The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - In Defense of the Miami HEAT | Local Hour

Episode Date: September 23, 2026

"I'm doing it, baby." Dan is trying to force the recently laid off Greg Cote to work harder than ever before, the Miami Hurricanes released incredible throwback uniforms and will actually get to play a game on Saturday, and after Bill Simmons delivers the worst Miami Heat analysis possible, the entire crew gets defensive. You'll get how good that pun is once you listen. Today's cast: Dan, Greg, Zaslow, Roy, Chris, Jeremy, and Mike. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

there are some football moments that just live forever in your brain. You remember exactly where you were, who you were with, what you were drinking. And for me, what I'm drinking is Miller Light, because those football moments are great. But making those moments, Miller Time moments, now that's something extra special. That's what I love about football season. Every weekend gives you a chance to relive another great weekend. You come in on Monday, all am from what you saw, and you come in and you listen to Chris Cody, completely misremember what happened.

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Do you ever drink coffee at 7 p.m. or later? Chris, what's the latest you've seen your father drink coffee? This is the reason his stomach is distracting me during shows because he doesn't have any food in it. It's just coffee and Miller Light. Yeah, I would say a 7 p.m. recording, I've seen him drinking coffee. I have not heard of many people who do that unless they're like trying to stay awake for a test or they're doing something aggressively, not just casually. doing something because they want to stay awake late. You don't like a post-dinner espresso?

Okay, people do do some of that. I do not, is the answer to your question. I can't enjoy coffee at all hours. It would be fine if you did the occasional post-dinner coffee. Like, I'm not, you drink coffee seven days a week all day long. Yeah, pretty much. Not all day long. Usually from arising in the morning at like eight until late afternoon.

I would say it's typical. Can't drink coffee all day if I'm working in some Miller lights. Well, that's, you know, it's 5 p.m. somewhere. He transitions to the Miller lights after. That's saying it's just for coffee. It's 5 p.m. somewhere. You're telling me you hand this to a kid and it gets done five seconds. Four seconds. It's so stupid that you believe that. It really is.

It really. Greg, it really is. Like, look at this thing. You're telling me someone gets that done in a few seconds. I don't know whether you've heard, but young children elsewhere in the world kick the ass of our American young children. It's not even possible. In India, in China, they're growing a whole generation of brilliant people while our kids are picking their noses. All right, spot the ball. Let's see how they do with 100 yards of Greenfield in front of them. Okay, I'm not saying they can run fast. No, they can't kick our ass in football, I'll tell you that much.

I think that six-year-old could do a Rubik's cube while running a hundred-yard dash. If you were not listening to the Shadow Show and are just joining us video component on YouTube, on Draft King's Network, on Peacock. I want to just reiterate that Greg Cody's only subject matter of the last couple of days is coming in marveling correctly at a six-year-old Chinese girl finishing a Rubik's Cube in a record 4.4 seconds. A woman's record, a female Rubik's Cube record. I would think that that is just a record of all genders, I would assume. Four point four seconds is as fast as that can be done. by anybody, but... You don't know.

It's a women's record. I would bet my life that it's been done faster. Yeah, I would too. You'd bet your life. Yeah, I've seen all these videos. They happen all the time on social media. Or you just hang in somebody something and you blink and they're done. Yeah.

It's ridiculous. It really is. Where are we on your final Miami Herald column? When is it coming out? Where can people find it? You are closing out a legendary 54-year career. at the Miami Herald, but you're not actually retiring. You're just retiring from the Miami Herald against your will because they laid you off.

Yeah, the Herald is retiring me, but I'm not retiring. My farewell column is supposed to be online in the Herald Friday and in print Sunday. And then it's Adios Amigo. Also, the column will be on my substack. It will be the first full item on my new substack page. Or what do you call a substack thing? energy today. Yeah, he sounds tired.

But this is retired. This is, I'm worried about him in general, his stamina level, his effort level. Maybe? It's the first time I've checked the live show to see if I'm on like half speed. You are moving a little slow today. Okay, I don't fake enthusiasm. What you see for me is authentic. Good, bad, or indifferent, or in the middle, it's authentic.

You want me to fake the energy? I'll start talking a little faster. I don't want you to fake the energy. I just want you to sound. slightly less than asleep. That's all, especially since we're talking about you drink 18 hours worth of coffee a day. Bobby Bowden used to say there's only one major life event after retirement. And that major life event is Dan texting you nonstop that the work starts now.

That's correct. That's exactly right. Yeah. And also having more coffee is what happens after retirement. Well, let's check out your coffee. Your son has accused you of not drinking coffee, of just drinking milkshakes. So let's go ahead and zone in on this thermos that he's always walking around with. All right, I'm already suspicious.

Something has happened here. Suspicious. What do you mean? You've built it on yourself. First of all, I have a tight cap. I always tighten my cap. And look, somebody has filled this up with milk. I know it.

It's going to come out ridiculously. Greg, put it in front of the camera instead of in front of your substack advertisement so that people to see how... I can't remember where your cameras are. Look how clear that it is. It's not... Boer Who needs me? Nobody can see the cup behind this.

That's not my coffee. That's not my coffee. My coffee was sabotaged. It was sabotaged. And I can't even drink it now. What a waste of a coffee. It's ridiculous. Nobody touched your coffee.

Oh, come on. It's Kalua. Do you guys realize how few the options are on places in this expansive studio where he could have held the cup of coffee to not give us the payoff. There are so few places here where he could have held that to not allow us to do well visually on what that funny was, and it's because he put it behind the advertisement, the crude advertisement for his substack. At least I spelled substack This thing is so annoying.

I have different camera angles. I felt today the stir of something this morning that felt good to have it come back into our lives. Celtics Heat and Bill Simmons saying things that are not very smart for someone of his expertise, his knowledge. It makes me wonder if he's trolling Miami fans when he says this. because he knows basketball. There's no question about that, but he is parroting some of the things

that are being said this offseason about the Miami Heat. The Heat Central just wrote this on Twitter. Takes on the Miami Heat that we've heard this offseason. Gave up too much for Janus. The same team as the Bucks. Janice is injury prone. Yonis doesn't look happy to be in Miami.

No shooting. No shot creator. No closer. Clay is washed. Wizards Hawks will finish higher. Still a play-in team. Who plays defense? on that team? Is Bam still an elite defender?

And then the Heat Central writes, no other title contender gets talked about like this. If any other team traded a bunch of mid-role players for a top three player in the NBA, the conversation around Janus and that team would be way different. So I will play for you now the sound of Bill Simmons with Zach Lowe on the Ringer podcast. Who's playing defense on this team? Janus, Bam, Davian Mitchell, Andrew Williams. Andrew Wiggins. Andrew Wiggins.

And a little bit of BAM, I think, because BAM and Yannis allow you to do so much defensively. They'll play some zone. Andrew Wiggins, did guard Jason Tatum really about four years ago. I mean, so Janus, Bam, Andrew Wiggins, Davian Mitchell, and Pellie Larson. Yeah, that's my crunch time five with maybe Clay Thompson in there. Could be, could be Clay. They have a lot of guys. That's welcome to the play in.

So a number of things about that to comment on one of them makes me think he doesn't know that the heat have been a top five defense for the last 10 years, no matter who plays for them, because of everything that they teach around basketball. Yeah, I thought Zach Lowe gave a really good answer to that question. And to be fair to Bill, like, I know I saw Jeremy's eyes rolling. I think most of what he said are fair questions that a lot of people are asking about the rosters. Now, the Wizards being better than the Heat, not so much. But I think the Hawks are a fair question, considering how the Hawks finish the season. And there are questions about, you know, who's going to create their shots and who's shooting. But it's not about their defense. No, no, that was

ridiculous. But there, there were, there were like three really special, haterific moments in there, which is a classic Bill Simmons troll of the Heat fan base, and that's entertainment, baby. He's been wrong about everything this summer, Bill Simmons. Everything. He's never had a worse summer when talking about the NBA. The Janus to Boston, done deal. Not only was it not a done deal, but the heat got him and as a result made you trade Jalen Brown. LeBron to clear. Cleveland was also a done deal. Well, LeBron went to Philly and, you know,

LeBron went to Philly essentially as a direct result because of the heat getting Janus, which forced Jalen Brown to be traded to Philly and LeBron decided I'm going to go join the Sixers. And he also, there were some other things I don't remember. Okay, you forgot. You just ran out of material there.

You really, you really did. I could tell, I could see looking at you that you were. Not my finest moment. I was on a good run and then I forgot what I was going to say. illustrate where it is you started to leak confidence there because I could see it on your face and I'm going to have to... Oh, wow. Minor penalty, two minutes for leaking confidence. Disappointed.

I saw that Ethan Skolnik and Brendan Tobin are really mad at Bill Simmons and I really am glad that all of this is back. Okay? But one of the things being said by the Boston media, Ethan Skolnik and Brendan Tobin, I have not heard this, I'm just hearing their reaction to it, right? I've not heard the Boston media on what I'm about to say. I have a hard time believing that what they're objecting to was actually said. Is the Boston media arguing that Boston had a better offseason than Miami? Is that a thing that's actually happening? Because I can't believe that you'd lose a player in his prime whose jersey you're retiring. You have a transaction that is the biggest laughing stock in the history

of your franchise, you get in return a 35-year-old Paul George and the argument is being made that Boston had a better off-season than Miami? Is that the argument that's being made? That's what they're reacting to. What I'm getting is, like, despite the off-season of the Celtics and the relatively successful, not even relatively, the overwhelmingly successful off-season in the Miami-Heaton finally capturing the whale, that they still feel like their team is better. Which, who's to say? We're going to roll the ball out and see how all these pieces fit. I do know that Miami, One thing that I'm certain of is they're going to defend. So that was a stupid question.

Well, one thing I'm certain of is that Ethan Skolnik and Brendan Tobin are going to defend. They're going to defend. Will Manson measured. They're going to defend the Miami Heat. And their reaction was angry enough to make me think that they're hearing somewhere in the Boston media, that Boston had a better offseason than Miami. And I don't know which is a worst take to have. That one?

Or the fact that you think the Miami Heat aren't going to play defense? They always play defense. It doesn't matter who plays for them. The reason they won't trade Bamana bio is because everything they put around Bamana bio ends up being a top five defense. That's the reason he's an untouchable player. Jeremy, please clarify for me what's being said by the Boston media. It's not one voice. It's not a monolith.

What's being said? There are certain members of the Boston media that have insinuated that where the Celtics ended up because of the situation that they were in with Jalen Brown leads to them having a more measured off season and still having a better team than the Miami Heat. The part that's mind-blowing measured off-season. I don't know. It's a word I used. It's being able to be calculated about how you go about it and not have everything fall apart. They end up with Paul George, who's still a productive player in their minds. I don't know that Paul George is going to be good on this team. I don't know that they're going to be good. And the fact that Bill Simmons would go out here and say, I don't know who's going to play defense for this team. I mean, maybe. Just maybe we feel about him the way that

Celtics fans felt in the way we reacted about Hugo Gonzalez, because I'm not watching every minute of Hugo Gonzalez play in the meager defense of Bill Simmons, but the lineup last year with Mitchell, Powell, Larson, Wiggins, and Atabio was one of the best defensive lineups in basketball, one of the best in terms of plus-mindeds in the minutes they play, and you've replaced Norman Powell who can't defend anybody with Janus. We don't sound bothered. I am I'll be defensive. I'll be defensive. The heater defensive. This is fun. This is a rivalry. This is cool. Measured offseason is not a thing. They didn't have a measured off season. They got laughed at all

offseason because they traded a player. They didn't want to trade because they embarrassed a player. They didn't want to embarrass it. Simmons is skating because he definitely called Paul George one of the top two worst contracts in the NBA. Until he ended up with the Celtics. Yeah. Now it's a good piece, I guess. AI isn't something that's coming five or ten years from now. Businesses are already using it every day and it's changing everything from the questions they ask to the decisions they make and even the routine work people don't have time for. That's the idea behind NetSuite Next. The next generation of the business management suite trusted by over 44,000

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Final pricing depends upon program selection. Dan Lebatar. I'm not going to apologize. I wouldn't expect you to apologize. You're a giant infant. You have no control over your emotions. You have no control over your emotions. When you're calling someone you know an idiot, I don't deserve it.

I don't deserve it. And you're a fool for saying it. Great Cody. You're a fool. I was kind of following. Oh, you're locking in right now? You're locking in on eyes? Yeah, right.

Let's drop the gloves, pal. Let's drop the... You should be thanking me. For what? Every day. For what? For what? For what I've done around this character?

And the second shit gets real for you? You want to come at me and call me a fool? Huh? Yeah, no, no. No, no. Seriously. Jeremy... Seriously, pal. I've added 10 years to your career.

This is the delibatio. You do sound emotional. You sound homerific. You sound like Brendan Tobin and Ethan Scholnik. and I miss all of this. It has been a little while since I felt all of this. The best moment of the last heat season was the Celtics losing in the first round. Yeah.

That's the thing that felt best last season unless it's BAM's 83.8. Damn, they didn't just lose. They blew a 3-1 lead and changed the trajectory of the sport, and now LeBron's a sixer. Bill Simmons also laughed at Pablo's reporting, which would ultimately result in Bill Simmons wanting to get his money back for his. Clippers season tickets, and your blog disagreed with that. Awful announcing, my blog. Bill Simmons was not objecting to Pablo's reporting on the Clippers. He was objecting to Pablo's reporting on Jordan Hudson and Belichick, and he was saying

that was a non-story and that that wasn't journalism. And we will play the game later in the show here, is that journalism. But the Clippers yesterday, that story, a couple of interesting things happened over the last couple of days with that story. First of all, instead of putting as the head of their organization, Dennis Wong, Steve Ballmer's college roommate who owns 1% of the Clippers, because Dennis Wong was involved in some of this nefarious behavior, they have instead put in charge a lawyer named John Gibson. And it reminded me of when the University of Miami had so many problems off the field that they put Paul D in charge of their athletic department when he was just a lawyer.

He had no experience in athletics or in the governance of athletics, but they just needed someone who knew the law to keep their program out of trouble. That's what the Clippers have done. But how funny did you guys find it that yesterday, Kawhi Leonard signs a two-year, $112 million extension that's going to keep him probably with Toronto until the end of his career? He's 35, right? Kauai is 35 years old. Kauai getting an extension here.

What were your thoughts there, Greg? Well, it was only two years, but I still can't. I was shaking my head when I read that. How can the centerpiece of one of the biggest scandals in NBA history not only get off Scott free, but be rewarded for it to the tune of $115 million. I think it's a crime against the NBA and Adam Silver that there was no punishment. no punishment. There was a punishment, Greg.

It was a $700,000 fine. It's a good amount of shame, but while not defending the other side on this, because I do think the grand majority of people listening to this are going to side with you on everything here. But what if I offered you the context of the only way for the NBA to successfully come down on Steve Balmer in a way that would have

closed that case is to go soft on Kauai Leonard so you could get his cooperation, the cooperation of the Players Union, and then he couldn't make a further mess by going to arbitration with the help of the players. If I tell you that that's, because that is the trade that was absolutely made here. Isn't that what happened with the Astros and MLB? So he cut a deal. Okay. Well, I also think, he snitched. Yes, yes, he snitched. That's amazing punctuation on everything that goes down as one of the worst trades in the history of transaction. Sports or otherwise. Legitimate a horrific transaction that gets punctuated by Kauai Leonard snitching. But if I show you the entirety of everything that happened here,

and I tell you that Kauai Leonard gets the shame of, you know, you guys were asking earlier this week if he's going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer, because his name is now associated with one of the greatest scandals in the history of sports, when I think about the salary cap, I put 100% of the responsibility on following the rules there to management and the organization. A player can ask for whatever he wants, and I don't hold him responsible for what he's asking for. I hold the people responsible who are doing the giving. I've been saying that from the get-go, that I didn't think Kauai Leonard should have gotten any kind of punishment. As a matter of fact, he really didn't get any kind of punishment because

the $700,000 fine, that's not something. some random number. Like this happens all the time in the NBA actually where teams will pay for extra stuff that you do, be it maybe it's traveling family, all kinds of that stuff. And then you are supposed to pay it back at the end of the season. Well, he racked up this $700,000 bill, never paid it, never intended on paying it. They're making him pay. That was what you were always supposed to do. He really got no punishment, Kawhi Leonard. You guys know, though, why he's being asked to pay that amount? It was one of the things in the report that I thought was funniest that was just sort of an an ancillary.

oh my God, they were cheating in all the ways. He's repaying expenses. Yeah. Like he had this expense account where he could just wander around and spend money. And I'll remind you guys, Mark Cuban got in a bunch of trouble when he signed Dennis Rodman because Dennis Rodman, Mark Cuban was living like a bachelor, had a mansion, barely furnished mansion. And Dennis Rodman was living on like a side of the mansion.

And it was a salary cap violation because you're not allowed to give people value or perks beyond what it is that the limits are that are legislating equality. The idea that like the 400th item in that report is, and also Kauai Leonard, had an unlimited budget on expenses where any time he wanted to just run around and bill something to the clippers, he'd bill it to the clippers. So what he was docked for there wasn't even a fine.

It's like, hey, you have to reimburse this money that the organization gave you. Yeah, he actually didn't get punished at all by the NBA. So the NBA is saying you did nothing wrong. Everybody else was at fault except the centerpiece. No, no. I think it's like I said there, it was like with the Houston Astros and the cheating scandal, how the players copped to everything.

And it was immunity. Like, tell me everything that happened and I won't punish you. And that's what happened here with the clippers so that they can punish the team. To my point, though, okay, on what I'm saying that the organization is the one responsible for governing the rules. before this scandal, the Astro scandal that Zaz is mentioning is the one I remember at just hacking off the top of an organization as a punishment where the very top power people and front facers are the ones that are gone. But this Clippers punishment is so much larger than that because it's not just Ballmer out for a year. It's legitimately the head of your business operations and the head of your basketball operations are gone for six months and a year.

and I don't know the rest of you how much you overvalue leadership. But who the hell's running the clippers? Like you've got an organization there, and at the very top of the power structure, you have nothing in charge. You've got a lawyer there doing administrative work. It's a fairly amazing punishment when you look at it from that angle. It's pretty rare, Zaz, that you get the entire top of an organization's power structure knocked out.

Well, they actually yesterday just named, or two days ago, just named their new interim governor. It's this L.A. based trial lawyer called John Gibson, and he is the interim governor and CEO of the Clippers. Minor penalty, two minutes four, not listening to the show. What did Greg do? No, not me. You repeat it John Gibson's name.

Please show yourself out. It's a Rubik's cube. He's been startled. Take the Rubik's Cube. Take the Rubik's Cube with you. It's multiple thoughts that he can't have at the same time. Mike, what's coming out of the University of Miami? I want to play some Mario Cristobal Sound here. He's complaining about something that I don't think he should be complaining about here. I think he should be celebrating the fact that this has gone so far this season, the way that it's gone. But let's play his scheduling complaints.

Yeah. We're the only team in the country that hasn't played on a Saturday. Who's responsible for that? Anybody in this room? nobody but look I'll say this I'll this is really important this is I mean as it relates to my own kids at home or our players here is whatever stolen at you just roll with it man you know is it ideal that I ever want to say hey we're gonna play on a Friday Thursday Friday absolutely not and the worst thing I can do is publicly go out and just start bashing away at what the heck and no whatever comes with it whatever place whatever opponent whatever time

Let's go roll, right? Let's go do it. But to your point, and a great question, yes. Very happy to be back at home and to be able to play on Saturday. I don't know if you guys have been watching some of the stupidities that the voters do and some of the stuff that gets missed because of the avalanche of football that hits every weekend. But I believe the University of Miami has benefited from having the stage to itself and national games on Friday and Thursday nights against weaker opponents where everyone in the country can see early in the season before they've actually played anybody, oh, look, they're bigger and faster than almost everyone they're playing.

They're noticing, they're watching one game. The nation is watching one game, and they're watching the University of Miami three times. Even if it's playing FAMU, I think they benefited from that. The spotlight does matter. It got chucked in a group chat, but I trust it, that Wake Forest Miami did a better number than the SEC spotlight game of Florida Auburn. So Miami rates pretty well. I understand where coaches coming from

and that it's very strange that we're a month into the season and they haven't played on a Saturday. And this team has gotten hurt. Now, the way they've staggered these games, your cross-country trip at the start of the season, it's not really a short week. It's kind of you played fame you on a Thursday and then you head right back on the road.

If you look at their injury situation this year, which is pretty dire, when you juxtapose that to last year, where they were very fortunate. Same training staff, you wonder what happened, is this fluky, does the air travel that they're logging so early in the season have a hand in this? It's kind of crazy that they haven't played on Saturday, but that's because the ACC wants to spotlight them because they rate very well.

I'll bet the players love it, right? I bet they love it. They have their Saturday nights where as a college kid, they get to go out and be a college kid. You assume that, but like, work weeks all get reconfigured. Like their Saturday isn't their normal Saturday. Okay, so they practice during the day, but they had their nights now

when before on a game, you know, if you played at night on Saturday night, you're not really going out, you know? I bet they like it. I feel like though, and I don't know if I'm just holding on to the past and nostalgia, I feel like college football is about Saturdays. Like the other days are fun for television and for

gambling, but that when I think of college football, I think of you have my Saturday. It's just been a weird start to the season, starting on the West Coast and the spooky ACC playing two conference games, logging more air travel yards than any continental team here. It's been weird and you see their injury stuff and you're like, well, does that have something to do with it? Who's to say? But yesterday, the big news was a wildly popular thing.

And it's really funny that Adidas on their way out has done the most popular thing they've done for the University of Miami, which, by the way, I thought Adidas was a great partner for UM. They came in at a good time and it actually coincided with Adidas's ascension and ultimate overtaking of Nike. Nike actually really needs the University of Miami now, which is why they went all in. So Adidas says their most popular thing, which is just trafficking on an old Nike design. But Dan, I don't know if you saw these spots, these still images. This was so well done. And see if you get in the fields the way that I got in the fields when you see one jersey in particular.

Do we have the still image of all the guys together at the... domino table because that is an all-timer. Basically, you have shocky, you have Clinton Portis, and you have Ed Reed at a domino table, you have all the new Miami hurricanes lined up behind them wearing the retro jersey. And in front of Ed Reed is an empty seat at the table with Sean Taylor's number 26 draped on it. Like he always has a seat at that table. It's reserved. It was a goosebumps moment. And if this season ends up being special, that is such an iconic University of Miami photo. Why did they pick those three past players in particular? They're doing the 2001 team with the uniform. It's the O-1. Dorsey wasn't a part of it, even though

Dorsey's one of the handful of players that's having his jersey sold. And I know from people at the it's kind of funny because he was a quarterback. He was a star, but people that went to the team store, everybody was sold out, but Dorsey. Huh. Tony, you know that moment at a party or at a tailgate where everything just sort of clicks? I know it well. It's usually when I show up. Everybody goes crazy. Yeah, you usually take all the credit for it, but it's because Tony usually walks in with Quervo. Walking like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Quervo is a thing that turns hanging out into this is the night.

It has that effect on people. It does. You usually take the credit for it. But again, it's the Quervo effect. It's like that moment in a big game where everyone in the crowd just starts standing up, hooting and hollering. Keep it quervo. Keep it quervo, baby. Ah, folks, listen up.

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and it's ready to go from day one so you can hit the ground running. Bring it with SAP Grow. AI Cloud ERP for any size business. Dan Levitar. This is the quickest it goes. Hey, this is the quickest it goes. Greg Cody.

Everybody, this is the quickest it goes. Yeah. This is the Dan Levitar show. I think this season is the closest thing that I have seen in terms of enthusiasm. and expectations since that 2001 team. And they've grown it over the last couple of years. Cam Ward's defense was bad all year, and you didn't trust it to win a championship.

They surprised a bunch of people last year, and there were expectations. But I do think because of what they did last year and because of what Cam Ward did, the expectations are higher this year. And whatever it is that you think Old Miss LSU was as a story, UM, Notre Dame this year is, a game that is somehow going to feel enormous, and I'm guessing, have no actual impact on whether or not those two teams make the playoffs. Like somebody's going to lose it, and that's almost for sure that somebody's going to lose it. And when they lose it, it's not going to actually cost them very much.

I don't know that, I mean, yes, it's not going to have any bearing on, most likely, on whether they make the playoffs, but it will play a key role in does one of those teams get a buy? So if that matters to you, as opposed to having a first round home game, then... Oh, no, what could happen, right? Is what could happen here is Miami could miss the playoff because they lose Notre Dame and then they lose the ACC championship game. And I don't know whether you can trust the voting in any way if you have two losses. A lot of different stuff can happen.

But what happened with the voting this week? Like, can someone explain... Oh, it's so weird, Dan. Explain it to me. Explain to the audience why it is the voting. Not that any of this matters because it doesn't matter until the committee's starts getting together and it doesn't even matter then until the last committee meeting because last year they flip-flopped at the very end and none of the previous conversations mattered.

I mean, there's just a bunch of spots where it's like they're not watching the games. I don't know that Texas A&M should still be ranked after this home loss to Kentucky. And I definitely know that Kentucky should be ranked and should be ranked higher than Texas A&M. So that doesn't make any sense to me. Oregon really has no business being ranked anymore. and then you have the one that I probably have the biggest issue with. Ole Miss should be ranked number two in the country. Like number two is Georgia and number three is Notre Dame.

Ole Miss should be number two in the country. Georgia has not played anyone. Ole Miss has two wins so far this year against what is now number 10 LSU and number 16 Louisville. How is that? How are they behind Georgia? How is Louisville behind LSU? This is a problem with the preseason top 25 because people just use the rest of the season

as confirmation bias. Oh, they lost, let me put them like, that's three ticks. Wait, is the team that they lost too bad? Well, that's 12 ticks. It's just all very, very stupid. You should be able to watch week one and be like, holy cow, Louisville's a lot better than I thought, and have that be your guide. LSU inflated their resume on a bad Clemson team. Yeah, a lot of people thought it was weird that UM wins an ACC road game and then goes from five to six. I didn't think that was weird at all. You know, when you're that high in the rankings, you have to match expectations every single week. But I think that was more about Ole Miss deserving to jump those teams. Yes, and I agree with that.

But if you're Miami and you're favored by three touchdowns and you win by two touchdowns, there's a lot of voters out there who are going, you know what, not a good game for UM. One thing that I notice is every national person that was checking out UM checked out at halftime. They don't know how bad that second half looked. They just assumed Miami let off the gas, which is, I guess, technically what kind of happened, but they don't know that Miami went five straight, three, and outs after Derry Mentsa lit up the world. Everybody was like, wow, that offense is amazing. We're off to Texas Tech.

That is why, though, that offense is amazing is why I think they've benefited from playing night games over the last three games. I think a whole lot of people who weren't watching Duke win the ACC title with five losses last year. That's another thing about the top 25. What if I told you the reigning ACC champion started this? season 3 and O and went to a Big Ten team that had some expectation around it in Illinois and won that game. How are they unranked? This is a Duke thing because Duke, I think two years ago, should have been a ranked win for Miami when we were doing the CFP discourse and they had the best season of an unranked team in 20 years. You're like you're telling me there are only 12 teams in

the country that are better than Penn State. Have you seen who Penn State has played so far this year? I'm going to Happy Valley this weekend by the way. And this will be their first game of no. they're playing at least a big 10 team. It's Wisconsin, but whatever. Penn State's first three games, it's Marshall, Temple, and Buffalo. They're the 13th right team of the country. This is what's happening, okay? A lot of what it is that you guys just said made obvious to me that basically there are a whole lot of teams there being ranked based on what we remember of their history. And Ole Miss, for all the talk of the last couple of years, the reason Ole Miss is where Ole Miss is because throughout our lifetime,

Ole Miss has never mattered and LSU matters all the time. And I do believe that a lot of voters are just doing that. I believe that Louisville is ranked as low as it is because people are still sleeping on what the history of that team has been. I mean, I'd be afraid if I were any coach in the sport to be facing Brom. I would be scared. The history of that team, Dan, is over the last three years, if they are playing a ranked team, if they lose that game,

it's not by more than one score, provided that they're healthy. They show up to big games. They were the better team against Ole Miss. Kynolts missed a throw, and it ended up being a 14-point swing. And that's how the game was decided. It was a wide open, streaking wide receiver, up the seam with nobody around them for 20 yards, and the ball was sailed. I think Louisville is better than Ole Miss.

I think they're really good. I think they're a playoff team, and I fear them if I had to play them, in the playoffs. My hope is that the AP respects that and that they don't slip up along the way because if Miami loses to Notre Dame and loses to Louisville and the ACC championship game, Louisville would be a playoff team by winning the ACC. And then you look at Miami's two losses and then we can have the quality loss discussion that Nick Saban loves so much. One of the reasons that I think Miami's got one of the easiest schedules in the country is because when you look at it, you see none of the coaches who can beat Christopal. You don't see SMU. You don't see SMU. You don't see.

Louisville, you don't see Georgia Tech. There's a little. And the thing that I wanted to ask you guys about what we're talking about, because Mike just dismisses it as stupid, but it's also something that's just not very football. The sports that have judges and have judging controversies are boxing, are gymnastics, Olympic stuff. You don't really, when watching sports, want to have judges beyond the referees telling you the determination of what the standings should look like.

Do you guys believe that with all of what's going on in general with college football, because it's the second biggest sport in America, because it does nothing but grow, even with all of these stupidities and the fact that so many games are Oregon wins 84 to nothing or whatever and climbs back into the top 25 because they're trapling a bunch of, you know, human bodies that are just there to be trampled? Do you guys believe that the future of college football will limit, this or do they love the conversation that goes on all year about people arguing about the

stupidity of all of this? If everything is changing in college football, do you guys foresee a day where they take out the judges and they're like, we're really doing this with committees? This is a stupidity. It's a, it is an intergalactic stupidity to judge football after games, scoreboards, and standings with a bunch of people in a conference room. The powers that be want this to remain the case. So that they can remain the powers that be? Yes. the Big Ten, the SEC, and their broadcast partners like this the way that it is because it keeps a monopoly, which is why they're turning to a government to give them an antitrust exemption. They, as a cartel, lose every time in the courts because it's unfair.

And so they want a carve-out from the government to keep the cartel going to eschew the Super League, which would kind of make it more like the NFL, where we get in on records. I think argument and debate are excellent for sports. Everybody loves it. Media loves it. Fans love it. And that's the only reason to have a poll early in the season. The only reason, there's no reason to have any poll or ranking until the college football playoff comes around. I'm sorry, all this stuff is great for college football. College football is bigger than it's ever been. And if the problem is really as big as the NCAA insinuates it is and tries to scare us over college game day, then there wouldn't be a season. They would stop it if they were losing money. But they're making more money than ever.

They just want to cap the wages to make sure they can keep the hustle going. What is the actual reason for a preseason poll as opposed to let's play week one and then we have our first rankings? TV. Can you guys, though, walk me through the question I'm asking? Do you foresee a day where this gets eliminated as a concept because of how dumb it is and because we don't do judges to decide after the scoreboard, the standings, and the schedule? Like, the scoreboard, the standings, and the schedule are usually what it is that we use throughout all the other sports that don't have gymnastics judges or boxing judges. This is a normalized stupidity. do you foresee it ever going away?

No, it's deeply baked into college football. The polls and college football. It'll never go away nor should it because fans love it, media love it. What more do you need? Fans love it. What do you mean we went from five to six? We won a big ACC road game.

We shouldn't have dropped. Nobody cares that they went from five to six, but to fans and to the debate factory, it's fodder. The coffee's kicking in. You guys saw it. You saw it. You saw how the fuel, the fuel, yeah. It's not like coffee. Tony, you know that moment at a party or a tailgate where everything just sort of clicks? I know it well. It's usually when I show up. Everybody goes crazy.

Yeah, you usually take all the credit for it, but it's because Tony usually walks in with Quervo. I'm walking like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Quervo is a thing that turns hanging out into this is the night. It has that effect on people. It does. You usually take the credit for it. But again, It's the Cuervo effect. It's like that moment in a big game where everyone in the crowd just starts standing up, hooting and hollering. Keep it, Cuervo. Keep it quervo, baby.