The Ryen Russillo Show - Baseball Playoffs! What’s Real and What’s Not in CFB w/ Bill Connelly, Plus Inside Playoff Expansion Talks w/ Heather Dinich

Episode Date: September 30, 2026

Ryen opens with some thoughts as the MLB playoffs start, including the Red Sox-Yankees Wild Card game and the hilarious AL West. Then, ESPN college football writer Bill Connelly stops by to talk about who the best team in college football is, his quarterback rankings, and what’s real and what’s not early in the season. Next, ESPN reporter Heather Dinich takes us inside the college football playoff expansion discussions and how it’ll change the regular season, too. And finally, Kyle and Ceruti join for some listener-submitted Life Advice, including a girlfriend with a cat problem and a dude who wants to be the nickname guy. MLB PLAYOFFS (02:30) Red Sox-Yankees (06:50) The Bad AL West BILL CONNELLY (09:20) Is Georgia the Best Team in CFB? (15:40) Alabama’s Keelon Russell (19:20) Big Ten Hierarchy (26:10) Pace of Play Changes (35:10) Who Is Still Alive in the SEC? (41:40) Notre Dame & Miami HEATHER DINICH (44:45) SEC in on CFB Playoff Expansion (48:05) How the Regular Season Will Change (50:00) How Broadcasts Will Change (52:25) Who DOESN’T Want Expansion? (59:10) Group of 6 (1:03:10) Protect College Sports Act LIFE ADVICE (1:08:45) _ _ _ _ _ GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET, [phone] or visit gamblinghelplinema.org (MA). Please Gamble Responsibly. 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), or visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). Wagering offered by DK Sportsbook: 21+. Present in most states. (18+ DC/NH/PR/WY). Void in CAN. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino (KS). Pass-thru of per wager tax may apply in IL. Event Trading offered by DraftKings Predictions, CFTC-registered: 18+. Trading involves risk of loss. Market availability varies. General: 1 per new DraftKings customer. Trade $5 get $150 Prediction Dollars (1-year expiry) or bet $5 get $10 in Bonus Bets (7-day expiry and stake removed from payout). Rewards issued in $50 increments every 7 days via click-to-claim for 14 days. Click-to-claims expire 7 days after issuance. Rewards are non-withdrawable. 7 days = 168hrs. Predictions offer void in NY. Terms: dkng.co/offer. Ends 10/18/26 at 11:59 PM ET. Sponsored by DK. _ _ _ _ _ Reese’s. The Official Candy Partner of Barstool Sports. Go Get Reese’s Wherever You Shop _ _ _ _ _ Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers. One Love. _ _ _ _ _

Hey, Rasillo listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcast and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. The Ryan Rissillo show is presented by DraftKinks, all of our episodes available on Netflix. We have a lot of college football for you today. Bill Conley is going to talk about one month in, how that's changed from what we thought this summer, and also a trend on why the game is actually slowing down, despite offense as being better. and we're going to have 24 teams in a college football playoff. Heather Dinnich has been all over this story, so we're going to talk about that.

Who's in favor? Who's opposed? If there's anyone left, that's actually opposed, and the latest on the Protect College Sports Act and life advice. And baseball Ryan is back in the mix. I watched one and a half baseball games yesterday. I'll give you some thoughts. The football season is heating up and every week feels bigger with Draft Kings. The Draft King Sports app is now live in all 50 states.

That means from Texas to California to Florida. Every fan is in on the excitement. Follow the teams you love. Keep up with the biggest games and experience the excitement of football all week long. No matter which game you're watching, you're always connected with one app. One app, every sport, all 50 states.

New Draft Kings customers. Sign up with the code Ryan. Spend just $5.50 in rewards. Within 14 days, includes all markets. That's code Ryan, R-Y-E-N. In partnership with Draft Kings, The Crown is yours. Gambling problem.

Call 1-800-Gambler. 1-800-My reset. Connecticut called 888-7-8-8-8-9-7-77-visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas, bed tax pass-thru may apply in Illinois, 21 and over. Void in Canada. Bet with Draft King's Sportsbook to get bonus bets that expire in seven days or trade with Draft King's predictions to get predictions dollars that expire in one year. Event contract trading involves risk of loss.

Predictions offer void in New York. Non-withdrawable rewards issued as $50. Click to claims every seven days for 14 days. Terms at DKNG.g.com slash offer. Limited time offer. Nationwide based on sportsbook predictions and free-to-play sports contest availability. varies by state. Baseball rye in the house.

A little playoff baseball for you. Had the screens up, Bruins Rangers on one. I was locked in, and then you've got Cam Schlittler going for the Yankees against the Red Sox in game one of their wildcard series. I don't watch baseball a lot, but when I do Cam Schlittler's fucking Pedro Martinez,

this guy, first pitch out of the gate, 101, works at 99. You're like, this is going to be hard. But he's just so nasty. And everybody that's paying attention to it every single day that's talking about it's like, hey, this isn't exactly breaking news

with the Cy Young odds for him. And if you look at what he did this season, his ERA from last year went down from what, 296 to 195 this season. He threw 193 innings pitch this year, 239Ks against 129 hits, just a whole other level for this dude. So he's working at 99.

He throws all these different fastballs. He's got this big frame that's right on top of you. It's just going to be brutal to go up against. And then on top everything else, he starts throwing this curve ball. He threw a 27% of the time last night, which is way beyond what he does in the regular season. Schlittler, I think, throws it like 10% of the time. And then he's got that thrown in every fourth pitch on top of this fastball that's 99. It was funny because like in the third time through the lineup, they're like, oh, he's slowing down a little bit. And, you know, that's pretty normal. First time through

opponents OPS, second time through opponents OPS. And then even really good pitchers, it'll jump up that third time through. It's why we have the games that we have and the way these rotations are used and why you'll have bullpen games and all this different stuff because there's just some guys that are a completely useless pitcher

that third time threw a lineup. And yet he's still like throwing 97. He threw 117 pitches, six and a third scoreless, 10 strikeouts. The Red Sox with this lineup had absolutely no shot. And then there's always the strange dynamic that you've got Walpoles,

Schlitler, Dealin, and being the difference last year in the short series and getting the Yanks off to a great start in this series and then Ben Rice from Cohasset, who apparently is just one of those kids that was wearing Yankees hats, was a Yankees fan, so you can have them. I think I might even said that last year.

Just a strange thing of like two mass holes being the stars for the Yankees Schlittler over the course of the season, Rice again last night. And it's a bit like rooting for Team USA in hockey, but two of the best wings are from Russia. like what do I what do I do I do with this so if you look at the Red Sox this is kind of predictable with the offense that we saw in September I mean it's a great story and it was an absurd June

to August where they were at one point 32 and 46 and then when 32 and five record is 61 50 or 64 and 51 they've done it all without crochet who's available now or the bullpen who should have been their number one going up against Schlittler but I don't think I have think the last time he pitched the game was April 25th. And, you know, look, this Red Sox offense, even with different bats that they had back in the lineup last night, it was bad in September. So the 32 and 5 stretch was kind of more of an outlier because I still felt like they were doing it without all of their big guns. And they get Roman Anthony back and then he leaves the game last night. So, you know, there's a lot with this Red Sox

offense where you're trying to figure out, like, is this really the team or is this team the bad offense that we saw? Because they barely scored any runs in the postseason last year in this series. But I just didn't have a ton of expectation. And I think it's just enormous for the Yankees to get through this, even with their injuries in their lineup. And maybe, I don't know. A lot of Red Sox fans are sitting there and being like, well, you get through this and then you can get to Tampa, be based on everything that happened in the regular season. There's a chance. But the American League is so weird. Because normally my disdain is reserved for the AL Central, where they have one ALCS appearance in 24.

So it's one ALCS appearance since 2016. And that was always my thing with AL Central. It's like, okay, cool. Some team will win this division. They'll be the only team with a positive run differential. And then the whole reason that they're even at 88 wins, 90 wins, is because they get the beat up on the rest of the division. That's absolutely terrible.

Normally that is exactly true. And based on the lack of postseason success, even in that ALCS, I think they lost a series 4-1. It's just like they're not even a factor. Well, let me introduce you to the AL West, which had every single team, because I watched some White Sox Astros yesterday, too, every single team in the division finished with a negative run differential. It's the only time in baseball history a division has done that.

And I was like, that has to have never happened before. And if you go through the AL Central, every team had a winning record against the AL West. The AL East, every team, except for the Red Sox, had a winning record against the AO West. the Red Sox were 15 and 16. This division is so bad that even with the Astros being in it, you can get into the history of the Astros, but that doesn't mean shit in 2026. And the White Sox having this massive turnaround, although I have to admit some guilt when I was reading different previews yesterday, it hit me. I was like, you don't know a ton about the Chicago White Sox, Ryan. You don't know who that guy is.

You don't know that name. You've never heard of this dude. And who knows? because it feels like the American League is kind of wide open for maybe an invitation to get absolutely stumped by the National League. We know it's short series, anything can happen in any of this stuff. But the Boston story, it's one game, but anybody that's paid attention to them after that 32 and 5 run,

them struggling offensively, it would make a lot of sense. And Schlittler at least opens this series with a reminder of what this Red Sox offense is not. right now as they head into October. Maybe. There's something for everyone when it comes to Reese's. We've talked about Reese's peanut butter cups a bit on this show and one of the standards in the candy game, the superior candy product. But like anything, when you turn something on and you're watching a game, you're like,

is this guy even at Reese's level? I'm serious. That's kind of how I watch sports now. Because game one, Cam Schlittler, I'm like, well, this is to be expected. This isn't some fly-by-night bullpen guy hoping he give you one and a third clean innings and then hand it off to somebody else. It's like you faced four batters, maybe five if he walked somebody. Schlittler goes into the 7th, 117 pitches. Like that guy's chocolate and peanut butter. That guy's, to be expected, that guy's first bite good because you knew it was going to be good before you even took the bite. You didn't even need a taste of Schlitler.

You just knew exactly what to expect when he strikes out 10th. So, yeah, that's kind of how I watch sports now. How do you watch them? Reese's, the official candy partner of Barstool Sports. Go get Reese's wherever you shop. We're going to talk some college ball all day today. Bill Conley of ESPN joins us. I have read him for a while now. It's kind of a mandatory thing, at least for me, getting ready for the season, and then, of course, in the season. So thanks for joining us today, man. How are you? I'm pretty good. How about you? Good, good. So let's go off of like a month in, right? Because you remind us of lessons from a year ago, one month in, that, let's be. kind of funny to laugh at and be like, oh, that's right.

Like, we thought all of these things. So a month in, let's start with Georgia. I love the comp. I guess Georgia fans didn't love it when you called them a blue chip service academy offense the last couple of years. What has happened as far as like we know it's been a lot better, but do you think this is now kind of getting Georgia back to the Georgia we expect? Yeah, they just, you know, the last couple of years, they fell off a little bit.

They still went in the SEC, but they aren't, they don't, they never really looked like they're threatening to be the best team in the country. the main reason for that has just been, like, efficiency levels are fine. Defense was really good second half of last season. They just don't make enough big plays. And so I was calling it a, yeah, Service Academy kind of thing, because when I put up a little efficiency and explosiveness chart, they'd be right down there with Army, Navy, and Air Force and Iowa in the, like,

efficient but no big plays range. And so they're making big plays. They make them almost more big plays than just about anybody in the country. And some of that, I mean, they played horrible teams first three weeks of the same. season, and that certainly plumped things up a little bit, but they, you know, the Gunterstockin was throwing down field against Oklahoma last week. It looked good on him like they were, you know, he was making good passes, and he's got some young receivers who are getting open downfield, and that makes such a huge difference.

Just a few extra easy points over the course of a few games makes such a massive difference to your season. And if this continues, I think they're the best team in the country. on the Monday night broadcast for the Bears, I thought it was really interesting that like Aikman was talking about how Ben Johnson sees the run game. And he was like, we want explosive runs. And I'm watching it going like, okay, are they blocking? Because you can see the other side of that. It's like if you can't run the football, it's like, hey, why don't we just try to run the football and block it up right instead of thinking like everything has to have an edge or a possibility of breaking off these 10 or 20 yard rushing attempts. Georgia is so loaded now with the Stockton part of it, where all of these different. different things that you have to defend. Can the explosives, is there enough there from what you've seen again, you know, other than Oklahoma, Oklahoma's defense at least, nothing to get too excited about as far as competition. But when I watch them, I'm just like, man, there's like four guys now on just handoffs or whether Stockman keeps himself where it's just a lot, it's a challenging thing to have

to pay attention to lock in against their running game. Yeah, I mean, Dave Prezsner's average an 8.4 yards per carry. Dwight Phillips Jr. is like 8.9. And again, small samples, mostly bad competition. And so that'll go down, but that's going down from a very, very high level. They weren't averaging eight yards of carry against their cupcakes last year. And I do think

when you just make more of the field, when you tell the defense, we're going to use more of the field, and we're going to use it reasonably effectively, it just opens things up so much. And so when you can throw it on field and you're willing to, suddenly the things you want to do get a lot easier as well. And we're just seeing

all that come together here. It was, it was interesting with Stockton last year because, I mean, Mike Bobo is a pretty conservative guy as a rule. He wants to just be able to play physical and stay on schedule and all that. And they were very good at that last year. But it just gets easier when you open up the field a little bit more. Yeah, I think there's always been kind of like a receiver question too for a few years there post Bowers post lad. You know, and I think Taylor, who had like two catches last year as a sophomore. is proving like, hey, there might be a little bit more depth here than they've had in the past. So you think Georgia is the best team in the country as of today?

As of today, if we go back through history and look at who's the best on October 1st or whatever, that's not always who's best in mid-January. But I think as of today, I'm by far the most comfortable with Georgia. Do you like their defense better than Texas's defense? I did. Texas's defense is making up ground in a hurry, especially with what they did against Tennessee. And granted, that was a very unique matchup. of Will Must Ham versus a freshman who exploited every single terrible freshman tendency

that Faison Brandon had. And so they're not always going to look that good. But they did keep, you know, Ohio State under wraps, especially in the second half of that game. So maybe Texas has an edge now. But I still think this is a top five-ish-level defense for Georgia at worst. And if you combine that with a top-five-ish-level offense all of a sudden, then, you know, no complaints. So I saw the explosive chart. I referenced it Monday at my show.

I was pretty shocked to see Texas down there with Michigan, Michigan State. You know, because look, I've watched both of those teams and, you know, Michigan's its own conversation here. But considering the weapons, considering Arch. And, you know, we have Nate Tyson who's like every single week, he's telling me, he goes, the tape on Arch is better than what you watch live. But the chart is the chart. And there's no way with this personnel that they should be in that range on explosive plays or lack of explosive plays. Yeah, they're just not, it's just not there.

And it's hard to evaluate Arch because, I mean, they know their play. It's like Ohio State. They know they're playing the long game here. They just want to be as good as possible once mid-December hits. They're comfortable they're going to make it, especially now that they've been in Ohio State. So they don't necessarily care about looking their absolute best right now, but just you're running your base offense.

You should be making more big plays and having more success than Texas is at the moment. And I just put out a piece this morning about I didn't think people were mad enough at me online. I did my first ranking the, P4 quarterbacks piece of the year. And there's like an eight-way tie for first really. I had trouble figuring out the top eight. Arch was nowhere close to the top eight. He's just based on on what he's done this year.

And it's hard because the one time he had to look great this year, he did, bringing Texas back against Ohio State. He was resourceful. He's extremely adaptable. He was, you know, I'm not getting the ball to Ryan Wingo very well. I'm going to check down to my number three receiver and tight ends. and we're going to figure it out, and he did. That's the only time the offense has looked great all year,

and it's just hard to give them the benefit of the doubt in that regard. When you're ranking the quarterbacks, are you plugging it into your model? Like, you're not doing this as a draft evaluator, correct? Right. No, it is supposed to be who's the best college quarterback right now is the main premise. So who was number one?

I ended up going when I couldn't decide between the top eight, very easily. I just went with the one with the best stats, which is Darian Minson by far right now. You know, when he goes almost two games without throwing an incomplete pass, even if they're mostly short,

it's really hard to overlook that. So, you know, he ended up getting the nod, but, I mean, you can make a case for, obviously for Trinidad Chamblest, you can make the case for, honestly, Keelan Russell or Camaro Taylor right now to the two most exciting young quarterbacks in the country.

Lots of guys have cases, but I just, in the end, went with the guy who has almost perfect stats. I really like Keelan the most that I've watched them all season this past game against South Carolina. Because we all understand like how dynamic it is. And they're putting up huge numbers. And it still always kind of feels like the post-Sabin version of Alabama where you're like, am I supposed to take you seriously as a title contender? And that's the only way that any of us are still going to keep looking at Alabama, even though I see there's so many instances this season, Bill, where I'm like, God, you know, like pre-snap stuff.

It seems messed up. Like, you're giving up a ton of points to Florida State who looked just terrible in that SMU game, where SMU's like just going, you can have this game. And Florida State can't do anything. And then against, you know, whether it's, it's Deuce or the Danzy, you're like, wait a minute, Florida State has some guys. Like, these guys are lighting it up. Bamma's just an interesting team because I'm like, I actually, in the beginning of the year,

I was like, the defense will be really good. Yeah. I thought. and then it was just a matter of like Keelan with all of these weapons probably calming down a little bit and I loved what I saw against South Carolina. That was that was kind of a perfect like Kentucky and Florida State both. They started slowly, started horribly against Kentucky on offense,

started horribly against Florida State on defense. And then by the second half they were an absolute wrecking ball. And they just skipped that first step against South Carolina. It just went straight to wrecking shop. Russell's first pass of the game is a gorgeous 75-yard touchdown bomb. And that really, you know, you're inconsistent. You've got to keep it up, obviously. But if that's what we're talking about with Alabama,

anytime they play like they did against South Carolina, they're going to win. And so, and that was headed into this year, you know, that offense last year was the worst since Sabin's first year. Ty Simpson wore down trying to carry the weight of that offense and looked pretty bad himself by the end of the season. And it just did not work. And so I had Keel and Russell as basically the most important player in the country,

heading into this year because if he wasn't awesome, Alabama was going to struggle massively, he's awesome. So they're not struggling very much. And now it appears there, at least on the brink of being a contender again. Yeah, the O line, I couldn't look as bad as it did at the end of the year last year. And yet there were times the beginning of year. I was like, wait, is the O line just also not good again this season? And so, I mean, those are like, it's like the two years with LSU. You know, I bring it up a lot. But it's like, so they have all these NFL guys and they can't run the football for two years? How does that happen at LSU?

How does this happen at Alabama and that bit of the carryover? But you're absolutely right. And I think it's a reason why Kuland got to start because it's like if it is a mess up front here, we know that he's going to be. We need raw upside. Right, right. Even if we don't love that he's bailing on pockets, it might be preferable to somebody sitting back in the pocket behind this offensive line.

But things seem to be going in the right direction there. You know, you mentioned the September thing, and it's a really good August thought here is we had. And I did it because I'm like, I don't know who this SEC title contender is. I think we both agree when you go through the depth of the Big Ten and the SEC and all these conversations, sometimes I love and sometimes I hate them. I'm like, I don't really know why that's any kind of conversation based on the depth. But if you don't have the surefire title contenders after the other conferences won three

national championships in a row with three different teams, it felt like it was an accepted truth that I kind of know what I'm expecting from Oregon. I know what I'm expecting from Indiana. They might be even better. I imagine Ohio State's going to be awesome. You know, again, August thoughts, like, who is that from the SEC that's creeping in? But now a month in, what do you make of those three teams that seem to certain needs to be title contenders from the Big Ten? I think I'm back to trust in Oregon.

Obviously, a quarterback situation. Rayola has to keep looking as good as he did against USC for as long as he's the quarterback. He was so good. He was so good in that game. He was better. He was comfortably better than Moore has looked all year. And I don't say that to generate any sort of, you know, he should stay the starter or whatever. Like, we know how good Dante could be, but he was not, he just wasn't sharp to start the season.

Rayola was dynamite, so I don't really have any concerns if he has to start for a little while here. But I do think, you know, I reminded myself back in, back in 2024, Oregon, before going 13 and O' and winning the Big Ten, almost lost to Idaho and almost lost to Boise State to start the season. they just didn't seem to quite know what they had. They had to figure out exactly, you know, new quarterback, which obviously wasn't the case this year, but the offense kind of stumbled and started it and stopped and whatnot. And it took them a little while. And it seemed like this year, for whatever reason,

I mean, they had one of the most proven rosters in the country, but they just didn't have all the right pieces in the right place or playing how they were supposed to be playing. The defense, I do feel the defense got caught flat-footed against Oklahoma State when Drew Mestemaker comes out running. He hadn't run since the bowl game in his first start as a freshman. He busts a 70-yard run on like the first play of the game or whatever. And so they were flat-footed that game.

They couldn't rely, like Dante wasn't sharp enough to catch them up in the second half. I didn't think he was getting no offensive line help either. But the third game was a nice little, you know, cleansing experience against Portland State where they looked angry and sharp and they just handled USC with relative ease with their backup quarterback. So I think they're fine now. their margin for error has shrunk, and now you're looking at playing a much better UCLA team than you thought and still have to go to Ohio State and all that.

So they can really only afford one more loss, but I think they'll probably get there. Indiana is a team that I'm really, Ohio State's great and probably just the best all-around team in the country. The fact that they can't win a close game, worries the crap out of me, but it's not going to be a concern all that many times this year. They're going to get to the finish line,

and they're going to be in the playoff and all that. But Indiana is a team that's kind of confusing me at the moment. They have, you know, you're the champ. You're getting everybody's, you know, everybody's taking their biggest swings at you, but they're just falling asleep for one or two quarters at a time. They did against North Texas. They started the game really slowly against a really bad Western Kentucky. They blew some early opportunities against Northwestern,

then fell asleep in the second half, and that suddenly became a game. The fact that they're able to win those and pull away anyway is a good sign, I guess. But they do need to dial in here because their schedules harder than it was last year. and they'll have plenty of loss opportunities if they're not sharp. Yeah, part of the Indiana problem was like, hey, welcome to the party now, the same way we're talking about Alabama, where nobody wants to talk about them, was like, oh, are they a playoff team? It's like, no, can you actually win the SEC?

So we're going to be harder with the way that we watch you week to week. And now that's what Indiana is in. And I've watched probably two and a half of the games because I've wanted to see Hoover because I liked them so much. And I couldn't believe it when I did like a side-by-side with Mendoza's line and where Hoover's at, it would tell you, like, Hoover's right there with Mendoza, but it doesn't feel that way. There's yards per carry, yards per play, opponent's yards per play stuff that feels very similar to 25. But I think you nailed

it where there'll just be this long stretch of why is this a competitive quarter? Why is this, why is Northwestern scoring on four straight possessions here in the second half when especially the start of that game? You're like, Northwestern might not have 100 total yards in this game. So, but the thing is, based on what you've already said about Oregon, and I don't know how you feel about saying, I guess I just expected more in the second season. And it feels a lot like, hey, I don't know, okay, Jeremiah Smith. And then it's the end of the day, you're like, all right, saying great completion percentage,

you know, 300 yards, he's got the touchdowns, he's not going to throw the picks. I wanted a little bit more out of him. So it might just be that those three teams, there's not that separation. which we knew. Like someone from the SEC likely was going to emerge. But I guess my opinion is that at least collectively those three,

it's not like those are the three best teams in all of college football and everybody else is trying to catch up, which is probably I was guilty of it too, the way it was kind of presented before the season, unless you were going to just go ahead with Notre Dame and Miami, which is totally understandable. Yeah, I mean, that was Ohio State and Oregon both ranked lower now and the ISP

plus ratings than they did at the start of the year. And Indiana somehow doesn't, which kind of has confused me a little bit since they've underachieved against projections all four games. A couple of those were just barely, so it's not that big a deal. But, yeah, I mean, they've all looked at least a smidge worse than I thought. I thought Ohio State, what we saw in the first half against Texas, I thought that was what we were going to see the entire game. And then they took their foot off the gas too.

But I also, I do know that especially with what everything Ryan Day says, like they are they they think of things in terms of 17 games and they're not worried about whether they look their best they know they can win 10 games or at least nine this year in third gear and that was kind of what we saw against illinois the other day so they're they're kind of taking notes and figuring out exactly what's our what's going to be our best version in December and again the fact that he has struggled with game management the fact that you know they they run the slowest tempo in the country because they know they want to keep wearing and tear off their players, but then when you have a per-play advantage, you want as many plays

as possible, and they can't go fast well, or at least they won't until the final two minutes of a half. And so I don't trust the little fine margins with Ohio State, but at the, you know, at a macro level, I'm not worried about them at all. I think they're still really good, and they're going to be, have as good a chance as anybody to win the title. Let's stay on that, because I have that written down, because you've done some work on this, and I think it's important. for people to understand this, is that if you look at the peak pace that this sport had, the late teens, I think I remember reading it. If you were looking at time in between snaps, the shortest,

the number of overall plays in a game by a team, like the highest number. As you remember, and I remember, like, Nick Saban was going, like, is this what you want it to be? Like, is this what you want? Like, okay, like, we'll do this too. and we have now, I believe, corrected based on where the game is going. And I know you're not in here, but I'll just keep sharing some of the stuff that we have, is that part of it is clock changes, right?

Just simple rules that were running more clock after first downs. Fourth down aggression, right? So longer drives would equal less plays, right? So that's just a philosophical change that's happened in this. But to your point on the Ryan Day thing, which I thought was really insightful, And that if they're mapping out, we've got to be playing, you know, we're going to start playing on like 15, 16 games here. Right. So even though we are generally always more talented. And the old Chip Kelly thing was

like, if I can run 90 plus plays, then every play doesn't matter as much. But now you're in this situation where it feels like whether they were managing San last year, they knew they were going to beat everybody for the most part, you know, whoever they're playing. But it is kind of like a departure of like, why would you want to go so slow when you have this kind of talent advantage? But this is something that Day and others are doing on purpose to manage just the total snap numbers for a team that expects to play a lot of games, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's the general. And I think, I mean, combined that with the fact that, you know, a decade ago, what was that? I think 2016 teams were averaging over 70 plays a game, 28.4 offensive points per

game. That was kind of the peak. That was a couple of years after Savan did is this what we want football to be thing. And I think since then, defense is always adjusted. And so I think tempo itself doesn't work as well. Defenses have figured out like the hand signals and just how to communicate better in those situations because that was always part of it too. If we have a successful play, let's go no huddle. Let's keep you from substituting. Let's try to punish you for whatever mismatches we found as many times as possible before you can fix it. And whether it's substitution, whether it's the substitution rule where the ref will stand over the center, if you change a guy out and the defense can bring a guy in or just general communication and play calling.

Yeah, tempo just doesn't work as well as it used to and you don't see as many teams trying it for that alone. But you combine that with the fact that, yeah, now teams like Ohio State are worried about wear and tear. And the clock rules. All these trends had already started when the new clock rules came into. effect that that accelerated kind of the pace of these games a little bit. Yeah, it's, we're at a place in 2025 where fourth downs were more frequent and more successful than ever. And scoring was down. And it was just kind of this weird combination, like points per drive is as high as it's ever been, but nobody's going, but everybody's taken 30 seconds at least off the playcock before running another

staff. And so lots of factors, but it was really, really interesting. realize, yeah, offense is great right now. Scoring's way down, and there are a lot of reasons for it. Yeah, right. The efficiency, the points per drive, points for play, like anything you want to look at it, it's never been better. It's just we are heading in a slower direction now for multiple years. So if you just went traditional, how many points per game, it would be down,

even though the efficiency has never been better. Staying on some of this stuff, Texas Tech is a good example of kind of like one of these things that you talk about, where if your projection, you know what, let's back up for a second, your S&P projection model, you don't have to give us like, you know, the lecture, the 50-minute lecture on what it is. But when you're plugging all of this stuff in in the summer and then updating it throughout the weeks, like how does that work? What goes into the formula?

So in the preseason, it's still based on the same factors as it always has been, even though the weights have changed a lot. It's basically going to be a combination in some way of how good have you been recently, who do you bring back and how good is you recruited? Now, that obviously means something very different than it did in like 2019. Recent history doesn't matter three, four, five years. I used to have that baked in there because it was like a program history thing. Well, now program history doesn't matter as much when you can flip a roster in one to two years.

So three, four, five years ago barely carries any weight. The quality of your freshman recruits barely carries any weight, because all it matters right now is how good all the transfers you brought in. And so the weights of all this have been fiddled with a lot. And every year we get a new set of data that's even more transfer heavy. And I try to make adjustments. But in the preseason, it still basically comes down to how good have you been and who have you got on your roster this year? Like how much proven production do you have?

That's the general approach. And then so during the year, then through three games, it's still mostly like 80, 90 percent preseason projections. after four games, it drops into the 50s. You know, a month from now, it'll be in the 20s. By the end of the year, it'll be like almost completely gone. But, yeah, like, it's definitely kind of changed. The things that matter the most have certainly changed when it comes to, especially projecting teams in the preseason.

Yeah, that makes sense. I can't imagine that it's ever been harder than it is right now. All right, so that leads us to Texas Tech. I still can't believe some of the voting with Texas Tech, But I think it's a credit to the people that were watching. When you're watching New York State game, you're like, what the hell's going on? I don't know why the Houston game is a ding on them. Maybe it's just, again, expected dominance.

But as I pointed out on Monday, I'm kind of like, why is everybody in love with BYU? Even if we all feel like BYU is going to be really good, it's arguably one of the, what, worst 12 strength of schedules to this point or something like that. I mean, maybe 15th, you know, whatever. You can play with those numbers. but tech is clearly behind right now. Is that fair to say? And what does that mean for a team like four weeks in that we have not only we expect them to win the Big 12, we expect them to be in the playoff?

I thought it was like a certainty. And that means a national title contender on top of everything else. But what does it mean when it feels like you're getting lapped here a little bit based on what the expectation was a month in? Yeah, I mean, compared to last year, like that's why we expect dominance is because that that was that regular season run they had, especially when Baron Martin was healthy, like, Morton wasn't even all that great, and they were still just about the most dominant team in the country

against the competition they were facing. So, yeah, the fact that they didn't, you know, that's fine, struggle with Oregon State a couple times, but, you know, you're still struggling to put that game away late. Houston, you know, you had that game seemingly kind of in hand, and then they're driving to tie the game at the end of the game. And so you're just not, even Sam Houston, it took them a while to really distance themselves

because of some early mistakes. And I think A, you know, they so, I realized if I was going to be wrong about Texas Tech this year, it was going to be partially because I gave them way too much benefit of the doubt on defense. They just, when you crush a port of class like they did last year, I'm just giving you the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. And the guys they brought in not only were awesome, like you could tell they were going to be, they were going to be good, but then every single one of them was better for Tech than they had ever been at their previous schools. They were so dominant on defense.

The offense was basically not all incredibly efficient, but avoided mistakes. Now you've got a defense that's pretty good, but not as good. And your offense is making more mistakes because Well Hammond has that kind of Kevin Jennings things where he's mostly fine. But once a half, he's going to make a boneheaded play that's going to cost you some points. And that's... That's a perfect description of Kevin Jenkins. I realized when I was writing my QB's piece, I was writing the exact same thing about the two of them. So then I had to put them together.

but, well, Jennings is way higher, but put them together and you compare them, I guess. But, yeah, so they're basically still very good, but they're making more mistakes on offense. They're just not quite as good on defense, and now the Big 12's up for grabs. From an SB Plus standpoint, Utah's now the team to beat. They've really, like, weak schedule for sure, at least until last week. I couldn't tell how good Iowa State was, and they manhandled Iowa State despite making mistakes. So they've kind of crept ahead in terms of odds, but it's basically those two pretty close together,

BYU, just step behind. I guess that's great for us. It's going to make for a really fun race, but it just aren't as dominant as last year. Who's still alive in the SEC for the playoffs? I mean, you figure, well, I mean, I technically, I guess anybody with one or fewer losses, but you do figure that there are fatal flaws involved with

looking at the one-loss teams. Missouri probably doesn't have it. I don't think Ole Miss has it. I think that defense, despite how incredible Trinidad Chamblis is, I think that defense isn't good enough, and they're going to lose some more games. Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Auburn, those teams don't have it. So you're probably looking at Georgia, Alabama, Texas, for sure.

LSU spring in some leaks, and the offense isn't all that sharp, but I still figure they've got enough upside to threaten. Florida, obviously. Tennessee and Mississippi. I'm not sure. But the bar, like, we can still rope in a whole bunch of teams here when it comes to just trying to get that race to get to 10 and 2. A lot of teams can still get to 10 and 2.

All right. Well, you didn't say A&M. Yeah, I didn't, did I? No, I think they're, I think they're toast. Even though A&N's been confusing because they looked incredible two weeks ago against Arizona State. I realized that was still a pretty close game. They were still giving up big plays because they just do. They just give up big plays.

I don't know. I didn't like read in that game either. No, but they had enough, like, they had enough to where, you know, you can afford some read mistakes. And I thought their run game was going to come around. And then it all just fell apart the next week and apparently just stayed falling apart against LSU. So there's no way they went out. And so therefore, they're done as well.

If Camaro Taylor were in Iowa, what would that look like? Well, man, the scariest thing about Camario Taylor is he, like, takes two quarters off and still puts up 300-something yards and runs for first downs and Mississippi State still scores 30-something. He might have been a little banged up in the Missouri game though too. Yeah, and he's still like engineered two great drives at the end of the game

and they won. Yeah, if he was on Iowa, he'd be handing the ball off and first and second down. And making a bunch of players on third. So I think they'd be pretty awesome too. He's really for like, for such a young guy, his ability to, you know, stay out of trouble.

He makes mistakes, but not all that many. Like, his maturity levels come around. And it was funny with the hype this offseason. Like I watched the Ole Miss game and the bowl game at the end when he started and you could tell his potential was there,

but I was worried that the hype was building way too fast. Like, he still has a lot of growth to do here. Let's not, let's pump the brakes a little bit. And then he was even better than anybody said to start the season. So score one for the hype machine, I guess. So if we do the same exercise of the Big Ten here, then clearly, well, Look, I mean, it's not clear.

I think the Oregon offensive line thing, I don't know if that's just SC being abysmal on defense again, which we saw in the Rutgers game. Like, the best thing that could have ever happened to USC is that Rutgers game was buried in the priority list. And I remember having it. I had it on and I'm going, what the hell? Like, because it was not a main screen. And I kept thinking, I was like, all right, just make sure you get that one changed out.

You know, I want to watch SC on a few drives. I want to see their D-line. Like, make sure it gets switched out. And I'm like, okay, apparently, like, we're going to watch this game for three and a half hours today. So that was alarming going into the Oregon game. I think the Oregon issues, even if you go back to 24, Boise State, Idaho, it was an offensive line thing that got corrected, where I feel like if you have enough talent, which you'd expect of any of these programs and your coaching is worth anything, I do always feel like, oh, line stuff. I shouldn't say always, but you're more likely going to figure that out if you have the right coaches and you have something to work with there. and that's why the Oklahoma State game for the Ducks was so alarming

because it's like, you guys are getting beat on three-man rush. Like, what the hell is going on? This isn't even about whether or not you don't like one of the tackles. This is communication. This is coaching. This is a lack of preparation. Like, how are you getting smoked on three-man rush? And then Dante Moore's, like, lost behind you with the whole thing.

So it looked much better against SC. Their defensive talent, which it feels like, so wait, Oregon's going to have like five NFL guys and they're going to give up a million points to Oklahoma State. So that's one of those weird games where you can get into it with coaches and be like, no, this guy's good. This guy's good. They're like, hey, idiot. They suck on defense. I don't care what your McShay reports say.

So having said all those things, like we cannot eliminate Oregon here. Let's just give the auto to Indiana and Ohio State. But that's where we start to talk about like UCLA, Iowa. I think Michigan still deserves a mention even if you wanted to be really mean and say there's a there's a non-mature turnover scenario or maybe they're one in three right which they probably wouldn't have been if they had lost some of those other games and then maybe they close out Iowa but there's there's kind of a weird Michigan version of this where I don't know that I look at them as like hey they're still alive in the playoff thing just because of the record yeah no I think like I said I do trust Oregon at this point I think and the fact that there's schedule set up to where like I didn't even you know, their own line's been fine the last two weeks for sure. Like, that's not UCLA's strength necessarily. They should be able to handle that. Nebraska has a pretty good defense,

but it's more bend don't break. Illinois defense stinks. So they really, you know, they play Ohio State and Michigan back to back in November, but they have till November to when they really need their line to be in good shape. And I don't think Michigan matters

because I don't think Michigan's going to score enough regardless. So, yeah, they have plenty of time to round in the form. I think they'll start doing well here. But, yeah, I mean, the fact that UCLA and Nebraska are both far better than anybody expected. I mean, Nebraska is 16th in SB Plus right now. They just sneaked up on me. I had to look at the list like three times before I realized, wait a second.

16. Nebraska. And it's just, they're just one of those teams that just exceeds their projections a little bit each week. And it quietly goes about their business. And we'll find out when the competition ramps up, but they're really that good. But they've hit the marks so far. They're the run game.

They have a freshman running back who's been phenomenal. the passing games been good enough. Yeah, they're not really showing elite traits at anything, but they're suddenly don't really have any weaknesses either. So they could be pretty dangerous. Both of those games are at home, so I don't think Oregon loses either one. But it is kind of an interesting schedule in that regard.

Like the defense is going to be tested a lot more than the offense, I think, in the next few weeks. What if somebody said, hey, the two best teams are Notre Dame in Miami? I would disagree simply because of how much I like Georgia, but the owner named in Miami have not really given you any reason to doubt them so far this year. Miami's defense will see. I'm still not completely sold there. I do think that their pass rush was so incredibly important to them late last season

and losing two incredible pass rushers. Even if you have Damon Wilson, they kind of let Wake Forest hang around and score a little bit more than I thought they would. So we'll see about that, but that offense is incredible. I mean, Derry Mintz is not throwing in completions. and like that they've just been so sharp in that regard. So I do like both of them, but I'd say more like two of the top three maybe or four, depending on what you feel about Ohio State.

So do you have Ohio State? Like drive people crazy, but neutral field, it sounds like you're picking Ohio State against Texas. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think they were better for longer against Texas in that game. And I realize Texas made a couple weird mistakes at the start and that one interception off of Coleman or out of Coleman's hands. hands was crazy. So maybe they shouldn't have led by as much as they did. But I think down for down, they're still better than Texas. I don't trust Texas's offense at all. And they had to dump,

they had to dump down to their number of three receiver and tight ends to make it just barely work. And I don't see that working twice. So I'd still assume, like, that that's, like, Sark's the only team that Ryan Day has beaten in a close game in the last two years, but he's one to one against Sark now. And I still, I don't know, I still trust Ohio State a little bit more. It's November 7th, but it sounds like you'd be leaning Notre Dame against the Canes. At home, I guess so, especially now that they've found a deep threat. That was my biggest concern heading into the year was that the skill core lost more than I really was acknowledging, and they wouldn't find the replacement.

And honestly, they haven't with the run game. They're efficient enough in the run game, no big plays in the run game at all. But now they're throwing deep successfully, and the defense is dynamite, and those cornerbacks are unbelievable. Yeah, I think I just trust, unless I trust Georgia more, I still trust Notre Dame over everybody else. You got to read him every week. I enjoy all the work that he does, so I appreciate it, Bill Conley, ESPN. Absolutely. Thank you.

Raising Cain started back in the day by our friend Todd Graves. And look, if you're ordering Cains, you already know the move. You get the box combo. That's four hand-battered chicken fingers, golden crinkle cup fries, Texas toast, and a side of cane sauce. They stick strictly to high-quality chicken finger meals, made fresh and cooked to order. pair it with a freshly squeezed lemonade or iced tea and you're all set. Cains is all about providing unique and unforgettable experiences, whether it's at your local Raising Cains or at some of the most premium events throughout the year,

from hosting VIP suites at the U.S. Open to celebratory chicken fingers and cane sauce in the Raising Cain space at the 78th Emmys, head to your local Raising Cain's or order on the app. Raising Cain's Chicken Fingers, One Love. From ESPN, a lot of ESPN on the podcast today. Dinnich, who's done a fantastic job covering college football for many, many years and would run into her all the time back in my days in Bristol. So, Heather, this playoff expansion feels inevitable. I have, you probably can hear the disdain in my voice that it feels like 24 teams is right around the corner. If we start there, because you're so plugged in on all of this stuff, if you were

to say, like, yeah, maybe a year ago, the likelihood of 24 teams was this, how would you compare that to the likelihood that we were getting 204? 24 teams in a new playoff format now. I would say a year ago, people scoffed at it, including people even in the Big Ten where the idea originated. And then by the time you got to spring meetings, Big Ten spring meetings, this past spring, everyone was unanimous in the party line. This needs to go to 24.

And then you have the Big 12 hop on, the ACC, Notre Dame. And then when you have all of that momentum behind. it. Then at SEC Media Days, you have Greg Sanky say, well, I'm not opposed to it, but I still need to learn X, Y, and Z. And so now we're in the phase where this looks really real and we're closer to a 24 team playoff than we've ever been in college football. And yet people do need to realize it could still be 12 next season. 12 for the 27 season into the playoffs. Okay. When I was reading Sanky's comments in your piece, it kind of dawned on me that because they don't want to lose the SEC championship game because it's $100 million. I think it's another $100 million for the other conferences as well. But that's a huge product for the SEC. is was the hesitation, partly more information, but also a negotiation employed by the SEC to go,

if we're giving this up and we're going to go to 24, like we want to make sure that we're compensated in some way that maybe isn't just a straight split. Absolutely. And look, it's not just the SEC. No one in that room wants to lose money. And I should tell you, I'm sitting next to Big Ten headquarters right now where they're all talking about this. And as far as I know right this second, ESPN has not presented yet an offer to them.

And that's the key part. And I don't think anyone in that room is imagining that the value of this is going to be so exponentially great that everybody's going to make Buku box on it. It's more, can we make a little bit of money here and not lose money? But also, part of Sankey's reservation was the reality, what? will this do to the long-term impact and health of college football? The problem is, no one can directly answer that question. You can point to basketball and how the regular season has become devalued compared to March badness, right? But there's no hard and fast evidence that says, guys, if you do this, this is going to, you know, completely ruin college sports. And so I think

part of the hesitation was definitely, what is this going to do to the regular season? Yeah, the regular season part of it. You know, look, there are certain games, like I've mentioned before, Ohio State, Michigan, Ohio State can lose to Michigan now and win a national championship. So that LSU Alabama Showdown that met everything, it doesn't, it's not going to mean the same. But I think every decision you've looked at, it's a bet all of these properties, willing to make going, sure, it might not mean the same, but like, we're still going to pull a huge number on Saturday night. Well, and here's the reality. Everyone got so excited about

week four because there were so many ranked matchups, but worth of five. I don't know off the top my head. But that's every game in the playoff. Every game is a ranked matchup. And so I see both sides of it. I certainly do. It's my job to do that. But how much fans are interested in the bottom of the top 25 is TBD, right? Because who are we talking about down there? Well, when I'm doing my top 25 this week and I really struggled with the bottom and, and I'm looking at Virginia Tech. I was looking at Pitt, UCLA, Boise State. And, you know, can those teams win the national title? maybe they win the first round home game and an upset and go to the next one. But it's about the access because you saw all these coaches get fired last year,

some of them before October even ended because they're not in the college football playoff. This is what it all comes down to. And is this a reward, a return on your investment when you're spending millions and millions of dollars on these players and these coaches and you finish 13? Yeah, I guess, but then it's like, okay, so you go eight and four and you make the playoff now, and then you lose in the first round, like, does any fan base go, wow, you know, we're a playoff team? So I feel, I feel great about this. We're eight and five now because technically we made the playoffs.

So I mean, I can get the labeling presentation of what it means, but it will mean nothing different about who your team is. And I'm with you, like when we used to have to do the top 25 for dot com, like we would do it for ESPN.com. And you would sit there when you really go through the exercises, mad as fans get about it. It's like you're sitting there at the end and going, I'm running out of teams. Like you felt like you always ran out of teams. And then you were kind of like, all right, they played a power four team. They didn't. That's the tiebreaker for me. I don't know. I can't watch 70 teams in a weekend. So I don't like what, even if the regular season ratings don't go down, I don't like the extra inventory meaning that I'm supposed to care about some of these games and teams.

There's going to be a lot of teams that haven't beaten anybody's substantial that then technically good to be a playoff team, which I think then comes back to the money part of it, which you touched on there. When I was reading your piece, it reminds me a bit like the NBA, where the NBA is like, look, if we can cut up the product five ways and have ESPN, but have NBC and have Amazon and then do all these different things, like the total number, even if it's a weirder version of the product, the total number might mean more. since ESPN has controlled the college football playoff and it's been an awesome relationship, does the inventory or we to assume that they're kind of looking at it being like, we have this extra inventory, like maybe we get some more money from Fox. Maybe there's some other, maybe Netflix decides to do their first college football playoff game ever. Is that part of the motivation as they see what the NFL and the NBA have done?

Yes. So if the negotiations stay with ESPN and ESPN winds up controlling, continuing to control the rights, the expectation from multiple sources is that they would continue to sub-license some of these games, just like they do now when you see a playoff game on TNT, even though it's broadcast with ESPN talent and producers and things like that. So that's my understanding of how it would work. Where it gets different is if the negotiating window ends and a deal is not struck and then it's taken to open market.

And then Fox really does have a chance to actually bid on these, I think it's, 10 extra games. Okay. Who doesn't want it that matters? Well, I would start with the bowl system because I think there's a lot of trepidation about what would be left in the field for meaningful bowls and also how that would impact their communities. And, you know, I talked to Bull Seasons executive director, Nick Carparelli, who laid out

the numbers. And the reality is you've got 70 bowl eligible teams that weren't. in playoff games last year. You double it. You subtract 12 from that. You still have a lot of teams that are bowl eligible and probably want to play in bowls. But how many of them are those mid-tier Big 10 SEC teams that now get sucked into that playoff field? So how, you know, the Iwas of the world, right?

Those middle, those bowl games that we all have on in our living rooms between the conference championship games and the national championship game. and how much of it is, oh, I don't know, Tulsa and InSER Western Michigan, right, thanks to the clock, like whatever I be. And everybody's still watching those games because we all love college football, but they're just not as impactful as the headliners that you would have for those teams that don't come out. And then the other question is, do teams still opt out? And if you have a team like Iowa that doesn't make the playoff, and they're like,

I don't think this is for us, a la Notre Dame last year under different circumstances, obviously. And the response I got was, well, the conferences are going to decide how many bowl teams they think they would really have. And that's how you determine how many bowl games there will be in the postseason. No, it's a really good point because, like, I've enjoyed. what Illinois has done the last couple years in the bowl season because you're like, I know this isn't technically a bowl that means anything, but it was against a couple SEC teams

where I'm like, you know, I don't know how this is going to go for them. And it's like, with the SEC versus Big Ten thing, those SEC results that we had for years were that was always like, oh my God, that Big Ten team got like blasted. It's 35 nothing. Like this is what it is. You know, we can talk about opt-outs. We can talk about the priority, the deemphasation of all of this stuff. But like, there's some. results in there that I know that I'm at least interested in as a college football fan, where I understand the Bull's position on that stuff. But look, we're not that far removed from thinking we can never have a playoff because the Rose Bowl got their way on everything.

And then finally, enough people got together and said, hey, Rose Bowl, congrats on all your success. But enough is enough. You're not going to hold up the entire process for us to even get to the 14th playoffs the first time through. Scheduling. This is kind of my Penn State 26th scenario where I asked Danny Connell, I said, if Texas is 9 and 3, in Penn State's 11 and 1, who will you argue should be in the playoff if all other things surrounding it are equal. And he was like, well, because he didn't want to just admit that he was going to

argue for Penn State. Maybe we don't have to worry about 11 and one Penn State. I was worried about it a little bit when I looked at their schedule, being like, are people actually going to want this team as a playoff team? So I think there's going to be like a weird nine and three versus eight and four conversation because based on the pattern of all the different members of committees that we've had this turnover, the human nature and pattern is just that you're going to look at the numbers

on the record and you're just going to have a very hard time, especially if it's a two-loss gap of saying like, hey, I think this team's actually way better and look at their schedule. So as you point out in your piece, there's a priority now on like, let's get to all of these power four teams playing 10 power four opponents. Let's eliminate the FCS part of this. Is that even possible? I mean, it doesn't seem like it'd be that hard now with everybody, the SEC, playing their ninth conference game.

But do you think that'll happen to make us feel a little bit better about some of the conference and schedule comparisons that would go into voting to put together a 2014 field? I do think it's possible. I think it's pretty easy because the Big 12 ACC and SEC already do it. Big 10 commissioner, Tony Petit, has said he's willing to do it. The question is, how do you enforce it? And what happens if teams can't do that? I had a source tell me, I want to say there are 11 power. for teams that if this started in 2027 wouldn't technically qualify with a 10th power for

opponent or Notre Dame and they were both from the SEC and the Big Ten, I think it was. So how does, how does that enforce, I think is my biggest question. But I think it's easy to do. But the other thing to your point on this is this year, there's a new data point. And I know, don't want to make it make too much out of it because it's just it's one thing that they will look at but it addresses exactly what you're talking about and it actually assigns a number of schedule strength to each conference and it does that by giving basically an average schedule strength to each team in the league and Penn State is the perfect example so you say oh the big 10 schedule is so hard well out of your Penn State and you miss Indiana, Ohio,

to hate and Oregon. Or again, that's right. And there are teams in the SEC that aren't playing Georgia and Texas. So how hard is their schedule really? So it assigns a number. You can't even use that data, though, until late November because they've got to play conference games. It's based on conference opponents, to your point, Penn State not playing the toughest teams of the big tech. So that's a data point, though, based on schedule differential inside of the conference, though. Yes, right, right. Sitting in two mock committees and then, you know, I had really good access to this stuff when I was at ESPN and we'd have the chair on every week. It was fun, you know, but there was always these things that I remind college football fans is that they go out of their way to be vague to counter any attempt at making them be more specific on certain things.

So whenever you'd be like, well, how do you not factor into which conference you think is better? They clearly do. They just were never going to tell us because the perfect follow up is like, okay, well, tell us. your rankings of the conferences, and they never were going to do that for us. So this is at least a little bit of progress to look at like, you know, it's my Indiana point in 24. I mean, congrats to the Hoosiers in 25, all-time stuff. But 24 when you went through all the big 10 teams, I think they played seven of the 10 worse. Right. Big 10 teams. And, you know, the time they played Ohio State, we saw the difference there. All right. So what about like the non-power four

conferences. Is anybody listening? Is anybody care about anything they have to say? Well, the reality is they know that they're, they feel lucky to continue to be attached to this. And they know they're, they're going to get one team guaranteed and they would like to have two teams guaranteed in a 24 team field. But I think that's, um, slim chances of that. I think is probably a way to describe it. I have not Do you think last year's, sorry to interrupt, do you think last year's playoffs, the momentum of it hurt any of their arguments because it was a bit of a reminder? So we have Notre Dame out because of this? Well, I mean, the reality is the group of six teams were not the only lopsided games. Indiana, Alabama, anyone Indiana played except for Miami through the whole season.

But I do think that there's certain history that shows that there's that there's. could be two teams. And quite honestly, I just, I just don't see it. I don't see happening, but I also don't think that there's any real momentum

towards the group of six teams, like creating your own playing games or having your own playoff to the side or anything like that. I think they want to keep their bowl games and make sure that selection day doesn't happen until after their bowl games are played. You know,

the momentum part of this, coming off of like the group of six schools that we're talking we're touching on here right now but there's also because the big 10 has had this really great run um after feeling that there was this massive gap between them and the SEC and then Petiti to kind of present this you know there's part of me that's like are you capitalizing now granted he's coming in so he's new and he understand his background and some of the crazy stuff even with like the private equity thing we were doing a year ago or it was like okay these guys are trying to think outside the box but are these long-term decisions. Like, are these good long-term decisions? I thought the private equity one was a

very bad long-term decision. However, there's a bit of like positioning going, well, we're the Big Ten now, so we get to do this. And I think there's some from the SEC that would say, well, why are you get to do this? But then it's like, okay, why don't we just team up? And as long as our conferences are taken care of. And as we know, like, it feels hard with the expansion of the two major conferences that sports are just going to be cyclical. But I kind of hate the idea of even the Big 12. in the ACC having to play kind of like this stepson version of this where because of the runs that they've been on, that two conferences get to decide, like, we're going to have a ton of teams in, and then you're going to fight over the scraps. Like, you're not even a real power for a conference.

But also, to be fair, every one of those commissioners signed off on the agreement, the memorandum of understanding that the Big Ten and the SEC have control over the future format. And I'm sure there's probably some regrets, but at the time with everything that was going on with conference realignment and just how volatile college athletics was in terms of the big picture, I think everyone felt backed into a corner about this is what we have to do in order to get this, get this thing done. And they did it. But I do think that there has been more collaboration amongst those power for commissioners than there has been. in a long time because of the Protect College Sports Act. Like these guys have been working together side by side, lobbying in D.C., yada, yada, yada for like over a year now. And so I think those four on a higher level in college athletics have been in lockstep for the most part.

And I think that that's helped sort of translate to a respect also throughout the room when they talk about these college football playoffs. Thanks. Perfect way to end this, because let's talk about protects college sports and it had an overwhelming vote in favor of it in the Senate. So there's still some process that plays out here. The first time I read about it, I'm like, man, this seems like a ton of reasonable stuff. Five years, a one-time free transfer.

There's even a Lane Kiffin rule about when you can leave. I think it really does a good job, at least on paper, of trying to find a way to, you know, prevent us from having the two super conferences, right? Like, what did they put it at 19 was the most you could be at? Because like the big 10 is right now, 18. So there was a lot of stuff in there that I really liked that made sense. And then I read about the cap on player revenue. And I thought it was disgusting. I think you're basically telling people that aren't allowed to be at the negotiating table,

like this is all that you're allowed to make. And the fact that it was like a split revenue model, but here's the hard number. And it's like, wait, that's not going to grow in the nine years. like every other hard cap does in relation to what the revenue is. Like I thought it was when I read through it, I'm like, this is disgusting. And I hate the way they're presenting this. And I hate the people that are arguing, not personally, but I hate some of the arguments that people are up there banging the table being like, are we going to stop these transfers,

we're going to stop expansion. We're going to stop all this stuff. It's like, no, you also are putting a hard cap on the people that generate the revenue, which no one would agree to in any other scenario. Having said that, the reason I haven't done the open on it, Heather, is because I know no one's going to pay attention to that number. think seven teams are already north of the number that's presented in the 26th season. So when I talk to some people in college football about it, they're like, well, you can get

really mad about it, but there's going to be all these other deals. Like, they're going to blow that number out of the water so they can write whatever they want. Do you think it is, do you agree with me on like what it means on paper and how unfair it feels in the presentation and the reality being that you maybe shouldn't get as upset about it as I was when I first read about it. Well, I think it's TBD because one of the biggest components of this legislation is antitrust protection for the NCAA to be enabled to enforce this cap. So can they actually enforce it? And people are skeptical, just like you, who are in the industry. I mean, we go back to the bag man, right? Like these third party just hidden people cash.

So I do understand the skepticism and I get it. I also think it's premature because this bill has to get through the house. And the timing of this is really, really tricky. I'm not saying it can't happen, but if the house right now is not scheduled to vote on any bills before November. And so you've got this lame duck period where it has to get done. Otherwise, you're talking about a whole new crew of congressmen and women. I have to go because this meeting is about to break.

I'm going to finish this thought. They're going to come in, and then you basically have to start from scratch. So I think that that's the deal in terms of the antitrust protection. But Cory Booker is the only senator who played college football. And his point is, how can you pay these coaches and let them move around to all these schools and not do the same thing for the athletes. And there is intentionally not employment addressed in this Senate bill to get the compromise. The bottom line is, how can we make everyone equally unhappy?

But the House side wants employment addressed in this because they do not want players to be employees. The people fighting in favor of this bill have done a fantastic job on messaging, because I was like, all right, a lot of this makes sense. buried at the end is you're going to do something no one would ever agree to. By the way, Heather Dinnich has a new book out, never flinch. It's coming out April 20th. You can pre-order it now. It's her life in college football, but it's also full of lessons from all the access to the Alzheimer's that she's been around and covering. So I know you're excited about that and continued success for you, Heather. Thank you so much. Thank you for mentioning that. Thank you for

having me on. If we just like take 30 more minutes, we can figure out all the problems in college athletics, but I got to go. I know you do. This is more important than this spot. Thanks, Heather. Thank you. Guys, the NFL season is finally here. And if you're like me, your Sunday revolves entirely around making sure you don't miss a single snap of the action. Why limit yourself to one game on Sunday? You should be in total command, seeing every big play and every touchdown across the entire league right there on your big screen. But thank God for NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube. TV. It literally gets you every game, every Sunday, plus features like multi-view, so you can watch

up to four games at once. You can just lock in and watch games unfold while missing a thing. And get this, for new users, it's just eight payments of $30 a month. Stop stressing out and go sign up right now at YouTube.com forward slash NFLST. New users pay $240 or eight non-cancelable payments of $30 a month. First charge of purchase. Availability varies with NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games and YouTube TV for local and national games, YouTube TV required. Terms and embargoes apply. Device and content restrictions apply to multi-view. Commercial use excluded. No refunds. You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari. 355 cabriole.

What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every tool 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. email address, life advice, RR at gmail.com, Serruti and Kyle, in the mix. Let's get right to it. High school reunion conundrum. Hi, Ryan. 511, 189.

Lift weights about four times a week. I'm basically been maintaining the same muscular, but kind of fat body type for the last five years. No real player comp. Which is pretty average or below average at everything I do on the core. I'd love to hear what NBA player comes in mind when you hear that description. late career j crowder no i'm just came sorry sorry to jay crowder maybe i'm maybe i'm wrong anyway i'm 28 about to turn 29 10 year high school reunion coming up for some background i got married about a year ago

moved away from my hometown about three years ago i still keep up with a lot of my friends from high school in fact all of my groomsmen were friends from my high school and i feel very lucky that i've stayed so close with those guys we built such a strong foundation together early in life and those friendships have carried on. So when the reunion came up, our group was pretty split on the idea. A couple guys got really excited. They think it'll be a great opportunity to catch up, see what everyone is doing, see what the people look like now, et cetera. A few of us, myself included, were almost disgusted by the thought of going. Our thinking is we already keep up with everyone from high school that we actually want to keep up with. The people we're still friends with. We talked to,

the people we've chosen not to stay in contact with over the last 10 years. Well, there's probably a reason for that. And I understand the argument is that it could be interesting. to see what everyone is up to now. But this isn't the 1970s. If I'm genuinely curious about someone from what high school is doing, I can find out about 10 seconds on my phone. I can look them up on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, whatever. I don't need to attend an event to find out the guy who sat behind me in AP government is now a regional sales manager in Charlotte. Man, that's a bad spin, dude. That's a pretty good argument for it. And it's also incredibly specific. also I'm not expecting everyone there to be completely uninteresting. Of course, there will be some people I generally enjoy catching up with, but looking at the guest list, it seems like there'll be far more people. I have absolutely no interest in talking to. The other thing is that the reunion doesn't really seem like the giant high school reunion you see in movies. We graduated with more than 400 people and it looks like maybe 70 people are actually going to go and that's probably being generous. I've also seen some of the names on the RSVP list. And let's just say I'm not exactly counting down the days. So my question is,

is, am I being way too cynical about this? Have you ever gone to your high school reunion? What was it actually like? A lot of my friends seem to have this idea that it's going to be some scene straight out of a TV show. Everyone from your old life shows up. Everyone reconnects. You find out what happened. All the people used to know, maybe you run into your old girlfriend who's now married with three kids, etc. But again, you would know that, as our guy points out in today's world. I see it as a night of four small talk with a bunch of people I haven't spoken to in 10 years and probably haven't had any desire to speak to in 10 years. Am I missing something about the appeal of the high school reunion? Thank you. Love the podcast.

I think there's more cynicism than the recipe calls for coming from this guy, but I don't think it's way too much. You know what I mean? What's wrong? A little extra garlic sometimes. They only tell you to put two cloves in. It's not even enough. So like I think, I think there's more cynicism than, you know, usually. So he went to garlic fest itself. I did it. I did not. I did not. Got canceled. Actually, you should have apparently. It sounds like you missed an opportunity. Listen, I'm just trying to do analogous here. Don't step all over them. So I got, I think, I

think that, you know, this thing comes once every, what, 10 years? I mean, my class didn't even do one. Like, the class, two classes below me, they've got like a comptroller for their thing. They got a treasurer. They're not missing a beat. My class didn't do that. I kind of, I'd be interested, I think, I think. But, I mean, what you could do is plan on stopping in. And if it's going, like, plan on half, like, we're going to the bar at nine on Friday or whatever. And, like, that gives you an hour to see if you like this or not. And then maybe you stay a little longer, or you at least have an out, you know, for a couple of boys that want to go. Humor them.

It's cool that there's dudes that are interested in this, even though you're not one of those guys. You could humor them and then just say like, listen, we're out of here when the clock strikes nine. And then maybe you stay longer if it's better than you thought. But at least you have an out where it's not like it's ruining your whole whole shit. Well, when you came back, you know, home to the Kipsi, like that was kind of reunion in itself, right? Did you see people that you wanted to see? Like, how did that work for you? Because like, I live, I don't live, I would probably 45.

minutes from my hometown. No, I'm not in the circles. So I don't know what's going on. Whenever I go back to my hometown, shout out to Southington. I'm like, what the hell? This place looks totally different. My parents don't live there anymore. So whatever. But like, I would say I went to my 10. And I just would say I leaned negative. I wasn't as negative as this guy, but I definitely leaned negative. I think my, you know, some of my other friends wanted to go. I have a good friend. She's like, I think she's the treasure or something. And she's like, all right, you got to go basically. So I went. If the treasure invites you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Listen, if you get that, yeah, if, if The cabin.

She's putting in the hours. You got to go. At least make it worth it. It wasn't actually that bad. It wasn't that bad. I didn't have a bad time. I did not. Now, my wife probably talked to more people than I did, but I did catch up with a few people

that I do like and did like. I just don't talk to anymore. So that was like kind of cool. And here's the weird thing is my 20th is coming up this November. And I'm back in the same thing. I don't know if I want to go. Sounds like maybe Maddie wants to go, though. Well, she's the selfish of butterfly of these situations.

and she talks to more people. It's fine. Whenever we go back to Southington, she knows more people I do. Kristen's messing to me on Facebook. She's super excited. Right. 100%. Now we're hanging out with somebody. This is great. Okay. But I would say for the 10, it was more fun than I thought it was going to be. Yes, like you could be cynical about it. You don't have to talk to people you don't want to talk to. It's very quick. It's very very quick interactions. I mostly hung out with the people that I already talked to. And then there were like little side conversations. You know, people kind of like dabble with other groups again. And you talk to them for five, ten minutes and maybe you grab a drink and you catch up. and it's a cool conversation you didn't expect to have.

So I do think there's this weird thing, though, like there is 100% a generational thing, right? Like my dad goes to like his elementary school, like reunions. My grandma's like, it's crazy. We just go to a diner now. These things.

It's nuts. Shout out to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. And whereas us, it's like this huge cringe thing. I don't know if it's like the Facebook generation and after where everybody just kind of is in everybody else's business. So they just like don't feel like they have to actually catch up in person. But I don't know.

I'm typically cynical on these things. but I don't think, I think it would be some sneaky more fun than you think it is. It sounds like a very serruti type email. I mean, if younger me, that's a younger man. Yes. If your wife wasn't cute, would you be as motivated to go? What if you were single? Well, I think it was my five year.

My buddy started dating somebody who we didn't even talk to in high school. We just started dating her. And then she left for Australia for like a year. That was a weird scene. but you can you know you reconnect to people like that people change i guess the other thing too is you come back and you're like wait a second who's this like you're actually kind of awesome you don't smell anymore yeah you look good you know people clean up people try hard you know if you're single you should go i think yeah if you got like a you know nice little date on your arm you should go

if your boys wants to go you should go i think there's a lot of reasons to go i like that kyle turned it into like the pregame of whatever the normal life was going to be though and by the way Get this guy out of his own head. Yeah. Yeah. Like there should be with your core group some sort of predetermined time. And then if you're all out and you go out regularly anyway, it might be kind of like a funny first half of the night into the second half where you start telling stories about.

Yeah. Right. You talk about Brett for hours. Well, you know what? It's good to have that too. Because like what if you're the guy who's cynical about it and then you go there and nobody wants to talk to you and you just do like four laps around the gym and you're like, oh, man.

I don't have anyone that's interested coming up to me. I'm the loser. And you were the one who was like all these losers and then you're too much for the loser for the losers. Now you've got to have an escape plan. There were definitely some people though.

I remember at the 10 who tried real hard, real hard. What does that look like? I haven't been to one of these. Like maybe hired like a beauty team. Oh, okay. You'd like black dress. That's entertaining.

It is. No, it was funny. Like it was like, man, you really cared about. tonight. Your own life, let up to this. I bought a pair of pants

from Jake Crew. You went to, you know, you're spending thousands of dollars trying to make with a makeup team. But I don't know. Like, again,

like there, I think maybe there's, and I went to a huge high school too. It was like, I think we graduated with like 500, maybe 600, maybe 600 people. So it was massive.

And I don't even, maybe there was like a couple hundred people there. I don't know. And there's probably going to be less for the 20 would be my guess. But you still, you'll find people that you're like, oh, man, I forgot about that guy.

He was kind of awesome, you know? If you have some other people that want to go, I've never gone to a high school reunion. It was going to ask. It took me a long time to get this. That was minus 500. Yeah. The college ones, I just love where I went to college and I love my college friends.

So, you know, we went to the five. The five I was almost still living there, which is its own story, which I've covered before. I was like, I better move before this. This is going to be embarrassing. Went to the 10. 10 was one of the best weekends ever. I didn't go to the 15. and then the 20 wasn't recognized

and a few of us went, that didn't go great. Because we were kind of like a gang into town. It's like a loose. Oh, no, it was a rigid gang. I didn't go to the 15 and 20 and then we went to the 25 and the 25 was it recognized. I was forgetting how old I am now. Jesus, 25.

High school, I didn't, high school, it was Martha's Vineyard. I just don't, it's such a pain in the ass. And when it, It was the 25 or 30, Jesus, that there was a push. So you have to come to this one. You have to come to it. Because I do have like a good like core of like a few friends from it.

And a lot of them still have a huge connection to Martha's Jr. to like to like you're not coming to this? I'm like, do you think I'm going to fly all the way back there for this? No way. I wonder. Early on. Should I try to put together like 14 years later? It's like, hey, I know we didn't do anything.

But like I'm starting this. That could be a fun little project. You just just stage a coup on the actual process. You're like, I'm the captain now and you just take over. Yeah, just try to get this thing done before the 15 comes up and we like, we all get one. I don't know. Maybe I'll look into it. I think you'd have fun, Kyle.

I really do. Me too. SC. Social chair. How does that work? Is it like the class president that year just has to do it forever or like they just find somebody who's going to step up? Sounds like you're not committed. It's like, can I do it once?

Taxes. I did that last year, right? All right. Let's see. Too old to nickname the cart guy. What about other strangers? 31-6-1-270 living in the southeast could squat 405 in high school, Vannell, someone who rightfully gets referred to as big man or boss in public and not offended. For basketball, I'd use my physical appearance to get left wide open on threes and keep backing up until I miss. It would be a total non-factor at any regular runs.

My question is, what age can you become nickname guy? I don't mean like calling a waitress hunter sweetheart, which my opinion requires white hair and the ability to confidently order a senior coffee in an obvious stage for creeper. This would fall more to the category of someone you regularly interact with but don't really have substantial conversations with. Like they could easily show up in a dream. It would be notable enough to remember the next day because you're so surprised that you had their face memorized.

this that's a weird way of this going all over the place making us all understand what you're talking about for example thank you the cart guy at our club is about 23 and I probably see him three four times a week when I walk into the locker room with a gym bag so it looks like I'm working out but I'm actually just using the steam room and showering we spoke today he's from the Midwest and that's about all I remember I totally blanked on his name so I'm concerned I'll see him this week and have to mumble out a bud pal and basically telling myself for being a self-absorbed snob. When can you pull the trigger on nicknaming guys? I'm considering hitting him with a,

What's up, Kansas? I didn't know where this is going, but I want you so badly to do that. So, and if it goes well using that playbook with other folks in life, like coworkers, fringe friends, or even my friend's kids, I'm really having a tough time keeping up with the names for context. I have a two-year-old daughter and been resonating more and more. with the Becoming Your Parents commercial series. Appreciate the help and shout out Wargon.

Oh, nice. So Kansas, he has a bit of information, right? I mean, you have the standard. Midwest. Are you sure how I was going to say? If you're not sure about Kansas, don't do that. And then you got to go with like a chief guy, bud, pal. But you can't just.

Kansas is so good, though. If it's Kansas. Yeah. What if it isn't, though? What if he's from the Dakotas? What's up, Kansas? It's really about you. It's about you and your, the aura you have.

Yeah. You know, it's like if Vince Vaughn went up to somebody, like he's the top of the scale, if Vince Vaughn ran into somebody, he was like, what's up, Kansas? It works. It's hilarious. It's funny. You're like, I can't believe he did that. If, I don't know, the other end of it. Mintzy. Well, if he can do that every point. I guess I don't know. That's kind of a bad example. Yeah, that's a bad example because, I mean, you would just expect it. It would be like he's calling guys Kansas now and then it would just kind of somehow work. What the fuck?

Right. Now I'm just picturing Mincy doing it and how funny it would be. Yeah, no, that was a total bad example. Yeah. But like a sick, like a six-year-old boy, you just call him wheels because he's fast or something. He would love that shit.

That is pretty sick. Yeah. Wheels is great. Yeah. So I don't know. Look, you're 270. You're going to get away with a lot. Mm-hmm.

If you're jolly. Is that fair? Like, if we're trying to figure out, like, what can you pull off? You're young. 31 and doing it. it is a little weird. The college game day crew used to just call everybody size, even if they knew your name.

Like, what's up, size? And it was great if you weren't even that big. Nice. This is awesome. That's like getting thrown a bone right there, right? Yeah, like, I've been doing pushups for Curb Street noticed. This is awesome. So, so Rudy?

I'm a big my man guy, you know? I keep it simple. I'm terrible with names. All the time. Yeah, I mean, I say my man to people I know too. So it's not even like I'm just doing it to the people I don't know. But I think you're 100% right. You have to own, you have to have the presence.

You have to own being that guy. And if you're not up to that task, it's going to come off as super weird. So you do my man a lot. Like I can see if like the guy's handing you're bacon egg and cheese and you're like, my man. But like you do that to like your boys, everything, huh? I'll do it in a text message, dude. I do not. Actually, I can attest to that.

I do it all the time. Yeah. I don't know. Because I feel like in a text message, like I'm very weird about, like text etiquette and like, you know, do you throw an exclamation point in here? If I don't, am I going to sound like I'm being too, you know, like a dick. So I'm just, you throw my man in there. I feel like it eases the tension.

Everybody's happy. I don't disagree with that at all. Especially when I'm like blind texting, people would come on the show. But, uh, so yeah, I don't know. But I, I definitely do not. I know I do not have the personality to be nicknamed guy. Like you have to have an aura. You have to have to have like you.

You have to be kind of funny. Yeah, the Vince Vaughncombe is probably perfect. And if you don't have that, it's just going to fall flat out of space. Even Kansas, though, like, can't, I don't know. It's slightly disrespectful if he's not there, but then if it becomes a thing, like, it's kind of funny. And like the rest of the clubhouse is going to be like, this is kind of cool. Like, we call this guy Kansas. He doesn't, he's not even from there.

And that's kind of the joke. So you got to own it if it's yours. I couldn't really come up with like an accepted public figure where it's like if this person started doing think games. I immediately like just default to different radio managers. I haven't liked where I'm like, if this guy came in the room, it was like, what's up Kansas? I'm text for the rest of us. Yeah, you just go, so you're going to do, you think you're going to pull off what's up Kansas to people?

To your point on the size thing, if I haven't seen a guy in a while, pretty much no matter what, I'm just like, dude, you're looking strong. That fucking works. You're looking strong, dude. If they're fatter, so somebody's an absolute mess. If they're fat, totally overweight, never been fatter, you'll be like, you look strong. Well, if it's like, obviously a downhill spiral, that's one thing. But just like, you know, I'm just saying you haven't seen a guy in a couple years.

That's happening to me now that I'm back. You're like, dude, you're looking strong. Like, you know, I don't know. I guess. I'm like, no, man. Awesome. So what else is up? You know, it's just a, it's a huge confidence booster, I think.

Yeah. But what if it's not? What if the guy's never been weaker? And he knows that he's never been weak. Well, I mean, I can tell if there's a drastic change. I'm just saying if I don't know what to say. I'm like, dude, you're looking strong. Hell yeah, man.

I love the boost. I just am concerned about the accuracy. He doesn't like that, again, Stone-Bowler. If you're not actually strong, I shouldn't be called. I know Ryan doesn't, but I'm not going to change it. I'm not going to change my habits at all. I think it's been where I'm not asking you to change it.

But I would just say, wait until I see you next. You're going to be fucking glowing when I hit you with that. You don't want to say it's me because there's some numbers right now. I've never been weaker. Maybe you need to hear it. You're looking strong, buddy. I may look it, but I'm not. I'm not strong right now.

Just in case anybody I was concerned. Kyle loves being back home. And what he loves even more is he gets. to share the word on Lucy Pouches. Lucy Pouches have the industry's longest lasting flavor, nicotine meat technology. That's what Kyle says. He meets somebody new. He doesn't know their name. He goes, nicotine, meet technology. Most pouches hit hard, fade fast, and call it a day. Lucy Pouches are formulated with an optimized absorption curve that delivers nicotine more

gradually for a longer lasting experience that's gentle around your mouth, throat, and stomach. Lucy is the only pouch that delivers long-lasting, on-demand flavor. get 20% off your first order when you buy online at lucy.co forward slash Ryan. That's code Ryan, R-Y-E-N. And here comes the fine print warning. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. Okay, little softball, blind read, 49, deadlift, 425, squat 315, bench 245. I haven't played much basketball since high school, but player comp. I'd go with Bruce Bowen. Not much of a score. It could play defense. Big fan of the show. I've been following you since you joined the barstool platform. Always entertained.

by you, Kyle and Serrini. All right. So it's kind of like a non-O-G, new guy. You like to see that growing audience. Wish I would have started listening sooner. All the life advice could have made me a better person. Wow. This guy is like saying you've never looked stronger.

Not a huge NBA guy. Is this just all compliments? Yeah, it is. Okay. Is there a meat to the email or it was just a long run of out of voice? I don't know. I'm confused. because there's like two there's like two emails in there so thank you for all the compliments

i'm not sure if the email went all the way through could have done a better job on this third email ryan editing nope leave it in leave it in punishment all right my girlfriend is obsessed with rescuing straight cats Kyle oh shit on this one six one two hundred pounds player comp right-handed manager nobly I'm also Argentinian slasher with excellent passing. I can dunk. Damn, straighty three-point shooter. Dating my girlfriend for two plus years, this is by far the healthiest relationship I've ever had in two years until those cats start making sick. In two years, we've really never had a fight, maybe a few disagreements here and there,

but tend to resolve quickly through good communication. Our relationship has been defined by tons of laughter, affection and understanding. My girlfriend lives at home with her family. She had two cats when I met her that she calls her own. The family has since adopted two more, bringing the official count to four in their household, so I was well aware of her love for cats going into the relationship. Here's the dilemma.

Over the recent weeks, she's gotten into fostering strays. Just to clarify, this is a new development, and just started. Strays off the street, off of shelter websites, even source from an underground network of Facebook rescue groups.

At least 20 cats have cycled through her house and my apartment. She will typically hold them for three to five days until a humane. shelter or permanent home is found. Now, don't get me wrong. I love animals, and I feel empathy for the cats. I'm not a monster, but this is all caps overtaken her life and by extension, all caps, mine. I'm talking constantly on her phone while we're together, messaging members of rescue Facebook groups, emailing, calling shelters, coordinating with other cat rescue vigilantes in

this subculture, not to mention once the cats are in her possession, they monopolize her attention at dime. I get that objectively, this is a green flag. She's being kind. I don't know. I don't thought that sentences. She's being kind and selfless, but I'm starting to wonder if I really want this to be my reality. Like, is this just my life now? I certainly don't think it'll continue with this pace, but she's mentioned multiple times that if I want to date her long term, I'm signing up for this because it's a passion of hers. We've discussed it several times. She acknowledged she's being crazy and literally laughs and says, I definitely have a sickness. So anyway, can you pick up some cat food on your way home from CBS?

Yeah. I've always enjoyed animals and grew up with pets and have been an advocate for their humane treatment. Look, I think most people feel that. I don't want 20 of them running around my fucking house. But as I get older, I realize that the burdensome responsibility generally outweighs the actual enjoyment. For example, I've never understood why some of my single friends have pets, considering

the lack of freedom it brings their entire weekend revolves around the pet's potty schedule. when you're settled down and have a family, then it's a bit different, though. Regardless, my question is the following. Is it a dumb reason to end a genuinely great relationship because I can't picture signing up for a lifetime of rotating strays? Honestly, can't see this being my lifelong term, but it feels like such a petty and trivial reason to end a perfectly healthy relationship. I just cannot stop picturing every future vacation,

getting torpedoed by someone found a kitten in a parking lot. Thoughts, Kyle, I'm looking at you first. Yeah. You know, I got burned with the first one. and I think everyone's pretty clear where we stand moving forward. There will be no extra stuff. You know, if we,

if we all both agree, we got the same itch, we need to scratch and we got to, you know, bring someone into the family, yes. But, you know, but I paid for that, and I still am. So like, I'm not, what do you mean? Like, I just, I still have,

they're still around. Like, you know, rabbits? Yeah, yes, they're still around too at this point. But like, you know, I'm still, so I can't say like, you know, I figure this out. But I think going forward, When we had sex at one point?

Yeah, for like half a day. And then that one was just, that one didn't even make it. So, but anyway, I think this is a bummer because it's not like a hobby. This sounds like she, you know, found a calling, you know, like some higher entity got her attention was like, this is what you need to do. And like, obviously it's like, and it's unfortunate because it sounds like, can you talk to her and say like, what if you just did a couple of hours at the shelter with? Like, do you need to help in this way? You just feel like you need to help some way. And I think the other thing is he's going right to like ending the relationship.

It sounds like you've been talking and she, and it hasn't gotten too serious because she's laughing and going, I know, guess I'm just crazy for cats. You know what I mean? Like I think we need to get a little bit more serious before you start moving towards, should I end this relationship? I think there needs to be some more, you know,

like we're getting older. I'm looking towards the future. I don't know if this can be a part of my future. You know, you could spin it into a whole, you know, where are we both headed? I'm excited about the future. but this thing makes me scared.

Like, I think that's got to be more important before you're just like, man, should I just, she's not going to change. It just sounds like you ever really put the screws to her enough. Yeah, I think that's definitely next on the agenda. Right. I would say you're, and you guys don't live together yet, right?

So. Yeah. He asked the question of like, is this trivial enough to end it? Like, yeah, long term. It's going to, it's just going to make you miserable, then there's no compromise.

Then it's not like something stupid. It's like, I can't believe you broke up or over there. he thinks about the future. It's like, that's something that needs to be talked about. So, but as Kyle said,

like, there are steps to that process. And I think, I think you need to start with like, a, hey, I love you. And I'm happy that,

I'm happy, you found this calling. You're the goods, kid. And what, and yeah. And like, whiskers,

give her a nickname. The fact that you care about these cats, like, that's really great. And that's an endearing quality. We need a cat cap. Like, there just needs to be a cat cap,

right? Like, this is the number. No second apron. This is the number. Yeah, exactly. No second apron. If you exceed this, I get three weekends a year where I just disappear with my body.

It's like, that's the luxury tax. This is an open relationship. You get cats. I can hit on car girls. Yeah. So that's where I'd start. And, you know, because as Kyle said, she's not taking it super seriously. You have to make it serious.

You have to make it in her eyes serious that you are like not pumped about this. Because I think this whole thing to her is a big. joke right now. And I think you know this conversation's not going to go well. So that's why I think maybe if you if you the spin is like you know what eventually we're going to like you have an apartment if she lives at home. It's like you know, I think naturally the next step for us is to move in at some point and everything feels great. I just have this one concern. And you know, now you're now you're talking about how we're moving forward and not like this shit needs to end. So I think the way you the way you spin it's really going to go a long way. Nobody wants a date a hoarder.

And in this case, the items move. So with checker, I think it's a huge, huge problem. Normally you watch the hoarding show and it's a couple and you're like, well, they found, they found their person or one person just gave in. Usually not a ton of exercise going on, usually in the outside of the house with the people that are on the hoarding TV shows. But you already know this sucks, man, because it does. And the fact that she's like,

I know that I'm kind of crazy. And like, he's not even talking about the cats moving around in the house or at his apartment or what's going to end up happening if you move in where it's going to happen all the time. I think he makes a great point that if the attention part of this is also like it's just what she's doing every day. Yeah, he's at dinner. And she's on next door. That's a bummer.

Yeah, I would get yelled at a little bit because it's like, oh, you're not really paying attention. It's like, well, you came over when there were four screens up. You know, like, this is the job. That's on you, babe. Right. Like, what did you, what did you think was going to happen? You know the schedule.

This is what it is. The yellow pads out. And you're right. Like, I'm not 100% locked in. But I can also now get to a point where I understood, like, hey, you have to figure out a way to Surrety's point, balancing. You can't do that every single night. You can't do it every night. You can't do it every weekend.

You have to find times where you, when you care about somebody, are going to go put the notepad down and fucking go outside, right? Like you have to figure out what the other person needs from you to be in these healthier relationships. And if she's still because it's new and it's like a passion or as Kyle points out like her calling, it'll probably, you know, again, I'm just guessing here, but it's probably going to take her a very long time because she's so excited about this right now for her to have any kind of correction if that correction's ever coming. So again, you wrote an email to a podcast, and I don't want

to tell you like, yes, you should break up with your girlfriend, but I don't think this is going to work out at all because it's still new enough and you still care about her so much that you're willing to overlook, but you haven't gotten the full boat on this. You haven't moved in. You're not engaged. Like, this is not, you know, binding agreements between you two. Yeah. Well, well, true, that's another way looking at, but everything that bothers you now, if it stays at the same pace, it is going to bother you so much more. I don't think you're going to get used to this, man. I think it's going to go, you're going to start arguing about stuff that has nothing to do with the cats because the cats are a constant presence and you're just so mad about the cats. That's my fear. Yeah.

You got to speak up, dude. Or like, well, now if we're at the, if we're at the old deal table. I have some things. All right. That'll do do it for the show today. All of our episodes available on Netflix. Thanks to Tom. Thanks to Kevin. Thanks to Rudy. Thanks to Kyle. Brian Rusillo Show. Barstool Sports.