The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 & Out - Instant REACTION to Arch Manning's debut and OSU taking down Texas

Episode Date: August 31, 2025

The hype was real, but Arch Manning just got handed his first big test, and Ohio State wasn’t messing around. John reacts to Texas-OSU as he breaks down every angle of the Longhorns’ loss, what this means for Arch moving forward, and how Texas stacks up after getting punched in the mouth by the Buckeyes. Credit where it’s due, Ohio State looked pretty solid, and that defense showed up. We also take a look around the college football world, including Deion Sanders’ rough debut at Colorado, and why the Buffaloes looked completely unprepared. Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest. Check out Gametime - the fastest growing ticketing app in the US, and the official ticketing app of 3 & Out and GoLow -  for tickets to all of your favorite NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA teams. Concert and comedy show tickets, too. Go to Gametime now to create an account, download the app and use code JOHN for $20 off your first purchase. #Volume  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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one like many people i've been anticipating i've been fired up for this game for months i was laying in bed this morning at like five a m just staring at the ceiling so excited pacing around the house, and then the game happened. And we can just start, let's not even waste any time. Let's just dive right in to the archmanning experience. I mean, that was leading my, I would say, excitement, anticipation and just overall juice leading into this game, was to watch this guy play.

And I've been saying it over and over. And listen, I'm not trying to pat myself on the back. He's got a long way to go. Your career is not defined. by one game. But the hype has been insane. Honestly, it's been beyond over the top. I say this about all these quarterbacks. In basketball, sometimes the hype, hey, this guy's going to be the number one pick. He's an incredible player. For the most part, it's just, that's what happens. Right? He's in college for six months and he's the number one pick or he's the number two pick. Happens all the time.

So honestly, a lot of hype when it comes to that sport, like kind of know when you're 15, 16 years old. Football's kind of the opposite. We see all the time these guys like, can't. Can't miss quarterback prospect. End up on three schools in two years. Camp Miss quarterback prospect never limbs up to the hype in his bench by year two. Never ends up starting. How many five stars in the NFL held any position or guys that were top 10, top 20 recruits go on when draft day comes? I can't believe this guy's an undrafted free agent.

He was the most hyped recruit of all time. Now, sometimes Julio Jones, Jadevion Clowney, you know, Caleb Williams. Like, obviously we see it with guys hype out of college, or out of high school, go on to college, dominate when the Heisman beat top picks. But I've said this for a long time. The hype on Arch Manning was fucking insane. He is, and I don't, I mean, I know what you're doing, like you're in the business.

I always hate the word like, it's for clicks. Well, yeah, that's the business they're in. Like, the business Ryan Day is to win games. if you do something for the internet in terms of writing, your job is to get people to click on it and look. It's why Brony James a couple years ago was mocked as a top 10 pick. It's why Arch Manning this year is being... I mean, most people are talking about it.

And it's not just one person, it's universal. I hope the saints suck so they can get Arch Manning with the number one overall pick where his granddaddy Archie played. The Cowboys trade Micah Parsons. Maybe this is to suck and to get Arch Manning to come play for the Cowboys. And who knows if Brian Schottenheimer sucks, take Sark too. It's like, guys, can he just play a game? Because unlike most sports, baseball guys are drafted out of high school on pure hype and potential.

Basketball, it happens all the time. In football, to get drafted number one overall, you got to be pretty freaking good. Like, you got to be like, this guy is a can't miss player on the field. You obviously have to have the physical characteristics, but you got to do it on the field. You can't fake it in football. those 12 games, those two years, they speak for themselves. And it's like, can Arch just, I don't know, throw some touchdowns in the SEC, play some real opponents?

And there's no way around it. Today was not great, not great at all. And up until a couple throws at the end, the touchdown pass was nice. The ball on the last drive down the sideline was nice. But overall, I thought today was really bad. He missed countless throws that should be considered leg. up and to be a can't miss player to be a high level quarterback in high school college or the pros you have to hit basic passes so on that final drive when the dude streaking across the field

five or six yards away from you you don't need to throw a 90 mile an hour fastball behind him you just lob it right there and listen i can't even imagine how the nerves the excitement the just the intensity on him as an individual leading into the game. I wasn't going to judge him for the first several drives. Like, listen, I can't even imagine how hyped up he is, right? How hard it is to calm himself down. And you thought as the game went on, he would kind of settle down. And I watched the guy that missed easy throw after easy throw after easy throw. This game does not define his career. So two things can be true. I thought he was mostly atrocious today. And the reason we're reacting to this, it's one game. If this This was Joe Blow starting for it.

This was Quinn Ewers a couple years ago. We wouldn't have these takes. But these people over and over, these people that cover the NFL draft, these people that cover the NFL have been telling me he's the greatest fucking thing since sliced bread. It's like, I've been watching football for 30 years. I worked in college football. I've scouted guys at these major universities.

You've got to be very careful about hype. Because hype and football doesn't last long because eventually you've got to play the game. So whether you're a five star or whether you're a two star, you know who had no stars next to his name, Ashton Genty. Then what happened? He gets drafted six overall and almost breaks Barry Sanders' record. And we'll get into Boise State here in a second. But like, you got to do it.

And you watched him playing Ohio State kind of getting manhandled. Now you could say Matt Patricia, you know, overqualified defensive coordinator when it comes to college. And give him credit, he's taken that jab and he's lost probably 100 pounds. Looks good physically. And they had a bunch of new players, but I thought they punked him. and one thing I saw on the internet was that Sark was not doing a good job. I think it's very hard as a play caller

when your quarterback can't make easy throws two call plays. And you could tell throughout the game he was very hesitant to call like back-to-back passes. He only had 30 attempts and they were down the whole game. Now granted, they were down 7 points, 14 points. It's not like they had a huge lead. But the play caller, like Sark's established, he's a good play caller.

He knows what he's doing as a play caller. We can nitpick individual plays, but overall the course of the game, like he's done enough to get the benefit of the doubt, like he knows what he's doing and he knows the ebb and flow of the game. We've seen enough guys that have no skills when it comes to doing calling plays. And today I saw a guy who early on could tell his quarterback was pretty rattled for whatever reason, could not get comfortable, was holding onto the ball.

Listen, we crushed Caleb Williams for holding onto the ball too long. Not even us, hell his own coach does. Get rid of the football. Countless times a day, Arch, held, held, held. It's one thing if it's, you know, a rollout play where you're holding, holding, and then you can take off. Some of these plays are clearly pocket passes. Where you got a couple seconds, you're playing a bunch of guys that are going to get drafted high. You got to get rid of the rock. And he held, he held, he held, and then he would kind of run into a sack.

Or like run in for a couple yards. Like you can't really function like that. And it's not going to matter when you're playing Sam Houston State or San Jose. but when you're playing Florida, when you're playing Georgia, when you're playing Texas A&M, it's going to really matter. They're going to be so much more talented than, I would say, eight of their opponents. But there are going to be a couple more games where the talent is semi-even.

Today the talent, like, you remove the quarterbacks, that's an even game. These are elite players everywhere. This has become like, that's Target and that's Walmart. These teams have unlimited money. They can buy any fucking player they want, which I'm all for. Like, have at it. You could argue they've been doing that forever. But now the numbers are so big, huge advantage to programs like Ohio State and Texas.

So the separating factors now to me are two things more than ever. It's a lot like the NFL, coaches and quarterback. Well, listen, I've been critical actually of both guys. Hell, I'm probably one of the last guys who was very critical of Sarp. He's done a really good job at Texas. Unlike Ryan Day, and this is just a reality, when he took over Texas, it was a joke. It was a dumpster fire. and he's turned that program around

they've been in the final four the last two years. Ryan Day winning the national championship last year no one can take that away from. That was really, really impressive, especially after the embarrassing loss of Michigan. They're both really good coaches. They're both great recruiters.

The talent on their rosters speak for themselves. It's elite. But if their quarterback's good, they're going to be excellent. If their quarterbacks, me, they're going to, again, when they're playing equal opponents, they're going to have issues.

And today we saw Julian San, who I didn't know, that much about. When you see him interviewed at the end of the game, he looks like he's 10 years old. Obviously, hype guy from Southern California, goes to Bama, saving and retires. He goes to Ohio State. I'm sure making a ton of coin. Like, this guy's a really talented player as well. But unlike the outside, like, not everyone has given the kid to reach around. Hell, the narrative coming out of Ohio State is like, listen, he won the job, but it was not easy. Whoever the other kid is, I don't even forget his name, but like Urban Meyer, when I was on Coward Show,

was like, this was a little closer than you think. And clearly Urban knows Ryan Day's guy. Where everyone's like, Arch Manning, Arch Manning, Arch Manning. I bought into the hype. How could you not? Sometimes you say stuff enough. It's like, yeah, it's got to be true. This guy's going to be really good.

Because I, like most people, was like, hey, how could he not just, at minimum, be a really good player? Maybe not like the best player we've ever seen. Maybe not John Elway or Andrew Locke or his Uncle Peyton. But just be a really good college player. And you saw a guy today who was swimming, who was honestly over his head. beside a couple of plays late was mostly atrocious.

And if that guy was named Quinn Ewers, if that was not Arch Manning, if that was Quinn Ewers who just played that game, everyone would be like, this guy sucks. Why don't they bench him for Arch Manning? That would have been 100% the conversation. And listen, they get a couple layup games before going on the road to the swamp here in a couple weeks,

but they got to figure out a way to calm him down when you're throwing a wheel route or a quick out route or just something a basic route that essentially runs or operates like a run in the passing game which gets you five yards, seven yards. Might not get you an explosive play and might not even get you a first down but goes from first and 10 to second and four

or second and eight to third and two. Right? And just helps you breathe. They could not do that today. And nothing was more that sums that up more and symbolizes his day than that final, second to last throw when their star receivers coming across that's not very far away from

any slingshots of fastball. Where all he needs, like if you got a high level NFL quarterback, a Lamar Jackson, you got Josh Allen, you got any top 15 quarterback in the NFL. That's just a lob pass. That's a lob pass to the guy. That's a touch pass where you throw them, even if it's not perfect right in front of him, hits them in the bread basket, he keeps going. Arts throws this high rocket behind him where this guy's such a good athlete,

puts his hand behind him, hits the ball, still almost catches it, but it was like, that that can't happen. And that pass consistently happened throughout today. And if I would have told Sark and the Texas fans and the Texas administration that Ohio State would score 14 points and you would control Jeremiah Smith again and him of 43 yards, no touchdowns. Every single person, led by Matthew McConaughey would have signed up for that. Wait, they're going to score 14 points,

and Jeremiah Smith is going to have 43 yards total, and no touchdowns, we're in. You would have to take that. At worst case scenario, we play like shit, tie game, we're going to overtime. But even if I'm confident in, hey, there's a good team, we win 2414. It's like, no, honestly, it took a crazy second to last drive

to even make it 14 to 7. So Ohio State, like, I'm pro-SCC, and I think the SEC has proven over the last Saban era, they were clearly the best conference. Their top four or five teams were better than every other conference. Ohio State, once Urban got there, turned into an SEC program. He's talked about this, their big thing was to accrued everyone. We're going to go into Florida and we're going to get elite players.

We will get whoever we want, wherever we want. That's how we'll operate. And they've morphed into an SEC team. Now they are like, listen, is Texas the best team in the SEC? Well, they were right there last year, right? Only Georgia was better. They lost to him twice. But like Ohio State, I thought the gap today, if that's how Arch is going to play, it was pretty wide.

Texas got really good players so they can control Jeremiah Smith. Most teams do not. Like, Big Day for the Big Ten. That was a big moment. And a big moment for Ryan Day. Because I was thinking about this watching, you know, you got Urban Meyer, with Fox, you got Nick Sabin with ESPN, and the reason these two coaches, the reason Ryan Day is at Ohio State is because Urban Meyer, gave him the job, essentially. The reason Steve Sarkeesian is at Texas because Nick Saban changed his life, changed his career.

But those two guys are in those positions because of Urban Meyer and Nick Saban, who are obviously way better than those two guys. And that's no slight of those two guys. Nick Saban's the greatest college coach of all time. And Urban Meyer is one of them. I mean, they're both all-time grades, right? But these are two guys, Ryan Day now has a championship. A lot of people like myself think Sark can get one when you're coaching to Texas. But it all comes down to like how good your quarterback. Like the reason that Ryan Day and that team got hot, those last four games, will Howard turn into Peyton Manning? He dominated. He was elite. This is not the days of 10, 15, 20, definitely when I was a kid,

where you could have some complete scrub and your roster be so good and you win the Natty. because now to win the Natty, you've got to win countless playoff games. Even if you get a buy, you've got to win three. That's really, really hard. And they got a long way to go for Arch. I mean, a long way to go. And I'm not going to correct and change my opinion these next couple days. But what we learned today is hype is just that.

Doesn't mean a goddamn thing. I can tell you it's the greatest restaurant of all time. I can tell you she's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. but if she walks through that door and she's a four, you're like, Middokov, what are you talking about? If you walk into that restaurant and there's hair in your rice and your steak is overcooked, you're going to be like, this place sucks.

Like, we can only go off what we see. We're just reacting to this, which is one of the most hype games of all time, and he's easily, easily, to me, the most hyped college football player of my lifetime. Now, there have been guys who became more famous as they played, Tebow, Reggie Bush, Cam, whoever, Joe Burrow, Caleb Williams, they had to do it by games. So like Joe Burroughs' hype became when we watched him play.

Cam Newton became this legend when he dragged a team of randoms to the Natty. Reggie Bush, when he dominated everyone he played. They did it. There has never been a guy ever with this much hype who has not played. And then does play and everyone's like, wait, what? And I want him to be good. it's interesting. It's a fascinating story. It's exciting. It's entertaining. But that was not. I mean, that was rough to watch. As a lover of football, as a lover of high level quarterback play,

that was rough. And I think now, and this is why these guys get paid so much money. Because how could you, if you were arch, not be head down a little bit? Right. And I understand he's a high level cat and, you know, doesn't like let the press clippings go to his head. and not dialed in on social media 24-7-365, we're all human beings. How could he not have his tail between his legs a little bit? And this is on Sark over these next couple weeks to kind of build him back up

because there are going to be a lot of people around the program, a lot of people in Austin, Texas, a lot of people in the SEC. You're no longer in the Big 12. You're in the SEC who, like, are going to be like, what the fuck is this? What the hell's going on there? So props to Ohio State

Massive, massive win Big win for Ryan Day He's won a lot of big games recently Right, it just has Texas, Notre Dame beat the shit out of Tennessee beat Texas again Gotta be feeling good

You know, he's got to be feeling good Might ban Portnoy from coming in the stadium But wins a lot of games And last but not least You know you look at Ohio State's schedule their team is just going to be so good on defense and offensively most people are not going to have the athletes

to do what Texas just did to them they are going to dominate. Now, are they the best team in the Big Ten? I don't know. We'll see how Penn State and some of these teams look as time goes on, but they're going to be really, really good. Like they're going to be in the playoffs. You look at Texas, like they're going to need a lot more at arch if they're going to beat A&M, if they're going to beat Florida,

if they're going to beat Georgia, maybe, you know, we saw Alaska. year with a 12-team playoff. You're no lock if you go 9 and 3. I think you've got to feel pretty good about yourself going 10 and 2. So you can afford more losses and people love saying this. Like your season is not over after one game. That is true, but your margin for error gets really, really, really slim, really fast when you have big time opponents. Now when you play in some, like if you play in the ACC, if Clemson were to lose tonight, a little less unfazed. but their schedule is a lot easier than playing SEC opponents.

It just is. That's where to me I stand by when it comes to supporting the SEC. It's way harder to play their average teams than it is to play a lot of these conference average teams. Now, on a given year, maybe the Big Ten has a more room for argument there, but these other conferences simply do not. They just don't. But, yes, I'll start for the Big Ten. The rivalries, the marching bands, the upset Saturdays just got way more fun.

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What's the news, new? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas, we invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a... We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there.

But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a podcast? name Hey Jonas, guys. I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Oh, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down?

Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, Hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

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happening at Roland Garris, every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jenchian win. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rabakina is. arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface.

Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Quick thing on Dion, I know he lost, but I was really impressed watching them play. I mean, their quarterback's not very good. And I would guess, over the course of the next couple weeks,

they transition their young, highly touted guy, definitely split snaps in regular season games and potentially just go with the other guy. And I get, you know, Dion's old school, you have a guy who's been in your program, who probably does things the right way, you want to give the benefit of the doubt. It's not how I'm wired,

I would just go with the more talented guy, but like old school people, especially people that, you know, grew up with football in the 80s and 90s when he played, kind of the way it worked. But that guy, your team is actually pretty solid.

You're not going to win games with that guy. What he has done at Colorado, like I was thinking this last night. Over the course of the last 10, 15 years, pre-Dion, you couldn't have paid me to give my Friday night to Colorado, Georgia Tech. And I have worked in football and now talked about football for a living for almost two decades. And there's not enough money you could have paid me to made me care about that game knowing that no one else gives a shit. I didn't budge for three plus hours.

I was glued. Now, part of it is like, I like the Georgia Tech coach. Haynes King's a fun player. But that was like the atmosphere in Boulder was awesome. That place was rocking. Dion Sanders took a dog shit dead, dead football brand. Irrelevant. Didn't matter.

And made them matter again. So whatever they're paying Dion, he'd be like, well, he's only 12 and 13. mean, his value to that program, making them not only relevant, brought in the Heisman trophy, they're going to be, I don't know, you know, depending on their quarterback play, they could probably win anywhere from six to nine games this year. I think Georgia Tech most people think are going to be, it's going to be pretty solid. Like that was a real football team they played.

And they were going toe to toe with them as their quarterback, little like Archmanning, throwing balls over guys heads, skipping balls. But their physicality, they're just well-coached. and that city and area knows it and that place was sold out, rocking, foxes there, it just felt big. It really did. So we can argue, like,

should Chador's number have been retired immediately? Like, I get people to be like, it's kind of ridiculous, because it is kind of crazy when you see Shador Sanders and Travis Hunter. I'd have no, Travis Hunter just won the Heism. You want to retire?

I get where people are like, this is pretty nuts. But just in terms of Dion's impact to that program, again, irrelevant. It did not matter at all in a sport that really matters. That's the number two sport in America. I bet that game this morning had well over 10 million people watching. Up until game seven of this NBA finals, they weren't sniffing 9 million.

If you told me 15 million people in the peak were watching Ohio State Texas, I'd believe. 20's on the table. Who knows? Numbers are going to be huge. College football really matters. I bet last night Dion will get 5 or 6 million people watching. Friday night on Fox. But they wouldn't have four or five years ago,

not with that program, because they would have been unwatchable. They would have been terrible. And I just think what Dion's done from a business standpoint, football, we'll see how many games he wins. I already think he's proven, watching him last night, like, good coach.

Like, he's solid. Like, knows what he's doing. He's not going to be a Colorado long. But he resurrected and saved that program because it was deader than a doorknail. I got my start in football. Many of you know this, but at Fresno State, you know, when I go on with Coward,

I think he thinks I went to Fresno State. I technically went to Cal Poly. I got, I was a GA at Fresno State. I got a, you know, master's degree, no big deal. Pretty meaningless and irrelevant, and I don't even remember really going to class, but I did get it. I got it framed in my closet.

But I take a lot of pride in Coach Hill. I love the guy and people I worked with there. The players that were basically the same age as me when I went there right after college, still friends with a bunch. Friends with a lot of people from the Fresno area. I love Fresno State football. My cousin played there before I went to work there.

I've rooted for the program for a long time and going to work for that program. Then I got, I saw Boise State in their heyday, had a front row seat. So I have a lot of respect for smaller, non, I get power five forever, but power four programs that aren't at that level, but consistently beat those teams in a really good year and year out. It's hard because you don't have the budgets. Ohio State and Texas of just like random power four programs. You have no business competing with them.

And for a long time, Boise could beat anybody. And there were years where I thought legitimately they could compete for a national championship. The one year Kaepernick beat them in Nevada at night when I think Boise missed a couple field goals. I thought that's Boise's best team ever. I thought they could have won the national championship. And Fresno, I don't think we were ever quite good enough on defense,

but NFL players constantly guys drafted in the first second round, guys drafted in a bunch of different rounds. It was a legitimate NFL program. It pains me to say this. The days of those type programs are done. It's over. NIL killed them. A couple weeks ago, when I was flying to Hawaii Week Zero,

Fresno State got their teeth kicked in by Kansas. 24 hours ago, Boise got worked by the University of South Florida, got destroyed. And last year you saw Boise, in the playoffs. And obviously an enormous reason that they made it that far and had an excellent team was their star running back, who had a season that paralleled Barry Sanders. Well, I didn't know this, but right at the beginning of the year last year, there was an athletic

article on him. And Coach Dickert, who actually is at Wake Forest now that came on this podcast, had given interviews as well. The Boise program and the boosters in the NAA, the most money they could pay the, kid was $300,000, which was by far the most money given to a guy in the mountain west. I think it's called the Pac-12. None of us know. None of us give a shit. Bottom line, that group of teams, right? The San Diego States, the New Mexico's, Oregon State, Washington State. Highest paid guy was $300,000. Ashton Jenty. Well, he turned down to stay at Boise because he was

very loyal. He's like a military brat. He was offered seven figures by multiple programs. And he turned him now because he had loyalty to Boise and then had this historic season. That is an outlier situation. The equivalent of Austin Genti at those type programs are gone 100% of the time moving forward. When I was at Fresno State, we had Ryan Matthews, who was drafted, I think, 12th overall, who's our running back. He replaced Ladani and Tomlinson with the charges. They literally cut him and drafted Ryan to replace him. Didn't go well, he got injured a lot, but Ryan was like a freak town. There is no way on God's Green Earth. If the NIL existed, Ryan would have been on the Fresno State team his junior year. We couldn't afford it to keep him, despite his loyalty.

Because it gets to a point, it's like Texas or USC or whoever is offering me $1.4 million, and the most you can pay me is $175,000 in free sandwiches. These teams cannot compete. And listen, you could argue that's the way the world works in a capitalistic society with the economics, the way this world operates from Target to Walmart has been knocking out the little guy forever. That's the way we operate in the business world. Why is football any different? And it's not. And I'm not saying that that's wrong. Because if I was one of these kids and I was at San Diego State and Ohio State got on the horn and said, this happened to Josh Simmons. The dude, the chiefs just drafted 31st. I didn't know this. I assumed like, oh, this is just a five-star

left tackle. He started his career at San Diego State. So when you have an elite talent, when you have a blue chip guy that for whatever reason, maybe his grades, maybe he was an underachiever in high school, maybe he was just the late bloomer. The moment you become bloom, like you become good, like it's clear, like there's no denying how talented a guy is, he's going to go to Oregon, he's going to go to Ohio State, he's going to go to Alabama, he's going to go to LSU. And I don't blame any of these guys. because those guys out of high school would have gone to those places

if they were offered a scholarship. But it's over. The little guy, and we saw this in college basketball last year. The reason that the number one seeds are all going to consistently be making huge runs, the number one and two seeds, is because the butlers of the world

had a chance back in the day, VCUs. They will never have those players on the team their senior year. Why? Because they would be bought and paid for by their sophomore year. And that's definitely happening in college football. So the top brands in college football have always had a big advantage. The same teams have been winning most of my life.

In the 90s, it was like Nebraska, Florida State, Miami. Over the last 25 years in Florida, it's been Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, right? Those teams, the top, the cream of the crop has been the cream of the crop, give or take a team or two for a long period of time. But it is never going to be less fair moving forward for the little guy. is what I said when they created the playoffs. I didn't understand why they gave an automatic

bid to the non-power four conference. Then a bunch of people in the college football world said, well, it's because of litigation. They don't want to get sued. I get it, but I don't think they deserve a spot. Like last year, if you want to give Boise State because they have this great player, but for the most part, like, just give James Madison a spot

because they went 12 and L. Like, I'm sorry. They shouldn't. And hopefully, as time goes on, that changes. we stopped worried about getting sued in terms of like, we just want the best teams in the dance. But when it comes, if you're a fan of those programs, if you went to school of those programs and it was always cool knowing like, we could take on the big dog, you can't anymore.

And you won't even have the players on your team by the time they come into their own as star players because they will be picked off. They will be bought and they will be stolen to other players. My wife was like, what's the transfer portal? And I started to explain it. She's like, so kind of like a dating app. I'm like kind of like a dating app

where you put in your information, but then whoever would quote unquote be on, you know, the other side who wanted to date you basically has to buy you. So if you're a good player and you throw your name in the transfer portal, you get bought. And the reason typically you put your name in there, obviously some people's like, I'm not playing.

But a lot of people go, like Minnesota. I think today they were saying Ohio State's, one of their offensive linemen is from Minnesota. Well, clearly what happened? Ohio State's watching this kid in Minnesota

going, God, this guy's really good. He would start for us. So whether he go to the back channel, maybe they just text them or DM directly go, you want to start for Ohio State? And the answer is going to be,

this guy's at Minnesota. This is a Power 4 program. Like a good, you're in the Big Ten. But fuck yeah, like to play at Ohio State. Would you rather throw a party for winning eight games or try to win the national championship.

I don't even, I don't blame any of these guys. Hell, you could argue it's, it's, the money is secondary. Like, who's turned down going to Oregon, going to Texas, going to Ohio State if they had the opportunity from a smaller program? But that opportunity didn't really used to exist because like no one was going to sit out at here. It's like, I'll just play a ball out here and I'll be a second round pick. Well, now it's like, I'll just ball out here until they call me and then I'll go there

and I'll ball out even more with more people watching and make more money and then be a second round pick. So that's clearly what's happening right now. And in a weird way, it saddens me a little. The volume. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe.

I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. Nice. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it.

We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or what? wherever you get your podcast. Just listen.

We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on. A Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman. Multi-million dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, in the moment and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlic on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicalife-Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

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