The Ryen Russillo Podcast - NBA Finals Preview and Prediction. Plus, the State of College Football with Bruce Feldman.

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

Russillo starts the show by breaking down the final regular-season matchup between the Thunder and Pacers before making his pick for the Finals (1:49). Then, he’s joined by Bruce Feldman to check in on the state of college football, discuss what changes could be coming to the playoff format, and tease his yearly ‘Freak List’ (20:06). Plus, Life Advice with Kyle (58:28)! How do I stop my barber from bald-shaming me? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Bruce Feldman Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Jonathan Frias Shopping. Streaming. Savings. It's on Prime. Visit amazon.com/prime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get unlimited grocery delivery with PC Express Pass. Meal prep, delivered. Snacks, delivered. Fresh fruit, delivered. Grocery delivery on repeat for just $2.50 a month. Learn more at PCExpress.ca. New structure to the podcast a little bit here so the intros will be a little bit longer. We have a breakdown of the last regular season game between the Pacers and the Thunder. I went back and watched it last night and this morning, not twice.

A little carryover. Boy, it was tired after a terrible round of golf. But let's dig into it. There's no chat, so that does change some things. But I do think there's two things. I'd say there's two specific things that I thought were really interesting on the OKC side of things.

We're also gonna talk with Bruce Feldman, who is on top of college football. I am less interested in college football right now because of the new playoff proposal and what that'll mean. And we're all gonna fight about it and yell and say mean things. But Bruce and I are gonna do that because we're friends and we've got life advice.

I enjoyed this one today. You're listening to the Ryan Russo podcast presented by FanDuel. America's number one sports book has made it easier than ever to get in on the action during the NBA Finals and with live betting the tip off is just the beginning. Look for the live SGP tab on the Fandual Sportsbook app and build your bet slip. Then sit back and enjoy the game as you track the outcome of your parlay right in the app. If you don't already have it, download the Fandual app today to make every moment more.

The ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available and listen to the end of this episode for additional details. Must be 21 and older in present and select states or 18 plus in present DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem, call 100GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. We're going to change the schedule around this week, normal Tuesday, because you're listening,

because it's Tuesday. And then we're gonna do show number two this week on Friday after game one of the NBA finals that starts on Thursday night. So what I wanted to do, and I touched on this with Bill on Sunday's pod, is I wanted to go back and watch the Thunder hosting the Pacers back on March 29th. OKC won that game 132 to 111. Pacers had been on a roll, really closed the season strong. I think they closed

15 and 4. I don't know that anybody really was at OKC's level, but certainly you can go through all these different Pacers timelines of when they had the injuries when they were what? Nine and 14, 10 and 15. Not having knee Smith for a couple of months, but the matchup in this one, Chet had been on hip management, so he did not play in this game. So for OKC, there was no Chet, there was no Jalen Williams too. They actually played Brandon Carlson and Dylan Jones in the first half, so it wasn't garbage time for them.

And then Hartstein left the game with a bit of a hip thing, but he was back two days later. And I was wondering, and maybe they just shut them down at the half because it was something that the Pacers were definitely attacking or maybe they were attacking because they didn't feel like he was responding well enough. So OKC went small in the second half.

So just a few things to pick from here. I don't know how much it means, but let's go through it together, shall we? Defensive assignments for this one. On SGA was Nemhart. Dort had Siakam on him. Hartenstein had Turner on him. Wallace started because of Nocet. So Halliburton defended him.

And then Neesmith was on Jalen Williams number one. On the other side of things, Halliburton had Dort on him, SGA defended Nemhart, Wallace was on Neesmith, Hartenstein actually defended Siakam, that was their preferred matchup, and then Jalen Williams one defended their center and Miles Turner. Now as we know over the course of the game, especially coming off of turnovers or misses a bunch of times, people end up with different people.

But that seemed to be, as I would check it at other times, the general defensive assignment that they wanted to go through. And again, the no chat thing makes some of this irrelevant. So the Pacers got up 10 early in this one, some good three point shooting, and then they were down 22 two quarters later. So going into the fourth down 22

after being up 10 in the first. Couple themes from this. Felt like there was more Halliburton off the ball, which I just think is smart and it's really simple. And some coaches don't do it, some guards just don't do it. It could be on the guards to figure it out, could be on the coaches. But if you're going up against a really good defense, especially when you're

playing the same team in a row in a series like this, to just start at the top and then just attack from the top and have the attack look the same all of the time and the other team getting used to your tendencies, it's really smart. And it makes it a lot easier for the guard or your best player in this case with Halliburton. Just try to start him off the ball. It seemed like something they were working with a little bit where there was a lot of TJ, there was some Nemhart stuff. Halliburton ends up with a ball of ton to begin with,

but just to have him come straight at you, high pick and roll, play it to one side over and over and over again, it becomes way too predictable. SGA actually felt like he was off the ball a little bit more than he would be in some of the other series. So we've already talked about the benefit of how you can attack off of that stuff. If you're looking for this, uh, it looked like Indiana wanted Hardenstein as much as possible. Like it was a lot.

Like let's get into this. Let's switch into him. Um, and I, you know, at the time I had to go back and look that he was removed from hip soreness because when they start Kenrich Williams in the second half, I was like, is there, is there something there? They felt like they didn't like that approach or is it just as simple as his hip was hurting him? But again, he did come back play a couple of games later. So it wasn't really that big of a deal. So when they bench, or again, I shouldn't say bench, when Hartenstein leaves the game, doesn't come back in, they're starting the second half. OKC goes small with Kendridge Williams, Pacers immediately, first two possessions, first two touches, they want to go

to Turner. It starts to look good. But I do think that OKC wants you to become that predictable. It's like, hey, we're going small that OKC wants you to become that predictable. It's like, hey, we're going small. So now they're going to try to get into their big guys and we're going to make it tough on them with the entry passes. You know, we're going to defend the passer so he doesn't get a clean passing lane. And then we're going to have somebody kind of sneak over a little bit. Cause you think you have the size advantage and now you're running your

offense through Miles Turner, we're swarming around him. So keep doing it if you want to. Once it looked like it was kind of a good matchup for the Pacers, nobody ever really does this anymore even when they have the size mismatch in the post because teams are just they just don't want to do that anymore in this league. But there was a pretty interesting scenario a few plays later where Siakam threw a lob into Turner and it was just a way too casual regular season lob where O'Kasey's like awesome. It's like the safety running over. The corner has Turner, the safety comes running over with O'Kasey's defense. That leads to a turnover. Then there

was another player, Siakam, get SGA into switch. So Siakam's like, cool, I'm going to work him, post him, beast him up and it's like alright, but you can't do it too long against this Thunder defense because you stick around in the paint. As we talked about all season long, there's going to be another guy coming for you and that led to a turnover there too.

Without SGA, the Thunder actually did some nice damage in this game in some of the non SGA minutes, so this is something that I will be looking forward. I don't think it has anything to do with Chet not playing is Jalen Williams on the attack. He did not care.

He was so aggressive in this game. And it was, I'd say a little alarming for Neesmith who you think body type wise and because of his defensive abilities and his intent. I mean, Neesmith just plays at a hundred miles an hour every single minute he's out there. Well, Williams didn't care. Uh, and it felt like he got him a bunch of possessions that I was tracking this one.

Um, looking at it kind of in this second quarter stretch without having SGA in the game, he has him three point line right past him on the dribble, uh, that gets him with a step back, then he finishes against Siakam on the fast break and went at Siakam at the rim as he was going with the fast break. Then he shakes Neesmith with a dribble on the right side. He did miss that shot. Then there was another fast break against two defenders, one including Siakam, and he finishes against them.

Third quarter against Neesmith, he gets him left side, full drive and just get side by side with him and just take some finishes right at the rim for the end one and the finish. SG had 33 points in this game, but he was only 6'18". In the first three quarters, did have 12 free throw attempts, which isn't gonna excite Pacers fans. But this was a really like, of all the things I was looking for,

wondering like, are you gonna get anything out of this exercise? That was something that was kind of like, all right, you know, let's see. Is there something where Jaylen Williams is like, hey, with my size and athleticism against knee Smith, where knee Smith can usually body up with a lot of other guys,

it doesn't look like Jaylen Williams cares about that at all. And he was very successful in the stuff that I was looking at there. So, um, you know, we can look at some of the overall stats in this game. You know, I don't, I don't know that it matters. Uh, Pacers actually took more free throws in this game. Rebounds are basically even Pacers had a couple more turnovers, but. I would say the most alarming part of this for the Pacers

and clearly I'm picking OKC as most people are in this series, but the thing that we love about the Pacers, the thing that we loved about them in this Knicks series where it just felt like there was that extra gear that the Knicks could not match with the Pacers and getting out, getting out after makes all of those times you're joking about. Like you, you think you're like, you're coming back from some commercial or

something, or they show a replay and it's like, you can't really do the cutaway shots with this team because they're moving the ball so quickly. In this game. Okay. See was the faster basketball team. They were pushing it more. They were pushing it after makes. They were getting three point attempts off of that push.

They had a nice little Isaiah Joe run where he kind of put back to back threes together with that really kind of space the game out. So if you're a Pacers fan just going, Hey, we're fast. We're going to run with them. They're not going to be like that's the one way because I've heard that talked about it just pace them to death. Meaning OKC in this game. Back in March. OKC was faster. They were more aggressive. And that part should be a little concerning.

Um, now look after watching playoff basketball for a month and a half. Even this game with a great team in OKC and this Pacers team that have been playing really, really well now for months. It was a bit of a reminder of what regular season basketball looks like. Like, oh, you know, I hadn't watched a full regular season basketball game now in a month and a half. And after everything that we've watched and how great the Pacers have been and what OKC was able to do against Minnesota. We were like, okay, this does look like a different product here. It was just kind of jarring for a bit. Just a lack of intensity. Again, a little too casual. Some of the passes, I think some of the stuff that certainly the Pacers will clean up, I don't think they're going to look like they did in

some of the possessions that I saw from this game. Now, you know, this is a regular season run from the Pacers that you can get lost by, oh, it ended up being the four seed, four seeds historically in the finals. I don't know even know if that means anything, but there's not a ton of success from four seeds. I don't think it matters, but you know, the Pacers here in the playoffs, 12 and four, the number two offense in the playoffs, 12 and four, the number two offense in the playoffs. Cleveland is still actually the number one highest rated offense in the playoffs because that Miami

series was so gross. Indiana has been the best shooting team. They've been the best assist team. They've been the best three point shooting team. OKC is 13th in three point shooting, which I mentioned last week. Like the craziest part of this is that they're one of the few teams that we've seen playoff wise the last few years

because this defense is so special that a lot of teams is like, hey, how'd you do in the series? We hit 38% of our threes, we're moving on. They hit 30, you know, like it's, sometimes it's just as simple as that. OKC doesn't need to make a ton of, they can have a bad three point shooting night

and still win a game. That also is a little bit scary. But here's something else. OKC has played faster in the playoffs than the Pacers have. Number two to number three, Memphis is number one overall. Turnovers, the Pacers, Halliburton, they take care of the basketball. But OKC has actually been better with the basketball

and turnover rate. Indiana has been at number three. Now, look, I'll say it one more time, Chet didn't play. So it changes the defensive assignments. It changes whether or not the Pacers are going to have anything going with the small ball because OKC may just say, hey, our small version is just Chet. So have fun with that. Arndt Stein minutes, he played less against Minnesota than he did in any of the playoff series. 20 minutes a game, close the last three games at 19, 16 and 17 minutes. He's also ninth and net rating for OKC regulars.

You could argue there's 11 regulars for OKC. You could also argue it's really nine. Um, but he's last net rating. Maybe net reading means something. Maybe it means nothing, but maybe they're playing on less. But if you look at Minnesota and you go, all right, it's this one big who is. Rudy's a different big, certainly than miles Turner is, but does this mean we're going to see more of the same or chat has developed enough and shown up in some

of these really big moments, including that closeout game against Minnesota. We're now Dagnall it's just totally comfortable with him. And that's why we're seeing less Hartenstein minutes. Or is it going to be something where we see less Hartenstein minutes because we saw the Pacers attack them so much when I'm referencing back to this March game. The other part of this that I think is important,

the bench guys from the Pacers staying on this net rating thing. We might be confusing familiarity with success or we might be using familiarity to suggest that it's successful because we'd like the spacer's depth. We'd like all these guys that come in on the whole throughout the playoffs. Four of them have been net negatives for this team. I'm not including Tony Bradley who actually has the best rating of anyone on this team. But Bryant's a negative, TJ's a negative, Obi's a negative.

And look, Matheran has been, I'm disappointed because I really like Matheran a lot. And I know he had kind of that one wake up game against the Knicks, but on the whole, now we'd expect all of the free throw attempts are always going to be there because he's so aggressive. But they've got to get a little bit more out of him offensively. And I'm sure he will attack. So there is probably not much from that game where I'm like, all right, I've got it all figured out because there has to be an element of like what the

Pacers have gone through here and the confidence they're feeling this group has probably never ever felt before. through here and the confidence they're feeling, this group has probably never ever felt before. But the pace part of it, if you are banking on it, the pacer's just gonna be able to run the thunder into the ground, the thunder can do a lot of things. And that's why I've been so impressed by them all season long.

So I think the most important factor in a lot of this is also, OKC's playing Denver in the second round, playing Minnesota in the third round, and Pacers take out Cleveland, no doubt, take care of New York, make it look actually kind of one-sided once it's all said and done. But this is a massive step up from what the Pacers went through in the East in facing a team like OKC. So all these numbers can be right and we can like a lot of these things that the Pacers have done, but there's no denying that it's a massive step up and a challenge. Thunder and 5. The finals are here at last, folks, and so I'll come down to this. Don't miss your chance to bet on the legendary moments with FanDuel,

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and see who's heating up. I love the live betting when I'm in the States for it. After the tip off, that's when things get interesting. You can combine live prop bets into a same game parlay for a chance to win big. Okay, here's what I'm looking at here. Obviously I like the Thunder in this series, minus 750. That is putting a lot on the line for turnaround there.

So we're gonna stay away from that. Now, if you wanna go over under five and a half games, I mean, I'm pretty, you've heard this all from me before. I can really like a team. I just think human nature kicks into this so often. They also get destroyed in the one game that they lost. And then it's like the difference between a five game series being awful

and a six game series being really competitive, which can always kind of odd to me. But I almost never think anybody's gonna sweep anybody just because I think, I don't know if it's a thing that's newer now, it can feel newer in the moment where you'll just see pretty quickly like a team is like, we're good

and we're not gonna try as hard tonight. So if you wanted to go over five and a half, it's plus 120. Here's what I like. I'm gonna try to correctly predict the series order. The most popular one is, well, not the most popular one, the worst payout is just a sweep.

So okay, C wins game one, game two, game three, game four is plus 290. wins game one, game two, game three, game four is plus 290. This one is plus 880, where it's game one and two, OKC at home, game three, OKC, and then they drop game four and then close it out at home in game five. I'm gonna go with this one. OKC wins the first two at home, Indiana wins game three, OKC wins game four and wins game five.

So that one plays plus 680. That's just gonna be my pick for this. It's really hard, but I like the odds of that much better than, you know, laying minus 750, which I don't know, I think is kind of pointless. Not what you're coming here for. Is there any deeper meaning in any of this? There is part of me that's thinking OKC Minnesota

a little bit, take care of the first two at home. Pacers have a great home crowd. Carlisle, at this point, this is two years of pretty deep playoff games for this group. So do they get that one at home because you have a Thunder team that's up two-oh and they're matching kind of the pattern that we saw against Minnesota.

That's not the best way that I've ever put together a bet, but I like plus 680 a lot better than some of the other stuff, unless you just wanna go over 5 1⁄2 or under 5 1⁄2, again, that is plus 120 on the over, and it's minus 148 under 4 1⁄2. So if you think the Pacers can get two, but you don't wanna bet them for the series,

plus 120 actually makes a little bit more sense, and I wouldn't argue against that one. If you don't already have FanDuel, it's not too late to get into the action. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets. If your first $5 bet wins, so just visit FanDuel.com slash Ryan RYE and to join today. Make every moment more with FanDuel,

the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Must be 21 and older in present select states or 18 plus in present in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued is non-retribal bonus bet which expires seven days after a seat. Restrictions apply. Cterms at sportsbook.fando.com. Gambling problem call 100GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Want to do something different here with the finals tonight. Want to talk some college football with my favorite guy to talk college football with. That's Bruce Feldman of the athletic and of course, Fox coverage of college football,

big noon kickoff. Okay. I love the sport. You know that it's probably why we're close. Every year I'm starting to hate it more and more. And you know, Van Lathan and I were talking about it the other day on Bill's pod for a little bit and he goes, you know what, I'm just to the point where I just want to watch it.

You know, he's a Louisiana guys. Like I want to watch LSU, Mississippi state and just be entertained for three and a half hours. And I think that's the relationship that I'm going to have to start having with it. But I know that I can't because I talk about it religiously. Uh, it's part of the job, but the new proposals, new playoff stuff, um, every single year with this shit, Bruce, it just feels like a grosser and grosser sport.

And probably will never get gross enough for me to not want to go to a game every single year. And the same deal, watch it all day on Saturday. But yeah, it's a weird relationship for me right now for a sport that's easily my second favorite. It's interesting, because you hear that more and more. I think there was a lot of frustration from the fan bases around the country

about they're conflicted about players getting paid. But I think they have also... I don't care about any of that, by the way. Just for the birds. But there's layers of this. Sure. And then part of it, it's frustration with roster management and guys in the portal. And now somebody's gone to five, you know, four or five different programs.

Again, it feels more like the professional sports world. And I, the, to me, the biggest thing that I'm like, eh, I'm not, you know, I'm always gonna I think love college football. I love the games as much now as I did 30 years ago when I started covering it. But, and I'll give you a reference and I think you'll, you'll get this one. Cause we're about, you know, in the same ballpark age wise. Do you remember when Boston college beats Notre Dame, the David Gordon kick? This is like early night. I know where I was.

I know I was in my dorm room, 1993 fall and This is yeah, I know where I was. I know I was in my dorm room, 1993 fall. And I used to really like Notre Dame as a little kid, cause that was kind of a very New England thing that you did. Cause they were always on TV and everybody's dad and grandfathers liked Notre Dame and David Gordon also played soccer at UVM and transferred.

So that was the other story. So I got to tell Lou Holst that when I saw him, I, cause I went to UVM and transferred. So that was the other story. So I got to tell Lou Holtz that when I saw him, because I went to UVM and I said, did you know on that kick and Holtz is eating a hot dog and he's got like a second hot dog ready to go and we're at the ESPN cafeteria, it's dead on the weekend. And I went up to him, I was like, hey coach, whatever. I was like, did you know? And as soon as I mentioned the kick, he goes, that kick was outside, came back in, was outside and it came back in. I mean, he would have thought, I mean,

clearly the ghost of that whole thing. So then I had mentioned to him, he was actually a soccer player where I had gone to school and then he like dropped his hot dog because it made this moment that was that much worse. So yes, that's the long way of saying, I remember that kick. So I remember that game vividly too. And what I remembered as somebody, you know,

who at the time wasn't really covering the sport. It was before I got into the sports writer world, but it felt like that game, it was an upset and great game by BC, felt like that kind of ruined Notre Dame season. And so what you had, like, what's that? Yeah, ruined it. Yeah.

And so it was like the one and done vibe that you had, I always would say college football had the greatest regular season of any of them. You know, I love NFL, I love NBA, but they're much different. They're much different dynamics. College football, because of all sorts of reasons, but mostly because I feel like they're chasing the money and the TV money, has devalued its regular season. And it's going to happen. It's happening more and more. Now, if they go to 14 or 16 team playoff, it absolutely will happen. Right. So you look at the three SEC teams that had three losses last year that didn't get in, and let's say Indiana,

which took the brunt of a lot of the criticism from SEC people and from also people at ESPN in different places, got in because their schedule wasn't as daunting. Now the part of that that I'm getting to is, you had Alabama, three loss team, loses to Vanderbilt, gets blown out by a really mediocre Oklahoma team. You have Ole Miss, which has a really good win over Georgia and

then turns around. All they have to do is beat Florida, who was unranked and not having a great year and then beat a terrible Mississippi state team. And you're in the playoff and they lose to Florida. And on top of that, they had already lost at home to a really bad Kentucky team, probably the worst team in the SEC, and lost to an LSU team that was unfinished on ranked. So the point was, you know, you have these teams that, yeah, they're talented teams, but they've stumbled along the way more than more than once or twice. And so it's like you're saying, okay, the regular season matters, but it doesn't matter

that much. That's how I think, you know, it's there's all pieces to me. That's the piece that I think is the one that's the most disappointing is that the regular season gets devalued. But I get it for a lot of people. It's these new rivalries. It's, it's the board has been overturned for all sorts of financial reasons. And I get why the frustration is there, but until people push away and stop watching the games, which at this point that we haven't seen that to enough degree, I think that they're just gonna be plowing ahead.

So the latest proposal, they've given themselves a deadline, so we're still gonna have the same format here in 25, just because the housekeeping part of this almost needs to be updated, especially like when you're out of season. They are going to change the absurd seating thing that we saw. That's the part of this where... Which they should.

Right. It's really weird the way that they do this, where when they went from two to four, they went from two to four because they were annoyed with everybody getting mad at them. In fairness to whatever the system is, there's going to be pages and pages and hours and hours filled of people complaining about whatever version of this that we get. But they go to four where they immediately institute a scenario where one of the Power Five conferences

is gonna go, when we still had five Power Conferences. Where they go, why would we set up a system where we're going to immediately leave one of us out? Then we have the expansion of 12 and then they have the seating thing where everybody knew how stupid it was going to be in different scenarios and yet they go with it and then they have to have it play out, which is another very human nature thing where we only get mad about the imperfections when the imperfections play out, not when they like hypothetically can still exist. So they're changing that. And so now all of these conversations with the SEC stuff

and the scheduling, which I wanna get into is this idea of five plus 11. And they have a deadline of what? December 1st for this year to implement a new 16 team playoff for 26. So what can you tell us about like what actually has momentum and how the different scenarios would play out here? Well, I think what you have is two different kinds

of strategies. You have the Big Ten, which had their meetings out here in Southern California about three weeks ago. And there was really no public talk about anything. You didn't have the media around it. I mean, Fox is a TV partner, so we were there, but it wasn't like there were press conferences or anything like that. Then a couple of weeks later, you just had the SEC meetings last week in Destin, Florida,

where it is covered vigorously. And Greg Sankey, the commissioner of the SEC, is out there. And I think so you have the behind the scenes stuff of Tony Petitti, where there's other things that are going on here also in terms of trying to get more TV games for playing games. Like obviously, you know, the NBA model of how, you know, what they're doing. Now all of a sudden there's going to be an element of that potentially for, you know, coming out of the, what the big 10 wants for, again, more TV inventory. And then you have the SEC, which,

by the way, only plays eight conference games, as opposed to nine. So not the game, but also, you know, do they want their thumb on the scale where it's going to be this many automatic bids? And you don't probably need the automatic bids of the SEC or the big 10, because it's going to probably play out that way anyway. But I think all those things now, you have a lot of pushback. Yeah. You know, Greg Sankey, I saw, uh, was on Dan Patrick this week,

a few days after the conference meetings, and talking about allocations and what he wants. And it's, honestly, I think for a fan, it's hard to keep track of who wants what. And I do think it is a moving target right now of this. If you're the SEC, and it goes to 16, you're gonna get five in. You know, the big 10, probably you're gonna get four or five in as well.

But given the track record they've had, I don't think you can argue that, you know, at that point. It's just who is making the determination. You know, people are always skeptical of the committee and how this stuff works. You're not gonna please everybody. And what, you know, I would say a few years ago, and look, Florida State was falling apart health-wise.

Florida State was undefeated. They get snubbed in the playoff by the CFP when it's four teams. You know, so they're expanding. But you're always gonna have people aggrieved and upset and feel, and the bigger you make the playoff, the more teams are going to have an argument to be honest. And I don't know, you know, like last year, if you look at it, I think a lot of people

were like, Hey, more people are going to be involved. More people are going to have a vested interest in the playoff race. It's going to keep the season more alive, which I think that was true. But it's like, you know, you're squeezing the two space here and it's coming out in different places or it's just kind of like, it's never going to be perfect. And so what they probably sacrificed for the good of the whole regular season, I think right now it's just a lot of compromise. It's not a lot of common. It's a lot of agendas being pushed around and there's also way more, you know, it's way more transparent. I don't know if transparent,

it's a way more desperation for the money because now they need to find more money because of some of the issues we talked about at the beginning. Yeah. I mean, we, there's of some of the issues we talked about at the beginning. Yeah. I mean, we, there's a bunch of different ways we can go here, but if we keep it on the importance of, of what we saw from last year, um, you know, I think that the regular season is devalued. I think that the regular season is devalued. When I'm watching Gus and Joel do Ohio State, Michigan,

and Gus is saying this is for everything, it isn't. It isn't for everything. As we just saw, Ohio State could lose to Michigan and have it be their second loss. And they safely got in, by the way. Yeah, right. And they deserve to be in. And granted, we probably had the right outcome if

you want to talk about talent about a football team, but it was a weird feeling watching Ohio State just be upset in a fashion you couldn't imagine with that team. And granted that rivalry is so intense. Like we've seen this sport enough. Some weird shit happens in those last weekends of the sport. But after it was done, like I had an empty feeling as I'm sitting there in my living room going, all right, that was crazy.

And how do I wanna talk about it? How did it actually happen? And it's like, yeah, they're still in. They're still in and they're gonna have a chance to win a national championship. So you can't ever bill that game as that game meaning everything. I used to love that.

I still do obviously, because I go to it every year, but when Bama and LSU were at the top of their game, that felt like some kind of plan to the 14 playoff. However, having said that you're right. When Bama loses to Oklahoma, that Bama Oklahoma game means nothing in the old system. Ole Miss Florida game means nothing. So you're devaluing some stuff while valuing a bunch of other stuff. And you could make an argument that the math would tell you, there's way more games that are going to matter at the end because the field is so much more open. I guess I'm just being a bit of a traditionalist

in that I don't like these games that meant everything not meaning that much for the loser. And that Ohio State Michigan game is the perfect example of it. Well, also, as you're saying that, it dawned on me that, yes, there are games that are relevant for the playoff. But I think if you use the context of,

the teams that are, again, and Ohio State was not like a three seed, right? They were in the middle of the pack because they lost two games and lost to a pretty average Michigan team, with a terrible offense at home, no less, right? At the end of the year. But, so some of those games that are meaningful

cause they mean a playoff spot, but I don't know, and I'm catching myself as I say this, cause you're sitting there going, all right, but the teams that get in the playoff, do they really have a chance to win a national title? Right? You know, I'm sitting there going, all right, well, Arizona state who was at the bottom prediction point for the big 12 a year ago at this time, they almost beat Texas in a playoff game.

Like that was amazing. It's an amazing job for, for Kenny Dillingham and that group. But you know, I don't know if they won that game. Do they really have a chance to win the national title? Obviously they have a mathematical chance and you know, nobody would have thought they would have gotten as far as they did. So I think you start to factor in those teams that were like, ah, they really don't have a chance. And you start going into these things about like, you know, the roster, you know, makeup of how much talent do they really have? Those teams have a realistic

shot of winning. And I think, so what we're doing is we're bringing in the Iowa states and the Arizona states, a lot of, quite honestly, a lot of big 12 schools, not to say they're going to get three or four in, but you're bringing them in where they probably did not have much chance to make the four team playoff. Typically you're bringing in some other teams that are not the blue bloods. Then now they're factored in. And I think so while their games now probably matter a little more, the other games that we're talking about where it's like just devastation. And I think the Ohio State, Michigan thing, because of the Ryan Day component of that,

made it different, right? Like, like where, like how, how does he go on from this given all this stuff that was a fight after the game? It was just a really wild day in Columbus. But typically that gut punch loss, you know, where, you know, I use the David Gordon Notre Dame one, this is a big example for me, obviously a different time. But there's other ones where it's like, okay, that really wasn't a devastating loss to that team's playoff hopes, because they still have a couple more games where they can afford to lose again. And you're like, okay, so that's the part where as a college football person, that's the one thing that is, that is a little bit, um, I, I

kind of cringe about, but the, the thing you have to keep in mind too, is these conferences are now so bloated that, we talked about this a lot around here because it's a USC Notre Dame rivalry has gotten a lot of chatter. The truth of it is USC, if Lincoln Riley or USC is hesitant to play now because they're in the big ten, it's a much more daunting path The reality is they played less ranked teams last year Then they did the year before when they were in the Pac-12 or the year before that when they were in the Pac-12 Right, so it wasn't like they had a murderers road

Now they had a lot of travel that they had to do but you're chasing a lot of money to go in the big ten That's why you know, so It's just it's there, it's, it's, it's just a really complicated, there's a lot of stuff that's going together and I can see why a lot of fans and a lot of people around the sport are a little uncomfortable with it. So the nine game part of this, which Big 10 fans never gave the Pac-10 any credit for for years. And now they're the nine game heroes.

And I get it, like, hey, if we're playing nine games and the SEC is playing eight and they want four automatic bids in a 16 team field, I understand why they're doing it. I understand all the criticism of the SEC playing the eight games. But if I'm South Carolina's AD and we go to nine games, the first thing I'm doing is canceling Clemson forever. I'm never playing that game. Nobody's going to sit here and act like Georgia Tech is at Georgia's level, but you never know how

cyclical some of this stuff can be. I would never schedule anyone in any Power Five because whether it was a BCS formula or a selection committee, people have a hard time with thinking the team with the extra loss is better than the team that lucked out on their in-season scheduling stuff. And to the imbalance that you talk about in the expansion of these conferences, it almost feels like Sankey, the commissioner of the SEC, is pointing to the history of this being like, and last year, I did not argue Bama. I was arguing South Carolina, then they lose their game. The anti-Indiana argument that I felt really strong about

because of how they lucked out with their scheduling, like it just, it becomes kind of human nature. Like, ah, you know, I don't know, those other teams have three losses, the other losses are late. I don't think Indiana was necessarily better than those teams, but in Indiana fans take this really personally because they feel like I was on it all season

long, but it's just more, it has nothing to do with Bloomington has nothing to do with the school has everything to do with their circumstance and then them getting in and history tells us that that team is always going to be favored, even though no one ever really seems to want to like dig through the schedule part of it. So if you're playing nine conference games in the Big Ten versus the eight in the SEC it's just hard for the SEC to make their argument for the automatic bids even though I'm gonna sit here and tell you nine conference games the SEC is almost always going to be harder than nine conference games in the Big Ten.

I think most sane people would agree with that. It's a really hard argument to get past to get to some sort of resolution unless the SEC matches what the Big Ten is doing. Like if you want the same auto bids as that other conference, even if we sit here and think one conference is better than the other, and it's probably bad timing with the Big Ten winning back to back titles with two different teams. That's just a hard thing I think for Sanke to be able to sell even if the perception of it would be the right one. I think because they're out there and they're talking and he has a, you know, he has this dossier

that he's handing out to the media who's around. Yeah, how about that? Make that case, right? And look, I mean, you know, in full transparency, so, you know, Fox is so tied into the Big Ten. And when you do a lot of their games, and I'm not, I'm not a game broadcaster, but I'm with Big Noon, you see a lot of these teams, you're like, oh, I think they're really good because you see them in person. Or the converse side is like, I saw Nebraska look horrible against

Indiana. So you think they're probably, they're either a lot, you either, they're probably look a lot better than they might be, or they look a lot worse than they really are because you're seeing it up close and you're seeing all the flaws and all that. The flip side is, you know, ESPN is more tied to the SEC than it is to any other conference. And so when those conversations are had, I think people now, because social media is what it is, I think it's a lot easier to poke holes at it and people can make these arguments and go,

no, you guys are biased about the Big Ten, you guys are biased about the SEC. You don't really, that's not the truth. And then I think it's, you can believe whatever you want to believe. I mean, I can, I can sit there and go, Indiana was a really good team, had a terrific year, but the way the schedule broke, I mean, they played two teams that had played in the national title the year before, but neither was anywhere near as good as they were. Right.

They played Ohio state, they look good for about a quarter and then Ohio State just kind of mauled them. But the other part of that is use, I'm glad you brought up South Carolina as you did, right? But like use, look at Ole Miss's four games. I mean, Wake Forest is in there. Wake Forest was awful last year. Everybody they played was bad in the non-conference. So basically credit to them, they beat Georgia, who is who is really talented. They beat South Carolina. Now, South Carolina was way different in the end of the year than they were when Ole Miss played them. You know, but again, they did blow them out.

And I think that's on their resume. But it's a you know, you have, you have these bloated conferences, so the schedules aren't gonna be the same. Georgia's schedule was a meat grinder. By the way, they had Clemson at the beginning of the year and they whooped them, right? And they, you know, but they had all they could do to survive Georgia Tech.

And I don't think that was not the Georgia team that was sending eight guys every year to the Philadelphia Eagles. I mean, it was a good Georgia team, but offensively there was no Bowers. There was no McConkie. So, I think, you know, it was, it was an interesting year. And I feel like what ends up happening is people tend to overreact to whatever happened that year. It just, it's just kind of the way we are because there's just way less, there's way less of a sample size. we are because there's just way less, there's way less of a sample size. Yeah.

I mean, the bias thing is never going to be gone. Uh, somebody that's lived it inside of it, outside of it. It is funny to see Fox guys, uh, get shit about the big 10 and the way that we got shit about the sec of the ESPN. Um, I would argue, I think there's times where I think Fox guys are way more pro big 10 than I ever saw ESPN guys about the sec, but then you would just throw Herbstreet in the Florida State, Alabama argument in my face, and we have all sorts of evidence. I'll tell you one thing ESPN could do is rework the FBI, because there was some conversation from Sankey and others about, do we need to go back to a

formula? I didn't think we'd be clamoring for the big East Calc or excuse me, the BCS calculations. Not a lot of big East football to talk about, uh, BCS calculations years after, um, because everybody, you know, look at whatever system we have to the original point, people are going to be upset about it, but just, do you want to guess because FBI was factored into, I think some of that media stuff that the sec, I don't know if you saw it or not. Yeah, I don't, I mean, I don't think a formula or metrics is the way to go for college football.

I know why it's probably more relevant in other sports because there's way more of a sample size to it, but I think so much factors into, um, what happened in that game and teams are different in week five than they might be in week 12, in week 10. I think that it's just way different. You could have a, I mean, I know this. When Ole Miss crushed South Carolina, and this is not a knock on Ole Miss as you play whoever you have,

but Lenora Sellers, who by the end of the year was one of the best players in college football. But at that point, he had a high ankle sprain coming out of the LSU game. He wasn't the same guy, right? And so that's still a quality win. But I think at the time, you have, South Carolina is like a three and three team, right?

So I just think that however you factor into formulas, it can't tell you a lot of the context that's around those things that, that I think matters. And I'm not sure that there's going to be no perfect way to do this. That's the, that's the, you know, the problem with all of it. Do you want to guess where Bama was at the end of the year in ESPN's FBI? I will guess. I will guess nine. Four.

Four. Wow. Wow. I guess they really loved that Oklahoma team. That was dreadful. Four. Look, there's no bigger Diego Fabia a cycle of, of the big 10 heading towards not just winning titles, but the deepest conference.

I still think that would be surprising to me. I mean, I think that's a big deal. I think that's a big deal. I think that's a big deal. I think that's a big deal. I think that's a big deal. I think that's a big deal. I think that's a big deal.

I think that's a big deal. I think that's a big deal. I think that's a big deal. I think that's a big deal. I think that's a big deal. I think that's a big deal. I think that's a big deal. And two years of a cycle of the big 10 heading towards not just winning titles, but the deepest conference. I still think that would be surprising to me. It would be surprising to me also too. I feel like you get like, look, I could see maybe Penn State. This is the year that they win it.

I'm not predicting it, but I didn't, you know, it's like they have a lot of talent back. But then where is the, you know, does that mean USC is going to get going? Washington's like, you know, those programs have been good. Wisconsin has been good. You know, I could see Nebraska getting better, but like you have such, I feel like you have depth in the top at the SEC that you don't usually have in the big 10. You really haven't had it in a long time. You may have had like one or two high level programs,

but after that, it's like when Wisconsin was good, Michigan wasn't that good or you know, like there was just, it just didn't align and I feel like it's hard for them to build that because I don't know if they're recruiting from similar pools, so it's like if this kid's over there, then they don't have. Yeah, and like I've tried to have an open mind about this because, you know, I know all the stuff that I've said over the years and arguing about the SEC.

And then you go, okay, well, you know, this is now they're starting to win. You know, you have the two different teams win titles. Then you can certainly make arguments for more teams than I could in the past. I think Michigan state at least deserves a mention because of the stuff that they had done years ago, but you're right. You add Oregon, you know, let's see what Washington looks like, uh, whether that was state at least deserves a mention because of the stuff that he had done years ago. But you're right. You add Oregon, you know, let's see what Washington looks like, uh, whether that was kind of like just a blip or not.

If SC can ever get this thing figured out, I don't have a lot of hope for UCLA, but now there's certainly more teams you can pick from, I guess, maybe when I have Matt rule in Nebraska arguing, it's clearly the best conference. Like that's the thing that'll always be like, dude, what are you doing? Um, anyway, here's the part where if I would side with the big 10 part of it is like, if we're playing the nine, whatever you think of the nine and you're playing the eight, why do you

get four auto bids? If we're getting four auto bids, I do like your point though of like, Hey, look, you're probably gonna get your four and another one with the four plus four, two plus two with the big 12 and the ACC, the one to the conference champ outside of those power groups and then the three at large. You're probably still going to get your four and five,

so why would you get in the way of all this stuff? Yeah, that actually, there's a lot of common sense, but I can also understand them saying, we want this thing in writing. And the thing that's crazy, as I was reading this stuff, yeah, that actually, there's a lot of common sense, but I can also understand them saying, we want this thing in writing. And the thing that's crazy, as I was reading this morning, is that there's a bit of an understanding already that the Big Ten and the SEC, we're going to be able to dictate some of this stuff,

some memo of understanding. Right. Yeah, they're driving the money. I think that's absolutely on point. The part that you sit there and take a breath on, it's like, all right, let's say we get to 16. It's not 16 out of like 135 or whatever the number is of FBS programs.

It's more like 16 out of like 50 or so. You know. You could probably make it smaller than that too. You could. Yeah. Yeah, now we're weeding out some of the bottom of the, of the ACC and, but out of that, those four power leagues, you basically, you know, you don't even have to have that good of a year to make it out of the SCC. You know, if it wants to, if and when it does go to 16,

I think that's the part where like, and we need to be conditioned probably to like, you know what, you're a playoff team, but that, you know, that didn't mean that much. You know, now if you win a couple of games in the playoff, different story, it certainly means a lot to Indiana because of what their history has been like to make the playoff.

But I think for other teams, like I would argue last year, like, so Notre Dame had been in the playoff, you know, Brian Kelly had some excellent teams last year. They won games, right? They beat Georgia. They were, you know, like huge for Marcus Freeman. Not only they beat Georgia, I think he out coached Kirby smart on that stage where they went 17 to six. Like, I think for Notre Dame, it wasn't just getting,

you know, we'd seen them in a title game. They got embarrassed, right? By Alabama, you know, in Miami, whatever it was 12 years ago. But last year we saw them have really impressive wins along the way, not just beating Indiana, but you know, beyond that, I think to get to where they got to said something, but just to get in the playoff now for a lot of these teams, if it does get to that point, I feel like you're going to get kind of a shoulder shrug from it. I don't think last year for anybody from Georgia was like, oh, that was a really good year for them. And once you get to 16, it's going to be even less likely for them,

unless the team that makes the playoff from the SEC is Vanderbilt. Other than that, like if you're any of these other teams, you know, so what, we won national titles or we won, you know, whatever. Like I didn't even know for Ole Miss, if they get in that at 16, unless they're like a top four seed and they go on to win the playoff,

I don't think it's gonna be like a year where they'll be like, you know, over the moon about. I guess I just want to avoid any scenario. Like I'm looking at a couple ACC schedules here, and this is stupid to do in the beginning of June, but like, if you looked at Pitt and they played the Kane, central Michigan, they've got West Virginia. Um, you know, what if they were to lose at Florida State, lose Notre Dame, their tenant too. And it's like, okay, well, they're a tenant too.

And they're still from a power conference and, you know, they, they have to get in. And like, this has nothing to do with Pitt. So I'm not making personal up. I'm just trying to run through a conference where you go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You have to have a home for the brain or something.

I get it. Like you would sit there. That's the part of 16 where then you start hearing arguments from like a group. I'm like, I haven't, I haven't seen you do anything against like say maybe they're close wins or close, close wins by, you know, I understand what I'm saying. Florida State, it's a field goal, Notre Dame,

they're righted into the fourth quarter. I mean, this is stupid that I'm even doing this out loud, but that's the scenario that I despise is that then that team and then, you know, all that kind of stuff like, like Bielam was on this heater right now about the Illini. And it's like, yeah, it's, it's a bit like the Lane Kiffin playbook here. Just keep doing stuff and you're getting that attention and everything. And their bowl game win was incredible. It's a good team. Yeah, they beat, it was a fun game to watch.

There was a lot of venom in it, you know, and they beat a good, the team that South Carolina just beat in Clemson and was rolling down the stretch. I think that's a good win. And I think he is mindful of, hey, we are coming off of, you know, Illinois doesn't normally do this. I got most of my guys back. I got my quarterback back. And I think he is putting, you know, putting them right out in front for people. So people can say, hey, let's keep an eye on Illinois. And they're going to be on the radar. So they don't get, you know, if they go nine and three or 10 and two, if they're 10 and two, I think it's a hard argument for, for a big 10 team

not to make it in. Um, but, cause it's not like Miami, right? Where last year they had just bad losses. You're up by whatever 21 to Syracuse you lose, you know, you cost it and then you just kind of have yourself to blame on it. But I think if you're Illinois and you're sitting there at 10 and two, you're in good shape. If you're nine and three, I don't know if that's what you're planting the seed for. Pete Okay. So, is there anything, it sounds like it's just inevitable anyway, so it doesn't really matter because I saw some of the conversation of like, if can you sign off on this if you're running the Big 12 or the ACC? And it's like, it sounds like they's just inevitable anyway, so it doesn't really matter because I saw some of the conversation of like, can you sign off on this if you're running the big 12 or the ACC? And it's like, it sounds like they kind of already did.

What choice do you have though, I think? I don't know what choice they're gonna have in the end when the money is such and those, what I don't see the threat of is, oh, the big 10 and the SEC are just gonna, at some point just say, hey, we're done. We're going over here. You guys can play you know, play

whatever we want to call it. One, you know, it's not one double A football anymore, but it's like, it ain't going to be the national title if the big 10 and the SEC aren't involved. You can do what UCF did when Scott Frost was there, but no one outside your fan base is going to take it seriously. Right. So, um, I think what we're looking at this and going, man, do you, does the big 12 and ACC really have much leverage here? I, I'm interested to see how that will play out. Yeah. Well, look, it's all happening and there's no point in getting like, I'm still

going to watch on Saturdays, but between the expansion and then changing this over and over again, um, I wouldn't say it's going in a direction. I don't enjoy these annual updates and changes to this. And I really don't like where it's going. And I think eventually when we lose even more and more rivalries that have been around for what feels like a century, um, you know, I don't. I'm wondering if there's just a series of smaller timeframe decisions being made where maybe you're sacrificing the long-term vision, but the television deals would tell you nobody's worried about that right now.

Freaks list. We look forward to it every year where you go through the freaks of college football, what they're accomplishing athletically, what coaching staffs tell you about some of their guys. What is going on with that piece as we all await it? So it used to be in the middle of the summer and now I've had to, in the portal era, I've had to rethink it and bump it back into early August. And why that is, is I had a conversation with one group of five head coach who was like, I got a guy, you know, and like when I tell you the numbers, you're not going to believe it. But when is this thing running? And I said, well, you know, I told him and he goes, he goes, here's what I worry about is if I, if you put this stuff out there, you know,

he worried that somebody was going to poach his player. And so, we slid it further back. And now that's the day it is in that point where no one's getting poached at that point. By the way, the crazy thing is that player ended up doing exactly the same numbers at the combine that he had told me, which I was like, there's no way a six four cornerback is running that jumping that. So, um, but he does. And now he plays for the Seahawks. Right. And so those, you know, those kinds of guys, like a little off the, off the grid, a little off the radar have been what's been the coolest part about freaks lists. And, um And because of that, I think, and because so many guys end up in the portal and get poached, that it just makes sense

to run it into August. Wait, who are you talking about? Tariq. Okay, all right. Tariq the Freak was like at UTSA and I'd heard a little about him from the previous staff, but just when Jeff trailer had told me about him was just kind of, are you serious? And obviously people at the combine saw, yeah, they were serious.

So you're telling me now there's a guy that you were talking about and then the coach was like, no, so we have to, the freaks list is delayed because of the transfer portal. It's been delayed for the last couple of years. I've moved it back because of that. So it just made more sense to run it then. Yeah, you're right. You're right.

I know I lose track of all this stuff. What do you have coming up? I have a cool story on the 25th anniversary of when Washington beat the Miami team that ended up becoming, you know, the greatest team of, it was supposed to be all time in college football and kind of that rivalry. And it's a fun story. I was not planning on doing the story. I started out by calling Rick Neuheisel to ask him about Terrell Suggs, the great Ravens

and Arizona State pass rusher. And so we got to talking about him as for like a top 25 players of all time. And I was like, all right, I got to find some people to talk about Suggs who can give me some insight. And somehow we got to talking about when Washington beat that Miami team and New Highs will have some great stories. And then all of a sudden it was like, you know what? It's the 25th anniversary of this thing. I ought to write about this.

So that's a story that's coming out later this week. And I have a story on a few other things I'm excited about. One, I don't want to to my end too much on, but it's a really cool story on a guy that I didn't know much about. He's going to blow up this summer, or he has to some degree, but just has a really cool backstory, and so I'm excited about that.

All right, looks good. Check those out on The Athletic, Bruce Feldman, always good. See you soon. Thanks. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime. When I get into something, I go deep, like seeing how I can improve my sleep routine

or finding a TV show that I can get lost in. Prime helps me find everything I need, plus offering fast, free delivery. Whatever it is, Prime helps you get more out of whatever passions you're into or getting into. Head to amazon.com slash prime and follow your obsession wherever it goes. You want details? Fine.

I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. LifeAdviceRR at gmail.com.

We've got Wargon, we've got Kyle. It's good to see you. Likewise. Okay, great. Little cleanup here. Let's just start here. I actually called Kyle, doesn't have it a lot. And I don't know what it was.

I think it was Saturday night, just kind of grinding tape on that grind. I was doing draft prep and I was going through emails because I was like, you know, I have a little downtime. So maybe I'll go through some emails here, really sort through all of these. And Oregon, when we were talking about just accepted like accomplishments in fitness,

and we were talking about a mile time. Did you think we were talking about mile split times for long distance running or just. I thought we were talking about mile split times for long distance running or just? I thought we were talking about one mile. We were. That's what we were. Yeah, cause we were. It's exactly what we were doing.

You are comparing it to 20 pushups. I was, well, I still think- 20 pushups was thrown out. Well, he was just saying, what is something that you would consider like kind of impressive, I guess, right? It was sort of like, I don't run that.

I don't know anyone who just does one mile. I feel like it's like a specific thing that like, if you're going to do it, you're going to train for it. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So just to be clear, because sometimes this will happen where we'll talk about it. And then I know that I can have a habit of just kind of like,

just steamrolling it in a way where maybe I'm not hearing everything that you're saying. I'm trying to be a better listener. And this reminds me a bit of, cause we had a lot of feedback to this being like six minute mile, are you out of your mind? Like all these different things. And I'm thinking, no, like if you just decided that you were going to be a guy that Works out or whatever and then just decided to see how fast you could run one mile No one would ever go. Hey guys broke eight minutes Okay, I also ran the mile in high school

so I think I have a little understanding even though that was a very long time ago of What you were kind of aiming for what would be considered? I mean, that's a whole different level when you're actually just competing and running in mile races. But if you were just say a guy who's in good shape, 40 years old, Hey, I want to run, I want to see how fast I can run a mile. No one would ever be like work on Monday going, Hey, check out your boy. Seven 52.

Um, now mile splits, that's entirely different, but I think a lot of times what we notice with the show, uh, and this happens for anybody doing any kind of content is like some people just kind of hear something and then it's not really what they, it reminds me a lot of standing up in the aisle on the airplane thing. Where once I said that, because once, once I said,

cause if you have the aisle, guess what folks, eventually you have to stand up. And if you're on, I know I took a Southwest flight, uh, because it's the best way to go to Chicago from LA. So you end up in Midway and not O'Hare. And it was my first Southwest experience in a long time. And I'll say this, maybe I shouldn't, but some of you are taking advantage of the assistance in boarding. Some of you.

You know who you are. You picking your seats on Southwest yet? Where we at on that? No, no, no, but you just, you get a, you know. Brother, they're changing it. Oh really, I put myself a one to 15, I pay the 20 bucks. I pay it. I don't get the chance.

Right, and then I still almost missed bucks. I pay it. I don't get the chance. Right. And then I still almost missed it. I think that's going away. Well, it's chaos. And I noticed when I bought it, I was like, we're going like 25 deep with people that need help. And some people definitely need the help.

And some people don't. And then when I saw people getting help off, and then you would see them like later over at baggage claim, it's like, you're a fraud. Don't need help now, do you? I would say your one thing, sometimes you gotta stand in the aisle just to stop the guy who's gonna create the chaos

by trying to jump five rows. And it's like, it's better if I just save my place right here. Right, in a long distance, if you're going five hours on a flight, like getting to stand up, not cutting ahead of the other aisle, but standing up at some point. So that turned into like every time. Yeah. Anybody that's now, anytime anything happens on the plane, people just send it to me nonstop. So we got this email. Two dudes whose cardio consists of walking around a golf course,

seeing a six minute mile is what regular guys run is crazy, especially when you're trying to connect to an actual runner or when you're trying to correct an actual runner. That would be Wargon who says it's eight minutes. I'm also not an actual runner. I don't want that title on me. You are though. You buddy.

Disney World for a marathon. That's a runner in my book. Half. Right. Last sentence. I enjoy the show, but that estimate of a regular guy was egregious. That one just, it hit me wrong.

I enjoy the show. I was confused if we're training for this, or if it's like getting off the couch doing it, and it's like good. I think he's thinking of us correcting you on splits, is what I'm saying. No one should ever, I don't think I'm wrong here. No one should ever be like saying, let me see how fast I can run a mile

and then being excited about eight minutes. In a split, of course, but that's not what I'm talking about. I don't know. I feel like if I ran that, because I haven't run it. Do you guys know what you're talking about. I don't know. I feel like if I ran that too much, because I haven't run it. Do you guys know what? You would run a mile tomorrow? Oh, God.

One, I could probably do like 10 if I'm being a. Right, so you'd be pretty excited if you did under eight. But I wouldn't tell anyone. No, I would. I wish I didn't even say this right now. You know what I'm saying? But here's the thing. If you're kind of a decent sized guy

but you've never ever done a bench press, and then you sat down and repped out 135, and your body would be like, what the hell is this? Without any training, you wouldn't be going, well, banged out 135, guys. Post. Nobody would care. Now that guy, well, banged out 135, guys. You know? Post. Nobody would care. Now that guy, if he wanted to sit like,

all right, I wanna get into this and see if I can actually do this. And I think they did get the cardio stuff. Maybe we can do more Muay Thai updates for this guy. Yeah, he might've nailed me. Yeah. Yeah, but who knows? That glute training is right around the corner.

So that's what I felt like happened there. And there was so much response to it as if we were shitting on a 730 marathon split and this is not really what we were doing, but you're right. Like, I don't know how many people are even out there that run, just go like, I just, to see how fast I can go on a mile. I actually used to do it on the treadmill all the time to see how long I can keep it at 10 for as long as I possibly could. Um, I stopped doing that. All right. Bald spot shaming. What's up fellas? 44, 510, 225. Do crossfit four to five times a week. I'm in the 1200 club. Deadlift, squat, shoulder

press. Interesting. No bench in that. But that's impressive. PlayerCop, I'm like Prime Westbrook if he was a middle-aged white guy with arthritic knees. My problem is this. I like to go to my haircut at a national chain place. It lets you check in on their app and keeps your haircut specs on file. I'm sure you can guess which one.

I actually cannot. This makes things very convenient and fairly inexpensive. Now here's the issue. In my mid-30s, my hair really started a thin owl, especially on the crown. Mugs cap. There you go.

I think one time on a radio show, they called it a fleshy yarmulke. Oh yeah, that was the other one I had in the chamber. I didn't want to say that one. I'll tell you what, that stung. When I was 27, 28, I didn't feel great. Sorry, man. No one cares about your feelings when you're in shape. It also got really patchy, so I made my peace with it one day and shaved the whole dome. Unfortunately, I do not have a good shaved head, a bunch of scars and weird folds. So in a last ditch before hair plugs, I did the Rogaine-Propesha combo and it worked pretty

well. All right. I heard the Propesia thing does actually get it done. I would tell you, as many of you already know, my relationship with Rogaine foam was not successful. From the front, it looks great, but I still have the Crop Circle bald patch on the crown. I do love when Rogaine foam pivoted from your hair comes back to, Hey, everyone should use this.

Like if you're 22 and you don't want to, you don't want to be depressed, just use it. It's like indulgences for the Catholic church back in the day. Like, Hey, the science is this isn't really working. Hey, let's use it. let's market it as preventative so everybody buys it. The thing is, when I'm getting my haircut there,

about half the time I end up getting the same woman, every time I end up with her, she tries to push their in-store hair regrowth products. When I tell her I'm ready, I'm already using some, but thanks, she says these are better, even though they're the same products with different names. Let's just say there's a language culture barrier that I think she knows gives her cloud cover to bust my balls about my bald spot. Even so, as far as laughing at the fact that I did not care to look at the back of my head when they do the show the back of the neck thing at the end.

I know it's there, but when I get a direct look at it, it will seriously fuck my whole morning. Hey, man. I hear you. Understand. Right? This is me just Robin Williamsing you as Matt Damon holding your arm telling you it's not your fault. When you go in, you don't really get a choice

on who cuts your hair and she works every Saturday the only day I have time, so it's not that big of a deal. I'd rather that than go to another part of town to avoid it. When I get her again, should I offer a tip upfront to try not to sell me anything, be nice to me, hint, hint, or should I just grin and bear it? Patchy, sign patchy. Yeah, I look, I think everything should be on the table because for whatever

reason, like if you called somebody overweight, you'd be fat shaming. As somebody that was like incredibly skinny. We had no movement. Um, no one, no parents pulled anyone aside and said, don't call the skinny kids skinny. And I do think as somebody that was, um, you know, had a pretty egregious bald spot and was on television for a long time. There was no movement. There was, there was no like, Hey, early bald patch rights for guys that are on TV.

You know, I don't remember that there was any coalition. Caucus for you guys. Yeah. Yeah. So I would, I, I'm just telling you as somebody who's part of your constituency here, I think you just go for it. Like just tell her her mustache looks good. Like, hey, that's really coming in.

Maybe she's using the stuff that goes on your head. Yeah, who knows? Like, hey, did you get Rogaine foam on your lip? Like what's going on there? And look, it's gonna be just a relationship ender. But I think the guys out there that have taken shit for this for such a long time, I think you just got to come right over the top of the nukes. And yeah, you may have to go somewhere else. Maybe if she'll never pick you again. But I think there need to be consequences for people being a little too comfortable with something. Now it's fine. Like maybe we could just all make fun of each other for everything.

That might be a solution to all of this stuff. But I think that there's an imbalance out there in the world on what people are allowed to say to you when you're losing your hair and you're supposed to just sit there and take it. And I'll tell you, if you're a certain age to our emailers point here, it can really set you back for a few hours. That felt personal. It was. I had a mirror in the shitty apartment in Boston that was one of those, you know, folding mirrors to the sides.

I mean, the amount of time I studied back there with turning one in against the other and just Indiana Jones in it, like going, what the fuck? You know? So, yeah. So you two shaggy headed fuckers, just be happy. Next time you're having a bad afternoon, like it could be worse. So yeah, I mean, I know that sounds really mean

and maybe she doesn't have a mustache, but I just, I don't like people's comfort level. Cause trust me, those of us that have gone through it, we're aware, we know that we don't need you fucking reminding us all the time. Good night everybody. I feel like, I feel like you should just get a guy, just get like a bar. Good night, everybody. Now I feel like, I feel like you should just get a guy. Just get like a bar, I mean, maybe it sounds like he likes to be mean. Guys can be mean too. No, I just mean get a, like get your guy.

Women are meaner about this though. Women are definitely meaner about this. Get your barber, which might make it a little more inconvenient when he's like, I like being able to just walk in, but this thing is screwing up your day, man. Maybe you have maybe you just find a barber. I mean, I'd rather go to like a mom and pop shop anyway than like a super cuts where it's just like luck of the draw. I mean, I don't know.

I would maybe just find an actual barber. Support a small business, man. They'll take care of you a little better anyway. Yeah, to Kyle's point, I got a guy I probably pay a little bit more than I would like a super cuts or a place like that. But I go in, he says, how you doing? I say good. And he cuts my hair.

We don't say another word. He knows exactly how I want it. Don't talk at all. It's exactly what I want. Yeah, dude, do yourself a favor. Find a guy, search, do a little search, get out of the, get out of the big hair game. Exactly. I love that you guys are pro small business.

I love that. You got a guy or you just. Yeah, you're looking at him. Nice. And he's harder on me than anybody. Kyle's losing it right now. All right. We also had a lot of feedback to $35 guy.

Oh, I'm interested in this. Everyone hates you, man. There wasn't one email that took the guy's side that was owed the $35. So maybe chill out a little bit. Wow. There's not even like some hardcore, you know, principles of fantasy sports guys out there. There are none. No one slurs. Yeah. Yeah. Holy crap. I was still on the fence a little bit. I'm still on the fence.

Maybe he's a listener, but. Yeah. No, we like to be nice to the listeners, but we like to be honest too. So, all right, another one here. If I had your height, man, 23 years old, six, six, two, 10, bench, two, 45, squat, three, 25, pick up comp, Mason Plumlee,

big that can fill some minutes and show some flashes of razzle dazzle I feel like razzle dazzles on the way back. Somebody said in a movie I think it was good. Worked. Dear Ryan and guys I've been out of college for a little over a year but back during one of my summer's home I wore construction to earn some extra cash to buy an engagement ring for my then girlfriend. Well it sounds like. It's sounds like the earth right there, dude. Way to do that. That's an awesome spend all summer to prove that you like somebody.

Ry smiles, no audio. The guys I work with were great most of the time, but there was one oddball that I was often paired up with for random tasks. We'll call him Brandon. He was in his mid to late 30s and always had some strange things to say. One of them being, quote, if he had my height, he would have for sure made the NBA. This wouldn't have bothered me much as I hear variations of the comment, often given my height, but his insistence upon the fact, irritating to say the least, this fact irritating to say the least as someone being implicitly accused

of wasting their physical gifts. Should we guess how tall this guy is before you, before you give away the height? He's 6'6". No, no, no, he's talking about the height. Yeah, I was gonna say, should we guess it before you gave away? The Uncle Rico guy. Oh.

Saying what he wanted to. You're good, you're good. How much you want that I can can throw a football over the mountains. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know that we have that info. I'm scanning ahead here. Oh, we do, we do have it. We have very good Wargon. Okay, do you want to guess this is his height?

5'11 and three quarters. Okay, Wargon? No, I think he's closer to my height, like 5'8. Oh. Yeah, but you height, like 5'8". Yeah, but you're a sturdy 5'8". In a good way, like good sturdy? Yeah. When I saw you come to my house, I was like, this guy's fucking sturdy kid.

It's like Jaylen Brunson. All right, I do have his height here, so I'll give it to you in a second, but I've kind of mangled this sentence here. I hear variations of this comment, often give my height, but his insistence upon this fact irritating to say the least is someone being implicitly accused of wasting their physical gifts, which wouldn't be entirely inaccurate,

but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy it. An added layer to this is that Brandon was about 6'4". Oh my God. So not too far off from me, and his reasoning was that he was able to dunk already and that his coach just hated him so he couldn't get playing time. Hey, I know that. Classic coach hated me. Yeah.

I might take Brandon's side. Coach fucked me. Some more elements of Brandon and his hobbies include songwriting, rapping. He would often insist. Do you want this guy's contact? Kyle? No, I'm good. Um, he would often insist on showing me some of his work by serenading me in the

truck on the way to sites. I've included one such occurrence in a video attached to this email. Oh man, I didn't even see that. included one such occurrence in a video attached to this email. Oh man, I didn't even see that. Uh, playing in an 11 on 11 tackle football men's league on the weekends. Dude, this guy's kind of awesome. Any wraps?

Uh, and trying to pick up college girls at local bars. Lay out. Looking back now, I realized I should have messed with them a little bit more given all the time we had driving in the box truck together. My question is, how would you have all played off a co-worker like this? And what would have been the best way to get into his head? Thanks. Love the pod He's six four. I mean that would have been a good place to start six fours pretty tall It's pretty big Yeah, this is just construction site. This is just fire away any joke that pops into your head

I mean, this is like Monday morning quarterback for life. It's like, it's insane. It's insane. And the fact that it's a two inch difference is like, I don't know. Probably some jokes that you can't say on a respectable pod like this, but I mean, it would be like construction site jokes. It would, that's ridiculous. I feel like everyone would need to know he said that to me.

That's ridiculous. I feel like everyone would need to know he said that to me. Look, as somebody who's spent plenty of time on sites and in these trucks on the way to another site, there are a lot of conversations that you will hear. And I don't mean this to be offensive, but I don't know with all of the conversations that I've experienced. There's a lot of lessons, a lot of lessons that I keep with me today, but like peak conversation. I mean, honestly, sometimes like the realness of it

and the truth and just kind of cutting through everything. Although when one guy reenacted a sexual act that he had received from a woman that he had cheated on his wife with the weekend before and then happened to do it right as the homeowner was in the other side of the property because we were putting on an addition. That was a low point. That wasn't great.

Kind of luckily I was lowest on the totem pole. So it didn't, didn't really matter. It wasn't going to be my problem, but there was tension in the air. I would say the rest of that day on the site. I feel like every time I tension in the air, I would say the rest of that day on the site. I feel like anytime this guy screws anything up, be like, man, if you just had that extra two inches,

who knows? Who knows, man? Anything that goes wrong. Man, if Mike was just two inches taller, we'd be done already. That would be good. That's good. That would be really good. Like, you need a ladder for that? Oh, that's right, we'd be done already. That would be good. That's good. That would be really good.

Like, you need a ladder for that? Oh, that's right, you need six-four. Yes. Just everything possible. Like, hey, can you get to the end of that? All right, hold on. Hold on, we gotta wait, he's only six-four. Yeah.

I mean, you could have just said some real basketball stuff and be like, if you, okay, fine, like have it out with him, like entertain it in a serious fashion because clearly I, my guess is the emailer was smarter than the six four guy. So he didn't want to entertain this stuff as much. But if he just had it out and was like, okay, let's break it down.

All right, so coach fucks you. But if you're six six, you're in the NBA, but you're six four and you're here with me right now. So like, let's figure out where that gap is. Right. Like, why aren't you in the NBA, but you're six four and you're here with me right now. So like, let's figure out where that gap is. Right. Like why aren't you in the G league? You're in Serbia? Yeah.

Or start like just sending them different teams, like Turkish lowest division. Yeah. You're just like, nah. There's a tryout. There's a tryout. You've got to start somewhere. I see you in the Greek league.

Uh, another truth about the experience on sites is, even though a lot of times you're outside, and there's something to be said of like the accomplishment of building something and working with your hands and the physical strain, those are things that I miss until I realize, like, you don't miss it that much. Yeah, until you're waking up at five, you're like, my back, holy fuck.

Yeah, you're up on a ladder. Gonna be out of the house in five minutes. The winter, just the wind whipping, and you're like, is this thing even stable right now? You know, and you're kind of like, is this where it's all gonna go down? Greg's not locked in, what the fuck? Yeah, you hold on to a two by 12,

you're trying to get a nail tacked into it, and you're just like, this actually might suck. So I definitely romanticize those days or maybe I just like the gear, but no one really wants to be there. So there is a lot of hypotheticals. Uh, I just always remember like everybody was a year away or a few months away. There's just big dreamers, man, barstools and dreamers. There's a lot of dreamers on a site. And so I think if you remember that with the people that you're interacting with

and you can engage, some people have an incredible skill to engage stuff that they're not interested in. I was not one of those people. I probably am even worse at it now, but that's really what this guy is all about. Like I know this guy without ever meeting him. He just thinks like something very soon is going to break for him. And in some weird way, it makes him feel better. And the fact that you're just annoyed and not seriously offended is a credit to you. Because once you understand his whole thing, I mean, this guy's out there tackling other men on the weekends, he's writing rhymes, he's singing to you. Hoping you're like, dude, you're really good.

You should go for it. He's a little bit of a praise. That's all he's going along with. Right. Dude, the coach hated me as the most classic one ever. I love it. I love it should go for it. It just needs a little bit of praise. That's all he's looking for. Right. Dude, the coach hated me as the most classic one ever.

It's like a ginger ale on an airplane. It's just classic. It's perfect. Anything to add to this? Is a ginger ale the perfect drink on an airplane? Especially because Delta uses Seagrams, which I think is the best ginger ale. Can't even find that in half the grocery stores around here. I got to go total wide and more to get my Seagrams. Canada dry and Schweppes.

You're a special order ginger ale guy. Oh, yes. Love it. It's not as sweet as the other two, which is perfect. More medicinal. Yeah, honestly, it feels that way. Chicken soup for the soul, you know, the ting of Canada. All right. That'll do it for the show today.

Thanks to Oregon. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Jonathan Frias. You can check us out as a video podcast now on the app. I think we'll do a Friday feedback next week. So Friday feedback, rrgmail.com. You know, you got to be hard on us. You got to be hard on us.

So we'll share it all. That'll do it for the pod today. Thank you for listening. Ryan Rosillo, bring her to Spotify. They were going to name me Michael Jordan. My dad was like, I don't think you can live up to it. So they named me Michael Jared. Must be 21 and older and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas

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