# CFP REACTION SPECIAL: Brackets & Backwards Logic | College Football

An episode of [The Solid Verbal College Football Show](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/270037732), 7 Dec 2025, 51 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/21437ee1-47d9-4b16-8696-b30d011a2c26/3d18fe5c-3768-4e5c-91f6-b3ac0160a855/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=51c7e0eb-425c-4d93-b5a8-b30d011a2c46

The College Football Playoff field is officially set! In this special episode, we react to this year's playoff field, pick out the easiest pathways to the national championship, and debate the CFP Committee's logic for not penalizing Alabama and moving Miami ahead of Notre Dame Support the show!: https://www.patreon.com/solidverbal See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid verbal Hell. For me, I'm a man,
[0:07] Speaker 1: I'm forty. I've heard so many players say, well, I
[0:09] Speaker 1: want to be happy. You want to be happy for
[0:11] Speaker 1: day at the State. Is that? Whoa whoam and Dan
[0:16] Speaker 1: and tie? Dan Rubinstein, we officially have a twelve team
[0:22] Speaker 1: college football playoff field. The Committee ESPN, you could argue,
[0:28] Speaker 1: the mouthpiece for the Committee decided that day we're going
[0:32] Speaker 1: to release the rankings after much fanfare. It's about one
[0:37] Speaker 1: twenty three pm Eastern time. We had originally scheduled to
[0:40] Speaker 1: do this one at five pm Eastern time. I needed
[0:44] Speaker 1: to get some stuff off of my chest. We will
[0:46] Speaker 1: get to that in just a second. If you are
[0:48] Speaker 1: just turning in, hit follow, hit subscribe so that you
[0:51] Speaker 1: do not miss any of our upcoming episodes or content.
[0:55] Speaker 1: Go back and listen to the content we dropped earlier
[0:59] Speaker 1: this morning, where we talk through what transpired on Championship Week,
[1:03] Speaker 1: the games of note, the storylines of Note, and so
[1:06] Speaker 1: on and so forth. In effect, this is a part
[1:08] Speaker 1: two to build on what we discussed late into the
[1:12] Speaker 1: evening Saturday night slash Sunday morning, Dan Rubinstein, we have
[1:18] Speaker 1: our field. The Committee revealed its results.
[1:22] Speaker 2: I'll flash it on the screen. Okay, we can talk
[1:25] Speaker 2: through what that means.
[1:25] Speaker 1: We can talk through ideal pathways, we can talk through
[1:29] Speaker 1: really anything that is grinding our gears. I've got a
[1:31] Speaker 1: few things that I would like to discuss with you,
[1:34] Speaker 1: of course, But at present, here's where things stan. Indiana,
[1:37] Speaker 1: the undisputed number one team in college football, thirteen and zero,
[1:42] Speaker 1: knocked off Ohio State. They did exactly what we expected.
[1:45] Speaker 1: They flipped Indiana and Ohio State. It was a three
[1:49] Speaker 1: point game, thirteen to ten. Instead of Ohio State being one,
[1:53] Speaker 1: Indiana is now one, Ohio State is number two. Georgia
[1:56] Speaker 1: at three makes a lot of sense, as does Texas
[1:58] Speaker 1: Tech at number four, virtue of their respective conference championship
[2:03] Speaker 1: victories in the SEC and the Big Twelve. Once we
[2:06] Speaker 1: get through that initial field, the top four who get
[2:09] Speaker 1: first round bys, we talk about your Oregon Ducks holding
[2:14] Speaker 1: steady at number five, Ole Miss holding steady at number six,
[2:18] Speaker 1: Texas A and m ND Oklahoma also holding steady at
[2:22] Speaker 1: seven and eight. Interestingly enough, Alabama holding steady at number
[2:27] Speaker 1: nine despite a twenty one point loss in the SEC
[2:30] Speaker 1: championship game. We will get there in second half two
[2:33] Speaker 1: at number ten. It is Miami. The Hurricanes at the
[2:37] Speaker 1: gun get the nod over Notre Dame to grab that
[2:40] Speaker 1: final playoff spot. They are going to be your number
[2:43] Speaker 1: ten team in this tournament. And then to round out
[2:46] Speaker 1: the field, after much discussion about the ACC's place in
[2:51] Speaker 1: all of this, and especially with a five loss, ACC
[2:55] Speaker 1: champion Tulane gets the number eleven spot and James Addison
[3:01] Speaker 1: gets the number twelve spot. So we have two G
[3:03] Speaker 1: five teams that have found their way into this tournament field,
[3:07] Speaker 1: which I actually think is kind of cool. Good for
[3:09] Speaker 1: them to get this. Two coaches, by the way, that
[3:12] Speaker 1: are going to be going elsewhere after the playoffs, So
[3:15] Speaker 1: that is kind of its own subplot all together. Dan
[3:18] Speaker 1: Rubinstein the first team out, the Notre Dame fighting Irish
[3:22] Speaker 1: the second team out, the BYU Cougars. You can go
[3:26] Speaker 1: a little bit further down the line if you want to.
[3:28] Speaker 1: I think Texas was the next one up. For all
[3:31] Speaker 1: intentsive purposes here though, the graphic that we've got on
[3:34] Speaker 1: our screen represents the top fourteen teams. With respect to
[3:39] Speaker 1: how that translates to a bracket, You've got Oregon hosting
[3:43] Speaker 1: James Madison with the winner squaring off against Texas Tech.
[3:47] Speaker 2: I believe that's the Saturday night at seven thirty Eastern game.
[3:50] Speaker 1: Yep, correct. The Friday night game is going to be
[3:53] Speaker 1: Oklahoma the eight hosting Alabama the nine, with the winner
[3:58] Speaker 1: getting the rights to square off against under feet at Indiana.
[4:02] Speaker 1: On the bottom side of the bracket, we've got number
[4:05] Speaker 1: six Ole miss playing host to Tulane. This is a
[4:07] Speaker 1: rematch of a forty five to ten game that we
[4:10] Speaker 1: saw earlier in the year. The winner of that one
[4:12] Speaker 1: is going to square off against Georgia and last, but
[4:15] Speaker 1: certainly not least, number seven Texas A and M playing
[4:18] Speaker 1: host to number ten Miami. The winner of that matchup
[4:22] Speaker 1: squares off against Ohio State Dan Ruvenstein. So we've got
[4:27] Speaker 1: a lot to discuss here. Why don't we start at
[4:29] Speaker 1: the very top though, because I think Indiana has deserved
[4:33] Speaker 1: as much Indiana one. I don't think there was as
[4:35] Speaker 1: much dispute over Indiana being the one. No, do we
[4:38] Speaker 1: agree with how they handled Ohio State in light of
[4:40] Speaker 1: that loss, dropping them only one spot down to number two?
[4:44] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean Ohio State was twelve and er. It
[4:47] Speaker 2: was a hard fought game. It was very tight. It
[4:49] Speaker 2: was thirteen ten. It came down to, you know, Indiana
[4:52] Speaker 2: out playing them in the second half. Ohio State had
[4:54] Speaker 2: a couple opportunities late to tie it or take the lead,
[4:56] Speaker 2: and Indiana was able to hold on. Indiana proved itself
[4:59] Speaker 2: to be the clear numb one. And I'm fine with
[5:03] Speaker 2: as impressive as Georgia was yesterday, with Ohio State going
[5:06] Speaker 2: into their conference championship game having quitted themselves well at
[5:10] Speaker 2: least on defense.
[5:12] Speaker 1: I'm fine with them number two. Yeah. The remainder of
[5:16] Speaker 1: the top nine was also kept intact, right. I think
[5:20] Speaker 1: Texas Tech obviously belongs at number four. I think George
[5:23] Speaker 1: obviously belongs at number three. Any dispute on your end
[5:28] Speaker 1: with how they handled let me say the next group
[5:32] Speaker 1: of four teams. We won't talk about Alabama quite yet,
[5:35] Speaker 1: but okay, Oregon standing pad at five, We've got Ole
[5:39] Speaker 1: Miss at six, We've got Texas A and M at seven,
[5:42] Speaker 1: We've got Oklahoma at eight. I know Greg McElroy on
[5:44] Speaker 1: the ESPN broadcast had something to say about Texas A
[5:47] Speaker 1: and M being below Old Miss, maybe even below Oregon
[5:50] Speaker 1: in light of the season that they had. I did
[5:52] Speaker 1: find it a little bit strange that they would drop
[5:54] Speaker 1: A and M as much as they did after that
[5:56] Speaker 1: loss to Texas, but obviously still in the field, obviously
[6:00] Speaker 1: still hosting a first round playoff game. Not going to
[6:03] Speaker 1: say I have that big of a gripe with it.
[6:06] Speaker 1: They kind of kept it in state from a week ago,
[6:08] Speaker 1: so I think we've had ample time to digest that
[6:11] Speaker 1: right now. But you cool with that too, You're good
[6:14] Speaker 1: with that. I don't know.
[6:16] Speaker 2: I mean, look, you're trying to understand what the committee
[6:20] Speaker 2: is thinking with keeping Texas A and M beneath Ole Miss,
[6:23] Speaker 2: and I guess the thinking in this specific scenario, if
[6:25] Speaker 2: they were what three before, is that Texas A and
[6:29] Speaker 2: M had a schedule that did not feature basically anybody
[6:32] Speaker 2: near the top other than Texas within the SEC. Their
[6:34] Speaker 2: best win came in week whatever two or three against
[6:38] Speaker 2: Notre Dame, and their control over a lot of those games,
[6:43] Speaker 2: whether it was against Arkansas, whether it was against South
[6:46] Speaker 2: Carolina late in the season, whether it was against I
[6:49] Speaker 2: believe Auburn was close, yes Auburn was sixteen to ten.
[6:53] Speaker 2: That they did not feel like Texas A and M
[6:56] Speaker 2: was as in control as I guess they thought Ole
[6:58] Speaker 2: Miss was within the SEC. Let's also remember ole Miss
[7:01] Speaker 2: barely be Washington State. This is not a perfect ole
[7:04] Speaker 2: Miss schedule. It's not a perfect ole Miss season. I think,
[7:07] Speaker 2: if anything, they just sort of looked at it as
[7:09] Speaker 2: a later season control issue from textas A and M.
[7:13] Speaker 2: I don't know if I fully agree, but it's hard
[7:15] Speaker 2: to make a strong argument in favor of text A
[7:18] Speaker 2: and M or overall Miss. It's just where you fall
[7:20] Speaker 2: in the margins. How do we feel about two G
[7:23] Speaker 2: five teams getting in? These are the rules everybody signed
[7:27] Speaker 2: up for, and it's not on these teams. It's not
[7:31] Speaker 2: on the committee. The committee had no choice with regard
[7:34] Speaker 2: to James Madison and Tulane. Obviously these aren't teams that
[7:38] Speaker 2: were even really on the fringe of the top twelve.
[7:41] Speaker 2: But this is what we signed up for. And the
[7:44] Speaker 2: committee didn't have the foresight to think a twenty twenty
[7:48] Speaker 2: five unicorn of a cop major conference champion duke could exist.
[7:52] Speaker 2: And that's on them. That's on you know, the conference commissioners,
[7:56] Speaker 2: not the committee. The Conference commissioners and those in charge
[7:58] Speaker 2: of the playoff structure. It's on them, and you sort
[8:03] Speaker 2: of reput you so. And here is the reaping part.
[8:07] Speaker 1: Here, it is We've had a bunch of people right
[8:09] Speaker 1: in about this. But if the ACC had a different
[8:13] Speaker 1: set of tiebreakers, if instead of common opponent's record, it
[8:18] Speaker 1: was committee ranking, Miami would be in. Notre Dame would
[8:21] Speaker 1: be in as well, and maybe that would benefit the
[8:23] Speaker 1: ACC down the line. Maybe that could be a change
[8:26] Speaker 1: that we see in the immediate future. I don't know,
[8:28] Speaker 1: but that is what allowed Up to get into this
[8:32] Speaker 1: game in the first place, to win the ACC with
[8:35] Speaker 1: five losses and put the ACC you know, they have
[8:39] Speaker 1: their conference champion, who's not going to be part of
[8:41] Speaker 1: this because of the weird tiebreakers they had. Miami is
[8:45] Speaker 1: going to be part of it. We can get to
[8:46] Speaker 1: that next. But that is one aspect I think of
[8:50] Speaker 1: the system right now that I would look at and
[8:53] Speaker 1: the immediate short term as something that we're going to
[8:55] Speaker 1: see patched up before long, because I don't think they
[8:57] Speaker 1: want that. I do think if it weren't for, you know,
[9:00] Speaker 1: a really solid Miami team, that the ACC would have
[9:03] Speaker 1: any reps in this at all.
[9:04] Speaker 2: The only other thing I would tag on with relate
[9:07] Speaker 2: as it relates to the G five is the committee,
[9:10] Speaker 2: as you're going to mention, is just going to do
[9:13] Speaker 2: what it wants, and they could have just ranked Duke
[9:16] Speaker 2: ahead of James Madison because they want.
[9:19] Speaker 1: If they had wanted to write, they.
[9:21] Speaker 2: Could have ranked Duke ahead of James Madison, who obviously
[9:24] Speaker 2: was going to be behind Tulane. Now, James Madison was ranked
[9:27] Speaker 2: last week, but whatever was ranked last week again, you're
[9:30] Speaker 2: about to get to this doesn't matter.
[9:33] Speaker 1: It just doesn't matter.
[9:34] Speaker 2: So the committee, with easy justification could have said, oh, yeah,
[9:39] Speaker 2: we're putting Duke at like number twenty one in James
[9:41] Speaker 2: Madison's number twenty two. And that's just sort of how
[9:43] Speaker 2: we failed with a win over a top twenty Virginia,
[9:45] Speaker 2: I think, you know the best of like. They could
[9:47] Speaker 2: have used garbled language to defend putting Duke ahead. They
[9:52] Speaker 2: didn't in that instance. I mean, why stop now? Why
[9:55] Speaker 2: stop now?
[9:56] Speaker 1: Dan? We've doing it on say time? Why stop now?
[9:59] Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. It could have just done it.
[10:02] Speaker 1: I don't know. Congratulations to both Tulane and JMU. I
[10:06] Speaker 1: will be rooting like hell for both of those teams.
[10:09] Speaker 1: It is a great story for both of those schools.
[10:11] Speaker 1: It sucks that both coaches are now leaving, but at
[10:16] Speaker 1: a minimum, it's a really nice accomplishment for them. They
[10:18] Speaker 1: both had terrific seasons and I look forward to having
[10:22] Speaker 1: them in there. As somebody who has argued for a
[10:24] Speaker 1: long time that if there were all technically going to
[10:26] Speaker 1: be on the FBS level, you should at least extend
[10:30] Speaker 1: the olive branch, do something to include all of the conferences,
[10:34] Speaker 1: And by having both schools in here, I think it
[10:37] Speaker 1: does achieve some level of inclusion. So I'm happy about that.
[10:40] Speaker 1: I think from a general principled standpoint that I've always
[10:44] Speaker 1: had here, it's fine.
[10:45] Speaker 2: I don't know if I'm looking forward to forward to
[10:47] Speaker 2: these specific matchups, like I.
[10:49] Speaker 1: Mean, you're an Oregon fan, you're definitely looking forward to
[10:51] Speaker 1: these specific matchups.
[10:52] Speaker 2: No, but I benefect your team greatly. It benefits the
[10:55] Speaker 2: team I root for. But in terms of just like
[10:57] Speaker 2: a pure competitive standpoint, it would be hard to get
[11:00] Speaker 2: up for if James Madison weren't playing Oregon, if JMU
[11:03] Speaker 2: or Tulane were playing you know, Oklahoma or Texastack or whoever.
[11:07] Speaker 2: Like you're just like, well, that's a different kind of matchup,
[11:09] Speaker 2: and you hope that it's more competitive than it seems
[11:11] Speaker 2: at the moment. I don't know what the early line
[11:13] Speaker 2: on Oregon James Madison is is it in the twenties?
[11:16] Speaker 1: Am? I might be one hundred and twenty. I haven't
[11:18] Speaker 1: seen it yet, but.
[11:19] Speaker 2: Either way, I am good in spirit with making this
[11:24] Speaker 2: inclusive at like the peril and at the cost of
[11:29] Speaker 2: keeping out like a nine to three team that really
[11:32] Speaker 2: didn't look like a playoff team.
[11:33] Speaker 1: So it's fine, all right? Can we talk about the
[11:36] Speaker 1: other stuff? Now? Let's there are a couple bones of
[11:41] Speaker 1: contention over here in solid verbal East, maybe out there
[11:45] Speaker 1: in solid verbal West, maybe all throughout the verballerhood with
[11:48] Speaker 1: how the committee handled the remainder of this field, and
[11:52] Speaker 1: by that I am referring to number nine Alabama, number
[11:56] Speaker 1: ten Miami, and in this case number thirteen Notre Dame.
[12:01] Speaker 1: And I'll even want BYU in there at number fourteen.
[12:04] Speaker 1: There are a couple different things that we can talk
[12:06] Speaker 1: about here now. I think it goes without saying that
[12:09] Speaker 1: the committee going the entire month of November ranking Notre
[12:13] Speaker 1: Dame ahead of Miami, only to put Miami ahead of
[12:16] Speaker 1: Notre Dame in the eleventh hour because BYU was docked
[12:21] Speaker 1: for losing its conference championship game, which they didn't do
[12:23] Speaker 1: for Alabama. By the way, because how dare we do
[12:25] Speaker 1: something like that to an SEC champer an SEC championship
[12:28] Speaker 1: contender anyway, That's neither here nor there. We'll get to that.
[12:31] Speaker 1: But now, because we have Miami and Notre Dame back
[12:34] Speaker 1: to back, this is the logic they use to move
[12:36] Speaker 1: Miami ahead of Notre Dame and to give them the
[12:37] Speaker 1: final spot. Everybody listening to this knows that I am
[12:42] Speaker 1: a Notre Dame fan. I am incredibly disappointed that Notre
[12:47] Speaker 1: Dame did not get the NOD after being fed for
[12:51] Speaker 1: a month straight this nonsense, that the committee valued what
[12:54] Speaker 1: Notre Dame was doing, that the committee wasn't necessarily comparing
[12:57] Speaker 1: them against Miami, they were comparing them against the likes
[12:59] Speaker 1: of Alabama and so on and so forth.
[13:01] Speaker 2: Right, and that they were saying like it was one
[13:04] Speaker 2: hundred year at check. By the way, SEC Athletic Director
[13:07] Speaker 2: university executive voice of the College Football Committee, after the
[13:10] Speaker 2: previous voice was let go for allegedly trying to start
[13:14] Speaker 2: a fight with an active tight end on his.
[13:16] Speaker 1: Own team, love it, allegedly love.
[13:18] Speaker 2: It the defense there in his words, I am paraphrasing
[13:22] Speaker 2: his words, so maybe not his exact words was we
[13:25] Speaker 2: weren't comparing them. Miami had just lost two of three,
[13:28] Speaker 2: so we were weighing where they were at that moment,
[13:31] Speaker 2: so we weren't thinking about their whole season record. We
[13:33] Speaker 2: only started doing that now, which is of course a
[13:37] Speaker 2: bullshit continue.
[13:39] Speaker 1: I am disappointed as a fan, but I would say,
[13:43] Speaker 1: out of principle, head to head should count for something. Agree.
[13:49] Speaker 1: What is confusing to me is why it took so
[13:51] Speaker 1: long to get here. And this is not just a
[13:54] Speaker 1: Notre Dame or a Miami thing. This is a college
[13:57] Speaker 1: football fan question that I think is very real, regardless
[14:01] Speaker 1: of fandom. Miami and Notre Dame played first week of
[14:04] Speaker 1: the year. We've had a lot of time to digest
[14:06] Speaker 1: that game. It was close. Notre Dame is in a
[14:10] Speaker 1: much different spot now. I'm going to recuse myself from
[14:13] Speaker 1: deciding who I would pick if the two teams played tomorrow, Right,
[14:17] Speaker 1: but head to head should count, and so, at least
[14:21] Speaker 1: as just a principled point of view, putting Miami in
[14:25] Speaker 1: over Notre Dame. Though I am disappointed, I understand that logic. Sure.
[14:30] Speaker 1: What I have issue with is why it took so
[14:32] Speaker 1: long to get here. I understand they're doing a show.
[14:35] Speaker 1: I understand they've got commercial inventory they would like to sell,
[14:38] Speaker 1: but why it took this long to kind of come
[14:41] Speaker 1: to that realization and made everything else going on around
[14:43] Speaker 1: college football. They could have saved us all a lot
[14:45] Speaker 1: of time just by saying that, yeah, we're gonna actually
[14:47] Speaker 1: give them the benefit of the doubt. Here, Miami had
[14:50] Speaker 1: worse losses than Notre Dame. Okay, and Miami definitely stumbled
[14:54] Speaker 1: in the middle part of their season. They have looked
[14:56] Speaker 1: very good as of late, and I am happy for
[14:58] Speaker 1: Miami that they got in while simultaneously being crushed that
[15:01] Speaker 1: my team didn't. But I get that point of view,
[15:04] Speaker 1: I really do. I just don't understand the timing of it.
[15:07] Speaker 1: I agree. What I take greater issue with is these
[15:11] Speaker 1: verbal gymnastics that they have tried to put hunter year
[15:15] Speaker 1: check through to explain how they penalized some conference championship
[15:21] Speaker 1: losers and not others. Right. Okay, and I pointed this
[15:24] Speaker 1: out a bunch of times on X The everything app
[15:26] Speaker 1: over the last twenty four hours, But if you take
[15:29] Speaker 1: last year as an example, every team that played in
[15:33] Speaker 1: a conference championship game and lost, all of these cases
[15:37] Speaker 1: were by one score. All of those teams without exception,
[15:41] Speaker 1: dropped a few spots in the polls. Penn State dropped
[15:44] Speaker 1: the spot, Texas dropped the spot. SMU dropped two spots.
[15:47] Speaker 1: All those games were closed. It's a three point game,
[15:49] Speaker 1: and eight point game and a three point game, respectively.
[15:53] Speaker 1: Alabama played in a conference championship game. Not only did
[15:55] Speaker 1: they pick up a third loss, but they lost that
[15:59] Speaker 1: game by twenty one points. Fact checked true. They did
[16:04] Speaker 1: not move an inch an inch in this latest poll, buddy.
[16:09] Speaker 2: They moved up by barely beating Auburn, who I don't
[16:11] Speaker 2: believe has a winning record last week, and with an
[16:14] Speaker 2: interim coach sneaking by Auburn moved them up and Notre
[16:18] Speaker 2: Dame destroying whoever it was Stanford last week unchanged or
[16:21] Speaker 2: moved them down?
[16:22] Speaker 1: Right? What about BYU Dan So, by that same logic,
[16:27] Speaker 1: if you're going to get crushed in a conference championship game,
[16:31] Speaker 1: why does BYU then get docked? Right? They move BYU
[16:35] Speaker 1: out of their spot, which moves Miami up, which puts
[16:39] Speaker 1: them next to Notre Dame, which gives them right to
[16:42] Speaker 1: move them then ahead of Notre Dame because of the
[16:43] Speaker 1: head to ted tiebreak, which I'm not really arguing. Right,
[16:46] Speaker 1: I understand, but why is it not good enough for
[16:52] Speaker 1: BYU but it is good enough for Alabama to kind
[16:56] Speaker 1: of keep them where they're at. You know, I'm listen.
[16:58] Speaker 1: We talk about a lot of fun stuff on this show. Yeah,
[17:02] Speaker 1: make a lot of dumb jokes. It's not for everybody.
[17:05] Speaker 1: I get that. And sometimes we put weird theories out
[17:09] Speaker 1: into the ether, and ninety five percent of the time
[17:13] Speaker 1: that is all tongue in cheek. Even we don't believe it,
[17:16] Speaker 1: it's just fun. After seeing what they did here and
[17:21] Speaker 1: how they handled Alabama, this to me represents about as
[17:26] Speaker 1: tangible a proof as we are going to get that
[17:28] Speaker 1: there is some kind of SEC bias going on. I'm sorry,
[17:31] Speaker 1: I'm sorry. They lost by twenty one points and they're
[17:35] Speaker 1: not going to move an inch. I get that. You
[17:38] Speaker 1: don't want to upset the balance of the force with
[17:41] Speaker 1: respect to conference championship games. Everybody in that room probably
[17:46] Speaker 1: cares about conference championship games and not sending them the
[17:50] Speaker 1: way of the dinosaur. Great. Yeah, they dropped everybody last
[17:55] Speaker 1: year by at least one spot. They dropped teams this
[17:58] Speaker 1: year by one spot. Everybody except the SEC team in Alabama,
[18:03] Speaker 1: who By the way, even Kirk curve Street himself said
[18:06] Speaker 1: on the broadcast that they've been leaking oil, and damn straight,
[18:09] Speaker 1: they've been leaking oil. Because I watched that game yesterday,
[18:12] Speaker 1: they didn't belong in the same field as Georgia. I'm
[18:15] Speaker 1: not even an arguing point. Shut up. I'm not even
[18:18] Speaker 1: arguing that Alabama should be completely out of the playoff field.
[18:22] Speaker 1: I think Alabama is still a very good team, but
[18:25] Speaker 1: they're inconsistency with how they handle these conference championship games
[18:31] Speaker 1: and the conferences involved in the conference championship games is
[18:35] Speaker 1: something that I have a major issue with. Sure. So
[18:39] Speaker 1: this has been an embarrassment the full way through for
[18:41] Speaker 1: this committee from the guy who runs it getting kicked
[18:43] Speaker 1: off it, or I guess stepping aside right on through
[18:47] Speaker 1: their logic for at the eleventh hour, moving one team
[18:50] Speaker 1: above another, how they handled conference championship games for Alabama
[18:54] Speaker 1: versus or I guess I should say the SEC versus
[18:57] Speaker 1: everybody else. And as you said to me, and I
[19:00] Speaker 1: think rightfully so before we went on the air here, congratulations.
[19:05] Speaker 1: You are witnessing the final year of the college football
[19:07] Speaker 1: Playoff Selection Committee and can be a moment too freaking soon.
[19:11] Speaker 1: Is there anything else that there will be? But go ahead,
[19:14] Speaker 1: you can talk now, Okay.
[19:15] Speaker 2: So look the cynic as you bring up the SEC
[19:19] Speaker 2: bias thing, the cynic is just like, look, the thing
[19:21] Speaker 2: that can't suffer within this sport is anything that affects television,
[19:25] Speaker 2: and not having major matchups in September and not having
[19:28] Speaker 2: a conference championship game would affect television. And so these
[19:33] Speaker 2: conference championships need to be important kind of. And so
[19:38] Speaker 2: that's why the BYU thing matters. The explanation was they
[19:42] Speaker 2: lost without seeming more competitive than they were the first
[19:45] Speaker 2: time when they lost in Lubbock, and so we ding
[19:49] Speaker 2: them for that. Alabama went five straight quarters without scoring
[19:53] Speaker 2: against Georgia. Listen again, Alabama did not score in the
[19:58] Speaker 2: second half of a win. It's good to win, you
[20:00] Speaker 2: should reward the win. And then they started this game
[20:03] Speaker 2: out yesterday not scoring for the first three quarters.
[20:06] Speaker 1: Yeah, and five straight quarters not really getting a fifty
[20:09] Speaker 1: yard line for like three quarters. Right, And you know what,
[20:13] Speaker 1: if you're looking at the totality of the resume, if
[20:15] Speaker 1: you're looking at head to head, if you're looking at
[20:17] Speaker 1: what Alabama accomplished during this season, I think the correct
[20:22] Speaker 1: way to look at. You know, the conclusion you should
[20:25] Speaker 1: come to with Alabama is there right there with Auburn
[20:28] Speaker 1: and South Carolina. I don't know if there's a single
[20:32] Speaker 1: Alabama fan, especially if you look at the comments on
[20:36] Speaker 1: all of the game recaps that were popping up online
[20:38] Speaker 1: last night, they were all, We're not going to make
[20:41] Speaker 1: the playoff and frankly, we don't deserve to. That's every
[20:45] Speaker 1: single comment. That is the conclusion that Alabama fans, after
[20:48] Speaker 1: watching the Georgia game came to. Now, every Alabama fan
[20:52] Speaker 1: is not the same.
[20:54] Speaker 2: They are on the level with South Carolina and Auburn,
[20:59] Speaker 2: and a little bit less than Oklahoma, which I guess
[21:01] Speaker 2: technically are in this rankings right. They lost Oklahoma at
[21:04] Speaker 2: home in like a pathetic offensive, showing stop me if
[21:06] Speaker 2: you've heard this before. Alabama losing in a pathetic offensive,
[21:09] Speaker 2: showing like, clearly this offense didn't work the back half
[21:12] Speaker 2: of the schedule, so they're not dinged for a conference
[21:15] Speaker 2: championship game, with a history of being dinged for conference
[21:17] Speaker 2: championship games. They move up after an unimpressive win against
[21:21] Speaker 2: Auburn and the case against Notre Dame and the case
[21:24] Speaker 2: against Miami are pretty clear, right, Yeah, he los is.
[21:27] Speaker 1: I'm disappointed, but I get that that that logically right,
[21:31] Speaker 1: I get that, And I again, it's one thing to
[21:34] Speaker 1: be disappointed. It's another thing to say that it's a
[21:37] Speaker 1: bad faith argument. I don't think it's a bad faith argument.
[21:39] Speaker 1: I think the way that they presented it at least now,
[21:42] Speaker 1: I mean, it took them forever to get here, but
[21:44] Speaker 1: at least the way that they presented it. Though I
[21:47] Speaker 1: am disappointed, makes a ton of sense. These teams we
[21:49] Speaker 1: thought were very comparable. They were comparable in Week one,
[21:52] Speaker 1: it was a three point game. They looked at all
[21:54] Speaker 1: the stats, they were basically the same. We're going to
[21:57] Speaker 1: break the time by giving it to the team that
[21:58] Speaker 1: won on the field. Great, that makes sense to me.
[22:01] Speaker 1: That's logic. That's logic. That is logic. Why don't we
[22:05] Speaker 1: use that across the board.
[22:08] Speaker 2: It's also, as we've talked about, and we've mentioned, if
[22:11] Speaker 2: week one, if labor day weekends late August does matter
[22:14] Speaker 2: that much that it is the most important tie breaker
[22:18] Speaker 2: when you're comparing similar schedules. Obviously Miami with a full
[22:20] Speaker 2: ACC schedule, Notre Dame with a partial ACC schedule, Florida
[22:26] Speaker 2: State played Alabama that weekend, and so if you compare
[22:31] Speaker 2: those three teams, nobody had that level a loss no
[22:36] Speaker 2: as disappointing at moments as SMU and Louisville war from Miami.
[22:40] Speaker 2: Notre Dame had a loss to Miami and a loss
[22:43] Speaker 2: to Texas A and M. The case against Notre Dame
[22:46] Speaker 2: to me, aside from the head to head loss, but
[22:50] Speaker 2: just more broadly speaking, is Notre Dame has more control
[22:54] Speaker 2: over their schedule and they don't play in a conference
[22:56] Speaker 2: championship game. Sidebar, If it's an advantage to not play
[23:00] Speaker 2: in a conference championship game because it can affect you,
[23:03] Speaker 2: why can't it affect Alabama?
[23:05] Speaker 1: That's right, So there's the sidebar there.
[23:08] Speaker 2: No, the case against Notre Dame is you have more
[23:10] Speaker 2: control over your schedule and so sometimes you can schedule
[23:15] Speaker 2: teams on neutral sites, or you can schedule G five
[23:18] Speaker 2: teams like Notre Dame has over the years when they
[23:20] Speaker 2: schedule you know, the Service academies, what have you and
[23:23] Speaker 2: the Service. The Navy team they played this year was
[23:25] Speaker 2: good that you need to exert like a terrific amount
[23:29] Speaker 2: of force, and Notre Dame did. But also, if you
[23:33] Speaker 2: don't play a lot of highly ranked teams. If you
[23:35] Speaker 2: don't play a lot of top twenty teams like the
[23:37] Speaker 2: best of the SEC schedules have, then you have to
[23:40] Speaker 2: perform in those games. And Notre Dame didn't just lose
[23:43] Speaker 2: to Texas A and M. They gave up forty one
[23:46] Speaker 2: points at home with their strength eventually becoming their defense.
[23:50] Speaker 2: But they got run through and around and over and
[23:53] Speaker 2: buy against Texas A and M. And they lost to Miami.
[23:55] Speaker 2: Close it lost by one point to Texas A and M.
[23:58] Speaker 2: On A botched yesterday, Okay, so I'll tell you. I
[24:02] Speaker 2: hear you. They would have tied with the extra point,
[24:05] Speaker 2: and they gave up a game winning touchdown to a
[24:08] Speaker 2: tight end who never catches balls.
[24:09] Speaker 1: No, that's fair. And you know we could say the
[24:11] Speaker 1: same about Texas A and M giving up forty points
[24:14] Speaker 1: of course against a Notre Dame offense that at that
[24:16] Speaker 1: when your season was not fully developed. So I get it,
[24:20] Speaker 1: I get it. I think it comes ways. But what
[24:23] Speaker 1: I'm saying won that game, so fair.
[24:24] Speaker 2: Enough, the margin for Notre Dame is less because you
[24:27] Speaker 2: can take a look at a team I agree with
[24:29] Speaker 2: that that that plays in a conference and say they
[24:31] Speaker 2: have no control over their conference schedule, right that sometimes
[24:35] Speaker 2: it's going to be a murderer's role like what Oklahoma's
[24:37] Speaker 2: was this year, or Texas is sometimes or was this year,
[24:40] Speaker 2: and sometimes it's just going to be a fortunate schedule
[24:43] Speaker 2: like we had with you know, the ACC championship teams
[24:45] Speaker 2: with Duke in Virginia. I'm sure I agree with so,
[24:49] Speaker 2: but I'm saying that's the case against Notre Dame. I
[24:51] Speaker 2: just think people are making the wrong case right now
[24:54] Speaker 2: because Notre Dame themselves played like a playoff team after
[24:59] Speaker 2: those two losses, and those are good losses and if
[25:01] Speaker 2: your losses have to matter, just like wins have to matter.
[25:04] Speaker 2: The thing that really annoyed me about the Alabama thing
[25:07] Speaker 2: was these again this is Hunter Yeerchek's paraphrased words, is
[25:11] Speaker 2: we looked at the totality of alabama schedule so obviously
[25:14] Speaker 2: including the worst loss to a team that hasn't won
[25:16] Speaker 2: a road game in two years, and we said, you know,
[25:19] Speaker 2: they also have a pretty incredible win that they were
[25:22] Speaker 2: able to beat the SEC champion on the road in September,
[25:27] Speaker 2: And the only reason that Georgia is the SEC champion
[25:29] Speaker 2: is because they beat Alabama literally yesterday, forty four minutes ago.
[25:36] Speaker 2: And so that tells me and my pea brain that
[25:41] Speaker 2: the committee just thought to themselves, we can't put in
[25:45] Speaker 2: the three, four, five and leave out the number two,
[25:48] Speaker 2: even though you definitely can. They lost to a dumb,
[25:52] Speaker 2: dumb acc team to start the season a very important
[25:55] Speaker 2: time per the committee.
[25:57] Speaker 1: Dan, that's not even the thing though. Yeah, it's not
[26:01] Speaker 1: even about leaving Alabama out of the playoff. It's about
[26:05] Speaker 1: some conference championship games meaning something, meaning enough to drop BYU.
[26:10] Speaker 1: And it's about others that were almost as lopsided, not
[26:15] Speaker 1: having any bearing whatsoever on the rankings, not at all.
[26:20] Speaker 1: They didn't drop a lick nothing. And you know what,
[26:22] Speaker 1: they didn't even think about dropping them a lick because
[26:24] Speaker 1: it's al a frickin' Bama. I agree, they had their
[26:27] Speaker 1: mind made up before this week. Shame on the committee.
[26:30] Speaker 1: What do you call them? Dented avocados on avocados? Yeah?
[26:34] Speaker 2: Look, and then so then the question becomes, Okay, if
[26:37] Speaker 2: it's a thirty five to seven loss, what's the threshold
[26:41] Speaker 2: for saying Alabama is not performing like a playoff team yesterday?
[26:46] Speaker 1: Dan? What is the impetus for any of these teams
[26:50] Speaker 1: any of these teams that are in the top twelve
[26:52] Speaker 1: to even play there once in a conference championship game.
[26:56] Speaker 1: If it's completely meaningless, completely independent of the final score,
[27:01] Speaker 1: what is the motivation to take your ones out there
[27:04] Speaker 1: and risk them getting hurt? I agree.
[27:06] Speaker 2: I think Kirby Smart and Kaylin de Borr should have
[27:09] Speaker 2: gone to some sort of like Cracker Barrel or Chili's
[27:13] Speaker 2: or something and had a handshake agreement, let's both pay
[27:15] Speaker 2: a fine and not play, or just play our bunch
[27:17] Speaker 2: of our walk on.
[27:18] Speaker 1: This is old like FIFA World Cup BS, where two
[27:22] Speaker 1: teams could come to a gentleman's agreement like, ah, maybe
[27:25] Speaker 1: we just won't score and then we both go through. Right.
[27:29] Speaker 1: It wasn't quite that, But what's the point? What's the point?
[27:33] Speaker 1: They want to have conference championship games with real meaning, right,
[27:37] Speaker 1: That is what I am getting from this. But at
[27:40] Speaker 1: the same time, the conference ship games don't really have
[27:42] Speaker 1: any real meaning. They just sort of like them because
[27:45] Speaker 1: it's an extra game they could sell into. Yeah.
[27:47] Speaker 2: By the way, this, to be clear, is a ninth
[27:52] Speaker 2: SEC conference game for these teams. This is not some
[27:56] Speaker 2: sort of crazy extra game that no teams would have
[28:00] Speaker 2: to like This is a ninth game. The Big Ten
[28:01] Speaker 2: and the Big twelve already played nine conference games and
[28:03] Speaker 2: then play a tenth in their conference championship game. So
[28:05] Speaker 2: this is not an above and beyond moment for both
[28:08] Speaker 2: Alabama and Georgia and whoever plays in the SEC championship game.
[28:11] Speaker 1: This is not.
[28:12] Speaker 2: This is merely a ninth game that the SEC is
[28:15] Speaker 2: eventually going to anyway. But it's a it's a pretty
[28:19] Speaker 2: pathetic showing.
[28:20] Speaker 1: It really is.
[28:21] Speaker 2: Like the case for Alabama is they were good for
[28:25] Speaker 2: like three and a half weeks in October.
[28:26] Speaker 1: They're like, okay, cool.
[28:29] Speaker 2: I just I'm always going to be a believer that
[28:31] Speaker 2: all weeks are not created equal and seasons are living,
[28:34] Speaker 2: breathing things. And Georgia just won without two of their
[28:37] Speaker 2: best receivers and their starting center and managed to find
[28:40] Speaker 2: a way to look like Georgia. Georgia didn't look like
[28:43] Speaker 2: Georgia the week before against Georgia Tech and managed to
[28:45] Speaker 2: find a way to win that game, Like this is
[28:48] Speaker 2: what excellent teams and worthy teams do, and Alabama just
[28:53] Speaker 2: over and over again is sort of getting a thumb
[28:58] Speaker 2: on the scale and this is our sport.
[29:03] Speaker 1: I am not arguing that Alabama should have been left
[29:05] Speaker 1: out entirely. I am not making that case, but I
[29:09] Speaker 1: am saying we need to come to an understanding. Either
[29:11] Speaker 1: conference championship games matter and can have can have some
[29:18] Speaker 1: penalty right if you lose in dramatic fashion, or they don't.
[29:25] Speaker 1: We can't have it both ways, because this is now
[29:28] Speaker 1: a situation where we had it both ways. It worked
[29:31] Speaker 1: against BYU, worked right against BYU, worked against other teams
[29:37] Speaker 1: that lost, worked against Ohio State, they would right they dropped. One.
[29:42] Speaker 1: Doesn't work for Alabama though, because it's our precious sec beautiful. Yeah. Absolutely, anyway, listen,
[29:47] Speaker 1: I'm gonna get off my high horse now. Of course,
[29:50] Speaker 1: welcome everybody's feedback. I'm not trying to dunk too hard,
[29:54] Speaker 1: but I feel very passionately about this. I think it's
[29:56] Speaker 1: a joke. I think it's a joke specifically with regard
[30:00] Speaker 1: to this. I get the Notre Dame in Miami thing.
[30:02] Speaker 1: I am crazy disappointed. I've said that ten times now,
[30:05] Speaker 1: but I get that. I get that I wanted both
[30:08] Speaker 1: teams in but that wasn't going to happen. But the
[30:11] Speaker 1: way that they handled this conference championship thing, I think
[30:13] Speaker 1: is an absolute farce.
[30:15] Speaker 2: Do you think there would have been a number if
[30:16] Speaker 2: they lost fifty two to seven?
[30:18] Speaker 1: No, no, you don't. No, it's unbelievable. It's great. It really.
[30:23] Speaker 2: By the way, once again, tinfoil hat Dan here. They
[30:28] Speaker 2: started the show with the Alabama messaging.
[30:30] Speaker 1: Oh they did it was they did? I was just
[30:32] Speaker 1: going to bring that up. Yeah.
[30:34] Speaker 2: It was an Alabama anchor tossing to an Alabama quarterback
[30:38] Speaker 2: and then via satellite a legendary Alabama coach who is
[30:40] Speaker 2: a paid consultant with an office on campus at Alabama.
[30:44] Speaker 2: And at this point, I it is my belief if
[30:49] Speaker 2: you are taking a paycheck from ESPN, I think you're compromised.
[30:54] Speaker 2: I just there is something about watching this coverage that
[30:58] Speaker 2: screams like if McDon donald's had a TV network and
[31:02] Speaker 2: had an annual award for like, here is the best
[31:04] Speaker 2: milkshake or milkshake adjacent product, and it goes too and
[31:08] Speaker 2: we're gonna go around this roundtable. We're gonna have the Hamburgler,
[31:11] Speaker 2: We're gonna have grimis. Everybody's gonna weigh in. I think
[31:13] Speaker 2: you got to give it to mcfluury, and everybody's like,
[31:16] Speaker 2: I think mcfluury is the choice and you're like, Okay, cool,
[31:19] Speaker 2: I think you're compromised. If you take any money from
[31:21] Speaker 2: ESPN and you weigh in on the college football playoff,
[31:25] Speaker 2: you're just wearing a badge. That's all you're doing. I mean,
[31:31] Speaker 2: Bill Connolly is compromised. I just see this in the.
[31:34] Speaker 1: Bill Connolly helped to decide, right, he helped to decide
[31:39] Speaker 1: the Mountain West Championship participants.
[31:44] Speaker 2: Bill Connolly is compromised. He is, and you know what,
[31:46] Speaker 2: he's the best. He is the best. But at the
[31:49] Speaker 2: same time, if he went on the air, and I
[31:52] Speaker 2: believe in my heart of hearts that Bill Connolly's heart
[31:55] Speaker 2: is pure, but if he went on and be like,
[31:58] Speaker 2: well you have to consider though.
[32:00] Speaker 1: A ESPN I would Okay, let's flash the bracket up there, now,
[32:06] Speaker 1: flash the Brackett's Let's get away from this in a second.
[32:09] Speaker 1: Let's celebrate my teams that are in this playoff field. Yes,
[32:15] Speaker 1: let's not talk about the method anymore. There's going to
[32:17] Speaker 1: be plenty of time to go over that again, I'm sure. Yeah,
[32:21] Speaker 1: here is where things stand right now. Again, we talk
[32:23] Speaker 1: through the first round matchups, who the winners of those
[32:28] Speaker 1: first round matchups are going to square off against if
[32:30] Speaker 1: they make it through into the quarterfinals. As you look
[32:33] Speaker 1: across the twelve team field here and these matchups, is
[32:38] Speaker 1: there a particular path that jumps out to you immediately?
[32:42] Speaker 1: And I'm not just talking the first round, but is
[32:45] Speaker 1: there a pathway through to the semifinals that you think
[32:49] Speaker 1: rises above the others? Because I have a few thoughts
[32:52] Speaker 1: on this as well, but I want to get your
[32:54] Speaker 1: take first, since I've been dominating here by yelling into
[32:56] Speaker 1: this microphone.
[32:58] Speaker 2: I think Indiana's path is pretty good. Good Honestly, where
[33:02] Speaker 2: are they playing that game?
[33:03] Speaker 1: By the way, I believe that's in the Rose Bowl.
[33:06] Speaker 2: That's that would make sense. That's in the Rose bul
[33:07] Speaker 2: So any and it gets to play in the Rose
[33:09] Speaker 2: Bowl against either Oklahoma or Alabama. I don't hate that
[33:12] Speaker 2: path because I just I think Indiana is so buttoned
[33:16] Speaker 2: up right with what they were able to do play
[33:18] Speaker 2: to play on both sides of the ball. I don't
[33:20] Speaker 2: hate that path playing in the Rose Bowl. Again, though,
[33:22] Speaker 2: it's how you feel about that all that extra time
[33:24] Speaker 2: because they won't be playing Today's December seventh, so that's
[33:27] Speaker 2: what twenty four to twenty five days away. Yeah, yeah,
[33:30] Speaker 2: So that's a that's been three and a half weeks
[33:32] Speaker 2: of you know, going home for the holidays or you know,
[33:34] Speaker 2: it's just it's an a rhythmic experience figuring out portal
[33:38] Speaker 2: stuff behind the scenes, figuring out higher stuff for all
[33:40] Speaker 2: these you know, teams that have the buy, it's just
[33:42] Speaker 2: a long time. I think Ohio State's path is pretty
[33:46] Speaker 2: nice and Oregon's path. Look, you get your a three
[33:49] Speaker 2: touchdown favorite, and it's not great to play against Texas
[33:53] Speaker 2: Tech defense. That is a brutal, brutal ask but it's
[33:57] Speaker 2: across the country for Oregon. It's a good distance for Texas.
[34:00] Speaker 2: Texas Tech, I imagine, is going to be just unbelievably
[34:03] Speaker 2: just hyped up to be in that matchup. But I
[34:07] Speaker 2: don't hate Oregon getting the Texas Tech offense in this one.
[34:10] Speaker 2: And Oregon, weirdly enough, I already looked a little bit ahead,
[34:13] Speaker 2: and you know, maybe James Madison beats Oregon. Oregon has
[34:16] Speaker 2: struggled in the red zone on defense with allowing touchdowns,
[34:19] Speaker 2: and Texas Tech has struggled on offense scoring touchdowns in
[34:22] Speaker 2: the red zone, So that's like an early read there.
[34:24] Speaker 2: So no, I think in terms of upsets, Oregon probably
[34:28] Speaker 2: in that five to four matchup, if we get it,
[34:30] Speaker 2: has a nice path, and then Georgia ole Miss. I
[34:34] Speaker 2: just have no idea what to expect from what ole
[34:36] Speaker 2: Miss looks like with Pete Golding and Charlie Weis Junior
[34:39] Speaker 2: is calling the offense. There, I'm not putting them through
[34:42] Speaker 2: over tu Lane immediately. But they did beat Tulane by
[34:45] Speaker 2: a comfortable margin this season. Yeah, and Tulan has their
[34:48] Speaker 2: own distraction with their own coach leaving. So I think
[34:52] Speaker 2: the best first round matchup is probably Miami A and
[34:55] Speaker 2: M purely from A like, Okay, so we both beat
[34:58] Speaker 2: Notre Dame. How are we going to play each other?
[35:00] Speaker 1: Yeah? Well that's interesting in its own right, you know
[35:02] Speaker 1: what I mean, They've got I think that's the best
[35:03] Speaker 1: game in round one. Yeah, So, to answer your question
[35:06] Speaker 1: from earlier, the winner of the A and M Miami
[35:11] Speaker 1: game plays Ohio State and the Cotton Bowl. So perhaps
[35:14] Speaker 1: a bit of a home game for Texas A and M,
[35:16] Speaker 1: although it's always a home game when Ohio State's involved, right,
[35:19] Speaker 1: they travel Jerry World Cotton Bowl, Arlington. Yeah, that's right,
[35:23] Speaker 1: your Oregon Ducks. Should they pull through and knock off
[35:26] Speaker 1: James Madison, that will be in the Orange Bowl. Right
[35:29] Speaker 1: as I mentioned a minute ago, the Indiana game versus
[35:32] Speaker 1: the winner of the Home in Alabama is going to
[35:34] Speaker 1: take place in the Rose Bowl. And then the final
[35:36] Speaker 1: quarter final matchup between Georgia and whoever wins between Ole
[35:39] Speaker 1: Miss and Tulane that will be in the Sugar Bowl.
[35:41] Speaker 1: So if Tulane gets through, that'd be fun. I think
[35:44] Speaker 1: the path that jumps out to me initially is the
[35:45] Speaker 1: Oregon path, and this is something that I talked through
[35:48] Speaker 1: with you Ian to go now. It feels like forever ago,
[35:52] Speaker 1: but Oregon is going to be a healthy favorite. I
[35:54] Speaker 1: haven't seen by how much over James Madison. Maybe we
[35:57] Speaker 1: can pull that up here as we're talking through all
[35:59] Speaker 1: these matchups. I think Oregon matches up particularly well with
[36:02] Speaker 1: Texas Tech. I get what you're saying about Tech Tech Defense.
[36:06] Speaker 1: Tech Tech defense has been incredible for sure, possibly America's best.
[36:11] Speaker 1: I am not enamored with that offense, and so I
[36:14] Speaker 1: actually see that as a rather low scoring game, more
[36:18] Speaker 1: of a defensive struggle between those two. And I've got
[36:20] Speaker 1: Oregon making it through into the semifinal. Yep, no knock
[36:23] Speaker 1: on Texas Tech. Forgive me. I just don't trust Baron
[36:26] Speaker 1: Morton in a high leverage spot like that. So I've
[36:29] Speaker 1: got Oregon making it through into the semifinals. I've got
[36:32] Speaker 1: Oklahoma over Alabama in that first matchup. Again, that's a
[36:36] Speaker 1: rematch we saw that one earlier, was a close game
[36:38] Speaker 1: earlier in the year. I think Oklahoma pulls another one
[36:42] Speaker 1: out over Alabama, and I think Indiana moves through into
[36:46] Speaker 1: the semifinals for a rematch against Oregon. On the other
[36:50] Speaker 1: side of the bracket, I've got Old Miss over Tu Lane.
[36:54] Speaker 1: I've got Georgia over Old Miss.
[36:56] Speaker 2: Sorry, once again, where would that game be Georgia Ole Miss.
[36:58] Speaker 2: That would be in the Sugar Bowl, So that would
[37:01] Speaker 2: be in New Orleans. Inside we would have Jerry World. Inside,
[37:05] Speaker 2: we'd have the Rose Bowl. Likely good weather. We'd have
[37:09] Speaker 2: South Florida, likely good weather, though sogginess is on the table.
[37:14] Speaker 2: I like Georgia over Ole Miss.
[37:15] Speaker 1: I like Georgia over a lot of teams right now,
[37:17] Speaker 1: to be honest with you, with the way that they've
[37:18] Speaker 1: been playing, They're one of these teams that has taken
[37:21] Speaker 1: a quantum leap here second half of the season, and
[37:24] Speaker 1: that culminated with an SEC championship over Alabama yesterday, Georgia
[37:29] Speaker 1: right now again the three seed. I've got them through
[37:31] Speaker 1: to the semi finals. I've got Texas A and M
[37:34] Speaker 1: over Miami, And I am a bit on the fence
[37:38] Speaker 1: about Texas A and M versus Ohio State. If I'm
[37:40] Speaker 1: being real with you, I really like this Texas A
[37:44] Speaker 1: and M team.
[37:46] Speaker 2: Well, it's a matter of which one shows up when. Yeah,
[37:49] Speaker 2: I really like this Texas A and M team.
[37:50] Speaker 1: My inclination is still to go with Ohio State, but
[37:54] Speaker 1: I could be swayed off of that. I think for me,
[37:57] Speaker 1: that's the toughest part of this bracket to project forward.
[38:01] Speaker 1: But gun in my head right now, I probably go
[38:03] Speaker 1: Ohio State. Okay, fair enough. So.
[38:07] Speaker 2: One of the interesting things in looking at these teams
[38:09] Speaker 2: who are playing is the recency of interesting, big, meaningful wins,
[38:17] Speaker 2: Like Oregon has won in usc not a playoff team,
[38:21] Speaker 2: but a decent win at home. Alabama doesn't have one.
[38:26] Speaker 2: Oklahoma has a pretty good Alabama obviously. Ole Miss has
[38:33] Speaker 2: decent wins though recently. I don't know if I'm missing
[38:36] Speaker 2: anything with ole Miss recently, just in terms of how
[38:38] Speaker 2: we're playing. Obviously they're dealing with off the field stuff.
[38:41] Speaker 2: You know, the beat Florida South Carolina. The Oklahoma game
[38:44] Speaker 2: was I think before Halloween, so they haven't really played
[38:46] Speaker 2: a tough opponent recently. Alabama hasn't performed well, Miami hasn't
[38:51] Speaker 2: played anybody in a long time. You know, I'm depending
[38:55] Speaker 2: on how you feel about Pitt. I guess maybe that's
[38:56] Speaker 2: disrespectful to Pitt and Texas. A and m has not
[38:59] Speaker 2: beaten a good in quite some time. So the recency
[39:03] Speaker 2: of results is just interesting to me in terms of, like,
[39:06] Speaker 2: how accurately can we gauge, you know, where this team
[39:10] Speaker 2: is right now? I think it's all over the place.
[39:13] Speaker 1: I think you'd be hard pressed to pick anyone at
[39:16] Speaker 1: this point other than Indiana period. Yeah, period, full stop.
[39:22] Speaker 1: I mean they look absolutely legit. Their defensive showing against
[39:27] Speaker 1: Ohio State on Saturday night was what stood out the
[39:31] Speaker 1: most to me. To be able to win a couple
[39:33] Speaker 1: different ways, right, Yeah, To be able to win with
[39:36] Speaker 1: your back to the wall, needing a miracle drive on
[39:39] Speaker 1: the road in Happy Valley emerging victorious, or to be
[39:44] Speaker 1: in a bit of a defensive slugfest on a neutral
[39:46] Speaker 1: site against a team that has owned the conference now
[39:49] Speaker 1: for you know, a good chunk of time at least
[39:52] Speaker 1: if they haven't been winning the conference title, they've been
[39:54] Speaker 1: winning national championships, or it's Ohio State, they're always in
[39:58] Speaker 1: the hunt. So to get a win like that in
[40:00] Speaker 1: the manner that they did, basically to play physical football,
[40:02] Speaker 1: go toe to toe with Ohio State and win that
[40:04] Speaker 1: one by three. This is a team that can beat
[40:06] Speaker 1: you a multitude of different ways. And I'm not sure
[40:10] Speaker 1: I feel much differently about a rematch between them and
[40:12] Speaker 1: Oregon should it come to pass, because Indiana showed me
[40:17] Speaker 1: something in that game against Ohio State.
[40:19] Speaker 2: By the way, this in terms of what this year's
[40:22] Speaker 2: bracket looks like in the old old system, Indiana's your
[40:26] Speaker 2: national champion, right, lone undefeated team crown them in the BCS.
[40:31] Speaker 2: We're getting likely what Indiana Georgia right in this championship
[40:35] Speaker 2: game without like a huge argument made for like Texas
[40:40] Speaker 2: Tech or Oregon. In the four team system, you have
[40:42] Speaker 2: a Texas Tech Oregon conversation. Oregon, I guess has the
[40:46] Speaker 2: better loss but didn't make their conference championship game, and
[40:50] Speaker 2: Texas Tech, you know, dominated their best their their best
[40:53] Speaker 2: opponent twice in BYU and won their conference championship game.
[40:57] Speaker 2: So that's an interesting conversation to have. But like, it's
[41:00] Speaker 2: not crazy to have a Texas Tech, Georgia, Ohio State
[41:03] Speaker 2: Indiana playoff. Like people will be like, all right, yeah,
[41:05] Speaker 2: those are the four well, and it's just I'm really
[41:09] Speaker 2: hoping we have good interesting matchups here. But how we
[41:11] Speaker 2: got here I think was pretty screwy. Again with a
[41:13] Speaker 2: committee made up of dented avocados, and yes, Buster Onney compromised,
[41:19] Speaker 2: Mark Messier compromised, take your pick, they're all compromised.
[41:24] Speaker 1: I would welcome anyone's feedback out there who's got something
[41:28] Speaker 1: to say. Jessica Mendoza, you compromised. You can either write
[41:32] Speaker 1: in sliverbo at gmail dot com, hit us up in
[41:35] Speaker 1: the comments, hit us up in the chat. We're going
[41:37] Speaker 1: to have ample time to go through and discuss these matchups,
[41:41] Speaker 1: look at point spreads once they're a little bit more settled,
[41:44] Speaker 1: and of course go through the feedback that we get
[41:47] Speaker 1: from the verballer hood on just the manner in which
[41:49] Speaker 1: they got to these twelve teams.
[41:52] Speaker 2: But do you think, by the way, yeah, just because
[41:55] Speaker 2: you're a notre dame human, do you think this would
[41:59] Speaker 2: this a the beginning of a case for Notre Dame
[42:04] Speaker 2: to join a conference. Notre Dame is demolished in the
[42:07] Speaker 2: ACC if they're playing obviously Virginia or Duke in this
[42:11] Speaker 2: championship game, and they would or they would have an
[42:13] Speaker 2: opportunity if the tiebreakers were different, to play against Miami.
[42:16] Speaker 1: Once again, I feel like we get to this moment
[42:19] Speaker 1: every so often where we're like, Aha, this is the
[42:23] Speaker 1: thing that's gonna do it.
[42:24] Speaker 2: Yeah, and it might just be a rare year both.
[42:26] Speaker 2: It seems that like ten and two for Notre Dame
[42:29] Speaker 2: is largely going to be good enough.
[42:31] Speaker 1: Often, I think it is far more likely that they
[42:34] Speaker 1: expand the playoff to fourteen or sixteen teams than Notre
[42:39] Speaker 1: Dame joins a conference in the short term to give
[42:42] Speaker 1: themselves potentially a leg up to get into this college
[42:46] Speaker 1: football playoff field. You know, part of me wonders if
[42:50] Speaker 1: they were in the Big Ten but did not qualify
[42:54] Speaker 1: for a conference championship game, same record, Big Ten schedule,
[43:00] Speaker 1: would we have felt differently about the fighting Irish. I
[43:04] Speaker 1: know it's popular to make fun of Notre Dame for
[43:07] Speaker 1: being independent. I've gotten it probably about a thousand times
[43:10] Speaker 1: already today. Well, they should join a conference like a
[43:12] Speaker 1: real team. Okay, well, if they were in a conference,
[43:15] Speaker 1: if they played a big ten schedule and they still
[43:17] Speaker 1: went ten and two, maybe with a similar strength of schedule,
[43:23] Speaker 1: would people have felt differently about Notre Dame in this case.
[43:26] Speaker 1: My hunch is yes, because they'd be in a conference
[43:28] Speaker 1: and they'd have that label. But in all practicality, it
[43:31] Speaker 1: might not have made that much of a difference in
[43:33] Speaker 1: terms of the underlying numbers. So I don't know. I
[43:36] Speaker 1: just don't think it's likely. With how dead set determined
[43:39] Speaker 1: they are to remain independent. It is so much a
[43:43] Speaker 1: part of their identity as a program on the football side.
[43:47] Speaker 1: I know that's not ubiquitous across all of Notre Dame's programs,
[43:49] Speaker 1: but it is such a big part of who they
[43:52] Speaker 1: are and who they want to be. Now, if we've
[43:57] Speaker 1: got a twelve team field next year and the same
[43:59] Speaker 1: thing happens, if this happens a couple times over, then
[44:03] Speaker 1: it's a conversation. Because they are investing heavily in this
[44:06] Speaker 1: football program. Marcus Freeman is clearly a name that is
[44:09] Speaker 1: in demand, and I think at some point, yeah, maybe
[44:14] Speaker 1: we could we get to that moment where it truly
[44:17] Speaker 1: does make more sense, if only to help this program
[44:20] Speaker 1: get back to the level of winning a national championship.
[44:23] Speaker 1: But I think this taken in a vacuum is probably
[44:25] Speaker 1: not enough. And being so, they have a vote in
[44:28] Speaker 1: that room, and being so, it seems like there's already
[44:31] Speaker 1: a lot of momentum on expanding the playoff, albeit nobody
[44:34] Speaker 1: knows how. I think that is the more likely outcome
[44:37] Speaker 1: because if this is a sixteen team field, even if
[44:39] Speaker 1: it's a fourteen team field, Notre Dame gets in easily.
[44:43] Speaker 2: I agree. I look, it's just how the committee evaluates
[44:47] Speaker 2: things is just going to change day to day, and
[44:50] Speaker 2: so doing anything dramatic is pretty silly because the committee
[44:54] Speaker 2: will have no idea how it feels about it on
[44:56] Speaker 2: Tuesday as it compares to Thursday. And you you know,
[45:00] Speaker 2: you can say, you know, Notre Dame should have won
[45:01] Speaker 2: those big games. Miami should have beaten SMU, Miami should
[45:05] Speaker 2: have beaten Louisville, didn't matter, right, they're in a conference,
[45:08] Speaker 2: didn't matter. But they won the head to head game
[45:11] Speaker 2: in August, and that apparently is is the thing, and
[45:13] Speaker 2: I think head to head should matter. But if you
[45:16] Speaker 2: take in the totality of it, it's just team to
[45:18] Speaker 2: team situation a situation. It's not an easy job. Let's
[45:22] Speaker 2: be clear, No, it isn't.
[45:24] Speaker 1: I don't envy having that position, And I don't mean
[45:28] Speaker 1: to imply that everybody in that room has a hidden
[45:31] Speaker 1: agenda or anything crazy like. No, I don't think that's
[45:33] Speaker 1: the key. I think these are a lot of people
[45:35] Speaker 1: who love college football want to be part of the process.
[45:38] Speaker 1: So that is admirable, But it's just very, very frustrating
[45:43] Speaker 1: from the outside in if you are not a fan
[45:46] Speaker 1: of Alabama, even if you are a fan of the SEC. Yeah,
[45:50] Speaker 1: to look at how this is treated inconsistently across conferences
[45:54] Speaker 1: with respect to these conference championship games right there truly
[45:59] Speaker 1: is no impetus to go in there and win. What
[46:03] Speaker 1: is the point of having them? Right Like Greg McElroy
[46:06] Speaker 1: talked about this speaking of Alabama voices in the room
[46:10] Speaker 1: about how the committee set a precedent last year for
[46:14] Speaker 1: not wanting to penalize teams that lost conference championship games.
[46:17] Speaker 1: They don't want teams to fall out of the playoff
[46:19] Speaker 1: field as a result of losing a conference championship game.
[46:21] Speaker 1: But they did fall. But all those teams did fall
[46:24] Speaker 1: by a spot or two. So the fact that this
[46:27] Speaker 1: loss by Alabama was way worse than any of those
[46:30] Speaker 1: games and they didn't move an inch, right, I don't know,
[46:33] Speaker 1: that doesn't do much to emphasize the value of conference
[46:38] Speaker 1: championship games either. No, not at all. They were sort
[46:42] Speaker 1: of damned if they didn't. Damned if they didn't. It's
[46:45] Speaker 1: in fairness to the committee. I mean, there was not
[46:47] Speaker 1: a good choice here. But this inconsistency, I think is
[46:51] Speaker 1: going to be a real issue, and I don't expect
[46:54] Speaker 1: people are going to be talking any less about it
[46:57] Speaker 1: moving forward, because especially now as we're talking about banning
[47:00] Speaker 1: the playoff field, I think it even further degrades the
[47:03] Speaker 1: value of conference championship games. And you know, we will
[47:08] Speaker 1: probably arrive organically at this moment where everybody just kind
[47:11] Speaker 1: of throws them to the wayside, and maybe we go
[47:13] Speaker 1: more the direction of what Tony Petiti's been saying on
[47:15] Speaker 1: the Big Ten side of things, which we should just
[47:18] Speaker 1: have playing games to determine who gets in from our
[47:20] Speaker 1: conference and go with that instead. I'm not crazy about
[47:24] Speaker 1: any of this, mind you, but this inconsistency, combined with
[47:28] Speaker 1: the fact that they already want to expand this thing,
[47:30] Speaker 1: I think has taken us to a point where championship
[47:32] Speaker 1: games kind of go bye bye.
[47:34] Speaker 2: Every quote will make more sense. And I don't know
[47:37] Speaker 2: if there's a find and replaced function you can use
[47:39] Speaker 2: in your chrome, in your safari whatever. Every Playoff Committee
[47:43] Speaker 2: quote will make more sense if instead of a period,
[47:46] Speaker 2: you add a comma and buy and large. We looked
[47:50] Speaker 2: at this and we felt it was important that we
[47:53] Speaker 2: grade on this rubric Comma by and large, right, it's
[47:58] Speaker 2: when they feel like applying, where they feel like applying.
[48:01] Speaker 2: And I cannot stress enough that the chair of the
[48:06] Speaker 2: committee went on ESPN. Owners of the college football playoff right,
[48:11] Speaker 2: went on ESPN and with a straight face, sold America
[48:17] Speaker 2: on the idea of what Alabama did yesterday somehow was
[48:23] Speaker 2: more impressive because they had a win earlier over the
[48:27] Speaker 2: team that just put them in a locker. It is
[48:33] Speaker 2: somehow good actually that Alabama lost yesterday because it improved
[48:38] Speaker 2: their best win. That kind of backwards logic is what
[48:43] Speaker 2: gets us to this insanely silly moment, Dan.
[48:47] Speaker 1: Rubisin, why don't we leave it there. We appreciate everybody
[48:49] Speaker 1: who tuned in to watch this live. We went a
[48:52] Speaker 1: little bit earlier than expected because I was spitting mad.
[48:55] Speaker 1: I put on a collar shirt for the occasion. Though
[48:58] Speaker 1: I was excited about this broadcast, asked, I wish for
[49:01] Speaker 1: a different outcome, But that's me speaking as a fan.
[49:04] Speaker 1: I think everybody knows where I stand on this and
[49:07] Speaker 1: some of the inconsistencies that really got me going. I
[49:10] Speaker 1: think everybody knows the same about you. So we would
[49:12] Speaker 1: welcome anybody's feedback against sliverble at gmail dot com. We've
[49:15] Speaker 1: comments wherever you can be at YouTube, be at Spotify.
[49:19] Speaker 1: Many podcast apps out there allow you to do that now,
[49:21] Speaker 1: so we read all of them. We don't always have
[49:22] Speaker 1: a chance to respond to all of them, but we
[49:24] Speaker 1: do read all of them. We got a lot of
[49:26] Speaker 1: them coming in, especially this time of year. If those
[49:29] Speaker 1: don't work for you, hit us up on social media.
[49:31] Speaker 1: We would love to hear from you. As I like
[49:33] Speaker 1: to say, just don't be a dick. Okay, be nice
[49:35] Speaker 1: about it. We're all in this because we love college football.
[49:38] Speaker 1: You welcome your tack.
[49:40] Speaker 2: Don't email in digital do that is.
[49:44] Speaker 1: That Morgan Freeman sing diary diarrhea? Yeah, okay, don't do that.
[49:49] Speaker 1: That's other than that though, That's okay. We've got our
[49:52] Speaker 1: field of twelve. We will have plenty of time to
[49:55] Speaker 1: debate where it goes next. We will talk through bowl
[49:58] Speaker 1: matchups on one of our upcoming episodes. We still do
[50:02] Speaker 1: need to talk about Penn State hiring Matt Campbell. There
[50:04] Speaker 1: has been a lot that is going on in the
[50:07] Speaker 1: college football world. We also need to go through signing Day.
[50:09] Speaker 1: We'll bring our friend Brandon Hoffman on at some point
[50:11] Speaker 1: here over the next few episodes as well. So just
[50:15] Speaker 1: because the regular season and conference championship week is over,
[50:20] Speaker 1: we've got playoffs, We've got news. We got a bunch
[50:22] Speaker 1: of stuff going. This is the new December in college football.
[50:28] Speaker 1: News has not ceased to exist at all. Make sure
[50:31] Speaker 1: you hit follower subscribes that you don't miss any of
[50:33] Speaker 1: those episodes. We're going to do our best to get
[50:34] Speaker 1: through all that. Yes, Forballers dot Com is where you
[50:38] Speaker 1: can go if you want to support what Dan and
[50:40] Speaker 1: I do. We're going to be launching a playoff game,
[50:44] Speaker 1: you know it as Bowl Bingo. We played it last year,
[50:46] Speaker 1: everybody loved it. We're going to do that again, So
[50:48] Speaker 1: stay tuned for more information. If you want to get
[50:50] Speaker 1: in on the action, compete for fabulous prizes against the birballerhood.
[50:54] Speaker 1: In the meantime though, for myself Ty Hildenbrandt, for that
[50:57] Speaker 1: beautiful gentleman over there, Dan Rubinstein. Thank you as always
[51:00] Speaker 1: for tuning in, for supporting, for downloading, for listening, for
[51:03] Speaker 1: just helping us through these interesting times in college football
[51:07] Speaker 1: and in the meantime, as always, stay soft peace,

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