The Herd with Colin Cowherd - THE HERD – HOUR 3 – Matt Rhule: Playoff Expansion Good For CFB, Vikings QB Battle  

Episode Date: July 30, 2026

Jason talks to Nebraska HC Matt Rhule at media day about their upcoming season, NIL, the College Football playoff, and more Thoughts on the Vikings QB battle See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Now let's get this party started. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Oh boy, our next guest, college football coach. He was in the NFL. He's got big things ahead for Nebraska. Let's welcome in Matt Rule, the Nebraska-head football coach live from Big Ten Media Days. Looking very dapper in that suit, Matt.

You want to tell us who picked that one out for you? Yeah, my 11-year-old Leona, I got in yesterday and was like, hey, baby girl, like, just go pick something out for me. And I think she did a pretty good job, you know, and this is as good as I can look. Yeah, certainly. Hey, man, I need to help myself, as you can see what I'm wearing. Matt, let's get started to the excitement for Nebraska this season is palpable.

Obviously, you got the quarterback from UNLV coming in. What are reasonable expectations for you guys in a pretty loaded Big Ten? Well, you're right. It's a great conference, you know, traveling across the country, playing great teams. But we feel like we have a really good team. And, you know, we've built every year. Five regular season wins, six in a bowl game window, get seven last year. And now it's time for us to take that next step.

And go be relevant, go compete to be in the CFP. And it's not easy, but we don't want it to be easy. We are Nebraska. and we've got the players and we've got the coaches, and now we've got to go do it on the field. Yeah, so the transfer portal is a big flashpoint in college football along with NIL. I want to start with the portal.

You know, we've seen some teams build almost exclusively through it. How do you manage it in Nebraska? Well, you know, we've tried to adapt as the years went on. Like when I got back to Nebraska, you know, I had never had dealt with the portal before when I was at Temple and Baylor. And at first it was you can only transfer once. and the rules kind of change each and every year. But I think what we've realized is we want to recruit high school kids.

We want to develop them. That's what college football was built on. But we're also going to go out and get the best players in the country. And areas where we feel like we need some more players, we're going to go get them. And so whether it's rebuilding our O-line or defensive back or going out and getting Anthony in the portal, it's made us a much better team. And, you know, we have a great personnel staff who does a great job. Yeah. So you mentioned your prior stops, Baylor and Temple, and now things have changed.

changed with the portal and obviously NIL. I'm just curious. How different is it for you? Obviously you went to the NFL. But coming back to college football, is this like entirely a different sport than it was when you were here last time? Yeah, it's entirely different until, you know, until game day, right?

Once you get out there on game day and the cheerleaders are out there, the band's going, it's the college football as we know it. But in the off season, you know, I remember when I first got back to Nebraska, I think we had two guys working and recruiting. And now, you know, three and a half years later, we had a full-on personnel department at GM.

And that's just, you know, that's what the game is. And great programs adapt. And so we've adapted as things have changed. Yeah. I guess when we're talking about the Big Ten, it's pretty loaded in the schedule. You know, you got some daunting teams on there. But having seen Indiana come through and just like a wrecking ball, I mean, I guess that everybody around the league thinks, hey, you know, why not us next?

Why can't we take portal guys and make a big run? I mean, you look at the schedule, Matt, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but you're definitely going to be three at O heading into that game in East Lansing against Michigan State. Yeah, I think when you look at the Big Ten, you know, teams have risen from the middle of the pack and gone on and had great seasons, and some teams have had great seasons and then reverted back to the middle of the pack. And it's, you know, one year doesn't really carry over the next like it used to.

Every year it's your own team. And so, you know, I look at our schedule. I don't know what Michigan State will be. I don't know what Ohio will be. I don't know what Ohio State will be because, you know, some teams lose players, some teams game players. And it's really about just, hey, this year, last year doesn't carry over. Let's focus on this year. And that started for us, you know, the minute we finish our bowl game, it was portal, it was retaining our own players.

And whereas last year we were one of the youngest, if not the youngest in the Big Ten, now we have the third most experience in the Big Ten. So it's a big difference one year can make now. Yeah. You know, it had been a decade since Nebraska had back-to-back winning seasons. and you pull that feet off, it almost feels like there's something big brewing here. Now, the defense, it sounds like it will be shifting a little bit, but I guess talk about where you see Nebraska this season.

Well, as you said, you know, obviously when we got here, it wasn't in a great place just record-wise. There were some great people working hard at it. But, you know, we've gotten ourselves back to respectability, but we want to win championships. We didn't come here to be, you know, 7 and 6. We came here to compete for championships like the University, Nebraska has always done. And so

for us, we want to be in the CFP. We want to go compete for national championships and Big Ten championships. And so it's about putting the players in the right spots, but also like arming them with belief in themselves and each other. And we start training camp on Tuesday and that process, we did it in the spring,

but we start back over. And can you go on the road? Can you win a game late in the year when it's cold? Can you win a game when your best player goes down? Like, that's what defines seasons. That's what Indiana did last year, Ohio State the year before. And we know We know that we have to do the same thing. Yeah.

Now, in the environment of NIL right now, I saw that there was stories about Ohio State and Notre Dame have Jersey patch deals. Everybody's looking for new revenue streams. Is that something you guys have considered? You know, you've got to stay financially competitive, right? I don't know if that's something you'd explore. Yeah, I think all of college football right now is about, as the expenditures go up, you know, really for payroll.

You know, it's just, you know, your rev share, you know, that's a lot of money. that used to go in the athletic departments that's now going to the players, and rightfully so. Absolutely rightfully so. You're trying to find new ways, because you don't want to cut sports, you don't want to cut training table or academics, you don't want to cut all these services

because these are young people and they need them. And so, yeah, I'm sure our athletic director Troy Dannon, I'm sure he's looking at patches and looking at different naming rights and all that. For me, that's, you know, I kind of stick to, hey, the roster and the football and, you know, just trust those guys to do those things because, you know, they know what's required. They know what the market is now.

And if we want to be amongst the best, then we have to have to have the resources of the best. Yeah, speaking on the field, tell us about your new quarterback, the UNLV transfer, who there's real optimism about in a loaded Big Ten quarterback-wise. Sounds like Anthony could be one of the better ones. He's a dynamic player, you know, started as a true freshman at Virginia, went to UNLV last year, was, you know, Mountain West Player of the Year.

And, you know, I love his competitive nature. He's got juice, he's got swagger, but he's also a complete player. He can beat you with his arm, he can beat you with his feet. And I think in college football that's one of the most important things is not just running the quarterback, but on third and six, you know, they blitz you, and they have one more than you can block, and the quarterback takes off and hurts you. And so he brings all that to the table. And, you know, I talked earlier about belief.

I'm going to tell you something. This guy's got it. He believes in himself, and he believes in his teammates, and I think all of that is contagious. Yeah. It sounds like you've got a pretty big winner there. I am curious, though, when you're on the recruiting trail and in the portal, how much does, hey, I was in the NFL? I know quarterbacks. I spent time in the league.

Is that a big selling point? Did that help win Anthony over? Yeah, I think so. I was in the NFL as an assistant coach. I was in there as a head coach. And so, you know, one of the things I tell the guys is like, listen, you know, everyone thinks they know what it takes to get drafted. But I sat in those rooms when they were going through the psychological report, when they went through the learning report, when they went through the medical report. So it's about building a program that gets you ready for the NFL. It gets you ready for

life, too, but gets you ready for the NFL. Emmett Johnson, our great tailback from last year, he sent me a great text yesterday. He's at the Chiefs, and he's like, everything we did at Nebraska has prepared me for this. And, you know, if you want to be a lawyer, you go to law school, if you want to be a doctor, you go to medical school. If you want to be a pro football player, go to a program run like an NFL team. And so that's the way all of our coaches do it. And it's not me, it's them. And that's a big part of getting guys that love football into our program. I love that. Let me ask quickly about this proposed 2014 playoff.

I'm pro more games that matter, so I'm very into it. I don't know, where are you on it? Because there are pros and cons. I'm sure you've broken down. But do you like the idea of a bigger expansion, Matt? Well, you know, I think about being in the NFL, or I think about even as a fan watching the NFL, right? And I think about late in the season.

You know, you have two, you know, whatever, it's nine in five or nine and six teams battling. You have a great team playing a bad team, but they're playing for the buy. They're playing for home field advantage. They're playing to get into the wildcard game. And so late season games in the NFL carry so much more weight. And I think if we added that to college football, getting it to 24 teams, then it would be good for the regular season because everything matters. You're fighting for everything. The more home games, I think we have, it just makes it better.

If you think about FCS football, you know, the teams that win it are usually the Montana, the Dakota, the teams that play in weather. When you think about the NFL, recently, whether it's New England, whether it's Philly, whether it's Kansas City, it's cold weather teams. Because home field advantage matters. Now, college football hasn't been that way. It's been always, you know, warm weather bowl games. But as we've moved into the playoff era, I think it just kind of, it just adds more to the game.

And so I love the playoff as it is, but I would love it if it went to 24, 24 teams. It'd give access to some teams from maybe conferences that normally don't get in. in and who doesn't love the NCAA tournament? March Madness, well, let's make it the same thing. Yeah, I love that. Matt Ruhl, Nebraska head football coach. Matt, great stuff. I hope you're enjoying Big Ten Media Days.

Tell your daughter, she's got a future in wardrobe. I really do like the suit. Congratulations, man. Oh, thank you very much, my friend. Yeah, all right. Matt Ruhl, Nebraska head football coach. Hey, listen, I don't know how you can be against a 2014 playoff. We had Chesney from UCLA on.

Now we got Rule. Both of them are saying, hey, let's make it happen. And I know some of you out there are like, well, of course, they want it. Yeah, they want to slide in when they don't deserve it. Wrong. How many times have we seen a wild card team in the NFL get in and go on an incredible run to the Super Bowl? Or a wild card team in Major League Baseball, make a run to the World Series. Those are great stories.

And as he articulated, you've got a lot of people at the end of the season relevant. When you only had a 14 playoff, there was like maybe six or seven, teams at tops who mattered over the final three weeks of college football. That's it. Now you've got like 50 teams that matter because 24 have to get in. And then there's another 10 on the back end and then the schedule. Like I'm definitely pro more playoff games. 24 I know people are, oh, that's too many.

I just don't see the problem. I know some people want to protect the integrity of bowl games. But come on, let's be real. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in New NeNeese. 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. Hey, we're Kavino and Rich. Fox Sports Radio every day, 5 to 7 p.m. Eastern. But here's the thing. We never have enough time to get to everything we want to get to. And that's why we have a brand new podcast called Overpromised.

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I mean, now that of course that we have the great Mendoza debate settled. I'm not going to get into that with you again. Kyler Murray, J.J. McCarthy, going head to head at Vikings camp. Kyler is the newcomer to Minnesota, but the expectation is it's the vet that will be on her center when they host the Packers on September 13th. Murray talking at training camp here about how grateful he is for this opportunity, especially in a place where, you know, Justin Jefferson gets to be one of his, targets. I think it's greatness. You know, I think, you know, not only does he believe he's the best receiver in the

league, he wants to be. And from what I've seen out here, he's proved it every single day. And those are the guys you want to be around. You know, it's a few and far between having guys like that. But when you get around one, you see why, you know, so, again, I'm just grateful I get to throw him the ball. Jason, there's such a range of opinions on Kyler Murray, right? You know, big arm, small height, injury prone, explosive, though, you know, all that kind

of stuff. You know, I always tell you it's about fit, right? The top 10% will be great anywhere. The bottom 10% will stink anywhere. But the middle 80% of pro athletes, I really believe it's about where they are, who's around them, who's the coach, all of that stuff. Do you think with a guy like Justin Jefferson as one of his targets, this could be Kyler's best season or one of them?

Well, I think, did Kyler overlap with Larry Fitzgerald or no? He did, but later in Larry's career. He had Marvin Harrison, Jr., and I'm just. Yeah, I mean, DeAndre Hopkins was sort of his best receiver in 2020. Murray made the Pro Bowl. Hopkins was the number three receiver in the league. So that was definitely sort of a great example of fit, right? Great guy around him with the tool.

Now, it was a very high-level tool, but with the tool, he was able to really make an impact. Made the Pro Bowl. Now, they snarf the back half of that season, but that was for a lot of reasons. I think, look, I like Tyler Murray. Part of that is unbiased. I like the little guy, right? I'm a small human, so I like it when short people do well in sports. Go Jalen Brunson.

And, you know, I want to see him get a shot with a good team. And it can't be worse than it worked out at quarterback last year, right? Yeah. So was Murray successful with those good receivers or was he successful because he had Cliff Kingsbury? Again, that's part of the fit. We don't know. In the years post-Kingsbury, I didn't see it for Murray. Now, the injuries were an issue.

but I do think there is some optimism. Did they not win nine games last year? Eight or nine games last year? Yeah, but Murray was injured for a lot of those games. Oh, I'm sorry. I meant Minnesota. Oh, Minnesota, yeah. Although you watch Sam Darnold then when the Super Bowl.

Yes. It kind of, you know, swung the debate a little bit on McCarthy and. Yeah, so my thought would be, if Minnesota with bad QB play can win nine games, and Murray can elevate that with Kevin O'Connell and the defense is good, is there a world where this is a sneaky 10-11 win team? Definitely. I mean, like, I'm a Kevin O'Connell fan. I think that he's going to be good for Murray.

The biggest question with Murray is just can he stay on the field? He's had injury problems, kind of his whole career and certainly lately. And the fact that the Cardinals just basically let him walk. I mean, not basically. They let him walk. They tried to train him. And there wasn't interest in the rest of the league to give up a lot for him. So they decided to go with Bresset and they let Kyler Murray walk.

So this is a prove-it year for Murray for sure. In some ways, he's lucky. he found a team. This doesn't always happen. Sometimes when a quarterback people let him walk, he just walks off into retirement. So he found a team that really had a quarterback hole and they needed someone they thought to push J.J. McCarthy. It's turned out that he probably is going to be over J.J. McCarthy. And we'll have to see what he can get done. You know, I will say this all the time.

Most teams have more than one quarterback play in a season. If you just look at the numbers, injuries happen to quarterbacks and both of these guys will probably end up playing. But personally, I'm happy to see Murray get a shot. and I'm curious what he can do here with Justin and with O'Connell. Are you surprised he didn't have a bigger market? Because it's not like he was like a Kyler, oh, I'm going to pick between this, this, and this. I think the height and the injuries.

I think that was sort of the double whammy that's been the issue. And, you know, a lot of teams, even if they don't have Rockham, Sackham quarterback rooms, they knew who they were having going into this season. So this is one of the places where there was a real question mark because as I started the top of the segment. There haven't been a lot of quarterback battles around the league. the only other real supposed battle

I can think of off the top of my head is the Raiders, which wasn't really a battle, it was just more a philosophy. Falcons? I mean, neither guys on the field. How is that a battle? They're both on the field. And I think Pennix Jr. is their guy if he can get healthy again. You don't?

I don't know what to think with Stephans. I mean, neither one of them. Remember, he ended up liking Dylan Gabriel last year. That was also a tough situation though. Yeah. I would not say that he had an embarrassment of choices. I want to get to this next thing because I think you're going to like this. It's a list, Jason. You love lists. The Athletic has a list.

Top 10 offensive play callers. This is the list heading into this NFL season. Kyle Shanahan has taken the top spot. Ben Shon McVeigh. I'm going to read these off for you quickly. Ben Johnson. Matt LaFleur is next after that. Lam Cohn, Andy Reid, Sean Steichen, Josh McDaniels, Clint Kubiak. Mike McDaniel comes in 10th. Cubiac. Cubiac. I know you don't. I knew you know. I knew. you weren't going to like that. I knew it. I knew it. I knew you weren't going to like that.

Rachel, he had one year that was, I mean, come on. We had a guest on the show this week, so that the only reason that they made the Super Bowl was because of Kubiak and how he could dial up plays for an offense that was, you know, more like this on the field. Mike McDaniel got Tuah on that pathetic carcass of a Dolphins franchise to the playoffs twice. Now they didn't win a game, but I mean, come on. That's impressive in the AISC. I think that, listen, Kubiak 9 feels a little wrong.

Rich. I knew it. I knew that was going to be here. Listen, I can't argue this. Shanahan and McVeigh have to be in some way, shape, or form B-1-2. Ben Johnson might be there next year. Aren't all those four guys like buddies, or do they used to be? And Ben Johnson?

I think there's some different trees going on, but yes. For sure. And the only other guy. So Flore and Johnson, close, for sure. Absolutely. You're right. The only, I guess, Sean Payton not on the list, but he's not technically calling plays. this year supposedly. We'll see how that goes, but he is not right now, as of right now,

he's not calling him. What about McCarthy in Pittsburgh? He's a good play calling it. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see what happens there. I mean, look, I thought the, obviously, you could pick him between Shanahan and McVeigh, as far as I'm concerned. Johnson, obviously, a real superstar. Um, coaches love the explosive plays, that kind of stuff. I'm looking down the list. Um, you know, Lefleur, I think a lot's going to depend on how he does this season. Some of them, you know, it's interesting. One thing if you read this article, they talk about how Andy read a lot of the voters or the people they surveyed for this thought he was more

on this list out of respect and that his stuff has gotten predictable and stale. So there was some curiosity about whether with, you know, a new powerhouse at Running Back, whether he's going to be able to sort of renew his play calling chops, that kind of thing. Honorable mentions, Warren Sean Payton, Kevin O'Connell,

Brian Schottonheimer, Todd Monkin, and Joe Brady. So we'll see. Kevin O'Connell. Joe Brady. Okay, yeah. So, you know, I don't have a problem with any of these guys. I knew you would have a problem with Cuviac, but I actually think... I'm more surprised by the Andy Reid slander in the athletic.

I was too. That's why I was bringing... Exactly. It was not us. I am a huge Andy Reed fan. And I think that what he does for that team is so multifaceted. But, you know, we'll see. We'll see what he can do this year.

And look, one thing I really respect about Andy is that he's been able to change things up in the different places he's been. He coaches to his personnel. So I'm interested to see how he does with O-MOR and running back this year. We'll see. I don't know. All right, let's get back to the NBA. The Kauai Leonard investigation. Stop me if you've heard this before, Jason.

But it continues to drag on. Even Adam Silver, acknowledging this has gone longer than he expected. And a new report indicates this could extend into 2027. Jason, this is after some saber-radling from the new head of the players union. Basically, I want to break this down for everyone. So there's the investigation part, right? That's what's still dragging on and everyone is like, come on, guys, Tempest Fusion. Let's go.

Tick, tick. Adam says he wants this done before the season starts. But just because the investigation is done does not mean this issue is closed. The investigation means that they have these findings. They say, this is the proof we have. This is the evidence of what we found. And they deliver that to the league office. And then it's up to Adam Silver to decide what the penalties are.

And if the penalties he decides are not something that the clippers or the players, or the Players Association just accept, or Kwai Leonard, if he is penalized, just accepts. Then the bylaws say this goes to arbitration. And arbitration could take months and months. And they've said they've had some, quote, reluctant witnesses so far in the investigation. The new Players Association president basically came out just recently

and said, I don't think there's any there there. Now, there was some pushback of saying he wouldn't know. but this is this is potentially a big deal and a source in this new article a clipper source said that they would quote fight this to the end if this came out against them it really comes down to is there hard evidence was there an email that says we did this which they have found by the way in past investigations this has happened before but in this case if there was some big smoking gun email you'd almost think we would have heard it by now so i don't know what do you think well i'll start by saying i know that the legal office, Adam Silver, they pay attention to the media a lot. And Rachel, you and I, I think we've got to agree. This is a little embarrassing for Adam Silver.

It's not ideal. This up. It's not ideal. I don't know if it's their fault. It's just not ideal. You know, there's theories, you know, that the league is kind of afraid of Steve Balmer and his big money bags and just fighting this tooth and nail.

And then you've got this Kauai trade hanging in the wind. It's like, what are we doing here? Like the Raptors, we had someone on the show this week, it said the Raptors were probably top four in the east with Kauai. And I'm like, whoa. Well, they don't have Kauai yet, but you have to undo that deal. It's just a little embarrassing. Like, just wrap it up.

The NFL would just get this show on the road. Let's get this. You got to get past this stuff. You would have liked the investigation to have come in earlier because then even if you did have a fight on the back end, which I think is entirely possible, then that could have been wrapped up by now. The issue is, I don't think they're afraid of Steve Bomber. I think that's a little rhetoric. I think, though they are aware that Steve has very publicly said,

and I'm sure he said it even louder in quiet private rooms, he is going to fight this tooth and nail. He says, we did nothing wrong. This is his integrity at stake. He believes that he is defending himself appropriately. So, you know, when you have a billionaire who is one of your 30 owners saying, if you penalize us at all, if you shall follow with me at all, I will fight it tooth and nail.

That's not being afraid of him. That's just being aware of what he has said. And you have to realize you've got to play this down the middle. You can't cave to public opinion and overreact if the evidence isn't there. But you can't underreact. If there is circumstantial evidence, you're going to have the other 29 owners who were in a big, you know, there was definitely some, he can't do this. We have to penalize him.

We have to show him that he can't get around the rules. So you've got people on both sides pressuring. you and the evidence might not just be clear if there is a smoking gun email great that makes everyone's lives easier but if there isn't you're going to have a lot of pushback just just find balmer a couple million bucks he won't care and it's to spend kawai for 10 games fine he's going to probably miss games anyway and just get it over with but you're going to have a big put here's the issue too with the players association that a lot of people aren't even paying attention to the players Association has zero interest in the league office or owners in general having a say in player

endorsement deals the league office saying was this really an endorsement deal did he do enough to merit the money that is not a neighborhood that the players association wants the league to even tippy toe into can you imagine if the league office had a say and whether you really fulfilled your nike contract or not what if the opposite's true and um they do nothing that's again as i said there's a lot of other owners who will be on their backs if they do nothing. I mean, Pablo Torre, your guy, he's got to go wild. He just want a Pulitzer for this investigation. And then would have had nothing comes of it.

It's like, huh? I don't know. All right. So it's difficult. It's a mess. I just don't think it's as simple as people are making it sound. But that being said, it is hugely problematic that this could go even further into next season. Rachel with the news.

Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd lie news. All right. I'm sorry, Kurt Signetti just spoke at Big Ten Media Days. It's pretty darn awesome. Wait till you listen to it right after this.

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Search Delivering Happiness with Nick Totoro. And listen now. In America and this week, two iconic clubs shining under the lights in primetime. Ben Rice and the Yankees facing Pete Crow Armstrong and the Cubs. Saturday night, 7 p.m. Eastern, only on Fox. All right. Big Ten Media Days on fire. And everybody's favorite Ruthian figure, Kurt Signetti met with the media today.

Now listen, it's not clear who he was talking about here, but you take a listen and you tell me who you think Kurt Signetti was talking about. I mean, we don't run a hype machine up here in the Midwest. We believe everything's earned, not given. And when we fall short, we say we fell short. We don't cry, a river, whine, and complain. All right. And that's why we're the best. No, Rach.

Any theories? Could it possibly be the SEC? You think the SEC has a high-trained network? Could it possibly be the conference that is talking about how things are so unfair? They might secede from the NCAA? Yeah. By the way, how many cliches could Signati get into that? He's really good.

Drive-me-river. He's 65 years old, so that's what the old guys do. By the way, here's Brett Bilema talking about Signetti earlier today. This was great. That is single-handedly the most impressive story that I've witnessed in my college career. What Sigs did, came in and took over a program that historically had been one of the losing its programs and to turn it into two years later and undefeated, and literally ran away with it. I mean, it's pretty wild, Rachel.

I can't, I've been racking my brain looking for a parallel. College basketball, you know George Mason as a D.C. person. They didn't win the title, though. You know, Butler had some good runs with Gordon Hayward. They didn't win the championship. I don't know. NIL has changed everything. Mark Cuban came in.

I mean, this is, look, Sinai's great. Mendoza's great. Obviously, money doesn't fix everything. If it did, other programs would have won because we know Texas has big money. There's plenty of schools with big money. But you can't be a school like Indiana that's kind of in the bottom third of your conference. and then suddenly be an undefeated national championship without the money. And Mark Cuban came in as a graduate of IU Business School.

And he and Signetti are pals from, you know, growing up around Pittsburgh and had that in common. And they were able to get this done. And I think it's great. I think it is a little bit of a playing field leveler for other schools. Now, it is interesting. Signetti is, I don't remember, now I could be wrong. I don't remember him talking a ton of trash much of last season. but since winning the title,

he has been, you know, he's been, and listen, you win the championship, you say whatever you want. Absolutely. I 100% believe that. You talk your talk, absolutely. And who knows who it's going to be next year? There's a lot of things got to come together.

The schedule's going to get a little harder for them. I'm very curious. Listen, I will bet pretty decent money that if the college football committee can set it up, they would love an Indiana versus an SEC team in the first round of the. Are you kidding? Absolutely. You know those SEC people are really ticked off.

Indiana? Look, the hell these guys come from? Who are they? I don't know. What about your school? When are you giving the big donation money to your school? When is JMU getting in there? Come on.

Listen, JMU, by the way, we got in there with Chesney. I don't know. I'm not like, I should ask you, are you a big donor to Northwestern? There's Western's a small school compared to the rest. So we have Northwestern. has 7,000 undergrad. That's it? To Michigan.

Yeah, about 12,000 with the graduate school. But compare that to Michigan to an Indiana. You have a much smaller alumni pool. We're small but mighty. But if you banded together

all you rich media people, you know, you guys could easily help build up. You don't have Mark Cuban money, journalists. You know who we need? Julie Dreyfus is a Northwestern alone. And her son was on the basketball team.

We need some of the actor money. Catherine Hahn. We've got a bunch of Hollywood people. It's not really the journalist. journalism not doing so well as a profession but we do have a good theater program we need the theater program to bail out the athletes how would that be if the theater nerds bailed out the athletic department i'd like to see that yeah no that's fine that very listen northwestern is they had it they had things going on the right direction with the coach whose name is fitzgerald

taught fitzgerald went to school with him he's a friend of mine from school he i mean he had a great run and then you know he's he back coaching now yeah i think michigan state is right michigan state that's right yes yes thank you to uh producer kyle Quick on that. I didn't know he was a Sparty aficionado. Anyways, Big Ten Media Days. Rachel, we had some heavy hitter guest Friday. I know. Frye is on the horizon. Nobody says fraye.

But I'm excited. You know, we've had an amazing run. It's been waiting for. Yeah. I mean, we had LeBron last Friday. Do I wonder if we'll get something maybe NFL trade tomorrow? We're getting your Super Bowl picks tomorrow. Oh, yeah, that's right. You've been teasing this all week.

My Super Bowl losers. I'd like to see your money where your mouth is. Well, two years ago, I got very lucky. I had Eagles meeting the Chiefs in the Super Bowl because you can bet on the Super Bowl matchups. Nobody on Planet Earth in media had Patriots against the Seahawk. Nobody had that. So I'm wondering, do you think we go back to a random matchup

or is it more, hey, the Chiefs are getting back in there? I think, look, I don't think it's going to be random. I think you're going to see Bill's, Chiefs, Ravens. I think you're going to see in the NFC West, one of those teams is going to pop out into the Super Bowl. I think this is going to be a good old-fashioned big name matchup. Yeah, this could have just been a one-off because of all the injuries to Burrow and Jackson and Mahomes. All right, folks, Thursday is in the books.

Get ready. Friday, it's, oh, my gosh, it's almost here. Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. The Dream of the 90s is alive in podcast form. We're launching Podlandia, A.O. rewatch, our brand new podcast where we revisit every episode of Portlandia together, breaking down sketches, going deep on our iconic characters, and pulling back the curtain on how it all got made. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life.

Guest stars, collaborators and friends, including director Jonathan Chrysall, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Man, and many more. Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song about it. Well, I thought you were all going to write a song. I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. A.O. Rewatch on the I.

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Listen to everyone watches women's sports on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jake Brennan, and on my podcast, Disgraceland, I tell the stories behind music's biggest names, like how the story of the foo fighters isn't just about music, it's about grief, shock, in the moment everything changed. Imagine that. You're in the biggest band on the planet, as Dave Grohl was in 1994 in Nirvana, and the phone rings, and you learn that your singer, your friend, the reluctant. voice of a generation,

Kirk Cobain is dead. Listen to Disgraceland on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nick Tutero. You probably know me from NYPD Blue, The Longest Yard, or Spike Lease Black Klansman. And on my new podcast,

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