CFP Expansion Getting Closer, Players Taking Things Too Far, Week 5 Preview | Others Receiving Votes

All right.

Welcome to the show.

Others receiving votes.

I'm here with my friend Gene Wojcikowski, as always, uh, packed weekend of stuff we're going to get to.

A lot of stupidity from last weekend we're going to address.

Uh, we will just, uh, discuss a, a momentous fat bear, uh, update.

Huge.

I hope we don't run out of time before we get to that.

Uh, we will definitely not run out of time before we get to that.

Um, but we are gonna lead with, uh, The, the news that's, that's coming down the pike here in the last day or so, that, to me, it's like uh the, the onset of artificial intelligence.

Everybody's saying AI is coming.

Nobody is saying why we need AI or why we should want AI.

Uh, the 2014 playoff.

Nobody is saying we want a 2014 playoff, except the people who stand to make money from a 2014 playoff.

Uh, that's the, the leaders in college sports who don't really care what the fans want.

But the, the, uh, conference commissioners, Notre Dame AD, CFP staff all met in Rosemont, Illinois, uh, yesterday, Wednesday.

To discuss, and the consensus, Corey Ross Dellinger, who was there, Yahoo Sports.

Uh, the consensus call a doubling of the postseason feels like a foregone conclusion, even if no one will say it publicly.

Uh, the foregone conclusion appears to be coming pretty quickly too, Gene, because the, the 30-day window to negotiate with ESPN between the CFP and ESPN, uh, has until October 9th to come to terms.

If that, uh, window closes, these things could change.

But, but, so we might within a week, it's now October 1st, have an agreement in principle, at least on a 24 team playoff for 2027.

I view this as terrible.

Um, certainly willing to get your thoughts on it as well.

It does seem like we're heading that way.

I also, I did see Austin Carp from Sports Business Journal termed it, quote-unquote, tough sledding, getting ESPN to necessarily agree to pay enough money to make this worthwhile, because what would have to happen is the conference championship games would have to go away.

So how do you refill, how do you fill that revenue coffer with, with new revenue, so that people can see 8 and 4 Iowa in a playoff game in You know, Starkville, Mississippi against Mississippi State, 9 and 3 Mississippi State, yee-haw.

Anyway, Gene, your, your thoughts as we appear to be barreling down the pike towards 24.

Yeah, there, there's no emergency brakes available anymore.

Uh, your brake lining's gone.

Uh, we're headed toward an expanded playoff, which just boggles the mind for 1000 different reasons.

By the way, it's super intelligence, Pat.

I don't know if you got the forgot new memo artificial inte on that, but, um.

Yeah, as soon as I saw it, as soon as you just, you really didn't even need to read between the lines of what the CFP spokesperson was saying, it, it, it sounds like a done deal, and, uh, we're headed toward 24.

Uh, I've read so many of the same stories that you did, I'm sure, and They have to make up at least $300 million in lost revenue from those, those conference championship games that will not be played under this newest format.

So, yeah, we're gonna get a lot of 8 and 4s and God, who knows uh what could happen.

7 and 5s, I mean, I, I, I wouldn't think so, but at this point, anything is possible.

Uh, I think I also read that ESPN , uh, the CFP would have 5 more days after that October 9th deadline to make an offer to, uh, ESPN.

And then there's a December 1st, uh, date where the CFP has to officially inform ESPN that there's going to be a change in format.

So all that sounds like fait accompli.

I do not understand it.

I did read some of the lip service paid by the CFP's spokesperson about, you know, the importance of the regular season and how we have to keep that in mind and acknowledge that.

But it, it just sounded like talk to me.

Cause if you really cared about the importance of the regular season, we wouldn't be expanding.

So, this is about television revenue.

This is about growing the revenue to other networks now.

Uh, it, it's, it's completely about money, even though they say it's not about money.

Whenever they say that, it's always about the money.

Absolutely.

The more you deny it's about the money, the more obvious it is about the money.

And that clearly drives every decision in college athletics and has for a while, the Yeah, the thing here, again, like I, I see no popular groundswell of excitement for this.

I, I don't sense that people are saying, that's gonna, that's what we really want.

That's gonna help the sport.

Um, you know, maybe when it actually comes to pass, there will be, uh, maybe we'll, we'll, maybe when we get there, we'll find out we like it more than anybody likes it right now, but I sure don't like it.

I, I don't like it at all.

I, I, again, I think this is Rewarding pretty good teams, because you don't want them to feel bad because they couldn't, weren't good enough to make a 12-team playoff.

To your point, You know, the, the, the regular season, this doesn't help the regular season.

I don't care what they say, and one of the spins on this is, well, we'll get more good games.

We'll get more matchups that may feature prominent teams that don't matter.

You know, we, we talked about this on the pod last week, that these September games we just saw, they may not matter as nearly as much in the future, going forward.

It might have been the last September of really impactful.

Games that that we've had , and even then, you could argue, you know, that certainly they used to be more impactful.

But, The, the ratings of TV ratings are down 11% this year.

I think in part because of bad matchups, and you can say, well, now, Indiana is gonna have to play somebody, Nebraska is gonna have to play somebody, Penn State's gonna have to play somebody in the non-conference.

Theoretically, yes, that could be true.

That's what got Greg Sankey to go along with this, is.

His proposal that everybody plays 10 qualifying events, which means you play your 9 league games and then you play 1 power conference opponent.

I still don't think those games are going to resonate in a way that makes everybody say, oh, the season's better.

I just don't think so.

And I think when you get to the playoffs, people are gonna be like, why do I need to watch this 16 seed against 24 seed for the right to play a 15 seed?

Why, why does this matter?

Uh, I'll say this, Pat, the conference championship games.

I, I'm not married to those, right, uh, first of all, relative to the playoffs, we've seen them have in some cases, no meaning in a way.

When it came to the to the uh to the rankings.

Uh, it doesn't happen all the, uh, all the time.

And sometimes they have great meaning, but, but the fact that you can play a championship game, you can lose it and still get in the, in the playoff, to me sort of neuters the importance, uh, of those conference championship games.

Second, We're, this is gonna be good for Netflix, maybe, or Amazon or perhaps Fox or TBS.

But the one voice I haven't seen at the table are players.

They're gonna be asked to play more games, theoretically, if you're on those teams that advance.

And we don't hear their voices.

And so that, that bothers me.

And so, um, yes, maybe the money will increase.

But we don't have any input from, from the players , from the people who actually have to provide the entertainment and the content here.

Yeah, no, I think that's a great point.

And that's if you go, all right, we would have a 12-game regular season, we would no longer have the 13th game with the conference championship games, but you're gonna have, you would have teams that would be getting in the playoffs no matter what without playing in the championship.

You would, if you are in a first-round game, you're 16 against 24, you are playing them the 13th game, you win, you're playing a 14th, you're playing then a 5th, if you keep going, you get up to like 17.

Which is an NFL season.

And again, this is, while college players are better compensated than ever, they're not full employees with a say at the bargaining table in what is going on.

So, you are telling them to sign up for something, trust us, it's gonna be great.

There's never really been great reason for the players to, to automatically trust the leadership in, in college sports.

And theoretically they're They're attending school, they're working toward a degree, they're taking classes, they're taking finals, you know, so there is that component also.

Yeah, uh, that, that was my thing when, when we first went to 12, and we were having, you know, the first round games, like the 2nd, 3rd week of, uh, of December.

I called and asked, hey, what about finals week?

And they're like, oh yeah, we're actually having that now, but, you know, we'll work around it.

It's like, oh, remember that used to be like, the, the thing, one thing you didn't touch was finals week, because that's when, by golly, the, these guys are gonna study to, to pass classes and, and get their degrees and blah, blah, blah blah blah, that's all totally out the window, not even a discussion anymore, any of that.

The, the, the revenue drive is completely uh subjugated anything that has to do with education or academics.

So, that's, that's where we are.

Um.

The, uh, the other thing here, is the, the What I think we're doing again, we're, we are trying to make people excited about mediocre games.

I don't think these are going to be good games.

They may be relatively close at first, you know, like the first round games may be close, just like the.

Rely Quest Bowl can be close, and the Pop-Tarts Bowl can be close, but I don't think we're gonna be watching excellent football between great teams that have a chance to win a national championship.

So, I feel like we're just deluding people by saying the ReliQuest Bowl is now a playoff game on campus somewhere, and just thinking this is gonna be a good thing.

I don't know what, from a fan standpoint, can you, can you find any reason to convince fans to say, oh, this is, this is gonna be exciting.

As you mentioned, maybe we get to it and something.

The unintended consequences, we're more interested in it than we thought.

But it strikes me as, and you would, what would be the right comparison if, if we were making the comparison of the uh NCAA basketball tournament?

Is this like an 8?

89 seed kind of game or uh yeah or or even a play-in game to 11 seeds in Dayton yeah sorry I I get it why you know you have the chance to get into the NCAA tournament, but that doesn't make it compelling to me.

I, I'd rather watch a compelling regular season game.

Uh, than a mediocre, uh, playoff game matchup.

I agree.

I'm, I'm obviously going to, they, they didn't invite me to Rosemont yesterday, and I'm just down the street from them, so I don't think they're interested in, in the twelve-team guy, but I, I just don't get it, and I'm really, I truly am worried.

That in the pursuit of money, they're going to screw up college football.

Yeah, I think so.

I think this is absolutely a bridge too far, and I don't think it helps the regular season.

Um, I don't think it helps the postseason.

I think it only helps people who Coaches and athletic directors who want to say, hey, we went to the playoffs, and we can put this on the facade of the stadium now, 2027 playoff team.

Doesn't mean we were good.

To me , you know, part of the joy and the magic, as we have discussed, of college football is the regular season is huge, and then it's really damn hard to make the playoffs.

What's wrong with that?

Why, why does it have to be easy to make a playoff?

And this discussion of, well, the lowest percentage of FBS schools get to play for a championship than in any other sport.

That's not true.

They're not expanding the playoffs for the Mid-American Conference and for Conference USA and for the Sun Belt, and the Pac-12, the new Pac-12 in the Mountain West.

They're expanding it so more teams from the Power Four, and specifically the Power 2, can get in.

And so, what we're really saying is, we're going to 24 teams on behalf of 68 teams.

Not on behalf of 138, but on behalf of 68 so that more of them get in.

That's what I don't like.

The other reality is, Pat.

You, you know, this is being done partly because Athletic directors are trying to figure out how to pay their bills these days.

But this isn't going to solve their problem long term.

No, it's just not.

Their costs are always going to increase under the way it's structured right now, OK.

Second.

And this is the oldest tale when it comes to, to playoff sports.

There's always going to be a team left out.

The Rays, holy hell.

So right now, it's the 13th team.

You know, last year it was, uh, Miami, right?

Notre Dame, I mean Notre Dame.

I'm sorry, Miami got in Notre Dame, uh, we had Florida State raising hell, uh, back in the day, and Miami was so on and so forth, 24, yeah, right, so that's always going to happen.

You know, there's always gonna be a team saying I should have been in.

Sure, we should have made it, you know, so then what are you gonna expand it to 36.

Don't put it past them.

So, anyway, I, I don't think this solves anything.

It just, it makes it easier for less deserving teams to get in.

Yeah, and to, to say they had a great season when they just had a pretty good season.

So, uh, but that's where we're headed.

Well, I had to get that in, um, Before we look back actually to last week, real quick, Gino, you're, you're wearing a UCLA uh hoodie.

I've got my, this week's cap is Notre Dame, uh, I'm sorry, it's Georgia.

Got the Georgia hat on.

Georgia swimming to be specific.

What's up with the UCLA hoodie there?

Well, I saw this, uh, Uh, I saw something Dan Lanning said yesterday in an interview.

Golly.

Oh I wanna give the, I wanna give him credit, and I can't remember who the radio interview was with.

So I apologize.

I don't think it was Colin Coward, um, Anyway, I'll try to dig it up before the end of the podcast.

But, uh, Lanning said that Bob Chesney, the head coach at UCLA reached out to him and said, hey, look , um, I've canceled practice.

Um, if you need me, if Dante Moore is still here in LA, Presumably, you know, under care after the concussion, and you want me to go check up on him, I'd be happy to go do it.

And I thought that was a really stand-up sort of thing.

And, um, and so just in honor of that, that wonderful gesture by Chesney, uh, I just decided to, to represent UCLA today.

I like it.

It's uh Gino said Jim Rome show.

That was the Jim Rome.

There you go.

OK, yes.

So, but, uh, yeah, look, I, to, to my knowledge, Bob Chesney has hit every correct note so far as the coach at UCLA.

In addition to being undefeated, everybody likes and respects him, which is rare.

If he stays undefeated, people will find reasons to dislike him, but for now, he's doing all the right things.

Um, all right, Gene.

Uh, as we know, look, college football is always on a steady diet of crazy pills, including, like, expanding the playoffs when nobody wants it.

Um, it keeps the sport entertaining, it's very weird, but this last week, they, they, it seems like the sport upped the dose.

We went rogue on reason, dumped decorum, envelope pushing scenes in 3 different games last Saturday.

Uh, and that's not even in taking into account a guy who was way too big a homer and the guy who is clearly not enough of a homer.

We'll get to those.

We got 5 stupid things to discuss here in the last week.

Uh, let's start Texas, Tennessee, and the Texas two-step of, I guess what we can call genital celebration.

Not really great stuff and a little bit difficult to talk about in completely frank terms here on the podcast, but Uh, Colin Simmons' defensive end, in the middle of an epic 5.5 sack game against the Vols, decided to punctuate one of them with a pretend urination .

Uh, not to be outdone, running back Rali Brown chose to commemorate a touchdown with a I don't know, a gesture around the groin area that does not need to be described in detail.

No, no, I think not.

Um, this turned off a lot of people, including athletic director Chris Del Conte at Texas, who weighed in and said, uh, we ain't doing that.

Uh, was this a case of for college guys being college guys, or was it too much bull crap from the horns?

Well, they say that the human brain isn't fully developed until you're 25 years old.

And this is living proof of that.

And you recently, I think I saw it a day or two ago, you tweeted out the lead or a link to a 2014, uh, Atlantic, uh, magazine story about a Marshall University frat kid.

Who decided to launch a bottle rocket from, um, from his rear end, and that went about as well as you might imagine.

And then we have the Penn State alleged frat drug ring.

Uh, so, yes , college guys are capable of absolute utter stupidity.

But what we saw with, with Simmons specifically, was just vulgar and it was unnecessary and it was.

It was astounding in a lot of ways, and I don't know what it accomplished.

Other than embarrass himself and his university and his team, and pick up a pretty crucial penalty at a point in the game when it really mattered.

So, I, I just, I don't understand the behavior.

And what I really didn't understand was uh Steve Sarkisian's explanation after the game, where he seemed to suggest, uh, he tried to explain that we live in a social media age.

Fair enough, we do.

But, and that reporters in that room had social media accounts, and that if they wrote something or broke a story or saw something, they'd be on social media.

Uh, posting it.

And so, uh, they are part of the social media problem.

And he was trying to equate what, what you and I might do with social media versus what, uh, Simmons did.

Because it's the social media age.

I thought it was the weakest argument you could ever make to try to justify that kind of behavior.

I was really disappointed, uh, in, in Sarkisian in, in that moment.

And you mentioned Chris Del Conte.

He said what Sarkisian should have said after that game, that, that it's unacceptable, and it can't go, can't continue.

And, and Sarkisian did say a little something.

Like that, and he said, I'm not going to give the death penalty, uh, for an unsportsmanlike, uh, penalty.

Nobody was suggesting that.

No.

But I, but I do think, um, a stronger, uh, voice against that kind of behavior was needed in that moment, and we didn't get it.

Yeah, no, I, I agree with you completely.

And here's the thing, Texas is having an awesome season.

Texas beat Ohio State in the game of the year so far.

Texas goes into Neyland and wins the game in front of 100,000 people.

And what are we talking about?

We had to talk about Arch Manning and Sark versus Holly Rowe after the one game, and now we're talking about Colin Simmons doing what he did.

You guys are demeaning your own accomplishments.

You're cheapening what you're doing on the field.

Why?

Why, you know, uh, Brett Totmeyer, USA Today, I thought had a pretty good line.

He said, Do you want to be football stars or you want to be TikTok stars?

Because this is, yeah, this is TikTok type stuff, and that's why if Sark wants to just chalk it up as that, fine.

But you know what?

To what, to whom much is given, much is expected.

And I don't think it really is expecting that much if you make a sack to not pretend to take a leak on the field.

I really don't.

I don't think we're putting too high a bar on this.

So, yeah, you, you know what, Pat , when it happened, I, I immediately thought of if, if his parents happened to have made that trip, what they must have thought, or what the university president of Texas sitting up there in the box thought at that exact moment.

So, you know, you're, you're representing.

More than just yourself, yeah, yeah, I'm reasonably sure I saw something from Simmons's mom saying I didn't teach him to do that.

Is that right?

Yeah, yeah, she was not happy about it.

Well, who would?

Who would teach, right, exactly.

He's gonna say, yeah, that's my boy out there doing that.

Look, I think we can all agree that, that it was a, a ridiculous gesture, and after the game, Simmons mostly apologized.

Um, so, you know, we move on and we hope.

That, that, that everyone learns from, from the silliness.

Yeah, yeah, again, young people, they do, they do silly things, but again, like I just, I, it would be great to just talk about number 1 Texas playing great, but they haven't allowed us to do that yet.

A great win in a tough, tough environment, um, yeah, and you're right, we didn't talk enough about that.

Yeah, um, all right, number 2 stupid thing from the weekend, Dylan Stewart, South Carolina.

Uh, NFL prospect who did not help his NFL standing, uh, throwing punches at an Alabama player, and then refused to come out of the game when Shane Beamer.

Told him to come out of the game.

Really weird, bad scene there.

He's been suspended for a game by the SEC and the program.

I don't know who, you know, half and half for each there, whatever, the first half suspension from the SEC, the second half from South Carolina, whatever the case is.

Uh, look, Shane Beamer's on the hot seat.

How big of a mess is this for him if one of his best players is basically insubordinate on the field?

Well, it's a, it's a terrible look, um.

I think, again, I think it reflects Stewart more than it reflects Beamer, but it, but given Beamer's situation right now , you know, it, it gives, if perception is reality, then, then the perception is that Beamer has kind of lost control of things.

Um, but, again, I put it on the player, you know, the player made the decision to act the way that, that he did.

Beamer tried to get him off the field, and assistant coach tried to get him off the field.

It was just a bad scene.

Now, Beamer didn't help himself, uh, in, in a presser, I think it was a day or two ago.

Where someone, where a reporter asked them, you know, who decides and how do you decide?

Uh, how long the suspension is gonna be.

So it must have been before, uh, the SEC and, and, um, uh , South Carolina made the final decision on the one game, and he just simply said, me, you know, like almost defiantly, you know, me, and that, that was his only, the only word he, he spoke, uh, in that answer.

So, and then he, he spoke about how, how well practices are going these days.

So it, the, the whole vibe isn't good, but Stewart.

With his actions, kind of started it.

He did.

Uh, uh, there's no doubt about that, and I, you know, again, like, how does the NFL view these things?

It, it totally depends on how productive the player might be.

Like, Colin Simmons, the NFL discussion about Colin Simmons, I guarantee is 5.5 sacks, not any of the other stuff.

I don't think they worry too much about that sort of thing.

Dylan Stewart, that might be a little bit of a different story.

How much are you producing?

And so far this season, he's he's, he was out for much of the season.

Uh, and then this happens, and this is a really big Saturday for Shane Beamer, I think.

You, your SEC schedule, you open with a home loss to Mississippi State.

In retrospect, that may not be that bad.

Mississippi State could end up having an unbelievable season.

Then you get housed at Alabama, not that bad.

But those two things roll together coming off a bad season last year.

Kentucky comes in, and those two teams kind of historically, It's a, it's a ladder game.

The winner goes up the ladder a little bit, the loser goes down the ladder a little bit in that middle to lower tier of the SEC.

And Shane Beamer really can't afford to be down the ladder from Kentucky, I think, right now.

Especially when you follow that up with at Florida, Tennessee, at Oklahoma, Texas A&M, uh, and then you finish with Georgia and Clemson.

So, really tough schedule.

We'll see where Shane, Shane Beamer stands.

As we get further into it.

But, and, and Pat, can I just throw in one other thing here?

Uh, I wonder in this NIL age where we're , where players being paid, uh, these kind of dollars.

If that gives coaches pause when it comes to, to disciplinary actions.

For example, Urban Meyer said, I would have, I would have suspended Simmons.

Would that have been too harsh?

In, in my mind, yes, probably too harsh.

But there are old school coaches who would have just said, yeah, you're, you're sitting down.

Uh, so I really do wonder if these coaches now have to walk that very, very thin line between discipline and, and having a player just saying, I'm out of here, or I'm shutting it down or, or whatever.

Sure, I, I think 100% that's, that's a, an added dynamic for coaches to deal with.

You do hear some like quiet discussion of player fines now, uh, since they have salaries.

Interesting, yeah, um, again, like no.

Nobody wants to talk about it for real because I'm not sure how legal it is if they're quote unquote not employees, you know, what, what exactly I didn't think of that.

Yeah, so like people want to apply NFL rules, but there's really not an NFL employment structure here.

So, uh, anyway, we'll see how South Carolina does against Kentucky this weekend.

You alluded to the scene in the Coliseum, really scary scene, as, uh, USC punctuated a bad performance with a terrible play.

Uh, Desmond Stevens flying in to knock out Dante Moore as he was sliding feetfirst, and it was feetfirst, and we'll get to that in a minute.

Um, Stevens has also been suspended, probably more for the grandstanding and kind of cavalier dismissal of the injured Moore, who was laying on the field for a long time, while Stevens was congratulating himself on this play.

Uh, what does, did that say about Lincoln Riley's program, the way that whole thing unfolded?

You know, Pat, when you sent the rundown and I saw that, I really struggled.

We're trying to articulate what I, what I think it, it says.

Um, one, we have seen these kind of hits before, right?

We have seen a player start a slide.

Um, there's been a debate.

Did he slide late?

Did he, you know, to me, that doesn't matter, OK?

He, he was sliding, and we've seen these kind of hits before, and we've seen the, the targeting penalties that go with it.

What we haven't seen, or at least I haven't seen, is a player.

Just showing such indifference.

To, to an injury to, to another player.

And Moore was literally on the field.

I think he had the, what they call it the fencing pose, uh, his, his arms straight out.

Uh, he was at the very least concussed.

At the very least, concussed.

At the very worst, we don't know, but it could have been paralysis for all we knew.

And here is this USC player prancing about, celebrating as if he had done something that, that was vital and important, and he showed no empathy and compassion and concern.

And yeah, I get it.

You're in, you're in the, you're in that moment, and, and, uh, it's difficult just to click off the switch, but that was a time for it.

And I did see two other USC players come up to him and basically , like, put the arms down, quit celebrating, and they steered him toward, toward the USC sideline.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, are those two players that steered him toward the sideline, do they reflect the Lincoln Riley sensibilities?

I'd like to think so.

I, I don't think.

Um, what Simmons did at Tennessee or Stewart did in that game, um, Uh, or what the USC linebacker did reflect, uh, the sensibilities of their head coaches.

But the reality is, it came on those head coaches' watch.

And ultimately, you are responsible for the behavior and, and the, uh, uh, uh, how, how your players, uh react in those situations.

So, no, I do not think, um, Lincoln Riley condones anything like that.

Of course, he doesn't.

But just like we said about Beamer, if perception is reality, well, the perception is, Uh, Riley's program has some serious, uh, issues.

And I, and I, I I hate to see that.

Uh, I just hate to see that for all sorts of reasons.

Um, I, I did reach out to Oregon yesterday, and I asked, um, If, if the player had reached, if Stevens had reached out, uh, directly to Dante Moore, and I didn't get a response.

And I know somebody asked Dan Lanning about it at his presser, and Lanning, uh, just brushed off the question and said, I'm, I'm done talking about that game, we need to move forward.

So we don't have that answer, but I hope he did.

I hope he did reach out to him.

I hope so too.

Um, I think the message from USC has been, Sufficient that, you know, like, no, we're like, kind of like Del Conte was saying, like, we're just not gonna do that.

And so there he has been, Stevens has been suspended.

The thing is, yes, this just kind of adds to the negative snowball for USC here.

Obviously, they haven't won a big game in a long time under O'Reilly.

They didn't perform well in this game, and this kind of overshadowed everything, or further emphasized everything.

Um, one thing that I, I, I think was, I don't know if it was a misinterpretation or what, but the, the question was put to Riley after the game, why was he still on the sidelines?

Well, the college rule changed like two years ago.

You get, you, when you get ejected, you don't have to leave the field, which I thought was a good change because it's, that's like further mark of shame on a player.

Let them stay out there with their teammates and watch the game.

So I don't, I, that to me is a complete non-issue.

But the, yeah, the, the celebration afterwards.

I what you said is 100% correct, that players are in a moment, and it's a violent game, and more defensive players are, hey, you, you, you go to hit a quarterback, you get a shot, you, you hit him.

Now, that was an excessive hit, it was a dangerous hit.

Clearly, the evidence of the danger was right there.

One thing I have seen, probably a little more this season.

And I think officials are allowing it is more borderline hits, especially on the sidelines without penalties being called.

And I think you're setting up a little bit of a slippery slope, and especially coaches are gonna say, hey, we don't just play to the whistle, we play to the echo of the whistle.

We don't play to the boundary, we play a foot outside the boundary.

That's when bad things can start to happen.

So, I have a little bit of concern there about, about, I would like to see the officiating tighten up a little bit in terms of some of those calls.

Uh, in terms of calls, questionable calls, Gene, very incident.

We, we had a Baghdad Bob interpretation from USC radio, uh, Pete Arbogast, who's been calling Trojan Games since 1989.

He's called more of them on the radio than anyone in history, uh, part and parcel of that program, but not his finest moments Saturday.

Uh, his interpretation of the hit on Dante Moore was, was a fabrication.

Uh, he did not try to slide feet first, he said, Wrong.

Dante Moore kind of ducked into that hit, wrong, and then he watched the replay and doubled down.

Not a feetfirst slide , more of a knee slide.

Color analyst Sean Cody was sitting there, and this was all on camera for some reason, and Cody's face was like, uh, no, I don't agree with you at all there.

Yeah.

Uh, Arbogast did, he talked to, uh, Softy Maller Mailer, who's the, uh, the, the play by play guy for Washington, um, this week and did tell him, yeah, like, I, I made the wrong call.

But, uh, this to me was like the ultimate fake news delivery in favor of the home team.

And here's my, my thought on that is this.

I really think the super homers don't do, don't do what fans want them to do.

I think fans basically are like all of us who go to the doctor and say, give it to a straight doc.

You know, if there's bad news, give me the bad news.

Um, and so I, I just don't think, I think smart fans, at least, don't wanna be lied to on behalf of their team.

If we're playing poorly, say so.

If we did something cheap on the field, say so.

I, I, I, so I, I, I just don't think that most fans are really of a mind that like, please lie to me so that I feel better about our team.

What do you think?

Who was the great, uh, I'm sorry, I'm drawing a blank, uh, Kaywood, um, Kaywood Ledford, Kaywood Ledford and John uh Kaywood Ledford at , at Kentucky, John Ward at Tennessee, um.

They were comfort food for their listeners .

Um, but their listeners knew that if Kentucky or Tennessee made a bad play, that they would get the actual call.

They would get, they would get a credible analysis of, of the call.

That didn't happen with, with Pete.

And I, I'm not here to, you know, look, uh, they make mistakes.

We, we all make mistakes.

I, I've made mistakes writing stories, uh, doing pieces, uh, but that was, whoa, that was a rough, a rough call.

And so, to his credit, uh, he, as you said, he acknowledged that he screwed it up.

And he said, I'll probably do it again too.

You know, so, uh, but when, when you do something like that in, in, in the name of Homerism, you just kneecap your credibility.

And so even his own broadcast partners were rolling their eyes.

Uh, at, at, at the call.

So, again, the live and learn moment for everyone.

Yeah, and that's, I guess the, the added, uh, element of things now, like, since everything is on video, including the radio guys doing a call, that's on video, then we might know that even your own booth mates think that, uh, You're crazy on something like that.

Um, the opposite of being such a homer.

We have Don Julio.

You know who Don Julio is, uh, Gene?

Yeah, I, I, I've been reading about him.

OK, yeah, but you can't, you can't wait to get to this one.

I love it.

I love this.

This is so silly.

Uh, his, his real name is David Rudolph Genrath, age 24, and we know because he got arrested, and that's when you get your full name thrown in there.

That's when we find out your middle name is Rudolph.

Sorry, David, uh.

He's he was a former part-time Auburn recruiting staffer who was arrested and accused of quote unquote, stealing trade secrets from Auburn and dispensing them to competitors.

Not even like that it was solicited, it sounds like, it's like he was just cold spamming people, other teams, uh, specifically in the SEC sending, uh, Uh, recruiting info.

This is called Trade Secrets, but it sounds pretty mundane, like kind of recruiting one on one.

Like this is how we look at various prospects.

This is how we kind of organize our, our recruiting stuff, our priorities, no playbook.

Yeah, right.

No, this is not WikiLeaks when, uh, the Wake Forest guy was actually like sending out the actual playbook.

But, uh, clearly rather unusual behavior, especially in the SEC where you, you think the zealotry would run the other way.

But, uh, Don Julio, it turns out Gene, is a Tennessee grad.

Is that right, Pat?

It is, it is like you, a Tennessee grad.

Did you accept stolen trade secrets from Don Julio?

I did accept a bottle of Don Julio tequila.

Yeah, that, that I would have accepted.

Uh, do you, do you accept something from a program that hasn't had a winning season since 2020?

Yeah, right.

Who wants to copy their recruiting?

I, I do, I mean, I don't, it doesn't make sense.

But then I remembered, I think Auburn's won seven of the last eight games against Tennessee, so maybe, I don't know, maybe you do.

But, uh, again, you can't make this stuff up, you know, with college football.

You just can't.

I mean, just think about what we've talked about, uh, here so far.

I mean, you just can't make it up.

It's tremendous.

This is the mess that we have, and we, we love the mess.

It's fine.

The circus that goes with it.

Thank God we do have Saturdays, that's for sure.

Um, all right, look, September's in the books.

We're 1/3 of the way through the season.

We know some stuff.

We, or at least we think we know some stuff.

Uh, Gene wanted to turn the tables here.

I've been asking him a series of quick hitters based on what we've seen.

You're gonna ask me.

What happened?

What did we see in the last month?

What's gonna happen in October?

What do you got for me?

All right, you ready?

I'm ready.

This is just gonna be, I don't even know what the questions are here, so I'm coming in.

All right, here we go.

Based on Dan Lanning's comments after last Saturday's game.

Would you rather go to Oregon or a Chris Brown concert?

Yeah, I think I'll, I think I'll go with Oregon.

Uh, yet another, like Dan Lanning never misses a moment to, to, to, to take a shot at in recruiting, especially, and, uh, he did admit it was a, it was a little petty.

Yeah, well, but hey, college football is nothing if not petty.

All right, Steve Sarkisian and a cigar after the Tennessee win or PJ Fleck and a player's blood on his face.

The fleck vampire, Braveheart, whatever that was moment, that, that wins for me because that was just.

And that was so PJ Fleck too, because he's crazy, he's completely crazy, and it's like, if you didn't see it, a linebacker Maverick Baranowski, a great linebacker name, uh, comes over to celebrate after the game, he's got a bloody mouth, and he just wipes the blood off of Baranowski and puts it on his face.

You're like, what on earth are you possibly doing?

I'm watching this live at like 2:20 a.m. Right, this game was on the west coast.

It ends at got o'clock, and I was like, did PJ Fleck really just do what I think he did?

He did.

I was wondering if I just stayed up too late, but that was amazing.

I spent a week with, uh, uh, PJ and his program when he was at Western Michigan.

I was doing a piece, uh, with Game Day.

I mean, we followed them the entire week, and I went into that thing, you know, he has his own language and the row the boat thing and, and this whole kind of.

Philosophy And I, I was scoffing at it at the beginning of the week.

By the end of the week, I'm repeating all the same phrases that he is, you know, I mean, I completely bought into it.

Uh, so he, he is a different dude, but I'll tell you what , I think he's a hell of a coach.

Um, all right, real quick, just wanna add that I spent some time with him when he first, like his second season at Minnesota when they started like 9-0 .

And yes, he is all of that.

He is buzzwords, gimmicks, everything.

And you, you go in rolling your eyes and you come out like, oh, I'm in, you know, he's, he has that charisma, that ability to sell it.

Yeah, I think I bought a boat oar, brought it home after that story.

All right, Mississippi State's Kamario Taylor, or Bama's Keyan Russell?

Oh, boy.

Both fun, can't wait to watch them on the field against each other, Saturday.

Um.

Taylor, right now, I , I watch him and I think not just star in the present, but star of the future.

Can't wait to watch uh him continue to, to ascend.

Oklahoma State's Drew Mesttmaker or Texas's Arch Manning?

Oh, tough one.

Mastermaker putting up spectacular numbers.

Arch playing a little better competition so far.

I've just seen more from Arch, I will take him for now.

All right, then Arch or Taylor?

Taylor, I, I think in terms of quarterbacking, better quarterback.

All right.

USC recovery or Michigan recovery?

USC recovery more likely, um, more weapons, more talent.

I, I watch Michigan and can't figure out how the heck they're gonna score.

OK.

Coach of the 3rd of the season.

Bob Chesney or Wake Forest Jake Dicker.

Mm, love them both.

Uh, I would take Chesney in that one.

Not that Dicker has done anything wrong, but I, Chesney has done so much right.

But I would not take Chesney as my coach of the 1st 3rd of the season.

I would take John Summerall, John Summerall from Florida.

All right, Boise State or the G6 field.

Well, they've beaten two pretty big people in the two big members of the G6 field in Memphis and Western Michigan and handled both of them.

So I, I will take the Broncos.

I'm on the bus.

OK.

All right, now remember, we're just talking about right now, Ohio State or Georgia.

Man, I would like to have seen them played more good teams, but, uh, I'll take Georgia.

I think Georgia, I, what I saw from Georgia against Oklahoma looked like a classic feeding frenzy Kirby Smart defense.

OK, Notre Dame or Texas.

Texas played a better schedule, number one.

Indiana or Bama.

Wow, uh, Bama for now, uh, again, schedule, at least they've played somebody.

Indiana has played one opponent of any worth, that's Northwestern, who I think is kind of sneaky good, um, but that's it, and, and Indiana hasn't hasn't played a road game yet.

Miami or Florida?

Ba ba ba, that's a good one.

Florida based on thumping, yeah, based on thumping Mississippi.

I will take Florida for now.

Oregon at Oklahoma State rematch.

Oh boy.

I want to see that.

I like, I, I'm intrigued by Oklahoma State.

They, you cannot erase the fact they lost by 2 touchdowns to Tulsa.

But if you can reset off of that game, everything they've done has been pretty spectacular.

Uh, presuming a rematch would be in Eugene, I'll take Oregon.

OK.

LSU at Ole Miss rematch.

Assuming that would be in Baton Rouge.

I would prob, no, you know what, I'm sticking with Ole Miss.

I think they were the better team and almost let LSU back into it.

They did let them back into it, but then won.

I, I, I'll stick, stick, stick with the Rebels.

BYU or Utah?

Holy war, can't wait.

It's gonna be a good one .

right now, Utah, I'm super impressed by how they've played.

Colorado or Texas A&M?

Uh, I have to take one.

Can't we both just punt on 3rd down, both teams?

No, I, I, I guess Texas A&M, but man, oh man, they have been a dud.

All right.

And finally, are you aware of the Taylor Swift curse?

I am not.

Purdue is 0 and 12.

When they play within 7 days of Taylor Swift releasing an album.

So the Taylor Swift curse or the power of cowbells?

Look, uh, if there's one thing in American culture you don't go against, it's Taylor Swift.

So I think the curse is strong and perhaps unbreakable, going with the curse.

All right, a wise choice and well done by you.

We can move forward.

I'll give you, I'll give you back the, uh, the podcast, sir.

OK, thank you.

Very good questions.

Appreciate it.

Uh, that was a good segment.

All right, it's time to pick some games, and uh when we get to the end, we'll reveal what happened in the Fat Bear.

Uh, contest which could resonate throughout the rest of our contest.

How did we do last winners.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I, I, I don't have that.

Do you have it?

No, I, I , I, I don't know.

I, you didn't add yours up, but.

I did not.

I think I did OK, which is a stunner.

Did you?

Yeah, well, so let's just say I went undefeated and you lost all yours.

Yeah, and we both crawled above 500?

That's the question.

I don't know.

I guess we'll get that information next week.

We will, we will.

Producer Kent's not with us today, so he usually keeps track of that for us, but we do, I think we got great games to pick this week.

Very excited for this week's picks, um, starting with a Friday nighter this, I like, I'm really excited for this game.

Yeah, Blacksburg Friday night.

I wanna see if Uh, that stadium is back to being what it used to be in the Frank Beamer days, Lane Stadium.

Pittsburgh is at Virginia Tech.

They're both undefeated.

Somebody's gonna be 5-0.

Somebody's gonna say, yeah, we're coming from Miami.

I don't know whether they really are coming from Miami, but they might be the second-best team in the ACC.

Panthers, who have been good so far, getting 3.5. James Franklin has done a great job so far.

I mean he really has.

Uh, this is one of those James Franklin, big game James moments.

Um, I'm not taking Pitt because of that history.

I'm taking Pitt because I think they're sneaky good, and they're getting those 3.5 points.

Yeah, I, I will take the points, and I will take the Panthers.

I think it's gonna be low scoring.

I think they gotta block Virginia Tech, that's so far.

The Hokies have, they've made a living just disrupting the, the line of scrimmage, getting in the backfield.

If Pitt can block them, I think they have the better team otherwise.

So, I will take, uh, the Panthers and the points there as well.

Uh, I've now lost the rundown.

Here we go.

I've got it back.

All right, Alabama giving 6 at Mississippi State.

Talk about cowbells, they're gonna be clanging for that one.

God, this, this is gonna be such a, I hope this is a great game.

I really do.

It, it , at the beginning of the season, we would have just thought, yeah, OK, so Bama, you know, when, you know, this is why you don't play that schedule game, by the way.

Because of, of games like this, how teams can develop.

Mississippi State is a perfect example of how things change.

I'm going to take Bama.

I don't feel especially great about it.

I wouldn't be surprised if this game was a push, but Bama has really showed me something.

Uh, so is Mississippi State, obviously, uh, and that game being played in, in Stark Vegas is no small thing, but I'll, I'll, I'll take Bama, and I'll give those 6 points.

Yeah, I like it being 6, not 7, so I'm with you.

I'm taking Alabama there.

A lot, this will be fun, uh, if, if, if Mississippi State wins, this is really a DC throwback year back to 2014 when they were.

They were the first number one team in college football playoff ranking history.

Uh, but I'm impressed by what Alabama's put on the field.

They have, uh, 4 straight games scoring 45 or more points, something they have not done since 2018 when they had a great team with Tua and all those great receivers, Waddle and Devonta Smith, and so on.

Um, probably not gonna get 45 this time, but I do think there's gonna be plenty of points on the board and 7 more for Bama than for Mississippi State.

All right, another game that I am very excited for .

Ohio State laying 14 at Iowa, a place where heavy ranked favorites tend to struggle.

What do you think?

Well, Iowa needed.

All of its superpowers.

Uh, last week to, um.

To beat Michigan, and I just don't know if they can.

Pull something like that off again, but I think they can do enough Iowa things to keep it within 14.

They just, that's just what they do.

And that's who they are.

And they slap it up, and they slow it down, and uh they play physical, and they play discipline for the most part.

So, I, I'll take Iowa, I'll take those 14.

Uh, yes, I'm not saying punting is winning, but punting is covering.

So I think, I think they can cover.

Oh, we do have stats.

We got stats from, uh, from Gino Ganello, our producer here.

Uh, Gene , you were 4 and 1 last week.

I was 3 and 2 with a caveat.

Hello.

So I'm 2 games above 500, you're 500.

We're, we're almost respectable.

OK, I'm proud of us, yeah.

But I'm, I'm taking the Hawkeyes to cover, not the Atlanta Hawks, the Iowa Hawkeyes, for some people in Congress who may be confused about that.

It happens.

It, it, who among us hasn't built an elaborate conspiracy theory, uh, alleging, you know, criminal behavior based on a confusion of the Iowa Hawkeyes and, and the Atlanta Hawks?

If I had a nickel for every time I've done it.

Yeah, so.

Uh, Florida, Missouri.

Gators red hot, laying 5.5 in Como.

Uh, they're in the same situation to a degree that Mississippi was last week when they went into Gainesville, coming off a big win.

Everybody's flying, but you may be a little bit flat.

Do the Gators have enough juice to come back and cover the 5.5 here?

You know, I'd really like to, to take the fighting Pat 40s in this one.

And maybe you think, you know, the Gators, they have that letdown after the win against Ole Miss, and they're, they're going to that snake pit of yours.

But I just can't.

I, I just don't see, I just don't see it.

So I'm taking the Gators.

I'll give the points.

Yeah, I, I hate to continue to agree with you, but I agree with you.

I just think that I've been so impressed by what they're doing and The running game tends to travel and it traveled to Auburn for them, and I think it's gonna travel to Columbia as well.

So I'm with you on that.

We gotta get a Big 12 game in here of interest.

OK.

Uh, Cincinnati off to an undefeated start, but a 7-point dog at Arizona.

What do you think happens in Tucson?

I believe that's an 11 p.m body clock kick time for, uh, for Cincinnati, but Arizona has, has not been super impressive.

They've had, they've, I mean, hey, they've staged some really nice comebacks, but um I'm a little concerned about their slow starts.

Uh, I'll take Cincinnati.

I'll take those 7 points.

OK, there we go.

I, uh, I, I'm gonna go with, uh, go with Arizona.

I, look, Cincinnati, all kudos to the undefeated start, but they had to pull a rabbit out of their hat to come back to beat Miami of Ohio.

Uh, I think things catch up to him here.

Travel, body clock, and just water finds its level, and this is not a team that's good enough, I don't think, to be 5-0.

So give me the, uh, the Wildcats, and we got one difference there at least.

All right.

Do you have a lock of the week?

I do, my friend.

I'm going to the 40 well of Eastern Michigan at UMass.

Oh boy, UMass is giving 6.5. I'm going to take UMass.

Uh, I mean, you just don't, you don't walk into Warren McCork Alumni Stadium in Amherst and, and get a win.

Uh, I'll lay the points for, uh, for unbeaten UMass.

That, first of all, uh, there was a push, actually, a, a Dan Wetzel pushed to, to have that stadium called nicknamed the Junkyard.

Because, uh, the stadium was being panned for how bad it was.

Uh, but, but amazing, like that we are picking, you're picking UMass to do anything, tells you where we are.

The underrated story of the season so far is that UMass is undefeated a year after going 0 and 12.

Uh, Joe Harris Semiak, the coach, he was the 0-12 guy last year.

He's the 4-0 guy this year.

Keep going, minute men.

I, I agree with you.

I think they cover that.

Uh, as for me, I'm gonna go.

And say Northwestern's going to upset Penn State Friday night, not just cover the 3, but I think they're gonna win the game.

They're opening their new stadium.

If Northwestern's never had a snake pit atmosphere in its history, this is their chance to have one.

They got an extra day.

Penn State played Saturday afternoon, Northwestern played Friday night.

I liked what I saw from the Wildcats.

Uh, Chip Kelly is dialing it up.

Aiden Childs, he's the random play generator, but when he is generating good plays, uh, he's really good.

So I'm gonna say Northwestern pulls that one for my, I think I, I think I saw a thing on their new stadium which looks spectacular, by the way, where there's a, there's a seating area where only Northwestern fans are allowed.

Like, is that no standing area?

No, a seating area, is it a standing area?

Did I, did I read that wrong?

The student area is all standing.

Like they don't even, but there's, there's another, again, I may have misread it, but I thought I saw where there's a place in the stadium where opposing fans are not even allowed to be in.

Really, you, you've got to wear the purple.

You gotta be a Northwestern fan to gain entrance to that area.

Sweet.

All right, hey, you know what, whatever it takes to have Northwestern produce an atmosphere, I'm in favor of it.

I think they have.

I mean this stadium looks fantastic.

All right, two last things here.

We, we're gonna hit Fat Bear Week , and then I wanna hear your movie review.

You've apparently got, you've got movie thoughts for us.

Well, I mean, yeah, OK, sure, we're doing it.

Uh, Fat Bear Week though.

Let's hear it for me.

Backpack wins the Fat Bear Week, incredible selection by me, a 20 year old.

Chunky Ursine.

From an outsized female.

All right, Backpack wins Fat Bear Week, more than 2.3 million online votes, very tight voting, won by only 5000 votes.

I'm not sure who was second.

I'm not sure it's said here.

Holly, I think was 2nd.

0 wait, no, Backpack is the daughter of Holly.

OK.

Holly was, oh, Holly was big back in the day, man.

This isn't horse racing, Pat.

We don't need to go through the line matters.

Pedigree matters.

And, uh, mostly that pick matters for me.

We will, that is, will be the tiebreaker if you and I end up tied.

I win the picks thanks to Backpack.

So Pat, is it your testimony that Backpack was in Alaska?

During Fat Bear Week, I'm gonna give you a minute to process the question because I know you weren't, you weren't told about it myself.

I don't want you to perjure yourself.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Would it surprise you to learn that we have text messages from backpack.

Saying that he was in Atlanta for a Hawks game.

Not in Alaska.

Uh, well played, Gene.

OK.

All right.

You went and saw The Odyssey, right?

I went and saw The Odyssey, and I was disappointed.

Were you?

OK.

I'm gonna tell you why, because I went with my wife Cheryl, and, and we thought it was going to be a documentary on, on the Honda minivan.

And so.

That was surprising to say the least.

OK, so you, was that like a real laugh or was that like a fake podcast?

No, that was a real laugh because it was a pretty funny line because we used to have two Honda Odysseys in the child's toting days.

So I'm trading text with, uh, with Tom Rinaldi, uh, last night, and I, I give him that same line, and there's like a long pause, and then you see the three dots where he's typing, and he types back, please.

Please do not use that on the podcast, please.

And I said, I'm using it and I'm gonna get a laugh that you did.

So Rinaldi to take that, Rinaldi .

Yeah, no, it worked.

It landed.

Very good.

Very good.

That, that is clearly the end of the show.

We cannot top that, that bit of comedic genius, so.

Uh, backpack's a winner.

The Odyssey line's a winner.

We'll see if we got any other winners for you.

Enjoy the games this weekend.

Should be a lot of fun.

We'll be back next week.