(upbeat music) - Hey, what's going on? This is the Saturday on South podcast. I am Connor O'Gara. Will I try not to get triggered by video game ratings? Because you know those people, they're always mad about something. When Madden ratings come out, that's a big thing. And I'm now starting to understand why people react so much to the Madden ratings. I'm very much there. I'm triggered, I'm going to be honest, when, and the way that this has all been working out, the reason why you see a lot of these releases for the EA Sports new culture ball video game, why you see a lot of this information at the same time, either one of two things happens. Either someone steals that information from like Matt Brown or something, and then just claims it as their own, because that's just the content business. And Matt Brown does great work with extra points for another program, stuff like that. Or it's an email that we all in the media get at the same exact time, like what happened today, when we get all of the top offensive, the highest rated offenses in the game. And I'm not going to read the top 25, because that's where they gave us. But I'm triggered. Well, tell me that I'm crazy for being triggered, and that I need to just take a deep breath and then not get too worked up about this. Yeah, I think it's mainly a different question, like the question and the answer are different, right? And I realize this today, when I was producing like the defensive ratings, right? Because it's a lot more stark when you look at defense, right? So I look at LSU at number 18. This is my exact example, because it's such a good one, right? In the defense, you're saying? In the defense, right? In the defensive, right? I think defense is so much easier to explain this point, so I'm just going to work backwards, okay? So LSU had the worst defense I've ever seen in my entire life last year, okay? The reason why LSU is number 18 in defense is because you or I could have coached Harold Perkins to about six to eight sacks last year, okay? So the way it's thought of is imagine you are a level 100 coach and you can use these tools in your belt to do whatever you want. So for the same reason I'm going back to defense here, Iowa is number 13 on defense. Why is that? They don't recruit very well. They're all about Phil Parker and that scheme, okay? Whereas LSU is just a little bit behind them, despite the fact that Iowa had like a top three defense, but whatever metric you want to, LSU had a bottom three defense all time. Well, they're always separated by this much because these are all tools in your tool belt. So now let's go back to offense. Well, obviously, these guys, I think, are going to do a much better job than they did in the past because they have the ability to use an IL and actually like correctly rate the players. It's not just like quarterback number or whatever, but that being said, number one, your stars are going to be weighted a little bit heavily, right? But at the same time, you know, I do think talent matters a ton more than scheme. And that's why some of these like kind of plucky teams that you see do well, don't do as well, like aren't as well rated. A great example too, really quickly, is like the Patriots and Madden. The Patriots didn't have offensive talent outside of like Gronk and Brady for like four or five years there at the end, but Bill Belichick just kept winning. So people were like, this is a 90 overall offense. No, it's not. If I gave that offense to not Tom Brady, we saw what happened. They became horrible and they got back drones. So I think it's very, it's more about here is imagine it instead of as a completed meal, imagine it as your groceries. Does that make sense? - Okay, I like that. That's a good explanation. And by the way, we have a lot that we're going to get to today. We have Jalen Milro coming up in a bit, the official SEC quarterback of the started on South podcast. He's going to talk about a lot of different things, including this very game. And then we are going to end with pitch me how to fix college football. Lots and lots that we're going to get to today, but I probably should have also started at the top with what I'm actually triggered with and you went right into it. And it is the fact that I looked at this top 10, which has, - Oh, let me go through the top 10 first. And I'll tell you what stands out. - Okay, so close buddy. Cause you said, I never want to be one of those guys that are triggered about ratings. I'll like, don't worry, buddy. I am. I'll jump right into my conspiracy theory. Sorry about that. No, I know you are. It's okay. That actually that sets us up well because it's part of the reason why I think I've triggered. Clemson is at 10. They're an 87 overall. Mizzou is at nine. A lot of love for Mizzou at 89 overall. Colorado is eighth with 89 overall. Miami seventh with 89 overall. Again, not going to get triggered. LSU is 689 overall as well. Fifth Ohio State 89 overall. Four Texas 91 overall. Three Alabama 91 overall. Two Oregon at 94 overall. And one Georgia at 94 overall. I'm triggered by Miami and Colorado being in the top 10 while Ole Miss is at 13. And Tennessee is not even in the top 25. And it goes to the point that you just mentioned. How much of it, what they're doing. And Andy Staples talked about this as well. Like how much of the Ole Miss and Tennessee overall evaluation in the offense is tricky because of the desire or the necessity to execute tempo. And how much is that weighing into like how good they actually are at what they do, just the talent alone. And maybe that's not being factored into offensive rating as much because if you can execute it at a really high level, then that's great. But if you can do what those other teams do well, maybe that's a little bit easier to navigate in the game. I don't know. I can't have played it or anything like that. But Colorado, man, like what are we doing here? Like 99th in yards per play last year. There's 60th in scoring. They won four games. I'll take Ole Miss at like literally every position on the offensive side of the ball, including quarterback. I would take Jackson Dart over Shidor Sanders. I would take Trey Harris over receiver Travis Hunter. Not overall Travis Hunter, but receiver Travis Hunter. I would take him over that. I do like Ole Shepard though. Ole Shepard's a good player coming over from Bandy. I would still take two swells over Ole Shepard. So yeah, that's another good point. Yeah, but yeah, I'm sure. So I think this is a couple of things, right? So Colorado, remember, okay, Hunter is on the cover of this game. Now, I want to take a caveat. Michigan is not up here, right? So they have every right to get mad. But because Hunter is on the cover of this game, I think that what they're going to do is, they would never tell you they would do this, by the way. And I'm sure Matt Brown might disagree. This is just my opinion as a marketing guy and a football guy, which is that it doesn't benefit them at all to put Travis Hunter alone on an island with like 10 bums on defense. And it doesn't benefit them at all to have him and Shidor alone on offense, right? So I think for a team like that that is pretty top heavy, they're just going to overrate everyone by kind of like one or two until the season starts and they start losing. But because they're trying to incentivize people to buy the game so they can play with Shidder Sanders, Travis Hunter, well, if they're throwing the mailman who are dropping the ball, you suddenly have a product that is not fun to play. So I think Colorado is almost just like real life, a lot of marketing, right? But then you make another good point, which is these ratings all exist kind of in a vacuum, right? How good Travis Hunter is or Shidor is, has no bearing on how good Juice Wells is. So I think Ole Miss is a great counter example that, yeah, okay, maybe we're not as great an offensive mind. It's like, Kiffin, maybe we can't run tempo with no reservations, but this team has some dudes on it. I think that's pretty underselling what Ole Miss has done this offseason. Yeah, that's more so my point. And just how much it feels like a lot there they are to have one of the top 10, top 15 offenses in the sport. And I'm like looking at the offense up and down going, if Ole Miss doesn't have a top five offense in the sport this year, I'll be surprised. So yeah, good offseason content. There's a reason why they're releasing this stuff the way that they are. And it's so that we're discussing this and having these conversations as well. Good for Mizzou for getting a little bit of love though. I mean, Mizzou getting into the top 10, that would have been, I definitely would have been triggered about that if Mizzou wasn't at the top 10. But yeah, the Tennessee thing, not even being in the top 25 or where can I go on. Okay, so clearly not quite there yet with the balls, not necessarily Nico believers, maybe not as much on the offensive line that they're just gonna pave their way to everything. But a fun discussion nonetheless and probably a different discussion than who actually has the best offense in college football. That's-- Oh, for sure. And I mean, I will say too, I don't think that we've seen anything on the top 10 quarterbacks, receivers running backs in this game. It's all just overall at this point, right? Yeah, it is, it is just overall. I know there have been projections and stuff like that, but I imagine we're gonna be getting all that stuff very, very soon. So yeah, 'cause I mean, that's the thing, you know, be looking up for just a solo pod or a chord in my garage when there's a list drop at like midnight. I'll be so excited. No, I'm just kidding. But I, like, Mizzou's a very interesting example, 'cause Luther Birden could just be the best receiver in this game and I think that would be fine. So it's like, that's what I would usually do, is sort by go to the game, sort by best play. Okay, who is the best receiver? Who is the best running back? Okay, now I want to play with that team and see what job at best is doing, you know? Job at best. Oh, he was nasty at NCAA, dude. He had like 99 speed. He was the best running back one here. Gosh, to think about like an all-time team, somebody's done that probably at some point. Like in the history of the game, what like just manufactured the perfect team to be able to be like all 99s across the board in that game would be a fun exercise to do. Okay, I teased this before. 12 team playoff predictions, Will. And we're doing it today. I am going to try. No, I'm not gonna say that, you know what? That's not confident enough. My goal was to become the first person in human history to accurately predict the 12 team playoff. It can happen, right? 12 leg parlay. Dudes have won 12 leg parlays before. Why can't this dude, you know? It might have happened. Yeah, I think we should do this like March Madness because the field's just big enough to where people will get it, right? That's the thing about March Madness. It's like the field's too big to ever statistically get it, right? This I think there will be, if everyone does a bracket, there might be a couple over year that are perfect. Yeah, the once the playoff comes out. That's, that's a little bit more information. To predict the 12 that will make the playoff. And again, I'm not gonna do like the full bracket today. I'm just predicting what I think that field will look like when that bracket does come out. So that'll be a different discussion for a different time. It'll be like national championship predictions and stuff like that. But to predict what it's actually going to look like, it's very new to have this in a college football preseason because, you know, we usually have the 14 prediction where it's like, yeah, you have three that are kind of yearly staples and then usually you have fun with one of them, right? That's the way that this always kind of sets up and maybe I guess I'm just not creative enough to, you know, go to Rogue and have a couple of different, you know, group of five teams on a 14 playoff or something stupid like that. But yeah, I'm trying to essentially map out the season for these 12 playoff teams. And it's something that I'll be going more in depth with on started on south.com, shameless plug. I'm rolling out one of these a day for the next couple of weeks. Just to dig into what the path looks like and what are we looking for? Like what's going to make the difference? And we need to remember besides the obvious factor of this being 12 teams, the four highest ranked conference champs are seeded one through four and they get first round buys. So if you've seen someone do this and like, there are a lot of people that have already come out with playoffs or a 12 team playoff and you've looked at maybe that's a three or four seed and you've thought to yourself, well, that doesn't make any sort of sense. Remember, there's, there are caveats to this in ways that there have not been in years past, there are automatic bids and there are seeds that are based on those automatic bids. Those are very likely going to be filled. Those four buys, those four top seats. I would assume that the vast majority of the time, it will be the ACC, the big 10, the big 12 and the SEC conference champs who will fill those spots. And remember that the highest ranked group of five conference champ, non-power five, non-core four, whatever you want to call it, you know what I'm saying, that team will also get an automatic bid but not necessarily a first round buy unless things get really, really weird with like a 13 and 0 Memphis meeting Florida State or like Tulane beats both Oklahoma and Kansas State or something like that, you must win your conference to have a shot at a first round buy seed one through four. Notre Dame cannot get a first round buy but it can host the first round playoff game. Yeah, good. If you're not in the conference, this is the price that you pay. It'll be especially interesting this year that will not be the last mention of Notre Dame on this episode, but if you are hosting a home playoff game, that means you are seated five through eight. Seeds nine through 12 will be playing their first playoff games as road games. Those first round games are two weeks after conference championship weekend. Anything else that I need to rehash before we dig into what this first 12 team playoff field would look like? No, I think that about coverage it. Okay, so here's how I want to unveil this. I'm going to go through team by team and I will try not to repeat myself as much with the SEC teams because we obviously talk a lot about these teams. We'll talk more about it when we do a full unveiling of the crystal ball and all that stuff. But you'll get a pretty good idea of what that's going to look like based on this and we'll do some of the just missed the cut as well at the end. Okay, so I'm good. Okay, cool. All right, so let's start with the team I just brought up there. 12 seat Memphis, why I have Memphis in is because I've been going on Memphis radio for six plus years and I just love my guy, my guy's Greg and Eli. No, but it's a free ribs. I get it, man. I understand the game. You know, I actually haven't been to Memphis. That's, that's a, that's just it for whatever reason. A U.S. city that I have not been to. Been to Tennessee plenty of times. Haven't been to Memphis. Don't know why, very weird. But yeah, jokes aside, 70% of last year's returning production back for Ryan Silverfield. Thought they made some really nice portal moves with bringing in Mario Anderson from South Carolina, bringing in Elijah Herring coming in post spring, Tennessee's leading tackler, maybe some depth chart issues that were staring him in the face. And he goes to a place like Memphis where he'll have a chance to make an impact in the middle of that defense. That FSU game with Mike Norvell, that whole reunion thing and the way that's going to set up is the former Memphis coach. That would have been a roadblock for a team like Memphis with the four team playoff. But in the 12 team playoff, Memphis can lose that game by a few scores and still be just fine. Who knows? Maybe they're going to lose that game by three points. It's going to be down to the wire. And we're like, whoa, that actually helps Memphis more than it hurts them with the 12 team playoff. The other nice thing that, that kind of sets up with their schedule, they don't have any more SMU to face with them off to the ACC. That's really weird. Still have trips to USF, UTSA and Tulane plus possible rematch with one of those three teams in the AAC title game. But even if Memphis isn't 12 and one, like I'm predicting they will be, I think the 11 and two AAC champs could absolutely get that group of five-bit. It's going to be really tough. Like, I don't know that you can just be like, oh, well, Liberty went undefeated. I guess we just got to give it to them. I think the AAC is going to get a lot of respect and they're going to be kind of the conference to beat with that group of five-bit. - Yeah, that's kind of a, I think a bold prediction in a way. I feel like Memphis has been, you know, we definitely saw them get to the forefront back when Norvell is over there. They have a pretty good quarterback factory going on, especially in the running backs too. It's just, obviously G5 is a pretty hard to predict, especially now as we've talked about the separation. But I do think that, you know, Memphis is a school and a program that has shown their commitment. So yeah, I love the portal editions. I think that it's going to be really interesting to track, you know, those AAC teams, now that they truly have an opportunity just to kind of see where things shake out. So yeah, I love this, it's kind of not a shot in the dark, but a educated guess, you know? - And I am a believer that, as we talked about with Derek Peterson, if you want a little bit of this fun pre-season gambling action, bet responsibly of course, but a fun thing to do with this new 12 team playoff, before they kind of figure out what those odds look like, is put a few of those futures down on a group of five teams that you like. And if they're at six to one or something like that, and that hits, especially in a year where it feels like it could be a little bit all over the place and you're getting pretty good odds on a lot of those teams just to make the playoff, you're not talking about them, winning a playoff game or anything crazy like that. But I think Memphis is one of those teams that I would want a little piece of the pie on. Okay, number 11, I've got Utah here, Utah. In the running for America's team as always, we're going to be coming out with that. I believe next week, we're supposed to have a draft. Next week is the first Thursday, but I might have to pivot. We might move the draft back. Might have to move the draft back a week, be able to talk about America's team and hash that out, of course. Fourth July coming up, but Utah, 11 seat here. I have Cam Rising being a big part of that because as far as we know, that knee will be healthy this year. He's got a full, what like 19, 20 months to recover from that entirely, you know, repaired knee. It wasn't just tearing an ACL. He had like everything with that knee that he had to be able to reconstruct and do all those things, which is why he missed off last year. But I have Utah as a three loss team that makes the feel. I have them going 10 and two in the regular season and then losing to Oklahoma State in the baseball championship game. Little teaser there for Oklahoma State. So I look at Utah as being a team that's going to get respect, I think throughout the season. I think Cam Rising will hopefully stay healthy and I think that a Utah team that dealt with a ton of injuries last year should be set up well this year. Top third in the country and percentage of returning production. And this is where the path is big and it's very different than what we were talking about last year going into the season and what we felt like was a deep pack 12, which proved to be true. But this year now as members of the big 12, they have just three games against FBS teams who had a winning record. That's at Oklahoma State, home against Arizona with a new coaching staff and then home against Iowa State. That's it. That path to 10 regular season wins is there. And there's a reason why, yeah, maybe Utah fans are coming into the big 12, a little bit cocky. They're feeling themselves a little bit. Like, hey, we went into the pack 12, no big deal, we handled that. Out in West to pack 12, whatever, they feel like they can do this. The benchmark for every one of these programs that we're talking about, maybe for the exception of that group of five bid is getting to 10 wins. That's, that's the goal. If you're like, ah, what's the path really look like? Get to 10 wins and then hope that everything will figure itself out. It's why I have Utah getting in instead of a nine win SEC team like Oklahoma or LSU who will not be in this 12 team playoff that I'm predicting that I'm laying out here. And that will be a very interesting hot button topic going into selection Sunday. Is can you take a team like Utah, which would be the second big 12 team over like the fifth team from the SEC? Those are the debates that we will have that will get into conference strength that we'll talk about. How much are those wins truly valued? I think Utah will have a spot close to the top 10 for most of the season. And I don't think the selection committee is going to then punish them for playing in a conference title game while LSU and Oklahoma would be idle that conference championship weekend. Even if I believe that not all conference titles are created equal. - Yeah, as we start to see here kind of how this whole thing shakes out. Maybe you would be better off to be in a conference, like the big 12 where you could be a very good team, right? But avoid some of the losses and maybe have more names to kind of like your wounds than to join one of these like super power two in the big 10 and the SEC. I think you're making a great case for it here. You know, which is that it's just kind of a scheduling thing. You know, teams can go outside of themselves and do what Utah has, you know, playing Florida. And obviously, Utah has beaten anybody any time. I'm not dumping on Utah for that. They moved up conferences twice as you've talked about. Obviously, they're not getting the invite to the SEC and the big 10. I'm sure they take it, right? They thought they were close to the big 10 for a minute. But all I'm saying there is it might be a blessing in the skies for them. A team that, as we talked about a little bit earlier, you know, they're not one of these teams that consistently gets the five stars, right? They're going to be a team that can surprise the teams that do as we've seen with Ohio State and others where they could really make it into a game with these really powerful teams. But I think they've really found a perfect flow for them in the big 12 that allows them to go, I guess it's scheduled outside their conference, but also not be worried about all these teams that are, you know, there's not even like a money team like a USC that could have, you know, Caleb Williams that would just cook you randomly 'cause he's having a good day. So I think that the big 12 is going to be super interesting. And I think on the other side of it, as we're seeing kind of how this stuff plays out, the vision that maybe at the time Warren and currently Sankey had for their conferences, you know, you're not really seeing in these at large bids all big 10 and all SEC schools because they're cannibalizing themselves. So I think Utah is actually more weirdly, more poised than ever as long as they can kind of keep their coaching staff together to make runs because they've proven they could be in Alabama. They've proven long time ago, obviously, but they've proven they could hang with these teams. And for them, it's going to be to just survive in advance. Whereas, like I said, yeah, LSU might get four or five more ranked teams, but they lose one of those games their season could just be, you know, ended up in Tampa. So, yeah. Yeah. And how, what is the true variance between Utah's quality of wins and LSU's quality of wins? That was you, does have that one or two extra loss. How is that going to be viewed? Because so far, the selection committee has showed us so much of this is going to come down to number of wins. And really number of losses just because they didn't have a two-loss team in the field during the four-team era. But yeah, how is a team like Utah that gets that preseason respect? How would they be viewed? As long as they can get a couple of those marquee wins and their resume isn't totally paper thin, which I don't think it will be in the Big 12, who doesn't have that premier team, but still has a lot of quality there in America's conference. Yeah, I do think that the Big 12 is a multi-bid league this year. Yeah. All right. Oh, and one more thing about the Big 12 in general too. It used to be Oklahoma smashing everyone in football, Kansas smashing them or basketball, but it was kind of a one-team conference for two different sports, which is a little bit interesting. You can make arguments here and there of a point being, now you could benefit from that same type of a thing, but you yourself, fan of a Big 12 team, could be that team. It could be Oklahoma State. It could be Utah and you don't have to play Oklahoma. So you could just live this world where, oh my gosh, you see Utah beating teams by 30 points. And they look their top five, you know, and then that one or two losses doesn't even, they can be playing for that. So yeah, same deal with Oklahoma State. We could really start to see the Big 12 be two or three different teams, talking about like a TCU that we've seen in the past, that is just smoking teams because they have the right combination of stuff. And it's like, but you don't have that looming danger of like a Texas that it can get up and grab you if they're bad. And Oklahoma, that would be disappointed if they lost it, even a good Kansas team. So yeah, as the more you think about it, the more fun the Big 12 just gets generally. Anyway, that's why it's America's conference. Yep, why it is. All right, Iowa, 10 seed. Iowa getting to 10 and two feels inevitable because what did they do last year? Yeah, it's 10 and two regular season. Top 10 in the country in percentage of returning production, even though the goat Tory Taylor is off to do great things with my Chicago Bears. Very sad for Iowa fans. I know this, but y'all got him too. Man, listen, I can't reward it. The draft class y'all put together is really nice, man. Truly elite. They will be talking for decades about the draft class that included Kayla Williams, Roma Dunes and Tory Taylor. Yeah, but everybody is going to talk about the loss, the addition by subtraction, if you will, of Brian Ference. And if there is ever a case for addition by subtraction, it is this because with the second worst offense in America will. They still won 10 regular season games, okay? It is one of the all-time college football feeds. It truly is that that team was so inept. I was on the offensive side of the ball, and they were still able to win 10 regular season games. And Tim Lester just can't be worse. Can't be worse. And look, I went back and looked at some of the stuff from Western Michigan. I was like, oh, yeah, that's got to replace PJ Fleck there. I knew that they had some fun offenses. He had like five consecutive top 40 offenses. I would settle for like top 70 at this point. If I was-- You think they were top and not bottom? Yes. Yes, exactly. And top 70 isn't even top half of FBS, but they would take that. They truly would flirt with mediocrity, Iowa offense, if they can do that. And again, it's no guarantee that they're going to be as good on the defensive side of the ball. I think they need some more help in the form of chunk of plays. But it sets up well, man. It sets up really, really well. They're top 10 in the country in percentage of returning production. That's a great stat for a developmental program like what Kirk Farron's has been running for a quarter century there. And I have Iowa in the field in part because of that schedule. They've got the trip to Ohio State, not winning that, OK? It'd be a different story if Iowa was going to clinic. That's not happening. But outside of that, no Michigan, no Penn State, Wisconsin and Washington are both home games as is Iowa State. I just think Iowa is set up really well to win double-digit games, something I don't think Penn State or Michigan will do. I think their schedules are tougher. And then I think Iowa can sit back while Oregon and Ohio State playing a big 10 championship. Man, the Heat's really going to be on James Franklin. But if he fizzens, maybe worse off than tonight, well, huh? It would be a real shame. It would be a real shame. If K backed America, what's up, better numbers than Drew Alar. Did I call him Drew Alar? Drew Alar. I knew a kid in college with the name Alar. His name was Dan Alar. But dude, hope he's doing really well. But yeah, I do have Iowa as being one of those big 10 teams in the field. That will not be obviously the last big 10 mentioned. Number nine, Ole Miss. At this point, you know the positives about Ole Miss. We talk about them all the time. Maybe the best group of past catchers in America, the portal editions on the defensive line are so, so important. Schedule sets up well. We've mentioned this only three games against FBS teams who won eight games last year at LSU, home against Georgia, home against Oklahoma. Ole Miss could go one and two in those games and still make the field at 10 and two without an SEC championship to play for. In regular season games that aren't against Bama, Georgia, or LSU, Lane is 30 and 6. So I'm not really worried about those slip ups as much. I think Lane should be able to navigate the South Carolina's and Kentucky's of the world. I don't really worry about that as much with him. But the thing that could become a conversation with Ole Miss is the lack of quality win opportunities. The same thing that could pave the path for that 12 team playoff berth could also be the thing that we're talking about and wondering if it's actually hurting them in terms of seating. Winning at South Carolina or at Arkansas is not going to move the needle. It's important to remember the difference between the eight seed and the nine seed is huge. It's the difference between a home game and a road game. And for Lane, that's big because, well, in 12 seasons as a head coach, Lane has one true road win against a power five team that won eight regular season games. And it was that aforementioned 2011 upset at Oregon when he was the head coach at USC. OK, that is eight regular season wins. That's all we're talking about by a power five team. All of his other road wins against power five competition. Seven win teams or less. That's it, OK? So keep that in mind for Ole Miss because if they get that nine seed as I'm laying out, they're going on the road. And it's great that they're included in the playoff. But if we're talking about bigger and better things for Ole Miss and for them to be able to break through, I think Ole Miss will look at that as kind of the benchmark. And then it's room for interpretation after that. The expectation is getting into the playoff and then winning a playoff game would be, all right, this was truly a great type of season for us. And then anything less than that is kind of like, wow, we really missed out on an opportunity. So yeah, I guess this is a little bit more on the disappointing end in terms of some of the lofty Ole Miss projections heading into the season. So I'm starting to understand, too. Man, Lane Kiffin makes that place look so cool. It's so wild and infuriating to me how cool they look. But I've got to give them respect. Like I said, I'm not one of these older LSU fans who just hate Ole Miss. I really respect what they've built there. And I'll say this, I do think we have to kind of account for this pro SEC bias here. I mean, in the same way that I've been, I can get an 14 playoff last year, a team like Ole Miss that is always in the news, talking about transfer portal stuff, Lane Kiffin on TikTok, all the different stuff. You got to wonder if there's kind of like a halve and have nots as is he bias situation? Like if it was Kentucky that was doing this would people feel the same way. I don't know, but I do know that Ole Miss has been around long enough. And here's the crazy thing about Lane Kiffin. You know, if we had predicted things to go this way, it would have been the odds would have been so nuts. Because what he truly is is actually a floor raiser, right? He's not. We thought he would be the ceiling raiser guy that would come out and be Alabama. Well, he never beat Nick Saban. But because he didn't, that's not. So, but that's the same. It just does the steepest barrier. That opportunity just closed itself. He had plenty of chances. Kind of got really never truly got close to my opinion. So, point being what we thought he was going to be was this guy that was like, okay, you know, almost like late, did your co-cho where it's like, you could beat these weird teams that you just punch up in the mouth and they can't ever recover. In reality, what he is is a guy that's going to get you about eight, nine wins every year at this point, which is, like you said, you know, in these specific conditions, he doesn't lose these weird games anymore as much. Now, he has not beaten consistently, Georgia, LSU, Alabama, and he's kind of like, kind of gotten into about 500 LSU, right? The point being, I think that when you have a guy who has been late, Kippen's consistency is the best thing going for him right now. It's pretty cool. So, that's all I'm saying is that if he has been on the media, if he's shown that he can't do it, you're in and you're out, which he has. If the hype with the portal and all this stuff, I think that the media and the committee is going to view him, their team preferentially, especially because most people really don't, honestly, get into the stuff on the level that we do as far as this is still a nice CC schedule. Most people are not going to realize how easy this schedule is. - Last year, though, they gave Penn State the benefit of the doubt when they shouldn't have, and it drove right nuts. Penn State being slightly ahead of Ole Miss and all these different polls and I'm like, what wins are we talking about for Penn State that gives them, and then, of course, they get to actually play, meet on a neutral site and Ole Miss beats the breaks off of them. I'll push back on the lane isn't a ceiling raiser when he's set, it's within a game. He's not all of a sudden getting you these upsets that you've never had before. I agree with that point. I still think that you have to say that he's absolutely raised the ceiling when he's got, he's the first coach at Ole Miss, in Ole Miss history to have 10 regular season wins. - Right, right. - First to hit 11 wins. Ever is on the two of the last three seasons, so you have to look at it from that standpoint as well. He's not all of a sudden beating these top five teams. He's not all of a sudden getting these victories, which we talk about all the time of like, oh my God, that changes how everybody thinks of Ole Miss and how that'll be viewed by the selection committee if there aren't one or two of those moments will be interesting. I think more of a have not than a have just because they've never had to put Ole Miss in the 14th world. They've never been forced to evaluate them during a conference championship weekend. So I think that's kind of the difference maybe in how they're going to be perceived and maybe that is going to hurt them with C. - Dude, that Penn State point is actually into great counterpoint. I mean, look at compared contrast to Hugh Freeze when there's a little miss, right? Hugh Freeze beat Alabama twice in a row, which is like, never ever ever happens with Nick Saban. And so because of that, again, they got this huge rating, they got a little bit overrated because they've shown, oh, we can beat Alabama, this is different. But like, it's so funny that Lake Kimphin's kind of boring consistency is now a bad thing. It's like, wait, hold on, Lake Kimphin's pretty consistently struggled with Alabama, Georgia's did it enough. Whereas, Hugh Freeze would beat those teams but then he would lose like a weird to a bad LSU team or something, which they didn't give it doesn't do. So point being, it's kind of funny that he's like, too boring to have people be like, whoa, fun old miss. And he has like, so yeah, I think this is the year that Lane kind of like grows up in the public eye. I'm excited about it. - This catch will sets up really well to be the boring wins guy. I mean, it does. Like beat the teams you're supposed to beat. Don't have these catastrophic slip ups. Don't be Hugh Freeze losing to Memphis. I know it just talked very well about Memphis, but don't lose to Memphis in a year in which you beat Alabama. And you should be able to take care of business, especially with what we're gonna be talking about in the preseason. You're not gonna have to come out of nowhere and do this because of the talent that we think Ole Miss has. Okay, so that would set up in my projection. I have Bama at the eight seed, which means we would get an Ole Miss Bama game in the first round of the playoff. That would be incredible. And I know that it wouldn't be Kiffin against Saban, but it would still be great theater if that actually played out. So I have Bama at 10 and two also in the regular season and not getting to an SEC championship. Am I perhaps wishing that matchup into existence a little bit? Yeah, I can admit that, but I'm still gonna be perfect here and I'm getting all 12 of these right. So no big deal. You can have a top 10 offense and a mediocre defense and still win 10 games. 2021 Ole Miss 2022 Tennessee. I won't call 2023 LSU mediocre defense because that's disrespectful to the word mediocre. Yeah, I wish that mediocre. Yeah, the playoff of their mediocre, right? But Bama's schedule is going to be really difficult because of those road games. At Wisconsin, at Tennessee, at LSU, at Oklahoma, those fan bases will bring it. They absolutely will. Nobody should be surprised if Bama goes two and two in that stretch. I, however, have Bama going three and one in those four road games with a loss to Oklahoma, actually. That being Oklahoma's big year one moment in the SEC, but then losing to Georgia at home. And that's how you would get to 10 and two. I think that teams who are elite at the receiver spots are going to give Bama trouble. I think that's gonna be the big Achilles heel of this team, not just with the secondary pieces that they have to replace, but I just don't know that Bama has the personnel to bat a thousand in those games. Where all of a sudden it turns into a shootout and you're like, all right, Bama's down two scores. They need to be able to rally back in the fourth quarter, six minutes left or something like that. I don't know that this team, even if they do improve with a better passing mind at the controls, I don't know that it all of a sudden makes up the gap with that much. But do I think that Bama can find a way to host a home playoff game with that schedule? Yeah, I do. And I think that will actually bring in a weird way because usually 10 and two seasons per Bama are, oh my God, this guy's following Dynasty's dead. I think a 10 and two season with this schedule would actually bring some praise to Kalen D'Bore. There'd be a lot of people kind of saying, ah, this guy might actually know what he's doing and they could actually be in really good shape. - Yeah, I mean, I think a 10 and two season is pretty optimistic. Like we were talking about, I just do think it comes down to first time in the SEC, I mean, boy, howdy, we as SEC fans like, oh, people apologies if Kalen D'Bore just shows up and starts warping everybody week to week to week. Like then we have a big problem, especially as we've talked about with the talent. Yeah, they've gotten better this offseason. Yeah, they won't have the worst offensive line I've ever seen in Alabama, likely. But at the same time, it's like, you know, you would think that they would take at least a couple of steps back from Nick Saban and that team that did get kind of like Millro and Saban at times just back-packed them to the playoffs. They had some good bounces here and there. Now Kalen D'Bore is a guy who has benefited from those type of situations, right? Which is why they like to hire over there in terms of, seems like the close games often go their way, seems like they don't have these imploding moments. You know, there's nothing really point to you that D'Bore has struggled in those moments. At the same time, you just gotta have that little bit of Jock's 94-5 in the back of your head going, they ain't playing nobody, Paul. So I think at the end of the day, you know, I'm gonna give them about eight, nine wins, just because of the way the schedule sets up. I don't think they're gonna be a bad team. I just think that it's hard to consistently win. As we just gave, like, Giffen props for doing so, pretty hard to consistently win the SEC. So yeah, it wouldn't shock me as much as it would scare me if they were 10-2. - Yeah, if Bama's 10-2 and getting into the playoff, everybody's going, "Oh, crap." Like, this is, if this is supposed to be better from here. - Yeah, one would think. And again, we don't judge your one coaches, not something that you like to do, but I do think that this schedule is so different for Bama compared to a lot of other teams on this list, including who I have at number seven, Notre Dame. - I think that while Irish fans believe in Marcus Freeman, this would be an awful, awful year for Notre Dame to invest the playoff. I mean, this would hit, yeah. You got your guy in the portal in Riley Leonard, second year in a row where you feel like you went into the portal, you got a big time edition at the most important spot. So yeah, that's kind of low-key eluded Notre Dame throughout much of the 21st century is having that guy at quarterback that you truly feel comfortable with. You coach Mike Dembrock from LSU. And again, I chose that verb very correctly because it was indeed approaching. And LSU could be fine without Mike Dembrock and Notre Dame can also be better with Mike Dembrock. Both of them can be true at the same time. But much like we talked about with Brent Venables, this should be a year three Marcus Freeman defense. Made some nice progress last year. Can they consistently do that to be able to be that rock for them week in, week out? That's what Notre Dame fans want to see, especially with a schedule that should yield that. This is begging for 11-1. Like Notre Dame going anything less than 11-1 with this schedule would be troubling. It really would. Three true road games. That's it, Will. You got A&M to start the year, first game with a new coach. You're at Purdue, and you're at USC, of course, to end the season. Plus you have neutral site games, at Mercedes-Benz against Georgia Tech, at MetLife to face Navy and at Yankee Stadium to face Army. So, you've got a couple of service academies playing. Throw back to the most fun NCAA team there is. Is there a name because you can just do stuff like this? I'm sure those all make sense. I'm sure it's the thing. When you have a fan base, it's because they're Navy. You can just play like whatever school. It's like, all right, we'll figure it out, dude. Yeah, and it wasn't supposed to be like this. Miami didn't realize that it had only four spots available for non-conference play. It's scheduled five non-conference spots. And they had to move this matchup, which, good on you, Miami. It was pretty long after COVID, just still be doing that. But anyway, I don't really put a lot of faith in Miami to figure things out like that. So that's not a big surprise. But it's essentially eight core four games without a conference title to play for. So that schedule, man, look, you'd better not lose two games. I don't know that the 10 win standard applies to Notre Dame and the way that it does for pretty much everybody else. I usually think Notre Dame's regular season, the way that they schedule is more challenging than what people talk about. But again, not playing at a conference title game is a different part of this. I do actually try and give the Irish a little bit of credit for traveling coast to coast, whereas a lot of teams don't do that. And they will do that within a month. The teams won't do that within a decade. But this is, there are not a whole lot of more favorable playoff paths than what Notre Dame has this year. They could lose at home to FSU or Louisville and still get there. I mean, it is set up extremely well. And that's why you're going to see a lot of very optimistic projections for the Irish this year. Whoever set the schedule, I mean, this is a work of art. Oh my gosh, this is a part of this. Well, if Miami is in there instead of that Northern Illinois matchup, it's probably talked about a lot differently, but it's not. And so it is what it is. And it is a cakewalk. I don't even think that. I think there are a lot of teams on here that stupid people think are good. I'm not being mean, but it's just like, you go to, you go at the hardest, the best stadium atmosphere in NCAA football, the video game. You go to Texas A&M, but they're playing their first game with the new head coach or the new offensive court. So it's like, you're going to have these shots of this raucous crowd week one. And Notre Dame probably just shushing them. And that's going to be the first. I mean, it would be a massive disappointment losing this game. No, like that's no way to say that differently. If Notre Dame comes in and loses at Kyle Field, literally watch out for all people involved. Because that means A&M is ahead of where we thought. And Notre Dame's like Freeman hot seat at that point. Because then you're looking at two or three long seasons. Anyway, so that's going to be like an easy-- what could an SEC team beat them, then boom. NIU at Purdue, again, they're not the team that can jump up and scare you anymore. Now, if they've changed leadership over there. OK, boom, you have Louisville, who last year spent like a good portion of the year as the top 10 team. But it's at home, and you got to buy week. And it's like, I know you already went through the whole schedule, but it's the fact of like, FSU, a team that last year was really good. Probably won't be as good this year. So like, the helmets and the logos are a team that you're playing in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. But you're not playing Georgia. You play in Georgia Tech. And so they're going to be able to these shots throughout the year of these beautiful big stadiums that are covered with opposing fans, booing them, and covered with green of them like taking over stadiums. And yet, this team could still be pretty mid and win like 10 or 11 games. So when I say schedules will work of art, I mean that in a positive way. And Miami would have been one of those teams where they're never any good. They would have beaten them too, probably. And their strictest schedule, they just started climbing. And we always end up with Notre Dame at the end of the year. That's why I just don't really like these advanced metrics almost ever in college football. We get there at Notre Dame, it's like a top 20 top 10 schedule every year. I'm like, but which good team did they beat? I asked this every year for Notre Dame. And this is another one of those perfect artistic schedules where it's like, they're going to get to the end, get the benefit of the doubt, have beaten to no one. Everyone's going to be like, oh my God, I respect them for this. I think they're going to make this playoff pretty comfortably. And watch them get to host a home playoff game. Everybody's talking about how, oh, you know what? What a bummer that Notre Dame can't have a biweekly. I actually think Notre Dame to try and change its perception, hosting a playoff game and winning that on that stage, that would do a lot of damage. And I think that would be the type of year that Notre Dame fans are hoping and expecting and understandably so. And you win that game, you're off the Hopium, bro. It doesn't matter what happens after then, because Marcus Freeman is now a playoff game winner in an era where that's still a huge deal. There's like four or five active coaches that have done that. Anyway, yeah. All right, six, Oregon. Yep, kind of hard to bet against Dan Lanning, especially when the one guy who had his number, Kaelyn DeBore, is not in his conference anymore. So he'll lane Kiffin, Dan Lanning's strategy, just wait him out, just wait him out. Billy, fine, good. Yeah, that bully is going to graduate eventually. It's, you know, it's their eighth year of high school, but they're going to graduate and you're going to get to keep your lunch money. Don't worry, it's happening. Oregon, look, I think Oregon, we give a lot of respect to. I think they've been building a roster that can compete in any conference. And I think if they wanted to step into the SEC with how they are recruiting and the way that they have built that program inside out, I think that they would be able to do it. I love the additions, obviously, of Dylan Gabriel and Evan Stewart coming in. And it's not just, oh, they develop and they recruit really well at the high school level. They recruit at the portal, they spend, they're not afraid to do that. They're 25th in the country in percentage of returning production. That's for a team that won 12 games and kept its coaching staff intact. That is a really hard thing to come by in this day and age. That is good news for a program that, again, recruits at a top four level, both high school and portal. So to me, if you're not putting Oregon in your playoff, I think you're probably given a little bit too much respect to the rest of the Big Ten. And I do think Oregon's going to have a very favorable path to be able to navigate that and get to Indianapolis. The schedule, you have games at home against Ohio State at Michigan, at Wisconsin, and then home against Washington. I don't care. I could see Oregon going 12 and 0 and roots in the Big Ten title game. I don't think they'll go 12 and 0. I have them losing to Ohio State in the regular season game. That game is being played at Eugene and then losing again to Ohio State in the Big Ten championship. But I would still set up really well for Oregon to host a home playoff game against Utah. That's not too shabby. Not too shabby at all. I think Oregon, for those expecting this to be a floor season just because you lost some nice pieces, you've got a new starting quarterback, I would not put this as a floor season for the Ducks. - That's one of those, there's that classic Twitter meme that's like, there's always someone arguing with a point that's not being made. Like I thought y'all said Steph Curry can't shoot. Like I feel like Oregon's gotten to that point where it's like they're like a bad season for them at this point is like 10 wins, nine wins. Now again, they're moving into a new conference but at the same time, it's not like, you know, again, the Big Ten has been built up as if they are the SEC. They're really just kind of what the Big Ten was plus like a couple of other teams because like we've not seen USC, especially UCLA be good anytime recently. Going back to like 2015 for UCLA. So point being if they're able to dominate the Pac-12, their only real competition is coming with them. And yeah, you throw in, what's Michigan, right? It's really just kind of Ohio State everybody else which is before the last three or four years what it was anyway in the Big Ten. We had the nice like, you know, Trace McSorley Penn State team but really I do think the Big Ten is a lot of marketing going on because the team like Oregon can get around there and honestly run people over 'cause the things that they do well are things that travel well, right? They play really physically, they run the dang ball. You know, they take care of the ball. They're not one of these like what people thought Washington was which they weren't, but early in the season, people that Washington just throws the ball all over the place. We're gonna be able to stop them like Lincoln Riley or whatever. No, no, no. This team will punch you in the mouth in the snow and the cold. Like I think they're gonna translate really well to the Big Ten. So I like this here. - My biggest concern with Dan Lanning is some of the early Kirby stuff. Is this just the guy who is on a huge stage who is still figuring out how to be a head coach and he's gonna have some of these moments where you shouldn't have gone forward on fourth down or you didn't necessarily know where you were at on the field and you made a wrong decision here or there or something like that. And it's like one of these late game decisions that is magnified when you're that good. But to be that good, you have to know what you're doing. And Dan Lanning definitely knows what he's doing. So to me, I do think that Oregon sets up well to be able to make the playoff a year one in the Big Ten. All right, speaking of team switching conferences well, I've got Texas at the five seed here. You know, I love Texas. How much do I love Texas? You're one in the SEC, you ask. - 12-0-star. - Are they back? - They will be back if they live up to this projection. - Okay. - Texas will be back. - If. - Very big if. - If Texas makes the playoff, they are back. - Sure, I'll say we go. - There we go. That's fine. - There we go. This is a real proven season for Texas now 'cause it's about being consistent at the target on your back. - Yeah, and the schedule sets up really well for it. I have Texas starting 12-0, 12-0 going into Atlanta. That means meeting Georgia at home, winning the Red River rivalry, beating A&M in college station to be able to end the regular season, and essentially having a playoff berth locked up before stepping foot in Atlanta, maybe even having a playoff berth locked up before stepping foot in college station. But of course, that buy is going to be very coveted and it won't be, oh, should they bench starters do anything like that? No, you still wanna be able to get that buy. I do think this is something we need to remember for the 12 seed, which could very likely be a group of five team, or maybe random years, it'll be like that nine and three big 10 or ICC team that kind of sneaks in and people that long for the 14 playoff or long for the BCS era, like this team has no business being in the field, whatever the case may be. That first round game for that 12 seed, facing a team like this, like Texas, is going to be going on the road against an AP top five team on extra rest. Go look at your specific team's track record against AP top five teams on the road, and you will realize how tall of a task it is. It's great that the field is more inclusive and you feel like you have a chance, and then you stare down the barrel and realize what that matchup looks like and it's tough. I just do it for the top eight, like road matchups against AP top eight teams, and they'll be like, oh boy, we don't win those very often because teams just don't. You're winning percentage is really, really bad. I went back and found every true road game versus an AP top eight team that Iowa played in the 25 years under Kirk Faris. Yeah, I'm a loser, I'm a loser. I was curious, okay? Two and nine in those games. It's 25 years that we're talking about. AP top eight teams on the road. I'm not calling you a loser. I would say we're so mean, Iowa. (laughs) I got Iowa to play off. I got Iowa to spare. That's fair, actually, good point. I got Iowa in the playoff and not Michigan and not Penn State. So you know what? I'm being nice to Iowa today. There's no disrespect here. But yeah, two and nine in those games. And the last such win that Iowa had against an AP top eight team on the road came 15 years ago. All nine of those losses were by multiple scores. Iowa has gotten smoked in these games. So it's great that your team has a chance as a 12 seed. But in a true road game, remember that if it's at a place like Texas, that 12 seed is facing a really uphill climb and they're very likely going to be a double digit dog going into a game like this. And it's not going to be all of a sudden like, oh, the 512, the variance is really not that significant. It's 512 like it is in college basketball. No, no, no, no. That is not the case. I don't think anybody will truly think that. But I think we will probably not realize how big that gap is until we actually see a play out. Yeah, no, that makes sense. I think Texas is, as we've talked about, one of the more interesting teams, you know, they have a returning quarterback, but there's just kind of this interesting element of turnover talking about some of the still positions and some of the interior guys. So yeah, I think that like we're talking about like the starting off in this run is a little bit interesting. But that game at Michigan as we've kind of circled is probably going to be a Texas win. And so they're going to be all-time Texas hype. So like that's really good to show which Sark is as a leader. 'Cause you know Sark has had those tendencies even risk them to kind of be field themselves, you know, to kind of be like, you know, a big dog with a big dog and kind of the way that they, you know, I think Oklahoma beat them. I don't think it's flipped up against Oklahoma. But point being like they, they are going to have such a fascinating year because it could really end in glory because anything after last year that's not a disappointment pretty much means they're at the big boy table going forward with this being the first year in the SEC. And I'm not even one of these guys that's looking at their portal editions going, oh my God, I can't believe they got this guy. Like Isaiah Bond is going to get so much love in the preseason. I'm like, he's a nice player. It's going to be a drop off there. - He's a loud player. That's the thing. He's a guy that like, if you watch him for a full game, he's not as good as you think he is, but the plays that he needs to make, he makes those plays. - Yeah, like if Matthew Golden ends up being the best receiver on that team coming over from Houston, it's not going to surprise me at all. But I still look at so many of the pieces that they have working in their favor, especially the continuity on the offensive line, viewers back for year three, a backfield that I love. You know, I love C.J. Baxter and like look at the back end, those guys that they have to replace upfront, that's significant with sweat and Murphy gone, but like the back end of that defense, man, I keep saying over and over, they're going to be just fine. So I do think Texas will be in good shape to do some big things year one, but just miss out on being able to get that coveted first round buy. All right, foresee, this is where we're getting in the first round buys, and this is where it gets a little bit weird. These did before Oklahoma State is my foresee. I have Oklahoma State beating Utah in the Big 12 championship game. Number three in the country, percentage of returning production, not just Ollie Gordon and everybody else. Okay, it's not. I kept thinking about what Derek was talking about a few weeks ago and how like I just think that this Oklahoma State team figured out, oh my God, we can give the guy that is so dominant. We could just give him the football 30 times a game and we're a much better team. And it's amazing that a defense can actually improve and our offensive line finds an identity. And you don't have to let Alan Bowman throw it up throw it up for grabs a million times a game. Like there are just a, there's just a more clear blueprints for this Oklahoma State team than there was probably early part of last season. And I think that benefits them with kind of a tricky schedule to start off. But think about this. It's a 10-wing team that no longer has to face Texas and Oklahoma and they're a third of the country of percentage of returning production. Like that's why I'm just scratching my head at that over under seven and a half regular season wins, you know, and they're like 12 to one to win the big 12, which I have now talked myself into that. I have them going like six and three in conference play though with some weird losses just 'cause that's what Oklahoma State's always good for. Like those at BYU or at TCU or something. - Like I cooked by UCF last year. - Cook. - Flaw me. Like it was supposed to be the Ollie Gordon, like Heisman game. And it was like, wow, they can't move the football. - Yeah, and if we're just talking about getting into the 14 playoff, obviously that would be really significant. But again, the margin for error is gonna be there. I think if the big 12 is gonna be a bit all over the place, you could see a team that goes six and three in conference play that gets into the conference championship game or watch, they'll go like seven and two in conference play, but they'll drop one at Tulsa or something like that. I mean, we are Tulsa respecters. Also, Kevin Wilson, obviously, big, big fan, even though he kind of tried to troll me on Twitter when I called him out for something that actually happened. That's a different story for a different time. But I think they could go like nine and three and get into that conference championship game and then beat a respected Utah team that everybody assumes is gonna win that game. And suddenly everyone is sitting there going, wait a minute, Oklahoma State just got a top four seed and a first round by what? This wasn't even a top 15 team for a good chunk of the year. And here they are being able to get that kind of benefit of the doubt. And then we'll remember that Mike Gundy has won 10 games eight times in the last 15 seasons and it'll make a little bit more sense. Yeah, I think it's kind of interesting about them is like, if you really want to think about it, Oklahoma State is actually kind of benefited because they are, again, the opposite of the Kiffin team. They are the team that jumps up and beat. Last year, they would love to play Oklahoma again, right? So point being like they kind of are, without those teams in the conference, I think it becomes harder to excuse the weird losses. So as I'm kind of getting the rationale for both, I think Utah a little bit more than them because because, you know, Utah has the consistency, right? And if you don't have the ability to go, you know, punch Oklahoma in the mouth or do whatever, there's not, you are the big dog. You are the big dog, if you're Oklahoma State, your coach has been there forever. He's a man, right? You really should, like, that's kind of the whole, it's like this game of thrones has happened now that Texas is no problem because it was very clearly Oklahoma is the good football team. Texas is the good brand. They're all playing for third place. And of course, there was, you know, things would jump up here and there, but not be sustained. Oklahoma State has a target on their back. And the issue with that is they were an amazing foil. They were an amazing Robin slash. And I hate to say a little brother because they're such bad con, like, connotations, but it's facts. Like the overall series isn't looking great for them, but they've had these really big, exciting wins and they've gotten them when they needed to. That's the thing, every great Oklahoma State team I can think of has these big wins because they have the opportunity. So I think that a coach like Mike Gundy, who is said in his ways, not a big adapter that Mike Gundy, I think we could say about him, those coaches can be a little bit more open to these bad losses. So yeah, I think they're a little bit high. I would probably flip them and Utah, but I get the logic because they are the heir apparent to this conference's throw. - I think the big 12 is just choose your own adventure. - Yeah. - It really is. Like, I think that they'll have that four seed in there just 'cause I just don't see how, I think it's gonna be really difficult to see the big 12 producing a 12 in one team or something like that. - Yep. - And if that's the case this year, then we'll have a lot of respect for them. I'll be like, oh, maybe there is actually a power in the big 12, but there's just a lot of teams that can get up and get you in, you know, even at Kansas, at Kansas State, you know, Arizona, who I love, like those are those types of teams that you will run into. And if you don't have that elite talent that you can fall back on to just, you know, like lean on a team in the second half of the game, you know, we're just gonna see a lot more craziness, a lot more unpredictability, I think in the big 12. Third seed, Florida State. I trust Mike Norvell. I'm not afraid to say it anymore. I'm not afraid to say it. And once upon a time, I do not. Once upon a time, I was like, is this guy in over his head? Turns out Mike Norvell, pretty good football coach. Really good football coach. Some would say he would have been good at Alabama. I would say he would have been good at Alabama. David Kalendibor is gonna be really good at Alabama. One of the best coaches in sport, far and done. I think his ability to evaluate the portal is huge. It is everything with this specific team. It's what's going to make this team, even though it ranks 89th in the country and percentage of returning production, much more competitive than we probably would assume for how much talent that they lost to the NFL. I haven't circled exactly where I think that loss comes because I think they're gonna beat two playoff teams with that early season matchup against Memphis and that I think they beat Notre Dame too. But maybe it's like a road game, a weird loss at SMU or even Miami. Maybe it's at home against Clemson. In one of those games, they'll probably find a way to lose and then still find a way to get to an ACC championship and then win as not necessarily the favorite, but by the end of the season 13 that's figured it out, they're a lot more mature and we're not asking these questions coming into the season. I just think their floor is so much higher with what Norvell has been able to do in the portal. Really the last two seasons that he's turned this thing around. I mean, think about it. - I'd rather not. - Say it again. - I'd say that I'd rather not look at the last two seasons. It's great, got to watch him smoke my tweet, my team twice in a row. - Okay, so I don't know how to sell this to you, but I'll tell anybody else. - I'm a big Norvell Miss vector, yeah, guys. Like to your point about the portal stuff, I'm just agreeing with you, I'm not cutting you off, but the place that he's getting these guys from is so weird. Like I think it was like Albany, Albany for various. It's like, ooh, it's scouting that. Where did you get, it was kind of like our boy from Mizzou? Straighter, it's like, where did you get a tip from a booster? How'd you even know this guy existed? So yeah, maybe I am a little bit too low, but that's such a good call out. - You don't break down the Truman State film on a weekly basis like I do? - Not me, buddy. - Geez, get with it, Will. Think about it, though. Like these guys that they had drafted this past year, Jared verse, portal, Albany. Keon Coleman, portal, Braden Fisk, portal, Trey Benson, portal, Jerry and Jones, portal, Jordan Travis, portal, Johnny Wilson, portal, Jeheem Bell, portal, Tatum Bethune, portal. Nine portal guys got drafted. That's gotta be a record. Okay, somebody out there has that. That has got to be the most amount of portal guys from one class that had been drafted. And it's not just a bunch of these bidding wars, too. It's not like they're pulling out the blank check. They are finding these guys from Albany and they're going into the Mac and they're taking a guy that's not necessarily playing in the ACC at another school or something like that. So to me, like I am just very bullish on the developmental aspect of Florida State. Okay, and that's a little bit of blind faith. I'm admitting that, but like what it's surprising, anyone if Malik Benson just becomes the guy that Alabama fans thought he was gonna become when he was the mother of Jacob Blair. No, like for all we know, DJ Uyungal is about to have the best year of his career. And he was a good player last year at Oregon State. He was a very serviceable quarterback with what Jonathan Smith wanted to do. Is he gonna be probably even better with Mike Norvald's controls? Yeah, I would bet on that. I'm not even a big Uyungal like guy, but I still think that he just elevates the floor. So I'm in, I'm in with Florida State. I'm, you know, I feel like all the times I try and talk people off of Miami, I'm trying to talk people in the Florida State. So I think they get an automatic bid, doesn't even leave it up to chance for the selection committee this year. Yeah, if you're making Miami playoff predictions in 2024, like seek help. Like it's not even like an addiction. It's like you're just mean to yourself. Like just go to therapy. Okay, I don't think you need yet. So point being, I don't clip that, everybody. Don't clip that if Miami makes the playoff this year. That'd be real shame. I would love nothing more than Miami to play off because they will puke up their shoes once they get there. I promise you that. You don't just go for being bad to be great. In a season, especially over there. (laughs) But point being, yeah, please, everyone clip this. I can't wait to be wrong. Anyway, so point being, I, you know, you're really convincing me again as a person who convinced myself LSU would be FSU. They didn't then woke up the next year, convinced myself LSU would be FSU again. They didn't, and now I'm sitting here going, well, FSU was undefeated last year, but they're obviously going to take a step back 'cause they lost all these guys first, Travis, all the guys talked about. Maybe I'm just wrong for a third year in a row. Maybe, you know what? Fool me three times. It's my fault, really. So maybe I should just be higher on a FSU because my whole thing is like, oh, they're that lost against Georgia. They lost all their different speakers. But it's not like these guys were five. Like it's not like a situation like, you know, when people are talking about less miles than a savior, like say we go that talent in there, less miles would just turn to the keys. It's like, no, Norville got these guys up from under a rock. And now he's just probably going to get more guys from under a different rock. It's not like his ability to keep guys at a rock has changed. It's George Travis was basura at Louisville. It wasn't like he was some five-store crew. What was it like? That's the thing that they haven't really done. Like they haven't gotten the guys like the, you know, Cormani McLean's at all that are just like reclamation. But they get guys that weren't good where they started and they become good somewhere else. Like they get guys, they get buried on the depth chart at somewhere else. And like it doesn't work out for them. Not guys, they're like, I'll go get a contract somewhere. Like, oh, this guy, this coaching staff is with me. So point to USA some. I think they were like 21st in talent composite last year. Yeah. Yeah. And look at some of the schools that were around them. I mean, sorry, when you do that, you've earned my respect as a floor elevator. And this year I think is going to be a really good example of YFS you shouldn't be going anywhere. Yeah, I think that's good. Yeah, I mean, and maybe, I mean, that's the thing is like the story of the ACC, right? Because we're not sitting here lining up to put ACC teams in here. Let me just make sure you don't have a one team bid for the ACC this year. Right. I don't have NC State. I don't have clubs sneaking in. I have just floor to state. That's what I was about to say. It's like, yeah, let's make sure you're going to have an undefeated club set here for us at this. But of course not. So it's like, that's really-- So the question of floor to state is the story of floor state is the story of club, right? Which is a club that could just bounce back and be. The team in CWA 25 thinks they are, and they're amazing, and they've got it all figured out. Yeah, maybe this could be hard to do. But given how the structure is laid out, the ACC is going to greatly benefit from this who were the big 12, because they've got to get somebody in. So that being said, you know, FSU has shown that tracker, because they've already beaten Clemson. You know, they've already done that. Like, they've had the hard wins. So yeah, point being, like, they could be not a great team, and the way the ACC sets up, if they could just beat Clemson. Because Clemson's always going to be this weird team that is going to-- I think from here forward, we've talked about this. Like, I think we align on this. Clemson is going to be this team that looks great when you beat them. But I kind of think they're done contending long term, when you think about how far the sport has come since the last time they were truly in that spot with Trevor Lawrence and such. And so point being, like, Clemson is now a boon, a plus to FSU, because they could say, we beat Clemson. And that's helpful. But like, they're really-- I don't think they'll be in danger of running the ACC, the way they used to, and just smoking these guys. So yeah, I even think FSU could take a step back, and still be technically a contending team, because of how the format is. I actually really love this pick. If you're Clemson or Miami, and if you're looking up at the end of the regular season, you're looking up on selection Sunday, and you're like, crap, we're a one-bid league, and FSU got our only bid, those angst levels are high. Yeah, real high. And I'm not talking about you're going to fire Dabo as a result of that, or anything like that, because we already laid out why the buyout is just insurmountable. But there are fan bases who will feel that heat, and they will start sweating in ways that they don't want to talk about right now, but they could be in a very short matter of time. Number two, Georgia. Duh. Of course, Georgia is going to be on here. Of course, Georgia is going to be part of the playoff conversation. If I didn't have Georgia part of the playoff conversation, you could double-check my work. I saw somebody that did not have Georgia as a playoff team in the 12-team era. I don't even want to bring it up, because the case that was made for it was foolish. It was not good. I've got the dogs as 12-in-1 SEC champs with the lone regular season loss coming at Texas, but then winning the rematch in Atlanta. Shades of like 2017 with Georgia and Auburn. Not as lopsided, though. I don't think that Georgia will get beat like a drum at Texas the way that they did at Auburn that year. Don't think that happens. But still, they get the last laugh in the SEC Championship. It's hard to poke holes in what Georgia returns. There really is. If someone is telling you that they're a weak at receiver, they're not paying attention. If someone is telling you that they lack proven defensive lineman, they're not paying attention. If someone is telling you that they are going to regress, they are not paying attention. I'm pretty sure this is going to be Kirby's highest percentage of returning production team since 2017. I'm going to have to go back and look that up, but I'm pretty sure I'm right about that. They're 28th. Well, 28th. Georgia's never that high. And when Georgia only gets eight guys drafted, you know, that means they got some dudes coming back. Yes, what? Georgia's got some dudes coming back. And one of them was Mims, who really didn't play, to be honest. Like he played, but he wasn't like that guy, you know? Yeah, I mean, why he had eight starts, something like that. Yeah, the ugly SEC Championship exit that Nick Saban wanted to talk about on the NFL Draft, which was very interesting. It won't surprise me if Georgia has four or five defensive players who are, at least in the All-America discussion at season's end with Williams, Stack House and Allen, all by the drum team member, Munden, and then Starks as well. And while it's really tough to navigate a schedule like this undefeated in the regular season, which I don't have Georgia going undefeated, Scott Trips, two Bama, two Texas, two Ole Miss on there, just in case you forgot. We need to remember, we're talking about a team that is gone. 12 and 0, 12 and 0, 12 and 0, okay? Three consecutive years of 12 and 0 starts. 39 consecutive regular season wins. It's absurd. It really is. And the time they were going to not do that was this time with Bobo and losing all these coaches and losing Stetson Bennett and all the guys. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's the other thing is like they didn't have power. Like all of that stuff. We are getting, I keep joking about this. It's like, oh, I really just go sit here and trust Chating at Bobo. And the answer empirically is yes, because that stuff has already happened. Carson Beck is coming back. He's a confirmed, very good new elite quarterback. Haven't even mentioned Bobo. Haven't even mentioned him. Not going to talk about it. What is that now? That's what I'm saying. Like it's actually a good thing to have, you know, contender Mike Bobo, you know, that's wild to say out loud. From Achilles heel to asset, you heard it here first. Yes. The Mike Bobo story. Oh, you heard it on every Georgia fan board first, but then you heard it here from the people who didn't think that way. That's the joke. Well, that's the joke. Yeah. Because it was because they also hated him to start off. Like, I remember here in Daggette, Bobo, because of the South Carolina game. But pretty quickly after that, it was, yeah. I think Georgia gets that first round by, because I think Georgia wins the SEC. So they'll have that two seed last team. Ohio State. Let me ask you a question really quick about Georgia really quick. What's the biggest weakness? Biggest weakness that Georgia has is the secondary, not named Malachi Starks. Right. Biggest weakness. I do think there could be some late seasons, 2022 moments for Georgia, especially with some of those tough road games, especially with how deep the quarterback position is in the SEC this year. Wouldn't surprise me if that happened. If there are some games where it's like, Oh, wow, George, this is kind of weird. Like, Georgia's got to win 42 to 35. But then you realize this offense is capable of winning games like that. I've been doing that. Okay. Yeah, I am more confident that they can win a shootout and they can beat you in a variety of ways. I think even if they don't necessarily have the backfield depth that we're so used to seeing, I still feel really good about their top two guys there. It should still be one of the best offensive lines in college football. There's a reason why Carson Beck was number one in our quarterback's draft. Like it's hard to poke holes. That really is. All right. Well, number one is Ohio State. I'm going to get this on record now. I want everybody to hear this. Okay. Because I know I give Ohio State some love. I am not making Ohio State my national champ. I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. Okay. I've done it before. Don't say that one yet. We got to tease that for a future pod. Well, I'm not going to tell you who my national champ is. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. But it will not be Ohio State. Okay. So you heard it here. I am giving them the one seed. I am not giving them a national championship. Why? I haven't started 13 and no. I do. And that means going to Oregon, going to Penn State, as well as ending the Michigan skid. Those are the big three for Ohio State this year. I think they sweep those. I think Ohio State replaces Washington and Dan Lanning's life. I do. I think it's the team that he is just so frustrated to be. And he can't do it for whatever reason. Do more pulls the real bully that graduated because now he's literally in the NFL, right? It tastes still like, hey, wait, we can beat Michigan. But then now, like you said, he could just switch. It could be like a circle of, this is a circle of yelling from how much your mother, it's like a circle of bullies. It's like Ryan, they got bullied by Jim Harbaugh. So now he's going to go bully Dan Lanning because he's young, dirty. He hasn't been through as much. The circle of screaming in college football. Yeah. This is it in the big 10. Yes. And in the Midwest, as we know, it's not so much screaming. It is passive aggressively explaining it someone that you don't like something. That's the way that this is done. There was Flash, buddy. Yeah. I'm still, I'm still not holding my breath on James Franklin beating Ohio State, okay? Not, you're stunning. I realize this is my bias. People forget that's only happened once. And a miracle balance on a blocked field goal was what it took for that to happen. I think people remember that. Voters are regular people. I think you're pretty adept with that. Yeah. One of the most bold things you can do in the preseason is say that Penn State is going to beat Ohio State. People don't talk about that enough, but it is. Yeah. This Ohio State team, we know, it's stockpiled with talent. They are the agent of chaos in 2024. Even if your boy Will Howard isn't Justin Fields, or even JT Barrett, that ground game should be exceptional. I do think the offensive line, though, it is a question mark. You still have so much talent in that backfield with Henderson and Judkins. I will be surprised if that defense is not one of the five best units in college football. They were very quietly second in the country and scoring last year, and they added Caleb Downs. So yeah, that boats very, very well. Their only weakness might be snapping the football well. Might just be. They really did like two boneheaded things. Right? It was Bill O'Brien and that. And then Bill O'Brien just left, and it was like, wait a minute. They actually might have saved themselves here because we were really barreling towards Bill O'Brien screaming at that center. And that would have been great television. I think Chip Kelly's really smart enough to not let that happen. Maybe we'll see. But look, yeah. Didn't prevent Bama from winning the SEC. So why should prevent Ohio State from winning the big time? So. Backs? Exactly. Yeah. So I have Ohio State going 13 and 0 and getting that one seed. What? Not winning the national championship, which we will break down at a late day. Yeah. I mean, again, talking about the TW football game, this is a sim season for them. You know, it just feels like everything until the playoff is completely, yeah, the Michigan game. Sure. But again, if you lose the Michigan game, get ready to learn offensive coordinator, right? Because at this point, you just can't lose that freaking game. If they win the championship last year. Yeah, maybe like we've talked about, there's kind of a weird backdoor way where like Michigan is very good, but they beat you. You can kind of hop in the standings. If you win the conference, you could take good at the championship. People would forgive you if you win a national championship. But if you lose Michigan and you don't like at least make the national championship, yeah, bad news. So point being, I think that they're going to do enough, especially with this talent. Like I said, with the coordinators, like it feels like we've talked about ad nauseam. So yeah, I do just feel like this is a pretty easy lock. Because how about this? I'm not going to talk about their competition versus Georgia, but I'll talk about their talent level versus their competition and Georgia's talent level versus their competition. There's just a bigger gap between Ohio State and the average team that they face outside of like, we talked about them landing a little bit younger of a coach, right? Like there is no like Texas sitting there in the big 10. That's just like, wow, we actually just have three states worth of people who have dreamed of this their whole life. So point being, yeah, I think that it's a lot, it's going to be a lot harder for this Ryan Day team to screw up, even though the conference is getting harder. Oh, so yeah, I think that anything less than undefeated through the regular season would be a disappointment. I think they're going to get into playoff no matter what, because it would be a mutiny. I mean, we're talking about Ryan Day. We'll finish the season if they're not on track to do that. So I think it's all, I think the season, this regular season is so academic for Ohio State and the playoff is where the real magic happens to your point. Ohio State might be the safest bet to make the playoffs. Georgia is still the safest bet to make a playoff for a kid. I guess, man, but like I said, I mean, like with Ohio, it's just below like, again, I'm not just sitting here to dump on the big town. I know they're getting better, but it's the concept of every game, you know, in the SEC could be a little bit more of a trap game because teams are spending and recruiting and the home field advantages, whereas like Ohio State is the probably the most talented team in the country, right, which just feels wild to say, but pretty much empirically the most talented team, and they do not play like a crazy SEC level schedule. So yeah, I think it's a safer bet for sure. Okay, so that would set up the way this breaks down. You know the buys, you have Ohio State with a buy with a one, Georgia, two, four state, three, Oklahoma State, four. So then we would have a 12/5 matchup of Memphis facing Texas. Sure. We would have a 6/11 matchup of Oregon facing Utah, a little Pac-12 throwback. Yeah. You would have a 10/7 matchup of Iowa facing Notre Dame, well, Midwest, Midwest on Midwest there. But see, this goes back to the Notre Dame team. If they get that matchup, buddy, barbecue chicken, Marcus Freedman's get the statue almost. Probably. Yeah, I was. I was scoring negative points that game probably. Yes, because Notre Dame fans like last podcast, we like kind of kind of talked about like Oklahoma and how they're viewing like like Lincoln Riley with everything they do. Notre Dame is so much worse with Brian Kelly, that they would just act like he's the second like coming of Lou Holtz and if he wins a playoff game and this sets up for them to do that. To be clear. Because once you start playing those lower seeded teams that have flaws and you know the name and you're kind of been resting, you get to play in the snow, just not have a buy there. Wow, they're going to want to play off game this year. And then damn Ole Miss would be the 8/9, which would be incredible. Just incredible. Plains like, man, when will I know peace, right? Did all this, so I'll get to play Notre Dame. That would be electric. Yeah. So I have just missing the cut in that like nine and three or eight and four category would be Oklahoma, who will be I think nine and two going into that LSU game to close the year, but then lose that one. And then it's going to be all about that discussion with Utah and you know, losing the big 12 championship. What does it mean? And then LSU, who I have, who I want to earmuff this. I have LSU starting seven and O and I'm losing at A&M home against Bama and at Florida. Okay. I mean, people say we go lose to Florida since I was in college. I actually haven't been that guy. And you know what? I feel like I have made note of how historic this run that LSU is an iconic guy. That's Florida. Yeah. But yeah, I just don't think like we're talking about these five games of Florida has to end the schedule so much that like, are they really just going to lose all five then this regular season again? Like for the second consecutive year, they're going to end up five years ago. I mean, I got to pick one of those. I got to pick one of them. Yeah, the old unstoppable force versus the moveable object to Pia. Florida's coaching staff versus Brian Kelly's defense with somebody else to win. Yeah, though, I think I'm with you. I mean, again, not going to make it a new LSU thing. They're obviously in the running. But like me, again, if you take the three of us, me and Marlar, Marlar is the only one with LSU in the playoff. I'm right there with you. I think this is a little bit of a step back from last year. But it's because LSU was a 6-1 team last year that had to end the angles on it. I can talk about it. Jay Daniels, two great receivers. And now they got Kieran Lacey. And you know, so I think there's-- Kieran. I told you. Kieran Lacey. You know. I told you, man, his name has always gotten to me. And he's almost earned me pronounced to get correctly. I've been saying this for two years. Kieran, I guess is his name. When he dropped that ball, I'll get to A&M, he became dead to me, as Tony's a friend of mine said. You added like three extra letters to that one. Look, man, names are getting more ridiculous by the year. So I've turned him into Kieran, Lannister, whatever. So point being, I do think they're kind of those at large, interesting teams. What do you think? How about this? SCC team that could make the playoff that no one's talking about? I think we're talking about all of them, are we not? Well, I mean, do you think that like A&M could go on and run? Do you think-- OK. I don't. And maybe I'm just in my own head because we talk about this so much. But I have laid out pretty clearly, I think the eight teams that have the 14 playoff upside. And in addition to those two that I just mentioned, I have Tennessee and Mizzou as part of that conversation. And there's probably Tennessee and Mizzou fans listening going, wait, what do you mean? And I'm going 8 and 4, just with too many questions defensively, even though I think Mizzou's schedule could very easily spit out 10 and 2. I just think that there's a little bit too much on that side of the ball that I'm like, golly, that's going to be difficult to overcome week in week out. But I do think that we're talking about all the contenders right now. Do I think that we're going to talk about A&M or Kentucky in that conversation in late November? I don't. I don't. So look, not everybody can be sitting there in 9 and 3. And if you're telling yourself that, oh, all these SEC teams will be part of that conversation because the playoff field is tripled, do the exercise where you do the crystal ball exercise. That's what I always recommend. Play out the entire season. Like, play out everybody's schedule. And you'll realize like, oh, you can't put everybody from that tier 2 in the playoff. I only ended up with four SEC teams in my 12 team playoff. I think that's going to be kind of the floor on a yearly basis. Maybe there'll be a year where there's only three SEC teams. I do think we'll see years where there's five SEC teams in there. But you realize those teams are going to beat up on each other. They're just going to have to. So that's kind of the way that I have that breaking down. And then like the non-SEC teams that could be part of that conversation, but just miss out would be like a Kansas state who has a gauntlet pre November schedule. That's really tough with a new offensive staff as well. Penn State, who mentioned before, I think they lose at West Virginia start the season. I think they either lose at USC or at Wisconsin. I don't think they win both of those. And then I'm not, again, holding my breath and then beating Ohio State. And then Michigan, you can pretty easily map out losses to Texas, Oregon, and Ohio State. They're like, all right, well, they're nine and three as well. And if you're nine and three and you're not playing for a conference title, I don't think you can sit there and expect to have that chance. I think getting to 10 wins is going to be that all important number for everybody. Yeah, no. And like I said, I'm just kind of trying to think about all the pod. Because you did the exercise as far as you're doing all the schedules and all that. I was trying to think of any teams and the SEC teams just kind of selfishly for the pod that we talk about that haven't really been mentioned. I think the ones that again, we've mentioned them. We've been saying we're leaving anyone out. But yeah, I think Tennessee is an interesting one to me. Maybe next year with the Amalay Ava might be the one, 2025. But that's another team that I just don't really see a ton of weaknesses honestly. Like I think their defense is pretty underrated, especially what they've done up front. It's like actually like kind of top three or four of the SEC like over the last couple of years. So yeah, I think that they're that they could be really sneaky and they could be a team that goes up and beats one of these big teams. I think they're going to be a lot like it would be, okay, how about this? I would be just a shock to see Tennessee at 10 and two as I went to see Alabama. I think given what Hypo is done and how like their offense is already like they've had years to learn it and everything, I think this team's getting more complete as strange as that sounds. I think they've got slightly too much 2023 LSU in them. I'm gonna do where there are going to be too many moments. And you know what, maybe I'm disrespecting 10 banks too much. I said that 10 banks was one of the four best defensive coordinators in the ICC. So maybe I need to put a little bit more respect there. The turnover that they have in the secondary is significant. Very, very significant. And you kind of look at Pearson, you can trick yourself into thinking in the preseason. Just like we did last year with Perkins of oh my god, they have this game record. He's going to be he's going to be able to shore up weaknesses X, Y, and Z. And then you kind of see some of these games play out and you're like, all right, well that guy's not necessarily making that type of splash play. But if it makes head that guy, but if that's the thing where DC I could imagine. So like that's the thing is that that's what LSU was two years ago. It was just Harold Perkins and some dudes and they were fine. But then it's something they were it. So yeah, that's what I'm saying. I just am very interested by this year's Tennessee and they're going to have that expectation. Like I said 2025 with Emily Alba, I guess at that point being draft eligible. Wow, I mean, this is flying by because this would be his first year as a starter. But yeah, I do think that like I can wildly enough. Hypers putting some stuff together. So there are lots of teams that could be contending. But as we've talked about, there are only a few that really have those true expectations. I think Alabama fans will understand missing the playoff in your one. But I think that is an expectation there. So yeah, this is going to be a lot of PR this year with people figuring out what this whole playoff thing means. Tennessee schedule is tough to go. You got the game at Oklahoma early in the season and then you still obviously have Alabama. You still have Georgia and the Florida thing is different in kneeling than it is in the swamp. But it's still kind of lingering like, you know what can't guarantee that? Even NC State, a lot of people really like NC State. I think they win that game. But there are a lot of spots where if Tennessee doesn't have things figured out on the offensive side early on, and if they don't find some immediate answers in the secondary, you're going to be like, "Oh boy, they have more glaring weaknesses than you would typically talk about for a 10 and two type team." But again, I said earlier that 10 and two teams can make playoffs. Who knows? The variance is not that significant with an Alabama and a Tennessee. I agree on that point for sure. All right. Let's get to jail in middle row. Speaking of Alabama, great conversation with them. Terrible lead in, I'm sorry, Jalen. You're good. Talked a little bit about the new coaching staff with the board, staying in touch with Saban, the new offense, the new video game. His toughest venues to play in and more with them. So here's Jalen. Now I'm excited to be joined by a very special guest. It is Alabama quarterback, Jalen Milro. You are here on behalf of Six Star Pro Nutrition. Jalen, not that you need any extra boost because you're built like a tank. But tell the people how Six Stars has been able to help you out. Yeah, Six Stars is a great company. Very grateful for the opportunity to use Six Star. And I've got to hear with me right now. This is something I've tried to get to the guys, man. Quick story, bro. So I got the package, man. It came to the facility. And of course, I get the update on Team Worst. You're like, hey, you're going to receive the package, come grab it. I go to go get my package and the box is already open. So I'm like, man, why am I on my box already open? Like, you know, I look inside and I see, yeah, I'm going to look short. I'm going to look short, you know, in the package. And it's my protein. I look around the corner, man. It's a couple of the fellas. They got a couple of my little proteins. They're like, man, you got this? I'm like, yeah, it's like, man, it tastes good. I'm like, yeah, I know, bro. Like, no, I'm like, but that's a quick example, man. It's a great company, bro. Like it's, you know, beyond, you know, the benefits of course, man, it tastes great, bro. Like everybody loves it. But, you know, it's definitely something that, you know, it's beneficial for you to be your best. You want a football field or wherever you, for comments that you want to have. And it's very convenient. You know, when you think about, you know, making a protein shake, you know, you got to get the protein out. The important battle for it in your milk or for it in your, whatever you want to pour it into, stir it around all that stuff. It's very convenient to grab an refrigerator and take it. And, you know, wherever you need to before you depart. So I'm there. I'm definitely excited and definitely thankful to have the brand that I'm working with them. So it's been great for the audio only crowd. Jalen held up the, the Froot Loops flavor that, yeah, that would, that is, that is spot on. I imagine that's fueled a lot of these workouts. How much you power cleaning these days? Bursts too. I ain't, so I haven't probably been in so long, but I, I've probably been on the classroom, but I got up to like four or five. Yeah, but it's for real. I'm protected, man. We, we, we, we lived. They don't more. Okay. So I suggested that with your strength, you should flex at the end of every big run. And maybe that's a little bit showy. Look, in a post Nick Saban world, do you have more freedom to bust out a celebration or two? You know, coach, you love the, the one in home mentality, you know, going the next rep and then I worry about the last one. But you know, of course, you know, you get excited. It's human nature. Make a good play, you know, where the office on the defensive, you want to celebrate, you know, you want to, you know, show, show that you're excited on the play. But, uh, you know, yeah, definitely, definitely some time this year that I'll definitely be excited about a play. So I'm going to look forward to whatever I may do. Was, was there a moment where you kind of realize like how different coach to bore is from coach Saban? Yeah. So it was funny because at practice, you know, um, I threw a, you know, I threw a really good ball through a really good deep ball down the field, really good pass. And everyone was celebrating. You know, like, I mean, I threw it, you know, I was looking at the sideline to get the next play, the next signal. And, uh, you know, I get down my rack and, uh, coach the board comes from me like, uh, Hey, what happened? I looked down, I looked at what you were going to have. So, uh, I thought you would celebrate, like, run down the field. I said, that's it. Coach, I'll do whatever the next play. He'll be like, well, I want you to celebrate. I want you to be excited. I was really good pass. I was like, okay. All right. This is different. You know, give me a pound of, you know, pat, you know, pat on me. Like, man, I was going to play like, man, be excited. I was like, wow, this is different. So like, that just tamed my perspective. I was like, all right, this is a little different. So I took, I took it, man, I was like, all right, but it's a little different. Everyone's curious, you know, in addition to just the, the vibe being different, how you are going to look in this Dubor offense. Because, you know, they, they obviously threw it a time, but they didn't really rely on the quarterback run game with Michael Penix. His injury history kind of told the story for that. What excites you about getting to play in this offense? Um, what gets me excited is that we're not one dimensional. We have a lot of weapons throughout each room that we have. Um, we'll start with the foundation of our team, which is the offensive line. Um, they said a great mentality when it comes to being in effect of each areas of the game, where there's one game in past game that's going to be affected. The tight end room is versatile. Not only are they going to be blocking for it, but also be effective in the passing game, receiver group that play differently as a whole. We have a lot of guys that are different. That's very special for us because when I wanted to mention that room, running back room, you know, very different guys, they'll definitely play differently, play to their shrimps. So we have that, you know, around me as far as the 10 of the guys beyond the quarterback, man, that's definitely scary. That's definitely something that's going to put a stress on defense. Then we have an offensive minded head coach. So, you know, we're just steadily trying to climb and steadily trying to get better. But it's evident to why they're successful. The attention to detail through preparation, through practices. So spring ball is a great opportunity for us as a team to have the opportunity. So, you know, we're definitely excited for the future holds for offense. I know everybody, you know, talked about your progression last year, but was there a throw or a run where things just kind of clicked for you? And it just maybe the game slowed down and it felt like you would turn the corner? Yeah, I think, you know, for every first year starter, you know, this is a different moment, you know, you learn so much. You know, each game that you have, you see it as an opportunity to get better and learn a lot of things. You know, each game that you play, you're always going to have that play. And man, I want that play back. You know, man, I could have threw the ball sword. Man, I could have checked the ball down like little things like that, that you're always going to have. But with having that first year under your belt, you become a veteran throughout the season and you don't even realize it. And you look at our game when I saw cover two this week, I saw cover three. So you're seeing a multitude of different coverages and different pressure, different things like that. And so that's only going to better you as a player. And so with any opportunity, man, I just see it as an opportunity to grow. And that's definitely how I saw it. So for any player to play to their best, you know, they have to be confident, you know, have a great supporting around me. And that's what I have. You know, I have a great coach that's here right now that believes in me, speaks in every each and every day, believe, you know, you know, just speak confidence in me and just speak highly of me. And just, you know, that's the best thing. You know, having great coaches that's here right now. And I'm just super excited on the play and have this season ahead. Okay, you're on the deluxe edition cover. But have you played the new EA sports college, college football video game? And if so, what can you tell us about it? Well, it's funny that you mentioned that before I can play a game, I got to have a system, I ain't played video games. So I just bought my, I just got a PS5. It's on the way. You got just got to the crib. So I'm going to be setting that up and be learning how to play. So that's a good question to follow up on because I'm definitely going to have the opportunity real soon. So I'll be able to let you know. What do you believe your rating should be? I'll say like, I really don't care what the rating is. As long as my man can throw the ball down the field and run a little bit. Like, just, you know, just, you know, just something good. Like I just don't want to be throwing a ball in the dirt when a man wide open. So, so holy, I don't really care about the rating, long is good. That's, that's a good answer. Uh, J.O. and this has been great. Uh, I got five rapid fire questions for you. Just five questions first. That comes mine. All right. Uh, first one you've been asked this before, no doubt, but squat venture deadlift. Squat. That's, that's the correct answer. You didn't know that that was actually, you know, there was a right answer. That was it. True or false. Bryce Young taught you that little, uh, flip pass that you do. And when you do it, it means that you're really feeling it. True. He, he, he, uh, he did it first. He did it first and it's the temperature game. I saw it as the man. I'm going to use that magician trick too. I asked him what was this trick, what was the cars? Let me hold it, hold him for that game. So I bet I'm going to see what he's talking about. So yeah, he gave me, he gave me his tricks. The Kentucky one was pretty nasty. You got to admit that. Yeah, that was pretty hard. Yeah, that was pretty bad. How often are you still talking to coach Saban? No, I talked to him a lot. You know, um, you know, he's here, he's here on campus. So like, it's like he ain't in the lead. So he's still here. So I can talk to him whenever I want to. And, uh, I was able to talk to him this spring, you know, talking to him talk for a long, long time. So I'm able to talk to him whenever I want to. I would count the draft conversation as, as part of that as well. Oh, yeah, no doubt. Yeah, I never thought, yeah, I never talked to him for the draft. But it was incredible. Um, okay, what's the toughest road atmosphere you face so far? Tuff is road atmosphere. I would say it's down, I narrowed down to A&M, Tennessee, LSU. If I had to make one, either A&M or Tennessee, A&M Tennessee. Not Auburn. Not, not, not, uh, no, not A&M Tennessee. That we could put a crowd for them games. All right, last one for you. Uh, I don't know what your future holds, but I do know that when your career is over at Alabama, I will be able to confidently say that you say the best roll tide in the history of Alabama football. Can you just give us one roll tide? No, definitely roll tide. It's a lot of it. Taylor, this has been great. Uh, on behalf of six-star pro-nutrition, uh, best of luck with everything this season in Wyoming. Thank you. I appreciate you, bro. All right, pitch me. How to fix college football? Well, we, uh, a little peel behind the onion here. We were debating the best way to phrase this because I originally, what, what did I originally suggest? Like, how would you change college football? I think was it. And then, see, this is why our brains work. So be it in yang together. Cause like you were a writer and can make very good writing problems. They can be very expanded on it. And I'm a marketing guy with the extension, it's just made up of goldfish. And I'm like, it's broken fixing. And you're, you're, yeah. Cause your suggestion was like, how can you save, how would you save college football? Yep. Which is too dramatic. Yeah, it's a little dramatic. It's a little dramatic. I'm like, what are we, what are we going to be doing every Saturday? This, this fall, right? Having fun. Yeah, we're going to be locked in for 16 hours. But the topic that we settled on was how to fix college football. So essentially we are looking for the tweaks that you would make that you feel like would have the greatest impact on the sport. And I know that the overwhelming amount of these responses that we got from starting on South Instagram, which you should definitely follow if you do not already. They are portal NIL related, of course, because that is the hot topic in sport. I've always just wanted a separate agency to handle football only things like separate from the NCAA. Of course, we've talked about that. But just an agency that could handle things like the tampering, the NIL related issues, the transfer portal, and then also stuff that would be more in game of, hey, let's have a specific department that can review film to analyze faking injuries and having more money to be able to pay for officials full time and do stuff like that. I think you've been applying for this job your whole career and you're waiting for that department to fee for it because I gave you the first call. No way. There would be so many other jobs that I would take within college athletics that are not breaking down whether a guy faked an injury. Now, if you want to pay me for a case as like some part-time deal or something like that, all right, then we can talk. I'll sit down every Sunday night. I'll break that town and I will let you know if a guy faked an injury. And you can just send those to my inbox. I'll crank out 25, 30 of those. No big deal. You had my full time. Ask him his middle name. I don't believe him. He's not gonna cut me back out there anyway. Trust me, I've been through those concussion tests. I told the coach that the sky was green. I didn't learn anything in math class. I've been there. Trust me. We know. So, yeah, separate to be able to just investigate stuff like that. And how do you finance things like this? The media contract would be able to finance this. If power conference teams could just advocate for getting $1 million less per year, you would have the $50 million to be able to do this on an annual basis. But again, there's a lot of greed that goes into this. And you would need something like that to fund an organization that's separate from the NCAA. I don't want a commissioner. I just want an NCFA, which is a national college football agency. Very similar to the NCAA. But different. And I think that would take care of a lot of the issues that I have with the sport. What do I get? I don't think we have. Yeah, we always talk about our biases and such. I mean, I feel like we're all kind of on the same boat as college football fans. There's not things that it was like, oh, this is going away. Some people hate this and people really. I mean, we're all pretty much talking about conferences being destroyed, NIL, money grab, portal. So like, I really don't. Yeah, this is another good point. Like the rule, yeah, the rule book and whatever. The NFL is actually worse about this, low key. But the NFL is such a content trough that people just act like it's like a create like a fun thing to talk about when they just mess with the rule book. But yeah, I think, I think that's pretty much it. There's nothing that I specifically just hate about modern college football. I think I'm just kind of in line with the police, you know? The content trough, that is the NFL. Yeah. Beautiful. Coming to the shield near you. All right, let's go to the start it on South Instagram. We've got some great responses here. Let's start with this one from JF Blair 68. First, impose sensible conference alignment on geographical boundaries. Second, no NIL for freshmen. Third, caps on NIL mandatory crossing NCAA. Fourth, tampering results in a $2 million fine. Fifth, two transfers per eligibility period for all student athletes. No exception. A lot there. The sensible, so like who would impose the sensible conference alignment on geographical boundaries? Is it? Because if it's coming from just strictly the NCAA, obviously they don't have the power. And are you doing that across all sports? I would assume that that's the case. How does that work with there are teams that are in conferences for certain sports, but not others? How is that? How would that work? But obviously I think everybody would like to see something like that instead of USC flying across the country to the scataway, of course. That's the most popular example. But we're seeing this everywhere in the big 12. No NIL for freshmen. Boise State does that, right? They kind of went viral for that of like, oh yeah, we're actually not. We don't have that available for freshmen. You have to like come here and earn it. Yeah, but the problem is like what about the program that does that offer NIL for freshmen? If you're just making this rule across college football, I shouldn't just crap on all these. These are good. That's actually one of my favorite rules I've seen. I actually think that would do a lot. Because then you end up committing with your heart, initially, because yeah, it makes no sense to cheat for a year. It just tells it. I mean, if you could get a, it's not arrested. But if you get investigated by whatever governing about it, the year is for giving a guy 100 grand for a single year of college that he wouldn't play. Because he's a freshman, go for it, dude. You know, but I think that like now you would have to also fix the portal, because guys would start at Bowling Green and be throwing for 5K yards and then end up at Alabama like after a year or whatever, because it'd be like five-star recruits or whatever. But point being, yeah, I actually love knowing I offer freshmen. I think it's fire. Put it into a trust or something like that. Yeah, exactly. Give them a minute. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Caps on NIL, mandatory across the NCAA. Yeah, I think that's kind of what they're trying to be able to work towards, albeit in a revenue sharing model. That would make a lot of sense. Tampering results in a $2 million fine. The separate agency to just investigate the most egregious examples of tampering would be great. It would be. Like, I don't think it would be as hard because the agency would not be to try and snuff out the guy who's second on the depth chart who leaves the school. I don't think anybody cares that that person wants to find a different home, or like if they ended up somewhere else, it's like, oh my god, how dare they? Like if you found out that they were DMing, you know, somebody else at a different school, or something like that, and you're like, oh yeah, you actually would have a chance to be able to play here. I think that's a little bit different than the guys who are established and very clearly have opportunities that are being made available before they ever hit the portal. And if you could find some sort of way to just track the DMs, just track the DMs on social media, that would be ideal. That would really be ideal. If these coaches have universally, university-issued cell phones, that stuff would be, yeah, you would like to think available for closer examination, for better or for worse, but the building's okay. How do we get to say Auburn, or do we get to say Ole Miss with that one? I'm saying going forward. Why Auburn though? Because they have Hugh Freeze. I know, but yeah. He's just a wild boy with his cell phone. I think we can say about Hugh Freeze. That's in the past, it's in the past. Yeah. But yeah, the tampering aspect, I do think that the ensemble is just kind of throwing up its hands and going, oh, well, I guess there's nothing we can really do about it. I was like, well, have you tried? Have you actually tried in these situations where it seems really obvious that a guy was tampered with? Because I don't think they've made any effort to do that whatsoever. And I do think that would have a significant impact on the sport. And then, yeah, the two transfers per eligibility period for all student athletes. No. Yeah. Yeah. Easy enough. This is another strong, like, greatest answer, like Hall of Fame. Because yeah, a lot of this is what, like, I have the same. I do a lot of your questions as who imposes these geographical boundaries. I mean, the chaos answer would be, give this to, like, Congress or something. Like somebody that's equally invested in everything. Because anywhere those money is going to be probably the obvious, Congress is full of money, too. So just to say, I mean, if they could talk about, you know, Barry Mons and such, whatever. But yeah, I think that this, if you did this right now, we would be literally so much better off because it would be more about the love of the game. One thing that I'm weirdly a cop about, it's like my thing I most like. This about is tampering in sports. I think it's like, so, this is because I'm a pelican's fan and I can self-report that. Maybe this is my thing where it's like, when I see, like, LeBron yucking it up with Anthony Davis at the All-Star game and I'm like, oh, that's not good. And then he ends up signing with Rich Paul and forcing Andre De La. I'm like, well, that was legal. So you guys know that and you're just going to let that happen. That's not supposed to happen. The little guys are getting, you know, messed over by the big guys. So yeah, I am a big tampering snob. So maybe I should just stay off of that. But I'm very anti like, power guys, tampering with little guys. I've always thought that was a big problem. It's kind of a joke. It really is. If you would just be able to have the most egregious cases- Yeah. Exactly. But I'm not saying that you might include all of these places. You're not definitely not bad in 1,000 on this. Oh, yeah. But the impact that that would make at the top of the sport I think is more so the bigger issue right now is where it just goes like, there's just no incentive not to. I mean, we talked about the cadence proctor thing. Like, that's blatant tampering on both sides. Just nothing happened. Like, Iowa self-imposed something. When did they really have to do that? No. They're Iowa. Maybe they do. I don't know. Like, that's the thing. The rules are just different for different teams. Yeah. All right. I like that suggestion, though. A lot of good things in that. Christian the Man 28 says, "Promote Nick Saban is chairman of the NCAA." I don't want Saban in the NCAA. I want Saban in my separate agency that controls college football. But I think we're at the same place. Put him in charge of the tampering committee. That's where we need him. Forget this suggestion. Make him the czar of anti-tampered because he knows all the truth. The Saban know what a Twitter DM is. He has assistance to do. That's the key. Keep those hands clean. He knows all the tricks. I'm actually taking over your suggestion. No, but I like him in a different role. Yeah. The commissioner thing, we would just shift blame. We would just shift blame with the commissioner. Yeah. What does the NFL do? You think a commissioner solves their issues? Yeah. No. He works for the owners. Roger Goodell works for the owners. Any commissioner of college football would just work for the conference commissioners and would just be a mouthpiece for them. And then we would just shift all of our frustration to them. I truly, it's just all about blame, okay? Like no system is ever truly perfect. And you think like one person would just have the power and the authority to make every single one of these decisions without any say whatsoever from the power conference commissioners that would have their obvious main objectives. Like they would put those forward. It just, to me, that's a bit unrealistic. That's not a chance that I personally need to see in college football. Right. Let's go to this one from, sorry, Keith Marshall. Shout out Keith Marshall, Georgia legend. Keith says college football is as exciting as it's ever been. Look, there are a lot of people I think that feel this way. Even if it doesn't seem like it right now. All right. And yeah, those of us in the content game, we have a vested interest in this. Keith included Keith former player. That's great work, obviously with the players lounge. But there are a lot of people that I think look at college football and say, I'm still going to enjoy it on my Saturdays. And that's all I care about this other stuff. Yeah, it kind of sucks. It's kind of a bummer, whatever. I'm still going to enjoy watching my team play. I'm still going to enjoy tailgates. I'm still going to go to games. And yeah, they're going to be elements that are going to be different. But I still love this sport. And maybe I think it's just getting better with the 12 team playoff era. So what if all the pieces around it are just different? That's why I kind of wanted to say fix instead of save, because there are a lot of people that don't think it's dead. And don't necessarily think that it's on life support even. So I didn't Keith's opinion is one that plenty of people probably have, whether they share it on social media or not. You know, it's always nice to see like a former athlete. I can just click on his profile. It's just him like on a boat with like his girls, really pretty big smile. It's like, you know, maybe we do take this stuff a little bit too seriously. Sometimes it's nice to hear from the guys. They're like, comfortable, super fun and cool. It's like, you're right, I love this sport. I'm still hosting this podcast. That's great context, Keith Marshall. Keith is also wildly smarter than all of us too. Yeah. So a good person to take advice from. All right, Tobias Dubose says there are too many things we would have to do to fix college football. So I'll give you three. Have the college football season start two weeks before Labor Day weekend and end within the first week of the new year. Get rid of the early signing period. Have the transfer portal not be open until after the season is over. The simplest thing to do is have one single body commissioner oversea college football on the FBS level like Roger Goodell or even Adam Silver in the NBA. The two weeks before Labor Day start. Middle of August. That means we're pushing up fall camp to they're going to want fall camp and like mid July. And then we're starting real. We're getting like into the summer where a lot of those kids aren't back on campus yet. So that would probably impact these teams. Don't want to have games where students who aren't back on campus yet. That's a it's a big deal in college basketball. More so than we talk about with college football or like the dreaded fall break game where the student section is just not there and an 11 o'clock game or something like that in the middle, you know, in November, but that okay. So what is that necessarily fixed though? You know what I mean? Like does that just give us more content earlier in the year in the dog days of summer when we wish we had something to watch? I think he would have bet on more games. I think this is a single a single voter issue here because yeah, I don't see others. This is just more. And I will say that I actually just disagree with this. I think it's a good idea. Like I think it's a interesting suggestion. I think I appreciate your submitting it. I would just say like the beauty of college football man, like I'm down 20 pounds right now. I'm the skittiest I've been since college. You know why? Because I'm not parked in front of my dang TV every Saturday. Like the beauty of college football was we had our 12 regular season games. If your team was good enough conference championship and a bowl. So it was like kind of like let's call it 15 weekends. They're about to both season whatever. And the more we NFL eyes this thing with the playoff and the preseason and the kick. Like give me my Saturdays that matter. So I want a shorter calendar not a longer one. Those mid-August games, man. Scorchers. You couldn't play game. You could not play game in mid-August. Yeah, like that. Northwestern becomes a power because of the weather. Right. Just got the lake breeze right there. Just beautiful. Hard to beat. Yeah. All these games played in the mid-west that time of year. But I do like getting rid of the early sign period. I'm on board with that. I mean that would be fantastic. I think that we've talked kind of a nauseum about the issues that are staring that in the face. Now it's going to coincide with the playoff and the way that you're trying to sign these recruits while you should be preparing for a playoff game. It just doesn't make sense. The timeline needs a total restructure with really that two three month stretch really two and a half month stretch that we have with the recruiting calendar coinciding with games and stuff. And then for the transfer portal not to be open until after the season is over. So I think by that he's saying after January. So it would be like middle of January is when the poor would open and you wouldn't have a situation like Malik Murphy last year where Malik Murphy has to get into the portal post regular season window even though Texas is in a playoff game. And he has to do that because if you're a quarterback you need to get on campus. You need to start building that reporter you need to learn the offense and learn what exactly you're going to be doing at your new school. Just because if you try and do that post spring it's so much tougher. I just I true I'm a big advocate of that. So yeah I do think that there are some merits to being able to kind of tinker with the portal not have it open until after the season is over. But then do you keep it open throughout. Spring ball do you like hot like do you close it after the end of January and then you open it up again after after spring. Yeah possibly how does that then impact your high school recruiting is that a little bit messy as well. There are a lot of very messy elements to juggling portal recruiting versus high school. Yeah portal could be a whole separate topic. But yeah I I do think that your that's one nugget in here for sure. It's like yeah I feel like very that's so stupid. Everyone like with Alabama too. It's like what are we doing here anyway. Let's end with this one. Luke Lightfoot 12 says I want half an SEC schedule in the fall half in the spring. They play the natty in December. Let it be like the Premier League and play August through May with a winter transfer portal. So you'd have like a mid-season transfer portal. Yeah that's bananas. This is nuts. This is the ultimate chaos scenario. Yeah I love this. I love this. I'll be honest like the other was almost too structured. It was like commercialized. This was like if you're gonna mess with my schedule mess with it. Like have me I would rather look forward like I said I'd rather do like six and six or seven and seven weeks to where I'm always looking forward to something than just have a slog of like 20 weeks. So I love this schedule. That's one thing I do like about the Premier League is the schedule. Wait but it's okay so let me get this straight. Half of the SEC schedule is in the fall. So you're starting that just when you normally would. And then half is in the spring right. So maybe you're taking a break December, January and then playing the natty in December. What? Yeah like it would the season would start in January. Like when the window opens right and then you would then be like in camp. So the season starts in the fall. Well I think you meant that reverse because that would be impossible. It would have if the natty was in December. Oh yeah if the natty was in December again could make the pitch a little bit better. But I see what he's saying which is that where we have a spring game right now. Just play like five six games and then be like boom. Okay we're out for the whole summer classes and da da da. Okay boom now we're going to come back and play the back half of the season. After the window and everything. Play the natty in December and just be done with it. And maybe have like a little cup in there. I don't know. Spread it out. Be a lot of intrigue. The offseason that is eight months would certainly not be an eight month offseason. It'd be a very fluid process man. So the NFL would be on board. Right probably going to be a little bit frustrated that their free farm system is still trying to figure out games. And they're still like mid season when they're trying to draft. That's a good point. The NFL would just send it a hit man there. Yeah but look yeah we got to get creative with some of these scheduling things. I don't know that it means going full Premier League. But I've heard of worse ideas than that. I've heard of worse ideas. Yeah which which pitch will we like best will. I'm I think I'm leaning towards even though I you know what. I kind of like the Tobias Dubose one just for the get rid of the early signing period. I think that's cool for me. I think number one is number one with a bullet. Like there are some people that like I said put whole manifestos in here that was like change 15 things you know us man we are reading that. I appreciate you put the research into it but you know what I'm saying like so. Here's the thing is like and like I said I appreciate I'm not trying to be to bite anybody but like thing on this is it's concise but it's multi-pointed. It's like there's accountability in there. I think one's perfect where it goes into the conference alignment, you know an aisle for freshmen, tampering like I. Okay that's if you talk tampering I probably should just close that. I think it's something that's a big problem especially in college football. Okay you pitched me you talked me into it. JF Blair 68, you are our winner kind of hit on a lot of different a lot of different key points in college football that I think the average college football fan would get on board most with that pitch so that is uh that is that is definitely something that we're going to have to take into account and just make that our own pitch moving forward. All right no Kevin Sumlin cup. I would love a Kevin Sumlin cup he's uh Maryland right now. Yeah give you four weeks of good football buddy you could be a national champion anyway. Yeah exactly all right if you have oh a quick announcement no pod uh first part of next week we will be back later in the week. I'm going to be traveling back to Chicago uh for the second part of that funeral. So if you have not leave us a five-star review subscribe to our youtube channel where you can watch every episode of the starting on south podcast follow us on the app that we call twitter @theesticspod @setdownsoft @ctogara @cosaur. Thanks guys talk soon.
EA Sports dropped its top offenses for the new college football video game, and Connor got a touch triggered. The guys discuss the lack of love for Ole Miss and Tennessee (0:15). In the first year of the 12-team Playoff, Connor attempts to do the unthinkable and perfectly predict the 12-team Playoff (8:00). Who's in? Who was just left out? And what would those first-round matchups look like? Alabama QB Jalen Milroe joined the show on behalf of Six Star Pro Nutritrion to talk all things post-Saban life, Kalen DeBoer and more (1:22:00). The guys close with Pitch Me: How to fix college football (1:32:00)
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