he's like whoa that's Barry Bonds and he still hit like 376 that season and he was walked

intentionally walked 120 times and walked 232 times that season and he still hit like 375 there's a fun YouTube video where it's like if Barry Bonds did not swing the bat for an entire season his like OPS would be the highest of the season still

some insane number some insane style like that. All right. Good work today. I know you have to run. Have fun, New York. Maybe I'll see you in New York this weekend. We'll see how that goes. Or this week, I should say. We're back on Friday with Matt. If we win tonight, I believe, we're three and two. So a winning week, which we said we would

do. Moving the show to Fridays. Take care of everyone. We'll talk to you on Friday.